Canada Trip Day 7, 8/06

 

Easy Day.

We didn’t do a lot today. We just hung out with Samantha and visited.
Patti took Samantha grocery shopping in the afternoon.

A little More on the Tow Brake.

I was looking at the brake actuator cable on the jeep and noticed that there was (what I think) was a little to much slack in the cable.
It was a simple matter to adjust the cable so now it looks better.

I also added some brake fluid to the master cylinder on the RV.

Supper.

Around 6:00 we went to supper at Sheri’s Restaurant. We were stuffed.

Okay that was day 7

We leave for the next leg of our journey tomorrow (Sunday).
Next stop, Plymouth, Washington.

Canada Trip Day 6, 8/05

 

The Tow Brakes.

Fixing the Brake.

After breakfast, I had Patti assist me with the tow brake. There is a lever on the brake controller that bypasses all the accelerometers and and allows the actuator to pull the brake peddle on the jeep down.

I had Patti operate the lever while I watched the brake peddle. 
Everything seemed to be working except that the brake peddle only moved a little. I could hear the actuator straining to pull down the peddle and noticed that the clamp that connects the cable to the peddle was about half way up the brake peddle arm.
I loosened the clamp and moved it down the arm right next to the peddle.

This time when Patti operated the lever the actuator pulled the brake peddle down like it was supposed to.
I am not sure how the clamp got moved. It may have been when we were on the Rubicon Trail.
I may have moved it with my foot at making a panic stop?

Okay that looks like it will work

The Rest of the Day

Samantha Goes to Work.

Samantha had to work around noon so Patti and I took her there. After we dropped her off, we went to the Black Bear Restaurant for lunch.

Lunch at the Black Bear.

I am not crazy about the Black Bear but their breakfast isn’t to bad and they serve it all day so that is what we had for lunch.

My eggs were over cooked and a lot of the potatoes were burnt but they had Lenguisa, a Portuguese sausage that I really like so that kind of made up for the eggs and burnt potatoes.

Later.

The rest of the day we hung out at Samantha’s and visited with her when she got home from work.

Samantha Goes to the Fair.

The Deschutes County Fair is going on in Redmond and Samantha had made arrangements with her friends to go to the fair and see a concert there. So a little after 5:00 her ride picked her up and off she went.

Supper with Sue and Mike.

Around 6:00 we met Sue and Mike at the Mazatlán café not far from Samantha’s place. The food wasn’t bad and the company was great.
Mike told us that there was a sister restaurant to the Mazatlán on the other side of town that was much better and cheaper.
Maybe next time we will try it.

After Supper.

After supper Patti and I went back to Samantha’s apt. Patti watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympics and I went to the RV and finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
I hadn’t read this book since I was a kid and had forgotten just how involved the story was. It was a good read if a bit politically incorrect now days.

Samantha Had Fun.

Samantha got home from the fair around 10:00 and had a great time.
She really enjoyed the Trace Atkins concert.

OK, that was our day.

Canada Trip Day 5, 8/04

 

Leaving Glendale, Oregon.

Brake Problems.

When we got here on Sunday I noticed that the tow brakes on the jeep weren’t working properly. They were working when we left home.

False Hope.

When climbing over some of the passes between Grants Pass and Glendale, we were going so slow that I decided to put the hazard lights on. 
The signal to operate the brakes comes from the brake light switch. I noticed that I had forgotten to turn the flashers off after the last hill. I figured that with the brake lights flashing that it confused the tow brake system and that may be why the brakes didn’t work.

The tow brake still isn’t working properly.

When we were hooking up to leave Glendale I tried to check the system. It seemed that the jeep part was getting the proper signal from the RV brakes but the actuator didn’t pull the brake peddle down very far.
This system uses accelerometers that tell it how hard to press on the brakes when you are slowing down. Therefore it is hard to check it out when you are not moving. I had Patti operate the breakaway switch to test the system. The actuator in the jeep started to pull the peddle down but only a little bit.
I figured that this was because the vehicle wasn’t moving and the accelerometers were telling the system that it was already stopped so there was no need to pull the brake peddle down hard.

Lets Go Then.

I decided that the system would probably work once we got moving.
We headed north up I-5 planning to stop for gas at the Seven Feathers Casino gas station. The gas is pretty cheep there $2.16 a gallon with a players card and they have a lane that is just for RV’s so it is easy in and out.
I noticed when we got there that the tow brake wasn’t working and it was a little hard to stop.

Retrospect.

Now, back when I was a young man we towed jeeps all over the country without any kind of auxiliary tow brakes. I even towed an old jeep loaded with camping gear with a boat on top behind a 65 mustang and never had any problems so I decided that we could tow our jeep just fine behind the RV with a little care.

Off We Go Then.

We filled the RV with gas and hit the road heading north.
When we got to Roseburg we headed east on highway 138 which follows the Umpqua River.
The Umpqua is a beautiful river with a lot of deep holes and and cascades.

I keep saying that I would love to fish it but there aren’t many places along the road where I (an old fart) can get down to the river. There are turnouts on the road but the banks are very steep and the river is a long way down.
Some day I will come up here just to fish this stream and I will find out if I can do it or not.

It is a beautiful ride along the river.

There are lots of wild flowers blooming along the road.

Made it to Hwy 97.

Eventually we got over the mountains. I was very careful about using the brakes but it wasn’t a problem.

A Very Scary Situation.

We were going north on 97 and were coming into a small town.
All of a sudden I see railroad crossing barriers light up and start to descend.  I hit the brakes hard and the rear tires on the RV locked up but we were still heading for the tracks.
I judged that if I got the RV stopped it would leave us in the middle of the tracks. The barriers were on the way down so I punched it and we snuck under the barriers and made it across the tracks just in time.
I don’t know how we made it without the barriers hitting the top of the RV or the jeep. Maybe there are sensors on the barriers that wont let them come all the way down if there is a vehicle in the way. I don’t know, but whatever it was, we made it through with out hitting the barriers or getting hit by the train.

A Change of Plan.

After that experience, I decided that we would have to disconnect the Jeep and Patti would drive it until I can figure out how to fix the problem.

Arrived at Redmond.

We got to Redmond about 5:00 and went to the city RV dump station. This is one of the few towns that have a public RV dump station. I think they all should have something like it.
The temperature was in the low 90’s and we were beat from the heat and the stress of the drive. It was a relief to get the RV parked along side Samantha’s (our granddaughter) apartment and have a chance to relax.

Visiting Grandparents.

Samantha’s other Grandparents live in Redmond and as we were getting the power hooked up to the RV, Grandpa Mike showed up.
We went into the apartment and visited for a bit then called Grandma Sue. She came over and we visited until around 9:30.
They left and shortly after we went to bed.

It was a long stressful day.

Tomorrow (Friday) I will see what I can do about the brakes.

Canada Trip Day Four. 08/04

The Plan.

We had planned to go visit Becky and Dennis at the Valley of the Rouge State Park today but unfortunately they were not available.

Change of Plan.

We sat around a while discussing what we were going to do. Eventually we decided to take a ride north on I-5 to Canyonville and check out the Seven Feathers Casino. They have a large gas station that has accommodations for RV’s. First we went into the casino so Patti could get a players club card. That way we could save three cents a gallon at their station.

We did all that and then decided to drive further north to Roseburg where we went to the Red Robin for lunch. Good burgers.

After lunch we went back to Kathi and Bob’s and hung out for the rest of the day.

Next.

We will leave here Thursday morning (today) and head for Redmond, Oregon where we will spend a couple of days with Samantha our granddaughter.

Ok, That’s it for today.

Canada trip day 3, 8/02/16

A Jeep ride with Lucas.

Ever since we got here Lucas has been asking if I would take him for a jeep ride.
Around 11:00. We got in the jeep.

There is a trail that goes out the back of Bob’s place, up the mountain and connects with a dirt forest road that runs across the mountain.
We worked our way up the trail, connected with the road and followed it. 
First we went to the right down hill for a while and found that the road, in that direction, goes to Glendale.
Lucas wasn’t ready to end the jeep ride yet so we turned around and followed the road back up hill and drove to the top of the mountain.

Along the way I noticed a lot of Blackberry bushes along side the road. On the way back down we stopped at a few of these bushes to pick and eat berries.

I don’t know if Lucas had ever picked any berries but he sure loves to eat them.
Once he got the idea, he went for it.

After several stops at different berry patches we headed for home and lunch. Although I think that Lucas had already eaten enough berries, that he wasn’t very hungry for lunch.

I had a lot of fun with Lucas. He is a neat kid and he really loves riding in the jeep. I just hope they have jeeps and places to drive them when he gets old enough to drive one.

Supper.

Bob Barbequed some really meaty ribs for supper and they were super.

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and visiting.

Ok, that was day 3. A fun Day. 

Canada Trip, Day Two.

 

Day two. 8/01/16

Leaving The Klamath River.

In the morning we went over to say our goodbye's to Joanne, Dave, Marvin and Anita. We sat around for a while visiting and as the morning was slipping away we made the decision to leave. It was around 11:00 before we got on the road.

Trouble at the gas station.

Every once in a while I get into trouble trying to get into a pump.
This morning was one of those times . I pulled into the station and couldn’t find a space to pull right into. I had to go around the island and try to make a sharp turn into the pumps. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the turn.
Now you can’t back up to reposition the rig with the jeep hooked onto the back so we had to get out and unhook the jeep. What a pain for everyone. We had the whole place blocked up. I am sure that there were a few pissed off people trying to get into the gas station with this huge motor home blocking up the place .
Eventually we got the jeep unhooked and were able to reset and make the turn into the pumps.
We got our gas, hooked the jeep back up and were on our way.

The Ride.

There was a little fog along the coast.

As we traveled north the fog began to dissipate.

We continued north until we got to Crescent City. Just north of the town we turned onto Hwy 199 and drove east along the beautiful Smith River.

After a couple of hours we got to Grants Pass, Oregon and connected with I-5 where we went north. It is 25 miles from Grants Pass to Glendale, which is our destination for today.
There are three pass’s to go over and they are pretty steep so it is slow going for the motor home pulling a jeep.

We were behind this guy almost the whole way.

He even took the Glendale turn off.

We finally got to Kathi and Bob’s and will be here until Thursday morning.
We visited for a while and around 6:20 we went into town and had supper at Nano’s Mexican Restaurant. The food is pretty good and the prices are reasonable.
Kathi and Bob’s daughter, Anna-lee met us at the restaurant with her 5 year old son, Lucas. Lucas is one of the most precocious five year olds that I know and is a lot fun to talk with.
He’s five going on twenty five.

After supper we went back to Kathi and Bob’s and visited until bed time.

Okay that was day two of our Canada trip. 

Canada Trip

 

Day One.

Leaving SRO.

We left Santa Rosa around 8:30.

We headed north on US 101. Our destination for today is the Klamath River RV Park. We are going there to visit Joanne and Dave who are camping there for a couple of days. They just purchased a Travel Trailer and are just beginning to experience the joys of RV’ing.

Arriving at the Park

We got to the RV park around 2:30 with no problems. The park is right on the south bank of the Klamath River.

It is a bit pricy but it is the only one on the river here.

Visiting and Supper.

We visited with Joann, Dave and the folks that they bought their trailer from Marvin and Anita who were also camping with them.

We had a potluck supper with Lasagna that was cooked in a crock pot. It was very good.

We sat around and visited until it got cold out and then we went to our RV for the evening.

 
Okay that was the first day of our trip to Canada.