Redding, CA

We had planned to visit Lassen Volcanic NP, but our RV decided it was time to make another stop at the local Freightliner shop.   We noticed at our previous stop that our turn signals and break lights were acting erratic.  The shop diagnosed the problem as a bad power management board.  They thought we could limp back to Phoenix.  We made it 200 yards from the shop before the rig died completely.  We had to get towed 200 yards back to the shop.  We rented a u-haul, loaded it up and headed back to Phoenix.  That ends a very bad RV year for us.  We are crossing our fingers that 2022 is better.

Redwoods National Park, Trinidad, CA

The northern California coast is home to the tallest trees in the world.  The Redwoods national and state parks cover a large area along the coast and we love visiting this area.  One of our favorite hikes is the Fern Canyon trail.  We again had much smaller crowds that usual because of the virus, but that only made it much more enjoyable for us.  The highlight for us this year was staying at the Elk Country RV park.  This park is known to have a large herd of elk that live around the park.  We were able to enjoy the elk moving around our RV and the park on every day of our visit.  If you are in this area in the beginning of the fall, this park is the place you want to be.  

Bend, OR

One of the best places to visit and live if you enjoy the outdoors is Bend, Oregon.  To make it even better, a very good friend growing up lives in the area.  We were able to have dinner with Roger and his wife and also check out the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.  We drove out to check out Mount Bachelor and the area on our last day.  A little hiking, some national monument sights and a dinner with friends, the perfect stop.

Tillamook, OR

The Oregon coast is world renowned for its beauty and the area always has a large tourist presence during the summer.  The virus kept many tourists away this summer.  That was great for us to be able to walk Cannon beach with a much smaller crowd.   We use Tillamook as our base for exploring this area.  We parked the rig and I was at the Tillamook factory in under an hour to get my first of many ice cream treats.  The stops for this area included the drive down the coast to the octopus tree and a visit to the Tillamook air museum.

Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA

One of my favorite national parks is Olympic NP.    We dealt with heavy smoke in the area during our last visit, so it was good to have clear skies for this trip.  We did several hikes and walked the beach areas.  I love this part of the country and would visit every year if Danelle would let me.  

Heading out for 2021, again. Seattle, WA

Our RV repairs took 4 months due to the parts shortage, but we finally got the rig back and it was mostly fixed.  We still need a little body work touched up, but they can do that once we are done for the year.   Every day spent in Phoenix during the summer you lose a little bit of your soul.  I could not wait to get out of the heat.  We decided to intercept our initial route plans starting in Seattle.  We completed the drive over 4 days and were able to enjoy the Seattle area.

We took a side trip to the San Juan islands, which is a great place to visit.  The weather was perfect and the scenery did not disappoint.  Our last visit to Friday Harbor was nearly 30 years ago.  From Seattle we also took a day trip over to Leavenworth in central Washington.  Leavenworth is a Bavarian style village that celebrates the Christmas season all year. 

Off to a rough start

Catching up the blog on the disaster that was the RV year of 2021.

We headed out of the Phoenix valley on April 21.  We spend our first night just a couple of hours down the road so we are not rushed on our departure day.  After our night in Eloy, we hit the road with Las Cruces as our destination.  We made it to within about an hour of Las Cruces before we had our front tire blow out while cruising down I-10.  We were fortunate to keep control of the RV and get it to the side of the freeway.  Unfortunately, the damage done was extensive.  It took 10 hours to get towed 5 miles up the road to a truck stop in Deming, NM.  After the night spent at the truck stop, the tow truck came back late that afternoon to tow us back to Phoenix.  While we waited for the repair work, we took a nice long car trip to Idaho.  We are hoping to resume the RV trip once the repairs are completed.