What a Nice Weekend

Thursday night, we finally got out of town at about 6:30. Some traffic, but no problems headed south. As we approached the area of Vancouver, we needed a potty break and Walt needed a run. We pulled into the rest area only to find the lot completely full. We decided to keep going and then saw a lane for the RV dump area. We pulled in and Lori told me it was too far to go to the bathroom. I mentioned to her we had a bathroom in the trailer and she was shown the water pump. We took care of business and Walt took a run in the woods. We were pretty proud of ourselves with this 'Fancy Inovation'. Back on the road and now traveling through Portland, Or in the dark. We found the Rv park ok and had the honor of setting up in the dark. A little adjustment in the site to line up for the connections and we were getting everything set up with little problem.

As I pulled the lid to hook up the water, I was shocked to see two connections. Now what kind of test is this. One was blue and the other red. Now what? There is nothing in the manual about the red and blue hookups! Ah, another camper drives in and parks a couple spaces down. I walk over, head lowered and acknowledge my rookie status. I was shocked when he gave me a blank look and told me he never had heard of this either. A flurry of phone calls, looking at other sites and lori finally reading the brochure found the blue hookup is city water and the red is well water. A near disaster (in our eyes) was averted. We were set up, tucked in and off to sleep after several attempts to get the TV to work right. I felt I was getting ripped off when the brochure tells me there are 30 some channels and I could only get 6 or so. I soon realized a quick change from air to cable on the setup makes it all work! We continue to learn. Lori dreamt of endless hours shopping at the outlet mall and me of relaxing and watching all those new found tv channels...

Friday morning was relaxing and after breakfast, Lori was twitching to hit the outlet stores. After about 30 minutes, we get a call that her mom and dad were already at the RV park. Soon they were shopping and we (dad and I) were doing alot of sitting and waiting! We had a great camp dinner and after watching tv, it was a very restful night.

Saturday, the ladies were off to to the stores and we were off to Camping World for a few small items. In the afternoon we headed to Silver Falls stae park. A nice hike and great scenery greeted us. We took some country roads back through grass seed country. The big rigs were working the fields harvesting seed. What a sight.

Back to camp for a barbecue and the walk across the field to Starbucks. Walt enjoyed the attention he got by hanging with us outside drinking coffee. He was so tired from all the exercise he slept all the way home.

As for the ride home, we were all hooked up and ready to go by 11 am. We had a white knuckle run through Portland as the traffic was very heavy. Once in Wa the traffic cleared and we only had to fight head winds. On the trip south we averaged 12.9 mpg and north, it was down to 11.6 mpg. The truck and trailer felt a little different in that wind as it caused what I call a little bucking like the trailer was tail heavy. Once we were on a road were the wind was not center on, it quit doing that.

Backing into the driveway was a little harrowing. As I stopped to set up the turn, a car sped up and was not going to cooperate, He drove around me and then my concentration was shot. Thee tries later, we were in and unhooking. We are getting used to what needs to be done to easilly unhitch and hitch the trailer. All in all, what a great weekend. We are hooked and enjoy the great times an RV bring. Dont forget our bike though. Stay tuned as we embark on a two week trip to Wyoming in August!