Here we are, on the road: We’re in Seaside, Oregon

Sunday, September 26, 2020 Lorraine’s report

Hello from Seaside, OR Thousand Trails RV Park. Well, we left Rochester, WA and headed just a bit south on Tuesday. We stopped at Woodburn RV Park by Portland, OR.

We left and stopped to pick up Chuck’s new lazy boy rocker/swivel recliner in Tualatin, OR. The strip mall where we had to go was challenging, since the parking lot was not large enough to turn around both the rig and car hooked up. Chuck had to unhook the car, and then hook it up again. But I think he likes the chair a lot, and it looks good in our rig.

We traveled on down to Woodburn RV Park. We got a site for two days, and then Chuck took the coach back to Speedco to get the oil in the rig changed as well as other maintenance work done. He had the oil changed there last year and was happy with the work they did.

I headed over to Woodburn’s Outlet Mall to do some Christmas shopping. Shopping was good, and I found some great buys for the kids. I got tired before Chuck was done getting the oil changed, so I headed over to the park to wait for him. He came in a short time later and I followed him into the site.

Wednesday was a great day. It was our anniversary and we had a very nice day together. I did laundry in the morning since we had 50 amp, water, and sewer. Chuck was busy on his computer. We had errands to run, so we hit a truck supply place, Camping World, Target, Costco and then home to let Misty out, then back to the Outlet Mall.

I called the front office there at the park and asked the gal for the name of a good place to eat dinner. She sent us to a place called Vitality. She gave me directions and off we went.

It was hard to find, no signs outside the building it was in, giving any clues to that it was inside a walk in immediate care facility. The menu was small with only a few items, but I have to say the food was delicious. We had the prime rib with two sides. Dessert was white chocolate cheese cake with raspberries. I want to thank all the family and friends that sent us their good wishes for our anniversary. We appreciated them all!

The next day we were off before 10 am, heading out in the rain to Seaside; the farther west we went, the dryer the weather became. We set up and I made up beef barley stew for dinner, since it was blustery outside.

Friday I decided I needed to have my hair done. I asked at the front office for a place to go and headed over. The gal used a product that hasn’t been used on my hair before, and it’s darker than I thought it would be, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. You never know how things will turn out. Chuck washed to coach’s windows and bathed Misty while I was gone.

Saturday found me waking up not feeling very well. I took some Dayquil which helped my watery eyes, sore throat and headache. Hopefully it’s nothing more than a cold, since I got my flu shot on the 13^th of the month. Sometimes though the flu shot makes me susceptible to whatever is going around before it starts to work, my immune system being next to nil.

We watched a football game; Stanford beat Notre Dame-yea! We went to Safeway for more medicine for me afterwards and I picked up a baked chicken for dinner.

Today was my Mother’s birthday, I miss her a lot…

So that’s it for me. Until next time……….Lorraine

9/26/10 Chuck’s report

Boy is it good to be back on the road! Not sure where we are going or for how long, that’s the good life. Well, at least for us, I know it’s not for everyone.

Let’s see here, last Sunday we were at the Lucky Eagle casino campground in Rochester. We stayed in all day, watched the Seahawks lose and ate the roast dinner Lorraine cooked. A nice, quiet day. Monday we went to the casino for their buffet lunch, Lorraine played the slots while I returned to the coach. We met the couple, Jim/Dee, who were parked next to us and sat outside getting acquainted for a couple of hours, nice folks. They live in Vancouver, Washington and spend most of their time in the coach at one casino or another.

I think this time we both won at this casino, pretty unusual for me for sure. Plus I took third place in the free slot tournament, nice. The only negative about the place is the sites are so narrow and they don’t have a sewer dump available. We were told they are planning on expanding the hotel and will close the campground. There is a new campground of theirs about 3 miles away that has a dump station so we could check it on the way out of town. We found it to be laid out the same as this one, narrow sites with grass strips between each. They do have a dump station available. At this time, they aren’t charging anyone to stay in this park but we were told they will start charging $25/night starting this week. I’m not sure if they will allow folks to get compted for staying there like we did here, however.

Tuesday was moving day, continuing on our way South. After going to the dump station and hooking out the car we were on the road. First stop was in a suburb of Portland to pick up the Lazy Boy recliner we ordered. Their parking lot wasn’t that big and where they needed us to park the rig meant we had to unhook the car. It took all of 5 minutes to load the chair, then back to the side parking lot to hook up the car again. We’ve become pretty proficient at doing this so it wasn’t too big of a deal, just took a bit longer. So far I really like the new chair and it fits just like we thought it would.

Next stop was to check in at the RV park in Woodburn, Oregon. Once we got checked in, Lorraine took the car and went to the outlet mall for some shopping. I took the coach back up the road to have the oil/filters changed and the chassis lubed. I went to a place called Speedco, at place that changes oil on big trucks, sort of a Jiffy Lube for big rigs. They didn’t have all the filters I needed in stock so it took almost two hours vs. the hour they advertise but that was fine with me, as long as they do a good job.

As I was leaving the shop and heading back to the RV park, Lorraine called and said she was heading there too. We got to our site, set up and called it a day, went over to Arby's for dinner.

Wednesday was our 38th anniversary, yea. We didn’t have a big day planned, just some things we wanted to pick up while we were in town. Lorraine asked the gal at the main desk for a recommendation for a good dinner place. She suggested we go to a place called Vitality up the road about 3 miles. We entered the name in our GPS and still couldn’t find it. As we were driving around trying to find it, I finally asked a gal coming out of the urgent care place if she knew where the restaurant was. She said it was in the medical building, not a good sign I say to myself. We parked the car and decided to walk in and give it a look-see and if it wasn’t nice, we would leave.

After looking it over, we decided to give it a try. The waitress was new and didn’t know the answers to our questions but at least she admitted so and went back to get good answers rather than give us bad info, good for her. We ordered our meals and enjoyed being together, had a very good time. Later it was movie night, just sitting in our coach enjoying the company of each other. We got lots of Happy Anniversary wishes from family and friends and thank every one that sent them to us.

Thursday was moving day once again, we were heading toward the coast. The forecast was for a sunny warm day, the best kind for traveling. But as we were getting everything put away and getting the coach ready for travel it started clouding up. Just as we started to leave, the rains started, so much for the forecast. It stopped raining after about 10 miles, whew. But as we started going over the coastal range, it started pouring hard enough I had to put the wipers on high speed. A wet, miserable travel day and the coach and car got dirty again.

It was about 1:30 or so when we got to the 1000 Trails/Leisure Time park here in Seaside, Oregon. We were here last year and had an idea of where we wanted to set up so once we got checked in, we drove across the street to the North side of the park. As luck would have it, we pulled into the same site we were in last year.

Last year when we were here, we met some folks from the Lewis and Clark chapter of the FMCA. We actually ended up joining this group and had a great time with them. We also spent some time with other friends of ours, Bill/Barb, who gave us our first experience driving on the beach. We had a lot of fun at this park because of all the friends around us.

The rain slowed down but didn’t stop, we set up in the rain. Lorraine made a stew in the slow cooker that smelled so good I was hungry all afternoon. Later the rain did stop and I was able to take Misty for a walk. I met a couple of the neighbors but didn’t get to know them yet.

Friday morning the skies were clear and the forecast was for good weather for the next few days, yea. We are getting tired of the rain. It rained too much while we were back home, while we were at the Lucky Eagle casino and Thursday on our travel day, we were looking forward to some nice sunny days.

Lorraine wanted to find a hairdresser, called the main gate for recommendations. She ended up finding one just up the road and they could fit her in that afternoon. I elected to stay home and clean the bugs off the front of the coach, wash the windows and give Misty a bath.

After Lorraine got home, we decided to drive out to the beach. Lorraine kept saying she loves the ocean and the waves. The tide was out so it was a good walk to the water but Lorraine wanted to get her feet wet. We misjudged the waves and she got more than her feet wet, see the pictures following this. I’m not sure that is what she meant when she said she loves the ocean, ha.

We drove around town for a bit and decided we would put off exploring the beaches until this weekend as the weather forecast was for good weather. We returned back to the coach, ate some of the delicious stew and watched a movie, another good day.

Saturday morning dawned nice and clear, blue skies were the order of the day. We puttered around, ate breakfast, Lorraine did some laundry, you know, just stuff. She did mention she wasn’t feeling good, took some medicine and rested for awhile.

About the time we decided to head out, it started getting cloudy, the wind picked up and the temperature started dropping. We made a stop at Safeway and while we were there, it started raining. What’s this, I thought it was supposed to be good weather. When we got back to the coach, Lorraine checked the forecast and it had changed. Rain for Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

So we didn’t go to the other beaches in the area yet. We watched Stanford beat Notre Dame and watched a good game between Boise State and Oregon State later. But it was raining outside.

It rained all night, hard enough at times that it woke me up. The winds have died down but its still raining. How did we put up with this for all those years we lived in Washington? I’m tired of all this rain and ready to head South until we get out of it! Usually we have good weather in September, last year we were here and the weather was really nice. Oh well, I just misjudged when the fall rains were starting, I guess.

Our plans have us staying here until Tuesday morning, then we want to head down the coast. We really like the area around Lincoln, having stayed there many times before. We will probably stay around there for a few days before we head out, not sure if we will continue South to Coos Bay or inland to Eugene. Lorraine does want to make a stop in Medford for some shopping before we leave Oregon so we have to head inland somewhere. Guess we will play it by ear and watch the weather. Did I say it was raining and I’m tired of the rain?

So with our plans for next week firmly set in jello, I’ll stop, add some pictures and get this posted.

Just some pictures Lorraine took while driving South.