We had a nice extended stay at the Elks Lodge in Keizer,
Oregon. Initially, we’d planned for five nights but ended up staying two weeks!
The drive over (as in “over the mountains”) from Redmond to
the Salem area was one that we have done before. Local roads got us back to
OR-126 heading west over the Cascades, and then we picked up OR-22 down into
Salem. After a quick few exits north on I-5, we exited at Salem Parkway and
backtracked southwest a bit before making the turn toward the Keizer Elks
Lodge.
Keizer is a suburb of Salem to the north, although
everything tends to run together and you wouldn’t really know if you missed the
“Welcome to” signs. During a previous trip, we stayed at the Salem Elks Lodge,
which is on the south side near the airport. Several people had suggested this
Lodge as an alternative, since it has more spaces and full hook-ups. We were
pleased to see that they have recently upgraded their electrical system so that
all 47 sites (which is fairly large for a Lodge park) now have 50 Amp service.
Our “big rig” is much happier with 50 Amps.
We didn’t have much of a plan for our initial stay, so we
were happily surprised when Geri’s great-nephew, Michael, suggested that they
make a day trip down from Washington. He packed his boys, Brenden and Cameron,
and his friend Erynn with her three girls in a minivan and hit the road. We
popped a Tri-Tip on the grill and had a spread of beef and sides before heading
to the local stadium for a minor league baseball game. The weather was perfect
and it’s always fun to see family while we’re on the road.
The reason we had originally planned for a five-night stay
was that I’d made an appointment in Harrisburg, about 55 miles south, to have a
slide out adjustment done. This area was the west coast center of RV
manufacturing before the Great Recession nearly wiped the industry out. A lot
of the people who used to build motorhomes, ours included, have opened up small
shops doing repairs and upgrades, making this a good place to have things
fixed. We have one slide that was slightly off, just rubbing on the seal when
retracting and extending. Messing up the seals is, as you can imagine, a bad
thing if you like to keep the weather outside. Eric at Elite RV Repair and
Renovation knew exactly what to do and we were in and out of his shop in a
little over an hour.
Before we made the short trip down to Harrisburg, we talked
things over and decided to extend our stay. I paid for the extra days and we
left the Rover and “stuff” behind while we were away for the short time.
I had a couple of things in mind for “day trips” while we
were in the Salem area. First, we’ve never stopped in Tillamook along the coast
for cheese and ice cream and, second, The Willamette Valley is home to most of
Oregon’s wineries. Cheese and wine means this place has our name written all
over it! So, in between bouts of extreme relaxation, we made two day trips.
The drive out to Tillamook took quite a bit longer than I
had intended but we took the “scenic route”. We had lunch at one cheese company
(Blue Heron) and dessert – ice cream – at the other (Tillamook). Blue Heron
specializes in Brie and has a small sandwich operation inside their gift shop.
Tillamook is big in Cheddar and ice creams, and is much larger in scale. Put a
check mark on the to-do list.
We didn’t get to as many wineries as I would have liked, but
our budget thanked me for that (I’m a sucker for buying wine after tasting). We
did two wineries one afternoon, Eola Hills and Chateau Bianca. We made a few
purchases, so the “wine drawer” isn’t as empty. We’ll just have to come back on
our next trip through the Northwest!
We kept ourselves busy for the rest of our stay with some
shopping and grooming. This is our last “metropolis” with a Costco and all the
retail brands for a while and Oregon has no sales tax (!), so we did some
stocking up on things we’d buy anyway like paper goods and pet food/treats.
It’s nice to save almost 10% simply by avoiding the sales taxes we pay back in
Arizona. We took the pups to Petsmart for grooming and Geri found a decent
place to get her hair done (it’s actually easier now that she doesn’t color
it).
We also took advantage of the extra time to get out the
atlas and start planning our return trip to Arizona. When we left in June, we
had a broad plan and a couple of set dates to work with. I intentionally left
the return open so we could decide later on a route and stops. Well, “later”
kind of snuck up on us!
So, we now have a basic plan in place. We’ll head back to
the coast and work our way south to Petaluma, just north of San Francisco,
along US-101. We hope to catch up with our friends Wayne & Eva a couple of
times along the way as they are following a similar route with different stops.
We’re planning to try to get into Flour +
Water, one of our favorite restaurants, but that’s up in the air since
reservations are impossible and we’ll have to do the “get you name on the list”
thing.
From there, we’ll continue south to San Luis Obispo
(Thursday Night Market) and Santa Maria (steak at Jocko’s in Nipomo) before
turning east toward Las Vegas (dinner at Mario Batali’s CarneVino). From there, week-long visits at the Grand Canyon and
Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ, (side trips to more AZ wineries
near Jerome) will fill out our travel itinerary. Is anyone surprised that our
route is defined by food and wine? I hope not…
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