We Made it to Oregon!

tuctoorWe left our desert home for the last 5 months on April 15th and headed to Quartzsite for our first stop on our 1567 mile journey to Buxton, Oregon for our summer “job”

We will be working at the visitor center at L.L.Stub Stewart State Park, for the months of May and June. We then will pick up our house and move to the coast to Otter Crest Scenic Vista for 1 month.

August we will do a bit of traveling into Washington, before heading to Medford, Or. for our grandsons wedding. Then it is off to Ainsworth State park to host there for 1 month. 

After all our “jobs” we will head toward Tucson via Idaho. Looks like we will be having a great summer! Looking forward to riding the Spyder and exploring Oregon!

Our route to Oregon was setup so that we could visit with Gary and Carol Gunnerson,GCLD our classmates from Illinois. we stayed 3 days and enjoyed visiting with them and watching their grandson Ryan rideing horses. we had a great time and they are wonderful hosts!

 

We left the Palm Springs area on a Sunday to avoid the traffic on the 10 and 215 our route to US 395. US 395 goes north up the east side of California and can be, especially the northern part a lonely road with little traffic. We have traveled this route several times and really like it. Our first stop being in Lone Pine, Ca.

Holidaypalms

Here is a picture of our “Train” Now the story! As I said this highway can be a lonely road. We were about 50 miles from the Oregon border, when I noticed some red and blue lights flashing in my mirror! Hmm wonder what that is about? It is legal to pull double in California. Guess I will pull over and see what the problem is. (Like I would ignore the lights!) I stepped out and asked the officer, was something wrong with my trailer, that I could not see? His reply ” I saw you go by and noted that you were pulling double and thought to my self that you looked a little to long” I said ” A little bit” How little he asked. I said oh about 68 feet paced off. We talked awhile and he explained California rules about towing double. At the end he said” Well you are almost out of state, so go ahead and have a nice day”!

We would break the “Train” up after we crossed the border, as double towing is not allowed in Oregon. This began our discussion about finding a loader system to put the Spyder in the back of a pickup truck.

A friend we met in Tucson, had a system for his truck. However after reading the specs on it, I decided it was too heavy and would need a 3/4 ton truck.rpCanAm2 So I searched some more and found this. It is light, only 400#s and is easy to take off when not in use. Click here to see it work  Rampagelift 

Now that I found the lift I needed it was time to find a pickup truck. who knew it was so difficult to find a truck! Our son had done some work for a car dealership and had saved them considerable amout of money and the had told him they would give him a great deal if they needed a new car. So we headed to the dealership and started the process. We had been looking on line and found a Chevy Silverado that had low mileage, but it was at another dealer in Oregon. We began the process of dealing on the truck and were compleating the paper work when the sales manager came out and said the truck just sold! This was after the sales manager had called the dealer about getting the truck! Boy did they get egg on their face. So it is back to square one.

The next day they called us back and said the found  3 more vehicles that fit our needs. All were out of state. We picked one and started the process all over again. The sales manager had to call the dealer to get their price for the vehicle, so we could begin the negotiation . A few minutes later he called and said that vehicle just went out for a test drive and would not be able to get a price! Said it would be 3 hours or more before he heard anything. So we left! another egg on their face!

We did not here back from that dealership about that vehicle! Nothing, nada, not even an email saying sorry or anything! Very disappointed in that dealership. Our son was irritated with them to say the least.

The next day we went to a Chevy dealer that had a couple of vehicles we were interested in, one being a 2011 Silverado, black(not Loretta’s favorite color) with only 21,000 miles on it. Good clean condition, 4 wheel drive( needed to tow 4 down) So by the end of the day we were the proud owners of that vehicle.PU I know it is black! Drives nice and has all the features we like on a vehicle. 

Loretta got to drive it to our final destination at L.L. Stub Stewart SP. 

ssOur work location for May and June

Everyone have a great summer and let us know where you are and what you are doing!

HAPPY TRAILS

 

 

 

 

 

 

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