Tuesday, September 9, 2025 Replacing Artie?????

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2025 Replacing Artie??? 

I like the grass here.  My humans let me roam just a little.  But there was a dog.  They have to ruin everything.

I woke early.  I hear a few cars in motion.  They are letting water out of the Oxbow dam so the fishermen are ready.  Our walk took us across the bridge to the Idaho side.  A fisherman had a couple of huge catfish in a bucket.  He was doing a happy dance!  We turned up a dirt road and followed the river towards the south.  If you live anywhere near this area, you know every little fishing hole and boondocking camp site.  In this direction, there are very few people.  For us, it is a nice walk along the river. 

After Spouse left me, I continued down the road till I came upon ranch fencing.  The road bends around the fencing, and it looks like it continues along the river, hugging the mountainside.  I felt a few raindrops… I wanted to continue, but thought better of it.  Drop… drop… I am about 1 ½ miles out, but the raindrops are few and far between.  As I get near camp and cross the bridge, the resident wild turkeys greet me, as much as wild turkeys greet anybody!

Back at Artie, we clean up and hit the road.  We are heading to La Grande to visit the Outdoor RV factory.  We have looked at downsizing, and Outdoor RV has a model that has a decent floor plan with good quality craftsmanship.  So, it is a thought.

The road out of Oxbow is rolling hills, some mountains, some farms.  As we near Richland, it is very arid and desert like.  Even the desert sage is dull.  We are following a river, and the foliage is dull.  Usually, there are trees and shrubs that line rivers, but here, it is pretty barren.  Eventually, life returns with more hills and farms.

When we get to the interstate, we have mountains to the left with trees, and to the right, the mountains are bare.  It is pretty though, all the way to La Grande.  We are boondocking at the factory on their invitation.

We then disconnected and headed to the town of Pendleton to actually look at finished Outdoor RVs.  It is a pretty drive, almost like going over the grapevine, except much more scenic.  At the dealer, we were able to really scrutinize and ask questions and open drawers and move this and that.  We came to the conclusion that we are not sure we want to downsize!  The model we liked has only begun production – there is only one and it is sold.  They will begin making them next month.  We are not keen on buying any first year models…  I have a feeling we will have Artie for quite a while…

By the way, Outdoor RV is a sister company to Arctic Fox (Artie), so we would be keeping things in the family if we were to switch, but at this point, we are leaning against the change, at least for now.