Day 94. Scappoose, OR

What the hell is that?

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We’ve seen some odd looking rigs in our travels but none odder than this one. We returned from running errands yesterday to find it parked beside us. Last night we were sitting around the campfire having drinks and snacks with Jim and Paulette, and the owner of the rig joined us briefly. He provided us with the history.
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This guy owns a trucking company in eastern Oregon. He had this 30-year old motorhome with a dead engine, and decided to marry it up with a newer Kenworth semi tractor with a sleeper cabin. He chopped off the tractor sleeper cabin and the entire front end of motorhome and proceeded to put them together, said it only took 3 weeks. Obviously, he knows his way around the automotive shop and sheet metal work. Three weeks? Would have taken me 3 years. And the end product would be hands-down winner of the RV Pig Party prize.

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When he was all done, his son gave it a paint job, and from 30 feet away it looks pretty darn good. Weird but good. Up close, you see a lot of dents in the motorhome body, and also the old painted-over graphics. He says it has a lot more power than a traditional, comparably-sized motorhome, and it also gets better gas mileage. ‘Better’ is a relative term, wouldn’t take much to beat the fuel efficiency of those humongous class-A rigs.

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Night before last, we had dinner at the Dockside in St Helens with friends, Don and Jan, who live near St Helens. Don was one of the regulars at my poker table for several years; Jan is an accomplished artist who works in clay.

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We’ll be hitting the road again today, headed to Champoeg SP several miles south of Portland for a few nights. Funny name, Champoeg, pronounced shampoo-ee. Looks like it should be cham-pig, don’t you think? It must be French: everyone knows that any similarity between the spelling and pronunciation of French words is purely coincidental.