JWalmsley

Hi all, I am here to help everyone understand a couple of things as best as I can explain. First thing would be that spam is not hacking, it isn't close to anything hacking. Basically what these people are doing is they are legitimately registering through the Registration page and then using that newly created account to post topics and that's it. No hacking involved. Our host security is some of the best in the world and there are several security checks on the server side that helps to keep you all safe and secure. It's one of the many perks we all enjoy for having a top notch managed hosting provider. Secondly, I found the problem this morning in the registration page that was not stopping these spammers from creating accounts, but this correction is not a fix all solution because one does not exist in all the world however, It will help in stopping spammers. As for the Subscribed to the topic and getting emails - I am currently looking into this. I have made posts in topics and have never received an email from the forums unless I physically selected to subscribe to the topic or forums. You can easily just as well Unsubscribe from the topic and/or forums. Picture below: Per the 404 errors, We have been working with the host on this issue and we're still working on pinpointing the cause of the issue. Info here: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/forums-and-404-errors/

We're aware some people including us that are having 404 errors and after much research I can say that it is a bug on the forums software side. We're working hard to get this resolved ASAP. A solution for you that does work is to refresh the page and let the page reload. This is not permanent but a temporary solution until the we, the forum developers and our web host have resolved this bug. Thank you!

Hi everyone. We have resolved the 404 error for classifieds section. Please let me know if you experience 404 errors from any forum page. The Login/Logout errors you have reported are resolved as well. Thanks!

Hi Sandyyc, are you still having trouble? Have you reached out to the service department yet? They can be reached at: 1-866-205-2621

Hi John, This post will help you: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/maintenance-website-migration/ The migration took place very early in the morning 3-4 am. The above post explains the rest. Thank you for understanding!

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 By Mary Kay Cvacho We kicked off the rally Wednesday with an informal activity that we called, “Dessert by the Lake” where we all met at the Beach Pavilion and were treated to desserts, some of which were provided by Oliver vendors, and Oliver owners. It was a fun time to meet new friends and see friends that we had not seen since last year’s rally. Thursday morning began with a nature talk and hike by Lake Guntersville State Parks' Naturalist, Mike Ezell. Nature Talk Nature Hike Thursday morning and Friday afternoon, we offered two maintenance workshops, "Maintenance - Anodes" Workshop and "Maintenance - Truma" Workshop. Feedback from the owners and workshop leaders told us that this was well-received, and that many people learned a lot about their anodes and water heaters and how to maintain them. Rally Registration was held Thursday afternoon at the Gathering Place. Many volunteers helped everyone check in and sign up for activities. Pictured: Malcolm Monlezun and Carol Thompson, Henry and Kristie in background. Rally Registration Opening Ceremony held in the Grandview Ballroom Thursday night was our Opening Ceremony held in the Grandview Ballroom inside the Lodge, followed by a delicious traditional southern barbecue dinner. We heard from Coy Gayle, Rally Chairman, and Scott Oliver, President of Oliver Travel Trailers. During the ceremony Scott awarded Steve Landrum and Coy Gayle the President's Awards. Pictured: Steve Landrum, Scott Oliver, and Coy Gayle Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Breakfasts were held in the Beach Pavilion where many people enjoyed sitting and visiting over breakfast. A special thank you to Gary and Ann Slaybaugh for volunteering to head up the breakfasts. They both went above and beyond to make sure that not only the breakfasts were well taken care of but also that they kept the vendors and sales staff stocked with water and snacks on the warm days in the vendor areas. Friday's events started off with Zip Lining and a Golf Tournament. The Golf tournament was enjoyed by Oliver owners, vendors, and Oliver employees. It has been an activity that several have looked forward to every year. 2nd Picture are the Golf Tournament Winners: Denny McKilligan, Jim Pennington (TexTrail), DeAnna Hicklin, Don Waters, and Bruce Twigg. Golf Tournament Golf Tournament Winners Hospital Readiness Dr. Malcolm Monlezun and his wife, Ursula, put together an interesting talk about Hospital Readiness and what all we need, in order to be prepared in the event of a medical emergency. Everyone was given a form to read along with the presentation, and to take notes on. This form and another website the Monlezuns mention in their presentation are on the Oliver forums under the 2019 Rally. Everyone should take the time to fill out this form completely, place it in a handy location that you and your immediate family will remember, and take it with you on trips, so you will be prepared in case you need it. The Vendor Area The Vendor Area was open several times during the rally. The Oliver vendors were there ready and eager to answer questions, demonstrate their products, and visit with owners. We appreciate each one of them for coming and sponsoring the rally, and representing their companies. Pictured: Happy Camper Solar, Jim Pennington with Textrail, Jason Martel with Lifeline. The Vendor Area A much larger than expected Friday night turn-out of participants enjoyed a beautiful outdoor setting at the Jules J. Berta Vineyard for wine tasting and wood-fired pizza dinner. Following the wine tasting led by Jules’ son and daughter-in-law was a wood-fired pizza buffet with Mediterranean salad hosted by Jules’ wife, Becky. After dinner Jules invited all that wanted to participate on an incredibly interesting and entertaining tour of the vineyards that he and his father created. The highlight of the evening was the story about Jules’ passion for his vineyard, his love of America, and a description of his parents’ participation in Hungary’s 1956 unsuccessful ejection of the Soviet Union from their country. Jules’ parents subsequently immigrated to the U.S. and moved to the Sand Mountain area of Alabama. Jules’ father realized that the micro-climate of Sand Mountain was very similar to his home country, and started experimenting with different grapes. The rest is a very interesting and “tasteful” history. Wine tasting led by Jules Bill Snider, from Dexter Axle came to teach the Bearings Workshop on Saturday morning. He taught us how to change and grease our wheel bearings, and what is important. He also taught us everything about our wheels, axles, and when and how to inspect them. When Bill learned about some of the Oliver owners’ specific concerns about axles, he offered to go to each of their trailers and look at the issues. He showed us exactly what to look for and how to fix their problems and everyone was impressed by Bill's eagerness to help. Finally, a big thank you to Jim Pennington, Oliver’s TexTrail representative, for helping us to secure Bill this year! This year we held the first Ladder Ball Tournament on Saturday afternoon and we hope it will be something that everyone will look forward to every year. Ladder Ball Tournament Winners: 1st place: Justin Martel, Lifeline Batteries and Tali Landrum 2nd place: Janie McKnight and Debbie LaFleiche Ladder Ball Tournament Winners Trailer Show and Tell was a good time to see others’ Olivers. Those who opened their trailers for visitors enjoyed sharing modifications that they had done, decorating and storage ideas, and visiting with like-minded campers. Many of our new and prospective owners gained some good tips and ideas. For dinner Saturday night’s prime rib buffet was phenomenal, I think everyone enjoyed it and the Lodge staff did an incredible job! After dinner we had a very interesting keynote speaker Ian Giles, who helped organize the 50th Boler Rally in Canada earlier this year. You can see his entire powerPoint presentation on the Oliver forums. We finished the night off with a Sock Hop and whether you danced or watched others dance, the music was great, and it was a lot of fun. The Oliver vendors sent some really nice prizes, we ended up having enough door prizes for every trailer to receive at least one. All the ticket numbers were put back in the hat for the drawing of the three grand prizes - a Dish Play Maker, donated by Winegard; a mobile solar panel, donated by Zamp; and a mobile cooler/refrigerator, donated by Dometic. All the other door prizes were of various values, some $10, $25, $50 gift cards, tumblers and Oliver owners’ talk about axles hats from various companies, bottles of wine, sewer hoses and other camping related items, entire brake assemblies from Dexter, and lots more. We all really appreciate all the generous donations from the Oliver vendors, Oliver Travel Trailer owners, Guntersville businesses, as well as others. Another great surprise for the night was when Oliver Sales Team member Phil Andrews was awarded the Rally Chairman’s Award by Coy Gayle. Sock hop dancing Door prizes Rev. Holsenback, a local minister We appreciate Rev. Holsenback, a local minister, coming to conduct our church service Sunday morning. He related several stories of hardship and encouraged us as to how to overcome adversity by depending on God. Camping for Dummies Camping for Dummies was written and presented by Oliver Travel Trailer Owner, Mike Thompson. Mike put together a very informative and entertaining program that taught us several “how to’s” and tips for our Ollies and camping in general. We have heard of other owners putting some of these tips into place in their own trailers and Mike compiled them and presented a great program, that was not only beneficial by giving us new information, but was also presented in such an interesting way. Each year, Boondocking has been a popular topic so this year we decided to present this topic by having a panel of experienced boondockers. We included three of our own owners with various levels of Boondocking experience, and we asked our Keynote speaker from Canada, Ian Giles to join the panel. Several topics were discussed, including the typical important ones like water conservation, and black and gray tanks. Boondocking has been a popular topic Our rally ended this year with a trip to the beautiful Cathedral Caverns. A group of 17 Oliver Travel Trailer Owners caravanned and toured to the caverns together, and then enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant on the way back to the campground. It was a special time of a shared experience with new and old friends. We learned many things this year, as we do each year from lecture-type programs, interactive maintenance workshops, and fun activities. We are working on sponsorships, and hopefully within the next few months, we will be able to let everyone know the final cost of the 2020 rally. Please go ahead and call the campground at (256) 571-5455 to secure your campsite for the dates that you want. The 2020 Oliver Travel Trailer Owners’ Rally dates are May 14 - May 17. As soon as we know what the rally registration rate will be, we will advertise that with instructions where to call to register for the rally. Again, thank you to all the sponsors, donors, vendors, workshop facilitators and speakers, program speakers, activity leaders, and all our hard-working volunteers! See you at next year’s Oliver Travel Trailer Owners’ Rally. Special Thank You to all of the 2019 Oliver Rally Volunteers! Cheryl A. Janis B. Mike B. Russell B. Tom C. Frank C. Cheryl C. Ken C. Mary Kay C. Margaret E. Coy G. Olivia H. DeAnna H. Leslie H. Steve L. Tali L. Debbie L. Vickie L. Rick L. Jim M. Mary M. Denny M. Karen M. Janie M. Russ M. Malcolm M. Ursula M. Mike M. Donna P. Tom P. Kathy R. John R. Liye R. Henry S. Kristie S. Bill S. Leslie S. Gregg S. Donna S. Frank S. Lori S. Paula S. Ann S. Gary S. Lee S. Teri S. Foy S. Mirna S. Mike T. Carol T. Kim T. Betty T. Steve T. Darrell W. Kathy W. Sharon W. See our 2020 Oliver Owners' Rally details. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post 2019 Oliver Rally Recap appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article

This is a resolved issue - Thanks for reporting everyone! /CLOSED

Hi John, I am going to be running some tests on the PM system as soon as I get an iPad to test with. So far every other system I have tested with have had no issues.

Hi John, I sent you a private message just now.

Trailer Life has done several reviews and spreads of the Oliver. Here is one they did earlier in the year: http://www.trailerlife.com/rv-gear/rvs/high-class-fiberglass/

The way email notifications for pms work is: If you have not been logged in for more than 1 hour = sends email notification for pms. If you are logged in or have been logged in within the last 1 hour = no email notification for pms.

The way email notifications for pms work is: If you have not been logged in for more than 1 hour = sends email notification for pms. If you are logged in or have been logged in within the last 1 hour = no email notification for pms.

Dear Owners, On March 11th, we stated that we were looking into this and here's what we have come up with so far and there will be more to follow: First of all, we’d like to express how much we appreciate any owner who voluntarily shows their travel trailer to others who show an interest. We acknowledge your contribution as being a large part of our success. However, this is a voluntary program and if at anytime an owner feels there is too much risk, they should withdraw from the program. Regardless of whether you take part or not, we appreciate you. Both our attorney and our insurance agent have indicated to us that since we do not have any control over the owner, their trailer or their premises it is not a risk we can insure against. We are working to create a “hold harmless” agreement that we can put into the terms and conditions that folks agree to on our website when they request a field visit. The value of such an agreement will be limited in terms of how much protection it may provide due to the fact that there are so many variables in the potential circumstances and the laws governing liability vary from state to state. Once we have the hold harmless in place, we will post it here. Commercial insurance, which we carry, covers our employees and products but not our customers. We did ask if there was a rider available and were told not at this time. Regarding your personal liability there has already been a lot of discussion here so it doesn’t need repeating. You should check with your carrier to see what coverage you have if this is a concern as people come and go from your property every day for any number of reasons. Again, thank you for all of your contributions, we are looking forward to seeing you at the rally and we can discuss this further there if anyone comes up with anything else.

Gentlemen, Thank you for bringing this topic to light. I apologize if you have written emails to our Sales Staff that have remained unanswered. I have spoken to our General Manager and he has spoken to one of our attorneys and is waiting to hear back from another attorney that specializes in this area of the law. In the meantime, we would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention and for all of your efforts. We will post updates here when more information becomes available.

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Channeled Scablands By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 Dry Falls State Park The Dry Falls State Park and RV campground is in the coulee downstream from the Dry Falls that is a remnant of the Ice Age Flood. Mid-morning on Sunday, May 13, 2018 I pulled into the Park and enquired if they had an available RV camp site. The woman working at the entry booth wanted to know if I had a reservation. I replied that I did not but was hoping that there may be an available spot. She said there is or will be once the Sunday leaving folks had departed. Additionally, she indicated that some Sunday campers had already left but she did not know which ones, as she had not had time to check which sites were vacant. I volunteered that I would be willing to do that and if I found an open campsite, I would park my Oliver and then come back and tell her which site I had chosen. She thought that was fine idea and that is how I got an excellent spot in a very popular and busy campground. Dry Falls is hard to explain. Dry Falls is a three and half mile wide, 400 foot high precipice that was actually just a cataract within the Ice Age Flood. It is the leftover remnants of the massive Ice Age Flood that caused the channeled scablands. One just has to see it to fully understand it. These three photos will help some to understand why it is called Dry Falls. Try to visualize the massive amount of water that came over that ridge that created these precipices and the coulee. The lakes are remnants of the plunge pools that were created by the flood. Dry Falls has been called the greatest waterfall that ever existed. Estimations are that during the Ice Age Flood the falls were five times the width of Niagara Falls with ten times the water flow of all the current rivers in the world combined. Also, estimations are that this water was moving at 65-80 miles per hour and the water overtopped this ridge above the Dry Falls by hundreds of feet. That is why I called it a cataract within the Flood. Dry Falls is the only location within the Channeled Scablands that has a visitor center that is if one does not count the Grand Coulee Dam visitor center which is more about the Dam than the Grand Coulee which was the main channel of the Ice Age Flood into eastern Washington. At the cliff’s edge by the Visitor Center is a masonry wall. This wall is as close as one can get for peering into the coulee below or taking photos, with one exception. There is a walkway that projects out over the basalt cliffs that allows a further view of below. I have not normally been afraid of heights but when I got out to the end, I felt a bit squirrely. It is a “gulp” experience. If you look at the bottom of the third photo above you will see a corner of the chain link fence guard that is at the end of the walkout that I inadvertently caught in my photo. At the time that I took the first three photos above, I didn’t think to take a picture of the walkway, so I used photos from explore-wa.com. After I returned, I sat in the shade of a covered pavilion and watched others go out. Many attempted to walk out to the end but not all got to the end. Quite a few, hastily returned back after getting about half way along the walkway. I understood because I had the same impulse myself. Down in the Coulee From the RV park area, there is a rutted gravel road that is open to the public that will take one to the lakes seen in the pictures above. Local people go out there to fish the Lakes. I went out to get different perspective and a better sense of scale. If you look closely in the above photo, you will see a white spot on top of the cliffs that is about the mid-point of the photo. That is the Visitor Center. My truck is behind where I stood to take this picture. If you look closely in the second photo above you will see a whitish spot by a point that juts toward the first lake. That is where I parked. It was hot but I walked down the road to the lakes, around on some of the small paths off the road and in a few cases blazed my own trail through the marsh grass and bushes just to continue to get a sense of scale of the place. The place is so vast that I don’t know how to describe it other than to say that it is a really big place and I still couldn’t visualize the amount of water that would have been needed to cut this coulee through the hard basalt bedrock. After walking around for an hour or so, I returned to my truck and drove back to my camp spot in the RV Park which is located further down the coulee. The camp site that I choose in the RV Park was a pull-through just across the way from the showers building. As it had been a hot and dusty day, once I returned to my beloved Oliver and quaffed a bottle of nectar (Water - what else did you think I meant?), I eagerly went into one of the shower rooms. There was a sign on the wall admonishing users to close the door upon leaving and not prop it open so as to keep the rattlesnakes and other critters from entering. Initially, I thought maybe this was a bit of a joke about the rattlesnakes so as to encourage people to close the door and keep the mice or rats out but later when I spoke to one of the maintenance people he said it was no joke as the coulee was full of rattlesnakes and one had to be quite observant and cautious. The maintenance man further indicated that at the upper end of the Coulee, near the lakes where I had just been, there were extremely large numbers and he wouldn’t go there because of it. When I was there, I didn’t see a single snake, don’t know if any saw me, maybe it was too hot for them to be out. In any case, a “howdy’ from a rattlesnake is not to be invited. (Since then I have bought some rattlesnake gaiters for wearing in such places.) If I had seen that I had walked into a bunch of rattlesnakes and I got away from them and lived to tell someone, it would have been an adventure. Not having seen any, it was just a walk in the park. "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post The Channeled Scablands – Part 4 of 4 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Channeled Scablands By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 Pothole Coulee Pothole Coulee, one of the more dramatic Channeled Scabland features that helps illustrate how massive this Ice Age Flood was and how terrifyingly destructive it became as it traveled to the Columbia River. What you see is the basalt bedrock that remained after the scouring effects of the Flood. The Coulee is about five miles wide at its widest. The farmlands above are approximately one thousand feet above the Columbia River below. To quote J Harlen Brentz, (The geologist that spent nearly forty years attempting to convince other geologists of his time that the Scablands were flood caused.) the two coulees are separated by “a great blade of rock a mile and half long, 1000 feet wide and 375 feet in maximum height.” The farmland above the coulee on the left side of the picture is known as Babcock Ridge. The farmland on the right side is known Evergreen Ridge. The four, long, finger-like lakes at the top of the photo are called Quincy Lakes. The three smaller lakes down in the Babcock Coulee side are what is known as plunge pools, which were caused by the scouring turbulence of the Ice Age Flood as it overtopped the above ridge. I drove to the Coulee on the Babcock Ridge side. It can only be partially seen because of the shadow of the cliff above but there is a gravel road that comes in on the Babcock Ridge side at the lower Bench. The white area to the right of the Bench is the parking area for the entrance for hiking into the Coulee. What can be well seen is the walk paths that are in the coulee. They were not developed by the State of Washington; they were created by many walking feet over many years. Hiking and Climbing According to guide books it is approximately five miles to the larger plunge pool lake from the entry gate. This will help give some sense of scale to the lower coulee. This entry area was the broadest part of the path, in many places the trail through the rocks and bushes was so narrow that only one person could utilize it, no side-by-side walking. If meeting an oncoming hiker, one or the other would need to stop and step off the path for passing. About four miles in, looking across the valley, I was able to see that there was a footpath going up the “great blade of rock” on its north face approximately across from the first small plunge pool lake. Observing this possible footpath to the top, I left the established footpath toward the lakes and started cross country, down into the coulee and then up the other side. In that I was walking at a diagonal, I estimate that this part of the trip was at least two miles, maybe a bit more considering that once across the valley, I had to parallel the north side of the “blade” for some ways until I came to the upwards path. This is what the “blade” looks like from the northern footpath that I took from the entry gate. My goal was to climb the blade and once on top, go to the western end (right side of frame) which overlooks the Columbia River. The flat area to the very left of the photo is what I was able to climb. The end to the right which overlooks the Columbia River was maybe another 200 feet higher. It cannot be discerned from the above picture but there is a deep valley between where I stood to take this picture and the “blade”. The below picture better illustrates the coulee valley. At the point of that photo, I was walking toward the lower flat area of the blade approximately in the center of the photo. It can be readily seen that the elevation to the right of the flat area is higher. What cannot be understood from the photo is the height difference, which as indicated earlier is about 200 feet. Below is the beginning of the upwards path that I was able to see from the north pathway of the Babcock Coulee side. The beginning was loose fractured rock fall-off from the basalt cliffs above. As I got higher, it became more rock like overlaid with dirt and gravel and in parts, more stable. This photo does not demonstrate the steepness of the trail but it does help illustrate the footing. Where the large bush is located in the upper middle right of this photo is where the trail began to switch back and became steeper. There was more than one switchback; I estimate that the first part of the trail went up about 100 feet of elevation in about a half mile. After flattening out a bit, the trail climbed approximately another 75-100 feet of elevation, where I stalled out for a rest. It was quite a climb but I made it to the flat area that can be seen on the center of the “valley” picture above. By the time that I got to the top of that flat area, I was exhausted so I took a rest and hydration break. Only another 200 feet or so of elevation was needed to get to the very top. Given the meandering of the trail this would require at least another mile of climb and then another mile plus to get to the end to overlook the Columbia River. As I sat on the trail, just before the next part of the trail that was to be climbed, I began to question whether I had enough energy remaining to complete the hike and to return back to the parking area. The slope that was before me was just as steep as the one that I had just struggled to climb so it was a reasonable question. Eight weeks earlier, I could barely walk around the block; stopping the cancer medications changed my energy level for the better. I began to feel so much better that I took on the challenge of the Scablands journey and this climb. What I did not understand, until this point, was that my energy reserves were essentially non-existent. It was premature of me to attempt this hike but I was so exultant about my returning energy that I let that overcome good sense. While resting, six young hikers, five boys and one girl, came by and I was able to watch their travel up the slope and get an idea of how the path would go. They walked with the energy of youth and made it look easy. At the top of the slope, I could see them turn right, momentarily disappear from view behind a ridge, and then return clambering over a series of flat rocks that were two to three feet in height from each other, maybe a dozen in all. Watching them, confirmed that today was not the day that I would make it to the end of the “blade”. I reluctantly decided that after completing my rest, I would head back. On the way up, I got a good view of the valley floor and the lakes. The Return Trip As I headed back, I knew that I had a six to seven mile return trip ahead of me but I tried not to think about it, I simply concentrated on my footing and one step at a time. Going down the steep part of the trail was more difficult than going up, in that if I stumbled I would take a head first tumble downslope. On the steepest part of the trail, I simply had to sit down and scoot along as the shale covered slope was too slippery for my wobbly legs and energy state. As I scooted along, unbeknownst to me, my wallet came out of my back pocket. I became aware of it when a fellow hiker came up behind me to pass and said, “Here you go” and handed me my wallet. I was so surprised by this that it took me a minute to respond with a thank you. He was well past me when I finally croaked out my thank you. Had he not come along right behind me and found it, I don’t know that I would have had the energy to go back and search for it, once I discovered it gone. The god of dumb old men smiled on me that day. It seemed to take forever to cross the coulee valley and find the trail that I had left earlier. Once I found the trail, I still had about four miles to go. By then it was a trudge, one slow step at a time. By the time I got within a mile of the parking area, I was beginning to question whether I was going to make it back, I was so exhausted. It was not smart of me to do what I had done but as indicated previously I was overcome with exultation because of my returning energy. This joyful feeling created a delusion that I could make the hike and the climb. This effort could have caused a major emergency as my body was not ready for such a hike. It has been said that the hardest mile of any hike is the last mile. It was so for me this day. By the time I saw the parking lot and my beloved Oliver, I was nearly at energy’s end. But I made it. During the hike I consumed five bottles of water, the last bottle when I was still a mile or so from the parking area. Once at my Oliver, I sat for about 30 minutes drinking water and eating some cheese and ham slices. By the end of that time, I felt refreshed enough to go look for a campsite for the night. I would have preferred to have stayed where I was parked but I decided not because of the steepness of this location. I think that my total mileage for this day was at least 12 miles and probably closer to 14 miles. Not bad for a fat, 75 year old, who only a few weeks ago was released from chemo. "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post The Channeled Scablands – Part 3 of 4 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying this warm weather (at least in it is in Tennessee)!. We have developed a new page of the Oliver Virtual Tour and we wanna share it with all of you and see what you think. Check it out and please let us know if you see or have any problems viewing it or find any bugs. Oliver Travel Trailers Virtual Tour Thanks, Jason

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Channeled Scablands By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 The picture below is a depiction of the western portion of the northern ice cap as it was slowly receding from the warming that started approximately 15,000 years ago. The eastern ice cap had descended further south than the western portion of the ice cap. As indicated in my first 'part 1 of the series', the eastern ice cap was as far south as Ohio. Likely the warming effect of the Pacific Ocean curtailed the southern movement of the western ice cap. It is also interesting to note that Alaska and the North Pole were not under the ice cap. Also, keep in mind this is a depiction of the melt time not the extent of the maximum range of the ice cap. The image below indicates where the Scablands are and where the geologists believed was the likely source of the water like Glacial Lake Missoula that was created by an Ice Dam. It is believed that once the Ice Dam broke, the water flowed from the Lake to create the Scablands. This theory has several problems, one is that not enough water could be held back by an ice dam to cause the erosion effects that occurred. In order to explain this differential, the current theory is that this happened as many as 80-90 times over thousands of year. Along with the belief that the glacial lake could not contain a sufficient volume of water to create the scouring effect and the deep canyons that can be seen today the second problem is that multiple ice dam formations could not have happened. It is claimed that it makes little sense that if the climate was warming that ice dams would continue to form multiple times in the same general location while holding back meltwater from the ice cap. If the ice cap was melting, the likelihood of multiple ice dams forming at the same time seems to be low. After all, the ice dam was part of the ice cap so it is not likely to freeze and form again while other parts are melting. J Harlen Brentz Ph.D., the first geologist to study the erosion effects of the Scablands initially thought that it was formed by a one-off event but he was unable to indicate what the cause and source of the water could be. It took him forty years to convince other geologists that the erosion effects in the Scablands were caused by water. Under pressure from his peers, who believed in geologic incrementalism or uniformitarianism rather than singular catastrophic causal events, (known as catastrophism), he eventually capitulated to their belief that because such a massive flood event had never been observed before, therefore it could not have occurred in the past. Today, because of awareness of a past meteor event that killed the dinosaurs there is a larger understanding about a possibility of a singular cause but still many geologists continue to believe that there were many meltwater floods. As indicated, others believe another explanation is required over repetitious or multiple flood events. Given other indicators of change that occurred in the same time period, such as the disappearance of the megafauna of North America, (e.g. Wooly and Columbia mammoths, giant elk, giant sloth, sabretooth tigers, dire wolves and many others). During this time, 137 species simultaneously disappeared along with the Clovis culture humans who lived south of the continental ice sheet in the unglaciated portion of North America. Along with the disappearance of species in North America, events and circumstances all over the world indicated that something much more catastrophic occurred during this time. Their theory is that a comet, asteroid or solar flare struck the ice cap 12,800 years ago, instantly flash melting it or a portion of it, causing massive flooding and rapid sea level rise of 300-400 feet. The moisture upwelling into the atmosphere caused by this impact upon the ice cap created major rain events, a rapid sea level of nearly 400 feet and massive flooding worldwide. The rapid sea level rise and the tremendous rain events created havoc and distress worldwide which were remembered and transmitted orally via stories that became legends and eventually myths. The biblical story of Noah and other cultural myths about flooding found in other locations worldwide may have its origins in this event. The Sumerians who lived four thousand years before the time of the writing of the Bible described such a flooding. They had stories written on clay tablets of a massive flood that affected the whole world. The Sumerian time was 6,000 to 7,000 years after the time of this event which is thought to have occurred 12,800 years ago. As in many other issues in geology, contention over such an event can be argued and discussed over a long time before consensus occurs. Witness the contention about the meteor impact theory regarding the death of the dinosaurs. Some are still arguing that the death of the dinosaurs was caused by massive volcanic activity, not a meteor impact. Regardless of who may be right, the Scablands exist and they are fascinating to visit. I traveled about a large part of the Scablands but not all by a long shot. There were four major geological features formed by the flood, remnants that can be readily observed today, that I wanted to see: Wallula Gap; Palouse Falls; Pothole Coulee and Dry Falls. My trip to Wallula Gap and Palouse Falls, I will mention here. Dry Falls and Pothole Coulee will have their own articles. Wallula Gap Wallula Gap was to be my first way-station for my travels across the Channeled Scablands. Starting from Umatilla, Oregon, SR 730 east travels through high basalt cliffs on the south side of the road and the Columbia River on the north side. Although I did once get the tourist go home signal, compared to other roads in this part of the world it is less traveled, so this gives a traveler an opportunity to drive slowly and look at the terrain and the river. My objective was to pass through the Wallula Gap. As this was the gateway to the Scablands, I was hoping to get a sense of scale and proportion of this flood by viewing the Gap. During the ice age flood, the Wallula Gap was the choke point for the flood to reach the Columbia River and then the Ocean. All the Scabland drainage passed through here. The amount of water flow was so massive that at its peak, it was over 1,000 feet above the present day Columbia River. The width and depth of the Columbia River Gorge testifies to that height as it was cut by this Flood or floods. As can be seen from the above map, the Gap was the narrowest part of the Columbia River Gorge during the ice age floods. It is still true today, it is about two miles wide. West of this location the Columbia River Gorge is much wider. The widest part of the Gorge is about five miles, the average width of the Gorge is three miles. The average height of the Gorge cliffs is 1,500 to 3,000 feet. The maximum elevation of the Gorge walls is 4,000 feet. The average width today of the Columbia River in the Gorge is one mile. While I did not go there on this trip, I have been to the Vista House observatory in the below photo several times, it provides a view of the Gorge not equaled anywhere else. The ice age flood waters were so extensive that it spread out more than a 100 miles wide over thousands of square miles, above the Gap forming the Channeled Scablands. The Gap of maybe two miles wide restrained the drainage of a hundred miles wide flood flow. Visualize a small culvert trying to drain a large flood area and you will have the concept. Although it is amazing to think that a two mile wide gap was small enough to back water like that small culvert. The backed up water seeking other outlets to the Columbia did find them but all were above the Gap, so in the end all of the water had to find its way through the Gap. I will be telling you about one such outlet into the Columbia River known as the Pothole Coulee in a future article. The backed up water, because of the Gap, created tremendous pressure as the water surged through the Gap. Once the water exited the Gap it was under such hydraulic pressure that it scoured what is now the 80-90 mile long Columbia River Gorge. Still today, there is a 150 to 200 foot deep channel in the Pacific Ocean that reflects the scouring effect of this flood. Keeping in mind that the Oceans of that time were approximately 400 feet lower than present day, it is not hard to understand that the effect went on for miles past what is present day Astoria and the current mouth of the river. Indeed, Portland is built on the backed up detritus from this flood of floods. The Wallula Gap is noteworthy for its effect on the ice age flood but because of its size it is difficult to get a cohesive view and thus is not as dramatic or spectacular to view as some other locations, although others may differ with my opinion. However, I found this area to be extremely interesting in that it helped to understand something about a flood that was more than ten times larger than the combined flow of all the current rivers in the world today. One of the interesting terrain features along SR 730 is this two towered basalt monolith that somehow escaped the full impact of the flood. The towers are about 100 feet high. Local Indians named them the Two Sisters. The Indian Legend is that Coyote became jealous of his two wives and turned them to stone, so they sit there today in testimony of his jealousness. Geologists have another opinion about this formation but it is still called the Two Sisters. The Willamette Valley is the central valley in Oregon. It lies between the coastal mountains to the West and the Cascade Mountains to the east. This valley is similar to California’s Central Valley as to how it is located. During the peak of the flood, the Willamette Valley filled with water and silt (see map). The left behind silt provides the basis of some of the best farmland in the US, if not the World. There are erratic boulders carried by the flood as far south as Eugene Oregon which is about 200 miles from the present day Columbia River. Palouse Falls The Scablands are so large and so complex like a maze that one visit cannot bring it all together. To fully understand the Scablands and to fully appreciate the features that were caused by the flood and left behind after the flood, one must see and walk them. Not all can be seen as private lands and the works of man make them unavailable or they have become obscure. Some features like Wallula Gap, can be generally observed but the scale is so large that it is impossible to fully comprehend it or photograph it except possibly with the use of a photographic drone. Others like Palouse Falls can be reached, photographed and be somewhat understood because it is at a scale that fits more the human perspective. The Palouse River empties into the Snake River. The Palouse River Canyon and the Palouse Falls are not very distant from where this occurs. The Snake, rises in the mountains east of Yellowstone and makes its way north until it, in turn, empties into the Columbia River. Palouse Falls is considered the “crown jewel” of the Palouse River. The falls drops 200 feet over what is called a “recessional cataract” into a deep plunge pool. A recessional cataract is a type of falls that keeps moving upstream as the water erodes the cliff, another modern day version of this is Niagara Falls. This downstream canyon illustrates the erosional effect of the water over time. Look at the cliffs adjacent to the current falls in the photo above and then visualize the various cliffs shown downstream as once being adjacent to the falls. Obviously, cliff edge erosion has occurred and the slopes are now less abrupt but one can clearly see the progression of the falls over geologic time. Palouse Falls is somewhat remote and not easily found, at least for me. However, it was worth the trip just to see this and have it so clearly illustrated as to how a “recessional cataract” occurs. "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post The Channeled Scablands – Part 2 of 4 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. 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Hi Darryl and Kim, Have you looked in the radio manual yet? Here is a link to the Furrion 2018 manual: Furrion Radio Manual On Page 5 it talks about pairing the bluetooth device with the radio. You can also call our Service department for assistance: 1-866-205-2621 if you would like.

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Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Channeled Scablands By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 For more than two years I have been receiving treatment for stage four prostate cancer which had metastasized to six other places in my body. A few months ago I was able to discontinue all medical treatment. The course of the medications over the past years seemed to have worked, I have no more pain and various tests indicate all is well. Future Doctor’s visit will be for monitoring only. A cure? Don’t know, but I am in remission at the very least. Remission is not a cure, it may only be a temporary pause but I am thankful for it. The medications had some powerful side effects. The debilitating side effects came to control my life. During the recent past months, because of weakness and fatigue caused by the medications, I was unable to do much, including travel with my beloved Oliver. During that time, I read about the Ice Age Flood and the Channeled Scablands of Washington. I decided that if I ever got better I would go and see the Scablands. In celebration of Remission, in May I traveled north to Washington and about the Scablands. These are the stories of my travels, but first a bit of explanation about ice ages and the Scablands. Ice Ages and Floods For reasons not completely understood, the Earth has cycled in and out of ice ages for millions of years. The cycle includes approximately 100,000 years of polar ice caps moving toward the equator interspersed with interglacials of approximately 12,000 to 15,000 years whereby the ice caps would significantly melt and retreat because warming occurred. The Arctic and Antarctic ice caps of today are remnants of the larger ice caps during the last glacial maximum. During the last glacial maximum the northern ice cap covered Canada and the northern United States as well as much of Europe. On the eastern side of North America, it reached as far south as Ohio with heights of up to two miles. Difficult to visualize I know, imagining an ice cap cliff two miles high rather boggles the mind. And, realizing that maybe 15,000 years ago (a geologic micro-second in the history of the Earth) this was the case makes one wonder about past cycles of ice ages and interglacials. What was going on then, how did mankind survive such cycles? It is estimated that at the end of the last ice age and the beginning of the current interglacial maybe 100,000 Neanderthals were in existence and unknown number of Homo sapiens. The scouring and gouging of the underlying bed rock by the ice cap is still visible today in many places, if one knows where to look. Among places that the gouging can be readily seen is in granite rock outcroppings in New York City’s Central Park. The Great Lakes and the lakes of Minnesota were caused by gouging of the ice cap and compression of the underlying land by the weight of the ice. The Great Lakes were originally filled with glacial melt-water as the glacial ice disappeared as the World began warming at the beginning of the current Interglacial. The Lake’s bottoms are still rebounding upward today recovering from the immense weight of the ice that once lay upon the land. Scientists don’t fully understand the “why” of the gradual onset and abrupt ending of the glaciation. Some scientists assert that the globe has now warmed up by 16 degrees F since the last ice age but don’t know why this is the case. It is believed by some that the timing of the ice ages is controlled by the inclination and precession of the Earth’s axis of spin. Inclination has to do with the tilt of the Earth’s poles toward or away from the Sun. The Earth's axis rotates just as a spinning top does. Precession is caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon on the Earth which induces a “wobble” in the spin which takes approximately 26,000 years for one revolution. Serbian astronomer Milankovitch developed the mathematics for the precession and inclination. (Don’t ask me to explain the math, because I can’t.) It is thought that the circumstances of the precession and inclination or “wobble” controls the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth and when the largest amount of energy occurs. And, this in turn affects the coming and going of ice ages. Along with the precession theory, there are other theories as to why this cycle of cold and warming occurs. These includes cosmic forces such as solar cycles (i.e. low number of solar sunspots and changing sun irradiance), solar geomagnetic field strength changes, gravity effects over time of as yet unknown planets, cosmic rays, movement of our solar system through the galaxy, cosmic dust and others or all of them. Who knows? I know I don’t. There is currently disagreement as to the cause of the ice ages. What is agreed is that the Earth has experienced these ice age cycles many times and will likely continue to have them. Notwithstanding current global warming concerns, there are individuals who study the past glacial cycles who believe that because of these cyclical circumstances historically, we will inevitability cycle back into another ice age. We currently exist in the Interglacial from the last ice age. Various estimates are that it has been 14,000 to 15,000 years since this interglacial began and this timeframe is longer than other past interglacials, some were as short as 11,500 years. Based on past periodicity of ice ages and interglacials and assuming this periodicity maintains, there is probability that the earth will enter another ice age. Given the regularity of glacial ice advance and retreat over the past millions of years, this is likely a good bet, but the “when” of the timing is not obvious. Some believe that we have started into the next ice age now because early indicators can be observed and that it will become obvious over the next few decades. After the beginning of the current Interglacial, between 12,000 to 13,000 years ago a massive flood of difficult to visualize proportions swept through the Washington area depicted below. The large brown area is now known as the Channeled Scablands. The arrows indicate the area of this massive flood as hypothesized as being released from Glacial Lake Missoula. There are other hypothesizes that I will touch on in Part Two of this series of articles. This Flood tore through eastern Washington ripping up trees, stripping top soil down to the bedrock and carving deep trenches (known as coulees today) in the underlying volcanic basalt bedrock. It carried house size boulders for miles and wreaked havoc upon the land. The force and volume of these waters (billions of cubic feet per second) carved the Grand Coulee and the Columbia River Gorge. The Grand Coulee is a 50-60 mile long trench which was a major carrier of the Flood to the Columbia River. The Grand Coulee Dam now backs water into this trench. The area destroyed by the Flood is still recovering today from the violent impact of this flood of floods. In some places the raw bedrock is still observable and Nature has not been able to recover or has done so minimally. I hiked one such location known as the Pothole Coulee which I write about in Part Three of this series. The arrows indicating the outlet to the Pacific Ocean is the path of the Columbia River, give or take a few meanderings over time. Geologist J (no period) Harlen Bretz, Ph.D. spent nearly 25 years studying what he called the “channeled scablands”. It took him nearly forty years to convince his fellow geologists that his opinion that this scoured out area was caused by a massive flood thousands of years ago was accurate. The geologists disbelieved Brentz’s theory because he couldn’t explain where the water originated. Brentz initially believed that all of this damage was caused by one massive flood event but later geologists believe that it was caused by as many as 80-90 flood events. Others, like Brentz, believe it was one massive flood caused by a singular event. The below depiction provides a different perspective as to the western Ice Sheet at the time of the Flood and the Flood area. The Channeled Scablands are now considered one of the “Seven Wonders of Washington State”. And thus the reason for my first travel after stoppage of cancer medications. I will explain more about the “channeled scablands” in future articles. First Day of Travel When I left home at approximately 6:00 a.m., I took my leaving with a certain amount of eagerness and an equal amount of reluctance. It had been sometime since I had been interested in traveling or was able to do so. I was eager to go again but my leaving was tempered by internal questions as to whether I had enough strength and energy to be out and going about. But much more so it was because I would miss my family, especially my daily ration of my recently born great grandson who lives with his parents five houses away from my house. When you are as old as I am, the advent of a baby (now toddler) into your life can be profound and a great joy. It was for me. My intended travel path from my home was SR 20 east to IS 5 north to US 97 north until I met the Columbia River where I would begin my travels into Washington and the Scablands. While eager to be traveling once again, I drove slowly and alertly on Highway 20 because of the sunrise light in my eyes but more so because I was in no hurry, being of a relaxed mind. It was pure pleasure to be once again traveling with my beloved Oliver. When I reached IS 5, I stopped at Granzellas, a locally famous restaurant and deli, and picked up six quart jars of local grown olives as directed by my wife. Not being especially hungry, I was not particularly interested in my usual breakfast of eggs and such. Instead, I bought a Big Tom deli sandwich to go. When I returned to the parking lot, I was approached by a man who wanted to know about the Oliver. He said that his trailer had burned up last year in the Santa Rosa, California fire and he had yet to buy another, so he was very much interested in my thoughts about the Oliver. I spent nearly 45 minutes with him answering his questions. After that, I headed north on IS 5 until I reached US 97 at the community of Weed. IS 5 passes on the western side of Mt. Shasta. Traveling north one gets a terrific windshield view of the west and south side of this volcano mountain. Traveling on US 97 provides an opportunity to more closely view the north side as well providing views of the east side. I stopped several times just to walk around and appreciate being on the road again. The community of Weed got its name from the founder of the City and has had this name for a very long time but it strikes me as a particularly appropriate name today, given the legal pot economy in California. I am sure some enterprising marketing guy is using that idea already. Klamath Falls was the first town of consequence in Oregon along 97. Except for stopping for gas, I passed through Klamath Falls and continued north. Approximately 25 miles north of Klamath Falls, I took a gravel road from US 97 to the USFS Williams Lake campground in the Deschutes National Forest. My chosen site for the night required me to spend a few minutes leveling my Oliver, I had barely parked and leveled my trailer when a woman walked up and introduced herself as being from a nearby camp spot. She and her fellow campers had seen me pass by on the way to my camp location. She indicated that she and her husband and another couple they were camping with were curious about the Oliver as they had never seen one before. She introduced herself as Rocksie, stating she was called that by her family and friends because of her habit of collecting rocks when traveling with their RV. She indicated that she was a retired school teacher with a lifelong interest in geology. When she was teaching, she and her husband would travel about the West in their RV and she would gather various rock samples for a show-and-tell to her students. Willingly, I explained the benefits of the Oliver and told her how satisfied I was with it. The first questions she asked once we were inside was if I had made the valances over the windows. (My granddaughter-in-law had made them for me because she thought that a bit of color was needed against the white of the interior.) Rocksie was very interested in all of the available storage as she thought of the Oliver as being “little”. She and her husband drag around a giant fifth wheel so compared to her fifth wheel, it is little. I told her that one of the great virtues of the Oliver was that I could take it many places that she could not consider with her fifth wheel. Finally, she was interested in my solar setup and the fact that I did not need a generator while boondocking. Rocksie was also interested in my ARB refrigerator/freezer that I could run from my batteries for an extensive amount of time. In response to a question about the TV, she was somewhat flummoxed when I told her that after three years of ownership I had yet to watch the TV and had no great need for it but it came standard with the Oliver. (I personally think that it should be an option. I would have happily traded it for some other more utilitarian choice.) Upon leaving, she invited me to come down to their campsite where she was camping with her husband and friends. After a bit, bag chair and cup of cool sweet-tea in hand, I went to their campsite and spent a very pleasant hour or so talking to them. They were from La Pine, Oregon near Bend. Rocksie invited me to stay for dinner of pork ribs that she was preparing but I declined for two reasons. One, she prefaced her invitation by stating, “I think I have enough for you if you would like to stay for dinner with us.” To me her preface was a sure give away that she was being polite and not truly sincere about the invitation. If she had been more sincere, she might have said something along the lines of, “we have ample, we would be pleased to have you stay for dinner”. Being from the south, I understood the need to invite and I know if I had stayed she would have made sure I had ample even if that meant she had to short herself and her husband. The second but more important reason I declined was that I was tired and needed some down time, so I went back to the Oliver and microwaved left over Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes that my wife had made along with microwaving some frozen peas and corn which I mixed into the potatoes. (This makes a veggie salad, don’t you know.) After reading some, I went to bed about 8:00. This was my first day of being on the road again. It was mostly uneventful but highly satisfying. I slept well because of the satisfaction of once again traveling with my beloved Oliver. "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post The Channeled Scablands – Part 1 of 4 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Channeled Scablands By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 For more than two years I have been receiving treatment for stage four prostate cancer which had metastasized to six other places in my body. A few months ago I was able to discontinue all medical treatment. The course of the medications over the past years seemed to have worked, I have no more pain and various tests indicate all is well. Future Doctor’s visit will be for monitoring only. A cure? Don’t know, but I am in remission at the very least. Remission is not a cure, it may only be a temporary pause but I am thankful for it. The medications had some powerful side effects. The debilitating side effects came to control my life. During the recent past months, because of weakness and fatigue caused by the medications, I was unable to do much, including travel with my beloved Oliver. During that time, I read about the Ice Age Flood and the Channeled Scablands of Washington. I decided that if I ever got better I would go and see the Scablands. In celebration of Remission, in May I traveled north to Washington and about the Scablands. These are the stories of my travels, but first a bit of explanation about ice ages and the Scablands. Ice Ages and Floods For reasons not completely understood, the Earth has cycled in and out of ice ages for millions of years. The cycle includes approximately 100,000 years of polar ice caps moving toward the equator interspersed with interglacials of approximately 12,000 to 15,000 years whereby the ice caps would significantly melt and retreat because warming occurred. The Arctic and Antarctic ice caps of today are remnants of the larger ice caps during the last glacial maximum. During the last glacial maximum the northern ice cap covered Canada and the northern United States as well as much of Europe. On the eastern side of North America, it reached as far south as Ohio with heights of up to two miles. Difficult to visualize I know, imagining an ice cap cliff two miles high rather boggles the mind. And, realizing that maybe 15,000 years ago (a geologic micro-second in the history of the Earth) this was the case makes one wonder about past cycles of ice ages and interglacials. What was going on then, how did mankind survive such cycles? It is estimated that at the end of the last ice age and the beginning of the current interglacial maybe 100,000 Neanderthals were in existence and unknown number of Homo sapiens. The scouring and gouging of the underlying bed rock by the ice cap is still visible today in many places, if one knows where to look. Among places that the gouging can be readily seen is in granite rock outcroppings in New York City’s Central Park. The Great Lakes and the lakes of Minnesota were caused by gouging of the ice cap and compression of the underlying land by the weight of the ice. The Great Lakes were originally filled with glacial melt-water as the glacial ice disappeared as the World began warming at the beginning of the current Interglacial. The Lake’s bottoms are still rebounding upward today recovering from the immense weight of the ice that once lay upon the land. Scientists don’t fully understand the “why” of the gradual onset and abrupt ending of the glaciation. Some scientists assert that the globe has now warmed up by 16 degrees F since the last ice age but don’t know why this is the case. It is believed by some that the timing of the ice ages is controlled by the inclination and precession of the Earth’s axis of spin. Inclination has to do with the tilt of the Earth’s poles toward or away from the Sun. The Earth's axis rotates just as a spinning top does. Precession is caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon on the Earth which induces a “wobble” in the spin which takes approximately 26,000 years for one revolution. Serbian astronomer Milankovitch developed the mathematics for the precession and inclination. (Don’t ask me to explain the math, because I can’t.) It is thought that the circumstances of the precession and inclination or “wobble” controls the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth and when the largest amount of energy occurs. And, this in turn affects the coming and going of ice ages. Along with the precession theory, there are other theories as to why this cycle of cold and warming occurs. These includes cosmic forces such as solar cycles (i.e. low number of solar sunspots and changing sun irradiance), solar geomagnetic field strength changes, gravity effects over time of as yet unknown planets, cosmic rays, movement of our solar system through the galaxy, cosmic dust and others or all of them. Who knows? I know I don’t. There is currently disagreement as to the cause of the ice ages. What is agreed is that the Earth has experienced these ice age cycles many times and will likely continue to have them. Notwithstanding current global warming concerns, there are individuals who study the past glacial cycles who believe that because of these cyclical circumstances historically, we will inevitability cycle back into another ice age. We currently exist in the Interglacial from the last ice age. Various estimates are that it has been 14,000 to 15,000 years since this interglacial began and this timeframe is longer than other past interglacials, some were as short as 11,500 years. Based on past periodicity of ice ages and interglacials and assuming this periodicity maintains, there is probability that the earth will enter another ice age. Given the regularity of glacial ice advance and retreat over the past millions of years, this is likely a good bet, but the “when” of the timing is not obvious. Some believe that we have started into the next ice age now because early indicators can be observed and that it will become obvious over the next few decades. After the beginning of the current Interglacial, between 12,000 to 13,000 years ago a massive flood of difficult to visualize proportions swept through the Washington area depicted below. The large brown area is now known as the Channeled Scablands. The arrows indicate the area of this massive flood as hypothesized as being released from Glacial Lake Missoula. There are other hypothesizes that I will touch on in Part Two of this series of articles. This Flood tore through eastern Washington ripping up trees, stripping top soil down to the bedrock and carving deep trenches (known as coulees today) in the underlying volcanic basalt bedrock. It carried house size boulders for miles and wreaked havoc upon the land. The force and volume of these waters (billions of cubic feet per second) carved the Grand Coulee and the Columbia River Gorge. The Grand Coulee is a 50-60 mile long trench which was a major carrier of the Flood to the Columbia River. The Grand Coulee Dam now backs water into this trench. The area destroyed by the Flood is still recovering today from the violent impact of this flood of floods. In some places the raw bedrock is still observable and Nature has not been able to recover or has done so minimally. I hiked one such location known as the Pothole Coulee which I write about in Part Three of this series. The arrows indicating the outlet to the Pacific Ocean is the path of the Columbia River, give or take a few meanderings over time. Geologist J (no period) Harlen Bretz, Ph.D. spent nearly 25 years studying what he called the “channeled scablands”. It took him nearly forty years to convince his fellow geologists that his opinion that this scoured out area was caused by a massive flood thousands of years ago was accurate. The geologists disbelieved Brentz’s theory because he couldn’t explain where the water originated. Brentz initially believed that all of this damage was caused by one massive flood event but later geologists believe that it was caused by as many as 80-90 flood events. Others, like Brentz, believe it was one massive flood caused by a singular event. The below depiction provides a different perspective as to the western Ice Sheet at the time of the Flood and the Flood area. The Channeled Scablands are now considered one of the “Seven Wonders of Washington State”. And thus the reason for my first travel after stoppage of cancer medications. I will explain more about the “channeled scablands” in future articles. First Day of Travel When I left home at approximately 6:00 a.m., I took my leaving with a certain amount of eagerness and an equal amount of reluctance. It had been sometime since I had been interested in traveling or was able to do so. I was eager to go again but my leaving was tempered by internal questions as to whether I had enough strength and energy to be out and going about. But much more so it was because I would miss my family, especially my daily ration of my recently born great grandson who lives with his parents five houses away from my house. When you are as old as I am, the advent of a baby (now toddler) into your life can be profound and a great joy. It was for me. My intended travel path from my home was SR 20 east to IS 5 north to US 97 north until I met the Columbia River where I would begin my travels into Washington and the Scablands. While eager to be traveling once again, I drove slowly and alertly on Highway 20 because of the sunrise light in my eyes but more so because I was in no hurry, being of a relaxed mind. It was pure pleasure to be once again traveling with my beloved Oliver. When I reached IS 5, I stopped at Granzellas, a locally famous restaurant and deli, and picked up six quart jars of local grown olives as directed by my wife. Not being especially hungry, I was not particularly interested in my usual breakfast of eggs and such. Instead, I bought a Big Tom deli sandwich to go. When I returned to the parking lot, I was approached by a man who wanted to know about the Oliver. He said that his trailer had burned up last year in the Santa Rosa, California fire and he had yet to buy another, so he was very much interested in my thoughts about the Oliver. I spent nearly 45 minutes with him answering his questions. After that, I headed north on IS 5 until I reached US 97 at the community of Weed. IS 5 passes on the western side of Mt. Shasta. Traveling north one gets a terrific windshield view of the west and south side of this volcano mountain. Traveling on US 97 provides an opportunity to more closely view the north side as well providing views of the east side. I stopped several times just to walk around and appreciate being on the road again. The community of Weed got its name from the founder of the City and has had this name for a very long time but it strikes me as a particularly appropriate name today, given the legal pot economy in California. I am sure some enterprising marketing guy is using that idea already. Klamath Falls was the first town of consequence in Oregon along 97. Except for stopping for gas, I passed through Klamath Falls and continued north. Approximately 25 miles north of Klamath Falls, I took a gravel road from US 97 to the USFS Williams Lake campground in the Deschutes National Forest. My chosen site for the night required me to spend a few minutes leveling my Oliver, I had barely parked and leveled my trailer when a woman walked up and introduced herself as being from a nearby camp spot. She and her fellow campers had seen me pass by on the way to my camp location. She indicated that she and her husband and another couple they were camping with were curious about the Oliver as they had never seen one before. She introduced herself as Rocksie, stating she was called that by her family and friends because of her habit of collecting rocks when traveling with their RV. She indicated that she was a retired school teacher with a lifelong interest in geology. When she was teaching, she and her husband would travel about the West in their RV and she would gather various rock samples for a show-and-tell to her students. Willingly, I explained the benefits of the Oliver and told her how satisfied I was with it. The first questions she asked once we were inside was if I had made the valances over the windows. (My granddaughter-in-law had made them for me because she thought that a bit of color was needed against the white of the interior.) Rocksie was very interested in all of the available storage as she thought of the Oliver as being “little”. She and her husband drag around a giant fifth wheel so compared to her fifth wheel, it is little. I told her that one of the great virtues of the Oliver was that I could take it many places that she could not consider with her fifth wheel. Finally, she was interested in my solar setup and the fact that I did not need a generator while boondocking. Rocksie was also interested in my ARB refrigerator/freezer that I could run from my batteries for an extensive amount of time. In response to a question about the TV, she was somewhat flummoxed when I told her that after three years of ownership I had yet to watch the TV and had no great need for it but it came standard with the Oliver. (I personally think that it should be an option. I would have happily traded it for some other more utilitarian choice.) Upon leaving, she invited me to come down to their campsite where she was camping with her husband and friends. After a bit, bag chair and cup of cool sweet-tea in hand, I went to their campsite and spent a very pleasant hour or so talking to them. They were from La Pine, Oregon near Bend. Rocksie invited me to stay for dinner of pork ribs that she was preparing but I declined for two reasons. One, she prefaced her invitation by stating, “I think I have enough for you if you would like to stay for dinner with us.” To me her preface was a sure give away that she was being polite and not truly sincere about the invitation. If she had been more sincere, she might have said something along the lines of, “we have ample, we would be pleased to have you stay for dinner”. Being from the south, I understood the need to invite and I know if I had stayed she would have made sure I had ample even if that meant she had to short herself and her husband. The second but more important reason I declined was that I was tired and needed some down time, so I went back to the Oliver and microwaved left over Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes that my wife had made along with microwaving some frozen peas and corn which I mixed into the potatoes. (This makes a veggie salad, don’t you know.) After reading some, I went to bed about 8:00. This was my first day of being on the road again. It was mostly uneventful but highly satisfying. I slept well because of the satisfaction of once again traveling with my beloved Oliver. "This was the day that was." 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Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 An Oliver Travel Trailers' Journey To The Redwoods By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 Brookings, Oregon is about 250 miles north on US 101 from my home in Ukiah, California. It is just north of the border between the two states. Driving this distance, one passes through mountains, across rivers, through redwoods, along extensive shorelines and beautiful beaches and at a few places Roosevelt Elk may be observed. As a kind of mini-vacation, I decided to make this drive and stay a few days in Brookings. I stayed one night at Ancient Redwoods RV Park and three nights at the Brookings Elks Lodge. Coastal Travels Up US 101 Staying at the Elks Lodge is not really camping but it was convenient. From this location, there are many beautiful places that may be day-visited. Also, the Lodge is nearby as well as stores, markets and restaurants. A fishing fleet is home based in Brookings which supplies wharf area restaurants. One of my goals in staying in Brookings was some fresh sea food. All-in-all it was an ideal location for my mini vacation. Because of my past choices for travel inland away from the coast, many months had passed since my last drive up US 101. I had forgotten how beautiful a drive it is, especially the fall time of the year (end of September, 2018). With this trip, I once again became deeply impressed with the amazing scenery and vistas that can be found along the way. I feel blessed to have this to enjoy. In planning for my trip, I determined that I would spend time driving the byways along 101 that would allow the opportunity to leisurely enjoy the Redwoods. SR 254, known as the Avenue of the Giants, loops off and back onto US 101, it was my first and earliest choice. Off To See The Giants SR 254 is called the Avenue of the Giants with good reason, it has some amazingly large Redwood trees standing alongside the road. Driving the Avenue never fails to impress as to the awesome size and beauty of these trees. This day, I stopped many times just to look at particular trees or groves of trees. Redwoods tend to grow in circular groves especially if they are rooted from a previous downed tree. I parked twice, just to walk deep into them. Walking through the shade and sunlight that made it through spaces in the trees was, for me, a very gladdening experience. "It was good to be alive and enjoying the day." According to the fossil record, redwoods were around 145 million years ago in the Jurassic period, the time of the dinosaurs. The changing climate over time caused many other plants to go extinct but the redwoods survived into species, specific to distinct geographical regions. There are three types, two are in California: 1. Coastal Redwoods; 2. Giant Sequoias and 3. Dawn Redwoods. Coastal redwoods, as the name implies, are found along the California coast from the Big Sur to southernmost Oregon. The Giant Sequoias are found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. If you have visited Yosemite, you would have seen them. The Dawn Redwoods are found in Hubei Province, China. Coastal Redwoods are the World’s tallest and oldest living things; some have been estimated to be 2,000 years old. The Pepperwood Tree Community As I approached the end of the Avenue of the Giants and the community of Pepperwood, I remembered that I had bought some excellent locally grown sweet corn and tomatoes several summers ago from a roadside vegetable stand there. If the veggie stand was open I decided to stop to see if tomatoes were still available. The veggie stand was open and they did have tomatoes, although the lady working in the garden was apologetic that they had few remaining, mostly of the very large type. I was very pleased in that I like large slices for sandwiches. I bought six. One of the largest I had already eaten before I thought to take a picture. The largest one in the picture measured five inches across. The smaller ones were of a heritage variety that she recommended. The garden for the veggie stand is located adjacent to the Eel River. It is in the River’s flood plain. Because it is in the flood plain, the owners can’t build there but they can garden and boy do they garden. They allowed me to wander about the garden a bit and see the extensive layout of their garden. The community is named after the Pepperwood tree, also known as Bay Laurel or Bay. These trees are codominant in various hardwood forests and are found within and about Redwood forests in the Coastal Range. We have a Bay tree in the corner of our back yard that my wife forages for use as a condiment in spaghetti and stew. North of Eureka, I stopped at Big Lagoon and made a sandwich using part of one of my recently purchased tomatoes. What a wonderful flavor it had. It helped make a great sandwich of ham, cheese, onion and mayo on Dave’s Good Seed bread. Golden Bear Bridge Crossing When I got to the Golden Bear Bridge crossing the Klamath River at the community of Klamath, I stopped and took a picture or two. Several different times in the past, I had been tempted to stop but time and traffic usually overruled that impulse. This time I made the effort. Because of traffic, it was impossible to take a picture with both in the same frame. (Standing on the yellow line with traffic whizzing by was somehow not appealing.) But when one drives across the bridge the twining is apparent. Bull Elks of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Late September into October is rutting season, at this time it is possible to see very large Bull Elks with a massive set of antlers patrolling his retinue of cows, always on the alert for intruders. Of the six subspecies of Elks in the US, Roosevelt Elks are the largest. A large male can weigh up to 1200 pounds, more usually around a thousand pounds. A cow elk will be about half of that. Calves are born in late May, early June. Only males have antlers which they shed and regrow annually. A set of antlers can weigh up to forty pounds. The large male in this picture below is looking toward another male which is lurking in the tall marsh grass contemplating if he is large enough to take on the big guy. At Orick there is a RV campground, known as Elk Country RV Park, often with Elks grazing next to it. Sometimes, when passing by, I have seen fifty or more lounging about the grassy area of the entrance to the Park. This day there were only a few. The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway Just north of the Elks is another Redwood viewing by-way. The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway is a ten mile alternate to Highway 101 above Orick and Prairie Creek. The drive along this Parkway through the Redwoods induces an almost hypnotic trance, it is so pleasant. Luckily, there were many places to stop to enjoy a walkabout. The trees make a tunnel that tempts one to stop and pull over just to look at the dappling of the light. It is the home of Big Tree. This is not the largest redwood, others are larger but the keepers of the forest tend not to divulge their locations because of vandalism. Big Tree Far north coastal California and southern coastal Oregon have many beaches, often with few people or none on them. I tend to be a solitary person. This kind of beach is a high attractor for me. Having a whole beach to myself is a great gift not likely to be experienced in other places. When I lived in southern California, the beach was not that attractive to me. There were too many people. Always! There were so many people to dodge that trying to walk was like walking a busy sidewalk in New York. Not so, here. There is an exhilaration brought about by the beach air and the ocean breeze that is hard to define and cannot be experienced in other kinds of places. I spent many hours walking, sitting and reading on several beaches, and I must admit, drowsing as well. My favorite beach was the cove at the end of the Harris Beach Road just north of Brookings. Mostly when I travel in my beloved Oliver, I cook simple meals, make sandwiches or heat leftovers from my wife’s cooking. I seldom eat out. Occasionally, I will go out for a burger at a non-chain, local restaurant. When I am near the ocean and fresh seafood is likely, I enjoy going out for sea food. One of the local members of the Elks Lodge recommended that I try this restaurant down on the lower wharf area. I did and am so glad I did. It had outstanding clam chowder and lingcod cheeks with beer battered fries. I ate there twice and had the same thing each time, it was so good. Notwithstanding the Redwoods and scenic views, it was worth the trip just to have the pleasure of eating there, it was that good. The interesting part of all this is that I was staying in the very southern beginning of coastal Oregon, the whole of the State was still before me. As one drives north of Brookings there are more spectacular views, more rivers, more beaches, more mountains and more opportunities for seafood. (Try the Bridgewater hotel in old town Florence) And if one goes far enough, cheese at Tillamook. It is enough to make an Oliver owner eager to go and glad to be traveling in style. "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Redwoods, Golden Bears and Elks appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 AN OLIVER TRAVEL TRAILERS' JOURNEY TO DEATH VALLEY By: Frank McMichael, Hull No.101 After my stay in the cold and wet of Ruby Valley, Cathedral Gorge State Campground near Caliente, Nevada was a wonderful place to relax in the sun and soak up some warmth. While relaxing with a book, a beer and some pine nuts, I contemplated my next destination. If the weather in the mountains had been better, I would have considered heading back up US 93 toward Idaho to various locations that I had map-scouted. But, this was not the case, so I decided to stay with warmth and go to Death Valley National Park even though I knew that there was a chance that I would be going from warm to hot. Skillet hot, maybe. In order to get to Death Valley from Cathedral Gorge, it was necessary to take a half-circle, roundabout route that would take the better part of a day of driving through the desert. My start location was essentially Caliente on US 93 and my destination was Beatty on US 95 where I would stay overnight before entering Death Valley. As can be seen from the Google Map there was no direct way to get from Caliente to Beatty which is just outside the eastern entrance of the Park. At Crystal Springs, I connected to SR 375 then to US 6 west and finally to US 95 south. SR 375 is known as the Extraterrestrial Highway, I had previously written an article for Oliver about this Highway and my stop for lunch at Rachel. When you look at the above map, you will see that there is a large area generally west of US 93 and SR 375 and east of US 95 where roads are not indicated. Not knowing any more, most people looking at this map that did not depict roads through this area, would maybe not notice or maybe think that this not untypical of Nevada as there are many large areas in Nevada that can’t be reached by paved roads. This is true but this is not the case for this area. My Benchmark Map Book shows a few minor dirt roads around the perimeter of this area and also indicates that this area has the Nellis Air Force Range. I don’t know why Google Maps didn’t show the same. The below map (not Benchmark) gives much more detail. Along with the NAFR, this is the location of Area 51. This map better illustrates what is in this territory. So now it can be understood why I had to do a roundabout drive. From this map it can be better understood why Rachel is often the staging location for folks wanting to see exotic military aircraft or UFOs. Alas, I didn’t chance to see either. I stayed overnight at a RV park in Beatty. When I left Beatty at 8:00 the next morning, it was 58 degrees. The eastern entrance of Death Valley National Park is 8 miles from Beatty. By the time I reached the entrance sign, it was 70 degrees. By noon it was 84 degrees with a very dry wind, capable of sucking the beer right out of you. The day topped out at 89 degrees. Death Valley is the largest national park in the National Park System of the lower 48 states, a small part of it is in Nevada but the by far the greatest amount is in California. It has immense amounts of desert, extensive views, winding canyons and intriguing features of terrain and landscape. If you like geology, this is the place to go. The best time to explore this Park is during the winter months. I was there in the early part of June, which is the beginning of the hot season. One time in July, I crossed through the Park going to the Grand Canyon. When I stopped for a pit stop at Stovepipe Wells, the temperature was 121 degrees, as hot as the namesake stovepipe. My primary reason to go to Death Valley was to visit Scotty’s Castle. The below picture was reproduced from the Death Valley National Park website. As can be seen from the image, it is not a castle. It is a Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Villa. There is an interesting story as to why it is called “Scotty’s Castle”, worth researching if you like good stories. This style of architecture and construction has always intrigued me so I was very eager to spend an extended length of time there. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. When I got to Death Valley and the turnoff toward Scotty’s Castle, I was confronted with a “Road Closed” sign. Further information was that the Scotty’s Castle area had been closed due to flood damage and would not reopen until 2020. This is the reason that I used the above photo - I couldn’t take any of my own. It is hard to imagine that a flood could occur in Death Valley. It is the hottest, driest place in the U.S. - it has the lowest annual rainfall in the Country. The Valley’s average annual rainfall is less than 2.5 inches. So, how could so little rainfall cause a flood? Answer: Any “average” includes typical circumstances and outlier or exceptional circumstances. These may be far outside what the average would indicate. It was an outlier event that caused the damage to Scotty’s Castle. A desert storm can drop tens of inches of rain in just a few minutes. The desert is notorious for having flash floods especially in the Desert Monsoon season. Washes or gullies that are normally dry but drain huge areas can become swollen, raging rivers in a matter of minutes. Scotty’s Castle is located in the northern part of Death Valley in a canyon in the Grapevine Mountains. The worst of flash floods typically occur over mountains, so there is the answer. Flooding in Grapevine Canyon from a severe thunderstorm damaged infrastructure and out-buildings in the building complex and destroyed the road to Scotty's Castle. It also eliminated any chance of studying the architecture of the “Castle” until 2020, a year that sounds rather futuristic and science fictionally but is only two years away. After I crossed the road to Scotty’s Castle and the indicated closed sign, I was forced to re-evaluate my travel plans. Rather than return back to Beatty and US 95, I decided to go to the RV Park at Stovepipe Wells for a few days and tour about the Valley. If you look closely, you will see my Oliver behind the General Store at Stovepipe Wells. Or maybe not. It is actually just barely out of the picture to the right. The RV Park was just a gravelled area with utilities and without shade. When I purchased my Oliver, I purchased a second awning for the street side of the trailer. I did this because I knew that, on occasion, I would camp in the summer where there was limited shade and also would be in the desert from time to time. Most times that I camp, I am not connected to utilities, so AC is not possible, therefore the extra awning shade can be very valuable. During these times, keeping the sun off the sides and windows of the Oliver can reduce the heat load that would otherwise accumulate inside. As well, for those times this extra shade would be most welcome for being outside as one could sit in shade on either side of the Oliver, according to the sun’s position in the sky. Stovepipe Wells was such a camping place that I needed to use both of my awnings to shade the Oliver. It helped significantly to reduce heat load but I still had to run my AC by evening time. Other nearby RVs ran their AC constantly, without let-up. It is amazingly dry in the Valley; one can watch liquid spilled on the ground disappear within a few seconds. The wind seemed to blow oven hot. With the dry wind it seemed hotter than the high-eighties that was indicated on the temperature gauge. It was even hotter at Furnace Creek. The highest official recorded air temperature in the world, 134 degrees, occurred at Furnace Creek in 1913. For the five days prior to this recordation, 129 degrees was recorded. Furnace Creek is an oasis, one of the few places on the Valley floor where one can observe plants, mostly Mesquite and Tamarisk. Mesquite is a native species. Tamarisk or salt cedar is an invasive import from Eurasia that unfortunately is creating a great deal of problems for the West. One hundred and ninety feet below sea level and I still couldn’t find any shell-fish. While Furnace Creek has the distinction of being the hottest place in the Valley, it is not the lowest point. The lowest point in the Valley is Badwater Basin at -282 feet below sea level. I had thought that I would spend a day, maybe two, checking out Scotty’s Castle but being unable to accomplish that, I had to re-evaluate my stay. The high for my first day was 89 degrees, it was hotter the second day with triple digits predicted for the following day, plus high winds. Not my cup of beer, so I decided to look for other opportunities to be someplace else. Early the next morning, I left Stovepipe Wells heading west toward US 395. Once on 395, I thought that I would breakfast at Lone Pine but I dawdled so much in the Panamint Mountains, at Panamint Springs and along Owens Lake that by the time I got to Lone Pine, it was nearly lunch time. That being so, I decided to go fifty miles further north to Bishop and get a sandwich at the locally famous Schat’s Bakery. Bishop is a high attractor location as a temporary stop for travelers along 395 as well as an area destination for campers, for hikers and in the winter, skiers. Almost everyone who has driven 395 more than once, because of word of mouth, has stopped at this bakery for sandwiches and Sheep herder Bread. I have driven 395 and passed through Bishop a number of times before and always stopped for a brief respite, usually at Schat’s. Almost always, the curbs were lined with cars and RVs and crowds of travelers and tourists were on the sidewalks going about the business of entering shops and restaurants. As I drove through the downtown area, I noticed fewer people on the sidewalks and was amazed find that there were no vehicles at curbside. It took me a minute or so to realize that the curbs had been painted red and parking was not allowed. There were a couple of signs that I saw indicating off street parking but not being able to see the parking area before entering, I did not attempt to enter as I have found from past experience such places can be a trap for a truck and trailer because of tight turns and problematic ability to reverse. I am fairly paranoid about being trapped into such places. One such experience was all it took to create that paranoia. That time, thanks to a Good Samaritan, who helped guide me around two tight turns and prevented other cars from crowding me so as to allow me to back up, I was able to extricate from my predicament. The effect of that experience was the indicated paranoia. Being unable to stop curbside and not sure about other parking, I regretfully drove on, concluding that I would have to find a fast food place on the edge of town for lunch instead of a sandwich from Schat’s. As I drove on, I wondered about the mindset that thought that preventing travelers and tourists from stopping curbside to patronize businesses was a good thing. It seemed counter intuitive to me. I thought it would likely kill the golden goose as, at least to me. Further along, about three-quarters of a mile past Schat’s, I passed a large empty parking lot for an out-of-business market. Ignoring the No Trespassing sign, I pulled into the empty lot and parked. On impulse, triggered by the open parking lot, I decided that I would walk back to Schat’s and the sandwich that I craved. But, I was resentful about having to walk that far. The walk was not strenuous but I made it so with my attitude. I mentally groused that making an old fat man walk “nearly a mile” for a sandwich was just mean – real mean. Later, I laughed at myself but at the time …. When I returned, three other RVs had also parked there. One scofflaw can create a crowd of scofflaws, it seems. Lead by example - right? On the return walk, I realized that my irritable attitude was because I was tired of traveling and was missing being home. I therefore decided that I would travel north on 395 to Lee Vining and take SR 120 and then SR 270 to the Bodie Ghost Town, where I would overnight. And then in the morning continue on SR 120 to the east entrance of Yosemite, drive over the Sierras to the Central Valley and then home. Nice plan but it was a no go, SR 120 was closed because of snow. This was the first week in June, usually SR 120 was open before this time. This left me with only one recourse, if I wanted to go home, which was to go to Reno and take IS 80 over the Sierras. Upon arrival at Reno, I immediately started up the grade on IS 80 toward Donner Pass, thinking that I would stop at the Cabela’s Store in Boomtown, wander around the store some and then find a restaurant for dinner and stay overnight in Cabela’s parking lot. I first stopped at a gas station at the Cabela’s exit to fill up before going to the Store. While doing this, I realized that really did not want to spend the night in a parking lot with intrusive overhead lights near a loud, busy freeway. With that understanding, I returned to IS 80 and drove over Donner Pass to SR 20 west until I got to the Skillman Horse Camp in the Tahoe National Forest, where I stayed the night. At that point, I was six hours from home. By first light, I eagerly left for home without making breakfast. Nevada City provided an opportunity to purchase a breakfast sandwich and explain the virtues of the Oliver to an inquisitive stranger. (This happens a lot.) By 2:30 I was receiving hugs from my wife, daughter and my two grandchildren and learning that the welcome home dinner my wife was preparing was fried chicken. Safely home, with my family, and fried chicken - how great is that? "This was the day that was." Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Cathedral Gorge to Death Valley appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. View the Full Article