Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
We visited Disneyland for our pre-Christmas holiday lights this year. The blog post about that visit won’t be published until March, but here’s a seasonal sneak peek:
Author: David
Sutherlin/Umpqua Valley KOA Holiday
We stayed at Sutherlin/Umpqua Valley KOA Holiday in Sutherlin, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A KOA in an old drive-in movie theater, which still shows movies on the projection screen, and provided a viewing area with chairs and fire pits. The movie sound is played out loud, and can be tuned on a radio station for people who want to watch from inside their RV (for the sites that have a view of the screen, as ours did).
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-10-17
- Check out: 2025-10-19
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Partly sunny
- High temps 62-70°F, lows 45-47°F
- Little wind, gusts to 13 MPH
Noise:
- Little road noise
- No train horn noise
- Little neighbor noise
- Movie noise in evening
Site:
- #86, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Mostly level site; a little high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 55 feet long by 12 feet wide
- 12 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Fence between sites
- Patio table and chairs
- Bench seat
- Propane fire pit
- A tall tree
- Clean site
- Elevation 540 feet, front facing north
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 40 PSI water, conveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- RoamLink: 40-52 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 140 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 60-260 Mbps down, 14-16 Mbps up, 40 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: not measured
- Starlink: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Movie screen
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Hey look, the driver-side slide out for the first time in four months!
A nice fenced patio:
Convenient utilities:
Movie screen, viewed from our site:
Other sites:
The movies were a bit noisy, but over before quiet time, and a fun novelty. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Eugene to Sutherlin, Oregon motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, just 68 miles from Eugene to Sutherlin, Oregon.
Travel from Eugene to Sutherlin, Oregon
We drove our coach just 68 miles, about one hour of driving, from Eugene to Sutherlin, Oregon.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Leaving Oregon Motorcoach Center:
Joining I-5 South:
A nasty parallel-parking rest area with no real space for us:
Trees starting to turn:
Arriving at a KOA:
Check in:
Drive-in movie screen:
Our site:
Oregon Motorcoach Center repair of hydraulic slide-out
We took our coach to the Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon, for them to fix a few issues, most importantly the broken hydraulic slide-out.
Our front driver-side slide-out got stuck back in mid-June, when we were staying in Youngstown, New York. You can read about our adventures of diagnosing the issue and manually pushing the slide in. In late July we also went to HWH in Moscow, Iowa, the manufacturer of the hydraulic piston, but while they weren’t willing to do the repair, they did sell us the needed part.
All the way across the other side of the country from New York, and many month later in mid-October, the Oregon Motorcoach Center (OMC) was able to fix the issue.
We dropped our coach off at OMC, and stayed (with Paladin) in a nearby hotel. A hassle, but much nicer than hanging out in their waiting room. When they said they’d need a bit longer to fix all of the issues, we headed down to Ashland, where we had planned to camp, and stayed in another hotel.
Here’s the piston we got from HWH:
Disconnected hoses, which I labeled to enable to the techs to reconnect:
Here’s our coach in the OMC workshop:
HWH had thought that we’d have to drop the fuel tank in order to replace the piston, but OMC determined that that wouldn’t be feasible, due to the shape of the tank and how it was positioned above the front axle. But they came up with an alternative (and better) solution: they removed our house batteries, and cut a hole in the back of that compartment, and were able to reach the piston that way. They added a plate over the hole when they finished.
Since they had to remove the batteries, they plugged our fridge directly to the shop electricity; very nice of them:
The working slide when we picked up our coach:
So nice to have that working again! Much bigger inside now.
While there, they also replaced the entry step motor, as previously mentioned, and replaced a connector in one of the headlights. Both good fixes, but the slide was the big one. Four months without that working was frustrating, but at least we were still able to travel.
Video: Fairview to Eugene, Oregon motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 133 miles from Fairview to Eugene, Oregon.
Travel from Fairview to Eugene, Oregon
We drove our coach 133 miles, about two hours of driving, from Fairview to Eugene, Oregon.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
I-84 West:
Heading to I-205 South:
Interesting paint job:
I-5 South:
Shredded tire on the freeway:
Willamette River:
Rest area:
Paladin getting off the dash as we get back on the freeway:
Triple trailer:
Exit to Eugene:
RVs by the river:
Arriving at the Oregon Motorcoach Center:
Portland Fairview RV Park
We stayed at Portland Fairview RV Park in Fairview, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our second stay here; this was actually the first campground we stayed in with our coach. Not the best place, but convenient to Portland.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-10-04
- Check out: 2025-10-08
- 4 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 67-75°F, lows 47-53°F
- Little wind, gusts to 17 MPH
Noise:
- Significant road noise
- Occasional train noise, but no horn
- Frequent plane noise (in the flight path of PDX)
- Little neighbor noise
Site:
- #38, pull-through, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 45 feet long by 10 feet wide, plus 24 feet long by 12 feet wide car park
- 16 feet to neighbor on both sides
- Just grass between sites
- Picnic table
- One tall tree
- Mostly clean site
- Elevation 80 feet, front facing NE
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located; lost power for about 15 minutes one day
- 55 PSI water, though the pressure dropped significantly when in use; conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 50-80 Mbps down, 8-13 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- RoamLink: 12 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 133 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 14-55 Mbps down, 0.05-4 Mbps up, 40-90 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Not the best park around, but convenient
Usually, when we make our annual trip through Portland, we stay at Mt Hood, but this time we had errands to do in town, so we stayed here for a couple of days. It’s still not the best park we’ve ever stayed in, though. The site was just barely big enough for our motorhome, and we had to squeeze our tow vehicle in the space alongside, but it was pretty close to the neighboring site. The roads are still uncomfortably narrow, and weeds are popping up through the cracks in the concrete. Maintenance is still an issue, as is the road and train noise. If I want a quiet place in the woods, I’ll still return to Mt Hood, but if I need to be nearer to the city, this will have to do because for $20/night (as part of the Thousand Trails Collection), you can’t really beat the value. We camped at Portland Fairview RV Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Very Portland: by the garbage dumpster was these bins, presumably for people to reuse items:
Looking towards the office and entrance:
Other sites:
Not a great park, but convenient when in the Portland area, so we’d stay here again.
Video: Shelton, Washington to Fairview, Oregon motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 158 miles from Shelton, Washington to Fairview, Oregon.
Travel from Shelton, Washington to Fairview, Oregon
We drove our coach 158 miles, about three hours of driving, from Shelton, Washington to Fairview, Oregon.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Bay:
John Prairie Road:
Electrical work:
I-5 South:
Rest area:
Cowlitz River:
Train:
I-205 South:
Entering Oregon:
Entering Portland:
Welcome to Oregon:
I-84 East:
Exit to Fairview:
Arriving at Portland Fairview RV Park:
