May 21 - June 6, 2014 (Mehama, OR)

We said goodbye to Bend and traveled over the mountains to my mom's.  We had a beautiful travel day.


Broken Top & the 3 Sisters



Mt. Washington



Mt. Jefferson



We got the 5er all tucked away at the storage place and got the truck loaded up, boy we sure have a lot of stuff.  When we store the 5er we have to unload the refrigerator/freezer which always adds to our "stuff".  Good thing mom has an extra refrigerator and freezer.

We arrived at mom's and after hugs and kisses we got the truck unloaded and stuff put away which as you can imagine, took a bit.  Good thing we are staying put for a bit, it's a lot of work when we leave the 5er. 

I'll just recap some of the highlights of the time we spent at mom's instead of a day by day scenario. 

On the Friday before Memorial Day, my mom and I met one of my aunts and my cousin and our task for the day was to put flowers on family members graves.  We made a stop at my uncle who owns Kraemer's Nursery and stocked up on a trunk full of roses which made for some beautiful bouquets.  We got to see some graves of long departed relatives that my cousin and I never even met.  It was fun to spend time with my mom, aunt and cousin, the only downside to the day was that it was a very wet and drippy day.

Another fun adventure was that my daughter Amber (who is pregnant) invited me to go with her to Portland to a big baby shower type event.  I can't remember the last time I spent a one on one day with my daughter.  It was a lot of fun and we even got a bit of shopping in too.  It was a very enjoyable day.

One afternoon I took my mom for a four wheeler ride around her place.  We had to mash down all the briars and ferns that had grown up on the trails from last fall.  It's amazing how fast that stuff grows back.

Of course, Rich and I did some house hunting while we were there.  We even found an amazing place that we thought would make up for being in the rainy valley, so we put an offer on it.  We were the first ones to view the property as it just came on the market and the next day we put an offer on it, but they also got another offer which was a cash offer, can you believe it?  Oh well, I guess it wasn't meant to be, though it was a big let down for both Rich and I.  The place had an amazing shop that Rich was itching to make his own.  And the yard was calling me, it was huge with lots of room to plant and the house was beautiful.....sigh.

We got to visit with a couple of my brothers and their families while we were there which is always a pleasure.  I'm sure when we are back later this summer, we'll all get together. 

We had one not so pleasant adventure.....we went back to the 5er the day before we were going to be leaving and found out the batteries were dead....not that big of deal you say....well it turned into a big deal.  We decided to hook up the 5er and plug it into the truck to see if we could get them charged up a bit...BIG mistake.  Rich backed under the 5er but needed to lift it a bit so it would slide into the hitch, well when he went to raise the hydraulic jacks, they didn't raise but settled down which put the 5er hitch pushing down onto the bed of the truck and the front of the 5er setting on the side rails of the truck.....uh oh, now what, we are stuck with no way to raise the 5er off the truck.  Not only that, we are stuck inside the storage yard with no way out.  Rich tried calling the office, but no one answered.   Then Rich remembered, the generator that we keep in the truck toolbox, so he pulled that out and went to plug the 5er into the 30 amp and guess what, the plug end was different.....well rats, that's not good, not good at all.  I kept suggesting that we call Coachnet and ask them to come give the batteries in the 5er a jump, but Rich said he wanted to figure it out.....well alrighty then, I'll just say some prayers and be quiet.   Well after letting a lot of air out of the truck tires, and using a piece of metal to make a bridge from the back of the truck to the tailgate and much anxiety on my part, Rich had me slowly drive the truck out from under the 5er.  I'm happy to report that my husband was correct, he was able to figure a way out of our situation without any damage to the 5er. 

So we pulled the batteries from the 5er and headed back to mom's.  We stopped at NAPA in Mehama and asked if they could charge 6 volt batteries, but they can't leave them unattended overnight, so it was off to plan C.  Rich was able to get them charged on a charger he had in my mom's shop after he purchased an additional cable.  I don't begin to understand all the differences and nuances between 6 volt and 12 volt charges, so may not have explained everything correctly, the important part is just that they got charged and when we put them back in the 5er, the jacks were able to work properly.  Whew....good lesson to disconnect that battery switch next time we leave the 5er parked for awhile.

We had a great visit with mom, loved spending time with her and her two puppies.  We are heading to Newport for a couple days and then on to Washington for a month.