Some TC friends can't remember that there is a three hour difference between East and West Coast Time!!!! That was a 5:30AM wake up call but we enjoyed the chat anyway even though a call that early usually means problems at home. Took the opportunity for a CG shower with unlimited hot water, did laundry, and the usual camper maintenance like dump and water fill. We detoured to Mountain Home Air Force Base to get an ID sticker for the truck to make it easier to get into fam camps on bases. Not impressed as the visitor center basically had no idea what we were talking about. We decided to take I-84 through Boise rather than stick to 20. That was an easy passing through as the roads were many lanes wide and well marked. Back on Route 20 which is a long, empty road. It was fascinating to see rain storms develop ahead of us, drive through them, get rain, slush, snow and ice pellets and then come out in brilliant sunshine on the other side.
It is also the "onion capital of the west". I've never seen onions in such big bags.
The truck talks to us which can be startling. It said "Oil change soon" which we knew but had planned on doing it anyway before leaving the lower 48 states. But the truck started insisting it wanted oil so we pulled into a large Ford dealer in Bend, OR. Even though it was 4:30 in the afternoon, they took us right in for our 7,500 mile service, oil, fluids, etc. The service manager had us drive a block away to another building for the service and the crew standing around waiting to go home looked a bit startled as this huge truck camper on a F450 pulled in. The bay proved not tall enough to get the camper inside so off it came.
We had heard a loud bang on one particular rock encounter coming out of Chaco Canyon. Joe got under the truck and could see no damage, creases, drips, etc. so we put it down to a rock bouncing off the skid plate under the truck. Once the TC was off we found a buckled piece of aluminum diamond plate on the part that fits down into the truck bed. We think it happened when the truck took a really good bounce and flexed the camper as it came down. We will caulk it good next time it comes off the truck. Not real damage, just cosmetic but now we know what the sound was. All else was good on the service, especially the tires which you always worry about with our back road driving.
Tonight we are in beautiful Sisters, Oregon which is surrounded by massive, snow covered mountains. The town has a park with RV spaces. For $10 we got a level, paved site with no hookups but didn't need them. Walked into town just to see and enjoy many of the original storefront buildings. Tomorrow we may get to meet up with two TC friends who are traveling from Massachusetts to Washington State.
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