Day 13 - Sun River, OR - TT

Tuesday - Another travel day to Sun River, OR. We are staying at the Thousand Trails campground just for one night. This is the first TT park we ever stayed at after storing the 5th wheel there for a couple of months. We are now seeing (and consuming) $5+ gas. Diesel is almost $6. I don’t think the price is slowing people down but may have reduced the number of RVs on the road. Most of the RV parks have been pretty empty. 

Hwy 20 through eastern OR is pretty nice. Some hills and mostly two lane. The truck speed limit is 60mph, though many are going faster than that. But we can go just above that and are rarely tailgated. 

We are in the “C” loop this time. We usually opt for other loops as the sites were longer. We needed that for the class A. Setup was trivial. A couple of blocks under the front tires and connect power. We still have plenty of water in the onboard tank. 

Our SoC was down to 55% this morning and driving plus solar added about 20% by the time we arrived. We ran the generator during our lunch stop as I wanted to run the microwave. With the absorption fridge on electric, the compressor freezer, plus StarLink, we are drawing about 550watts. We could turn everything off and run the microwave but it’s easier to just start the generator. I’m not philosophically opposed to generators, as some other RVers are.

Day 12 - Fruitland, ID - HH

Monday - A relatively short travel day to the Oregon border. We had stayed in Fruitland before with the fifth wheel at an RV park behind a gas station. That was quite a while ago. This time, we are at a Harvest Host just north of Fruitland which markets flavored popcorm. They provided free samples when we checked in.

We are running the generator as it's the middle of the afternoon and 88°F on its way up to the low 90s. 

Days 10, 11 - Wendell, ID

Saturday - My day started out a bit earlier than I thought. The early morning test session didn't have enough VEs. So I jumped onto Zoom at about 6:20 AM. Kind of early. It got down into the upper 40s (°F) last night. So the furnace ended up getting used in the early morning. Nice to know that the furnace still works…

After the test sessions, we went into Twin Falls to do some shopping. We had lunch at Black Bear Diner, the first one we’ve seen in a while, then onto Fred Meyer for some groceries. Another place we haven’t seen in a while. 

When we got back to the RV, the temperature was back up to 80°F. Quite the jump from this mornings 48°F. 

Sunday - Our first stop today was Minidoka Relocation Center, one of the internment camps for those of Japanese ancestry. This is a replica of the guard tower at the entrance to the camp. 

It housed up to 8,000 people in rapidly constructed barracks surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers. 

They had one of the barracks brought back on to the site as well as a dining hall/kitchen. Each barracks would house six families of up to six individuals. 

The brother/sister team did a great job on the tour as their grandparent and parents were incarcerated here. They shared personal stories of what life was like. 

A very well done National Monument. 

We then headed for Shoshone Falls, a state park east of Twin Falls. It was pretty crowded and the line to pay the $5 entry fee took about twenty minutes. It was low water so the falls were smaller than they could be. It has been referred to as the western Niagara Falls. I think they are taller but the volume of water is but a fraction. 

After lunch, we headed back to the RV. Tomorrow is another travel day to a Harvest Host on the Idaho-Oregon border. 

Days 8, 9 - Helper, UT, and Wendell, ID

Thursday - A modest drive day to Helper, UT, which is just a bit north of Price. In the past, I spent a lot of time in Price over several years as it was one of our field sites. The temperature claims to be mid-70s but it feels warmer since there isn’t a cloud to be seen. 

After a couple days of dry camping in 90°+ temperatures, it’s nice to have shore power again. Yes, the A/C will run on battery power but only for a limited time. We did run the generator to recharge the batteries while we ran the A/C during the hottest part of the day. This morning, the batteries were at 28%. By the time we arrived, they had only charged to 35%. That’s with the absorption refrigerator and the portable chest freezer running on AC power. The DC-DC charger plus solar are only able to barely keep up. Which is fine.

Friday - We are on the road again heading through SLC into southern Idaho. Traffic was hectic from Provo to Ogden but it was pretty chill after that. The picture is north of Ogden. We filled up at a Maverick and we had difficulty maneuvering in the confined gas station due to the horrible turning radius of the E-450 chassis. We had to disconnect the Jeep to get out of the station. 

We made it to Wendell, ID, around 4:30pm. The RV park is actually attached to an RV dealership and repair shop. We are here through the weekend. The roads were very rough today.