Sleeping With the Big Trucks

Arrival in Santa Nella about sunset brought us to a choice of two huge, overstuffed truck stops. We investigated one and decided we really didn't want to be stuffed in there with the trucks. After much mulling we spotted a truck parked in a large restaurant parking lot. I mean the lot was large, and not the restaurant, which was a normal sized Carl's Jr./Green Burrito. We went over to see if it was ok for us to park there overnight and the restaurant people were very gracious about it. Yes, we were welcome to stay over. So we ate Carl's to reward them.  

By the time we finished up and took the leftovers out for Norm (he adores fries) there were 3 big trucks parked out there and soon we were joined by a couple more. Everyone was quiet and we enjoyed an evening of Kindle-ing. There were even nice grassy areas to walk Norman. I am sure he enjoyed it after so much sand and dirt. We crawled into our bed and snugged down for the night. We slept pretty well with the trucks. None of them left until early in the am, so we got many hours of solid sleep. The only uncomfortable part was having to crawl in and out of bed, and the general squashed-ness of the motor home by the bathroom door. Enough to get in and out of the bathroom, but not roomy. I have to admit, I kinda got a kick out of taking a shower in the Carl's lot. Silly, isn't it? We mostly used our own shower on the trip home. It was SO cold outside at 0 Dark:30, which is when we had to get up, according to Ray, who is Road Boss. Before sunrise! Sheesh! I tell you, that part is no fun. I don't like to get up before the sun.

The next day we drove past Shasta and saw 2 lenticular clouds and a quarter moon. I tried to take pictures, but Ray says most of them were lovely pictures of the window screen. But we did stop at a rest area and take some Shasta pics. It's always nice to get thru the mountains and over the Summit before dark. We came upon our scheduled place of rest about 2:30 and decided it was too early to stop, pressed on to the Valley of the Rogue State Park south of Grant's Pass. It's a beautiful park between the Rogue River and the Interstate 5. We chose a spot near the river and the sound of the traffic blended into the sound of the river until all we heard was river. In this place, we had plenty of room to spread our wings for the evening and we did remember to turn on the furnace. Everyone slept like rocks. That featherbed substitute is a good thing.

Thursday we drove only as far as Chehalis and stayed overnight in a Thousand Trails campground some miles removed from the freeway and up a mountainside. It's one of those places where if you don't know where it is, you will not find it. By the time we got there, it was dark and we rejected the first site we tried as being too slanty. Then we tried another but it was too short, so then we got out with the flashlights and started hunting a level, long spot without trees encroaching too much so we could spread out. Found one, serenaded by coyotes again! That surprised me, as I thought we'd left them all in AZ. Guess not.

The living room slide out refused to slide out. It refused to do anything. It seems the entire circuit died that powers that slide. Ray checked all the breakers and fuses and could not find anything blown. So that's a mystery for the repair guys. If one of the slides had to fail, I'd rather it was that one. We had plenty of room to move around  and Norman enjoyed the couch eye view of the dinner table.

Sent off to sleep by coyote and owl serenade, we woke refreshed, cleaned up the motor home, packed things away and headed for home. We got here about 1 and missed the afternoon traffic. We had some lunch, and unloaded the motor home. I finally decided to take out the canned goods lest they freeze, but left the dry things in there. We were worn out by the time we were done and it was dark by then anyway. We scrounged around for supper, vegged out with tv and headed for our own familiar bed for a good night's sleep.

Ray has made a list of things for warranty work and we're scheduled to drop it off on Friday morning. McMahon's is, as we suspected, dragging it's feet on agreeing to pay for the damage to the hood that it had when we arrived. I wish they'd just give in and we'd all be done with each other.

Norman turns out to be a wonderful motor homing dog. He loves the motor home, loves to ride, loves to get out and smell new things, loves to look out the big front windshield and watch the world go by. Plus, he's very well behaved when he gets out of the mh. Perhaps he is afraid we'll leave him at the rest area if he doesn't behave. Whatever reason, I'm glad of it.

Cooking in this motor home is so much easier than in the old motor home we had 20 years ago. So much more space and countertop to work with. We were pleased with the results of cooking in the convection oven/microwave. Those are good additions to motor homes. Garbage disposals have to be next on the list, but with Norm along, I admit we did not have much garbage.

Our van now feels small when we drive it! But this Friday after we drop off the motor home, we will pack up the van and head for our annual weekend in Pacific Beach. We rented a house this year and Brett and Alayne will be joining us. I hope Brett's cooking again this year!

We've decided to put all the trip pics up in one post, if we can find any that actually turned out. Stay tuned!