Back in San Jose

 

Sunday, November 22, 2009                                                                                                Lorraine’s report

Here we are, back at Trailer Tel RV Park in San Jose, CA. We got here on Thursday, Chuck took the coach by Lea lees RV Repair Shop to see if they can put in a bid on fixing the booboo, the stress cracks and a few things. They will get the bid to us this week.

Last Sunday, Joe and Alice, our friends from Birch Bay came into our park there in Laughlin. We spent the afternoon visiting and catching up. We went out to the swap meet there at AVI casino to check on several things, but didn’t get anything. They wanted to play for an hour or so inside, so we did. We ate dinner there with them, Alice and I had the $.99 special ham and eggs. Again, it was very good.

Monday, Joe and Alice wanted to go to breakfast, so off we went, to the Riverside Casino for their breakfast buffet, again, a great meal for all of us. We then went for a drive into the desert, looking for Christmas Tree Pass and the hieroglyphs. We found where they were, and Joe/Alice/Chuck went off down the trail to find them. I just sat on the rocks, watching the sun cast its shadows on the surrounding mountains, listening to the wind.

A few minutes later Alice came back, she was in sandals and the sandy, gravely road was hard to walk in with her sandals, so we visited. Chuck took the camera and got some great pictures.

We came home, visited some more, and decided to rest and then meet up for the Monday Night Football game at the Edgewater. Alice won a big cup full of goodies for finding a postage stamp first. We had a lot of fun that evening.

Tuesday, we said our goodbyes to Joe and Alice and will meet up with them in Palm Springs. I did laundry, errands and getting the coach ready to leave the next morning to head back to the bay area. Chuck had his chores to do also.

Wednesday we headed back to the bay area. Coming through the mountains before Bakersfield, we hit some strong head winds from a storm coming in. We pulled over for the night at Orange Grove RV Park, since it was so windy and getting dark.

Thursday was a nicer day for traveling, and we got into the bay area by 1:30 or so. Chuck had the coach in for estimates, and he unhooked the car so I could go and get Kaitlyn. As usual, she was so excited to see me, we headed back to the RV Park so I could help Chuck set up. We got back just in time to do that. Kaitlyn sure wants to help you do whatever you are doing.

After setting up, we went on up to Susy and Mark’s house to get her after Susy got off work. All of us then went to dinner, then back home to Susy’s.

Friday, Chuck went and picked up Kaitlyn and brought her back for a day of playing, arts and crafts and just having a fun time.

At 3:00 we went back up to Susy’s to meet up with her and drive over to the Oakland Airport to pick up our son, Rich, who was coming in from Florida to be with us over the Thanksgiving holiday. His plane was coming in around 5:45, we met him and all went to eat, since the traffic was so heavy yet. Then, we went back over to Susy’s house and more visiting.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early. Mark had heard they were having a swine flu clinic there in San Jose at the fairgrounds by us. Chuck took me over and we got in this huge line. Mark and Susy and Kaitlyn came a short time later and waited for the flu shot. We were in line for less than two hours, we had numbers 1628, 1629, 1630, 1631. We had heard they had 6000 shots to give out that day. Mark and Susy came the last two weekends, but didn’t stay, because the lines were several miles long. The four of us got our flu shots, Chuck didn’t. I have to say the crew there passing the many people through was really very well organized, and the volunteers kept the line moving smoothly.

We went home and I made up some snacks for the “Big Game”; this is the rivalry between the football teams of Stanford and California State Bears. Cal won. All of us were there rooting on Stanford, so they could go to the Rose Bowl. At least our little family was together, we had good food and a lot of fun.

So that was our week. I want to wish all our family and friends a Happy Thanksgiving. May the time you spend together with each other be blessed. Also, on a sad note, Mark, our son in law lost his grandmother on Friday evening. Our sympathies go out to Mark, his mother and her family.

Until next time…….Happy Thanksgiving to all……Lorraine

 

Nov. 22, 2009                                                                                                                       Chuck’s report

First off, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you are able to spend time with your family.  We are lucky this year, we are at our daughter’s, son-in-law and grand daughter’s house with our son coming in for the week.  I think the plan is to go out for Thanksgiving dinner but the main thing is we will all be together. 

I also have to report a sad thing.  Our son-in-law Mark got word his grandmother passed away on Friday.  She lived in Seattle area and they will be heading back there for the funeral next weekend.  We wish him and all his family the very best at this trying time. 

Last week we were able to spent two days with our friends, Joe/Alice, from Washington.  We got caught up on their happenings since we’ve last seen them.  We did a couple of buffets, watched Monday night football  at a casino and drove out to Christmas Tree Pass to see the hieroglyphs the ancient ones carved/painted on the rocks.  All in all, a good time with our friends of many years. 

We were staying in Laughlin and it was just a few short miles up the road to the turnoff to Christmas Tree Pass.  We drove about 4 miles down a dirt road to the parking lot and had a short hike to where the hieroglyphs are located.  I was please to see they were in good shape with no graffiti on them.  There was a guy there who  seemed to know what the symbols meant, at least he talked a good story.  I was just impressed with how they’ve held up over the years and wondered how they got to some of the locations.  

We left Laughlin and headed West once again.  We ran into some pretty heavy winds the first day so we pulled in the Bakersfield Orange Grove RV park again.  The oranges are still not at their peak for ripeness but we were able to find and pick a few more.  We left the next morning with nice weather to accompany us on our travels back to the Bay area. 

Once we got in the area, I took the coach into a repair shop we have dealt with before for an estimates on the work we need.  Once again, if they give us a good price and we decide to have the work done here, we may not head back to Alabama to the factory.  We’ll see what they say later this week.

While the shop was looking over the needed repairs, I unhooked the car and Lorraine left to pick up Kaitlyn from day care.  They got to the RV park just after I got the coach backed into our site.  We got set up, with lots of help from our grand daughter, and then Lorraine got to get some more baby time.

So the next couple of days were spent like a couple of weeks ago, time with Kaitlyn during the day and with Susy and Mark during the evenings.  Plus, our son came in Friday evening and will be here this upcoming week too. 

Saturday morning was spend standing around so Lorraine, Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn could get their swine flu shot.  As most of you may be aware, the vaccine is still in short supply so they have clinics around the area with limited supply.  We got to the location early and still there was about 2000 people ahead of us.  But about two hours later, we left with everyone getting their shot.  Even though I don’t partake of these opportunities (I’ve only got one flu shot years ago), I still stood around with them for the two hours.   

Today I hear that Susy and Lorraine want to get Susy’s Christmas tree up, as she will not be here next weekend.  So we will be heading over there pretty soon.  I will bring the tree and all the trimmings up from the garage and then stay out of their way.  They both like decorating a tree for Christmas, we can’t have one in the coach so Lorraine gets her “fix” helping Susy put hers up. 

And now for some pictures of our week.

Joe and Alice

Christmas Tree Pass hieroglyphs.

 

From Laughlin to the Bay area.

An Airforce base out in the desert. 

The incoming storm.

Fields of rose, late in the season but still have some colors.

The real reason we come here.  I really like the upside down crown Kaitlyn has in the last picture. 

So another week has gone by for us.   We will be leaving here and head for Palm Springs, just not sure of when yet.  Our current plans have us getting there on 12/1 but we may want to head for warmer weather if Susy and family leave for the funeral.  Lucky our plans are carved in Jell-O! 

Thanks   Chuck

Still in Laughlin, Nevada

 

Sunday, November 15, 2009                                                                                               Lorraine’s Report

We’ve had another busy week in Laughlin, NV. Last Sunday I went to the Outlet Mall just down the block from us. I had several purchases in mind, found a couple of them at good prices. I came back home to pick Chuck up and off we went looking for Dollar Tree. We found that store, made our purchases and headed out into the desert, looking for a new Indian Casino, AVI Casino. Outside that casino, they were having a swap meet that we wanted to check out. Afterwards, we went inside for a bit, then decided to eat dinner. The casino has a special going on 24/7 of Ham and Eggs- 99 cents. It was a very good meal for 99 cents.

Monday, we went to the Edgewater Casino for a free Ladies Slot Tournament; come to find out, men are allowed to enter, also. Neither Chuck nor I had any luck with the machines they had for the tournament.

We left there and ran our errands, ending up at the Safeway in Bullhead City, where I got my groceries, and Chuck rented a carpet shampoo machine to do the carpets in the coach.

Once the carpets were completed, we took off to go watch the Monday Night Football game on TV at the Edgewater Casino. The Edgewater was having a free football party, giving away prizes all evening during the game. On the way over, we stopped by the Colorado Belle Riverboat Casino. I put in my $$ and ended up getting a bonus on the third spin that paid quite well.

Continuing on over to the Edgewater, we signed in and collected our entry forms. They had specials on beer and food. During the commercial breaks, they would draw names from the entry barrel. The second commercial break, they pulled my name from the barrel. I went up to the front and tried to throw a football into a homemade board with five holes; the one in the center was for $500, the others two were for a free gift, and two for $25.

Needless to say, I missed; not having thrown a football before, but they gave me a hat and $10 in free slot play. It was a fun evening.

Tuesday, Chuck tried to find a vet to take Misty to. Misty had gotten that water bug parasite, again. No luck, so one of the places suggested he call our vet back in Bellingham, which he did. Our vet was able to call in to a vet’s office a prescription to get Misty on the road to recovery, again. She’s lots better.

We finished our errands and came on home. We decided to have dinner at the Tropicana Casino, their Prime Rib buffet. It was very tasty and good.

Wednesday, Veteran’s Day, was a day off for us. Chuck had heard about the wild donkeys in Oatman, AZ, so we took off to go see them. It was a cooler, overcast day.

Oatman is an old mining town that is full of touristy type shops on Route 66. They have lots of wild donkeys that roam all over the streets. The tourists can buy a bag of carrots to feed these animals. The donkeys follow you down the street until all the carrots are gone, then move on to the next person. It was a nice day for a drive and we had a good time.

We got home and I cooked dinner. We also heard our friend, Bill passed away that day. He had lung cancer. He was on vacation in Canada and returned home on Saturday. Sunday he didn’t feel very well so on Monday he went to his doctor. He found out a day or so later that he had lung cancer, the tumors had broken his ribs, and it was stage 4. Thank you all for praying for a miracle, Jeanette and Bill were sure hoping for one, but that was not to be.

Thursday, Chuck took Misty into Bullhead City to get groomed. Chuck also had his hair cut. I stayed home all morning and wrapped most of the presents for our family for Christmas.

Friday, I called down to the front office to find a place to have my hair done. The gal there said that the salon at Riverside, where we are staying was a good place to have my hair done. So I called and made an appointment to go. Chuck stayed home and did stuff around the coach. My hair turned out ok, but this gal was more expensive than I expected. For dinner we went to Riverside’s Friday night Seafood Buffet. It was very good, and very busy. We came right home and watched TV, since we were both tired.

Saturday I did some laundry, finished wrapping Christmas presents and returned several things I had bought. We then went out to AVI, the Indian Casino. They were having a promotion where if you got so many points, they gave you a snuggle blanket. People were walking out of the casino with boxes of them.

That brings us to Sunday. Joe and Alice, our friends from Birch Bay are coming into town from Las Vegas for a night. They want to go to dinner. It will be nice to see them again. It’s funny, when we’re there in Birch Bay we have a hard time hooking up. We have to come 1300 miles or so to meet up with them.

So until next time…Be well…Lorraine

11/15/09                                                                                                                                   Chuck’s report

It is with heavy heart that I mention the passing of our friend Bill this week.  We were able to visit with them for a couple of days about three weeks ago and I’m glad we did.  Our thoughts, prayers and best wishes go to his family in this sad time. 

One of the reasons we wanted to come to Laughlin was to get some “down” time in some warm, dry weather.  We have accomplished that and then some.  The weather here has been great, in the 80s during the day and down to the 40s at night.  Our coach has some dark colors so when the sun comes up, the inside gets warm quickly but it doesn’t get too hot with the AC running. 

We did take advantage of the dry heat to rent a shampooer to clean our carpets.  We cleaned the carpets before our trip to Alaska.  What with normal usage and our trip to Alaska, it was getting time for a good cleaning.  Our coach does have tile in the entryway and all through the main coach.  The only carpet is in the bedroom and in the forward passenger side slide out.  But still there is too much for just using a hand held unit, therefore I rented a machine from the grocery store.  Lorraine said she is pleased with the results so maybe I did a good job.  So with the throw rugs being cleaned last week and the carpet cleaned this week, I think we are good to go for awhile. 

Misty has picked up a bug once again so I called our vet back in Bellingham, he faxed in a prescription to a local vet for some pills for her.  Lorraine also made up some rice and hamburger meat for her, that seems to help too.  She is doing better but when we go for a walk, she is a bit slower and doesn’t want to go as far.  She also likes this weather, she likes to just lay out in the sun like a lizard.

Monday evening we decided to watch Monday Night Football at a casino.  They give out tickets according to how much you’ve gambled that week so we didn’t have many tickets to put into the drum.  The folks who get their name drawn attempt to throw a football into holes in a sign and possibly win anything from a free prize, $25 free slot play or the big prize (littlest hole in the board) of $500 cash.  We were surprised to hear them call Lorraine’s name on the second pull.  She tried for the $500 but didn’t make it, in fact of the 20 people who had their names drawn, only two won $25 free slot play by hitting the biggest hole in the board.  Still, they gave Lorraine $10 free slot play and a hat, not bad. 

On Wednesday afternoon we headed about 30 miles out of town to visit Oakman, an old mining town.  This town was part of the gold rush in the early 1900s, going through a couple of boom/bust times.  In fact, when the town was going through one of its boom times, the famous Route 66 was built and it went through the town.  A few years later, however, the road was moved to a more accessible area for those old model Ts to drive.  The mines were closed for good in the 40s and the town sort of died. 

Some call it a ghost town but its better known for the wild burros that roam freely.   The miners used burros to carry their heavy loads but when they left, they just turned them loose.  Over the years they have learned to adapt and there are at least two herds of them now.  They roam the town, accepting handout from the tourists.  There were probably 10 in town while we were there, once someone feeds them, they follow that person around hoping for more.  It was fun to watch some of the people feed them then try to get away as the burros chased them down the street or even on the sidewalks. 

They also have a “shoot out” on the main street twice a day.  We were there for the 12:00 shoot out, probably the lamest example of a shoot out we’ve seen.  There are lots of these across the US and every one we’ve seen puts this one to shame.  Oh well, at least they tried. 

This week, Lorraine has spent a few hours wrapping some of the Christmas presents she has bought during our travels this year.  Most of the places we stop she likes to roam the shops and see what she can get for our kids and especially our grand daughter.  She is a big Christmas type person and enjoys most aspects of it except for the wrapping so she is glad to have most of it done early. 

There are lots of casinos in Laughlin, in fact that’s really why the town was built in the 70s.  All I have to say about the casinos is !@#$%, that says it all about the luck I’ve been having with the slot machines.  At least we haven’t been visiting them everyday.  They do have good buffets in some of the places but the days of the $4.00 feeds are pretty much over too.  I’m sure glad that’s not the reason we came to town, ha

Saturday Lorraine was able to do some shopping while I watched the Washington Huskies football team lose yet again.  They are playing better than they did last year but still have a long way to go.  Their glory days are behind them but hopefully there will be more ahead too. 

Our friends from Blaine, Washington, Joe/Alice, are coming in today from Las Vegas for a one day stop.  They aren’t full timers but do spend about 5 months on the road every winter.  We never seem to find the time to visit with them when we are back home, seems the only time we see them is on the road.  Oh well, whatever it takes, we are sure glad to see them when we can and looking forward to a good time with them today.

And now for the pictures:

The Colorado River from the Laughlin side.

Some pictures of our campground.

Pictures on the way to Oakman, love the unique way of displaying our flag. 

 

More Joshua Trees. 

Here are the burros and some of the town of Oakman.

 

 

A picture  taking opportunity. 

 

So once again, that was our week.  We will be heading back to the Bay area, getting there on Thursday and staying through Thanksgiving.   Lorraine has already been talking about spending time with our grand daughter, she sure has a good time with her. 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Laughlin, Nevada

 

Sunday, November 8, 2009                                                                                                     Lorraine’s report

We’re here in sunny, hot Laughlin, NV.  The temperature has been around 85 to 90 degrees daily, getting down to the 60’s at night; a big change from the Oregon coast and most definitely a change from our summer in Alaska.  We love it here.  We’re in a nice park, Don Laughlin’s RV Park, we have a great site, 50 amp, sewer and water.  We over look the town/ and Chuck pulled in head first so we can see the whole area.

We left the bay area on Tuesday morning, sadly, leaving behind our Grand daughter, Kaitlyn, Susy and Mark.  Chuck showed Kaitlyn our return date on our calendar for several days before we left, so she would know when we would come back to be with her.

We stayed at the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield the first night out.  The trees were loaded with oranges, but they aren’t ripe yet the gal said.  Chuck was able to find a few that did not have any green on them, so he picked a handful.  They are so sweet and juicy. They should be ripe by the time we leave the bay area in January. 

By late Wednesday afternoon, we were out of the trees and into the desert, with cactus and Joshua Trees, quite a change.  We arrived here around dinner time on Wednesday, set up, and drove down the strip.  We found an In & Out burger place for dinner, then came home. We were both tired.

Thursday was laundry and clean the coach day.  We finished that and went into Bullhead City to the Super Walmart to stock up. That Walmart was sure big and so busy.  We got home and both of us hadn’t slept well the night before, so we took a nap. We stayed home for dinner.

Friday we took the rugs into a Laundromat since they are so large, too large to fit into my washer/dryer.  Chuck suggested we go on down to the River Walk.  We did that, then had the Seafood buffet at the Aquarius Casino.  We played a while, both coming out ahead.

Saturday we got up and went into the Riverside Casino, the RV Park here gave us two free breakfast buffet tickets for staying here.  Next week we get two more tickets, such a great deal, since the food was very good.

This week we still need to shampoo the carpets from our Alaska trip.  That is the last thing left to do on the coach from that trip; and even though it is a lot of work to clean up, I would go again, since it was such a great trip.  I will also start my Christmas wrapping, while I have the chance.

Please continue to pray for our friends, Bill and Jeanette, Thank You.

Until next time……Lorraine

 

Sunday November 8th, 2009                                                                                                    Chuck’s report

Monday was the last day Lorraine could be with Kaitlyn all day so we took full advantage of it.  I picked her up at their house in the morning, Lorraine and she played, watched movies and did art work together all day.  We then headed over to Susy’s house.  After Susy and Mark got off work, we went to Black Angus for dinner.  Thanks Susy and Mark for sharing your time and daughter with us for a week.  As your governor has said “We will be back”.

We left the Bay area and headed East on Tuesday.  Lorraine was able to call some of our family and friends while we were on the road and get caught up on their happenings.  We pulled into Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield in the afternoon.  This park was built in an old orange grove, each site has at least one tree, most have more.  They allow you to pick the oranges from the tree(s) in your site.  The oranges are just starting to get ripe, most of them are still in the process.  We were able to find an few that were ripe and picked them, Lorraine really likes them, they are so sweet, being tree ripened. 

We left Bakersfield Wednesday morning and drove further East, through the Mohave desert, lots of nothing but straight roads and small hills.  The freeway was in pretty good shape with mild traffic.  I asked Lorraine if she wanted to drive; she surprised me when she said yes.  I’ve asked her many time if she wanted to drive and she has always said no, until now.  I pulled over to the side, we changed seats and she took off driving.  She drove for about 15 minutes, did a good job too.  She even passed a slow moving semi although she was nervous doing that.  The only other time she’s driven the rig was when we picked it up at the dealer in Alabama back in April, ‘07.   I’ve told her she needs get more comfortable driving so I could have my heart attack and know she could get us somewhere safely, ha. 

And I even have pictures to prove she was driving.  Of course, I can’t take good pictures but you can tell it was her behind the wheel.  She told me later that she wasn’t even aware I was taking her picture, she was concentrating so much on driving!

After her driving time, we once again exchanged chairs and I continue driving until we got to our planned stop at Don Laughlin’s RV park in Laughlin, Nevada.  I had found a coupon in one of the RV magazines that gave us two weeks for $109, normally it costs $145/week.  They also threw in four free breakfast buffets in the Casino, worth $7.99 each.  And, we were given one of the premium sites, on the upper level, on the bluff overlooking the town.  It’s really a nice spot and at night the lights from the casinos are nice.  We pulled into our site rather than back in so we could look out the front windshield and see the town, nice.  I’ve talked to a few folks who spend the whole winter here, nice weather and a quiet area. 

After getting set up, we headed into town for a bit of sightseeing and ate at In n Out burgers.  This a good place for a burger, not sure how they can afford to give such good burgers at that price. 

Next morning, Thursday, we took the bedspread and big rugs to a local laundry mat.  We haven’t been able to wash the rug since before our trip to Alaska, it looks good once again.  We spent the rest of day just lounging around, didn’t even head back into town to any of the casinos.

On Friday, we wanted to walk the river walk in town so we drove down and parked.  We walked the river for an hour or so, I had forgotten how fast the river current was and how clean the water is.  Boy what a different Colorado River here compared to Yuma!  Of course, while we were down town, we had to try a couple of casinos.  This was one of the times we both came out ahead, Lorraine more than me as usual but I did win a couple. 

Later we went to a seafood buffet where we both ate more than we should have but it was good.  Lorraine got to eat some crab, it’s been awhile since she’s had any crab and she likes it so much.  I don’t do seafood but made a pretty healthy dent in the prime rib at the carving station.  After dinner, we called it a night and headed back to our coach where we just relaxed. 

Saturday we decided to use two of our free buffet coupons so we once again headed down the hill.  The breakfast was good but of course, while we were there we had to try the casino.  I came out ahead (by a nickel (that’s $0.05) but Lorraine didn’t win this time.  Later we headed back to the rig for more of the relaxing time we came here for.   The weather has been just fantastic, in the high 80s during the day, down to the high 50s at night.  Definitely shorts and tee shirt time while here.  Both of us like the warm, dry weather, our joints don’t hurt as much.  Of course, we are glad we have air conditioners in the coach. 

We plan on staying here until the 18th, then head back to the Bay area to spend Thanksgiving at our daughter’s house.  Our son is on vacation in Florida and he will stop by on his way back home to Alaska.  So once again, we will all be together at our daughter’s for Thanksgiving, first time we’ve all been together in two years.  Looking forward to that.  We will then head for Palm Springs, California for two weeks after Thanksgiving, once again warm, dry weather, we hope. 

So that was our week, here are some pictures.

Our coach at Bakersfield Orange Grove RV park. 

Some of the drive from the Bay area to Laughlin, Nevada.

 

Once again, they have erected lots of wind generators along the way.  I think this is the third place we’ve seen these windmill “forests” here in California. 

The military has a big presence here in the desert.  This guy was flying low.

 

That’s Joshua Trees on the right, a kind of cactus that only grow at a certain elevation and temperature.  They look fluffy from a distance but they sure have big stickers on them. 

Bullhead City, Arizona, right across the river from Laughlin, Nevada.  This is where California, Nevada and Arizona borders meet.  

Here we are at the Colorado River in Laughlin.

Some pictures from our site, the sunset was spectacular our first night here. 

So that’s our week in review and with pictures once again.  Hope to do the same thing next week. 

Thanks  Chuck

We’re in San Jose, California

 

Sunday, November 01, 2009                                                                                               Lorraine’s report

We are here in San Jose, CA at Trailer Tel RV Park. We got here on Tuesday.

Last Sunday we left Rolling Hills in Corning and went to Lincoln, CA to see our friends, Bill and Jeanette. Bill is very ill, and we wanted to see him again. We had a nice visit on Sunday and a very nice dinner with them. Jeanette had us park the rig by her rig, they have water, power and sewer set up there at their home.

Monday, we got up and had a very nice day visiting with them. Jeanette put me in charge of dinner for everyone. People were coming in to visit with Bill/Jeanette, so I made up a bunch of snacks and had that out all day. I made up a smoked salmon dip from a King Salmon my son, Rick caught and smoked in Alaska. For dinner, Bill, who likes salmon, wanted some of our fresh king salmon we brought with us from this summer fishing in Alaska. We had a bar b que of salmon and steak; I made up potato salad, Jill, their daughter made a big green salad, Linda/Mike, our friends from Quartsite, who live just 30 minutes away, brought a tray of assorted olives/veggies; Penny, Jeanette’s friend who is visiting from Texas bought an assortment of cakes. There were nine people gathered together for a wonderful dinner and fellowship, which I hope Bill/Jeanette enjoyed, because we enjoyed our visit with them, very much. Thank you both for sharing your time with us.

Tuesday we got up, packed the rig and said our goodbyes. It was sad for us to leave them, not knowing how Bill’s recovery will be.  We set our GPS for the San Francisco Bay area, with Sunnyvale our destination. We arrived here around 1:30 pm; what a rough and windy ride. The wind was blowing up to 45 mph, pushing the coach all over the road.

We set up, Chuck had to change out the sewer hose and several other chores before we could go and pick up our grand daughter from her day care. What a happy, excited, little girl when she saw us. Kaitlyn took off running, throwing herself into my open arms and the following kisses that came with it. She then started chattering, gathering up her things so we could bring her to her house.

Since then, Chuck has picked her up from her home by 9:00 am, bringing her to our rig to spend the day with us. We’ve played, done art work, colored, watched movies, rested and eaten. She is so full of love and life, the days just fly by for me.

Thursday was the big Halloween Parade for all the preschool children at Kaitlyn’s school. Kaitlyn called me last weekend to ask me to come. She was worried we wouldn’t be there, but I told her we wouldn’t miss it for the world. So we went to the parade, arriving in plenty of time before the parade.

Kaitlyn dressed as Snow White, as most of the girls in her class were one Disney Princess or another. The children in her classroom and all the preschool children sure had a lot of fun marching around the play ground, showing off all their costumes. We took her back to our rig after the parade as Kaitlyn wasn’t feeling well later on Thursday and on Friday as well, so we took it slow after all the excitement.

Saturday was Halloween, Happy Belated Halloween everyone. We sure had a busy, fun filled day. Mark, Kaitlyn’s dad, wanted to go to Great America for Nick or Treating, so he took Kaitlyn there. Susy and I wanted to check out some things at various stores she had coupons for, so we did that. Chuck wanted to watch football on TV, so he did that.

We met back at our coach for the afternoon Trick or Treating at Valley Fair Mall from 3 to 4 pm. Chuck watched more football, and the rest of us took Kaitlyn over. What a packed mall that was; the noise level was incredible, with thousands of people all taking their children in for the holiday activity of Trick or Treating.

We came home around 5 ish and ordered pizza for dinner. The guys went and got the pizza. After that we went over to one of Kaitlyn’s classmates’ home. These people really get into Halloween. This year they built the front of their home as Cinderella’s castle; dad was dressed as a Prince and mom was dressed as the witch. Gracie was dressed as Princess Aurora.

Kaitlyn Trick or Treated on Gracie’s street while waiting for Gracie to get home. We were all beat by the time we got home; but we sure had a fun filled day. Thanks for letting us share the day with you, Kaitlyn, Mark, and Susy.

So that brings us to today. Until next week…..Lorraine

11/1/09                                                                                                                                  Chuck’s report

We left our friend’s home on Tuesday morning and headed South.  We had a good time visiting with Bill/Jeannette even though Bill isn’t  feeling too well.  Once again, we ask for him to be included in your prayers. 

On Monday, Lorraine volunteered to cook dinner for everyone at their house.  Their daughter and grand daughter spend most of the day with them also and her husband came by later.  Jeannette invited some other friends of ours, Mike/Linda who live nearby.   Lorraine prepared some of our Alaska salmon, their son-in-law bar-b-qed some steaks and the ladies fixed salads, a good meal.  Thanks Bill and Jeannette for allowing us to spend some time with you during your trying times. 

On Tuesday morning, we said our goodbyes and headed for the Bay area to be with our daughter, son-in-law and grand daughter.  Lorraine really wanted to spend Halloween with Kaitlyn.  We stay at a park only about 5 miles from their house so the traffic wouldn’t be too bad.  There is a 1000 Trails park about 45 miles away, depending on the traffic that can be anywhere from an hour to two hour drive. 

Lorraine has been getting her baby fix everyday, we pick Kaitlyn up in the morning, go back to their house in the afternoon and wait for them to get off work.  Kaitlyn sure enjoys time with Nana, can you believe she would rather be with her than go to school.  They color, do art work and just play together all day.  Lorraine enjoys it as much as Kaitlyn if the truth be known. 

Saturday night we all went to a school friend of Kaitlyns.  They have their house all decorated up as a Castle, the girls seem to have fun.  There were lots of people out trick or treating, most of the houses had already ran out of treats by 7:00 when we got there.  Lorraine, Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn had gone trick or treating to a mall earlier in the day so Kaitlyn had enough of that too. 

Lorraine and Susy got to spend some time together today (Sunday) out shopping, in fact I’m waiting for Lorraine to finish her report so I can get this posted.  Lorraine plans on fixing a pork roast for dinner to close out this week.  Tomorrow is the last day that Lorraine and Kaitlyn will be able to spend time together before we leave here.  I’m sure I’ll be picking her up in the morning and we will have her here all day getting our last baby fix for two weeks. 

Mark was able to find the setting on my computer that kept me from adding pictures to our blog.   I didn’t go back and add pictures to the last two weeks but do have some for this week. 

We plan on leaving here and heading for Laughlin, Nevada for two weeks.  Should be pretty relaxing and quiet there for us.  We have plans to be back here for Thanksgiving, and our son Rich is planning on being here too.  So with that, our week in review is complete except for the following pictures. 

Bill and Jeannette at their house. 

 

Proof that the tree leave are turning this fall. 

Now some family pictures.  Kaitlyn with our dog and at school in her Snow White costume.

Susy and Kaitlyn at her school.  They had a costume dress up and parade on Friday. 

At the mall on Saturday and making a unicorn at the build a bear place. 

   

Our daughter, Susy. 

At the Halloween party with Kaitlyn’s friend.  Notice the front of their house is decorated up as a castle.  They also dressed the part as the Wicked Witch and Prince Charming.. 

Kaitlyn and her friend Gracie. 

That’s all for now - - - -

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Lincoln, California

 

Sunday, October 25, 2009                                                                                                    Lorraine’s Report

We’re here in Lincoln, CA at our friends, Bill & Jeanette’s home. We’ve had our usual week of packing up and moving on.

Last Sunday was a quiet day at home, with breakfast at the Elks Lodge there in Eugene. Chuck stayed home after breakfast and I went looking at the mall, while he watched football all day.

Monday, we left Eugene and headed to a repair place there by Eugene to try and have the coach repaired, the booboo from Alaska, and the stress breaks. This shop was a great shop, the owner worked for Marathon Coaches, and boy did he run a clean, efficient shop. He told us we should take the coach back to the Tiffin factory in Red Bay, since the fractures could involve a lot of warranty work, and he didn’t do warranty work, and his prices were $105 per hour. We left there and headed to Seven Feathers. We arrived and set up, then went over for dinner. Seven Feathers no longer has an everyday buffet; only Thursday through Sunday night buffet, and the prices are higher. They have a coffee shop type restaurant, which was very slow, and I’ve never had so tough a tiny lobster tail. It’s a good thing the steak that came with it was good.

Tuesday was the second day in a very long time I felt almost normal. So of course that meant I had to clean my part of the closet, which I did. Upon completing the chore, we had a call from Barb/Bill to go to lunch. They came in from McMinnville and were in the parking lot of Seven Feathers dry camping. They came over and we went into Canyonville for lunch. We had a nice visit and a good lunch.

Wednesday, I went swimming in Seven Feathers nice pool. We ate lunch and went into the casino. Now, I hadn’t been having very good luck, Chuck had, but that day I came out ahead as did Chuck. We really like this campground. It is very quiet, with long sites; it is just your really nice RV resort.

Thursday we packed up and headed to Medford. We had a time trying to get to the Elk’s campground. We never did find it; they moved it from the lodge to ten miles outside at their picnic grounds. The GPS took us out to a tiny dirt road with no place to turn around; we had to unhook, back the coach up and back up this tiny dirt road. I drove the car and Chuck took us to a private campground there in Phoenix called Holiday RV Park.

We parked, set up and took off back into Medford for specific shopping. In downtown Medford there is a hundred year old shoe store that fits hard to fit feet. We went there and got both of us shoes. We then headed into the mall for more shopping. We finished up this shopping trip going to Costco for more specific stuff. Dinner was baked chicken from Costco, brought home.

Friday we got up early, and since I didn’t finish all I had wanted to get in Oregon; the owner of the RV Park said we could check out late. So back into Medford we went. Chuck checked out four RV supply places for parts we need for the coach. I needed to shop at Wal-Mart, and we went back to the big mall for a couple of more things I wanted for presents. Then, back to the coach and we hooked up the car and headed south. You sure could feel a change in temperature when we crossed into CA. The temperature went up to 81 degrees in a few short miles.

We drove on into Rolling Hills Casino hoping to get into their RV camp; but alas, no luck. We arrived around 5 pm, and the camp was full. We pulled on into the big rig parking lot and found a spot to dry camp. We dropped the jacks and set out the slides. We then went into dinner for the seafood buffet. While they didn’t have any Dungeness Crab meat, they had a very nice buffet.

Saturday morning I saw a fifth wheel leaving the RV Park, so Chuck checked this out. We moved into a full hookup spot by 9:30 am. The dry camper next to us in the parking lot ran his generator all night long. I finally got to sleep around 5 am; Chuck was going to wake me at 8 to see the balloons leave, but didn’t; I awoke around 8:30. I don’t know why Chuck didn’t get the camera to watch all the balloons leave. The car show started at 10, there was around 100 plus cars, and there was a ribs cook off going on also; and the balloons were there too. That was why the RV Park was full. The temperature was in the mid 80’s, so sunny and warm after being in the mid 50’s for the past several weeks.

Sunday, we got up and headed here to see Bill and Jeanette. Please continue to pray for Bill/Jeanette and family, he’s in great need.  Thank you for all your prayers.

It’s only two months from today until Christmas. 

Until next time…..Be well…..Lorraine

 

10/25/09                                                                                                                                 Chuck’s Report

We are still working our way South for the winter, have made it as far as Northern California.  We spent over a month in Oregon, I think we did the same last year.  We didn’t follow the coast all the way down this time, however but still had a good time in Oregon. 

We started the week in Eugene, staying  at the Elks club.  They have a very nice campground at their club and dinner is served most nights.  It is pretty handy to the town yet pretty quiet, almost in a residential area.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned the stress cracks we have developed on our coach.  Tiffin (and other manufactures too), have a problem with cracks developing in the slide cutout.  Well, it appears we are not immune to this problem as we have a small crack on the driver’s rear slide, front bottom corner.  We also have developed one on the driver’s front slide, back top corner.  This are still covered under our warranty, Tiffin will pay to have a shop of our choice repair them or they will repair them if we return the coach to Red Bay, Alabama.  We found a nice reputable shop in Eugene that works on coaches and had them look at our problems.  I wanted an estimate on repairing our fiberglass damage from out accident in Alaska, adding an outside vent to the microwave and repairing the two cracks.  They checked out the cracks and suggested the repair wouldn’t be too easy, might even require pulling the slides out for the repairs.  They said they could do all the work but recommended we return to the factory instead. 

So - - -  we are now back to our original plan to spend part of the winter in Texas.  As usual, we make plans and God laughs.  But we have pretty much been rolling with the flow since we started full timing just over two years ago and this isn’t a big hurdle for us either way.  At least we now have the starts of a plan for the winter. 

So, after that news, we decided to head on South to Canyonville, Oregon to Seven Feathers campground.  We have stayed here before and think its one of the best campground on the West coast.  The problem is there is a Casino here too, ha.  But we fooled them this time, both Lorraine and I left with more money than we started.  In fact, when we were getting ready to head back to the coach on the last night, I asked Lorraine if she had any comp play on her player’s card.  She checked and had $5 so we stopped at a penny machine on the way.  She entered her code, got the free $5 and on the third spin came up with $88.  Now that was a good spin, she had two more spins and then we left.  We stayed there for three nights, spend part of the second day with Bill/Barb who also left Eugene area and stopped here for one night. 

We left there on headed to Medford where we wanted to stay at the Elks club.  We never found it, even after calling them and getting a different address.  In fact, we ended up driving down a small, dirt road where we had to unhook the car and back out for a ways.  We decided to give up trying to find the Elks campground and headed for a private one we have stayed at before. 

The main reason we were stopping in Medford was for Lorraine to do some shopping, after all, Oregon doesn’t have any sales tax.  So we did our running around the first afternoon and next morning.  We then made the compass read “S” once again and headed for California.  We stopped for the evening at Rolling Hills Casino campground but it was full.  Seems there was a classic car and hot air balloon show over the weekend.  We decided to spend the night in the truck stop parking lot along with at least 30 other RVs.  Wouldn’t you know it, the guy next to us was the one that ran their generator all night, right outside our bedroom.  Between the generator and trucks coming and going, neither of us got a very good night’s sleep.  We were able to move into the campground the next morning  so it was only for the one night.  

So Sunday was another of the more common lately traveling day.  We headed out to our friends place here near Lincoln.  They have a very nice spread, still out in the country but town is moving ever closer to their place.  We met Bill/Jeanette in Quartzsite last winter, traveled with them to Mexico and stopped by their place on our way North this spring.  Unfortunately, Bill is going through some serious medical problems and we request everyone to include him in your prayers. 

Our plans for the next week have firmed up enough so we will make reservations at a campground.  Lorraine wants to spend Halloween near our daughter’s so she can be with our grand daughter, surprise, surprise.  We will be in the area until Tuesday after Halloween.  I found a coupon for a place in Laughlin, Nevada that will give us a full hookup site for one week, two breakfast buffets and if we stay before Dec., they will throw in another free week.  So, we will head to Don Laughlin’s for the following two weeks.  Ah, two weeks along the Colorado river, in a nice looking campground, enjoying the warm, dry weather.  Looking forward to that!

So, once again, that was our week, hope you had a good one too. 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Keiser, Oregon, near Salem

 

Sunday, October 18, 2009                                                                                                      Lorraine’s Report

Blog time, it’s time to write about our week. Well, we’ve really slowed things down a whole lot from this summer. It’s really been quiet and relaxing, giving us time to catch our breath and rest.

We are here in Keizer, OR at the Elk’s Lodge RV Park; it’s nice, good sites, 50 amps, sewer and water, close to the center of everything. We came here Monday from Seaside when they predicted windy and rainy weather. Chuck stopped to get the oil changed in the MH at Speedco there by Portland. It was going to be a bit of a wait, so Chuck unhooked the car and I went south to Woodburn Outlet Mall. Boy, did I run into some great buys with it being Columbus Day. I continued my Christmas shopping; the sales were 20-25% off with coupons for 10-30% more on top of sale prices. I made my rounds at the mall and met Chuck at the Elks in time to help him set up. For dinner, the Elks had tacos and taco salads for $1.00 and $3.50, great prices and very good food; it was really crowded. Tom, you would like it here.

Tuesday we went up to Camping World, Verizon, Nordstrom’s and the mall here in Salem. Chuck needed a new phone, a new light for underneath the cabinet here by the couch, and I shopped for my unmentionables. We were fortunate to find all things we went for. We got home and Chuck changed out the light and we went over to the Elk’s for hamburgers. Again, it was even more crowded, with a long lineup waiting for both drinks and the burgers; but it was worth the wait.

Wednesday we decided to drive over to Spirit Mountain Casino to try our luck. While in line waiting to get our cards, we saw our friends, Barbara/Bill in line directly in front of us. They were there with his cousin and her husband to enjoy the buffet. They invited us to join them, but we had a call from our other friends, Roger/Nancy on the way to the casino to have dinner with them, we accepted and were going to dinner with Roger/Nancy that evening. So, we just visited with Barb/Bill and didn’t eat. After a bit we went into the casino and played for a couple of hours. Chuck and I both won.

We got back in time to go to dinner with Roger/Nancy at a Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed our visit with them. They tried to take us to see where the RV repair place was, but it was too dark to see. But, we had a very nice dinner and visit.

Thursday, I called Nancy to ask where to get my hair done, since it was time to have my hair done. She gave me the name; I called and made my appointment. We then took off to go check out the RV repair place, but no one was around, even the office was closed. Chuck then decided to find my hair place. It took a bit to find, since we don’t know this town. I went in, it was very busy, and met my gal. She was very nice; I showed her all the different formulas and product lines that had been used on my hair. She looked at them all, saw one she had and said she knew exactly what to do. She then proceeded to do it. Needless to say, my hair came out very nice, and she even straightened out the last trim I had, and didn’t even charge me for it. I really liked this gal and my hair looks great. Dinner was home that evening.

Friday, we had made arrangements to meet up with our friends, Barb/Bill to meet for either lunch or dinner. We decided on lunch since it was cheaper, and went back to Spirit Mountain Casino to eat. The casino gives out a coupon for $3.00 off any meal, so we used it for the buffet. While the food was good, I was disappointed that they did not have as much seafood as I had anticipated (no Dungeness crab). We than played for a little while; Chuck and I both won as did Barb/Bill.

Saturday was a very rainy day. I changed sheets, did laundry and watched TV. We had wanted to go to the Farmer’s Market downtown, but it just poured.

Friday evening Chuck had a call from our friend, Bill, (his wife is Jeanette), they live near Sacramento, and we spent time with them at their home last spring. He’s having some health issues and I ask you to pray for him and his family. Thank you, I’m sure they would appreciate all prayers.

So, that was our week. Until next time, be well……….Lorraine

 

10/18/09                                                                                                                                 Chuck’s Report

On Monday we left the coast and headed inland.  According to the weather folks, we were in for a couple of back to back storms with lots of rain and we hoped it wouldn’t be as bad inland. 

We also stopped at a big truck oil/lube place, Speedco, for an oil change and lube.  They are like a Jiffy lube only on a bigger scale.  The had one bay set up just for motorhomes and had the oil and fuel filters we needed too.  They say you are in an out in under an hours but they were busy and short staffed so we were there over three hours.  They ask the driver to witness the torque on the oil drain plug and that the oil fill cap was replaced.  They also allowed me to get in the pit and check out the undercarriage of the coach.  They don’t check everything like a normal RV place might but for an oil change and lube place, they are good. 

While waiting to get into the bay, I unhooked the car and Lorraine went to the Woodburn Outlet Mall.  After they were finished with the lube and oil change, I called her and headed out to the Elks lodge at Keiser, a nice place.  We got the coach setup and had dinner at the lodge. 

Tuesday we went to Camping World and a big mall.  I have a Verizon flip phone, had to replace it once when the hinge broke and the new one feels like it is breaking too.  I went to the Verizon store there and they set me up with a new phone, has lots of things on it I will never use, I just wanted a phone.  So I have a new phone but still have the same phone number. 

Wednesday we decided to go to an Indian Casino about 30 miles away, Spirit Mountain Casino.  We got into line to get our player’s cards and noticed Bill and Barb were two ahead of us.  They are our friends we met two years ago in California and spent time with them while we were in Seaside.  What a small world.  This turned out to be a profitable trip for us as we both left with more money than we started with, yea. 

After returning to our coach, Roger and Nancy picked us up and we headed out for dinner with them. They are friends of ours from the Lewis and Clark Chapter we just joined at Seaside and they live here.  We had a good time visiting with them and picked their brains a bit about the area.  

Thursday we did some exploring then Lorraine had her hair done. 

Friday we had plans to meet with Bill/Barb at Spirit Mountain Casino for their lunch buffet.  Friday is old farts day, they give a $3 discount off the $9 price if you are 55 or older.   Once again we had a good time with these friends, afterwards, we helped them spend their $5 free slot play that all new players are awarded.  They both won on their free money but I don’t think either of them really enjoy playing the slots.  They left about an hour before we did, we may see them next week when we both are planning on being in Eugene.

Saturday we woke up with clear blue skies and warm temperatures.  We made plans to go to a farmer’s market here in Salem.  However, before we got ready to leave, it clouded up and just poured rain for the rest of the day.  We changed out plans and stayed close to home.  Most of the Elk lodges have dinners on Friday and/or Saturday and we like to support them so we went to dinner at the lodge on Saturday night. 

This week our plans are to head to Eugene for a few days.  I plan on checking with a couple of RV repair places to see what they can do about repairing our rig.  We have some busted fiberglass in the back cap that currently has duct tape on it.  If we decide to get it repaired here, we won’t have to go back to Red Bay, Alabama to the factory.  Our winter plans will depend on if we go back East or not.  We are currently checking our options and hopefully will firm them up next week. 

Thanks   Chuck 

Still in Seaside

 

Sunday, October 11, 2009                                                                                                  Lorraine’s report

Another week has quickly passed and we are still here at Leisure Time/Thousand Trails in Seaside, OR. It has been a fun week and this weekend we attended our first Thousand Trails sponsored Rally put on by the Lewis & Clark TT RV Club.

Last Sunday, I was really under the weather, just didn’t feel well all day, so we stayed home and watched the Seattle Seahawks loose.

Monday, I felt better and Chuck & I took off to go up to the Maritime Museum in Astoria. What a great museum, with some great pictures and history of this area. Then we went over to Ft. Clatsop to Lewis & Clark’s winter camp where they spent their last winter on the road before they headed back east. That was another great presentation with pictures and history of their expedition.

Tuesday, we visited with Ron & Janel and Laurie and Scott. These are the folks who asked us to join their group, the Thousand Trails Lewis and Clark Chapter of FMCA. We found out we could stay another week and attend their rally here at Seaside starting Friday and ending Sunday morning. We decided to stay and attend; a good move.

We then decided to go downtown and sit on the boardwalk overlooking the beach. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day with lots of people doing the same thing.

Wednesday, we went over to some friends we had met at Morgan Hill, CA, Bill & Barbara. They were in the coach next to us there, but they said we were very involved with watching Kaitlyn, our granddaughter, so we didn’t really visit much. We visited them for a little while until their other friends came to get them to go to the beach.

Thursday was another day spent visiting more of the fine folks coming into the park for the rally. They had card games going on in the afternoon and golf for those folks who played. I also ran to Safeway just down the way for food I needed to make up to bring for the rally.

Friday the rally started with lunch at a Chinese restaurant here in Seaside; around 50 people attended, followed by more visiting back at the coaches. We went to the antique mall with our next door neighbors, Bob and Lynn.

That afternoon from 2-4 was bring your computers to the clubhouse for help with whatever questions you had. We were there until 4:15 getting help, as were a bunch of others.

Dinner was Oktoberfest with brats and with dessert provided by the hosts, Ron/Janel and Laurie/Andy; everyone else brought salads. I think they expected 28 coaches with 54 or so people. After dinner it was card bingo, where you brought 3 nickels, 3 dimes, 3 quarters and a dollar bill; a fun time for all involved.

Saturday, was a breakfast at 8 am followed by their business meeting. We opted to go to breakfast with Bill and Barbara, who took us to Camp 18 out on highway 26. We had a really big breakfast which Chuck and I split and still couldn’t finish.

Then Bill took us for a drive in his new Jeep on the beach up to Ft Stevens. This was our first time to drive on a beach. It was another great day and we really enjoyed the drive, the beach and the company. We saw two water spouts of passing whales and tons of different birds and lots of people. Thanks, Bill and Barbara for taking us.

We got home and rested, then went over to the clubhouse for the 5 o’clock nachos, with everyone else bringing snacks. Again, a ton of food was there for everyone to enjoy. Following that was the White Elephant bingo, another great evening with wonderful fellowship for all.

Sunday was a potluck breakfast for all. Then it was time for goodbyes as several people had to leave and head out.

That was our week, so until next time……Lorraine

10/11/09                                                                                                                            Chuck’s report

Once again we changed out plans, we decided to stay here for awhile longer.  We originally wanted to stay here for a week, then extended for another week and now extended for the third time.  This time we learned we had some friends here in the park.  We had gotten an email from Bill and Barb, we met them in Morgan Hill two years ago.  They recognized our rig and car and sent an email telling us they were here in the park too.  We also met some nice folks parked right across from us. 

Monday we headed out to Astoria where we toured the Maritime Museum.  This was pretty nice, showed lots of history about the Columbia River, especially the river bar where it meets the ocean.  There has been hundreds of boats and ships wrecked or washed ashore in this area due to the rough waters.  They say this is the roughest bar crossing in the US due to the amount of water in the river meeting the ocean. 

We got an email from an ex-coworker, Jim Brown, who told us about Fort Clapsop along the Columbia River and that they had enjoyed visiting it, thought we would enjoy it also.  This is where Lewis and Clark spent their winter before returning back to civilization back in 1805 - ‘06.  So after spending a couple of hours at the Maritime Museum,, we went to Fort Clapsop, a few miles away.  This was very interesting park, they have a replica of the fort that Lewis and Clark built plus lots of information about their time here.  They talked about the food they gathered/hunted, the Indians they traded with, the salt they made from sea water and their life while here.  They were at their fort for 120 days and recorded rain everyday except for 12 days, sound like a typical winter in the Great Northwest.  Thanks Jim for a good heads up on a place to visit, we did enjoy ourselves and learned a lot. 

Tuesday we spent some time with the folks across the way from us, Ron and Janel.  They belong to Lewis and Clark Thousand Trials chapter and they are the hosts for a chapter rally here this week.  They asked if we would be interested in joining their chapter but we were planning on leaving here before their rally started on Friday.  I told them we would try to extend and if we were able, we would join them but we had already spent our two weeks here.  I thought our contract only allowed us to stay in one park for two weeks but this is a Leisure Time park and seems we are allowed to stay in them for three weeks.   We also met some others in the chapter, Laurie (who’s husband Andy was at work and couldn’t show up until after work on Friday), Bob and Lynn and Scott.   They all made us feel welcome so we decided to join their chapter and join in on the planned activities and dinners planned for the rally. 

On Wednesday we were finally able to meet up with Bill and Barb, we had a nice time visiting with them and catching up their lives since we met two years ago.  We made plans to get together later in the week and spend more time with these fine folks.

Thursday we spent some time at the beach and visited with our new friends back at the park.  We set around in our chairs outside Ron’s coach and met others from the chapter.  I can’t remember all the members, if I tried to list their names I know I'd miss some of them.  Suffice it to say, we met about 30 members and all of them were very nice to us, a good chapter with good members!

Friday the chapter had plans to have lunch at a Chinese buffet in town, afterwards we went shopping at the antique mall with some of them.  We also went to the dinner here at the clubhouse.  After dinner, we played card bingo.  The first three games cost everyone $0.05 each per game, next three were for $0.10, next three for $0.25 and last game cost each player $1.00.  I had two bingos, one for the nickel pot, the second one was one of the dime pots but was split three ways.  So I won twice and still spent more than I made, ha.  Still, we had fun and got to meet more of the members. 

Saturday the chapter had a breakfast but we already had made plans to go to breakfast with Bill/Barb.  They drove and we went to Camp 18, located at an old logging camp at mile 18 on highway 26.  Boy, if you ever eat there and leave hungry, it would be because you didn’t clean your plate.  They believe in big servings!  After breakfast, we walked around their place where they have lots of old logging equipment.  After that, Bill headed for the beach and he drove up the beach about 14 miles to an ship wreck.  Depending on the area and time of the year, it is legal to drive on the beaches in Oregon.  We have never driven on the beach because we don’t have a four wheel drive, Bill/Barb have a jeep.  However, after being on the beach with them, I can see where it would be safe to drive a regular two wheel drive, at least in this area.  We had a good time with them and really liked the drive on the beach.   Thanks  Bill and Barb for a good day. 

After we got back, we had another get together with the chapter for snacks and another go of bingo.  This time it was a “White Elephant” bingo, everyone brought something from their rig for a bingo prize.  Once again, I had a bingo and won a Red/White/Blue hat and a bottle of wine. 

Today, Sunday, we had another breakfast with the chapter at the clubhouse.  This was the last planned activity for the rally and some of the member left.  Others who were staying made plans to go to dinner later today in Cannon Beach and we are looking forward to that. 

So now our plans for next week are to head for the Salem area for a couple of days.  Later in the week we also want to go to Eugene to get some stuff for the coach.  The remainder of the month depends on the weather more than anything.  We have gotten used to the weather here, very nice and warm during the days, cooling off enough to need the heater at night.  But the forecast is for the winter rains to start on Tuesday, and they say, for the next 10 days.  If that is the case, we will probably head South and inland, not return to the ocean.  But if the weather clears up, we would like to come back and continue our trip South following the ocean. 

So another week on the road.  We’ve had a very good time here in Seaside but are getting hitch-itch and ready to move on down the road. 

Thanks   Chuck