No Place Like Home -- Especially After 10 Weeks

We have been home a week now; and it is GREAT!  We left Pendleton in the mid morning and were again blessed with sunshine and not little wind for our last leg.  We entered the Columbia River Gorge and drove westward down river.  So nice to do it in a comfortable motor home and not in a canoe like Lewis and Clark or in a horse drawn wagon like the Oregon Pioneers.

Heading Towards Mt. Hood

Wildhorse Casino to HOME

We ran into a little bit of traffic once we turned onto I-205 until we got close to home. We were quite happy to come up the final hill and back into our RV parking spot without incident by 1500.
WOW!  Our house seemed huge for days, after living in 280 square feet for 76 days. it has taken one day for every week on the road to acclimate to home, kind of like flying through several time zones.

In our 76 days, we covered over 8,000 miles in 28 states and 2 Canadian provinces, stayed in 33 campgrounds and with family and friends three times along the way. We wrote 57 blogs, which we hope you enjoyed.  We saw temperatures close to 100 degrees in SD and a low of 25 in Nebraska on way west.  God protected us all along the route, with no major illness, break downs, or accidents. We did laugh about catching the tail of three hurricanes, all named after family members: cousin Gordon in Massachusetts, Aunt Florence in New York, and cousin Michael in Missouri!

Through the four President's homes and only First Lady home of Eleanor Roosevelt, many historic sites, author homes, seashores along the Great Lakes and Atlantic, national forests and parks, and local historic sites, we discovered several truths: people are the same everywhere you go, there is great beauty in every place if you look for it, and every day you can find someone to help or thank. We encountered angels along our path in many ways and are grateful for your prayers that helped make this cross-country trip so wonderful!

We have finally unpacked the RV, including the 30 bottles of wine picked up mostly in New York, sorted through all the mail, including the four boxes we sent home with gifts and books. Pamela took 35 books to read and completed 20, leaving many behind at campgrounds trading libraries.

Our RV Trip "Booty"

This trip was a very enjoyable one, but we look forward to shorter trip of discovery with the RV for the next couple of years.  When we crossed into Oregon and stopped at the Welcome Center, we picked up brochures on several areas of Oregon we have yet to explore, and we can see in two instead of ten weeks.

Neil has been busy with fall garden maintenance and making small repairs on the RV.  He also purchased new tires for the Toad. Even better, we were able to use the tire we had to buy in Tennessee as our full size Subaru spare, so all worked out well.  It has been a late warm fall that we returned to with sunshiny weather with and temps in the 70's.  The leaf drop is a bit late, but Neil has already filled three garbage cans with the black walnut fruits that are about tennis ball size and lots of leaves.  He is going to have to do some fall pruning as well, but hasn't gotten around to that yet.

We Have Hundreds of these Walnut Fruits to Deal With!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to have our roof cleaned of moss and treated.  We arranged to have it done before we left and we have been told that this is the best time to do it, as rain helps the effectiveness.  There is rain scheduled later this week, so the moss treatment will run down the roof and kill more moss.

One of the RV repairs Neil made was repairing one of the support brackets for the access door on the front of the RV, where you check the oil, add fluids, etc.  The metal bracket is normally GLUED onto the fiberglass hood, and it came unglued during our trip.  No surprise with the rough roads we have been on.  Five pieces of guerrilla tape got us home from North Carolina. He wasn't sure what to do, but he found some marine-grade epoxy glue that he used to re-attach it to the existing glue spot, and then used some marine-grade molding putty that he used along the sides of the metal bracket to reinforce the attachment.  Since the other side bracket was a bit loose, he did that side as well.  It seems to be holding very well, but time will tell.  Here is what the products look like:

He also had to replace a awning light switch that was very easy once he got the part, and he still have to winterize the RV and think about fixing the sticking black water valve assembly.  That will NOT be any fun--he is accepting volunteers to do that for him. ;}

We have several thousand photos to sort as Pamela creates a large digital photo book of our adventure and memories to last a lifetime. Now, to narrow down the most interesting stories from each location and start sipping all those bottles of wine!

We have calculated that our Great 2018 Fall RV Trip took 7800 miles in the RV and at least two hundred miles in the Toad as we used it to see sites and go into towns and villages along the way.  We easily broke the 8000 mile barrier and were gone a total of 76 days, four short of our 80-day estimate.

We will share some of the highlights (and maybe low lights) over time, so keep tuned.  We will NOT be posting as often as we did on the road since we have more to keep us busy at home compared with writing the blog in the RV while watching TV.

Many thanks to all of you who have sent us messages or were able to comment on the blog site.

More later,

Neil and Pamela

Into Beautiful Oregon - One Day from Home

We survived another chilly night in Mountain Home, Idaho (29 degrees) and awoke to cool sunshine.  Today was a pretty easy day driving as the wind had died down and it was sunny again.  We followed in the path of the Oregon Trail pioneers for most of the day and could even see the old wagon road in a couple of spots.  Baker City has an excellent museum on the Oregon Trail that really helps you understand choices of what to take and leave behind, meals along the trail, and why they came at all.

The green mountains of the Little Alps in Umatilla National Forest

Traffic around us today was hunters hauling the ATV's and coolers, RV's heading home to Oregon and Washington and it was not too busy.  We knew we were in Oregon as we began to see more and more green trees.  And, yes, we had seen junipers in Utah and southern Idaho, but Pamela doesn't count that as forest.  So, to finally behold the Ponderosa pine trees ahead was quite welcoming!  Even more surprising was to the the larch trees turning golden at about 3,500 feet in elevation. This is the only conifer that loses its needles in autumn.

We stopped at the Oregon Welcome Center, where there were still roses blooming! Talked to the volunteers and picked up some post cards of the new Oregon Travel campaign. Also, chose several brochures of guides to places in Oregon we have not been, so Pamela can begin planning the next adventure, though much shorter!  The postcards showcase some very nice artwork of seven iconic Oregon locations such as these:

Definitely Worth a Late Spring Visit

After the long six mile winding downgrade off the pass, we arrived at the Umatilla Native Wildhorse Casino hotel and RV Park east of Pendleton.  This is a larger complex than others close to home. There is a eight-story hotel, museum and discovery center, casino with three restaurants, six theater complex with new movies and large campground at the back. This means it is quiet!

The bottom of Emigrant Pass with three trucks coming down

Pamela captured the sun shining through the maple and aspen trees before dinner.  It is a very nice RV park with a free shuttle to the casino and restaurants.  We do not gamble, so it is a pain to have to walk through smoky slot machine areas to get to the restaurant.  But we did and had dinner at the buffet where the food was OK, but not as good as we get at home.  It was cool just before sunset and we decided to walk back to the RV park, partly just to stretch our legs after several days of long driving to beat the snow and freezing weather.  We enjoyed a good walk in the setting sun, getting used to being on the eastern edge of Pacific time zone.  This means the sun sets a hour earlier than it did last night on the western edge of the Mountain time zone.  We definitely do not get enough exercise when we are traveling--especially when we are driving several hundred miles every day.

Tonight's campsite is hopefully the LAST ONE for this 76 Days around the USA trip.  We will post at least one more blog when we arrive home, as we have been saving the: weirdest things seen, best and not worth it sights, and top things to travel with and what we could have (and will ) left behind as we never used them.

Our Wildhorse Casino Campsite

We are in site of Emigrant Pass coming down I-84 into Pendleton, but far enough away to be quiet. Have we said how much we appreciate a quiet campground. It will be one of the points Pamela will make as she reviews all the places we have stayed in RV Park Reviews.  She has saved every campground brochure received at check-in with notes on them to write up reviews for those who travel after us.  Below is one of the camping options here next to campground.

We Are Glad We Are Not Staying in This Tonight (or any night)

We look forward to home, not because we are tired of traveling, but because of the cool weather.  Our 30-foot Winnebago is very comfortable, certainly more so than the trip we took in 2013 in our Winnebago VIA, which was only 25 feet long.  Having an oven, couch to nap on, dinette already set up and one long slide that goes out with the push of a button, along with self-levelers has really made this long trip a joy.  So, has the family and friends we have visited along the journey.

We look forward to discoveries in and around our home this autumn and winter. There are museums, waterfalls, sand beaches, and restaurants to explore in our own backyard, to paraphrase Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz."  And, more importantly, family and friends we have missed in our odyssey across America.  Wish us luck for our final push home.

Pamela and Neil

Windy Day Across Wyoming and Utah

Today was the longest driving day of our entire trip--433 miles!  It was day 75 of our trip. We have been chased west by winter storm warnings, freezing temperatures, and strong winds.  Over the past three days, our phones have been sending out weather alerts for the places we just left, so we are getting west in the nick of time.

Dodging the Snow in Wyoming

I-84 Tunnels Today

This was the second very windy day driving in a row.  We bucked 30 to 40 mph winds all day, and while it wasn't any fun, the RV and Toad are driving and towing just fine. This was the emptiest highway we have seen on the entire trip. Seems like we only shared the road with trucks today, double trailers and a few Fed-Ex triple trailers. Oh and we met RV's going south or like us going home to Oregon and Washington.

Eastern Utah Scenery

We made the decision today to push further west than our "rule of two" (two hundred miles) calls for because of the night time low temperatures that we would have had to endure.  We aren't worried about keeping warm, but don't want to freeze any water lines, and we can't really winterize the RV and still use it.   So, what to do?  Keep driving--443 miles--twice our average northwest to Mountain Home, Idaho.  We are camped in a super nice campground (9.5 ratings on RV Park Reviews) that is affiliated with Desert Gold in Brenda, AZ where cousin Gordon and Sandy Kelly spend their winters.  They are expanding the RV park here with another 35 new sites. We can see why.  Every site has level concrete pads, table, trees and other amenities that are are great!  In some ways, it is too bad we are only spending one night here.

Welcome to Idaho

Our twenty-eight state adventure is coming to an end soon, and we added the last new state today at a Utah rest area as we descended down into the Salt Lake basin. Then, headed northwest on the beginning of Interstate I-84, which we will follow all the way into Portland, or as ET said...HOME!

Utah Was State Number Twenty-Eight of trip

This park is also quieter, as we are farther (two miles) from the freeway, so no rumbling truck noise. From here we have a much shorter drive to Pendleton for our last night away from home.  We think that we will try the Pendleton Wild Horse Casino RV park and have a nice dinner at the casino--if we can find a non-smoking section.

Neil and Pamela

Sunny and Windy Across Wyoming - Safe in Rock Springs

Today dawned bright and sunny, if a bit chilly (27 degrees last night), but all was well for us in the RV with the space heaters and gas furnace.  We got on the road a little after 1000 and back on to Interstate 80 west. We immediately noticed the winds in excess of 40 mph winds on the drivers side of the RV. since we started the day at 6,000 feet. so we only had a slow gentle climb to Sherman Pass at 8,878 feet, where the winds were in excess of 50 mph.

Across Wyoming Travel Today (10/12)

We did not have any safety issues, but Neil had to steer carefully to keep us in our lane.  The good news is that the wind wanted to push us on to the apron side side and not into the other lane. 

Dropping into Laramie, Wyoming

There was quite a bit of traffic, mostly big trucks traveling close to the speed limit of 75 mph. Thankfully, far less road construction than previous days. There is very little autumn color, as the wind has blown off the leaves already.  We actually crossed the Continental Divide twice, as it is a large basin on this route in southern Wyoming.  Amazingly, this route was not used by pioneers in the 1850's or 1860's, due to the very large and DRY basin they had to cross in September.  Making us thankful once again, we travel in a comfy RV going 55 mph, instead of 20-30 miles on a good day in a oxen-driven wagon!

Front range of Medicine Bow National Forest

We saw snow to the west, to the south and to the north, even a little remnant next to the road, but thankfully, road was dry the entire route. We did see one interesting sight today, a giant twelve foot bust of President Lincoln on a 30 foot pedestal next to the road. It was erected to mark the highest point along the original Lincoln Highway that ran coast to coast through here.

Lincoln Statue in Wyoming

After 265 miles, we arrived in Rock Springs in western WY around 1630.  We decided not to push further down the road as we don't like to get into campgrounds without plenty of light to "set up camp".  Saying that, set up means pushing a button to level the RV, another button to run out the slide, and tonight just plugging in power, cable and water.  A very easy kind of "camping".

Tomorrow will take us into Utah, but beyond that we are are watching the weather to decide how far to push northwest toward home.

Neil and Pamela

Across Nebraska Into Wyoming

Yesterday and today were very easy, navigation-wise, stay on I-80 West.  In fact the last two campsites were within sight of I-80, so we did not even need to search for them.   For one night camping, we choose pull-thru sites when available, so we don't even have to unhook the Toad at the end of the day and in the morning. This time of year, this is no problem.

Two Days Across Nebraska

We have encountered a LOT of road construction on I-80 that included 15 miles and 10 miles of two lane roads that were labeled maximum speed of 10 miles slower at 65 mph, but with the wind gusts to 18 mpg, we kept it at 55 mph.  In some cases, the lane was actually on the shoulder.  There is much need for road improvement, as the roads have so much sunken pavement spots that traveling in our RV leads to a great deal of thumpa-thumpa jarring as we go down the road at our stately 55 mph.  We will look into new shocks, as was recommended by a fellow camper this trip, because the uneven road also sets off the alarm on the automatic levelers. As result, we endure a unique chorus of "Thumpa-ding-thumpa-ring-thumpa"!

55 MPH Down the Shoulder of the Road

Only autumn color we have seen

Buffalo Bill Trading Post near our campground

These last two days are also the coldest days of the trip so far.  We have traded mid eighty temperatures for mid forties as our high during the day.  We have missed the worst of the rain or early snow so far. But, last night the temperatures in North Platte, Nebraska bottomed out around 24 degrees. We survived without any issues, because we did decide to disconnect the water and sewer hoses, just in case.  We use two small electric heaters to keep the RV warm to 60 degrees at night.

Balloon or Unique Water Tower in York, NE

 We crossed into the Mountain Time Zone today (Thursday) and are just one time zone away from Pacific and home.  We climbed up to over 6,000 feet elevation today, and it was a fairly gently rise over the last two days.  We will climb up to about 8,600 feet tomorrow as we head into Laramie and west Wyoming.  So far, we have crossed 27 states in 73 days on our journey!

Adding Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska to RV map

A Mile High Climbing into Wyoming

In North Platte last night, we decided to eat at the Whiskey Creek Wood Fired Grill for dinner.  Neil had some pretty good BBQ, and Pamela had an excellent bacon wrapped steak.  After dinner, we did some grocery shopping and when we left the Walmart at 730 pm, we saw our first (and hopefully last) light snow on our way back to the RV park.

Cabela's Has a LOT of Boats

Today, around lunch, we stopped at the Flagship Cabela's store in Sidney, NE.  It is not the largest Cabela's (the one in Tualatin, Oregon is a lot bigger), but it was a fun stop.  Neil found some warm socks and Pamela bought a plaid flannel shirt and buffalo salami.  The store has a semi- truck and RV parking area, a full service RV park and a camping area next to a horse corral, for when you are traveling with them.  We stayed there during a mid-west RV trip in 2013.

Tonight will be another cold night, but only to 29 degrees.  We plan to move west before the next cold front as much as possible.   Westward, Ho!

Neil and Pamela

Day Seventy of Trip--Three States--In the Rain

Today was a 250 mile semi-long day as we drove through western Missouri, into southwestern Iowa, and are camped in Nebraska.  Three unique state flags, as it was too rainy to add these states to our RV map outside, hopefully tomorrow.

This was the rainiest day we have had since Michigan over two months ago, It is only the second day that we have had to set up camp in the rain.  Spending one night at the West Omaha/NE Lincoln KOA near Gretna, NE. From now on, we will be driving along the route the Oregon Trail pioneers traveled in the 1850's. Only they had to reach Independence Rock in southern Wyoming before the first snowfall, if they were going to make it to Oregon.

Rainy Roads and a Big Water Tower

We continue to see unique sights along the way, like this very tall water tower in southern Iowa. However, the states along the Missouri River are in flood stage and warnings for most rivers. Every river we crossed was very brown, above its banks and carrying large trees down river. While we did not see stranded livestock (except on the News tonight), we did see a couple of freeway exits closed, due to flooded roads below us and many harvested fields were also flooded.

Crossing the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska

As we entered the KOA office to register, we discovered a unique sight before us, which got Neil excited----this KOA office makes and delivers pizza to your campsite, so meat lovers special was his dinner tonight. We have seen menus for restaurants at campground where they do deliver to your site, but never made at the campground pizza!  We have enjoyed lobster rolls at our campground in Bar Harbor, Maine, and wine tasting was available in Watkins Glen, NY and in Charlottesville, VA.

KOA Pizza Stand in Nebraska

Oh, and yes the pizza was good!  We did have a surprise along the road today, we passed this sign three times, that made us look twice and raised our hopes.  But reality soon sank in that it is a small town in western Missouri, not home, ha!

It Turns Out That We Are Not One Mile from Home

Today is a milestone for us--Day Seventy of our across the USA RV trip, which is longer traveling than we have ever done before, except for the winter we tried to be snowbirds in 2011.  From that we discovered we are blue-green people not beige-brown people.  This means we MUCH prefer to be traveling in, seeing sights in, relaxing in, camping in places that are close to water or mountains with green trees, not deserts and the prairies.  Unless, we are visiting family or friends in those places.

Rainy eastern Nebraska

The last few miles of travel today was over some very rough roads with heavy rain, which makes us  glad to be heading west towards home.  We have one more important stop in Idaho to see good friend.  When we have rough roads, we find our thoughts are becoming focused on the people at home and things we need to do upon arriving there. 

Tomorrow we head west across Nebraska on Interstate 80 to North Platte.  We have been blessed with the weather so far, missing the hurricane remnants, thunderstorms and tornadoes.  We hope that continues into Wyoming this week.  May "old man winter" not arrive in the Rockies until we are through Wyoming and into Idaho. 

Wish us the best for our trip west!

Neil and Pamela

Grant's White Haven and Clydesdale's White Blazes

We had a couple of good days visiting Pamela's cousin Brian in Belleville, IL.  He lives east of Saint Louis, MO.  He played tour guide for us in Neil's fathers Buick LeSabre.  After Neil's Dad passed away in March, we put the Buick up for sale, and Brian bought it and drove it east to Belleville.  The car rides very well and we used it for a tour went into St. Louis, through East St. Louis (where you do not want to drive at night, due to safety issues) and across the Mississippi south of St. Louis to White Haven, where President Ulysses S. Grant lived, farmed and died.

Gateway Arch in Saint Louis

White Haven:  President Grant's Home Is NOT White

White Haven is home a National Park Service National Historic Site.  We watched a movie on Grant's life, which opened our eyes to aspects new to us. Then, a helpful Park Ranger gave us an outline of several aspects on the house, before a tour. As you can see the house is two unique shades of green. The lighter color is called Paris Green, so called because it was created in France with arsenic. The French discovered it worked really well to pour down sewer pipes to kill rats and prevent them from getting into homes. The darker green was created by adding sulfur to the already toxic Paris Green. These bright colors were expensive and showed your wealth. The ranger said that in the 1800's, to show off your wealth, instead of buying a sports car, you bought fancy paint for your home and high-stepping horses.

Only the first floor was available to see, due to fire hazard concerns for the upper floor. This house was originally his wife's family, the Dent's home.  Grant first visited them when stationed at Jefferson Barracks. Grant was good friends with Julia's brother, who was a classmate. During that first visit he met the sister, 17th year old Julia Dent.  They corresponded for four years, through Grant fighting in the Mexican-American War, until they were finally married. After reading the interpretive exhibits about Grant's firm belief in equal rights for all people (he freed his only slave before the Civil War), the need and value of education for all children (including Negroes and Native Americans), and how he helped heal our international relations after the Civil War, we have a far greater respect for this President and the strong family values he and Julia created.

President Grant and Julie with their four children

After visiting White Haven, we drove next door to Grant's Farm, which was land in the Grant family that is now one of three Anheuser-Busch horse farms where they raise and train the iconic Clydesdale horses for the eight horse hitches that pull the large Budweiser beer wagons.

Sizes of Horse Shoes

This will give you an great idea of how much bigger a Clydesdale is from normal size horses. In fact, a new colt weighs 125 pounds at birth and will gain 5 pounds a day eating in the first 6 months of their life!  Brian shared that the darkest horses go east to the new Hampshire farm, and the lightest in color go west to the farm in Colorado, so each farm has uniform color in their teams. Young colts start training at six months at and will be in training for over three years, to qualify to pull a wagon or what they call a "hitch".

Budweiser Transport Truck and Clydesdale Horse

All of the horses must have four white "feathered" stockings, and a white "blaze" on their forehead. They must also stand six feet tall at the withers (the highest part of a horses back) and will weigh about 2,000 pounds.  It takes three trucks to carry nine horses and two wagons for parades and events, of which they appear at over 500 events and parades a year. They carry one spare horse and an extra wagon, just in case.  Budweiser also have some of the best Super Bowl ads, in our opinion. 

Pamela with "Yankee" at Grant's Farm

While at Grant's Farm, We wandered through one of the horse barns where Pamela got to carefully pet a Clydesdale horse while we learned more about the horses and wagons.

Fences Around Grant's Farm Are Made of Civil War Rifle Barrels

Weather is still very warm-- we saw 93 degrees driving from Paducah, KY to Belleville, MO on Saturday and it was in the mid-eighties all the time we were in Belleville.  We have been fortunate to have missed most of the weather systems that have been coming up from the Gulf of Mexico into the mid west and east coast, but we hope God continues to watch over us as we head west.

Mississippi River On Our Way West

Today, we drove through St. Louis, MO and across the state on Interstate 70 towards Kansas City, Missouri. We are camped tonight just east of Kansas City and will head north up to Omaha, Nebraska, where we will follow the Oregon Trail west.  We crossed the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers today, so it feels more like we are heading west now.  We have to keep an eye out for weather in the Wyoming Rockies and we adjust our course as needed.

Neil and Pamela

Parked in Paducah and Random Thoughts

Today (Friday) we decided to move west and north to get just a little bit closer to home.  The weather back here has been about fifteen degrees warmer than normal, which meant that we saw temperatures today of around 93 degrees.  That is much too warm for October, and we are not enjoying it any longer.  We drove about two hundred miles towards northwest Kentucky to Paducah, just south of the Ohio River.

Adding Kentucky to the RV Map

We did cross the Cumberland River and went by two large dams that form the Land Between the Lakes, part of the National Forest system. This is a massive land mass between two 50+ mile long lakes that have many campgrounds, boat launches, picnic area and more.

Ohio River from Kentucky

We read in one of the blogs we follow for tips and ideas, that the ideal RV travel day is the called the Rule of Two -- drive two hundred miles, arrive by 2:00 PM, and have two adult beverages each upon arrival.  We just may meet all those criteria, depending on how much we drink tonight.  However, it was so hot when we arrived at Fern Lake campground, that we set up early and quickly got in air-conditioned car for the five miles into downtown for different kind of drink -- root beer floats in an air-conditioned historic building.

Etcetera Cafe Where We Got Root Beer Floats Before Dinner

Etcetera Sign in Paducah

Paducah has two claims to fame: a national quilt museum and the massive wall and levee where the Ohio River flows by downtown Paducah.  We did not realize how much history took place here, from the early Indian tribes building large elaborate burial mounds, George Rogers Clark who won the land during from the French and buying 38,000 acres that his brother William Clark inherited by the time the Lewis and Clark exhibition came through, the Battle of Paducah during the Civil War, the expansive river boat shipping era on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, large military base during World War II and even a uranium enrichment facility that is still here today.

Paducah Floor Wall and Murals

The Ohio River flooded ninety percent of downtown Paducah in 1937. So, the Corps of Engineers built a massive twelve mile long concrete flood levee that with a fourteen feet tall concrete wall that lines and protects downtown Paducah.  That downtown wall now has over fifty flood wall murals depicting significant historic events for the area.  The large Mississippi river cruise/tour boats such as the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen, and American Queen all make stops at Paducah, KY.

Oyster Barges Used to Make Pearl Buttons

Chief Paducah and Motorcycles Mural

Christening of Tow Boat on the Ohio

 Tomorrow, we have another short drive northwest to see cousin Brian Kelly in Illinois for a couple of days, before heading west.  Thanks for tuning in.

Neil and Pamela