WEST COAST STATES - "Just the facts Ma'am"

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Thanks Jim!  It's good to know that someone is reading along.  I enjoy writing about an area and sharing the findings for others that may consider visiting the area.
 
A few days before leaving the Columbia Riverfront RV Park we took a trip to Fort Vancouver, in Vancouver WA.  The fort was built in the 1824 to protect British trapping and trading interests along the Columbia River by the Hudson Bay Company. The fort or the trading post had never been attacked, so the military personnel that had the good fortune to have been stationed there had some pretty good duty.

In 1824 the land north of the Columbia River was territory of Great Brittan. But after a treaty signed with the British in 1846, the boundary was moved to its current location along the 49th Parallel.

The grounds and houses are free to walk around, as is the visitor?s center. One preserved row of houses called ?Officers Row? are still there and are in use today. Some are residences, others are businesses, and one, belonging to the base commander is available to tour. It?s most famous resident; General George C. Marshall lived in it for about two years. If you want to tour a replica of the original fort, it will cost you $3 a person. It was about a 26 mile drive from the RV park.
 
After 5 days at Columbia Riverfront RV Park we were ready to move on. We took about a 225 mile drive east and south to Horn Rapids RV resort in Richland, WA. 
Horn Rapids is an upscale RV Resort with 225 full hook up spaces. Most sites have a large concrete patio, green grass area between sites, and nice landscaping.  It also has a pool and hot tub (my favorite) and a small general store.  We paid a ?7 day rate? which basically charges you for 6 days and the 7th is free.  Staying 7 days made the nightly fee just over $33 a night.  The place is packed this time of year, so if you plan on staying for more than a day, call for reservations.
 
Enroute to Richland, we stopped at a Pilot truck stop in Wasco OR for fuel. While the fueling part was easy enough, the savings part has dissipated quite a bit.  The price on the big sign out front quoted $4.05 a gallon for cash price, PUC diesel. I knew that there was no way I was getting that price.  Since all they had big enough for us was the truck islands, I pulled up to an empty stall and tried my RV Advantage card at the reader.  No joy.

Going inside to the fuel desk I handed my Advantage card and credit card to the clerk. I had to quote a dollar amount to preauthorize, which I did.  He swiped both, and handed me the cards and the receipt.  Yep, I paid $4.42 a gallon. So much for the ?RV discount? that Pilot likes talking about in the Good Sam publications.  When I pulled out I passed a Shell station on the other corner that was about $4.29 a gallon for diesel.  Some Advantage, huh?
 
Well at least Diane had time to grab us a road snack while I screwed around trying to get fuel.  I may be joining the ranks of those now shopping for fuel at alternate locations.

Also one major thing happened while we were at Columbia Riverfront RV.  On the road enroute to the park was a Les Schawb Tire store.  I have been threatening to get new tires on the Jeep, and it was about time.  I have burned through my second set of BF Goodrich MT's in four years.  Although the Jeep only has about 41K on the clock, it has been pulled another 60K or so behind the MH. 

The OE Mud Terrains are great off road tires, but towing the Jeep as much as I do really eats up the aggressive tread blocks on them. For quite a while now, where ever you drove the Jeep, it sounded and felt like you were driving on a cobble stone street.  The faster you went the louder it got, and the steering wheel had a constant "shimmy".  It just wasn't fun to drive at all.  I even rotated them every 3K like clockwork, but to no avail.  It slowed the rate of wear and these did last longer than the last set, but in the end, they still came down to the same fate. And they still had some pretty good tread on them. 

So I went researching for a better tire, one not so aggressive.  There are literally dozens of choices out there, and I must have looked at them all. Finally while researching on Consumer Reports.com I found a tire that looked like it fit the bill.  It's a Cooper Discoverer, ATR (all terrain radial) in a LT275/70/17. The Goodrich's were a LT255/75/17.  Consumer Reports recommended as the best AT tire in it's class. 

So I bit the bullet and ordered a set. Two days later I was at Les Schawb's getting them put on.  All I can say is OMG!  It feels like I have a new Jeep.  The tires feel like I am driving on glass, and I hear nothing but the wind noise now. The steering shimmy is gone, and the DW has a big smile on her face!  The price was decent, and Cooper has a great warranty.  I will still keep up the rotations, and keep the pressure in check, but I am a happy camper.   
 

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Yeah, Oregon has that pesky $0.30/gal extra tax charge if you can't produce a PUC#.  The PFJ site says that Wasco gives the regular RV Rewards card discount ($0.03), but they don't give any discount at all if you don't use the RV Plus Advantage card at the pump (it even says so in the fine print).  It might be worth emailing PFJ to ask why you couldn't use the RV Plus card at the pump. I can't find anything that says it wouldn't work in Oregon.
 
We fueled at Wasco Pilot 10 days ago and used the car pumps.  The attendant ran both the credit card and the RV Rewards card, so we got the $.03/gal. discount plus our 5% cash back for a net of $4.149/gal. less the 5%.  The posted price was $3.879/gal w/PUC #.  The truck pumps were so busy we didn't even try to go there.
 
Yeah, I tried running the Advantage card 3 times. Each time took me in a complete circle, and just came back to "see Cashier".  There is a sticker on the pump that gives specific instructions on how to make it work.

It didn't.  At FJ you used to get the cash price, plus the .03 a gallon discount.  That is gone with the wind now. 

The auto pumps were jammed when I was there too Ned.  And I don't think I could have fit in there anyway and made the turn with my toad connected. 
 
We barely fit and just got out by inches without having to get a car moved.  Lorna was not happy.
 
BTW truckers with a PUC pay the road tax via a monthly report, rather than at the pump.
I been using the GoodSam/PFJ credit card and it has worked at all Pilots and FJs except one FJ "dealer" in La Grande, OR. It has worked everywhere else, even other "dealer/franchise" stations. It give you 6 cents off the cash price.
 
Oh yeah, I know that the truckers still are paying there share.  It's just misleading for PFJ to post the PUC price on the big signs. It is about meaningless to the rest of the motoring public.
 
Since probably 98% of their diesel business is with truckers, it makes sense to advertise the price they will pay rather than the general population. It's only the diesel RVers who get confused, and then only if they are unfamiliar with Oregon's fuel pricing regulations. Ditto for Indiana, which has the same tax collection & pricing regs.

I can understand your frustration, but to say  that the $0.03 a gallon discount is "gone with the wind now" seems a bit overblown. I've been receiving the discount regularly at both Pilot and FJ locations up and down the east coast as well as in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
I can understand your frustration, but to say  that the $0.03 a gallon discount is "gone with the wind now" seems a bit overblown. 

No, what I said was that the cash price, which was around .06 to .10 cents a gallon less than the credit price, and the .03 cent per gallon discount was a thing of the past.  I still get the .03 cent a gallon discount at most PFJ stations.  But I am usually paying the full credit price.
 
We had a lot of fun in Clarkston. We hit several of the wineries in the area, and picked up some great local wines. After a week in Horn Rapids we were ready to move on.  We had selected a park called Hells Canyon RV resort in Clarkston, WA for a weeks stay over the Labor Day holiday.  It was on the banks of the Snake River, and had all the amenities that we like when staying for a week at a location.  We looked at the campground web site and it looked very nice. 

Then we got there. Everything about the web site was correct. It had all that it had advertised that it had.  But what was real important was what it had that was not in the brochure. The park itself was fairly small, which is not a big deal. The sites were concrete pads and concrete patios, and had a strip of well maintained grass in between.  The problem was that the park was nestled right up against an off ramp for State Highway 12 and a bridge over the Snake River.  The highway was elevated coming off of the bridge, and any vehicle, usually trucks, came rolling down the off ramp with the Jake Brakes billowing.  All day. And sporadically through the night.

And then there was the paper plant that was somewhere nearby, and the smell of putrid raw fruit seemed to permeate everywhere.  Great, we just paid for a weeks stay.  I wonder if we can get out of here early.......  Well, it was worth a shot. Diane went to the office to see what she could do to shorten our stay (immediately would be nice). 

When she came back she said that we could leave today, and it would only cost us a nights stay. That was too good to pass up. Even though it was already about 10:30 AM, we rolled everything up and were rolling in about 45 minutes.  While she was at the office, I hit Rvparkreviews.com and looked to see what was available.  We were right on the border of Washington and Idaho, so I looked in Idaho.  I found a well rated place in Caldwell Idaho called the Ambassador RV resort.   

So we drove the 250 odd miles to Caldwell to spend the remainder of the holiday weekend.  There was a few harry moments driving up Highway 95.  There was stretch of highway where they are doing bridge work on several of small spans across the many river crossings.  In those areas the outside of the bridges, 5 of them in all had been reduced to on lane in each direction.  The outside guard rails had been removed and a "K" rail placed on the outside edge of each lane.  That significantly reduced the lane width to about 10' in each direction.  Between you and the oncoming traffic was a row of 4" cones that had been bent and run over several times.  In driving the rig over the bridge spans, you literally had about 9" on each side of the rig, and the outsides were iron guard rail or concrete.  At one bridge I came to a complete stop, as a semi was coming towards me I swore that both of us wouldn't fit on the road at the same time.  But we made it unscathed, except for the NEW windshield star I picked up on the lower drivers side of the window.  Figures. 

The park here has many of the same amenities, but has 250+ spaces.  Lots of room, no noise, and fresh air.  We will hang out here for a while, then probably head back west to Sisters RV in Oregon, just west of Bend. 

There are some off road trails here, and we may drive into  Boise to check out the town.  The moral of the story?  Life is too short to stay were you are not having fun, especially if your house has wheels. 
 
Marty,

It's still a small world...Jay and Paula McRell who were with us at Moab are there at Ambassador now on my recommendation. It's a great stop and we enjoyed the park immensely after we left Moab and headed west earlier in the summer. They will appreciate your wine stories.

Say "hi" for Christi and I!

Have fun!

p.s. I missed the P-40 Warhawk museum just a few miles down the road, if you are of that inclination.
 
Boise is a nice town.  Lots of trees.  Boise is French for trees or similar.

ArdraF
 
The Birds of Prey Center is an interesting place. Also the only place I've seen a Condor.

Wendy
 
I am a little behind on the entries for the journal due to the issues with the server maintenance lately.  I'll catch up quick though.

Well we arrived at the Bend/Sisters Garden RV resort, which is really in Bend, about two miles from Sisters, OR.  This park used to be a KOA, but you would never know it by looking at it.  All of the roads are paved; the sites are concrete and concrete patios.  The sites are wide with nice grass areas between the sites. The landscaping is beautiful and well maintained. We paid $44 per night for a weekly rate.

Sisters were so named for the three mountains that surround the city, and are named North Sister, Middle Sister, and South Sister.  Also next to the Sisters was ?Broken Top? mountain. Because you guessed it, the top of it looks like it has been broken off leaving a distinctive jagged top.  Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson are also nearby.

What we found to do in the area was plentiful. On one day we drove up McKinzie Pass  to the Dee Wright observatory.  It is actually a rock and Lava observation tower that was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  Inside the round observatory built into the walls are small ?portals? or windows in the stone. Peering through each one you see one of the many geologic wonders framed in the distance. A small brass plaque next to each window describes the vista that you are looking at.  The feats of the CCC are amazing, as most of the projects accomplished by them were largely done with lots of manual labor.

Then there was the ?Bend Ale Trail?.  Yep, one of my favorites! A stop at the visitor center provided the map and directions for the tour.  It is a self guided tour that visits 9 of the micro breweries around Bend.  Some are newer, and some have been around for quite a while. But all make their own brand of beers in all different configurations. A few are just small tasting rooms while others have full blown restaurants attached.  I think we visited 7 of the 9 over a 5 day period before we got distracted by other stuff (shopping, cleaning ect).  I guess we will just have to go back some day to finish off the other 2, or just start over again.
 
The RV Park also had an unexpected perk. Right next to the RV Park is the permanent grounds for the annual Sister Rodeo.  I think the Rodeo is in June each year (which we may be going back for if we can get a spot at the RV Park.)  But when it is not going on guests are allowed to walk through a gate into the rodeo parking area and rodeo rink to walk pets (or kids).  Pets can be off leash and can run freely without danger of traffic or unseen hazards in the forested areas.

Then the town of Sisters itself is a quaint little town with lots of shops of various descriptions and an easy town walking area.  When we were there the annual ?Sisters Bluegrass Festival? was going on as well.  While I don?t mind Bluegrass music, it?s not a favorite so we didn?t hang out in town for the event.

Two days before we were due to leave Sisters, a lightning strike started a forest fire on the lower slopes of one of the Sisters mountains. The local forestry service jumped on it right away and were containing it pretty quickly with water dropping helicopters. The day we were leaving the rodeo grounds next door was being transformed into a command post for the fire fighters.  Our timing was perfect. 
 

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Sarge that is a pretty part of Oregon Keep up the info and pictures of your trip just love Oregon & Washington
 
Sarge, You forgot 3-Finger Jack in your mountain list, it's an interesting one. Also, if you're still in the area, the High Desert Museum is well worth a visit. So is Newberry National Volcanic Monument. And the High Cascades Loop is a spectacular drive.

Wendy
 
You are right about 3-Finger Jack in the list Wendy!  The fire did discourage a bit of the exploration in the area, but we do have plans to go back. We have to finish the Ale Trail after all........

Thanks Billy! There is a lot to see in this part of the country!
 
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