We Are Home!

The trip-o-meter said we logged ~7,100 miles on this two month trip.  We saw a lot of territory, that's for sure.  We now are home until it's time to go away for the winter!  

The trip from Elko today was just long and boring.  No other way to describe it.  It seemed to take forever.  We stopped in Winnemucca for lunch and fuel.  We encountered some heavy smoke from fires around Fernley and I just saw an alert that I-80 is now closed both ways in that area because the smoke is so dense.  Here in Sparks it was 93 when we arrived and the air is smokey.

The RV is parked at the Sparks Marina RV Park. (Wow, the park is full) - we've never seen so many people there.  We were quite fortunate to get a site for two nights over the holiday. We grabbed meds, toothbrushes, computers, food from the fridge, Maggie's food and bed, and came home for the evening.  We will go back in the morning and begin the task of getting the rest of the stuff and prepping for storage. The RV being so new, fortunately we haven't gotten it too dirty!  

Maggie was so happy to be in her house and yard!  She ran around like the Tasmanian Devil for 15 minutes - through every room, in and out the back door, under the dining room table, until she finally gave out.  Her tongue was dragging on the floor when she was done.

We came home to find our problem neighbor had parked across our drive way.  Rog told one of his kids to get their dad and get that piece of junk moved.  He did come out right away and do it.  Oh, it's got the potential to be a very long summer dealing with him.

We also came home to an immaculately clean yard and deck thanks to the neighbor on the other side.  The mail was stacked neatly on the dining room table, my plants outside were all alive and thriving, and it was wonderful not coming home and having the pressure to get out in the yard to clean it up.  She went way above and beyond.  She said it was "fun."  Sure.   She really is a great neighbor.  

So, signing off for now.  I'll be back to posting probably the last week of October as we get ready for leaving again.  It's been a fun two months.  This was the trip that we had said would be the deciding factor on whether we continued.  I guess since we bought a new RV we are going to continue roaming the country for as many more years as we can.  

We Are Back In Nevada and Pacific Time!

We are in Elko, NV and one day's drive from home!  We are both glad to be so close but dreading the drive tomorrow.  It will be a long day.  We will clear out some stuff tomorrow night, but the majority of the work will wait until Tuesday.  We have a spot at a storage place promised to us on the 5th, so we should be all set - at least until we have to take it out to take to the dealer for the fireplace issue.  (Rog took it apart again this evening in the hopes he could figure it out, but says the electronics are bad.)  

Today's drive was OK - we headed south on US 93 out of Twin Falls and it took us to Wells, NV where we got on I-80 and headed west.  I was surprised at the farmland in Idaho came almost all the way to the Nevada border but then the desert took over.  




Just south of the Nevada border and the town of Jackpot there is a little rest area tucked among the willows and at the base of a huge cliff.  We stopped for lunch as our stomachs were telling us it was time, but the clock said it was only 10:30.  It's a nice little rest area along the Salmon Falls Creek, which US 93 followed for a long time.    As we had lunch we watched scores of birds going in and out of the little "caves" in the side of the cliff - probably feeding little ones.  It was a pleasant interlude. 






We encountered two older women who were, in their words, " hauling our asses from British Columbia to Texas." They were transporting two donkeys in a beat up old trailer.  When I asked if I could take a photo of the donkeys we ended up getting one woman's whole life story leading up to why they were making this journey. Seemed like nice old ladies and the donkeys just tolerated Maggie getting up close to the trailer and sniffing at them.  

We got into Elko early - forgot about the time change.  We are staying at the Iron Horse RV Park which is run by the Hilton Garden Inn.  It's a very nice park - wide spaces, grass, trees, paved roads and exceptionally clean.  They've even got park models along the outside perimeter.  It looks as though the majority of the sites are permanent residents - folks here for a job, probably in the mining industry.  

Only one issue - our site is way out of level from side to side and front to back and the auto leveling system freaked out trying to get us level.  Poor Roger was so frustrated.  He had to recalibrate several times and we ended up doing it the old fashioned way with legos under one side and manually leveling the rig.  Lesson learned - if the site looks un-level it is too far out of kilter for the auto leveling system.  

We were so hot (96 today) when we were done we decided to go get something to eat after getting fuel.  We had a coupon for the Hilton's restaurant, so we stopped there.  They didn't open for dinner for another hour.  Again, our stomachs were out of sync with the clock.  We ended up going to a casino coffee shop and getting a so-so meal - but we were in the air conditioning and we didn't have to fix it or clean up after!  Maggie was not happy with our having left her today - there were scratches on the plexiglass, cushions on the floor, and she was hyper when we returned.   Good thing we didn't try to come back to the RV and then go back out to the first restaurant.  She would have been even more of a basket case.  

The RV is cooling down nicely - a lot faster than the old one. It's still hard for it to catch up with this kind of heat, though, and hasn't stopped running since we turned it on.    

Since Rog is not hooking up the sewer tonight and doesn't want to travel with water in the tanks, we both opted for using the park's showers.  We rarely do that, but after today, we had to! It's about 8 o'clock and we are sitting outside in the shade with a nice breeze keeping us cool.  Maggs is stretched out doing her flat dog impression cooling her tummy in the grass.  The sun has gone behind the hill and we seem to be cooling off nicely. 


P.S.   I keep forgetting to share these photos.  We met this couple in Miles City, MT. They were on the way to Glacier Nat'l Park.  When I asked if I could take a photo of their "unique" trailer the response was, "It's not unique.  There are 783 more out there just like it."   

Mr. Fix-it Saves the Day Once Again

As I mentioned last night, we had an easy day yesterday.  The drive down I-15 from Montana into Idaho was, once again, beautiful.  Mountains gave way to  lava beds and then rolling farms and then to flatland and lots of potato plants!  We followed the Snake River most of the day.  

We were happy to be going south as the north bound lanes were packed with RVs heading to the mountains for the holiday weekend.   At one point in the midst of construction, the north bound lanes were backed up about 10 miles.  So, happy to be going south!!  

We were passed by an RV with a woman waving frantically at us and pointing to the back of our RV.  About the same time, Rog had looked back and saw something amiss.  The door to the water heater was hanging loose and flapping around.  One hinge had come undone for some reason.  We still haven't figured out what happened as it was closed when we did our pre-flight inspection.  Neither of us saw anything out of order.  After much thought, Rog remembered that when he took the dog out first thing in the morning he had noticed that several RVs in the campground had the doors to their water heaters open.  He didn't think anything about it at the time.  We now think that some kids had come through the park in the night and opened them up.  Ours must have been partially unlatched and when we hit the road it flopped open.  A moment or two of panic but nothing disastrous.  All fixed.

Note hole in ceiling to bedroom register.
Note where the duct is.  Hmm.... not connected.

Speaking of fixing things - I mentioned in an earlier post that the bedroom register was not getting any hot air coming through.  Again, after much pondering, Rog thought perhaps the ducting might have come loose.  Of course the ducting is in the basement and behind a wall with all of our stuff in front of it.  Well, this morning, on his rest day, Rog took everything out, took the wall out and voila - a duct had either never been connected or had fallen out.  Again, Roger's analytical mind and fix-it skills saved a trip to a repair shop.  Now, if he could just magically fix that darn fireplace.  



As we turned off the road following the signs to the Village of Trees RV park, my heart started racing and I thought, "Oh, No! This is going to be a disaster."  The sign says register in the store at this gas station.   Rog pulled up and I got out thinking, do we really want to stay two nights?  But, we've no place else to go on a Saturday night at the beginning of the holiday week. Once we were guided into the campground by a guy who moved us from a sunny spot to a shady one because we didn't have a TV dish, we both let out a sigh of relief.  This is really a nice campground. Lots of trees and grass, big sites, wide pads and space between rigs.  A lovely tent camping area that is huge runs along two sides of the park. From our site we can see a bit of the Snake River and the campground has a boat launch there.  Today at lunch we were visited by some horses  from the farm next door. We are all so pleased.  Maggie has spent most of the day in the grass under the tree watching squirrels.  She had to be coaxed in for lunch.  

Watching for those darn squirrels.

Trees/Grass/Wide roads/Large sites

Short walk to the river

We've now had two days of sunshine, no wind, and warm temperatures.  We have about dried out and thawed out.  It's supposed to get to 90 today, but I don't think either of us mind - "it's a dry heat."  I'll bet about dinner time we will be testing the AC! 



P.S.  Rog just did his first flush of the tanks and everything worked as it should!!