March, 2007 Share our excitement as we prepare for the vacation of a lifetime!

The Carters, human and canine, are preparing for a motorhome trip through British Columbia, the Canadian Rockies, the Yukon and Alaska. We will be traveling in our 31-foot motorhome, a Holiday Rambler Admiral 30PDD, and towing our 4-wheel-drive Suzuki Samurai for off-road exploring. We rented a motorhome in the summer of 2002 for a tour of the National Parks of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. After 17 days and 3000 miles, we returned the rental coach and went RV shopping almost immediately. We bought a 25-foot Georgie Boy Landau and traveled frequently for the next 3½ years. Then, we decided we wanted to go to Alaska and began preparing for the trip. First, we traded up to a roomier coach, our current HR Admiral. We ordered the coach from the factory, waiting over 3 months for it to be built with our chosen options. We included a bigger AC, dual-pane windows and extra batteries, all with an eye towards this trip. We have installed solar panels and an inverter so we can camp without services anywhere along the way. Now, with 2 months remaining before departure, we are packing and organizing our supplies for a 3-month adventure through all types of terrain and climate.

California sunset

California sunset
One of our favorite camping spots on Rincon Parkway, old Route 1, between Ventura and Santa Barbara, CA

Route Map

Route Map
58-Day Alaska RV Caravan

Friday, June 8, 2007

The Columbia Gorge

We left the Monaco Service Center Friday morning, June 1 and drove about 150 miles past Portland to the Columbia River gorge. We found a spot at Ainsworth State Park near Cascade Locks. This is a small park in the woods south of the river bank – very nice facilities (full hookups for $16/night and free hot showers), green and moist and fairly cool for the gorge area, and quiet except for the ubiquitous freight trains rumbling along the tracks near the river. Saturday was Oregon State Parks Day, a free night of camping as a thank you to supporters and users.

We spent the weekend viewing waterfalls, including Horsetail Falls and Multnomah Falls, driving what remains of the historic highway along the river bank, and visiting Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery. Unfortunately, Steve caught a cold and felt progressively worse over the weekend so we didn’t take our planned drive around Mount Hood and didn’t do any hiking. We stayed an extra night at Ainsworth to give him a chance to recover and as a result, I got to take a tour of the Pendleton Woolen Mill in Washougal, WA on Monday morning. Pendleton processes scoured wool, dyes it, spins the yarn for their yardage, weaves the cloth and fulls or felts the yardage. The goods then are cut and sewn into garments, scarves, purses, etc. or sold as fabric to home sewers and for upholstery. Some of the yarn is diverted to another mill at Pendleton, OR (well east of where we were) for weaving into patterned Indian blankets and robes. I had visited this mill more than 20 years ago and welcomed the chance to take the tour again.

Monday noontime, after returning from the tour, we moved east along the gorge, crossed the Columbia River into Washington and headed north. The terrain change moving east is almost startling. Thick green forest changes to sagebrush and rock. The river is windy - it is not uncommon to see whitecaps out on the water. The area around Hood River is a favorite spot for sailboarding. Surprisingly, the eastern part of Oregon and Washington, and the central area of British Columbia, is desert!

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