Our Oregon Trip- Day 1

This year we decided to go to Oregon for a family trip, however Cameron and Cecilia could not come and of course Maddie was working in Alaska. The first time we went to Oregon was in 1993 when Maddie was a baby and Shannon was 5, just like Connor and Aubrey are this time. We again went in 1997 when Shannon was a year older than Payton is now. We stayed at some of the same places  this time as we did on both of those trips but our grandchildren are those ages instead of our children. We also went to southern Oregon in 2002. We returned in 2007 with Maddie and Kelsie to some of the same spots we visited this time and in our earlier trips though we had a series of adventures this time.

We left in the afternoon following Nate's farewell as he leaves on his mission. We hit a sever wind and rain storm at the Utah Idaho boarder. Once we got through it Nic told me to pull over as there was something dragging from the tent trailer. The light cable had come loose and was dragging on the freeway causing sparks. It wore off a side of it dragging on the road. So no trailer lights. The Durango then started to act up and it would not shift down as we got on the freeway. We traveled a couple of hours and it would not shift down. It also caused us to use gas at twice the rate of normal. We stopped west of Twin Falls and hitched the tent trailer to Nic and Shannon's vehicle to see if it would make a difference. It did not and we were wondering what to do. We continued on but rather than trying to reach a place in Oregon we decided to find a camp ground near Boise. We found a place outside of Caldwell and set up camp for the night. It had a pond which Connor and Payton were happy about and they could skip stones. It was not the normal camping experience that I had planned on though as everyone was next to each other and most trailers are peoples homes.

The next morning we decided to do two things, take the Durango to see what was wrong and also rent a car and have Nic and Shannon tow the trailer. We could let them work on the Durango all week as we would be coming back this way but we had to be at Silver Falls park this evening.We got those two things accomplished but decided to stop at WalMart and by a new trailer hitch for Nic's vehicle since it was taller and the trailer traveled tipped with the rear end near the ground. The ball of the hitch was not attached to the assembly so we had to put that one and asked in the repair shop at Wal Mart if they could do that. The said no as they did not have the tools. We didn't either but Wal Mart did have the tools, they were just selling them. We improvised and tested their tools to attach the ball.








It made a big difference and the trailer was now traveling level. We had also cleaned out the contacts on the light connection and there was enough that the tail lights on the trailer worked. We were off. Within 60 miles of Burns a tire on the tent trailer blew to shreds. Another setback. We put on the spare but it was not really good and worried about it.














We got to Burns and pulled in to create our own Les Shuab story. I had tried four places in Ogden looking to replace the tires before the trip because they were wearing uneven and no one had the tires and needed to special order them, but little Burns had two tires the right size and we had them replace the two tires on the trailer. Now we could travel feeling confident but another delay.
We pulled into Bend around 5:30 and the grand kids needed a break so we found a park for them to play in. It was near the river and a wonderful park and neighborhood.

 There was even an adult kick ball league going on.

Then it was on our way again but this time we were now crossing the Cascades with their snow covered peaks and volcano shapes.

We finally made it to camp around 9:30 that night as it was getting dark. Looking back we had several blessings happen. If we had not stayed in Caldwell we would not have been at a place to leave the Durango to get fixed and rented a car. If we had not got the new hitch the tire blowing could have damaged the tent trailer because the way it was tilted, had we not choose this route would there have been a tire place so close that had the tires. We really had been blessed that day.