We typically go north every spring as geese do, and head south for the winter. Our 2026 spring trip was great and sometimes very interesting. Sometimes we have uneventful trips. Sometimes, like this spring trip, we have eventful trips. On the whole, we hope our adventures are interesting but not all that exciting. Some things on our spring trip were great, and others were not. Overall, we had a wonderful time.
Oh, about the geese: I should mention that their habit of migrating might be the only thing I like about them. I especially despise the goose honking early in the morning when I am trying to sleep. They are worse than roosters, though that may spark debate. Why do geese seem unable to fly without honking? Even worse is the goose poop they leave behind in the grass. I am surprised to learn that goose-stepping isn’t related to the goose poop I try to avoid on the grass.
Plumbing fixed in Brookings
When I last mentioned a location, we were in Brookings, Oregon, very close to the California border. As I mentioned, our spring trip was northbound along the California coast. It was in Brookings where we finally got our plumbing nightmare fixed. Even after working on it for five days straight, the final ten-minute fix was made by an RV mobile repair guy (Ryan) because my tool was too big a job.
Anyone who has done any remodeling in a house knows that living there while remodeling makes it much harder. Same for our RV. It is even more difficult making repairs while moving our RV every few days. On our spring trip, I was very happy to have the leak fixed and our water restored in Brookings. After the leak was fixed, it still took me half a day to put everything back together. If you missed it, here is a link to the story. My RV has horrible plumbing
Routing our 2026 spring trip
On our spring trip, we departed Southern California in mid-April, heading northbound along the California coast. At one of our stops on our northbound coast trip, we watched another rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Very cool.
At the end of April, we left the coast at San Luis Obispo and headed inland toward Pinnacles National Park. While the electricity at Pinnacles was crap, the park was nice, and this was one of the one-week periods we escaped the cold weather and were comfortable sitting in the shade. After Pinnacles National Park, we turned west towards the ocean at Monterey. The cold weather returned as we neared the coast. In Monterey, we had cold winds from the Pacific Ocean daily.
The route for our spring trip, along the California coast, doesn’t include our trip to Singapore or our Pacific Ocean cruise. It was plenty warm (and wet) in Singapore in February, and during our ocean crossing, which ended on April 5th. The last week of the cruise was much rougher as we went from Hawaii to Los Angeles. If only our ship had better food. Anyway, here is a link to the Singapore story. Singapore and our story about crossing the Pacific Ocean on a cruise ship. 43 days on the Queen Anne
I mentioned our electricity in Pinnacles National Park. Our electrical woes continued in Monterey during our 2026 spring trip. I find the interesting part of the electricity issues to be that we had the opposite problem. At Pinnacles, the voltage was too low, and at Monterey, the voltage was way too high. Here is a link to that story. Crappy RV Electricity woes
I can’t point the finger of blame directly at Pinnacles National Park because only one of the wires in the cord reel arced, ruining the connection. I am not certain if it was the wire being used. It was more than a week after our visit that we really started having problems. When I finally get the new (expensive) cord reel installed, I hope to outline the failure and repair. As part of that story, I will explain why the cord reel was the only thing in our RV harmed by the low voltage.
Route planning mistakes were made
On our 2026 spring trip, the mistake that led to the cold weather was completely predictable. Planning a trip northbound along the California coast in the spring isn’t the brightest idea I have ever had. We have gone southbound along the California coast multiple times; the last time was in the fall after visiting Alaska in 2023.
Somehow, after being in Alaska, I don’t remember it being cold along the northern California coast in 2023. It wasn’t cold in Alaska during the summer of 2023. On our 2026 spring trip, going north along the same route along the California coast was the biggest mistake. Traveling northbound through the San Joaquin Valley in California would have been much warmer but not nearly as interesting.
While staying in San Luis Obispo, we made a trip back to the Hearst Castle along the coastline. I liked it more during this visit. I updated our blog post about the Hearst Castle. If you missed the update, here is a link. The Hearst Castle a perfect Mediterranean Villa in California
It wasn’t always cold this year
It wasn’t always cold except when we were along the coastline. Being inland, even for a few miles, made it much nicer. I already mentioned Pinnacles National Park. We almost needed our air conditioner at Pinnacles. Given the electrical issue, it wouldn’t have worked, so I am happy we didn’t need it.
For our 2026 spring trip, we also turned inland from the Oregon coast to a new place near Grants Pass. During the first week of June, we were at Lake Selmac for the weekend and then headed to Grants Pass for a couple of days before pushing east to Klamath Falls.
We were told to leave Harris Beach State Park
Before we got our plumbing problem fixed at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, Oregon, we noticed another problem on our RV (more information later). It all started when we were told to leave Harris Beach State Park and come back after check-in time. Check-in time at Harris Beach State Park is 4 p.m., and we arrived early and parked in our spot.
While arriving at a campsite early (but after check-out) is almost never a problem, it was this time. The reason we were there early was that we didn’t have far to travel from our previous spot in Klamath, California, where I was working on our plumbing leak. But even after we parked the RV in our site, the rangers told us to leave and come back after 4 pm.
Our previous campsite at Klamath River RV Park was very close to Harris Beach, and we stopped there for one reason: they had showers. The fact that it was so pretty didn’t matter to us. We didn’t have water in our RV for the previous few days; we really needed showers. The park was right on the Klamath River and was so pretty.
The sewer problem at Harris Beach State Park.
So after we got parked at our site in Harris Beach State Park, the staff told us to leave. It was while we were waiting for the park to let us in that we noticed another problem with the RV. The reason Harris Beach State Park told us to leave was that they had a sewer problem and didn’t want to clean up around the sewer pipe while our RV was sitting there.
So we took our RV across the highway to wait until they got the sewer repaired and the mess cleaned up. While we were there, I didn’t use the sewer. Other than having to leave, we had a great (but chilly) time at Harris Beach on our 2026 spring trip.
Lake Selmac
Lake Selmac is about 80 miles east of Brookings, Oregon, on the way to Grants Pass. We had a wonderful spot at Lake Selmac in the Mallard Loop (site 101) with plenty of room for the RV. The lake and park were very nice, but the road into Lake Selmac was in serious need of repair. Still, we made it, and we would love to go back. There is talk about repairing the road.
RV repairs in Grants Pass
Once we got the all-clear from Harris Beach because they had cleaned up their sewer mess, we noticed a new problem with our RV. The tail of the RV on the passenger side was much lower than on the driver’s side or the front, indicating an air leak (I thought probably from our rear air bag). While standing next to the RV with the engine off, I could hear a slight hissing near the rear passenger tire. The very best place to figure out what was wrong with our RV was 100 miles east at Grants Pass.
Over the last few years of owning and repairing our RV, I have learned that a leak in our suspension needs to be addressed quickly. I have heard of a rare incident in which an airbag burst, causing the RV to come to an immediate stop. We were able to get the suspension inflated to drive over to Harris Beach (across the highway), and again as we headed from Harris Beach to Grants Pass, so I assumed we wouldn’t have to fix it at a campground. Still, I didn’t know what was leaking.
Henderson’s Line-up in Grants Pass
Over the years, we had several stops at Henderson’s for service of our various suspension components. They are the RV suspension specialists. After a few failed attempts to get our Koni shock absorbers stiff enough, they made us test pilots for some new, even stronger Koni Shocks. Now our coach rides much better than before. Previously, I wrote this article about Henderson’s. Here is a link. Get the bounce out. Here is another article about Koni Shock absorber testing. Testing new Koni shock absorbers
Henderson’s even replaced our steering box and front airbags in 2023 after our trip to Alaska. This time, however, we went there because of the hissing sound we discovered while waiting for our campsite at Harris Beach in Brookings. Henderson’s is pretty busy, but they found room for us and diagnosed a leak in one of our ride-height valves.
Ride-height valves adjust the amount of air supplied to the airbags to keep us level as we ride down the road. They are mechanical and adjust the suspension’s air pressure as you travel. Our RV has three ride-height valves: two in the back and one for the front wheels. A leaking ride-height valve needed to be replaced, and there were zero in inventory west of the Mississippi.
Heading to a graduation ceremony.
The goal of our 2026 spring trip was to be at our grandson’s college graduation ceremony in Klamath Falls. Getting a new ride-height valve repaired in Grants Pass was putting a kink in our plans, but while planning our spring trip, we built in a little unscheduled time to deal with such issues. Shipping the new ride-height valve (I think from Ohio) would take days, and we wanted to be in Klamath Falls by the end of the week so we could be there for his college graduation.
We even considered driving to Klamath Falls, staying in a hotel, and then heading back to Grants Pass to pick up our RV if our repair wasn’t complete in time. The result was that we had unplanned time to kill in Grants Pass on our 2026 spring trip. Thus, we had a few days to spend more money in Grants Pass.
New tires and chassis batteries
As part of our 2026 spring trip, I intended to buy new tires and chassis batteries either in Oregon or Montana. Neither state charges sales tax. So instead of waiting to get to Montana, since we had time, we did it in Oregon.
In my update to my tire problem article, I mentioned we got new tires when we were in Grants Pass. From the same shop (not Henderson’s), we also replaced our chassis (engine starting) batteries.
The tires were more than seven years old, and the batteries were almost 6 years old. Both were at the far end of their lifespans, so we had new ones installed during our spring trip while in Oregon. If you missed my discussion about our final tire problem, and all the decision-making, here is a link to that article. RV Tire Failure: If you only want the update, it starts here. Tire update
The miracle of second-day shipping
Carol at Henderson’s up knew we wanted to be in Klamath Falls for the graduation and somehow was able to get a ride-height valve the very next day. It arrived late in the afternoon on Tuesday. We were happy, riding on new tires, and had new chassis batteries. On Wednesday morning, we got the ride-height valve installed, then headed east towards Klamath Falls, and made it there before dark. Henderson’s pulled a rabbit out of a hat to make this happen. They have great customer service.
Not going back to the RV park in Klamath Falls
For our 2026 spring trip, I made the reservations, with the check-out scheduled incorrectly for Saturday; the RV park was happy to extend it when I called to fix it more than a month before our visit. When we got to the park, even (one day late), even though it was mostly empty, they wanted us to park in the spot closest to the highway (and the train). I had requested the back (quieter) corner. I’m thankful I was able to fix it after our arrival.
We had planned our route for our 2024 spring trip carefully to be in Klamath Falls for the graduation ceremony. We had reservations at this RV Park for months before our expected arrival. Even though I called the RV park and told them about our breakdown in Grants Pass, well more than 24 hours before our expected arrival, I was still charged for the day we couldn’t make it. No cancellations, no changes; they already had our money.
No cancellations, no changes. For me, that also means I will not be calling them for future reservations. I will go some other place. The RV Park at the north end of town is operated by an RV Park corporation and not as a friendly, service-oriented place. The guy on the phone said it was policy. I have news for them: Klamath Falls is a little too small and too country to be a policy-driven place. Instead, how about trying to make your customers happy? It will pay in the long run.
At this RV Park, being repeat customers didn’t impress them; our mechanical breakdown didn’t impress them, nor did our advanced warning about our problem. I asked to talk to someone at the park, and he said he was there without hesitation. So next time I won’t be going there, and I told him so.
When we arrived at the park and asked to speak to the person I talked to on the phone, I learned he was at central reservations. Why would he tell me he was at the park? So next time I won’t be going there, and I told them so. This one conversation just took 39 RV parks off my list of potential places to stay. Next time I suspect I am dealing with this company, I will check and find something else.
The Rodeo was in town
Besides the graduation that weekend in Klamath Falls, the local fairgrounds were hosting the Klamath River Roundup, including the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and the fairgrounds were packed, including the fairgrounds RV park. Assuming the rodeo is in town, the next time we stop in Klamath Falls, we will probably stay at the Oregon State Park north of town; otherwise, we will be at the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds RV park at Klamath Falls is first-rate.
Crossing the pass between Medford and Klamath Falls
While crossing the pass between Medford (east of Grants Pass) and Klamath Falls on our 2026 spring trip, we had a check engine light. It was similar to the one in 2023, when we were in remote British Columbia, south of the Yukon. Thankfully, it wasn’t for the same thing. This time we had unusually high crankcase pressure. In British Columbia, we had a problem with exhaust gas recirculation. We had our 2023 problem fixed in Prince George, Canada. In 2023, we drove more than 500 miles with a check engine light through the most remote areas of Canada. Here is a link to that story. An engine problem in remote Canada
The check engine light came on about 20 miles west of Klamath Falls, so we took the RV to Coast Truck Center south of Klamath Falls. After driving into Klamath Falls, I visited them on Wednesday afternoon in person and had the RV in the shop on Thursday morning. This time, our engine check light was caused by a clogged crankcase ventilation filter.
I have to admit, I didn’t know we had a filter built into the engine valve cover. Come to think about it, this engine problem and our exhaust gas recirculation problem have a common purpose. They both are parts of the environmental control system. Even though we have an older engine that doesn’t require DEF (diesel exhaust fluid), we still have issues with the environmental control system. While there, we also did our annual maintenance and oil change on the RV.
Graduation
Getting to the graduation ceremony was the goal of our spring trip. Our grandson, Brady, is now a graduate of The Oregon Institute of Technology with an engineering degree. We attended his High School Graduation in Boise a few years back, and for us, this was more painful. We had no idea how many graduates there would be on that bright sunny day.
The grandstands were packed an hour before the commencement parade started. I didn’t know they had a parade. I wish I could have this half hour of my life back. We were early enough to see the parade and some of the speakers telling the graduates how important they were, but before the diplomas were distributed, I had to leave.
We were way too late for seats and ended up parking ourselves on the grassy slope near the grandstands. The angle to the presentation area was impossible to see, and the sun was way too bright looking in that direction. Even though every part of our body was shaded, we were broiling. Since we weren’t going to see their trip across the stage anyway, we went back to our RV and watched it on YouTube. I remembered seeing the local news cameras (center stage) and was willing to bet we would have a much happier graduation if we saw it on our TV.
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About our links
As you know, our blog income is zero – this allows us to be independent and just tell the truth. We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements. We don’t make recommendations, but instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike). The links are only provided as a quick reference to help our readers.
Links
Ryan’s Mobile RV Repair, Brookings, Oregon (541) 251-4014 cell
Coast Truck Center Klamath Falls
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