A Tag Team Teardrop Trailer & Bicycling Adventure

Oregon = Awesome Cycling!

2017-08-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've always thought the best place on the planet to bicycle tour is Oregon, and that notion has been re-confirmed. My 1984 Tour from Tacoma to San Diego was so incredible, that at the end of the tour I didn't want to stop. So the next year I quit working and went traveling for two more years.

The gold mining dredge at Sumpter, OR.

I traveled down the Oregon Coast that year, and rode across Oregon on US 26 the following year. Both routes have seen some significant population increases in places, so parts of my routes from those years are no longer places that I would want to ride again.

For a couple of days smoke once again obscured our view...

But our route for the past few days has been awesome. It isn't as scenic as the routes that I rode in the mid-80s, but two thirds of our route did not allow commercial traffic without a permit, so we might see a half dozen cars go by in an hour. And since it is miles from everywhere, camping is generally free. It is an amazing feeling to ride for days without thinking about someone who intentionally drove by too close, or any of a dozen other near daily occurrences that detract from our experiences.

And to top it off, we met a couple near Heppner, OR who had a home built teardrop that had a ten speed bicycle painted on the back! They were traveling with a second couple who were tent camping. The two men would bicycle from campsite to campsite, while the women would hang out together, breaking camp and setting things up on the other end. They have been doing this yearly since 2014 (if I got the story right, they had been traveling for the month of August this year).

The guys hit the road earlier than we do, so we didn't attempt to ride with them. We had planned on more mileage than normal, in order to set up spending a weekend near Maupin, OR, so Alea and I opted to split our day by riding in 15 mile increments. I had the first shift.

I normally take my time on long days, but with two bicycles out on the road in front of me, it was tempting to see if we could catch up to them. I wasn't hopeful, as I suspected they might have an hour's head start on us, but I figured by the end of the day we would overtake them. I rode at about 80% of race pace for about 14 miles, then Alea told me they were just ahead. I kicked it up and gobbled them both up within a mile.

Around that same time, a Trek Travel van passed by, which I presumed was followed by a supported tour group. It wasn't long before the lead group showed up, and then there were stragglers for several miles behind and finally a sag wagon bringing up the rear. Without a doubt, it was the most touring cyclists that we had seen on any one day in over two years.

On the road from Condon to Fossil, waiting for Alea to catch up.

We are camped tonight in Fossil, OR at the county fairgrounds ($25, full hook-ups, showers), which is the only campground until we arrive in Maupin tomorrow, where are hoping to stay at one of several free BLM campgrounds for the weekend.

The Best Part of the Eclipse

2017-08-21T13:09:00.001-07:00

We walked up a pine-forested hill to a spot where we could be assured of a clear view of the sun during the eclipse. Watching the actual eclipse was fascinating, but probably no more fascinating than a good tortoise race. What we found really fascinating was this pattern of light on the forest floor, created by the crescent-shaped sliver of the sun.

A path of glowing crescents!

Musical Chairs and the Eclipse

2017-08-19T16:02:00.004-07:00

On Friday, we reconnected with our route from this past May, and from there we loaded up our bikes and drove to Catherine Creek State Park, near Union, OR. It is a no-reservation campground, but unknown to us, that policy had been changed for this weekend, due to the forecast influx of people watching the big eclipse. We knew we were a little to close to the path of totality, and that camping could be an issue, but we weren't quite expecting that pretty much anything that could be reserved within 100 miles of here had been snapped up early in the spring.

Joseph, OR with Wallowa Mountains in the background.

But fortunately, the day use area at Catherine Creek was opened for camping for this weekend only. We ended up renting two parking stalls for $10 per stall. And right now (on Saturday), we have the entire day use area to ourselves, so we feel like we did OK.

Catherine Creek Day Use Area - our own private campground!

The eclipse is like playing musical chairs - you want to have a place to sit when the music stops, which is why we will remain here through Monday night. On Tuesday we will get up early and drive to near Sumpter, OR to a point where we rode earlier in the year. From there we will head into north central Oregon.

Backseat driver...

Lots of Smoke

2017-08-16T10:25:00.002-07:00

We rode into Missoula, MT about a week and a half ago, only to find that some mail that we had been expecting had not yet arrived. We opted to wait for it by driving south to Salmon, ID to spend a few nights, and doing a little bit of riding there and back. We had anticipated riding all the way back to Missoula, but the smoke from the forest fires was terrible - far worse than any smoggy day in LA in the 1970s.

One of the better smoke days - there should be three chains of mountains visible in the distance.

So we drove back to pick up our mail and were once again on our way. We were passing through an area of spectacular scenery, but much of that was left to our imaginations, as smoke was a problem for several days.

More smoke on the Clearwater River, descending from Lolo Pass.

It rained lightly on the day that we reached Lewiston, ID, and that helped to clear away much of the smoke. It is still a bit hazy, but a vast improvement over last week.

View overlooking Asotin, WA and the Snake River.

We rode from Asotin, WA to Enterprise, OR on what has to be one of our favorite cycling routes. The roads are good, the scenery is awesome, and there is very little traffic. The highlight of the route is dropping into the Grande Ronde River Valley about mid-way. There is a 13+ mile descent down Rattlesnake Grade, matched with a 10+ mile ascent up Buford Grade. This was one of the spots where we had considered vacationing during my competitive hill climbing days, and it would have been a perfect training site.

Buford Grade.

We ended up camping in the Grande Ronde Valley. There were a number of Washington DFW campsites, but they all required a Discovery Pass. We didn't have one, and had no way to purchase one, so we drove all the way to Troy, OR for an awesome free campsite next to the river with shade and plenty of green grass for Lana. It was fortunate that we had to drive so far out of our way, as on the return trip we saw five mountain goats and countless deer. This area is on our list of places to return to in the future.

We are camped south of Enterprise, OR at Hurricane Creek Campground. We will be spending two nights here before heading on, in order to get laundry done and to make sure we are well stocked, since it may be a while before we are in a town of any significant size.

Second Leg for 2017

2017-08-03T08:42:00.003-07:00

We are finally back tagteaming our way through The Rockies. Forest fires forced us to change our route, which was to have started in Havre, MT, where the plan was to travel southwest toward Missoula, MT. That planned route crossed The Rockies on Montana Highway 200, which is currently closed due to several forest fires.

There weren't many good options for bypassing the fires, and we needed to be in Missoula to pick up mail. We finally decided to drive farther west before beginning our journey, which started this August 2nd at Columbia Falls, MT, which is on the west side of The Rockies.

By the way, August 1st was our 2nd anniversary on the road, a day that passed without much celebration.

The main problem with the fire is that it is re-routing traffic and has caused some campgrounds to close. As a result, National Forest campgrounds that are near the highways of the detour route are filling up. We rode an extra 40 miles yesterday before finding a campsite.

We are currently about 20 miles north of MT 200 and smoke is increasing. The road, which normally has a speed limit of 70 mph, is posted at 35 mph.

Our cell coverage with Verizon has been awesome. The gaps between coverage are fairly small, even in the mountainous areas that we have been in thus far.

Re-Connected

2017-07-29T05:30:00.001-07:00

We are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to start blogging again, due to recently switching Alea's phone to Verizon Wireless. We won't know for certain until we hit the road again in a few days, for the second leg of this year's journey.

At Akeley, MN.

At Bemidji, MN

The primary reason that we stopped blogging was a lack of internet connectivity in the rural areas of the west (which we were traveling through this past spring), though there were also some other considerations. We were getting cell service through Republic Wireless, which we have used for a couple of years now. This year the service went "native" and we got new phones that could be used as hotspots. That allowed us to drop our AT&T MiFi, which saved us some money. But our experience over the past three months was abysmal, and Republic Wireless didn't seem very sympathetic to our plight.

To give a sense of just how bad our cell reception was this past spring, here are a few examples:

One Friday evening we drove into Klamath Falls, OR to do some grocery shopping. The only reception we got was 3G roaming (enough to send a text message). By chance, we returned to Klamath Falls the very next day by the exact same route, but this time we had four bars of LTE! What is THAT all about??
In May we had stayed near Vale, OR and had strong LTE coverage. We returned a few weeks later, but could only get 3G roaming. Huh??
We rolled into Rigby, ID and camped less than a half mile from five different cell towers. No service. Forty five minutes to an hour later, and we had a strong LTE signal! How many towns did we drive through like that?? What's the deal??
For one two and a half week period, we only had 3G roaming service - just enough to send out a text, with no access to data. During that period, Sprint's network showed that we used nearly a gigabyte of data, and before the end of the billing period we had exceeded our data cap. However, our phone's tracking of our data use showed that we had nearly a full gigabyte of unused data. That was when we decided that enough was enough.

Republic explained to us that there are basically four cell networks in the U.S.: two CDMA networks (Verizon and Sprint), and two GSM networks (AT&T and T-Mobile). Republic piggybacks on either Sprint or T-Mobile. Our old phones were on the GSM network (T-Mobile), while our new phones were on the CDMA network (Sprint). They suggested that we could BUY a GSM sim chips for our phones and thus switch carriers (we were considering having one CDMA phone and one GSM phone). HELLO?? Are you listening? We're telling you our service has sucked and we aren't too happy about it, and your solution is to reach into our wallet? And worse yet, we would have to navigate their website on our own to make this purchase (the process was WAY more complicated than simply dropping a sim card in a shopping basket)? Needless to say, we opted instead to cancel service on Alea's phone.

We have resisted signing up with Verizon in the past, as phones aren't that important to our lives and Verizon tends to be more expensive than everyone else. But they also work far better in the Western U.S., and camping is very affordable there. So in essence we are using money that we save camping in the west to offset the added cost of Verizon service. Having one Verizon line and one Republic line works out about the same as the two Republic lines and the AT&T MiFi that we had last year, and we are able to eliminate the MiFi. And with unlimited data, we aren't nervously watching our data usage at the end of each billing cycle, hoping that we won't have to pay for extra data. That makes our life simpler, which is perhaps the best justification for the added cost.

We plan on beginning the second leg of this year's journey in Havre, MT in a few days. Going forward, we are hoping that we won't be out of cell coverage for more than a few days at a time, which would likely be often enough to continue blogging. Time will tell.

Captain Joe and Alea.

Jean, Ann and Joe.

We have spent the past week with Alea's siblings at Joe's Lodge, just east of Bemidji. The weather has mostly been great, and we have managed to avoid the high humidity that can take hold around here in the peak of the summer. We have had a great time: seeing some sights, doing some boating and dining out a lot. But it is once again time to resume our wanderings and burn off some of the excess calories...

Our 2017 Amended Plans

2017-05-24T10:52:00.001-07:00

Our planned tagteam travels for this year were put on hold 15 miles south of Lake of the Woods, Oregon (on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains, due west of Klamath Falls) this past Monday, May 22nd.

A lot of factors led us to toward this decision. While Alea's knee is recovering, it is probably best not to continue pushing things, and instead let things heal at their own pace. And weatherwise, thus far this year we have too often to found ourselves in the wrong place and time. We've made it past the cold and wet, but we would be faced with a combination of potential flooding on the east slope of the Sierra Nevadas, coupled with the crush of fellow campers over the Memorial Day weekend, all while dreading the upcoming circumnavigation of Reno, NV. This prompted a need to reflect and to adjust our travel plans.

At the end of last year, our plans were to spend more time in the west and to linger longer at the campsites we visit. That sort of pace isn't necessarily compatible with tagteam cycling, as it potentially makes it harder to maintain a level of cycling fitness that helps to keep those cycling miles enjoyable. So we had never quite figured out how to integrate those goals.

Another thing that we have wanted to accomplish in our travels is to attempt to determine where we might ultimately want to live once we reach true retirement age. Taking time to investigate specific areas of interest to us while tagteaming hasn't been all that easy to do thus far, so we'll plan breaks to give us the time for that purpose.

So we have made the decision to no longer tagteam cycle continuously. Instead, we will plan some enjoyable tagteam routes, interspersed with breaks for other purposes. As such, we have the following tagteaming plans for this year:

In August, we are likely to cycle from Glacier National Park, Montana west through Lolo Pass, following the most arduous part of Lewis and Clark's overland journey of 1806. But whether we opt to ride all the way out to the Pacific Ocean or instead choose a different destination is up in the air right now.
In September, we hope to rendezvous in the Pacific Northwest for a week or two of cycling with Travis Hodgdon, whom I had met while touring across the country 32 years ago.
In October, we hope to ride Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway on our migration south for the purpose of spending the winter in Florida.

In between, we have various rendezvous planned, we will visit some places of interest where we may consider relocating in the future, I'll stop to do some genealogical research here and there, and we will look for campgrounds near some long climbs to help keep us in shape while we are "idling" between our tagteam travels. One benefit of this approach is that it also means we won't continue to force ourselves to ride through congested urban areas, a major source of stress for us.

Our plan is to be in mostly very rural areas as much as possible. The main impact of this decision is that we are likely to be out of cell coverage more often than not. So blogging, social media and other internet activities are likely to fall by the wayside. But we will attempt to post occasional updates on this blog, and repost the blog to Facebook, as we have done in the past.

Last Blog Post

2017-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

There seems to be no easy way to keep up with this blog when we lack adequate cell (and thus internet) coverage. It has been an ongoing problem, one that we were acutely aware of in Mexico, and it persists today, except in the rare instances when we are traveling in urban areas or along interstate highway corridors (our least favorite places to ride).

South Fork of the Umpqua River at Myrtle Creek, OR.

And the reality is that there is rarely much of anything new to share on a daily basis. Our daily routine of plotting a course, making adjustments as needed and trying to plan for what lies a few days or weeks ahead has already been covered sufficiently in the past. So there seems to be little benefit to justify devoting continued time and effort to the task. I've journaled a lot in the past, and it seems my journaling days may have come to an end.

Days 18 & 19: Roseburg, OR

2017-05-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

We had decent weather for our ride to Roseburg. It was cool and cloudy, with a following wind. We've gained back a bit of elevation, but aside from one 2-mile-long grade, the ascents were very gradual.

Great place to park a train.

We would have liked to have pushed on after spending the night in Roseburg on Monday (Day 18), but with the chance of rain being forecast at 100% for most of the day we opted to stay put for an extra day. On Wednesday the forecast returns to a more normal pattern for this time of year. By Thursday we should be seeing lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s, with a slight warming trend from there. And on Friday all the USFS campgrounds should finally be open for the season.

We managed to ride backroads and thus avoid jumping on the freeway for all but one two mile stretch. The riding was great, with wide shoulders and/or low traffic volumes for most the day. The exception was a five mile stretch between Drain and Yoncalla, where there were numerous logging and gravel trucks, and in many areas there was pretty much no shoulder.

We are camped at the Douglas County Fairgrounds ($25.50, power, water, adjustable showers, heated bathrooms), which is sandwiched between the freeway and a fork of the Umpqua River. We are fortunate that we are camped right next to the Douglas County Historical and Cultural Museum, so for $5 each we were able to roam around the museum and stay dry for a couple of hours today.

We also took advantage of our layover to have our oil changed, since the Change Oil light came on while we were driving on Sunday. It was a bit ahead of schedule, and we are a bit puzzled why that is? But our gas mileage had climbed up to 22.6 mpg after having been below 21 mpg for most of the winter, so perhaps it is the amount of engine idling that we did during the winter that has caused the need for an oil change?

On our way to Roseburg we had been seeing a slow moving train beside us for a few hours. As luck would have it, just north of Roseburg the train crossed our route. I managed to cross before the train arrived, but Alea was not so lucky. Especially since it parked at that crossing for close to a half hour. We were glad that there is cell coverage in this area, so at least I didn't have to worry about what was keeping her.

Days 14 - 17: Curtin, OR

2017-05-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

We ended up spending four nights northwest of Eugene, waiting for the worst of the cold and wet weather to pass. Eugene has a couple of movie houses that show independent films, so we took in a couple of matinee shows curing our stay in order to give us a break from rain.

A brief sun shower...

And a rainbow.

We had hoped to visit with Alea's Aunt Hazel while we were in town, but as luck would have it, she had moved to Loveland, CO just a day or two before we got to town. She is in her 90s, and it appears she has gone to live with a niece there.

We returned to Dexter, OR to continue our travels, eventually turning south. It was a short day - 33 miles - of dodging occasional rain showers, and we split the mileage just about down the middle. The last five miles of the day were on I-5, where we exited at Curtin, OR. Once we leave here we will be following the I-5 corridor to Canyonville, OR, but it appears we will need to ride on the freeway for just two miles, along a stretch just north of Oakland.

We are camped at Pass Creek Campground ($25, power, water, adjustable showers), which is located between I-5 and a rail line. It is a picturesque little park, and it is quieter than we imagined when we first got here.

The moss is taking over!

Day 13: Dexter, OR

2017-05-11T15:09:00.002-07:00

Alea hit the road while it was still 41 degrees out, and we headed toward Hwy 58, our planned route to the Willamette Valley. There was a fair amount of truck traffic, but generally the shoulders were sufficient.

One of Lane County's 20 covered bridges. This one is at Lowell, OR.

I took over when we reached Hwy 58, which meant a climb up to Willamette Pass at 5,128 feet. Since we were already at a fairly high altitude, it was a fairly easy climb.

The descent was over 4,000 feet of nearly continuous elevation drop, spread out over about 50 miles or so. It would have been a screaming fast descent, if it hadn't been for a pretty good headwind blowing up the valley. But we did make good time. At the end of the day, I had ridden 48 miles and Alea had covered 27 miles, giving us our longest day thus far of 75 miles.

At some points along Hwy 58 the shoulder narrowed considerably, leaving little room when loaded semis went speeding by. But there was only one truly white knuckle moment: I was flying downhill at over 30 mph through a long tunnel when I was passed by a semi pulling two trailers. The pavement was grooved, so it was an unstable descent to begin with, but the bow wave created by the semi added considerably to that, as did the inevitable "snap" caused by the slipstream wrapping around the back of the rearmost trailer as it passed. Fortunately, there was no uphill traffic in the tunnel, or things could have turned ugly very quickly. It was a relief to see daylight at the far end of the tunnel. It didn't help seeing burned out flares along the roadside every few miles, suggesting that mishaps were not that uncommon along this highway.

We left Dexter and drove to west of Eugene, OR to camp at Richardson County Park ($25, power, water, adjustable showers). It should be raining here for much of the next week, so our intent is to hang out here and do some route planning (we found a lot of closed campgrounds when we crossed the Cascades), to figure out our best route south from here. Once we have our route determined, we will return to Dexter and continue on from there.

We learned that May 19th is when the remainder of the USFS campgrounds open south of here, which suggests to us that we will likely follow Old Highway 99 and I-5 south as far as Canyonville, OR, where we will head back east over the Cascades toward Klamath Falls. That route offers several conveniently located county parks spaced about 35-45 miles apart, which is our preferred riding pace. We aren't looking forward to riding I-5, so it is possible that we might continue searching for other options for when we head out again, which will be on Sunday.

Day 12: Lava Flow Campground, Cascade Lakes, OR

2017-05-11T14:49:00.002-07:00

By taking an eastern ring road from Tumalo State Park, we were able to get through Bend with very little hassle. The route was hilly, but with a good shoulder the entire way, and it helped us to avoid the busy commercial parts of town.

We headed south on US 97, which we had ridden on 30 years ago on a trip from Tillamook, OR to Klamath Falls, OR. In that span of time, it has become the preferred truck route for traveling north and south, due to the congestion found in the many cities on the I-5 corridor. As a result, it was the least pleasant riding that we've encountered this year.

Two views of Davis Lake. The black arm in the upper picture is the namesake
lava flow of our campground.

We opted to leave US 97 south of Sunriver, OR, choosing to head into the Cascade Lakes area. Doing so would add 20 miles to our route, but it would bypass at least 40 miles of US 97.

But then we checked the weather forecast, which led us to check the long range forecast. We were heading south, thinking we could find some warmer weather, but instead we were heading into a cold front that was forecast to persist for a full week: lows in the mid to upper 20s, with mostly highs in the low to high 40s. And there were few options for public campgrounds with power along our route.

Lana had a chance to cool off in the lake.

We stopped along US 97 and did some quick route planning. It would be wet on the west side of the Cascades, but with lows in the 40s and highs in the upper 50s. It sounded like the preferred option. We had a day and a half of decent riding weather left, so decided to see how close we could get to Eugene, OR in that time.

We made it as far as Lava Flow Campground (free, vault toilets) on Davis Lake, which is located at the south end of the Cascade Lakes region. I rode 47 miles and Alea rode 19 miles of a long, hilly day.

Davis Lake, early morning.

Day 11: Tumalo State Park, OR

2017-05-11T14:38:00.003-07:00

I hit the road while the temps were still in the 40s, which isn't my favorite riding weather for doing any kind of distance. I rode about 16 miles before Alea took over near Smith Rock. She did the next 21 miles and I finished up with the final 20 miles (57 miles total).

Alea with Smith Rock in the distance.

We took a longer, more scenic route to Sisters than the more direct route via Hwy 126. We have traveled that route more than once, and while there is a good shoulder, there is also a lot of traffic. The longer route was more relaxing, and it allowed us to get closer to Smith Rock.

We had hoped to cross the Cascades and visit Eugene, OR, but our preferred route, McKenzie Pass, is under so much snow that it may not open until July. With that hope dashed, there was still the longer alternate route via Santiam Pass. But after looking at weather reports and seeing that it was wetter and at least 5 degrees cooler on the west side of the mountains, we decided to head south along the eastern edge of the Cascades.

An alpaca ranch west of Terrebonne.

We set out in the morning with the intent of spending the night in Sisters, but amended our plan en route, turning south a few miles east of Sisters. Our intent is that in September we will end our route where it intersects today's route.

We needed to do some shopping in Bend (at the REI store), and Tumalo State Park ($21, dry camping, water available, adjustable showers) was convenient for that purpose, and the detour there only added another 10 miles or so to our day. We have wanted to camp at Tumalo on other occasions when we have passed through this area, but this was our first visit. And we were lucky to find a campsite, as the park was full a few hours after we arrived (on a Monday, no less!).

Views at Tumalo State Park.

By not crossing the Cascades at this time we are likely about a week ahead of schedule. Possibly more, if high snowpack in the Sierras keeps us on the east side of the mountains. We will figure that out as we get farther south.

Days 8, 9 & 10: Prineville, OR

2017-05-07T16:12:00.001-07:00

Day 8 (Friday) was mostly a day of headwinds and ascents, so it was some fairly fatiguing riding for both of us. Alea started off first, covering the first 13 miles or so.

Painted Gorge.

Not far west of Dayville we came to Painted Gorge, one of the unique geologic features of the area - a crack in the earth through which the south fork of the John Day River flows (the name relates to the native pictographs on the upper gorge walls). Also in the area is Sheep Rock and the Painted Hills, both areas we've visited on multiple occasions, otherwise they would have been worth a stop on this trip.

A few miles past the Gorge it was my turn to ride the remaining 25 miles or so to Mitchell, OR. That was our original destination for the day, at the city campground in the middle of town. But cold weather was forecast for Day 9, and we didn't like the prospect of waiting out the weather in Mitchell. So we pressed on, thinking we could camp at Ochoco Divide, which was another 17 miles or so farther down the road. To help accomplish that, Alea took to the road again, riding about 7 miles and thus giving me time to recover for the upcoming climb. Then I took over for the remainder of the day.

West of Painted Gorge. That is Sheep Rock in the distance, just behind Alea.

It was just our luck that when we arrived at Ochoco Divide Campground we found it closed, with some sort of construction project in progress. We were about 34 miles east of Prineville, with the nearest campground about 20 miles away. We didn't feel we had enough left in the tank to get that far, but it was a steady descent the entire way, so I decided to see how far we could get. We covered just short of half the distance to the next campground before the winds and my fatigue suggested it was time to call it a day. We could have camped for free in Ochoco National Forest or stayed at a campground on Ochoco Lake, but we opted instead to drive all the way into Prineville, so that we could have power for the chilly nights that were forecast, to get caught up on shopping and to have a rest day. We also felt we owed it ourselves to dine out, since we both had exerted significant effort over the total of 66 miles that we covered on our longest and hilliest day so far.

"Bunch of Lost Souls Just Hanging Around."

On Day 9, the forecast high was for mostly cloudy weather in the mid-50s, with a pretty good breeze coming out of the northwest. So we made it our rest day. We drove to Redmond, OR to do laundry, get a few groceries and stock up on dog food for Lana. We opted to take in a late afternoon matinee at the Pine Theater in Prineville, in order to have a place to get out of the wind.

Day 10 was our chance to fill in the gap that we had skipped, from the western edge of the Ochoco National Forest to Prineville. So we returned to where we had left off two days earlier, and I set off in thermal tights and jersey for the shallow 20 mile descent back into town. Once again I battled the wind, but it was far less of an issue on such a short ride and being well rested.

It has warmed up a bit since yesterday, and we are looking forward to the warming trend continuing over the next several days.

We have made our first major route change for this first leg of this year's travels. From Sisters, OR we had hoped to cross over McKenzie Pass to Eugene, which was to be our approximate ending point in September (now it will be at Sisters). But the pass probably won't open until July, plus it is both cooler and wetter on that side of the Cascades than it is on this side. So once we get to Sisters we will head south, returning to our originally planned route around Klamath Falls. And the possibility remains for more changes. As we head south we will discover how double the normal precipitation in most of the Sierra Nevadas might impact our plans.

Day 7: Dayville, OR

2017-05-04T16:04:00.001-07:00

The warm weather continues, so we got an early start this morning. Add in the fact that we were following the John Day River downstream the whole way AND we had a tailwind, and you can guess that we had a pretty easy day today. Alea again rode first, covering the first 20 miles to Clyde Holliday State Park, then I rode the final 25 to Dayville.

Strawberry Mountain.

We are camped at Southern Fork RV ($25, power, community water, showers, wifi) along the banks of the swollen South Fork of the John Day River. It has turned into a hot day (currently 86 degrees), but we certainly aren't complaining. This is a very small campground, with just a dozen or so sites, but there is a lot of space between campsites. Plus there is a free book exchange that actually has some decent book titles.

Today was the first day that we could try out our new Shimano cycling sandals, which we bought on close-out in January. We love 'em, and I suspect we will be wearing them most of the time, except when it is cold out or when rain is likely. They are even comfortable to walk around in, which isn't something I have come to expect in a cycling shoe.

Lana's den behind the seats of our van.

This end of the John Day River valley is drier than at Prairie City, and while scenic, it isn't as spectacular. But there is a lot of interesting geology around here, and it gets more interesting just a bit farther down the road.

Day 6: Prairie City, OR

2017-05-04T07:12:00.002-07:00

The weather couldn't have picked a better day to turn nice. We cycled through some of our favorite places in Oregon, and the weather was awesome - reaching into the 70s!

Heading west from Phillips Lake took us through Oregon's gold mining country, which is centered around Sumpter. We've been to Sumpter plenty of times in the past, so we didn't bother to go a few miles off route to go into town. But there are plenty of interesting sites in the area. There is a steam railway, the Stump Dodger, and a huge dredge used from 1934 to 1950, which left huge piles of river rock tailings all along the rivers and streams in the area. This area was also the backdrop for the Lee Marvin/Clint Eastwood movie Paint Your Wagon. It is hard not to think of them singing I Was Born Under A Wand'rin' Star as we traversed the area.

The Stump Dodger.

We had three 5,000+ foot summits today. Alea took the first and her knee did remarkably well. I took over from there. She rode the first 16 miles and I did 33 miles, including a great 7.5 mile downhill into Prairie City.

It is hard to beat the vista coming into Prairie City on a clear day. The green fields, pine forests and snow capped Strawberry Mountain is a scene that is among the most beautiful in the west. It's isolation from major population centers is the sole reason that it has remained such a scenic treasure.

An Oregon Trail memorial, with Strawberry Mountain lost in the clouds.

We camped at Depot Park Campground ($20, full hookups, heated bathrooms, $1.75 10 minute showers), which is a city park. The site is shared with the DeWitt Museum, which is dedicated to the history of the Sumpter Valley Railroad.

Days 4 & 5: Union Creek Campground, OR

2017-05-03T20:08:00.001-07:00

It was another cold morning in Baker City, OR, so we lingered at the campground until the 11 am checkout time. By then the temperature had managed to climb into the upper 40s, but it was sunny with a light breeze. We did some shopping in town, hoping it might warm up a bit while we did so. When I finally got started, the temperature had just nudged past 50 degrees, but it was clouding up and I felt a strong breeze coming from the direction that we were heading.

The Elkhorn Mountains.

It only got a few degrees warmer after that, but it never felt warmer. The overcast sky blocked most of the sun’s infra-red heat, and the swirling wind mostly came down the mountainside from snow-capped peaks, so it felt much colder than the air temperature. But I bundled sufficiently to tolerate the situation. Though it did occur to me that much of the joy of bicycle riding comes from feeling the sun’s rays on bare skin. We will both be glad when those days return to us.

Fortunately, we didn’t have far to ride - just 19 miles, which was mostly flat, save for a good climb that started a few miles before the campground.

We had known that the campground we were aiming for was only open from May to November. It was the first of May, but we could imagine the opening being delayed until closer to the weekend. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

We are camped at Union Creek Campground ($20, power, water, flush toilets), which is run by the USFS. They are currently in the process of getting the area opened for the season, checking all the backflow preventers, cleaning up the toilets, getting debris off of the camping pads, etc. Since the water system hasn’t been fully tested, there is a posted notice stating that the water is not potable. As a result, they have cut all camping and parking fees in half. So we are staying for only $10 per night, which was a pleasant surprise.

There are plenty of downed branches, and thus plenty of wood for campfires. However, it is nearly all pine, and burnt pine bark protects the wood itself from burning. Only a very hot fire can burn completely through the bark. So we needed to scavenge around for branches that had been on the ground long enough for most of the bark to have fallen off. That gave us fires that formed a bed of coals that were hot enough to be able to burn the ample supply of available wood that still had bark on it.

We have had only roaming cell service in most of the places we’ve been in since leaving Idaho, so we rarely have access to the internet, except in the campgrounds and some towns that we visit. We suspect that will be the case in most of the rural areas that we will be traveling in throughout the west. The exceptions will likely be larger towns, and freeway and major highway corridors. It will be sometime this weekend before we find such places again.

We enjoyed the campground. There were lots of chipmunks, so Lana was pretty well entertained. We were the only campers (besides the hosts), though the campsites are large, with lots of space between them, so even if the place was packed it would have been a very pleasant place to stay.

Luckily a tree root greatly impeded Lana's progress, but not her determination

The main attraction here is Phillips Lake, which like other area reservoirs, is drawn down in anticipation of the melting snowpack from the surrounding mountains. So we’ve seen very few boats on the lake thus far.

The wildflowers are starting to bloom. Alea and I took a hike along the shoreline to a spot where there is likely to be an explosion of wildflowers in the near future.

If the long range weather forecast from earlier in the week does not turn out to be a cruel joke being played upon us by a sadistic weatherman, when we leave here we should starting seeing daytime temperatures in the 70s for perhaps a few days in a row. Of course, that is provided that we don’t gain sufficient altitude to lose much of that warmth. The sun that we are seeing on our second day here is a hopeful sign that the forecast may be correct.

We have a new game that we play with Lana, which we call Sherlock Hound. Due to Lana’s sensory challenge (deaf in one ear, and thus can’t triangulate where sound comes from), it isn’t an uncommon occurence when playing ball with her that she can’t figure out where the ball went. So we end up playing fetch, which we don’t enjoy a fraction as much as Lana does.

But Lana is a smart dog. I forget the name of the childhood game where a person is told they are either getting warmer or colder, but this is a variation of that game. After I’ve thrown a ball and Lana has lost sight of it, we wait until she points her head in the general direction of the ball. I then say “good girl.” If she gets off track, I use the sound that I make to get her attention, then wait for her to again point her head in the correct general direction, where I again say “good girl.” The praise intensifies when she is getting really close, and at that point she nearly always finds it without any further help. She thinks it is great fun (even more fun than watching us play fetch), and is quite proud when she can finally bring the ball back to us.

Day 3: Baker City, OR

2017-04-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

Things looked pretty hopeful first thing in the morning. The overnight cloud cover had kept things warmer than we had seen in a long time (temp somewhere in the 40s). And by the time it climbed into the 50s,we were starting to see some patches of blue.

Another "Why?" Rotting carcasses strung up on a fence.
I suspect some rancher is sending a message to wildlife,
but I doubt the wildlife gets the symbolism...

Alea rode first, covering 13 miles, including a pretty good climb out of Richland. But the last few miles were a bit brutal: a long, cold descent; it clouded up; the rain started and the wind became a fairly strong headwind.

Then it was my turn. The brief rain ended, never to return the remainder of the day. And with the partial sun, the headwinds didn't seem that bad. At first. It wasn't long before it clouded up and the winds became sustained at 15 mph, with gusts reaching 30 mph. And the bulk of our route was uphill. So my 29 miles was a lot like a steep 29 mile hill climb, and it took tights, gloves and a light jacket to stay warm. All I can say is that all of my cycling muscles have now gotten the wake up call that there will be more of the same in the days and months to come. That should help motivate my body to rebuild some of the fitness that I lost over the frigid winter and colder-than-normal spring.

I have one thermal cycling jersey, that I don't think I wore more than three times in the past two years. For the past month, I've probably worn it on 60% of the days that I've ridden, and I suspect I'll be wearing it a lot in May.

We are camped at Oregon Trails West RV Park ($31 + tax, power, water, showers, heated bathrooms and wi-fi). There were some other, cheaper options in town, but after driving past them we decided this was the better option. At least there is a large field in the back where we can let Lana off leash.

Day 2: Richland, OR

2017-04-30T07:12:00.001-07:00

Alea and I teamed up for a total of 29 miles on our first full day back on the road: 10 for Alea and 19 for me. Alea will limit her mileage until her knee seems to be fully recovered, trying to gauge at what point she is trying to do too much riding. Of course the true feedback on that has a delay of several hours, making it possible that riding too far one day may preclude her from riding the next.

It was below freezing when we woke up, but by mid-morning it was sunny and starting to creep into the fifties. By the time we reached our destination, it was 61 degrees!

Our route was mainly uphill, with the exception of a long climb and equally long descent between Halfway and Richland. Fortunately, the majority of grades were probably between 2% and 4%, there was little traffic, and the scenery here is awesome. It is one of our favorite places to come in late spring and early summer, and we have never seen things so green here (thanks to all the rain and snow earlier this year).

Now and then, we stumble upon stuff that just makes us wonder "Why?"

We are camped at Hewitt Campground, a campground near Richland, which is owned by Baker County ($15, primitive, flush toilets). It is basically a huge parking lot, which normally overlooks the reservoir. But that has been drawn way down, in order to accommodate the melting of a snow pack that is said to be six times normal (the boat dock is easily 30 feet above water level now). So despite it being camping season, technically they are closed, since boating is this place's raison d'etre. We are the only ones here, aside from the hosts.

How to "cow-proof" a barbed wire fence...

Since we are camped in a primitive site, it will be our first chance to see how well our solar setup works at keeping our Dometic refrigerator fed. Supposedly a 12v reading on our voltmeter means that we have 25% battery capacity left. But the Dometic is set to shut down if the voltage drops below 11.4v, and won't restart until the voltage rises back above 12.2v. With the premature demise of our old battery, drawing the voltage down below 12v has us nervous. But in the past, we had routinely been using a lower battery monitor setting, one which allowed voltage to drop to 10.1v before shutting down, and restarting again at 11.1v. We are hoping that the current setting will work well for us, and will result in much longer battery life.

It was cold enough at night that we needed to fire up our generator, in order to warm up the cabin before going to bed. That has certainly helped to prevent drawing the battery down too low, as early Sunday morning with cloud cover our battery monitor was reading 12.8v (a full battery)!

Day 1: Copperfield, OR

2017-04-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

It is great to once again be on our way. We wish we had warmer weather, but at least the campgrounds are not very far apart across much of Oregon. Our plan will be to wait for the temperatures to at least get into the 50s (when we are that lucky), and then scurry over to the next campground. Hopefully we can build up sufficient fitness and endurance that we can crank out longer days once we find some 70 and 80 degree days.

Our day started with shopping for groceries, and a quick trip to Performance Bicycle for some last minute needs: re-truing my rear wheel and getting Alea a new bicycle computer. It was just my luck that the rear wheel had a stress fracture on one of the spoke nipples. So it was toast. A new wheel cost $145 with labor. That is my third rear wheel of the trip. The first two were Trek Bontrager wheels. The new one is a Mavic. I suspect I'll have better luck with it.

With that out of the way, we said goodbye to Jim and Patti, and tried to get a last picture of Max, Ralph and Lana. We then drove to the Oregon border to begin our travels (we had already ridden the 140 miles from Boise to there in stages on our training rides over the past four weeks).

Ralphie, Maxie, Alea and Lana.

We didn't have far to go - just eleven miles, but into a brisk headwind - and our route was flat for most of the way. We are camped at another Idaho Power Campground, Copperfield Park ($16 [$2 discount if over 60], power, water, showers, heated bathrooms, 15 minutes of free internet).

Dinner at Enrique's in Kuna on our last night before hitting the road.
It has a well deserved reputation for the best Mexican food in the area.

Our gas mileage has improved with the new trailer axle. I'm guessing the bent spindle was creating extra resistance, as our gas mileage had dropped to around 21 mpg after the wheel bearing mishap. It is up over 22 mpg now. And when we had our oil changed at Walmart in January, we asked them to replace the air filter, but they said it looked fine. I took at look at it myself today, and it was full of dust, bugs and sand. I banged it out pretty good on the pavement. Hopefully that will further improve our gas mileage.

If anyone is interest in reading about some of the things that we have been up to the past four months, I recently posted in the Unofficial Camp Inn Forum about various things:

At the end of last year, we were having some issues as we headed north from the Baja Peninsula, so it is worth noting how they were resolved:

One issue was that our generator had been leaking gasoline. It took two trips to the Yamaha dealer in Meridian, ID, but the issue was eventually found to be a blown seal on the gas gauge (a $25 part). In the future, if we regularly open the vent on the generator's gas cap, we shouldn't have a recurrence of this problem.
Another issue was that we seemed to have had very limited battery power. That was traced to a blown fuse on our charge line, which likely happened when the van's battery was replaced in Arizona. That caused the premature demise of our camper battery, which we replaced yesterday. Our present solar set up should minimize a recurrence, and I will periodically test the charge line to make sure it is producing voltage. Our new solar setup would only partially offset such a loss - with a blown fuse and the ignition on, we would get no power to the trailer battery. But with the ignition off, we would get a full charge from the solar panel (assuming it was only the fuse at the battery isolator that was blown).

It is worth noting that we left Boise with an odometer reading of 39,500 miles. And we were out of our camper for three full months in Boise, spending one month at the Bond Hotel and the other two months with Jim and Patti. Before tonight, we had camped 28 days this year, and more than a week of that was out in front of Jim and Patti's house. It is mind boggling that we spent that much time together, and I can only say that their hospitality was phenomenal and we had a great time with them.

Tomorrow will be our first full day on the road...

Our Boise Send-Off

2017-04-27T15:26:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, Jim & Patti took the opportunity to publicly celebrate our impending departure (I think they wanted it on record that we have promised to finally be out of their hair by the end of the week). If I were in their shoes, long ago I would have started having nightmares about our resemblance to Matthew McConaughey's role in the movie Failure to Launch...

But seriously, their help to us the past nearly five months has been phenomenal, and we can't thank them enough for everything that they have done for us while we have been back in town. We have achieved far more during this prolonged layover than we had thought possible (especially in spite of the rapidly increasing severity of my TIAD [Trump Induced Anxiety Disorder]). Once we do finally hit the road again, we will be well equipped for dealing with any further misadventures that may come our way (and hopefully this time we will finally be leaving the Curse of Corwin Ford behind us).

Party decorations, plus Max & Lana.

Ralphie.

Denise Heald and Annette Schmidt seek shelter from a sun shower.

Denise, Patti Stevenson, Alea and Fred Mulder (back to camera).

Having missed an opportunity for a similar get together when we left Boise in 2015 (thanks to Corwin Ford's unethical handling of our special order van), we appreciated the chance to celebrate our second departure from Boise with a few of our friends (I was remiss, and failed to get pictures of too many people!). The forecast rain mostly held off, and it was great to have one last chance to get caught up with everyone.

We are leaving town a little later than we had originally planned. It was only today (Thursday) that our new axle and battery were installed, and our amended 2015 returns put in the mail. And we had some last minute online purchases arrive today as well, including a new dust seal for our galley hatch.

Over the last several weeks, we have ridden, in stages, the first 140 miles of our route (during the rare days when the weather has been decent), from Boise to the Oregon border (just north of Brownlee Dam). So when we head out tomorrow, we will resume cycling from there.

We've finally had a chance to field test our new privy tent, and to experiment with various alternative for waste disposal. This particular opportunity was because we had camped at the Poppell Field RV Park in Emmett ($25, power, water, coin-op showers [$1 for four minutes], wi-fi, heated bathrooms): the bathroom doors are auto-locked electronically at 5 pm and don't reopen them until 7 am! Where do they find RVers that have 14 hour bladders???? At least there is an emergency exit button, in case you are taking a shower when the door locks. The privy worked out very well.

It is Almost Time Again

2017-04-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

We are now about a week away from heading out for our third year on the road. At present we are waiting on the arrival of a new trailer axle from Ohio (we'll discuss that in a later post), and a new battery from North Carolina. The former should arrive any day now, whereas the latter is scheduled to get here next Thursday.

Old Freeze Out Road, near Emmett, ID.

In the meantime, our plan is to spend most of our time at the Gem County Fairgrounds RV Park in Emmett, Idaho ($20, power, water, toilet - no showers). It is the cheapest campground with power and water in close proximity to Boise. We already know that we need to be back in Boise this Sunday (for a party), Wednesday (for Alea's final Dr. appointment) and Thursday (to install the new camper battery), so we figure it doesn't make any sense to go very far afield. Besides, we will also need to return to Boise to get the new axle installed, once it finally shows up.

The one advantage to camping in Emmett is that we are on the old Idaho Hwy 16 alignment, which includes "Old Freeze Out Hill." That provides a nice, 2.5 mile climb on a road with virtually no traffic. So, weather permitting, I'll be riding up that as often as possible this week, in an attempt to quickly regain some lost fitness.

So you might be wondering what have we been up to since we've been back in Idaho? Here are some highlights, some of which link to more detailed explanations:

Obviously the main thing has been the full replacement of Alea's right knee and her recovery from that surgery,
We have reconfigured the interior of the van (I'll likely discuss that in detail in a later post),
We've installed a solar panel on our van,
We've done some sewing: in addition to some minor mending, we've made a cover for our fan (which we will leave in storage this year), a cover for our camp chairs (so we can leave them out overnight without having them covered in dew), and a galley sun shade,
I have been working on three separate book projects, including the latest draft of a book about my Davis ancestors of Jackson County, Illinois,
We've been dealing with taxes - amending our 2014 & 2015 taxes, and filing our 2016 taxes, and
In general, we've spent a lot of time looking for tiny improvements to our gear and equipment, in an effort to further improve our awesome life on the road.

The new solar set up is working great. It provides more than enough power to keep our Dometic refrigerator cold during the day. And it has pointed out something that we had suspected since about midway into our trip to Mexico - that our present camper battery has seen better days (thus the wait for a new battery).

The main cause of the camper battery failure was due to a blown fuse on the charge line that comes from the van's alternator (which happened when the van's battery was replaced last fall). That meant for about three months we unknowingly had no means of recharging the camper battery, except when we were connected to shore power. So the battery voltage was repeatedly drawn down to a very low level, which significantly shortened the life of the battery.

Both the van and camper batteries should last far longer with the new solar setup, as it assures that both batteries are fully charged during the day, whether we are driving or not, and mostly regardless of what accessories are drawing power. Of course it will work best in full sun, but it still produces a reasonable amount of power even on cloudy days or in partial shade. If we had the new battery now, we would be camping for $8 per night near Montour, ID, since access to power would only be necessary on cold nights.

March 2017 Update

2017-03-12T08:19:00.001-07:00

Since our last post we've moved from the Bond Hotel and are very fortunate to once again be back at Jim & Patti Stevenson's house. Their hospitality has been awesome. It has helped Alea's recovery, it has helped our finances immensely, and Jim's help and tools are making it possible to optimize things for our coming return to the road. We can't thank them enough for all that they have done for us!

Alea's recovery is going well. She is able to be more active, and even went for a very short bike ride yesterday. She will be 3 months post-surgery just before we head out again around the first of May. It will likely be a while after that before she is fully recovered, but she should initially be able to cover at least some of the easier stretches on our planned route for 2017.

One change to our blog is that the map above, will be a permanent fixture. Instead of having a map that shows our intended route and more-or-less daily progress along it, we will be updating the above map more-or-less state to state, or every couple of weeks or so.

Speaking of our planned route, we've added a link at the right to a page that contains screenshots of maps with an approximation of where we will be in 2017. There are five main factors that have shaped this year's route:

A planned rendezvous in Minnesota in late July with Alea's siblings,
A desire to visit with friends and family in the Puget Sound area in late August - early September,
A desire to bicycle tour for a few days or so in September with Travis Hodgdon (whom I had first met touring in 1985),
A desire to rendezvous with Alea's friend Pat Mahan somewhere near Pennsylvania, and
A desire to spend another winter near Alea's siblings and friends in Florida.

And there are many other factors that have gone into planning the route, not the least of which is to connect with segments of routes that we have already completed.

Our current focus is on further refining the configuration of our van, as this is the first time since we started out on the road where we have full access to all the tools necessary to accomplish everything that we would like to do. We will be sharing all of those changes in April, when we will likely begin blogging a bit more frequently as our departure date nears.

February Update

2017-02-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

In my last post I mentioned we might be abandoning this blog, mainly because we were contemplating some changes in what we have been doing. But it turns out the main differences, at least for this year, will be that we will likely linger longer at various campsites and we will do some of our routes in stages (and bypass some segments that we have covered in the past). So we'll keep blogging, and our plan is to hit the road again some time after late April, once all of our healthcare appointments are out of the way.

Alea's surgery went very well and her recovery is going much better than several years ago, when she had the left knee done. The docs were amazed that she was getting around with just a cane just two weeks after the operation and now isn't even using a cane most of the time. In fact, her PT has already been scaled back from three times per week to just two times. She was on a stationary bike on Friday, so it won't be too long before she will be out riding again. But it will still take months of recovery for her to get back to where she was prior to the surgery.

Our first month back in Boise was the snowiest and coldest that we have ever experienced. It has been warmer and raining lately, so most of that snow is finally gone, save for the mountains of snow that accumulated in parking lots all over town, but even those are disappearing rapidly. We are glad that the roads and sidewalks aren't as slippery on most days, as Alea has been given the OK to start walking around more (up till now her time has been spent keeping her knee iced and leg elevated).

Since just before the date of her surgery we've been staying in a 325 sq ft efficiency apartment at the Bond Hotel. The only real benefit for us compared with the camper is that we have a bigger refrigerator and an oven, so we can vary our menu more than when we are on the road. That, and the fact that our three-season camper isn't the place to try to live in frigid weather (at least not for more than a day or two at a time).

Our 2014 tax problems, which were precipitated by some bad advice that we had received from Idaho Central Credit Union when we set up our HSAs there, is likely to end up costing us a few thousand dollars, and we will need to file amended returns for 2014 and 2015 in order to sort everything out. We've filed the 2014 return and are waiting to hear back from the IRS about how much interest we owe before we pay that bill. Once we hear back from them we can file an amended Idaho return and start working on the fix for 2015.

Lately, with the help of Jim Stevenson, I've been working on reorganizing the storage in our van. This latest iteration is once again primarily a response to the needs of our dog, Lana. She had taken to trying to sit or stand on the center console, not being content to be stuck on the floor behind the seats. So we raised her bed up about 8 inches off the floor, so that she can better keep an eye on us, and when sitting up she can watch what is going on up the road in front of us. She seems to be much happier, even though we haven't yet gotten everything completed.

Raising her off the floor has created some extra storage space below her bed. That gives us room to store a privy tent, which will make it easier for us to primitive camp. It also gives us enough room for a chair for Lana (or the occasional guest out on the road). She is too spoiled to lay on the ground (unless it is hot, when she lays under the camper). But when we have a campfire going, if one of us gets up for any reason, she will steal our seat. We tried getting her a simple cot to get her off the ground, but she didn't care for that - she clearly wants her own chair. We also have room to store a small shade awning, if we decide to get one to help keep the sun out of the galley.

We have been doing some preliminary route planning. Our main goal for the year is attending a get together with Alea's siblings at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which is scheduled for July 22-29. Alea also wants to winter in Florida, and we both want to spend more time out West this year, including a visit to Seattle (probably in late August or early September, but it is too soon to say for certain).

Back in the States

2017-01-14T13:17:00.001-08:00

I am more than 2 weeks behind in getting this posted, and it is likely that this may be one of our last posts for this blog.

I last left off on the 26th of December, when we left Guerrero Negro -

Our original plan was to stay another night in Mexico, but we decided instead to start heading north while it appeared that the weather would be favorable north of Las Vegas. It's just as well that we did, as the place that we were considering staying at in Santo Tomas was right next to an area where Mex 1 was under construction. So it was mud and muck everywhere after the rains of the prior week.

Speaking of mud, on our way north we saw a parade of vehicles covered in mud. And these were vehicles that clearly were not intended for off road driving. We didn't know what to make of that until we hit that stretch of construction near Santo Thomas. There was a huge mud hole of undetermined depth, and everyone was skirting it as far to the outside as possible. When that stuff splashed up on you it was like an instant chocolate coating.

Going through Ensenada was a completely different experience this time around. The first time there was heavy fog, so we had no real idea what was around us. This time it was bright and sunny. But it still was just another big city. Though the one thing we wish we could have gotten a picture of was three flatbed semis moving a huge fishing net along the waterfront. The net was strung across all three trucks in a line, so it was easily 150 feet long, with huge yellow floats that were at least a few feet in diameter.

We headed north toward Tecate on Mex 3, where we had encountered miles of road construction in November. All of that had since been completed, with the exception of one 2 mile long stretch. The interesting thing was that there were lots of small rock slides on the newly opened sections, due to the recent rains.

The rains were another part of the reason that we opted to try to get back to the States a day earlier than planned. The rains had caused a lot of mud and sand to wash over parts of the road, and at times it was pretty soft. And there was the chance that parts of our planned route north could be impassable.

But we got to Tecate easily enough, only to find that the traffic to get across the border was even worse than it was the last time. This time we idled for two hours and forty five minutes before we finally made it across. Once there, we couldn't find a place to park, so we drove up to Potrero County Park (where we stayed on the way south), unhitched and returned to the border.

The line to cross the border...

We had to return our tourist visas and to get an exit stamp on our passports, as we had been warned that not doing so could mean a heavy fine if we ever want to get back into the country again.

The wind was howling pretty good at Potrero. So much so that we had to take our galley tables down, which was a first for us. But they died down before we turned in for the evening.

The weather looked as though it was good for a relaxed pace back to Boise, so we stopped to get restocked at the Aldi store in El Centro. From there we headed to Buckskin Mountain State Park. I forget what we paid, but it was pretty pricey (around $30). But at least they had a well stocked book and DVD exchange, so we were able to get resupplied with entertainment.

Buckskin Mountain State Park..

From there we headed to Lake Mead National Recreation Area, in order to avoid driving through most of Las Vegas. We had planned to camp at Valley of Fire State Park, but it seems we got there moments after the last site with power had been occupied. It was too cold to want to stay a night without some cabin heat, so we pressed on, jumping on the interstate and eventually stopping at the RV Park at Casablanca Casino in Mesquite, NV ($25, power, water, cable, wi-fi, heated bathrooms, hot showers). It was forecast to be significantly colder from this point forward, so on a remote freeway exit north of town we stopped, drained our freshwater and graywater tanks, and winterized everything. With our galley mostly out of commission, we would be dining out for the remainder of the drive to Boise.

Coral sandstone at Lake Mead...

We stayed on the freeway the rest of the way. The next stop was the KOA at Beaver, UT. I think we paid around $33. But at least it had a laundry and a pool table, so we were able get our clothes washed and to entertain ourselves for a while. The low temperature at night was 14 degrees, but we managed to stay warm (just barely) with our ceramic heater and heated mattress pad. And we left the light on in our galley, to keep our food from freezing.

Beaver KOA.

Things were even colder on the road, with the thermometer dropping to -4 at one point. Our final stay was the KOA in Salt Lake City (again around $33 or so). We rolled in early so that I could spend some time at the FamilySearch Library. I was able to find some material that will hopefully allow me to finalize at least one book project this spring and give me plenty to do on another. It was again a 14 degree low, but it seemed a lot colder, because the sun had not been out all day. So we lacked the solar gain of the previous day, and that meant it took a lot longer for the cabin to warm up in the evening. By the way, when we left Mexico the forecast for this day was expected to be a high of 50 and low of 30...

From there we drove the final 350 miles to Boise, where we ended our 17 months on the road the same way it began, with our friends Jim and Patti Stevenson. We have been at their house since we arrived, and will be for about another week. That has been a huge boon to us, saving us from having to scramble to find a place to stay in the midst of the worst snow accumulations that we've ever seen in Boise (the worst in over 30 years according to local news). Our van does well in the snow, but it is low enough that it can easily get stuck in snow as deep as it was here when we first arrived. Thankfully, Jim and Patti were able to take us where we needed to go, and to help us get unstuck the few times that we tried to venture out on our own.

It is good that we left Mexico when we did. Gasoline prices became deregulated at the beginning of the year, and gas prices in much of Baja jumped about 60 cents a gallon. That sparked protests in several towns, resulting in several parts of Mex 1 being closed to traffic. I suspect in the big cities deregulation is less of an issue, as we saw lots of new gas stations being constructed. But there is far less competition in the rural areas, which is probably what caused the prices to spike in places.

Alea's knee replacement surgery is scheduled for January 24th. The Friday before that we plan to move into the Bond Street Hotel and Extended Stay. We will be there at least a month. What we do after that will depend upon how well Alea's recovery is coming along.

It's sounding as though this surgery should be easier than when she had her first knee done. For one thing, she has one good knee now, whereas back then her "good" knee was pretty marginal. Plus she is in great physical condition from our activities of the past 17 months. Another is that they've changed the anesthesia, so she'll have use of the new knee sooner than last time. They've also come up with a cocktail of NSAIDs to replace the narcotic pain relievers they previously used. So she should have less problems with nausea and constipation. Thus, we are hoping that everything will go much more smoothly than last time.

She should get discharged from the hospital on the 25th, as it looks as though she'll have an early surgery on the 24th.