We have traveled through 10 states and drove 11,638 miles. I didn't calculate the amount of fuel consumed, some things are better off unknown. Our weather ranged from 17 degrees and snow to 100 degrees and no snow.
We pulled into SunDial Mobile Home Park on June 16th, after driving through a nasty rainstorm on the Santiam Pass. Our grandson Ethan from Bend rode with us to spend the week with his newlywed older brother Nick. We had a lot of things on our plate. First we had to find a place then hold our "estate" sale. It turned out the park was scheduled to have a park wide sale in July, next we had to gather all of our "stuff" from about five different locations and set up for the sale. Our space has a long driveway for us to set out our many tables and we were the first spot prospective buyers could "stop and shop". Garage sailers are an interesting lot. A lady in the park was gathering items for her Catholic Church rummage sale so we boxed up the remaining items and she picked them up! What a deal!
Next on the agenda was to take the coach to Allied Recreation group in Coburg, about an hour south of Salem. Most of Fleetwood's authorized dealers weren't interested in doing warranty work it was like a breath of fresh air to have someone listen to your (RV) problems and take care of them. Our techs, Matt and Tyler were just wonderful. We went to Coburg three different times totaling 7 days. At 7:30 we had to have the coach ready to go every morning, amuse ourselves all day until about 4 when it was delivered back to our space. We had water and electric hook-ups plus with our satellite dish we weren't lacking for anything except maybe sleep. We met some fun people there, several people were going down to Coos Bay for the FMCA rally, our neighbor was a high mucky muck in the organization. We did a lot of hiking, one hot day we took Luci and climbed up to the top of Skinners Butte, a fairly easy climb with views of the city and mountains. We were pretty hot so we decided to take Luci to the river for a swim, the park was adjacent the Willamette River. Seemed like a good idea at the time, she had a swell time. We loaded her in the car and stinko, she smelled like sewer. Our next stop was the rub a dub doggie wash. Allied group does work for three companies, Fleetwood being the poor step sister, we were surrounded by Monaco's and Holiday Ramblers. It seems from everyone we talked to that quality control in the RV industry isn't a high priority.
We got back into the swing of things, Gary rode with his bike group 3 times a week doing 20 plus miles at a time. (I feel good if I manage 3), I was back with my weekly pinochle group and exercise group. I did manage to finish two quilts one of which I completed entirely in the coach. It seemed like we were always going out to eat with friends and family, both Gary and I are feeling a little "chubby". We have two daughters that live in Salem we enjoyed the time we were able to spend with them. We helped celebrate Patryk's 5th birthday at Chuckee Cheese, do you know they sell beer there? For Gary's birthday we had a pizza party for family and a few friends, they make a pizza that has 36 pieces. Also Chris celebrated her birthday but isn't looking forward to next years.
The fourth of July we went to the national forest outside of Sisters with about 10 other families and about 8 Labradors. Luci had a great time playing in the creek then crossed over and found something vile to roll in, she is such a dog. I had to bathe her in the freezing cold creek to get the stink off. We took a hike up to little 3 Creeks Lake, a lovely walk until the mosquitos found us, they usually leave me alone but not this time. We saw 2 bald eagles circling overhead when we made the summit. We did learn our lesson though, we won't be taking the coach out into the boonies again, it got scratched up from the low branches and we're still getting the red dust out of it. It took Gary hours waxing to get rid of the majority of the scratches.
The third week-end in August we joined our camp out group in Tillamook at the Elks campground. The area was having a "Step back in time" event, for $15.00 per person you could visit numerous museums from Tillamook to Rockaway Beach, (one was a quilt museum), we took the steam engine train ride from Garabaldi to Rockaway Beach. The weather was the usual summer weather for the Oregon Coast, drizzly and gray but one day we did see the sun. After eating too much we would play card games and Mexican Train. It was good to see everyone again.
The following week-end we met Dan and Charlene at Trailbridge Reservoir on the McKenzie River. What a cool campground, the spaces were so large we were able to share a spot, $5.00 a night to camp. We hiked a 7 mile loop (all uphill both ways) to the Blue Pool, the Mckenzie runs under the lava field, coming out from the ground making the most beautiful blue pool, hence the name. The water is about 36 degrees, while we were there an Englishman on his honeymoon jumped from about 20 feet into the water, he didn't linger long. The next day we did about a 4 mile loop from Sahalie Falls to Koosah Falls, a lovely hike along the rushing river.
We did make the rounds of doctors, dentist, accountant etc. We managed to take care of all the business in town that had to be done. This is our last week here, very busy but I'll tell you more next week. Tonight Gary will be initiated into the Elks club in Independence, our "buds" from the camp out group and our neighbors here at the park, told us about the great RV parks a lot of Elk lodges have at a reasonable price. That is going to give us another option for places to stay.
TTFN
Gary and Pam
Our camping spot in forest near Sisters
Little 3 Creeks Lake
Hi Guys,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are back in the blog-o-sphere. We look forward to your posts. We are in Gail family territory in the Duluth, Minnesota area for a couple more weeks before we begin the southern migration. We look forward to seeing y’all (notice the Texas accent?) in Rockport this winter and reading of your adventures – SAFE TRAVELS.
Take care,
RJ & Gail