On Thursday we had to get the Flying Scotsman over to the Ford dealer for a routine oil change and lube job and for a recall for a potential battery indicator problem. As this is our house, it takes some coordination to deposit pets and find a place to hang out while the bus is in the shop all day. You also have to unhook all the pipes and wires and let the park know you'll be back. Jo-Anne then followed me over to the dealer and picked me up.
Fortunately the Tillemas allowed us to deposit the beasties at their place for the day and as there is always wine tasting to do, the four humans spent the day in the vineyards. The Ford service department was excellent and got the RV up and running for another 3,000 or so miles. As we were unattached, we took the opportunity to swing by the local RV dealer and fill up with propane so we didn't have to do it in a week or so. We've been running the furnace every day so the propane gets used up a bit. For the month of October it cost about $36 for the whole month, but this last two weeks here cost us $36 because it has been consistently cooler. Again, we are on an electric meter for the power so we'll see what that costs at the end of the month. Today was 54 and a pretty steady rain all day, sometimes hard.
Unfortunately the last couple of days have been quite rainy and dark for too many pics.
We did have a mission for my father and spent a day going down to the vicinity of Junction City, Oregon, to find a small park along highway 99W so this picture is for him, but a little explanation might be in order for anyone else who’s interested. Junction City is about 80 miles south of McMinnville, but a quick trip down Interstate 5.
In 1929, my father, his parents and his brother took an awesome and challenging auto trip from the Grandville, Michigan area and came to the west coast over a period of 30 days and then went back home; where I get the wanderlust, eh. My grandmother kept a diary of the trip and wrote that they camped at this park, now called the "Washburne Wayside State Park."
Unfortunately the last couple of days have been quite rainy and dark for too many pics.
We did have a mission for my father and spent a day going down to the vicinity of Junction City, Oregon, to find a small park along highway 99W so this picture is for him, but a little explanation might be in order for anyone else who’s interested. Junction City is about 80 miles south of McMinnville, but a quick trip down Interstate 5.
In 1929, my father, his parents and his brother took an awesome and challenging auto trip from the Grandville, Michigan area and came to the west coast over a period of 30 days and then went back home; where I get the wanderlust, eh. My grandmother kept a diary of the trip and wrote that they camped at this park, now called the "Washburne Wayside State Park."
We did find the park which is about 4 miles north of Junction City on highway 99W on the northeastern side of the road. This used to be US 99 from the early part of the 1900s and is similar in age and cult status to the more famous US 66.
There probably wasn't a porta-potty then.
This particular park was on what was known as the Applegate Trail. In 1846 John Applegate from Dallas, Oregon, near here, blazed a trail south of here for 500 miles and hooked up with the California Trail where settlers were coming from the East. In about 4 months he and a few others then made the trail navigable for wagons and this really expanded the local Willamette Valley settlement. This was an alternative route to putting the wagons on the “treacherous” Columbia River. So this little wayside park has been here for more than 150 years.
