Reno, Nevada

We spent our first night on our way to Reno in Likely, CA about 20 miles south of Alturas.  Not a town we would spend time in but the Likely Golf and RV park had great accomodations.

On Oct. 16 we moved onto Sparks Marina and RV Park and we spent one week in the Reno area.  This was the first park we stayed in that used astroturf at each site to give the appearance of grass.  Of course they didn't want the dogs to use the turf, so we had to take them to the dog walk area which was very nicely kept up.

While in the Reno area, we did some shopping and site seeing, as well as went to the Western Village Steakhouse and had steak and lobster and our favorite table side drink - cafe' diablo.  The drink is made with Brandy, Grand Marnier, and Orange Liquer, along with cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange and lemon peal and a little coffee.  It's excellent!  One of our shopping trips took us to Scheels, which was a huge sports store.  We only saw about 30% of the store.

Ferris Wheel inside building -
Craig couldn't get me to ride - I don't do Ferris Wheels!

About two blocks from the RV park was the Sparks Marina and we enjoyed taking the dogs and walking around the park/lake.  Here's a couple of shots from the park, the first from an evening walk and the later pictures is when we took the two mile walk around the lake.

We also took one day and took the motorcycle to Virginia City and into Carson City to the Tahoe Ridge Winery.  Between Virginia City and Carson City, we saw wild mustangs in the hills, but too far in the distance to get good pictures.

We took the Explorer and went to the Truckee Winery (we really enjoyed their wines) and then went onto Lake Tahoe and drove around the lake.

On Oct. 23 we moved south to Hawthorne, NV.

Two weeks in Sunriver, Oregon

We spent two weeks in the Thousand Trails membership park near Sunriver, Oregon.  We enjoyed spending time with my Brother and his wife as well as my niece's family.  We also had friends come for 5 days from Estacada, a cousin and her husband spent a weekend with us and another couple I worked with came and spent the afternoon with us from Redmond.

While John and Lynn were here we went kayaking one day at South Twin and another day Craig and John went on a bike ride to Sisters to meet up with another group of guys.  Craig's battery went dead about 20 miles out of Sisters, so the day did not turn out as originally planned.  New battery took care of the issue and they made it home safely.
 

                                  

We got the results of Lexie's liver biopsy, and she has chronic hepatitis so we got a baseline liver blood panel and then started her on cyclosporine modified medication.  She was reacting to the medication the entire time while we were in Sunriver, so we didn't leave her alone in case she had diarrhea issues.  We will test her again in 6 weeks to see if the medication brings down her liver enzymes.

We enjoyed Tif's kids and each of them stayed two nights with us in the motorhome.  Craig and Tif went into a Bend park and took pictures of the kids for their 2015 school pictures.  After 100+ pictures of various poses, there were many good ones to choose from.

   

Last day in the park, Craig and I washed the motorhome, trailer and Explorer as many of the parks down south you cannot wash vehicles.  As you can see, we had a really long site which worked perfect and gave us lots of room.  Great field area to play football and ring toss with the kids.

So on Thursday, Oct. 15 we headed south towards Reno.

Heading South for Winter

We are getting a little later start this winter heading south.  Craig's Mother recovered well and got good reports from her doctor on the healing process from her last surgery so we left after two weeks and headed back to our leased site in Chehalis to get the motorhome ready and the site buttoned up for the winter.  While in Yelm, we had a visit from my nephew and family and spent the day doing activities with the kids - skating, ice hockey and ice cream.

We also got Lexie another platelet shot and then they did additional tests on her liver due to the liver enzymes creeping up since January.  So three procedures in two weeks and she definitely lost a lot of hair in the 5 spots they had to shave her for the procedures.  Her liver biopsy results came back as chronic hepatitis with some inflammation.  They can't tell us when the damage was done to her liver, but they did say it was quite awhile ago and luckily we caught it before it had moved into cirrhosis of the liver.  Once we get another base line liver panel, we will start treating her with medications.  Hopefully she responds well and handles the medications.

I have started scanning all our 35 mm negatives and am creating albums of all the pictures in Photos on the computer.  My goal is to get all the paper photos and negatives digitized.  It's been lots of fun looking at all the old photos - so many memories.  Here's a picture of Craig and I from about 35 years ago and our first two Shelties.

We left Chehalis on Sept 20 and headed to Eugene.  We had a couple of things to be checked on the motorhome so we decided to leave the coach with them and headed to Pacific City, renting a cabin at our membership park for the week.  While in Pacific City, nephew Mat and his two boys came and spent Saturday and Sunday with us.  It was a little tight in the cabin as it was a two room cabin, one main area to include sleeping quarters and kitchen and a bathroom but we had a great time on the beach, played mini-golf and pickle ball and the boys went swimming with Uncle Craig.

We also spent one day doing some wine tasting in Dundee, OR and also visited my mother's remaining brother and his wife as well as an uncle's wife in Newburg.  Aunt Fern just turned 90 in July.

While in Pacific City, we spent the day in Canon Beach and when we found a wine bar, Craig was watching the dogs and this lady asked if she could watch so both of us could be inside.  She really enjoyed sitting with the dogs while all of her friends were also tasting.

Once we got back to Eugene where we had WiFi and cell phone service we started out mapping our trip south.  We will leave today, Oct. 1, and head south to the Thousand Trails park near Sun River.  From there we will head south through Reno and will be spending the month of November in Pahrump.  We also have reservations for the month of January in Yuma, AZ.