Catching Up

Sorry I haven’t posted for a couple days… no internet where we stopped!! Yikes!

June 29, 2008

We stopped at Indian Creek Campground on White Pass. With the weather being really hot this weekend I was afraid the campgrounds up here would be packed, but they had a number of spots open. The campground is beautiful, part of the Wenatchee National Forest. I believe it is Rimrock Lake that boarders one side of the campground and of course Indian Creek runs along another side into the lake. It has been in the high 80’s here but in a lawn chair under the awning with a stand of conifer trees it’s not been bad. We have gone on walks, I have read about 2/3rd’s of a book, we played Yahtzee and just talked. You see there is no internet up here, we are out of range, no cell phone, no TV. We do have lights thanks to the batteries we just bought and with the generator we can run the microwave, recharge batteries and most important, I can run a hair dryer and curling iron! Yeah! This kind of “roughing it” I can handle.

Here are a few pics and a video from Indian Creek. The video is instructional, it is how we get kindling for our evening bonfires.





June 28, 2008

Our visit with Jim & Kathy was great. We had good food and fun conversation, however this morning things got…well….poopy. To start at the beginning; on our way to Jim & Kathy’s a sports car passed us, the driver was honking his horn and pointing toward the back of the trailer. We pulled over only to find the sewer hose dangling from it’s storage place bouncing along behind us on the freeway. It looked okay, plastic ends were fine so Dave stuffed it back in place and taped everything shut. Move forward to today - when dumping the black water this morning there was much commotion, many curse words and a smell… Seems some of the coating on the hose was rubbed off which caused a leak. Actually Jim said it was more of a fountain effect. Some quick thinking and action on the guys part and everything was under control. Jim was disappointed that I didn’t rush out and video for the blog, but I really wanted to avoid being downwind.

Oh… here is a video of the new satellite dish folding up before we took off….

The Dish Is Installed

The dish is all installed and working wonderfully. Nate (the installation man) really did a nice job, cleaned up some messy wiring and fixed a speaker we didn’t even know was broken. Really nice man and knows his stuff.

Other than the installation we just hung around the place. Jim wasn’t working today so we all sat and talked on their back porch for a while. Cheye & Recon had a bit of a disagreement yesterday, much growling and some biting involved, so they are ignoring each other today. Last night we got steaks, salad and cob corn for dinner and Jim was the barbeque chef for us. The steaks were great (meat from Costco)! Ribeye's that were tender and juicy - mmmmmmm. Tonight we are going out for Chinese food. Gosh, I haven’t cooked since we left Silver Spur, I could get used to this!

Here is a video taken from the roof of our Trailer, pretty nice view from up there.

A little further North

We took off from Vancouver about 7:00 a.m.. Boondocking in the parking lot of a golf course club house is not a place to linger if it is men’s day on the course! Tee off times started at 8:00 a.m., the weather was going to be perfect for golfing. We were afraid the parking lot would get crowded and we would have a heck of a time getting out! So off we went an hour earlier than I usually get up. We are now back up at Jim & Kathy’s awaiting our new satellite dish installation. We bought a Winegard Traveller 1000 for Dish network. No more having to set up the dishes if we want to watch TV. Yeah!

Speaking of boondocking, Dave ended up buying a total of 6 RV batteries so we should not be lacking power if we park out in the boonies! I have to admit, being without power to run my curling iron this morning was kinda scary. ;) With the batteries and our generator we should be all set up to rough it in style.

Goodbye to Silver Spur RV Park

We left Silver Spur RV Park yesterday after enjoying the free Tuesday morning continental breakfast. We ate breakfast with Jim and Linda, the couple I mentioned that have a Golden Retriever (Timber) that looks like a small version of Cheye. Really nice people.

We are kinda back tracking…from Silverton we came back up to Vancouver and are visiting my Mom now. Unlike the last time (see Dear John post) we have the trailer with us. We parked the trailer in the clubhouse parking lot by my Mom’s, so this is our first boondocking experience! Woo-hoo! I was reminded yesterday that not everyone reading this blog know RV terms, so I suppose I should explain boondocking - it is camping where there are no hook-ups (water, sewer & electric) so you can boondock in a Walmart parking lot or out in the forest. Since we are sleeping at the trailer our first boondocking will forever be the Clubhouse parking lot by Mom’s! Usually when you boondock you don’t have a really nice house to go hang out in all day with free laundry facilities, free wi-fi connection and someone that cooks for you, but then I never have been good at roughing it.

Oh… yesterday when we went through Salem there was a large banner on a warehouse liquidation store that made Dave & I chuckle:

SHOES
Buy one get one free

I do wonder…did they really mean one shoe or a pair of shoes….since we didn’t stop I’ll never know.

Both photos are of Silver Spur RV Park

Nothin' New

Besides surfing the net, cleaning, eating, napping and meeting some people that have a Golden Retriever that looks like a small version of Cheye, we didn’t do much. So I will post a couple more pictures and a video from Silver Falls.

Silver Falls State Park

Wow, what a lovely park. We weren’t expecting anything so big! Evidently there are 10 waterfalls you can hike by, we made it to two (hey, not bad for non-hikers!) South Falls which falls 177 feet and Frenchy Falls which is so small they didn‘t list how far it falls. We started off with Cheyenne, taking a couple little trails around, I believe one was called the Maple Grove trail. Unfortunately the trail that looked the most interesting, the Canyon Trail , is no pets allowed so we took Cheye back to the pickup and headed out again. The reason we wanted to take that trail is it takes you behind the South Falls, very beautiful. We just went a little ways and then headed back. It was a pleasant little walk, fairly steep coming back but nice. I would definitely recommend stopping at this park if you are in the area. You can get some beautiful views of South Falls from trails that don’t demand much walking, and the trails are paved.

Something that struck both of us on our way to Silver Falls Park was all of the Christmas Tree farms we saw. Acre after acre of them. I kind of figured fresh Christmas trees were really on their way out, most people I know have artificial ones. I suppose some of the trees may be sold live to nurseries also, but the signs usually said “Christmas Trees”.

After we went to Silver Falls we came home, ate some lunch and headed in to Salem, our destination was Costco. Goodness it was busy there! We were hoping to pick up a couple golf cart batteries but they didn’t have any. We’ve seen them at other Costco’s but this one seemed to be out. If you didn’t know RV’ers use golf cart batteries to run lights and appliances when they don’t have a power hook-up. We haven’t done any camping where we needed them yet, but I imagine they would come in handy.

Pictures and videos are all from Silver Falls State Park.


Falls from above

Falls from behind

Oregon Garden

Today we visited Oregon Garden here in Silverton. It is a lovely garden that even includes a narrated tram ride around the park. They are currently building a resort on the property where you can stay in garden themed rooms. The property will also include a 5 star restaurant in the main lodge building. The sign said open 2008, maybe by fall or winter but they have a ways to go.

We met a couple from Salem, Clyde and Barb, last night and enjoyed talking with them. They are parked just across from us so we got to talking again this afternoon for quite a while. Nice people. Dave & I took a couple walks around the park with Cheye today. The RV park is quite large which makes for nice walks. There is also a fish pond where you can catch and release fish and a “nature trail” around part of the park. The nature trail is actually just a mowed trail through the tall grasses that goes by some settling ponds. Quite a number of huge bull frogs living in the ponds, they are really loud!

Again a very pleasant day.
The pics and video are of the Oregon Garden.

Silverton Oregon

We moved today to Silver Spur RV Park in Silverton Oregon, just out of Salem. We are out in farm country, pretty rolling hills and a view of Mt. Hood. The park is nice, a beautiful club house and a fair sized park. Trees in the park are rather small yet but it is still a nice park. When we checked in we saw they were having a spaghetti feed tonight so we signed up to go. We were to bring either a salad, veggie, desert or bread dish so I took stock of our supplies and found I had coleslaw makings so that is what I took. There were about 20 people there and we talked a lot with Ted and Laura from Port Townsend, WA. They have been full timing for a year now so we talked about their travels. It was a nice time.

The weather here is quite a change from the Oregon Coast even though we only moved about 70 miles. The temperature went from the high 60’s to the 80’s! So yesterday I was in a sweatshirt and jacket, today shorts and tank top.

I've included a few pictures of the country between the coast and Salem Oregon….
A huge stack of logs at a lumber mill and a shot while driving through the Van Duzer Corridor

Pleasant Surprise

We drove into Lincoln City today to get the mail, fuel up and pick up a few things. On opening the mail we found a check from the from our mortgage company for overpayment! That was a surprise. We decided to celebrate and go to the Italian Riviera…well the Italian Riviera restaurant in Depoe Bay. Other than that our day was typical, reading, surfing the net, walking the dog, etc. As I mentioned we had Italian food for dinner, very nummy Italian food.

I’ve included a couple photos and a video from yesterday’s adventure…

Day Trip

Decided to head south toward Newport today, specifically to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. There is a $5.00 per car charge to get in to the park. The lighthouse was built in 1873 and originally had a home for the Lighthouse Keeper and family. Unfortunately the house was torn down in the 1980‘s but the lighthouse is still in great condition (you cannot go inside). We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and then drove to the lighthouse and took the stairs down to the tide pool area. There were a couple seals bobbing out in the water and lots of birds covering the rocks. Cheye went with us to the tide pools, but no pets allowed around the lighthouse so she had to stay in the pickup. The view from around the lighthouse is amazing!

From the lighthouse we drove to Agate Beach Wayside and headed out to the beach. Agate beach is a great beach, wide and long if you like to walk along the ocean and a view of the lighthouse. We had packed a picnic lunch so we found a spot, spread out our blanket and had lunch on the beach. A lovely lunch until Cheye decided to get up and wiggle around turning our sandwiches into SANDwiches! Oh well, a crunchy tuna sandwich isn’t all that bad, maybe the sand helps aide digestion…

We stopped in Newport for ice cream cones and then at Walmart for a few items. On the way home we pulled in to a couple of view points, Otter Rock being the most spectacular. Wow what a view! A really nice day trip, so glad we went.

The view from Otter Rock and below seals looking at us while we look at them

View from the Lighthouse

Some Plans

We have been talking about getting a RV style Dish Network dish and have decided to get one. They mount them to the roof of the RV and it has some sort of sensor that finds the satellites for you. This would allow us to dispense with using the “satellite finder” that squeals and hollering through the window; “no signal, at 23, no 42, no 3”, etc. We both like the idea of not doing that anymore. I know there are pros and cons, park under a tree and you probably will get no signal, well we spent 2 days here with a regular dish and no signal because we couldn’t find it. We don’t watch a huge amount of TV, but if there is something to watch it is annoying when you can’t just because the signal can't be found. Also I miss the music stations, not like MTV but the ones that are like a radio station. Those I listen to a lot. So we will get one ordered and have it installed. Hopefully we won’t be disappointed!

Not much to say about today. Cleaned the trailer, did laundry, caught up on Quicken, surfed the net, walked the dog, soaked up the scenery and fairly warm weather. I enjoyed it. :)

Here is a video of Cheye chasing a couple crows on the beach yesterday.

Decisions

As I mentioned yesterday we have been talking about where to go next, etc. Our plans include a cruise out of Miami in December so that was a driving force in our plan on where to be and when… yes I said “was". After talking about it, the idea of a cruise right now just isn’t exciting us. We had hoped some friends of ours were going to be able to go cruising with us, but that didn’t work out so we have decided to not go on the cruise. Instead we will visit some places in the States that would have been out of reach this year had we needed to be in Miami. Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico all hold places I am anxious to see so we will probably head that direction over the winter. So now the only “have to” is South Dakota before October. The plan for getting there will probably take us through Montana and Wyoming.

We have been at the Oregon coast for a week now and will head out on Friday morning. Today was a pretty typical day, went down to the beach for a walk and to let Cheye run. After our walk we did a little shopping at Bi-Mart and Safeway and then home. The afternoon has been napping, surfing the net, taking Cheyenne for a walk around the park and making Corn Chowder for dinner. A pleasant day.

Here is a pic to show you the view out out our window here at Coyote Rock RV Park. Below find a video of Cheye chasing a Seagull, she is getting a little braver about the ocean!

Very Quiet Day

We just hung around the campground today. Dave made scrambled eggs and bacon this morning for our breakfast which was quite tasty. He uses our outdoor Coleman grill & griddle combo which works great. Frying bacon in the trailer is kinda touchy, it is such a small area and then there is the matter of the smoke detector… it is sensitive, as it should be, but they need a “Hold on, I’m frying bacon right now” setting. When we fried bacon in the trailer a while ago that darned thing went off and we couldn’t get it to shut down. Dave finally removed the battery for a while… so bacon is now fried outside. :)

We have been discussing a plan for our future travels. We need to get back to South Dakota at some point, but we want to miss Sturgis during the rally (too many people) but still get there before the bad weather sets in. We are still tossing it around and looking at options. The internet is just soooo handy!

I think this RV park has some interesting cabins, they call them tree houses. Kind of a cute idea. The Siletz River has been known to flood occasionally so this puts the cabins our of harms way. Here is a picture of them:















And here is a little video of the river flowing by the campground:

Another day at the beach

We started the day by meeting a couple, Ed & Bonnie, from Kentucky. They have been full timing for a couple years now, traveling the country in a beautiful Class A. They shared a few stories of their adventures and gave us a few tips. I would have enjoyed talking more with them but they only stopped for the night and were headed back out this morning. They had been told the Oregon beaches were beautiful and had visions of the beautiful beaches of Florida…well, drop the temperature about 30 degrees, add some rain, clouds and rugged hills and you have a pretty good comparison!

We drove down to the public beach access at D River again. I had forgotten it was Saturday so the beach was quite active, people out with kids, kites and dogs. Cheyenne has decided she is a seagull hunter. Being a Golden Retriever I guess birds would be a natural instinct for her, but she chases them while they are flying. She looks up in the air and runs under them, one of these days she is going to be looking up chasing the gull and run into something on the ground. Surprised she hasn’t already. Anyway, on our wanderings we happened upon a cute little park I believe was called Canyon Drive Park. Just off the beach with parking for the beach access. Kind of a little hidden gem.

I was reading the Geeks on Tour blog ( www.geeksontour.blogspot.com ) and they mentioned a site that has a RV forum - www.rv-dreams.com I’ve checked out a couple of other RV forums and couldn’t get excited about them but I really like this one. Lots of different topics and a number of members, so now I have lots of reading to do!

Pictures from the little park we found on Canyon Drive

We moved

We made our move from Fogarty Creek RV Park to Coyote Rock RV Resort & Marina. Only about a 10 minute drive but wow what a difference. Fogarty Creek is a nice park, but it is just a place to park your RV and then head to the beach…kind of like a motel. Coyote Rock is beautiful! Right on the Siletz River, beautiful large trees, grassy areas, nicely landscaped, just lovely. It is North of where we were and about a mile and a half east off Hwy 101. We feel remote but are actually closer to Lincoln City than at Fogarty Creek. Definitely a nice change!

Besides packing up, moving and setting back up we did a little grocery shopping and picked up our mail in Lincoln City today. Tonight I think it will be hamburgers on the grill for dinner.

Dave just mentioned it is 1 month ago that we moved out of our home in Benton City. It is also my 6 month anniversary of leaving my last job! It’s interesting thinking back, in one way packing up the trailer and moving down to Prosser seems so long ago, but then again in other ways it seems like just a couple days. Funny how the mind works, or doesn’t !!

Below is our trailer at Coyote Rock and on the right is a shot from the boat dock on the Siletz River

Sunshine!

The sun has been shining since we got up this morning. As the day has progressed there is a bit of a breeze, but it is simply a lovely day!

This morning we drove down to the Gleneden Beach public access for our morning walk along the ocean. There were a few brave soles out surfing and a number of people out enjoying the beach. Shortly after we started our walk we saw some track hoes digging up the sand. Looks like they were digging down to stack boulders in the huge hole hoping to beef up the shore line by some houses. Or maybe it was just boys with big sand shovels… ;)

This afternoon was taken up by doing laundry and napping. Then it was off on another walk down to the State Park. Again, lots of people out enjoying the sunshine both in the park and out on the beach.

Tomorrow we leave here and plan to head to a park located on the Siletz River just about 20 minutes away. Just a change of pace. I do have to admit that the past week or so, just as I wake up, I wonder where I am - what park, what town. It’s an odd disorienting feeling, but I am afraid it isn’t going to go away any time soon! :)

Trees at Gleneden Beach park

Here's a clip so you can pretend you're at the beach too!

D River

The weather is a bit better today, cloudy but no wind and substantially less rain. We drove up to the public beach access at D River in Lincoln City this morning. The beach there is a wonderful wide, long, stretch of sand. We started out toward the ocean, let Cheye off her leash and she finally got the feel of a real beach. She ran and ran and ran, chased seagulls and crows having a great dog time. We also enjoyed our walk and the beach, really beautiful.

The RV park has really filled up. Last night 4 RV’s from California that are all traveling together arrived. Today a huge beautiful Class A from Washington pulled in, everyone is very friendly. We frequently have “neighbors” hopping on our roof here, crow neighbors. The noise is a very quiet clicking/scratching noise. I always look at Cheyenne thinking she is up to something.

Later in the day…..
We walked down to the State park this afternoon. Usually there are just a couple people at that beach but today there were quite a few, I’m sure due to the nicer weather. The tide was out so we were able to walk much further down the beach. We found a nice rock to sit on and just watched the ocean for a while. After we got back we grilled halibut on the bbq for dinner…yummy. All in all a very nice day!

Lazy Day

It has been a very typical Oregon Coast day… rain squalls, heavy mist, wind, clouds, so we haven’t been out much. We drove in to Lincoln City to do a little banking and filled up the pickup with diesel. No, the banking was not to take out a loan to fill the tank with diesel, but it is getting ridiculous! Oh well, I’m sure the fuel prices will get higher yet but as there is little I can do to stop it I’m not gonna worry about it.

We did take a couple short walks over to the Fogarty Creek State Park today. The park is protected from the wind so providing you manage to fit your visit between rain squalls it‘s not a bad place to go walking. On our second walk we braved it out on to the beach and found oodles of sea foam. Now if you have never seen sea foam in the wind, it kind of looks like wobbling Jello. Cheyenne was not at all sure what to make of this stuff. She spotted a little glob of it caught between a couple rocks and… well, look at the video… so funny.

The photo above is at Fogarty Creek State Park

The photo to the right is of the sea foam on the beach

Cheyenne vs. the sea foam

Depoe Bay, OR

We are staying at the Fogarty Creek RV Park in Depoe Bay. It is right next to the Fogarty Creek State Park which is a day use park only. The weather is misty and a little windy but somehow at the Oregon coast that is just perfectly acceptable! The RV park is small but fine. Not right on the beach but it is just a short walk through the State Park to get to beach access. Free wi-fi and cable so that will keep us entertained when it is too rainy to get out, so we’re happy!

Dave, Cheyenne & I walked down to the beach shortly after arriving. We have been wondering what Cheye’s reaction would be to the ocean… see the video below!

It is great to be back at the beach, especially along the Oregon coast. The smells and sounds are so soothing. The weather is supposed to clear up over the next few days so I’m looking forward to some beach combing. We will be here for a few days and then may just mosey down the coastline a bit.

Cheye meets the Ocean

In the State Park

Ocean view

You’ve got mail….NOT!

Well dang, no mail yet. Note to self: leave at least a 3 day window for receiving mail. So we are camped at Jim & Kathy’s for the weekend. It is actually a really nice place to be; friendly people, fenced-in yard for Cheyenne to run, electric and water hook-up, free of charge, but I was hoping to start on our adventure. You see I really don’t feel like we have completely left yet. The first step was getting over the Pass and out of the Yakima Valley, then only a little visiting and away we go. However the U.S. Mail goes at it’s own pace and I shouldn’t have cut it so close when I told the mail forwarding company to send our mail here. Silly me.

Here is a little video of Cheyenne and Jim's dog Recon having a friendly tug-of-war

There's no place like home

It was so good to see Mom and spend a few days with her. We did a little shopping, went out to dinner and chatted and chatted. It was a great visit.

Dave & I took off for Chehalis about 1:30. While on the road Jim called to say the trailer would be done about 4:00 p.m. So we picked up the trailer and are staying in Jim & Kathy’s backyard again. Haven’t gotten the official word on what the problem was but everything seems to be fixed! Yeah! I know we have only been living in our trailer for 3 weeks but it definitely feels like home now and I missed it. It is so fun to have a house that goes where we do.

Not sure if we will just spend the weekend or take off in the morning. Our mail was forwarded here but hasn‘t arrived. I imagine the mail should show up tomorrow and then we will decide whether to head out or not. We are looking toward Oregon, somewhere down I-5. Maybe after that the beach.

Me working on the blog - at home

Where Is The Sunshine?

It has rained and drizzled on us ever since we went over White Pass. I grew up on this side of the mountains but I lived on the east side of Washington State for about the last 28 years….I miss the sunshine of the east side. Of course I also love the beautiful Rhodies, Azaleas and the greenery that all the rain and drizzle keeps so beautiful on this side of the State. It is kind of interesting what a difference one mountain range can make.

We plan to go back up to Chehalis tomorrow morning hoping the trailer will be fixed by the afternoon. If not we will have to punt. From there we are thinking of either going to the beach or possibly going to a bit south first and then to the beach. As usual we don’t know and I am really enjoying that aspect of our new lifestyle!

Hey... some blue sky!

Shopping

We’re having a really nice visit with Mom. Cheyenne is feeling quite a home already (note the photo). The weather here has been cloudy and cool, around 60 degrees. A little bit of a breeze but pretty mild. I do have to admit I’m already missing the sunshine of the east side of the state. This morning Mom had her 2 exercise classes to go to so we decided to take advantage of the no sales tax in Oregon and go shopping .

We headed to Camping World which is obviously a store specializing in camping equipment but they lean more toward the RV world rather than tent type camping. Dave has been wanting a generator so he got a Honda 2000. We both have been wishing for more comfortable lawn chairs, so we got a couple of those too. Add to that some parts for the sewer line, stuff for the kitchen and a patriotic wind sock and you have a list of what was in our shopping cart. Tomorrow, Costco!

For dinner tonight Mom, Dave & I plan to go to Sweet Tomatoes restaurant. I love that place, a really good buffet, good food and good selection. Rumor has it they are featuring Strawberries this month….yum!

Mom's interesting house plant

Beautiful Rhododendrons at a neighbor's house

Hey!! The Space Station is having toilet flushing problems too... maybe it's something going around ;)

Dear John

Flushing with success after our visit with Jim & Kathy we made a pit stop in Chehalis for minor trailer repairs. Unfortunately we were not privy to all the facts. After snaking through the paper trail things came to a head so we sat to contemplate the situation. What seemed to be a pee sized problem has become a major clog so we plunged into action. Leaving our trailer backed up on the back side of Jim’s lot, we have left it there for the maintenance man to do his business. We are currently breaking wind down to Vancouver, trailer-less, hoping the repairman is able to roto-root out the problem. If you haven’t figured out what the problem with the trailer is then you need your head examined… after all that is the repair…..having our head (toilet) examined. We have decided not to moon over this but rather enjoy the toilet humor.

We will be staying with my Mom for a few days. It was a hasty packing job, hopefully I got everything. So after three weeks in our trailer we will be staying in a regular house for a couple nights and of course Cheye is with us. It is just another fun quirk to our adventure. I am sure there will be many other unexpected plan changes as we go. It’s not like we have anything keeping us from going with the flow…. :)


Flowers at Mom's and the Pick-up parked in front of Mom's