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.