Rich & Kelly's Traveling Adventures: July 14

Monday we were ready to hit the road with the 5er and a small u-haul truck. Guess which one I drove.......if you guessed the small u-haul truck you are correct. Rich gave me my choice and there was no way I was going to drive the 5er through all that Seattle freeway traffic. It was bad enough being in a small truck. We got on the road around 9:00 a.m. after saying goodbye to Brandon. Kris and the boys were at Tall Timbers for a church camp so we had said our goodbyes to them a week ago. We'll miss our little camp spot on Camano Island. Thanks again Brandon & Kris for letting us camp out so long in your yard.

Our trip down to my mom's went well. I followed Rich in the 5er and we got through the Seattle traffic pretty well. We used the express lanes and there was a couple times I thought the top of the 5er was going to scrape the underside of an underpass, it was pretty tight in a couple spots. But we made it through OK. We stopped for a quick lunch break at a rest area south of Olympia and then made a fuel stop in Aurora and made it to the Phoenix RV park in Salem around 3:00. We did a quick hook up of the 5er and headed up to mom's to unload the uhaul and scope out the work that was being done around the shop so we could park the RV there.

It was good to see mom again but it was a very quick visit because we had to return the uhaul back to Salem by 7:00 p.m. The work being done at the shop looks good but it wasn't quite ready for us to bring the 5er yet, so we'll make arrangements to put it in storage while it's finished up. We got the uhaul unloaded and back to Salem by our 7:00 p.m. deadline. It was a very hot humid day and we were very glad to go back to the air conditioned 5er and relax the rest of the evening. It was an exhausting day for the both of us.

The next morning we got our clothes packed up and the refrigerator emptied out and put the 5er in storage and headed up to mom's. We'll sure be glad once we have the 5er up at mom's and we don't have to do all this packing and unpacking.

We got settled in at mom's and took a closer look at the work being done at the shop. Hmmmm they had a couple trenches opened up so they could see the water lines to the house and not tear into them, this would be a perfect opportunity to extend the power and water from the shop closer to where we would be parking the RV without having to do a lot of digging. We talked to the contractor and he was glad to leave the trenches open until we got our project completed. Sweet....now it was a mad dash to research the best options. The next several days were spent doing a little more digging which was not much fun in the clay and rock soil. It sure made us appreciate the trenches that the backhoe had already dug. Well after several hard days we got the water line extended and conduit laid for the electrical. Now the contractor can come back and bury everything. Whew, glad that project is complete.

Water line we added

Water and electrical conduit (on either side of the metal pipe)

New water spigot and electrical box

Our future RV parking spot

On Saturday it was time to attend the long awaited Bailey Family reunion in Lebanon with Rich's side of the family. We arrived shortly after 1:00 at the Santiam Place. It was an old church that has been turned into an event center. The grounds were lovely with lots of pretty flowers and a water feature and outdoor tables and chairs. The facility and grounds are set up very nicely for weddings. We had a very nice potluck lunch with lots of good food and visit with family. Only one sister, Joan and her husband John from Nebraska were unable to attend. We sure missed you Joan & John. Shari (neice) & Mike, we missed you guys too, we were sorry that you were unable to make it out. It was sure good to see everyone. A good time was had by all. Here are some pics of the family that were able to attend.