What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday Dave and I headed south for the winter!  We left about a week too late to avoid the cold and snowy weather in the Pacific Northwest.  See Dave's blog to read about the problems that the freezing weather caused with our residential refrigerator. 

The Corvallis and Eugene areas got more snow than we did in Vancouver, WA. 

We headed for Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville, OR for our first night's stop.  This is one of favorite RV parks and was a good distance for us since we got a late start due to the problems with our refrigerator.  We left the car hooked up and took the shuttle to the casino and ate the rib eye special at one of the restaurants.  I like to go out for dinner on travel days!

Some of the empty sites at Seven Feathers.

This morning we left Seven Feathers at 9 am and had clear roads across the Siskiyou Mountains.  The scenery along I-5 was pretty!

Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to Oregon and hello to California.

The agricultural inspection station waved us through.  Good thing, since we had quite a bit of fruit with us.

Soon we could see our first glimpse of Mount Shasta.  This picture was taken through the motorhome's window while we were having lunch at the southbound Weed rest area. 

More pictures of Mount Shasta.

Tonight we are spending the night at Rolling Hills Casino RV Park in Corning, CA.  The temperature was in the sixties when we arrived at 3 pm.  Yes!!  We'll head on over to the dinner buffet and take advantage of the 1/2 price senior prices (ages 50+) that are offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We're eating well on our travels!

End of Long Thanksgiving Weekend

We started our Thanksgiving celebration a week ago Sunday when we drove out to our new-to-us cabin park model.  The motorhome was there already--ready and waiting for us as we arrived by car.  We did some more cabin things--Dave assembled the electric fireplace, we bought a TV, we hung a curtain over the sliding glass door, and waited for the refrigerator to be delivered on Wednesday.

Cabin living room

Cabin kitchen with new refrigerator on the left

The refrigerator arrived on Wednesday morning, and the two delivery guys from Sears had a heck of a time getting it into the its space.  We chose the largest refrigerator that would fit, and yes, we measured correctly, so it finally did fit!

Cabin bathroom is located between the kitchen and bedroom

Cabin bedroom

After the refrigerator was in, we winterized the cabin and said good-bye to our lot until spring.  We headed north on Highway 101 because Dave had a date with the Tacoma Dome.  We stayed for one night at a Passport America park in Elma, WA and paid $16.50 for a full-hookup site.  Then on Thanksgiving morning, we drove on to the Tacoma Dome.

Dave had made reservations at the Tacoma Dome RV Park, but when we arrived at noon, the park was locked up tight and no RVs were there.  Dave found the 24-hour security office but they said that we couldn't get into the lot until Friday.  That wouldn't work for us, so luckily I knew that the Puyallup Fairgrounds had an RV Park, so we headed out there. 

The fairgrounds RV Park was open and welcoming.  We paid $30 for a full-hookup site.  There are no amenities such as bathrooms or showers there, and no wifi, but we are self-contained, so that wasn't a problem.  We had a good cell signal, so we connected to the internet by using our smartphones' mifi. 

On Friday, Dave drove back to the Tacoma Dome, where the state semi-final football games were being held.  The game he was evaluating (the officials, not the players!) was at 7:30 pm, but he went early to watch the other games.  On Saturday, the game he evaluated was at 4pm, but he went early and stayed after to watch the team that our son, Jonathan, played for--Camas High School, win their first-ever semi-final game.  Next Saturday Camas will play a team from Pasco in the 4-A division final.

This morning, we said goodbye to the state fairgrounds and headed north to an RV park in Bothell.  We met up with our younger son, Jonathan and his girlfriend, Brittany at Jonathan's new house in Marysville.  They took us out for a late lunch at Olive Garden, and now we are back in Bothell at the RV park.  We head home tomorrow morning, just in time for cold temperatures and a chance of "frozen mix". 

Next weekend, we'll celebrate an early Christmas with our elder son, Tim, his wife, Kiersten, and our two granddaughters, Sophie and Anya.  Then in a little over a week, we head south for the winter!

A Walk on the Boardwalk

Tomorrow we are getting new carpet installed at our park model cabin in the Safari Park in Ilwaco, WA.  The hookups for the motorhome are in and paid for, and are working great.  It's nice to be able to stay in our motorhome while we get the cabin ready.  Next week the mattress arrives, and the week after that the refrigerator gets installed.  Things move slowly here at the beach!

The hookups may not be pretty, but they work!

There's not a lot of room for our motorhome next to the cabin, but we're able to extend both of our slides, so we're happy. 

The weather today started out foggy, but as the fog burned off, it turned into a nice November day.  I went for a walk along the Discovery Trail.  I walked on the boardwalk going north, and the paved trail going back south. 

Next to a portion of the boardwalk, a couple of machines were grading or dredging or doing something, but I don't know exactly what.

The Discovery Trail heading south.

I stopped to see the display of a gray whale skeleton along the Discovery Trail.

Bicycle parking at the whale skeleton.

Only the shadow knows...

The necessary:

News

There have been a few things happening around here besides all the rain.  Our fall season is definitely coming to an end, like it always does.

I had a colonoscopy in mid-October.  They had to remove a couple of polyps and although they are benign, I just found out that they are the kind that can indicate colon cancer.  Since my dad died from colon cancer, this is a scary subject for me.  I'll have to get another colonoscopy in five years or less.

The part about the colonoscopy that bothered me the most, besides the prep, which we all know and (don't) love, I had to stop taking my blood thinner, warfarin, which I have had to take every since my aortic valve was replaced with an artificial valve.  But to protect me during the time I was off the warfarin, I had to give myself shots of Lovenox.  Each shot was very expensive and luckily I only had to do seven of them.  The shots gave me huge bruises on my stomach which are fading now. 

My big news is that we bought a park model in an RV park in Ilwaco, Washington.  The park, Safari Association of Ilwaco, is a private, gated community made up of mostly older park models or trailers.  The lot we bought has room for our motorhome as well as the 1994 Fleetwood park model that is already on the lot.

We are having full hookups installed for the motorhome and as well as getting the park model upgraded to 100 amp from 50 amp.  We had to replace the carpet and most of the furniture, including the refrigerator. 

The Ilwaco/Long Beach Peninsula area is one of our favorite get-a-way areas.  We usually stay at Cape Disappointment State Park, but as the prices go up and the availability of the state park campsites go down, we decided we were ready to make a small investment in something different.  Our lot at Safari, unlike the state park, allows us to get internet and a cell signal.

Pumpkins and Apples

After many days of rain, today we had sunshine and warmer daytime temperatures.  Dave didn't have to officiate any Saturday games this week, so we headed out for a drive.  As we drove north on I-5 to La Center, we noticed a sign saying that the rest area was closed.  It was another casualty of the government shutdown, I guess.  All of the national parks, rest areas, etc., could currently be open if the Senate had voted to accept that part of the budget.  But no, they would rather play the blame game.   I, for one, would like to see a smaller government but I'm not in favor of closing national parks or freeway rest areas, or the military, among other areas.  I wonder how many of those 95% of "non-essential" government employees actually are non-essential? 

We drove to a pumpkin farm south of La Center, but it was a bust, with a distinct lack of cars.  Yes, they had pumpkins in a field, but that's all they had.  We didn't bother to get out of the car.  We took back roads back to the freeway and then went to Joe's Place in Vancouver.

This place had what we were looking for.  In addition to people being there, they had several pumpkin displays and more importantly to me, apples.  I know that we can buy apples year round, but in the fall, I am always drawn to fruit stands offering apples.  

My favorite pumpkins were the Turk's turbans.  How colorful and unique!

Here is a picture of the assortment of apples that I bought, minus the one that I already ate.  Yummy!  All the apples were $1.49 per pound, so I put them all in the same bag and now I don't know which are which.  No stickers, like store-bought apples!

We had a fun afternoon while enjoying the nice weather. All three of the mountains we saw during our drive, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood, all had new snow covers, so all of that rain was good for something!

My Dog Has Fleas

Well, not really--I don't have a dog.  But I DO have a new ukulele that I am learning to play, and the tuning of the four strings--G, C, E, and A is known as "My Dog Has Fleas".

After Donna and Russ of Travels in Therapy showed me their ukuleles when we camped together, I realized that I had a yen to make some music, too.  Sure, I have a piano at home, but I'm always afraid of offending the neighbors when I pound away on it.  And the piano is definitely not portable!

I had bought a ukulele years ago when we were on a trip to Hawaii, but I had sold it during one of our downsizing moves.  Donna told me that she got her ukulele at Costco, so that's where I decided to buy mine.  The two Vancouver, WA,  Costco stores didn't have them in the warehouse, but the Portland store did, so off I went to buy the Ukulele in Oregon. 

This particular model has a built-in chromatic tuner which is very handy.  Now that I have had the ukulele for three weeks, it stays in tune pretty well most of the time, with only an occasional minor tweak.

I checked out all the ukulele books that were in our library system, including "Ukulele for Dummies".  I have worked my way through all of the books, and each book has been helpful in its own way, if only to give me more chances to practice chords, note-picking, and finger-picking. 

Riding the train

On Wednesday, we spent the morning with our daughter-in-law, Kiersten, and our two granddaughters, Sophie and Anya.  We went to Oaks Park, an amusement park in Portland.  They were having their weekly pre-school special, with all the kiddy rides included for $6.50 per child, with adults free.  No other rides or concessions were open, so it was nice and quiet and the little ones didn't get inundated by older kids. 

Afterwards, we celebrated a belated birthday for Dave (his actual birthday was September 20) by having lunch at Macadam Bar and Grill in Portland.  Our son, Tim, was able to join us for lunch since his office isn't far from there. 

Carousel ride

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Dave and I are here at Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond, Oregon (near Astoria) with Donna and Russ of Travels in Therapy.  They will be here a few more days, but we have to go home tomorrow morning so that Dave can continue with his football officiating season. 

Fort Stevens is a wonderful state park and many people start their journey down the Oregon coast on Highway 101 from this area.  The park has lots of camping sites and even a few with full hookups, like the site we are in.

Site #L18

A jokester named Dave with his cell phone, not an X-rated picture...

Dave and I took a walk around some of the camping loops yesterday afternoon after we got here, and we came across this skinny deer hanging out in one of the campsites.

This tree in our site had a hole in it that reminded me of a deer's eye.  It also reminds me of a giraffe's eye.  Do you see the resemblance?

Last night, we sat around a cozy campfire with Donna and Russ and we all roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire.  Some rain has been predicted, but so far we've had good weather and we're planning on getting together around the fire pit again tonight.

Today we all drove across the Astoria Bridge to the Washington side of the Columbia River.  We drove all around Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco, and Long Beach, and even drove on the beach for a bit.  Fun times!  We had lunch together at Dave's and my favorite Long Beach eatery, Hungry Harbor Grille.  Thanks so much for treating us to lunch, Donna and Russ!

View from the pull-out

Waikiki Beach--Cape Disappointment version! Driftwood on Waikiki Beach 

A view of Cape D Lighthouse from North Jetty

We've had a fun couple of days with the Russ and Donna!