October 17-21, 2023 - Vancouver to Yosemite National Park

Back on the road with our Andiamo, our 2023 Airstream (Pottery Barn Edition) for our third rolling adventure of pulling our stateroom to destinations unknown. Welcome back or welcome as we embark on our first snowbird exploratory excursion. We hope you continue to enjoy our adventures.

First, we were very happy and fortunate that our dealership was able to store our Andiamo from June until pickup date of October 17th. Shout out to the folks at Traveland RV, especially, Jason. Also thanks for addressing all our breaking in little fixes, we are loving the new stairs. So, like clockwork we pulled into the dealer at our 10:30 pickup time with Jason pretty much waiting for us to hook up and take her away. Awesome.

We hit the 176 border crossing (the truck crossing) at about 11:30 and after a detailed agricultural inspection we entered the States at 12:30 - we may consider the Sumas crossing in the future. In March we went through the Sumas crossing in less than ten minutes, perhaps it has to do with all the semi trucks going through the 176 crossing, anyway food for thought. So we continue and along this journey down to Palm Desert we are utilizing our Thousand Trails (TT) Camping Pass as much as we are able which as it turns out to be almost a TT park which connects all the way down. This is the annual pass we purchased back in April and by the time we completed that trip the pass had already paid for itself. This means that every TT park we stay at on this journey is essentially free, pretty cool. 

So on we went from the border crossing to Chehalis, just south of Olympia, which means going through Seattle and Tacoma on the I5, yikes. Crazy traffic, crazy merge patterns, talk about throwing ourselves right into the thick of having to get used to towing a trailer in difficult situations so quickly. We were very happy to pull into the Chahalis TT Park by about 5:30pm. This was a very nice, very large RV park with many sections for about 400 RV sites. Yes, some sections were closed for annual maintenance but many still open with good almost level full hookup sites. We stayed here for two nights which gave us a chance to reacquaint ourselves with Andiamo as well as stock up on supplies for our next little while. We knew not to do this until we crossed the line because there are many items that you are not allowed to transport over the country line, especially, fruit, vegetables and eggs.

After a few restful days we continued our journey south to a KOA in Sutherlin/Sequoia. This KOA is a converted drive in movie theatre which, at this time of year, shows movies on the weekends, pretty great idea. We found this KOA very organized with friendly staff with great size sites. Unfortunately, we were there on a Thursday so we did not experience the full movie offering. After our one night stop here it was off to another KOA Mt. Shasta, which was also very nicely run with spacious sites. Again, only a one night stop here to give us a little rest before heading to our next TT at Lake Minden. 

The Thousand Trail parks are actually all pretty nice, at least that is what we have found. We receive emails prior to our visits where we are able preregister and when we arrive our welcome packages are always ready and always with friendly staff giving you all the information as it relates to the park. We have found all the parks to be unique, usually with good services and decent size sites. The Lake Minden park is very large as it surrounds the large lake. This gives the park a more intimate feel as the sections are quite far apart. We lucked out in our section as we invited to concert of sorts at a site not too far from ours. The woman here is very talented, she is autistic and is able to play all her music from memory. She can hear a song once and is able to not only play the music but also sing the lyrics. This was a real treat. We enjoyed the music for about an hour and a half before going back to our site for our usual late dinner. Before heading off the next day we were treated to some dog races also taking place at the Lake Minden Campground. We were now heading to one of our highlight destinations of this trip, Yosemite National Park. We had four nights there also at a Thousand Trails Campground, so yeah, free and with the National Park Pass we purchased back in June, the National Park was also free, double yeah! This will have a separate post.

A few pics of our journey to Yosemite National Park, hope you continue to enjoy…

Just the one pic of our spot at the TT Chehlis in Washington State.

The former Drive In Movie Theatre now the KOA Sutherlin/Umpqua, Oregon. Dressed for Halloween 

The Movie Screen 







Some RVers go all out.









Our spacious spot.

They also had a 50’s themed cafe with games room.













We like to stop at Rest Stops at about the 3 hour mark. This one was on a river.

Next up was the KOA Mt. Shasta, very nice.















Here we are now at the TT Minden Lake.



A real talent.

Any dogs allowed, yeah!



On the road to Yosemite… stay tuned. 

Jun 27-28, 2023 - Andiamo to Vancouver

We enjoyed our second day in Osoyoos relaxing, then enjoying a pub lunch at the Owl Pub before hitting the laundry machines for the last time this trip. In the evening enjoyed a dip in the warmest fresh water lake in Canada a little dinner as we watched, Cocaine Bear, off our main TV using our firestick. So yeah, still “always home”.

We departed in the morning right at the 11:00 am check out time and began making our way home with the last stretch on the Hope - Princeton Hwy, known as The Crows Nest Highway. We have travelled this highway many a time but didn’t realize how demanding it was until you do it towing a trailer. So once again, this truck had to really work today and work it did - all good, the truck did well.

We did stop at the Manning Park rest area for a trailer lunch which was excellent. What made it so excellent was that it began raining just as we pulled in. Not just regular rain but cats n dogs, thunderous rain, so good to sit this one out in our rig. When we were ready to go, the rain stopped, now that’s great serendipitous timing. 

We are staying one night in the Cultus Lake Thousand Trails to close the chapter on this amazing 52 day journey. We are doing our last night here because in the morning we are, once again, dropping our Andiamo off at the dealer for some more warranty work, again nothing major but some items that need addressing. Funny thing about this RV Park, there are some sites that are annual sites, some with 30amp full hook ups, some 30 amp with water only and several 15 amp service sites. We attempted a few sites but they only had 15 amp with water so we decided to take one of the huge 15 amp sites away from all the very packed part of the park. We figured why bother snuggling up to another RV when, for the same services we could get a great treed site with the same services. Okay, we may not have ac tonight but it should comfortably cool down. Note: after set up I did find four sites with 30 amp and water but we are happy where we are. Also funny about this park, there are no dump stations? This I find very strange. I was told the park next door has a dump facility, hmm, not sure how they feel about other campers dumping in their park. Lol. I will check my app for a convenience dump site along our journey back to the dealer.  There will be a summary in a few days. I hope you enjoyed our first real journey in our Andiamo, more to come I assure you. Will let you know our future plans in the summary.

For now, a few pics of our last few days, hope you enjoy…

Lunch at the Owl pub, Poke bowl for Jan, Taco salad for me.

I’m a sucker for a good taco salad. This one did not disappoint.

A dip in the warmest fresh water lake in Canada.

Beautiful sunset on this night.



Our set up.





Our set up at Cultus Lake.





Great pool and facilities here.

Jun 25-26, 2023 - Andiamo to Osoyoos, BC

The TT Little Diamond was a nice peaceful place for two days to recharge before embarking on our border crossing stretch coming back into Canada. When we jumped into the truck this morning and banged in the Osoyoos address it showed about 3 hours and 48 minutes. Okay, that looks about right so off we went. Well little did we know that this GPS knew about a border crossing at Midway that we did not know existed. When we were about 11 miles from a border crossing our little GPS told us to turn left which led to another summit crossing. The GPS then indicated that we were 46 kilometres (30 miles) to the crossing. Hmmm. But our eta was still good, well let’s go for it.

So it was up and down twisty roads, hey look two cows on the road, wow, we continue through an area that looks like it was ravaged by a forest fire not to long ago, a bit spooky looking, we continue. At about 3 kilometres to the crossing we were actually on Border crossing road, okay.

We come upon a smallish building on the side of the road, two bays, one for cars, one for trucks (Rv’s etc). The sign says stop and wait for the border officer. We wait. Two minutes later a uniformed officer comes out to greet us. “What brings you over here” he says, we respond with, “well our gps brought us to you”, “ah you can’t rely on gps”. We share a chuckle. He goes through the usual rigmarole as he becomes more interested in our Airstream. Just then a pickup pulls into the other bay. He takes our passports and says he will be right back. Jan’s window is open at this point when he comes back and hands her the passports and wishes us safe continued travels. So this time our GPS saved us by going this way across the line. Yeah.

Now for our last challenge, the hill leading into Osoyoos from the east, it’s nasty. It is long and steep with some tight hairpin turns. The last thing you want to do is ride the brakes all the way down. We are in tow / haul mode which allows me to give the brakes a couple of pumps which indicates to the transmission that we need some help here. The tranny in turn gears down to give you this help. The truck did well with never getting beyond about 4200 revs. We arrived safely at our, two night, overnight stop at the NK’MIP RV Park. This is a beautiful large RV Park right on the eastern banks of Osoyoos Lake. We stayed here a few years ago on our RV test run but that was in October, now, at the end of June it is much busier. Just to recap, this RV Park is part of a winery, along with vacation condos, a horse riding area as well as all the beach activity toys one needs. Rent a ski boat, kayak, paddle board, all available here. This RV Park also has the best, right on the beach, off leash, doggy park. We will enjoy our two days here. Dinner to night was at the winery, just fantastic.

Some pics of our last few days, hope you enjoy…

The lake at the Little Diamond RV Park



Our great site for two nights.

Pool, clubhouse with pool tables, ping pong, even a frisbee golf area 















Our phone GPS a few days prior to our crossing day. So the truck was about right.

Yup, two cows walking on the road. Don’t think she was expecting us.Lol



An beautiful, interesting drive.




A fabulous meal at the winery restaurant. Sampler food.