Murphysranch Newmar Newbie Journal

[murphysranch]

Since we bought the 2019 Newmar Bay Star 3414 a couple of months ago, and it being its our first Class A, I thought I'd capture our inaugural trip in this journal. We did do a shakedown 2 nighter about 30 min from home, but that was nuthin', I'll tell ya, nuthin"!!!!!

Our trip is from Vancouver WA to Phoenix for the Barrett Jackson Auto show, then to Tucson, then swing back by the SF Bay area to visit my siblings and my 95 yr old mother, then home.

I'll be conversing with you and myself of the challenges, sprinkled with scenery and successes through out this journal. I hope to finish it on February 2nd when we get back home.

Launch Day: we were 2 hours late leaving. Hubs and our son, who lives with us in Mom's proverbial basement saga, could not get the Roadmaster brake system to synch up with the 2013 Caddy SRX. They tried everything, until a memory cell popped up that the Caddy had lost all its battery juice recently. Ah, that was it! Disconnect the battery, wait 1 min or so, then rehook up. Now the brake thingamagig worked properly.

Off we go, happy to be heading to sun and fun, some golf, expensive cars, old friends, and previous stomping grounds. Five hours later, after me getting a tad queasy due to hubs steering and oversteering, we arrive into Medford OR where the fog has socked in the area like a swirl of whipped cream on a Starbucks Iced White Mocha. Thank goodness for my apple maps, which allowed me to navigate the streets in order to get to the Southern OR RV Park. Oh, there is no cable, which is fine with us cus our TV doesn't work. (Visio TV won't work all the time post). But wait! It just came on, all by itself!! Cool, walk dogs in freezing fog, then off to bed.

In the morning, we woke up to 29 degrees, more fog and no water. Yep, the water line was frozen. I suddenly remembered that in our wonderful 5th wheel, we had a water pump thingie. Found that switch in this rig, and we have water!! No showers, but enough to water the dogs, brush teeth and make coffee. We hit the road, after getting some Costco gas (holey moley! It was only $2.799 a gallon!!!!!), and then to Fred Meyer (Kroger) to fill up the propane tank, also cheap at $2.70 a gallon.

I tried to post a photo of Mt Hood, and even tho my photo was portrait, it turned Mt Hood sideways when I attached it here. I'll figure it out later.

 

[murphysranch]

Hoo Boy, it was foggy alllllll day. Certainly no sight seeing as the miles went by. I noted that surely there must be some Pilot, Flying J, or Loves truck stops on I5, but none were seen.

We drove for 6 hours. I did three of them, with the last hour being dark. I've figured out how to not let the coach go left and right, all the way down the road. I have to move the steering wheel 100% of the time, in small left, right movements. This seemed to eliminate alot of the weaving back and forth in the lane. Well, except for when a semi or even a large box truck is passing us. Interestingly, the noise changes, my rig moved slightly to the right, and then is sucked in as the big truck passes. I've read that this is normal for all of us RV'ers. I did hit the rumble strip on the right four times, and the bots dots for a couple of left side drifts.

We arrived into Lodi, CA at the Flag City RV Park. Hubs remembers when we stayed there long ago, when we had the Grands. They were 8 and 5 years old then. I thnk we were traveling with them to Arkansas, where our SIL was accepted to get his Master Degree in SLP works. Our Grands are now 16 and "going to be 20 next week". Hubs remembered that where was a pond in the middle and what street we took to get to it. I never saw the pond due to the wet fog, and had to use my phone maps to get in and out of the park. I find it amazing that hubs can remember things from long ago, but not yesteday.

When we were getting ready yesterday morning, we could not get the TV to turn on. The logo appeared,but nothing happened. Like I tell the dogs sometimes "LEAVE IT!" which is what I had to say to hubs as his frustration with the dang TV grew. As we road down the road to Bakersfield, 5 hours away, I made the fateful executive decision to buy a new TV. I perused Costco, read reviews, and settled on a 50" Hisense, since this is the size that we can probably fit into the current slot for the danged gum bad TV. Note that TV is important to my hubs. Well Murph, what is important to you? ME? A good book, thriller/spy, or historical fiction, in a chair with my 'tini time plastic glass of white box wine.

We did have a meltdown at the Costco after we found a long stretch out of the way parking slots. Remember that it was Saturday in Bakersfield, and that money churning place was packed!! We have two sets of keys from the former owners. We could NOT, even with bickering, get the coach locked up. We both tried with both sets of keys. One key on each ring fit the top lock and only barely turned and supposedly locked the door. After much frustation, I said lets go. If someone wants to break in, steal the dogs and my well stocked pantry, so be it.

Got thru Costco with minimal damage. We bought the $250 TV and some bully sticks for the dogs. Little did I know that now comes the next challenge. We made it to Orange Grove RV Resort for our overnight stay. We get to pick oranges while here. For FREE!!!!

TV's, DVD's, computers, phones, battery banks, and more are increasingly challenging to me. As we all know, nothing is plug and play anymore. Firetv? Hooked up to the park internet or to our Starlink Mini? How to access the antenna feature? Wrong fitting for the park cable? Sign into Amazon?

It was again, frustrating. Remember that hubs needs his TV, so we were going to tackle and conquer this new electronic roadblock, regardling of how many strong words are muttered. We had our son on speed dial and texting, but he mentioned that we were interrupting the Niner's game. Finally I asked a simple question, which led to a brilliant idea of taking the old TV's wire and hook it into the new TV. VOILA! We had TV coming over the antenna. Lordy, what an ordeal for both of us. I got up at 6 this morning, fiddled with the TV and remote and stumbled across antenna access again, and found some local news.

After a shower and some hot coffee, we'll rumble out of here to head to Lake Tamarisk, in Desert Center CA.

Oh, I've been collecting the receipts from our Costco fill ups. Wild variations in price, especially within Calif. I'm going to log them into my journal for laugher or deep sigh reactions.

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Hoo Boy, it was foggy alllllll day. Certainly no sight seeing as the miles went by. I noted that surely there must be some Pilot, Flying J, or Loves truck stops on I5, but none were seen.

We drove for 6 hours. I did three of them, with the last hour being dark. I've figured out how to not let the coach go left and right, all the way down the road. I have to move the steering wheel 100% of the time, in small left, right movements. This seemed to eliminate alot of the weaving back and forth in the lane. Well, except for when a semi or even a large box truck is passing us. Interestingly, the noise changes, my rig moved slightly to the right, and then is sucked in as the big truck passes. I've read that this is normal for all of us RV'ers. I did hit the rumble strip on the right four times, and the bots dots for a couple of left side drifts.

We arrived into Lodi, CA at the Flag City RV Park. Hubs remembers when we stayed there long ago, when we had the Grands. They were 8 and 5 years old then. I thnk we were traveling with them to Arkansas, where our SIL was accepted to get his Master Degree in SLP works. Our Grands are now 16 and "going to be 20 next week". Hubs remembered that where was a pond in the middle and what street we took to get to it. I never saw the pond due to the wet fog, and had to use my phone maps to get in and out of the park. I find it amazing that hubs can remember things from long ago, but not yesteday.

When we were getting ready yesterday morning, we could not get the TV to turn on. The logo appeared,but nothing happened. Like I tell the dogs sometimes "LEAVE IT!" which is what I had to say to hubs as his frustration with the dang TV grew. As we road down the road to Bakersfield, 5 hours away, I made the fateful executive decision to buy a new TV. I perused Costco, read reviews, and settled on a 50" Hisense, since this is the size that we can probably fit into the current slot for the danged gum bad TV. Note that TV is important to my hubs. Well Murph, what is important to you? ME? A good book, thriller/spy, or historical fiction, in a chair with my 'tini time plastic glass of white box wine.

We did have a meltdown at the Costco after we found a long stretch out of the way parking slots. Remember that it was Saturday in Bakersfield, and that money churning place was packed!! We have two sets of keys from the former owners. We could NOT, even with bickering, get the coach locked up. We both tried with both sets of keys. One key on each ring fit the top lock and only barely turned and supposedly locked the door. After much frustation, I said lets go. If someone wants to break in, steal the dogs and my well stocked pantry, so be it.

Got thru Costco with minimal damage. We bought the $250 TV and some bully sticks for the dogs. Little did I know that now comes the next challenge. We made it to Orange Grove RV Resort for our overnight stay. We get to pick oranges while here. For FREE!!!!

TV's, DVD's, computers, phones, battery banks, and more are increasingly challenging to me. As we all know, nothing is plug and play anymore. Firetv? Hooked up to the park internet or to our Starlink Mini? How to access the antenna feature? Wrong fitting for the park cable? Sign into Amazon?

It was again, frustrating. Remember that hubs needs his TV, so we were going to tackle and conquer this new electronic roadblock, regardling of how many strong words are muttered. We had our son on speed dial and texting, but he mentioned that we were interrupting the Niner's game. Finally I asked a simple question, which led to a brilliant idea of taking the old TV's wire and hook it into the new TV. VOILA! We had TV coming over the antenna. Lordy, what an ordeal for both of us. I got up at 6 this morning, fiddled with the TV and remote and stumbled across antenna access again, and found some local news.

After a shower and some hot coffee, we'll rumble out of here to head to Lake Tamarisk, in Desert Center CA.

Oh, I've been collecting the receipts from our Costco fill ups. Wild variations in price, especially within Calif. I'm going to log them into my journal for laugher or deep sigh reactions.

Orange grove is one of our favorites as well. We expect to be there early March. Leave some oranges for us please!! Fresh squeezed in the morning is pretty awesome.