Our Wet Oregon Vacation - Fiberglass RV
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Old 06-07-2010, 11:35 PM   #1
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May 14th, a warm sunny day, we set out on a 10 day vacation to Oregon. We headed to the coast, landing there later that day.

That was the ONLY warm day of our vacation! We enjoyed exploring Cape Perpetua for a day, camped north of there a few nights, then headed south, through dune country, enjoying an afternoon stroll to some of the bigger dunes, eventually ending up at Cape Blanco State Park - many of you may be familar with this lovely park south of Bullards Beach. It is truly a wonderful place to camp! It's small, very quiet, so quiet when we where there, it felt like we were on a retreat! All sites private. First day there we had the windy beach to ourselves. The next day - winds picked up, rain came down in buckets, we managed one walk to a different beach where we saw about 70 seals, moms with pups. The prediction was for a storm to hit with 55 mph wind gusts, so our third day there we headed east, driving inland in the pouring rain just as high winds hit the coast. Driving through beautiful country side to Roseburg, we kept going east to camp in a wonderful small BLM campground near the Umpqua River - Cavitt Creek Campgound. Next day we thought we'd continue to eastern OR, but snow in the passes, night temps in the 20s, and cloudy days in the low 40s didn't sound like spring to us! Instead we took walks to many of the beautiful falls in the Umpqua River area, between rain showers. After two pouring rain nights, we just got on I-5 and headed north, spending our last two nights in a brand new county park on the south Santiam River, east of Sweethome. Again, we managed a walk, between showers, on a lovely trail in the day use area of one of the oldest State Parks in Oregon, Cascadia State Park (we would of stayed there, but it is in heavy forest and all the sites were very muddy - no one was there!) On the way home we stopped at the Oregon Gardens SE of Portland, even there it was cold and very windy, with some showers! A wonderful place though - highly recommend it.

You can see photos of our wet vacation and the lovely places we went at Oregon, there are links to other photo pages.

We had a lot of condensation, something we have not had in our Escape at all, it added to the stress of the cold and wet weather, as we felt we could never dry out and things in cupboards were getting wet. Any suggestions for that would be appreciated.

In retrospect it was not a bad vacation, we saw a lot of beautiful places, some special Nature moments, like the seals, a gray whale and calf, there were wild irises and other wildflowers everywhere - BUT, we were so cold, and it was so wet, can't help but wish it had been a bit nicer weather!

We highly recommend Cape Blanco State Park, and the Umpqua River area - hope to go back to both some drier year!

Pacific Iris

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beach at Cape Perpetua

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Lighthouse at Cape Blanco

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camp site at BLM campground - Cavitt Creek

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Many more pics at the link mentioned above.....

Penney
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Old 06-08-2010, 06:27 PM   #2
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Your photos are gorgeous as usual Penney! Despite the weather - it looks great! I'm sharing your frustration with our cool and rainy spring. I have a week's vacation scheduled for next week on the coast and am watching the weather reports and hoping.

Oh well, even if it's raining - Molly will enjoy running on the beach. And if it's windy in between the rain, I should be able to get some good kite flying.

I haven't experienced that much condensation in my Escape - maybe I keep it at a different temp than you do (or 2 people generate more hot air than 1 person and a dog )
Where I get condensation is behind the seat backs overnight. But, I think it's hard to avoid if your clothes get wet (in really rainy weather, I leave my rain gear outside on a hook under the awning). Also, if you don't have a hookup and can't heat up the inside enough to dry the damp dog (in my case) and people - then it's hard to really dry out.
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Old 06-09-2010, 09:17 AM   #3
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Hi Anne!

Hope your week vacation can start on the weekend, it's suppose to be a sunny warm weekend! Wish we could head to the coast again! But life prevents. Have a great time!

We do not have a fantastic fan, and usually open the vent more, but with the heavy rains we kept the vent only cracked, that may be a factor. Also, found that the bolts for the awning, which go through to the cupboards, were dripping wet, the cold metal making condensation in the warmer cupboards I guess. That resulted in wet clothes! Ugh! We kept wet towels, coats, etc in the car as to not add moisture. We had hook ups about half the time. We also had a problem with the converter heating up and the fan coming on so there were times we unplugged, but still kept the heat on, as we had two batteries with us. It was like winter camping! Think I'll go on the Escape Forum and ask about the converter and condensation issues, and post here under another topic.

But yes, lovely places - you live in a beautiful state!

Happy flying! (kites that is!)

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Old 06-09-2010, 11:37 AM   #4
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Cape Blanco is one of our favorite places to camp. We were there a couple of years ago when it rained two days in a row. We did a wonderful long, wet muddy hike from the beach area, thru the forest looping back to the campground. The hikes on the beach north of the lighthouse are wonderful. We saw racoons stealing eggs on a cliff, eagles and other animals on our hike. Cape Perpetua is also another one of our favorites.

Thank you for your report.

Have fun on the beach Ann. Molly will have fun. Samantha and Julie love the beach. At the moment we are at Hosmer Lake in the Cascades (Being unemployed can have its advantages). Samantha loved running thru the snow. Not Julie. She is much to wise for that.

Ann

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Old 06-09-2010, 07:12 PM   #5
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Penney and Mike, sorry the Oregon weather was so stinky. Sigh, one of the reasons we're so green is because of all the rain... but ENOUGH already! One saving grace is you at least weren't in a tent! Looks like we're going into a dry stretch starting this weekend, so Anne you should have nice weather at the beach. I'm green with envy

I had to laugh when even the weather folks get into poking fun at the weather. The pic below was for last Saturday, the first truly nice day we've had it what felt like MONTHS.
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Old 06-13-2010, 11:51 PM   #6
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Penney I had the same problems with my Scamp on a very wet Oregon coast trip two summers ago. IMHO its not an issue that only your Escape has. Suspect all trailers camping in days of rain in warm weather have the same problem. Have had it happen here on our wet coast only once to the point it was a real issue - suspect its due to the warmer Oregon weather. The only answer to the problem is to get fresh air moving into the trailer. One way of doing that is to install one of those large covers over your roof fan so that you can leave the fan cover open in the rain. You can get them for the Maxi fan as well as others.
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Old 06-18-2010, 06:10 PM   #7
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thanks for the encouragement Carol. We don't actually have a fan, didn't come with the trailer and since we more often then not camp without power plug-in didn't want to put an extra load on the battery. But we may reconsider. At the very least we can get a cover so we can open the vent more in rainy weather, we did keep it open, as well as one window, as much as we dared. Of course it was also cold and we ran heat on and off most nights! Hopefully we can avoid vacations like that again! But in the NW (or in your case the SW!) it is bound to happen again. Our last "bad weather" vacation, quite a few years ago, was in BC in our Burro where is snowed and went below freezing while in the Rockies and at your Glacier Park. No condensation, it was too cold! On that vacation we ran out of battery and had no heat! After that's when we started to carry two batteries!
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Old 06-19-2010, 01:19 AM   #8
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Coming from tenting, we did not heat Homelet at night at first. We found we had mucho condensation on the walls as a result. Now we only camp in cool/cold weather with electrical service so we can run our space heater at night leaving the MaxxAir vent and the window under the open gravel guard open slightly.

With the heat running, the heater has a thermostat and cycles on and off, the condensation problem seems to be solved. The warm air naturally rises out the roof vent and draws cool, fresh air in through the open window.

We had one other problem, the moisture from our bodies was traveling through the foam mattress and condensing where the mattress touched the cold fiberglass creating mildew. At first we were lifting the mattress up every morning, wiping the water off the fg, and then running the heater so it blew against the mattress to dry it.

We solved that problem by placing a plastic drop cloth from the dollar store on the top of the mattress.

Hope our experiences help you solve your problem.
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Old 06-19-2010, 05:53 AM   #9
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Hi: Penney H. & Mike E. Someone once said " A bad day at the beach is better than a good day at WORK"!!! Keep shootin' those pic's I love 'em.
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Old 06-21-2010, 11:32 PM   #10
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Hi: Penney H. & Mike E. Someone once said " A bad day at the beach is better than a good day at WORK"!!!

I love that saying - a good reminder - and so true!

Glad you enjoy the pictures - thanks!

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Old 03-25-2011, 07:52 PM   #11
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Portland RV Park Oregon

If you ever in the area, I could recommend a great rv park in Portland that stayed in for a few month's. Clean area and definitely off the radar for high overnighter traffic. it's a the most affordable rv park in Fairview with free wifi, and all the ammenities you actually need! check em out!
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Old 03-26-2011, 08:53 AM   #12
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Eugene, it's nice to hear a positive review of the Rollin' Hills RV Park. I've driven by that place hundreds of times since it's only a couple of miles from my home. From the road, it looks like a run-down park since all the ones out front are old RVs and old trailers and park models. As their page says "....that caters to long term RV campers."

The good part of the park must be invisible from the road....
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Old 04-02-2011, 11:03 AM   #13
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Penney,

I have Window Maxx Louvres on my side windows for added ventilation for just the situation you were faced with.

My very first spring trip with my Scamp was up the coast of Oregon where I encountered rainy rainy days. Shortly thereafter I enstalled the Window Maxx's. They allow you to have the window open about 4 inches. I've had them on my trailer nearly 10 years now and love them.

Oh yes, I also know some Casitans who put a Window Maxx on the rear window and just one side window because the other side window is an emergency exit. Personally, I'd just put it on the emergency window also. It might have to be mounted slightly different but it's do-able.
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