Finally – The RV Migration South

Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.

For the same reason birds want to  leave the northern states in the winter months, so did we.  During the winter it’s cold up north and supposed to be nice and warm in the south.  We had already started to feel the dampness and coolness in the air.  The leaves were turning and we knew it was time to get out there.  So we finally did.  Normally we pulled out of Washington State in the first few days of October.  However, we had a lot of unfinished business.   Besides, we’ve had so much fun with both kids and their families this year that it’s been a little harder to leave.  Now it’s almost the first of November!!!

Our trailer was ready and so was everything else …. we hoped.  The only thing left to do was program the GPS.  Our trip is always planned using Microsoft Streets and Trips.   I have all the Wal-Marts, Flying J’s, Pilots, Loves, rest stops, Elks and every place else we might want to stop with markers.  However, not so sure why I’m always surprised that we don’t stick to our route.  We never seem to.  We sometimes stop earlier but normally stop later.  At least we thought we had a general idea of what the plan was. 

Snowbirds in Cactusland by Steven Morath  ----->

(purchase print here)

The first intended stop was only

20 miles down the road.  We definitely needed to dump and that was where we were heading first -- the Clackamette County RV Park which was 20 miles south from where we were parked.    Check out the satellite view of this park.  What a gorgeous setting and so close to the Portland area.  Maybe next year we’ll really stay there … maybe.

Do I really need to tell you we bypassed that park and didn’t dump?  We also bypassed the alternative dump location in Salem.  Farther down the road we stopped at Love’s.  That wasn’t even included in our trip planning.  Oh well .. it worked and that’s what counts most.   Tuesday was intended to be a short day with only 216 miles traveled and stopping at the Seven Feathers Casino.  So much for planning because that didn’t happen either.

< -- Clackamette RV Park

We had also agreed that since we wanted to stop and walk Duchess every few hours that we would make these walks at truck stops topping off each rig every couple hundred miles.   Remember we’re driving the motorhome and the Jeep pulling a trailer.  Again, so much for planning.  At one point old habits creeped in.  As Terry was filling up the motorhome I pulled my vehicle AND the attached trailer out of the way … and front first into a parking spot.  I had forgot about the trailer on the back until I got out.  Oops.  I am learning to back up but I’m really, really bad.

Since we kept on going right past the intended casino, we weren’t sure how far along we would get. It was still daylight and we weren’t really ready to stop at 2:30 in the afternoon.  We had also discovered a taillight was out in the motorhome so we were also sure we didn’t want to drive after dark.

One thing we did want to get behind us were some of the mountain grades around Roseburg and Grants Pass.  Those grades are like a yo-yo.  It’s a 6% grade up and down but the grades are short.  The biggest grade on I-5 is the one at Mt. Ashland which is almost right at the Oregon-California border.  The climb is steep and seems to go on and on for miles.  Well, it does go on and on for miles up to an elevation of 4,310.  Then, it goes down and down for miles.  The closer we got to this grade, the more we wanted to get it behind us.  We did.  There were lots of Snow Zone signs but thank goodness no snow!

Our destination ended up being Yreka which is still in the Siskiyou Mountains with more yo-yo like grades ahead of us.  The weather was expected to dip down to 27 degrees but no precipitation expected so we were good. 

Stopping at the Yreka Park threw havoc into our planned schedule.  If I had a shredder, that’s where it would have gone.  However, I remember the time when I would have said that I would never pay that price for an overnight park and I would never stay at a park when I could stay at a Wal-mart or Flying J.  I ate those words for dinner and they didn’t taste good.

Stopping in Yreka meant that the next planned stop-over at Rolling Hills Casino wasn’t going to work either since it was only about 150 miles south.   Plans were changed and Santa Nella became the intended overnight stop but we weren't sure whether it would be the TA Travel Plaza or the Santa Nella RV Park.  Either way we figured Wednesday would probably be about a 375 mile day …. maybe.

Of course, this meant that the Orange Grove RV Park outside of Bakersfield might not work either and so on.  Needles is still on our list because we really want to check out Laughlin.  However, that might even be subject to change.  Remember my one-worry-per-day rule?  I’ll worry about that on Thursday.

Some folks make reservations for every night along the route of their migration south.  I’m sure you can tell by now why we don’t do that.  If we did, we’d spend half the time on the phone cancelling them. I guess you'll have to check back in a day or so to see what other changes took place with our schedule.