Donna and Gary's RV Adventures: Ketchup Number 2

Arizona desert vistas are astounding, but we had to move on from our winter vacation.

From this:

To this:

Considering that our life has changed over the last year, it has become evident that we don't need a large motorhome. While it is extraordinarily wonderful to travel in, and live in for that matter, we decided something else would be better for us. It was time to let someone else enjoy this fine coach!

All told, we put over 100,000 miles on our two Newmar motorhomes in the years 2013 through 2022, crisscrossing this beautiful country and meeting dozens and dozens of wonderful people, many of which are still our good friends. We learned a lot about full time rv'ing and how a motorhome is put together and operates. Not all of our learning was done by choice, but hey, it gave us something to do!

On our return from Arizona in February, we spent a few weeks cleaning "Nessie02" and taking a whole bunch of pictures, and posting her for sale. A lot of people called on her, from Florida to MIchigan to here in California, but the winners of the motorhome lottery were Paul and Nanci!

And there she goes!

In April the family that could get away went to SoCal to celebrate Gramma's birthday. We stopped for breakfast before going to her house. Good food and better company!

Gramma was able to spend some time with her Grandchildren!

At 102 years of age, Mom still has a smile and an appreciation for a beautiful bouquet! Mom's daughter and our Aunt Rebecca is Mom's caretaker and provides a huge support. We all appreciate her so much.

A good part of the summer of 2022 has been spent making the house our home. We put in ceiling fans, planted flowers, and started work on a backyard retaining wall.

On Memorial Day, we went to the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery to pay tribute to the many fallen veterans from our area. The cemetery grounds are immaculately kept, as you would hope, and we were able to say a few words to some lost friends.

We found a bit of time to go rv shopping somewhere in the midst of all this! We decided that going back to a truck and trailer like in the pre-motorhome days was a good solution, so.....

Meet the new rig.

And, of course, a truck is needed to pull this thing, so off we went looking for a truck. These things were hard to find about this time, so a bit of research found us a nice truck in Salt Lake City. Only three days away.

We arrived home with the new truck on Wednesday, and on Friday we picked up the trailer. Never a dull moment!

A few weeks of making the trailer livable, finishing the retaining wall, and grading the backyard just about did us in.

Gramma Marshall would have approved of taking the wheels off the first thing! She laughed whenever I started to work on a car, chuckling that the first thing I did was "take the wheels off"!

Of course, one must also take ones electronics apart to see what makes them tick. Only they don't tick anymore.

Another furious weekend in the backyard took care of backfilling behind the new retaining wall. Once again our good friend Justin provided the expertise.

Our son was in Washington state for a few months and happened upon a piece of lumber that had been battered and banged up by the Pacific Ocean. He brought it home and we were able to fashion a top for the wing wall near the entry door. Still has nails in it!

After all this, we decided to throw some things in the trailer, fire up the truck, and take a few days off. We headed north towards Oregon and Washington in hopes of finding some cooler weather as it was in the upper 90's in NorCal. At one of our first stops, we found this unusual truck in a parking lot.

We wandered west to the coast and settled into a little rv park near the town of Neskowin. We were assigned a site near the perimeter of the park, allowing Sasha a nice grassy area to chase balls!

Walking through the park, we happened onto this beautiful plant. The cool, wet Oregon coast is great for flowers!

We spent a full week at Neskowin, exploring the beaches. The mesmerizing sound of the waves is so soothing and Sasha loves to run on the beach!

Our site stayed relatively fog free but stayed overcast most of the day.

However, the fog drifted over the nearby hills every evening.

We weren't too far from the town of Tillamook, Oregon, famous for cheese, so we had to take a day trip to check in out. Unfortunately the creamery has become a huge tourist destination, and we didn't relish the thought of waiting in line for an hour plus just to have the opportunity to buy some cheese in the gift shop.

We did, however, have lunch at Antonnette's Kitchen, a somewhat permanent food truck in downtown Tillamook. The salad was delicious!

It was a bit of a drive back to the park, so we had to stop at Coasties Roasties for a cup to go!

We couldn't resist stopping (again) at every beach we saw. This one, with the lighthouse was especially interesting due to the unusual rocks on the beach.

Mostly of a uniform size and shape, we couldn't determine their origin, but the nearby sign was adamant about not pilfering any for the home garden!

Haystacks abound wherever you look.

Beaches near the Oregon Dunes are well visited. There are, as anywhere, good beaches, great beaches, and.....

This is one of the great beaches!

No commentary required:

As we wandered up the coast, we heard that the aircraft carrier Nimitz had just arrived in Bremerton Washington, so another day trip was in order! Of course civilians can't get onto the naval base, but from a vantage point across the bay we were able to take a picture of CVN 68, the USS Nimitz.

In downtown Bremerton, near the Ferry Terminal, a park has been built to honor the history of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards. This water feature, stretching some 100 yards or so, evokes memories of the many submarines built here. Every few minutes, water erupts from the top of a structure meant to resemble the conning tower of a submarine. Awesome!

As we ventured inland, one of our daytrips was to the south side of Mt Saint Helens. We've seen it from the more widely visited north side, but this was new and demonstrated the power of the exploding volcano. After all these years, plant life has begun to return and heal the wounded landscape.

The mountain is still grumbling.

The iconoclastic flow roared down the mountain toward the south, devastating thousands of acres of forest and filling a river with ash.

We were fortunate to be able to stay at nice rv parks throughout our trip. This site in Woodburn Oregon was especially nice even though it was a bit crowded.

While there, we visited Bauman Farms outside of town. Beautiful flowers!

Just down the road from Woodburn is the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the largest flying aircraft in the world, the Spruce Goose. Built by Howard Hughes as a transport plane in 1942, it has been moved several times since its retirement. When Evergreen acquired the airplane, a suitable display was planned. The plane is so big that it was placed and the building was built around it!

The interior of the plane is huge. Mr Hughes visualized tanks and troops being ferried to far off battle grounds.

The Spruce Goose (so named due to its wooden construction) dwarfs a nearby DC-3.

The museum also houses one of the few remaining SR-71 high altitude spy plane. The exhibit also contains the cameras that the plane used, which was of huge interest.

Back to the coast, a week at Bay Point Landing near Coos Bay, Oregon, let us soak up the last of the Oregon coast weather. The weather was perfect, warm during the day, and cool at night.

A friendly neighbor left us a bit of firewood, so we indulged in a nice fire!

The beach, unfortunately, one last time...

Closer looks at the Oregon Dunes made us want to bring the toys next time!

A day trip to Florence, Oregon got us to the Bridgewater Fish House and Zebra Bar. We're still trying to figure out the Zebra part, but can attest that the Cioppino was delicious!

Never ones to stay in one place too long, we did the day trip thing again and again, checking out the beaches on the way to Port Orford.

Eating lunch on the deck at the Redfish in Port Orford gave us this wonderful view.

Our last stop on this month long trip was made to see Burney Falls, California. We have heard about the falls for years but have not had the opportunity to visit. It was worthwhile.

A modest hike gave us a view of the falls. Water flows down from Burney Mountain through and under layers of volcanic soil. These layers, built up over centuries, allow water to flow in between them, resulting in a spectacular view.