The End of Summer

We had good weather for Labor Day weekend, but today it feels like fall because it has been raining all day.  A couple of times the sun peeked out, but that didn’t last long.  The only thing that still feels like summer is that the temperature is still in the 50s and 60s, not the 30s or 40s.  We may still get some more warm days, but they are dwindling this time of the year.  I know we need the rain, but I need sunshine to lift my spirits!

Tonight I had to walk on my treadmill instead of walking around the track outside.  The only advantage of walking inside is that I can catch up on Tivo shows while I exercise,but  I would rather be exercising out in the fresh air.  I COULD walk in the rain, but I decided not to tonight.

Dave had to referee a junior varsity football game tonight in the rain.  He was soaked when he arrived home around 8:30.  His knicker pants were wet but surprisingly clean.  He said it was because the grass field hadn’t been torn up yet by games and weather (until tonight, that is).  We are supposed to have another day of rain tomorrow and then better weather. 

It’s time to dig out my crocheting projects again and bring back all those oven recipes that I don’t make in the summer!

Astoria and Seaside, OR

We are quickly becoming addicted to our new hobby, geocaching.  While in Astoria, we found four caches yesterday, and seven today.  The first four of today's caches were found in Seaside, OR, which is about 17 miles south of Astoria on Highway 101. 

The weather forecast was for rain today, and we had rain overnight and this morning.  But by the time we got going on today's travels, the rain had stopped and the skies were starting to clear.  We made use of the good weather by doing our outdoor geocaching and sightseeing. 

One of the reasons that geocaching is so fun is that the scenery and setting is different for each cache.  Look at the pictures below and you will see what I mean. 

The first four of the above pictures were taken in Seaside, the last three in Astoria.

The pictures above are of the four caches we found yesterday in Astoria.  We were losing daylight by the end of the searches!

Flavel House, once home to one of Astoria's sea captains.

One of our searches led us to the roof of this hotel.  The reward was a great view of downtown Astoria.

Coming up tomorrow, we look forward to a visit with Margie and Bruce of Bruce and Margie's Full Time Journey!

A Beautiful Sunset

Welcome to my new blog follower, LaPlaya.  Thanks for your comment about Crater Lake.  I hope your trip there will be as nice as ours was!

I won't say that the rain is over, because it rained this morning.  But now, at sunset, the rain has stopped, things have dried up, and we have had a bit of sunshine and a gorgeous sunset.  I went for a walk around our neighborhood this evening and took a few pictures.

It's great to see some blue sky!

The setting sun.

Colors of the sunset. 

Getting Back to the Chores

I spent an exciting day cleaning the house.  It didn't get a good cleaning before we left on our trip, so it needed to be cleaned.  Now we get to enjoy the fruits of my labor until it gets messed up again.  That is one nice thing about the motorhome, it still needs to be cleaned, but it only takes about 10 minutes to clean it, the inside anyway--the outside is another story. 

One nice thing about being home is being able to park in the garage which is attached to the house.  Since it has been raining ever since we got home, it's nice not to get wet getting to the car.  Another thing that is nice is getting back to my full-sized washer and dryer.  I absolutely loved have the Splendide unit in the motorhome as we never had to go out to do laundry during our trip.  But we kept that little machine going!  I still haven't quite figured out how to get the clothes to come out unwrinkled, especially jeans and slacks.  I've tried everything from different settings to washing just one pair at a time, but it seems that some fabrics wrinkle more than others.  Yet I can wash those same fabrics at home and they don't come out wrinkled.  What am I doing wrong?

One of the things I had to do when I got home was go to the Kaiser lab and get a Pro-Time test.  Ever since my heart valve replacement surgery last year, I have been on Coumadin blood thinner medication and will have to take it the rest of my life because they don't want to take a chance that blood clots will develop.  It's not a problem to take the medication, and it's one of the Walmart $4 drugs, so it's not expensive.  But I have to have my levels checked every 4 weeks or so to make sure that I'm taking the correct amount to keep my blood thin enough.  I was able to put off the lab work for 6 weeks in order to take the trip.  I could have had it checked along the way, but that means filling out paperwork, finding a different lab, paying for the lab work, etc.  No thanks!  But it does mean that we will be limited to trips of six weeks or less unless I get the lab work thing all figured out.  I don't want to drive to Alaska unless we can take three months or so and do it right, so we'll have to put that trip off for now. 

Dave is going to try and figure out his sleeping at high altitude problem.  Jerry suggested trying a CPAP machine and mask, someone else suggested using oxygen at night.  He will talk to his VA doctor and try to figure something out.  In the meantime, we'll stay at lower elevations. 

The Grand Circle trip that we just completed was originally planned to be a trip to Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore.  Somehow it morphed into a trip to St. George, Las Vegas, and the Grand Circle.  That turned out to be providential, because Dave might have had a very hard time enduring the high elevation of Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area.  Things always work out for a reason, we just don't always know the reason!

      Wildflowers at Capitol Reef National Park