Back again – and heading South

Today – Friday 11th Dec 2015 – A full day ending with a lovely meal at Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen(see Dorothy with my Bee Gees menu (with the records still in)

– she actually had a Moody Blues one … I meant to take anothe pic – but got distracted – by the beer menu!).

We left Lost Hills, CA around 10:30am in the 1st rain California has had in years (warm rain not like the Scottish and Dutch “tear you to pieces rain” we had in the past weeks).

We drove up into the mountains north of Los Angeles – it looked like we were driving into a deep layered cloud containing aliens, monsters and Dundee United supporters… scary stuff! Inside the cloud it was pelting down, the temperature dropped to near freezing and the rain turned to sleet. Big trucks were labouring up the slopes – we could pass them but some pulled out in front of us – then we would get stuck behind them as us big things were confined to the 2 inside lanes.

The other side of the mountain was sunny – a long steep plummet downwards with a 5% grade and a 40 MPH limit – really a terrible mixture. As the song said … LA is a great big freeway… it lasts all the way from the foot of the mountains all the way South – its hard to tell where one place stops and another starts.

Our turnoff to Oceanside, CA was a welcome sight – Pacific Ocean, blue skies, heavy surf and palm trees. At the camp site, we’d been given a back-in spot – groan – but I’m proud to say I managed to get us into it – as it was a wee bit nippit!… and I’m no very good at backing in!

A Coffee and Laphroig Special Single Malt (good present Denis!) was the perfect pick-me-up, coupled with the good news that Adam‘s operation had gone well – we headed off to the flying pig. Nitro vanilla stout and fantastic food – then home to watch an episode of Grimm (thanks to our Grimm supplier! – you know who you are 🙂 ) a great end to a heavy day! Relaxing here tomorrow (Saturday 12th) then off to San Diego on Sunday 13th Dec.

Salt Lake City

We left Boise after our two days there and headed off to Salt Lake City.  It was a 345 mile drive, so we headed off really early at the crack of 10am. Well, it was meant to be earlier… but everything just takes longer with packing up, getting ready for the trip,  do your computer stuff (always takes longer), close down your computer, oh wait – just one more email, strap the bikes back on, fix the straps that you used to strap the bikes on, strap the bikes on, put the restraining bars in the fridge, clip up the shower doors, clasp the bedroom wardrobe, empty tanks, disconnect, where’s the cat, bring in the slides, pull the cat out from where it’s stuck, hitch up to the truck, raise the feet… and go – it just takes longer than we thought.

The scenery around Boise and the road to Salt Lake City was pretty interesting, vast, mountainous and straight – we like straight! We stopped off on the way and refueled (with 5th wheel attached – woo-hoo – we’re pretty confident!) and fooood ….  I had my 1st ever Wendys… our son Kyle’s always told us when he’d had a baconator, so a baconator it had to be – the lady behind the counter asked what size I wanted, she had a heavy accent (yes – I have trouble with that too!) when I said “pardon?… she said “how big a heart attack do you want” … ah, ok, strike the ex-large, double, mega cheese extra bacon… I settled for a medium one!… Dorothy (the ever sensible) had a salad …

Returning to where we left the truck & 5th wheel  neatly parked behind another one, it looked like it had been abandoned, the other RV had gone and it was just sitting slap bang in the middle of the parking lot… oops – try to pretend I just don’t care, and get in.

As we approached Salt Lake City, the hills got higher, the road got wider and the traffic got heavier. We had checked out the RV park location and were navigating well through the lane changes to position for our exit about two miles ahead, when this big class A motorhome (an RV like a bus) just zoomed from the outside lane and cut right in front of us. This monster was also towing a car which was swaying wildly behind it (yelling, save, save me… well it looked like it was), I managed to swerve right over to the hard shoulder as he slammed his rig into the place I had been and sped off with his tail end still swaying badly (save… meeee…..)… we couldn’t believe it – it all happened a bit quick… but I did spot him in time and had the space to get out of his way, so it wasn’t so bad – just a reminder to keep your wits about you. The traffic ahead was thickening up and we spotted him a few vehicles in front of us – we both said – “I bet he’s going to our RV park”. Right enough. We turned into the drive for the Pony Express RV park… and there he was juddering to a stop in the distance. When we pulled up, the driver – an elderly man (I’m being generous here) came hobbling right up to me and before I could say anything, he had apologized profusely, gave all his excuses and told us what a bad day they were having… he blamed his wife, who had appeared dejectedly beside him, for distracting him, she was bemoaning that their credit card had been refused at a gas station… eventually he had chewed himself out so much and was so shocked at what he’d done… I didn’t berate him.

We got settled in to the park, it was very nice, we parked up just fine and got all connected up no problem – we went shopping that evening and decided to go on a City tour the next day – we’d get picked up right at the door.

 

 

The city tour was really good – explaining that Salt Lake City had just been desert before the first Mormon explorers came looking for a place to make their own and established a very nice city through lots of hard work and heavy lifting. We learned a lot, the city, the history, the culture… the food was good too – all in all we were very impressed by the city, more enlightened about the Mormon faith and we loved the Organ recital in the tabernacle. The people we met couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful.

We did try to see the Salt Lake – we have seen it from the air and read about all the migrating birds who love it there… but no matter which road / track / field we drove over… we couldn’t get to it

So – just a short stay – but a very nice place to visit.

Boise, Idaho

We played our last game of crazy golf on the Sisters putting area, waved goodbye to Bend and headed East towards Boise. It was a fairly straight road through agricultural land while I was driving … and after Dorothy and I changed places – hello hills and bends!  a very scenic road to Boise with lovely views – but not our newbie RV driver’s idea of fun… we pay closer attention to the type of roads we’re going on now – but still haven’t perfected the ideal way of predicting what lies ahead.

We were well prepared for navigating to the RV park – the Hi Valley RV Park  (10555 Horseshoe Bend Rd Boise, Idaho) we had looked up trip advisor and found a review from someone which said – DO NOT FOLLOW YOUR GPS INSTRUCTIONS then gave detailed instructions to get to the park. It would have been easy to ignore the navigation system – as it didn’t recognize the address… we searched and searched but no luck – then Dorothy searched for Winco, Boise – as the trip advisor review talked about turning at the Winco… and bingo – there was the answer – the Winco was in Garden City, not Boise according to our GPS ! Anyway we still  managed to confuse the life out of ourselves between the GPS and the trip advisor review … despite that, we found the RV park fairly easily… it wasn’t until the next day when we had figured things out a bit better, the trip advisor review directions must have been if you were approaching from the opposite direction… that wasn’t clear in the review… so – another couple of lessons learned.

The RV park was lovely – I parked the 5th wheel up no problem (Dorothy and I manage fine without extra help) looking over at the mountains, clean bathrooms,  everything looked good. We also wanted to try out our new purchase – a cat leash. Yes… the ultimate indignity for kruimeltje, our 21-year-old cat. She was never meant to be on the trip, the vet in Vancouver, WA told us she was so ill with kidney disease that she wouldn’t last until Christmas (2013)… well no-one told her. She always liked being outside – but as soon as we let her out she disappeared under the RVs… ok – bad idea, so in Bend we found a pet store and bought the cat leash. We had tried one years before and she turned into the feline Houdini – she hated it and could escape no matter how much we tightened it. Now older and (maybe) wiser, she realized that this was the only way she was getting out, she allowed us to put it on… and she enjoyed the great outdoors. Now she queues up at the door, stands patiently while we put it on and we take her out for a stand about (not a walk) outside where she looks for puddles to drink… sigh.

When I played at Steve & Dana Dennis’s retirement party in July, Dana’s father who lives in Boise told me what a lovely place it was  – when he later heard we were actually on our way there, he sent an email with details of a good Irish pub to visit – the Ha”Penny Bridge Irish Pub – it’s great how people pass us great information as we go – we really appreciate that. Dorothy had also been looking up where to go – a bike ride around the Green Belt seemed like a good idea – so, the next day we loaded our bikes onto the back of our truck and headed off to find  the green belt,  walking/cycling path through Boise  – it was easily found and we set off on our 1st cycle trip of our tour. You can watch a wee video of our afternoon.

There was a weir (at least thats what we call it) where rubber-suited thrill seekers would kayak, surf and do other energetic aqua stuff against the force of the water – it was amazing to watch, we’ll have to try that one day… hahahaha !!! 🙂

When we reached the center of Boise, we found the Ha”Penny Bridge Irish Pub recommended by Dana’s father – the cycling, hot sun and the strong cider oh boy, we felt great  – tired and ready to put our feet up, we headed back to the 5th wheel and enjoyed a restful evening. Boise – we will be back – for longer next time!

The next day, packed up, drained, hitched, landing gear up … and off we went to Salt Lake City

 

Bend, Oregon

The road to Bend was the longest we’d driven so far… at 160 miles, t wasn’t far by American standards – but to us RV newbies, it was more than enough! The road did bend, the ups went up and the downs went down… it was a good road to build up experience on. When we left Shady and Valerie outside Wilsonville at the rest stop for our goodbye picnic, Dorothy started driving. This was only the 2nd time she’d driven the “rig”. Of course, this was the perfect cue for the heavens to open – it rained intensely, the 1st time for ages in Oregon… and the 1st time Dorothy had needed to use the wipers on our new truck.

No panic – she coped well even when she couldnt see a thing – she drove on gaining confidence with each mile. The rain didn’t last and on we went forking off towards Bend after passing Salem on the I5.

Our strategy of stop when you need a break / cup of tea / stretch, sort of flew out the window as we realized just how big we were. The 25 foot RV trial run we’d had in Death Valley gave us this feeling that we could just pull over when we wanted and enjoy the journey. When you have a 20 foot truck pulling a 35 foot trailer (ok, there’s some overlap… but still – that’s long) there are not so many places you can pull over and its a wee bit more complicated.  The 5th wheel on the move is also not too friendly as the slide-outs which make it so livable when it’s parked are all slid in when you’re moving – basically you get access to half your fridge, half your sink, the bathroom and the bedroom… which isn’t bad – but not as handy for a cup of tea stop.

As a result, Dorothy just kept driving and driving and driving…  the scenery was nice and it wasn’t long before we were getting close to our destination… and our fuel range was also telling us that we had almost that distance left… oh dear, that’s not really what we planned. The range of the fuel tank had been much more at the start… however with all the ups and downs, the miles per gallon had dropped drastically and the nearest gas station was at our destination… oops!

That’s another good lesson – calculate the worst case distance to your next fuel stop. For us – by good luck and good geography, the hills leveled off  and we started getting better mileage… we would have about 20 miles range left when we got to the campsite… and it was 4 miles from there to the gas station… it was close but we made it.

The campsite looked nice, it was the Sisters / Bend Garden RV park. We checked in and they told us we would be guided to our spot just like a 747… nice! A guy appeared on a golf cart and led us through the park to our place – super, I thought, he’s going to show me the best way to get it into place, this was a first. Hahahaha – another lesson learned – YOU are the only one who is going to get YOU parked I followed him into the spot expecting him to give me left, right, straighten up kind of instructions – he didn’t, he just drove through and watched as I parked my 50 foot rig badly squint still watching him in vain for signals… they didn’t come  – he was waiting to read his clipboard to me (… blah, blah, blah, the rodeo was in June – so we missed it and next year, well we’ll be lucky if we can get a place even now, blah, blah… ???) – then he jumped into his cart and drove off leaving me dumbstruck, feeling like a fool and the abandoned RV askew  and too far through my place…. groan – the dreaded reverse was needed.

I have reversed the 5th wheel into places, I reversed it in to storage in Vancouver, into a place (with help) at the Columbia RV park, I have reversed to straighten up… but I’ll tell you it isn’t easy or always successful. This time was neither easy nor successful. Eventually a friendly ex-cop in a neighboring RV suggested I should go round one more time and do it again… (duuuhhh) … so simple, but absolutely what I needed to do to get straightened up. I did that, he gave me some tips and bingo, I was parked, first time… and since then I make sure I park right myself and have Dorothy as my lookout. I have since been guided in well by park people – but I watch them like a hawk – warily and don’t always do what they say.

The campsite was lovely. The washroom area was a log cabin just a short walk through the grass by the lovely lake. It earned it’s name the garden RV park – the flowers were beautiful – hey but pay attention to the sprinkler schedule – these things give you a serious soaking if you got caught out at the wrong time! (voice of experience 🙂 )

  

The towns of Bend and Sisters were just great – beautiful places at the end of the summer, still very warm, friendly, arty, laid back with great places to eat situated on the Deschutes river where people take pride in making great beer and people like me take great pleasure in drinking it!

 

And then there was my link up with Five Pint Mary – a great Celtic Rock band who invited me along to one of their gigs … a Pirate party it was great to play with them and do a spot on my own – Dorothy (or should I give her her Pirate name “Buxom Bess 🙂 ” got all kitted out with great Pirate wench help

 

For a fuller story of the Pirate’s night in Bend you can check out my music blog post thaar-be-pyraats-round-tha-bend… and  here is an edit of the Video streamed around all interested Pirates worldwide … no I’m not joking – full-on pirate fun, scallywags, wenches, draft beer, rum, (whisky too if you include me), streamed video… that was very well done – and a hoot!

 

We finished our week in Bend dropped off our costumes to our new friends the pirates, picked up my guitar which was being fixed… and headed off to our next destination – Boise, Idaho

 

Off – but not far

September 9th – we set off into the night… OOPS – yes – we’d just broken most of our well-intentioned rules… “no night driving” was one of them. Also “spend time making sure everything is secure before we move off”… we had totally run out of time on that 1st day – our 1st load into the RV was carefully done, our 2nd load when we realized we had way more than we thought and that it would soon be dark – things ended up stuffed unceremoniously into cupboards or stacked on the bed  to be sorted out later (wa-wa-wa waaah). I drove, we trundled down the road much heavier than we had been when the 5th wheel was empty, over the 205 bridge (bye-bye to steamboat landing…). The other folks on the road were kind (or scared) and let me pull out and in when I needed to – so far so good!

We were on Highway 99 East heading for Roamers Rest RV park – we knew where it was but were following the navigation system as it actually had the place in its places of interest – so should be right… right?… wrong! I should have listened to by own navigation system – Dorothy – she had just finished saying… I think its just about here – as we zipped on past the entrance …(duuuuh!!). Another rule (“study the destination and approach carefully – you don’t want to turn round”) also just bit the dust! After considering places in the dual carriageway to turn round (and actually stopping in one center turning) we decided… naaah – keep going, find some big place to turn, then come back. Safeways was 2 miles down the road (half a mile on from where the navigation system announced triumphantly “you have reached your desitation!” – if navigation systems could be strangled… that would have been the time – the attack would have been well justified!). I managed to maneuver through Safeways (well one rugby-corner-flag-type-post) got squished by my back wheels – but it was used to it I imagine as it jumped up again looking startled. I headed back the way I’d come… determined not to miss it a second time!

On attempt two – we were well on-guard for the entrance, we found it, turned left, picked up our after-hours instructions (the reception was closed), found our spot, parked, put down the front legs, unhitched, leveled the 5th wheel and opened the door. Mayhem.

It looked like a whirlwind had travelled the length and breadth of the 5th wheel, our “put away securely” skills needed fine tuning! We had shut the cat in the bathroom with her food, travel box (open if she wanted a safe harbor and her litter tray was in the shower. Kruimeltje let out a disgruntled wail when I opened the bathroom door to find her standing cut-off from all she could want on the wrong side of the litter tray captured behind the shower door which had slid shut during the journey. I helped her out and back to (ab)normality. A couple of hours later, the bed was clear enough to sleep in – we were exhausted and even though there was still a lot to tidy up – we gave up and went to bed.

The next day, we’d slept well and we managed to get things back into order (ditching quite a few broken glasses and cups)… we became resigned to the fact that if we wanted to drink from glass and pottery, we’d have to pack it in better – and not be upset when it decided to break on us. We were still in familiar territory as we’d kayaked near there on the Tualatin river for a few summers.. things began to feel better. The campsite (our first – so we had nothing to compare with) had plenty of space for us to park, the showers etc were very clean and lovely (strange to be showering in a campsite again after all these years) – and people were friendly – a good experience for our 1st stay on an RV park

 

 

I had my last gig in Mahers on 12th September – which was fantastic… see the video from Steve Behrens of 67 Music

The next day…13th September… not very bright and early – we just made it out by check out time, we headed off up to Washington State to a beautiful place called “Columbia Riverfront RV park”

This time we took time to make sure everything was parked up securely, we left the cat to roam around in the 5th wheel, she’d learned to survive for 21 years… we concluded that she would know where to hide… and when we arrived (after researching exactly where this camp site was) right enough – there she was curled up underneath the table sound asleep and the 5th wheel interior had escaped all whirlwinds this time!

     

 

We had a visit from our friends Roland and Barbara Paanakker – Dutch people like “the camping!” it was great to see them, have coffee and a walk along the Columbia shore a bit. The campsite was very nice, clean, the bathrooms (the mens) were under construction… so not too great – but with a location like that – who cares!

The next day, 14th Sept, we headed back down towards Portland – this time to Jantzen beach RV park, busiest park yet for us, near the city but still had nice big spaces for our 5th wheel – the bathrooms were like going back in time with walls adorned with indecent graffiti (which though fascinating when you’re a boy is a wee bit off when you’re paying good money to stay there as an adult) … and I had no felt-pen with me ! 🙂

We had a trip back to our storage place in Vancouver to drop off stuff we really didn’t need, swung by our ex-landlady (hi Rita)’s place to drop off the garage openers (yes… it was mee-ee! I forgot). It was good to just check one last time if we were ready to leave for 10 months! Our conclusion – we were as ready as we were going to be!

The next day, we packed up extra carefully, cat in the bedroom this time, hitched up and off – down the I5  to meet up with Daughter Valerie and her husband Shady – we had all brought food for a picnic – it was very nice a happy time together before saying goodbye – all going well, the next time we would see them, they would be living in Scotland in the house I grew up in and we would have flown in from Florida after three months traveling through the USA. Last cuddles and kissies… and off we went – next stop Bend, Oregon

Making your choice… and GO!

So much choice… ha-ha (maniacal laughter again) !!!  the ins and outs of buying an RV (groan, so much to know) – well, we had to learn fast… total Newbies. My best friend Mr Googleweb pointed me in many directions, showed me videos, pictures, user group forums, we went along to RV shows – this all helped solidify our choice. We decided to buy a truck and a fifth wheel. A truck big enough to pull a big trailer and small enough to get all the places we needed in cities and towns – ok that narrowed it down a wee bit.

There are more floor plans for a 5th wheel than you can imagine – and that sort of dictates which one you will buy – e.g. –  front or back living, more windows, more TV (the TV can dominate… but you might like that), big bed or wee bed (for us the bed was important – a nice big bed so it wouldn’t feel like we were waking up on a camping expedition every day for a year (even though we essentially were).

We also needed a robust coach actually built for full-time use – there are a lot of weekender / short stay coaches on the market… this also narrowed the field (which is good).

We then went shopping – oh boy, I hate car shopping (which I assumed this would be like) and dreaded the long drawn out process of selecting, negotiating, waiting, being bamboozled by smart-ass car salesmen and finalizing the purchase feeling frazzled and not sure you actually got what you wanted… you can feel your life draining away as you go through that tortuous process… and our timeframe had become a bit tight – we needed be living in the RV by September 9th… which was fast approaching!

After a pretty poor experience at one RV dealer,  the RVs were dirty, used and very expensive – and the salesman seemed to think all of this was not a problem, I got in touch with Curtis in Portland, Mr Googleweb said they were good, by this time I knew the make and model we wanted  and Curtis sent me a full top-to-bottom priced feature list of their five brand-new 5th wheels of that model and their lowest bottom line price. I knew it was a good deal – so we went to their place in Beaverton, Oregon where the particular one we fancied was parked. It couldn’t have been more pleasant. Matter-of-fact explanations by a knowledgable, enthusiastic long-serving Sales person who obviously loved RVing and Curtis.

After just over an hour, we had chosen the 5th Wheel – a 35 foot Heartland Big Horn 3010RE, we left the place after a handshake, had payed no deposit and they were reserving the unit for us until we needed it – no pressure. We would pay when we picked it up – and no last minute shell game bamboozlement promised. It was laid back, professional… just nice… and VERY exciting!

The truck – I had my eye on a dodge RAM 3500… 6.7 turbo diesel Laramie Limited… the RV salesman said that was ideal, we went off to Ron Tonkin Dodge who gave us a good deal on a brand-new 2014 model (the 2015 models were just coming out), gave us a nice price on our Subaru Outback (Dorothy’s favorite car)… and we were all set (Note : after being too scared to test drive the Ram truck, Dorothy now really loves it and loves driving it – it is so handy… and boy, it can pull that big 5th wheel no problem)

Our friends Chad and Jigna helped us say goodbye to the Columia river by picking us up from our house the Wednesday before we left in their boat (we just waded out to it… so cool!) – that was lovely!

We were set – we picked up the truck and 5th wheel a few weeks later, stored it on a storage lot, packed it up, moved into it on 9th September as planned and set off…. crazy ? Oh yes absolutely… we were nowhere near ready, totally inexperienced and knew next to nothing about what to do (apart from what Curtis, friends and Mr Googleweb had told us) – we should have worked our way up into it by test drives, weekends away, slowly packing it, discovering the ins and outs, what works, what needs fixed, how to reverse (that’s hard to do) … but not us – we were off on the journey – for better or worse.

Getting started

So, we’d agreed this is what we wanted to do – but how, there was the question. An RV (recreational Vehicle) seemed the best way to take our stuff and have the freedom to stop where we liked along the way. I would need to get to music gigs with my equipment, so we would need to be small enough to get around in a city or town but also big enough so we wouldn’t go crazy in a confined space. As I said in the introduction, Dorothy and I had never done anything like this before  – so – first things first,  try it out – would we even like this lifestyle? .. try it out we did.

We had a week in Palm Springs booked and planned to stay in a time-share we had swapped our spanish week for, we also planned to also rent an RV and explore from there. It was all set up with RVRent.net, we flew to palm springs …then things went a bit quiet, we weren’t getting the answers we needed about insurance… hmmm. RVRent it turned out had no insurance for renters, they needed the renter to have their own insurance – which some companies do, our friends in Lake Oswego had done a similar thing and State Farm insurance had covered their RV Rental no problem. We had used First Tech insurance brokers for all our insurance since arriving in the USA seven years earlier… and were really blown away when they told us Safeco our auto insurers wouldn’t cover the RV rental and they had no other options to offer us. That was the day before we were due to drive down to San Diego to pick up the RV… total bummer – we had to cancel the trip and stay in Palm Springs (oh no – what a hardship (and a sigh of relief hahaha !!! 🙂  … but we still had no RV experience).

In February this year (2014), we booked a trip to Las Vegas including a week in a Cruise America 25 foot Class C RV – all insurance, bedding and kitchenware packages included – they do this a lot and are great at what they do. Our contact was a lady, Alex Anderson – she was great. This worked really well – a couple of days in Vegas, pick up the RV then head off to Death Valley and other scenic areas for a week. We really enjoyed the scenery, the freedom, the campsites… it was a great experience – we could do this… but not without some adjustments. This RV was ok for a weeks trip, maybe a month – but we couldn’t imagine living in it full-time, it was too small with very little luxury. The bed was functional but rubbery, small and not great. The kitchen package included all your silverware, plates etc, but no pots or pans… and a 25 foot RV, though small for an RV is too big to take everywhere.

The trip around Death Valley, Valley of fire and surround area was spectacular

Dorothy had been reluctant to drive it as a 25 foot RV is still much bigger than anything we’d driven before. She did gingerly at first … then she got the feel for it and did it well (as Dorothy does). At the end of the trip when we were returning to the rental place in Las Vegas for 11am, we needed gas (petrol) and propane (gas) – we would need to pay extra if either of these weren’t full… and we would be charged an extra day if we were later than 11am. Dorothy was driving … and the thrifty Scotswoman in her took over. Time was running out, she’d found a gas station for gas (petrol) but we couldn’t find propane. We stopped at one place which had a propane tank and pipes like an octopus all round it. I wrestled with the octopus for a while before a horrified looking attendant appeared and told me I shouldn’t be doing that ( by then I had sort of suspected I shouldn’t, but was in a bit of a tangle) … and the propane thingy was broken. He did tell us where there was another place for propane, 5 mins down the road… and it was 10:45am. Ok, 5 mins there, 5 mins to fill up, 5 mins back,  – go for it! Dorothy set off at a fair lick down the road, spotting a likely looking place with lots of gas bottles, she whisked up this right turn only to find it wasn’t the place we needed… the street was clear, go for it – ok the U-turn was ambitious – but she reversed up a treat (only a slight trace of panic in her eyes) and off we went again, faster this time… and zipped past the garage we needed ( doooh!)! The U-turn at the next turn was spectacular … and effective – we filled up the propane, paid… and off again in bat-out-of-hell mode by now… 3 mins to 11am. The Scotswoman determined to avoid all extra charges pulled up at the rental office at 11am on the dot! Drive an RV… hah… piece of Cake !!! 🙂

Introduction

It was so logical – retire, play music, travel the world, play music, cut down stress, play music and enjoy life. The first part was easy, I’d reached the point where I knew I wanted out of the rat-race. I loved my job, I loved the company… but boy, I didn’t love the 6am rises, the heavy traffic commute, the long days which would evaporate after 10 to 11 hours, the journey home and the 2-3 hours family time … it was time to stop that and get some time for me… and for my wife Dorothy.

The second part was easy too – I’d played guitar and entertained since I was 12 years old in Scotland, then in 2009 I started playing solo in Mahers Irish Pub in Lake Oswego, Oregon – for that part, you can follow my musical journey – as this one is all about the actual journey we have started – traveling around the USA. It is also a voyage of discovery as neither Dorothy nor I have done anything remotely like this before. Hahahaha (maniacal laughter !!!…)… we’ve been on the road for almost a month now and I can tell you – we had… and still have a lot to learn!

At this point I should tell you – for those who do not know us – we are Scottish, from Dundee. Long journeys for us would be 2 hours driving – drive South for just over 2 hours and you are in England… drive North 2 hours and you are in the wild Highlands, Drive West 2 hours and you are at the West coast – and you can’t go East, you are on the East coast. We moved to the Netherlands in 1986 which is small but densely populated. Drive 5 hours South from where we lived and you were in Paris having driven through the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France, crossing 2 borders, 3 languages and 4 different cultures. In Portland, Oregon you can drive 5 hours South and you’re still in Oregon – the USA is vast … and we wanted to explore it.