 Home |
 Introduction |
Preparation |
The Busy Month
Our Departure began in style with a chauffeur driven limousine to Edinburgh Airport, courtesy of our friends in Lochgelly. Lucky white heather presented to us by friends just before our departure was put into use straight away. On take-off our plane grounded its tail and had to make a quick unscheduled return to Edinburgh Airport. Chaos welcomed us back but with luck on our side once again, we managed to get two of the few remaining seats on the next flight to Heathrow, which meant we only had thirty minutes to get our connecting flight to San Francisco. A lot of running, pushing and shoving we made it from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 with seven minutes to spare, unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky, it did not. The Virgin Representative advised us that we would be contacted on our arrival at San Francisco.
The excellent and varied entertainment on the Virgin flight made the eleven hour flying time pass very quickly. We received the promised call on arrival and were given $300 to purchase personal effects to last until the arrival of our luggage the next day. The flight to Eugene was superb with crystal clear views of San Francisco Bay, the snow clad Cascade Mountains, even the traffic on the highways could be seen clearly, just a small insight of what the future held for us.
We picked up our hired Chevrolet Lumina on our arrival and drove the 10 miles to our Motel. Shopping for clothes followed by a steak dinner brought a long enjoyable and somewhat exciting twenty-five hour day finally to an end
The next couple of days were spent visiting the two Oregon based Sunnybrook Dealers. The second one visited - Larry's RV in Bend, had just what we wanted, a new Sunnybrook 33RKFS Fifth Wheel, with all the options we wanted already installed, correct internal decor colour, price and pickup date to suit us, so we signed on the dotted line. We could not believe that we had bought our NEW HOME within 48 hours of arriving, which we had estimated would take 8-10 weeks if we had to order it.
Satisfied by our purchase we set off in beautiful sunshine for our Pre-arranged seminar in Chico - California, making our southward journey down the scenic Oregon Coast for our first stop in Crescent City, California. The next day we passed through the famous Redwood National Park with a promise to spend time there on our way south for winter. The next scenic Highway was 299 which had exceptional views along Trinity River looking down into the deep gorge, and the Trinity Alps Wilderness.
The seminars proved to be as invaluable as we had anticipated. Presented by Escapee's RV Club it was the prime reason we chose to start the holiday the date we did. With so many different seminars to choose from we had to go our different ways to enable us to attend as many as possible. These three days were to prove invaluable in the future, not only because of the seminars, but by the many helpful people we met, and the trade shows with many different and varied gadgets. Although we did not buy anything at the time it certainly helped us with our future purchases.
We left Chico well satisfied and started our slow journey back to Eugene where we knew the next couple of weeks would be very hectic. Crater Lake was one of the places we just had to see on the way back, but with this years snow fall being twice as much as normal years, and only one road open to the public, we had no idea what lay ahead, this is one sight we will never forget. The road had been cut out of more than twenty feet of snow which made a solid wall either side. We drove a few miles in bright sunshine, clear blue skies,brilliant white snow walls to Crater Lake car park, with one disappointment on our arrival, we could only see the lake through a viewpoint that had been cut in the snow, and it is as blue as they say. We'll be returning in August when we will be able to see all of the lake and surrounding area, but it cannot be more beautiful than it is now. Our return journey to Eugene on Highway 138 which runs alongside the Umpqua River with its many waterfalls made our return trip complete.
We booked into a Down Town Motel which made far easier access to restaurants in the evenings. Contacted AutoSource who advised us that our Ford F350 truck should arrive in Eugene week ending 30th April which was a week earlier than we expected. As everything was moving so fast and people needed to contact us, our next step is to procure a Mobile Phone, and then to get our Driving Licence.
With the delivery of the Truck and RV imminent it was time to transfer money from our U.K. Bank Account into a local Bank Account, not so easy as you may think, no matter what bank we spoke to nobody wanted our Mega Bucks, so we asked Auto Source if we could transfer the money direct - no problem as we both banked with Citibank. Contacted Larry's RV who also agreed. Another obstacle overcome.
The weather changed from the continuous sunshine we had had since our arrival to the seasonal damp weather. With the weekend here and after all the stress of the past days we took a day off to relax and walk in the local park which runs along the Willamette River and offers lovely walks, facilities for biking, roller blades and picnics. Then it was back to the mundane task of more shopping.
With the last week of April upon us and the delivery of the truck due at the beginning of May, it was off to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to get our driving licenses, which we had been advised would be easy if we knew the Highway Code. Once these had been issued we could then contact our chosen insurance provider. Not as straight forward as we anticipated.
By Friday 30th we had achieved far more than we could have thought possible in such a short time. We visited Kendall Ford to see our truck (which we had never set eyes on yet), only to be told that it had arrived with a small scratch and was in the spray shop, it would be ready for collection on Monday.
The last thing to be done this month was to ensure our shipment of clothes and household goods from Scotland would be arriving at the beginning of May as promised. We phoned Bon Accord in Aberdeen who are handling the shipment only to be advised that the expected arrival date would not be achieved, they had no further information to offer us at this time. This is not what we wanted to hear as it meant we now had to buy items that were being shipped but were needed now.
End of Month Conclusion
We're off to The Wild Duck Brewpub & Restaurant for a good ' large' meal and a few pints of Microbrew - what a nice way to end a busy month.
Hyperlinks that may be of interest:
