Rain, rain, go away!

Today's weather was about the same as yesterday's, cold, grey, breezy. Only today there was rain added.  Guess whose old moccasin has a hole in the sole!  Nevertheless, we had a pleasant day. 

After a leisurely breakfast and a bit of clean up...i.e., cleaning up the old blogger... we drove into McMinnville, a city of 32,000.  Our mission was Christmas shopping. When my mom fell and lacerated her elbow a few weeks ago, she was wearing a white cardigan sweater.  It was one of her favorite garments. Unfortunately, the laceration resulted in a lot of blood staining of the sweater.  The dry cleaner tried 4 times to remove the stain, but was unsuccessful.

My brilliant wife suggested that a new sweater would be the perfect gift for Mom to find under the tree this year.  So, we went to Mac, as the locals refer to their pretty town, to look for a white, cardigan sweater.  I did not know that no one, apparently, wears such a sweater any longer. At least, no one sells them.  Perhaps, all the stores were sold out, due to the heavy demand for white, cardigan sweaters.  On the other hand, I suspect the fact is that demand is so low that none of the merchants stock this particular item.

Jill reminded me that Mom has had this sweater for likely two decades.  Still, I was amazed. Being the avid student of lady's fashions that I am, I thought that a white cardigan sweater would be a staple of every woman's wardrobe.  What do I know?  Well, I guess you figured that out already.

We returned to Sadie, where the dogs were glad to see us.  Jill heated up some clam chowder and we had a little lunch. After we spent a fair amount of time looking online for a white, cardigan sweater, we gave up. 

I was feeling in a holiday mood, so I went into the kitchen and "invented" some egg nog.  It has been years since I have made it from scratch, so I had to experiment with the ingredients. The final product passed the Jill test, and I thought it was passable as well: even with cinnamon on top instead of nutmeg, of which we had none.

The evening promises another Christmas movie and some relaxation.  Then tomorrow, we will head for home fairly early, since our Church Life Group is coming for a potluck dinner.

Dayton and Lafayette

Today was forecast to be "partly sunny" and "48 degrees."  It made it to 48 degrees, and it didn't rain, but partly sunny?  No so much.  We didn't let that trouble us, though. 

The old blogger slept in, while Mrs. old blogger got up at 5:30 with Lulu, who wanted to go outside.  Both of them came back to bed and slept awhile longer.  But they eventually got up and left  me snoozing until after 9:00!  I haven't done that in a very long time.

After a little breakfast, we took the dogs out for a walk around the park.  They were grateful and enjoyed the walk.  Lulu needs a lot more work on "heeling" and not barking at the neighborhood dogs. The park is nicely laid out with concrete pads that are mainly pull-throughs and some are bordering on level. The sparse landscaping is well maintained; the park personnel are friendly, although we checked in yesterday after the office was closed, so we didn't meet the office personnel.

Jill did call the office this afternoon to get a voucher for the wi-fi network.  Matt in the office cheerfully gave her the code, so we logged in...for free today! Yesterday, we had to pay, since we didn't have the code.  We are using our new Pepwave wi-fi repeater.  We log the repeater onto the park network, and then we log onto the repeater which provides our own network in Sadie.  This gives us another layer of protection against hackers, and it means we only have to change the network settings on one device. Works like a champ!

Jill and I decided to explore the area surrounding us. We drove into Dayton with the idea in mind of lunching at one of the local eateries.  The one we had in mind is closed on Monday.  The others didn't seem appealing, so we drove to Lafayette.  There we found the American Cafe.  It is a typical local diner with typical diner food. We shared a patty melt with onion rings and cream of broccoli soup. Jill was heard to remark, "The best patty melt we ever had was at Red Robin."  Draw your own conclusions.  The onion rings were quite good, as was the soup, although I would have added some cayenne, had I been the soup chef.

After lunch, we visited the Schoolhouse Antiques Mall.  As you might have guessed, it is an old school house that has been re-purposed as an antique store.  There are three floors of antiques and collectibles.  It was interesting and well-organized, but I have never seen so many things in one building. It made my head spin, after awhile.

I spent most of my time trying to figure out how the rooms were originally used in the school building.  It is rather uniquely laid out. Each floor has a central room that is square, but the walls are set at 45 degrees to the exterior walls of the building. Around the central room are four square rooms with more usual orientation.  They are joined to the central room by trapezoidal rooms, which are rather small, as if they were once private offices or store rooms or, perhaps, large closets. Suffice to say, the architecture was interesting, and the antiques were, too.

We came back to Sadie and  I lay down for a while, since my back has been complaining all day. Then we took the dogs out for another circumnavigation of the park.  Now we are settling in for the evening. I believe the festivities will include a Christmas movie!

Tune in again tomorrow.

Are we nuts?

It's wild. It's crazy. Camping in December. But the weather forecast is, well, not awful. And we are so happy to have Sadie running like a top again. So, here we are at the Willamette Wine Country RV Park.  It is a Premier RV Park.  Let me quote a few lines from the park rules: 

Recreational vehicles must be well maintained and clean. Only Recreational Vehicles 15 years and newer are permitted.

Of course, our dear Sadie is 24 years old. Now don't think that I am cheating or pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. I told them she is a 1988 model, and they approved our stay anyway.

Special consideration by Owner/Agent may be given to Recreational Vehicles which are in exceptionally good condition.

So, I guess Sadie is in exceptionally good condition. Never mind that they didn't see Sadie before we made our reservation. Nor was there anyone here when we arrived to inspect our dear old girl. I am thinking that the 15 year rule is a safety valve for the park to turn away the truly awful coaches that really are not that common. Or, perhaps, business is slow, and rules were made to be broken.

Tomorrow, we will do a little exploring. The RV park is located on the outskirts of Dayton, OR.  So, we will start by exploring that bustling burg. There are some others nearby, too. We have three days to explore the area, and we will report back to you, dear reader. Stay tuned.

All good things must end

It's raining this morning. That was forecast, and this time of year, expected in Oregon. Nevertheless, we will miss seeing the sun for the next few days.

Today is the last day of our little jaunt, and we are a little sad, but on the other hand, we have thoroughly enjoyed getting away for a change of scenery and some respite from day to day responsibilities.  Yes, even we retired folk have those.  Routines are good, but a break in the routine from time to time is healthy.

The trip home will be both better and worse than the trip down here.  It will be better, because we will not be racing the sun to an unknown destination, and it will be worse, because we won't even see the sun. I will try to avoid the miscues that we had on the way here and trace out the route that is the most efficient.  Our Bible study group is due at the house this evening, so we do need to get home in a timely manner.

The bottom line is that we always enjoy our travels with Sadie, and we will be planning the next one as soon as we get home and catch up with those pesky responsibilities!

Oh, dopey me!

Okay! If you read yesterday's post, you know that we are staying at Armitage park, near Eugene, OR.  You may also remember that I was concerned that I might not be able to post any photos, because I had forgotten the camera.  My hope was that I had remembered to bring the upload cable for my not-dumb phone (that is, it is not a smart phone, but it is capable of sending email and limited web-browsing). 

Well, of course, that was too much to hope for. No cable, no camera, what is a poor dopey blogger to do.  Aha! Why didn't I think of this before? I have a not-dumb phone. I can take pictures and email them to myself, open them on the computer and insert them in my blog! Voila! problem solved.

Not so fast there, Applebee. It is good to have a not-dumb phone that takes pictures (albeit, fuzzy ones) and can send email (albeit, slowly). Now, if only we had a not-dumb blogger. Let me begin from the beginning. 

Last evening, we enjoyed a reprise of Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a little two-buck Chuck.  We were tired and retired (um...tired and re-tired went over a bridge...oops, that's a rabbit trail) early. We awoke to fog and 37 degrees. Nevertheless, we were warm and cozy. Between the electric space heater which we left on low for the night, and Sadie's 40,000 btu furnace, there is no concern about a little chill in the air.

Jill took the girls out for their morning business, and we settled down to enjoy our morning coffee.  After breakfast, I figured out the idea of sending myself pictures for the blog.  I made a couple of test runs before I got it to work, but work it did.  We set out to explore Armitage park.  There are 36 lovely campsites, a picnic area, a boat launch, a beautiful river walk, and a nice, off-leash dog park, where the girls had a fine romp and tired themselves out.

Upon returning to Sadie, a bit chilled by the now 47 degree weather, it dawned on me that I had forgotten to TAKE any pictures to send to myself.  So, I went outside again and took a picture of Sadie, just so I could say that I had emailed myself a picture from my not-dumb phone and put it in my blog.
Here it is:

Of course I know where I'm going; I'm a guy!

We are on the road again. Well, truth to tell we are parked at Armitage park campground, a Lane County park, near Eugene, OR.  This is a beautiful park, and we look forward to exploring it tomorrow.  Our original plan was to leave yesterday after church and get here about 2:00 pm. 

Best laid plans, you know.  My mom had a fall last Sunday, which banged her up pretty good and left her feeling weak, unsteady, unconfident, and frightened. She was due to come to Dallas for a Thanksgiving visit on Wednesday, but after a hospital visit, she was feeling really ill at ease, so I took her home with me on Monday, expecting to take her back on Saturday.  Saturday, it was obvious she was not ready to stay alone, so I wrote my brother and told him I think we need to arrange for some help for Mom.

Good old, Charlie, he called on Saturday evening and said that he would drive to Portland on Monday and plan to stay with Mom all week.  I agreed that would be ideal, so this morning, I drove Mom to her home in Portland and had a changing of the guard with my brother. 

When it was time for me to go home, I called Jill and said, "I'll be home by 1:00, if you want to go camping."  So, she got busy and prepped Sadie for a two day trip, instead of the three days we had hoped for.

When I arrived home, I checked and adjusted tire pressures, checked the oil and water and made sure that Sadie was ready to travel.  We left the house about 2:30 pm and headed for Armitage park.  Now, neither of us had been here before, and we were only vaguely aware of its location.  I forgot to check the Mapquest map that I had made a couple of days ago, and the late Autumn sun was headed for the horizon at breakneck speed.

With only a couple of navigation errors, we managed to pull into the park just before dusk.  I got Sadie connected to the power, water and sewer; activated the satellite dish and connected to the wi-fi. Yes, there is wi-fi in this Lane county park! Once we felt at home, we walked the dogs up to the registration office and checked in. By then, that old sun had found the horizon, so we retired inside to the warmth and friendliness of Sadie's interior.

So far, the only downside to this trip has been that there was a certain amount of angst involved with heading to an unknown destination while racing the sun, and the park is not far from I-5, so there is a certain amount of traffic noise perceptible. Nevertheless, I expect to sleep really well.

Stay tuned for more info and some photos tomorrow, if I remembered to bring the transfer cable for my phone.  Don't hold your breath, because I did forget the real camera!

Eureka!

Yesterday afternoon, after we walked on the beach, we were ascending the bluff back to the RV resort. I noticed a trail and said, "Let's see where this goes." So we took a detour and walked 50 yards or so, before the trail kind of petered out.  At least, it became less manicured and more overgrown.  As we were turning around to head the other way, Jill said, "This is a huckleberry bush." There weren't a lot of berries, but this is what I got for breakfast this morning:

  

Today, the hunt was on: find Jill a swimsuit.  Well, fortune smiled on us. We looked on the internet for thrift shops, figuring that they would have less seasonal merchandise (i.e., swimsuits in October). After making our way to the Salvation Army store, we were disappointed to find that it was closed...but permanently. 

Next we found ourselves on Hurbert Street, which is where someone told us yesterday that we might find a Goodwill store.  I determined to drive it end to end. If there was a Goodwill store, it would not escape my notice.  About a block from where we turned onto Hurbert Street, I spied a women's resale shop called "Rags to Riches."  In we went, and out we came with a pretty swimsuit for my pretty bride.

OK; mission accomplished.  Now what will we do? That happened too quickly! We had planned to stop at Cafe Stephanie for a bowl of smoked salmon chowder, but it was before noon, and we were not yet hungry. We decided to make a drive to Agate Beach, where we know there is a little parking area and beach access.  It was a good place to take the dogs for a walk, and so we did.

 I couldn't resist this shot of some of God's sand sculpture.

My three girls on the beach. 

After walking a short distance along the shore, we realized that, with the strong wind that was blowing, none of us were having enough fun to continue, so we went back to the car.  We headed for Nye beach, where we parked on Beach Drive and made a tour of the Visual Arts Center. There are some talented artists in Lincoln County!

 Beach Drive is a fun, touristy area, right on the beach. 

Finally, we were hungry enough to enjoy our lunch at Cafe Stephanie.  It was worth the wait!  We followed up the lunch with visits to some local shops, and then headed back to Pacific Shores. 

 The building in the background houses the indoor pool, bathrooms and laundry.

The view along the bluff at Pacific Shores.

A beautiful day on the Oregon coast

Today, we were awakened at 6:30, when nature called Lulu.  I got up with her and we went outside where the full moon was reflecting off the ocean. The sky was filled with stars and the ocean was murmuring a hundred or so feet below us.  I took a picture, but it is not the best quality, due to the fact that my camera is a low cost snapshot camera. Take my word for it, it was gorgeous.

Later in the morning, we packed up the dogs and went into Newport to look for a swimsuit for Jill, so we can use the beautiful pool facilities. Have you ever tried to find a swimsuit in October, in Oregon?? We went out to lunch.

The Chowder Bowl is kind of hidden away on a narrow little lane called Beach Drive in the Nye Beach area.  It was recommended to us by friends, and they didn't exaggerate, when they said the clam chowder is outstanding.  Interestingly, the Chowder Bowl is about two blocks from the Cafe Stephanie, to which we were referred last year by Jill's brother for their smoked salmon chowder.  Nye Beach is fast becoming a destination for us, when we are in Newport.

Most of the pictures I took today are of the view from our front windows.  To wit:

 Last night's sunset, lens stopped down.

 Later, after the sun had dipped below the horizon.

 Lulu on alert...a dog or a person or a bird or a leaf just passed by.

 Yaquina Head lighthouse, at daybreak...

...and closer up.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

We are parked on the Oregon Coast with this view:

Don't ask what it cost us to stay at this primo space at the Pacific Shores RV Resort, and whatever you do, don't tell Jill! But the view is so spectacular, make that breathtaking, that I am just biting the bullet and enjoying every minute of it. 

This park was originally built by a company that marketed the sites to RV owners (make that RICH RV owners, among whom, alas, I do not number myself).  Eventually, the company went broke and failed to supply the advertised amenities, so the RICH RV owners sued, and finally were awarded ownership of the whole park. Now the sites are for sale at a fraction of their original price. 

We had no idea that we would have to pay what we are paying to stay in this beautiful spot.  There are other spaces available for about half the price, but they have no view.  But we are delighted, and since this trip is a bit of a make up for the vacation interruptus that we experienced when Sadie was longer at the Car Doctor than we expected, we are not complaining.

This park is near Newport, OR, one of our favorite coast towns and only 68 miles from home. Will we return? If we are feeling flush.  Are we enjoying ourselves?  Stay tuned and find out!

Kickin' back

We decided that, today, we will just take it easy, veg out, relax, kick back, be lazy...well, you get the picture. The day began with a walk along the river bank with the fur girls. They both love being on sand, and Lulu is definitely into water. To wit:

 As for Tom and Jill, we just love the scenery, and the beautiful weather and the feeling that, at least for today, the world is our oyster.

Papa couldn't resist the opportunity for some "artsy" photography, too.

And, when we returned to Sadie to relax, Lulu found her place in the sun.

Yep! It promises to be a great day.

A picture perfect day!

Today's post is all photos. I won't bore you with another tedious narrative.

 Pogo and Lulu ready for a romp on the shore of the Columbia River

 My girls, enjoying a morning walk on the river bank.

 Who knew a Mauxie would be a water lover?

 Columbia River looking south toward St. Helens, OR.

 Columbia Riverfront RV Park from the river bank.

 My lovely bride adorning Yale Lake, WA.

 Yale Lake looking SW. 

 The Old Blogger messing up an otherwise beautiful photo of Yale Lake. 

 The drive back to Woodland was not all bad.

 Cedar Creek grist mill, est. c. 1876

 Cedar Creek covered bridge.

 A little of God's handiwork. 

 And He did it again!

 Cedar Creek above the grist mill.

 Cedar Creek. Notice the flume for the mill on the left, near center.

 Cedar Creek covered bridge.

The "new" maiden voyage of the Sadie.

Today is Sunday.  If you read my last post, we just got Sadie back Friday from the shop, where she had her engine overhauled. We hurried home from church and put the final necessities aboard Sadie, hooked up Daisy Mae (our towed vehicle) and hit the road.  We traveled a whopping 93 miles to the Columbia Riverfront RV Park in Woodland, WA.  This is one of our favorite resorts, and it is rated among the top 100 RV parks in the nation.

The attraction is this:

...we are parked about 75 yards from the banks of the Columbia river, with an unobstructed view.  There is a nice sandy shore, where we can walk the dogs.  As a matter of fact, we did just that.  The first thing 4 month old Lulu (our Mauxie with moxie) did was to jump in the river and have a swim... not once, but twice! She is a 100 lb. dog in a 6 lb. body!

Of course, I didn't have the camera with me at the time, but there will be other opportunities. We are here for three days, and the weather is forecast to be spectacular the entire time.  I will keep you posted, dear reader, so don't go far away.

Here's Lulu looking out the window.               

And you hearing tic, tic, tic...

...everybody looking, tic, tic, tic...see them all a-searching, tic, tic, tic...that's all they hear-a but they couldn't find out where the noise was hiding.  With apologies to the Kingston Trio, that is the story of Sadie's recent woes.

We did make a trip to Pacific City in July, but the tic, tic, tic that has been plaguing me since last year at this time was driving me crazy.  Here's the whole story:

In September of last year, we went on a wonderful vacation over the Cascade mountains to Sisters, OR; south to Crater Lake; west to Brookings; north to Florence, and Newport and home again.  Along the way, Sadie began to make an unfamiliar and unwelcome noise.  I posted on the RV Forum about the noise, and virtually every reply said, "Sounds like the typical Chevy 454 exhaust manifold leak," or words to that effect.

I took Sadie to one mechanic, whom I trust, and he said, "It might be an exhaust leak, but I'm not sure, and I don't really have the space to work on her." Several weeks went by, and I was walking the dog with my lovely bride.  We stopped to chat with a neighbor who was washing his RV.  During the conversation, I trotted out our tale of woe.  He said that I should take her to the Car Doctor, here in Dallas.

Well, it happens that, in addition to the tic, tic, tic sound, Sadie had developed an oil leak at the rear of the engine.  So, I took her to the Car Doctor and asked him to diagnose the oil leak and see if he thought the tic, tic, tic was an exhaust leak. He correctly diagnosed the oil leak as a bad rear main-bearing seal. And he did find an exhaust leak, which he repaired. When I picked her up, he said, "There is a tic, tic, tic sound coming from the engine.  It might be a lifter. I'd try some Sea Foam and see if it will loosen up."

Well, the short story is that the oil treatment didn't help, and I couldn't stand not knowing what the tic, tic, tic was. So, in August, I took Sadie back and told him, "I have to know what is making that noise."  Rick did some diagnostics and said the sound seemed to be coming from the left valve cover area. "It's probably a lifter. I need to take the valve cover off to investigate further."  So, I told him to proceed.  The result was inconclusive, so we took the intake manifold off and tested the lifters...everything was good, except the tic, tic, tic was still there.

Rick said the noise must be in the bottom end of the engine and asked what I wanted to do.  Well, Sadie is probably worth something like $6-7K on the open market...with a good engine. Without a good engine, she would probably bring about $2K, unless I wanted to part her out. On the other hand, Jill and I love Sadie and are not ready to give up RVing. We can't afford a new coach and anything we could get in our price range would undoubtedly NOT  be as good as Sadie. Sadie's engine was partially torn apart already.

So, Sadie is now sporting a completely rebuilt engine.  We pulled the engine and sent it to the machine shop, where they determined that the number 3 piston had a bad wrist pin that was causing the tic, tic, tic. The cylinder was scored, but it was able to be bored out. Now we have new pistons, connecting rods, crank, cam, lifters, reground valves...in other words a virtually new engine.

I picked her up yesterday, and she just purrs. I thought she ran sweet before the tic, tic, tic ruined everything, but she really purrs now.

Tomorrow, we are going to leave for a three day outing to Columbia Riverfront RV park in Woodland, WA. That is all that is left of the two weeks we set aside for vacation, but Sadie could take us to Timbuktu now, I think. So, we are excited to have her back and to be able to plan trips without worrying that tic, tic, tic will turn into clunk, clunk, crunch, with a piston hanging out the side of the block.

Watch out now, gentle reader. There may be a lot more posts on "Travels with Sadie!"

Bet you thought we sold Sadie!

It has been quite a while since we posted.  Between busyness at church and a few mechanical problems compounded by really wet weather all winter, we have just not done much RVing.

We did make a trip to Silverton to celebrate Jill's birthday.  We had taken Sadie to the shop in January, because we thought she might need a new exhaust system.  Turns out it was a small exhaust leak.  There was also a leak in the oil pan gasket.  Problems to be expected with a 24 year old coach! After they were fixed, we needed a Sadie fix, so we went to Silver Spur RV park and had a lovely time exploring Silverton.

This evening we are parked at a beautiful RV park on the shores of Foster Lake, near Sweet Home, OR.  The weather is expected to be sunny and warm for the next several days, and we are both suffering burnout from too many activities. So, we decided to get away for a few days.  This park is quite new and a first class accommodation.  The sites are level concrete pads with full services: water, electric (30A or 50A, depending on the site), sewer, cable TV, and wi-fi.  The grounds are nicely landscaped, although much of the shrubbery needs to grow up a bit.

We had a lovely walk along the edge of the lake this afternoon, followed by a pleasant evening with dinner prepared by my beautiful bride, and Fred and Ginger on the tube! We look forward to more exploring tomorrow.  Expect photos...if the wi-fi will co-operate.  Bandwidth is a bit limited.