Oregon Motorcoach in Eugene - side trips to Yachats and Sunriver

We arrived at Oregon Motorcoach Center on Sept. 11 to get our yearly maintenance work done.  We ended up being at OMC for 15 days (first trip), with a side trip to Yachats and Puyallup.  Even though we are parking in a parking lot, we did enjoy some good sunsets.

We also did some wine tasting around the Eugene area - there are so many choices, but we have never taken the time.

King Estates - the largest winery in Oregon:

Sylvan Ridge:

Sweet Cheeks Winery:

We found a dog friendly hotel in Yachats with an excellent view of the Oregon coast from our deck and room.  Weather was beautiful the second day, but a little foggy the first night we were there but we still got a great sunset.  We stayed two nights at the coast.  We did have a scare on Monday night as Lexie went into a significant seizure around 10:30 pm, and trying to find a vet from Newport - Florence was quite challenging.  We finally found one vet who was dealing with a trauma surgery in Florence and was willing to see us.  By the time we got Lexie to the vet's office, she had come out of the seizure.

First night outside of our hotel when we had some fog - last picture was of the sunset while eating dinner in their dining room.

These pictures taken along the drive around
Cape Perpetua and the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

Lexie sitting on the hotel's bench in front of ocean.

I had a minor procedure that needed to be done - cyst removal - and "due to my age" they did an EKG.  Unfortunately it came out borderline abnormal, so we left Yachats and drove to Puyallup on Wednesday, Sept. 21so I could do a stress test on Thursday, before driving back to Eugene.  Stress test came out totally normal.

On Sept. 26 - Oct 3, we spent a week at Sunriver with my brother, sister in law and our friends from Estacada.  For most of the week we had good weather, but it did turn very cold and got down to the mid 20s.  We enjoyed a couple of days of kayaking in at South Twin Lake and we drove over the McKenzie pass.  We also played pickle ball one morning and had a great time, but Craig twisted his knee and since he wouldn't stay off of it or take it easy, it continued to get worse.  We also enjoyed driving to Silver Lake area and having dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree - a truly old restaurant that used to serve the cowboys half way when driving their herds.  They serve a delicious "cowboy dinner" in a very rustic setting, out in the middle of nowhere.

Sunset at Cowboy Dinner Tree

   

Kayaking at South Twin Lakes with
Friend and his dog Whiskey.

The picture to the left and the one below was taken from the boat ramp at Gull Point Campground of the Wikiup Reservoir.  Craig and I used to spend a lot of summer vacations here when we had a boat.  We were hoping to do some kayaking here - very little water so we went back to South Twin.  

McKenzie Pass - Largest glacier this far south

We left Sunriver early Monday morning, Oct. 3, took the coach and trailer and dropped them off at OMC in Eugene, hoping our refrigerator would be in, and then left for Puyallup so I could have my surgery at 7:00 am Tuesday morning (5:30 am check in) at the Puyallup Good Samaritan Hospital.  The procedure went fine and we later found out that the biopsy was benign.  We stayed with Craig's parents Monday and Tuesday night, and then left for Eugene on Wednesday morning after we made a trip to our hair gal in Puyallup.

Refrigerator installation went well and everything was completed on Friday, so we made plans to leave Saturday morning, Oct. 8 for Yreka and then onto Sparks, NV.

Well, Saturday morning the coach would not start - great place to be when you have problems - so we quickly accepted we would be spending another weekend in Eugene.  Since Craig's knee was still bothering him, I told him that the coach not starting "was meant to be" so we drove to Urgent Care in Eugene.  He left there with a full leg brace and crutches and instructions to keep his leg elevated and iced for at least a week.  If after the weekend, the knee is not better, than we will get an MRI done to verify if there is any damage before we decide when to head south.

The MRI was done on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and results showed a torn meniscus, so we immediately started to change our travel plans south.  We will now spend two months in Phoenix rather than one so that Craig can get this fixed.

Still at Oregon Motorcoach, Lexie had another seizure on Wednesday evening.  She came through it again but first thing Friday, I took her in for extensive liver biochemistry tests.  Tests came back that the liver was not good, (so most likely a brain tumor),  but not causing the seizures so we decided to stay in Eugene through some major storms expected through the weekend and to keep a closer watch on her while still close to 24 hour vet clinics.  Good thing we did as on Sunday, she started going into some major tremors (but not a full blown seizure) so we made that hard decision and took her in so she would not have to suffer any longer.  It's been almost 40 years since we've been without a pet so we know this will be a long healing process, but we also know we did the right thing for Lexie.

So, finally on Wednesday, Oct. 19, we headed south to Yreka, CA.

Our Summer in Washington and Oregon

We had quite a summer back in Washington.  We arrived in time to celebrate Craig's birthday.  We spent the majority of the summer getting together with family (to include 3 family reunion/picnics),  friends, and of course doing all the yearly doctor and vet appointments.  I had 6 different occasions to get together with associates from State Farm.

We did a few projects at Craig's parents: landscaping to include 24 yards of bark dust and helping a friend replace their deck.

We enjoy spending time at our leased site and since the park had limited guests all summer, we had lots of wildlife to enjoy.

Some friends we met on our first winter south in Palm Desert came to Washington and we parked together for about 10 days at the Puyallup Fairgrounds.  We did some site seeing in Seattle, visited the LeMay America's Car Museum in Tacoma, visited the Chiluly Glass Bridge and Ruston Way in Tacoma.

Lexie had been dealing with diarrheaa and lack of appetite from April - August.  We thought it was primarily effects from her liver issues, but after multiple tests it was determine to be a bacteria.  After many visits to the specialist and about 10 different meds, we finally got her through it.  The vet did some additional testing on her liver and for now we have decided not to put her back on the major liver medications as long as her enzymes stay about the same - their not good, but they didn't change in about 3 months so we will retest again in November.  It has been so good to finally get her back to normal with a good appetite.

We spent 4 different times in Oregon, in both Salem and Estacada, to attend various family functions and a wedding in July.  We also kayaked at the Clackamas North Fork Reservoir.  Craig was able to take our friend on the motorcycle to Detroit Lake and they had a great day.  Unfortunately within a week, she was admitted into the hospital and is still trying to get stronger after having a severe intestinal infection.

On Sept. 11 we left our leased site and drove to Eugene in time to watch most of the Seahawks game.  We only made it to one preseason game this year - Cowboys @ Seahawks - so great that Seahawks won, despite Craig cheering for his Dallas team.  We are getting our yearly maintenance items done to include getting a couple of windows replaced that lost their seal and getting the tile cleaned and resealed.  We are also going to get a residential refrigerator put in, but it is on backorder, so we'll have to wait til the first part of October.