The Ray Adventures: July 2016

Greetings from Salem.

Since our last blog in April, 3 major things have happened in our life.

1. We listed the house on Saturday April 30th, we had an offer for our asking price Monday May 2nd, the couple that bought the house viewed it on the first day. Wahoo!. We still had the appraisal and inspection hurdles to go through. Since the house is 48 years old the inspection made me a little nervous. We had some things to do, most of which our son-in-law Micah could take care of, but it wasn't too bad or expensive. The appraisal came in $2,500 under the selling price but the new owners came up with half. I guess they really wanted the house. The house closed on June 24th, we had a celebration at our local "haunt" the Half Penney, that night with friends.

Memorial Weekend we had a family BBQ one last time at the house, all four kids came, Stacy (his wife Barbara wasn't feeling well) from the Spokane, Wa. area, Leah and Justin from Shelton, Wa., Talena and Kurt from Bend and Chris and Micah from Salem, our youngest 5 grandchildren (ages 7,9,11, 11 & 14)) along with 3rd grandchild Nick and his wife Sam. We had a feast, Justin and Leah, who live near the Washington Coast brought clams and oysters he had caught, Gary and I fixed burgers, hot dogs and chicken and everyone else brought salads and dessert. No one went hungry. We finished the day with a (partial) slide show of our nationwide trip. It was a wonderful day, after 36 years of living in the house there were a lot of memories to share.

2. The coach went to Coburg, about 45 miles south of here, to Allied Recreation Group, a factory authorized shop for Fleetwood, Monaco, Holiday Rambler and American Tradition. Much better than taking it to Decatur, Indiana. It took 3 weeks for them to repair the floor on the dining room slide We had to empty all the drawers, cupboards in the slide as well as the pantry and frig. I'm glad we could take the "stuff" to the house. We stayed at our friend Carol's, she graciously put up with us most of the time. We did go to Bend one weekend to stay with Talena, Kurt and Ethan. We celebrated Mother's Day at her house, a friend of hers, Karen as well as Charlotte (she seems like family) and Chris and Micah enjoyed an e-z dinner of Costco rotisserie chicken, Chris made a blue cheese coleslaw that was delish!

We finally got the side-view mirror replaced, we have been "mirrorless" since mid-March when Gary tangled with a tree limb hidden in leaves. I still don't know how we drove over 1,000 miles without it.

3. When we were at Talena and Kurt's house in Bend we got quite a surprise. Our grandson Nick called to tell us we are going to be great grandparents in December. It seems only yesterday he was a little guy playing at the house. We are thrilled, but will have to wait until summer to see the baby, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet. Nick graduated from Western Oregon University this June with a degree in chemistry and his wife is a registered nurse at Salem hospital. The kids have been friends since middle school and both are very involved with their church.

We still have 2 months here to enjoy since finishing all of our "to-do's". Gary is back riding with his group 3 times a week, I'm busy with friends, yoga and exercise. It seems a bit crazy but we're both "itching" to hit the road. We will be taking a couple of trips, maybe that will help our wanderlust. Last summer we saw an inflatable tandem kayak that we decided we would like, but we waited until we got to Oregon so we wouldn't have to pay sales tax. As it turns REI was having a sale on top of it so we saved a little cash. Good deal! It hasn't been out of the bag yet, the last weekend of July we're going to Trail Bridge Reservoir on the McKenzie river for it's maiden voyage. We need to hone our paddling skills, you paddle a kayak differently than a canoe. Chris and Micah want us to float the Willamette but we don't think we're ready for a current. To be continued.

Well that's it for now, enjoy the pic's,

TTFN,

Gary and Pam