The first leg of our journey we had an easy goal of getting from Washougal, WA to Caldwell, ID in 3 days. At just under 400 miles we thought this would be a piece of cake. Turns out that RV drive time is a heck of a lot longer then car drive time! That coupled with a couple truck problems meant we were a day late in our plans, but we never expected this to go perfectly.
Our first stop in Ione, OR was a confirmation that we were making a good choice with this life. We stayed with a Harvest Host at Blown Away Ranch - a working wheat and wind farm. As soon as we pulled up Bradley declared he wanted to go touch a windmill. As our host came out to greet us we were given a choice of camping in the yard or...underneath a windmill! We of course went with windmill and spent a beautiful evening in the middle of a field.
The view from our rig.
You can see a tiny Brad!
We learned that windmills make a groaning noise as they start up - a very eerie sound, but one we got used to really quickly.
Day 2
The next day we pulled out as soon as Bradley was off work headed to Baker City, OR. At least that was the plan! We had had an electrical problem with the truck the night before and when cleaning the battery cables realized they desperately needed replaced. After pulling into town to replace those we realized we weren't going to make Baker City before dark and adjusted our plans to just get to La Grande, OR instead.
View from the top!
Again though the truck had other ideas! As we came up the final pass into La Grande our rear fuel tank decided to give up the ghost - with less then a quarter tank left in the front. That was a nail biter to make it to the crest of the pass, where we were incredibly blessed to find a campground. Since we were on fumes at that point, and no gas station close by, we had to syphon gas - in the dark - from our rear nonworking tank into the front tank to make it into our site. Not how we imagined our second night on the road!
After a restless night we set out again the following afternoon, with a very long drive ahead of us to make up for the miles we had lost yesterday, and the added time having to stop at every gas station along the way. Our truck, Denver, only gets around 8 MPG towing, so being down to a single tank meant we were limping along. We made it to Caldwell though, unhooked the truck, and took her into a shop to get the tank replaced. We were so relieved to have actually made our goal, and even more delighted to meet up with our friends.
I always knew my friends were kind and generous people, but they went so far above and beyond helping us for the few days we were in their city. They picked us up at the shop, brought us (and our pups!) back to the house for an amazing home cooked meal, let us do laundry, and let us borrow their spare car for the weekend. Seriously, we are so blessed to have them in our lives and were overwhelmed by how much love and support they gave us.
We spent most of the weekend just relaxing in the camper. I had come down with a cold for a couple days, and while a COVID test came back negative (yay!) I still didn't want to expose people unnecessarily.
On the road again.
On Sunday we pulled out of town for another long driving day, this time to Hyrum Lake, UT. We had reservations to stay at the lake for the week while brad worked and I explored. We didn't have any hookups at this site, since the weather was predicted to be sunny we were going to give our solar a chance to see how well we could boondock. In exchange for not having hookups we had a spot that backed directly up to the lake, with steps leading down into the water.
Hyrum Lake, UT
Morning on the lake
We spent a very chill week at the lake, adjusting and getting our bearings in this new home. It had been an eventful journey to just get this far, but the joy of being out in such a beautiful part of the country that neither of us had seen or explored before made us hungry for more. At the end of the week our feet were itching to get moving again and keep this adventure moving!