June 16th – We headed North-ish to Medford Oregon. Yay, we made it to another state. The weather was great for traveling! Highway 199 is all its claimed to be, Beautiful, windy, hills, drop-offs but so doable in a 43 foot RV. Take it slow!!! Lots of turn outs to allow others to pass. Whats your hurry?
We traveled 153.7 miles via 101 and US-199 North and the standard times is 3 hours and 7 minutes. It took us about 4 hours.
We took one stop at Trees of Mystery with the large Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox Babe. I had to visit my childhood memory. The second stop for potty break was right before the 15′ 1″ tunnel. Nice rest stop with RV pull through. We went inside the RV and grabbed a quick bite and potty break before we set off again.
We traveled from Elk Country Rv Resort right above Trinidad California to Marashah Arabian ranch. This is a pristine horse boarding facility and breeder. We were greeted by the daughter and shown our spot. There are only 6 spots on a gravel area towards the back of the property. The entrance into the property is a little tight, so choose your turns wisely. Once you are into the gravel area there is plenty of room for our rig to back in. What a quiet spot with full hookups. You will want to be ready for 50 amp service only.
We were told we are welcome to walk the property and visit the horses. The ranch is very clean and kept organized. Be aware there is electric wire around the horse pens incase they dont mention it…good thing I knew to keep an eye open for that as no one told us. Also, no flying kites, throwing frisbees or anything else that might spook a horse. I totally understand, but did feel a bit restricted at this location. One of the plus’s to this location was the wonderful, hard working ranch-hand Randi and her daughter Isabelle. They made this spot a better place.
We were welcomed with a beautiful double rainbow. Not much to see here after the first week I was ready to move on. But that being said it is a wonderful stop-over on our journey and a great “home base” for other activities you might have planned.
Crater Lake was one of our destinations for this stop. The weather up at Crater Lake was drizzly and windy and our photo moments were hurried due to the cold, but oh what a beautiful sight.
So then the adventures began. Lets take a moment to step back a bit. Back in Bass Lake we noticed extreme tire wear to the front passenger tire. We took it into the a shop and had them check out alignment. We rented a car for the day so that they could take their time with the truck. After having it aligned we were reassured the tire would be fine as the issue was corrected. Forward to now…
I know California roads are bad, but our drive up to Crater Lake was pretty bumpy. I thought “doesn’t anyone put money into roads anymore?”. I sped up, slowed down, but nothing changed the road condition…I shrugged it off. Once we made it to the top I decided it must not be the roads. I mentioned to Kirk that something was different. We got out in the rain and cold and checked the tires. Other then that nasty wear in the tire they were tight and appeared fine. All that we could think of was the alignment was messed up again and we needed to find out why. So the next day a company slipped us in to check the alignment. I had my first experience with taking an Uber back to the ranch while we waited. Shortly after getting back we got the call…
“Sir, there is nothing we can do to align your truck until you get new ties…the belts are completely shredded”. SAY WHAT?!!! We only had 14000 miles on those tires. I Uber back to the shop and took the truck to Discount Tires where once again we were met with “Oh my God, you drove on these?” $1,600.00 later we have a full set of 6 new tires. Back to the shop again where I waited to verify the alignment was good to go. We were spared something really bad happening coming across the 199 highway on some pretty narrow roads with steep drop offs. Now we not only have new tires all around the trailer but new truck tires…I feel much safer now. Was always a bit worried with that worn tire anyways.
June 30th – Ok, so that was our Medford adventure…heading out towards Idaho for whatever might come our way.
Call to make reservations – Marashah Arabian (541) 601-1737 (Trish)
Great Automotive shop – Custom Automotive and Alignment Phone: (541) 664-5700
I just loved reading this so much, I can only imagine such beautiful sites you must see, glad to hear your safe, enjoy your journey and please keep telling us all about it….love from the UK…xx
Loving your adventures and magnificent photography.
Having a mild heart attack over your tires! So glad you are safe and sound! We came east on that path today…averaged about 45 mph most of the way. I was in no hurry at all. However, I can’t say that about others on the road!!
Extra expense sucks but at least you were in tune with something not being right. Glad you found it when you did.