They Say it Comes in Threes

Rogue River, Oregon
Valley of the Rogue State Park

 

Just when we thought we were back on the road, all fixed... we heard yet another noise.  This time coming from the truck brakes.  Let me back up a bit.  While we were at the Valley of the Rouge, Steve replaced one of the front truck brakes because it was making a terrible noise.  He'd have done the other but it was very hot out and we needed to vacate our spot so he was going to do it when we got to our next campground.  Ok, so off we headed to Bullards Beach State Park to spend a few days with Curt and Glenda. We decided to pull over at a rest stop to see if we could overnight there.  Nope.  So we headed back into Valley of the Rouge for one more night.  While we were in the Rest Stop I walked around the trailer to look at things like I always do, and I noticed the trailer tires seemed further apart than normal.  Steve looked at them and found the reason was a broken leaf spring. Ug.  Again?!

This guy pulled in next to us.  Nice set up.  He's got all his toys with him.

Steve researched around and found a highly recommended RV suspension shop just a few miles away in Grants Pass.  Perfect as it's right along the way and they'd be happy to fit us right in.  Boo because we had to cancel our visit with Curt and Glenda once again.  Now we won't be able to see them as they'll be heading up towards Canada.  Oh well, there's Arizona next January.  While here Steve replaced the other truck brake.

As we drove into Grants Pass we noticed all these cute bears along the streets and businesses decorated differently.

   

We dropped our truck off at Henderson's for our suspension work.  They were very nice and set us up next to their building with electric and water if we needed it.

It was going to take a few days to get the work done so we headed out to explore the city a little and find the library so Steve could finish up some work.

 

Pretty flowers all around the library. While I walked Hurley around I had been getting messages from my friends that I used to be neighbors with growing up.  I knew their mom had moved to Grants Pass years ago and they gave me her phone number to look her up.  We made plans to meet her for lunch the next day.  Right after that I had heard from Dave and Diane that they were still in the area and if we wanted to meet up for dinner.  Of course!

We met that night at The Laughing Clam.  It had a very nice atmosphere and the food was great!  I had a spicy Jambalaya that I loved!  We had a nice time as usual catching up with these two.  We knew we'd be criss crossing each other this summer and it was nice to meet up with them right off the bat.  What a nice town Grants Pass is.  Cute shops and eateries, nothing run down.  Very quaint.

The next day we met my old neighbor, Barbara, for lunch.  It's been 25 years since I saw her last.  My youngest was just born.  Now, I'm the age she was, then.  Funny.  We ate at the Taprock Grill right on the river.  The views were beautiful and if it were a bit warmer we'd have eaten out on the deck.

We had a great time catching up with all the kids, grandkids, old neighbors and families.  It was a great time and I'm glad we were able to visit with her.  Thank you for a wonderful lunch Barbara!

We had some time left so we walked through the area and came upon a geocache hidden by this caveman.  Steve didn't have a club, but pretty good pose!

 

We didn't get back in time to see our rig getting finished with the alignment. They also weighed it.  The alignment was way off so it's good to know that after all the repairs and some simple upgrades it's all back to perfect! For now anyways.  Now I'm not so sure the weights were accurate as it said we were 1200 lbs underweight.  Steve was so excited!  We know that's not accurate though and so we're still hoping to find a place to get it more accurately weighed.  They ended up replacing the leaf spring, replaced all the wet bolts and did a complete tune-up of the suspension system, lubing and adjusting everything to specs.

 

Steve was underneath checking out the fixes and I thought it reminded me of something.....

We thanked the folks at Henderson's who really did a great job getting us parts, putting us up and getting us back on the road as soon as possible.  They also worked with the warranty company.  If you're on the area of Grants Pass and need some suspension work done, give them a call!  We highly recommend them and might even stop back by on our way home for some more work.

We stopped at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for the night in Roseburg.  It was clean and we didn't bother to unhitch since we'd leave in the morning.

 

Umpqua Riverfront RV Park & Marina is where we were headed next to spend the next 2 weeks with my brother, sister and some friends.  We are hoping the salmon are running and plan to do a lot of fishing.  My brother brought both of his boats.  Even Pam & Red joined us!

My brother and sister-in-law's rig.

Us.

It's a small park with a  strip of pull-throughs under tall shady trees right along the Umpqua River. The new owners have done a great job really fine tuning this place and making it a first class place to be along the river.  It was $35 for FHU.  The owner will bring you ice to your site and almost anything else you need.  He'll lend out paddles and life preservers too.

The weather was beautiful and mostly sunny once the foggy clouds went away in the morning.

The nine of us are looking forward to some great fishing, kayaking, wine tasting and some hiking too.

 We'll see if we end up with a freezer full of fresh caught Salmon.