Thursday evening, August 31st, today we did go to the wineries. They said there was no problem to follow in my car, as a matter of fact another car followed too because one of the ladies needed her cart because she couldn't walk around. We left at 10 a.m. and didn't get back until 5:30 p.m. had I known it was going to be all day we might not have gone. Only because Valley had to be in the car the whole time. Being locked up in a car for 7 hours is a bit long in my opinion. Sorry, I'm an animal lover and I don't like them being locked up for so long. Anyway we did have, or I should say I had a pretty good time. Dave actually sat with Valley in the car almost the whole time(it's ok for him to be locked up but not Valley, just kidding) he had so many conference calls that he missed almost all the wine tasting, bummer for him. We only saw two wineries but were gone all day, when we left at 10 we drove to a clock store, it's called Creative Clock, what an amazing place. If you ever get to Eugene Oregon you need to stop by and check out this place. They not only had clocks of every kind but they had a bunch of collectible stuff too, phones, the crank ones, teletypes, miniature trains ect. I really mean it you would have to go by and see for yourself. Check out their website www.creativeclock.com. Anyway that's where we went first and were there quite awhile because people were buying stuff. Then we went to lunch at a place called Izzys, kind of like Hometown buffet, if you know what that is. Pizza, salad bar, pasta, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, desert bar, ect. ect. ect. Way too much to eat. After lunch then we started driving to the wineries which were not close. The first one was just wine tasting, no tour, the second one which was another long drive had wine tasting and tour. When we got back to pick up the rig Monaco was closed so we didn't get a chance to talk to our rep so have no idea if they are going to finish up tomorrow, we find out in the morning.
Bye for now

Thursday morning, August 31, 2006
Yesterday was a pretty good day, we dropped off the "rig", I just learned that's about what everyone calls them, at 7:30 a.m. and we had to stick around because they wanted Dave to unhook all his computer stuff. They didn't want to be responsible if they unhooked it wrong, which Dave was glad to hear. Valley and I went and sat in the lobby, Valley is the welcomer for when everyone walks in. She is getting so much attention even the girls that work behind the counter give her dog bones. There were about 4 of us sitting around the table working on the puzzle talking about different camping places then they somehow got on age. Well, my new buddies have been married 55 plus years so needless to say they are in there 70's. I didn't even tell them my age but it's kind of nice being the youngest one here. Another nice thing around here is this is one place you can't call us trailer trash, everyone here either has the same size "rig" or larger. They don't like to hear the 4 letter word (work) at least that's what they say to Dave when he says he still works.
Anyway, yesterday Dave sat in the car on conference calls and typing away on his computer when I had to run out to the store to get chips and dip for the potluck. After the potluck we had to go back to the rig so Dave could hook up the computer stuff again. Then we drove back again at 2 because it was margarita party time that Monaco put on. I'm telling you I could stay here for quite awhile, it is really fun. When I talked to Kim yesterday she said I should join the craft classes that way I could start making everyone Christmas gifts, good idea. Today is travelling around to different winerys then lunch out, I have to see if they will let me follow them in my car because of Valley plus Dave has a lot of work today. Dave and Valley can sit in the car while I go on the tours.
We have to take the rig in at 7 a.m. this morning and it's 6 a.m. right now so I have to cut off now and do a shut down.
bye

Tuesday evening, August 29, 2006, We took the RV in at 7:45 a.m and walked back to where we are parked and it's not 3 miles like I said in the last blog it's only 2 miles.
Ok, Ok, now I don't want anyone to get jealous of what I did today, no no I didn't take the bracelet making class or tour the cabinet shop but what I did do was take the ladies driving class. I know, I know, I didn't think Dave could talk me into it but he did and I must admit it was a pretty good class. The class started at 10 a.m. and we stopped at 11:45 p.m. for lunch. Guaranty RV Centers were having a free BBQ Lunch for everyone at their dealership, then afterward we all walked around and checked out the new motor homes. We got back at 1:30 but I didn't get to take my driving lesson until 4 p.m. there were 9 ladies in the class and the instructor took 1 person at a time for like a 20 min. drive. He went in the order that we had signed up and I was number 8, I did good, he said, except backing up the rv in a parking space, he suggested that my husband still do that for awhile until I get more practice. So I guess now I have to start driving but if possible I'm not doing city driving, only highway.
We picked up the RV at 5 and they said it looks like they will finish up by Friday, so then we can head up to Marty's.
Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, bye for now.

Monday evening, August 28, 2006 , and we are no longer in that shitty motor home park. We took the RV into Monaco this A.M. and they did a write up of all the stuff we had wrong. It ended up being 43 items on the list, nothing really big but stuff that needs to be corrected. Monaco has two different plants here and motor home parks on each one of them. The plant we took our coach to has a park with only about 20 sites, which was full and we couldn't get into. The other plant, which is about a 3 miles down the road had one opening but we would have to check in tonight, come tomorrow if we didn't check in it was first come first serve. If you get a spot at the Monaco parks the stay is free, and since they are going to be working on the coach all week we wanted a free spot. If you really think about it, you have to give them your coach at 8 a.m. and you don't get it back until 5 p.m. at night, so needless to say you have to have breakfast and lunch out, so really how free is it? Although, you can go anytime during the day, while they are working on it, and watch them work or go in the coach and do what ever, so I guess you could still fix your meals, but who wants to. They do have a nice waiting room, which you can bring your animals into, and watch TV, play games, do puzzles, or watch movies. Low and behold they also have daily activities if you would like to join in. In front of me now is the "Monaco Customer Activities August 28th-September 1st" list which includes:
craft classes - making bracelets (one day) decorating a picture frame with buttons and other fun stuff (another day) making embroidered greeting cards and also making a pair of earrings. Boy aren't you guys jealous. They also have a tour of the cabinet shop, tour of the factory, tour of the local wineries (now we are talking), extended service contract seminar, interior & exterior care seminar, hearing needs seminar and also they throw in some free BBQ's and pot lucks. On the potluck they say you can drive into Junction City to Safeway and purchase a dish to pass. I must say some of the stuff is interesting but the other stuff I feel Dave and I are too young for. Our problem with the tours is Valentine, the one thing they are missing here is an animal day care center. You can't leave the animals in the RV's while they are being repaired, so you have to have them with you. So it may be that Dave will go on the tours and Valley and I will be walking around a lot. We could leave her in the car for awhile if the weather was cooler but it's been in the 90's and that's way too hot to leave her in the car.
Yesterday, while driving around finding the Monaco plants, we saw about 5 deer on the road here. There was no traffic so I stopped so Valley could take a look at them, plus, I didn't want to hit them, she didn't know what the hell they were, when they walked in front of the car Valley didn't even blink once, she wanted out of the car to investigate. That was kind of neat to see.
Enough rambling, we did drive into Eugene today to purchase another phone for Dave, didn't have a lot of time because we had to get back to Harrisburg to pick up the motor home at 3:30. We had to clear up one campsite and get set up in the Monaco campsite.
It's late now 11:00 p.m. and we have to get up early to take the coach in so will cut off for now.
Bye

Change in Plans

After seeing the 30 Hot Air Ballons in Albeny and getting a ride in one we have changed our plans. We were able to make a reservation at an RV Park in Albuguerque for the month of October. We will be there for the Hot Air Ballon Festvial which runs from October 6 through the 15. We will have to move from a full hook up site to a Electric only site for that time but it still should be good to see over 800 ballons flying. Take a look at the calander and travel plans on the altonsystem.com web site for more details. We will put off visting Zion until some time next year.

Ferndale, Thursday morning, after writing the blog, Dave and I drove into Bellingham and dropped Valley off at Pet Smart to get groomed, she would be there for about 2 hours. Dave and I drove over to have pedicures but the place was very busy, but I was able to get a fill on my nails done. While I was having that done Dave walked around Bed, Bath and Beyond then on to Best Buy. When I was done we headed over to Costco to shop around and have lunch. After lunch it had been 2 hours since we dropped Valley off so we went and picked her up. We came back to the motor home, I walked Valley around then we headed off to the casino. We had told Rosie we would meet her there at 3 but we didn't get there until almost 4. Rosie was sitting at one of her favorite 1 cent machines and was down about $60.00. I sat down beside her and put $10.00 in the one cent slot machine and started winning, don't think that made Rosie too happy. When I left the machine I had $30.00, so I tripled my money, by then Rosie was almost down $100.00. Dave was off playing Black Jack, but that didn't last too long because before long he was sitting at a one cent machine too. Rosie moved to another one of her favorite slot machines and started doing real well. Before long she had won her $100.00 back and cashed out. We all left the casino about 5:30 p.m. and went home. We hadn't planned on cooking dinner since we were leaving in the morning so Dave called Rob and asked if they wanted to go out for Mexican food. We meet at the restaurant about 7:30 and had some monster margaritas, very good. Rob made the comment that he had seen more of us in these last couple weeks then he had in the last 30 years. ( And he didn't mean more of us as in the roundness of our bodies either, at least I don't think so) It was a really nice visit with all of them and the area was really hard to leave, it is one we will definitely come back too. We want to Thank Rob, Kelli, Alex and Rosie for their hospitality, we did have a very good time. The motor home park in Ferndale that we were at I don't think that I mentioned about the things it did have. A lot of grass areas, one monster park area that on the weekends the tent campers come out to. All around the monster park area is the berry bushes, which we had gone out to a couple times and picked black berries. Lots of rabbits that Valley could chase, she never tried to hard to catch them though, a big swimming pool, arcade, laundry room, we visited twice, and a pretty good size store if you needed any supplies. On Saturday nights they had karaoke and Sunday mornings they had a pancake breakfast at a small cost. Really nice park except for the rocks around the daily and weekly campsites, which of course we had. You just couldn't walk around bare foot but it was a nice place. We never meet anyone when we were there, just say Hi to people when we walked around.
Friday we drove to Portland Oregon and stayed the night at Jantzen Beach RV Park, pretty nice place, all grass sites but a bit close to the neightbors. A lot of squires which made Valley really happy, when I would let her chase them. After setting up we drove into Portland to the Pioneer Courthouse Square for the 15th annual Festa Italiana. The Festa goes from Friday to Sunday, and a lot of people there. They had the food court with different vendors with all their different kinds of Italian foods, pasta, pizza, salads, fried calamari, garlic bread, desserts ect. They also had Italian beer and wines in the food and wine courts, plus entertainment too. They had merchandise booths too but I never saw them. We stayed until 8 p.m. then drove back to the RV park.
We left Saturday morning and drove to Harrisburg, Oregon, which is covered in the blog that starts with "Sunday August 27
bye for now

Sunday, August 27, we are now in Harrisburg Oregon. We are in a lovely park here, NOT, only rocks and dirt, the only reason we are here is because this is where the manufacturer of our motor home is. Since the RV Peddler, in Bakersfield, couldn't or wouldn't or didn't fix the problems we had with it Dave called Monaco and made an appointment for them to fix the stuff that needs to be done. We have an appointment for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow for them to start doing the repairs that need to be done. We actually got here yesterday morning and set up camp. Wouldn't you know it when we get to the shitty camp grounds is when we find the friendly and talkative people. The next door neighbor is originally from California, San Jose, but now have a house in Casa Grande Arizona. They go full time RVing half the year and stay home the other half. Next to them is more Californians and across the road is Californians. I guess that just says that the Californians only know about the shitty campsites.
My brother, Mike, called me yesterday and told me Bob Miller was driving thru Albany Oregon and there were a lot of hot air balloons, so when Dave got the computers working I looked them up on the web. Sure enough they were having a hot air balloon festival, kind of, with food, crafts and of course about 30 hot air balloons. The balloons lift off at 6:00 a.m. so Dave and I (Valley too) got up at 4:15 a.m. this morning to drive out to Albany to see them. Albany is only about 24 miles away from Harrisburg, we got there about 5:45 a.m. and walked around. Dave got to talking to one of the guys with a balloon and they asked him if he wanted to help them get set up. Valley and I watched them set up and everyone else too, when they started shooting those flames in the balloon Valley almost jumped out of her skin. After awhile she got used to it, boy does it throw off the heat, which felt nice because it was kind of cold out at that time of the morning. After Dave helped them set up they asked him if he wanted a ride, I told him go ahead and I would be one of the chase cars.

He was up about 45 min. and I followed down the freeway then off to some side roads. When the pilot landed in the field and dropped Dave off they asked me if I wanted to go, but I declined not in the mood I guess. Anyway, the pilot wanted to take his crew chief up and give him more flying lessons, and Dave and I said we would still follow and help them put the balloon away when they were done. By the way, the pilot had another chase vehicle that I had caught up with right before they had let Dave off. After they were done flying we helped them put everything away and talked to them about hot air balloons. They will be in Reno in 2 weeks they said we should come but definitely we should go in October to New Mexico for those balloons. They said there will be 800 balloons then, today was pretty neat with only 30 balloons can't imagine 800 balloons. We told them that we were on a waiting list with Holiday Rambler for a spot in October. Bill, the pilot, said if we come and don't have a spot he has contacts and can get us a parking place. So now we are back to looking at going to New Mexico October 6th thru the 15th, which we really think we should go.
When we got back to the motor home we moved the box that we keep the satellite dish in and there was a snake under it, great, Dave said it's just a little garter snake, great. From now on when I walk Valley around my eyes will be looking all around, and not just for dog shit this time, I sure as hell don't need to run into any snakes.
I think I'll end this blog for now and start another one with the wrap up of leaving Ferndale and making our way here to Harrisburg.
Bye for now.

Thursday, August 24th, yesterday Dave had to work most all day, I walked Valley around then drove into town. Gas again at Costco, at least it's under $3 dollars here, we are touring around so much that we have had to fill up every 4 days. I then went by and made an appointment for Valentine to be groomed today at 11:30. On the way back home I stopped by Fred Meyer's, Rosie had told me about them, it's a grocery store, clothing store ect. It is kind of like a super Walmart, but much more upper class, vision center, bank ect. In the afternoon Dave and I went and picked up Kelli and Alex and drove to Fairhaven for the farmers market there, a little disappointed because it was nothing like the farmers market on Saturday in Bellingham. Was hoping this one fruit vendor would be there but no such luck, but we did get more fresh vegtables and Dave got some nectarines. We then walked around this little town, I wish I would have known about it earlier because it was a nice little place. Alex and I went into this one little shop called Paws Awhile, which is run by the human society and the people that work there are all volunteers, I purchased a wiener dog door stop for Rosie and Bob. Then Kelli gave directions while I drove to see all the neat houses and the University. We did stop at this bread store called Great Harvest Bread Co., oh my gosh, what great bread. Kelli said the cinnamon rolls were to die for so we got a couple of those, one regular and one low cal., for breakfast Friday morning when we get on the road. Last night we all went to Stephani's, in Birch Bay, for a seafood dinner. This time Kelli's parents joined us, haven't seen them since the wedding, 5 years ago, and boy was it a good dinner. Very popular place and I think we ended up waiting about an hour but it was worth it for me, Dave ordered the King Salmon but it was a bit dry, but the steamed clams we ordered ahead of time were really good. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their dinner too, it was a bit cold to sit outside on the deck but we had too so you could watch the water and the sunset. We leave tomorrow, bummer, I really like this place, Dave says wait until winter then you won't like it. bye for now

Wednesday August 23rd, yesterday, mid-morning Dave and I went to the mall here. I really was just going to Target but since Target is attached to the mall we decided to walk thru the whole thing and check it out. Guess what, it's just like any other mall except most malls don't have a Target Store attached. We both needed hair cuts, well mainly me, Dave just needed a touch up, so we found a hair cutting place in the mall and got butchered. Dave told the lady just a little shorter and she went a little bit too much for him, I like it though. The lady that did mine she asked me are you sure you want it that short and I said yes. Needless to say I'm not blond anymore as Dave pointed out, she had cut it all away. At least these hair cuts should last us quite awhile. After that we went to an RV store to get a new fuse for the brake buddy, but 1st we drove thru Bellingham and got lost for quite awhile, but we finally found the place. Last night we were invited to Rosie's for a taco dinner, very good. Robert, Kelli and Alex came too and we had a good time talking and eating. While there I called Trini and found out she isn't doing too well with the last surgery she had, boy I feel sorry for her.
bye for now

Tuesday morning August 22, the weather is kind of gloomy today but hopefully it will burn off. Yesterday we had our house power washed, it's so nice and shiny now, that's probably why it's gloomy this morning. You know how it goes, wash your car then it rains. Yesterday around noon we went and picked up Kelly, Alex and Rosie and went for a long scenic drive and ended up in this small old town called La Conner. We had lunch there(another long drive for lunch) then walked around the town, pretty neat place. Got back about 6 pm and boy was Valley glad to see us, walked her around then sat outside and read our books and relaxed. It doesn't get dark around here till about 9 pm so you can sit outside and read for a long time.
bye

Monday Morning August 21st and tis that time again. I'm going to start from now on, I hope, to post to the blog everynight, this way I won't have to keep notes around of what we have been up to. Thursday Dave and I drove to Anacortes to take the ferry to Friday Harbor to check out that island and walk around. Luckily Kelly had called us right before we arrived to tell us the ferry schedule, which Dave or I hadn't looked up but we just didn't have enough time that afternoon to take the ferry. We ended up having lunch in downtown Anacortes, at Rockfish Grill, salmon burger and fish and chips, which by the way is an hour from Ferndale, another long drive just for lunch. Kind of like when we drove into Vancouver, another hour away, just for lunch. At least we get to see a lot of things and walk around too. Thursday night Dave, Rosie, Robert, Kelly and I went to the Silver Reef Casino Steak House for dinner. Oh my gosh, what a dinner we all had, the lobster bisque was to die for. The service was great the only thing is Dave and I thought for the price of the steaks they were not as good as they should have been. Don't get me wrong they were good but they could have been thicker and juicer, more like Ruth Chris Steakhouse, for the price. We all had a good time then we went gambling afterward. We stayed for about an hour and I doubled my money playing poker slots, Dave lost his money playing Blackjack and the rest of them were still there when we left. Friday morning we drove to Mount Baker, long drive but worth it. It was just beautiful there and Valley really liked the snow. We will post pictures on our website, the weather was perfect too. We had on tank tops and we were still hot that's how clear it was. Of course we were stupid because when we went hiking around we didn't bring any water with us, Valley of course was drinking the melting snow she was fine. We had to get back to the car, where we had water, and couldn't stay hiking as long as we had wanted too. On the way back, oh by the way the road to and from Mt. Baker is single lanes and winding roads, which are my favorite, how Dave can nap thru that is beyond me. (Thank goodness I was driving) We stopped at the Nooksack Casino on the way back to gamble a little bit but decided the weather was too hot to leave Valley in the car for too long so Dave went and played a couple fast hands of Blackjack and I just walked around. Danny, Kim's boyfriend, has started collecting $1.00 chips from different casinos, so Dave is happy to stop at the casinos and collect chips for Danny.
Saturday, after cleaning the house and doing laundry, we drove into Bellingham to the Farmers Market there. A lot of different vendors representing all the goods they grow on the farms here, most are organic but damn good looking vegetables. We got some zucchini, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, apples and kettlecorn. Ops, sorry the kettlecorn wasn't grown here in Ferndale or Bellingham, but it was popped here.
Sunday, we were going to go to Friday Harbor for brunch but decided with the cost of the ferry and brunch, it was a bit too steep so we ended up going back to Nooksack Casino for brunch. They had a very good champagne brunch, all kinds of shrimp, crab legs, salmon, salads, and normal breakfast stuff too, it was very good and a good price too. Afterward we stayed and gambled but we lost here. On the way back we stopped at the Mount Baker Vineyards for wine tasting, and purchasing. When we got back to the motor home we took Valley for a walk then I took a nap while Dave watched T.V. and played on the computer. Dave went down to the office later to make sure we were paid up until next Saturday, but we hadn't been, only to Wednesday. Well, we had a problem, they needed our space back on Friday because people had reservations already, they offered to move us to another spot for 1 night. I got on the computer and found out there is a Italian Festival in Portland Oregon so we decided to leave here Friday and go to Portland and see the festival. Those were always my plans anyway, try and see all the different kinds of festivals.
I think that's about it for now. Will try and remember to start writing everynight like my niece and nephew are, that's who gave me the idea, that way you don't have to read so much and I don't have to write so much.
Bye for now

Thursday, August 17th 2006, another week another blog. Isn't it just amazing how every morning you get up there is another NEW news story. Mel Gibson, the London scare, and now Jonbenet Ramsey, sure took the news off of Mel Gibson didn't it. (Wag the Dog)
Everything here is going well, went to Bellingham and found the Costco and Walmart last Wednesday, Thursday Dave and I had pedicures and I had my nails done. Friday we decided to drive into Canada, not the smartest thing to do right after the thing in London happened. The line was quite long to get thru the border but we made it thru. We drove into Vancouver, parked and walked around. Very Asian there, everywhere you looked there were Sushi Bars but we kept on walking and ended up at the Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant for lunch. What a view we had for lunch it took an hour to circle around and that's just how long lunch took, boy do they have that planned right. We decided not to stick around too long because the border crossing that we had seen going in was even longer going out. We got to the border and there was hardly anyone there, must have been good timing on our part.
Saturday we drove to Camping World in Mt. Vernon, the weather was nice and clear and what a view you could see of Mt. Baker. We then drove back and Bellington was having their 14th annual Chark Fest and 1st Artist Fair. The chark fest was pretty neat, chark artist of all ages could enter, as you can see from Dave's last blog he did post 1 chark drawing that we saw. The drawings were all over the sidewalks, for blocks, everyone was sure not to walk on any of them too. I had heard on the radio that they had over 2,000 drawings to judge, never did hear who won though. Saturday night we had a surprise visit from Robert, Kelly and Rosie I was pretty amazed that they found us in the dark, the park was really full.
Sunday we laid around and enjoyed the sunshine reading, playing on the computers and walking Valley around. Sunday night we went to Robert and Kelly's house for dinner, what a view they have of Mt. Baker, Ferndale and Bellingham. To have a view of something like that is unbelievable, I don't blame Kelly for not putting curtains up to cover the windows, I sure as hell wouldn't. The house is hugh and when they get all the remodeling done it is going to be beautiful, the house will be just as great as the view they have. The best thing about the view they have is that no one can block their view, houses can go below and around them just not in front of them.
Monday, laundry day, had no choice ran out of underwear, oh well, I have to get used to doing laundry in these parks or laundry mats anyway. Around noon Kelly, Rosie and Alex came over and we all went to the Northwest Washington Fair together. Boy, you wouldn't believe the line to get in the place, the fair is in Lynden and I swear no one works around here, you would think "it's a Monday" no one will be there, wrong. Anyway, the weather was great, and they had a free demolition derby going on which was a lot of fun to watch. After the show we walked around and saw the normal fair stuff.
Tuesday, Dave was working, Valley and I went driving around town checking things out, then stopped at two different parks to walk around. The 1st one was Pioneer Park, which gives tours but we were too early. They have a bunch of wood cabins there which date back to the 1800's, churches, barns, jails and homes. We walked around the whole thing then drove to Hovander Homestead Park. This park was really big, picnic tables, BBQ's they had a few different group parties going on, great place for a family/friends get together. They also had fenced in horses, cows, pigs, geese, chickens, roosters, peacocks, rabbits, goats and I think that was about it. Valley sure liked going up to all those animals, she rubbed noses with the goats, the geese hissed at her and one of the chickens peeked at her nose, not sure if it got her but boy did she jumped a mile. The rabbit cages I couldn't get her away from, she would have stayed there all day. We walked around on a couple of the trails, but didn't take them to the end, decided it was getting a little late so we would come back tomorrow, earlier, and walk all the trails. When we got back, Dave was still working so I just got my book and laid out in the sun. When Dave was done with work we drove into Bellingham to the Costco to get gas and of course go to Home
Depot, Dave hadn't been for about a week and was having with drawals. After that we drove to the Indian Casino here, where Rosie always goes. It was pretty small inside looks a lot bigger from the outside. We found some video poker slots and sat down with 20 bucks each. When we left about 45 min. later I still had my 20 but Dave was down to 5.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Valley and I went back to Hovander Homestead Park to do our hiking around. We walked for 2 hours straight walking around about 4 different trails. When Valley starts laying down for a rest, and I know it wasn't because of the heat, she was tired. Walking around Tuesday and Wednesday had worn her out, I have to remember she did turn 10 yrs old this month. When she got in the car she couldn't lay down quick enough, and then back at the motor home she jumped out of the car and laid on the mat, she didn't want to climb inside the trailer. I figure today I'll just take her for short walks around the park here and let her recoup. Tomorrow, Dave and I plan on driving to Mt. Baker or at least to the bottom of Mt. Baker, not going to the top it is covered with snow. Will get pictures and post on our website.
bye for now

Hi All,
Well Jeri is the normal poster to the Blog, but I wanted to let all of you know about the new info I have added to the Web site. I added a Calendar showing when we are traveling and where we are staying. Right now it covers from now until the end of January. I have also posted a map of our travels. I am not sure if it is going to be usefull but it does show our route so I guess you could find us if we fail to check in with family. I am also testing adding photos so here is a picture of the street chalk art we saw in Bellingham over the weekend.

Thursday, August 10th, we are now in Ferndale Washington, which is like 15 miles from the Canadian Border. We got here on Tuesday and brought the rain with us, but that was just when we got here yesterday it was sunny again but this a.m. is overcast, it's still shorts weather. Well lets see when I last wrote we were in Redding, which I would go back to and stay a month or two because there is so much to see and do there. Anyway, we did go to the car races that Saturday night which at the end of the race they had a boat race. We laughted so much, they wet down the track and cars pulling boats of all sizes start racing down the race track it was more like a demolition derby. The boats were hitting the walls, other boats and the other cars too. The boats that came off the cars were free game and the rest of the drivers made sure they got smashed into, you would have to see it to appreciate it. We didn't get back until 11:30 that night, the races started at 6:30 so it was a long night. Sunday we got on the road and drove to Albany, Oregon, long drive and boy were we tired. We didn't even unhook the car this time because we knew we were going to get going again early on Monday. Monday we left early and drove to Port Angeles, the campsite was a county park and it was 1st come 1st serve plus it was right on the water. There were sites open when we got there so we walked around and picked the site we wanted with a perfect view of the water right out our windshield. I got my keys out to unlock the Envoy but the automatic opener didn't work, so we thought my key battery was dead, wrong. It was the battery in my car that was dead, needless to say we learned another valuable lesson. Since we didn't unhook the car the night before we had forgotten the car was still turned on, so the battery was drained and we had to position the motor home next to it to jump start it. We got the car started, which should have been an omen to us, and let it run for a while to recharge itself. While the car was recharging we got settled into the campsite, it was a great spot. Dave picks up his phone and we have NO PHONE SERVICE, how in the hell is Dave going to be on conference calls with no phone service. Sorry there was phone service it was just roaming phone service, Dave called Verizon to see if we had free roaming service and the help line was answered by a person in Canada, we were told it was going to cost something like 1.75 a min. Which would cost us a pretty penny because Dave is on the conference calls sometimes up to 2 hours. Dave started calling around to other campsites and come to find out this is the perfect time to be in Washington because all the campsites were filled up. We decided to stay the night and get another early start on Tuesday and go to Ferndale and stay there for a couple weeks. While setting up for the night we started talking to a couple behind us they were full timers and had been at it for 2 1/2 years now and still loving it. They had a 5th wheel not a Motorhome, but it worked for them, there home base is in Texas where they went every Christmas to be with family. They had been in Oregon and stayed in Elkton where we are planning on staying because my brother, Marty, is there and has a restaurant/bakery there. They said they did eat there and had a great time so that was nice to hear. We got going on Tuesday and Dave said we were going to take the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island because we would cut out 200 miles of driving time. Taking the motorhome and car on a ferry, right, I almost s_ _t myself, thank goodness I haven't starting driving yet. Dave did drive onto the ferry and it was pretty interesting, it only cost about $70 bucks and if we had drove it it would have cost us a lot more in gas.
We got to Cedars RV Resort, in Ferndale Washington, at 1:45 pm, a really big and nice park, good place to stay for a couple weeks. Ferndale only has about 8,500 in population, so it is a small town, plus we know people here. My sister-in-law, Trini, has family here that's why we wanted to come here. Robert, Trini's nephew, his wife Kelly and daughter Alex, plus Rosie, Trini's sister is here until the end of August. Rosie has a house here but still has her house in Long Beach, Ca too so she moves back and forth until her and Bob, her husband, decide where they are going to live full time. I would pick Ferndale it is peaceful and beautiful compared to Long Beach with all the crime. Anyway, we had dinner over Rosie's last night and Robert and family were there too so it was great to see everyone, it had been quite awhile since we last saw Robert, Kelly and Alex.
I think I have written enough for today
bye for now

Today is Saturday, August 5th, on Monday July 31st we drove the Envoy back to Bakersfield and left the motor home in Gilroy. Had to drive back because I had a court date with my ex-employer on Aug. 1st. We left Valley in Bakersfield while we drove down to Van Nuys on Tuesday, I also had a dentist appointment at 10:45 because I had lost a filling in a tooth I had done right when we left for Bakersfield. Kill two birds with one stone, tooth and court. The court date was at 1 pm and we ended up settling out of court which really worked out well for us. Now I am finally done with them completely after this 4 month battle.
We drove back to Gilroy on Wednesday and hung out there until Friday morning. We got on the road and drove to Redding, which is where we are until tomorrow. Today we went to Lake Shasta Caverns, very interesting to see. Tonight we will be going to Shasta Raceway, it seems like, if you've read any of the other blogs, on Saturday nights we are always going to car races. Maybe I should start writing articles on raceways for a magazine, if only I could write and spell things right.
Anyway, heading out tomorrow for Port Angeles, but can't make the drive in one day so will stop somewhere in between.
Bye for now