On the River Golf-RV Resort -- Oregon Golf and RV Resort on the Umqua River

Ok, we have all heard complaints, and I have made them frequently, about RV Parks which call themselves "Resorts".  This is one of those cases, here at the "On the River Golf-RV Resort" that I don't mind that they call themselves a resort...after all, they do have Golf.  It may be only six holes, but it is golf.  And the setting of this twenty year old RV park couldn't be nicer unless they had more room between the sites.  But with all the trees, all the serenity of this park, the peace and quiet at night, the cleanliness, the picturesque scenery, the golf (as a former golfer, I know six holes does not make a golf course...but if you play it three times, you have 18 holes), and to top it all off...Passport America price of $12, $14 with sewer (if available), and they will do two nights if they have room. Also a Good Sams Park, so two nights of P.A. and one of Good Sams gives you three nights for under $44 (cash or check only).  Again, I will let the pictures tell the story...

 

We had our choice of a couple of Passport America parks to stay at, along with a Casino RV Park, and a RV Park at the entrance to the Safari place we visited yesterday.  I am sure that we picked the jewel out of the batch of inexpensive RV Parks.

Also, we found one of our Calvary Chapel Churches in Roseburg. It is called Roseburg Christian Fellowship, and we really enjoyed the service.  A young (College and High School aged) fellowship band played for 30 minutes, and they were real good.  Perfect sound level, good choice of songs (well within their voice range), and the Pastor, Zane McCourtney, taught the Calvary Chapel way...verse by verse right out of the bible.  We wish him and his congregation of what looked to be around 250-300 people well.

Wildlife Safari, Winston Oregon

About 5 miles from the RV Park is Wildlife Safari, which is a drive-through zoo of sorts.  This is the third or fourth "Safari" type of park I have been to now....the best one being near Toronto, Canada.  This was Marcia's first drive-through animal encounter outside of Yellowstone...which is much better than all of these Safari type parks combined.  That said, it is a interesting experience, and gives one many photo opportunities, and it is better than a small zoo environment for the animals, that's for sure.  One thing about this park, it is used as an educational facility for veterinary and biological sciences.

First we put the dogs into the FREE pet kennels they have there...animals cannot ride along in the car due to the behavior dogs show toward other animals.  In other words, they have had dogs like Skruffy bark and each and every animal they see, driving the captive animals to attack, run away, and act different than they do when young children do the same thing as their parents let them hang out of car windows yelling, doing selfies, and other animalistic behaviors.  (ok, off my soap box)

So, let the pictures begin...they tell a better story than I do.

So A-Z tells it all...(26 animal pictures in case you were not counting)

Alaska Trip....Not this year...Motorhome is just not ready for it...

 

Here is where we camped last night, at McKay Truck and RV Center.   It was a fairly peaceful place to spend the night…along Old Salem Road, this once busy road is fairly peaceful now.  There is also a bit of a buffer between the road and the lot where we were gated in, but with a pass code in case we had an emergency and needed to take the car somewhere.

Service Tech Paul got right on it at 8:45.  All of the fuses checked out.  All of the relays that dealt with “auxiliary batteries” checked out.  After 2+ hours of looking and looking all over the place, what couldn’t be found was the battery isolator. 

A battery isolator (or split charge relay) allows an auxiliary battery to be charged by the vehicle's system, yet not participate in engine starting.  It also prevents the starting battery from being run down by your equipment when the engine is off.

 

Paul, who has been working as a RV Tech since 1977, told me that the better thing to get now days is this Sure Power 1314 Uni-Directional Battery Separator (for a 30 amp system).  It is easy to install….one end to a line coming off the alternator, and the other on house battery, and then ground it when you mount it.  This device also has a Start Assist Feature.   An optional input from the key switch or a manual switch will program the Battery Separator to parallel the batteries during starting. This feature will only engage if the auxiliary battery has sufficient power available to assist in starting.  We already have the switch in place, and Paul was not sure it was working either.

Now one would think that we were disappointed with McKay Truck and RV Center.  That would be farthest from the truth. Paul spent 2 1/2 hours working on this project…even Buddy, the head of the RV division, came out to look things over.  It is not there fault that Dynamax hid it so well.  Paul thinks it might be above a bunch of sprayed on insulation. They asked me for more time so that they could call Dynamax…but we had already felt that heading back was the right thing to do…that a smaller trial run was what we should have done.  I complement them on their effort…and oh, by the way…they only charged us $60.  When I showed that to Marcia, she could not believe it….she thought for sure we had blown a couple hundred bucks. And remember, we stayed the night…that could have cost $30-$40 at an RV park!

 

So essentially, it is time to punt….time to regroup.  As many of you know, we bought this motorhome a year ago after our previous class C burned up in a storage fire in Tarpon Springs.  We thought after a year we would be ready to travel the 8,000 mile round trip from California to Alaska and back.  But since we left in mid April from Florida, just too many things show us that we are just not there yet.  We need to have a few good trial runs with everything working right…and we are not there yet.

I will be planning a few minor trips…if they go well, we will plan a major trip with options to call it off if needed.  For instance, the major trip might be to go to Utah to visit Stephanie.  From there, if things go well, we can go up to the Tetons, and Yellowstone again, or return back to Sacramento if needed.  “If” things are going well at the Tetons and Yellowstone, we can head up to Glacier, and go over the boarder…and if it is still going well, go to Banff and Jasper.  If things are still going well, we might even head over to Hyder and see the bears feed…and feel good because we did make it to a small portion of Alaska.  After that, we would head south…spend time in Washington…and then back to Sacramento.  I think “that”, if we decide to do that, would be the extent of our travels this year.  But there are other major trips we can do without going too far from Sacramento…and that is also an option. First thing first…get the battery situation fixed…and a few other minor items too.  Then we will decide what to do from there.

 

 

So here we are near Roseburg Oregon, at a Passport America park for two nights at $12 per night.  It is a lovely little RV park and Golf Course along a river.  It is called, On the River Golf and RV Resort.  We plan to be here two or three nights…if a third, it is full price of $24.  We went into Roseburg tonight to a Greek Restaurant called Alexander's Greek Cuisine.  Not bad for a Greek Restaurant in a little town in Oregon, but would never make it in a Greek Community like Tarpon Springs.  We plan to stay out until Tuesday or Wednesday, see if any more bugs pop out before we make it to the safety of my sister's backyard.  Besides, we have to be sure we have time to finish off all that Moose Munch!
 

Moose Munch Galore

Someone in the family is a Moose Munch fanatic.  So as we got closer and closer to Medford today, I just couldn't help but to stop at Harry and David.  Back in 2013 we did the Harry and David tour...but I accidentally erased all those pictures, so there is no blog about that other than a mention that we went. 

Little did we know when we visited two years ago that Sandy (my sister) was such a lover of Moose Munch.  She asked us how much we bought when we got back to her house two years ago, but alas, we only had a few bars...which we gladly shared.  This time we just had to go there to get some for ourselves...to see just how good this stuff is.

LOOK at this wall!  All Moose Munch!!!!  There are all kinds of Moose Munch.

Here are just FOUR of the many flavors of Moose Munch.  These, and more, are always available.  But they also have SPECIAL Moose Munch that they offer from time to time.  That's what we got....

Of course they had samples of these special flavors, and we picked the Apricot Mango and Neapolitan Moose Munch.  Hmmm Good...we are going to save them for special moments along our trip.

Of course, Harry and David are known for many things...their fresh pears and other fruits are at the top of everyone's list...except for the LEMON LOVER.  We found these three special treats, Lemon Curd, Meyer Lemon Marmalade and Lemon Spice Chutney that Marcia just couldn't say no to.  And when I showed her the Marmalade...MEYER LEMON Marmalade, I thought she was going to open it and try it right there on the spot!

As you can see here, Harry and David has lots and lots and lots of stuff.  They opened at 9:00 am, right when we pulled into the parking lot.  At 9:30 they announced their first tour, which did not seem to have that many people there...but you really should call and get a reservation for the tour, and there is a small fee which is very worth while.  Of course, we will HAVE to stop on our way back to Sacramento from our Alaska adventure, the question is, how much Moose Munch can the motorhome carry?

The first part of the day the sky was pretty blue, but the further north we got, the more the skies were painted with clouds.

Oregon is a wonder state...lots to see as you drive through, and lots to see and do if want to stick around for awhile.  We are on a mission, a mission northward...and we spent a good bit of time twice now in Oregon.  Still lots to see, which means there will need to be another visit..but that is for another day.

As we were going along, stopping from time to time, I did readings on our coach batteries, and the motorhome's alternator is not charging the house batteries.  When the batteries were loose, I am sure there must have been some sparking going on, and we either blew a inline fuse, which I can not locate, or we blew a solenoid or a relay.  So we are at McKay Truck and RV Services in Albany.  They were along our route, could get to use first thing Friday, have free night hookups for us, and had good reviews on RV Service Reviews.  We hope to be on the road by noon...but only time will tell.  If not, we will adjust our schedule again...but this should be a fairly easy fix, one that someone with more knowledge than I could easily fix.