Friday, July 6 – Portland, Oregon

Last night for no good reason we could glean our fridge/freezer stopped working, it was good one minute and it not the next.  It’s nearly 9pm and its getting dark but Kim with his trusty torch, I mean flashlight, goes outside to check it out.  It’s getting power and the fuses are good, so nothing obvious.  Ah dang it, let’s check it again in the morning.  I wander over to buy some ice  from the Ranger Station which advertises itself as being open until 10pm but not this night!  So we eat the icrecream (every cloud has a salted caramel lining even at 10pm), move everything else frozen to the one freezer along with the ice we still have and leave the fridge doors closed. That should do it till tomorrow.

6am – Kim vaults out of bed, thinking it is 8am and gets right into breaking camp.  The fridge stuff is still cold so we have breakfast but we don’t check the frozens ‘cos don’t want to open the door.  We are on the road by 7.45am heading inland to Portland as intended, grabbing some ice before we leave the resort.

Highway 26 inland from Seaside to Portland was in two distinctive parts, the first was very narrow, winding and in poor condition, we were bounced all over the place.  The second half was wider, smoother and a better surface. Most of the roads from the cities to the coast have a similar pattern.

Kim is excited, he gets to pick up his new Chart Plotter from Cabelas this morning and that is our first stop.

Goodness me, that's a big box!

While there we also buy a cooler, they have them on a good special and with that and some ice we could manage for a few days with no fridge if necessary.

Then we start making some phone calls about the fridge, the first RV service company can make us an appointment on the 27 July.  Umm, no thanks all the same, that won’t cut it.  Camping World, second call, bless them have a cancellation and we should rock up there around 12.30-1pm and they will book us in for a diagnosis.  We got nothing else to do so we are there a little after 11am brandishing our extended warranty paperwork should it be needed (we still have two weeks before it expires – timing is everything) and after we are booked in and paperwork completed there is a bay available so we drive into the shade and wait for Brian to come back from his parts run to take a look see.

End result is a happy one, about an hour later and only $160 lighter we have a new Electrode Spark and our fridge works – happy face : )

We pop back to Cabelas to return the cooler, don't need that no more!  Next stop Speedco, might as well get it all done in one day, Kim likes to have the coach and generator serviced every 7,500 miles rather than the suggested 15,000 miles.  So we rock up to the Speedco we researched, just 4 miles away.  When we arrive there are just two trucks in front of us and two already in the bays.  Another motorhome rolls up just after us, wait in line buddy.  We are in within probably 30 minutes and out again 30-40 minutes later – the coach has had another birthday.

Right, where too next, we have nothing booked?  AllStays shows a Premium Outlet Mall kittykat across from Walmart and there is an RV Park adjacent, ie within walking distance.  Unfortunately the Camp is full but there is ample separate parking for big rigs at the Outlets so we park up for an hour or two and go ‘window’ shopping!  The Woodburn Premium Outlets is a huge deal, 16 shoe and 44 fashion/sportswear stores including Coach, Guess, Calvin Klein, Nike and the Icebreaker store was brilliant, could have damaged the credit card several times over in there – didn’t!

The RV Park next door and another we phoned are full tonight, so we revert to our good friend Walmart - we haven’t boon-docked at all this holiday so here is our chance.  We arrive to signs plastered everywhere “No Overnight Parking – No Truck Parking” but I can count five big trucks and four motorhomes already set up to stay the night, with slides out and everything.  OK, so we are not going to ask permission, we will just park up, go and get something for dinner and turn out lights out quick.  Kim is disappointed though, the Walmart info said there was McDonalds here but nary a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder to be had.  Walmart didn’t even have his standby fried chicken tenders, but we bought some chicken and that was our dinner.  Going back over shortly to have a leisurely look around the whole store.

Homeless hanging at Walmart, wonder what they use as an address

Another car sleeper and trucks lined up behind - all staying the night.

Boondock alley, our neighbours were outside in their deck chairs when we returned from shopping.

All in all, a good day!