Our next big adventure - West Coast

Over 8500 miles, a little over 200 hours with the engine running.  Overall mpg was 7.7.  Being in the Rockies for so much of the trip hurt that number.  I tried two different tunes and found the more economical one (with little difference in power between the two up where the air is thin), and ultimately the octane of the gas in the tank determined available power going up the big hills.

I have a long list of things to fix and mod now!

I've seen many pods on the road, and have spoken to several people about coming to the forum.  Even spoke to a newbie couple in the RV section at a Wal-Mart who had many questions.  Even though they don't have a pod I suggested they pop in here for future help.  We saw a pod knockoff by Palomino yesterday, didn't get a pic.

Saw the Sequoias, didn't like that experience much with too many others around, but we were in awe of the size of the trees.  Ditto on Yosemite, we even had to skip the valley tour because traffic wasn't moving at all so we drove along the ridge road instead.  We'll need to get back to both on the off-season in future years.  We loved Jedediah Smith Campground and the Redwoods.  Completely different feel to the parks (state and national) compared to Sequia.  Minor snafu at Jedediah, the campground was full and they put us on a site that even with my skilz I could not get our camper into.  Luckily I could shoehorn it along the road in front of our campsite for the night.  The 2nd night I was able to move us to a non-reservable site that I could maneuver into although I couldn't park the truck there, still too small for both.  On to Crater Lake after that, we loved that park.

One highlight of the trip was stopping in Portland for a few hours to meet and chat with Bob and Sue (Camper Bob) and their son Russ, and get treated to the first home-cooked meal we had since leaving home.  Smoked ribs and potato salad, plus home baked pie and premium ice cream.  YUM!  I think we talked our heads off too much after almost 3 weeks stuck together in the car and camper, and Bob and Sue were our victims, so sorry!    Thanks a bunch for the hospitality.

In Seattle we did the Boeing tour which was cool, and had a late lunch in the Space Needle (worth the bucks).  Next up was Glacier Park, so sad to read that the glaciers will all be gone by 2020 after 7000 years in their current form - but this is why it was a must-see for all of us on this tour.  Today we did the Painted Canyon/Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Enchanted Highway, currently camped in a full-hookup grass lot at the end of the Highway in Regent ND.

Another highlight today was crossing into North Dakota.  I have now officially been in all 48 CONUS states!  The rest of the family can make that claim when we enter Michigan in a few days.  Oh, and we finished finding all 50 US license plates while in Glacier Park.  We've seen 2/3 of the Canadian Provinces, too.

We've had a few hiccups.  The truck mysteriously died while seeing the Sequoias.  I wasn't towing at the time and had no other problems before or since, but it just simply died.  Started right back up.  Don't know if it was vapor lock since we were at 6000 feet (rare in modern cars), or something else.  Bent one of the stabilizers on a stump at the campground at Crater Lake, but I plan on taking them all off after this trip.  We ran out of gas yesterday in the barrens of Montana.  Reminded me of west Texas.  Looked for a gas station for 150 miles and came within 10 minutes of the next town and sucked the tank dry.  I was beginning to move gas from my generator into the truck to limp into town (praying they had an *open* gas station) when a generous lady, Anne, stopped and offered to take me into town.  I have an emergency gas can for this contingency so I grabbed it and off we went (after helping her chase down her cat that escaped her car as I got in).  I was even following my "fill up at half a tank west of the Mississippi" rule.  Final issue is I have a dragging rear brake on the truck so we need to find a shop that can hopefully fix it quickly tomorrow.  Probably will suck it up and find the next Chevy dealer since they'll have all of the parts on-hand but I know it won't be cheap.  Gotta get it done, I hear it grinding at every stop and that tire is always running at a higher psi from the additional heat.

All that said we are having fun and I can't believe it will all be over on Saturday.  Not just this trip but the 4-summer quest to see all of the US.  Next year will be a cruise and then I'm thinking we'll have to start some exploring north of the border.  

So we had a great day and a half to explore the Canyon.  We were there 2 years ago but since we were driving by anyway we dropped in again.  We took the shuttle buses to the western and eastern loops which we didn't see last time.  The western (red) section is the best part IMO.  Hope to finally get to the northern rim next time, probably years from now.  Then we moved on to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  I toured the dam back in '86 and things were different this time, partly because of 9/11.  But we still got to see one of the bypass tunnels and one of the power houses where the big turbines are.  The view from our campsite of the lake was incredible, a shame we were barely there since we also spent the evening in Las Vegas (didn't put a dime into a slot, amazingly - when I was there in '86 I won $20 in a nickel slot but then my family got kicked out since I was 14 at the time...).  Must get back there some day to enjoy the view.  Next up was Disneyland yesterday.  I've been to Disneyworld several times, and we all went in '08, and my wife went during a conference last year, so we are familiar with the east coast park.  Disneyland felt smaller than the Magic Kingdom, and Downtown Disney is definitely smaller.  We liked it.  I'm no big fan of the Mousedom with the high ticket prices and overpriced food, but that said we all felt it was a nicer version compared to Orlando.  I especially liked the Star Wars additions to Tomorrowland.  Today we did a whirlwind tour of LA including seeing the Endeavour space shuttle (we've now seen 2 of the 3 space-flown shuttles and the test shuttle Enterprise), the only external shuttle tank left, one Apollo/Mercury/Gemini capsule each, a great Mexican restaurant, the Hollywood sign, steep windy roads through Hollywood Hills neighborhoods (not easy in a Suburban with a 3-foot extension on the front), a drive-through of the Walk of Fame and Beverly Hills and Marina Del Ray.  Glad I wasn't driving because the drivers in LA are worse than the east coasters...  And finally I completed a 30-year quest to finally see and touch the Pacific Ocean!  When my parents and I toured the US in '86 we came within a day's drive of the coast but didn't have the time to make it to the coast.  We were just in the Atlantic Ocean about 7 weeks ago so nice to put my feet in the sand on the other side now.  Didn't like the part of Venice Beach we went to, though.  Maybe it is nicer farther north?

I've seen multiple pods lately, but haven't had the time to knock on any doors.  Saw 2 at the Grand Canyon (one was the same one we saw in Tucamacari NM), and one here in Anaheim.

Off tomorrow to Sequoia National Park.