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[maki2]

Urban camping tonight in Seattle. Chose a qiet street in the neighborhood near where i had been living. Found a place on the short end of a block where i dont look directly into anyone's windows.

Stopped by to pickup my canopy. But it is commercial grade and just too heavy to take along.  I will leave it at the Goodwill tomorrow along with the tent I deecided is too much effort to set up plus us tools or other stuff I can now do without.

Normal situation, to be paring down after 3 weeks of camping and realixing what I do need and what i can easily do without. I find that I really dont want to be bothered to do a lot of cooking. So some of the kitchen gear is also going too Goodwill. Even better is I don't eat as much so my jeans are all too big now. Time to recycle them and get a few new pairs from the thrift store. 

I want to get up early and move on down to the street by the marina. It has a ban on parking between 2 to 5 am so I cant stay there overnight. There is a big parking lot with pull through spaces there where I can unload and sort out some stuff for that trip to the Goodwill store p,us I want to relocate some of the heavier stuff further forward in the car.
Not ye t sure where i will go next for camping. maybe north of Seattle. Not yet time to head south for another 3 or 4 weeks yet.

 

[nature lover]

Hello from PA. high to day be 91 and nearly 70% humidity welcome to August. No rain in sight. Going to have to jump in the pond tonight just to keep cool. We’re still better here than they are in California. The corn crop looks fantastic this year as well as the beans. Gardens are producing. Nothing like a fresh garden tomatoes and only have them for another month Or so. Today’s menu for lunch is a grilled Swiss cheese with a big slice of tomato. I’m still trying to figure out and install the solar. I think I read too much on the net and then get confused. God bless the nomads all of them

 

[maki2]

Spent the morning waiting in line for over an hour to donate at the Goodwill. But I got it done. Then spent several more hours rearranging, consildating stuff, doing some more downsizing of the trailer and car contents. Too much weight on thevrear of the vehicle. Now the tongue weight is a bit too light so I will shift a few things around until it feels just right. It truly is a balancing act. If you are trying to decide van versus trailer....go for the van. Much easier to deal with for travel and parking everywhere In town or in the countryside.   i can see thatn maybe some time I will be make the change over to a van.

 

[tx2sturgis]

   i can see thatn maybe some time I will be make the change over to a van.

Oh that means the nice trailer will be for sale?

 

[travelaround]

Hi everyone - I'm back where I started. Honestly, pulling into the yard was a bit dismal and depressing. The grasses are all dried and not green - very unkempt looking, after I spent hours driving through some beautiful green forests. I obviously don't have a knack for gardening, even after all the efforts I made this year to work on the yard. Then I walked into the mobile home with so many renovation needs.

Today we woke up after boondocking on the side of Highway 395 in Oregon, north of Dale... started driving just after 6am and drove all day until sunset. I do not have the strength to move that mattress from the van to the mobile home tonight - so I'll continue sleeping in the van for now. Plus I have work to do on that bedroom and the bed just gets in the way. I think I'm going to have to let loose of some money and actually buy a real bed rather than use the van mattress.

Between Mitchell and Prineville the skoolie started spraying sparks from the engine compartment into the front of the skoolie. A tube had split, melted, caught fire... kind of scary as I thought those sparks could start an engine fire. He parked the skoolie at a rest area and I drove him into Prineville and back for a replacement part. Only 11 dollars. That added about 60 miles to our trip today. He had no more problems, and is now home with his family. They will bring the skoolie over here tomorrow for storage in my yard.

My van is full of things I took out of storage in Idaho. A very difficult situation for me. I will start moving those things into the cargo trailer or the mobile home tomorrow. I need to reclaim my van space, especially if I'm going to start sleeping out there again now, while I'm working on the mobile home bedroom.

 

[Sofisintown]

...My van is full of things I took out of storage in Idaho. A very difficult situation for me. I will start moving those things into the cargo trailer or the mobile home tomorrow. I need to reclaim my van space, especially if I'm going to start sleeping out there again now, while I'm working on the mobile home bedroom.

You 've got your hands full TA. Tackle one thing at a time, don't get overwhelmed.
When it all seems too much, it often is. Slow and steady.
And I wish I would heed my own advice, too...

 

[travelaround]

Thanks Sofi... I'm glad to be back and will start my work by picking up apples from my side-yard so that if the skoolie gets driven through or parked there I won't have applesauce. I want to put the apples in my compost pile instead! Then box unloading. So much to do.

Yesterday just before dawn while I was parked on Hwy 395 north of Dale... boondocking at the side of the road for the night, someone stopped their truck right in front of my van for a few minutes and... I don't know why. I wondered if they wrote down my license plate number! Or were they planning to complain to law enforcement? Did they think the nice van was abandoned next to a big old school bus? I turned on my flashlight so they'd know someone was inside. Then I got up and we drove off when the sky lightened a bit. I've slept alongside a lot of roads and never had that happen before.

 

[Qxxx]

Ah, the traveler is home from the (proverbial) hill. I guess you guys decided that the curves on 395 south of Pendleton were no problem for the long bus. You got me to wondering ... a lot of weird (no doubt mostly drunk) people cruise around in the woods at night and bother campers, as indicated in any number of RVer videos on youtube. But who does this at 5:30 AM in the morning?

 

[B and C]

^^^Someone who needed to get rid of their coffee!

 

[Qxxx]

On the tire of the nearest "out of state" visitor?

 

[travelaround]

LOL - I think I would have heard that. I thought it could have been someone in a logging semi... big loud engine... idling in front of my van (where there was really no room for a truck) and then when I got out I saw a semi parked a bit uphill behind the bus. Just watching us. I wonder if we parked in "his parking space" !!!??

 

[travelaround]

The bus was a trooper! Took the hills easy except for that one incident (on an uphill stretch) when the tube split. By far, the worst hill was the last one - which we call "Grayback" - a road from Takilma, Oregon, to Happy Camp, California - closed in winter - and there's a ski park at the top on the Oregon side... anyhow, that was so steep and curvy I just sped up and got out of his way so he could take the hill at his speed in his way... know what I mean? We use that road a lot in the summertime so have a lot of experience driving it... but definitely it was the steepest and most challenging drive, and the skoolie (which is mostly empty right now) took it with no problem.

 

[maki2]

Switched to a different fairgronds today after 2 days of urban canping, now in Monroe Wa.. Why choose the fairgrounds? Becauae they are not overcrowded like the state parks. Less risk of contracting Covid 19,. This one does not have showers but there is electric and water. it also cost less than Staate parks. Plus there are 4 bars of Verizon sighnal. I used to fly regularly in a Cessna 150 with a British boyfriend out of the little airfield next to the fairgrounds. Of course that was in the 1980's. Tne highway setup through town is unrecognizable now with 4 lanes, by passes around the core of town etc.

This morning I stopped to look at tongue boxes from a supplieer but none of the standard sizes will work out. I guess sometime this year  I will have to fabricate one for myself. I do need to order a couple of the Rotopax gas cans. When i redid the interior and added insulation and blocking inside the fiberglass shell I put blocking inside the walls to secure the mounting plates for those fuel cans.

Tome to get to work, I need to focus on cutting kits for my Etsy store the nect few days. I am out of stock on a bunch of stuff. Selling just one kit pays my space rental but I can cut and pack a lot more than one a day.

Put up my magnetic base weeboost antena on the cat today. It works but I dont know how much the difference is as I was on roads with good signals. I still need to put in an order for the Yagi antenna and fittings. I can pick them up when i head back south through Seattle.

I forgot this fairgrounds has a race track at it. Someone is busy burning rubber and msking quiet a racket with squealing tires on it. Oh w ell at leadt that means my cutting machine noise wont bug people with that going on.  The Port Townsend fairgrounds had nightly noise from the Naval jet traing exercises out of  the base on Whidbey Island. looking forward to some more natual settings in a few more weeks.

 

[Qxxx]

The bus was a trooper! Took the hills easy except for that one incident (on an uphill stretch) when the tube split. By far, the worst hill was the last one - which we call "Grayback" - a road from Takilma, Oregon, to Happy Camp, California - closed in winter - and there's a ski park at the top on the Oregon side... anyhow, that was so steep and curvy I just sped up and got out of his way so he could take the hill at his speed in his way... know what I mean? We use that road a lot in the summertime so have a lot of experience driving it... but definitely it was the steepest and most challenging drive, and the skoolie (which is mostly empty right now) took it with no problem.

I've not been on Grayback road, but it definitely looks steeper and curvier than the curvy 395 segment on google maps. My choice in situations like that is to be "behind" the other guy. It's interesting that you chose the routes you did, and not say down I-5 or 97 through Weed.

 

[travelaround]

I chose the route... I prefer back-roads to the interstates. Remember _Blue Highways_?? So, I told Carl he could choose the route on the way back, and he liked my route so much, that's what he chose to return on. This is the way to see Oregon! Beautiful areas, national forests, state parks... even passed the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and I definitely want to go back there when I have some time to explore the place.

Maki - better times ahead with less noisy camping, I hope. However, good wifi is a great blessing.

 

[travelaround]

Also, about our route, there are several CA border crossings - but they all involve mountains. If we went down 97 we'd have to double back and go over Anderson Grade. If we went south on Interstate 5 we'd have to go up Siskiyou Summit. Either of those options would have involved a lot of traffic. So the third way is the back-road we're used to (Grayback) as it is a local road that takes us quickly from the better highways to where we live. I noticed the Oregon side is well-marked with a line down the center, and the California side hasn't been repainted... though there's been some road patching going on this year. Here's the border crossing:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.000...m4!1sgf0LmcV8th-ljUXOI9GDxw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

 

[VanFan]

I chose the route... I prefer back-roads to the interstates. Remember _Blue Highways_??

I am a confirmed shunpiker, too!  So glad you got to see something refreshing (besides blurs).  Have you ever seen the children's book Benjie Engie?  http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2007/10/benjie-engie.html

 

[desert_sailing]

Switched to a different fairgronds today after 2 days of urban canping, now in Monroe Wa..
I forgot this fairgrounds has a race track at it. Someone is busy burning rubber and msking quiet a racket with squealing tires on it. Oh w ell at leadt that means my cutting machine noise wont bug people with that going on.  The Port Townsend fairgrounds had nightly noise from the Naval jet traing exercises out of  the base on Whidbey Island. looking forward to some more natual settings in a few more weeks.

Small world.. my sisters husband is a pit mechanic there. If you get bored and want to go have a beer...
I wasn't sure exactly where you started out..but why are you going north?..lol it is getting cold at nights. I hope you are staying snuggly in your rig...

 

[Qxxx]

I chose the route... I prefer back-roads to the interstates. Remember _Blue Highways_?? So, I told Carl he could choose the route on the way back, and he liked my route so much, that's what he chose to return on. This is the way to see Oregon! Beautiful areas, national forests, state parks... even passed the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and I definitely want to go back there when I have some time to explore the place.

I was planning to spend some time in the same part of Oregon this summer (John Day) but that was pre-covid. I was just looking at your route and thinking, if I were going to drive around 8 hr a day for 2 days in a row, I might choose a route with fewer curves than Grayback or that part of 395. But you made it safely, so that's good. 

I've only been on about 100 miles of interstate in the last year myself, Joshua Tree to Ehrenburg. My first year, I would keep up with the semis, 85 MPH, but anymore I go more like 70.

 

[desert_sailing]

My first year, I would keep up with the semis, 85 MPH, but anymore I go more like 70.

and I think 55 is pushing it.. LOL..

Fortunately in my part of the woods it is normally 60 tops.. most of hwy 12.. 95.. 395 195

Sunday driving behind a farm tractor is time well spent!