[Chester Stone]

Clarke, I suggest you check the dates on the tires and if they are seven years or older, I would replace them whether they have cracks or not.

[tuga]

Clarke,

Having an older coach definitely results in some tire savings. I often think about how inexpensive running an older coach is. For example, there is no real need for 6 8D batteries and an inverter. AGM 8Ds today are about $575 each and I have spent over $1,000 on my inverter repairs. That coupled with front tires expenditures of $1400 every 3 years really starts to add up.

I may go back to an older Newell and use the extra money to travel!

Too bad diesel is $3.80/gallon!

[whatsnewell]

We are now in Jewell, OR....about 20 miles east of Cannon Beach, and 30 south of Astoria, and about 1/4 mile from the Nehalem River. Courtesy parked with 30amps and water. We spent one night in Long Beach, WA at a "cheek by jowl" RV park called Pacific Holiday RV Resort.....this is not normally our style, but it was close to the beach, and to town. I also added a second row of LED strip lighting to each cove in the bedroom, and like the resulting increase in light. In addition, for an experiment I converted one of the square lights that take one large automotive bulb to LED....it took 25 LED's to equal the one bulb, but the power consumption is a fraction. We spent an afternoon in Seaside, and Cannon Beach enjoying the sites.

[whatsnewell]

We have moved on to Vancouver, WA.....only 73 miles from Jewell, but there is so much to see here....who would have thought? Yesterday we spent the day driving down the Columbia River Gorge on the Historical Columbia River Highway. We also saw Bridal Veil Falls, and the Vista House at Crown Point. We then headed east to Stevenson, WA via Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods. We were headed to Stevenson to eat lunch at Walking Man Brewing Company. There I saw this cool sign in the men's restroom.

Today we went to Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver to the farmers market, and were pleasantly surprised to see a car show in progress. Steve, I hope these are better pictures more to your liking.

We will be here until Thursday, and then begin moving east and south along I-84.

[tuga]

We are now in Jewell, OR....about 20 miles east of Cannon Beach, and 30 south of Astoria, and about 1/4 mile from the Nehalem River. Courtesy parked with 30amps and water. We spent one night in Long Beach, WA at a "cheek by jowl" RV park called Pacific Holiday RV Resort.....this is not normally our style, but it was close to the beach, and to town. I also added a second row of LED strip lighting to each cove in the bedroom, and like the resulting increase in light. In addition, for an experiment I converted one of the square lights that take one large automotive bulb to LED....it took 25 LED's to equal the one bulb, but the power consumption is a fraction. We spent an afternoon in Seaside, and Cannon Beach enjoying the sites.

Clarke,

What was the vertical clearance on that bridge? Boy, it sure looks low!

[whatsnewell]

We are now in Jewell, OR....about 20 miles east of Cannon Beach, and 30 south of Astoria, and about 1/4 mile from the Nehalem River. Courtesy parked with 30amps and water. We spent one night in Long Beach, WA at a "cheek by jowl" RV park called Pacific Holiday RV Resort.....this is not normally our style, but it was close to the beach, and to town. I also added a second row of LED strip lighting to each cove in the bedroom, and like the resulting increase in light. In addition, for an experiment I converted one of the square lights that take one large automotive bulb to LED....it took 25 LED's to equal the one bulb, but the power consumption is a fraction. We spent an afternoon in Seaside, and Cannon Beach enjoying the sites.

Clarke,

What was the vertical clearance on that bridge? Boy, it sure looks low!

Tuga, I believe it was 14.5'.....

[whatsnewell]

I haven't updated for a while, so here goes.....left Jewell 13 days ago to move up to another courtesy parking opportunity in Vancouver, WA....not far from the Columbia River. We were there for about 10 days visiting local attractions such as Multnomah Falls, Mt. St. Helens, Fort Vancouver, Pearson Air Museum, etc. We enjoyed our stay there, but it was time to change our view again. We left this past Friday morning heading southeast on I-84.....our first stop was Arlington, OR where we stayed at a cool RV Park/marina right on the Columbia River, and to top that off, there was no wind for the two days we were there. The place is called the Port of Arlington RV Park and Marina.....$21/night, and they have pull throughs that fit our 62' length so we din't have to drop the trailer. In addition they have strong 50amp service, and lightning fast FREE WiFi! The pictures below are of the Port of Arlington RV Park/Marina. We stayed there two days, leaving this morning again heading south and east on I-84. We passeD through Pendleton, La Grande, the Blue Mountnains, and Baker City before calling it a day around 3pm (we lost an hour....we are now on Mountain Time) at Huntington, OR....we are ensconced at the Catfish Junction RV Park right on the Snake River. the elevation is around 2200', and this is basically high desert. The temperatures got to 92 degrees today. There are a few fires south of us which were throwing smoke our direction most of our drive, but we seem to have passed by most of it now.....the skies are slightly hazy, but not bad. We will overnight here, and then head for Twin Falls, ID where we will spend a few days.

We were trying to hook up with Matt and Connie, but we were just about 1 day out of sync....they passed through Twin Falls this afternoon, and are still going north toward Yellowstone. We were able to talk on the phone for about 10 minutes, which was nice.

Life is good, and the coach is "Purring Like a Kitten!" Had to go from 350' elevation first thing today to 4,193' in about 80 miles.....engine stayed right around 198 on the long, long climb, but cooled quickly once we hit the descent after the Blue Mountain Summit (4,193').

[whatsnewell]

We arrived in Twin Falls, Idaho on Monday afternoon after our trailer wheel mishap which I wrote about in a separate thread. Originally we were going to stay here a couple of days, but have decided to stay here through next Monday (Labor Day). We love this area....there is so much to see, and this park (Rock Creek RV County Park) is amazing. We've gone for long 4 mile walks every day so far just following the paths within the park. Today we celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary.

[Fulltiming]

Congratulations Clarke and Elaine. Happy Anniversary.

[whatsnewell]

Our travel plans for the next 14 days......depart Twin Falls, ID tomorrow, Monday, heading down I-84 to I-80 and east to Evanston, WY. Tuesday head for Green River, and then south to Flaming Gorge (Buckboard Crossing Park - electric/water)....there 4 days, then off to the east side of the gorge to dry camp for 3-4 days. Around Tuesday of next week we head to Rawlins, WY to visit college friends for a few days, then south on I-25 through Ft. Collins to visit David and Denise Zonker in Denver who return from Europe 9/16.