25 August ‘08

Monday

Well here we go again…Monday, another day off, and IT’S RAINING !!!!  Let’s hope tomorrow will be better.  We joined Larry and Pauline at “Franklin’s Hoagies” for breakfast and then headed over to the Coeur d’Alene Mall for a little “window shopping”.  As we were about ready to pay the breakfast bill I found out that I had left my wallet back at the park (20+ miles away).  Thank goodness Louise had hers and had enough money to handle the bill.  After our stop at the mall we went over to a store that had been recommended to us for appraising a couple of Navaho rugs we had been carrying in the coach for quite some time.  They gave us the appraisal and then made us an offer “we couldn’t refuse”.  Well we had been carrying those two rugs from house to house and house to motor home and only once did we ever display them, so selling them now just made a lot of sense. 

Today (Tuesday) we headed back to Coeur d’Alene.  Our first stop was about the same as most as we get close to Starbucks, stop and have a cup of coffee…  I’ve been accused of being a “coffee snob” and I guess they’re right…any excuse of finding a Starbucks will do.  Then it was off to finish a couple of errands that we didn’t finish yesterday.  Completing those, we drove down to the Resort, retrieved our walking sticks out of the back of the car and got ready for a hike around Tubbs Hill.  We’ve walked Tubbs Hill many times over the past 28 years but today’s hike was different.  This was the first time we had used our Nautilus Walking Sticks on Tubbs Hill.  We really enjoy using these walking sticks as they definitely give us a serious workout.     It was so serious that we stopped by the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company for a glass of their micro-brew.  

We happened to have purchased a case of their beer a couple of months ago at Costco and we really liked it, so having the opportunity to stop in and sample a couple of other beers was a real treat.  We will go back…  But now we must rush off to dinner at Joelle’s.  Trev was there with us as he has moved back home to go to school.  He registered for his first year at North Idaho Community School and is looking forward to his studies.  But now we’ve got to eat….

24 August '08

Sunday

We’re sitting here tonight watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics from Beijing and constantly asking ourselves “how are they doing that, or did you see that?”…  I’m sure that we’ll be talking about the opening and closing of the Olympics for a long long time…  We’ve been very fortunate to have been able to watch just about every event that was broadcast these games and still get all of our work done here at  Farragut.  It’s hard to believe but we’re into our 3^rd week already.  The second afternoon we were here we had a surprise visit.  CW and Gina came riding up on their bikes.  They are the couple that we took over from 2 years ago.  You might say that they taught us all we know about “Camp Hosting”… They have the same days off (Monday and Tuesdays) so we started looking for things that we might do together.  As it turns out, they have a couple of inflatable kayaks so we immediately started looking for the best time and location to go out for a paddle.  But first things first…  Back in the early 80’s when we lived in Coeur d’Alene, there was one local event that we really enjoyed going too…”Art On The Green”. 

Joelle and Amy called and let us know that they were on their way so Louise and I jumped in the car and off we went to join them for the day.  Art on the Green is a gathering of artists, restaurateurs, small business owners, and musicians of all types.  When we started going, you could walk the entire gathering in an hour and 45 minutes or less and still have time to see and enjoy everything.  This time it took us well over 4 hours and we didn’t see everything but we sure ate well.  Last Tuesday we got together with CW and Gina and headed down to the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene.  There are a number of smaller lakes that have formed off of the Coeur d’Alene River and the St. Joe Rivers and they can be reached by entering Lake Coeur d’Alene and paddling up the St Joe about a mile.  Unfortunately, when we woke we found that the sky had turned threatening and looked like we might find ourselves in a heavy downpour.  Well we struck out anyway.  A little over halfway we were overtaken with the heavy rain that we were hoping to avoid so we turned around and headed back.  Seeing as how it was still early morning and we felt that none of us had had enough coffee, we headed off to find a place that would be able to supply our needs.  On Thursday Louise went to the Spokane airport to pick-up Lil-Louise and Drew.  They flew in from Seattle to spend a few days with us.  Of course they were immediately drawn into the work around the campground and for exchange we supply the smores…

Our “assignments” are to sell firewood, rake up the campsite

and clean the picnic tables when the campers check out, and watch over and be around when or if one of the new campers have a question or problem.  This is done for 5 days and the next two we are off to do whatever and for all this we get a free site. 

To clean/rake a campsite will take the two of us about 7 to 8 minutes and on an average day we will have about 9 sites that will vacate…pretty easy deal.  The rest of the days while we are “on”, we can do whatever we want and that includes leaving the area.  If we do leave, we let the rangers know and also make arrangements with our neighbor camp-host.  This afternoon Larry and Pauline drove out to spend the afternoon with us. 

We had a little different morning.  We knew Lar and Paul were to be here about 2 but by 1 we still had 4 campers that hadn’t left.  Now with check-out being 1 and check-in at 2 we were behind the ball especially if I was to get my shower before they arrived…well it all worked out and we enjoyed the visit.

Leaving Lincoln behind, we headed off to Chewelah, Washington and an all too short of a visit with Dave and Carol Hawkins.  Our route took us along the shores of Banks Lake from Lincoln north to Cedonia and then across to Chewelah.  With our GPS, we easily found our way to the Chewelah Golf and Country Club and the front porch of Dave and Carol’s home.  Again, like Karl and Nicki’s home, Dave and Carol have found a beautiful place to call home,

and they made us feel so absolutely comfortable.  As you walk through the “Great Room” and out to the large covered deck, you could be lucky enough to be watching a world class golf match taking place in front of you.  Carol had been working hard over the last few weeks in putting together a women’s golf tournament and here we come, guests on top of the big tournament tee off the next morning….  And then on top of all that, Dave out did himself by serving the best “Texas BBQ Brisket and Hominy” dinner we have ever had.  After dinner Dave took me out to see the course.  We jumped into his golf cart and hit the links.  I haven’t been on a lot of golf courses, but this one was really beautiful and in my opinion, must be one hell of a course to get a decent score on.  Early the next morning, Louise and I joined them at the club house for a quick breakfast, watched the “shotgun” start and pulled out for our next destination…Farragut State Park in northern Idaho.

Heading northeast from Soap Lake, our next destination was to visit our close friends and “old neighbors” (from 1965-1971) along the shores of Lake Roosevelt in Lincoln.  Earlier in the year we had met Karl and Nicki in Parker, Arizona.  They have a “Winter” home at Lake Havasu and their home here at Lincoln. 

 Lincoln, with no commercial businesses except a small RV park, is a secret community that is laid back, out of the way, lakeside community.  If there is any draw-back, it is that they have sooo far to go for basic supplies, but other than that it is absolutely beautiful.  If you ever get to Lincoln you won’t have any problem knowing which home belongs to Karl and Nicki…just look for the greenest and largest perfectly mowed yard around…it is a piece of art. 

We had a wonderful time getting together with them again…talking hours and hours of the “ole days”, eating a wonderful dinner, and raiding and enjoying all the fruit and veggies from Karl’s garden. 

Our drive out of Yakima took us through some of the county’s largest “hop” fields…why the Yakima valley????  I have no idea but they hung high above us as we drove the secondary roads to our next destination, Soap Lake.  (Right now, I would love to have a picture of the hops but we didn’t take the time to stop and take…damn!)  This is the first time that we have been in a campground that was owned by Western Horizons (the membership only campground club that we bought into a couple of years ago) and then sold to a private ownership and changed into an “open camping” campground.  We still have full “membership” access for 2008, but beyond that we’re just another camper.  Oh well, we’ve had a second opportunity to search out the must see locations within 80 miles of the lake so I would say we’ve “been there”.  Taking a little time to hit one of the beaches here at Soap Lake, we found this couple taking advantage of the "special" mud from the bottom the lake.  

We were in Ephrata the other day and found out that they were having their annual “Ephrata Valley Music Festival”. 

The weather couldn’t have been better and our personal schedule (schedule, I don’t remember having a schedule…) would allow us to grab some “booth food” and settle down to watch and listen to some great jazz and rock for the next few hours.  As always when such a festival like this is going on, we went looking for the Farmers Market.  We couldn’t go home without having stopped.   On the way back to the campground, we came upon another "celebration".  It was the annual "Bikers of Soap Lake" event. 

That evening at the campground, we went out for a walk and soon found ourselves in conversation with a camper from Bellevue.  His family had taken the tour bus from the campground to the “Light Show at Grand Coulee Dam”.  He and his wife had immigrated to the US from India a number of years ago and now are raising their kids in Bellevue.  Louise and I found our brief conversation with Richard very interesting and asked him to join us for a glass of wine up at our coach while his family was away enjoying the light show.  Later Lou and I found ourselves invited to his “cabin” for dinner the next night.  The dinner was described to be a “typical Indian” dinner consisting of a spicy rice dish, chicken, beef ribs.  We had a wonderful evening.   The host and his extended family Richards wife, Minni, Margret (Richards mother), Joseph his father, cousin, and her daughter both visiting from India. 

All in all, after enjoying a great meal and wonderful conversations with some new friends, it made for an evening we won’t forget. 

14 July ‘08

Monday

Up early this morning to take the coach over to Aubrey’s RV to get a little work handled.  Fortunately the list of work to be preformed is short so let’s hope the bill reflects it.  In filling another part of our day, we have the laundry to thank… With Leslee at work and Lena and Vinny doing their things, we took over their air-conditioned house. 

This is the first time that we have ever traveled over Chinook Pass on our way to Yakima and we found it was well worth taking.  The pass takes us around the eastern side of Mount Rainier and offered us some of the most spectacular views on a perfect traveling day.  I don’t remember just how many stops we made to marvel at “The” mountain

and all the valleys surrounding it, but each stop was even better than the last. 

With the exception of last Wednesday, the weather here in Yakima has been fantastic…mid 80’s to low 90’s and cooler in the evenings.  Now all that is wonderful, but just after checking in at the campground, receiving our parking site AND directions as to how to get there, I headed out.  First of all, this campground is small and TIGHT…second, the streets to and from the sites are very tight…third, if you have to take a corner, you had better watch the swing of the tail of the coach AND any obstacle that might jump out and bite…yep, it did and I wasn’t a happy camper !!! 

The object that “jumped” out to get me was a small picnic table…right in the middle of the second bay door.   Two 2” round dents and a couple of small scratches.  It could have been worse, but at the time it was like a knife in the heart.

Yesterday, Leslee and Lena joined Louise and me on a kayaking adventure.  Close to the White Pass summit is Clear Lake, which is completely surrounded by beautiful mountains and tall trees.  It is fed from and feeds too the Natchez River, which then feeds to another larger lake below which again, continues to the Natchez through an earthen dam.  OK, all that said (written), we pulled out both kayaks and spent about 4 hours just having a great time

in a neat little campsite that we found down a very rough dirt (dusty) road (track).  It’s amazing how you work up a large appetite from all the fresh air, water, and a good paddle.  Fortunately we had a ton of chicken waiting at Leslee’s place all ready to hit the barbecue. 

24 June ‘08

Tuesday

The day after we arrived at our campground, and as I was setting up our internet and TV dish, I was approached by this guy that seemed to come out of “no-where”.  We had met Terry at a wedding about 12 years ago, and at that time he was a newlywed himself.  He and Linda (a long time good friend of ours) were at Linda’s son’s wedding.  Now, all of a sudden, we are parked right next door to them.  Even if it has been quite a few years since our last get together, we were able to enjoy each other’s company as if it were common for us to run into each other at every other campsite.

Another couple here in Seattle, that we always try to get together with, finally was free enough to come out to the coach for a little while.  While here, they took us out to a wonderful Tai lunch…How good is that????  Carl and Mario are some very special people in our lives and it is always good to get together with them.  They also invited us to their spectacular Seattle penthouse condo for the “4^th of July Spectacular”.  Where they live, they have an unobstructed view of the two largest fireworks displays in Seattle.  Fireworks or not, it is ALWAYS great to get together with them… 

First, what do you think of my photo of our "visitor" in the last posting???  Two of these beautiful Owls flew in together and one of them landed on the tree right next to our coach...lucky break.

19 June ‘08

Thursday

We called Bonnie and Doug last week to see what they had been up to in Mount Vernon, but when Doug answered the phone I found out that he was in Cabo San Jose.  Apparently he has found a way to take his “house phone” to Mexico and still receive the calls that are directed to their home here.  They are getting to the finishing touches on their new condo down there so he went back to make sure all goes well and make sure they don’t find any unwanted surprises when they go back this next winter.  I finally got a hold of Bon through her cell phone so we kind of invited ourselves up for a couple of days  It worked out great because Doug decided to fly home tonight as well.  About 9 we all headed out for Sea-Tac to save Doug from having to take a 3 hour bus ride home.  Friday we just kind of played it easy, enjoyed their beautiful yard,

had a spectular Salmon barbeque.

Saturday morning Doug and I took the kayak out for a paddle in Clear Lake.  Clear Lake is located just northeast of Mount Vernon, or about 5 miles from their home.  What a perfect day for a paddle and what a perfect lake to do it on…  Apparently Clear Lake was used as a staging area for the logging that was prevalent in this area many years ago.  On the shoreline, there was this large stone circular wall that stood about 6 feet high.  This was apparently used as the foundation for a wood smelter.  Then there were the hundreds (well maybe not hundreds, but a lot…) of log pilings in the lake.  I believe these were to hold the logs that were brought down from the heavily forested hills all around the lake…well that’s my guess anyway.   Saturday night we took in a movie.  Quite honesty I don’t remember the name of it, but it was about a young couple and a single man that were caught up in an illegal immigration bust…it was a great movie and a great subject for this time in our lives.     

16 July ‘08

Monday

Saturday night I (and Louise) was invited out to dinner to celebrate “Fathers Day”.  Mikleane is a bachelor-ette this week while the rest of the family is visiting Texas, so it was just the three of us.  I really enjoy the food at PJ Chang so when asked where I wanted to go…  Again, I wasn’t disappointed.  Sunday, Fathers Day, I started with the process of getting ready for Mondays colonoscopy so that’s why we enjoyed dinner on Saturday.  Early Sunday morning I took two little pills and just sat back and waited for nature to take action…all day long you’ve just got to stay close.  6am this morning I was up and started with my next step before going into the hospital later in the afternoon.  As all of you know that have had to drink the full bottle of Halflytely/Golytely, things really get going now. 

A fortunate distraction this morning is the play-off between Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods.  With Tiger having the bad knee and not playing up to his “norm” and Rocco playing pretty well for his position in the world’s standings, it’s making a pretty interesting match. 

Well we’re back…  I can’t believe how easy that was.  We were asked to be there an hour early so I walked into the front desk at 2:45, checked in, immediately called back to visit with one of the nurses, answered a few questions, and was given my beautiful gowns…one for the front and one for the back.  About 10 minutes later my doctor walked to introduce herself, making me feel comfortable, and looking beautiful (a very good looking young lady).  I was then asked to follow her back to another room where I was asked to lie down on.  An IV was inserted into my hand and….  I was sleeping so hard when Louise told me it was time to head back home and we’ll make something for dinner.  Boy, that was something I would love to have available on some of those nights when I find it tough to get to sleep!!!

13 June ‘08

Friday

Well we’re through with one of the doctor’s appointments now and are ready to move onto the next.  Yesterday was just a follow-up for me and to start my Hep A shots.  For Louise it was to get her final shots for Hep A & B.  I had to feel sorry for her as the nurse that gave her the shots really did a number on her…”ouch, that hurts”…  The shot given to me was by my nurse and it was hardly felt and I’m one that really doesn’t like shots.  We were supposed to “fast” from 6 the night before but we forgot so we have to make another appointment for next week for our blood work-ups…nuts! 

Today we traveled into downtown Seattle to see our dermatologist.  I had a couple of spots frozen so that they will hopefully just drop off, and Louise had a couple that she had removed by knife…all are fine.  Tomorrow I’ll pick up all the material to start doing the program for my colonoscopy.  I’m looking for a volunteer to do it for me, but so far no one has stepped forward. 

The other day I was on-line looking to see what inverter other full-timers might suggest or have gone to after having a need to replace theirs.  It seems that the top two are just about split down the middle, so I made a “command decision” and ordered a 2000 watt MagnaSine pure sine inverter.  The product line is carried by John at Palmer Energy Systems, who just happens to be a full-timer.  I called him in Florida to order and he told me he would make sure that it was sent right out…I received a phone call from the main gate here at the campground this morning…”we’ve got two boxes up here and they are so big….”.  John wasn’t kidding he would get them right out, it was less than 9 hours.  What I didn’t know was that Magnum is manufactured right next door in Everett…surprise, surprise.  Now to get it installed.

5 June ‘08

Thursday

Back on the road again.   This afternoon we will be checking into our “home” campground.  We joined Western Horizon at Tall Chief RV Resort just 2 years ago and have found it to be one of the best “investments” we have made since.  I wished we had kept a journal of our nightly camping expenses.  I am sure we would have found our expenses more than double what we have paid though Western Horizon.  We have “dry camped” a little and know that the more we can do that the more we will be saving, and that’s one reason that we are getting ready to up-grade our inverter and add a couple more solar panels.  Well that’s getting a little ahead of myself.

One of the main reasons that we have in coming back to Seattle is that our Doctors are here and it’s time to set appointments again.  I’ve got a follow-up from the Hep-B episode and to start the Hep-A shots.  Along with that, I have to go through the colonoscopy exam I had to cancel last October….fun, fun, fun.

On the bright side we are able to spend time with some more of the family…Coeur d’Alene, Yakima, and now Woodinville. 

2 June ‘08

Monday

We both hate to leave Coeur d’Alene but today was our check out day.  One thing is for sure, CDA is still one of those places that will give you any and all of what you may be looking for while on vacation.  You just can’t miss while here.  Right now we are planning our return for August and giving a lot of thought of work-camping or a camp host position at Farragut State Park until the end of October. 

Unfortunately we have found that this spring has been one for the record books…for wet and cold!!!  We had a great time in CDA but we were hoping for a little more sun and warmth.  Well, we are heading now to spend a few days in Yakima and we sure would like to see a little more of that sun while there.  Leslee, Lena, and Vinny have “guaranteed us that we will find the hidden Garden of Eden were the sun shines 24/7.  The drive from CDA to Yakima was under broken skies and thank God, the wind was blowing with us all the way to Ellensburg.  At that point we took the road alongside the Yakima River and enjoyed the views and serenity through this long canyon.  One of these days we are going to get our kayak into the Yakima.  It has been one of our “must do’s” for some time and who knows, maybe this is the year.  Well right now we are going to make it into town, re-stock our grocery supplies, call Leslee and the kids and set up for dinner with everyone.  We also want to see if we can make an appointment with our favorite RV shop.  We want to have a fair amount of work done and we have total respect for this little company here in Yakima. 

1 June ‘08

Sunday

Well “Graduation Day” has come and passed…  As grandparents it is wonderful for us to see the grandkids going the distance and graduating from high school and then take the step into the world of “higher education”.  Now Trevor Joel had a couple of things going for him this weekend. 

First he turned 18 (on Friday) and then he followed that up with the graduation.  Trev has played the bass and guitar off and on with a couple of rock bands in St Maries over the last couple of years, so we bought him one of those electronic games called “Rock Band”.  Hell, I wish I had one of those when I was playing in our band back in the late 50’s early 60’s.  I just had to try it out, and to tell you the truth I was terrible at it. 

Saturday afternoon Louise, Joelle, and I drove down to St Maries from Coeur d’Alene.  Trev went down Friday night and unfortunately left his graduation cap and gown behind.  Well, no problem…we’ll bring it down with us.  Unfortunately I was a little slow in getting away to St Maries.  As we were about 35 minutes away we started getting the phone call…”are you close yet???”.  I could feel Trev starting to sweat…we were going to be late and his cap and gown were with us. 

Fortunately we did make it on time.  Trev was waiting out on the street when we pulled up.  Grabbing his gear and saying hi to all of us, he was off to immerse himself into the mass of graduates.  There are a couple of good things about going to a graduation at a small school and having a small graduating group is just one of them.  The ceremonies were great, short but great.  We were but just a couple of spectators in the auditorium but we were very proud spectators to say the least. 

29 May ‘08

Friday

We finally arrived back at River Walk, “our” campground in Coeur d’Alene.  Just a year ago we were here for Amy’s graduation, our oldest granddaughter, and now we are here for the Trev’s, our oldest grandson.  It’s amazing how fast time has passed and the grandkids are already graduating from high school. 

Leaving the campground in Rapid City was almost more exciting than we had wanted.  The last 2 days while we were there were rained like hell and unfortunately made the soil all around our motor home really soft.  We had no more than started our turn out of the site and the right rear duels started to sink into the grass.  You could immediately feel that things weren’t looking so good.  Fortunately for us, I was able to back out of the hole and get another start forward.  It was a go slow and as straight as possible until we got up enough momentum to carry us forward and out of the trouble area.  We stopped by the office to apologize only to find out that it was an “expected” happening after a rain…hell, they could have warned us…  Oh well, we made it.  The rest of the trip West through the remainder of South Dakota, Northeastern Wyoming, and across Montana was uneventful. 

We did have a fair amount of rain to travel though and of course a head wind.  Isn’t it amazing how as soon as you get out on the road, the wind direction changes and decides that it has to blow directly in your face???  Our first stop after leaving Mt. Rushmore Shadows was the parking lot of Toys or Us in Billings.  We were heading to the Wal-Mart parking lot, but found that it was completely covered with “shoppers”…what the hell happened so that there wasn’t any room for those of us that want to park our “big motor homes” in OUR Wal-Mart parking lot???  It just happened that Toys or Us were right next door and their parking lot was empty, save about 4 cars in a lot that would hold well over 2 or 300.  It was about 6pm when we arrived and I went into the store to ask the manager if it would be possible to park around back or on the side of the store for the night.  Her reply was “the store policy is no overnight parking”, but…I think it would be OK.  The next stop was in Missoula.  There is a large dirt area in front of “The Largest RV Dealership In Montana” that we had thought before would work for a night of dry camping.  After checking at the office and getting their approval, we set up for the night.  There has been something bothering me lately, with the fuel prices climbing like they have, that the “un-locked” fuel doors on the motor home could be too inviting to the unscrupulous.  Well Britz RV had the perfect locks so we bought and installed them right there in the dirt…just kidding, it was great of them to open the lot for a night.  The total ride from South Dakota to Coeur d’Alene was beautiful.  We couldn’t see the snowy mountains because the rain clouds were so low, but the green rolling hills, the wild and the cultivated flowers, and of course the swollen rivers were outstanding. 

The unfortunate thing of course was the flooding that was accruing because of the rain and heaving melting of the snow in the mountains.  We went pass the Wolf Lodge Campground that is located about 10 miles east of Coeur d’Alene and found that it was about 5 or 6 feet under water.  We were there last year to visit and camp with Bruce and Peggy who were doing a stint of “work camping”.  We were given a grand tour of the campground and saw all the work that they had accomplished to get it looking so good and now...well it just isn’t the same.