We left on the 11:00 am ferry. Didn't think we'd get across the border before dark so we stopped in nanaimo for the night. Across the ferry bright at early the next morning ($230.00) one way!! We camped for a couple nights at the Birch Bay State Park in Blaine as we had some errands to run and certainly didn't want to be pulling a 30' RV behind us on city streets. Nice campsite, fairly full for this time of year. Good weather brings out the campers for that one last weekend.
We didn't want to travel through Seattle and Portland so we took a state road from Everett, WA and headed east, turns out not the best choice we could have made but we got to the east/west interstate highway and started making our way through Oregon to Idaho on the old Oregon Trail. Terribly hot in Oregon. There's a highway that runs up the mountain, very long steep hills that switchback. It was almost the end of us. The truck started overheating and a loud hissing sond came through the dashboard that didn't sound good. We managed to pull over, yes, on the steep hill, and found a hose that had come loose. Frank reattached it and we left the truck cool off and headed back up the hill. The sound immediately started again so we found an exit that we could pull over on and checked the engine again. There was another hose that attaches to the turbo that was hot, melting and squeezing out of the clamp. Frank reattached it and we carried on, finally, down the mountain, but we knew we couldn't carry on too long with it like that. Mercifully we found a Walmart where we could pull in for the night. I know many people don't like Walmart, but they saved us from spending the night on the side of the road. No rest areas or campgrounds close. This is when the IPad came in handy. Internet service when and where you need it. So, long story short, we found a dodge dealership in Baker City, Oregon that could get the part in the next day. We carried on and found a sweet little state park about 40 miles away, dropped the rig so we could take the truck in the next day for repairs. They fixed it up good, didn't overcharge the cnd tourists and we were set to go. Drove back 40 miles to pick up the rig then on our way. We headed to Craters of the Moon in Idaho. Massive lava beds national park on the way to Yellowstone. Got there fairly late, around 5 pm and found it packed. No place for us to park the big rig. Very disappointing as we love this place. So we had to head for someplace to spend the night. No campgrounds anywhere, so we headed for a rest area. Rest areas are a stop of last resort as they are by busy highways, with loud trucks coming and going all night but we were all by ourselves for the night. Only sound were the automatic weapons fire coming from a distance. Did I mention we were in Idaho. Made it through the night, no bullet holes. Must have been a shooting range nearby. After the fiasco at craters of the moon we checked on the Internet for camping at Yellowstone. No sense driving out of our way just to find there's no place to camp. Found a phone number and called. YES, there was a site large enough for us. So we booked for 3 nights and carried on our way. The weather at Yellowstone the first day was glorious. Sunshine. Many changes since we were last there. The hot pools not as plentiful or vibrant in color. It was still beautiful. No herds of bison or elk. I guess they got tired of the hoards of tourists and headed for the hills. Only saw 3 solitary bison and they were in 3 separate parts of the park and too far away to get a good photo. No bears. Thank goodness! We had sprinkles of rain on the 2nd day towards the end, lots of lightening. but we did see Old Faithful blow its top. We left Yellowstone on our 11th day of the trip and headed for Nevada. Too many huge hills going through Utah. Still had a small problem with overheating and the weather was hot and in the 90s so we thought Nevada would be a little flatter. The RV is quite heavy to be pulling up and down hills. There are absolutely no places to camp in Nevada. Hot barren and dry. Closer to Las Vegas we found a state park and pulled in for the night. Nice place, jack rabbits bounding around. Made our way through Las Vegas, that was a challenge, lots of traffic. Got as far as Kingman, Arizona and another rest area for the night. Remember what I said about loud and noisy trucks coming and going all night. Perfect example. It was in the 90s even late at night. There was a huge car transport parked behind us and his motor running for his air conditioning from 10 pm to 7 am. Didn't get much sleep. I'm sure he did though. Anyway, we were due to arrive in Tucson the next day, just had to get through Phoenix. That was dreadful. Stop lights every mile so we found a way to go around the city, miles out of our way, but little or no traffic. Got to Tucson and Desert Trails RV park late afternoon on Saturday, our 14th day of the trip. The office was closed and we were two days early so we drove around and found a nice spot to park, lots of trees and cactus. Unfortunately, we can't have this spot for the winter as its reserved for November through to march. We were given about 10 choices of open spots for the winter. Found one close to the pool. Not the greatest, but enough room to put the awning our
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