Hello from California! This is our last big state to enjoy before we officially head back East, and we’re so excited to be here. We are glad to be out of the elevation and back down at near sea level again. Of course, today was an interesting day, as always.
We left Diamond Lake RV resort. That place had an ideal location for good pizza with a view and visiting an incredible national park, but otherwise it was just strange. It is so much extra work for us when the sites are not level, and this one was really challenging. Most of the time, we can just drop our auto-levelers and everything is great. (yet another glamping feature that Livvy has). However, when a site isn’t level we have to drive Livvy onto these leveling pads, often stacked like a pyramid, under the tires that need to be lifted. Then we also place pads underneath our auto-levelers for extra support. My spatial relations really suck so it is the one job where I just let Rick do the work. Otherwise, we would be there all day long trying to let me get things lined up. Oh well, you have to let those with the talent use it and those who don’t go do something else.
There were some other creepy things about this place, including strangely placed utilities which made everything challenging. Can you tell that we’ve become accustomed to a well-managed and functionally productive RV park? Plus, it had all hand painted signs. It looked a little bit like an unprofessional version of signs from Frontierland, or signs you would see in a horror movie. We got away unscathed, and the place was filled with nice National Park visitors just like us. It was just outdated. Anyhow, it felt good to get on the road today.
We were on a major highway and about to exit for the Redwoods Highway, which was the last 70ish miles of our journey through the mountains. It was about time to switch drivers (Karen to Rick) so we were ready to make a stop for gas when…
yep, you guessed it.
The sad sound of a tire quickly losing air.
The good news: we were in the lovely town of Grants Pass, OR. This was by far the most populated place in a 3.5 hour drive today. Rick found a tire shop, Pomp’s, that was only a mile away. And so, off we went to Pomp’s.
Pomp’s does mostly commercial/fleet work, but they were so kind to help us out right away. While we suspected it to be the same issue on the same tire, they had us pull it in to take a look. We had to step out while they had it up on the jacks.
Good news: they would fix it for us.
Bad news: this time we actually cut the tire and needed a new tire.
Bad news: they didn’t have this tire.
Good news: they found one and were willing to drive to go get it, and bring it back to fix it for us today. Plus they were willing to put the “fancy” valve stem back on it (which the previous chain tire shop couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t know how to do)
There are good people everywhere. They got us safe so that we could sit in the RV and have lunch while he went to get the tire (about an hour) and then hung out while they fixed it. Under $250 bucks and a couple of hours, and we were on our way. We are so grateful!
After finishing our time at Pomp’s (an outstanding google review has been submitted), gas and a Walmart stop, we were ready to go.
The remaining part of the drive was really beautiful.
Our newest RV park is the lovely Redwood Meadows RV resort. We have a level site, a few amenities just outside the park, and are a stone’s throw from the northern area of Redwoods National/State Parks. We are so excited to begin exploring in the morning, including another visit to the Pacific Ocean.
For now, we sit relaxing outside under some lovely trees providing late afternoon shade. It’s quite perfect. Our “next door neighbor” has a cat on a harness outside and Daisy wants to make friends. It’s so cute, but I’m not going to terrorize that sweet kitty with Daisy’s curiosity.
Leave a Reply