Visiting with the aliens, and inside the caves!

Busy day yesterday! Slept fine in the Home Depot parking lot in Roswell, and then topped up the gas at $2.36 USD a gallon ($0.83 CAD per liter).

Then, the reason we came to Roswell... we were off to the U.F.O. Museum.

Valley of Fires and on to Roswell, New Mexico

We ended up doing a little more distance than originally planned. We had totally forgot about Thanksgiving Thursday being a holiday here in the U.S., and we had planned on visiting Carlsbad Caverns on Thursday. So the choice was to do that either Wednesday (today) or Friday.

But Friday is Black Friday and I have some work to do that day on my Facebook Amazon Deals Group. So we need to get to Carlsbad Caverns today!

Just us on the road

Once again, we got up and did some driving as soon as the sun rose. Nobody on the roads at that hour, so we did 50 miles or so and then stopped at the town of Magdalena. We pulled in to an empty lot in front of the gas station to try for some free wifi.

But everything was secured, including the one coming from the gas station, and there had been no AT&T cell service along this whole stretch of highway so we didn't have any cellular internet either.

How does wood turn into rock?? And Sherman reaches a milestone!

Yesterday morning, we did a quick trip into Petrified Forest National Park. We actually didn't think there was going to be that much to see... but we were wrong! So it wasn't that quick of a trip. We ended up spending pretty much the entire morning there.

First stop was the visitors center at the south entrance to the park.

Got some miles done on the Interstate

We're at Petrified Forest National Park as I write this, and there is a lot more to see and do here than we thought there might be. More on that tomorrow!

Just giving you a quick recap of what we've done the last two days... essentially driving!

We need your feedback please!

We're at the point in this trip where we had planned to put on some miles... so that's what were doing. Yesterday, we drove from the edge of Death Valley National Park, through the oddly named town of Pahrump, around the southern part of Las Vegas, and south from there to Kingman, Arizon. I have to say, the entire drive was nothing special. Even our free overnight spot was nothing special.

So to make up for that, I'd like to talk to you about something that MIGHT become something special...

Some things go fast, and some things go slow...

Well, that was a pretty interesting day!

The entire last three weeks could have easily taken us three months. There has been so much that is worth seeing and doing, and we've been skipping most of it. But we're on a deadline, so we're trying to see the highlights, and we're doing the best we can under the circumstances. But there is so much more.

First thing this morning, we did the very short hike from where we had overnighted, to the Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California.

Got some miles done on a very scenic highway

We had another great day yesterday. It started off with a soak in the hot springs. Well, for one of us anyhow!

We woke up to well below freezing temperatures again at 6,500 ft altitude. But as soon as the sun comes up, it warms up quickly. We had been parked near the Travertine natural hot springs, and so after breakfast we wandered over to have a look.

It was still pretty chilly out, but Ruth brought her swimsuit!

Yes, they did say it was a scenic drive!

We didn't leave Danielle's place in Reno until just after 10:00am. We had nice hot showers, we filled our water tank, and I had cleaned Sherman's K&N engine air filter the day before, so had to re-oil and reinstall it.

A few people had told us that route 395 south of Reno was a scenic drive... and they were right! It's too bad our clear blue sky finally gave way to some cloudy periods... in fact, we didn't see the sun much at all for the whole drive yesterday.

Well that was a productive day off!

We needed a non driving day to get caught up on some things and Danielle didn't mind us hanging around for the day. We got some laundry done, we had a good consistent supply of internet, and managed to get some minor repair and maintenance completed.

And, Danielle had to run into town so we went with her to pick up a couple of things and have a short driving tour of Reno, Nevada since we were here anyhow.

Nice drive to Reno, Nevada

Once again, up at the crack of dawn and did some driving right away. Nobody on the roads at that hour. We stopped in Susanville, California (pop 17,000) for breakfast and internet time before moving on towards Reno, Nevada.

A pretty comfortable drive for change... some actual straight roads without too many hills!

Through the smoke, and into clear blue skies...

Most of you will have heard of the devastation of the town of Paradise, California. We were supposed to be going right by there, but the main highway was closed due to the fires. So we altered our route to head across the mountains to Reno, Nevada.

But the winds were blowing the smoke right through our path. My thinking was that we should be able to drive through the smoke, and hopefully get far enough east to get out of it. We had enough smokey skies in British Columbia this past summer!

"What the heck was that??"

We took off from the Bear River Casino and headed up highway 36 east towards the mountains. The first part of the road took us through another section of big California redwoods forest. Ruth took a video for you below!

After that, we climbed... and at some points, very steep. We had seen the warning signs at the beginning of the road, so we knew there were going to be lots of curves and steep grades. But I don't think Sherman has ever had to climb a long 10% grade before. Probably a few short ones, but never one that goes for two miles! He had to summon all of his horses for that!

Those are some big trees!

One of the reasons we wanted to come this far south before heading east was to see the big trees in Redwood National Park. We have in the past seen some big trees... such as Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. But those are douglas fir trees, and these ones are of course coastal redwood.

When we left the casino, we topped up the gas tank once more, this time at $3.25 USD a gallon ($1.14 CAD per liter). Fuel is expensive in California (often near $4.00 USD per gallon), so we will top up when we see it near the state lows. It will be cheaper once again when we enter Nevada next week sometime.

Goodbye Oregon, hello California!

What a great day we had yesterday... let me tell you all about it!

First of all, as you'll see from the photos below, it was a beautiful blue sky all day long. Temperatures about 60F (15C) which is perfect for doing a bit of hiking and exploring. And, there was a lot of exploring to be done... once again, every five or ten minutes there is somewhere worth stopping at along this section of coastline.

Settling or Being Realistic – What’s the Difference?

Have you ever asked yourself if you’re just ‘settling’ with your life, or do you make a more realistic and positive assessment of what is around you? You can ask this question about many aspects of your life—relationships, houses, traveling, friendships… basically anything.

Settling can mean different things. It could possibly signify that you are maturing and are ready for new and exciting challenges. However, it more usually has a negative connotation, meaning that you’re sacrificing your happiness. That is when you need to be concerned.

We finally got a 100 mile drive done!

We actually got the required number of miles logged yesterday, despite the fact that we didn't really get going until almost 11:00am.

We have to be in Mission, Texas around the 28th of this month. That means, we're trying to do at least 100 miles (160 kms) a day on average. And even at that, we know there will have to be some longer days because we will want to have some rest days too!

More fun on the Oregon coast, and sunny days ahead!

Early start to the day yesterday because we had promised the folks at the Newport Municipal Airport that we would be gone at sunrise. Good thing we were too, because there was definitely some activity around the airport at that hour and there was not a lot of parking.

We actually hit the road at about 6:50am, but we only drove to the first scenic stop, which was not very far away. There is not much distance between attractions here on the Oregon coast!

October Expenses

No, I haven't been procrastinating due to the abnormally high expense report! But yes... we have had another expensive month. We're really looking forward to having a month go by without spending yet another $1,000 on Sherman!

But, it wasn't only Sherman's fault... whenever we travel back to Ontario we seem to spend a fair bit of money.

Well, we didn't get very far!

And no, Sherman is not giving us problems. He's doing just fine.

Its just that there is so darn much to see on the Oregon coastline!

We drive for ten minutes, we stop for half an hour... we drive for ten minutes, we stop for an hour.

Back to the Pacific coast!

First thing we did yesterday morning was go for a walk around the campus of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. It's a big property and we probably did 1.5 miles (2.4 kms) just walking around it.

Lots to see even if you don't go inside the buildings. They have a very cool indoor water park on the property as well.

That was a full day!

Had a great sleep boondocking in the forest. It's not that easy to find decent free camping in the Columbia Gorge... it's simply too popular of a place, so there are a lot of "no overnight parking" signs around. You have to go up into the hills on Forest Service Roads, and we're just not comfortable doing that given how much rain there has been.

The rain stopped around 9:00am, and we set off looking for the first waterfall of the day. There are lots of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area!

Gorgeous views from Beacon Rock

We slept surprisingly well at the ilani Casino overflow parking lot, so close to the I-5. We must have been tired!

We needed to do a grocery shop, so I planned a route that would avoid both the I-5 and most of the congestion of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. We first headed to the town of Battle Ground, where they have a fairly new Walmart Superstore.

We must be crazy!

It rained all day.

And we're getting pretty tired of it. But, we keep smiling because we know that it's a pretty safe bet we won't be seeing much rain during our upcoming four month trip to Mexico.

Still... it's just a little wet up here in the northwest United States...

Sherman is back to his old self, and we are back on the road!

Parked on the street outside of Atwood Engine Services in Aberdeen, Washington is not the best place we have ever spent the night in the motorhome! In fact, it's probably near the bottom of the scale. I think somebody in Aberdeen could make a killing opening a muffler shop.... there are so many vehicles with loud exhaust!

Despite that, we slept surprisingly well.

Sherman's mechanical repair saga continues...

Yesterday morning at 7:45am (when the sun comes up around here!) I tried to fire up Sherman. I had changed all the spark plugs and plug wires late Sunday afternoon, and hadn't yet tested to see if it did any good.

He fired up fine, and idled fine to warm up. After 10 minutes or so, I put him into gear... moved about five feet, and he promptly sputtered and died. Arrrggghh. Trying to re-fire him immediately didn't do any good.

More mechanic work on a rainy day

We spent the day parked at the Home Depot. Not exactly where we like to spend our free time! But, it would have to do while we try to figure out these mechanical problems.

It rained most of the morning, just like they said it would. But then, it cleared up a bit, which was not in the forecast. When it did that, I seized the opportunity to go for a walk to the auto parts store... again!

A little frustrated...

We got on the road yesterday morning to try to make it to Aberdeen, Washington... a distance of about 75 miles (120 kms). With Sherman not running properly, we honestly didn't know if we would make it. But the alternative was to call roadside assistance. We figured that if we drove, the worst case scenario would be that we have to call roadside assistance anyhow.

So off we went.