Julie and Kim's 2017 Adventure: Friday, 1 September

We are on the road by about quarter of ten, back to the I44/Route 66 heading west.

Acres and acres of pontoon party boats!

We get about 70 miles under our belt before we stop for supplies at you guessed it, Walmart. There is a small strip shopping centre with a Marshalls and a shoe shop next door so I check them out while Kim packs away the groceries and has his lunch. Just as we are about to set off again I notice the fridge beeping, that’s ominous! Yep, error message – "no flo" so our temporary fix to the propane cut off switch was indeed temporary. There are a couple of retail propane outfits in this small town of St Roberts so we phone them to see if they know of any repairers here. We then call on one of them and they suggest Happy Trails RV Centre just west of Lebanon so there we head, with the generator running to power the fridge.

We rock up there, are welcomed by Dan who gets us seen to pretty much straight away. The mechanic had it sorted within half an hour by bypassing and removing the faulty switch which we can/will replace at some stage. We have confirmed that our favourite RV Parts place -North Western, Oregon carry the part so can get it sent to us. So $45 later, for 30 minutes labour we are out the door and down the road half a km to the Happy Trails Campground where Courtney welcomes us like long lost friends.

We check in for the night staying in one of their brand new pull through sites looking over the lake. We are the first to plug into the power box, no spiders have had the chance to set up home here, it is so new. Unfortunately the site slopes severely and our front wheels are off the ground with the jack up to maximum. Need the step ladder to get onto the bottom step! We were going to live with it for the one night but after our nature walk around the lake we happen to call in to the office and Courtney arranges Butch in the golf cart to take us to another site. Much more level and trees provide some welcome shade, it is 29C.

Give us a leg up would ya!

Next door, up by the repair centre is the Boat Town Brewery, run by two doctors and open Friday through Sunday nights. They have a food truck on Friday nights providing meals for those interested. Butch takes us up there in the golf cart as it is uphill, great service. Kim chooses Danny Down the Road, a Vienna lager and I a very nice chardonnay and we take our drinks out into the courtyard and start talking to a couple of guys on a boys weekend, they have been hunting mourning doves this morning, beer tasting now and they are off to watch one of their sons play – college football later this evening. They were really interesting to talk too and good fun. They left an hour later so we chatted to some others, everyone is so friendly.

Boat Town Brewery

Dinner from the Bombshells Moving Kitchen was great, Kim opted for the Kirks Meatloaf Sandwich and I had the Bail Bonds Patty Melt - with bacon and pepperjack and for which I give 9.5 out of ten. Kim thought he was getting chips with his, but they were chippies not fries – but that’s just weird, chippies are snacks not a side! I doubt they are even a food group.