We drove our coach 231 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Kelso, Washington to Plymouth, Washington, with a stop in Woodland to get a new couch and cabinets installed (more on that later).

The first leg map route, heading south:

The second leg map route, heading south then east:

Since the first leg was less than half an hour, and we weren’t sure of the situation on arrival, we drove separately, i.e. without hooking up the truck to the coach:

After the installation, we continued down I-5:

A rest area stop:

RV passing:

The I-205 bridge over the Colombia River:

Entering Portland:

Welcome to Oregon:

Driving along the Colombia Gorge:

Paladin asleep in his safe space:

A tunnel… not a huge amount of clearance there:

Gorge:

Another rest area:

Wind turbines and a barge:

Dam:

Paladin sleeping:

Wind turbines (and dirty window):

Irrigation:

I-82 bridge, crossing back into Washington:

Welcome to Washington:

Rail bridge:

Plymouth Park entrance:

Approaching our site:

Little did we know of what was in store for us!

We drove our coach 215 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Concrete, Washington to Kelso, Washington.

The map route, heading south:

Paladin looking a little concerned in the steps:

Rail bridge:

Do you think they’d wash a 40-foot motorhome?

Historic train:

Entering I-5:

Bridge:

Paladin:

Rest area exit:

A nice rest area dump station:

Pink car:

Bridges:

Trains:

Seattle Space Needle:

Seattle:

Seattle Convention Center:

Seaplane:

Paladin on the back of my chair:

Seattle traffic:

Green car:

Tacoma Dome:

Paladin:

Another rest area:

Lunch:

Paladin:

Gee Cee’s Truck Stop, a nice fuel option on I-5:

Kelso exit:

Arriving at the RV park:

We drove our coach 187 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Shelton, Washington to Concrete, Washington.

The map route, heading north (exact start omitted for privacy):

A narrow road:

Paladin on the dash, unusual for him when driving:

On the dash in front of Jenn isn’t acceptable, though:

Freeway:

Joining I-5:

A bridge over I-5 in Olympia, the state capitol:

Paladin on the back of my chair:

On the dash again; he seems to be getting more comfortable with seeing the traffic outside:

While driving through Tacoma, a semi truck got too close to us and clipped our mirror with theirs, shattering the upper mirror glass:

Tacoma Dome:

We stopped at a rest area for lunch:

The SeaTac northbound rest area is rather nice, with a dump station and separate RV parking:

I got out to inspect the shattered mirror; more on this in a future post (I should be able to replace just the glass):

Lunch for us and my Pokémon buddy:

(My trainer code is 5198 7224 2799 if you play; my referral code is BT9H6KRBC, if you don’t but want to start.)

Paladin on my lap:

Boeing Field:

Seattle:

The freeway goes under downtown buildings:

Paladin on my lap:

And sleeping on the back of my chair:

We stopped at another rest area, and used their dump station:

There was a handy map of rest areas and dump stations:

Our exit:

Paladin on the floor between us:

Highway:

Our destination:

We drove our coach 163 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington.

The map route, heading north:

We pulled into a maintenance area to hook up our tow bar:

Our new Sinclair Trails logo sticker is visible inside with the slide-out in:

Jenn driving; yes, she drives our coach:

Enjoying some coffee at a traffic light stop:

Sandy:

Interesting MAX light rail station:

MAX light rail:

Heading towards Seattle:

Paladin on the back of my chair:

Leaving Portland:

Leaving Oregon:

Stopping at a rest area:

Lunch:

The rest area had an RV dump station; nice:

Paladin:

Bridge:

A small plane taking off:

Driving:

Another Tiffin joining the freeway:

Paladin passing over my lap:

Gee Cee’s Truck Stop; quite nice and not busy:

Another bridge:

We have Sinclair Trails logo Yeti coffee mugs:

Sleeping Paladin:

Mayfield Lake:

Jenn driving:

Paladin asleep:

Highway 12:

Hey look, another bridge:

Hobo Inn, staying in train cars:

Day use area at Alder Lake:

Our destination, Rocky Point campground:

A rather narrow road within the campground:

We drove our coach 131 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Bend, Oregon to Lebanon, Oregon.

The map route, heading northwest:

Jenn had lunch while waiting for the dump station at the Thousand Trails park, and I had mine on the way out of the park:

Paladin sitting on the step cover:

Passing through Bend, Oregon:

An old van:

Sisters, Oregon:

Rainy forest:

Third warning sign of 11 miles of 6% downgrade:

Curves:

Roadworks:

Rough road:

River:

Rain:

After getting out of the hills, we pulled over to let people past:

Foster Lake:

Sweet Home, Oregon:

Water tower:

Some people consider it a sign of civilization if there is a Walmart present (though that is not our metric):

Our destination, Gill’s Landing RV Park:

Rail bridge:

We drove our coach 196 miles, about 4 hours of driving (plus a couple of hours of waiting), from Caldwell, Idaho to Dayville, Oregon. It felt really good to be back in Oregon!

The map route, heading northwest:

Leaving the RV park:

Roadworks:

Paladin’s expression seems to say “a travel day AGAIN?!”; we feel that; three days in a row was a bit much; we plan to avoid that in the future:

Happy enough sitting on the back of my chair:

Crossing Snake River from Idaho into Oregon:

Welcome to Oregon:

We stopped at the rest area just after entering Oregon:

Check out time of the RV park was 11:00 MDT, check in time at the next destination was 16:00 PDT (unusually late), and travel time was about 4 hours, so we needed to wait a couple of hours. So we hung out at the rest area:

We had a super-classy lunch of hotdog buns with bologna and American cheese:

Our coach and truck:

We also visited the welcome center and wandered around the rather nice grounds:

Flowering prickly pear cacti; probably the last we’ll see of those for a few months (other than the one we have in our coach):

Oregon Trail info:

Then back on the road; nice Oregon bridge artwork:

Love’s diesel and DEF stop; $6.419 for diesel is rather a lot, though we paid less, thanks to a fuel discount card:

Turn to Bend:

Barn:

We followed this haymaker for a while:

And discovered a new dash indicator: after following that farm equipment with our hazard lights on, a “Check Info” light came on the dash, with a message on the display saying “Turn Signal On”. Apparently that appears if you drive more than a mile with a turn signal on, as a reminder for people who (somehow?!) don’t notice leaving it on. The message can be dismissing by hitting a button:

Hills:

Old building:

Fun fact: there is a portion of Oregon that uses Mountain time. So we entered the Pacific time zone further into the state:

A pleasant lakeside stop:

Our coach and truck:

A picturesque lake (actually Murray Reservoir):

Our truck and coach:

Back on the highway:

Sleepy Paladin:

Nice hills:

An idyllic meadow; this is the kind of place we could see ourselves settling down one day (for at least half the year):

Log building:

Mountains:

A wagon by a viewpoint:

Prairie City:

Cute little purple flowers:

I seemed to be a barn-pics mood:

The town of John Day:

Hills and John Day River:

Welcome to Dayville, “our fossils are friendly”:

Our destination, Fish House Inn and RV Park: