On the Road Again: July 2009

We Got It--Arrived at the Phoenix Airport Wednesday July 8Th and were met there by an employee of Arizona RV Center who took us out to Mesa AZ,a 20 minute drive, where our Motor home was parked. The temperature when we arrived in Mesa was 112 degrees, quite a change from the 65 degrees when we left Vancouver Island. It felt like we were standing in front of a open oven door. After meeting the staff we now,for the first time physically, had a look at the motor home we had purchased-up until now we had relied on the pictures and information that Arizona RV Center had provided.

It takes a giant leap of faith to make a purchase of this size on e-bay, but I had been watching Barry-the owner- and his listings for two years and was impressed by the Quality of the RVs he was selling and the fact that he was able to maintain a 100% rating over 8 years-no small feat when dealing with the buying public.
After inspecting the RV we found a couple of small problems that were quickly fixed to our satisfaction.--allow me to point out, at this time, that my wife and I have never had a RV and were completely ignorant of all the aspects of operating a motor home of this size. I cannot say enough about the staff at Arizona RV--They treated us with kindness making us feel at home, taking time to answer all our questions and even provided us with a vehicle to use during our two day stay in Arizona. Thanks to Eric, Jeff, Sandra and Amber for going the extra mile. Any Business is only as good as it's employees and Arizona RVs success is in large part due to the good work you do.

Friday morning ,led by Walter,we hit the road heading to the California border where we had papers notarized, thus avoiding AZ.taxes, and from there we were on our own. When I was younger I drove tractor trailer and other large trucks so did not have a problem driving the 35 ft motor home.The one thing that caused me some problem initially was the vortex that is created when a large truck passes but I got used to that quickly. Crossing the desert in the heat was Quite a experience, it was so hot the air conditioners could hardly keep up and I swear you could make hot coffee out of the cold water storage tank. The first night we made it as far as The Four Corners where we thankfully found a Rv park and stayed for the night.

Saturday morning we cut over to the I5 and headed north to Oregon. The roads in southern California, are for the most part ,terrible- full of bumps and potholes that at times you swear will shake you to pieces-Stockton area is the worst. Saturday night we decided to stay in a rest area with a bunch of semi-trailers. The price is right but it was hard to get a good nights sleep with all the diesel motors running . Needless to say we were up early-before dawn actually.

Sunday we headed north having breakfast at The Black Bear cafe near Mount Shasta-a beautiful place nestled in the mountains.We had thought we would make it north of Portland Sunday night leaving a short hop to the border Monday but the Gremlins popped up about 80 miles south. The north bound lanes of the I5 came to a complete halt. We were unaware that there was a major accident 50 miles or so up the highway and crept along for 3 hours in a downpour of rain. With the highway not cleared and the rain we decided to take an exit off the freeway and try to find a RV park. Having found a park we hooked up and ate supper , after looking at a map we found that we still had 375 miles to cover to reach the border-The export office at the border closes at 3:pm so we hit the sack with the thought of getting up early.

Monday morning up at 3:am and jacks up away we go. Got to Portland around 6 am--let me tell you something about Portland-entering the city in a downpour of rain you are confronted with a seemingly unending array of twisting tunnels,bridges,Hills and what seems like a subterranean rats nest thank God we missed rush hours . having cleared Portland we had a smooth trip to the border where after a couple of hours we cleared customs and entered Canada-short trip to the ferry and 3 hours later were in Nanaimo reaching home at 8PM--What a trip