Here we are, on the road: We’re in Rochester, Washington

Sunday, September 19, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Well, we left Bellingham on Tuesday this past week. I was sad our time had come to an end there in B’ham and very sad to leave my sister and her family and our other friends behind. But as I say, “we’ll see you down the road, again.”

This past week has sure made me appreciate the sun. I’m tired of the rain already. Last Sunday found us staying home all day due to the heavy rain and cooler weather.

Chuck called our friends, Ron and Toshi and asked to see them; they said Monday at CJ’s there in Birch Bay. We enjoyed a lovely lunch together, catching up for the past year. It was great to see them again.

We had lots of running to do afterwards. We dropped off the windows that we were having replaced just before we left town on Tuesday. Chuck needed a new prescription and had asked his doc for it over a week before, with no results. We stopped by and reminded the doc that Chuck still needed it. The doc’s office called it into WM for pick up the next day.

I dropped off some pants I bought that needed hemming. I also had heard there were flu shots in at Walgreens, so we stopped in and I got one.

We got home and rested a bit, then headed over to the Silver Reef for their free Monday Night Hot Dogs. Chuck watched the games on the big screen with a bunch of other people. Joey/Sharlene came in after they had dinner, while I hit the machines. I was lucky that evening, making back the $ I had lost at the Skagit. We all had hot dogs, all free, and everyone enjoyed the games, and each others company.

We were up early to get the coach in to Al’s RV Repair shop for the window replacement. Our appointment was at 10 am and we were there well before that time. Chuck filled up the propane tank on the way into town.

Mickey D’s provided us with breakfast, then more running. We headed over to WM for Chuck’s prescription; then back to the mall for my pants.

We stopped by one of our friend’s business to drop off the pop can tabs I had been saving for Ronald McDonald House through the Moose Lodge. We discovered from his two children that he and his wife were in an assisted living place, and that Wednesday was his birthday.

Chuck decided we should go see him at this home, so off we went to find this place. We were in luck; we found Russ and Millie having lunch in the dining room of his assisted living home. We met this couple while we lived in our house on Barnes Road in the early 70’s, they were our neighbors.

While they have their health problems, they were both happy that we had stopped by to see them. They are both in their 80’s and it may well be the last time we see them.

From there, we went back to Al’s and picked up the coach. Chuck wanted to fill up with diesel at Fred Myers, so back we went. He filled up the coach while I ran back inside for supplies.

We left Bellingham about 2:45 and headed south to Angel of the Wind. I called our friends, Steve and Sandy and asked them to meet us there after we set up. Again, we enjoyed a good dinner and catching up time with them. We all played a bit, none of us winning.

Wednesday we left Angel of the Wind and headed south. Seattle traffic was scary; a hazardous material big rig kept swaying into our lane until Chuck was able to get by it. I’ve learned to close my eyes and pray when I get afraid like that; it helps!

We saw a sign on the freeway for another casino, so Chuck asked me to look it up on the GPS. I called it and it was about 10 miles away and had RV parking. We headed there getting in just before it started raining hard. We went in and paid for two nights, then went home and stayed in for the evening.

We are at Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester, WA. This casino is owned by the Chehalis Tribe. Chuck learned from a neighbor the next day that if you play in the casino for two hours, you can get up to five nights free.

This RV Park is small, along the edge of their hotel in back, but the sites are level and they have water and 50 amp; the sites are narrow on concrete with grass in between. They charge $14.00 a night.

We went on in to play in the afternoon. They had a free slot tournament and we entered. Chuck was lucky and took third place for $100. It was fun. We also had enough time between us to qualify for the five free days of parking the rig.

Friday was a quiet day; I did laundry, Chuck worked on planning I think. I went over to the casino and went up a little bit, then home to make dinner.

Saturday found us watching the WA Huskies as they lost their football game. We went into the buffet to have dinner; Seafood and Prime Rib-really good food. Again, I was up while playing the slots, this has been a lucky place for me.

It has been raining for the past three days here a lot. We saw the sun for three hours on Saturday afternoon. I’m ready for the nice, warm, sunny days in the desert again.

Wednesday is our 38^th anniversary. Chuck gave me an Alaskan Ivory bracelet when we got married. It has both thick and thin strips of carved Ivory between golden beads. He said it represents both the fat times and the thin times we would be going through; he was right. As I’ve said before, I would be lost without him. Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you.

Lorraine

9/19/10 Chuck’s report

After a couple of not so subtle hints, I remembered it will be our 38th wedding anniversary this week. We aren’t too sure where we will be staying that night but we will be together. Thanks for putting up with me for all these years Hun, I love you.

At least we are on the road and not in Blaine this time! We didn’t make it back on the road before the fall rains started however as it rained on us Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today this past week. And this time when I say rain, I don’t mean the typical Washington drizzle but heavy rain for most of those days. I would guess we’ve had over 4” of rain in the past three days while we were here. I’m ready for the dry desert weather, tired of this rain already. Come on sun!

We met with our friends Ron/Toshi on Monday at lunch. I worked with Ron for a number of years and we saw them at the refinery picnic but didn’t get a chance to really visit, therefore we we took this time to do just that. Once again it was good to catch up on their lives and we had a good visit.

Later that afternoon we headed to the casino for Monday night football. They have a big screen and about 6 small screens, free hot dogs and drawing at the end of each quarter. We didn’t win any of the drawings but the hot dogs were good. We also met up with Joey/Sharlene and asked them to sit with us. As luck would have it, Sharlene had her name drawn at the end of one of the quarters, yea. We also saw James and his girlfriend who were there to watch the game also. Lorraine didn’t watch too much football, there were slot machines to be played, you understand. She did come out a winner so that was good plus she had a good time.

Tuesday found us getting on the road before 10 with mixed feelings, glad to be on the road but sad to be leaving home for who knows how long. We had been in the area for 7 weeks, had good times and good food with family and friends and took time to clean out all the storage areas in the coach. But it was time to move on down the road.

We stopped at a RV repair shop to have two windows replaced, I had the new ones shipped to us a few weeks ago. There were no problems with the change out and while we were waiting we tried to track down another friend of ours, Russ/Millie. We just missed him at his place of business but his son told us where to find them. They seems surprised to see us when we walked in and said “Hi” but none the less they were pleased we had stopped by, they don’t get too many visitors. We only stayed for about 15 minutes as they were getting ready to eat lunch. When we returned to the repair shop, they had finished and had our coach waiting outside for us. We had sure put the new windows to a leak test for the past three days, so far so good.

Our plans for that day were just to get on the road, we didn’t need or want to put too many miles behind us. As usual, we didn’t have any reservations for the night and as we were driving, Lorraine called Steve/Sandy to see if they could/would meet us at a casino down the road. They were able to meet with us over a buffet and once again we were able to catch up on their lives. Sandy does write a blog but she doesn’t update it when they are home for the summer so we had a lot to catch up on. After dinner we all went out to play the slots for awhile but I don’t think anyone came out a winner. We said our “see ya later” to Steve/Sandy and hope to meet with them this winter once again, probably in Quartzsite, Az.

Wednesday we got everything set and back on the road, heading South once more. This time we had plans to stop in Chehalis at 1000 trails. But as we were driving, the skies started getting dark and it looking like it might start raining at anytime. We saw a sign for a new (to us anyway) casino a couple of exits down the road so Lorraine called then to see if they had a RV park associated with their holdings and they said yes, first come, first serve. Seeing as how we were so close and it looked like it would start raining we decided to try the Lucky Eagle casino RV park. They said just pick out a spot then come inside and register.

They have about 20 sites, water and power only, no sewer or even a dump station. The sites are long enough but are very narrow, only about 10’ of cement and a 3’ strip of grass separating the sites. As soon as we unhooked the car and got backed into our site, it started raining so we drove over and got checked in. We decided to stay for two nights as the forecast was for continued rain then returned to the coach for the rest of the day and night. Boy did it rain that afternoon and most of the night, glad we stopped when we did.

Thursday we did go to the casino for a couple hours of slot play and a lunch buffet. We checked at the registration desk and they told us we could get up to five nights free camping if we wanted so we made a quick decision to stay until Tuesday morning because rain was forecast for all weekend. After lunch they had a free slot tournament so we signed up and waited for our group to be called. I happened to get on a good machine and got a lot of points (300,000 +) and hit a jackpot too (200,000 points). The tournament wasn’t over until 8 pm so we went back to the coach with plans to return and see how I fared.

We returned about 7:45 and waited while they finished with all the groups that had signed up then tallied all the scores. They started out by having three drawings for prizes before announcing the slot winners. They paid the top 5 winners and I came in third, won $100, not bad for a free tournament huh? I missed coming in second by only 30 points but I was very pleased to win third place. As I don’t usually win or lose that much in a couple of stops, that was a large amount for me.

Friday Lorraine wanted to go over to the casino but I had enough casino time so decided to stay at the coach and watch the rain. She played for a couple of hours then we spent the rest of the day/night at the coach once again. It was nice to have a couple of days of doing nothing but watch TV, read books and just take it easy.

Saturday we watched the Washington Huskies get beat (badly) by Nebraska, a real downer for us. We don’t usually get to watch them play as we haven’t been in the area for the past three seasons and would have liked to see a good game. Oh well, maybe next time.

When we checked in on Wednesday they gave us coupons for $5 free slot play and 25% off any meal at the casino. We decided to use the coupon for the seafood buffet on Saturday afternoon. We headed over and had a very good meal then played the slots for awhile too. I wanted to watch football so I left and Lorraine continued to play for another hour or so. Once again, she was a winner on the slots, she’s up quite a bit this week and even though I didn’t play that much, I am up also. And that doesn’t count the slot tournament where I came in third.

I actually saw a couple of breaks in the clouds this morning but it wasn’t long until it was very cloudy once again. We’ve had a couple periods of rain with more forecasted so today might just be a football watching day once again. The Seattle Seahawks play the Denver Broncos, I want to watch that one.

We are scheduled to leave here on Tuesday, have to stop by in a suburb of Portland to pick up a Lazy Boy chair we bought to replace the “Euro lounger” that came with the coach. Most people who have set in the Euro chair have found it to be uncomfortable and hard to get out of, it sits too low. It also has an un-attached foot stool that takes up floor space too so the new chair should give us a bit more room, hope so anyhow.

After picking up our chair, I need to have the oil/filters changed on the coach. We don’t put on enough miles to have the oil changed because of mileage rather we just have it done once a year. I’ve had good luck getting service at Speedco, sort of a Jiffy Lube for big rigs so we will go there. The one we’ve gone to in the past has two bay set aside just for RVs plus they carry all the filters we need. We were in/out in just over an hour last time.

After that, we will head down to road to Woodburn for Lorraine to go to the outlet mall there. She really likes this place plus there is a RV park right next door. (There is also a nice RV park at the Elks in Keizer, just down the the road.) She finds they have good sales this time of the year and of course, there is no sales tax in Oregon so that helps too. She usually is able to get the majority of her Christmas shopping done while we are there.

I want to go down to Cobourg, down by Eugene, to visit the Monaco and Marathon RV factories. We aren’t in the market to buy one but I still want to visit their factories. And there are lots of RV places around the area we can visit and get ideas. Never hurts to just look, especially if I leave the wallet at home.

And after all that, we want to head to the coast, one of our favorite camping places. We usually try to hit the Oregon beaches each year if we can and we do have time this year. Here’s hoping this rain we’ve had this week isn’t an indication of what we will see once we get to the coast. But even in the rain, we like the Oregon coast area.

So with that, I think I’ll try to add a few pictures and get this posted.

Toshi/Ron