April 27, 2014 Lorraine’s report
Hello once more from Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester, WA. Thanks for stopping by. And yes, we are on our way home…Yea! And we are already tired of the cold, rainy weather we have been experiencing so far. It was nice to be in Yuma and see the sun come up everyday, not a cloud in the sky, and wondering what we would do for that day. I guess you could say our webbed feet got used to the sand there in Yuma, probably dried up too. So this week found us saying “Good bye” to Katie and Susy, so sad for me. I love being with them! Katie has sure had a hard time with her cast. I just talked to Susy, and on Friday, Mark had to take Kaitlyn into the doctor, and the doctor once again cut the cast off the foot. Kaitlyn used a back scratcher Chuck has while she was with us. Well, she scratched it so hard, she cut her foot down by the ankle. The doctor removed her cast again, for it to help heal her ankle inside that cast. She has been on crutches and will have a third cast put on her foot on Monday. So hard a time for Kaitlyn. So this week has found us doing more work on the rig. Chuck had four new tires and Koni shocks put on the coach at a shop in Eugene. While getting ready to leave, someone called my name. It turned out to be a friend of Steve/Sandy. We met them up at Steve’s home base, Lake Tyee, WA. Janet and Todd. They lived in Edmunds, WA where Todd was with the fire department. It was fun to see them again, we went to breakfast, and really enjoyed our time together. Who knew, that at that same time we were getting our new tires, Janet and Todd were having work done on their new rig. All the way south in Eugene, OR, and we would show up at the same time to do our stuff. It sure is a small world. And we will see Janet and Todd on down the road, who knows where, but it was fun. Then we stopped by our friend, Brenda from Quartzsite. She is currently staying in a small campsite out of Eugene. It was so nice to stop by and see her. She is fine, liking her new life. Good to see you Brenda, hang in there… Then on Friday, we stopped by Speedco and had the oil changed and new filters. Hopefully, that is All the rig will need before we hit home. On Friday, we went and met one gal I graduated high school with. Judy L J. and her husband, Bruce. They live in Chehalis, WA. I talked with her several times and we decided to contact her, and to meet up with them. We’ve visited two times with them, and have enjoyed all the time we have had together, just being together. It’s too bad Judy and Bruce won’t be going to the reunion, but it was fun to once again visit and share part of our lives over the 50 years from when we graduated high school. Thanks for listening and visiting with us. It was wonderful! So, I guess that is it for now. I hope everyone has a great week. Hugs to all, Lorraine
4/27/14 Chuck’s report
We’re back on the road having left California and heading North. It’s rained on us everyday since we’ve been in Oregon and Washington, a Welcome Home sign I guess. We’re already tired of the rain, ha.
Last Sunday Susy, Mark, Kaitlyn, Lorraine and I walked to the Elks Lodge for a good breakfast. They actually held the egg hunt a bit earlier then expected so we just stayed there rather than walk home and come back, good deal. Katie quickly made a friend and they helped each other find and collect eggs, even shared some afterwards, two good girls.
Later we headed over to Susy’s place where she and Lorraine cooked up a very nice Easter ham dinner for everyone. We had to say our goodbyes to them when we left as we were traveling the next morning. Katie once again tried to get Nana to stay longer but we had to get on the road.
So Monday morning we got everything ready for travel, pulled up the the sewer dump to empty our holding tanks and got on the road. We’ve found out over the years that we want to leave somewhere around 10, the morning rush hour is usually over by then and we don’t have to fight as much traffic. We only had a couple of slow areas, never did figure out why but still made pretty good time.
We stopped at the Rolling Hills casino just South of Corning, our usual stopping point when we leave. They have changed their checking-in procedure and raised prices, $25/night. But they did say we could both get $10 back in free slot play inside the casino, nice, that made it only $5/night. And guess what, we both walked away winners from the casino, I only had a few bucks but Lorraine did better.
Next morning we got back on the road, a bit earlier than usual because we didn’t put everything out just for a one night stop and therefore didn’t have to get all the stuff put away for travel. Our destination this time was 7 Feather’s Casino RV park in Oregon. We have been stopping here for years and consider this to be one of the best campgrounds we’ve found across the nation. And if we are stopping for more than one night, Lorraine likes to use their indoor swimming complex too.
We got set up, called for the shuttle bus and headed over to the casino for dinner. They have a “trucker’s special” that I usually order, it’s not listed on the menu but the shuttle driver always tells everyone about it. Once again Lorraine left a winner but I lost $10, shoot.
Tuesday was to be a travel day but we were only going to Eugene and were staying at a repair shop’s parking lot for work early the next morning. With time on our hands, we asked for a late check-out, they said we could stay until 1:00 with no problem so we called the shuttle and headed back to the casino. I had found a new slot game the night before, no luck but I liked the “action” so before we left I showed it to Lorraine. She was up once again and gave me $20 to play on one while she played the other. We were side by side and it’s the first time both of us hit nice jackpots together, both of us walked away with over $100, good deal for penny machines.
We decided to take our money and run so we caught the shuttle back to the rig and got it ready for travel. We had driven in the rain to get here and it had been raining all morning but was clearing up when we started out and got even better as we went along. But before we got to Eugene it was raining once again, something we have seen everyday since. We got to the repair place and they got all the paperwork started and showed us where to park and hook up to 50 Amp power, no water or sewer, which was ok for one night as we had plenty of water in our fresh water tank and empty holding tanks.
We had a few errands to run and stopped by to pick up some Albertson’s fried chicken for dinner that night. It rained pretty hard most of the night and there was a homeless guy sleeping under the front awning of a building across the street, miserable. But next morning I saw him fold up his blanket and such then put it all into a fairly new VW bug and drive away. Sure didn’t understand why he slept outside in the rain when he could have at least been inside his car. I was talking with one of the shop owners later and they said there was a Mission just a block or two away and he could have gone there too. Oh well, he didn’t bother anyone so he can do what he wants, just seemed strange to me.
We needed to be ready for an alignment by 8 and were ready a few minutes early. One of the owners came over and said he needed to drive the coach into the shop so we just hopped in our car and headed out for the morning. Small world, as we were almost ready to leave, a lady who was waiting for her husband got out of her car and said “aren’t you Lorraine?”. Here it was Janet and Todd, a couple we met when we stayed at Lake Tyee with Steve/Sandy a couple years ago. Janet remembered us and we had a nice visit in the parking lot. They were leaving their coach for some work too so we decided to head out for a breakfast with them and continue our visit. They bought a new to them very nice coach in December and were still working out a few bugs and just happened to be at the same repair shop at the same time as us.
Anyway, we had a nice visit and they told us they were traveling with Steve/Sandy too. After breakfast we headed our separate ways, we both had things we were planning on doing. Lorraine and I went by RV Corral, a RV dealer we’ve been stopping at for years, never bought there but nice people and they are a Tiffin dealer now too. We walked through a new 37’ Allegro Bus, nice but not nice enough to make us want to change. We then made a quick stop at Costco before we headed back to the repair place.
They had originally planned to be finished with the alignment, installed 4 new shocks and mount 4 new tires by noon. We got there a bit after noon and they said they had an issue with the air system on our coach so it took longer than expected to do the alignment. After talking with them about the problem, I think it was operator error but what ever, all worked just fine every time we’ve stopped since (hope I didn’t just jinx us). Steve and Sandy happened to have their rig parked outside waiting for Todd and Janet to finish but the drove away just when Lorraine and I were getting ready to walk over and see them, next time we’ll go a bit sooner, ha.
So it was about 4:00 by the time they were finished and we got on the road. Once again, it was raining for our short trip. Todd had suggested we check out the Elk’s Lodge in Salem for our next stop so we went there first but decided to continue on to Keizer Elks instead, it was closer to where Lorraine wanted to do some shopping the next day. Once we got to the Keizer Elks it was almost dark and there were lots of cars in the parking lot. We figured there must be something going on so we parked the rig and headed over to the Lodge for dinner. They had their monthly steak night, good for us.
Next morning we headed out to a store where Lorraine has been getting her new shoes for a few years now and she was able to find the pair she really wanted. Then we drove over to a different store where I needed to check out some shoes for me. I didn’t really need any shoes but did buy some socks. On the way back, we stopped off at the Woodburn Outlet Mall, the main reason we were in the area. We walked around, Lorraine found a few things she wanted then we returned back to the rig. The dinner that night at the Elks was “order off the menu” but Lorraine was fine with just staying home instead. We had soup, leftovers and popcorn for dinner then called it day, of course after Lorraine watched to see who got kicked off Idol that night.
Next morning, it was back on the road in the rain once again. We were only planning on coming here to Rochester to the Lucky Eagle Casino RV park. Lorraine has her 50th high school reunion this summer and has been contacting some of her classmates and found Judy lived in this area. So after we got set up and stopped by the hotel to pay for our site, we headed over to visit with Judy and her husband Bruce. He was from the same school and had graduated a year earlier than they did.
We had a good time with them, they even fed us a good dinner. I don’t think Lorraine and Judy have seen each other since the year they graduated so there was lots of catching up to do. Bruce and I hit it off fine too so we really had a good visit. Unfortunately they don’t think they will be going to the reunion in Alaska this summer but we do plan on seeing them today, either here or back at their place. And of course, now that we know they live in the area, we can contact them next time we are here for another visit.
Like I’ve said, the weather has been pretty rainy this week. With the drought going on in California it’s too bad this doesn’t head South and give them some much needed rain. We heard on the radio that Seattle has set a new rainfall record for the past three months, over 19” with three more days to go. As hard as it rained here last night, Seattle may now be over 20”.
Our travel plans are still to head on up to Blaine for the summer. We aren’t too sure of our travel plans but the weather forecast is for rain today and Monday then nice, sunny, warmer weather for the next four or five days, looks like we just might be bringing the good weather with us!
Everything is nice and green as we left the Bay area even though they are in the middle of a bad drought.
Never did see the reason for the smoke. Shasta Lake is sure low.
They are building a new bridge, bet they like the lower water levels, it probably makes it easier to work on the new bridge.
Mt. Shasta in the distance.
Nice day with the blue skies and clouds over Mt. Shasta.
Getting close to snow level on right.
Even closer, too close for us but the temperature was in the high 40s when we went through the pass.
Honest, they told us to go this way. Nice rhoddies at 7 Feathers RV park.
Yes, we sometimes have to drive on city streets too, notice the wet roads from the rain.
Nice cherry trees along the street.
We could have signed up for a glider ride but Lorraine didn’t want too.
Ah, back in rainy Washington.
Two metal structures along I-5.
Ok, guess I’ll get this posted now.
Thanks Chuck
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