May 27-30th - Florence & north

May 27-30^th – Florence & north

Fri – Oh, oh – got too far behind again and can't remember the bits & pieces of everyday life on the road! Obviously I spent time updating the blog in the morning and I definitely know that we went to a dance at the Elks club and had a great time. It is so fun to dance again. There wasn't a huge crowd so we could get a small area for line dancing. The first dance was Mustang Sally and the line dance group from the Elks immediately got out and we joined them. Love it!!

Sat – Another uneventful but beautifully sunny day. After a typically lazy morning we took the bike to the casino again. Good thing we are not losing bunches each day!

Sun – Lovely day again so we went to old town. We shifted the metal art over the main door so now we need something to put on the wall beside it. The town was busy but we managed to find a parking spot beside some other bikes on the main street. After browsing through many stores we found another piece of metal art that we could carry on the bike. We stopped at a few stores looking for a mirror and got already cooked ribs for dinner so I just had to add a salad. Our ribs are much better!!

Mon – When we were getting ready to leave, a lady with a couple of grandchildren were walking their dog and the young boy was inspecting the motorcycle which Terry had moved closer to their site. We had to move to dump the tanks and planned to load the bike then so I suggested to the lady that she bring the grandson over to watch the process. The whole family (grandma, grampa, dad & kids) enjoyed seeing the process and we ended up telling them about VVV and giving them a brochure for the fall special. We headed north on 101 with Lincoln City as a possible/probable destination. Lots of Memorial Day traffic especially in Depot Bay and then even worse in Lincoln City. Stop & go from south edge all the way to the turn off to Hwy 18 as by then we decided to go to Spirit Mountain casino and stay in their huge RV parking area for the night. It took an hour & 15 minutes to go 27 miles. We had a late lunch at the casino and returned to the rig after 6 in time for a drink and a late dinner. 

May 25, 26th - Florence OR

May 25,26^th - Florence OR

Wed – We headed north a few miles on the bike to check out the sea lion caves attraction. I knew there wouldn't be a lot of animals in the cave at this time of year and once we talked to someone there we decided not to pay the $14 per person entry fee to smell the cave and watch sea lions in the “rookery” from high on a cliff. There is definitely not enough to do here as we ended up back at the casino! Once again it was not expensive entertainment. We stopped at Chen's Family Dinner restaurant for an early dinner. We ordered a family style dinner for 2 and could not believe the amount of good food. Started with soup (bigger than a cup, smaller than a bowl), then 3 different appetizers (spring rolls, BBQ pork & crab puffs) and 4 main dishes (sweet & sour pork, sesame chicken, pork with noodles, chicken fried rice). Except for the soup, I think we took home as much as we ate. All for $10.50 per person.

Thurs – After our usual morning laziness, we went to the clubhouse here at the park to exchange some books. Small selection but I did find enough to keep me going for a while. We went back to the casino in part to enter a slot tournament – for free! Unfortunately, in our first try with 8 others we came in 8^th & 9^th!! We had a very late lunch at the buffet and then used up the remaining afternoon losing very little money. We stopped for a couple of items at Fred Meyers on the way back. I am wasting a lot less food by stopping nearly every day for groceries!

May 22-24th - Florence OR

May 22-24^th – Florence OR

Sun - We had a short drive to Florence today so we could wait out some rain showers before packing up and heading north. Of course we had to check out Mill Bay Casino on the way and ended up there for quite a while. We got in on the tail end of a lunch special - $5.99 for a really good Philly cheesesteak sandwich with more fries than Terry could eat and I opted for a very nice side salad. We checked into the Elks club RV park where we pretty much had our pick of sites as it is very empty at this time of year. Since we had a late lunch I didn't have to make dinner – just a snack for Terry and dessert.

Mon – Once we got going, we went to Fred Meyers just down the road looking for more bedding! This time we wanted a comforter as we decided it is finally time to retire the wool quilt that my grandmother made as it lost the ability to keep us warm. We have had the quilt since we have been together (39 years!) and did an overhaul on it many years ago. We found a comforter – on sale even – and also picked up a few groceries. The sun had warmed up nicely so we took the bike into town and ended up – where else! - at the casino. By the time we finished there it was time to head home for an early dinner after which we took the bike just down the road to walk through the Darlington nature preserve which has weird bug eating plants.

Tues – Gorgeous clear day. Perfect for the bike but definitely needed a jacket when moving. We went to Old Town which is right on the Siuslaw River. We walked the entire main street and checked out every store that could have had something to hang on a small blank spot on one wall in our rig. I also took pictures of “Dancing Sea Lions” which is a fund raising project for Florence. Sea lion sculptures have been painted by local artists, placed around town and will be auctioned off later. We had a nice lunch looking over the river and the Siuslaw River Bridge which was built in 1936 and still carries the traffic on Hwy 101. Of course we had to make a return visit to the casino where we played a long time and I finally won a bit to cover some previous losses. Dinner, TV and computer games for the evening.

May 20-21st - Oregon

May 20-21^st – OR

Fri- While I was catching up the blog, Terry was bored so he took the bike into town and got a few groceries. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with little wind and we ended up sitting outside for hours with our neighbors and we had to have a tour of their big 5^th wheel. They had stopped to check out a tavern just down the road as they wanted to watch a truck race so we all walked there for dinner. It was a fun, “local”, busy place with good food. The race ended up being rained out but we had a good time.

Sat- Our neighbors left late this morning so we just sat around having coffee & playing computer games until they were packed up enough for us to go chat with them. They weren't going very far so were in no hurry to leave. I made breakfast for lunch and we went to town to browse around a couple of stores (have space on a wall for “something”) and pick up some doughnuts for tomorrow morning. Still nice weather so we went for a walk on the beach before settling in for the evening.

May 16th to 19th - Oregon

May 16-19^th – OR

Can't believe I'm 4 days behind – whine, whine, whine!!! Maybe I should say – wine, wine, wine!

Mon – Major project today – altering the bed shams! I didn't want to mess it up so took my time which was driving Terry crazy so he went to town to get a few groceries. Then he decided – correctly – that we needed one more decorative pillow so we used excess fabric from the shams and one pillow from our previous set to make a new pillow. Turned out great if I do say so myself! Terry's shopping included steaks so he got to grill on the deck again since the weather cleared up from morning clouds & a few sprinkles.

Tues – We dug out warm jackets and headed to Jerry's Jets for a jetboat ride up the Rogue River. We left right on time at 9:00 and got a seat in the front row which turned out to be great as we could see where we were going and watch the rocks slide by about 2 inches from the hull. The weather turned out perfect and we had to shed layers as the day went on. We stopped for a break and then put on life jackets for the rest of the trip which was the “wilder” part. We had the same driver as the last time we did this trip and he is wonderful – informative, funny and loves to do flat spins hoping to get people wet. The front row was not getting as wet so he stuck the front of the boat under a small waterfall which resulted in just a few sprinkles on us. We stopped for lunch and headed back to complete the 104 mile round trip. We saw lots of birds – eagles, herons, cormorants, Canada geese (one pair with 4 babies), and osprey (one dive bombing an eagle sitting on a tree) but just one deer & fawn and no bears. We would recommend this trip to everyone. Stopped for a few groceries on the way back.

Wed – Getting the laundry done was our big plan today. There is a laundry room with 4 washers & dryers here in the park which was just what we needed. Then we had to go to town to get a new water hose as we discovered that a small leak from the metal connector was creating a puddle in the storage bay – which of course we had to mop up first. Once again a stop for groceries (hate to plan ahead &/or waste food!) and then a lazy rest of the day.

Thurs - We decided it was time to print some new “business” cards since we got a good picture of the toy hauler and bought Print Master some time ago. It went pretty well until we started printing and then the card stock jammed and I think we messed up the print heads. The printer was connected through the internet and in the process of getting the paper out and printing alignment patterns, the printer disappeared from the list of devices on the computer. We could not find the cable to connect it to the PC and I could not get it to connect wirelessly again. I do often HATE computers! I had put a roast & veggies in the crockpot so at least dinner was easy. Our neighbors (Bud & Becky) came over to see our rig and have a drink and then Becky talked her mom into joining us even though she was already in her bathrobe. It was great visiting with people again. I do miss all our friends.

May 14-15th - OR

May 14-15^th – Gold Beach OR

I am still not back into the routine of posting the blog but bear with me and stay tuned!

We only had 27 miles to go on Saturday so we took our time with coffee & some games before packing up. We checked into Turtle Rock RV park a couple of miles south of “downtown” Gold Beach and got set up in a long site where we can put out the back deck. And we have lots of room to park the truck & the bike. We took the bike into town to check things out and make a reservation on Tuesday for the jet boat tour up the Rouge River. When we returned, a neighbor was having problems backing his long 5^th wheel in beside us due to some trees on the other side of the road. I suggested a different approach and Terry guided him past some obstacles so we have some nice neighbors who are going to be here for a week. We picked up a couple of fresh Dungeness crab in town for a yummy dinner.

Sunday morning we went for a walk on the beach. There are a couple of trails – one for low tide and one for high tide – along Hunter Creek which runs right past the back of our site. The beach makes me wish I was a rock hound as there isn't much there besides rocks & sand! No seals and very few birds. Then we took the motorcycle on a ride to Agness up the Rouge River about 35 miles. The road is very winding and narrow. Terry loved it on the bike and I mostly enjoyed it but got bounced around a lot on dips and uneven pavement. The bumps are a lot worse on the back seat than for the driver. We got a few sprinkles of rain before we stopped for lunch in Agness which consists of a store with a lunch counter. It is actually a neat little store and I enjoyed talking to the proprietress while her husband was cooking our burgers.

We got rain on the way back just before we stopped at Cougar Lodge looking for Denise & Patrick who used to work in the courtyard at VVV. They happened to be on days off so we didn't get to see them but hopefully will do so when we take the jet boat up the river. We got a bit more rain and then it cleared up again. We did a bit more exploring in town before stopping at a grocery store and heading home for another great dinner. Terry was so tickled to grill on our deck!

May 11-13th - CA,OR

May 11^th to 13^th – CA, OR

We decided to stay one day longer here as we have 3 days to kill before settling in for a week in Oregon. So we had a very laid back day on Wednesday.

On Thursday we continued on up the coast to Brookings Elk club where we have stayed previously. Typical coast weather with mostly low clouds and swirling mist. There were a couple of road work areas but nothing major. After we set up at the Elk's club, we went to Fred Meyers and bought a bedspread. I wasn't convinced it was right and it certainly did not look good once we put it on the bed so we made another trip to return it. Luckily the Fred Meyer store is less than a mile away. Kicked back the rest of the day & evening.

Friday we went to WalMart in Crescent City (20 miles or so back in CA) as a lady said they had lots of bedspreads at half the price and she was right. We got a king size even though our bed is a queen and then realized the shams wouldn't work! I was going to alter them (lot of work) but we decided to go back & exchange it. On the way I figured out an easier way to deal with the shams so we stopped at a casino instead! I actually won enough to keep us going for several hours. Back to the rig for drinks, games & dinner.

May 8-10th - NV,CA

May 8^th to 10^th – NV, CA

We kind of backtracked when we left so we could head to the coast without driving the very winding 299 from Redding to Arcata. Instead we went to Truckee, CA and then on 20 (pretty but narrow, hilly and winding with some fog) to Grass Valley. We were going to continue on 20 but a section not marked as OK for truckers scared Terry off so we went back south to I80 for a short ways and then to Yuba City where were again on 20. We ended up at a casino in Colusa and dry camped (LOVE the generator!) in a large RV parking area for the night. They have a very attentive shuttle service to take you to & from the casino.

On Monday we continued on 20 past Clear Lake which is the largest natural lake in California. Shortly after we joined 101 to continue north. We have driven this highway several times but tend to forget that it is narrow, winding and goes through small communities which involve traffic lights. Still a good drive.

We were at the Elk's club in Eureka around 1:00 and signed up for 2 nights. We didn't find anywhere to stop for breakfast/lunch so first order of business after setting up was to make lunch. Then we did some exploring on the motorcycle and of course ended up at a casino where Terry came out ahead. Dinner at home & time to relax.

It got cold last night so we kicked on the furnace and watched TV in bed while the rig warmed up. After a bit we took off on the bike again. We checked out the nearby municipal golf course and discovered that the back nine was closed today for aerating/sanding and the front nine will be closed tomorrow. We decided we didn't want to rush to play twice around the front 9 today or play twice on sanded greens tomorrow. We headed into town today. It is quite large and we checked out a big mall looking for a new bedspread since ours is showing signs of wear after many years of use. No luck.

Back at the rig I made lunch and then talked Terry into going back to the casino by himself while I “puttered” including catching up the blog. Sunny but cool weather.

Terry was back in time to go to the Elks lodge to have a drink before dinner. We ended up talking with our neighbors who are “stranded” while their truck is in the shop. They are also from WA state and now travel full time. After dinner Terry set up some chairs and a buddy burner and we continued the gabfest which is one of the greatest parts of this lifestyle.

May 6-7th - to Reno

May 7^th – Reno/Sparks

This is our second night in Sparks (Spark's Marina RV Park) and we will be on the road tomorrow morning. We arrived mid afternoon, got set up, unloaded the bike, chatted with some neighbors, relaxed and had dinner. Woke up to rain so we watched TV in bed before getting up for coffee & computer games. We took advantage of a break in the rain to reload the bike before going to WalMart for a few items. After we got back, unloaded and had lunch, Terry remembered that we were going to get an oil change as well. He went back on that errand while I puttered around doing little things that don't get done until I have some time alone.

On & off rain and a lazy evening.

May 5th - on the road again

May 5^th – Thurs

Yup – there's been a big gap in the blog! Our activities in the park become repetitive – but tons of fun – for Feb, Mar & April – so I decided to stop the blog entries until we were on the road again for the summer.

And we are on the road as of April 30th. We came to Las Vegas and stayed for 6 nights ($19.95 a night is a good price and includes electricity). Terry's brother Skip and his wife Kathy came here yesterday as they were also in Vegas. We wished Skip a happy birthday, had a nice breakfast at Main St Station casino and hugged goodbye as they are on their way to Spokane.

We enjoyed the Cirque de Soliel (spelling?) show “Ka” and had fun riding the bike along the strip. The casinos were not so nice this trip!!

The new 5^th wheel behaved perfectly on the trip from Mesa. The truck sucks up noticeably more diesel but other than that all is well. On the road again tomorrow – stay tuned for hopefully timely blog entries.