Special Post

Riverton, Utah        High 97 Low 70

Warmer still! It is almost too hot to go outside.

According to Blogger this my 1000^th Post.

We started blogging just before Cindy retired at the end of 2012. We had decided to keep tabs on our retirement trip to Alaska during the summer in our fifth wheel. We took the month of May getting to Alaska then 3 months in Alaska. Unfortunately Cindy hurt her back while we were in Homer and as a result she was laid up for the month of July which we spent in Soldotna.

Fortunately the salmon were running all month and I like to tease Cindy by telling people that she made me go fishing every day while she stayed in bed.

After our time in Alaska we spent about 2 months getting back to Utah.

The next year (2014) we went east across the top of the US then down the east coast to Florida. We missed Rhode Island where we still haven’t been with the trailer. While we were in Pennsylvania we bought Penny and she has traveled with us since. From Florida we went across the Gulf Coast ending in Texas. When we got to San Antonio it was so cold that we decided to head back to Utah.

The next year (2015) we went to visit the center part of the country to visit most of the rest of the states. Right now we have had our trailer in 48 of the states. We would have a hard time driving to Hawaii and still haven’t visited Rhode Island.

The highlights of 2016 were the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and that we bought our 2^nd home in Yuma where we now spend the winter. We had previously spent the summer with Cindy’s Mom and sister going to the wood carving in Canada.

Summer of 2017 we went with Linda and Cindy’s Mom getting as far as Ohio before heading home. And of course we spent the winter in Yuma.

So far this year we made the trip to the Washington and Oregon coasts with our fiver.

Today my youngest son, Nick’s wife Susie had their 2^nd child, a son, and they named him Henry. He makes grandchild number 20.

We hope to be able to keep traveling in the summer for a while.

Thanks for visiting.

Went to see Cindy's Mom

Riverton, Utah          High 94 Low 66

Today we went to see Cindy's Mom. She is at home and seemed to be doing OK, Linda told us she had a bad night last night. She was able to spend some time talking to us even though she acted quite weak. She told us she spends a lot of time sleeping. She also told us her insurance wouldn't let her go into the hospital for a while. She said she has used up all her benefits. She did act a lot better than the last time we saw her.

I forgot to mention it but we had smoke from all the forest fires all the way home from the middle of Oregon. The air in Salt Lake is very bad. There are several fires burning in Utah. The biggest was near Strawberry Reservoir and burned several homes and forced evacuation of up to 1000 homes. Presently two fires located at the northwest corner of Utah have combined and have now burned 100,000 acres. It is in ranching country and no evacuations have been ordered. I got a picture looking at the mountains east of us to give an idea of how bad the air is.

Very faint view of the mountains.

Usually we get a clear view of the mountains but we can barely see where they are.

Whenever we are outside we can smell the smoke. The heat has not helped fire fighting efforts. Some of the fires were caused by lightning but the one near Strawberry Reservoir was man caused.

Thanks for visiting.

Back to Utah

Riverton, Utah              High 93 Low 63

Last night we happen to see a swallow feeding her babies in a mud nest. At first I thought there were two but soon we could see three little heads. It took a while to get even a passable picture of the mother. She was very skittish.

Two little beaks.

Then there were three.

We left Murtaugh Lake this morning and headed for Utah. We stopped partway to dump our holding tanks at a city dump station and found out a lot of other people had the same idea and so we had a bit of a wait, but now our holding tanks are empty.

We did find out that when traveling through Ogden and Salt Lake City Sunday is probably the best day. There was still a lot of traffic, but we had no slowdowns like we would have had week days. There probably was half the traffic we usually have.

We got home to what to us is hot weather. We are glad for the air conditioning in the house. We found that we have lots of yard work to do and I have some things that I need to repair on the fifth wheel.

Tomorrow we plan on going to see Cindy’s Mom and see how she is doing.

Thanks for visiting.

One Day From Home

Murtaugh, Idaho           High 90 Low 63

Yesterday afternoon we drove to the local Quilt Store in Ontario. They were participating in the Row by Row and Cindy got the pattern. Hey guess what? Cindy didn’t buy a single piece of material!

They had some interesting quilts hanging on their walls and we got a few pictures.

Last years Row by Row.

This years.

I liked the way this one was quilted.

This morning we left Ontario and drove to Murtaugh Lake Park Campground. It is a county Park with only 26 RV sites and lots of tent camping. I called last Monday and reserved a site or we wouldn’t have been in the Park. The camp host told me that we were the last site and as we drove in there was a sign that said campground full. The Park sits on a peninsula on the lake.

I was expecting 30 amp power, but we got 50 amp with water hookups. There are no sewer connections and not even a dump station. We are only here for one night and will probably worry about dumping when we get home.

The RV sites are $15.00 which didn’t seem too bad. The sites are nice and wide, but a little short, so we had to park the Trailer at an angle. The camp hosts are very accommodating and overall it is a nice park with lots of open grassy areas.

Tomorrow we will be home in Riverton (with their 100 degree weather). Oh, Well.

Thanks for visiting.

We Made it to Ontario

Ontario, Oregon                High100 Low 65

We made it to Ontario……..Oregon that is. I shouldn’t have asked for quite so much heat.

I decided to drive down to Corvalis instead of through Salem. It was a little longer, but way more scenic. We stopped on the way to have lunch at a very nice place in the canyon on Highway 20. It did take longer than if I had listened to the GPS but we got a lot nicer drive. It was so curvy that I don’t think I would drive that way again and would use Highway 22 through Salem another time.

Yesterday we stopped at the Sundance Meadows RV Park near Bend, Oregon. The phone service was so poor that I could hardly get any internet and I didn’t want to go to their office to use theirs. It was only (?) 95 degrees there. We were there with Coast to Coast and as a result we only had water and 30 amp power with no sewer. They only have a few sites that non-members can use and a lot of them had signs on them that said the power wasn’t working. We only found a couple of sites that were long enough for us and the one I picked had the person before us run over the water valve box. As a result water was running out. Cindy walked up to the office and they soon had someone to look at the broken pipe. It turned out to be a broken piece of PVC pipe and he had to turn the water off.

He told us that a Winnebago had left just before we drove in and guessed he ran over the valve. He was very nice and went and got a long hose and hooked up water from one of the no power sites so we could have water.

It was still hot with only one AC running but we got by. The lady in the office told me that they were going to drop Coast to Coast because they don’t them pay enough.

Today we spent 5 ½ hours driving to Ontario. We are staying at the County Fairground with Passport America. All the sites are on grass and one review said if they’ve had rain to not come in here. We have 50 amp power and water and there is a dump station we can use on the way out tomorrow.

There are supposed to be 24 sites here but if all were large, it would really be tight, so if you decided to stop here I would suggest getting here early. As it is it may be tight to get out in the morning.

We are headed back to Utah because of Cindy’s Mom. While she seems to have made some progress, we decided that we had better head home. When it is 100 outside, I miss the cool weather of the Coast. We have both ACs going and it is fairly comfortable. From the phone it looks like Salt Lake is just as hot.

Thanks for visiting.

Clam Chowder

Neskowan, Oregon               High 64 Low 54

I got some pictures of a few of the rabbits in the Park. They act very tame when Penny isn’t along to try to chase them.

We woke up to fog again. By noon the fog had burned off and the sun was shining so we took Penny to the beach again. When we get to the parking lot and take her out of the truck she smells the Ocean and can’t wait to get there. Today there weren’t as many people at this beach as there have been at the other beaches, so we let her off the leash to run and have fun. She never gets far from us.

The tide was up higher than the last time we were at this Beach and Penny had to run away from some of the waves.

Cindy got a few pictures of the cottages in Neskowan. They all seem to be well taken care of.

After our time on the Beach, I had promised Cindy a bowl of clam chowder before we left the coast, and so we drove to Pacific City to the Oar House Bar and Grill. I had read some reviews about it and most were very favorable. The clam chowder probably had the most clams in it that we ever have eaten. The reviews were right on when they called it the best clam chowder on the coast. And the price was very reasonable.

Tomorrow we leave here headed back toward Utah. After all the cool temperatures I’m not sure we are ready for the 100 degrees back in Salt Lake.

Thanks for visiting.

Drive Into Lincoln City

Neskowan, Oregon           High 63 Low 51

We wanted to go to the beach today but the weather here has been foggy all day and quite chilly.

The internet told us that there was a kite festival at the beach in Lincoln City today, so we drove into town to see what we could see. Evidentally the dates on the internet were wrong because we only got to see one kite flying and it soon got taken down.

If you blow this picture way up, there is one kite in about the center.

We took a little walk on the beach (the weather in Lincoln City was a lot nicer with the sun shining) to let Penny walk in the sand. She was so chilly that today she didn’t even roll in the sand and just wanted to get back in the truck.

Between us and Lincoln City, we have to drive over a small hill. On the Lincoln City side the sun was shining and on our side we dropped down into fog.

Where we are parked we have a view to the end of the RV Park. Tonight we are able to see only about half way. While we are glad we are not in the 100 degree weather in Salt Lake, I wish it would warm up a little.

Thanks for visiting.

Beach and Quilt Store

Neskowin, Oregon             High 63 Low 50

Today was windy and because of the wind we felt chilly.

We started the day by driving to Cloverdale to the Quilt Store. It used to be located in the owners basement, but since we were here last, she moved to a real store in town. There is a lot more room than last time.

There were several different sales going on and, yes, we couldn’t resist. We probably got enough material to make 3 large quilts! In our defense, they had the Row by Row Pattern, which we got free.

This is their Row by Row

After the Quilt Store we drove to Pacific City to let Penny play on the beach for a while. She loves to roll in the damp sand and run loose but there were so many people around that we didn’t dare let her off her leash. It was blowing so bad that the small particles of sand stung when they hit us and Penny didn’t want to play very long.

There were lots of surf board people and Cindy got some nice pictures of the local scenery.

The wind is supposed to let up tomorrow. We hope so.

Thanks for visiting.