Here we are, on the road: August 2011

Sunday August 28th, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Well, Here we are on the road, again. We found summer! This past week has been busier than most weeks, and when I say that I mean like “Wow!” How can we do all we needed to get done so we could leave?!

Last Sunday I went to my church and said my goodbyes to my nice pastor and a couple of friends I made there. I hurried home and got things ready for dinner. I had asked Richard and Sandy over for dinner since she had to work that day. We enjoyed a very nice visit with Richard and Sandy and made plans for them to come visit us in Las Vegas at the beginning of October when we plan on being there. It will be good to see great friends there.

Monday I had my welcome to Medicare visit with my primary care doctor. Since it was raining really hard and felt like autumn, this was a good day to do this.

Good news, bad news. Bad news first; my cholesterol is back up as are my triglycerides. I have been eating too many eggs and way too much Dungeness crab. I told my doc that I kinda went over board on the crab, and I would cut down on the eggs again. Being away from NW Washington would take care of the crab since other crab from other areas isn’t as good as Dungeness, although King crab is delicious and a close second.

Good news, he was able to answer all my other questions, and recommend solutions.

The one thing he said I needed was a pneumonia shot since I had just turned 65. Well, they gave me the shot. I must say that it hurt and the shot site became red and hard, swollen to the size of my hand, and extremely hot. After a call to his nurse, I’ve been putting ice packs on the site 4-5 times a day and it is finally getting better.

Tuesday was Chuck’s turn. He had made an appointment in Mt. Vernon to meet his primary doctor at the VA, he had seen someone else before, and wanted to meet his doc before we left the area. He had an appointment to have his new hearing aids checked; he told them they just didn’t seem right. They weren’t and he had to make another appointment to go back in to have his ears cleaned of a wax build up.

After the appointments, we went to Swinomish Casino’s old farts buffet for $3.98 after the appointment, and if you go on Tuesday, they give you a pass to come back on Thursdays for the same price, a very good deal. Chuck had to pack up all the stuff he had put into Joe’s little shed when we returned home.

Wednesday found me up and out on the road before 9:00 am with Chuck. We had lots to accomplish that day. First stop was Mickey D’s for food, and then on to Wal Mart for a new prescription. Next stop was to Fred Meyer’s for supplies. Chuck left me there while he went to see his main VA contact man at the Vet’s office. From there it was over to pick up a piece of jewelry Chuck was having made for me. From there it was on to the bank for $ to pay for it, and a return to the jewelers.

We needed to get back home to let Misty out, Chuck then dropped me by my hairdressers for my appointment. He then took some stuff by the shop that we wanted to keep and store until later, while I was having my hair done. Chuck picked me up and we were off to Sears for what was suppose to be my new glasses, but only the lens came in, so they will have to ship the frames to me later when the come in. We didn’t get home until after 6:30 that evening; indeed a very long day.

Thursday we had packed the rig and left Latitude 49 at 8:45 am. We hit heavy traffic down by Bow Hill due to road construction and an accident. We pulled into Swinomish Casino & RV Park at 10:15. Chuck plugged into the power and took off for his ear cleaning appointment in Mt. Vernon at 11 am; he barely made it due to another accident. I set up the rig, except for the water and sewer.

The traveling Vietnam Wall was at Swinomish Casino, where we came to, and the opening ceremonies were scheduled for noon. Steve and Sandy, Joe and Alice, Alice’s brother and sister in law were all going to be there. I walked Misty, and then headed over to see the ceremonies. The opening ceremonies were impressive and the Swinomish Tribe did a good job in setting everything up. We were able to find Chuck’s brother, Dale’s name on the wall and take another etching of it. We now have 3, maybe 4 of his name, even one from the real Wall in DC.

Joe/Alice, her brother/SIL went into the casino to play. We went through all the displays, and followed them. We ended up seeing everyone in the restaurant.

Sandy/Steve had to take their dog, Yoda to the Vet in Oak Harbor after lunch. In the meantime, Joe and Alice had to leave with her brother, so we said our byes…see you down the road. Thank you both for letting us rent your lot these past 6 months.

Sandy/Steve came back and wanted to play in the casino for a while. Then the guys went back to our rig, and Sandy and I soon followed. It was time to say our byes to them. I’m not sure when we will see them again, hopefully this winter in Quartzsite.

So Friday we headed out through that darned heavy Seattle traffic; it is scary. We pulled into Sunnyside, WA by Yakima, to the Sunnyside RV Park. The temperature said 99 degrees on the way over and while we were setting up the rig. We found Summer!

For dinner we drove back to Yakima to Legends Casino and found they were having a big Pow-Wow. We ate, played a bit, went to the Pow-Wow, and then came on home. I must say the low for the night was 72 degrees, our high temperature for most days in Birch Bay this summer.

Saturday found us headed southwest; we crossed the Columbia River and are now in Oregon at Oasis RV Park in Huntington, OR.

Thursday evening I got a call from our grand daughter, Kaitlyn. She had to call Nana and tell her about her first day of school as a first grader. She was so excited, she got the same teacher as last year. It was great to hear from her and her mommy. I also talked with my son, Rick and he is doing well and Donna is still in Alaska with him, Yea! We are looking forward to seeing Katie/Joe and their boys this week in Salt Lake City area, should be fun.

That’s it for me….we found summer!…until next time…

Lorraine

8/28/11 Chuck’s report

Another week has gone by, time to write our blog. This is the first one after us leaving Washington, we are on the road.

We didn’t get on the road until Thursday, before we left we had lots of errands to run, doctors to visit and another visit with my Veteran’s advocate. Plus we were back in the normal rain pattern we’ve had, at least on Sunday night and all day Monday. Sure made us anxious to get to a warmer, drier area. Hopefully we aren’t getting there too early and suffer from temperatures that are too hot.

Joe reminded me that the Traveling Vietnam Wall was going to be at the Swinomish Casino on Thursday so we sort of changed our schedule a bit. We decided to just stay at the Casino on Thursday, only about 40 miles away but at least we were on the road. Joe/Alice, her brother and sister-in-law, Steve/Sandy and us made plans to meet for the opening at noon. However, I had to get my hearing aids adjusted and could only make that appointment for 11:00 AM. Lorraine and I got on the road earlier than normal, headed to the Casino where I disconnected the car, parked the coach at our site, hooked up the power cord and left. Lorraine set the jacks, got the slides out and set up everything except for the water and sewer.

I made my appointment with minutes to spare due to another traffic problem in town. In fact, on the way down we had three folks cut us off, one with just inches to spare as he came from the inside lane, across two lanes and cut in front of us at the exit, of course at the very last minute. He gave me the one fingered salute too, guess I shouldn’t have been in his way when he decided to be dumb or something, I don’t know. I’m of the belief a large majority of folks should go back to remedial driving training, especially on how to merge onto the freeways. Ok. rant over, whew.

Anyway, I finished up with the appointment and got back to the opening ceremonies just a few minutes after it started. The local Indian tribe was the host and they had lots of ways to honor the Wall and Veterans in general. After the opening ceremonies we all had our pictures taken in front of the Wall, found my brother’s name and remembered him. Boy did our family change after he was killed in Vietnam, I’m sure all of the 58,000 killed effected their family lives too.

After visiting the wall, we adjourned to the buffet, we got the senior discount and ended up paying $4/person and had a very good meal too. Steve/Sandy had to take their dog, Yoda, to the vet while the rest of us played the slots for awhile. We said “so long” to Joe and Alice with plans to meet down South this winter. Once again, thanks for letting us stay on your extra lot at Latitude 49 while I was working and after.

I met Steve back at our rig where they let their dog stay while we played the slots for another hour. Lorraine had some good luck, I lost another small amount but lost just the same. Afterwards, we visited with Steve and Sandy for awhile with made plans of seeing them down South later this winter too.

Friday morning found us heading out on the road for real, this time with plans to stop somewhere in Eastern Washington. We ended up at Sunnyside RV Park, a Passport America member where we can stay for half of the posted price, a good deal. We got a place with 50 Amp electric service so we could run both air conditioners as it was hot. The warmest temperature we had seen since leaving Arizona last February was 81F, here we were in the high 90s the first day on the road. We got set up and I washed the bugs from the windshield and the front, too hot for me. After I finished, I sat inside with an ice pack to cool off.

Later we headed out to Legends Casino, a new Casino for us. We were given a couple dollars off the buffet, just what we needed, ha. We played the slots for awhile, no luck for either of us then tried their buffet. We weren’t very hungry but still managed to put away enough to last us through the rest of the day. We found out they were having a Pow Wow there too so we had to take that in for awhile. Lucky for us it was after dark and the temperature was down to the low 80s or so. We also checked out their RV park they have there, looks like a nice one but we didn’t see a price posted anywhere. The sites appear to be all back-ins but are fairly long and wide, much larger than the one we were in at Sunnyside RV Park, that’s for sure. But we were only there for one night and it had all the things we needed to be comfortable and the price was right so we were satisfied.

Saturday morning we got on the road about our normal time, 10ish. We pulled out of our site and headed out the park backwards on a one-way road to miss the trees and get to a spot where we could hook up the car.

While driving we had one incident where the engine sort of de-tuned or something, we couldn’t get above 50 MPH. I was ready to pull over and call our tow company when it took off and started running normal again, maybe bad fuel or bad fuel filter, I don’t know. That’s the first time we’ve had any issues with the engine while driving, made me nervous to say the least. Here’s hoping we don’t have another occurrence!

We made it to our planned stop for the night here at Huntington Oasis RV park, right along the Snake River. This is another Passport America membership park and again we can stay here for half the posted price, price $2 extra for 50 amp. We were assigned to site #1 but were unable to get satellite reception so we moved over to the site right on the river, good deal. Only problem is I had to use all our sewer hose and two connections to reach the sewer, it’s so far to the back of the site. But we are able to get good satellite reception, only bad thing we can’t get cell phone service, too far from civilization I guess.

We had originally planned to stay here for two days, we don’t like to travel more than two days in a row. But when we checked in, Lorraine asked the guy what we could do in the area. He said there was an interpretive center 50 miles away, other than that, nothing much. So we decided to only stay for one night.

Once again, after we got set up, I washed the bugs from the front but didn’t get as exhausted as the day before, even though the temperature was hotter, we got up to 101F. What a change from what we were used to back in Blaine but that’s what we were looking for, maybe not this hot but warmer and drier. So once again, be careful of what you wish for, you may just get it.

Our plans for the upcoming week is to get to Salt Lake City where we will stay until after Labor Day. We’ve found over the last four year that the major holidays can be busy in the RV parks. So we try to get to one early in the holiday week and stay until after the holiday if over. That’s our plans here too, we will be visiting with our friends Joe/Katie who live in the area. They’ve volunteered to be our tour guides too, we plan on taking them up on that offer for sure. It’s so much nicer to see the sights and such in a new area if someone who lives there is willing to show us around.

Once again, the weather this week has been varied. We had a lot of rain on Monday, high temperature probably in the high 60s and all the way up to over 100F on Saturday. The weather on the radio was talking about a thunderstorm here on Saturday night but nothing, it was clear all evening with no signs of a storm.

And now for some pictures. As promised last week, we actually have some travel pictures too.

Different cloud formation, high winds up there I think.