World's Largest Goose

We have ventured all the way from Hermiston to Lafeyette, OR where we are parked at an "OK" RV Park. At least it's quiet and inexpensive. We went up to Wilsonville last night to visit and have dinner with Kathleen.
Today, I went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville just a short hop away while Lou stayed in the RV and worked with the Wii Fit and updated our finances on the computer. The museum is really great with many different planes including, of course, the "Spruce Goose". Although it's made mostly of birch, the negative pundits of the day couldn't think of anything catchy to go with birch. It is a very large plane and takes up the entire hanger. It was moved in pieces from Long Beach, CA and reassembled in the hanger. Pics attached.
Did you know that it rains in Oregon? Steady light rain all day long and will continue for awhile. In spite of that, Lou and I wandered down to the downtown area of McMinnville and wandered around. Book stores, ice cream shops, coffee shops and LOOK! a quilt shop! Very pleasant and interesting shopping area for a small downtown.
Tomorrow, on towards the Oregon Coast. If it's going to rain, we may as well be at the source since that is where it will quit first. Right? How's that for optimistic thinking??

On the Road Again

Look out West Coast! The Downey's are at it again. After a Summer of sitting around and licking our wounds from last year's Winter adventures, we have decided to do it again. Hopefully without the "issues" we experienced last year. The RV is running good. It was a quick decision to "load and go" so we will be searching for all kinds of things in the rig after the quick packing job. Fortunately, Lou is a whiz at packing and stuffing so we should be in pretty good shape.
We are now in beautiful downtown (sort of) Hermiston, OR on the way to the Oregon Coast. Stay posted as the adventure continues once again.

Home at last

A true Road Trip! 7,062 miles on the motorhome. 6,746 miles on the Toyota truck. 2,400 miles on the Prius! (More about that later)
It was a grand trip but about 3 months too long for us. We saw a lot of beautiful country and scenery as well as meeting lots of really nice folks along the way. All that and we got to visit with family and friends as well.
The route we took was down through California with stops in Whiskeytown and Roseville with Ken and Jackie Coyne (who took us to the great wineries in the Gold country and taught us the Mexican Train dominoes game). We had breakfast with Kelly, Will and Carlie in Castroville. We stopped to see Jon, Kirsten and Amalia (goodness, she is beautiful). It was a real pleasure seeing all the "cousins" again. We visited with Marty Burns and Michelle in San Jose and had a very nice dinner with Marty. From there, we headed down to the CA coastline south of Monterey and meandered our way down the coast highway to San Simeon and Solvang. Lou bought some really nice quilting fabric in Buellton just outside of Solvang.
Leaving the coastal area we found ourselves on the Ventura Freeway at rush hour. Not a great place to be as the brakes overheated causing us to spend the first (and last) night in a Wal-Mart parking lot! The next morning all was well with the world and the brakes so we continued onward to the desert oasis of Blythe, CA. Fairly nice campground there on the river but nothing to encourage us to stay any longer so we hit the road again towards our Christmas destination of San Antonio.
We pushed on to the Phoenix area and "camped" in front of Mike Burns house for a few days. We enjoyed getting to talk with him and Eva and got to visit with Kevin Burns too. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at Kevin and Cindy's house. Very pleasant gathering.
Our outbound journey ended in the beautiful city of San Antonio where we enjoyed the fantastic hospitality of Al and Cecelia Hernandez (our compadres). The Riverwalk is everything is was made out to be. Really special, especially with good friends along. Christmas was awesome with all the kids and grandkids that were a central part of the celebration. We missed having Debbie and Tom with us however. Lou found some more neat quilt material just outside of San Antonio.
December was in San Antonio and January was in the gulf coast area of Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore. While it wasn't "balmy" by Florida standards, it did beat the almost 100" of snow in Spokane by leaps and bounds.
We were blessed with the opportunity to visit some of the prettiest country the USA has to offer.
Big Bend National Park was a real surprise We had heard that it was pretty but were not prepared for just HOW PRETTY it really was. Spectacular is the best description.
There appeared to be a lot of desert like country in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. We found out that February in New Mexico is dedicated to the arts. (Yes, more quilt shops & neat fractal art). You kind of realize that when there are National Monuments named Saguaro National Monument and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Of course, there was also the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. All were very different and still, very beautiful in their own right. All worthy of being seen if you venture anywhere in the vicinity. If it's a little out of the way, like Big Bend Nat. Park, take the side road and experience it! Some are good for a single visit like Death Valley and White Sands but should not be missed if possible.
Even in the Las Vegas area (where we did NOT have a good time for 2 1/2 weeks) there is the Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire State Park to visit. We left Las Vegas 3 times. The first time the motorhome had an engine problem on the way to Death Valley. The second time was when we drove home in the Toyota truck to await word on the engine status. The third time was when we had driven the Prius down to retrieve the motorhome. We went back to Death Valley to see it before we headed home at last. It was really pretty but I won't go back. We have seen enough desert to last us a good long time.
We are now back to the trees, rivers, lakes and hills of Washington State. We have returned both richer and poorer from a great venture (for us) that was a long time in dreaming and planning. We are convinced that "full timing" is not for us and will keep our "long trips" to 2 months max. Now we will do a few short trips in the Northwest for the summer and plan on staying home next winter. Maybe we'll hit 150" of snow next year! Wahoooo!! At least I won't be commuting in it:)
For those of you that have been following the blog, you get a break as this is the last entry. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed 95% of the trip:)

Preparing for the final leg home

I haven't updated lately as there was not much good to say. I was taught that if you didn't have something good to say...don't say it! Well, we were on our way out of Las Vegas and passing by Indian Springs (home of Creech AFB where the Predators are trained and controlled) when the engine in the RV decided it had had enough:( A dropped valve seat makes a lot of noise in a big engine.
After being towed to an AAA approved repair shop, we spent the next 2 1/2 weeks parked behind the shop while they proceeded to do even more damage to the engine. It is now at a Chevy dealer in Vegas having a new rebuilt engine installed. We will head back down next week to pick it up and continue our journey home. The return journey will be more direct than originally planned as we are both ready to end this great saga and get on with our lives. Hopefully the return will be uneventful and I'll let all know as to the final conclusion.
Yes, the journey had many bright and positive events and pleasures. We saw many beautiful sights as well as a lot of desert locations that we don't need to revisit any time soon.

Wandering again in the deserts

Wow! Real internet service from Verizon at last. It's been a while since we had really good connection to do the blog so here goes.
After 2 1/2 weeks in the desert south of Phoenix, we have restarted our journey Westward once again. Dry camping at a FREE campground for 2 weeks was really neat but showed us we were not really prepared as we don't have solar panels yet. Keeping the coach batteries happy was a fairly constant monitoring process with the occasional jumper cable hookup to the Toyota Tacoma to recharge.
We did enjoy the beautiful sunrises and sunsets as well as our travels in the area. And, I got to fly my electric plane a number of times in the campground as there were no trees, just a few saguaro cactus to dodge. All flights were successful. Translated, that means the plane was still fyable after landing:)
Last night we spent in Salome, AZ and will be going to the desert somewhere in the world famous Quartzsite area for a couple of days until our mail catches up with us at General Delivery. We will then mosey up towards Lake Havasu and Laughlin, NV and onward to Death Valley. We'll be heading homeward in a few weeks and hope the snow has gone from the RV's spot in the back yard when we get there:) The trip has been great but we are both looking forward to a larger kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Lou will also really appreciate her own laundry facilities.
Until then, we will continue to enjoy the journey. Travel routing stays very flexible as we are still considering wether to go back via Nevada or California or a combination of both. We are tracking the weather patterns and will do whatever it takes to stay out of the snow! The RV does not have snow tires!
I'll not dwell on the weather other than to say the sun is bright and warmwith a few high clods and a lot of contrails from the Air force fast movers playing in the sky.

Organ Pipes in the Desert

Yesterday we took a drive down to the Organ Pipe Cactus National monument south of beautiful (?) downtown Why, AZ. The Organ Pipe Cactus is unique to Mexico and a small part of the Sonoran Desert in the lower AZ area. The Organ Pipe will grow a stalk until a frost hits it. Then another stalk begins at the base and grows until a frost hits it. When the frost occurs, the stalks quit growing. That's why the cactus looks like a set of pipe organ pipes. They also seem to prefer rocky terrain as they grow up the hillsides where even the Saguaros don't go. The 21 mile drive on the tour is another example of the rugged terrain shared by Mexico and the US. Rugged but beautiful.
We are still in the desert west of Casa Grande and will be here for a few more days. Our mail has caught up with us and we will go pick it up this evening or tomorrow (Thank You, Mike and Eva). Then, I can get one of the DTV converters for the coach TV and see what it does for us. We will then begin planning our next move, probably north of Phoenix but not too far north:) There are still lots of "scenic drives" in the books that we want to see before we head Westward.

Desert Rats

We are in Arizona once again and parked in a beautiful County Park on a hillside overlooking a valley west of Casa Grande. The view is wonderful and the desert is GREEN! A little rain here goes a long way:) The Saguaro cactus have "plumped up" from the moisture and the Ocotillo cactus have begun to blossom. The flowers are pretty but unreachable since they are on the tips of the long spindly branches that are COVERED in thorns. Even an ant would find it difficult to climb, I think.
The valley below is flat and agricultural with a lot of farms and even more dairy farms. Thousands of cattle at each feed lot create an interesting environment for all that are downwind:) Until this AM, we have been upwind. Now we rely on the distance to reduce the effects of the fragrance:) The pictue of the valley shows lots of long white roofs. Those are just a few of the feed lots in the valley. I'm sure to the owners it smells like $$$$ but to visitors is smells like manure. Oh well, at $0/nite the view is nice, cell service and internet access is good. You can't complain too much about the air quality, can you?
The campground is a Pinal County campground that was donated by a Jim Turner several years back with the stipulation that it be used as a campground at no charge to the visitors. No hookups or utilities but FREE is very nice. It's our first opportunity to dry camp in the desert so it's a good first experience to prepare us for our western journey when we leave here.
Before leaving here, we will take in some of the scenic drives in the area, especially in the Sedona area and north of Phoenix. No details on that as yet but stay tuned. I'll have the camera on the ready.