Tuesday, April 30, 2013 (Harbor, OR)

We woke up to sunny skies and the wind had let up.  It was a good day for traveling.  We left around 10:30 and headed south. 

Things were going fine until I decided it would be nice to take a lunch break.  We pulled off on a nice wide shoulder with an awesome view of the ocean in Humbug Mountain State Park.  I saw this nice path that looked like it went to the edge of the cliff, as I was walking along I started noticing all these shiny red oak type leaves on these shrubs, yikes, I was in the middle of a poison oak patch.  I didn't even know poison oak grew on the coast.  So now what, did I brush any of them with my clothes or not?  I went back by the truck and let Rich know what I had found, so he climbed inside the fiver and opened up the bedroom slide so he could get me a clean pair of jeans and jacket to change into.  I did a quick search on my phone and yep, sure enough there is a poison oak warning on the park web site under Friendly Reminders.  I wish they would have had a sign along side the road.  Boy we are praying that we don't come down with a case of poison oak. 

So after eating our lunch in the truck we headed on down the road.  We had stayed at Beachfront RV Park in Harbor a couple years ago.  The park aesthetics aren't much and the sites are close together but the redeeming feature is that you are actually on the beach.

Here are some pictures of our site and views.  

What we see from the front of our rig



Our site



What we see from the rear of our rig

Behind that fence is part of the bay.  We'll probably only be here a couple days before we head out.  Tomorrow is the start of salmon season and the park is suppose to fill up by the weekend. 

After we got set up we took a drive into Brookings and stopped to check out Harris Beach State Park.  It has some pretty view sites of the ocean, but you have to walk a ways to get to the beach.  We got out and took a little walk on the beach, it was pretty windy down there.  Where we are in Harbor, it's not quite so windy and it was much warmer.  As we were headed back to our campground, we saw a fruitstand, so stopped and picked up some fresh veggies and fruit. 

We had a quick easy dinner and then took a walk down to the jetty and then back to our rig on the beach.

Jetty and Chetco River

Beach 

This beach is full of wood and small pebbles, not very much sand and it's pretty steep to the water, so poor Gracie it may not be a very good beach for playing fetch. 

Monday, April 29, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

We woke up this morning to a light drizzle and the forecast was for drizzle through the morning hours.  We decided to stay put one more day at Charleston, we didn't want to mess the truck and fiver up with all the road spray; we had that new wax job on the truck and fiver to think about. 

I spent the morning getting our blog updated, I'm planning on sending the link out on May 1st.  Rich finished up installing our Tire Pressure Minder system on the fiver wheels and the rear truck wheels.  I also did a little laundry at the park.  The sun was shining but the wind was blowing so it was pretty cool outside.  I found a sheltered bench outside the laundry room and sat in the sun and read my book while I was waiting.

 In the late afternoon we took one last walk on the beach.


The starting point of our walk





The end of our walk is around the curve in the sand to the end of the point

It really was quite a nice long walk.  It was extremely windy on the beach today, but Gracie still wanted to chase her ball.  She's like the Energizer Bunny, she doesn't have an off switch when it comes to her ball.  She chased it from one end of the beach to the other and then back again. 

We are definitely headed to Brookings tomorrow, hopefully it won't be so windy there. 

Sunday, April 28, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

Sunday we got up and had our breakfast and headed to the church we had picked out to attend this week. The church was non-denominational and was called Shoreline Community Church located in North Bend. We liked this church a lot. The people were very friendly, the worship was good and the message was inspiring. We also got a small package of homemade fudge from the pastor, how nice was that? The feel of the church was a lot like Westside, they seemed to be involved in missions locally as well as oversees. If we were sticking around, we’d definitely go back.

After church we stopped and topped off the gas tank and stopped at Safeway which had a Starbucks to get our traditional after church latte. On the way home, we stopped for chowder at a little café in Charleston that advertised award-winning chowder called High Tides Cafe. We sat out on the deck in the sun with a view of the bay and a local musician playing guitar music softly in the background. The chowder was very good and we would definitely go back. We forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures today. 

When we got back home, we made a call to our elderly friend, Burla who we normally would go visit on Sundays after church. It was good to talk to her and she sounds like she’s recovering from her fall quite nicely.

We went for another nice long walk on the beach with Gracie and her ball. It was another beautiful afternoon on the beach, very little wind and the beach wasn’t crowded at all.

Picture of the bay

We tried to wear Gracie out with her ball, but I think she finally wore us out throwing it so we headed back to our rig to do some research on where we are headed tomorrow. I think we finally decided to head to Brookings for a couple of days and see what we feel like after that. We are still trying to decide if we want to keep our appt on 5/7 with Guaranty or reschedule for a later date.

Saturday, April 27, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

Saturday looked like it would be a much nicer day than Friday, the sun was trying its hardest to burn through those clouds. We thought we’d give it some time to burn through so took a trip into town to the local super Wal-Mart and bought a few grocery items. We got back home and put our groceries away and I took Gracie for a quick walk through the park.

I stopped and talked to an elderly gentleman who was sitting outside his rig carving a bird. I told him he reminded me of my Grandpa who used to sit and whittle while waiting for the kids to bring in the berry crates (they owned and operated a berry farm). He had to show me a few of his creations and then his wife came out and joined to conversation. They travel in a small little Winnebago and were part of the group that was in the park this weekend. I love seeing the inside of the different types of RV’s out there and during the course of the conversation I was offered a tour of their rig. It was VERY small, but I could see how if you weren’t living in it full time that it would be very easy to get around in.

After Gracie and I got back from our walk, we rode our bikes into Charleston to check out the oyster feed.

It was a lovely day for a bike ride. We found the oyster feed and got in line which was outside the building by the time we arrived.

We shared a plate of fried oysters with a small shrimp cocktail, yummy. We also got to listen to a local band that was providing the live music.

What a pleasant lunch we had; sunshine, good company, good music and good food.

After listening to the music for awhile, we decided we should give up our spots to others, the line was still outside the door, this must be a popular event. We hopped on our bikes and went exploring some more, we rode down by the docks and looked at the boats,

saw some seals and found the public dock. Boy there are sure a lot more trucks and boat trailers in the parking lot today than there were yesterday. Soon we were headed back home with the thought of a nice stroll on the beach with Gracie.

After our walk, we tried to lie down on a blanket in the sand and read our books, but Gracie wasn’t having any of it. Here was this beautiful beach and she had her ball, how could we just sit there, why weren’t we throwing her ball for her? I don’t think she’d ever get tired of playing fetch. Even people walking by when we were throwing her ball would comment on how much fun it looked like she was having. For such a little dog, she sure can run. So after awhile, we headed back to the rig to get some dinner.

We changed it up a bit this evening and instead of reading, watched a movie and then called it a night. All in all it was a wonderful day on the southern Oregon coast.

Friday, April 26, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

Friday we woke up to overcast skies. We had a leisurely day, I did my nails (boy my nail technician sure made it look easy and she sure did a good job), did some reading, went for a bike ride, and drove into Charleston to try and find the public dock. We’ve been seeing a lot of people in the park with crab pots and clamming equipment. We weren’t sure we found it, but while looking around we saw a flyer that was advertising an oyster feed tomorrow. That sounds fun and like something we might like to do. We stopped and looked through a coastal gift store – lots of stuff and lots of items made out of shells, not really my cup of tea.

On our bike ride, there is a county park right near us; Bastendorf County Park and they have camping spots, so we rode around checking out the spots. It’s not a bad campground, but you are too far away from the beach. To get to the park you have to ride up this VERY steep hill, boy that was a challenge, one that I almost didn’t succeed at, those last few pedals were a killer. Now going down, that’s another story. =) We rode a ways down the road toward Sunset Bay and saw a gorgeous home for sale. It was a little out of our price range though but it was fun to look. I love the coast when the sun shines, but days like today when it stays cloudy all day, I think it could get pretty gloomy pretty quick.

After a walk on the beach we finished up the day with our noses in our books. It’s a good thing that both Rich and I like to read. I think we’ll be doing a lot of reading during our travels.

Jetty near our RV park

Thursday, April 25, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

Thursday we both slept in, we must have been tired as Rich is usually up a couple hours before I am. We decided that after our showers we would go into Coos Bay and have breakfast and go check out a couple of state parks south of us. The RV park we are in is over our allotted daily budget, so we thought we’d see if we could fit into any state parks which would fit into our budget better.

We ended up at the Mill Casino in Coos Bay for breakfast, which was just OK. After fueling up with diesel at 3.67/gallon – our best price yet, we headed south. Our first stop was Cape Blanco State Park which was a much more open type park, and they did have some pull through sites, but again, it looked a little tight, maybe in a couple months when we have a bit more experience under our belts. Next stop was Humbug Mountain Park, which was suppose to have some nice pull through sites. The sites were nice and long and looked like we could manage OK, but it was too close to Hwy 101 and the road noise was annoying. Also the beach area was pretty small and we just weren’t feeling it. So after a short discussion, we decided that we’d just go ahead and spend the weekend at the RV park we are currently in even though it is over budget and give ourselves some time to relax and get our game plan figured out.

We got back to the park and sure enough it was filling up fast with a group – Upper Rogue River Ramblers (not sure what type of group it is). But it still is a very nice park and it is right by the beach, it is just a very short walk from our rig to the beach. We took a nice long walk on the beach this afternoon with Gracie.
She got to play fetch with her ball, which is her most absolute favorite thing to do. So we were all happy. It was a nice warm sunny afternoon, perfect for walking on the beach with your love. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 (Charleston, OR)

　
Wednesday was the day we were pulling out of Lebanon and headed to Guaranty RV where we purchased our fiver. We needed to talk to them about the remaining warranty work that wasn’t able to be completed at Coachmasters in Bend. We got packed up and headed out about 10:30 a.m. It was a pretty day for a drive. We arrived at Guaranty and checked in with Dean our warranty rep. It looks like they are swamped and wouldn’t have time to check any of our items out today but could make us an appt for May 7^th. Well that didn’t go as planned but that’s the name of the game – flexibility. We thought we’d probably be spending the night in the Guaranty parking area so hadn’t really made any plans for Wednesday night. Looks like we’ll be heading to the coast a day early.

We drove over to Florence and then headed South. It was early afternoon so we decided to stop at Honeyman State Park and see if they might have a site we could fit in and spend the night and regroup. We pulled in to the parking area and got out and talked to two camp hosts who assured us that yes, they would have sites that would fit our 37-foot fiver. So in we went, wow that was an adventure and one I hope we don’t have to repeat any time soon. We found one of their longer sites that we thought we could back into. All the sites were heavily treed with lots of brush and the driveways were very narrow. After several tries, we got backed in but it was terribly unlevel, hmmmm we could probably make it work but we weren’t terribly crazy about the site in general. We decided to walk around and checked out some others. We found one that appeared more level and should be fairly easy to get into so back to the fiver we went. I was walking behind Rich as he drove to the next site, he made a wide turn around a corner and was pulling forward and all of a sudden I was yelling "STOP". The fiver was about to scrape a tree, boy that happened fast. With disaster narrowly averted, we both looked at each other and said let’s head down the road; this park is for much smaller RV’s than ours. We weren’t that crazy about the park in general and it just wasn’t worth the work to try and get our RV into one of their sites.

Last year we had stayed at a nice full hookup RV park just south of Coos Bay. It would be a bit of a drive, and much longer on the road than we planned to be, but off we went. We got through Coos Bay just fine and pulled into the Oceanside RV park after 3:30. After our last adventure, we needed something simple and asked for any of their pull through sites. Well wouldn’t you know, some group had the whole park practically reserved Thurs – Sunday and had reserved all the pull throughs so if we wanted to stay longer than one night a back in site it was. Well we found a site that we liked and there were no obstacles to maneuver around, so we’ll take it. We got set up and crawled into our home, boy it felt good, we were exhausted.

That’s one nice thing, wherever we go at the end of the day we get to sleep in our own bed and be in our own home. Even Gracie likes that. She has her favorite spot on the couch on top of three pillows which puts her just at the right height that she can lie there and look out the window. So after a quick dinner and a walk on the beach, we called it a night.

I spent some time doing some research on where to spend the next couple of days. If we don’t have to we want to stay away from traveling with the fiver on the weekends. Also having to be back in Junction City May 7^th has kind of put a different twist into our traveling plans, oh well we’ll get it figured out.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 (Lebanon, OR)

Tuesday we woke to more sunshine – yahoo. After breakfast we got started on the rest of our waxing job. Boy it’s a big job. We also decided to wax the truck while we were at it. We were done after about 4 hours, so it looks like in the future we need to allow 8 hours to get the job done.

After a bite to eat we decided to take a bike ride around Lebanon and check out some sites. We rode through some pretty neighborhoods and the flowering trees were so beautiful. We ended up going by the cemetery where Rich has family buried and paid our respects. It was a very nice leisurely bike ride on a very pretty day; we’re loving it. We also had our first hummingbird siting at our window feeder. I was so excited.

There is a train tressle next to the RV park and luckily the trains only run once a day and the cargo appears to be only logs.  There is a date on the train bridge over the river of 1910.  It's sure been there a long time.  I wonder how many trains have crossed the river here over the years? 



Here is the view from our windows from the fiver.  Pretty nice isn't it.  There is a nature trail along the river which we started walking the first day we were there until we started seeing poison oak along side the trail.  Rich used to get poison oak very badly when he was a kid and we didn't want to start our adventure out with a bad case of poison oak itch so we turned around. 



Monday, April 22, 2013 (Lebanon, OR)

Monday we woke to sunshine but then it got cloudy for a while. Since it was too cool to start waxing, Rich called his sister Katherine and invited her over for a tour of our home. I forgot to get a picture, sorry Katherine. We had another nice morning visiting.

After Katherine left, the "work" began. Hand waxing the fiver is a big job; there is a lot of area to cover.

We started around 1:00 and by 4:30 only had about half finished. Boy my arms are sore, that’s a lot of rubbing, but boy it is sure looking nice. When we got the fiver in October, we were told to wait a couple months before putting any wax on it, and hadn’t had enough time or warmer weather to get it done these last three weeks we were waiting for our warranty work to be done in Bend. We wanted to get it waxed before we headed over to the coast. Looks like we’ll be spending another night here in Lebanon. That is what I am enjoying about our new lifestyle. We don’t have to rush to get things done, we can take our time. We had the conversation about finishing up after dinner, so we could head out Tuesday, but we are in a beautiful location, the weather is suppose to be nicer tomorrow, so let’s call it a day and relax for the evening. So we did precisely that

Sunday, April 21, 2013 (Lebanon, OR)

Sunday we woke to cloudy skies, but no rain. We have decided that while we are on the road that we would check out a different church to visit each week. This week we were headed to Lebanon Foursquare Church. In Bend we attended Westside Church which was also a foursquare church. Before we left, I put together some Kokannee fish dip and got some strawberries ready as we were expecting my mom for a visit around noon. It’s a good thing I did, because the church service ran much longer than we expected or were used to.

We walked into Lebanon Foursquare and were greeted pleasantly and found our seats. We chatted with the couple in front of us who had lived in the area for quite some time. Church started with some good worship that lasted about an hour. We even sang some of the same songs that we sang at Westside. It is interesting how each church can be from the same denomination but so different and yet you can still feel God’s presence.

After church we got back to the fiver to find my Mom and my niece waiting for us, sorry about the wait Mom.

My Mom had never seen the inside of our fiver, only pictures so it was fun showing her around. We had a nice visit as well as a little stroll around the park. River Park is next to the RV park and is a very pretty park. Rich’s family had many family reunions/events at River Park, so he was a good tour guide and had lots of interesting tidbits to share.

After my mom left, we needed to wash the cinders off the fiver, it got very dirty coming over the pass yesterday. Rich washed and I got to man the hose and spray everything off. I was nice and didn’t spray Rich, it was a little too chilly for any water fights. =) The plan is to wax the fiver tomorrow.

Saturday, April 20 (Lebanon, Oregon)

Saturday, the day is finally here; we are ready to hit the road. We got up, had our breakfast and started getting the final touches on our packing up. We had to check out and get our security deposit refunded, so that took a little bit, but we finally were ready to pull out around 10:00 a.m. We were going to try and stop for one last final Starbucks. Well we forgot we were much later than we normally would be and when we saw the parking lot, decided that plan wasn’t going to work, so after a few tense moments of getting ourselves turned around we were headed back on the highway without our coffee. =( Like always there is always a good lesson to be had especially when the truck and the fiver is 54 feet long, you just can’t fit into spaces you normally can, or even turn the corners you normally can. =)

We had a very pleasant and uneventful drive to Lebanon, We got to Gill’s Landing & RV Park around 1:00 and got setup in a very nice spot. We have a great view of the South Santiam River. We had scoped out a different spot when we were here last week, but it was occupied, but I prefer this site with its peaceful river view.

After getting set up, we drove up to Sodaville to visit Lucille Cooper, Rich’s other mother-in-law. Lucille is able to live in her family home with help from her kids, she’s 94 years old. We had a very nice visit and she sent me on our way with a couple sprigs of bluebells from her yard. I love all the spring flowers and trees that are blooming this time of year over here, they are so pretty. We stopped and got KFC chicken and some A&W rootbeer to make a float. Having KFC chicken when in Lebanon is a Bailey tradition I think.

Monday - Friday, April 15 - 19 (Crown Villa, Bend, Oregon)

Monday, we woke up to SNOW. Rich had to have the truck into the Chevy dealer by 8:45 and had to ride his bike back to the fiver in the snow. That was a cold wet ride. We were suppose to have the fiver in for the warranty work to be done today but that elusive jack has still not shown up yet, so we’ve rescheduled to bring it in Thursday afternoon for them to start on bright and early Friday morning. The truck is back in the dealers to find out why the engine braking isn’t working. Rich has done some research and it looks like it might be a broken wire, let’s hope it is that simple. I spent the snowy morning going through paperwork and our budget; it was a good morning to stay inside. We ended up with about 2" of snow but the sun came out in the afternoon and melted most of it away. We got the sad news about the Boston Marathon bombing and had the TV on and off all afternoon.

Rich worked on sanitizing our 100-gallon fresh water tank and installing a new water filter. We took Gracie for her afternoon walk. We heard back from the Chevy dealer, it is a worn out shift lever instead of a broken wire and they have a part being over nighted from Reno, Nevada and it should be in tomorrow. So we are without a vehicle until tomorrow – good thing we don’t have anything planned. It started snowing off and on during the evening again, where has our warm weather gone? We had a movie/popcorn night and called it a day.

Tuesday, we woke to more snow….sigh. I’m definitely ready for some warm spring weather. We are both trying to be patient with all these repairs, but are so ready to be on the road. Had a leisurely morning, worked on rearranging some of our cupboards in preparation for our travels on the road. I had some Mexican glassware in a cupboard that didn’t seem like it would ride very well, so I switched things up a bit, we’ll have to see, hopefully it won’t get shaken into a million pieces. After lunch, I spent time updating our blog with last week’s adventures. Just now got a call that, surprise, the part for the truck didn’t come in on the shipment today, but they assure us will be here tomorrow. So another day without a vehicle, oh well, it is what it is……

Wednesday, we didn’t wake up to snow – yahoo, but it was chilly outside. We had a laid back morning, I was finished up a book I started yesterday and Rich did some paperwork. After lunch we got the call we had been waiting for – the truck was ready to pick up. We got bundled up, including Gracie and hopped on our bikes and away we went. We decided to ride back on the Larkspur trail that we had discovered a couple weeks ago. It was a pleasant but cool ride. It was nice to have the truck back. When we got home, we got the fiver hitched up in preparation for the warranty work to be done tomorrow. So far besides the trip to Bend, that’s the only place we’ve taken the fiver, we are definitely ready to hit the road.

Thursday, we woke up to alarm, haven’t had to do that too much lately which has been incredibly nice. We got everything buttoned up and made it to Coachmasters by our 8:00 a.m. check in time. After running through a few additional items we wanted taken care of, we had the day to run errands. Our first stop of course was to Starbucks were we stopped for our usual latte’s….nice way to start the morning. We spent the morning running around town doing our various errands. We stopped for lunch at Schlotzsky’s and then Rich dropped me off at Pier One to look around while he went and got his hair cut. I ended up at Barnes and Noble browsing around; a kind co-worker gifted us with a gift card and I was checking out some reading material for the road. Rich met up with me at the bookstore and we ran into a friend and spent some time chatting before it was time to move on. We got the call to come and pick up the fiver, unfortunately they weren’t able to complete all the warranty work, they were sent the wrong size blind, the dimmer switch wasn’t the right one and the squeak in the furnace motor will require a new part. We’ll have to catch the rest of this down the road in a couple of months; at least it was nothing that would require us staying put. We still have our fingers crossed that the jack will arrive tomorrow morning, so they can get that put in. We could have opted to spend the night in their parking lot, but we much prefer our spot at Crown Villa.

Friday, we had to be back at Coachmasters by 9:00 so after a repeat of yesterday morning, we found ourselves back at Starbucks for another latte. Thanks to all our co-workers who contributed to a Starbucks gift card for us, we are definitely enjoying it.

So it was another round of errands, turning in the post office keys, do yet another address forwarding, etc. We stopped for lunch and still hadn’t heard from Coachmasters, so since we had leftovers that needed to be put in the fridge, we decided to run by and put them in the refrigerator and see what was up. Yah, good news, the jack is here and it is the correct one and they just need a couple more hours to finish it up. It looks like we will actually be hitting the road tomorrow, finally. We are both more than ready to start our adventure, we’ve enjoyed the last several weeks here in Bend but are definitely ready to start seeing some new scenery. Since we would leave the fiver hitched up to the truck once we got back to Crown Villa, we went and did some grocery shopping at Costco. It was a bit odd to be shopping at Costco on an early Friday afternoon, it has been our tradition pretty much all our married life, that after work on Friday we would go to Costco and Whole Foods to do our weekly shopping. We always called it our "date night". Time to start new traditions =).

So after our grocery shopping we picked up the fiver and headed back for our last night at Crown Villa. It is a beautiful resort and we have enjoyed our time here and if we are in the Bend area will definitely stay here again. Rich is getting a lot smoother backing in to our spot. We have a big external propane tank that we have to hook up too, and the tubing only reaches so far so we have to be pretty much the exact same spot each time. Because we spent the winter here in Bend, you use your propane furnace all the time and go through the propane. For convenience the resort allows you to rent a large propane tank from Amerigas and keep at your site which is much more convenient that taking the small tanks from the rig and filling them up all the time. After getting backed in, we got everything hooked back up and started loading up the truck and storage bays for our departure in the morning. Our plan is to travel to Lebanon and spend a couple of days. Rich has some more relation in the area that he’d like to see and we’ll try and get my mom down here so she can see the fiver before we take off.

Monday-Sunday, April 8 - 14, 2013 (Crown Villa, Bend, Oregon)

Again, I'm summarizing our week as we are still in Bend.  What a lesson in patience we are learning these last couple of weeks. 

Monday, Rich took the truck in to Coachmasters to get a Banks Power kit installed.  Rich assures me that as well as increased fuel economy it will give us more power when towing our home up any steep inclines.  So Rich rode his bike back from Coachmasters and we spent the day puttering around and going for a nice long walk out back of Crown Villa.  Out back is a huge piece of vacant property that the locals as well as the park residents walk their dogs.  While on our walk, we saw around 16 deer, that's a lot of deer.  Once back from our walk we got the call that our truck was ready to be picked up.

We jumped on our bikes and headed out in Bend rush hour traffic to head across town to pick up the truck.  We also found out that we have an appointment scheduled for the warranty work on our fiver for next Monday.  They are still waiting for a jack to be shipped and are hoping it will be here by next Monday.  Sigh......that's a long time to wait, but it is what it is.  We decided since we have the rest of the week free, to go spend it at my mom's and get some things done.  We'll leave in the morning.

Tuesday, we got up and got around and headed out to my mom's after a stop at Home Depot and Starbucks.  What's a road trip without a good cup of coffee to start out with?  One of the projects we will be completing at my mom's is to install a locking mailbox.  We will be using her address and wanted the additional security. We got to try out our new Banks Power kit, it definitely has more power, especially when not towing and we are still checking the mileage.  One negative thing, but I guess it's actually a good thing, is that we found out that the engine braking was no longer working and this is something we have to have working when towing our fiver.  Is it coincidence with all the work we've had done lately or did it just wear out?  Something else we will have to look into before we head out but I'm glad we found it now rather than when we were going down a steep hill with the fiver behind and no engine braking. Other than that we had an uneventful drive to my mom's.  It sure is good to see my mom.

Wednesday, we woke up to cloudy rainy skies.  The electrical power was scheduled to be down from 9-3 for some scheduled maintenance on the lines, so it was a good day to plan an adventure away from the house.  The plan for the day was for Rich to work removing our super hitch from the truck and my mom and I to go visit my aunt and uncle in Scio.  My aunt and uncle have a antique/junque store called J/J's and they had just added on a new shop room.  Wow, my mom had tried to describe the shop before, but you have to see it to believe it.  It's gigantic....my aunt lives in the country on a farm and has taken several of the outbuildings and turned them into different rooms of her shop.  It takes hours and hours to go through everything and we went at a pretty fast pace, you could spend a couple of days easily.  My aunt told me to pick out three items to take with me, but being short on space I had to be choosy.  With so much to choose from, it was almost overwhelming, but I walked away with a wire basket (to use by the kitchen stove to hold the kitchen utensils) and a small picture.  Thanks auntie.  My aunt invited us back the next day for lunch to celebrate my cousins birthday.  When we got home, Rich was still having fun in my dad's shop, removing the big heavy super hitch and installing the factory hitch.  You ask, how did he get that big heavy hitch off by himself, well he's very resourceful and in looking around my dad's shop, he saw this little wood cart that my dad had made out of an old lawn mower that fit underneath the truck which would help hold the hitch up while he removed the bolts. 

Thursday, was another cloudy day.  My mom goes for a walk every day around the creek and old landing road that is on her property, so I got up early and joined her.  What a great way to start the day.  We decided to take my aunt up on her invite to lunch since we had an errand to run in Stayton anyway and it would be good to see my cousins.  Rich stayed behind and worked on installing the post for the new mailbox.  My dad had a bunch of locust posts that were much prettier than the treated post we had brought from Bend, so the plan was to use the locust post instead which would be much more whimsical than the treated post.  So off we went back to Scio.   It was fun visiting with my cousins.  My cousin Bonnie is a month and a day older than me and we spent a lot of time together when we were younger.  My other two cousins, Carol and Peggy were there also.  The cousins are always good to share a lot of good laughs together.  It was an enjoyable time, and no I did not go shopping again in my aunt's store, though it was tempting.  Yesterday, I saw the cutest little outdoor metal folding table and chair set and was trying to figure out how to explain to Rich how we just had to drag this around the country, well my good sense finally won out, and I didn't succumb to the temptation of purchasing it. When mom and I got home, the post for the mailbox was set and looked wonderful.  I have to tell you about the previous mailbox setup.  My dad and mom didn't throw much away and instead of running to the store to buy what you needed for a project, you made do with what you had.  Well apparently, my parents had a time where their mailbox was being backed into quite often and my dad had enough of that, so he fashioned this indestructible setup.  He had taken an old leaf spring for the base and welded two pieces of angle iron for the posts and then had a piece of thick fiberglass that rocked back and forth, so if the mailbox was hit, it would just rock back and forth, it wouldn't snap off.  You had to see it to really understand how it really worked, my dad was very creative, you ask where is the picture, well there isn't one, our camera battery was dead. Well why didn't we just use that post setup, we tried, but our new mailbox was too heavy and it made the rocking part of the setup rock forward too far.  So we had to pull my dad's setup out of the ground using the truck, on a steep hillside, thank goodness for automatic transmission, since I was the one driving the truck.  I have some stories for another day about me and manual transmissions on a hillside, my brothers still get a good laugh at me when that story is retold.  In the evening, we watched a movie and had my mom's famous and yummy popcorn.  My mom makes this combination of butter/olive oil/coconut oil to put on top of it and it is so good.   

Friday, started with another early morning walk with my mom.  What a peaceful and relaxing way to start the day, walking along side the rushing waters of the creek and looking at all the spring wildflowers blooming along the way, very beautiful.  Rich and I spent some time going through and sorting some of our things we have stored in the shop.  Then Rich finished up the mailbox installation, it looks great.  I spent time with mom in the garden/flowerbeds working on weeding and clipping.  I get a lot of pleasure working in the yard/garden and don't mind the weeding.  It's a great way to let your mind wander all over a lot of different subjects and thoughts.  We met my youngest brother and his family up in Mill City at Giovanni's for pizza that evening.  If you are driving through Mill City and want some good pizza, it's the place to stop.  We had a nice visit and ate way too much yummy pizza. 

Saturday was the day we were headed back to Bend.  After saying our "see you later's" to my mom we headed home via Lebanon with a bunch of goodies from my mom.  She always sends us off with cookies, carmel popcorn and yogurt covered pretzels.  We stopped for a quick visit with Rich's oldest sister Kathryn.  It was good to see her and catch up.  We also stopped and checked out a couple of RV parks in the area thinking that when we finally do head out of Bend, we might stop for a night or two on our way to the Southern Oregon coast.  Rich has some other relation in the area that we want to visit before we head out on our adventure.  We had a pleasant drive home, though a bit curvy since we went on Hwy 20, but it is a very beautiful drive.  It was good to be back on the sunny side of the mountains and it felt good to be back in our home and our own bed.

Sunday we went to church and then did our normal routine of stopping for a visit to our adopted "mom" who isn't able to make it to church much any more.  Burla or "mom" is 90 and has recently taken a nasty fall which has left her with a huge gash on her head and an amazingly colorful black eye.  I'm glad to report that she was looking much better.  After our visit we headed to Starbucks for our usual latte and then ran a few errands.  After a nice long walk with Gracie we were back in our nice warm home for a nice cozy evening in front of the fireplace watching a movie. 

See you next week and yes we are still loving the "retired lifestyle". 

Monday - Friday, April 1-5, 2013 (Crown Villa, Bend, Oregon)

This is the close of our first official week of retirement.  The week has been very laid back and relaxing.  We are still in Bend waiting for the final warranty work on our Mobile Suites and truck.  It's a good thing we are retired and are not in any hurry.  So since we aren't traveling, I've just summarized our week.   

On Monday, we went in to the office and picked up our final checks, we are officially done with our ODOT careers after 17.5 years (Rich) and 20 years (Kelly).  We spent the day running errands and taking Gracie for a nice long walk.  We also got a visit from a family of deer right behind our rig.  Rich went out and fed them a couple apples and got a few pics.  Gracie was inside having a fit because she thought that the apples were balls and she loves to play ball.  We got a call from my brother Greg about the motorcycle we just sold him over the weekend, apparently it was having an issue and not running, smoothly.  It is scheduled for a trip to the Harley dealer to find out what gives.  Rich had just ridden it over the pass and to my mom's that weekend and it was running fine.  What a bummer and a rough way to end the day.

Tuesday we had to take the truck in to the dealer to check on some warranty items.  They needed the truck for a couple hours, so we threw our bikes in the back of the truck and went for a nice long bike ride.  It was a beautiful, sunny warm day out.  We had Gracie with us in her basket, she loves to go riding with us and she sure gets a lot of comments.  We road the Pilot Butte to Larkspur trail here in Bend.  It was a nice paved trail from the Pilot Butte area through several neighborhoods to the Senior Center.  We also had a nice visit with a fellow co-worker, Pam Schwarz and her husband Karl who stopped by for a tour of our home.  As we have done almost every evening since we've been here, we've taken Gracie for her walk through the campground. 

Wednesday we ran a few more errands and tried out the tennis court that we have here at Crown Villa.  We haven't played tennis in years, so it was mostly running after the tennis balls instead of hitting them.  It feels good to get out and exercise and not be sitting all day long behind a desk, especially when the weather is so pleasant.  This was the first day that we didn't have any place we had to be at any particular time, it felt really good. 

Thursday was a pretty low key day, the excitement for the day was watching the local Bend Fire Dept/Police rescue a worker from a big earthmover that he apparently backed into a 40' hole.  Across the street from our RV park they are doing a lot of earthwork/prep for a new housing development, so there has been a lot of activity and noise during the day.  It was only after we heard the sirens and saw the flashing lights out our back window that we knew something was wrong.  So along with a bunch of other fellow RVer's we stood and watched the rescue.  I'm sure glad I wasn't that worker, he was stuck in the hole for over an hour while they got everything in place to perform their rescue.  It didn't appear that he was too badly injured, maybe just his pride???  The other good news was that we heard from brother Greg and the motorcycle has fixed itself.  As he was driving it to the Harley dealer last night, it started running just fine, he thinks maybe he just got some bad gas over the weekend.  Whew, that's a huge relief. 

Friday we are without the truck all day.  Rich had to have it to the dealer by 8:00 a.m. to have the warranty work done, so he rode his bike back home, brrrr it was cold out there this morning.  We got the laundry done and are now just puttering around, me setting up this blog and Rich outside working on organizing the storage bays under our rig and putting a new seat and handle bars on his bike.  Mine got a new seat and handle bars yesterday.  After many calls later, we finally got the call we were waiting for from DRV on a part number for one of our jacks that needs replacing.  Now we may be able to finally get the warranty work all finished up next week and hit the road.