October 11th  We made it down to Fortuna, California south of Eureka with clear blue skies and sunshine.  Yesterday we traveled from Cannon Beach to North Bend, OR with a free night dry camping in a parking lot.  Free is good!  The road side beach front parking along the road in southern Oregon is now mostly marked with "no overnight camping" signs.

So glad that we got fuel in Brookings, OR.  California diesel is one dollar more per gallon presently probably due to the tax difference.  Climbing up and down the hills south of Crescent City, CA was a bit sporty as usual for the land yacht.  At Fortuna we stayed two nights at a nice park called Riverwalk.  When hitting the road we prefer to travel a two hundred mile day then play for to days at the destination.

The land yacht is a 40 foot class A 2003 Alfa See Ya.  It is powered by a Caterpillar 325.  When towing the Honda CRV it can overheat in the summer on the hills.  We had very little of that on Hwy 101 in October.  We often consider that this is too big for two people.  With the two slides there is more room than many apartments.  Next time we may go with a 30 foot.  We could fit into more places.

On the last blog we were headed out of Portland north and east in August.  On the way we had to change course due to an active wild fire. Traveling the Columbia river gorge is about the easiest way to pass through the Cascade mountain range without having to climb too many hills.  We ended up in Hermiston, OR for two weeks.

Hermiston is known for great watermelons and hot Augusts.  Most everything grows well with the plentiful sunshine if correctly watered.  This is a huge agriculture area.  It seems that my sister needed someone to water plants and house sit during their vacation.  We enjoyed all of the fruits and vegetables from her garden.  Somebody had to!

From there we traveled north to Soap Lake for several days.  The lake is known for its healing powers due to the chemical make up in the area.  It actually cured some of the inflammation from the summer bug bites.  Many people would wade out and smear the black mud on their bodies.  The area was near the Grand Coulee dam and the great dry falls.  There is a lot of impressive geology in the area due to ancient lake over Montana breaking the ice dam flooding much of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Our goal was to get into the Wells-Gray provincial park in British Colombia.  This is a fairly large, mainly road less area west of the Canadian Rockies with lots of lakes, rivers, and wild life.  We stayed about a week at Wells Gray Golf and RV park.  This park was around twenty miles from the nearest town complete with swimming lake and the occasional bear. 

We were able to observe first hand the salmon attempting to jump up a waterfall.  They gave it their best but the water was too fast and the needed elevation too far.  It was rumored that after failing after several attempts and fatiguing they would lay their eggs in the quiet pools below.

Our next goal was to meet our nephew Jesse at Radium Hot Springs in the Canadian Rockies.  On the way we stayed at Golden, British Columbia near Highway 1.  Here bike trails were everywhere.  Just out of town you can bike to the ski lift which would take you to the top of the hill.  We didn't do it but there must be quite the adrenaline rush mountain biking down a ski trail.

At Radium Hot Springs there were wonderful mountain vistas everywhere.  We stayed at a huge provincial campground just outside of town.  There is a 3km trail from the campgrounds to the hot springs.  In the town there were around 200 mountain sheep settling in for the winter.  We missed the Headbanging festival by 3 weeks.  This is when the mountain sheep rut and bang horns for dominance

and breeding rights.

Canada is expensive but it is fun to be in a foreign country and able to speak the language.  Diesel was over five dollars a gallon.  The exchange rate was US 75 cents to the Canadian dollar.

From there we headed south past several more hot springs and ski resorts to Idaho.  We ended up staying at Sand point for a few days.  There are houseboat opportunities on those lakes but not much for public access or RV parks.

Our next destination was the Spokane area and Fairchild Air Force  Base in particular.  Being retired military we can stay at the base campgrounds.  They are some what cheaper.  This was the first time that our vehicle was searched with the assistance of bomb dogs.  There are many rules and we must behave!  We really enjoyed the roar of the jets again and the sounds of freedom.  At 5pm the star spangled banner is broadcasted over the base and activity stops.  At 9pm they play taps.  At 7am the revelry is played.

 We traversed Washington on Highway 2 stopping at at Cle Elum.  From there we ended up at Joint Base McCord-Fort Lewis for a night.  From there we chose to go to Ocean Shores for some bay front camping at the marina RV park.  This place was very scenic being so close to the water.  There is a lot of ocean front RV opportunities in this beautiful area.

On the way to Portland we stayed at the Chehalis golf course.  Here they included a free golf cart as a part of the deal.  Nice!

This brings us back to Portland and the start of the snow bird adventure.  It is nice to be caught up!

Until next time.  Thanks for reading.