Sunday, August 21, 2011 Lorraine’s report
We are now in the final four days of our long, extended stay in Birch Bay, WA. We have survived one of the coldest, wettest winter/springs on record. This summer has been cooler than normal; the weatherman has said we are still under the influence of La Nina. La Nina makes the ocean currents in the Pacific colder than normal, thus the cooler temperatures.
Our daytime highs have been in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. I have to say, I’ve finally put on shorts here off and on for the past couple of weeks; although I put jeans on when we are headed out in the evening, usually . I didn’t last night and my legs were extremely cold by the time we came home, in fact I was cold through and through.
We should be in the mid 70’s to low 80’s. We start most days covered by low clouds and cool temperatures, no sun. By 11 am to noon or 1 pm, the sun starts coming out and burns off the marine influence. By 5 pm, it is sunny and warm, with the wind slightly blowing, usually all day, which keeps it cool here at Latitude 49.
The weatherman has said we should be having more 80 plus days than we have had, but he can’t say when. In fact as of last Friday, he said we have had 5 days of 80 degrees or more in Seattle, but that’s not here. Yesterday Seattle hit 85 for the first time this year…Hurray!
We have had a busy week as usual, doing the same old same old. Tuesday we went to the Northwest WA Fair in Lynden Washington. We parked at Tim’s home there just a couple of blocks away. He was kind enough to let Misty stay with him and Lady Dog while we attended; thank you Tim.
Just as Chuck and I were starting to look at the exhibits in the arts and crafts building, specifically the quilts, we ran into Steve and Sandy. They had come up with their friends, Ben, Harry and I can’t remember their other friend’s name. We visited a bit, they had to head back to Lake Tyee by 3 pm or so. Sandy and I went through the quilts, and then they had to be on their way. We went the other direction. It was good to see friends.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the way the big wigs at the fair have now eliminated all the free grand stand seating for the name acts. You used to be able to go to the fair and see a big name act. Not anymore, you need to by tickets for this as well.
Trace Adkins was the act there that evening, and the tickets were $48.00 each, and that didn’t include the cost of entering into the fair. Usually they have several bands at the two smaller stages, but the day we were there, they had a magician and a juggler. Even the food prices had gone up. I like the BBQ beef sandwich that used to come with cold slaw and baked beans. They raised the price of the sandwich, and it didn’t come with anything.
We did get to see several old friends at the fair; we saw Archie and Esther; Chuck worked with Archie at Arco in the early days and learned a lot from him. We also saw friends Linda and Shirley, both of their husbands worked with Chuck at Arco, but passed on several years ago. Also, while I was waiting for Chuck to come back with ice cream from the Whatcom Dairy Women’s stand, Archie and Lupe, Joe’s sister/husband stopped and visited for a bit. It was sure good to see all of our old friends and catch up with them.
We went back to pick up Misty and rested at Tim’s home, then went to dinner to the Fairway Café. The Fairway sure does give you big helpings of food and it’s really good also.
This week saw me fasting for a blood test for my primary doctor. That was on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning they drew the blood for tests. I find out results on Monday when I see my primary doc for my “Welcome to Medicare” physical. Let’s hope everything is still good.
This week also found us cleaning out the rest of the cupboards in the rig; and on Saturday Chuck polished all the woodwork in the coach, a big job to be sure. We’ve gone through all the cupboards, and all the storage compartments in the basement and gotten rid of anything we don’t need/use. Hurray! We are ready to roll.
Friday evening Chuck took me to the Skagit for the Seafood Buffet; I know I will miss all the fresh wonderful Dungeness crab we have here in the Pacific NW. I ate my fill and will think of it when we are far, far away and they have only snow crab or whatever else they have for seafood buffet; it’s not the same as here!
So that’s it for me for this week. We are looking forward to heading to Utah and points east and south. Until next time…
Lorraine
8/21/11 Chuck’s report
Well, we’ve spent our last full week here in the great Pacific Northwest, our home for the last 6 months. It’s been nice to be here except for the wet, cold spring and early summer we’ve had. But at least now it’s getting better, yesterday got up to 85F in Seattle, probably close to 80F here wit lots of sunshine. The forecast is for some rain on Monday and Tuesday, maybe we waited too long to late, ha.
This is the longest we’ve stayed in one area since getting on the road back in Oct. 07, we got here on February 22 and will leave on Aug. 25, six months and three days but who’s counting. We had spent 5 weeks at the motorhome factory in Alabama a couple of years ago and 6 weeks here two years ago waiting for the doctor to run all the test on me before we went to Alaska for the summer.
When we were here for the last three years for our summer stay, we would stay at 1000 Trails/NACO for two weeks, then move to Beachwood for two weeks then back to 1000 Trails. This time we stayed at Latitude 49 on a lot Joe/Alice own, that meant we didn’t have to load up and move every two weeks, thanks to Joe/Alice for letting us stay here.
We did manage to get on the road a few times since we’ve been here, once it was to head into Bellingham just to exercise all the systems, once we made a run to Oregon to get the rig serviced and once to La Connor to a Lewis and Clark rally. I think it’s time to start putting some miles on this thing, it has wheels for a reason.
I’ve been working on our itinerary/route for the next few months and will attach it here, mostly so anyone who is planning on being in an area where we are will let us know, maybe we can get together (hint to Jim and Annie).
This past week wasn’t as busy as some we’ve had, we didn’t make too many plans as we were thinking we might be in Leavenworth at the Rally. So we mostly started getting some stuff ready for the road. We cleaned the last few cupboards, cleaned the woodwork and such. We ended up with a couple things we will store at the shop, some things we gave away to Goodwill and the food bank and some things managed to make it to the recycle or dumpster.
Tuesday we made it to the Northwest Washington Fair at Lynden. I guess we’ve been there too many times over the years, not too exciting for us. Lorraine wanted to see Trace Atkins but we didn’t want to pay the $48 each. It wasn’t that many years ago when admission to the shows was included in the price to get into the place. Then they added some chairs in front of the stage that they sold, then they reserved and sold parts of the bleacher section and now they sell every seat in the house. Guess it’s just the way things have gone, nothing stays the same. Guess I’m getting old and reminiscing here, huh?
Hearing on the news today there was a shooting at the NW Washington Fair last night. They say it was a gang related thing with 4 people shot and one stabbed. Our little, quiet area isn’t sheltered from that kind of stuff either. Too bad, hope everyone is ok.
Lorraine had a blood draw in preparation for her last scheduled doctor visit on Monday. Here’s hoping it turns out as well as the others she’s had. I have one more visit to the Veterans in Mt. Vernon and a visit with my VA advocate in Bellingham and then I’ll be ready to roll too.
We’ve made a couple of visits to the jeweler who is making up a necklace for Lorraine, we were hoping to have it finished in time for her birthday but missed that. Now we’re hoping he has it done before we leave here on Thursday morning. Lorraine talked to him on Friday and the plan is to have it done on Tuesday, here’s hoping that works out.
Oh, I heard where our local police force has arrested the energizer bunny and said the charge was for battery. I’m rooting for the bunny!
And now for some pictures, will have some travel pictures soon, I hope.
Quilts at the fair.
Some displays at the fair.
Baby pigs feeding and a blue eyed horse.
Momma draft horse and baby.
The head table for the winner of the dahlia display. A good friend of mine, Butch Hannah, won best in show with one of his flowers on display.
Visit with Archie and Ester, I worked with Archie at the refinery.
A couple more displays, these are from the granges in the area.
Just to prove we do get some sunshine here, this over the bay South of Blaine. Doesn’t show well but the sea weed looks like floating ice in real life. Sure don’t need to see ice in the salt water, time to leave.
And now, I’ll add our itinerary here, most of you probably don’t care and that’s fine.
Birch Bay to Salt Lake City Aug. 25 – Aug. 31
Tooele, Utah Aug. 31 – Sept. 7
Moab, Utah Sept. 7 – Sept. 12
Cortez, Colorado Sept.12 – Sept. 15 Four corners area
Jacob Lake, Az. Sept. 15 – Sept. 19 North Rim of Grand Canyon
Bryce Canyon, Utah Sept. 19 – Sept. 25
Zion National Park, Utah Sept. 25 – Sept. 29
Las Vegas, NV Sept. 29 – Oct. 11
Laughlin, NV. Oct. 11 – Oct. 25
We will be staying at the Santa Clara Elks visiting Susy and Kaitlyn for a couple weeks at time for the next couple of months. But we have to leave to give her a change to get her life back to normal so we will leave and head to other places in-between visits with them. So the following is when we will NOT be at Santa Clara from Oct. 26 thru the first of the year.
Santa Barbara, CA. Nov. 2 – Nov. 16
Palm Springs, CA. Nov. 29 – Dec. 13
Hemet, CA. Dec. 13 – Dec. 19
Jamul, CA. Jan. 2 - Jan 9 San Diego area
Palm Springs, CA. Jan. 9 – Jan 23 or whenever we decide to leave to Quartzsite.
Ok, that’s the plan we have set for today. Of course, as everyone knows, there is no way we will keep that itinerary/schedule but at least it gives us a place to start. We actually have reservations made for some of these stops but all of them can be changed if/when needed. So remember, none of this is set in stone but is just a work in progress. At least it gets us back to the full timers’ life we signed up for.
And now with that, I’ll close and get this posted. Whew
Thanks Chuck
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