We headed to Eugene to see Joel's family and good friend Barbara. Our plan was to black top camp at the Valley Shopping Center in Eugene, however the RV parking was taking over by the shuttle bus and parking for the Fair so we scooted over to the Moose Lodge in Springfield. Joel's had some tools stored at his brother-in-laws house in Leaburg which wanted to retrieve before the house closed escrow. He spent a day sorting and setting aside tools with the plan to return and pick them at a later date. I'll get into that later in another post. With that out of the way we headed to Portland to get the truck outfitted for towing. Up until now I have been driving the truck and following the motor home.
On July 9, I had requested my mail be forwarded to Waterville, Oregon, which is a few miles from Leaburg. Usually it takes three days and some times four to arrive. On Monday I check and no mail. We had to go back on Tuesday to finish sorting stuff and still no mail. I obtained the tracking number and found out for some unknown reason my mail was sent to Atlanta, Georgia but was on the way back to Walterville and should arrive Wednesday. We made a special trip to Walterville on Wednesday before leaving for Portland, only to find out that the mail had be sent to Yachats, Oregon on the coast. I put in a fowarding address to Bend, Oregon, knowing I would be there in a few days. This was on July 15. We continued on to Portland.
Todd's Auto and RV repair in Portland did a wonderful job installing the hardware and brackets on the truck. It took all day and a few hours the next day to finish up. The GMC Canyon has OnStar and the battery has to be disconnected before towing, which presented a challenge. Todd was able to install a switch to the battery so we don't have to totally disconnect the terminal wires. The minor downside is some of the presets like radio and blue tooth devices have have to be reset once the battery is reconnected.
While in Portland we caught up with Joel's son and daughter. We probably won't see them again until next Spring. Bradly fabricates large stainless steel tanks for breweries and thus is very familiar with the local breweries so we also visited a few of Portland's more popular breweries including Rock Bottom Brewing, 10 Barrel Brewing and Rogue Brewing, all which were very busy.
Before leaving Portland, I checked the tracking on my mail. It had arrived in Walterville on the 16th (the day after I left) and the tracking indicated it has been forwarded and had arrived in Portland on the 17th but departed Portland and went back to Eugene on the 18th and then back to Portland on the 18th. It sat in Portland until the 20th and then went to Walton, Oregon and according to the tracking went back to Eugene again and arrived in Portland again on the 21st. Apparently my mail is going around in circles. My head is spinning.
We headed up the North side of the Columbia Gorge with a few stops along the way. Tara had a really difficult time giving of the co-pilot seat.
We spent the two nights at the White Salmon Elks club. For all you Elks driving a big rig, check out your route first. There are signs to the Elks club, which is located off the main street up a hill, but the signs direct you down very narrow streets which are hard to turn on. Fortunately, we missed some of the signs and the navigation system directed in a round about way, albeit longer, to the Elks without mishap.
We had to cross to the south side of the gorge before White Salmon due to some tunnels not being tall enough. When we crossed back we crossed over on the Bridge of the Gods. Very scary bridge. Very narrow. Thank goodness there was no wind.
On Sunday we took a day trip up Route 141 towards Tout Lake and the White Salmon River. White Salmon River has plenty of white water. With the temperatures in the high 90's I was wishing we had scheduled a rafting trip.
Next stop Bend, Oregon and then Sun River. Hope my mail arrives.
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