I alone took over 4000 pictures over the past three weeks. A couple of them are up on the blog... here are a few links to a bunch more, including some from the days (1-4) that Renee and I (Keith) spent in Colorado, Utah, Vegas and LA.
Link to Days 1 & 2
Link to Days 3 & 4
Link to Days 5-7
Link to Days 8 & 9
Link to Days 10-12
Link to Day 14
The last few days will be up at some point!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
We made it!
We're all back on the east coast, and I know that I, for one, am already forgetting some of the troubles we had with Alfie. Don't get me wrong - the state of the RV was unacceptable given what we paid for it / the customer service that Allstar claims / the level of maintenance that should be kept on their fleet. That said, the vacation was a blast, and all that's left is for us to put a few more pictures on here and give the overview of last week.
Crater Lake, as you can see from the pictures, was amazing. There were so many different types of landscapes that we saw on the trip, and I can't wait for my next trip around the US. After spending the early afternoon at / in Crater Lake, we bombed it down to Redding, CA. While on that drive, I flushed the toilet and that totally killed the cabin batteries - no air conditioning, water, lights, electric slide outs - nothing. To top it off, it was about 100 degrees as we made our way down inland CA. Our night in Redding was pretty horrible.... it felt like it didn't cool down at all, and with the noise of the highway next door / the neighbors who decided to up and leave at 3am / the sprinklers going off at all hours of the night, non of us really slept well. We got up bright and early and continued the trip to Yosemite.
As Paul mentioned, we were determined to keep our spirits up, and while the temperature continued to be unbearable on the drive we noticed a very inviting river running alongside the CA 140 while heading into the park. Our campground ended up being about 7 miles outside of the park, right on the river. We pulled in, and immediately went down to the water to cool off. We just sat in the stream, cooling down - and everything started getting better. After a refreshing break, we jumped back into the RV, drove into the park, and went to the visitor center to help plan our big day in the park on Wednesday.
Luckily there was a restaurant at the hotel next door.... as well as the fact that the temps started to drop as soon as the sun was setting on the horizon.
Yosemite was AMAZING. We hiked Bridalveil falls, to the top of Vernal Falls, up to Mirror Lake, and did Yosemite falls as well. It took us the entire day - including stopping for lunch - and was worth every step. Pictures don't even start to express the beauty of this place....
Crater Lake, as you can see from the pictures, was amazing. There were so many different types of landscapes that we saw on the trip, and I can't wait for my next trip around the US. After spending the early afternoon at / in Crater Lake, we bombed it down to Redding, CA. While on that drive, I flushed the toilet and that totally killed the cabin batteries - no air conditioning, water, lights, electric slide outs - nothing. To top it off, it was about 100 degrees as we made our way down inland CA. Our night in Redding was pretty horrible.... it felt like it didn't cool down at all, and with the noise of the highway next door / the neighbors who decided to up and leave at 3am / the sprinklers going off at all hours of the night, non of us really slept well. We got up bright and early and continued the trip to Yosemite.
As Paul mentioned, we were determined to keep our spirits up, and while the temperature continued to be unbearable on the drive we noticed a very inviting river running alongside the CA 140 while heading into the park. Our campground ended up being about 7 miles outside of the park, right on the river. We pulled in, and immediately went down to the water to cool off. We just sat in the stream, cooling down - and everything started getting better. After a refreshing break, we jumped back into the RV, drove into the park, and went to the visitor center to help plan our big day in the park on Wednesday.
Luckily there was a restaurant at the hotel next door.... as well as the fact that the temps started to drop as soon as the sun was setting on the horizon.
Yosemite was AMAZING. We hiked Bridalveil falls, to the top of Vernal Falls, up to Mirror Lake, and did Yosemite falls as well. It took us the entire day - including stopping for lunch - and was worth every step. Pictures don't even start to express the beauty of this place....
We cut the trip short and spent wednesday night in San Fran - got a good dinner in - and then had the RV picked up on Thursday. Spending time in San Fran, without having to worry about Alfie, was awesome!
The trip was unforgettable - I cannot wait to do something like that again! What a great way for me - Keith - to spend my last few months before starting the real world again!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Nearing the Finish Line
With the constant degradation of the RV, we have opted to cut the trip short by one day and head back to San Francisco for a final fancy dinner and a day around the city tomorrow before flying back to the East Coast. We kept our spirits up and did our best to make do without any power the past few days in Redding and Yosemite CA. It was a test of patience and we refused the let the situation beat us.
Since we haven't been able to make any updates, I'm sure there will be more post-trip recap updates still to come. But for now I wanted to share one of my favorite stops on our trip. That was Crater Lake. We drove the East rim and made a hike down to the water, and chose to spend our time jumping off a 17-foot(ish) rock into the water instead of taking the small boat trip out to Wizard Island. The water was surprisingly warmer than we expected and quite refreshing.
Since we haven't been able to make any updates, I'm sure there will be more post-trip recap updates still to come. But for now I wanted to share one of my favorite stops on our trip. That was Crater Lake. We drove the East rim and made a hike down to the water, and chose to spend our time jumping off a 17-foot(ish) rock into the water instead of taking the small boat trip out to Wizard Island. The water was surprisingly warmer than we expected and quite refreshing.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
What a weekend!!
Just a quick post for now... WE MADE IT! Shane and Thereasa are hitched! What a fantastic weekend celebration... We are so pumped that we were able to share their special day with them! Congrats you two!!
In other news, our Safeway Savings card continues to save us...
More to come about the Crater Lake problems that Keith, Renee and Michelle got to enjoy!
In other news, our Safeway Savings card continues to save us...
More to come about the Crater Lake problems that Keith, Renee and Michelle got to enjoy!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Moving East
After an enjoyable night in the Dunes, we are now making eastward progress towards Sunriver. The climb in elevation has also provided us with some, very welcomed, higher temperatures. We tried to stop in Eugene but couldn't figure out a place to go. So we went a little further and stopped in Oakridge. It turned out to be a great decision.
We found a cozy brewpub called the Brewers Union Local 180 for lunch. For the second time in the trip we have found a brewtub that serves cask beer! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and sampled all their cask beers. The "Extra Knuckle" seemed to be the overall favorite.
After lunch we climbed 5000+ feet through the mountains and caught some pretty glimpses of Diamond Peak.
We are currently on I-97 about 20 minutes outside Sunriver. Hannah and Paul will be jumping out to get the wedding festivities underway. Michelle, Renee and Keith will be moving on to Crater Lake for the night. While we are all looking forward to the wedding weekend and staying in a larger condo, the RV lifestyle will certainly be missed for a few days.
We found a cozy brewpub called the Brewers Union Local 180 for lunch. For the second time in the trip we have found a brewtub that serves cask beer! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and sampled all their cask beers. The "Extra Knuckle" seemed to be the overall favorite.
After lunch we climbed 5000+ feet through the mountains and caught some pretty glimpses of Diamond Peak.
We are currently on I-97 about 20 minutes outside Sunriver. Hannah and Paul will be jumping out to get the wedding festivities underway. Michelle, Renee and Keith will be moving on to Crater Lake for the night. While we are all looking forward to the wedding weekend and staying in a larger condo, the RV lifestyle will certainly be missed for a few days.
Ashes.... and the way of today
Since you asked.... here's what we stumbled upon at the top of "Lookout Rock" - which, by the way, has no where near the views of the other rocks we walked out to at Patricks Point!
Complete with an Irish blessing on the shot glass.
We're pulling out of Woahink RV park in a few minutes - straight shot over to Bend, OR. We're dropping Hannah and Paul off, and then Renee, Michelle and Keith are on to Crater Lake for the night. I hope it lives up to expectations!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The funny thing about "holding tanks"....
.... more to come on the holding tanks at the end of this post. For now, a little on how we spent the day yesterday. A long day of driving, but the sites along the way were pretty spectacular.
After pulling in to the campground on Monday night, we let the slides out hoping that all would be OK the next morning when we went to leave (spoiler alert: we were fine Tuesday morning). With camp set up, we explored a little but mostly got down to preparing our feast. Trofi pasta & sauce, steak on the grill, focaccia with tomatoes and cheese.... Pretty impressed with our skills given that it was our first real night of cooking out of Alphie.
We all rolled out of bed around 8, and headed straight to the river for a morning wash. The water was actually pretty warm, and made for a refreshing wake-up - albeit the current was really strong, and we all almost fell over a couple of times even though it was only a few feet deep for the most part. There was one four foot eddie that was calm enough to relax in.
We eased Alphie out of the campground around 9:30. First thing we see on the road - REDWOODS! Everywhere! We got out a couple of times and snagged some pics... as requested, here's one of the five of us. You can see how wide this redwood is... and it's a relatively young one, as it's part of growth from the early 1930's after some deforestation. These trees grow 3-5 feet per year!
As planned, we stopped at the Eel River café and had a delicious breakfast and got to take in the sights of Garberville. Next stop – Patricks Point National Park. Patricks Point is a small park right on the coast, with some incredible views of the ocean. We hiked around for a good hour, snapping a bunch of pics on the way. (re-reading paul's most recent post, i now realize some of the above is redundant. oops.)
After about eight hours on the road, we pulled into the Turtle Rock RV Resort, right on the Oregon coast. The resort gets it’s name from a large rock foundation that actually does look very much like a turtle…
On to the holding tanks story... there are two main tanks on an RV. Grey water – from the sink & shower, essentially, and black water – from the toilet. Well, when we picked up the RV the guy told us that a) these tanks are huge, b) you probably will only need to empty them once or twice, and c) the monitor panel that tells you how full they are isn’t all that accurate. With that knowledge, we figured we didn’t need to worry about the tanks for a few days.
As Paul was getting our electrical hookup stored away today, he noticed that water was dripping from under the RV. Hmmmm. Check the panel – grey tank is totally full, black tank is two thirds full. Hannah happens to look into the shower… water is coming up. Uhoh. We decided to dump, and hit the dump station on the way out… trailing our overflowing grey water behind us. We high-tailed it outta there as soon as we could!
Off to the Oregon sand dunes today! We’re renting buggies… giddy with excitement!
After pulling in to the campground on Monday night, we let the slides out hoping that all would be OK the next morning when we went to leave (spoiler alert: we were fine Tuesday morning). With camp set up, we explored a little but mostly got down to preparing our feast. Trofi pasta & sauce, steak on the grill, focaccia with tomatoes and cheese.... Pretty impressed with our skills given that it was our first real night of cooking out of Alphie.
We all rolled out of bed around 8, and headed straight to the river for a morning wash. The water was actually pretty warm, and made for a refreshing wake-up - albeit the current was really strong, and we all almost fell over a couple of times even though it was only a few feet deep for the most part. There was one four foot eddie that was calm enough to relax in.
We eased Alphie out of the campground around 9:30. First thing we see on the road - REDWOODS! Everywhere! We got out a couple of times and snagged some pics... as requested, here's one of the five of us. You can see how wide this redwood is... and it's a relatively young one, as it's part of growth from the early 1930's after some deforestation. These trees grow 3-5 feet per year!
As planned, we stopped at the Eel River café and had a delicious breakfast and got to take in the sights of Garberville. Next stop – Patricks Point National Park. Patricks Point is a small park right on the coast, with some incredible views of the ocean. We hiked around for a good hour, snapping a bunch of pics on the way. (re-reading paul's most recent post, i now realize some of the above is redundant. oops.)
Creepy moment of the stop – seeing ashes from a cremated body, along with a blessing printed on a shot glass. Other creepy element of the morning... (can anyone tell what I'm talking about?)
After about eight hours on the road, we pulled into the Turtle Rock RV Resort, right on the Oregon coast. The resort gets it’s name from a large rock foundation that actually does look very much like a turtle…
We set up camp, and went for a stroll on the beach. Renee and Michelle pulled together snacks for the beach (despite Hannah, Paul and Keith mentioning how cold and windy it was…). The water was FREEZING. So much for Paul’s theory that the water would be warm since the currents are coming from the South! We did find a somewhat cozy little alcove in the turtle for a couple of drinks and snacks.
We headed back, and realized that there were about 20 more minutes for the sunset, so we brought our chairs down to the beach. Sunsets are always pretty spectacular, and this one did not fail to impress.
On to the holding tanks story... there are two main tanks on an RV. Grey water – from the sink & shower, essentially, and black water – from the toilet. Well, when we picked up the RV the guy told us that a) these tanks are huge, b) you probably will only need to empty them once or twice, and c) the monitor panel that tells you how full they are isn’t all that accurate. With that knowledge, we figured we didn’t need to worry about the tanks for a few days.
As Paul was getting our electrical hookup stored away today, he noticed that water was dripping from under the RV. Hmmmm. Check the panel – grey tank is totally full, black tank is two thirds full. Hannah happens to look into the shower… water is coming up. Uhoh. We decided to dump, and hit the dump station on the way out… trailing our overflowing grey water behind us. We high-tailed it outta there as soon as we could!
Off to the Oregon sand dunes today! We’re renting buggies… giddy with excitement!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Making our way north - Garberville/Humboldt CA
Finally left Pacifica yesterday! Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, passed through wine country, and 210 miles later landed in Garberville CA in Humboldt County. Drove through the Avenue of the Giants with huge redwood trees only inches off the road. It felt like driving through a tunnel.
Made our first meal on the grill last night then woke up this morning by taking a dip in the nearby river. We filled up our bellies at a great diner called the Eel River Cafe in the downtown area. Now we're on the road again with the final stop being in Gold Coast OR, which puts us back on our original schedule. Along the way we will be driving through more redwood forests and making a lunch stop at Patrick's Point in Trinidad CA.
Alright since Alfie the RV is back in our good graces, let's take a closer look. He certainly turns some heads!
Made our first meal on the grill last night then woke up this morning by taking a dip in the nearby river. We filled up our bellies at a great diner called the Eel River Cafe in the downtown area. Now we're on the road again with the final stop being in Gold Coast OR, which puts us back on our original schedule. Along the way we will be driving through more redwood forests and making a lunch stop at Patrick's Point in Trinidad CA.
Alright since Alfie the RV is back in our good graces, let's take a closer look. He certainly turns some heads!
It's almost time to mix some lunchtime cocktails! In the back of the RV of course.
Monday, July 12, 2010
On the road again!
It's funny how quickly one's spirits can change. After 29 hours of being stranded, we finally got a mechanic who knew what he was doing. The slider was in within 5 minutes of him arriving! "Rob" is the man!
We think it was drained batteries as a result of the wedged tin clippers and our multiple efforts to get it in. Rob used a 12" wrench to crank on some shaft while we pushed / used the motor to get it in. Fingers crossed knock on wood that we're good to go from here on in!
We are now the proud owners of that 12" wrench.... Rob traded it for the tin clippers.
See Yah!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We think it was drained batteries as a result of the wedged tin clippers and our multiple efforts to get it in. Rob used a 12" wrench to crank on some shaft while we pushed / used the motor to get it in. Fingers crossed knock on wood that we're good to go from here on in!
We are now the proud owners of that 12" wrench.... Rob traded it for the tin clippers.
See Yah!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Stuck in Pacifica CA
We could not have been more excited to get on the road yesterday. We started securing everything in the RV and sliding in the retractable sides. But one side wouldn't move. We literally placed 25+ phone calls to All Star RV "emergency assistance," home office staff and the owner himself. However, being that it was a Sunday making contact with people was proving to be problematic. We kept being told that people were out of cell phone range and/or that a mechanic was on the way. Finally, voicemail boxes were full and we had sat another full day in the same RV park. So we spent another night in Pacifica CA.
This morning a mechanic showed up bright and early. After some tinkering he found what we thought was going to be the problem. A pair of tin snips wedged into a place they shouldn't ever be and preventing the slide out from moving. Alas, removing the misplaced tool did not fix the problem.
Here's the tin snips:
After a couple hours, the original mechanic has been pulled off the job and we are told that another mechanic is en route who can "certainly figure out the problem." So why wasn't he the first person called to assist us yesterday? Great question. Should he not be able to diagnose the problem, a replacement RV should (might?) be showing up at some point this afternoon once it arrives from Las Vegas and gets cleaned.
The bummer of this whole thing is that it puts us behind schedule. We intentionally planned our trip to drive 150-200 miles a day which would allow us time to explore the area where we stopped. Because of the delays we are now going to have to make up for lost time and drive many more hours. Hopefully we can still see the Redwoods and I certainly don't want to miss out on dune buggies in Florence. Obviously the bigger issue would be making sure we arrive at Shane and Thereasa's wedding on Thursday.
Thus far everyone is remaining upbeat, positive and optimistic. But the constant set-backs and lack of customer service is mentally draining.
Hopefully the next post is from 350 miles north of Pacifica CA! Stay tuned.
This morning a mechanic showed up bright and early. After some tinkering he found what we thought was going to be the problem. A pair of tin snips wedged into a place they shouldn't ever be and preventing the slide out from moving. Alas, removing the misplaced tool did not fix the problem.
Here's the tin snips:
After a couple hours, the original mechanic has been pulled off the job and we are told that another mechanic is en route who can "certainly figure out the problem." So why wasn't he the first person called to assist us yesterday? Great question. Should he not be able to diagnose the problem, a replacement RV should (might?) be showing up at some point this afternoon once it arrives from Las Vegas and gets cleaned.
The bummer of this whole thing is that it puts us behind schedule. We intentionally planned our trip to drive 150-200 miles a day which would allow us time to explore the area where we stopped. Because of the delays we are now going to have to make up for lost time and drive many more hours. Hopefully we can still see the Redwoods and I certainly don't want to miss out on dune buggies in Florence. Obviously the bigger issue would be making sure we arrive at Shane and Thereasa's wedding on Thursday.
Thus far everyone is remaining upbeat, positive and optimistic. But the constant set-backs and lack of customer service is mentally draining.
Hopefully the next post is from 350 miles north of Pacifica CA! Stay tuned.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Go Time!
We picked up the 40 foot RV in Clayton CA yesterday...at a place connected to a feed store! The RV is ridiculous. It really is just a small home; there is so much space inside. It's officially named See Ya by Alfa. Which means we will be calling it Alfie for the duration of the trip. Pics to come soon. We parked it in Pacifica CA right on a cliff overlooking the ocean at the San Francisco RV Park. The summer months here though mean foggy and slightly cool weather and I don't think we packed the right clothing.
Last night, we met some of Keith's college friends out for dinner and drinks in San Francisco. Today we need to stop at a Target-type store to stock up on provisions then find a spot to watch the World Cup final. Michelle arrives around 6:30PM. The plan is pick her up at the airport in Alfie then immediately head north. The next stop is Mendocino CA.
Last night, we met some of Keith's college friends out for dinner and drinks in San Francisco. Today we need to stop at a Target-type store to stock up on provisions then find a spot to watch the World Cup final. Michelle arrives around 6:30PM. The plan is pick her up at the airport in Alfie then immediately head north. The next stop is Mendocino CA.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
T minus 3
How can the last post be from the holidays?! As long as we have been talking about this trip, it was always in the back of my mind that it just may not happen. It may changed slightly, but it's still a go!
Here's the original mission statement: "Five Friends. Two Dogs. One RV. The trip of a lifetime from Boston to Portland and back." We quickly realized driving all the way across the country was going to take too far too much time which meant that we wouldn't have time to stop and see anything; it would just be straight driving. Though there can be some fun in doing that, that wasn't the trip we were looking to do. So then we thought we could find a one way rental from San Diego to Portland/Seattle. Finding an available RV proved to be far too difficult. We brainstormed on it and finally came up with starting in San Francisco; heading north up the Pacific Coast Highway; at some point head due West from the Oregon coast to hit the wedding in Bend; beeline it to Yosemite National Park; then finish again in San Francisco.
The new mission statement: "Five Friends. One RV. The trip of a lifetime in the Pacific Northwest." Still a damn fine trip if you ask me.
I feel like I'm vibrating waiting to leave on Friday. There is still so much stuff to do in order to be ready to leave though, not just packing things that I wouldn't normally pack for a wedding trip (a headlamp for example) but also stuff like temporarily shutting off our mail.
So stay tuned. We haven't been updating the blog much. But now that the trip is finally upon us, there will be plenty of updates to highlight our temporary home and all the stops along the way.
Let's roll!!!!
Here's the original mission statement: "Five Friends. Two Dogs. One RV. The trip of a lifetime from Boston to Portland and back." We quickly realized driving all the way across the country was going to take too far too much time which meant that we wouldn't have time to stop and see anything; it would just be straight driving. Though there can be some fun in doing that, that wasn't the trip we were looking to do. So then we thought we could find a one way rental from San Diego to Portland/Seattle. Finding an available RV proved to be far too difficult. We brainstormed on it and finally came up with starting in San Francisco; heading north up the Pacific Coast Highway; at some point head due West from the Oregon coast to hit the wedding in Bend; beeline it to Yosemite National Park; then finish again in San Francisco.
The new mission statement: "Five Friends. One RV. The trip of a lifetime in the Pacific Northwest." Still a damn fine trip if you ask me.
I feel like I'm vibrating waiting to leave on Friday. There is still so much stuff to do in order to be ready to leave though, not just packing things that I wouldn't normally pack for a wedding trip (a headlamp for example) but also stuff like temporarily shutting off our mail.
So stay tuned. We haven't been updating the blog much. But now that the trip is finally upon us, there will be plenty of updates to highlight our temporary home and all the stops along the way.
Let's roll!!!!
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