Arrived in Estacada, Oregon

We arrived Tuesday at our friend's campground of three spaces.  We got all set up in time to attend a get together of present and past workers of Stanley Hydraulics in Portland.  Craig worked there about 9 years before we moved to Washington in 1998.  He really enjoyed catching up with all the guys.  We then went into Portland for a great Tex Mex dinner.

Craig has been spending his days here going on motorcycle rides with John, doing ride alongs while John is making dump truck deliveries and the two of them are working on the trailer - adding a pulley system to help with lifting the kayaks.

Lynn and I, along with two of her daughters and granddaughters, made a trip to Costco and I have been taking the time to make phone calls, send emails and update the blog.  Last night I really enjoyed watching the last pre-season game for the Seahawks - they are really looking good.  Go Seahawks!!!

Tonight we'll attend their grandson's high school football game in Estacada.

Off to Pacific City

We both love the Oregon Coast and so we were able to stay on plan and be at the Oregon Coast, the park that we bought into the Thousand Trails system back in 1979 - Pacific City.  We were at Oregon MotorCoach getting items finished on the RV until Thursday afternoon and then we drove to the beach.    They still didn't have all the info for the security system, so we'll pursue that later.

We left August 15th and were able to stay til the 27th.  Overall the weather was great, only one day of a little wind and the day before we left it felt like winter - wind and heavy rain.

We did have quite a time finding a place large enough with good power - so we ended up moving twice while there, but on Tuesday the 20th, we found a great site that also had 50 amp service.  It's amazing the things you have to be concerned about - power, water, no sewer at this place, limited satellite service, length, somewhat flat so the motorhome will level up correctly and then lastly a strong enough phone/wifi connection.  The entire time we had very limited service and if we wanted to send emails or make phone calls, we would go into town.  Therefore, I'm a little behind in updating the blog.

We again just relaxed - Craig got the motorcycle out a few times, we spent time on the beach, if there was enough wind, he would fly his kite.  The "girls" would just sit wherever there was shade (Kyna in the grass trying to stay cool below).  We went on lots of walks, played miniature golf, etc.  It's amazing how fast the day goes bye doing whatever you want to do - and probably not really accomplishing a thing. It really is so much fun. We tried out a few of our favorite eating spots and a new barbecue place, went to the Air Museum in Tillamook, went to the Pacific City and Lincoln City Farmers Market, buying fresh salmon, flowers, berries, vegetables, etc. and then spent the last day in Canon Beach.

I've also spent time learning to do baking in the motorhome.  I didn't do much real baking when we went out for just a week or so.  So I baked a carrot cake for the picnic while in Salem and while in Pacific City I baked a blackberry cobbler.  The carrot cake turned out great (good recipe) but didn't quite get done in the very middle but still edible.  The cobbler cooked great and I'm ready for the next baking project.

Wish we could have spent longer - but that will hopefully be next time.

Off to Oregon

We came to Oregon on Friday, August 9th.  Took a little bit to get the motorhome, trailer and Explorer onto the road.  Our first stop was just west of Salem to a RV Premier Resorts.  They thought they had a site long enough for us so we would not have to unhook but unfortunately their sites were only 55 feet long and with the trailer we are 60.  So we had to unhook trailer from motorhome, park motorhome, take bikes off the Explorer, hook trailer to Explorer, maneuver trailer and then unhook from Explorer so we could have vehicle at site.  The joys of taking all the toys!!!

The RV Park that we stayed at did allow washing of vehicles, no charge.  For those of you who do not travel via RV, that's a big plus.  So as I was off having lunch Craig washed his bike and the Explorer.  I was going to help him wash the motorhome, but when he was ready it was pouring down raining, thundering and lightening - so I stayed inside and he washed by himself.  He was totally drenched.  Once it quit raining, I did go out and helped him finish and clean - up.

We saw family and friends to include a yearly picnic with the Larson's and then on Monday we went onto Eugene.  We stopped first at RV Glass to get a window which had broken a seal replaced and then today we came to Oregon Motorcoach to get a few maintenance items done and we are looking at having a security system put on coach and trailer.  We met a fun couple in the "sites" that we stayed at in the parking lot who had two 7 month old puppies - very well behaved.  Got lots of visiting in during the evening once they brought our coaches back to the sites.

Yesterday we took the "girls" to their first self-dog wash in Eugene.  In 1 1/2 hours, "girls" were bathed, blow dried (which they never had been blow dried before) and then brushed out.  They took it really well and the best part of it was that we had no wet towels to deal with (as we used all of their supplies) and no mess to clean up.

Getting Prepared for trip to Oregon

We had a great weekend watching the Wenatchee Youth Circus with the Marty family as well as camping with them.  Great to catch up on everything going on with everyone else.

We then spent a couple more days getting ready for the big garage sale at Craig's parents.  This also gives me a very convenient way to catch up on laundry.  Then a day in Puyallup to do appointments and one day for Craig to get his trailer set up to haul.  He still hadn't had a chance to secure his two tool boxes into the trailer and then I gave him the extra challenge of asking him if he could haul by pot of lilies as the pink ones were just coming out.

Maintenance and Upgrades to Motorhome

We've now been retired just two months and have spent approximately 6 days in maintenance and RV shops.  Mostly minor adjustments, but this is something that goes along with having a RV.  There is always some type of leaks, adjustment, upgrades, alignment, etc. that needs to be done.

Of course it's great when you have a great shop to work with.  One of our favorites is Brazel's in Centralia.  We just spent three days there this week, luckily they have an RV park at the site that we can stay at.  We get out of the RV around 8:00 am in the morning and they bring the RV back to the site about 4:30.  In the meantime, we either sit in the car, do errands, etc.  Craig enjoys watching what they are doing and getting involved in the repair process.  Of course this gives me time to catch up with phone calls, updating blog, and reading.

Life at Camp

Since we've been back, we've had lots of things to do - company at the site, appointments in Puyallup, rearranging our self storage so we know what is there, rearranging our storage shed and Craig's garage (enclosed trailer) so he could get the Harley out to ride, etc.

We've also been helping Craig's Mom and Dad get ready for their garage sale - now that I have a little experience having one in Dallas with my Mother's estate and then two of our own in the last year.

We are both adjusting well to retirement, not missing the work schedule at all but do look forward to catching up with friends and family as we get time.  Attended our great niece and nephew's birthday party in Portland and had a great weekend with Craig's brother and sister-in-law and his parents this last weekend.

We are also working with the park to make a few adjustments to our site as it is a little uneven and this will make it more usable when we have company.

After returning from out trip in Wyoming, I needed to repot my "traveling pots" of flowers, as the hail had sheared them off just as if someone took a weed eater to them.  So I now have flower pots at the site - not quite like my 18 rose bushes and 15 pots I had at home, but the color definitely helps make the site more
homey.

Traveling Back to Washington

We decided to travel back to Washington going through Yellowstone and Jackson Wyoming, then across Idaho, up through Washington wine country and then back across the mountains to Chehalis.  We had a small detour in Casper Wyoming as we had issues with our coach air conditioning system so we spent three nights in Casper, waiting for Monday morning to arrive to have someone look it over.  Didn't find much to do in Casper, so we spent time doing more laundry in our washer and dryer in the coach, started designing our blog and updated our change of addresses to our Escapee mail address - since they now forward our mail to wherever we are.  Of course now that we are on the road, I've been looking for places to wash the "girls" and even though it wasn't quite bath time for them, we discovered that they are putting dog washes in with car washes - I'll now be on the lookout for them.

After more hail, thunder and lightening in Casper, we decided that Wyoming has now been crossed off of our bucket list - except for the very Western tip as we would really like to spend time in Jackson, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We drove through this area on our way home, but would like to come back and spend a month or so as it's had been about 25-30 years since our last trip through this area.

I also found out as "navigator" that I may need to do a better job of looking for our routes as I found great routes, also the quickest routes but not necessarily the easiest as we climbed some pretty high mountain passes coming out of Jackson.  But to my defense, I definitely didn't think Craig was going to keep driving - now that we are retired - but he drove over 350 miles that day, and we didn't get started until 2 pm.  When we got into Idaho Falls at about 9:30 at night, the host educated Craig on how you travel in retirement - no more than 200 miles a day, leave at 10 and stop by two and stay at least three nights t every stop.  Not sure we'll make all of these, but I definitely like the 200 mile limit.

From there we travelled Hwy 20 across Idaho and then stopped north of Ontario at Farewell Bend State Park.  It was very hot - about 106 degrees and the air conditioner had a hard time keeping "our metal box" cool but we enjoyed the great view of the lake from our campsite.

We the went onto Prosser Washington, did some wine tasting and then back to our campsite.  We were met by some of our friends for the weekend to welcome us back from our trip.