A Good Friend and Hot Plate Dinner

Donna fixed eggs and sausage for breakfast this morning, so after that wonderful repast we took it slow and easy until about noon.  Then we went to visit an old friend from the seventies, Verna.  She is going on 93 these days and still very spry.  Her wit and wisdom are still sharp and most of all she hasn't lost any of her sense of humor! We visited Verna about a year ago and enjoyed the time with her, so we wanted to drop in and say hi again. As with our last visit, her church, the Faith Lutheran Church in Everett, WA, was having a fun festival, chili cook off, and aerobics class this evening (we always seem to drop in about dinnertime...) The festival part involved the kids doing fun stuff like face painting and games in the sanctuary annex while the adults enjoyed a round of music provided by the pastor (super guitar and mandolin player) and some local college students with their guitars.  One young man played the Appalachian Zither  so well the room went silent when he played "Danny Boy".  I gotta tell you, it brought tears to the eye.

The pastor and friend:

And one of the young guitar players:

The chili cookoff was a series of chilis prepared by the local ladies, and we were supposed to vote for the one we liked best. Guess what?  They all won!  I should tell you that Chili prepared in Northern Washington by Scandinavians has an interesting taste reminiscent of fish....but tasty, mind you.

The meal was well prepared and as you can see, Donna and Verna enjoyed it!

Followed by an ice cream bar:

With just a bit of chocolate on her hand waiting to be licked off!

Oh, yes...the aerobics....

One of the church members, a rotund woman of some 60 years, has evidently decided that her form of worship involves a slow, almost yoga like dance, somewhat like that of a matador, performed in the center of the church or hall, roughly in time to the music.  Now I will be the last person to criticize a person's form of worship, but I did find this performance a bit unusual.  I half expected other members of the group to join in, much like an aerobics class.  I couldn't bring myself to photograph her, so she will forever remain anonymous  to the readers of this blog.  Suffice it to say that the dance provided an interesting accompaniment to the music.  And God Bless her for her courage.

The lovely 80 degree weather is due to change in the next few days.  It rained about a 1/4 inch this evening complete with thunder and lightening.  We're hoping for good weather on Friday, our next travel day.  Tomorrow we must leave Lake Pleasant RV Park because they're booked up for the weekend, and we're moving to another park about 10 miles away for one night.  After that, there is not a single spot available in the entire area, so we're movin' on, hoping that things will be better in Wenatchee, WA.

Another 200 miles

Today was an easy day of driving from Salem, OR, to Seattle, WA.  About 200 miles, and then settled in at the Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell, WA.  We've stayed here before and really like the park, even though it's a bit pricy.  It's close to the home of our good friend Verna, whom we will visit with tomorrow.  Verna is in her 90's, and still very active in the Lutheran Church, probably due to the fact that she comes from stout Norwegian stock.  We love Verna to death, and look forward to spending some time with her.  She has arranged for us to attend a "fun fair" at the church tomorrow night, complete with games, activities, and of course, dinner. Donna and I are looking forward to the "hot plate" dishes!

We tried to extend our stay here beyond two nights, but the park is booked for the near future.  Good for them, bad for us.  They tell us that this has been one of the best years they've had in the last 10, so I guess the economy is really turning around.

On the way to Seattle today, we had to stop for fuel:

The little station advertised "RV EZ IN and OUT", and it's true....but it was 4 miles off the freeway in the middle of a farm.  Across the street was the hardware store:

Kinda a cute little burg, and they gave us a free soda with a fillup (spend $400 and get a soda...what a deal).

Our SIL Monte was in town for business this week, so we met him for dinner at a restaurant called "The Bonefish Grill".  Evidently this is a chain, but even so, the food was excellent.  Monte and I had the Crab Crusted Rockfish:

And Donna ordered Grilled Columbia River Steelhead with Mango Salsa:

We started with Bang Bang Shrimp and Crab Rangoons for starters with a bowl of Corn and Crab Chowder.  OMG that was good!  A piece of Coconut Cream pie that tasted more like Coconut Macaroons finished the meal and us. If you like fish, this restaurant should be on your list.

Until later.

Good News x3

We arrived at the California Department of Motor Vehicles office at 8:10 this morning for our appointment to register Nessie.  After presenting our paperwork, the clerk told me she needed to inspect the vehicle, so we went outside and "lifted the hood" to check for VIN #'s and such.  After a thorough inspection of the engine compartment and a cursory look at the mileage, we adjourned back into the office.  After shuffling papers for a few minutes, the clerk announced that she could not register the vehicle because she didn't have a statement from the engine manufacturer attesting that the engine met California emissions standards.  Wherever you live, I'm sure you heard my reaction because she had in front of her the two certificates from the manufacturer (wet signed and notarized no less) stating that the engine met 2013 standards for 50 states.  Evidently 50 states doesn't include CA, but that's another subject....

After several consultations with superiors, and two phone calls to "the experts", she was able to find the information she needed, and deemed us worthy of writing large checks payable to DMV.

That was Good News Number 1.

So we hitched up our drawers and hit I5 North to Seattle, knowing that we wouldn't get there today, but would get a piece down the road (is it a piece UP the road if you're going north?)  All went well for several hours and we stopped for lunch at the rest stop at exit 99: Seven Feathers, where we were fortunate to see a couple from Pensacola, FL, that we have been running into all week long.  John and his wife are super people with a love for Boston Terriers.  Can't be all bad, then, can they?  Very nice people, and we wish them safe travels and hope to see them again one day.

About 15 miles south of Salem, OR, we were buzzing along a nice straight stretch of road without a care in the world when we noticed a bit of debris in the road.  As we got closer, it became a large piece of tire tread, so I looked around for a place to go to avoid the rubber.  Guess what...no place to go, so we straddled the debris and hoped for the best.

So Good News Number 2 was that we were able to save the pieces.....

The tire tread made it under Nessie without incident, but got hung up in the nice, heavy, chrome and rubber mud flap that extends all across the back of the motorhome and turned it into a very large pretzel.  We stopped and retrieved the flap for future blacksmithing (it was still attached on one end, dragging along behind the motorhome), and went on our way hoping for a nice remainder of the day. Later inspection didn't reveal any other damage to either vehicle, so I might leave the mud flap off for a while.

We pulled into Hee Hee Illahee RV Resort in Salem for the night, expecting an early evening, a nice dinner, a little tv and bed.  Hmmm.....

When I hooked up the water hose to the RV, I noticed that the floor of the storage compartments under the floor were wet.  On further investigation, I discovered that I had left a water valve in the wrong position, and so while we were traveling today, the water pump was merrily pumping 105 gallons of water from the tank out the fitting that is supposed to be hooked up to shore water, which in turn filled up most of the storage areas.

Good News Number 3 was that we were able to empty and dry out the areas.

So now it's a bit later in the evening.  I'm hoping that all I have to do is shower, shave, and fall into bed.  Well, what could go wrong with that.......?

I'll let you know.

Off and Runnin'

Well, after several more days of turmoil, we're finally off and running on our trip (sorta).  My last post was several days ago, and lot of stuff has happened. We spent last Friday taking care of all of the last minute details of a vehicle purchase, as well as getting our "walk-thru" and taking delivery of Nessie.  The morning was taken up with some last minute financial details, organizing insurance and registration things, and starting to remove stuff from the fifth wheel.

We started the transfer at about 3 pm, parking the two rigs as close together as we could:

The transfer was completed (mostly in large piles) at 2:30 the next morning.  The security guys (we went thru two shifts) were on a first name basis with us!  The dealership had told us that the fifth wheel was scheduled to leave on Saturday morning, so we had to remove all of our stuff.  Guess what...the trailer was still there this morning when we left....

On Saturday, we spent more time "stuffing" things into new holes and immediately forgetting where we put them.  I still don't know where most of it went.  One of the other things that we needed to do on Saturday was to pickup the new loveseat that we purchased in Arizona last January.  At that time we had a different color scheme and size requirement, so we had to do some fancy footwork to get a new setup for Nessie.  Fortunately, Brittany at Countryside Interiors and her brother Josh were happy to accommodate our needs by switching for a slightly different unit that better matched the new interior scheme.  The two swivel recliners that came in Nessie were barely adequate, and didn't provide any room for Pris (our ever-watchful Boston Terrier) to be comfortable.  So, yeah.....it's about the dog.

In the afternoon, we were fortunate to be able to spend some time with Dean and Becky and their daughter Lena in Eugene.  Dean in the son of some of our best friends and is an accomplished architect/designer/builder in Eugene, and a principal in Rainbow Valley Construction. His company specializes in custom building and remodeling in the residential arena.  They live in a fantastic older home near the University of Oregon (go Ducks) that Dean has turned into the most fantastic house on the block.  He has single-handedly started a downtown renovation project among the neighbors! Dean and Becky's son Lloyd attends the university just a few blocks away.  Check out the pic of the stadium where the US Olympic Track and Field teams practice every four years:

I had to get the logo, but at the expense of a good view of the stadium.  Nevertheless, this is a great place to have the Olympic events. And a perfect place to live, as schools, shopping and the downtown scene is within walking distance.

Today we resumed our travels by taking 2 steps backward.  The new rig needs to be registered in CA, because that's where our home is.  There are various options for setting up addresses for travelers, but we didn't have time to set them up. So the bottom line is: we're back in CA, and heading to the Dept of Motor Vehicles tomorrow morning, before heading back north. We're staying in the Yreka RV Resort, a nice place, with super friendly staff and wonderful neighbors.  I've already got a golf date with a fellow for next winter at The Refuge in Lake Havasu City.  He works in the pro shop during the winter so maybe we can score some cheap golf....But I digress.

When we left Junction City this morning, I was stressing over towing the Silverado that we had used for towing the fifth wheel.  Shane in service at Guaranty RV was able to have the tow bar system installed as well as the braking system for the pickup, but it was my responsibility to figure out how to set the truck transmission up for towing.  After several hours of reading and online time, we figured it out, set everything up, and started off:

And, 262 miles later, pulled into Yreka, with most of the parts still intact.  We've spent the afternoon reading some of the literature provided with the MH, and trying to figure out how to get the tv's to work.

After a bit of paperwork tomorrow....it's off to Seattle!

Oh, before I go..

Had to fill up before we left JC, so I stopped at the cheapest place in town.....and got a 1/2 tank....but at least in Oregon they pump the fuel for you!

Nessie

We've been struggling with one of the more difficult decisions in our recent lives.  Our beautiful fifth wheel trailer, a Carriage Cameo that we bought just 3 years ago, is falling apart.

The first thing we noticed was that most of the screws holding the front cap onto the body of the trailer were either breaking or backing out and disappearing.  We've been replacing the screws on a regular basis, but no amount of thread locker or glue or silicone seems to help. A move to a slightly larger screw helped for a short time, but then that process failed.  So as we started our summer/fall trip we decided to investigate a little further.

We found ourselves in Junction City, Oregon, an rv mecca, since a number of rv products are/were manufactured in this area, and decided to check with some of the rv repair shops as to what might be happening.  In the course of investigating the screw issue, it was discovered that the fiberglass siding is cracking/tearing at the front of the fifth wheel, indicating a weakness in the support structure.  At one shop, the repair person asked us to raise and then lower the trailer off of the pickup.  When we did, the hitch pin would twist upward about 2 inches, verifying movement internally.

To make a long story short, the cheapest of the estimates for repair was huge, far more than we wished to invest. The next step in this painful scenario was to decide how to replace the unit and with what.  Well, again the rv capital of Oregon came to us with a solution:

Meet Nessie.

She's named after the Loch Ness Monster (for obvious reasons), and is a last years model that hadn't sold.  So after a bunch of back and forth, and a bunch of soul searching, we decided to move on to a motor home. She's manufactured by Newmar and is called a Dutch Star.  The decor is very simple; the floor plan is straightforward, and there are no bells and whistles....just what suits us. We bought her at Guaranty RV in Junction City, and I have to tell you, these people are wonderful to work with! Not only the sales staff, but the service, detail, and prep crew has gone out of their way to make this a good experience for us.  Even the finance guy (hate that part!) was professional, straightforward, and low pressure.  He had to suggest the add-on's of course, but a simple "no" took care of that.  For what it's worth, check them out if you're rv shopping...they just about own the town of Junction City, and have Motorhome, pull trailer and fifth wheel lots as well as a Chevrolet dealership.  Their infrastructure is huge with several buildings devoted to service or repair, as well as a complete body shop. And, no, I'm not getting a kickback...

Here's a pic from the front door.  That's the salesman and myself kneeling down checking out some (what else?) plumbing things.....

I see Donna has left her purse unattended.  Maybe the MH fairy will fill it up...

Just before we went to finance, Donna asked me if we knew what we were doing....

I was about to crack the safe looking for goodies...

The plan is for us to take possession tomorrow, do a complete walkthrough and then a "stuff" transfer.  We'll spend the night tomorrow and Saturday here at the rv lot (hookups, too!) getting to know the newest member of our family, and then we're off to Yreka, CA to register the kid on Monday morning. You don't really want to know what the registration fee is....

So say hi to a new chapter, and goodbye to an old chapter, and wish us all well.

Ho Hum

Not much of a post today as we spent most of the day trying to locate some important papers that have mysteriously disappeared.  When we moved out of the house and into the trailer, we were careful to keep track of anything that was important.  So how can a piece of paper disappear in a trailer that only has 272 square feet?  Beats me, but we never did find the stuff.  We decided to relax today and attempt to find the papers tomorrow.  Sure, never do today what you can put off until tomorrow!  We went into Junction City to the free BBQ lunch sponsored by a local rv dealer.  Lunch was so-so, but the people involved with putting it on were very nice.

The weather has been wonderful in Harrisburg/Junction City today.  In the high 80's during the day to low 50's at night.  What a wonderful, agriculture based area of Oregon! Late this evening, we saw this cloudy moon....check it out!

An Easy Day in Oregon

After a busy, busy time getting ready to go full time rv'ing, we've decided to take a few days off and do nothing for a change.  The park we're staying in is comfortable and clean, with some easy walks and bike rides available.  It's only 18 miles to Eugene, OR, so we'll go check that area out and try to hook up with an old friend there. So we'll find some things to do for a few days and get our bearings and maybe (heaven forbid, even READ A BOOK).

For lunch we went into Junction City to a local hot dog stand. On the way we spotted this old farmhouse with a cell tower in the backyard.  Seemed to be an odd combination of old and new, and deserved a picture.

We walked a bit around JC and checked out the local businesses.  If you're in need of any RV remodeling or upgrading, this is the area to check out.  Elite Repair and Remodel, Carr Industries, Davis Cabinets and Countryside Interiors are some of the businesses recommended to us for any work required.  Most shops are in the Junction City area, but several are in Harrisburg, and we heard that Eugene has a lot of shops that do upgrading as well.

On the way back to the RV park we spotted this GTO from Alaska.  I've never seen a fluorescent safety green car, but here it is:

Hmmm....

I don't think that it's a factory color.....

It's cooler in Oregon

Today we continued our journey north.  From Weed, CA we drove 262 miles to Harrisburg, OR, over the highest elevation on I-5, Siskiyou Summit.  The Siskiyou mountain range is the travelers introduction to Oregon from the south and is both beautiful and intimidating.  Miles and miles of 6% and greater grades, both up and down, with one devastating 7%, 6 mile long downhill into Ashland OR that will warp many an unsuspecting brake rotor! The scenery is wonderful, so it's easy to loose focus on driving.  Combined with a large commercial trucking presence, you can see why it's a deceptive stretch of road.

Harrisburg is a small (3700+/-) town on the Willamette River about 209 miles north of the CA/OR border.  It's claim to fame is a company that manufactures pre-stressed concrete panels. Since today is Sunday, we didn't expect the business to be operating, but it was, at a quiet noise level, and we spent some time watching the huge mobile cranes move stuff around the outside yard.  Quite an operation.

We drove five miles south on Hwy 99 to the town of Junction City, OR.  We've ordered a new love seat for the trailer and expect to pick it up tomorrow, so we wanted to scope out the area.  JC isn't much bigger than Harrisburg, but it has a large RV presence.  The town was the home of Country Coach, Monaco, and Marathon motorhomes back in the day, or so the locals told us.  Most of the buildings are closed up now, but small businesses have sprung up that cater to RV remodeling and refurbishing operations.  A number of woodworking/cabinet shops are going full bore, and the furniture, flooring, and exterior body shops are busy.

We visited one of the last large motorhome dealers in the area, Guaranty RV, in JC.  They were at one time the largest Country Coach dealer in the west.  Now they're number 2 in the MH and Trailer business, with several stores in town selling everything from Chevy's to spare parts to tent trailers to million dollar motorhomes. Sounds like they pretty much "are" Junction City, OR!

On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at a park along the Willamette River. We'll come back in the next few days and have a picnic here, and let Pris play.  She's been a very patient pup, but will soon need some playtime. This picture is from a gazebo overlooking the river.

Just looking at this picture is cooling!  It's quite a bit cooler in Oregon than in California when we left two days ago.  We're hoping for a continuing cooling trend!

On the road again (apologies to Willie)

After roughly 4 months at home, we're back on the road, heading north from Sacramento CA.  We've completed the task of moving out of our home, remodeling it to better suit our daughter and her family, packing all of our "important" stuff and putting it in storage, and hooking up the fifth wheel and skeedaddling out of town.

We got up a bit early (for us) at 4:30 this morning.  A quick trip down the street to Starbucks for coffee and back to say goodbye to our family.  After a few tears and several hugs we hit the road at 6:15.  A leisurely drive north on I-5 for 261 miles got us to downtown, metropolitan Weed, CA.  Now I don't know what the history of Weed is, or how the town came to be named as it is, but they do have one thing that no other town has:

Mt. Lassen!  Imagine waking up to this view every day!

We had a bit of an electrical wiring problem with the trailer (thank you California freeways), where we broke a wire on an exceptionally large pothole.  A quick trip downtown (about a 1/2 mile one end to the other) yielded some wire and connectors, so an hour or so later we were back in business.  I say that to explain that the people in this town are among the most friendly that we've met in CA. I had directions, recommendations, and offers of help as soon as I explained my predicament.  We are staying overnight at the Trailer Lane RV Park, a small (a dozen or so spaces) place carved out of the trees a 1/4 mile off the freeway.  I wouldn't recommend it to a big rig, but it's great for anything shorter than 40'. The prices are good and the owners very nice.