Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, Portland…

Then we head southwest on Route 42.

It’s hard to believe we have made it all the way back to the West Coast again since we left March 17th.

It’s Thursday, April 21st,  when we wake up in Coeur d’Alene, ID, less than 20 miles from Washington. Before we know it, we have traveled south on I-90 through Spokane and Kennewick and are on I-82 that takes us into Oregon.

We cross the Columbia River.

The Welcome to Oregon sign rolls by and we are in our new home state for the summer.

After spending the night in the Columbia River Gorge area, we continue on I-84 into Portland where we connect with I-5 and head south again.

The cloud formations inspire us.

About 75 miles away from our final destination we encounter our 2nd misadventure. One of the tires on the tow dolly is flat, more than flat, like rim damage and all!

(We were wondering why so many truckers kept waving at us. We thought they were just being friendly until everyone who passed us by started waving to us and mouthing something we could not lip read.)

Luckily a rest area appears and we pull in to surmise the damage in the picture above. As we dismount the RV we can smell the burnt rubber.

(Somewhere north of Eugene a small delivery truck expelled some metal sheets on the highway. Jeff had no time to change lanes to avoid running over them. At the time all we could think of is a tire on the RV going flat. We never even considered the tow dolly tires!)

So, we call the RV Emergency Roadside Assistance first. Of course, the tow dolly is not part of the package. Next call is to our RV insurance carrier. The best they can do for us is to have the tow dolly towed to a Eugene RV dealer.

Meanwhile 2 Good Samaritans help out. The first is a trucker who finds us cones to surround our emergency.

The second is a state highway worker who suggests that we call Les SchwabTires. Within an hour and a half we have a new tire and rim and are ready to go again.

At last we reach State Route 42 just south of Roseburg.

And our new home, sweet home!

Welcome to Remote Outpost RV and Cabins!!!