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

[SargeW]

After leaving Sisters we traveled to the coast for a week stay at Sea Perch RV Park in Yachats, OR.  It was pricier than most of the places that we have stayed at lately, but typical for a park that you can walk out of the park and onto the sand of the beach and the crashing waves.

The park itself is fairly small, but the owners have done a good job setting it up. Even though we didn?t get a beach front site, the sites in back are terraced up the hill and fan out in a ?V? shape so that your view is not directly blocked by the RV down the hill from you.  They have an amazing club house with a workout room, showers, an upstairs lounge with large windows that looks out on the ocean, and a billiard room downstairs.
 
The non beach front sites were $60 and night, and the beach front sites were $70.  Diane thought that the sites were over priced for the non beach front sites. I just think that it?s typical for that kind of place now days.
 
The weather was fickle while we were there though. Even though it was mid September, we still had our share of fog and gloomy weather. But when it was nice, it was really nice.
Other than the beach we found a few items of interest a short distance from the RV park. One day we drove to the Cape Perpetua Visitors center and took a 2 mile hike called the Sitka Spruce trail. It winds through an old growth forest to a 600 year old Giant Sitka Spruce tree that the state of Oregon named the ?Heritage Tree? due to its age and tremendous size.

We also learned that there are over 50 covered bridges in Oregon, and another day we spent traveling around and visited 3 of them.  On that drive we disregarded the map and let ?Shelia? (the name I have given to the voice on my GPS) take us the scenic route back to the RV park through miles of fire roads, hunting trails, and old forest roads.  We wound up driving 70 miles through some spectacular back country on the meandering trip back to the RV.

We are cutting the Western States trip a little short, as an event has come up in Southern California that I wanted to attend. So we will be working our way south instead of zigzagging back and forth.  We are still loving being back in the West for a while though.

We are currently at Seven Feathers RV resort (and Casino) in Canyonville.  A really nice Indian RV park off of Interstate 5 freeway a ways. We have been here before, and it?s a great stop over while going between Oregon and Ca.  And at $32 a night, it?s a good deal to boot. The next destination is back towards California wine country for a few days.  Time to restock!

 

[Billy Bob]

Thanks for the info and the pictures they are great

 

[BernieD]

Sarge

On your way south on I-5, stop in Lodi for 2 nites at Flag City RV. $27/nite (Passport America-2 nite limit) with full hookups and nice pull-thru's. Then check out Cycles Gladiator winery. We picked up a case of delicious zinfandel at a very nice price. Many other wineries in the area to tour but Flag City gets pricey after 2 nites.

 

[SargeW]

Thanks Bernie but I am past that point already. Due to the forum having some ups and downs I am a bit behind on the posting to the blog.  We are currently in Paso Robles for a few days.  That will be the next entry!

 

[Tom]

Oops Marty, we missed you! Bernie's suggestion of Flag City in Lodi is approx an hour NE of us.

 

[SargeW]

No worries Tom! I will be back in that area again before long. 

 

[SargeW]

Well, it?s been a while since the last entry on the journal, but lots has happened. Most importantly our wanderings on this West Coast wanderings trip was cut short. We are still dealing with ?issues? from our Canada/Alaska trip, and they were starting to bunch up on us.  When they started happening all at once it was time to retreat for a while.

But first more on the part of the trip that we did finish.  After leaving Sisters, Oregon, we headed to wine country in the Paso Robles, Ca area.  We wanted  to addend an event at our favorite winery, Dry Creek winery.  We picked a little 38 space RV park because it was close to the winery.  It was in Cloverdale, and was named Dutcher Creek RV park.  Not a big place, and kind of built on the side of a hill. Some of the sites have awesome views though. We got their one pull through space that pulls you in parallel to the side of a wall with a stunning view of the valley below.

The next day we went to the winery for the event. We are club members so the event was free.  They were pouring about 6 different wines that they had just bottled. It had been in barrels for about 2-3 years.  And they served or devours to boot.  At one point we were allowed to go into the back where they were just bringing in trucks out of the vineyards full of grapes. They are immediately taken to a crusher for processing.  Pretty cool to watch.  Boy, talk about not wasting time, from the time the grape was picked until it was being crushed was a few hours.
 
After the wine event we left Dutcher Creek and headed to Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles.  We have been there many times and it is one of our favorite places to stay when we are in the area.
 
I had also ordered and received while I was there a new surge suppressor for the RV electrical system.  My ?Surge Guard? brand that I had been using for about 6 years was starting to give me fits.  At the ocean front place in Oregon we had stayed at, I couldn?t get the 50 amp pedestal plug to work.  The surge guard kept popping whenever the time delay would try to connect.  The 30 amp side would work though.  We tested the power at the pedestal but it seemed to be OK.

The warranty had long since expired, so there would be no love there.  After doing some research I decided to go with the Progressive Dynamics 50 amp hard wire surge protector.  I was impressed with the features that it had, on board digital display that read out both the line voltage and amps being used on each leg of the 50 amp line, fault codes, other info scrolled continuously across the built in LED display.  It came with a LIFETIME warranty, and was cheaper than Camping Worlds ?Surge Guard? model to boot.  The install was easy, and took about an hour (as I like to go slow and do things methodically.)

After thinking that our problems were all over now, I found out how wrong I was.  The electrical issue was fixed, but now the hydraulic leveling jacks had started ?dropping? a fraction of an inch at a time, usually while we were sleeping. This made it tough to get to sleep, tougher to stay asleep, and now the dog was upset to boot.

Then the sewer smell started.  It was coming from somewhere, and I wasn?t sure where.  I chased it for a while, but at night it was pretty awful.

And the Direct TV started dropping out for no apparent reason.  It started sporadic and got worse. To the point where we couldn?t watch any of the TV?s in the front of the coach.  Again, no luck chasing down a cause.
 
Then on the way back to Ca from Oregon I noted that the rig was running hotter than usual.  Even though we were running is some hot temps in the 90?s, I was seeing coolant temps in the 215 to 218 range on big grades.  Usually this rig never got over 205 on the biggest grades.  I had suspicions that the radiator was suffering the effects of 2 months of driving on Canadian dirt and gravel roads, sometimes for hours in the rain.
 
So with all that stuff happening at once, we opted to go jacks up and head back to Fallbrook early than we had planned.  Trying to fix one issue at a campground can be dicey depending on the scope of the repair needed, but a whole bunch at once was just too much.

So we headed back to Fallbrook and traveled mostly down Interstate 5.  The trip wasn't too bad, but I did have a few tense moments pulling the Grapevine grade on the 5.  Hot weather and slow going is tough on a rig when it?s healthy, and really tough when it?s not.  It was the first time I ever saw 225 degrees on the coolant temps, and I even got a warning light on the Freightliner display warning me that bad thing may happen if it went much higher.  I backed off the throttle but kept the RPM?s up until I could get the temps to come down a bit.  I finally made the top of the grade with no other issues.  This is a definite priority when I get home.
 
We pulled into Fallbrook on Sept 26th.  This had been a long, long trip, one that felt unusually more difficult than any other in our last 4 years of nearly full time travel. 
In the next segment I will document what some of the fixes were on the rig, and a few surprises.     

 

[Dean & Linda Stock]

    After doing some research I decided to go with the Progressive Dynamics 50 amp hard wire surge protector.  I was impressed with the features that it had, on board digital display that read out both the line voltage and amps being used on each leg of the 50 amp line, fault codes, other info scrolled continuously across the built in LED display.  It came with a LIFETIME warranty, and was cheaper than Camping Worlds ?Surge Guard? model to boot.  The install was easy, and took about an hour (as I like to go slow and do things methodically.)
  The electrical issue was fixed, but now the hydraulic leveling jacks had started ?dropping? a fraction of an inch at a time, usually while we were sleeping. This made it tough to get to sleep, tougher to stay asleep, and now the dog was upset to boot.   

Sarge, our hearts go out to you.  Dealing with one issue is hard enough, but you had so many it had to be overwhelming.  I bet you breathed a sigh of relief when you arrived home.

Dean also has the Progressive surge protector, and he loves it.  He feels that it does an excellent job of protecting our coach.  We have changed sites when it reads bad news.

No one is happy when our pets are unhappy.  We recently had to spend time in a motel because of a repair issue.  We thought we were going to a repair facility and moved out, only to find out we had to wait a few days for the fix.  Therefore,  I needed to return to the motel (health issues).  Our cat hates riding in the car (because of vet trips???), so Dean braved cool weather and no heat to keep him happy by staying in the coach.

Looking forward to reading your "surprises."

 

[SargeW]

Thanks Linda, and you are so right.  I may have even been able to work through the problems on the road, but when the dog started freaking out, I knew the trip was coming to a fast end.  When the dog is is not happy all night, the DW is not happy either.  And since "stuff" runs down hill, you know my position in line!!