Week 4: Columbus to Houston Texas

Our general travel route for this week...

... in terms of the overall trip this week we moved all of about 100 kms.

Sunday was the day for us to go out and watch James and Melissa participate in a "cowboy action shooting" event. The event was at a rural farm not far from Columbus. We arrived a little after 10:00 AM and the shooting had already started. The participants are put into groups, posses, of about 6 people each. There are six stages where each person in each posse shoots at. Each stage has differently arranged targets and different rules for shooting sequences but all stages include 10 pistol shots, 10 rifle shots and at least 4 shotgun shots. Very loud! Eye and ear protection required! It was fun to follow and watch the posse in which James and Melissa were participants, although since it was "live ammo" we, as spectators, had to stand well back so it was difficult to get real good pics but we got a few...

The event lasted about 3 hours then we sat around and enjoyed the nice lunch James ordered up for us. Afterwards we went back over to the farm where James' Mom cooked up another delicious pie. James' family are pie loving folks and they make darn good ones. Over the course of two days we feasted on Cherry Cream Cheese pie, Pecan pie, Carrot cake and Apple pie (that was just the dessert side of things)... Late Sunday afternoon James and Melissa and James' Mom and Dad (Barbara and Sam) had to get ready to head back into Houston so we retired back to our trailer to do some laundry and just veg out. Sunday evening we decided to go up the road to a Mexican grill for some munchies and wine. While there all of a sudden a horrifically loud clatter occurred and folks rushed to the windows to see marble sized hail bouncing off the pavement (and the cars). The loud clatter was the sound of the hail hitting the metal roof of the restaurant. It was loud! Anyway, it didn't last too long and no apparent damage but it did continue raining for a bit.  After the storm passed through we decided to hook up the trailer, to the car, as we planned to get up before daybreak and head into the Nissan dealer early to avoid heavy freeway commuter traffic as much as possible.

So Monday morning we were on the road before 6:30 AM and it took us a little over an hour to get to the dealer. Traffic wasn't actually as bad as we thought it could be. We found a good spot in the back of the dealer's lot to park the wee trailer then headed over to the service bay. It took several hours for the diagnosis and it wasn't pretty. Both catalytic converters were damaged as well as some rear axle links needed replacing (those should likely have been caught in our pre-trip service but what can you do). All in all it will cost north of $3K US$ so probably close to $5K C$ when all is said and done. We weighed our options...

1.  Do nothing and just drive on. Car is running fine but definitely having a drop in gas mileage. Some states have rather hefty fines (in the $10K range) for non-functioning catalytic converters. The "Check Engine Soon" light will be on all the time so if anything else goes awry we won't know about it.
2. Just go back home and deal with it there.  Lose the apartment rental in Brooklyn and the ball tickets we have already paid for.
3. Suck it up and continue on. 

We decided that if we went home, there would be a good chance that we might never to this again. So, we decided to bite the bullet, pay for the repairs and move on. The guy says they can have the parts by tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and it will  take about a full day to get the work done. Fine... So, we loaded up the wee trailer and headed over to the West Lake RV Resort. Nice big cement pads, a large pool (although the water is a bit on the warm side), excellent restrooms. Only complaint we have is that our site is right beside a slightly larger grassy spot where people think it is a good place to walk their dog even though the resort has 3 very large dog walk areas!

For the afternoon we headed into Houston (the RV park is on the north west outskirts about 20 miles from downtown) and found a California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. After lunch we stopped in and hung out with James for a bit, before he had to head off to work. then over to the Galleria, the largest mall in Houston, where, after the car news, we decided we needed something to make sure we didn't get too bummed out so we made pedicure appointments (yes for both of us) at The Spa at Nordstrom. Should be nice. For dinner we went into Central Market and bought some take away.

Tuesday it was another up early day to get to the dealer by about 8:00 AM. Dropped the car off, got a loaner and left our car in their hands. Justin, the guy who looked after us Monday was off, but had left instructions for us to have a loaner and for the work on our car to be done Tuesday.  David, Justin's replacement for the day,  figured if all went well the car should be ready some time after 3:00 PM. He gave us the keys for a brand new Altima and off we went. First stop was Starbucks for coffee then we spent a good part of the day at Rice Village (around Rice University). For lunch we stopped in at Goode Company BBQ near the village, one of the first Texas BBQ places we ever visited and still a favorite. Nice brisket, ribs and sausages with the usual potato salad and slaw.  Late afternoon and we had not had a call from the Nissan service guy so Brian calls them. GOOD GRIEF... they are still waiting on parts. So far they have done nothing on our vehicle. The guy says it will take 3-5 days to get the parts. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO "they'll be here in the morning"????? So the upshot is that we have to wait. At least the weather is decent, the RV park has an excellent pool and we have a good loaner vehicle. Brian called the RV park and extended our stay. For dinner James cooked up a pot of venison chili at their place. Delicious!!!

Wednesday was a slow day to start. Coffee followed by a swim at the RV park before heading into Houston for our pedicure appointments. Toes and feet now feel great :-)... Late afternoon we tried to track down why Brian's replacement VISA card has not arrived. Turns out the UPS guy didn't see Brian's name listed on the apartment mailbox so decided it must be the wrong place. Spent about an hour trying to find out how to get it re-delivered or if we could pick it up somewhere. UPS call center seemed to indicate that we could arrange to pick it up in Stafford, a suburb of Houston but won't know until tomorrow. He said they would call us first thing in the morning. Nice dinner with Melissa at Chuy's, a Tex-Mex kinda place, on Westheimer near their place.

Thursday was another lazy morning at the RV park. BUT... No call from UPS. It is now 6 days since the new card was requested. I, Brian, called Purolator in Canada to find out what they could do. Well... gobsmacked again!!!! UPS has requested that the package be returned to Canada AND once this request has been made it can't be undone!  So I called VISA and after about a half hour of arguing convinced the agent to cancel that one and send a new one RUSH!!!!!!! DAMMIT!!!! This time we are having it sent to the RV park (the desk person says they do this all the time) and if we are lucky it might be here on Saturday otherwise we will have to wait here through Monday... oh well... still no word on the car so it looks like we'll be here through the weekend anyway :-(  OH... later in the afternoon, Melissa calls to tell me that she got a call from UPS and they are arranging to have the parcel delivered or picked up... WHAT???? Anyway, it is too late now as VISA has cancelled the card in that package, so I don't care what they do with that one. What a GONG SHOW!!!  For lunch Thursday we decided to try a different BBQ place in Houston. After looking on-line for info on the top joints in Houston we elect to try Gatlin's BBQ so off we went with our trusty GPS pointed to the address. Turned out to be a giant snark hunt. Apparently they are in a temporary place, which by all accounts is someone's backyard, and it is just a "food truck" with no seating or anything. We opted to skip that as we didn't feel like eating (potentially) messy bbq in the car. So we point the GPS to Ray's Real Pit BBQ Shack. Eventually we found it, an inner city hole in the wall type of place doing a booming business. Food was excellent (brisket was a bit dry), burnt rib ends (yummm), sausage, potato salad, cucumber salad, macaroni salad and a deep fried corn on the cob (very tasty). A big enough meal to last us the rest of the day. Back to the RV park to veg out and do some laundry.

The laundry room is in the rec building. Waiting for the laundry we hung out in the rec building. While there we noticed a woman, standing inside the door, peering out the window at something on the ground. Her husband was outside holding a small child's sand shove and gazing at something on the ground. She grabbed the door handle and said that no one could go out. Brian went over and looked out the door window to see a good sized snake coiled up on the mat. Turns out it was a water moccasin, very poisonous. The park manager came over and "took care of it". During the day we miss a call from the Nissan dealer.

Friday morning Justin, the Nissan dealer guy, called again, but this time I, Brian, caught the call... our car was ready Wednesday afternoon. I say that I thought they were waiting on parts that wouldn't arrive until Thursday or Friday. He says that on Tuesday morning David just asked the parts guy to check the "regular delivery" to see if our parts were there. No they weren't .... BUT... If he had of mentioned that Justin had requested a "rush" then the parts guy would have looked in a "different place" to see that they were there. When Justin came back in on Wednesday he was surprised to see that nothing had been done on our car, so got it going Wednesday morning and it was actually finished that afternoon but they were so busy that he didn't get around to trying to contact me until Thursday afternoon... Oh well... we did have a brand new Altima to drive around Houston for a few days. Nice car. Later Friday morning we picked up our car. We took it out on the freeway and drove a couple of hundred kilometers to help be sure that it was running good. It ran very good. So our plans are now to leave Houston Sunday morning. Back in Houston we went over and vegged out at James' place for the afternoon. That evening we treated James, Melissa and her friend Michelle at Chuy's for another excellent Tex-Mex dinner.  We didn't think we would see Melissa again tomorrow as she had to work so we said our good byes for this trip.

Saturday we awoke to a raging thunderstorm and thought, for sure, that James' tail gate party before the Dynamo (MLS Soccer) game would possibly be cancelled but the skies cleared by noon and it was a beautiful day. We did a quick swim in the resort pool before heading into downtown Houston to watch James play the BBQ master for their tail gate party...

 ... we got there a couple of hours early but James already had a whack of ribs and some brisket going. We had a great visit and it was interesting to watch the action as the rest of the "Texian Army" (the Dynamo support group to which James and Melissa belong) arrived and started to set up the tents etc...

... We enjoyed chatting with some other members, the food was excellent etc etc etc but as we were not going to the game we said our good byes to James and left them all to their fun. Game result... Dynamo 4 - KC Sporting 4.

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Back to Week 3

On to Week 5

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Week 3 Gallup to Columbus Texas

Our general travel route for this week...

Another week of mainly putting on miles as we have seen most of this part of the country on previous visits. Our plan is to get to Columbus by the weekend so that we can go to the Cowboy Action Shooting event in which our friends James and Melissa participate. Should be fun...

Sunday we drove from Gallup to Albuquerque. A nice easy drive for us. The car performed very nicely, thank you very much! We opted to stay at the Albuquerque Central KOA, a place we have stayed numerous times before. After getting checked in we got the wee trailer all settled in then headed for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. We arrived at the centre about 1:30 PM and found that there was a Pueblo Indian dance demonstration starting at 2:00 PM... BONUS... we headed directly into the restaurant where we had an excellent chilli rellenos and cobb salad lunch. The dance demonstration was mostly a singing and dance exhibition performed by a husband and wife team.

At one point he did a sacred eagle dance which was very neat to see (no photos please). Fantastic. We did, however, take a photo of one of the courtyard murals depicting an eagle dance...

... note the date on the bottom right. 1978. This was a real throw back for us as we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in the summer of 1978 when they were first painting the courtyard murals. Very cool memories and an excellent museum. A must see place.

Afterwards, a bit of shopping then back to the KOA to do some laundry, have a light dinner and call it a day.

Monday we headed east on I-40 then south on US-84 to Fort Sumner where we stopped in at the Billy the Kid Museum. Neat place to stop and visit. We saw many Billy the Kid wanted posters, numerous articles on his life and times and artifacts including his rifle...

... and a leather pouch full of his hair. A bit strange, but we can now say that we have seen one of Mohammed's beard hair (in New Delhi, India), a lock of George Washington's hair (Winchester, Virginia) and now a pouch of The Kid's hair. We aren't sure where that stacks up in a list of things to see in your life time but there you go. Nevertheless, a cool museum to stop at as they also have a large collection of late 1800's and early 1900's memorabilia including numerous old buckboards and cars. After the museum we headed down the street to the Rodeo Grill where we both had, of course, a Billy the Kid burger. Definitely worth stopping for :-) A few more pics from the museum are on our Picasa album for this trip.  For the night we stayed at the Clovis RV Park in Clovis New Mexico.

Tuesday we headed southeast into Texas with our goal being Big Spring for the night. Not long after we crossed the state line we hit the town of Littlefield where we used our GPS to find the nearest BBQ. We decided "hey, we are now in Texas...it's time for some que" so we stopped at The BBQ Joint, a little hole in the wall place on the edge of town...

 ... a decent lunch of ribs, sausage and brisket (a little on the dry side but we've definitely had worse) and we knew we were now in Texas... the "que" will get better over the next few days. When we arrived in Big Spring, the only RV park listed by Good Sam turned out to be full up but the lady at the desk was nice enough to call a new place down the road and arranged a spot for us. The Suberban East RV park is an old KOA being refurbished into a more modern RV park. Needless to say, they have a ways to go. For dinner we picked up some deli meat and salads at HEB.  As we left in the morning the manager came and asked if we could park in front of their office so she could take a picture of our trailer in front of the building, to be used in advertising. Why not?  So we did.... maybe we'll see ourselves in some future ad.

Wednesday we headed into the Texas hill country west of Austin. As we got closer to the hill country, the famous wildflowers started to appear and before long we started to see large patches of Bluebonnets along the highway and into the fields. The Bluebonnet is the Texas state flower. For lunch we stopped at one of our favorite BBQ places, Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano where we were unable to finish our order of ribs, sausage and brisket along with some potato salad and slaw...

... more pics of the pits etc from Cooper's on our Picasa album for this trip.

It was all delicious and the leftovers will make another delicious lunch tomorrow. For the night we stopped in Fredericksburg at the Fredericksburg RV Resort. When we checked in, the woman at the desk informed us that "she might be able to fit us in somewhere" and did. Turns out there were numerous empty spots for the night. Anyway, a beautiful park with great restrooms and showers. The only thing missing is a pool. Oh well, it is still early in the year but another month from now and most people staying there will likely wish there was one. It gets brutally hot here in the summer. After getting settled in, we went downtown and strolled the main drag but by that time the stores were all starting to close. Fredericksburg is a bit like Banff... a total tourist destination with lots of kitsch and cutesy items mostly all decked out with something Texas if not the flag itself. Early evening we stopped in at the Lincoln Street Wine and Cigar Bar. We sat outside under the arbor, in the shade where we chatted with a couple who are from Charleston SC but have rented a place in Fredericksburg for 6 months as they are trying out the best of the wines of this area which is billing itself as the Napa of Texas. Oh, after getting checked into the RV park earlier in the evening we decided we should try to reserve ahead for Austin as we are finding many RV parks almost full.... not expected at this time of year, but chatting with various folks are finding that many of the parks are filling with full timers, a lot of young men who are traveling to where the work is. As for Austin, we had planned to stay a couple of nights but after calling a few RV parks, the best we could do was one night (Thursday), so we made a reservation at Oak Forest RV Park (where we have previously stayed) for one night. We decided to just stay in Austin the one night and go to Columbus early Friday so that we would have time to whip into Houston to a Nissan dealer, have them do a diagnostics and if need be order parts on Friday rather than waiting until Monday.

So, before heading out Thursday morning we made reservations for Columbus for Friday through Sunday and in Houston for Monday through Wednesday (that may change depending on the car!). Done.  Leaving Fredericksburg, we stopped at the WildSeed Farms just east of town. This is a spectacular research garden center with large wild flower gardens...

... more wild flower pics on our Picasa album for this trip.

Then it was off to Austin. We arrived at the Oak Forest RV Park around 1:30 PM and were assigned spot 7. Oh-oh, someone is in spot 7! After much humming and hawing, the manager put us in spot 6. We think we lucked out being there early because as we were setting up, several other parties arrived and it looked like the manager had to shuffle them about as well... but we were in! Apparently, according to the manager, the people in spot 7 were supposed to have been gone but they were still there Friday morning so it looks like some screw up somewhere. After getting set up we headed for downtown Austin, wandered around one of our favorite areas before a thunderstorm hit making us head for a Starbucks for a couple of iced lattes while we waited out the storm. Didn't last long. After, we stopped at Central Market for some pre-made dinner fixings and back to the RV park. By this time new neighbours had arrived. Apparently there is a huge antique (pre 1963) car show just up the road this coming weekend. Our neighbour's car...

... he told us that it is not a competition, just a giant swap meet and greet with about 100,000 attendees. If you look really closely to his front hub cap you can see a reflection of our wee trailer!

Anyway, the temp in Austin hit more than 30C so we think it is time to ditch the long jeans and break out the skinny white flamingo legs...

Friday we headed south on US-183 to Lockhart for a stop at Smitty's Market (BBQ) for lunch. Lockhart is the BBQ Capital of Texas with 4 great "joints" in a small town of 13,000 people. Smitty's is probably our favorite...

After a great lunch we continued on to Columbus our stop for the weekend. We arrived at the Columbus RV Park and were set up by about 1:30 PM so headed into Houston (about an hour away) to a Nissan dealer to see about the car.

Well, have you ever been gobsmacked? We now officially have been! We go into the service department and explain to buddy that we had previously had an issue with an oxygen sensor (resolved) but now believe we have a resultant issue with our catalytic converter. Buddy asks one question.... "how many miles on the car?" We say about 300,000 kms and he says "that's probably more than 200,000". We say, slightly less but close to which he says, with the dumbest look on his face, "We won't look at your car... dealer policy... we won't service a car with more than 200,000 miles". Our jaws dropped! We explained that we are tourists from afar and need help... to which he basically says "too bad". We ask to see the Service Manager and he goes and gets a business card which shows he is a Service Manager... "too bad". So we ask if he can point us to a reasonable dealer.  He takes back his card because no sense wasting that and writes the name of another dealer on a piece of scrap paper. Now, isn't that smart business... send customers to your competitor! Anyway off we go to the other dealer and are immediately greeted with the more familiar Nissan helpful service greeting. He listens to what we have to say, agrees that it is probably the catalytic converter but can't get us in this afternoon but will see us first thing Monday morning.

So, as it sits Friday afternoon, never visit MOSSY NISSAN in Houston as apparently their techs are too incompetent to work on anything other than brand new cars. We will go and see how we make out at AUTO NATION NISSAN on Monday.

Bit of a depressing hour plus drive back to Columbus in heavy commuter traffic not to mention that a rather huge thunderstorm rolled in so it was pouring when we get back to the trailer. We opt for a pizza and a couple of glasses of wine at Cantu's, a dive of a place not far from the RV park.

Saturday we got together with our friends James and Melissa and his family who live in Columbus. Very nice visit. In the afternoon, James and Melissa take us out to a local winery, Weimary, a few miles down the highway in Weimar, for some munchies and wine tasting...
 

Nice afternoon. For dinner, James' Mom, Barbara cooked a wonderful chicken dinner for us all and we sat around, chatted and watched the Houston Rockets win the first game of their series against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA playoffs.

Considering the car situation, a reasonably good end to the week.

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Back to Week 2

On to Week 4

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Week 2: Portland to Gallup New Mexico

Our general travel route for this week...

This week was one of just putting on the miles. We decided that it would be fun to go to one of the Crownpoint (Navajo) Rug Weaver's auctions as this week there is one on Friday the 10th. We went to a Crownpoint Navajo rug auctions back in the late 1970s but haven't been since. Not sure if we will buy anything but we remember the auction as being quite fun so decided to give it a go again. So that means we have to get from Portland to Gallup New Mexico in 6 days. For folks who do a lot of long distance driving this is probably a no brainer but we usually limit ourselves to about 300 kms in a typical day, and usually have a rest day every few days, so this was a bit of a slog or us.

Sunday we set out from Portland to Medford, about 20 miles north of the California border (about 450 kms). And, yes, the "check engine soon" light is still lighting up the dash :-( We stopped at Joe's Diner, in Creswell, for lunch. Bit of a greasy spoon but food was good except the "fresh fruit" bowl was actually from a tin and was in a heavy syrup. In Medford we stayed at the Holiday RV Park.

Monday: Medford to Oroville, California (about 400 kms). Stopped for lunch at a Black Bear Diner in Redding. We've seen them all over the place in these parts so decided to give one a try. This one was very popular (quite crowded actually) with families. The tuna/chef salad and bacon/cheeseburger salads were HUGE but very fresh and very tasty. Good place to keep in mind. More lunch than we could eat for two with a generous tip: $25. It rained a lot during the day but let up a bit north of Chico. We stayed at the Oroville KOA for the night. We opted to walk over to the casino for a buffet dinner. No winnings at the machines but a decent steak dinner.  It was a lovely evening. Got up about 3:30 AM for a quick walk to the restroom. Still lovely out. Woke up about 6:00 AM to absolute pouring rain. Got soaked getting everything put away. By the time we left, around 9:30, a basin we had sitting on the picnic table had just about 2 inches of water in it.

Tuesday: Oroville to Bakersfield, California (about 570 kms). It continued raining on and off past Stockton and into the Central Valley (we took route 99). The rain stopped so we decided to head into Modesto for lunch. We stopped at a shopping plaza where we could park the trailer at the far end, of the lot, from a Mexican restaurant, Las Casuelas, where we had another "more than you can eat" lunch of quesadilla and taco wrap. As we left the restaurant another heavy downpour had started so we skipped next door for a Starbucks first. The rain let up a bit but we still got quite wet walking across the large parking lot. It rained off and on all the way through to Bakersfield. These folks really need it but really, couldn't they have waited just another day or two? We stayed at the River Run RV Resort for the night. For dinner we tried a Logan's Roadhouse where the servings are monstrous and we both declined the "extra" side... "but it's free, are you sure???" asked the waiter... but no thanks, we really didn't need them. After dinner we decided we should start to stock up on some cash in case we see something we really really like at the rug auction, in Crownpoint, on Friday. Brian's card failed but we were able to withdraw some on Kris' card. Back at the RV park we called Scotia Bank to find out what's up. Apparently the bank person in Courtenay neglected to "turn on the foreign country flag" on Brian's card but it should be good to go now. We'll see!

Wednesday: Bakersfield to Needles, California (about 450 kms). The drive across the southern edge of the Mojave Desert can only be described as boring. Other than short desert shrubs there is bugger all to see all the way. Put the car on cruise and try to stay awake. We stopped for lunch at Jenny's Grill in Barstow. Excellent meatball soup and salad for Kris and a ham and cheese omelet for Brian. After lunch we tried a Bank of America again. Brian's card still does not produce any results but Kris' card does. So will have to call Scotia Bank again but will wait until we get our Tracfones going again. Approaching Needles we saw a sign for a KOA and pulled off at that exit. On the side road to the KOA we spotted a sign for the Desert View RV Resort. We pulled over and checked our Woodall's bible and noted that Desert View got a much better review so decided to try it instead. Nice choice. Beautiful flowering bushes lining each RV site...

... and a very nice pool which we immediately jumped into as it is the first chance so far on this trip. The only flaw in the park is the absence of picnic tables at each site (something we like to see). Afterwards we drove around Needles to find that there are zero grocery stores (folks have to drive to Bullhead City, about 30 miles, for regular groceries). Places like Rite Aid carry the typical limited, expensive, drug store grocery items where we opted to pick up a bottle of wine and some milk for coffee in the morning. For dinner we stopped in at Juicy's River Cafe where the steak salad and sourdough bun burger and fries were decent. Not great but decent. Also filled up the gas tank in Needles... man they have you there, we paid  $4.299 a gallon for premium, the first time we've been anywhere near $4 a gallon.

Thursday: Needles to Flagstaff, Arizona (about 350 kms). The boring drive continues but as we go higher in altitude we see more of the desert plants with flowers. We stopped at an I-40 rest stop east of Kingman and took a bunch of pictures...

.... more pics in our Picasa album for this trip. For lunch we stopped in Kingman. After a look through the visitor center we walked across the street to Mr D'z, a retro diner in the style of old Route 66. Great atmosphere and excellent food. It was late morning so we both opted for breakfast items, scrambled eggs and sausage for Kris and a Mr D'z special omelet for Brian. Nice. Arrived in Flagstaff early afternoon, checked into the KOA then went down to the historic town center for a stroll followed by a really good fennel and sausage pizza and plate of roasted artichokes at Fat Olives Pizzeria.

Friday: Flagstaff to Gallup, New Mexico (about 300 kms). Beautiful day for driving across the high plains desert through some cool juniper forests before the landscape leveled off to boring again. Then it happened!!!  About 60 kms out of  Gallup, our car started to lose power and the cruise control stopped working. The best Brian could do was to keep the car at a steady 100 kph and we literally limped into Gallup. The rather disconcerting thing was that we could almost see the gas gauge level drop. In that 60 kms we used nearly a half tank of gas and were concerned that we'd run out before we reached Gallup!!  We managed to drop the trailer off at the USA RV Park, found a Nissan dealer and headed over to it. Note... the GPS probably paid for itself right there as we were able to use it to locate the Nissan dealer and get there quickly.

The Nissan service guy was great. He got us in right away and said it would take about an hour to figure it out. We walked over to a Sizzler (fast, greasy food) for a bite to eat. Went back to Nissan  to find out what they found. INTERESTING!!! First off, the tech discovered the oxygen sensors (remember that from last week) had not been properly installed so he fixed that and they now function properly. BUT... he said the mystery thing was that when he pulled out the oil dipstick to check the oil level, the dipstick was completely dry (ie a very low level). He said there is no indication of a leak nor that we were burning oil. He suspected that the loss of power was due to very low oil pressure. He suggested we do a full oil change rather than just top it up because that would allow him to see how much was in there. So full oil change it was. Turns out there was just a little over 3 quarts of oil when there should have been about 5 and a half. Is it possibles that not enough was put in when we had the pre-trip service done??? After discussion he said that given the low temperatures we have had all the way from Courtenay to Southern California the car would probably run ok on that low amount of oil but the higher altitude and higher temps could have also caused a low pressure vapor lock resulting in the loss of power. So it looks like a chat with the Nissan service manager in Courtenay is in order. To boot, the service tech says that the low oil pressure situation may have buggered up our catalytic converter so it now needs replacing. He said they could not get a new catalytic converter for at least a week and it would not harm the car to drive it the way it is until we get to Houston (later next week), but the "check engine soon" light will continue to be on!!!

Anyway, all that took about 4 hours so we headed off to Crownpoint at about 5:30 PM. The auction started at 7:00 PM so after the hour or so drive out to Crownpoint, we still had about a half hour to view the rugs before the auction started.

The auction was at the Crownpoint Elementary School and there was quite a crowd of both sellers and buyers. We had a quick look through some of the rugs then sat down for a hot tamale dinner before the action started. We sat with a Navajo family and chatted with a woman who was likely mid 40ish. She told us that both her and her elderly mother beside her had rugs in the auction. Anyway, the auction started and there were many fabulous rugs, many for which the minimum price was not bid so "no sale". The least expensive were in the $80 range and the highest bid one was for $3600 with several larger ones going for over $2K, all being terrific bargains compared to regular retail...

... more auction pics on our Picasa album for this trip. We ended up with 3 very small ones 2 of which were sample Two Grey Hills style "rugs within a rug" (very difficult and technically challenging weaving)....

Saturday was finally a rest and shopping day.  Late morning we headed into downtown Gallup to Richardson's, the pre-eminent Navajo trading place to go. Kris picked up a beautiful necklace and earring set.  The sales person suggested a place up the street for lunch. She said they have a number of Mexican restaurants in Gallup but Jerry's is the place to go...

... A little hole in the wall place with limited seating and a line of eager customers waiting at the door. Had to wait about 15 minutes but, man, was it worth it. Yummmmm! Side note... while waiting in line some folks come out and Kris says "I know that guy"... then it comes to her... it was Chuck Wilson, an ex-CEO of Shell Canada. Small world.  Later, back at the RV Park we chat with a couple who were from Minnesota. Turns out her father was a ball player and her cousin is Paul Molitor, a MLB Hall of Famer and current manager of the Minnesota Twins (we'll see them play in mid August).

We finished the day, and week, off with dinner at El Rancho...

... an historic hotel and restaurant where the sirloin steak and prime rib were a nice finish to the week.

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Back to Week 1

On to Week 3

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Week 1: Courtenay to Portland, Oregon

Our general travel route for this week...

Note: we used to embed mapquest clickable maps showing our routes but have noticed that some of the older ones no longer render properly and in some cases render incorrectly, for example on one map, from a few years ago, where we had  referenced Lincoln City OREGON started to render with a reference to Lincoln City NEBRASKA making it look like a very weird route. So now we save the map as a jpeg and insert that instead but the "travel route" link will open as a true mapquest clickable map so we can always give that a go and see how it renders over time.
  
We usually post Sunday to Saturday so this is a short week to start the trip.

We left home on Wednesday. A bit of an inauspicious start...

Called Visa Wednesday morning to let them know we will be traveling. Apparently Brian's card has been (or could be) "compromised" and they want to replace it. But we are leaving in about 2 hrs!!!  So, they won't cancel the card right now and we will let them know a few days before we get to Houston and they'll send a new one there.... but they will monitor and could cancel it at any time!

Paid $1500 to get the car tuned up and ready for the road trip... just south of Nanaimo the "check engine soon" light comes on. CRAP!... so we stop in at a Nissan dealer in Victoria. Need a "left rear oxygen sensor". So what does that mean? Well we can continue driving but will likely see a drop in gas mileage. We'll look to get that done in Houston as well (or somewhere sooner if it can be arranged) but will have to put up with the "check engine soon" light staring us in the face. Might be time for a little yellow sticky to put over it. So much for making the late afternoon ferry to Port Angeles!

Since they had sold out reservation space on the Thursday morning ferry, could we get there early enough to leave our car and trailer in the Coho Ferry lot overnight to make sure we got on in the "first come first served" line? No, unfortunately the visit to Nissan nixed that idea. So we googled Coho Ferry to find that they open at 5:00AM. We thought about calling on our friends but decided to grab a hotel room at the Embassy Inn just up the street from the ferry terminal. Wanting to make sure we got on, I, Brian, decided to get up early, be the "first in line" then once in, I could go back to the hotel and catch a couple more hours of sleep and a bit of breakfast before having to be back at the car by 9:00AM for US customs checking. So a little before 5:00 AM I headed down to the terminal. Hey, first in line... good...

BUT ... 5:00 AM rolls around and no sign of anyone to open the gate...

6:00 AM rolls around and no sign of anyone to open the gate...

7:00AM rolls around and no sign of anyone to open the gate...

 (GOOD GRIEF)... about 7:30 another car pull up behind me and the guy asks me what time they open the gate (HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW... I'VE BEEN THE FOOL SITTING HERE SINCE 5:00AM!)... Anyway they open at 8:00AM and I am the first one in and still have time to whip back up to the hotel for a shower and some breakfast before getting back by 9:00AM. On the way back we stop at their main office desk and "ask politely" about their hours. Buddy says "we open at 8:00AM". I say they might want to consider updating their hours online because it says they are open from 5:00AM to 8:00PM. "No way" Buddy exclaims then googles "Coho Ferry" and lo and behold sees that they are indeed advertising that they open at 5:00AM.... Their hours are actually from 8:00AM to 5:00PM. Somebody got it backwards...at least we got on!

Somehow, although we were first in the "first come first served" line and boarded early, we ended up being the last vehicle off the ferry in Port Angeles. Now, we all think these custom guys have a quota they have to meet and apparently US Custom buddy had not met his on this day. We were pulled over and buddy went through our stuff with a fine toothed comb. GOOD GRIEF.... and another hour of our lives we won't get back... not to mention that they can tear everything apart and not have to "clean up after themselves". Oh well, best to grin and bear it... and eventually it ends. Nothing found, he finally wished us well on our travels and waved us away. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

We motor off happy to be on our way. We stop at a Safeway in Sequim (pronounced Squim) to add some groceries to the coolers that the custom guy could not believe were empty. Then it was off south to Gig Harbor, about a 2.5 hour drive, to the Gig Harbor RV Resort for the night. After getting set up we drove into the historic center of Gig Harbor to the Tides Tavern for a couple of glasses of wine and some munchies before calling it a night. A long day.

Friday morning, I, Brian, decide to call a Nissan dealer in Portland to see if they can fix us up with a new "left rear oxygen sensor". After being put on hold for a while I finally get through to the service department. The guy explains that he can fit me in on Saturday if the parts department can get the part. He transfers me to the parts department where after sitting on hold for a while longer I finally get to explain our situation. The guy says he can get the part by Saturday morning but I have to prepay it before he can transfer me back to the service department for an appointment. Fine... I go to get my Visa card (hoping they don't reject the transaction) and while doing so my "pay as you go" phone plan from Rogers RUNS OUT OF TIME....and my connection is dropped... GOOD GRIEF!!! So I go online and add more time while noticing that so far the call to the dealer in Portland has used up over $40 worth of time but what can you do??? After getting the time added, I call the dealer back and speak with a different guy in the parts department who then proceeds to explain to me that, it being Easter weekend, they actually can't get the part until Tuesday at the earliest (the first guy didn't know!)... so we are stuck with the "check engine soon" light for a while yet.


After packing up we headed off, in the rain, south to Portland. I-5 freeway traffic was heavy and parts of the way it rained really hard so with a lot of large trucks the water coming up off the road made for a pretty uncomfortable ride.  There's a reason we generally avoid freeways, but the next week or so will likely be nothing but freeway.

Oh well... we are now in Portland at least. After checking in at the Roamer's Rest RV Park in Tualatin, a southern suburb of Portland, we went over to the Best Buy store in Washington Square and picked up a GPS, our first foray into this particular technology. Afterwards we drove south a bit further on I-5 to Wilsonville where we picked up some groceries at Fred Meyer then stopped in at McMenamins for some wine and dinner. Nice evening. Saturday we had morning tickets to see the special exhibit "Italian Style Fashion since 1945" at the Portland Art Museum. We decided to use the new GPS to see how well it works even though we knew how to get there anyway. It picked basically the same route that we likely would have picked ourselves so that was quite comforting right off the bat. On the way we made a wrong turn coming off the I-405 freeway and the GPS picked it up immediately and recalculated the route before we even knew we went off the planned route. Impressed we were! Looks like a keeper so we'll have to come up with a name for "her" :-)

The Italian Style Fashion exhibit was simply phenomenal and well worth the trip.  The exhibit was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum and consisted of couturier pieces from the late 1940's to early 21st century.  There was a lot of supporting material/videos and you could get very close to the pieces and have a really good look.  (Kris would have liked a bit of 'hands on' for an inspection of tailoring techniques, but that would have been frowned upon.)  There were mens garments as well as ladies' evening wear and day wear.  The Armani pieces really stand out - the design sense is truly at a higher level.  Part of the exhibit that was fascinating were the garments that society ladies outside Italy had made by their local dressmakers.  These garments were not knock-offs, they were original designs in the Italian style.  While the evening gowns for the runway in Italy in the late fifties were incredibly tiny (think 18 inch waist kind of tiny), the dresses made for the real people were a normal size.  If no one had been looking and there hadn't been a gazzilion alarms, Kris could have quite nicely made off with a beautiful navy wool coat.  These designs, for the most part, could be worn today and not look dated.  The last exhibit showed current garments from designers in the Portland area and was a wonderful example of local talent. 

After the museum we drove over to the Pearl District where we parked the car for a few hours. We stopped for lunch at Piattino where the tomato soup and pizza were to brag about. Very good. After we stopped at Keen's Garage where Brian picked up a new pair of Keen shoes, then a general wander around the Pearl with more detailed looks at Dick Blick (art supplies), Babette (women's fashions), Knit Purl (knitting, of course) and a couple of lattes at Peet's Coffee before heading back to the south end of town and the Bridgeport Village mall. We finished the day with another wine stop at McMenamins where we had a nice chat with Crystal, one of the women tending the bar. Dinner was some Fred Meyer deli baked chicken and kale super salad back at the trailer. Nice evening and end to the week.

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On to Week 2

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