Last Sunday we moved over to Lake Sawyer RV Resort at Black Diamond. This is our first time here and we’re really pleased with what we found. The only negative is most of the RV’s are parked right on top of the other. I mean, if you put your awning out, you’re sure to touch the coach next to you. Now I said most of the sites, the one that we’re parked in has pretty good room on both sides.
Last Sunday we moved over to Lake Sawyer RV Resort at Black Diamond. This is our first time here and we’re really pleased with what we found. The only negative is most of the RV’s are parked right on top of the other. I mean, if you put your awning out, you’re sure to touch the coach next to you. Now I said most of the sites, the one that we’re parked in has pretty good room on both sides. to visit this quaint little town, visit the famous Black Diamond Bakery, and then make their way down into the valley to see the “Flaming Geyser”. We did find a great little restaurant that wasn’t there in 1800. The building fit well into the era of the 1800’s, but I don’t think they were able find and enjoy a good pizza then. Well we did, and we highly recommend it to anyone that comes this way…a A+ for PIZZA and BEER.
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_7 June ‘09 Sunday When you live your life on “Wheels”, you have the right to change directions and revise your plans. Well that’s just what we’ve done. Our plans were to keep heading north and east, but we decided to make a left turn and head west to Seattle. I would imagine that others that “Full Time” have had to see a doctor or two while on the road. Well, that’s what we’ve had to do. The problem was we could never find the “solution”. It finally came down to the fact that for us to feel comfortable we should see “our” doctors in Seattle. Putting the cruise control at 57 we drove I-90 most of the way. We’ve never driven more than 350 miles in one day but on this trip we found our 2nd day doing 534. It wasn’t that I wanted to push it that far, it just was an easy drive and we had a tail wind the whole day. The first 3 nights were spent in Wal-Mart parking lots and then a campground in Bozeman before a couple nights in Coeur d’Alene. We did take a couple of hours to visit Livingston, Montana…I really don’t know why we pulled off the highway, but we did. I guess it was because we’ve passed it by many times and it just “called”. We were both wonderfully surprised by Livingston, the architecture, the people, and MONTANA… Just walking the streets of the town, _checking out the little businesses, the old buildings with wonderful styling, and finding a “brewery”. Yep, we found Neptune’s Brewery. It was small in stature and confined in an old house, but it had everything going for it. Louise and I both enjoy a good IPA and they had one. The two guys that owned and ran the brewery made us feel right at home. Besides having great beer, they also have a very interesting food menu from which we ordered an appetizer of Pork Wasabi Balls with Blue Chips to go with our IPA’s. Our stop in Coeur d’Alene was routine. As always, our choice for campground was River Walk RV Park, early morning breakfast and lunch at Franklin’s Hoagies, a visit with Larry and Pauline, and spend as much time as we can with Joelle, Amy, Trevor, and Randy. On Sunday we packed up and moved to Spokane. Louise’s mother Lois was spending her 93rd birthday _with family in Spokane and we wanted to join in, so we parked the coach in John’s driveway and chatted the day/night through. Late Monday afternoon we arrived at our campground in Fall City. _Tall Chief is our “home” campground with the Western Horizon group that we joined in early 2006. We’ll be here for at least 5 weeks before we move on. Saturday, we joined some more of Lou’s family _Mark (one of Lou's Brothers) and Susan are part owners of one of the Unlimited Hydros. They put on one heck of a deminstration for the crowd with their jet powered hydro. Even with the short course, they ran reallllllyyyyy fffaaasssssttttt..... _Mark (one of Lou's Brothers) and Susan are part owners of one of the Unlimited Hydros. They put on one heck of a deminstration for the crowd with their jet powered hydro. Even with the short course, they ran reallllllyyyyy fffaaasssssttttt..... _Most of the jet skis were sponsored by the factories and the hydroplanes were those that you see racing around the country. We had a great day, got a little wet, ate and drank a little, and were ready to call it quits when the last checked flag was flown. _Did I Just See A Ghost ??? 1 November ‘08 Saturday The last couple of weeks have been quite busy…Louise, Joelle, and I took a Mexican cooking class. Peg and Bruce joined us while Lynn and Frank took the lead and did all the instructing. They had a pretty good sized class (45) and the selection of food…outstanding. Now did I learn something??? Well, I did learn that I had better be ready to get in the tasting line faster…(just kidding) They taught us some great recipes that I truly hope to use before long. We also celebrated Joelle and Trevor’s birthdays. The weather held out for us long enough for Peggy and Bruce to join us for a day kayaking. _We went to the far end of Lake Coeur d’Alene and entered into Lake Chatolat. This is a lake within a lake which has a lot of open water but more importantly, lots of tall grass to paddle through. _We have now left the “Panhandle” of Idaho, heading west over the Columbia River _and onto Yakima and spent a night with Leslee, Lena, and Vinny in again. After spending the night in a grocery store parking lot, we took the Yakima River Valley road to Ellensburg. That’s where we unhooked the toad for Louise. She wanted to spend a couple of days with her mother and sister in Manson (Lake Chelan) so this was a good location to head north and then meet me at Fall City (Seattle) later. This would give her a little visit before we take off on our trip down south and then onto the east coast. Our time here at Tall Chief (our Western Horizon campground) is showing us a little Fall color. _The weather is starting to turn pretty fast so we had better get ready for it. Tomorrow we will be traveling down I-5 with our first stop in Gresham (Portland) to see Ricardo and Suzie. Ricardo has been doing an incredible job of losing weight and Suzie, she’s working hard at giving up smoking…we’re proud of both of them. Our next stop is a little further down I-5. Junction City is the location of AM Solar, were we have an appointment to have new solar system installed. _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. _10 July ‘08 Thursday First off I want to wish Leslee a “Happy Birthday”. It’s not that we forgot it, but I neglected to mention it when I wrote my journal on June 27th. I also heard from Lena that I didn’t mention her on her birthday as well….SORRY LADIES!!! For some reason I’ve really fallen off the nightly habit of writing and I really feel guilty, strange isn’t it? I’ll try to do better, I promise. The 4th of July was just as great as we could have ever imagined it to be. We started out the day with the Chouinard family coming over for a visit. We barbequed, started a fire in the pit, and indulged in one of our favorite desserts of “smores” before heading over to Carl and Mario’s condo. As I mentioned earlier, their condo sits on Capital Hill and overlooks the Seattle skyline, _Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, and Lake Union. Directly behind the Space Needle, and on a barge in the Sound is where one of the fireworks displays were to be shot from, and then just to our right as we stood on the deck from their penthouse location, there floated another barge that was to be the site for the best of the two 4th of July displays. Our night of celebration was going to be spectacular !!! _On top of all that, Mario had set out this spread of food that was prepared for a feast to be remembered… On Saturday, Phil and Kathy flew in from Alberta. _Phil and Kath are the couple that traveled with us when we came out of the Baja a couple of years ago. Unfortunately one of the topics that keeps coming back to haunt me during that trip was when I turned onto a one-way street going the wrong way when we were heading towards the border in Mexicali. I was fortunate to have been able to make a “U-turn” Ok, but with Phil and Kathy right behind us in their motor home, they got caught strung across all 4 lanes with their coach and toad and started to block a huge amount of cars approaching quickly. All worked out fine, but it could have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been for a Mexican motorcycle cop that came to our “rescue”. Anyway, we enjoyed their company even if it was just for a couple of days. We did get over to see the falls at Snoqualmie, which is always a beautiful sight even if we did find ourselves in a downpour… _All was well after a great Tai dinner at one of the local establishments and a good night’s rest at the coach. Sunday afternoon they drove to Portland for a wedding and a chance to visit with Suzie and Ricardo for a few days. On Tuesday the 8th, Louise and I drove the car down to Portland to join Phil and Kathy in visiting Suzie and Ricardo for a couple of days. _It gave us a chance to “catch up” on what everyone had been up to over the last couple of years. Tuesday night Ricardo and Suzie barbecued a wonderful steak dinner for all of us and then we made plans for an outing on Wednesday. Unfortunately come Wednesday morning, Phil wasn’t feeling too well so they decided not to chance spreading “whatever it is” and stay at their hotel while Ricardo, Suzie, Louise, and myself went boating. Prior to hitting the water we had a small deviation… Drew (our youngest grandson) wanted us to check out this “famous” doughnut shop in downtown Portland. It has been featured on Goodmorning America, The Today Show, and etc, etc… Well the name of the place is “Voodoo Doughnuts”. I must say this place is “different” to say the least. _First off, with address in hand and knowing the area pretty well, we had to phone them to get directions. As it turned out we were practically standing right in front of the door and still didn’t see it. The one item that Drew wanted was the “double chocolate, ginger man style design, with a dagger (small pretzel piece) stuck in its heart…on top of that, it was filled with a red berry jelly…. I’ve got to be honest here, it just wasn’t my “thing”, but for the grand kids??? Our boating with Ricardo and Suzie was a blast. They had this great little restaurant on the Columbia River they wanted us to have lunch at and let me tell you, it was “Great”. It kind of reminded us of one of our favorite haunts in Cabo that all of us spent many an hour at. _Well the day went by quickly and Louise and I had to drive back to Seattle before midnight so we gave our thanks for a great time and headed north. Wednesday we have to check out of our campground in Fall City and head over to Yakima. _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 “4th 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 spectacular 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. |
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