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

May 4, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Howdy folks, from the great state of WA-and it’s raining. Welcome to WA and the great Pacific NW. So what else does it do? Who knows, I’m already tired of the wet, rainy weather. I think of how beautiful the southwest was, sunny skies, every day! Some days just sitting in the nice, sunny weather, just enjoying the outdoors.

So this week we came home. It has been 18 months since we left WA. I know I was excited to be coming home, but the rain makes me wish the sun we had would still be here. I guess you can’t have all you want. It’s nice to be back in an area we liked, but I don’t know why.

Last week we enjoyed our nice visit with Judy and Bruce. It was wonderful to see and visit with you both. I think it was over 50 years since we last saw each other. I enjoyed our visit with you two, and hopefully, we’ll stop by again and visit again on our way south. Thanks you two, loved the time we had.

I went to church today, and the preacher talked about Grudges. Man oh man, did I need to hear this. It has been 18 months since I went and heard him talk, and he hit the nose, right on the head for me. GOD IS Good!!! I talked with the preacher afterwards, and he prayed with me. God still loves me, and I will get over the past and the people who tried to hurt me.

So, this week has been one of cleaning up the rig. Chuck washed the whole thing from top to bottom, and I’ve been busy inside. It sure got dirty coming home. It’s raining again, but at least we plan on being here until after we get back from Alaska.

I’m missing my daughter and granddaughter, but I’m anxiously waiting until we can go north. First to my 50 year high school reunion, then on to see my son, Rick and Donna. It has been two years since we’ve seen him, and I can hardly wait. It should be fun to visit again with them.

On Saturday, my sister called and we went over for a visit and dinner. Did we have a good time, or what! We spent a lot of time just visiting, catching up and the like. I showed her the pictures, and talked about all we had seen and done. There was so much, will have to just take it as it goes.

Other than the normal, everyday things, we don’t have anything going on. And that is not bad, either. So I hope every one had a great week. See you all down the road.

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

5/4/14 Chuck’s report

Yep, back to home base for us, it’s been 1 1/2 years since we’ve been in the area. I think it was October, 2012 when we left after our last stay here. We didn’t come back last summer or fall because we made a trip to the NE instead, a very nice time and a trip we will probably do once again some year. But it is nice to return to the green and see lots of trees after wintering in the desert again. Just not sure about the NW weather we’ll be having but have to take the good with the bad.

Last Sunday we talked with Judy and Bruce and they agreed to come to our place for a visit. We had a good time then someone suggested we go to the casino for a bit and we ended up having a good buffet dinner with them too. It’s too bad they aren’t going to the class reunion with Lorraine but now that we know where they live, we’ll probably see them on one of our trips through the area. Thanks for spending time with us, we sure had fun.

Monday was our planned day for travel on through Seattle and up here to Blaine but we decided to spend one more day, supposedly a quiet one. It didn’t really turn out that way, Lorraine was busy doing laundry and I found a few things that needed to be done and we cleaned up the rig some too.

Tuesday morning we packed up and got on the road, hoping we would not get caught in the usual terrible traffic around Seattle. We ran into a few spots where the traffic was heavy/slow and the roads were really rough starting just South of Seattle and most of the way through the city too. But all in all, it wasn’t too bad, we’ve certainly seen/driven worse. They say Seattle traffic is the 5th worse in the nation, I’m sure we’ve seen the top 4 too.

Anyway, we got here around 2 and got set up. Joe and Alice came by to say hi but didn’t stay, they didn’t want to interrupt our normal set up routine, thanks guys. They also had to go to one of their grand son’s baseball or soccer game later. We decided to go out to Bob’s Burger and Brew for a quick dinner and met Rob and Norma, our Canadian friends who just got back from down South too, there. We had a good time catching up on our winter travels and plans for the summer. They have spent almost all the time in the US they are allowed for one year so probably will not be coming down much. They were planning on leaving the next morning so it was good timing on our part to get here in time to see them before they headed out. Thanks for the visit and hope to see you somewhere this summer.

Wednesday morning dawned nice and clear with the forecast to be very nice, a good day to wash our coach. I washed the roof, took a break, washed the front and one side, took a break, washed the back and the other side and put stuff away. I sort of sat down for a rest and next thing I knew, I was waking up after a refreshing nap.

Thursday was another good day so I decided to continue with this cleaning jag. First, I washed the tires and wheels on the coach, didn’t polish the wheels yet though. Then moved onto the car, it was dirty too but it didn’t take as much work to wash it. So now we had clean rigs once again and the coach should stay clean as we aren’t planning on driving it much for the next three months.

After putting all the cleaning stuff away we headed to Bellingham to run some errands and do some shopping. We drove around just a bit and could see some changes around, some things gone, new things in, that sort of thing. Lorraine wanted to drive by our house on the way back so that’s what we did. We didn’t stop or anything but did enjoy the ride around the bay.

Friday we had made an appointment to have our dog groomed. While she was in the shop we had to run a couple more errands in town and just as we were driving back we got a call they were finished with Misty so we headed that way to pick her up. Boy, what a difference. The last time she had a trim was early winter and then it just a haircut, not a grooming. I usually give her a bath once a week or so but she sure needed a good grooming. They gal did a good job, said her nails were petty long too.

Yesterday Lorraine got a call from her sister who lives nearby inviting us over for dinner later in the afternoon. We just hung around the coach for the day except for a quick run to the grocery store. Then we headed over to Thelma and John’s home for a very good visit and dinner. It was late when we got back, we may have kept them up later than planned as we continued with our visit over desert.

The weather this week has been a mixed bag. It rained on Sunday and we even had a few sprinkles on Monday before the sun came out and it started warming up. We really brought the good weather with us as Tuesday was the first 80F day since last year. The TV weatherman said Seattle had the warmest weather in the nation (except for California and Arizona) on Wednesday, that doesn’t happen often. The nice weather continued through Thursday but started cooling off a bit. I actually changed to wearing shorts vs long pants for couple of day. But by Friday, things returned to normal Western Washington spring weather, rain and gray skies. The long range forecast is for more of the same with heavy rain over the next 30 hours, they forecast us to get about 1 1/2”, and continuing with lots of showers over the next few days, welcome to Washington. Even though we lived here for over 40 years, it doesn’t take long before we get tired of the rain, I know I’m ready for sunny days already.

Our travel plans are pretty simple, none planned for awhile. We may make a couple of short trips but will keep pretty much grounded for the next three months. I doubt we continue posting weekly while we’re here, we don’t plan on having lots going on. Not saying we have big, exciting things to write about when we are on the road but the blog does give us a good record of what/where/who has been going on in our life. So don’t be surprised to only see a few blog updates from us over the summer.

Now to pick a few pictures to add here and get on with our day.

We did have a rainbow for awhile on Monday.