It started at 2:45 a.m....a constant beep, beep, beep. At first we thought it was one of the semi’s backing up...nope, it was the fridge’s warning signal that it had fun out of propane. Why do these things always happen in the middle of the night? Steve got up and went outside to turn on the other propane tank. He no sooner got back into bed when he was up again...the furnace had been running constantly but there was no heat coming out of the vents. He reset it a couple of times but still nothing so he turned it off and came back to bed.
Well, neither one of us really managed to get a restful sleep after that. I finally decided to get up around 6:00...we wanted to get an early start to our day. We are going to drive to Woodburn which is about 30 miles south of Portland. Woodburn Company of Stores is a huge Factory Outlet Mall that we plan to visit.
Holy cats...it was cold in the trailer (49F)! I had a quick hot shower while Steve went outside and fired up the generator and then turned the fireplace on to try to warm the place up a bit. The furnace still wouldn’t work. I didn’t think that my feet would ever warm up! I made sandwiches to pack for lunch while Steve showered...then it was pack up time.
We were on the road just before 9:00...a beautiful, but chilly, morning. The sun was shining but it looked like we were headed towards clouds. We continued north on I-5 through Rogue River and Grants Pass...a beautiful area. No problems with highway conditions as we drove through the mountains.
The day actually turned out to be mostly sunny, a beautiful travel day...but it sure looked like we were headed into major clouds as we neared Woodburn. They seemed to disperse as we headed west off the I-5 towards Champoeg State Park, about 15 minutes northwest of Woodburn. We weren’t sure whether we would be able to get a site or not, but thought we would try. If not, we could always drive the short distance back to a private campground. 
When we arrived at the park entrance, the office was closed so it was self-registration. It didn’t look like we would have a problem finding a site for one night but we wanted at least 3 nights. After driving the loop a couple of times, we finally found a camp host who told us that sites B2 to B10 were all unreservable sites. If any of these sites are empty, we can stay up to 2 weeks...and there happened to be a couple available. 
We chose site B6, a long, large site backing onto a grass field. The campground is really nice with large spacious sites and lots of room between you and your neighbour. All sites have 50 amp power and water with about 10 sites having sewer as well. The unreservable sites are all electricity and water only...oh well, that’s okay. And for $20/night, very reasonable!
As usual, we had an audience as we backed into our site. It went well and we were soon levelled off and unhitched. We got all unpacked...including the satellite dish set up and had no problem getting a signal (probably one of the fastest, easiest times!) We even have a fairly good internet signal on the Rogers Rocket Stick...so, yes, all is good!
The camp host came by selling firewood...$5/bag so we bought two...and quickly got a campfire going. It had been a long time since we had been able to have a campfire. We enjoyed our happy hour dodging campfire smoke! It was a lovely evening...spring is definitely in the air!
After dinner, we settled in to watch a little TV and then we both had an early night...we were tired from lack of sleep last night coupled with a long drive today.
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