Tuesday, Sept.29th

We arrived at Russian River Thousand Trails preserve in Cloverdale, CA (just north of Santa Rosa) after driving in and out of localized rain showers. It is so obvious that the Federal funds that have been distributed to the states are being used to improve highways in California. US-101 has construction all along its length and it is sorely needed! Last year when we drove on 101 it was a jar-rattling ride. Much of the highway has been over-paved and is much smoother now. The worst portion of the roadway was just north of Cloverdale around Ukiah. We still experienced some terrible roadway cracks that vibrated everything in the coach.

When we arrived we got checked in and found a site that had good satellite reception with electric and water hookups. This park is one of the prettier preserves with all the trees albeit hilly. The park isn’t even close to being full and there were plenty of choices for sites. There isn’t much in activities but we have enjoyed the peace and quiet of the park. Everything is brown in this part of the state and the drought is extremely obvious. Even the preserve is asking that everybody conserve water. We are parked adjacent to one of the restrooms, so we’re not using our shower facility in the coach.

We have been going down to Cloverdale to Ruth McGowan’s Brewpub in the afternoon for a “brew break” and enjoying their own brewed beers. They brew an IPA that has a wonderful grapefruit aftertaste, and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a small-town brewpub that has a lot of the locals coming in for their Happy Hour from 3-5PM. We’ve met several older couples that live in the area and drop by in the afternoon for a cool beer on the patio.

Thursday I went to town to attend the Cloverdale Rotary club luncheon. I really like this club - they serve wine for lunch! They are a small club that is growing slowly and had a terrific program about bicycles and the technology that has emerged in the serious bicycle community. It was a fascinating program describing the bicycles that can be purchased from$1000-$8000! Now, those are some serious bikers!!

On Friday morning, the 18th, we left Russian River and drove down to Santa Rosa for one night at my sister’s house. Both sisters were there and we discussed some of the changes that are coming with our Mother’s move to Santa Rosa. Our biggest surprise was sister Peg’s offer to stay until Monday and give her a hand sorting and tossing a lot of stuff she has accumulated. She is preparing for Mother’s move and making room for some of the things that Mother will bring with her. I was able to back the coach into her driveway and almost get leveled. We had an electric outlet so we could keep the batteries charged up.

We had a wonderful evening meal when sister Harriet and Skip arrived around 7. We all sat out on Peg’s back patio/kitchen, consumed some adult beverages, and relaxed. It was a terrific chance to talk about the changes that we’ll all experience with Mother’s move. Peg made some wonderful pizzas in her stone oven and we all just enjoyed the quiet of the back yard. We all had dogs so it was fun to watch the interaction of them and see Nancy avoid the large dogs.

Saturday morning Harriet and Skip left to go to a cabin on the Russian River. The rest of us tackled Peg’s garage and did some major cleaning. Peg seemed to appreciate our help in spite of our feeling that we really didn’t do that much. But we did get a lot of things sorted out and disposed.

On Monday, the 21st, we left Peg’s house after putting a nice gouge in her driveway from the hitch on the back of the coach. We drove south across the Golden Gate Bridge, into San Francisco, and to the Morgan Hill Thousand Trails preserve. We were hoping to see cousin Kate Nelson, but she was recovering from the H1N1 flu. We decided that we didn’t need exposure to that since we would be seeing Mother within a week. We were able to find a nice site with plenty of satellite exposure. Keith, Kate’s husband and an enjoyable guy to spend some time with, met us for lunch on Tuesday at a terrific Mexican restaurant. That afternoon we drove back in to Morgan Hill and the El Toro Brew Pub. We have been familiar with this microbrewery since they opened in 1994. Their original location was just around the corner from Kate’s house and I visited them each time we were in Morgan Hill. The father was the original brewer and passed the skill on to his son. The son now owns the business and has built a beautiful brewpub in downtown Morgan Hill. He still brews the beer at “the farm” and lives next door. He has brewed some very interesting combinations, including peach ale, raspberry wheat, blackberry ale, and his signature Poppy Jasper Ale. He also has a strong IPA that leaves a refreshing grapefruit aftertaste. We had a couple of beers and a stone-baked pizza. We had an enjoyable discussion with the son/owner and talked with him about the business of microbreweries.

On Wednesday morning we left Morgan Hill and drove almost 250 miles down the coast to the Rancho Oso Thousand Trails preserve. It’s located just over the hill from Santa Barbara on SR-154 in the Santa Ynez Recreation Area. Everything is brown and just ripe for wildfires. The road in to the preserve is a narrow, twisty road with a couple of interesting (almost hairpin) turns. It is slow going, but can be done with patience and time. The preserve is beautiful, well laid out, and has strong electric current. It gets warm enough to justify the air conditioner, but with only 30-amp electric we can run one of the A/Cs. We’re back in the woods far enough that we don’t want to drive out until we leave. However, there is a great laundry facility here and an inviting swimming pool that we’ll probably try out.

On Friday, the 25th, we had planned to go to Palmdale and stay at the Elks Lodge or the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails preserve. However, in thinking about the high forecast temperatures, I decided to drive down 101 to I-405 and straight down through Los Angeles to San Diego. I really despise the LA traffic, but we managed through with only one delay north of the airport. We had a section of 405 that we were slowed to about 15-20MPH for almost six miles. We arrived at Palisades Presbyterian Church around 3PM and got settled in. It sure is nice to be back in San Diego, BUT the weather change has gotten to me with a head cold and stuffy nose. Dottie is doing fine, but the cold is my usual San Diego killer and makes me feel miserable.

We’re already getting phone calls from the realtor in Yuma about possible properties for our home base. We’re looking at a couple but will have to make a day trip over there to really look them over. In the mean time we’re preparing for the surgery on Oct. 21st and getting everything in order.

Sunday, Sept. 13th

As most of you have discovered by now, I have had some difficulty sending out my Travelogues through gmail. Since Verizon shut down their SMPT-client, I had to switch over to Gmail to send email. I can still receive messages using my original email address - landers at TFB dot com. So, if you send us anything, continue to use that email address rather than the new Gmail address which shows in the header of this message.

Anyway, we had a wonderful few days in Eugene, OR visiting with cousin John & Ruth Anderson. We shared some meals with them and go caught up on the family news. We also had the opportunity to visit the Monaco factory, take the tour, and see the changes that have been made in the manufacturing process since Monaco was purchased by Navistar. All the production is being done in the old Plant 17 with one continuous production line. There are almost 800 formerly employees that have been hired back and they are building one coach a day. Our tour guide was Kevin, a Monaco Salesman, who was rehired and took us on the two-hour tour. We were able to get right down with the production folks and talk with them individually. They are all very glad to be back to work. We were very disappointed that we didn’t have the time to see April Klein, Garth Herring, or even Kay Toolson. I suspect they were all pretty busy with the reorganization of the company. I did spot Enoch Hutchcraft as he was leaving the parking lot and he gave us a wave of recognition. We also saw Brian Weatherly, one of the sharpest Service Techs in the company. He was on his way home, but stopped to give Dottie a hug and tell us that there are three Service Techs working at the old Service Center in Coburg.

We left Eugene on Sunday morning, the 6th, and drove in a light rain to Florence, OR and the South Jetty Thousand Trails Preserve. We were able to get a secluded site with a good view of the southern sky for our satellite reception. We spent four nights there and visited the Elks Lodge and the Elks RV Park located four miles north of town. The RV parts store adjacent to South Jetty is closing so all their merchandise was marked down with a 40% discount. I found a couple of items that were too good to pass up, especially at that price. We had a quiet rest at South Jetty and enjoyed the peace and quiet. South Jetty Betty is still there and cooking meals. On Monday (Labor Day) she did a special breakfast and it was delicious!

We left South Jetty on Wednesday and drove south along the coast to the Brookings Elks Lodge. They had a great dinner so we took advantage of that and had dinner there. Right across the street is a Fred Meyers store and we did a little shopping and wandering. Their fuel is ten cents less than the rest of the service stations so we topped off on Thursday morning to get the last diesel fuel under $3/gallon. As soon as we crossed into California, the prices jumped up to $3.05-3.20/gallon!

Our next stop was Eureka, CA for a mini-reunion with some family members. John Anderson’s daughter has moved to Eureka from Moses Lake, WA and is Dean of Academics at College of the Redwoods. They have a beautiful home in the hills south of Eureka and several of her cousins and aunts were there to spend some time. We have had a wonderful time getting reacquainted with several cousins, eating some fantastic meals with accompanying adult beverages, and visiting some of the sights in the Eureka area. Cousin Paul Anderson, from San Jose, and I did a quick tour of a couple of the microbreweries on Friday afternoon and tasted some excellent brews. I was able to bring a few bottles back to the coach with me for future enjoyment. This morning we will visit the Samoa Smokehouse for a brunch as some of them need to start heading home. We will leave Monday morning and drive down to Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve in Cloverdale for four nights.

One of the fun things about the reunion is getting together with cousin Doug and Virginia Anderson from Mesa, AZ. Doug purchased a ‘96 Monaco Executive, almost a classic coach that was built when Monaco was really paying attention to quality and details. The coach is gorgeous with no slide-outs, but the M-11 engine and some eye-catching lines. We have had the chance to talk motorhomes and share some ideas and solutions to some of the problems of this lifestyle. I hope to get him involved with some of the Monaco rallies and social activities that we do with our Monaco friends.

That sorta brings you up-to-date with us. Hopefully this will get to all of you and not be dumped as a spam message by Gmail.

Saturday night, Sept. 4th

I watched Steve, the alignment technician, laser align the front and rear axles and repack the front wheel bearings. He’s a likeable guy whose father was a law enforcement officer. Steve and I hit it off and had some great discussions while he was working on the coach. The whole experience at Bend Service Center was extremely positive and memorable. The guys were terrific and the price was reasonable, albeit expensive considering the work we had accomplished. I would heartily recommend the facility to anybody needing work on their coach.

While we were in Bend we had the opportunity to spend an evening with Evelyn Lerner (Aulwurm) who was in my La Mesa Rotary club. We went to her house and walked downtown to the Deschutes Brewpub for dinner. I had their sampler platter consisting of six of their beers. It was delicious! Our meals were pretty good, too. We had a great time seeing Evie again and talking about her life in Bend. She loves the area, has her dream home, and doesn’t miss the fast pace of San Diego at all.

Thursday morning the work was completed. We checked the tire pressures, filled the water tank, and headed west toward Eugene. The drive was easy, the coach handled like a new one, and we were happy. We arrived at the Eugene Elks Lodge, dumped the holding tanks, and hooked up to 30-amp electric and water. We phoned my cousin, John, and made plans for dinner.

On Friday morning I was up early and washed the whole coach. We planned to take the Monaco Factory Tour at 2PM, so we did a little shopping at the Wal-Mart and WinCo. We arrived at the Monaco factory and were led on our tour by Kevin, the only sales guy rehired by Navistar. It was painfully obvious that the factory has tightened their operation and is only producing five coaches a week. All the coaches being built are diesel coaches; all gas coaches are being built in Indiana. It was an impressive tour that took almost two hours. We didn‘t see any of our old friends except Enoch Hutchcraft. He was on his way out of the parking lot in his pickup so I was only able to yell his name and “H’lo!” He responded with a big wave. After the tour was over and we were on our way out of the parking lot, we saw Brian Weatherly, one of the best service techs Monaco has ever had. He stopped and chatted with us for about five minutes. We went back to the coach, grabbed a couple of steaks, and headed over to John’s house for dinner. We had a great time as we always do with them. We’ll be seeing them next weekend in Eureka when we join several other Anderson family members for a mini-reunion.

It’s been an interesting trip thus far and we’re enjoying every minute of it! We’ll leave Eugene on Sunday morning for Florence and the South jetty Thousand Trails park. Wish we had several of you with us to enjoy the great weather, the neat microbreweries, and the fun of traveling.

Tuesday morning, Sept. 1

We left serene parking spot near Moran Jct. and started the drive west around the south end of the Tetons and heading for Idaho Falls. There were several long passes that we navigated where the coach was slowed to 30MPH to keep the engine temperature in check. We drove through Idaho Falls and got on I-15. We passed through Pocatello and on to Twin Falls to a small county park that was listed in one of my directories. Freeway driving is NOT fun, but it is a necessity in Idaho.

We arrived at the Rock Creek Park in Twin Falls and found another great little park with grassy sites and 30-amp electric and water hook-ups. It is secluded down in a small canyon so the wind isn’t a factor. We parked the coach, had a bite to eat, and went into town searching for an ATM.

We also drove out to the interstate to check out the Flying J for our morning fuel stop. Some of them are so poorly planned that a large RV can’t drive into the RV lanes without getting stuck. We asked and got permission to pull around to the truck refueling island the next morning.

We left Twin Falls around 9AM headed for either Caldwell, ID Elk’s Lodge, or Ontario, OR Elk’s Lodge. As we drove through Boise the radio quit. Then the engine started showing some erratic battery readings. I pulled off I-84 and into a Super Wal-Mart lot to check things out. My initial thought was another alternator failure or a battery gone bad. We started the generator to keep the batteries charged up and decided to press on to Bend. I phoned the Monaco Tech Support line and they suggested the Bend Service Center at the old Beaver factory. I phoned them and told of our dilemma. Ken Carpenter told us to press on and we could get the coach looked at first thing in the morning. We arrived in Bend at 7PM after 10 hours of driving and 485 miles! The road across Oregon is NOT enjoyable. There were several spots that road construction had us stopped and waiting for pilot cars to lead us through one lane while the other was torn up. The dust was heavy, rocks were the norm (so we kept our distance from the cars in front of us), and it was starting to get warm. With the generator running, we turned on the roof air and stayed reasonably comfortable.

This morning we were up early, had breakfast, and met the Service Tech, Allan, for discussions about the problem. He has diagnosed the issue as the battery isolator, so a replacement is in order. While we are here, I’m having them fix the entry door. Many of you are aware of Dottie’s problem opening the door. There is an adjustment that needs to be made and it will be fixed before we leave. We will probably be here overnight to get the 4-point wheel alignment and front wheel bearings repacked. This facility has been reviewed positively by several folks we know so we might as well get the work done here. They have the proper equipment and their service techs have quite an impressive background. We’ll take the chance and hope we don’t have to scrub the shop floors to pay for the completed work.

We don’t know how this will affect our schedule, but Bend, OR isn’t too shabby a place to stay. There’s enough to do and see that we can’t possible get bored. They allow us to go to the coach and watch their work, so I can get lots of questions answered while we’re here.

While we’re here I can take advantage of their wi-fi connection and send out this update. Verizon made some changes and I can’t use them to send out mail. The last update just went out this morning although it was written several days ago. When we leave here, we’ll be back to cell phone connections for email, so please hold on to those forwarded jokes, etc. The wi-fi sure is nice, though!

Saturday, August 29th

After getting the alternator rebuilt and back on the coach, we went to Dale’s Tires in Rapid City and bought six new Michelin tires. They look and feel brand new and the coach rides wonderfully! We spent the remainder of the week getting tasks done on the motor home and ready to travel. On Thursday night we had the opportunity to join the Koinanians, a church group that is our age, for a cowboy dinner at the nearby Ft. Hays Cowboy Supper and Show. It was our last chance to see many of the friends from First Presbyterian Church in Rapid City. We were home early and got ready for the Friday morning departure.

Friday came early so we got up, got the coach ready to travel, and headed over to the Maint. Shop to get propane and air up all the tires. Some of the guys helped me roll up the broken patio awning and get it secured. We hooked up the car and headed out.

I had planned to drive to Douglas, WY and spend the night in a small city park. By the time we got there, it was still early in the afternoon. I decided we could press on another 45 minutes to Casper and spend the night at the Super Wal-Mart. We arrived, checked with the store manager, and parked in the outer area. For dinner we walked over to Sanford’s for a burger and some beer. It was a terrific dinner and we enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere! We went back to the coach and settled in for a night in the lighted parking lot. By 9PM there were five other coaches that arrived and parked for the night.

We got up on Saturday morning and drove over to the neighboring Flying J to dump the gray water and top off the fuel tank. Then we attempted to walk to a McDonald’s for some breakfast, but they were in the “slow moving” mode, so we left. We drove west on US-20 to Moran Jct., WY. Actually my Day’s End directory led us to a beautiful, level spot about 3.4 miles east of Moran Jct. and about 2.5 miles on Buffalo Valley Rd. This spot is big enough for several coaches to park and overlooks the Buffalo Fork River with the unbelievable, snow-covered majesty of the Tetons to the west. It is one of those spots you have to know about to find, but peaceful and quiet with a magnificent view. We cooked some brats and had a quiet 40th Anniversary dinner.
The road we drove on was full of construction and for about 20 miles we were escorted by a pilot car and 15-20 MPH. The coach got filthy with the dusty conditions, but we are here and relaxing for the night.

Our route will take us through Jackson, WY and Idaho Falls, ID. We’ll go as far as Twin Falls, ID and stay at a county park tomorrow night. Then on Monday we’ll drive to Ontario, OR and stay at the Elks Lodge. Tuesday we’ll drive to Riley, OR and Chickahominy Reservoir. Then on Wednesday we’ll drive all the way to Eugene, OR for four nights at the Elks Lodge. We have an appointment on Thursday to get the wheel alignment and front wheel bearings repacked at Kaiser Brake and Alignment. On Sunday we’ll drive to Florence, OR and the South Jetty Thousand Trails park for a few days. John and Ruth, here we come!!!

We are getting all our emails through the cell phone and it’s VERY slow. I’ve asked that all forwarded messages be held for a while until we can get faster service. That may be for about three weeks while we’re on the road. Thanks for all the cooperation!

Wednesday, August 19th

We’re back at Hart Ranch - a couple of days earlier than we had expected! We had a great time in Le Mars, IA where we attended the Presbyterian United Church of Christ with Rev. Jan Christensen. It was a shock for her to see us. She recognized us as someone she knew, but you could hear the mental rolodex spinning trying to remember who we were. I finally introduced ourselves to her and she recalled that we were the ones who visited First Presbyterian Church in Rapid City for the summers and lived in a motor home at Hart Ranch. She performed an enjoyable service and we stayed afterward to visit with her in the Fellowship Hall. We left the church and visited the Welles Dairy Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor for some excellent premium ice cream..

On Monday morning when I started the coach, I saw the “Alternator Failure” light come on. I could see the voltages was dropping rapidly, so I started the generator and left it running to charge the batteries. We decided to drive all the way to Rapid City where we could get the alternator repaired. It was almost 450 miles and we arrived at 5PM. I was beat, but glad to be back home in the dry climate. We got parked and settled in. On Tuesday morning I attended the Rushmore Rotary morning (to everybody’s surprise) and rushed back to the coach to remove the alternator. Once it was out I took it to The Repair Shop where it rebuilt two years ago. I explained the situation, had it bench-checked to confirm it was the problem, and left it with them. They said it should be ready by the end of the week. We’ve made arrangements so we shouldn’t have to move the coach until Friday, and maybe later. In the meantime, I started back to work this morning and will work a few hours when needed through this week. Things are slowing down and I shouldn’t be needed for long.

We plan to depart Rapid City on Thursday, the 28th, and head for San Diego to get the medical issues resolved. For now, we’re enjoying seeing all the old friends and visiting the places I’ve wanted to see for several years. It’s good to be back home!!