I have heard from so many of you wondering what our itinerary is going to be. So, I am going to include our route to San Diego with the nights we’ll be spending in the various places:

Sept. 4 Miles City, MT Wal-Mart 240 miles
5 Kiwanis Park, Lewiston, MT 222
6 Hooper Muni Park, Lincoln, MT 195
7 Coeur d’Alene, ID BPOE 246
8-9 Pier 4-Sunrise Resorts, Moses Lake, WA 141
10 Milwaukie, OR BPOE 290
11 Keiser, OR BPOE 44
12-21 Monaco Come Home Rally, Salem, OR 3
22-23 Eugene, OR BPOE 69
24-26 South Jetty TTN 60
27 Brookings, OR BPOE 154
28 Eureka, CA BPOE 113
29-Oct. 3 Russian River Thousand Trails 183
4-5 Skip Dawson, Walnut Creek, CA 72
6-8 Morgan Hill Thousand Trails 74
9-11 San Benito Thousand Trails 41
12-14 Rancho Oso Thousand Trails 208
15-16 Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails 193
17 Palisades Presbyterian Church 72

If you’re close to any of those locations, we’ll probably give you a ring when we get near the area.

We left Rapid City about 10AM on Tuesday, the 4th, and headed west on I-90 to Sturgis. We turned north through Belle Fourche, through the corner of Wyoming, and into Montana. We drove right by the intersection where we met a suicidal deer two years ago. As we got closer to Miles City the temperature rose to 105 degrees! We arrived at the Super Wal-Mart by 3PM and checked in parking in the back corner of the property where the building sheltered us from the hot wind. We ran the generator for 8 hours that day trying to keep cool with the air conditioner running. By 9PM (and the end of Big Brother) we could open the coach and go to bed. A frontal system was moving through the area and temperatures dropped significantly through the night. By Wednesday morning it was a comfortable 55 degrees and overcast. We had that cloud cover for our drive to Lewistown, MT for our second night.

It’s amazing to drive through these US highways and see the vast grazing land up here. We have had very little traffic to deal with and a peaceful drive through rolling terrain and beautiful farm land. Things are green and the alfalfa fields are about ready for cutting and haying. We got to Lewistown about 1PM and checked in to the Elks Lodge where we parked on the grass in a level spot with a magnificent view of the golf course.

I drove in to town and found a Lewistown Police Capt. driving in his Dodge pickup patrol vehicle. I needed to find a decent barber shop and he recommended one for me. We talked a while about Lewistown, the Snow Hole of Montana, and what a great place it is to work and play. After a great haircut I returned to the Elks Lodge and we relaxed the remainder of the day. It’s going to be cool and clear tonight, so we’re looking forward to a great night’s sleep.

Lewistown, MT is known as the “Snow-hole of Montana” because if there is precipitation in the air, it will fall in Lewistown! We discovered that when we got up and prepared to leave on Thursday morning. As I was getting the coach ready for travel the light, drizzly rain began. It was only a mist since we were south of town and elevated on a hill. We pulled out about 7:30 and had to drive back into the middle of town to get to US-87. Once we were in town, the rain came down heavily and the coach got pretty messy from the road grime. We drove about two miles and started climbing out of the “valley” where Lewistown is located. Once we were on top again the rain stopped and the roads all appeared dry. We drove west toward Great Falls and only experienced a couple of spots of very light rain. Again, these back roads are the most enjoyable to travel since the traffic is almost nonexistent and the views are magnificent. We arrived in Great Falls about 10:00 and headed for the Flying J to refuel. We decided to skip the Flying J once we arrived because they had signs posted that RVs were to go the RV island/pump only. Those islands are not designed for a 40’ coach towing a car - the space is too tight and doesn’t allow for an easy departure turn. So we drove across the street to a Pilot and refueled for the same price.

Once we were topped off, we drove about 7 miles north to MT-200 and turned west. This is a nice, two-laned highway that goes all the way down to Missoula. Our target for the night was the town of Lincoln, MT and the Hooper Municipal Park. It took us about two hours to get there and we easily found the park along the highway. Our directories showed the cost to be $12/night for water/electrical hook-ups and a maximum allowable length of 25 feet. We saw several coaches that were well over 25’ long, so the length wouldn’t be a problem for us. However, the town has decided to increase their rates and they now charge $17/night! We stopped long enough to have a bite of lunch and I decided to move on to Missoula, another 2 hour drive.

We drove through some fantastic mountain country with hilly terrain and spectacular views of the mountains around us. When we got to I-90, we drove the short distance to Missoula and Bretz RV and Marine. They are one of my favorite places to stop because of their advertised price on propane. They had been .79/gallon for many years, but have gone up to .99/gallon. It’s still a super deal as we paid $2.54/gallon at Hart Ranch this summer. By the time I was near their pump, they ran out of propane. I went ahead and dumped our grey water tank and headed over to the Super Wal-Mart for the evening. I walked in and checked with Customer Service to get permission to park in their lot. The Asst. Manager told me that Missoula has a city ordinance prohibiting overnight parking in public lots, but they have never been hassled. She said to go ahead since the lot is private property. I thanked her and explained I always ask before parking, just in case. It turned out that we were one of about 20 RVs parked there for the night. I’d gamble to guess that they didn’t all go in and ask for permission. One couple even had their chairs out and were having a Happy Hour with friends - not a good practice! We got leveled, relaxed in side the coach for a while, and then walked down to Famous Dave’s BBQ for a wonderful dinner. The rest of the night was quiet and we both slept like babies.

Friday morning, the 7th, we were up early to get over to Bretz and get some propane. We arrived there by 8:00 and a service tech came up and topped us off. From there it was westbound to Post Falls, ID and the Flying J to top off the fuel tank once again. I knew the prices would be increasing once we crossed into Washington. We got into Post Falls about 12:30 with almost every other trucker in the world. I pulled in to a truck fuel pump and began pumping with the larger nozzles they use. It didn’t take long to fill and Dottie was already inside to pay the bill. I got moved out and we were back on the road for Moses Lake, WA. We decided to forgo Coeur d’Alene Elks Lodge and spend an extra night at Moses Lake. The drive over to Moses Lake was challenging with a strong north wind that kept me busy holding the coach onto the highway. I was hoping the wind wouldn’t be blowing so hard in the park since it’s located right off the freeway. We both like the Pier 4-Sunrise Resort park there and wanted to have some additional time to spend with cousin Rachel and Tim Mecham. We arrived in Moses Lake about 3PM (after gaining an hour crossing into the Pacific Time Zone) and settled in for a relaxing three night stay. The wind had turned into a very light breeze and was refreshing. It was finally time to light up the BBQ and I cooked some fish and shrimp over the “barbie” - it was absolutely delicious!! We were in bed by 10PM and sleeping hard.

Saturday morning, the 8th, was ”chores day” around the coach. We made a Wal-Mart run to get some food items and did some cleaning. That afternoon we had the privilege of driving over to Mecham’s and enjoying a hamburger supper with them. It’s been way too long since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and get to know Rachel - plus we both thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Tim! They are a great couple and Tim and I had a wonderful time just talking about family, his work, and the Moses Lake area. We were home by 9PM and enjoyed the cool nighttime temperatures.

Sunday was another cleaning day where we took off all the window screens and exhaust fans and cleaned them up. We met our neighbors, Marshall and Ann, and had a good time talking about our travels. After supper I started securing things in preparation for an early Monday morning departure.

We were on the road again by 7:30 Monday morning, the 9th, heading for Portland. Thankfully we had a bit of a tailwind and the drive to Portland was an enjoyable one with some great scenery in the middle of Washington state followed by the Columbia River Gorge in to Portland. We arrived at the Milwaukie Elks Lodge by 2PM after stopping at the Flying J in Troutdale. Flying J Co. is having a battle with VISA over the use of credit cards at their truck pumps. They allow VISA at the RV island, but not at the truck pumps. It creates a challenge for us since most of their RV islands are designed for small RVs only. The turning room for large RVs is very limited and creates some difficulty once we’re refueled. Normally I always go to the truck pumps, but I attempted the RV island here - what a mistake! We had to unhook the car to maneuver out of the pump area and then re-hitch once we were in a clear area. It’s very frustrating to have to do that and causes some driving tension that I don’t care to have to endure.

When we arrived at the Milwaukie Elks Lodge, a close friend of ours, Don Presten, stopped by on his way home from work. Don and Bobbie took a big risk by quitting their jobs in San Diego and moving “cold turkey” to Portland. It has really paid off for them - they’re closer to family, both have great jobs that they enjoy, and they have a beautiful house with plenty of room for guests and family. We had a great time seeing their world and hearing all the wonderful things that have happened as a result of their move. Both of them look fabulous and seem to have really made the transition well. We were able to see Bobbie a little later in the afternoon since Don had a class that is very difficult to schedule.

For dinner Dottie and I found a pizza bar with plenty of TVs to watch the Monday night football games. Then on Tuesday morning Don drove over to the Lodge, picked me up, and we went to breakfast. It was an enjoyable opportunity to spend a short time with them and see how well they’ve done.

By 9AM on Tuesday, the 11th, we were on the road, in the middle of rush hour traffic, heading south the 30 miles to the Keizer, OR Elks Lodge for one night. The traffic was typical California-rush-hour creeping along the freeway. It took us almost two hours to move only 30 miles! We arrived at the Elks Lodge and were met by Hart Ranch members Travis & Donna Bierman. They’ve been here almost a week and will be going to the Monaco Come Home Rally. Tonight is a hamburger dinner at the Lodge and we’ll be leaving in the morning moving about 4 miles to the Salem Fairgrounds to start marking off the parking spots for the Rally. The early arrivals will be starting to come in on Sunday, so we have our work cut out for us.

I have had some difficulty doing me email due to some changes being made by Verizon. I finally got through to their Tech Support and the guy helped me reconfigure my phone so I’ll be able to send out emails now. I was able to download, but couldn’t send out any messages. Hopefully it’s fixed and we’re back to keeping in touch again.

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the Keizer Elks Lodge and were promptly greeted by Travis & Donna Bierman. They are good friends from Hart Ranch. We had the chance to join them for dinner Tuesday night in the Lodge for hamburgers. We retired early and prepared for the move down to the Salem Fairgrounds.

On Wednesday morning, the 12th, I drove over to the Fairgrounds and met with Bob Larsen, the head of the Monaco International Parking Committee. He said to get on over there and he had a place for us to park. So, I went back to the Lodge, packed the coach, and drove over to our parking spot. We have 30-amp electric and a water hook-up available. We got settled in and waited for the rest of the committee to arrive. One of the next to arrive was Les Oberlies, formerly from San Diego. Les worked the Criminal Intelligence Unit with the San Diego Police Dept. I never worked next to Les, but did several surveillances with him when I was flying the airplane with the Air Support Unit. Les and I caught up on the latest news and had a great time during the Rally. This is a Rally of all the combined Monaco Corp. brands, including Monaco, Beaver, Safari, and Holiday Rambler. It’s interesting that the brand loyalty still creates some animosity among the attendees - Beaver and Safari are the worst offenders. Overall, the people who are here are great folks and most have the feeling that this is a fun event to enjoy, in spite of their own brand coach.

We started Thursday morning marking off all the parking areas and planning for the 500 pre-reserved coaches that will attend. We continued our parking lot markings on Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday the coaches started arriving. The first day we parked over 375 coaches! On Monday we parked another 130 coaches. Talk about feeling tired? We were exhausted from being on our feet all day in the Oregon sun!

On Sunday night, the 16th, we met up with Bob & Marlene Rea and Dave & Marie Ostrander. We all had some drinks, got caught up on the news, and headed out for dinner. Our hopes for Olive Garden were dashed with a 30-40 minute wait, so we walked next door to a Mexican restaurant and had a terrific meal. It was a relaxing evening and so great to see Dave Ostrander after his last year of fighting throat cancer. He has lost weight, but looks fantastic and Marie looks as pert as ever after helping Dave get through his tough ordeal.

Monday morning we continued parking the late-arrival coaches. As the afternoon progressed, we decided to not attend the social party around the new coach display area and stayed at our coach. It was a tiring day with a lot of walking and my feet were tired.

Tuesday morning I was up early to work again. Most of our tasks included stretching a 100’ hose to the folks who needed water. It is amazing that people will come to these rallies with water tanks that are less than full, even after the paper work they received told them to arrive with full water tanks and empty holding tanks. We shifted a few folks around and parked a couple of late arrivals. After a wonderful meal of BBQ ribs and chicken, Tuesday night’s entertainment was a group of four brothers, The Marlins, that did a great job of performing a wide variety of music and laughter. We sat with a group of our Monaco friends and really enjoyed the evening.

On Wednesday I was up early to go to a Rotary breakfast meeting. When I returned home I got signed up for some repair work by some of the vendors. We had Interstate batteries come out and check our coach batteries. They’re over 5 years old, but they checked out healthy. We also had some noises I wanted to be checked by Monaco and some awning issues for Best RV to look at. Overall, we really didn’t have anything that was broken or needed repair. It’s a great feeling for a coach as old as ours is with over 110,000 miles on the odometer.

Wednesday night’s meal was pork loin and salmon followed by entertainment by Dick Hardwick, a comedian who was fabulously funny without any profanity. He had most everybody laughing with tears in their eyes from his humor.
Thursday was another day of relaxing, cruising through the vendor area, and getting service done on the coach. Since it was the last night, all volunteers were offered the chance to get their name cards on the dining tables early for the big meal and entertainment. Lee Greenwood was the performer and put on a first-rate show.

Friday morning, the 21st, we secured the coach and got packed for our short trip down to Eugene. As many of you know, I don’t like surprises and usually get reservations for our nightly stays. I failed to get any reservation this time and decided to take a chance. We left the Fairgrounds by 8AM and drove down to Coburg and the Monaco factory. We were going to dump our holding tanks and take on enough water to fill our fresh water tank. While there I checked with Larry, the Security officer at the factory, to see if there were any spots available. He was filled up with early reservations, so we decided to drive on down to the Springfield Elks Lodge. They have four sites there with electricity and water hook-ups. When we arrived there were three sites available, so I checked in and took the first site. We made a phone call to our friends, Travis & Donna Bierman, and told them there was still a site available. After they stopped at the factory, they came on down to Springfield and took the last available site. Friday afternoon we drove over to V-E Tire and got new tires for the Kia. Their price was better than the price we had been quoted at the Rapid City Sam’s Club. We got back to the Lodge and went in for a prime rib dinner with the Biermans. Travis stayed for a Texas Hold’Em poker tournament and we retired.

Saturday morning we drove out to Northwest RV Parts, a distributor of out-dated parts for Monaco and Country Coach. We didn’t find anything we really needed but enjoyed looking at the collection of RV parts. That afternoon we all drove over to BJ’s for pizza and beer. It was a great day and lots of fun with close friends.

On Sunday the 23rd, cousin John Anderson drove over to the Lodge and picked us up for the day at his house. We had a wonderful time catching up and John fixed one of his renowned fresh salmon dinners. It was a blast visiting with them again after last seeing them in Lincoln the first of August.

We will have to pack up and leave tomorrow for Florence, OR and the South Jetty Thousand Trails preserve for three nights. It’s been fun spending some time in Eugene and seeing this area again, but we’re ready to get moving.