Week 520 - Cruising Oregon - 07-31-2016

Cruising Oregon

We left Bend, Oregon and headed to Premier RV Resort in Eugene, just .7 miles from the Monaco RV Service center. As we were told before we bought the MotherShip, "Don't buy a motorhome unless you have a tool box and a sense of humor". Consider having a home with movable walls and you drive it down the road at 60 mph. It is like driving an earthquake.

Many repairs are easy and we do them ourselves. Some are beyond our knowledge or available tools. So we headed the REV Group, the new owner of Monaco RV. We had several items repaired, but our main concern is that the MotherShip seems to waddle down the road rather then handle as it did when new.

After a test drive by the Monaco technicians, they told us "it's all in your head!". This is what our friend Ben said when he rode with Pete for a test drive in Paso Robles. Hmmm! We were still not convinced. We had Michelin tires installed in 2009. We have never liked the soft but wobbly ride they gave us. We felt that might be part of the problem, but not all. The tires wore well, giving us 52,000 miles. This week in Eugene at Wyatt's Tire we replaced the Michelin tires with Yokohama RY617H 295/75 tires. And guess what? The MotherShip handles so much better!

Leaving REV we happily cruised 70 miles north to Salem Oregon's Premier RV Resort and stayed two days. They have a Pickleball court similar to the one at our own house. It was okay, but there were no players available . . .

. . . so we hiked the trail that surrounds the park and gave Mandy a bath. You can see how happy she was.

Just 20 miles east of Salem is Silver Falls State Park. We took this side trip on the way to Portland. There is plenty of parking in the South Falls parking lot.

Hiking in the park is moderate with a 800 foot drop and rise in elevation. If you hike the full 7.2 mile loop, you can see 10 waterfalls on the South and North Silver Creeks. We hiked just 5 miles and saw seven of these falls.

1) As you can see Ellen looks energetic as the start of the hike. 2) The trails are well manicured, mostly flat like this one, but some have exposed rocks that would love to trip you.

Just leaving the parking area, we saw this area being prepared for a wedding this day.

The South Falls and Lower South Falls pour over overhanging rock ledges. This allows hikers to pass behind both falls.

The South Falls.

You can see the South Falls in this 12 second video.

The Lower South Falls is shorter but you are closer to the water when passing underneath.

Ellen held up this branch so Pete could pass through on the way to Lower North Falls.

1) Double Falls is nice; it would be very impressive in the spring with a greater flow of water. 2) Drake Falls should be called a cascade. But then you couldn't say you saw 10 waterfalls, could you?

Middle North Falls is worth the walk. There are paths to the bottom of most of these falls if you want to take a dip. We hiked in 90 degree heat, but stayed cool as almost the entire trail is shaded.

We delayed our trip plans for two days to visit Eric, the son of Pete's best friend Paul. Paul was also one of Ellen's closest friends. Eric lives in Portland with his children Miles and Matira.

We have NEVER seen slower traffic than in Portland on this day. We have heard that traffic is always heavy here. We were treated to extra-slow jams as someone stole a motorhome and the police were encountering the thief on the freeway. We could not find a suitable RV park in Portland that had vacancy. We ended up at the Vancouver, Washington Elks, just over the border. That turned out nice as they have a very complete and excellent dinner menu. We had a wonderful visit with Eric, Miles and Matira. As the discussion of Silver Falls came up, Eric enlightened us that he had his wedding at the park.

From Vancouver we moseyed 48 miles to Kelso, Washington's Brookhollow RV Park to finish out the week.

"Craig's Rule" states that to enjoy full time travel everyday, "Travel at most 200 miles in one day, get to your destination by 2pm and stay as least 2 days". We broke the rule twice by staying only a single day at two places. But, our daily mileage was less than 50 miles each day and as it turns out, it was enjoyable.

We hope to see you next week as we visit friends and relatives in Washington. With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Jul 2016