THE TRAIL TO HAPPY TRAILS

We left home on Oct 29 and for the first time, we had a line-up at the border crossing. They were late opening the gate and the border agent was new to us and quite officious.  She asked us more questions than usual and did a search of our lunch and food coolers.  We had plenty of boxes in the back of the truck and she wasn’t about to open them up as the line-up was getting longer.

We drove in foggy weather to the west end of Spokane and then it was sunny with some clouds and always windy in the Tri-Cities area (Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, Washington).

We had a few “hiccups” with the truck that day and we determined that we have a problem with the exhaust brake sticking on.  Not a problem for the trip—we just stopped using the exhaust brake, but we’ll have to get it checked out in the near future.

We stayed in Ontario, Oregon as planned and then had an interesting driving day on highway 95 which runs south through the eastern part of Oregon and the western part of Nevada.  The scenery was similar to the highway 93 route but there was much less traffic and after we drove from Winnemucca to Battle Mountain on interstate 80, the traffic was almost non-existent.  The roads were in good condition with narrow shoulders and in some cases, the sage brush was encroaching on the road surface.  Not a big deal when driving the truck but it might be a little intimidating if you are towing a trailer.

The sections of road were so straight that you could see about 15 to 20 miles of road before it changed direction.  Definitely easy driving.

We did spend our second night at Tonopah, Nevada as planned and it was a nice place.  We ate supper at a BBQ restaurant across the street and headed out early the next morning.  We were on the road by 7:30 each day which was a good routine for us.  We stopped for fuel near the famous Area 51 and had to go in to the store and buy souvenir T-shirts.

In the Las Vegas area, we took a “ring road” that bypassed the centre of the city and even though it was a bit further, there was less traffic than interstate 15.

After that, it was all familiar territory and we decided to drive to Wickenburg which is about 40 minutes north of Surprise.  We wanted to arrive early at our lot the next morning as there is always so much to do the first day.

IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY YOU CAN SEE THE ROAD IN THE DISTANCE

Everything was fine here; nothing melted but only one water bucket out of six inside the RV had any water left.  Our neighbour tops them up during the summer which is a good thing.  We’ll probably put in more buckets next year so she doesn’t have to do that.  It was hot this summer, high temperatures of 115 F/44C.  Yikes!!

We were able to get fully settled in after 2 days and started our weekly routine this morning. Stuart went to play pickleball and I did a workout at the fitness room and soaked in the hot tub.  My knee is better each day and I hope to be back at pickleball in a week or maybe two.  Don’t want to rush it this time.  We already played in a billiards tournament this afternoon so the busy schedule has begun.

It seems like we’ve been away from home for a long time already but it is comforting to have all our familiar “stuff” here for the next few months.