Why Did We Get Off Our Planned Northern States Route?

3 travel days, 1213 miles. Where were we headed? South! (Keep reading for why.) We didn’t want to worry about waking up too early so we set the alarm for 6:30am. Pulled out of Seaside Campground in Oregon just before 7:30am. I filled the cooler, without ice, with snacks of crackers, Tillamook cheese curds, licorice, sunflower seeds, Tillamook brand sausage sticks, and crackers. Also had a container of the cookies I made yesterday. The day was dark and we got a little bit of drizzle. We took Hwy 26 to Portland and then down I-5. I saw the tulip farm where my cousin, Jennette, our friend, and I almost went a few weeks ago when we were at Newport, OR. It is north of Salem and would have been a terribly long drive that day. We saw a few rows of iris flowers. At Phoenix, OR, we stopped for diesel and Kevin was ready for a Diet Coke.

Walked in and saw a sign over the fountain drink machine, “Ice machine out of order”. From working at dad’s Texaco, we know that if the ice isn’t working, it affects the taste and fizz of the drink. Well, let’s get you a bottle. A regular bottle of diet coke was $4.40! Nope!  At the next stop for diesel he was more than ready for Diet Coke. Went in and nope, out of order. Poor guy, I think he was just going to have a silent conniption, right there on the floor! Saw the Diet Coke bottles were 2 for $5.00. He grabbed two and literally hugged them. 🙂

We were surprised to see how all the green grass along the roads were all dry now. Just about 6 or so weeks since we were down through here and everything is dried up. (You can search post blog posts to see how green it was.)

As we passed Lake Shasta Kevin told me he had read a news headline that Lake Shasta was inches from overflowing the dam. That is great news!

Got to Anderson, CA, just south of Redding, around 4:00pm. Kevin had called Camping World at the last truck stop to make sure it was okay for us to stay overnight there. Very friendly person and gave instructions where to park. We got there and walked into the store. The people at the front desk we were very nice and said yes we could park there since we have Good Sam membership and after 5:30pm there are two parking slots with electricity. (Kevin told me later this is where people who buy RV’s park to test and learn how to use everything.) We went shopping in the store to thank them for letting us stay there. We sure showed our thanks! HA We bought a new water filter, a sewer connector ring thing, another Thermacell bug protector, and a holder for remote controls. Plus, we extended our Good Sam membership for three years. If you have Good Sam, you can stay overnight for free at some Camping World in the parking lot. We went to the truck and sat for a few minutes. Then at 5:30pm drove to the other side of the building and yeah, no one was parked at the electricity. The lot where the RVs are kept has a 7000 watt fence around it. We were warned not to touch it!

We had asked if it was okay for us to unhook and drive around town and they said oh yes. I looked up a place for dinner and found a place 0.6 miles away. That would be a good walk. But it was over the freeway and, looking at the menu too fancy for us this day of travel. I found Vittles just one exit from us. As we were driving there on I-5, Kevin started pointing like an out-of-his-mind crazy man. I could tell he was shouting something. (I am deaf.) It wasn’t a panic but I wasn’t sure was he was pointing at. I saw a semi and trailer on the opposite side will a cool paint job and thought that is what he was so excited about. No, he said. And then I saw…his heaven…Maverik! It is his favorite gas station, his favorite all-time store; the places are always clean, very friendly workers, and the drinks have the same taste. We continued on to Vittles Family Restaurant. It is a darling, clean family place and we recommend it. I had chicken fried steak mini dinner and it was the #2 best chicken fried steak dinner ever. Rated: Once A Week. Kevin had a patty melt and he said it was a top one, Rated: Every Day.

Then, we went to Kevin’s heaven. He literally hugged the drink machine at Maverick. I had to send the pictures to my cousin, Jennette, who truly sympathized with Kevin’s “hardships” this day of simply wanting a good fountain Diet Coke. 🙂 Back to HOWE (footnote 1) and we read our books for a short time then to bed.

We slept well; woke up to see a jeep and a teardrop trailer across the parking lot at this Camping World. Kevin made a run to Maverick for drinks and diesel before hooking up HOWE. Then we were our way around 8:00am. I started reading out loud a book Kevin bought and had started reading about a lady’s trip along Lewis & Clark trail. I picked up where he left off and read it out loud while he drove. The BEST part of the whole thing still has us laughing hard when we say these words. In fact, it has been used by us quite a few times ever since. She tells about how Lewis & Clark, traveling down the Columbia River, knew they were getting close to Pacific Ocean. How? They noticed some of the Native Americans using English words: powder, knife, and “damned rascal”. Oh my goodness, we hooted and hollered laughing over imagining the scene of Lewis & Clark coming upon Native Americans and hearing them say “damned rascal”. What a shock it must have been! That is so awesomely funny!

We passed Chico Rice Harvest Host where we had stayed for a night back in April. This time we saw the fields there full of water and sometimes green plants popped up. Ah, rice fields! We saw them along I-5 from Willows to Williams. So neat to come back here and see the difference. Plus, we also saw grape vines full of leaves where 6 weeks or so ago they were bare.

At Sacramento we turned onto Hwy 99, a mostly 3 lane freeway. We hadn’t been on this road before. As we passed Fresno, it was interesting to see the area. I know there are mountains across the valley but you sure couldn’t see them. Very flat; farms everywhere outside the cities. We passed Halo, Kraft, JSS Almonds, and many other growing things.

We got to Camping World in Bakersfield at 3:30pm after 430 miles. Went in and three people, again, very friendly, said we could park across the street at the Camping World collision parking lot. It was perfect weather – nice and warm, sunny, with a slight cool breeze. We set up our camp chairs right next to HOWE and read and relaxed. We had asked the three people inside where to eat. They all, at the same time, said “Crest Bar and Grill”. They laughed and said, it is across the street at the KOA. HAHA It is good they told us about it because we wouldn’t have gone there thinking it was for KOA campers. The food was delicious: I had French dip, Rated: Once a Month; Kevin had green pepper, cheese, meat sandwich he rated the same. Back home (footnote 2) we sat outside until dark and read. I told Kevin I smelled rain – but not a cloud in the sky. He laughed and pointed to where the sprinklers had just turned on in the park strip. We went to bed around 9:30pm. 

We saw a truck with a Cougar trailer pull in to the lot and park just across the way from us. It was a transport. We had the windows and blinds open with a nice cool breeze. Sound asleep, we were both woken up at midnight. There was a bright white light and some flashing orange lights. I immediately thought of police, although wrong colors. Kevin looked and saw it was a tow truck. I was afraid they had come to haul us away. That would have been scary! Kevin said they had a car on the tow truck. The tow truck dropped off the car and then left. There were 2 people standing near the car and they got in it. The guy in the transport had a generator going and was probably asleep in the backseat of his truck. About 1/2 hour later, we are again woken up by the lights of the tow truck and an unmarked police car. Everyone’s body language was nice and looked like friendly conversations. The tow truck loaded up the car and they all left. We don’t know any more of the story but what a night! After that, we finally were able to sleep through the night. 

We set the alarm for 7:00am and were on the way quickly. Bakersfield is closer to the coast then Nevada. We drove straight east. There were mountains that had lots of cedar trees and then sage brush. We went through Tehachapi, where one of our niece’s husband grew up. It is on the top of the mountains. There are a lot of businesses and houses there. Down the road farther we saw lots of airplanes. Most look like Delta. We remembered there is a museum there. Neat. Then we saw Edwards Air Force Base. So cool to imagine seeing the shuttles land here. We decided we will have a weekend trip out here sometime. Stopped for a bathroom break in HOWE and saw the road we pulled off on is Borax. It has a visitor center plus Twenty Mule Team Museum. Kevin told me that it took that many mule to pull the wagons loaded with Borax. This will be a really neat place to come back and explore! We filled up at Barstow and then took I-40 to AZ. It wasn’t as rough a road as east of Kingman, AZ, but yeah, we could tell we were on it. (Later we found a shelf in the pantry had come dislodged.)

So, why did we get off our planned route (from Oregon to Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota) and instead head from the Oregon/Washington border to Arizona? Before we started this full-time journey back in Feb 2022, we decided we would want a home base, a house to go to when wanted or needed to get off the road for awhile. (Current plan is to be there maybe a few weeks a year.) We wanted a new place out of the cold and snow, sort of a new beginning for us. In Oct 2021 we found a great community being built that has nice floor plans and huge RV garages. The house plan we picked is 1438 sq ft with an RV garage of 1500 sq ft! HOWE can fit in with plenty of room even with the slides out. The inside garage there has full hook ups – 50 amp electricity, sewer and water. There is also an RV pad outside along the edge of the house with full hook ups – 50 amp electricity, sewer and water. Why head there at this time? After 12 months waiting for the builder to get to our lot and then 9 months to build, the house was being finished and we needed to sign the paperwork and give them the last check. We joked… can’t we just sign online and mail the check and not get off our planned route? HAHA 

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.
2. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.