Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

We left McMinnville and headed northeast toward Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, looking for Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods.   It was only about 100 miles to our next campground, so it was a truly enjoyable ride.   After a bit we got on I-5 north and once in Portland proper took the exit to I-84 east toward the Bridge of the Gods.

It is a beautiful drive along the river.   I was surprised how big the river is.   I haven’t seen large ships on it yet, only tugs pushing barges and the occasional river boat with a working paddle wheel for propulsion.   When I looked at www.MarineTraffic.com for ships on the river east of Portland, they all appeared to have drafts of 12′ or less, suggesting the river isn’t very deep.   I haven’t seen any channel markers in the river yet.

We were hoping to find a rest stop along the river, but we never did and soon we were at the Cascade Locks exit heading over to the toll booth for the Bridge of the Gods.   During my prior recon using Street View, the toll booth charges were written on a small A-frame sign on what looked like flip chart paper.   It said $3 for a motorhome.   Today the sign looked more official and was mounted on the booth itself and the price had gone up 66% to $5 for a motorhome.   Now that’s some inflation!

We paid the toll, and as we exited the booth, noticed how narrow the bridge was.   Just then a truck coming towards us veered over into our lane because of a pedestrian walking on the bridge.   Why they allow pedestrians on a very narrow bridge without a sidewalk is puzzling.   There is no way to stay in your lane while going past them unless you are a motorcycle.

On the other side of the river we found our “rest stop” on a small hillside where we walked the pup and made lunch.   We needed to kill some time as check-in time wasn’t till 2pm.

We were there for about an hour and then headed east on Washington State Highway 14 toward the hamlet of Home Valley.  One thing you notice when driving along the river is the train tracks are on both sides and the trains are long with lots of containers stacked two high.   I’m guessing Portland must have a very large container ship port or maybe all the goods from Seattle/Tacoma ship east thru here too.

It was probably a 10-mile drive on Hwy 14 to our turnoff on a small road heading up the mountain,  which kept getting narrower till another turnoff that got even narrower than the first road.   It was there I wondered if I made a mistake choosing this park to get farther away from the train tracks.    Luckily it was just a short hop on the extremely narrow road to the park and we got there unscathed.    We had an easy spot to back into right down near the office with a big gravel driveway to maneuver the coach.

The owners were a young couple from the LA area that wanted out of the rat race.   They definitely found that.   This place is surely not part of that.

This is a very nice campground and you can just barely hear the train whistles if you listen closely, which is just perfect to me.   I like to hear them in the distance; but from what I read about park reviews down near the river, they sound more like you are stuck on a grade crossing with the train barreling toward you.

I think the RV park brochure said it was a two-minute walk to the ferry landing.  It was more like 15 minutes, and the first afternoon there it was about 95 degrees, so that walk seemed like an hour.  And it is right on the off ramp of the 101 freeway, which is very busy.  There is a small cement wall with a railing, but you really felt like you were on the freeway!!

We purchased our Clipper cards at the machine out front and got in line for the approaching ferry.   Once it landed and the doors opened, it took a long time for everyone to disembark.   After a while, I was thinking it was one of those clown cars that they just keep coming out of for a long time.   It was hard to imagine so many people could fit onto that boat;  but it was just after 5:30pm, so it was filled with commuters.   They must have been packed in like sardines.    We boarded with about 25 others to make the trip to San Francisco.   It was a beautiful day and the city was gleaming in the bright sun as we made our way across the bay.   Even the Golden Gate was easy to see, no fog around it like most of the other trips we made this week.

We walked over to Chris’s apartment on the 19th floor of a building just a few blocks from the ferry landing.   As we rode the elevator, Dusty started shaking due to the beeps the elevator made for each floor above the 7th.  That may have been his first ride in an elevator.

Chris has a great view of the waterfront in a very nice building.    After having a couple beers with Chris and Shelly while watching some of the Padres game, and touring the rooftop with an amazing view, we headed out for dinner at Palomino.    Dinner was very good out on their patio with a spectacular view of the Bay Bridge as the sun set and its lights came on.  They did a great job with that.

We headed back to the ferry landing to catch the last boat out at 9:30.    It was very dark on the water and the window by our seat was covered in so much water, I thought it was raining hard, but it wasn’t and turned out to be the spray from the bay.

The walk back to the RV park after 10pm was interesting as I hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight.   So we didn’t walk real fast and kept a keen eye out for bicyclists…   The next day my little flashlight was in my backpack!

We got back there without running into anything!

We got up early and readied the coach to leave.   Once it was ready to go, we headed over to the restaurant for a delightful breakfast on the patio, then headed out before 11am for the trip to just north of San Francisco.   It was an uneventful drive with a pit stop at a  rest area stop right near Los Banos.

Got back onto I-5 north till we exited to I-580 west toward SF.   About half way toward town, that freeway gets really bumpy,  seems like it will shake out the dishes from the cupboards.    After about 20 miles of that rough ride, it thankfully became much smoother.   We had our first Fastrac use on the  580 toll bridge right by San Quentin Prison.  $20 for the RV pulling a car.    We were staying very close to SQP and got off the freeway to wind around the surface streets to find an on ramp to the 101 south for one exit, then even more winding around more surface streets to find the campground.

We found the Marin RV Park, checked in and proceeded to our spot.   This place resembled an RV storage lot:  Tightly packed RV’s of all sizes.  We just barely fit, backing all the way up to the fence in spot J-7.  The campsite was wide but only about 41′ long.   I considered putting orange cones at the front but decided not to.   Our nose was maybe an inch off the pavement and the towbar maybe 5 inches from the fence.

But it turned out to be a great place to visit SF from as the Larkspur ferry was less than a mile walk, which we did many times.   And the Clipper card saves a bundle on the ferry cost.  It’s also useful for the muni’s and cable cars; so that worked out well once our feet were complaining a bit.

We got a late start on Sunday, actually hooking up the car right at noon.  We had been packing the coach back up for days as we had pulled everything out from inside and underneath for a thorough cleaning after San Eljio State Beach.

The traffic in LA was slow moving in a lot of places and continued to get worse as we drove along.  It was Sunday afternoon, where the heck were all these folks going?   It’s never good to hear google nav announcing that traffic is building on your route, multiple times during your drive thru LA.

We eventually got thru and started out toward Magic Mountain and eventually the Grapevine.   I had planned a stop in Castaic at a truck stop about 2.5 hours into the trip, but with all the traffic, it was more like 3.5 hours before we arrived.   I pulled into a fuel lane and Kathy took Dusty for a walk.   When I eventually got up to the pumps and looked at them, they said it was B20 fuel.   I had never seen it so high and decided to pass on the fill.  I didn’t actually need the fuel as we were only 100 miles from home, it was just the only place to get off the freeway for a bit.

We proceeded north on I-5 and I was amazed by all the traffic once we arrived at the Grapevine.   I had never seen so many cars and trucks on that stretch of road before.   We headed down the long grade and realized it isn’t nearly as steep or long as a lot of the grades we traversed last summer.    It’s only 6% and just 5 miles long.    We saw many 10 % grades and some were 20 miles long going over the Rockies.

We arrived at the Bakersfield resort a little after 5pm and pulled into a nice wide and long pull-thru site.    Tomorrow will be a quick and easy getaway..

They have a restaurant at this RV park that is quite good!  We were able to take Dusty and eat on the patio where I ordered a beer during happy hour and got one that was almost too heavy to lift.  The weather was beautiful for June in Bakersfield, low 80s!!  We had dinner there and breakfast the next morning.  Both times met nice people who had interesting tips on places to go.

Ever since designing the TV stand for the RV, I wanted to put a lift mechanism on it.   This week I have finally found the right parts and am assembling it.    The problem with buying one was they are too deep for the area I have.  I mounted it behind the couch and needed something 5″ or less in depth so the couch wouldn’t need to move so far away from the wall and window that it impeded walking past it when the slides were in for travel.

I didn’t want to be able to see the TV when it’s in travel mode, and I also wanted it as low as possible for any driving events, like stopping quickly or large bumps.   I made the stand using cherry wood and three sets of Accuride slides.  I would manually pull it up from behind the couch and insert a couple of wooden poles to keep it up at viewing level.

I tried a linear actuator but couldn’t find one the right length and finally settled on a gas lift strut.   Those were a bit too short for the full height it needed to be, but after searching the web for many weeks, I found a place that had some that had over 22″ of travel and came in 20, 40, 60 and 80 lbs. of force.   I first tried the 60 lbs. one and I could barely compress it.  Realizing that would be way too much force, I traded the two 60 pounders for a 20 and 40 lbs. unit of the same length.   The 40 is still too strong, and the 20 is a bit weak.  If only they made a 30 lbs. unit…

I had to beef up the unit and make a special holder for the top of the gas strut so I could still lift the TV the few inches higher it needs to be once the struts are fully extended.  I bought some 1″ inside diameter steel pipe about 6″ long and modified the top with a couple hacksaw cuts and ball peen hammer to bend over the top end like a cap that will stop the strut from going any further and allowing it to lift the TV!

I also created a mechanism to keep the TV in the down position as the gas struts are a constant push up.   I used parts from a fence gate latch, builders simpson straps and threaded rod with some eye hooks.

Tony,  you helped me get in the gate at the Paradise Point RV park  in DeTour Village last summer during a torrential rainstorm..   I finally watched the Movie..

Send me an email… bill at cowlesmountain dot com

While at the Freightliner Rally we heard there were places in Yuma that would wash and wax your coach for around $120.  That sounded too good to be true as in San Diego they want $10 a foot for that.. ($400)   I got a couple of names someone had used previously and called  Dave’s Auto Detail (aka DAD’s), they were too busy to do it Friday the day we would be passing thru Yuma.  I called Benjamin’s.   He told me to call him when I was almost in Yuma and he would try to fit me in.   I called 15 minutes prior to the turnoff he told us to use.   He said he would have someone meet me behind Al’s RV Supply.   A few minutes later the tech called me and told me he would be a while as he needed to go back to the shop and fill the water tank.   We drove behind the place and the parking lots was fairly sloped so we drove around front to wait.  I went inside the store and found a lens cover for a basement light I had broken months before and was not able to find the right replacement anywhere.    While I was paying for the lens I got to thinking, it was already after 3pm and figured we would probably need to spend the night as it would probably close to 7pm  when they finished.   So I called an RV campground that was a few hundred yards away to ask them if they had a spot and whether they would allow a firm to come in and wash the coach.   Got an affirmative answer and we headed off.   Checked in and parked just as the tech called me back.  We were on, they were a few minutes away.

I was a bit apprehensive when they arrived as I had realized I hadn’t asked how much it would cost.   I was pleasantly surprised when they said it was $99 for a complete wash with a hand waxing for the sides of the coach but not the roof, they only wash that.  But then the sales pitch started,  for another $49 they would treat the roof with a Wax & UV inhibitor, similar to 303… I opted in.   It took them about 2 hours, with 3 of them working to finish it.   They did a great job!

I was glad we decided to stay the night there as I had already driven 4 hours from Tucson is it was almost dark when they finished.   I find it kind of uncomfortable driving the coach at night due to the side windows reflecting everything back at you.   Going straight is no issue, but practically impossible to see anything to the right or left of you at night.   I had noticed that phenomena one very early morning in Muscle Shoals Alabama on a very short drive from a small campground to a shop to have some work done on the coach.  Even turning off all the dashboard lights didn’t help that.  It’s nothing I’ve seen in any other vehicle before.

I had read there was a Titan II ballistic missile silo about a 30-minute drive southwest of our campground and I just had to go see it early Saturday morning.  Kathy begged off and I drove there to see if I could get in a tour at the last minute.   I got there just as a tour was getting briefed for the procedures to go in and they allowed me to join it.

Turns out anyone 6′ or over must wear a hard hat while underground.   Thankfully I did as told, I hit a few steel beams when I forgot to duck.  I didn’t realize people where that short during the 1960’s, I always thought that we were talking hundreds of years ago. 🙂

This was a really cool tour, and it’s the only Titan II missile silo left.  All the others were destroyed after the new generation of missiles were deployed.   I was surprised the command center was not very far underground, about 55 steps down,  especially when they mentioned the warhead it carried was a 9 Megaton hydrogen bomb.  If ground burst, it would make a crater 500+ feet deep.   It appears they did not expect them to be directly hit by a similar sized weapon.

The underground site was sealed off by sets of massive heavy and thick doors.   Everything in this silo looked to be in perfect condition.  No rust to be seen, yeah it was in Tucson so that makes sense.

The control room was mounted on large springs that you could see around the perimeter.   They explained that the previous generation of missiles took over 45 minutes to launch once they got the launch order from the President due to not being able to keep them fueled due to the volatility of the liquid oxygen fuel.    They would probably all have been destroyed by a first strike as we only had about a 15-minute advance notice of incoming missiles back then.

These new Titan missiles fixed that issue having a different fuel mixture allowing them to be kept fueled up 24/7.   A launch could happen within 58 seconds of receiving a launch order with the Titan II.    I believe they told us all these sites were decommissioned in the late 1980’s.

The actual silo was accessed thru a very long corridor.   There were a couple of large open bay doors to allow a view of the missile from a couple vantage points.   They also mentioned that the tours on the 3rd Saturdays included a visit down to the bottom of the silo.   Unfortunately I was there on the 4th Saturday morning.

I would highly recommend a visit to this museum if you are in the area.  It was fascinating.