Portland Summer 2024

Travel Day

Sunday, August 4th 2024

We left Thousand Trails South Jetty at about 8:40 am and after a short drive on US Highway101 North, we took State Highway 126 thought the Coastal Pacific Coast Range. This was a very nice and scenic drive in Siuslaw National Forest. We met up with Interstate 5 in Eugene, Oregon. We headed North on Interstate 5 and shortly thereafter made our first stop at the Oak Grove Rest Area at about 10:15 am, after a short break we continued North on Interstate 5. We made one more stop at the French Prairie Rest Area at about 11:45 am. We then took Interstate 205 to Interstate 84. We arrived at the Portland/Fairview RV Park just outside Portland, Oregon at about 12:40 pm.

Trip Info & Stats

Departure Time: 8:38 AM
Arrival Time: 12:38 PM
Duration (h:mm): 4:00
Total Miles: 190
Number of Stops: 2
Weather: Sunny

Play Street Museum

Wednesday, August, 7th 2024

We met up with some friends, who also homeschool, at the Play Street Museum in Hillsboro, Oregon to let mama catch up with one of her friends from college while the kids got to play at this great little kid’s museum/play place.

Our boys loved playing with their large wooden train set. Richard did a lot of independent exploring and keeps getting more and more comfortable with interacting with other kids. He still has some major challenges communicating and keeping up with other kids with his mobility delays. We often watch him observing others or playing near them but not exactly with them.

OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

Saturday, August, 10th 2024

Our friends have a membership OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) in Portland, Oregon. This was a rare opportunity to share a great field trip with another homeschool family. The vast majority of their exhibits were very kid oriented. The visit started off on a high note when the boys were met with dinosaurs right outside the front door.

Papa was also very excited for this visit because, OMSI is home to the US Navy’s USS Blueback (SS-581). The USS Blueback was a Cold War era submarine that was decommissioned in 1990 and given to OMSI as a museum ship. Unlike most of the other museum ships that we have been on, these tours were by guided tours only. We had the blessing of our tour guide who had actually served on the USS Blueback as a Spook working closely with the NSA collecting signal intelligence from Russian submarines. He was able to share more insights into daily life as a submariner during that era than anyone we have met to date.

Sidney got to play the role of a Plainsmen when the tour guide simulated the sequence for diving the ship.

The kids really enjoyed the kids play area that is about hydrodynamics and entirely hands on. The rotating exhibit was about dinosaurs plus many other hands-on learning experiences and exhibits for all.

Around the campground

It was a short stay of only 1 week, we were able to catch up on some general maintenance. One of the things that we did not expect when we hit the road 3 years ago, was how many campgrounds would not let us wash our rig. We did a complete exterior wash of the rig and truck. Sidney and papa washed the 5th wheel while mama washed the truck.

We also did some routine maintenance on our A/C unit while also getting a recall fix on the A/C ducting addressed. We will talk more about that fix in a later blog post. One of the things we have not talked about much is our Rig. Our 2021 River Ranch 392MB is a very rare 5th wheel in a few ways. One of the more notable differences is, compared to every other 5th wheel, travel trailer and most motorhomes is that our A/C is in our basement and not on the roof. This makes it hard to find advise and help working on it in the RV community. We are lucky that one of the few techs that has been trained on these units is located in Salem, Oregon.