Anybody got a Blue Bird sized shoehorn?

We headed south down the Oregon coast today, arriving at South Jetty Thousand Trails near Florence, Oregon.

When I put the next campground into the Garmin in the bus, it wanted to route us over to the interstate and down...

The route that made most sense to me!

The route the RV-knowledgeable Garmin wanted us to take....

I figured that there was part of US 101 that was not specified as a truck route, but I checked our truck atlas and it looked ok -

Orange marked roads are "Designated route for vehicles with STAA-authorized dimensions" (STAA = Surface Transportation Assistance Act) - aka designated Truck Routes. US 101 all the way down this part of the coast was marked as ok for trucks - in fact, the route east from Newport (US 20) that the Garmin had selected was *not* marked as ok for trucks...

The Garmin in the bus is aware of how tall and how heavy Miss Doozie is, so I don't like to ignore her input, but... I really did not want to drive 3+ hours if about 1 hour would get us there.
Note: the Garmin's name is "Magnolia", therefore I refer to it as female...

So, last night, I tried putting various waypoints in to the Garmin to see if I could figure out where she thought the problem was. I was also looking at the route on GoogleMaps to see the satellite view. I finally found that the problem was between two spots just 0.4 miles apart:

The Garmin would route me successfully down US 101 down to the northern point, but then would send me back north up US 101, east across the mountains, down I-5, and then back west across the mountains, and up US 101 to the southern point. (google maps link)

You can use the link if you'd like to try to figure out what the problem was...
if you want to just get the information, read on!

I could see on the satellite view that there was a creek and a bridge... I figured that the problem might be weight on the bridge (though it didn't make sense that the truck atlas marked it as ok for trucks... Miss Doozie is heavy, but she isn't as heavy as big trucks!).

Side note: when we drove from Seaside to Cannon Beach on Sunday, there was a truck warning sign on the road about a weight limit. We were in the Jeep, but I knew that we were going to be traversing that road on Monday to go to South Beach, so on the way back to Seaside, I stopped at a side road to examine the sign more closely.

First of all... it was indicating weight limits, and it was right at a bridge (you can see the "Necanicum River" sign just to the left) - but it was *not* for that bridge - it was for a location at milepost 41 on US 101. But... so much information! How was I supposed to read that when driving at 45-55 MPH?

After stopping and zooming in, we could read it. Even then, we had to figure out what it was telling us... Miss Doozie has 3 axles - the front and the tag axle are single axles. Then she also has a dual (tandem) axle. Her GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating) for her front axle is 15500, for the rear (dual) is 23000, and for the tag is 13200. When we had her weighed a couple of years ago, we were actually carrying 15025 on the front, 20925 on the duals, and 12925 on the tag. So... we were ok.

I know that I spend more time being concerned about this kind of thing than most folks do... but... I think that sign was very poorly designed. However, I suspect truckers get that kind of information from other sources...

Anyway... back to our drive today!

So... once I discovered the problem area, I "drove" it on googlemaps... it wasn't the bridge....

It was a tunnel directly after the bridge! (This is a screen snip from googlemaps.) I don't know if you can read the signs - the lower one on the right says 11 Feet 6 Inches. The one further up says 14 Feet 6 Inches.

Miss Doozie is 12'6" tall - we just remember we need 13' clearance -

Dwayne has made a nice label to remind us of Miss Doozie's vertical clearance needs!

Now, looking at those two signs, it looked like to me that we ought to be able to fit... I might want to hug the center line pretty closely, but it should work...

I did some internet searching and found posts from other RVers who had asked questions about whether they would be able to make it through the tunnel and assurances that many others had gone that way without problem. I also reached out to two other RVing friends that I knew were in this area of the country to ask if they go out of their way to avoid it... one said that she didn't like driving that route because of the super curvy roads; the other said it was not a problem.

So... we decided to head down US 101 this morning. In addition to the tunnel concern, we received warnings on our phones that there would be high winds along the coast this afternoon, so we were wanting to not be on the road after noon if we could avoid it. When we got to the tunnel, the Garmin recommended that we turn around and head back north, but we drove on through and all was fine. Thankfully, there was no oncoming traffic, so I crowded the center line (I drove with my left tires on the center line) through the tunnel.

As we were driving down, I prayed that God would send a large truck north while I was still on the part of the road before the tunnel so I would have confirmation that large vehicles successfully made it through, and sure enough, I saw a few trucks and an RV or two that gave me confidence before we got there.

Just one more part to this "shoehorn" story...

When staying at Thousand Trails campgrounds, you make a reservation, and in making that reservation, you indicate how long your rig is, and whether it has slideouts. Evidently, that information is just provided for general interest. Well... that's not totally true: if the campground has NO sites that will accommodate a 43' motorhome, the website won't let me make the reservation. But, if they have at least one, the website lets me make the reservation. It does not assign a site - so someone with a 15' travel trailer can park their rig in a 43' site and nothing stops that. We have learned that it is best to check in to a campground during the week, Monday-Thursday. Weekend folks mostly leave on Sunday and arrive on Friday. So... the most empty slots are usually to be found on Monday-Thursday.


The last campground where we stayed was Whalers Rest. One of the nice things there was that they provide a list of the sites and their lengths (and whether they have a fire ring and whether there is a clear sky view for satellite hookups - thankfully we don't care about those things!).

Site analysis from Whalers Rest

We were sent to site 145, 43' long, with a fire ring, and support for satellite if you had a tripod mount (but not roof mounted). It also had "seasonal length requirement" - the campground had signs at some sites indicating they were only for over 38' RVs for specified dates (I think May 15- September 15).

The ranger recommended site 145 for us when we arrived, and suggested that we could drive the rig there directly as it was a pullthrough. We usually do not do this... we usually disconnect and drive the Jeep around to find a site, and then go get Miss Doozie. But... we took her recommendation, and the site was "ok" - just barely long enough for Miss Doozie and then for the Jeep to park crosswise in front. Even though it was listed as a pullthrough, the access to the road in front of the site had quite a ditch that we decided we did not want to navigate, so we backed Miss Doozie out this morning and then hooked up the Jeep in an area reserved for tent camping which was not occupied. (I didn't take pictures at Whalers Rest - totally forgot!)

Today, when we got to South Jetty, I asked the ranger if she had a recommendation for us. She pointed out just one full hookup site that might be available, but indicated that it was also a good site for satellite and another RV might have already taken it. We went to the area where she told us we could unhook and took the Jeep to scope out a site. The one she recommended was already occupied, but there was one a little ways away that looked like it was long enough and had full hookups (full hookups means we have electricity, water, and sewer - the other sites have just electric and water - but I want to be able to do laundry, so it would be nice to have full hookups). The other positive characteristic was that this site was right off a corner, so once I had Miss Doozie turned at the corner, we could back straight in - a big advantage. A lot of sites are very tight to get in at the entrance, and if there is a one way lane in front (narrow), it can be challenging to get her turned, requiring multiple forward and backward maneuverings.

So... we decided to take this one - I noticed it was a bit narrow... I didn't realize exactly *how* narrow until I started backing into it.

She's in there... it is a good thing that we don't have slides!

The first attempt to park in the site, we got in there just fine... and there was plenty of room on the driver's side to get to the utilities... but... the entry door was up against the growth on the passenger side so we couldn't open the door. Note: it isn't just growth on both sides of us... the site is carved down so the ground rises up right beside the site too.

This shows the "utilities" side. It was a bit challenging getting the hoses all hooked up - balancing/working between the side of the bus and the hill right next, but we got 'er done! Note: the front tires are turned to the side so we can more easily get to the front jacks to put wooden support underneath.

Anyway, we could have used a Blue Bird sized shoehorn a couple of times today - but I guess it would be a large item to carry with us!