Update

After our motorhome was burglarized on September 7, Dave and I have been busy cleaning it up and trying to assess all the items that were stolen.  We have replaced most of the things and we have a nice long list of current prices and receipts to submit to our insurance agency, Pemco.  I believe it will all be handled by our homeowner's insurance policy as there appears to be no physical damage to the motorhome, except for one inside cabinet door being torn off its hinges, which Dave was able to fix.

The biggest items stolen were all the electronic items, including TVs, DVRs, DVD player, etc.  In some cases, the cables were cut, so Dave has been making new cables to replace them.  It is all very time-consuming.  All the bedding and several of our towels were stolen, along with smaller items such as a lamp, binoculars, printer, wifi and cell phone boosters, flashlights, kitchen knives, etc. 

When all is put back together, we plan on taking the motorhome out for at least a one-night trip in order to make sure that we haven't overlooked any missing items or any other damages. 

I want to thank all my blog readers who commented about the break-in.  It's legally considered a burglary if there's more than $500 worth of stuff stolen.  Our grand total is closer to $5000 than $500.  Anyway, thank you so much, dear blog readers--your comments, support, and sympathy were much appreciated during this difficult time.

The good news is that there appears to be no structural damage to the motorhome, inside or outside.  Dave and I are both alive and well.  Our house was not broken into, neither was our shop.  It's all just stuff.  Sure we want to replace it and get our motorhome restored to its former condition, but we could live without all of it if necessary.  We've beefed up our security for the motorhome and our house and shop.  The deputy sheriff assured us that we had done everything right to protect ourselves and that this was a random act, but one that is becoming prevalent in this society where there are so many people hooked on drugs and doing evil acts. 

Hopefully next time I blog it will be about a more cheerful topic!  :-)

Oh No, a Break-In

We did not have a good day on Friday.  Our motorhome was broken into as it sat parked in its usual spot in our backyard behind a locked gate. 

Around 6:30 pm on Friday, I noticed the the curtains were blowing out both of the front windows.  That's strange, I thought, we never leave our windows open without the screens being in place.  It didn't occur to me that something was wrong, I just thought maybe Dave had been working out there and had inadvertently left the windows open.  I saw some linens and stuff outside of the driver side window and I thought, wow, stuff blew out the window. 

After I unlocked the motorhome--yes it was still locked, like we left it--I saw that the inside was a mess.  My first thought was that an animal had gotten inside.  Well, it turned out it was animals all right, the two-legged version of animals.  Finally I noticed that the front flat screen TV was missing.  Ah ha, now I reluctantly admitted to myself that I was looking at an RV that had been burglarized.  It's funny how my mind did not want to go there.  I didn't even notice at first glance that ALL the electronics were missing.

Empty front cabinets

Empty bedroom TV cabinet--I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of all the mess strewn through the RV

By the way, Dave was not home at this time.  He was refereeing a football game in a town about 1/2  hour away.  So I did what I knew had to be done and called 9-1-1.  After several attempts to reach them, they finally answered and told me an officer would contact me.  A deputy sheriff came by the house around 8 pm and I felt better once he arrived.  He did his report and reassured me that we had done everything we could to prevent this.  No other crimes had been reported in our neighborhood. 

After the deputy left, I called both of my sons and sat down to wait for Dave to get my frantic messages about what had happened.  Dave saw the messages at the end of the football game and came right home.  As soon as he got home, I breathed a sigh of relief and let him handle the rest of the details like canceling our RV Direct TV service and calling the insurance company the next morning.  Dave is my rock and he didn't let me down. 

On Saturday we made an effort to clean up some of the mess and begin the assessment of what was missing.  This step was hard to do, but it turned out to be therapeutic for us to start to take control of the situation. 

All the electronics are gone, even the printer and wifi and cell phone boosters.  All the bedding and towels are gone--they probably used those for padding the electronics and hiding them. 

The inside damage was mostly a mess, not structural damage.  We discovered several odd things--the thieves ate some tapioca pudding while they were there, drank four sodas, and took our gum stash, chewed some gum, and smeared some on the driver's seat.  They took our cheap plastic toothbrush holder--actually unscrewed it from the wall.  Is that where people hide their valuables--behind the toothbrush holder??   Strange.  They relieved themselves in our toilet and left us that smelly present, but didn't do any other damage. 

As people usually do after a break-in, we feel violated, uneasy, a bit scared, worried that it might happen again, and generally like we are being watched.  Plus we have to deal with getting all the electronics and bedding replaced. 

No, this is not going to keep us from RVing.  After all, this happened at home, not on the road.  However, our respite and happy place, our motorhome, is not quite the happy place that it once was.  The house was not broken into and our big shop out back was not broken into, so things could have been much worse. 

Thanks for listening.  It's been somewhat therapeutic for me to write and talk about the details of this unfortunate incident. 

A Day Trip to Mount Saint Helens and Some Special Visitors

First, thank you to all who expressed concern over my recent illness.  Although I still get tired very easily, I think I am almost well. 

After all those days of being house-bound, Dave surprised me on Sunday by suggesting that we take a drive to Cougar, Washington, which is near the southern base of Mount Saint Helen's.  We took along a picnic lunch and headed out around 10 am.  We took the back way to Cougar which goes through Battle Ground and the tiny town of Amboy.  This route passes several lakes that came about because of dams and power plants--Merwin Lake, Yale Lake, and Swift Reservoir.  Cougar is also a very small town, but it's where mountain hikers can register.  Cougar has a couple of campgrounds, both of which looked busy on this holiday weekend.

We continued on to Ape Cave, another busy place.  We didn't tour the cave, but we walked up to the entrance of the cave and took pictures.  Parking at Ape Cave is $5, or free for those of us with a National Parks Senior Pass.

We then backtracked to Trail of Two Forests, a handicap-accessbile interpretive walk along a lava flow.  This lava looked to be about 20,000 years old.  The lava was covered with moss, however, you could still see the holes where massive trees had been uprooted.

Our next and final destination for the day was Lava Canyon.  The parking lot there, however, was full, so we left.  Not too far from there we found a parking spot where we sat and enjoyed the lunch we brought along.  Our view was...Mount Saint Helen's!

We came home through Woodland, WA and after stopping at a car wash to wash away all the road dust, we got home around 3:30.  Even though I needed to take a nap when we got home, we had a fun and satisfying outing!

This afternoon we were happy to receive a visit from fellow bloggers and RVers, Russ and Donna Krecklow.  Donna writes a popular blog called Travels in 'Therapy'.  They live in Eugene, Oregon, and travel in their Lazy Daze motorhome.  The Krecklows are on their way to Glacier National Park, but tonight their motorhome is parked in our side driveway, and they and their dog, Poppy, are spending the first night of their trip on this side of the Columbia River.  Thank you, Russ and Donna, for taking the time to come and visit us.  We always enjoy talking with you, and thanks again for treating us to dinner at McMenamins on the Columbia River!

Donna and Russ