United States – Page 5 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

January 29, 2018 Reno NV

Ton had a restaurant on her bucket list that is near Reno. So we began our day by heading towards Gardnerville to get a Basque meal at JT Basque Restaurant. She had read about this place at a Basque Museum in Boise and she had been looking forward to the next time we passed thru Reno to give it a try. We had the family style meal which included all you could eat soup, salad, beef stew, bread, beans and French Fries, and an entree and a small bottle of wine. The food was superb and it only cost $25 per person. Ton was really pleased and crossed JT’s off her bucket list with all of her expectations met. If you are in the Reno area JT’s is worth the 45 minute drive over to Gardnerville.

After JT’s we headed over to Virginia City. It is one of the most famous boom towns from the gold rush era. At one point it had a population of over 30,000 including Mark Twain who worked at the paper in town. It is in the hills above Reno and has a great collection of mid to late 19th century buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and we were impressed with the buildings and the setting. We were tempted by a couple of the saloons in town, but were too stuffed from our lunch in Gardnerville to do it. It is probably overrun with tourists in the summer, but was pleasantly quiet in January.

The Red Dog Saloon founded in the gold rush in the 1880’s.

Our last stop was the Costco in Sparks. We were excited because the Sparks Costco had Diesel available and our experience on our Alaska trip was that Costco had by far the cheapest diesel in any town. So after going out of our way and driving during rush hour to get there we were disappointed that the Costco fuel was actually higher than one of the major chain stations in town. This is the first time Costco has let us down.

January 28, 2018 Reno NV

Today was a driving day as we decided to get serious about chasing warmer temperatures. The drive was long, but very easy as there is almost no traffic on the whole route. When we left we were surrounded by snow for the first two hours. The beginning of the trip was along Oregon State Highway 31 which is one of Ron’s favorite roads. It goes from LaPine to Lakeview, and is really remote and very scenic in a stark way.

After Lakeview you enter California and have to pass thru the state agricultural inspection station. After our experience losing our apples crossing into Canada, Ton was worried about losing our oranges so she had prepared by peeling the oranges and hiding them in the cabinet. Ron was sworn to commit perjury and swear we only had apples and bananas on board. All of this was for nothing because when we arrived at the inspection station it was closed.

We are parked up for the night in a casino campground in Reno. We stop here most of the time when heading south. We may be looking at alternatives after this stop as the area around the casino is deteriorating and the maintenance of the campground is neglected.

January 27, 2018 Bend OR

Today was a small scale pub crawl thru Bend. After a little shopping in the morning we visited three breweries. Monkless Brewing is one of our favorites in Bend. It is a relatively new brewery, but we really enjoy their beer. The second Brewery was a new one for us called Immersion Brewing. It was also very good though it had a tough time following Monkless. We ended the night at the original Cascade Lakes Brewery this time in Redmond. Ton wanted to see the Civil War Basketball game between Oregon State and the University of Oregon. We reprised our favorite beers from last night and while the game was really sloppy the right team won so all is well.

January 26, 2018 Bend OR

We are off on a short trip south. The first stop is to see our son Dylan to say Happy Birthday. When we got up to leave a trip of the road status showed 17 inches of new snow on the passes over the mountains to Bend. As a result we decided to take a longer route that would keep us out of the snow.

We found ourselves unexpectedly in the Columbia gorge and coming into Bend from the north. We have talked about the gorge quite often so I won’t say much today. It was mostly dry and thankfully we ran into no snow.

We met Dylan for dinner at Cascade Lakes Brewing. The food was ok, good pub food, and their IPA’s were exceptional.

For the night we are in a camp ground at the fairgrounds expecting 2” of snow and 29 degrees. Ron is looking forward to getting somewhere warm.

September 14, 2017 Whidbey Island WA

Today was our last nights camping on this trip to Alaska. We took care of some business at the Navy Base getting Ton’s military ID card updated, we also did some shopping at the base. We picked up a collapsible wash bin for plates, and a new mini-rice cooker.

We both really enjoy Whidbey Island and spent the rest of the day visiting some of our favorite places and a new brewery. We ended the day by going to one of Ton’s favorite restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. It is Christophers in Coupeville and it has the best mussels we have ever had. We had our biggest meal of the trip, and we will probably get two more meals out of the leftovers.

We appreciate sunsets so much more when we are in our campers.

We made it back to the campsite just in time to enjoy another spectacular sunset over the Puget sound. Another great day on the trip, hopefully we will have many more in the future.

August 6, 2017 Wenatchee WA

Today was our 36th anniversary so we decided to take it easy and celebrate in a town we had been intending to visit for a while. We had visited Wenatchee in the past with our sons as part of a hockey trip and remembered it as a small farm town. We had heard that it had boomed since we last visited.

After a lazy start to the day we started the visit by trying to get a spot at Confluence State Park in Wenatchee. They did not have anything available but overflow in the day use parking lot, but the location was good even if the price was not ($25)for what was nothing more than a parking lot. We decided to stay there anyway.

Next stop was Costco to stock up on some final things before we headed up to Canada. We were looking for some good local beer, and some fruit. We found them though it was a little pricier than we expected. So far Wenatchee is not cheap.

The next stop was Pybus Public Market it was billed as the newest attraction in Wenatchee and was indeed nice. The best thing for Ron is that he got to see the last twenty minutes of the Timbers game, and even better, they won.

While at Pybus we were looking for a nice place for dinner when Ton realized that most of the restaurants in town were closed on Sunday. This caught us off guard as we are used to the restaurants in Portland all being open on Sunday. Since we were now committed to the area we had to look at our alternatives.

Leavenworth was about 20 minutes away and had a lot of open restaurants so we headed there for a German dinner. We also visited a couple of breweries. So thank you for saving the day Leavenworth.

It is still extremely hot and smoky. The high was 96 degrees, and visibility was only a couple of miles. Hopefully we get a break soon.

August 5, 2017 Wanapum SP

The plan for the first day was to head from Portland taking Forest Service Road 25 and US-12. FS-25 is a summer only road that goes between Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. We were looking for a new way to head east and this was new to us. FS-25 was a very rough road built just for Tigers. While paved there were areas of very high disrepair that required paying attention to what was going on. The drive was pretty but the views were spoiled by the intense smoke we are currently getting in the Pacific Northwest. A combination of a severe heat wave and very large wild fires in British Columbia made for very poor air quality and visibility.

In typical Corbin fashion we blew threw Yakima, Ron missed the campground and ended up driving an extra hour until we spotted Wanapum State Park. A little pricey compared to the Forest Service Campground we planned to stay in but having full services is nice as it was in the mid 90’s when we pulled in, so the AC is getting a test run tonight.

October 20, 2016 Prosser WA

From the beginning we intended to visit Grand Coulee Dam. Ton had it on her mini-bucket list. When we woke up in the morning it was raining quite hard and continued the entire time we drove to Grand Coulee. The dam is impressive and is the largest on the Columbia River system. We watched a movie on the construction of the dam and poked around the visitors center for a while before moving on.

The drive out on the Grand Coulee Scenic Highway was very beautiful. Unfortunately with the bad weather there are no pictures. We will definitely be heading that way again in the future when the weather is better.

Looking for a place for the night we decided we needed a full service campground to clean up before heading home the next day. We settled on Wine Country RV park in Prosser Washington. It turned out to be a good choice. As we checked in they told us there were 10 tasting rooms a quarter mile away, and the RV park was having an evening wine tasting.

We headed down to the tasting rooms and sampled some wine, and ended up having a nice dinner. As we were setting up for the night the clouds lifted and we were treated to this sunset.

November 18, 2015 Whidbey Island WA

Today was an easy day. Woke up late, drove over to the Navy Exchange to see if they had any good deals for Christmas, and then headed up the island to our favorite coffee shop in the PNW.

Useless Bay Coffee is located in Langley and features good coffee and excellent baristas. In a nice old building. In addition we tried the Pizza in a waterfront restaurant with a pretty view towards the Cascade Mountains and Seattle. The whole country has been going thru a cold snap and even here it was frosty as you can see from the picture below.

By the time we finished lunch and our coffee we realized that by the time we drove back to the campsite it would be dark. Sunset today was at 4:30 pm and it was totally dark by 5pm. Ton did get a couple of decent pictures despite the dark.

November 17, 2015 Whidbey Island WA

This will be a very short trip to one of our favorite places. This is our fifth trip to Whidbey Island. We really enjoy the island and one of Ton’s favorite foods is caught fresh off the island. Penn Cove Mussels are awesome and there is one restaurant that we think prepares them better than others. We returned to Christophers for a four course dinner that started off with Penn Cove Mussels and finished with a wonderful desert, and the price is incredibly reasonable. If you get a chance and you are on Whidbey Island make sure you check it out.

Our excellent dessert after our Penn Cove Mussels.

We are camping at one of the very best military campgrounds at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The sites are right on the sound and fantastic. They recently remodeled it and really got it right except they moved the spots back a bit from the water. In the old days you were within feet of the beach. But it is still outstanding.

A very large drift wood deposit near the campground.

January 19, 2020 Burns OR

We realized that Scout has been lonely in the driveway and has not moved in nearly a year. This is definitely not good for a RV so we were looking for an opportunity to take a trip before we take our spring trip to Europe. Ton has a much more active social life than I do and she was having a hard time freeing up time, and she is also not a fan of cold weather camping. On the other hand I had time on my hands and was going a little stir crazy at home so we made a decision for me to take Scout out on a trip by myself, this means the pictures are not going to be as good. I do not have an agenda besides getting out of the gloom of Oregon and finding some sun. The initial thought is to head towards Arizona.

Today was about getting over the mountains before the next storm runs thru and makes crossing over the passes difficult. Ton and I spent the last couple of days stocking up Scout for the trip. She was even nice enough to cook some of my favorite meals so I can microwave them. So I was ready to make an early start as the best stop for the first night was Burns which is about 330 miles. Last year we took a different route home thru central Nevada and it was really beautiful, so I decided to head south that way and this long drive would get me in position to do it.

The weather was clear and pretty warm on the west side of the mountains, but as I climbed up the temperature began to fall until it reached freezing and a there were a couple of accidents. One of the accidents involved two cars and was pretty serious. Some people get careless and try to drive too fast. One fool even tried to pass two snow plows that were spreading cinders until the guy in the plow made it clear that was not going to happen. Between the accidents and the snow plows the trip over the passes took a while.

Detroit Lake Reservoir had been drained in preparation to receive the spring snow melt. It made for an eerie picture.

Once I descended down the weather was good and the skies were clear. Eastern Oregon was its’ rugged and remote finest for the last three hours of the trip. I love the emptiness of the high desert. Last winter the campground we usually stay at was closed when we went thru here and we ended up in a hotel. This year I checked and their website indicated they were open, and sure enough they were. So all ends well today and I hope my longest drive is behind me.

Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters were out today once I crossed over the mountains.

January 16, 2019 Klamath Falls OR

We almost did not make this trip. Ton has been battling a rash that is making her very uncomfortable, she decided to push thru. Then the day before we were going to start, right after we completed loading Scout for the trip, Ron’s back went out. We decided to push down to Klamath Falls and see if we felt like continuing south. The drive was pretty easy though we did run into some unexpected snow coming over the cascade mountains.

Some unforecast snow on Willamette Pass.

To make it a little easier on both of us we decided to use some of our hotel points for the first night to allow for a little easier access to the bathroom and the bed. Somehow it feels like cheating on Scout.

February 14, 2018 Bandon OR

The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment. The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going to open until 4 pm which was too late if we were going to get home at a reasonable hour.

We did visit 7 Devils Brewing in Coos Bay. We enjoyed their IPA a great deal. This is another first class facility. The owner is an artist and has done a first class job of decorating the place.

Ton liked the painting of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.

We had planned to make Yachats brewing the last stop for the day. The beautiful weather we had been having had finally broken and we had more typical Oregon Coast weather, a mixture of sun and rain. The drive from Florence to Yachats is really spectacular and we enjoyed the views. When we got to Yachats we found the brewery closed despite their website saying they were open, there was a note on the door reflecting limited winter hours that was not reflected on their website.

At this point we punched home into the navigator. As we were driving thru Newport we came to a seafood place we had always talked about stopping at, so we did. We split a Captains Platter of fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters. After our late lunch we headed to the house.

The “Good Brew Hunting” trip was now over with 11 breweries visited in three states. Ron’s favorite brewery was Arch Rock and his favorite beer was the lager from Arch Rock from Anderson Valley. Ton’s favorite brewery was Anderson Valley with Arch Rock a close second, and her favorite beer was Anderson Valley and her favorite beer was also from Anderson Valley their Brother Davids Triple.

A rainbow as we were pulling into the neighborhood.

The “Good Brew Hunting” tour was a total of 3818 miles over 20 days and Scout averaged 13.26 mpg. One thing we have noticed that with the heavier tires we put on in Alaska we are averaging almost 1 mpg less, but I think it is worth it for the extra weight capacity.

October 13, 2017 Pendleton OR

Today we started our trip in our rental RV which has been named Elephant for the trip. It is a 30 ft Cruise America Rental RV. It is certainly a different driving experience than Scout, much wider and also slower to turn.

Joining us on the trip this time are three of Ton’s best friends from Thailand. They are three sisters Jeap, Noi, and Dang. This will be their first time traveling in an RV so it should be an interesting experience for them.

We left early expecting a slow start with Portland traffic, but got a lucky surprise and shot out of Portland pretty much without slowing down. As we left Portland we ran into the after effects of the major fire which had burned in the Columbia River Gorge for a significant part of August and September. It has left quite a mark, and roads and parks in the gorge are still closed due to the after effects.

For the day we made stops in Hood River at a nice orchard, and walked around downtown Pendleton. The girls enjoyed the cowboy town and the turn of the 20th century architecture in Pendleton. We also stopped at the Pendleton Woolen Mills which is one of the landmarks of Pendleton.

Double rainbow in the Columbia River Gorge.

Tonight we are staying at Emigrant Ridge State Park where it apparently snowed seven inches last night. The camp host assured us that things were going to return to normal, even though it was flurrying when he told us this. We are going to give the Cruise America heater a good test tonight.

August 3, 2016 Burns OR

We had decided to drive the Owyhee National Scenic Backcountry Byway. On the way we were running out of steam and decided to stop for the night in Burns. Ton had heard that an old friend of ours sometimes spent time in Burns so when we checked into the park we asked for Gary, and not only was he there, he was about 4 spots down from us. We spent the evening catching up with Gary, it was nice to see an old friend and we were glad to see he was doing well.

Along the drive today we stopped for a quick walk in the Cascades.

Gary gave us some of his home roasted coffee, and it was awesome. Ton has a new idea to try when we get home.

August 2, 2016 Stewart State Park

Paul, Dee and their girls were going to head off to Crater Lake despite the smoke that was still lingering. Ian and Julie were going to go swimming and Julie was going to prepare a proper English Roast Meal. Ton and I decided we would contribute by heading into Medford to get some beer.

Medford and Ashland between them have 8 breweries now. We decided to check out 3 of them. The first stop was Walkabout brewery. This was the one we were most interested in, but when we pulled up the parking lot was empty, we got out to verify it was closed and it was, as we were walking back to Scout a guy walked out and said sorry they were closed. We asked when they were open and he asked if we were from out of town, we said we were and he said come on in and try a sampler. You have got to love people who are passionate about their business. We had a great chat about beer in the area, and enjoyed some good beer. Of course we took some back to share later. The other two breweries were ok, but we picked up samples none the less. Mission completed we headed back to the park.

While we were gone Julie had cooked up a wonderful authentic English Roast meal. Good food and good beer made for a great night.

August 1, 2016 Stewart State Park

Good friends made a tough day enjoyable. Besides the smoke from the fire which was about 20 air miles away, the high temperature for the day was 104 degrees. Not exactly ideal camping conditions. But with our friends there we all made the best of it, and surprisingly the park was almost at capacity. I guess Oregonians are a tough lot. Dee cooked up a fantastic Thai meal on cookstoves, Ton and I were thoroughly impressed.

Interesting shot of the sun thru the smoke at our campground.

July 30, 2016 Joseph Stewart SP

We are starting the trip out by joining some friends of ours on a weekend outing to Southern Oregon. The state park we are staying at is halfway between Medford OR and Crater Lake. One of our good friends from Portland has never visited Crater Lake during their time in the US, as they are English. They are going to use the State Park as a base for a trip into the National Park.

It was an uneventful drive until we got off of I-5 at Canyonville. As we were heading east out of Canyonville we began to see smoke from a forest fire and quite a bit of fire fighting equipment. We decided to press on using the logic that they would close the road if the fire was a threat. After a few miles we could actually see the flames and several helicopters attacking the fire. But as there was no one stopping us we pressed on. The smoke was very thick at times reducing visibility to less than half a mile.

Fire fighting helicopter attacking the fire near the road we were on.

Eventually we arrived at a smoky Stewart State Park. Several people were leaving, but we all decided to stay and see how it went.

October 12, 2015 Crater Lake NP

Today we headed south towards Eastern California. As we had a little bit of time during the day we swung thru one of our favorite National Parks, Crater Lake. It was a small detour to run the rim road around the lake. As always it was beautiful, but Ron had forgotten that the forest around the lake is almost 100% evergreen. So no fall colors.

The view of Crater Lake from near the visitors center.

For the night we stayed at a small Air National Guard Base near Klamath Falls. Maybe the quietest military installation we have seen. I am not sure there are any permanent personnel on the base even though there is a barracks. It should be a quiet night.

June 9, 2015 Ochocho Mountain OR

Today we began heading west with a plan to visit the Painted Hills National Monument. Oregon is running a tourism promotion touting the seven natural wonders of Oregon. The Painted Hills are one of the seven wonders, as is the Wallowa Mountains, The Columbia Gorge, the Coast, Crater Lake, Smith Rock, and Mt. Hood. We are having a debate with Ron saying that Leslie Gulch needs to be in the list, but Ton saying that of the six we have seen none of them should be dropped. Tomorrow we are going to visit Smith Rock which will need to be spectacular or Ron is going to drop it in favor of Leslie Gulch!

We arrived in the evening at Painted Hills and the light was quite nice for pictures and for viewing of the colors. We have been here many times and the colors and the formations are quite beautiful.

Painted Hills National Monument in Eastern Oregon.

Tonight we are spending the night in a Forest Service Campground on the crest of Ochoco Mountain. Nice and quiet surrounded by 100 foot plus Ponderosa Pines.