We finally left Oroville today to head south to Bend in Oregon. We stayed on the US 97 for the whole drive as this was the only road there. Before departure we set a date with a windscreen repair company to meet us in Wenatchee to get the windscreen repaired. On the way south we stopped at a place called Omak. This is famous for its' horse stampede down an extremely steep cliff. However there wasn't a lot there away from stampede time so we didn't stop. Because of our non stop in Omak we got to Wenatchee a bit early but there was a beautiful state park right next to the river.Unfortunately as it was in the middle of the school summer holidays there was no room so we had 2 nights in Wal-mart and the windscreen repair people came out to us there.
We were on our way to Bend because Mike had found an RV dealership that had agreed to take the RV on consignment. What this meant was that they would sell it on our behalf and then pay us an agreed figure on completion of the sale. If it wasn't sold within 90 days we would have to take it away or they may have agreed another term but we would have to agree to a lower price. When we arrived in Bend we went and had a look at the dealership which was ideally located on the main road. We checked in to an extremely luxurious RV park just outside Bend and then began the depressing business of trying to sell our stuff. With only two days free before the RV was due to go to the showroom we couldn't sell most of it. We did manage to get more than we paid for the bikes and Mike's fishing gear at a pawn shop.
There was a limit as to what we could take with us as we were doing a huge downsize from a 38ft RV to a Toyota Yaris. As we were packing up we realised with heavy hearts that it was simply not going to be practical to go to Mark's party in California in August as planned. We also had to phone Kate and break the news to her. Fortunately they were both very understanding and we needn't have worried but we still felt very bad about breaking our commitments.
We were at the RV dealership at 9am on Monday morning and met our salesman Mike Hewitt. Mike and the dealership both seemed very professional so after signing the paperwork we left the RV in his hands. It all seemed very strange especially as we also left the registration document which was in Mike's name. We then booked into a motel and the reality of no longer having our 'house on wheels' really hit home as we were now having all our meals out and living out of suitcases. Bend itself turned out to be another gem of a place. A lot of money appeared to have been invested in the down town area which was had a very nice selection of up market bars, clubs, restaurants and shops. We advertised the Toyota on e bay for a few days but as we researched flights we realised that the only place with a sensible price tag to fly out of was San Francisco. We needed the car to get there as the bus was expensive and inconvenient and a one way car hire impossible due to us picking it up in one state and dropping it off in another. I managed to get some very reasonable tickets with Aer Lingus via Dublin back to London. Not only were they the cheapest Airline by a long way (50% less) they also had a much more generous baggage allowance than any other airline which you may recall gave us a bit of a headache on the way out in March. We had kept a set of scales out and my suitcase weighed 69lbs which was just within the maximum of 70lbs for a single suitcase and we were allowed an additional suitcase to total 80lbs of hold luggage.
We drove through northern California and stopped in a town about 30 miles from the airport called San Rafael. The Travelodge had a small pool and was less than half a mile walk from the Toyota dealership. Mike was disappointed to find out that they would give him $1000 less for the car as it had the stone chip damage on the bonnet and they have what is known as a 100% disclosure law in California. The dealer said this would mean that they would get less for it on the forecourt. I don't know how true this is but we had to accept what they said. Anyway, Mike then negotiated an extra $500 for the car and a lift to the airport the following Tuesday. A beautiful 8 series BMW turned up a bit late as the driver had been given the wrong hotel. We had a very comfortable drive to the airport and we enjoyed chatting with our Mexican driver and his friend. They absolutely refused to take a tip off Mike as they said that they were already paid by Toyota. When we got to check in my suitcase (the one that only weighed 69lbs) clocked up an incredible, whopping, 96lbs!!!!! I must have read the scales upside down. Even though another employee pulled him up on it he still let us off the charges which would have been considerable.
We had an uneventful journey back to London and went straight to Kate Hetzel's house, who was fortunately still talking to us after the holiday let down. She was away when we arrived but we put the time to good use and were able to purchase road tax and insurance for our car which was up in Yorkshire with Mike's parents. We also slept off our jet-lag which unusually for me I really struggled to get over. I also purchased some cheap advance train tickets on the internet. Whether it was the jet lag or just plain forgetfulness I didn't know that in order to collect the tickets at the station I had to use the card that I had purchased the tickets with as verification. We didn't have the card with us as we had left it in another bag at Kate's house. Mike went back to her office to borrow her house key but she was out at an all day meeting. He went back to the house but there was no way to get back in. I was definitely in the dog house! The lady in the booking office couldn't give us replacements only sell us new ones which cost nearly £200 (I'd paid £70). The main part of the journey was with a different train company to the one where we were starting the journey with. On the second phone call to the main company I got a helpful adviser who agreed I could pick up replacement tickets in London and the lady at the ticket office gave us written permission to travel to London free. This lifted the burden of responsibility off my shoulders a bit until the next two trains to London were cancelled. We finally got a train, had good connections on the underground, picked up the tickets and were sitting on the fast train north with 3 minutes to spare. The train had free WIFI so I spent part of the journey emailing customer services to express in writing my gratefulness that we had had help when things were looking a bit disastrous.
Mike's parents were waiting for us at Hull and we drove back to stay with them for a few days. We then had a great time visiting friends and family in Yorkshire. After a week we drove back south to see my side of the family. We sailed from Dover to Dunkirk at the beginning of September and drove the car through France to Limoges where our motor home had been parked since we had left for the States back in February.
We were on our way to Bend because Mike had found an RV dealership that had agreed to take the RV on consignment. What this meant was that they would sell it on our behalf and then pay us an agreed figure on completion of the sale. If it wasn't sold within 90 days we would have to take it away or they may have agreed another term but we would have to agree to a lower price. When we arrived in Bend we went and had a look at the dealership which was ideally located on the main road. We checked in to an extremely luxurious RV park just outside Bend and then began the depressing business of trying to sell our stuff. With only two days free before the RV was due to go to the showroom we couldn't sell most of it. We did manage to get more than we paid for the bikes and Mike's fishing gear at a pawn shop.
There was a limit as to what we could take with us as we were doing a huge downsize from a 38ft RV to a Toyota Yaris. As we were packing up we realised with heavy hearts that it was simply not going to be practical to go to Mark's party in California in August as planned. We also had to phone Kate and break the news to her. Fortunately they were both very understanding and we needn't have worried but we still felt very bad about breaking our commitments.
We were at the RV dealership at 9am on Monday morning and met our salesman Mike Hewitt. Mike and the dealership both seemed very professional so after signing the paperwork we left the RV in his hands. It all seemed very strange especially as we also left the registration document which was in Mike's name. We then booked into a motel and the reality of no longer having our 'house on wheels' really hit home as we were now having all our meals out and living out of suitcases. Bend itself turned out to be another gem of a place. A lot of money appeared to have been invested in the down town area which was had a very nice selection of up market bars, clubs, restaurants and shops. We advertised the Toyota on e bay for a few days but as we researched flights we realised that the only place with a sensible price tag to fly out of was San Francisco. We needed the car to get there as the bus was expensive and inconvenient and a one way car hire impossible due to us picking it up in one state and dropping it off in another. I managed to get some very reasonable tickets with Aer Lingus via Dublin back to London. Not only were they the cheapest Airline by a long way (50% less) they also had a much more generous baggage allowance than any other airline which you may recall gave us a bit of a headache on the way out in March. We had kept a set of scales out and my suitcase weighed 69lbs which was just within the maximum of 70lbs for a single suitcase and we were allowed an additional suitcase to total 80lbs of hold luggage.
We drove through northern California and stopped in a town about 30 miles from the airport called San Rafael. The Travelodge had a small pool and was less than half a mile walk from the Toyota dealership. Mike was disappointed to find out that they would give him $1000 less for the car as it had the stone chip damage on the bonnet and they have what is known as a 100% disclosure law in California. The dealer said this would mean that they would get less for it on the forecourt. I don't know how true this is but we had to accept what they said. Anyway, Mike then negotiated an extra $500 for the car and a lift to the airport the following Tuesday. A beautiful 8 series BMW turned up a bit late as the driver had been given the wrong hotel. We had a very comfortable drive to the airport and we enjoyed chatting with our Mexican driver and his friend. They absolutely refused to take a tip off Mike as they said that they were already paid by Toyota. When we got to check in my suitcase (the one that only weighed 69lbs) clocked up an incredible, whopping, 96lbs!!!!! I must have read the scales upside down. Even though another employee pulled him up on it he still let us off the charges which would have been considerable.
We had an uneventful journey back to London and went straight to Kate Hetzel's house, who was fortunately still talking to us after the holiday let down. She was away when we arrived but we put the time to good use and were able to purchase road tax and insurance for our car which was up in Yorkshire with Mike's parents. We also slept off our jet-lag which unusually for me I really struggled to get over. I also purchased some cheap advance train tickets on the internet. Whether it was the jet lag or just plain forgetfulness I didn't know that in order to collect the tickets at the station I had to use the card that I had purchased the tickets with as verification. We didn't have the card with us as we had left it in another bag at Kate's house. Mike went back to her office to borrow her house key but she was out at an all day meeting. He went back to the house but there was no way to get back in. I was definitely in the dog house! The lady in the booking office couldn't give us replacements only sell us new ones which cost nearly £200 (I'd paid £70). The main part of the journey was with a different train company to the one where we were starting the journey with. On the second phone call to the main company I got a helpful adviser who agreed I could pick up replacement tickets in London and the lady at the ticket office gave us written permission to travel to London free. This lifted the burden of responsibility off my shoulders a bit until the next two trains to London were cancelled. We finally got a train, had good connections on the underground, picked up the tickets and were sitting on the fast train north with 3 minutes to spare. The train had free WIFI so I spent part of the journey emailing customer services to express in writing my gratefulness that we had had help when things were looking a bit disastrous.
Mike's parents were waiting for us at Hull and we drove back to stay with them for a few days. We then had a great time visiting friends and family in Yorkshire. After a week we drove back south to see my side of the family. We sailed from Dover to Dunkirk at the beginning of September and drove the car through France to Limoges where our motor home had been parked since we had left for the States back in February.
