Now our site just inside the LTVA La Posa West.  Dish up... locked on satellite internet and DirecTV HD. 
BTW full bars of Verizon 4G w/unlimited data in case I need faster internet.   You can view our location here. 

Nice having a just washed and waxed truck and trailer.  Lookin spiffy.  Now to get the trailer rug shampooed.

Yep.. first order of business a campfire. 

BTW the truck trip odeometer reads over 10,200 miles traveled this summer. 

Oct 26
The not to miss tourist trap of Oatman, AZ
Since we are staying in Laughlin, NV we jutt had to day trip to Oatman, AZ on historic Route 66. This is a not to miss stop if in the area.
Even if I do say so myself and Ya all know how much I hate tourist traps. I even got out and walked both sides of the main street.

OK...  time for a picture tour of Oatman...  Enjoy...

Route 66 in AZ

Riverside Casino and RV Park Laughlin, NV

On Monday Oct 27 we pull out of here and head to Quartzsite, AZ for fun and adventure... Remember I made it through the CA inspection station with a firewood check and got a thumbs up as "looking good" by the inspector. Have been hauling all that firewood from Washington state in the back of the truck. Got to find that perfect boondicking site so we can have many great capfires in the BLM. 

 
 

Oct 23
Somebody turn down the heat.
We got the trailer and truck washed and waxed today by a service located in the Laughlin Riverside RV Park. Alex at 702 509 0416 so if you pass through here, that is who to call for gerat service at a great price. Alex was good to work with and was honest telling me what they could and not do to the five year weathered gelcoat finish on my trailer.  But after the three person crew were done, using a cleaner-wax,  it looked very good. We were happy and we gave Alex extra above the quoted price for all their hard work as our trailer was not so clean after all of our summer travels. But now it shines... still needs some work for us to do on some sections on the gel coat, but we can do that as we have done similar work on our last trailer. But right now we are very happy campers. 

Now for the weather.... we are scheduled to leave Laughlin, NV tomorrow Friday after being here for a week. I have told you about the special they have for returning customers... $99 for a week. Since it is hot and we don't want to get to Quartzsite, AZ in this heat. Upper 90's we called and we can extend our stay for the same discount as their special. Normal nightly price $27.50 but for us $15.50 so we may stay 3 more nights as it is to cool down 10° by Monday in south AZ. Geez why move from here so fast. Trailer and truck are looking good and there are more buffets to vist, like as in tonight. Not to worry we are not into playing the slots. Me thinks one of the few vices I don't have. 

If you remember we also had trouble with our A/C yesterday.  The compressor would start but the fan would not spin unless you went up top and gave it a spin to start it. Then leave it on non auto so it would not stop.  Well the Mobile tech from Wardens RV Repair came out and fixed it. Replaced the fan capacitor. $40 to came out, $36 labor, $20 for the part, $95 total and all fixed ... we are happy campers and think we got a fair price. 
So might ask how did I find this mobile tech.... I had just installed a app on my smartphone called GoMechanic (on android or iphone).
Clicked on it, selected RV, and it gave me the Mobile RV techs in the area. Very slick... now I don't want to have to use this very often but when I needed it it worked. 
 

Oct 22
Now in Laughlin, NV
Do go down and read my Oct 17 post first as I am doing both these posts together. 

We love to stop here in Laughlin, NV as the Riverside Casino and RV Park offers for returning customers a week stay for $99. 

We are up high on the top level in the RV park.(Red Dot) The have about 550 sites. Terry got up early to take the sunrise shot. 
Me I was stilll in bed.

There is a RV wash and wax service here which we are going to use to have our 5er washed and waxed along with our truck. 
But to add some excitment to our lives our A/C stopped working. It's very hot here (90s) and that caused a bit of panic. The condenser comes on but the fan doesn't run. Quickly researched this on the Internet and it seems the most likely cause is the big capacitor in it. Terry went up top and took the cover and looked it over. Since the fan was not running he tried to spin it and it took off and started working. Since it was still hot outside the A/C continued to run till it stopped after we had gone to bed.  This am the condenser came on but not the fan again, so up to spin it to start it.  Called a local RV mobile tech which will be out this afternoon. They have the parts so we shall see if they can fix it. 
Tomorrow at 7 AM the wash and wax guys are to show up. Need to start early so they can get done before the heat and sun of the day.
Friday we are off to Quartzsite, AZ to see what kind of trouble we can get into there. We will be boondocking in the BLM. 
 

Oct 17
We have been on the move
We left Newport, OR as the weather was closing in on us and it was time to get the hell off the coast. So east on US 20 and to I-5 heading south. We had never been down the center of CA. We have in the past always gone east from OR and gone down through NV to Las Vegas. So this would be a kind of adventure for us. We can NOW say we have been there and done that. And will never take that route again. 
Our summer and fall RV adventures seem to be more a tour of area hospital ERs. Terry had a Peri-Rectal Abscess burst and bleed. So off in the middle of the night hooking up the RV and pulling out of the RV park we were staying at for the night and off to the nearest ER room. That was in Yreka, CA. on Oct. 14 if I remember correct. It gets to be a blur after the fact with these things. 

They were very nice and we kind of bonded with them as they asked lots of questions on how we travel full-time. The ER nurse was orig. from WI so we talked on how she got here and how we left Iowa. 

They lanched and drained the abscess and later we moved to the local Walmart parking lot (I think this is the first time we have dry camped at Walmart) to wait for the pharmacy to open in the morning so we could fill his scripts and be on our way again down I-5 through CA. 
Some people tour the country going to baseball parks, we tour the country looking for ERs, me thinks. 

But later we found out more of why we will never take this route again... I-5 from Yreka to Redding was some the worst stretch of highway we have ever traversed. 

Up and down with very heavy traffic. If you have ever driven this section you know what I mean. 
Oh and Lake Shasta is empty as in EMPTY. Truckers not staying in their lane and all of us trying to pass to keep momentum so we don't bog down and overheat. 

We at last found Flag City RV Resort at the Lodi exit on I-5. a Passport America affiliated park and at 50% off, our cost is $27. 
We stayed here for a second night to get caught up and JUST slow down a bit. We have to be nowhere fast so why rush. Let Terry 
use his new sitz tub.

AND for me they have a heated pool and spa. The spa was just what I needed after and hard day driving I-5.

Terry of course can't use those, poor boy. He is in no pain. If you don't know how a sitz tub works lucky you... 
So the next day we took a day trip to Sutter Creek. 

Located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills about 45 miles southeast of Sacramento, Amador County is quickly becoming an area known for beautiful scenery, excellent wine and its rich historic experience. Amador County bills itself as "The Heart of the Mother Lode" and lies within the Gold Country

Our next stop was at another Passport America RV park at Tulare, CA. We called ahead and when we got there he had saved a pull through (one of only 3 that they have). Now let me tell you tight is tight but this was tight.  That's my slide on the right. 

After that we continued on down I-5 and the traffic didn't get much better as you can see. 

We had no idea that they had so much grape production as this went on forever. 

At last we turned east from Bakrersfield on HW 58 heading to Barstow and on to I-40 to Needles and later Laughlin, NV.

This is the view off the central valley up and down toward Barstow. 

 
 

Oct 12
More on Newport
Today found us driving up to a Yaqiuna Head Lightouse  see the picture below. (do click on this great site which is a "Friends of Oregon Lighthouses" .org site... well done. 
This web site is about ALL the Oregon Lighthouses  a great site to learn much about the history of the Oregon lighthouses. 
Yaqiuna Head Lighthouse is a fee area by the BLM so we got in free with my golden age card. This may just have been the highlight of our coastal  trip. Let me say right here about fees... In Washington each state access site wants $10 a day to walk on the beach. Now here in Oregon the beach access sites are FREE. 

Love this lighthouse as you can get up close and personal to it. 
This point is made up of lava that flowed 300 miles all the way from Idaho way back when.

As I stated in my last post the surf is WAY up to about 19 feet do a Low front off the Alaska coast. 
The waves were something else again. 

Looking off the lighthouse point.

Later we went down to the Bayfront Warf

Later we had to shop at the Fred Meyer mega store as we don't have those where we normally shop. A Walmart on steroids. They had an escalator to an upper level for petes sake. 

On the way back to we had to stop for one last time for seafood. Terry had a razor clam basket and a small clam chowder, I had a combo basket. My oysters were tasty but the rest was nothin to write home about. My food at this place was ok but over deep fried  if you ask me. This place is a real dump. Not clean at all, but they do have a large customer turnover. Web site South Beach Fish Market  I tried some of his clams and didn't take a shining to them at all. 
I have had better fish and chips in Quartzsite, AZ in the middle of the desert except for the one place in Washington at the Sand Castle at Ocean Shores where the cod was big and almost more than you could eat.  But Ya know the cod was shipped in. They knew what tourists like and delivered. Maybe I just like cod and lots of it.  Seems like some of these fresh fish joints only want to give you a taste like it is gold or something.  Got to keep the mystique of it so you'll think it is so special. Well , me thinks after it is deep fried, who cares if it was caught fresh or shipped in frozen, it's gonna taste the same. Yell at me if you will but deep fried is deep fried...

This shot is taken from their web site.. on Yelp.

This final shot of Newport from the State Park overlooking it all.

Off tomorrow inland as we are ready to extract us from this beach paradise...
 The weather forcast is not good for next week so we think it is time to get off the coast.  We day triped way down to Readsport and Whinchester Bay yesterday so we have seen all the coast that we have wanted to see. We have stayed at Winchester Bay years ago so no need to do that again after viewing it again on our long day trip yesturday
Ready to spend some time in the deserts of Arizona. The salt air and fog are doing nasty rusty things to our truck and trailer. 
Yep Quartzsite here we come.
 
 

Oct 11
Our day in Newport
 First off that was at about 10:30 AM since I have to growl like a bear to rise out of my comphy bed nest and get my decaf (Yes decaf) and a quick fix of my favorite blog sites updates on the internet. Check emails. Then the USAToday online newspaper, which I just love because it is the same as the paper copy but online. Check out this link to get the The USAToday e-Newspaper.   20 cents a day for the first 2 months and I think after that about 65 cents. They now are issuing an e-paper every day including Saturday and Sunday. News stand price I think is $1.50. And this is the exact same copy of the print paper but online.  OK done with promoting that. After reading that I go to RawStory, Talking Points Memo, Huffington Post, Politico, and then Daily Kos. I guess you can tell which side of the fence I stand on. You can google them if you want. Not going to link to them. You have to want to read them. 
Geez the daytrip started going to Tin Can Henery to get a oil and lub on our truck. They did a great job and I will use them again if they are on our travel path in the future. They were right next to Walmart and I was expecting a prescription renewal to be sent to them. After calling back and forth between Walmart and my Dr. office it was at the store but not processed yet as they had it in their computer that they need to confirm my home address.  A simple fix but had to wait as they rushed it through as we waited. As we travel I have asked twice that me Dr. send it through as a 90 day instead of 30 day . But it was in Walmart's sysam still at only 30 day. At least I got it... I can deal with that.
Then to rush the scropt back to the trailer as it needs to be kept cold. 
Now we could go on our day trip down the Oregon coast. 
We went as far south as Reedsport and continued on to Whinchester Bay. 
We should have stopped at Florence but didn't. 

So now for some pictures of the trip. 
We were amazed at the surf as they have issued a 
HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 6 AM PDT SUNDAY...
.HIGH SURF WILL BUILD ALONG THE COAST LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE THROUGH TONIGHT.
 IMPACTS...WAVES WILL BE HIGHER AND STRONGER THAN IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS. 
.ALLOWING THEM TO SWEEP FARTHER UP BEACHES AND PERHAPS OVERTOP BREAKWATERS.
 SEAS...WEST SWELL ALONG THE COAST WILL BUILD TO 15 FEET LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT.

Me thinks you don't want to out walking on the beach right now. 

The locals were out in force to record this event that does not happen all that often. Those are some big surf waves, to be sure. 

We sat on the tailgate of the truck and had ham sandwiches as we watched the surf. We will be spending much time in the non serfdom in AZ later this year so we needed to burn these images in our minds... 

We are now back in our secure Newport dock  dry camping spot looking forward to exploring the local warf on Sunday as we did the road day trip south today. And watch the weather forcast for next week to see what our plans will be. Our plans are written in jello as we can go with the flow. 
 
 

Oct 10
Newport is where it's at.

We landed at Port of Newport Marina and RV park right at the Newport docks. This cost is about $40 for full hookup and for us dry camping for $18 a night. Free fast WiFi.

The view from inside our trailer

Beach access at Cape Kiwanda and this is where we dumped the black and gry tanks for $3 at the Webb County campground.

Pacific City bridge is a popular fishing spot.

We have stopped here in town since I am waiting for a percription to be filled the local Walmart. I had to call the Dr. office since when we got here Walmart had no received the order yet.
Looking forward to exploring this area and eating some more seafood.
Just got the wether report for the Oregon coast.  Huge surf warning and by Monday it's going to get cold and rainy. We are now thinking of heading inland from Florence early next week going east on HW 126.to Eugene, OR.
 
 

Oct 9
Heading south along HW 101 in Oregon
 We had to cross over the bridge at Astoria. Now that is a big one. 

We have landed in Sand Lake Rec area right on the coast. 
This is a FS site so we get the 1/2 off discount. So only $10 a night. Camping fees on the Oregon coast are not for the faint of heart. County Parks even want about $40 a night.  State parks we have found have priced themselves out of the market... high prices $30 a night and tiny sites. Not big rig friendly. 

Our next stop is Newport the port has a campground marina and a dry canmping area for $18 a night. Not a bad deal at this location.

This is a great campground at the right price...  Large sites... Now if the fog would go away. 

The fog is not wanted this for us this time of year.  We take day trips and many times can't see the ocean views for the fog. 
If this keeps up after we move to Newport we are heading inland and getting the hell off the coast.

 

Now this a picture that I can't even imagine existed. I posted it on facbook and it was a big hit. 
A outhouse on water. A boat up to shitter if you will....

We are seeing fishing to be big right now all along th coast on the bays. Not sure what they are fishing for.

All along the coast it is up and down and slow going. This is the side road to Cape Meares Lighthouse. 

 

We will be moving down to Newport, OR 
See what Newport is all about on this link.  or this link to the Chamber of Commerce
 
 
 

Oct 6
It was a big day of driving on our trip up the Olympic Peninsula.
From Ocean Shores off we went up to the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula. 
Up 101 all the way to Clallam Bay and then up to Neah Bay. It was about 6 PM when we got back to Ocean Shores. A Big Day to be sure. 

Now for some pictures of the day trip.
The trees do grow tall in this neck of the woods. 

Taken with my cell phone. Kind of cool with Terry in the shot.

Neah Bay as far horthwest as you can drive. 

 

On the way back down 101 we took the time to go from Forks to La Push. We were running late but what the hell we wont be back anytime soon so we took the side trip of about 20 miles to this other seaside port. I was all fogged in so we got some foggy shots of the people on the beach. 

At Sekiu this is the town mascot.  Me likes to think it is a shot of my Terry in his new going fishing outfit.
What happpened to the waders...

Sekiu bay

 
 
 
 

Oct 4
Can't go any further west.
Leaving Roslyn, WA went I-90 down I-5 to Olympia.  West to stop at a nice Passport America RV park in Elma, WA. 
We are now as far west as we can go. Right on the beach at Ocean Shores Washington at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in their FREE RV dry parking section. Lots of room and can walk to the beach without paying the $10 fee if using the WA State access points. This will be our home base to explore the Olympic Peninsula before moving on down the Oregon coast. The weather is great in the 70s.

We stayed in Elma for two nights and explored over to the coast checking out our next move with the trailer. 
Left Elma and drive to Aberdeen on over to Ocean Shores then up to Pacific Beqch back down to Aberdeen and south and west to West Port down the coast to Raymond and back up HW 101 to Montesand and Elma.  A big driving day. But checked out some state parks and found the casino where we are palnning to go to. 

Some pics of our day trip from Elma checking out our next stop will be. 

Oyster beds

A slow day on the docks in West Port, WA

West Port. This is my kind of fishing port. 

The free RV parking south of the casino. Lots of open spaces. Perfect for our type of camping. We don't need hookups as we have solar and a big Honda generator. And we can walk to the beach from here.

Terry on the beach at near sunset. The tide was out.

 

Ocean City and Ocean Shores lots of touristy stuff.  In fact I'm sending Terry to explore while I stay in camp. The best way for me to experience a tourist trap, don't Ya know.

We did go in for Fish and Chips after we arived. Went to Bennet's Fish Shack. 

We both had the Halibut and two craft beers $49. Next time will get the Cod as the Halibut was breaded not battered and kind of thin and we tasted the breading more than the fish. Will try a different place next time like the Sand Castle Drive In. Rated pgood on Yelp. 

On on Saturday we did go to Sand Castle. We split a 3 peice cod fish and chips and Terry had a big clam cowder. I tried a smalll chowder and didn't like it so Terry got his fill. It had a strong bacon flavor to it. Kind of a dive but the fish was huge and very good. Fries were just the old crinkle standard cut. I think the small cowder was $3.95 and the 3 piece fish was $10.95
May try some oysters and razer clams later on in our journey. 

From here we plan to head north on 101 up the west side to just explore. Think we will only go to Poert Angeles and then return back on the west side. See above map.  All the way around would be more than a day trip could handle. And you might remember I don't get up early anymore, why because I don't have to.

Let me not forget to show you courtesy our good friend Tad in Roslyn who has timber on his property sent us off with topping off our wood supply. 

 
 

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