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

Sunday July 17, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Hello from La Connor 1000 Trails, a wet, rainy, damp day. It’s a good thing all the people here from Lewis & Clark are so nice and friendly, they make up for the bad weather.

Well, we came here from Blaine on the 13th with Tim, Steve & Sandy. Tim waited for us on the road behind our rig in Latitude 49 and drove down ahead of us and we met Steve and Sandy at the Farmhouse Inn off of Highway 20. We hooked up with them and Tim led us to this RV park, we haven’t been here before.

We came here to attend the Lewis & Clark La Connor, WA. Rally. This is a group we joined 2 years ago in Seaside Oregon. This is only the second event we have attended since joining.

This year there were 25 rigs that attended. We came in on Wednesday, expecting to be early and found that most of those attending were already here. The volunteers in charge arranged to have one area of the park reserved for those attending. We didn’t know that, so Chuck and Steve found an area just a road over to park our rigs.

We were fortunate to get a site that is satellite friendly so we have TV. Steve and Sandy found a site that is internet/phone friendly for their cell coverage. I guess it’s pretty hard to get both in this park. Tim was over in the trees and was only able to get local TV on his bat wing antenna. The park has free Wi-Fi that works, as long as there aren’t too many using their site. You need to go to the clubhouse to get access.

Thursday found Sandy and I headed into La Connor to walk though all the quaint shops. La Connor is what you would call a tourist trap. Sandy and I made it though all the shops and had a lot of fun. Chuck drove Steve and Tim to Oak Harbor so Steve could pick up his Dad’s Cadillac. Everyone had a nice day, with the guys doing their own thing and the gals having fun too. The group here at L&C had hamburger/hot dogs for everyone, they were very good, thank you.

Friday morning was the potluck breakfast with the group meeting together. As is usual for these type of affairs, there was way to much food. If anyone went away hungry it was because they wanted to. Chuck and I headed over to the clubhouse to check our email. Following that, Sandy and I went into Burlington for a few things we needed. We came back and rested.

Dinner that night was at the Farmhouse Inn with over 50 people in attendance. I was unhappy with my meal, I had ordered the turkey dinner with all dark meat. It came with one chuck of the last piece of the turkey and bit of scraps like pulled pork, all while meat. Sandy had the same dinner only all while meat, she received 2-3 slices of white meat, no chunks and no pulled type. Mine was pretty dried out. Oh well, the double high Lemon meringue pie made up for it.

Saturday we headed out to go to the Anacortes Shipwreck days. Steve drove the four of us into town. The Shipwreck days were a lot like a big garage sale with the stuff that could have been confused for the garbage dump. It was at least 6 blocks long with the streets being blocked off, of course.

Dinner that night was potluck with the whole group from L&C. One bunch of the people had been going out crab fishing and brought enough fresh Dungeness crab for the entire group. I want to say “thank you” to Sue and all the rest that brought the crab. Also, thank you all the rest of the group for the good food.

Everyone went off to either play games, cards or sit by the fire. We went to the Swinomish Indian Casino to see Joe/Alice and her brother and sister in law. It was nice to see them all. Both Chuck and I were up for the evening.

Sunday morning found us attending the final Continental breakfast. It was nice to see most of the group before they headed out to their homes. The ones that stayed on were again treated to another helping of freshly made ice cream and cake.

That is it for me. Happy Birthday on the 17 to Rob and his twin brother and again to Richard and Sandy, also on the 13th to my nephew, George.

Until next time, Lorraine.

July 17, 2011 Chuck’s report

We are at 1000 Trails in La Conner and for the first time in a long while, I don’t have cell phone or internet coverage with Verizon but Lorraine has some cell service with AT&T. Therefore I am writing this offline at our coach and will be posting it later when I walk over to the lodge building where there have WI-fi.

The first part of this week was more of the same, gathering information so Lorraine could sign up for the best (for us, anyway) coverage with her Medicare. My brother sent me an e-mail reminding me that he was an insurance salesman and he understood Medicare coverage and would help us with our decision. I called him, told him our needs/wants and picked his brain about coverage. He is licensed in Texas and Missouri but checked prices in South Dakota for us. Turns out our decision to “move” to South Dakota when we retired was also a good choice for insurance, about half price for identical coverage compared to Washington, almost the same savings compared to Texas and/or Missouri, yea.

We had made plans to attend a rally with our Lewis and Clark chapter of FMCA. We happened to be in a 1000 Trails park in Oregon two years ago when they were having a rally there. We met a few of the members, liked them and joined there. Our fiend, Tim, happened to be in the same park the next week and met some of the members who stayed on after, met them and joined also. This was the first time either of us have attended a rally since. Our friends, Steve/Sandy who stay on their lot at Baker Lake for the summer, asked if we would mind if they came along to the rally. We, of course, said yes and made plans to meet them along our route.

Wednesday morning Tim stopped by our place just about the time we were ready to leave and waited until we got ready and hooked up the car. Lorraine called Steve/Sandy as soon as we were on the road and we met them at a local restaurant and caravanned the rest of the way to the campground. The rally was for Thursday through Sunday, we wanted to get there early and find a good spot. Well, not having been to a rally with them before, I sort of under planned, we were one of the last to arrive but we still managed to find a good spot, although not in the same area as the rest of the group, but close.

Once we got set up, we walked over to meet with the rally hosts and see what was happening for the weekend. Nothing was planned for Wednesday so we accepted Steve invite to tour La Conner with them. We ended up having dinner at a local restaurant then returned back to our coaches.

Thursday Lorraine and Sandy took off for a shopping spree in La Conner, lots of little touristy shops and such there. Steve, Tim and I took off for Oak Harbor to pick up Steve’s car that was at the shop. We all returned back in time to go to the first planned event of the rally, a hot dog/hamburger feed at the clubhouse.

Friday we had a pot luck breakfast before the gals took off to town once again for a short shopping trip. When they got back we went to dinner at a local restaurant with about 50 people from the rally. Even with that many folks, everyone had good service and food except they ran out of dark meat turkey so Lorraine didn’t get exactly what she wanted.

One of the small towns here had an event planned for Saturday, Ship Wreck Days, that the gals wanted to attend. Steve volunteered to drive so we took off, he dropped us off at the front of the blocked off street fair while he found a place to park the car. (He found a spot about 1/2 block away, lucky) None of us realized this was really a lot of folks who set up tents to try to sell their JUNK. We walked the area, didn’t find much of interest to us and left just as the rain started in again.

We then made a trip down to the Deception Pass, it’s been awhile since Lorraine had been there. We stopped on the North side, took pictures, drove across the bridge and stopped on the South Side. We then returned back to the park and headed over for our potluck dinner.

This morning we had a continental breakfast with muffins, rolls and such along with coffee and juice. Tim left shortly thereafter, headed for home. Lorraine and I went over to the lodge to use their WI-fi and catch up on our email and such. There was one last planned even for the rally, an ice cream social this afternoon. When we joined this chapter two years ago we met all the folks who were there, but only two couple who were there showed up for this one so we got to meet a whole new group of people. Once again though, we had a good time with good folks, had plenty to eat and enjoyed ourselves. Tim and Steve/Sandy said they had a good time and enjoyed themselves too.

Saturday evening Lorraine and I went to the local casino to meet up with our friends Joe/Alice who were staying at the campground with her brother. I dropped Lorraine off at the casino to meet up with the gals who were already there while I went over to visit with Joe at his rig. Later he and I went over to the casino and played for a awhile too. This was one of the good trips for us, both Lorraine and I left with some of the casino’s money in our wallets, yea.

The weather this week hasn’t been very nice, lots of gray, rainy days and heavy rain almost every night. I heard on the news the other day that this is the latest in the year that we haven’t seen 85F for at least the last 30 years. And we haven’t hit 85F yet, not even in Seattle I don’t think. I remember one year like this when we took off on vacation once with the destination of just trying to find the sun! I’m about ready to do that this year. We have had a few sunny days and about half the days have some sunny afternoons but all in all, the weather has been crappy. It’s raining as I write this but the forecast is for better weather tomorrow, we’ll see. I’ve told people for years that summer around here starts on July 5th but that sure wouldn’t be the case this year. The major signs of summer so far has been the rain is a little warmer.

Our plans for the week are to leave here Tuesday, heading back to Birch Bay. We’ve got a couple of birthday parties to attend, I’ve got a couple doctor visits to get out of the way too. Other than that, no great plans for us for the upcoming week. Here’s hoping for some warmer, sunny days however. If we get some good weather I would like to wash the rig, clean out some of the storage compartment and get everything ready for when we leave and head out. We are still working out our route and timing but are sure leaning towards going through Utah for our way South this time. Our friends, Dave/Sandy are there now so we are probably going to pick their brains once they get back home to Minnesota before we firm up our plans.

So there you have it, our WET week in review and our look ahead for a quiet week upcoming. Guess I’ll add some pictures and have this ready to post when I walk over to the lodge later.

And a note for our grand daughter, Kaitlyn. She had her 6th birthday in April and Lorraine flew down to be with her. I asked Lorraine to have Kaitlyn give her a call every month on the 15th, the day of her birthday. I don’t know if she tried this month but so far we haven’t heard from her. Kaitlyn, don’t forget to give Nana a phone call, please. Thanks, Papa.

Entry gate to the park.