Timber Valley

After we left the Salem Elks Lodge, we stopped in Creswell to fill up with diesel at the Union 76 ($4.799/gallon) and had lunch at McDonald's in Cottage Grove.

When we arrived at Timber Valley, the Escapees Co-op park in Sutherlin, we signed up for a month (and found that we were #85 on the waiting list for a lot).

Miles driven: 125.1
GPS coordinates: N 43° 22.963' / W 123° 18.287'

Salem Elks Lodge

We arrived at the Salem Elks Lodge in the afternoon. When we were checking in, Earl told the camp host we want to dry camp ($5) rather than have hookups since we were only going to be spending the night and didn't even want to unhook. The camp host asked if Earl was sure, because "it was too hot to dry camp!" The temperature was in the mid-70's! :-)

Miles driven: 205.1
GPS coordinates: N 44° 54.524' / W 122° 59.537'

Russ and Dani joined us for breakfast at Mrs. Turner's Restaurant. Afterwards, Earl and I did some shopping at Costco and bought diesel at Fred Meyer ($4.819/gallon).

We went to Camping World today for supplies and then stopped at Baydos to look at Eagle Cap campers. They had the two models in which we were interested: the 1050 and the 955. After spending time in both of them, we decided the 955 was the one we liked best. Now if only we'd get our lot at the Escapees park in Sutherlin, Oregon so we could get the camper!

After doing grocery shopping at Safeway, we drove over to Russ and Dani's house (Earl's son and daughter-in-law) for a visit. We had a really nice time visiting with them and then they followed us back to the Elks Lodge so they could see our new RV and Earl could walk Maxx before we went out to dinner.

Although our original intentions were to have dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, it was extremely busy and really no place to park, so we went to a Mexican food restaurant where we had a great dinner.

Puyallup Elks Lodge

After leaving Roza Recreation Area, we stopped at the Union 76 in Ellensburg to fill up with diesel ($4.799/gallon) and then in North Bend to have lunch at McDonald's.

We arrived at the Puyallup Elks Lodge early in the afternoon and stopped to fill up with fresh water before we found a site (electric hookups only with a dump on site).

Miles driven: 144.0
GPS coordinates: N 47° 11.616' / W 122° 15.545'

SR-821, which winds its way along the Yakima River between Yakima and Ellensburg, and along which Roza Recreation Area is located, travels through Yakima River Canyon. There are hills located to the west and east of our location.

We noticed what appeared to be smoke at the base of the hills to the east across the road. It turned out to be dust from some rock slides. I got out the binoculars so I could see the rock slides better and discovered the reason for the rock slides: several groups of Big Horn Sheep walking along the sides of the hills while they were grazing!

Roza Recreation Area

We finally left Plymouth Campground this morning and drove to the Roza Recreation Area along the Yakima River north of Yakima, Washington. This is really nothing more than a parking lot, but does have some spaces for camping. There's a boat launch at this area, and it appears that it's quite busy. We saw what appeared to be a boat salesman taking prospective buyers out for a short ride!

Miles driven: 109.1
GPS coordinates: N 46° 45.874' / W 120° 27.426'

We were going to leave Plymouth Campground today, but the forecast for winds along our route were 35-40 mph with gusts to 50 mph...we don't drive in those conditions! So we paid for another couple of days and then drove into Hermiston to do some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

You Snooze, You Loose!

We visited McNary Dam and their Visitor's Center today. The Northwest had a pretty good snow pack this past winter, and it looked like they were letting a lot of water out of the dam.

While we were driving around, we noticed one of the gas stations had diesel for $4.699 per gallon. That night, while we were watching the news, we learned that the price of oil had sky rocketed, so Earl decided that perhaps he should go back to the station and fill up before they jacked up their prices. Too late! The price for a gallon of diesel was now $4.999!!! :-(

Plymouth Campground

We left Hilgard Junction State Park this morning and drove to Plymouth Campground, a Corps of Engineer campground along the Columbia River near Plymouth, Washington. With Earl's Golden Age Passport, we can stay here for $10 per day...and that's for full hookups!

Unfortunately, this park is heavily treed and at the non-reservable site we got, we could not get our roof-mounted satellite TV tuned in. :-( We are able to get some stations tuned in using the OTA (over-the-air) antenna, but they come in poorly. Oh, well, at least we'll be able to watch news and Jeopardy!

Miles driven: 89.7
GPS coordinates: N 45° 56.0105' / W 119° 20.7153'