We’re in Santa Clara, CA

Sunday, October 28, 2012                                                                                                      Lorraine’s report

Hello once again from the Santa Clara Elks Lodge parking lot, aka “the RV” park in Sunnyvale, CA. We arrived here last Saturday, following a busy week in Oregon, mainly Eugene, where we had our refrigerator replaced. We were there from the previous Thursday until late Wednesday before we finished up.

Oregon Motor Coach Repair was a nice place to have work done; it’s kinda like Red Bay and the Tiffin factory. We had to be ready to pull the rig into the shop by 7:30 am, waiting for the nod from them to go on in. They had a small waiting room with coffee, a couch and a few easy chairs and a television. They would put your rig into a spot outside the shop when they were finished working on the rig for the day. The owner of the shop used to run the repair part of Country Coach Factory there in Eugene. They did pretty nice work, and were extremely busy every day we were there. They were replacing four more refrigerator change outs after us.

We love the new refrigerator; the only thing is we have the electrical box below where the refrigerator needed to go, and they lowered the refrigerator as low as they could, but the plain truth is I have to stand on a stool to reach the top shelf. But it is wonderful to have a working ice box, no more worrying about how to keep food from spoiling. As it was we lost everything in the little replacement refrigerator from Wal-Mart, it didn’t keep anything cold; the freezer worked, so that was good. We took that back to WM and got our money back on that.

On Tuesday I was sitting in the waiting room with some of the other people and Chuck and my laptop shut down. It just crashed and I could not get it to come back on. It kept saying “disc error”; my laptop died right then and there. Chuck let me use his for a bit the next day so I could check our financial accounts, but I knew he wanted to use his laptop as he usually does.

When the shop manager gave us the word we were going to be done, we went to Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer to get your basic food for the refrigerator. I had to replace everything from milk to ice cream; which is so hard to dish up now that the freezer works so well. And I love that there is plenty of ice from the ice maker. I bought the normal amount of food I was able to store in that old ice box, and it barely made a dent in the new one. Friday I made a potato salad for dinner, and the bowl looked so lost in all that room. To say I am happy with the new ice box is putting it mildly.

We left Wednesday afternoon and drove down to Seven Feathers RV Park. Chuck unhooked and set up and had to rest after. He is still having trouble breathing. After his rest, we headed over to the casino for dinner and a bit of gaming. Chuck came by me a short time after leaving me, and showed me a ticket of his winnings. He found a machine that liked him a lot; from the winnings he gave me $300.00 towards a new computer. Thank you Honey, I appreciated it. I had no luck there at Seven Feathers.

The next morning found us up early driving the car south to Medford, OR about an hour 10 minutes away. We have found some places we like to go to for things like Chuck’s shoes, and we added a new laptop computer to that list of stuff we were looking for.

Best Buy was where we found my new laptop. It was being cleared out, the Geek Squad loaded up what I needed and we were off, I had a new lap top. That was another long day for us.

Friday morning found us up and headed south again. We stopped at Rolling Hills Casino, got set up and went to eat their Friday night Seafood and Prime Rib buffet. It was delicious, neither one of us had much luck at that casino.

Saturday morning we were off pretty early, headed into the bay area. I have to say traveling into the bay area on Saturday is most definitely the way to go. Traffic was not at all that heavy like on any week day, it was so much less.

We have been busy with Susy and Kaitlyn, picking up Kaitlyn by 3 each day after school, bringing her by the rig, playing, reading and doing art. She has enjoyed it all. Mark took her up to Seattle for his aunt’s memorial on Friday and Susy and I had a chance to do a bit of shopping before we went to the Stanford/Washington State University Cougars football game yesterday. Stanford won in an exciting ending.

Chuck went to the Veteran’s Center here in the bay area early Tuesday. He met his doctor and she referred him to a lung doctor and he needs to have a sleep apnea test. We haven’t heard back from them when that will happen. Chuck tried calling Friday, but they didn’t call him back. Hopefully we will hear this week before we leave after Halloween.

That’s it for me. Until next time….

Lorraine

10/28/12                                                                                                                              Chuck’s report

Yep, we’re in the Bay area to visit with our daughter and grand daughter.  It’s good to be able to be here and yet still be in our own home when visiting, makes it less hassle for them too, I think. 

We didn’t post a blog last week, we were still at the repair place getting our new fridge installed so wasn’t too much going on to write about.  They got the old fridge out on Friday and got the new one in on Tuesday.  They finished up Wednesday, just had a couple of things to do at our site, didn’t have to go into the shop.  

We also had them install new house batteries for me, they sold us them for less than I could buy them at Wal-Mart and installed them for free too.  Of course, I asked them to clean up and paint the battery compartment and they had to charge for that but it looks better now. 

We ran a few errands on Wednesday morning while they were working on our coach.  We got back and put stuff away, went inside to pay our bill.  They were really good to work with, it took a few more hours to install than they quoted us but they stuck with their original quote.  At $105/hour, that was a pleasant surprise. 

By now it was early afternoon and we decided to hook-up and drive on down the road to Seven Feathers Casino RV Park, about 100 miles South of us.  We made it there with no problems other than the new freezer door didn’t stay closed.  We had Velcroed the fridge doors together but didn’t do anything with the freezer.  I was able to figure out a way to Velcro the freezer door and contacted the repair place for idea.  They said they mistakenly forgot to add a mechanical lock on the freezer and would send us one at our next stop.  I gave them our daughter’s address and they send one to me.

While we were at the repair place, Lorraine was in the waiting room and her computer died.   I’m not sure what happened but I was unable to get it to even turn on, usually not a good sign.  We wanted to purchase a new one while we were still in Oregon plus needed to do more shopping so we decided to stay for two nights and drive to Medford to do our shopping the next day. 

Of course, we were at a casino and that meant we would be going in for dinner and some slot playing.  This time I had some luck on the slots and was able to give Lorraine some money towards her new computer.  The one that died on her was also purchased with her winnings on slot machines, way back when we were in Springfield, Missouri a few years back.  That makes it easier but she would rather have her old one as she had all her info and programs on it and has to rebuild everything on this one. 

Friday we left 7 Feathers and headed South once more, this time planning on stopping at Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, California.  We got there, got set up, washed the bugs off the front and went inside for a good buffet.  We might have stayed for too long as both of us were down when we left but it was a good buffet, ha. 

We only stayed there one night and pulled into the Elks here in Santa Clara on Friday.  Once again we got set up (this time for more than one or two nights), washed the bugs then headed off to our daughter’s place.  Our grand daughter was with our son-in-law and we needed to store some Christmas presents at our daughters and this was a good time to do that. 

We then headed off to have dinner and met our grand daughter and SIL there.  You could hear Kaitlyn all over the restaurant when we came in, she yelled “NANA, NANA” and came running over to get/give hugs.  We all came back to our place and Kaitlyn talked everyone into letting her stay with us overnight, no surprise there.

Susy has been getting stuff marked and ready for a county wide garage sale at the fairgrounds.  She has been buying lots of stuff for pennies on the dollar and had to volunteer there on Sunday.  We went over to see her and check out the stuff they had, boy what a lot of stuff they had there but Lorraine didn’t find much stuff we wanted/needed. 

After we left there, we stopped by a local playground so Kaitlyn could run and get some exercise.  She hadn’t slept too well the night before and kept Lorraine up most of the night so Lorraine was able to catch a couple of winks in the car while Kaitlyn played. 

Once we got back to the coach, Lorraine finished dinner for all of us, pork steak in the slow cooker with rice, one of my favorites.  Everyone came by and had a good dinner and good time. 

Next morning, Lorraine and I set up the GPS and headed out to find the VA medical center for my appointment on Tuesday morning.  We wanted to find the route without fighting the morning rush hour traffic the next day.  Good thing we did as the GPS wanted to route us through city streets vs. the freeway we wanted.  I was able to reprogram it for the route we wanted.

We picked Kaitlyn up after school and returned to our place for awhile.  Kaitlyn and Nana sure have a good time together, lots of laughter while they are playing.  They also did some “homework” together, Kaitlyn read for an hour or so too.  Later we stopped by the garage sale and helped Susy pick up her stuff that didn’t sell. 

We then made it back to our place in time to watch the last presidential debate.  We’ve watched all but one of them and have made up our minds, not that there was much doubt but there is difference this time.  We had our absentee ballets so went ahead and filled them out and sent them in.   So we’ve done our part, hope you vote too and don’t cancel out ours, ha. 

Next morning we made it to the VA place by 8:15 for my appointment.  We got to see a doctor who checked me out and told us we needed to have a pulmonary fit test and a sleep study done before we came back to see here in two months.  So far I’ve been unable to get these scheduled but hope to have that taken care of tomorrow. 

Once again we stopped by to pick Kaitlyn up after school.  When Susy got off work, we met here there and unloaded her stuff into her garage to save until the next sale.  Because we were up early and both were tired, we headed back to our place and called it a night. 

Next morning we headed out to a local mall so Lorraine could pick up some stuff she had ordered, stopped by a grocery store then picked up Kaitlyn after school yet again.  Susy stopped by In & Out on the way home for our dinner (thought of you again Steve).

Thursday we took Lorraine’s new computer over to Best Buy to get the new Windows 8 loaded.  Guess what, we were a day early so we were unable to get it loaded, shoot.  Guess we’ll have it done tomorrow, hope it’s not busy.

As we’ve done since Monday, we picked Kaitlyn up from school again.  We came back to our place to do “homework'”, play games and watch a couple of kids shows on TV.  This will be our last time for that as she and her dad have to go to Seattle on Friday to attend a memorial for his aunt on Saturday.  They get back late tonight so we won’t see her until Monday afternoon when we will pick her up after school.

Friday we decided to stay home and rest.  At least that’s what I did, Lorraine did laundry and fixed another good dinner, this time fried chicken and potato salad.  Susy came over after work and she made plans for her and Lorraine to go shopping and for us to go with her to the Stanford football game on Saturday afternoon. 

So that’s what yesterday was about, they went shopping, we attended a very good game then came back here where they played a couple of card games and watched a movie.  A good day for us!

The place we are staying is like a parking lot but at least we have power and water at each site.  There is a dump station close enough that we can run a hose over to drain our gray tank when needed but we have to move the coach over to dump the black tank.  We can run the air conditioners or heat as needed plus Lorraine can do laundry at our place and we don’t have to load up and go to a laundry mat.  But the biggest thing is we are close to Susy’s place and Kaitlyn’s school.  

The weather has been nice, a couple of days of rain but not too bad.  The temperature has been nice too, in the high 60s, low 70s.  We got out of Washington in time as it’s been raining quite a bit there I hear.  The forecast is for good weather until Wednesday, a storm moving in just in time for Halloween. 

Our plans are to leave here on Thursday or Friday but that all depends on when I can make appointments with the VA.  We will be back here for Thanksgiving one way or the other but not sure where we will go in-between.  We are looking at 1000 Trails in Santa Barbara or possibly Laughlin, NV.  We’ll make that choice once I get the appointments made this week.  But we will be here for Halloween to be with Kaitlyn and back here for Thanksgiving for sure. 

Lorraine has taken a few pictures and I’ll go through them and pick some to add here. 

Nice sunset in Oregon. 

  

  

  

More travel pictures

  

 

 

Our grand daughter Kaitlyn having fun with Nana. 

 

 

Playing with leaves with Papa. 

  

Ok, I’ll get this posted now. 

 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Eugene, Oregon

 

Sunday, October 14, 2012                                                                                          Loraine’s report

Hello from the parking lot of Oregon’s Motor Coach Care Center in Eugene, OR. We came here on Thursday to have these guys start to put in a new refrigerator. Our old one gave up the ghost last Saturday night or Sunday morning, not sure when the power went off.

We have 50 amp, no water, no sewer, but it’s free to stay here. This RV repair place seems to be quite busy. They have about 8 bays, only 6 doors, and most are double depth. This Monday the manager said they are starting to change out two other rig’s refrigerator conversions to a residential one.

We drove back up to Portland on Friday morning to pick up the refrigerator they are going to be putting into our rig; it was raining extremely hard here, the first rain in almost 82 days, virtually a new record for this area. It has been an unprecedented run of sunny weather. After the winter and spring we had, the people here really deserved it.

It has been a long week and then some to be without a fully functioning refrigerator. We did go out last Sunday to Wal-Mart and bought a small college dorm size one to try and save some of our food. But the new one is just not functioning very well. The first few days, nothing was cold inside the fridge, and even Chuck’s milk turned chunky.

The bad thing was Chuck had to lift the refrigerator into the rig all alone, and that didn’t help his sore stomach muscles. His stomach was black and blue from one side to the other. I tried to help as much as I could, but getting it through the door was hard!

We’ve lost pretty much all of the food in the refrigerator. The freezer is working on the new small refrigerator. So we were able to save quite a bit of food from the freezer. I will be happy to get the new refrigerator in so we can resume normal living, it’s hard to go this long without a working refrigerator, wonder how the pioneers did it?

Monday we went to old farts day at the Silver Reef. We were meeting Steve & Sandy, who drove up from Lake Tyee, where they are staying. We enjoyed a nice lunch and visiting, played a bit; I think everyone just donated, not sure.

We made plans to go back to the Reef for Monday night football and the free hot dogs. We then continued our errands and went home to walk Misty.

Then back to the Reef. We met up with Richard/Sandy, Joe/Alice and Steve/Sandy, who came back from Mt. Vernon to watch the football game.

The guys watched the game and the gals played. It was good to see all our friends once again before we left. And I think Joe and I went up for the evening. Thanks everyone, we don’t know when we will be back in the area; it was great to see you all. Special thanks to Joe and Alice for letting us use their lot. We appreciate it!

Chuck saw his surgeon, Dr. Pietro on Tuesday and he said Chuck didn’t suffer any lasting effects to his surgery site, and all the bruising would fade. Chuck was good to go, even though there was all that bruising.

So the next day we left Birch Bay; getting out of Dodge just before the fall rains were to begin in that area; but we didn’t get far enough south, because we had the rains here. Oh well, that’s how it goes, into everyone’s life lots of rain must fall.

Yesterday we went up the road a bit and went to a rally put on by Guaranty RV Dealers. They gave us a bag of goodies for registering and a free lunch of chicken, pizza and green salad and soda. They had seminars in the morning and free driving classes in the afternoon. We ate lunch and looked at a few new rigs, then left.

Chuck wanted to look at another RV place just down the road. They had a new 2013 40 foot Phaeton, bath and a half. It was really pretty, almost makes me wish for a new rig, but not quite. If they had an Allegro Bus, now that’s  another story. 

With the replacement of the refrigerator we will have replaced the microwave, put in a new TV and refrigerator; we have repaired the clothes washer and dish washer.  Not sure why we these appliances haven’t lasted very long in my estimation.  Must be hard on them from being on the road.

So that was our week. We have to be here until at least Wednesday, then we’ll probably head south. I can hardly wait to see our daughter and granddaughter. That’s it for me…

Until next time….

Lorraine

 

10/14/12                                                                                                                     Chuck’s Report

Once again, it’s great to be back on the road.  Well, on the road is just a saying right now as we are sitting at a repair shop in their parking lot waiting to get our fridge replaced.  We have a Norcold RV type refrigerator, runs on either electric or propane so can be used with or without hookups. 

There has been lots of RV fires that were caused by problems with the refrigerators so Norcold issued a recall to install an over temperature device that would shut everything down if it detected abnormally high temperatures at the back of the fridge.  We had the recall done over a year ago and no problems since - - until about 10 days ago.  We came home and heard a beep-beep-beep sound coming from the fridge, usually an indication one of the doors wasn’t closed.

This time the doors were closed and we found there was no power to the fridge.  I checked the over temperature device and found it was tripped with a red light lit up like a Christmas tree.  I said Shucks or something like that and looked things over.  I found it had four wires, a 12 volt in, ground, 12 volt out and one that escapes me at the moment.  I figured I could connect the 12 volt in to the 12 volt out and bypass the device. 

I wasn’t too worried about bypassing this device as we had no signs of overheating and figured the device was just bad.  I had read where many folks had to replace this box, some even more than once.  Of course, this was all happening on a weekend so I couldn’t get any help from a RV service place otherwise I would have just replaced the box and gone on. 

Once I bypassed the device, the fridge ran just fine on propane but I couldn’t get it to work on electric.  No problem, we have a propane tank onboard and it was almost full, should last us like this for over a month.  I had plans to get a new recall device on Monday and restore everything back to normal. 

BUT (and there is always a but, isn’t there?) sometime on Saturday Lorraine noticed the fridge wasn’t a cool as before.  I checked and everything appeared to be running fine so I just raised the setting.  However, on Sunday it was pretty apparent that it was not cooling much, if at all.  The freezer stuff was still solid but the fridge wasn’t cool but it was still running on propane. 

Sunday afternoon we had been invited over to our friends Glenn/Jan for dinner.  I had worked with Glenn at the refinery for most of my time there, sometimes even on the same crew.  So after watching the Seattle Seahawks win their football game, off we went to their house.  We had a great visit and dinner with them, its been a long while since just the four of us had sat and visited.  They are retired too, have a nice place with three acres with shop, barn and garage.  They also have a a nice looking home in Arizona and try to get there often. 

They also had a neighbor that wanted to get rid of their motor home and talked them into buying it.  So now they have two houses and a nice diesel pusher.  They wanted to talk to us about our time on the road as they have some decisions to make.  We were happy to give them any info we could about this great lifestyle and are looking forward to hearing about their final decisions.  Good luck Glenn and Jan, I’m sure you will make the correct one for you two.  And thanks for the dinner and visit, we really enjoyed ourselves.     

After we got home we checked the fridge and made the decision to purchase a small apartment sized one to try and save our food.  We headed off to Wal-Mart, found one that would work and brought it back home.  By now it was going on 9:00 and we knew we needed to get this done before stuff started going bad. 

I managed to get the fridge out of the back of our car and out of the box with no problem.  Now, however, was the task of getting it into the coach.  I knew it would fit through the front door but I was still pretty sore from having surgery 4 days earlier and it had to be “man handled” into the coach.  With Lorraine on the top end guiding and me lifting and pushing it, we managed to get it in and on the floor. 

After resting and catching my breath (I’m still having trouble with my breathing) we get it into its spot and Lorraine gets it plugged in.  We start moving stuff from the fridge into the much smaller one.  Of course, we knew we couldn’t get everything from the bigger on to the smaller one but figured without water bottles, soda and beer, it would be close.  Once we started moving things and with Lorraine throwing away some stuff, we got it done.  There had already been a few things showing signs of spoilage so we actually ended up with three garbage bags of stuff to put in the dumpster. 

By now it was after 10 so we left the stuff in the freezer, everything was still frozen except for the water in the ice maker, and called it a day.  Next morning I moved the stuff from the freezer into the small freezer on the new one plus in the bigger one we carry in the basement. 

I then turned off the fridge and went outside to block in the propane.  We made the decision to just go ahead and replace the fridge because after looking things over, I found where the propane burner area was pretty thin and there were signs of ammonia leakage, or at least that’s what I convinced myself. 

Monday morning I called this repair place to see if they could get us in to replace our fridge with a residential type.  They said if we could get here they would start on Friday morning.  All we had to do was get here and bring our credit card.  He told me that have replaced over 40 this year alone so it wasn’t a new thing to them at all.  I told them to put us on their schedule and we would be there on Friday. 

Monday we had plans to meet with our friends Steve/Sandy at the casino for old farts day buffet, $5 for lunch with $5 match play on the tables.  We had a good visit with them then played the slots and tables for awhile.  I think the gals were down some with the guys about even. 

We wanted to go to Lowes to check out some refrigerators for ideas of what we could use in our coach so we told our friends bye and wished them luck for the winter.  We also told them we would be back to the casino to watch Monday night football and invited them to join us if they didn’t go all the way home.

We checked out a Lowes, made a stop at Walgreens then headed back to our coach.  After walking and feeding Misty we returned back to the casino.  They have free hot dogs during the game with drawings after each quarter for those who put their ticket in the bin.  Steve/Sandy called and told us they were going to meet us there along with Joe/Alice and Richard/Sandy.  I think most of the folks played the slots some and we all had hot dogs and a good visit with each other. 

Tuesday morning I had my follow up check with the surgeon.  By now I was bruised from lifting the fridge and I was hoping I hadn’t pulled the stiches.  He checked things out, said the bruising should clear in a week or so and released me for travel.  He left the stiches in place, said they would dissolve and fall out.  

We finished some chores and stopped by to see Joe/Alice one more time before we left the next day.  We had been staying on their lot and owed them some money, they made us a DEAL and told us to make sure to see them before we left the next morning. 

So Wednesday morning we got everything ready for travel, met with Joe/Alice for a few minutes and got on the road.  It was very cloudy and heavy dew, even had to turn on the windshield wipers a few time but the longest steak with no rain continued.  We got out of there before the rains started, YEA.  We wanted to make it though Seattle and make one overnight stop along the way. 

We pulled into the RV park in Rochester and got set up.  I was tired so I took a nap, then we went to Subway for dinner before we went by over to the nearby casino.  We didn’t stay long, or should I say we stayed too long as both of us lost.  So we returned back to our place and called it a day. 

Next morning we got on the road for the trip through Portland and to our planned stop here at Oregon Motor Coach Care.  This place is one of the best repair places on the West coast, they don’t sell any, just repair/renovate and service coaches.  We stopped by here about three years ago to see about getting some damage on our coach repaired.  They were too busy to help us but checked everything out and said we could make it to Red Bay with no problem.  They didn’t even charge us for their time.

We got here in the afternoon and checked in.  They have sites along the perimeter of the parking lot with 50 amp electric supply but no water/sewer.  They said to pick a spot and someone would be right out to talk to us.  A bit later, here comes the service manager who introduced himself and checked out the fridge.  He said they could start on Friday as scheduled but they didn’t actually have the replacement and couldn’t get it delivered until Tuesday.   He asked if we would be willing to drive up to Portland to pick it up from the warehouse, they would supply us with a small trailer to pull behind our car. 

So Friday we got their trailer and headed out to pick up our new fridge.  Remember I was just talking about the dry spell in the area?  Well, it decided to break that spell in a big way, it started raining soon after we got on the road and continued all day.  Lorraine had a couple of places she wanted to stop along the way too so we made the most of it.  By the way, Portland traffic is almost as bad a Seattle and in a rain storm in unfamiliar area, we didn’t really enjoy the ride. 

We got the new fridge and stopped at the Woodburn Outlet Mall on the way back.  I only went to a couple of places with Lorraine but spent most of the time in the car.  There was a pickup that pulled up alongside the trailer but as soon as they noticed me sitting inside, they hurried off.  I wondered if they were planning on stealing whatever was in the trailer but they left before I could get their license number and call security. 

Anyway, Lorraine finished her shopping and we continued back to our coach.  While we were gone, they pulled the old fridge out and closed off the hole.  We go back in on Monday morning when they will do some cabinet modifications before they can install the new one.  Tuesday they will install the new one and trim it out.  They had to remove a window and it will have to be removed once again to get the new one in. 

So it will be Wednesday or maybe even Thursday before we leave here with a new residential type fridge/freezer and a bit lighter in the wallet.  Our good friend Mark had already replaced his himself and said when we got to their place in Louisiana he would help replace ours.  Wish we could have waited that long, Mark, but we had to do something now.  Thanks for the offer however. 

The weather has been great, until Friday when the storm went through.  The TV new was talking about over 3” of rain in places along the coast in Washington, I’m sure we were over an 1” on our trip to/through Portland.  The forecast is for more rain through Tuesday, typical fall weather in the great NW. 

Our plans are to continue down I-5 through the rest of Oregon and California before we cut over to the Bay area to see our Daughter, Grand Daughter and son-in-law.  I have called the VA in San Jose about seeing a pulmonary specialist but they said I have to see a regular doctor first and they will refer me to the specialist.  This will be our first time with the VA for more than a physical so hope it goes well.  I’ve heard horror stories about how bad it can be but we’ll try it for ourselves.  Wish us luck!

Lorraine did take some pictures of our ride down here from Blaine, mostly of the trees as they turn colors.  So I’ll add them and get this posted. 

Bruising on my belly, really didn’t hurt too bad though. 

 

Trees changing, got out of town just in time. 

 

 

 

Lorraine liked the blow up of Bart Simpson at this display.

 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re in Blaine, WA

 

Sunday, October 07, 2012                                                                                                                                           Lorraine writes

So this week has been busy as usual. Chuck had his hernia surgery on Wednesday. It went well as was expected and he is still sore, but it’s his ribs or lungs that are sore, not so much the stomach area, in spite of that area being black and blue, like he’d been beat up.

If you remember, he was having trouble with shortness of breath. Our family doctor put him on two antibiotics which he finished the day before surgery, Tuesday. He also saw our family doc that same day and got some answers, not all. Our doctor ruled out blood clots, no heart problems, and no asthma.

Our doc said it was time for him to move on to another doctor (or as he put it-said he had to punt him on), to a lung specialist. He could send us to one here in the Bellingham area or we could go south and see one in the bay area, where our daughter lives with our granddaughter. We chose to move on and will find a lung specialist in the bay area.

He coughed that whole first night after his surgery, maybe some of the liquid in his lungs? And he hasn’t been able to lie flat in bed, he’s been sleeping in his chair. Friday he was really sore and could hardly move. The coughing seems to be lessening, thank God. Must be the antibiotics working on clearing up his lungs.

So now we have one more doctor visit with the surgeon on Tuesday to clear Chuck from the hernia surgery. After that we will leave this area again.

Late Friday afternoon we were running chores and came home to find the refrigerator beeping. The repair we had done by Al’s RV on the recall for the refrigerator stopped working. Wouldn’t you know it was the start of a three day weekend, late in the afternoon, (after 3). Chuck figured out a fix to get us through. When it rains it pours!

It was hard for me to say goodbyes to my friends at Birch Bay Bible Community Church again this morning. If you live in this area and are looking for a warm, friendly, welcoming church, give BBBCC a try; I really love the pastor’s preaching. It’s not like he’s preaching, but just talking to you, telling you things you need to hear. I will miss this church and my pastor; I haven’t found one like him anywhere on the road.

I would like to send a big “Thank You” to all our BC Friends, as well as our USA friends for all the concern and care over Chuck, you mean the world to us;  also, Joe and Alice—you two stepped up and helped us when we needed a place to come back too.  Thank you both!!  Our friends are the BEST!

October 5, 2007 was our first day out on the road. We are now at the start of our sixth year on the road. And as is the name of Mark and Sue’s Blog…”What a Ride” it has been.

Until next time….

Lorraine

107/12                                                                                                                                                                         Chuck’s report

We have just completed 5 full years on the road this week.  It’s been a lovely, fun, exciting time that I’ve been able to spend in close quarters with my wife.  I think we have been able to see our grand daughter for more quality time than if we still lived in a sticks and brick home because when we are there she loves to stay with us as much as she can.  And of course, Nana loves to have her with us as much as we can too!

As Lorraine said, I will get released from the surgeon then hopefully we’ll be back on the road on Wednesday.  I’m thinking we will just head down 1-5, stopping to see the sights or whatever tickles our fancy.  I’ll probably call a few doctors in California and see about a schedule, otherwise we’ll just go where the wind blows us. 

It’s been a long month back here, thanks to Joe/Alice for letting us stay on their lot here, it was nice not to worry about moving.  Joe said they will be heading South later this month too, we’ll probably see them down there somewhere, as usual. 

We were able to visit with our friends from Canada some this past week, we went to Monday old farts day for buffet and had spaghetti dinner at Rick/Joy on Tuesday.  Steve/Sandy were also able to come up for the buffet on Monday and we’ll probably see them tomorrow at the same.  Sure hope you guys change your minds and decide to head South this winter, we’ve had lots of fun this summer and would like to continue this winter. 

We’ve also be going to the casino for Monday night football, they have free hot dogs during the game.  Our Canadian friends and Joe/Alice, Richard/Sandy and James have been showing up there too, good times even if not everyone is there to watch the game. 

The weather has been beyond outstanding once again this week.  It’s been sunny every day, highs in upper 60s but the lows are getting into the 30s, time to move on.  I heard that as of yesterday, Seattle has had the driest 75 days in a row since they started keeping records.  I guess after the cold, wet spring we had, it is payback time.

We don't have any pictures to add so guess I’ll just get this posted. 

Thanks   Chuck