Day 15 - 17 Corvallis, OR

Friday - You couldn’t ask for nicer weather. Mid-70s with a light breeze. I played with the radio a bit this afternoon but propagation was poor on 40m. It was much better this morning. 

Propagation was pretty good in the evening. I connected to an RMS server in Lubbock, Boise, as well as several in Oregon. All on 40m.

Saturday - A morning test session to start the day with. We actually needed to run the furnace last night with a low temperature in the lower 50s (°F). Unfortunately, the forecast is for the upper 80s by the middle of next week. 

We met up with my family at a restaurant in town where we are getting food catered for one of the birthday parties for my mom. It was an Asian fusion plus gelato place. Kind of a weird combination, but the food was pretty tasty. I didn't get a chance to try out the gelato…

This afternoon, I continued to play around on 40m. Winlink worked fine with an RMS station about 300 miles NE of here, but only one FT8 contact. Very little activity.

Sunday - This morning, we met up with longtime friends for coffee and a beautiful walk along the Willamette River south of Corvallis. I had first met them in person back in July, 2010, when several of us bloggers met up in Bend, OR. That was quite a while back. Since then, we try to meet up sometime every time we are in the area. 

Day 14 - Corvallis, OR

Wednesday - We tool Hwy-20 from Bend, through Sisters, and Sweet Home to Corvallis. It was a beautiful drive though a little stressful. A Tundra pickup came around a corner about 1½ ft over the center line going way too fast. I swerved onto the shoulder just missing them. Other than that, no issues. 

We set up in the fairgrounds RV park, and since it’s Wednesday, I set up the JPC-12 antenna to try and participate in “Winlink Wednesday” again. I also tried this morning from Sun River but was unsuccessful. This evening, no problem. I even used the RMS station in Harlingen, TX. Propagation was decent. I tried FT8 on 40m as well but didn’t make any contacts. 

We visited with my mom for a bit and made arrangements to come over tomorrow. 

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.

Day 7 - Monument Valley

Wednesday - Since it’s Wednesday, I started the day by sending a Winlink Wednesday email using HF radio as the transport. Much better performance here than back in Hondo. After breakfast, we headed for Monument Valley. On the way was Forest Gump Point. The location from the movie. Quite a few people were stopped to take their selfies. We stopped but no selfie.

We then continued on to Monument Valley. The entrance fee for the scenic drive was $45 ($15 for the car plus $10 for each person). Kind of pricey. The view from the visitors center was pretty phenomenal.

There were numerous turnouts for the named formations. It was a pretty rough road and there was a stop from a Corolla buried to the frame. The sign did say no cars allowed but, obviously, it was not enforced. An overlander type pulled them out of the sand backwards to a viewpoint. They had the road blocked for about 30 minutes. 

After stopping a couple more times, we had lunch in Mexican Hat. I had a Navajo Taco. Not the best one but tasty enough. 

We then headed to Gooseneck State Park. There were several of these formations and the river was a bit over 1000’ below the viewpoint. 

Days 5 & 6 - Bluff, UT

Monday - We stayed an extra day in Farmington as we didn’t get some planned tasks done yesterday since we rode the train. After some Internet research, I discovered that the Onan 4000 generator has a manual altitude knob. It was set for sea level. I adjusted it for 5000’ and it started right up. I ran it under load for 15’ without any issue. 

Tomorrow, we head out for several days of dry camping and we really needed a functional generator. 

Tuesday - A short travel day to Sand Island Recreation Area near Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley, two things on Bridget’s bucket list. We are in a BLM campground, so no hookups of any kind. I filled up the water tank and dumped the tanks at the RV park before we left. 

We are only here for two nights so we should be good. It is warm with forecasted highs in the low 90s. I switched the refrigerator to propane and we are running the A/C right now. The Victron battery monitor says that we have ~5 hours of battery. I suspect that we’ll start up the generator around 3:30-4:00 and it’ll need to run for several hours to recharge the batteries. The solar is producing around 25amps so around half of the claimed capacity. 

Later - After setting up, we headed to Natural Bridges National Monument. The famous road, Moki Dugway, was on the route. It is a gravel road that switchbacks its way up a cliff. 

Natural Bridges was about another 30 miles north and has a few that could be seen with only a short walk. It was considerably cooler here than at the recreation area where we are camped. 

When we arrived back at the RV, it was 95°F so the generator was started to both recharge the batteries and run the microwave. The generator started easily, and the batteries were down to 68% after running the A/C for over 2 hours. We’ll see how long it takes to charge them back up. 

Durango-Silverton Railroad

Sunday - Today’s adventure required us to drive an hour into Colorado. We rode the Durango-Silverton train with a steam locomotive. It is a 3½ hour trip each way from Durango, CO, to Silverton, CO. 

Very scenic train ride. Billed as the most spectacular train trip. It’s a narrow gauge track with a top speed of 15mph. 

We were in one of the mid-level, enclosed cars and took the round trip. 

They allowed us two hours to have lunch and explore Silverton. It really reminded me of Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. The elevation is over 9300’, and it was a very nice 55°F. It’s a small town of mostly restaurants and gift shops catering to the train tourists. 

During the two hour break, they turned the train around so we will see what we missed on the ride up. I really like the mechanical sounds of the steam engine so I’m glad that Bridget was able to schedule steam. 

This is one of the best parts of the trip. 

I was obsessed with trying to get a picture of the engine from our car. 

Day 3 - Farmington, NM

Saturday - Another 270 mile travel day on some really beat up roads. New Mexico doesn’t seem to spend much on highway maintenance. Very scenic. The picture is north of Albuquerque on a secondary highway. It was in much better shape than the interstate. 

We crossed the Continental Divide at 7,380’. This is much higher than on I-10, my preferred route with the class A. Lots of hills on this route. 

At our lunch stop, I started the generator but it wouldn’t stay running. The inverter just isn’t enough to run the microwave. But, I hadn’t turned some of the other stuff off. 

Later - We arrived at the RV park at around 3:15 and all set up around 3:30. This class C is so easy to setup. The site was almost level and the quick connects on all of the water hoses makes it quick. 

We are at 5340’ elevation so it’ll be cool tonight though we may leave the A/C running all night. It got warm inside the RV last night. 

Day 2 - Vaughn, NM

Friday - An almost 300 mile travel day from Big Spring, TX. The original plan was to a large rest area near Mesa, NM, a very small community north of Roswell. But it was a no overnight parking rest area. We continued on to an RV park in Vaughn, NM. Pretty pricy for what you get. Full hookups but we really only needed electricity as it was 87°F when we arrived. 

At our lunch stop, I left the RV engine running and we were able to run the A/C. I had it turned down to 50% max power. I had turned it on about half an hour before stopping to cool down the RV. At some point, the refrigerator was switched to propane and was not running for most of the drive as I usually turn off the propane at the tank while traveling. It was 47°F by the time we arrived. Checking this needs to be on our check list. 

A drive-through in town came highly recommended by the campground host and had 4.8 stars on Yelp. The food was excellent.

Just another overnight stop. The best thing is the forecasted low of 56°F. That will be a nice change. The elevation here is almost 6000’.

Day 1 - Big Spring, TX

Thursday - We left the park at about 10am heading northwest to Big Spring, TX. Very little interstate on this route which is a good thing. I discovered a small water leak from my faucet installation. The cold water connection is dripping where the faucet connects to the Pex. I’ll try tightening it this evening. I should have installed shutoff valves on each line. 

The first part of the trip was through the hill country and very scenic. We are now going through mostly ranch land and it’s greener than the last time we were through here. 

Later - The fix for the leak was simple. Just tightening the connection. I thought that I had pinched the rubber washer. We are in an RV park so full hookups. We found that with the refrigerator, portable freezer, StarLink, and the converter running, we don’t quite have enough capacity on our Victron inverter to run the A/C. 

Tomorrow, we are continuing northwest into New Mexico. 

Only a Couple More Days!

Saturday - I adjusted the antenna for 20m while waiting for the midday test session to start. I used the NanoVNA to manually tune the JPC-12. It worked well with an SWR of almost 1.0. On 20m, I made about 40 contacts during the test session, so much more activity. 

Tuesday - I took the Ural out this morning to burn up the gas in the tank. I almost made it to Bandera before turning around. Around 5 miles from Hondo, I needed to switch to "Reserve", so the timing was just about right. The Exxon station at the east end of town had non-ethanol gas. I filled up, and it took 4.4 gallons. The bike ran much better on the way back to the park. Normally, 60-62 mph would be about all I could get, and the engine would bog down and lose power with more throttle. Not the case with the non-ethanol gas. It kept accelerating all the way up to 70 mph. This is how the Ural used to run in Alaska, where all of the gas is non-ethanol. I'm undecided on whether I should only use non-ethanol, as it is more expensive.

Yesterday's project was replacing the faucet in the class C. Wayne, another member in the park, gave us the faucet, which was brand new, still in the box, from Alliance. He said that his wife didn't care for the finish. This is a huge upgrade for the class C. We can now easily refill the Berkey without needing cups or saucepans. I needed to order a couple of fittings from Amazon, and they arrived overnight. Less than 24 hours from order to delivery.

While waiting for the midday test session, I have been running WSJT-x on 20m, making FT8 contacts. Over 35 contacts. No international contacts today, but it is the middle of the day. 

This afternoon, while waiting to see if anyone shows up for the afternoon test, I reconfigured the JPC-12 for 40m, and checked with the NanoVNA, before starting up Winlink Express and Vara HF. There was one email waiting to be downloaded, and the download speed was a blistering 382 Bytes/minute, not per second but per minute. The message was 2313 Bytes and took almost 6 minutes to download! This would make a 300 baud modem connection seem fast. I was using a station in Brownsville, TX, which was 376km away. I still think the technology is kind of cool.