Home again

June 12 - 20th

Well we made it home all in one piece along with new tires for the truck and trailer, I'm certainly glad that chore is done.  When did tires get so expensive any way?

June 17th was Joe's Birthday, we celebrated by going to dinner at Anthony's in Olympia, 

not to shabby for an old duffer, eh?

Everything at the old homestead looks like it survived the winter, I was worried that our maple tree out front might have lost some branches during one of the snow storms, but it looks as beautiful as ever.

 Our neighbors that stayed the winter said this was the worst winter they had ever seen with snow, ice, wind, rain and power out for four days.  Wow, I would have hated to be gone and they had a mild winter, it's always good to hear that it was cold here, that is as long as we are where it's warm.  The flowers and even the blueberry bushes are looking good.  We transplanted three from our place in Everett and then there were already three bushes here.  Looks like I'll be busy making jam as soon as they are ripe.

We have been busy with doctor appointments, and an x-ray for my little toe.  I had stubbed my little toe hard enough that I had swelling and black & blue up into my foot while we were in Yuma and I was not able to get my shoe on for a week.  Just as it was healing, finally, we were home only for one day and I stubbed the same toe on the bed frame.  It swelled up again and turned all sorts of colors again and this time it hurt clear up to my ankle.  I don't know how I manage to do these things, I think I am getting very clumsily, anyway I already had an appointment with my podiatrist, he took one look at it and sent me for an x-ray.  I didn't plan on making this a long story, it just happened.  Anyway my toe is not broken, just pulled ligaments.  That's what I had figured, I doubt that I would have made an appointment to look at my toe, they always seem to get better eventually, besides what do you do if you have a broken little toe?

This morning we went out to breakfast with the "Wednesday Breakfast Group" from our park, we had not seen them since last fall.  At first I was not going to go because my doctor has me on a very strict diet because my gall bladder is"sluggish" and acting up, but they talked me into it.  I didn't even look at the menu because I'm sure I would have found something good and gooey so I just ordered two scrambled eggs and dry toast. Luckily it was good and we all had so much to talk about that I didn't miss the butter or jelly.

Today was Buddy's check up, he will be 9 years old October 5th.  He has a few issues, a heart murmur and very bad ear infections.  He has been on antibiotics and Rimadyl for a year now other than that he is in excellent health except he is up to 34.4 lbs and he needs to get back to 32.0 lbs.  I mentioned to the doc that he should probably have his teeth cleaned, but she didn't want to give him anesthesia because of his heart murmur, and his teeth are not real bad so she said give him some frozen green beans now and then.  Well we can do that, it's a lot cheaper and he likes green beans.  The crunching on the frozen beans will help clean the tarter and is good for the gums.  We tried it and he liked it.  To all you dog lovers remember to never give your darling pets grapes, raisins, onion, lettuce, or apple seeds.  I think there is one other thing but I can't think of it now.

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by and be safe.

Nancy and Joe

North to the Great Pacific Northwest

June 9 through June 11

We are starting to get use to the long drives, it's not too bad when we both drive and we've traveled these roads many times.  Leaving Yuma as the sun came up, had to get out of the heat, we headed west and then north on the west side of the Salton Sea to I-10 and eventually I-5. We had decided to go north on Hwy 99 this time so we stayed at the Elks in Visalia, nice quiet place and cooler.

Continued North and moved over to I-5 at Stockton then up to Yreka at the Wal-Mart.  We only stay at Wal-Marts when we are just driving through.  This wal-mart rates a 10 for us.  Very quiet, level and lots of room on the right side.  Plus there is a Raleys grocery store with Pete's coffee and good muffins.

Now we are in Salem, Oregon at the Elks RV Park.  FHU, quiet, and cooler, what more could you ask for.  We also made a major purchase here, new tires for our truck.  If we have a major purchase and we happen to be going through Oregon we try to wait and buy it here because of no sales tax.  When you spend $1,000 dollars on tires, no tax is a good thing.

Tomorrow, June 12th is the last leg of our trip,  we will be home by noon, about 150 miles from Salem.  This is the longest we have ever been gone, and for the most part everything worked out pretty good.  We will be home for about three weeks and then, believe it or not we will be heading back down to Northern California.

 As long as we are going up I-5 we had to stop at the Olive Pit in Corning.  It's been years since we have been there because we use US101 or US 99 many times.  The Olive Pit has had a new make over again.  There is lots of good RV parking now, and you can taste as many olives as you want.  We ended up getting the garlic and almond stuffed olives.

This is just part of the tasting bar.

One of many crossings over the Sacramento River, down river from Lake Shasta

Crossing over the bridge at Lake Shasta

 The Sacramento River north of Lake Shasta

a beautiful river and good fishing

Mt Shasta

Castle Craigs, a great state park, but there was a closed sign on it,

 maybe part of California's so-called lack of money.

The Sacramento River is within walking distance from the campground

 and it has great trout fishing

 Our new favorite Wal-Mart at Yreka, CA

This was at about 6AM and I couldn't get rid of my shadow

38' at 6am

We will be leaving Salem, OR about 8:00 am so we can avoid the traffic in Portland and then we should be home by noon.  Now I'm kind of anxious about getting home.  I hope my blueberry bushes are doing ok after transplanting them last year.

Safe travels to all and thanks for stopping by.

Nancy and Joe

Driving marathon to Yuma, AZ

June 3 through June 6th
Ohio to Yuma AZ

Jackson Center, OH to Lebanon MO, 561 miles and a night at a Wal-Mart.  This would have been a great quiet place but the area was also used as a trucking drop-off/pick-up place all night.  We have not had to drive this far for a long time.  Luckily we both drive, switching about every two - three hours.

The next day was a little longer at 596 miles and we arrived at a Pass Port America RV Park on the east side of town for $11.00.  Since we only wanted electric so we could use the A/C we didn't care what the place looked like.  The sewer connection was not covered and it was full.  So were the other spaces.  We were tired and the place was dark and quiet.

Up early and we were off for Holbrook AZ 500 miles down the road.  Again a Pass Port RV Park, this one was better with FHUs and everything worked including a good shower.

The last leg of this marathon was Yuma, AZ, 411 miles we arrived at another Pass Port RV Park with FHU's and cable TV.  It's an old park in the old part of town and very quiet.  We are here in Yuma for three nights.  The Escapee Park we belong to is closed for the summer unless you are a lease holder.  We drove out there to see how it was in the summer.  There were about 15 couples that spend the summer there.  Some people like this hetr.  103' today, luckily the humidity is 9%.

Joe had a dentist appointment in Algondones Mexico on Thursday, June 7th to get the lower dentures adjusted.  All went well and they fit much better, Even his speech is better.  We stayed the extra days just in case he needed to go back to his dentist.  Better fitting dentures and a haircut at his favorite place next door to the dentist and a trip to the liquor store for a bottle of brandy and he feels like a new man.

All is well with the choppers, no slippage at all so we will be heading north Saturday morning on our way home to Lacey WA.

Safe travels to all

Nancy and Joe

What is Alumapalooza

May 29th through June 3rd
Alumaopalooza,
Jackson Center, Ohio

I guess I forgot to explain just what is this Alumapalooza.  Well I guess you could say that it is a gathering of people that own an Airstream RV, or want to own an Airstream.  The event is hosted by Airstream, Inc at their factory and by the magazine Airstream Life.

For five sunny days (and a few rain drops now and then) we were parked in a field with 179 other Airstreams and well over 300 people.   We had seminars on cooking, Dexter axle, towing and hitches, full timers, just to name a few.  There were fun contests too, a backing contest using a small U-hall trailer and a contest of riveting.  The kids had many outings including a trip to the local swimming pool and the fire department came out and let the kids use their fire hose and sit in the fire truck.  We had roving happy hours, which was fun, spend about 15 min at several trailers to meet other people; open grill every night, which was also fun, Airstream had three large grills that where fired up with charcoal by 5:30 and you bring whatever you wanted to BBQ and then we ate in the main tent.  One night we were fed BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers with all the trimmings.  Saturday night we enjoyed a catered dinner sponsored by State Farm Ins.  Then there was the entertainment which was excellent, including Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours for 21/2 hours.  Antsy is amazing, an accomplished musician, comedian and story teller.  He is a fantastic and fun entertainer.  He is hard to describe, you just have to see him to understand him.

This was our first Alumapalooza and we had so much fun, we hope to be able to attend again next year. What's also fun at these gatherings is to visit with people that you already have met, it was fun to see people from our caravan, the rally in Sarasota FL and the Cannopener Rally in Dustin, FL.  When we headed east last fall we only knew one or two people out this way, now we know many and of course we invited all to come visit in Washington.

179 Airstreams

We had water and 3 amp electric and you could dump on your way out

Antsy McClain at intermission, we was given a Staff Alumapalooza shirt and name tag

We visited a cute little town, St Mary

I hope you can read this

.

This is an original canal with a replica of a boat that was used to haul supplies up and down the canal.

The old brick building has doors facing the canal so the barge can just go

 up to your door to deliver your items.

They have a gorgeous Memorial Park in town  

The Bridge

We are in the middle of farming, wheat, corn and soy beans.  The corn was just barely coming up when we first arrived in Jackson Center, a couple of weeks ago.  Everyone was worried because they were in a drought.  After the rains we had the corn doubled and doubled again in size by the time we left and the soy beans where starting to come up.

Safe travels to all

Joe and Nancy