Halloween #38

Happy 38th to us!


Celebrating at Maggiano's, downtown Denver.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays - why? We got married in Las Vegas on Halloween in 1969. Why pick this day to marry? Well, in 1969, I joined the National Guard. I got my papers to go on active duty, and that weekend was the last one before I shipped out (to Ft. Bliss, TX). Donna and I, our parents, and her sister and husband drove to Vegas that Friday (Halloween). I rushed in to get our marriage license before the weekend rates went up, only to find that holiday rates were in effect. No, Nevada does not recognize Halloween as a holiday - coincidentally, October 31 is their admission day to the Union. So it cost me $10 instead of $5 for the license. Our plan was to get married on Saturday - but both of our parents insisted that we get married that night - they didn't want us spending the night in a hotel together unmarried! Remember, this was a long time ago!!
This year, since we are back in Colorado, we decided to go into Denver to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (Maggiano's). Instead of driving, we took the light rail in. What a treat - no parking hassles, no traffic to contend with. It dropped us off 2 blocks from the restaurant. We had a great meal and dessert. If you ever eat there, try the Nonni's pound cake with caramelized bananas and ice cream. After eating and window shopping, we headed back, where we waited at T & V's for the trick-or-treaters. Rural Elizabeth is quieter than Larkspur - the doorbell rang only once!

October in Colorado

Cold & snowy

Our new ride!

Oh no, icicles on the new coach!!!

The weather for our first week here was great - until last night. It's been in the 70's, picture perfect - but Colorado weather changes - and fast! Yesterday in Elizabeth it was 78...then about 8:00pm Saturday night, the front hit. The wind picked up to 25+ mph, with gusts in the 30's. Todd has his own weather station on his property, so he can forecast just like the TV stations attempt to. He said Elizabeth was expected to get 4"-8" of snow - and we did. Aren't we supposed to be where it's warm now? OK, tomorrow will be in the 50's, and then we're back up into the 70's for the rest of the week.

Thursday I called a local hitch dealer and got parts on order for our tow set up. Later this week we'll get hardware, tow brakes, and lights installed on the Jeep, so when we make our get-away sometime after Thanksgiving, Donna and Abbey will be able to actually be in the coach with me. Todd, Donna, and I took the hard top off of the Jeep, in order to get the soft top out (Jeep installed them both together for shipping purposes). We actually did OK getting the hard top off and back on.


Victoria & Donna at the shower

Donna took Victoria to her wedding shower this morning - in the middle of the snowstorm. The Jeep did fine, but it was a little scary for Donna, as she usually isn't a snow driver. By the time the shower was over, the storm was too, so their drive back was a lot easier.

I have several projects to keep me busy while we're here: 1) put in a permanent 50amp RV service (I have a temporary installed right now); 2) make shelves in at least 3 cabinets; 3) clean out the shed here and get my "stuff" organized; 4) sell more "stuff" out of our storage in Castle Rock; and , 5) clean out the basement of the rig, removing anything we're not using, and adding things we think we need. We've sold some furniture from storage, which is giving us more room in our storage unit - it's still full, but at least it's not piled all the way to the ceiling any more! We have a goal to get into a smaller unit as soon as possible.

Is it a coincidence? We get back to Colorado, the Rockies win the NL pennant, and the Broncos break their losing streak. When we first moved to Colorado in 1996, the Rockies won their division, and the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls a few years later...we'll see, it would be nice to see the Rocks win the World Series, and we'd love to watch the Broncos in the Super Bowl (from our winter place in Florida!).

Back to Colorado (Again!)

After all of my rantings about not having Donna drive behind the new rig, we ended up having her do just that. Costs to ship the truck back to Colorado, or to set it up as a tow vehicle, were just too high. Besides that, with our walkie-talkies, I was able to get instant feedback on my driving. Driving a big Class A motorhome isn't that hard once you get the hang of it - the hardest part is getting yourself centered in the lane. I found that my tendency was to drive the rig close to the right shoulder, rather than being centered. Donna was able to critique me, and I finally got it figured out.


Our travel plan was to drive about 200 miles a day. We ended up just east of Portland on our first day. The weather was drizzly, so we elected for a quick BBQ (steaks of course!) between showers, and an early sleep. The second day was gorgeous, as we drove through the picturesque Columbia Gorge.


There we are - stuck on I-84


Looking east at the parking lot

The second night we ended up in Pendleton, OR. Now, what could that city be named for? Hmmm, as a hint, we took the 3:00pm tour at a wool mill...it was a 20 minute tour, but very interesting. Pendleton is an interesting little town, and we'll take some time and explore the area next time through. So Day 3 we headed east on I-84, for a 200 mile jaunt to Caldwell, ID. We were on the road at 8:00am, and figured to be there by noon at the latest. WRONG. As we headed up a grade, the weather, which had be drizzly, turned very very foggy: 30mph foggy. Finally, after reaching the summit of some unnamed mountain, the fog began to lift, and we sped up again...only to stop after about a mile. And I mean stop. The whole interstate was closed eastbound - flashing signboards said "accident ahead". So we parked on the interstate for 2 hours. We finally got in to the Ambassador RV Park about 3:00pm. After a day like that, we opted to stay 2 nights. Besides, Donna had found a great quilt store that she just had to visit again!


Our next journey took us to a little town in SE Idaho called Declo, and a nice RV park, Village of the Trees. Again, we had stayed there on our trip out to Oregon. We met the owner, who was very nice, and remembered us from our last visit.


One of the interesting things about being on the road full time, is that you meet all kinds of interesting people. In addition, you tend to find "lost" friends from your past. If you've read earlier blogs, you might recall we met up with Leroy and Carol, friends from my days back at Southern California Edison. Turns out we had been "following" some other SCE friends, Roger and Ardelle, for several days during this period. We were even staying at the same RV parks...2-3 days apart. Weird! We almost caught up with them, but ended up staying about 2 days behind. When we began our journey last February, we almost crossed paths in Louisiana and Texas. Maybe this winter we'll catch them in Texas, where they winter.


From Declo, we headed east, and ended up in Evanston, WY. From there, we decided to do big travel day (280 miles), and get to our son's house back in Colorado.


Some interesting (at least to me) facts: 1) our Chevy pickup averaged over 28 mpg on the trip back, while the new motorhome averaged 7.5 mpg. The part that gets me is that the tank is so big, you don't have to fill that often - but when you do...yowser! I filled in Odgen, UT, and the next fill was in Cheyenne, WY. I could have gone all the way to Denver from Odgen.


Anyway, we are settled in at our son's now until Thanksgiving. I'm watching the drizzle turn over to snow...SNOW? This had better stop!

Whattaweek! (or two)

Woodburn was OK...just OK. The park had changed a lot since the last time we were there in 2004. A lot of long term residents seemed to be there now, and there were snooty little cliques. No friendly people like we are used to. But, it WAS a very short walk to the Outlet Malls, and since there is no sales tax in OR, we contributed to the local economy.


At the sneak-peek
On Thursday the 20th, we departed south for Junction City, for the big swap over on Friday. There are 3 lots at Country Coach - 1 with 11 full-hookups, 1 with 8 partial hookups (water & electric), and the final lot with about 10 electric only hookups. Because we were doing a trade-in with a move out/in, we ended up in the last lot. The first 2 lots are reserved for service customers. After checking in, we asked if we could see our new home. Alas, it was still over in detailing. Around 5:00pm, they told us it was in, and we could sneak a peek if we wanted. We did, and can remember saying WOW a lot!

On Friday, we met briefly with our Country Coach Sales Rep, signed all the paperwork, then began our walk-through. As we are motorhome neophytes, it took all day. About 5:00pm, they drove it over and parked it next to our 5th wheel. Now the real fun would begin. We did some bedroom transferring, then called it day. Some of our full-time friends recently moved from a 5th wheel to a motor home - their experience: it took much longer than they anticipated. Comparing our experience, we can say the same. Although the motor home is 43', a full 7' longer than the 5th wheel, the storage space is less. We had planned on leaving Monday for our shakedown trip, but postponed until Wednesday so we could get more organized.

Bright and early early Wednesday, we pulled out and headed for Florence, OR, about 65 miles west. Donna drove our pickup and tailed me, watching my driving. This worked out quite well, as we talked on our walkie-talkies during the drive. She gave me great advice on my road positioning and handling, which helped with my confidence level.


Lake Woahink

We ended up at Woahink RV Resort, which backs to the Oregon Sand Dunes. If you get a chance to visit this area, it is spectactular. The sand dunes are huge, and go for 50 miles or so along the coast. We took a drive down to Coos Bay on Thursday, and really enjoyed the coast scenery. Friday, we hung out and Donna went to a local quilt store that had been recommended to her. And Friday, it started raining...ah, Oregon in the fall!


Dunes looking South


Dunes looking North


Dunes looking West


Moonscape!

Saturday, we packed it up and headed back to Junction City with our list of fix-its. We've found that there are spaces open on Saturday, but it fills up quickly on Sunday. Tomorrow, we will hang out while the coach gets worked on. Hopefully, our list won't take too long, as we need to begin our trek back to Colorado.

Behind Again

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since August 29! A lot has happened...here it is mid-September, and we are now are back in Oregon.

We had planned on spending 15 days in Colorado, but stretched it out so that I could visit the doctor one more time. We had our annual physicals, and both Donna and I passed with flying colors. However, I felt "something" coming on, so we elected to stay an extra day and get me checked out (some antibiotics fixed me right up!)

It was great seeing old friends at our home park. Eventually we hooked up with our friends Tom and Roe - we will be staying at the same park in Florida this winter. I took some time and visited my old work - had lunch with the boss and a former co-worker, and visited with everyone. Donna managed to get a quilt day in with her old quilt group, and had a great time. We even got some big-ticket items sold on www.craigslist.com

Of course the "call of the new rig" motivated us to hit the road again. We took our time coming back up, spending a few days in Wyoming, and a few more days in Idaho. We made some new friends in Caldwell, ID, and enjoyed talking and sipping wine in the evening. The next morning, we headed for Bend OR, where we thought we'd stay at Tumalo State Park. We were inside of the timeframe for online booking, but the park looked wide open. When we got there, however, we found that the park was very popular, and we couldn't get in. OK, things don't quiet down immediately after Labor Day. Grumbling, we headed down the road to La Pine, where we had stayed in July. The park is in our Coast to Coast network, so staying here is cheap, BUT...cell phone coverage sucks, Internet connections suck, and there are a zillion little flies to contend with. It's doubtful we'll be back there.

On our previous stay in Oregon, we met, by chance, Dave and Jeannie McKay, who developed the RV game Rally Ho! This game has just taken off, after several years in development. We met them at a restaurant McKay's Cottage, in Bend. The name is pure coincidence, as they are not affiliated with the restaurant. Anyway, we told them that if we got back in the area, we'd meet up at McKay's again for lunch. We did meet, and had a great long lunch. They invited us to stay at their home if we brought the new rig up to Bend. They are going through what we did last year - house for sale, hoping to full-time. We wish them success, both on their business venture, and getting the house sold!

We moved up to Woodburn, OR, for a week, to relax (?) and get the rig ready to turn in. We'll also do some sightseeing in the Portland area. Our current dilemma is getting our truck situation worked out. We are purchasing a new Jeep to tow behind the motor home. So, to get the truck home, we've either got to drive it (we are not going for this option - we want the new motor home to be a shared experience), tow it, or have it shipped back to Colorado. To tow it, I either have to find a rental unit that will tow a 3/4 ton truck, or buy the tow bar and hardware, then change (i.e., buy more hardware) the setup for the Jeep once we get back to Colorado. So once I talk to U-Haul, we'll crunch the numbers to see which option to go with.

Weather here has been cool, with intermittent rain. Yuck! We're hoping the weather will be perfect when we go down to Junction City on Thursday. We are very excited about seeing and taking ownership of the new motor home. We are not excited about moving - that will take a few days. Although we have much less to move that we did when the house sold, it's still a chore.

Da New Rig

Since July, when we ordered the new coach, we have been anticipating getting back to Oregon to pick up the new rig. We've been too caught up in figuring out the logistics of moving from a 5th wheel to a motor home to worry too much about how construction has been moving along, but it was always on our mind. Fortunately, we asked Country Coach to take pictures as our rig was being built, and they have done a great job - they actually set up a web portal for our private viewing.

For the past week, the coach has been in paint...no photos were available during this time. Today we got a glimpse of what we'll soon be riding in.

Close to the beginning...

A 425HP Cummins Diesel - not quite ready.

Walls at last!

Out of the paint shop

Can I really drive this?

Power Run

OK, I haven't written in a while. Retirees are busy! Actually, we decided to hang out at Skookums as long as we could, then get back to Colorado quickly. In retrospect, that wasn't a good strategy. A 400 mile day, followed by two 325 mile days, and a final drive of 125 miles put us back in Colorado. Driving like that, towing a 5th wheel, is physically draining (a sign of old age on my part).

Leaving Idaho through Coeur d'Alene, we ended up driving for two days through smoke. There were many wildfires burning in Montana, and the smoke was bad. We did put Coeur d'Alene on our list of places to revisit - it was beautiful there. We stopped briefly in Billings, MT, so that Donna could visit a quilt store that was on her list of must-sees. Our last night on the road was a stay in Cheyenne, WY, at Terry Bison RV park. This is a real working buffalo ranch with buffalo, horses, cattle, and several other animals. Our neighbor for the night told us that they sold bison meat at the RV store, and highly recommended them. We ended up buying several bison steaks.

The last day was quick and easy. When we arrived in Monument at our home park, we were delighted to find that "the best site in the park" was open. In all our time here, it has always been occupied, and the clerk told us that it had just been vacated. T & V came down in the afternoon for a visit. We are here until right after Labor Day. It's great to be back in a familiar area.