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

Sunday, June 26, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Well, we are away from Birch Bay and at Woodburn RV Park by Woodburn, OR. It was a wonderful day on Saturday. Our first high 70, close to 80 degree day. The sun was out, fluffy blue clouds, and for the first time in a long time, we saw Mt. Hood.

It was nice to head back out this past week. Sunday we packed up the rig and headed out to Thousand Trails Grandy Creek RV Park. We met up with Tim, Chuck’s friend, who had been camped there for a week. I have to say, that it rained on the nice clean coach through the pass by Lake Samish; all that work cleaning the rig, undone by a short bit of rain.

I called our friends, Steve & Sandy, and made plans to meet up with them for Father’s Day. They stay at their lot at Lake Tyee, near Baker Lake.

On the way there to TT, we drove by the Outback Steakhouse and I called and asked if they took reservations; they did, so I made some for the five of us, not knowing if we would keep them.

Steve and Sandy were okay with going there for dinner, as was Tim. We made plans to meet up for dinner at the Outback, and all of us enjoyed a great meal. We went back to our rig for dessert of Rhubarb crisp.

Steve’s dad, John, had been doing poorly health wise, and Steve and Sandy had been driving from Lake Tyee RV Park to Oak Harbor, nearly everyday to see him, a two hour drive each way. He passed on Wednesday, June 22, he was 96 years old, and Sandy wrote “a wonderful father and husband”. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Steve, Sandy and the rest of your family, and you are in our prayers.

Monday Chuck and I drove around the area, after I did some laundry and some chores. We came back and I cooked dinner for Chuck and Tim. Steve had gone to Oak Harbor early in the morning, and had called Sandy to go there since his dad was headed down hill.

Tuesday we packed up the rig and headed out to Angel of the Wind Casino for two nights. Tim went home to Lynden.

If you have ever been to Angel, you know that they have a row of RV sites across the back of the property with 30 amp, no water/sewer, and the sites are not level, to say the least. We pulled into one site we used before, went in to pay for it and found it had been rented for the second night. We had to move to another site, started to set up, but again we had no satellite. So we moved to the 3rd site; found we had only spotty satellite reception and only on the lower stations, but we stayed there.

I went in to play for a while after setting up, and Chuck came in later. He reset the antenna for the satellite, hoping to get better reception, but alas, he lost what we had before. That was the first time we had no TV since we went through Canada on the Alaska trip in 09.

Wednesday, Chuck had a doctor’s appointment in Mt. Vernon. Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart in Marysville for supplies. It was fun playing at Angel; I went up one day and down the next, so overall, even.

Thursday we headed south to Lucky Eagle Casino by Rochester, WA. We were in a traffic back up that went at least ten miles, all lanes, for over an hour, south of Seattle. A big truck had been run into by something, and was totaled.

There used to be an RV Park behind the hotel and casino, but the Chehalis tribe is expanding their hotel and took the park away. But they built a new RV Park just down the road on the way to their casino. We found it and pulled in. Chuck tried to hook up to the electricity and the water, but no luck; they have no sewer. We had to move sites, again. History repeating itself so soon, who’d have thunk it?

We moved two sites over, set up and headed over to the Lucky Eagle. Both of us had a little bit of luck, and we enjoyed a very nice buffet dinner.

Friday we packed up again and drove to Woodburn RV Park here in Woodburn, OR, by the outlet mall.

On the way, Chuck took the coach in to Speedco Oil to get the rig’s oil changed etc. Chuck unhooked the car and I drove to the Outlet Mall for shopping.

Saturday was shopping for shoes day for Chuck, one thing most guys hate! I have to say that Chuck hung in there, even though we had to back track to the first store we went to in Tigard, OR. The gal that helped us there the first time was awful. She didn’t know her stock, she couldn’t suggest anything, and was just worthless when asked questions. We ended up going to another store to try and find Chuck’s size. The salesman there was helpful, knew his stock and sent us to find shoes for both of us. We both ended up happy campers. I found out they have a shoe store that carries only wide shoes for both men and women, and I have never seen that many nice shoes in wide widths in one place before. I was excited!

Tomorrow is our son, Rick’s birthday, Happy Birthday again to you, son! Also Happy 2^nd Anniversary to Richard and Sandy, hope your having a blast in Las Vegas.

Hugs,

Lorraine

6/26/11 Chuck’s report

Tomorrow is our son Rick’s birthday. Happy birthday to you and I remember being with you a couple of years ago when we toured Alaska, just missed your birthday that year though. Hope you have a good day.

Also happy Anniversary to Richard and Sandy, the couple we stood up for two years ago. Hope you enjoy your day too.

What a change it’s been to be back on the road again. Life is good once again, no alarm clocks, not wearing a watch, planning our route and enjoying being with Lorraine.

Sunday we pulled out and headed down to 1000 Trails at Grandy Creek, by Baker Lake, about 1 1/2 hours away. It felt good to be on the road and we were meeting up with our friend Tim who had already been there for a few days. We were expecting good weather but caught more of the liquid sunshine we’ve been getting, our coach isn’t so nice and clean once again.

Everything worked fine on the trip, no mechanical issues from sitting so long, whew. I didn’t know what to expect but I know everything works better if it’s used more often. This is the longest we’ve set since we bought our coach in April, ‘07. Only thing was one of the hydraulic jacks didn’t want to retract all the way, a little help with a 2x4 as a lever and it went up just fine. I may have to change out the springs on it, time will tell.

We set up in a spot next to Tim and we were able to get some satellite reception through the huge cedar trees, good thing. This place is also a KOA, some sites are reserved for KOA, some for 1000 Trails. Only thing different is KOA spots cost $40/day vs. our 1000 Trail price of FREE (or at least part of our yearly dues).

We have friends that spend their summers at Lake Tyee, just up the road from where we staying so Lorraine called Sandy to see if we could meet with her and her husband, Steve. They were actually on Whidbey Island at Oak Harbor visiting Steve’s father who has been ill. They agreed to meet with us for dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Mt. Vernon. We had a good time visiting with them and Tim before calling it quits and heading back to our coach for desert. Lorraine had made a rhubarb crisp and she shared some of that with our friends.

The next day Sandy stopped by for awhile, she was heading back to Oak Harbor to see Steve who was back at his father’s bedside. Lorraine and I wanted to do some exploring around the area and Tim decided to wait at his coach until we returned. Later Lorraine fixed a fabulous pork steak dinner for us that we enjoyed.

Next morning Tim headed out a bit earlier than us, he was heading home and there was some work being done on the freeway and it was down to one lane of traffic for about 15 miles or so. We got on the road about our usual time and heading down to a Casino south of Mt. Vernon, Angle of the Winds. They have a small RV park there with 30 amp power, no water or sewer. We ended up moving to three different sites, first one was reserved (we didn’t even know you could make reservations much less for a certain site), second was because the trees were completely blocking our satellite reception. The site we ended up on was very un-level, I used every piece of wood I had under the tires and jacks to get it done. Plus they managed to screw up our credit card and tried to charge us twice for the same nights, luckily Lorraine checks this every night and caught it so they could correct it. Don’t think we will be staying there again, other places are better.

We stayed there for two days, I had a doctor’s appointment in Mt. Vernon on Wednesday morning and needed to fast for my blood test, that was a major reason we headed down there in the first place. My appointment went well so we made plans to head out on Thursday, head somewhere to the South.

Once again we managed to pick a travel day when it was raining. Oh well, we are in Western Washington after all!. We decided to stop off at Rochester at another Casino. Lorraine gave them a call as we were traveling down and they are expanding their hotel so their campground was closed but the tribe has built a new one just a couple of miles up the road. This campground is unattended, just pick your site and pay at a Kiosk. We picked out our site and got partially set up when I went over to pay. Appears the site we were in had some utility problems and it was out of service. Shoot, sure hope it’s just growing pains with the new park and not something they have to deal with all the time.

Put stuff away and moved to another site, paid first and then got set up. Nice place with 50 amp and water but no sewer at the sites, just a common dump on the way out. Once we got everything set up and we were resting, the power at our site went off. I called the Help number and a guy came by about 1/2 later. He had no idea of what to do so I asked him to unlock the breaker building so we could reset the circuit breaker. It appears they have a computer system for the water and power, nothing works until it’s paid for and they have been having problems with the computer on the row we were in, just our luck.

The attendant did turn on the power and water at the site next to us, in case we had any further problems and wanted to move during the night. Luckily we had no more power problems but we did lose water. Just added a length of hose, hooked up to the site next to us and spent the rest of the night using water from one site, power from another.

We did have a very good meal at the casino however, a good buffet. They had some crab for Lorraine and a roast beef at the carving station for me. We both managed to walk away with some of their money too, about $0.90 for me but at least I was ahead, Lorraine managed to do somewhat better.

Once again, we decided we had enough of this campground and headed further South. This time we knew where we wanted to stay, here at Woodburn. A few miles North of here is a Speedco service center where we have had our coach serviced before. I pulled in there, unhooked the car so Lorraine could go to the Outlet Mall and waited for them to finish. Once again, I was very pleased with the service they do and will continue to have some of our service done there when we are in the area.

I left Speedco and headed to the campground we usually stay when we are in the area and checked in. We weren’t sure how long we were going to be in the area so I told them we wanted two nights with an option to stay for two more. They gave us a site in the middle of the place, tight area to get in and very close to the neighbors but we do have 50 amp, water and sewer. They have raised their prices here too, pretty proud of the place I guess.

Lorraine was able to get caught up on our laundry while we were here, plus we did some shopping. I got a new water fitting from Camping World and changed out the black tank flushing connection that had been leaking every time I hooked it up. It doesn’t get the whole bay wet now and the spray nozzle gets full pressure once again.

Saturday Lorraine wanted to buy me a new pair of shoes, yeah shoe shopping was in store, not one of my favorite things to do. Four shoe stores later we returned to the original one and got a different salesman who knew what was happening and bought my shoes. We also found a good shoe store for Lorraine, she needs wide shoes and the name of this place was Jay’s Wide Shoe Store. She said she had never seen such a good selection of shoes in her size before. We had to return to the coach to take our dog out for a break and then headed back to Costco for a resupply before calling it a night and watching Lonesome Dove.

At least the weather has been showing signs of improvement, about time. We almost broke 80F here today, the warmest we seen since we left Yuma last year. We are running the air conditioners for the first time in a long time too. The temperature still drops to the high 50s at night but has warmed up nicely as soon as the sun comes up. I am liking this warmer weather!!

We plan on heading further South again today, all the way to Salem, Oregon to an Elks lodge we’ve stayed at before. We still have a couple more items to take care of before we head back to Blaine. We will be there over the 4th, I have another doctor appointment on the 5th and we are working on plans for something after that. It’s good to be making plans and doing things again, that work stuff was getting in the way of having fun.

Lorraine has a big birthday coming up this year, she will be eligible for Medicare. Her birthday is on August 6th, we are working on plans to have some friends get together for dinner the day after her birthday.

Hey, how about some pictures?

Grandy Lake Campground, the sun was shining the second day we were there.