Day 40 - Corvallis, OR

There isn’t a lot of choice here in Corvallis. We are at the Benton Oaks RV Park which is at the Fairground. We are in one of their “overflow” spaces for now which mean water and power for ~$30/day. It seems kinda high for what you get but it’s cheaper than Anaheim. The camp host said we should be able to move to a full hookup site tomorrow. Quite a few people are here for OSU baseball this afternoon and are leaving tomorrow.

At least in the overflow sights there aren’t any oak trees overhead dropping acorns on the roof. The drive here was uneventful and the only potential stress was the 13’ 3” underpass on 63rd Ave about a 1/4 mile from the campground. The gps said 13’ 3”, the sign on the road said 13’ 4” and the sign on the railroad trestle said 13’ 6”. Needless to say, we fit. 

Day 39 - McMinnville, OR - HH

It was a short, two-hour drive to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum which allows free RV parking for up to two nights. They asked us to park at the back of the lot. There were some school buses doing some training in the lot. But it’s a pretty big lot.

We had stopped here before with the Ural and it was around 100°F. Today, it’s a very comfortable 70°F. The displays have changed some since 2015 but the major pieces such as the Spruce Goose and the SR-71 are the same. The two Urals that were part of a WWII display are gone as is the WWII display.

There are three large buildings that are part of the museum plus a fourth building with an indoor water park. One of the buildings has an IMAX theatre and I watched Fighter Pilot. A movie about fighter pilot training at Nellis AFB.

This is the Spruce Goose. An wooden, amphibious plane made by Howard Hughes and only made one short flight. It used to be in Long Beach next to the Queen Mary but was disassembled and moved here. Some of the original craftsmen that originally built the plane participated in its reassembly.

The space museum not only had spacecraft and rocket engines but also some planes that were part of the space program such as this engineering model of the X-15, a supersonic experimental plane. It’s on the “space” side as the X-15 altitude record is 354,200 ft which is considered as space.

Both sides of the museum were very well done though admission is kind of steep at $27. There is no requirement to purchase admission in exchange for the free RV parking but I was looking forward to visiting here again.

This is the SR-71. The supersonic spy plane. I saw one on the ground at Edwards Air Force Base where it was being refueled between missions. This was back in the mid-70s when it was still being used. We were told that it used so much fuel getting off the ground that it needed to be refueled soon after takeoff. It has two J58 turbojet engines each generating 32,500 lbs of thrust burning 8,000 gallons of fuel per hour.

BTW, used the Instant Pot to make brown rice (22 min) and the induction burner for salmon in garlic and brown butter. Used only 4% of the batteries. 

Day 38 - Seaside, OR - TT

We finally have a non-rainy day so here is a shot of our campsite at Seaside RV Resort, which is another Thousand Trails park. The site is pretty long as I can park the truck behind the trailer as well. The indoor pool also has a kid’s jacuzzi in addition to the adult one though the jets don’t work very well in either one. And, there is a dry sauna that is pretty nice. The park is not crowded at least not where we are. There are two sides to the park, north and south, and we are on the less popular south side. The swimming pool and 50-amp power make the north campground more popular.

We are checking out tomorrow and headed for another Harvest Host site. So I completed some chores today getting ready for dry camping such as draining the tanks and filling the fresh water tank. After the Harvest Host overnight, we will be heading into Corvallis for a week. And will be at least two nights in their overflow area. All of the parks in Oregon seem to be full of long-term residents who are there for the winter. And the Benton Oaks RV Park in Corvallis  isn’t any different. 

Day 37 - Seaside, OR - TT

This morning, we met up with Chris G who contacted us through the RVillage.com website. They are on their way to Alaska this summer and had some questions. There is a lot of information online and some FB groups dedicated to travel to Alaska this Summer. But, many people seem to over glamorize their trip in an attempt to turn it into an adventure. We answered them and suggested stops along the way, things to see and places to go. They have a relatively new 40’ diesel pusher and they’re towing a Jeep. A pretty good combination. After several hours of talking we told them to feel free and contact us anytime and definitely when they get to Fairbanks.

Other than that, it was a slow, no-picture day.