Day 33 -Sunriver, OR - TT

Picture is Bridget’s 

Today, we left the fairgrounds and headed for the Thousand Trails campground in Sunriver. According to the GPS, the best route was on Hwy 58 south of Eugene. That sounded good to me. Before leaving, I was wondering if the engine would get hot towing the car over the mountains. I’m happy to report that the engine temperature never budged from 190°F for the entire trip. I’m pretty happy about that. I’m hoping the overheating on the first day was a fluke. We were in the truck lane anytime there was a steep uphill grade but other than that, we were able to maintain highway speeds with cruise control. The extra weight didn’t really make much of a difference. We’re still slow but that’s fine. As long as you aren’t the one behind us…

It took us about an hour to get the Prius on the tow dolly. I need to pick up a larger wrench as the bolt for the tire ratchets is around 1¼”. I also need to adjust the length of the straps holding the tires. When we arrived at the campground, we removed the car to make it easier to find a suitable site. Kind of wet today. The forecast is for dryer weather.

I think I’m going to rewire the right turn signal directly to the seven pin trailer connector. It works but blinks oddly compared to the rewired left signal. I’m guessing that some sort of electronic module is somewhere to isolate the trailer from the coach lights. Since the lights on the tow dolly are LED, it shouldn’t matter much as they draw minimal current. 

Day 31, 32 - Corvallis, OR

Not much to report. I have the car dolly set up for the Prius. I am disappointed to find out that the left turn signal pin doesn’t work on the seven pin trailer connector. There were a pile of wires hacked into the connector wiring as a six pin trailer connector was “installed” using Scotch-Locks. I hate those things. I pulled all of that out and will start over tomorrow running a new wire to the seven pin connector from the left turn signal unless I can identify the broken wire.

Tuesday Afternoon - This morning I picked up the rest of the stuff that I had brought down from Fairbanks. The e-bikes didn’t fit easily into the basement storage and ended up taking a lot of space. Between the e-bikes, the kayak and the empty suitcases, the basement storage is getting full (by volume not weight).

I also ran a new wire directly from the left turn signal to the seven pin trailer connector. Without a good wiring diagram, any further diagnoses would be difficult. But for now, the turn signals work like they are supposed to. I may pick up some magnetic, LED lights to put onto the back of the Prius at some time.

Tomorrow, we are heading to the Thousand Trails campground in Sunriver, OR. We plan on staying there for ten days. Travel costs this month have been through the roof between air travel and over 5,000 miles on the road. The Thousand Trail locations are prepaid for the year so we are going to take advantage of that for a bit. 

Day 30 - Salem, OR

Today was a moto-blogger meetup. Brad (Troubadour), Brandy (Trobairitz), myself, Lynne (Curvyroads), Bridget and Jerry. We met up at Marco Polo, a Chinese and Italian place  in downtown Salem. Excellent food and even better company. We arrived around 2 and didn’t get out until after 5.  I had met up with them before heading to Atlanta but Bridget hadn’t met Lynne and Jerry before nor had they met Brad and Brandy.

When we were paying the bill, I noticed that Jerry had the same brand of wallet that I’ve been using for years. Big Skinny. It turned out the five of us had the same brand. We figured that they sell them at many motorcycle shows. Bridget has never been to a motorcycle show so she didn’t have one. I thought it was unusual. 

Day 28, 29 - Corvallis, OR

I had to switch sites this morning and I think it may be a nicer site. Only 30 amp power and no sewer connection but it’s next to trees and a nice garden. On Saturday morning, Bridget arrived at the Eugene airport with two dogs and a smelly cat. It took them a bit to locate the dogs in Seattle which delayed their flight for a bit. Now time to sort and unpack all of the stuff I brought down. It has been challenging to find things in the many containers and bags.

There is an OSU football game today and this is one of the parking lots and shuttle stops for the stadium. Quite a few cars and the shuttle stop is just a few hundred feet from where we are parked. The garden is nice with grass just a few steps from the door.