A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 158 miles from Shelton, Washington to Fairview, Oregon.
Author: David
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:
Entry steps stuck
Our entry steps have been dodgy for a while, making horrible noises when extending and retracting, and sometimes not fully retracting until they are nudged. I tried cleaning the tracks and lubricating several times, and even got a couple of techs to look at it, without improvement.
Recently, it’s been getting worse, where it sometimes wouldn’t move at all until I tapped the motor with a hammer (a recommended workaround). So it was clearly on its last legs.
When departing our home base, it did this again. I had bought a replacement motor, but it was too awkward for me to get to it in order to replace it, due to a cover plate partly over the motor. We had a service appointment coming up, so I figured I’d get them to replace it for me. I managed to get the steps to retract by tapping the motor, and rather than risk them getting stuck out again, I disconnected the motor, and secured the steps in place with a ratchet strap (probably not necessary, since the motor was still engaged with the step gearbox, but better safe than sorry).
Here’s the step motor:
I disconnected the motor, a simple plug:
And added a ratchet strap to hold the step in, just in case:
In order to get in and out in the meantime, I had also ordered some metal and wooden steps, which we used at our next campsite:
The good news is that the aforementioned service place, the Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon, was later able to replace the step motor, and it is now working like new again. It’s certainly nice to have this issue resolved.
Baseball: Mariners vs Dodgers again
The second of the two games we attended of the Seattle Mariners vs Los Angeles Dodgers at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Mister Softee:
Ice cream nachos:
View from our seats:
Play ball:
Sushi and pizza:
Clayton Kershaw retiring:
Removing the rubber for Kershaw:
Baseball: Mariners vs Dodgers
We stayed a night in a Seattle hotel and attended two games of the Seattle Mariners vs Los Angeles Dodgers at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Edgar’s Cantina:
Nachos:
Grasshoppers:
Jenn with a grasshopper (yes, we ate several; tastes kinda nutty):
Selfie from our seats (mustaches were a meme with the team, with most players growing them; Jenn got some, but forgot them at home, and a nice lady at the entrance gate gave her one):
View from our seats:
Jenn with her shiny jacket:
The Mariner Moose:
Seize the Moment:
Play ball:
The ballpark captures photos and GIFs of everyone’s seats:
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Banana Ball: Savannah Bananas vs The Firefighters
We attended a Banana Ball game of the Savannah Bananas vs The Firefighters, playing at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.
Merch:
Pre-show:
T-Mo:
Banana Ball World Tour:
The mascot Split tossing a football with the crowd:
Fan Challenger:
Balancing a ladder:
Man-nanas:
Bananas:
Firefighters:
Play ball:
World’s Slowest Race:
Female pitcher:
Dancing ump:
A proposal disguised as a game:
Closing the roof after the game:
Baseball: Tacoma Rainiers vs Reno Aces
We attended a game of the Tacoma Rainiers vs the Reno Aces at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, along with Jenn’s father, plus her brothers and their significant others.
An interactive map of the stadium and environs; there are two separate entrances and parking lots, and if you go out the wrong exit, it seems that you have to walk around the outfield to get back to your car (ask me how I know):
View from our seats:
Flyover:
The mascot, Rhubarb:
Play ball:
Exploring the ballpark:
Rhubarb:
The game didn’t go great for the Rainiers:
But it was nice to hang out with fam.
Back from New Zealand
Speaking of home, a real-time update: we are back in the US from our trip to New Zealand. It was nice to see my family, and explore more of the country.
We took lots of photos during our trip, of course, so I plan to do blog posts about it. Probably one post for each day, since most days were traveling from one location to another, with lots of sightseeing along the way.
We still have a couple of months backlog of posts about our travels before the trip, plus the traditional yearly summary posts, so look for the NZ posts around the end of January.
Our Washington home
We stayed for a month at our official domicile, aka Mom’s house, in Shelton, Washington.
It was good to be home! An opportunity to catch up on dentists, doctors, optometrists, etc, and of course with family.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-09-04
- Check out: 2025-10-04
- 30 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy, rain
- High temps ranging between 70-82°F, lows around 57-60°F
- Wind gusts to 20 MPH in the area, though much less when sheltered amongst trees
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Occasional neighbor noise
Site:
- Front in, concrete in front, gravel in back
- Disconnected toad; parked next to coach
- Fairly level; high in front; used hydraulic leveling
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, located on house in front of coach, used extension cord
- 40 PSI water from the house
- No sewer hookup; used macerator and hose to dump into house septic system
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 80-230 Mbps down, 10-40 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- RoamLink: 13 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 160-215 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 10 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 40 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- House Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- House
Our coach parked in front of the house, with our Starlink dish on the flagpole, to peek over the trees:
Using the macerator to dump our waste tanks (as previously documented):
The other end of that 200 feet of hose goes into septic tank:
This time I kept the hose in place, with foam weather stripping sealing the gaps on either side of the hose; this let me just turn on the macerator and open the tank valves to dump, without having to go around to the septic tank to open it, insert the hose, then remove the hose and re-close it after each time:
The RV electrical outlet box we added on the house last year had an issue, so we had it replaced with a better one, so were able to have 50 amp power:
Nice to have full hookups at home.
While there, we cooked some pizzas in my Ooni pizza oven, which had been stored in our shed:
I decided to take the pizza oven with us, as we’ll be staying in one place for even longer early next year.
It was good to be home!