Hole in "1" / No Sugar Beet Harvest

We are now in Port Townsend, Washington at the Elk's Lodge. Dave, Bob and Lou went to play golf while Jackie, Sharon and I went into town. Linda and Doonie (Linda's BF/sister-in-law) took off for the San Juan Islands, will catch up with her later in Bellingham. When the guys got back from golf, they were so excited to tell us that Dave had got a Hole in One on the 2nd tee. Bob and Lou have been golfing forever and had never had a hole in 1 and had never been present with anyone that got one either, so they were all excited. Congratulations Dave.

We had been calling about the Sugar Beet Harvest and were told that they were still working on the invites. While we were gassing up in Tillamook, they called on my phone and said they were sending out the invites. Well, we never got one, so now we will be back at the end of September instead of the end of October.

I need to recap what this last week has been. We were in Lincoln City Oregon on the 23rd and 24th then headed for Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond Oregon. What a nice State Park, we got to do so much walking, it was wonderful. Before we got there though, we stopped in Tillamook, Oregon and went through the cheese factory, you know Tillamook Cheese. They seem to be famous for their ice cream too, so we had to have ice cream and also picked up some of their cheese too. While in Hammond we took a day and went driving around New Port and Long Beach, Washington touring Light Houses, and just checking out the area. Linda took off to pick up Doonie so it was just the 6 of us touring around. Friday, the 28th, we drove to the Bremerton Washington Elks. Saturday Linda, Doonie, Dave and I took the ferry over to Seattle and walked Pikes Market and took the Under Ground Tour of the city. It had rained all night long be once morning came it didn't rain again, figures since Dave and I had our umbrellas with us. Saturday, early evening, we drove to Linda's friends house in Hansville. It's a neighbor of hers from St. George Utah, they live in St. George in the winter and Hansville in the summer. They are right on the water, beautiful spot, beautiful house and they have their own dock and boat. Larry and Linda had a fantastic dinner ready for all of us. Larry had gone out that morning and caught lots of crabs and salmon. You get that stuff that fresh boy the flavor is something else. Oh, forgot to mention, Dave and I were driving with Linda and Doonie, while flying down the road this goat, with a rope hanging from it's neck, runs into the middle of the road. The 3 of us starting yelling stop, which Linda did do, and luckily Bob and the rest of them weren't too close behind us. Linda wasn't happy with us, she said it was just a damn goat on a rope and it was better to hit it then us get hit from behind from all the other vehicles. While driving home that night, after dinner, it was dark so we had to watch out for deers and goats on ropes. :)

At least now being in Port Townsend we finally have TV again, yea!! Still haven't seen a Walmart in a week and we are out of Walmart bags for our trash, if anyone finds out we will be kicked out of the Trailer Trash Club. :)

That's it for now, will update more later.

Recap of Trip so far, plus, Happy Birthday Marisa

We are in Elkton Oregon right now, arrived on Friday afternoon. Went to Marty's for dinner, what a fantastic dinner. We kind of made it a surprise 50th anniversary for Bob and Jackie, Marty made a special cake for them, it was very nice.

Linda showed up on Monday in the afternoon. we had all gotten together Monday night at Bob and Jackie's to talk about the trip. Headed out on Tuesday and stopped in Eureka, at the Moose Lodge, the Elk's Lodge was full. Stayed for 2 days and went touring around, Bob and Jackie use to live there so they were our tour master's.

Wednesday we left for Coquille, Oregon and stopped at the Elk's Lodge there. It was an all day drive, only because we made a lot of stops on the way. Our windshield wiper fell apart so we stopped at Walmart to try and get a new one. We are driving on the coast and with the fog we needed that windshield wiper. Walmart only had a 28 inch one and we needed a 32 inch one. We got it anyway, it was better then nothing, will get the right one later. Anyway, Coquille Valley Elk's Lodge camping is right in front of the golf course the Elk's own. Friday morning Dave, Bob, Lou, and Linda played golf, Jackie and I walked the course with them. Sharon, Bob's girl friend, wasn't feeling too well so she stayed in their RV. (there are 7 of us travelling together, soon to be 8, Linda's sister in law will join us on the 26th)

We left Coquille Valley on the 21st and landed in Elkton Oregon in the afternoon. We had dinner at Marty's, like I said before, and yesterday we drove into Winchester Bay and toured around and picked up Oyster's to BBQ for dinner. This morning we head out again and will end up in Lincoln City Oregon, another Elk's Lodge we hope.

Having a great time so far, will recap more of our trip later on.

Happy 36th Birthday to my niece, Marisa.

Happy 2nd Anniversary Kim and Danny/Happy b/day Uncle Renzo

Just posted an update the other day but wanted to say to Kim and Danny "Happy 2nd Anniversary" and "Happy Birthday" to Uncle Renzo.

I did the 5 miles by myself today, Dave took Bob to the Dealership so Bob's car could be looked at before we leave. I did mostly walking but included some jogging which I am paying for with my knee tonight. I am going to have surgery when we get back to Arizona, I can't handle being layed up.

We are headed out tomorrow for Eureka and staying at the Elks Lodge there, plan on being at Elkton, Oregon on Friday the 21st.

There are 4 of us rigs travelling together right now, but we have been in touch with people from the Mexican Caravan we were on, and some of them are in Oregon/Washington now and want to meet up with us, so this should be interesting.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We are in Redding Calif. now, got in at 6:30pm last night. Staying at the Elk's Lodge, after setting up we headed for Bob and Jackie's house for a visit and dinner.

Recap time.

We left Arizona on Monday, 8/10, and made it to Simi Valley around 2pm. We stayed at David's until everyone got home from work. We visited with Jodi and David then had a late dinner at Macaroni Grill. Dave and I got on the road Tuesday morning and headed for Bakersfield to pick up our RV, yea it's fixed. The new bigger air conditioner hadn't come in yet so will have to get that installed when we get back in October. We parked the RV in front of the kids house for the next 3 days, and stayed in the house. One way to save money. Miss Madison wanted me to hold her every time she saw me, hold her and walk around as she points to everything. While there every morning Dave and I told their dog, Toby, walking with us, he needed the exercise. Danny told us that the week before Madison had been playing with his phone and even though it was locked Madison managed to somehow dial 911. Danny said he was sitting there then he heard "911 operator what's the emergency" Danny grabbed the phone and said it was a mistake and he was sorry, too funny.

We left Friday and headed for Sacramento but before we got going one of back tires was low on air so we had to fill it. We stayed at the Elk's Lodge in Carmichael and on Saturday visited with Dave's cousins for a little bit then went to his Aunt's house and took her to lunch. As we were getting ready to leave and head for Redding the back tire again was really low this time. We filled it with air again, hooked up the car, then we noticed the back tire on the car was low. We had to unhook the car, drive to the front of the coach and fill the car tire. We stopped a couple times on the way to Redding to check on the tires and they seemed to be OK. Dave thinks the stem on the back tires was loose and that's why our tire kept getting low, he tightened it and it seems to be holding. The car tire seems to be doing good too. I had purchased a book on tapes so listen to on our drive but the radio doesn't seem to be working now. Dave pulled the radio out and there were sunflowers seeds everywhere so we thought maybe those mice, before we killed them, had chewed through a wire but we couldn't find anything. Dave had something to test the speakers and they are working so it is the radio. Now headed for Best Buy for a new radio, this RV is slowly starting to turn into the money pit. :)

That's it for now, Linda will show up tomorrow and we will all head out (4 rigs) on Tuesday. Will be at Marty's on Friday.

I posted new pics

Recap of Grand Daughters visit

It's Sunday night almost 9:30 pm and the girls and I just got back from the pool. They are now taking turns getting showers and getting ready for bed. Dave stayed back at the house to finish packing up the food and getting a shower and starting the last of the laundry. We went to Clarkdale for Mexican food for dinner. Did all the dishes and don't want to dirty the kitchen again. Dave mopped this afternoon and I vacuumed and cleaned bathrooms. When we head out tomorrow for Simi Valley we won't be back to the Arizona house for almost 3 months. I know coming back after 3 months I won't be a happy camper because of the spider webs and stuff like that, goodness, lets hope a family of scorpions don't move in while we are gone.

Last I wrote we were headed for the Grand Canyon, it was a long drive and we saw some beautiful sites, had a picnic lunch, stayed maybe 2 hours then back to the house because the girls wanted to swim. While driving they each had their own DS's (what ever that is) and both of the batteries died. Do you think either one of them brought their chargers from home in Simi? Noooooo! We had to stop in Flagstaff at the Best Buy and buy a new charger that they could use. They must have those games for the long drive back to California. Friday we all went to Slide Rock Park. The idea is you get in the ice cold water and ride the rocks down. There were lots of people and not many spots with shade for you to sit in. You just plant your butt down were ever you could which of course was sitting on rocks so it wasn't very comfortable. Dave went with the girls to the top of the slide area, I stayed and watched our stuff. They got back and Dave said it was fun but some of the slide areas weren't wide enough for him to get through so he had to get up and walk around it. The girls had fun but after a while Bryauna didn't want to do it anymore because she was getting like a rash on her legs, it was just because the rocks were rough. Riley put her shorts on and went a couple more times, we ate some lunch then headed back to the house so the girls could go swimming again at the club house. Dinner that night was a bust, they said my enchiladas were too hot, I used mild sauce, but they liked the rice and beans and salad. Dave had taken them to rent movies, they got 3, because there would be no night swimming, too burnt out because of the sun at slide park. We wanted to have them watch the movies through out the weekend, but our fault, Riley stayed up all night and watched all 3. Bryauna had gone to sleep. Needless to say we had to make Riley get up so we could go to "Out of Africa" on Saturday, we needed to be there by 11am because the shows started at 11:30am. Thank goodness the park was only 15 min. away.

Bryauna is not a late sleeper at all, every time Dave and I got back from our walk in the morning she was always up watching TV and waiting for us. She was always up between 6 and 7am, Jesica (her mom) is lucky she won't have any problems when school starts for Bryauna.

Out of Africa was a lot of fun, the Tiger Splash was great and the Bear splash was fun too. Amazing seeing the trainers in there with the animals being chased and jumping in the pools and the tiger and bears jumping in the pool after them. One time one of the trainers was in the pool trying to fix the light one of the bears had torn off, the other trainer was running and the bear was chasing him the bear saw the trainer trying to fix the light and he turned and jumped right on top of the trainer. That was scary but all the trainers ran to his rescue, no one was hurt. We stayed for about 4 or 5 hours walking around checking out the animals and even went on the bus tour where the giraffe sticks it's head in the bus trying to get the food from you. The giraffe licked Riley's and Bryauna's hands, gross!! Then back to the house so the girls could go swimming.

Sunday, today, was Montezuma Castle National Monument, boring for the girls. Now if they could have gone up to one of those caves, that would have been fun for them, needless to say we left after about 1/2 hour, if that long. The girls wanted to hang around the house so they watched TV and played while Dave and I cleaned. Around 2 we all went over to the pool to swim for a while. I must say my tan has gotten a lot darker since the girls got here, I have been trying to stay out of the sun, or not tan as much, because of the big "C". I am starting to think about these things more and more now that I am getting older. With the girls here we have been out in the sun doing things all day long, it's been fun.

PS I've posted pictures of the girls visit.

Update Time

Way past due for an update.

Let's see, last Wednesday, 29th of July, we drove down to Garden Grove, Calif. to stay with my brother, Mike, and family. Marisa, Shawn, and Inara had flown in from Colorado the week before for a 12 day visit. We arrived early afternoon and had a great visit with everyone. Kim and Madison showed up on Thursday and at 1st Madison and Inara had their little differences but it didn't last long. I've posted pictures of our 3 days with family. Always a house full at Mike and Trini's, Rob, Kelli and Alex even flew down from Washington, it was really great seeing everyone again.

Kim left Friday morning because she had to work that night. Dave and I left a little after 12pm and headed for Joyce's funeral. (Dave's ex wife) The service had a pretty good crowd, Laura, David Jr.s, ex wife, officiated the service. After that Dave and I headed back to Simi Valley but made a little house hunting trip 1st before we left Long Beach. We went hunting for the very 1st house we bought together, 30 years ago. Don't know how he did it but Dave ended up remembering the street address and name, amazing. Boy, the neighborhood didn't look that great and the house was very small and needed paint badly. Once in Simi we went to David Jr.s house and waited for them to get back. That night we did Costco pizza and visited with David, Jodi, Riley, Jeff, Carolyn (Jeff's girlfriend), Bryauna, and Jayden.

We left Saturday morning and headed back to Cornville, Arizona. After an 1 hr on the road we realized we had left our computers at David's. So we turned around and headed back, Dave called David and we met 1/2 way to get the computers. THANK YOU SO MUCH David for jumping in your car and bringing the computers, your Dad owes you big time.

Yesterday, Bryauna and Riley flew into Phoenix to visit us for the next 6 days. We left the airport and took them to a Waffle House, neither had been to one before. They are just about on every corner and just cute little restaurants. Then to Costco for gas and to return a mixer. Next stop was Sedona so they could see the Red Rocks and we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a church built into the side of the red rocks, just pretty neat to see. We then drove into Sedona and walked around the shops, stopped for ice cream and soda, very hot out 102 I believe. They wanted to go to our house after that. They both really liked the house and we hung around a little bit then on to the pool. We stayed for a couple hours then back to the house to fix dinner and at 7ish we did the phone and camera thing with Danny, Kim and Madison. The girls thought that was great, talking and seeing Madison at the same time and Madison seeing us. Around 8 it was back to the pool until 9:30pm then back home again. When I went to bed at 11 the girls were sound asleep.

Today we are headed for the Grand Canyon, another long driving day, but the last long driving day until Monday when we head back to Simi Valley.

P.S. Happy belated Anniversay to Marisa and Shawn 5 years and counting. 7/30