Here we are, on the road: We’re in Long Beach, Washington

Sunday, September 09, 2012 Lorraine’s report

Here we are, on the road once again. Hello from Long Beach, WA. Yes, we’ve started to head south for the rest of the year. It was time to leave the greater Bellingham area. We finished all our doctor visits and were starting to get itchy feet--time to move on.

We are staying at 1000 Trails in Long Beach, WA. We got here Friday afternoon after what should have been a quick drive from Rochester, WA, where we spent three days after we left Blaine.

It turns out you can not quite trust your GPS! This was the third time we followed directions the GPS said to and it failed us. The GPS lead us down a small dead end road into a town the opposite way we should have gone. The town was Ryderwood, WA and it is exactly opposite of the way we were suppose to go to get here to Long Beach.

Chuck had to disconnect the car and maneuver the rig to turn it around, hook up the car and take off, plugging in the address for here again. This time it headed us in the right direction, without much back tracking. That little side trip took over an hour I think. I’ve learned I should check the paper map more frequently.

Our last week in the Bellingham area was quite busy. Tim came over for a visit with Chuck . And I want to thank all our friends that invited us to dinner with them before we left. Norma/Rob had us over for hamburgers one night. John and Breta took us to their favorite steak house, the Black Forest. Joe and Alice took us to Chihuahua’s in Ferndale one night, Richard and Sandy took us to the Silver Reef Steak House, Steve and Sandy, just back from Alaska, took us to the Skagit Valley Casino’s Friday night Seafood Buffet and Rich and Joy made a wonderful homemade Chicken Stew one night for all of us, and then we spent on Sunday together exploring the Bellingham area, new to them. We ended up eating fried Chicken from Albertsons-it was all so good!

I loved seeing each and every one of you and catching up. I hope we will see some of you this winter, the rest, not sure when we will meet up again, but I enjoyed our time together. Thank you all for sharing your time and love with us. We do appreciate all your many kindnesses and I look forward to being with all of you once again. I will miss you all!

We were in Bellingham a little over six and a half weeks. It was a very nice break from the killer heat the rest of the country was experiencing. You can not beat the Pacific Northwest in the summer when the weather was like it was this summer. Sunny skies, warm temperatures, mid to upper 70’s with lows into the mid 50s, and the humidity wasn’t bad at all, you have your perfect summer time weather.

If Seattle makes it to this Tuesday with out any measurable rain, Seattle will set a new record of 51 days without any rain. After all the rain they had here this past winter and spring, these people really deserve it!

This Saturday we went to a big car show here on the Long Beach Peninsula. There were over 1000 cars expected and most likely showed up for the show and many cruises during the day and into the evening. The difference was the weather. It only reached 63 degrees and we had the marine layer over cast over us all day. It was quite cool, and the wind coming up when we left the show didn’t help.

Last Sunday after I went to church, we attended the classic car show at the Silver Reef Casino with Rick and Joy. It was a lot smaller, but the weather was absolutely beautiful. After the show we took Rick and Joy on a tour of Bellingham. They hadn’t ever seen the town or waterfront. We spent a quiet wonderful day together, showing them the area. We ended up playing the dice game, 10,000. I can’t tell you what it means to me to have such awesome friends as you two are-Thank You!!!

I guess that’s all I want to say for now. Until next time…

Lorraine

9/9/12 Chuck’s report

We’re back on the road again after a long stay in Blaine for doctor visits and such. We don’t plan on traveling far for the next month, staying in one spot for a week or less and seeing some sites in that area as we work our way down South.

Once again we haven’t written for two weeks so will try to get caught up to date here. Pardon my ramblings but we sometimes go back and review our blogs for info so have to do this for our sake too.

The last week of August we managed to have dinner with friends almost every night. On Monday we went over to Rob/Norma’s for a BBQ and a nice visit.

Tuesday we met with John/Bretta at Jack Neiman’s Black Forest in Bellingham, an excellent place to eat by the way, and we had a very nice visit with these old friends of ours too.

Wednesday Joe/Alice treated us to a very nice Mexican dinner at Chihuahua’s in Ferndale, thanks. Once again we had a very good visit and saw a couple of other friends while there too, bonus.

Thursday we met Richard/Sandy at the Steak House at the Silver Reef Casino where they treated us to a VERY nice dinner. If you are in the area and would like a good steak and great service, give this place a try. It’s a bit on the expensive side but maybe you could talk Richard/Sandy into treating you like they did us, ha. We were at the table for about three hours, lots of laughter and good conversation along with the good food. Thanks Richard and Sandy, we had a good time even if I had to wear a shirt with a collar.

Friday we met with friends Steve/Sandy who had recently returned from their trip to Alaska. We met them at the Skagit Casino Buffet where once again we had a good dinner and visit with good friends. It was good talking about your Alaska trip and remembering ours from a couple years ago. We were surprised when they treated us too, thanks a bunch and see you two down South this winter.

Saturday we were invited over to see Rick/Joy at their place where once again we were fed. This time we had Joy’s homemade Chicken stew and Rick’s homemade apple pie. Lorraine brought some corn bread and corn on the cob to complete a good meal and good visit with Rick/Joy and Rob/Norma. Sure hope to see these fine friends down South this winter again.

Sunday Lorraine went to Church while I completed a couple of items from the honey do list. Later we picked up Rick/Joy to go to the Car Show at the Silver Reef Casino. We spent a couple of hours there, managed to see some friends who were there too. Later we took a “Sunday afternoon” drive around the water front, ending up at the harbor in Bellingham. We stopped by Albertson for some fried chicken, salad and such then returned to our place. After dinner we played a couple games of 1000, the first couple I was thinking maybe I should have gone to the casino instead but that was short lived as we had two complete games with Lorraine and Joy each winning one, if memory serves me correctly.

And just to make it a complete week, on Monday we once again had the Buffet at the Silver Reef, senior day so it was lunch for $5 each which included dessert. Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy were with us to once again help us have a good time. Later everyone played the slots for awhile except for me, I decided to try the tables, should have played the slots instead is all I will say about that decision.

We also spent some time with other friends while we were there too. Good to see Dennis/Barb while they were down. And Tim stopped by one day, I tried to talk him into coming down South this winter, we’ll see if I was successful or not. hanks to all of you and others that we were able to see while we were back there. I would name some of them but for sure I would miss someone and don’t want to do that so will just say thanks to all of our friends we met along the way while back there. As for the ones we didn’t see, there’s always next time or if you happen to be in the same area as we, let us know and we’ll make arrangements to get together. Now that we are on the road, I need to stop eating so much although I really enjoyed our dinners with some of our closest friends.

So Tuesday we packed up and headed out, making the compass show “S” once again. We didn’t travel far, just down to Rochester to yet another Casino. We were planning on staying at 1000 Trails in Chehalis but the place was pretty full and we couldn’t find a spot we liked and would suit us so we backtracked a bit to Lucky Eagle camp ground for the next three nights.

The second day here Lorraine and I gave the coach and the car a much needed wash. They look pretty good but as soon as we drive through a rain storm - - - -, well you know. And with all the cleaning that Lorraine has done on the inside while we were in Blaine, we are good to go for awhile.

One reason we wanted to stay in this area was to drive up to Mt. Saint Helen again. As you might remember, it erupted in May 1980 and devastated the forest for miles around. We drove down the following year to see it for ourselves, quite a sight to see all the trees in the forest laid over like wind rows of hay in a field. There was a couple of burned out cars covered in dust, Spirit Lake and the mountain, or what was left of it. It sort of reminded us of a moonscape in that there was no sign of life, no green, just brown from the blast and dust.

We’ve returned for a visit three times since, each time amazed at how it was recovering. We haven’t been back for about 9 or 10 years and WOW, what a difference. The grass, bushes and trees have taken hold in lots of places. Lots of wildlife, although we didn’t see any up close, have returned to the area, the ranger said they see about 100 elk everyday. They have a very nice visitor’s center there but we couldn’t drive some of the roads like we did the previous visits. I guess it’s changed so much, it doesn’t even remind us what we saw during our first visit, nothing awe inspiring except for the healing.

Friday morning we got everything put away and headed for the dump station before leaving. The camp ground host came running over while I was hooking up the car, she thought we were some else who hadn’t paid but left anyway. Lucky for us, she remembered us and that we had paid, otherwise Lorraine could have dug out the receipt if needed. After leaving, I missed the driveway to the gas station and had to go around a country mile to the next road and back. Guess I should have figured things come in three but I’m not that smart.

The driving directions on the computer showed two ways to go to Long Beach, the GPS chose the one down South. That was ok by me, I followed its direction. But somehow, it decided to lead us down a couple of country roads which ended up with us on a dead end road with no room to turn around. I had to un-hook the car, turn the coach around then re-hook the car. This was only the third time we’ve had to do that in the past 5 years but I was still embarrassed to find us in that position. I had even checked the map before we left but didn’t have the correct route down in my mind. But like I sometimes say, we’ve never been lost; just sometimes we don’t know where we are. But with Lorraine’s help on the paper map and a bit of reprogramming of the !@# GPS, we soon got back on the small country roads and headed in the right direction. We were only about 1 1/2 hours later arriving here than what I planned. But we did see some pretty country we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Once we got back on the main highway heading here, we saw lots of old cars, much more than in a normal drive. Lorraine suggested there might be a car show somewhere in the area. Once we got here to Long Beach 1000 Trails, the ranger told us about a big car show here this weekend. Boy, two car shows in two weeks, how lucky can we get. We got set up then went to town for a Subway sandwich for dinner and noticed lots of folks in chairs along the road like a parade route. It didn’t take us long to figure out there was a cruise for the old cars going on so we found a spot and watched for awhile too.

Saturday we headed out to the actual car show about 10 miles away at a fair ground. We found a place to park fairly close then spent the next three hours walking around looking at over 1000 old cars. Boy are there some great cars to see!! I don’t know who I would approach if someone gave me the money and told me to pick out any car I wanted. I know some of them would be nice to have and drive, some would be strictly for show and shine car shows and some would require some work to put them in show condition. But seeing as how no one was there with unlimited money for me, I didn’t have to make that decision, shoot. But if anyone wants to come up with the unlimited funds, please let me know ASAP!!!

The weather has been really nice lately. The longest Seattle has ever gone without measurable rainfall was 51 days back in 1951. Today was the 48th day without rain in Seattle but looks like it will rain tomorrow and Monday so the record is safe. The temperatures have been really nice but no more 90F days. We’ve had a few 80F days but we can feel fall coolness setting in at night, almost to the point of needed a jacket. We don’t want to spend another winter here like last year so we will continue with our travel down South before it gets cold. I’ve given in to wearing long pants but I don’t want to get to where I need a jacket until much later in the year.

I think we have our plans set for the next month or so, at least a general idea. We plan on working our way down the Oregon and part of the North California coast, mostly staying at 1000 Trail parks along the way. Then we will cut over to the middle of California to see a couple of 1000 Trail Parks we haven’t been to yet. Lorraine wants to be with Kaitlyn and Susy for Halloween again this year, plus we plan on being there for Thanksgiving and Christmas as well.

Mike/Linda, we will be in Seaside on Monday, not sure how long we will stay there but plan on going to Seaside, Pacific City, Whaler’s Rest and South Jetty over the next two weeks or so. As usual, we haven’t made reservations, just going with the flow, staying as long as we want at any spot before heading to the next. So once you make it in the area, give us a holler and we’ll try to see you somewhere along the way.

Ok, enough of that, think I’ll put a few pictures here and get this posted.

High winds make for flimsy, fast moving clouds. Remember the song “The Bluest Skies I’ve Ever Seen Were in Seattle”?