After a final walk on the Sacramento River Trail this morning, we hitched up, ready to head north on I-5 again. When we first got our new truck and coach, it was a challenge to line up the hitch jaws in the truck bed with the king pin.
I had a lot of practice with our Excel and the Pull-Rite hitch and had gotten pretty good at lining up, but the new Trailersaver hitch sits lower in the truck bed and has rounded jaws. Both of those factors seemed to make it really difficult for me, and I had to pull forward and try again several times each time we hitched up. Then it occurred to me that some white tape on the hitch and the pin box might help (not an original idea, of course, but not one we had used before). It was like magic. Now I'm aimed right the first time, every time. (Patting myself on the back 8-))
We had a long trip again today, but all of it was on I-5, so I thought it would be a pretty smooth trip. The line on the map was anything but smooth--a clue to the fact that we would be traveling through mountainous territory. That means plenty of uphill stretches, sharp curves, and steep downhills—hardly fun driving! But then you see Mount Shasta gleaming ahead. We stopped at a Vista Point to take this photo (one of probably zillions like it!).
We stopped at a really nice rest area just south of the Oregon border for lunch. Even though it was a bit cool and windy, we decided to eat lunch outside at one of the unusual triangular picnic tables. The view of forests and mountains was lovely.
Everywhere we go, people stop to admire and ask questions about our coach. We're proud new owners, so we're glad to answer questions--and bask in the compliments.
On to Grant’s Pass, where we stopped for groceries and diesel. That sounds simple, but when you’re towing a 38 foot fifth wheel, it’s never really simple to navigate parking lots and find parking spaces. It’s even more difficult for us because of our clearance problems, so we feel a sense of relief when we get back on the road.
It was nearly 5:00 p.m. when we arrived at Timber Valley, a SKP COOP park in Sutherlin, Oregon. We got a map with the available sites marked and set out to find one we liked and that would be reasonably easy to get into. This was our most difficult parking challenge yet, and we congratulated ourselves on a job well done when we slid into the space. It’s a big help to be able to count on the Big Foot leveling system to level the coach—no need to drag out leveling boards and try to figure out what combination will yield a reasonably level situation.
We took our evening walk around the park, exploring our new environment. One thing we saw was plenty of jackrabbits. These are not your cute little bunnies. They're large and long eared, and they obviously eat a lot of plants. We saw several plants enclosed in wire mesh cages to keep the munchers out.
After our walk we fixed some hot tea, tossed a salad, and heated up the soup I made yesterday in the slow cooker. With some toasted French bread, that made a warming and tasty meal, and the fireplace kept us warm and comfy. It's quite a bit cooler here than in Redding. We were lucky not to experience much of the rain in the forecast--just a few brief sprinkles when we were on the road. Tomorrow should be a bit warmer and dryer.
Our TV dish had no problem finding the satellites, but our Verizon internet connection is a bit slow and shaky.
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