Some 4104 Trip Notes

[gus]

We departed AR on 24 March and returned 2 May. The trip was 6,582 miles with no problems with the bus except a failed alternator. The failed one was a 160 amp Leece-Nevill Model 2800J which I replaced with a 105 amp, same brand, except it is a two wire (Ground and Battery) and kicks in at idle speed. Very nice and closer to my acutal amp requirement. I had  to connect 12v via a separate switch to the regulator field terminal of the old one.

We traveled through AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA, OR, WA, ID, UT, WY, NE, IA, MO and home to AR. Diesel fuel was most expensive in Southern California (By far). Even Northern CA wasn't too bad. NE and Northern Missouri around Kansas City were the cheapest. The most we paid was $4.24 and the lowest was $3.85 at our home WM before we left, however that price was up to $4.15 when we returned.

WalMart parking notes to follow;

[zubzub]

super interested in the milage you got, unless of course you were afraid to look

[gus]

Zub,

There is really no way to compute mileage accurately because the tank is so hard to fill completely. The last time I checked it on mostly level highways I got 10.5 and in the western mountains 8.5 but I don't normally drive faster that 60-65mph.

Second Installment of the trip;

Good WalMart Locations;

Amarillo, TX-Good location and very large parking lot. There were at least 50m RVs there, the most I have seen at any WM. The reason must be that there are no WMs within  100-200 mi in either direction!

Socorro, NM-Good location and a good restaurant within easy walking distance.

Redding, CA - Good location.  Large parking lot and a couple of restaurants within easy walking distance. When we were walking back from the restaurant we noticed a sign saying no overnight parking even though there was no sign at the entrance we had used for the bus.  Since there was another RV there we decided to stay anyway. The next morning a WM person gave me a well rehearsed lecture about the city ordinance prohibiting parking, which the city doesn't enforce, then said we were welcome.!!

Caldwell, ID-Not easy to find but thanks to GPS we got there. Not a really large parking lot but we were the only RV there!

North Platte, NE-Large store and parking near Interstate. Lots of restaurants on both sides of the Interstate. Bought diesel here at a good price, $4.09. One of very few WM stations with diesel.

Nebraska City, NE-  Just two blocks off Hwy 2, the preferred bypass around Omaha off I-80.  A very new store. We found a good spot on the south side near auto service which was out of the fierce wind.

More to come.

[jjrbus]

$4.09, Good price!!!  OMG!!!!!

[gus]

jjr,

Our local WM price here in AR is $4.11 before discount but most things are less expensive here.

More Trip Stuff;

                                                        NO WalMart Parking

We found that these cities prohibit overnight parking at WalMart ----- Gilroy, CA, Eugene, OR and Hood River, OR. I plan to send emails to the City Councils of these cities just as I did to those in Missoula and Billings, MT last year. In both those cases I found that the cities really didn't prohibit parking at WM, just on city streets.

At each of these cities we simply moved on to the next available truck stop to spend the night and encourage others to do the same thing in hopes that cities with this policy get the message. One advantage to a truck stop is that there is always a restaurant. The only down side is that many parking lots are dirt which can get messy during windy or wet weather. We always manage to find a paved one though. Our parking spot at a truck stop in BiggsJunction, OR, just past The Dalles, OR, was high on a hill overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, a really nice view. Truck stop noise is not a problem for us, in fact we like the constant sound of truck engines idling all night-a sort of white noise effect.

We also spent a couple of nights in casino parking lots. Very secure and always good places to eat. So far we haven't found any with hookups but I know there are some out there.

We usually don't plan our next stop until I begin to get tired of driving or we see something interesting looking ahead. We now realize that we can stop at any truck stop if there is no WalMart or a prohibited WM. Other posters have mentioned Kmart or Target parking but there are few of them around so I usually don't consider them.

RV park info to follow.

[gus]

                                                                  Good RV Parks

We only used two RV parks and one state park the whole trip but we did spend a bunch of nights with family and friends.

Albany, OR - Blue Ox RV Park. Beautiful, very friendly folks, near Interstate 5. Short distance to "Lum Yuen's" excellent Chinese Restaurant.  We stay here every year and it is our very favorite RV park of all. Propane. Good Sam.

Nehalem Bay, OR-Nehalem Bay State Park. Pretty far off the highway and a bit confusing to register but very quiet and peaceful. A short walk over the dunes takes you to a beautiful but cool ocean  beach.

Rawlins, WY - RV World Campground.  Very, very clean and convenient to Interstate. Don't
fail to eat at Cappy's restaurant nearby. Propane. Good Sam.


               Miscellaneous Stuff

The best state for dump stations is WA and there is a big one just south of Seattle on I5 which I think had four or five dump positions. The other states seem to be hit or miss, mostly miss.

If you're eastbound through Salt Lake City from the south or west it is worthwhile going a bit north and taking I84 around the north end of the city. This avoids a lot of hill climbing just east of SLC on I80 and is a much better highway.

The drive from Seattle to AR was beautiful except for the wind. It started in eastern Wyoming and never let up and got even worse in NE. In Kansas City, MO in a casino parking lot we experienced the thrill of tornadoes nearby!! We had some cool nights in ID, WY and NE and I had to use ether for starting anytime the temp got below 40*F.

We used the "Mr. Heater" portable LP heaters from Camping World when independent. They worked very well up to 6,000'+ elevations in UT and WY, especially since I now have them hooked up to 20 lb LP tanks.

There is a nice bypass around the south side of Springfield, MO that connects I44 to US60 without going through that horrendous traffic mess on US65 east of Springfield. Beware though, there is a RR crossing at the bottom of a hill almost at the end of the bypass just before it connects to US65. This RR crossing is on a four lane highway??

Some states have more than their share of rough roads, OK, OR, WA and WY come immediately to mind. Two of the worst are US101 up the OR coast between Newport and the WA/OR border and I5 from about Federal Way on through Seattle. This may be the roughest concrete pavement I have ever seen. It isn't the usual concrete seams, it is just plain rough and rutted. If you are going north of Seattle take US18 east to US167 to I405 and bypass Seattle to the east.

                                                       End of Trip Report

In two weeks we head for the Northeast Coast which will be considerably shorter but the traffic there is downright horrible as are the toll roads and bridges.

[buddydawg]

Thanks for the report, I hope that more people will give the details of their travels.  Especially those in the South.  It is nice to know in advance if you are driving into friendly territory.

[gus]

I'll do another one on our NE trip in about a month.

I'm not really looking forward to that trip. It will be our first trip east with the bus but I have plenty of experience, too much, driving those highways!

[pvcces]

Gus, thanks for the good reports. In the bypass of Seattle that you mentioned a few posts back, the routes are SR18 and SR167. We're very familiar with the area and can add that rush hour should be avoided when possible.

For what it's worth.

Tom Caffrey

[gus]

Tom,

I hadn't originally planned to get off at SR18 because I couldn't remember exactly where the rough concrete started. We were going to continue on south to SR 512 to get back onto I5.

However, there were some serious construction delays on SR167 just beginning south of the SR18 cutoff so we got off. It appears to me that the construction there is a long term thing.

There has been a lot of work done on SR167 north of the SR18 cutoff so it is a very nice road to that point.

[gus]

As I said earlier we encountered these cities which prohibit WM parking on our recent trip;

Gilroy, CA
Redding, CA
Eugene, OR
Hood River, OR

I just today received this email


Dear Mr. Causbie

I received your interesting e-mail about RV parking. The city of Hood River DOES NOT have policy on overnight parking of RV`s and to the best of my knowledge, we have never had such a policy. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding.

Thank You
Paul Cummings
President, Hood River City Council"

I wrote him back and told him that the Hood River has signs posted stating that a city ordinance prohibits overnight parking.

I also received an email from the President of the Redding, CA City Council restating their no parking policy. I wrote him again rebutting his reasons for the policy and will post the whole thing when I hear from him.

I'll keep this up to date as I receive more answers.