Friday, April 28, 2017

Defogging RV Windows in La Pine Oregon

We have been to, or through Oregon three times before. The first time, we drove up the beautiful Pacific Coast, then back down to California on I-5, in a Cruise America rental. The second time was our first trip with a towed car, and we spent a week near Crater Lake. The third time we just drove through, on our way up to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Each visit to this beautiful state was special in its own way.

As we make our way north to Alaska,  I expect to spend at least three weeks in Oregon, and another two in Washington. I'm not sure where our route south again in fall will take us.

On Wednesday, the defogging work on the Alfa went smoothly. Dave Root, 541-280-3612, did an excellent job. All of our windows are crystal clear now, and we appreciate the three year guarantee on the work. We had several windows defogged at a rally a few years ago, and they clouded up again. Dave said that work was done incorrectly.

Dave has a workshop at his home. There is no place for the customers to wait, so we went off to the La Pine Library, after having a nice breakfast at a local eatery. 


The library was celebrating its reopening after some severe weather damage. We were invited to have cake. The dinosaur in this picture was a "book-a-saurus" and was greeting the library patrons with a basket of library goodies. I got a pen and a note pad.

Dave finished in one day and we were able to stay in his driveway overnight. He had a 50 amp connection available.

We planned on heading back west over the Cascade Mountains on Thursday, but the weather forecast was for rain and snow. So we found a park near Bend to stay in. It was an opportunity for me to do a week's wash, and for Craig to find  a locksmith to make the fuel-door key he wanted. It took a lot more than just duplicating the existing key. Craig had to remove the lock and take it into the shop. With lock in hand they could make a custom key. Although it took a couple of trips from park to lock shop, the final cost was a mere five dollars.

After almost a week of yucky weather, Friday dawned cold but clear and sunny. I found a web page that shows live web cam images of the highways. We checked the route we planned on taking, and could see that although the road was still wet, the overnight snow and ice were melting quickly. The 160 mile drive was a go.

Fantastic scenery:




 Last year it was beaches, I guess this will be the year of mountains.

Much of the drive was fairly easy, on dry roads.






Somehow it was my turn to drive this somewhat harder part. Although the road was wet, it was not icy. I got lucky and found myself behind a large double trailer truck. Lucky because I was able to watch his brake lights and see when his automatic braking kicked in. Mine did too. I also did not feel pressured or guilty by the fact that quite a string of other vehicles followed us. He was setting the speed, not me. There were a couple of hot shot pick-up drivers that shot past us, going over a double yellow line. Future crosses on the side of the road!



We saw this mountain from a distance earlier. I think it's Mt. Jefferson. It looked like the Matterhorn.

We are now spending a couple of nights at the Polk County Fairgrounds RV parking area. It's not fancy, but we have a 50 amp connection, water hookup, and dump station. At $20 per night, it is a good stopover. It is located ten miles west of Salem in Rickreall.
I found it through an online application called Allstays Pro, one of several resources I find quite useful. 

There are a some interesting places in Salem we want to see, and then we will be going up to Silver Falls state park. We stopped there on our first trip and it was nice.

6 comments:

  1. When you get up near Portland a great side trip in your toad to Multnomah Falls on I84. Also some fun museums in Portland and a bit off I5 is Evergreen Air in McMinville with the Spruce Goose as centerpiece.

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  2. Nice to get tour windows done again, we have had some done a couple of times, Frustrating for sure. Looks like you are enjoying your travels.

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  3. We're in Klamath Falls heading to La Pine today. We are going to Alaska but entering Canada at Sweetgrass. Look for a Montana Mountaineer we'll have orange on our ladder.

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  4. Hood River had one of Oregons best kept secrets. WAAM Western Air Auto Museum.Three HUGE hangers full of airplanes and old autos. Something always going on there.
    Safe travels,
    Betty Graffis

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  5. The weather had been crazy but maybe that is because it is spring. Who knows. We love Silver Falls. Have fun.

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  6. Don't miss Multnomah Falls! Love seeing Oregon again. I miss that part of the country.

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