Canada - day trips on the western slope.

Friday, June 29.  This is where we were staying after we left the Provincial Park down by the U.S. border.  The name of the town is Donald and there really is no town, it's a train station.  The maps here and some of the local signs refer to the place as Donald Station.  We hear trains often but not so much that they are annoying. On one of our day trips we went west and saw the train yard, it is a freight station is all we can guess.  The RV park is huge, there must be 130+ sites but because it is 15 miles from the nearest town it's not very busy.  I would say during our stay there were probably as many as 10 RV's staying here at one time and as few as 5.  Lucky us!  

Jenny likes this park because there is a LOT of green area for her to sniff and do her business.  Here is a pic of her on one of our walks:

The weather was very pleasant when we arrived and stayed nice until the sun finally set around 10:00!!  Of course we had to have our wine while sitting outside.  Do you think Mike likes this wine?

Saturday, June 30.  Today we did a trip to the Columbia Ice Field south of Jasper.  The drive over was beautiful even if we did get a little bit of rain along the way.  We could've walked out to the Ice Field but opted not to because of the rain and the wind.

This is just an example of the scenery along the way to the Ice Field.

Sunday, July 1, Happy Canada Day!  We decided to take a short day trip today so we went west into  Mount Revelstoke National Park and then into Glacier National Park.  (not the same Glacier in the states, just named the same)  The day started out with a little rain but by the time we got to the park it had cleared and warmed up, we had to shed our long sleeve shirts!

This was one of our stops, an interpretive walk called the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk.  Look at the size of that leaf!!  I bet I could use it as a sun shade...

We stopped at another interpretive hike called the Rock Garden.   A local artist made the spirals that are embedded in the rocks.  It looked like it might rain so we had our jackets on but shed them pretty quick.

There were lots of waterfalls along the drive as well as several wildlife overpasses, at least that's what I think these are.

Monday, July 2.  Today we drove to Lake Louise and then into Banff for lunch.  The traffic into Lake Louise was INSANE!  This is a long weekend for Canadians because of Canada Day so everybody and their brother was out enjoying the day!  We were able to park on the road outside the entrance and walk in which really worked out well by avoiding the congestion in the parking lots.  Sheesh!  It really is a beautiful setting but I have to tell you, Navajo Lake in the Lizard Head Wilderness area north of Dolores is just as pretty.  Lake Louise is named after one of Queen Victoria's daughters.  It was originally called Emerald Lake but was changed to Lake Louise in the late 1800's.  Mike was taking our picture together by holding the camera out at arms length when a woman came over and offered to take our picture.  She had a Michigan sweatshirt on and I told her we were going there later this month. She and her husband spend 6 months in Green Valley, AZ and the other 6 in Michigan or traveling.  She took a nice picture of us.

It was only about an hour over to Banff which was good because we were starting to get hungry!  As we drove into downtown we saw a parking garage and headed for it.  It was FREE parking!  How cool is that!  Also on that same block was a small mall with a restaurant on the top floor.  That's where we had lunch.  That's me on the balcony, Mike had walked down to the street to take a picture of the place.

These are the views looking left and right from our balcony seat!

The drive back to the RV park was interesting in that the traffic heading west was very light but the traffic heading east was bumper to bumper!  Campers, RV's and all kinds of vehicles pulling boats were heading home to Calgary and other points east.  I'm glad we decided to stay in this area through the night of the 2nd instead of trying to drive over to the Edmonton area today.  

Tomorrow morning, July 3, we head for Edmonton.  Stay tuned!  

Oh Canada, Oh Canada!

Thursday, June 28.  Our appointment to have the windshield replaced was at 1 PM, we arrived about 20 minutes early and they were ready for us.  The Safelite shop does not have a lot of parking area so I had to pull up to the shop door by driving through the used car lot next to the Safelite shop.  The used car lot manager knew we were coming so they had moved several of their cars out of the way to give us a clear shot to the Safelite shop door.  We locked the cats in the bedroom of the motor home and stuffed pillows under the door to keep them from escaping and then we walked over to Wendy's for lunch.  It was a beautiful day to sit outside and eat lunch with Jenny.  The temperature was probably low 70's, slight breeze and lots of sunshine.  We walked back to the Safelite shop about 1:45 and they were just cleaning the newly installed windshield!  The manager did not want us to move the RV for about an hour so the glue could set.  I told him we would be inside taking a nap and he laughed.  I wasn't kidding!  We napped for about 30 minutes then got up and prepared to leave for Canada.  I backed the RV out the same way I came in, the lady from the used car lot guided me from the front and Mike guided me onto the side street from the back.  We did not attempt to connect the car, instead we drove separately until we got to Hwy. 93 and then pulled over to connect.

After we connected we checked to make sure the lights were working and noticed the left turn signal light on the RV was not working...CRAP!  Let me preface the rest of the story by saying we have been stressing ourselves for almost two weeks about driving into Canada with the motor home.  We've gotten conflicting information on what we need to get the animals (1 dog and 2 cats) through and could not find anything definitive on any website.  We knew we couldn't take a gun so had left our pistol with friends in Nevada, we heard we couldn't take fruit in and would be limited on how much alcohol and so on.  I took the last of our cherries to Rene's mom that morning but kept 2 bananas and 1 orange because I heard that the border police didn't care about citrus or bananas.  We were down to 8 bottles of wine had learned we could just pay the tariff if they said we were over our limit.  And now we had a tail light not working and all I could think of was they were not going to let us in to Canada because our rig was faulty!  AAIIIEEEEE!!!!

After a few calming breaths Mike looked up where auto parts stores were on our route to the border crossing at Roosville, Canada just north of Eureka, Montana.  We knew we were going to stop for fuel in Eureka to top off the tank and because diesel was $3.69 a gallon when we drove up the other day.  So off we went!  The gas station in Eureka was busy when we arrived so I pulled over to the side and Mike went over to the station and was ready to block anyone from getting to the pump I needed.  There were two vehicles at the pumps I needed to access, one was ready to leave but was blocked by the other one in front of him.  After what seemed like forever they left and I pulled over to get fuel.  Good news is the price of diesel had dropped to $3.59!  We left the gas station and drove through town to look for an auto parts store to buy a new bulb for the tail light.  There was one on the right side just as we were leaving town so I had plenty of room to pull over on the side of the road.  I bought two bulbs, one as a spare, and replaced the burnt out bulb and we were back on the road in less than 15 minutes!  It was like an Indy 500 pit stop!

By this time it was 4:30, we knew the port of entry was open 24 hours and we knew the Provincial park we were staying in that night had lots of spaces available so that pressure was off.  When we pulled up to the port of entry the line coming into the states was backed up several blocks while there was no one in line to go into Canada!  We pulled up to the drive through window, that's what it looked like anyway, and the border guard stuck his head out and said, "welcome to Canada." He took our passports, asked us where we were from, where we were going, how long we planned on being in Canada and were we caring any firearms or weapons.  That's all he asked!  Here I had the RV and car registration and insurance papers and all of the vaccination records for the animals.  He gave us back our passports and told us, "have a great time in Canada!"  What??  That was it!?!  Really??  All that worrying for nothing!  Oh, well, now we can at least continue to worry about getting back into the states.  That should be fun...

Now we are in Canada!  The drive from the border up to the Provincial Park (their version of a state park) was beautiful, the road was kind of rough but the scenery was like a post card.

Jenny helped with the navigation as best she could but got tired of looking at the map...

We found the turn off for the park and headed to what we thought was the entrance.  Our GPS does not have Canadian maps loaded so we were using the map app on the iPhone.  It took us down a winding one lane dusty road that ended at a private residence.  Crap!  We disconnected the car and I did a 12 point turn to get the motor home turned around and drive out to the main road.  We came to another intersection and it looked like the park entrance was to our left.  Mike drove the car over there and then came back and said that was it.  Yay!  The site was $35 for the night and only had electric but that was ok, by this time we were ready for a glass (or 2 or 3!) of wine.

It only took a few minutes to get parked and set up at the site.  Someone walking by said we sure could set up quickly.  Yep, done it a few times.  Once the dish was up I was happy!

It was a beautiful park and our site was in an area adjacent to a lake.  Here are some pics of the area.

While at the park Mike made a new friend with a caterpillar crawling on the railing between the sites.

So there you have it, our crossing saga was almost a bust.  Now it's off to Donald, B.C. and to Campers  Haven RV Park for 4 nights.  I'll let you know how that goes...

Goodbye Kalispell, Hello Canada!

The glass repair man called yesterday about 11 AM and said the windshield had arrived at his shop in Kalispell instead of being sent to Spokane.  He asked if we could bring the motor home to him today (Thursday) at 1 PM.  So we are going to leave for Canada right after he finishes putting in the new windshield!  After he called yesterday we got busy and made reservations at RV parks in Canada through July 5th.  We were lucky since July 1 is their Independence Day and that weekend is a busy weekend.  I called an RV park in a remote area that is centrally located on the west side of the Rockies to see if they had availability.  They did!  Now we can do day trips to Banff, Lake Louise, Calgary and up to Jasper.  From there we'll head over to the Edmonton area to see Brian & Elaine Coggle who spend the winters in Tucson.  After that, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  Don't want to be too regimented do we?  ;)

Kalispell, MT

Wednesday, June 27.  Obviously, we didn't make it to Canada on Monday since I am writing here today.  As we were pulling out of Nola's yard Monday morning I noticed a crack in the driver's side windshield starting in the lower left corner and going diagonally up about 18 inches.  Upon closer inspection I saw the windshield had popped out of it's gasket and I could see through the gap!  Egads!  There was no way we were going to take the motor home into Canada like this.  We were afraid the windshield would pop out or shatter while we were going down the road.  That would not be fun!

I drove slowly out to the main highway and pulled over to make some phone calls.  After several calls we were able to set it up so that a local glass company would replace the windshield at no cost to us thanks to the incredible amount of insurance we pay for through State Farm!  Whew!  Bad thing is, the windshield had to be ordered from Portland to arrive in Spokane on Wednesday then overnighted to Kalispell on Thursday and installed on Friday morning.

I slid a dollar bill through the gap just so you would have an idea of what I'm talking about.  

See the crack starting below the Smog Cert.?  

We had been "Glamping" at Nola's house since last Thursday and our black tank was full and ripe.  Oh, glamping is "glamour camping," a phrase that was bandied about over the weekend.  I guess when you camp with all the luxuries a motor home has to offer you can't really call it camping now can you?  During one of our drives into Kalispell we noticed an RV park on the Flathead river so we called them and asked if they had availability.  Luckily they did.  We were able to get in and set up without losing the windshield, yay!

That's the Flathead river raging in the background, it is VERY HIGH!

Monday was a beautiful day but that evening it started to rain, and rain, and it rained all day Tuesday.  We drove up to Eureka, MT which is about 7 miles from the border crossing into Canada.  We wanted to find out more about taking the animals into Canada and back into the states.  Didn't really find out much more than we already knew.  We're not going to worry about it anymore, if we get in we get in, if not, then we go to Michigan through the northern U.S.  

When we got back to the RV park we noticed that water was beginning to accumulate in large areas around the park.  That evening 3 of the rigs in front of us were relocated to higher ground in case the large pools of water grew overnight.  They didn't but the ground is very soft and one rig got stuck in its' new location and had to be pulled out with a tow truck.  I'm glad we opted for a site away from the river and on higher ground.  The site we have backs up to a large green area where Jenny can run off leash which is great for her and less stress for us.  Here is a picture of the river, it is very high and is running very fast.  

That is a small berm at the river's edge.  It is doing a great job of keeping the river from overflowing into the RV park.  

We'll be here until Friday morning then we will head into Canada.  As to where, well our plans are still evolving.  July 1 is a big holiday in Canada, their equivalency to our Independence Day so every RV park I have called is booked solid through the weekend.  I'll keep trying until we get something somewhere.  Brian & Elaine Coggle in Leduc, AB (outside of Edmonton) have been great about trying to find something for us near them.  I'm hoping to find a park in a remote area that is not booked and stay there through the weekend then go up to Leduc to see B&E before heading to Michigan through Saskatchewan and Manitoba. 

Stay tuned as the saga continues...

Columbia Falls, MT - Last Day :(

Sunday, June 24 was a beautiful day!  Suzie (Rene's sister) led us on a hike up to Stanton Lake for a picnic and so the boys could go fishing.  She said it was only about a mile to the lake from the trailhead.  Ha!  It was at least a mile to the place we were supposed to have the picnic but the lake was so high we had to hike further which made the hike about 2 miles one way.  It was also STRAIGHT UP the first half mile!  These two boys from Colorado and most recently Tucson are out of shape!  Wow, but was it ever a beautiful hike!  Thank you, Suzie, all is forgiven.  ;)  Unfortunately, Mike's camera died on the way up and so we have no pictures to share of this hike and the lake.  Suzie took a lot and will email them to me later.

That afternoon/evening we enjoyed one of the best sunsets we've seen since arriving in Montana.  It was a glorious send-off for everyone and a picture taking moment.

This was taken from Rene's Mom's yard looking over the field of Mustard in full bloom.  

Each evening, come rain or shine, Rene's son Neil built a great fire so we could have s'mores.  He did a great job digging the fire pit and making sure the fire stayed going.  Here is a picture of the family enjoying an evening around the fire.

That's me on the left in the chair with my back to the camera.  

One final picture was of another field in full bloom, this time it is a field of Rape Seed used for making Canola oil I believe.  What a pretty sight!!

Yellow flowers forever!!

Alas, our time here is up as we prepare for our trip into Canada tomorrow.  

Columbia Falls, Montana

We went to Columbia Falls to attend the Bailey Family Reunion.  They are a family who has adopted Mike and I as honorary family members.  It's Rene Farias' family consisting of her 2 sisters and her brother and various cousins and her mother.  This year the reunion was her mother's house in Columbia Falls which is where we stayed three years ago when we toured the Pacific NW.  We set up our "pup tent" as Rene's mother calls the RV, off to the side of the driveway.  We couldn't set up in the back yard like last time because they have had so much rain our wheels kept sinking and I was afraid we would have to call a tow truck to get us out!!  Here is a picture of our "site."  Great Views!!!

Friday, June 21, that morning we made several phone calls to local RV service places to see if anyone could repair our tow bar and/or sell us a used tow bar.  No luck.  I spoke to the Demco dealer in Missoula and he said he didn't have a tech who could repair it.  What??  I then called Demco direct and spoke to a man named Jerry.  He said you don't really repair them because there is nothing in them to break.  You just have to clean them and then they will work again.  He emailed me the directions and with the help of Rene's brother Eric we got the tow bar disassembled, cleaned and reassembled and it WORKED!!  Thank you, Eric!!  Whew, we now feel better about the rest of the trip.

Rene's family has made us feel quite welcome and comfortable and has included us in their family reunion traditions and plans.  On Saturday we took a trip into Glacier National Park to have a picnic on the shore of Lake MacDonald.  Here are pics from that outing:

This is the whole gang on the shore having lunch.        Pete, Jenny, Eric (Rene's bro) & Shannon

More of the family.                          Tina (sis), Rene (sis), Suzie (sis), Nola (Mom) & Eric (bro)

Tina's birthday was on Friday and she turned 55, my birthday was yesterday (Saturday) and I turned 55 also.  They had birthday parties each day for us and I'm not sure who celebrated more, me or Tina!  Today we are going on a hike up to another lake and have lunch.  I'm sure there will be more pictures later.  

Coeur d'Alene, ID

Wednesday, June 20, we drove from Rufus, Oregon to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and stayed at River Walk RV Park downtown on the river.  It is a small park with sites kind of close together.  They had us pull in to a pull through but we had to back out of it to leave the next morning.  Here is a picture of our site;

As you can see, it was a beautiful day when we arrived with the temp in the upper 70's.  I had sent an email to Dick & Ardell Easterday who live in CdA to let them know we were coming.  They invited us over to their house for dinner.  Their house was a little under five miles from the RV park.  We had a delicious meal and a great visit.  Their home is beautiful and the yard rivals any fancy English garden, there are plants and bushes and green grass everywhere!  We had dinner under the gazebo in the back garden area, what a treat!!  Dick & Ardell are wonderful hosts and we hated to leave, but we were tired and knew we would have long day ahead of us tomorrow.  

Thursday morning we backed out of our site and pulled over to the side road to connect the car.  The tow bar had been giving us a little grief and not locking in place.  This morning it got worse and would not lock at all.  The Honda looked like it was trying to pass us but it couldn't, thankfully the tow bar arms are not long enough for the car to get around the RV!  We went ahead and left CdA and got out of town and pulled over a few times in the chain up areas on the interstate to try and reset the tow bar.  Nope, it wasn't going to cooperate.  We decided to unhook the car and drive separately to Columbia Falls, Montana.  Mike drove the Honda and I drove the motor home.  We arrived in Columbia Falls at Nola's house about 4:30 that afternoon.  

Lepage Park Campground - Rufus, OR

I found this lovely spot on Recreation.gov and used Mike's OFC to get the site for half price.  OFC means "Old Fart Card," his senior pass he got from the Parks Dept. when he turned 62.  :)  We stayed here two nights and had beautiful weather the whole time.  This is a U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers run campground, there is electric and water but no sewer.  That's ok, for $10 a night we can "rough it."

This is right across from our RV site, we wanted to sit in the sun and warm up for awhile.

On our drive over from the coast we drove past Multnomah Falls with every intention of stopping to see the falls.  It was raining cats and dogs as we passed the falls so we opted to go to the campground in Rufus and then drive back over the next day.  On Tuesday morning we got up early and headed out for a day of exploring.  First stop was to look at some locks on the Columbia River but the place was not open so we went on to Multnamah Falls.  We saw a smaller fall called Horsetail on the way to Multnomah, here is a picture of it.  It is a beautiful sight!

Multnomah is even more spectacular!!  It is the second tallest falls in the U.S., the sign didn't say which was the tallest.

I had to stand way back to get Mike in the picture as well as the entire falls.  

Here is a view of the campground where we stayed, our site is to the far left.  There are only about 20 sites here, 8 pull throughs and the rest are back ins.  We really enjoyed our stay here and were very glad to finally warm up and dry out.  There is a spot on the side of the motor home where the moisture had seeped under the skin, it has started to dry out.

Lincoln City, Oregon

We stayed at Coyote Rock RV Resort on the Siletz river, on the south side of Lincoln City.  The site we had was right on the water.  We arrived on Tuesday, June 12 and stayed here 3 nights.  

On Wednesday, George and Joann arrived and were two sites down from us.  That evening we drove to Depoe Bay and had dinner at "Gracies Sea Hag."  The food was great and the view was even better!  It was a sunny afternoon with lots of blue sky, almost didn't recognize the sun!!

George was driving the "ship" in the restaurant.  That's Joann behind him in the bright sunshine.  Told you it was a beautiful sunny day!!  When we were leaving the restaurant my phone rang and it was Judy and Betty, they were also in Lincoln City and found out that we were here, too.  Thanks, Nick!!

Thursday morning we met Judy and Betty for breakfast and caught up on each other's travels and travails.  Seems like everyone has been having motor home issues this year.  After all, they are just big metal boxes you throw money into.

After breakfast we went back to our RV park and picked up George and Joann so we could drive up to to Tillamook to the cheese factory.  The drive up was pleasant but the cheese factor itself was kind of a let down.  We were hoping to find some "bargains" like we did at the cheese factory in Crescent City but no such luck at Tillamook.  They were selling their end pieces and culls for $4.59 a pound compared to the $2 and $3 a pound we were paying in Crescent City.  From the cheese factory we drove back towards Lincoln City via Cape Meares and stopped off to see the lighthouse.  This lighthouse is the shortest one (38') on the Oregon coast.  That tree I'm standing in front of is called the Octopus tree.  It has no center trunk but instead has large limbs growing from a center spot.

Further on down the road we stopped in Pacific City for lunch at the Pacific Pub and Brewery.  Lunch was great, ate more clams and mussels and drank fresh brewed beer.  The beach was busy with the locals enjoying the summer weather.  You can see it's all relative, we were still a bit chilly because of the wind coming off the water.

We are leaving Lincoln City tomorrow morning, Friday, June 15, and heading for Fort Steven State Park up near Astoria at the northern tip of Oregon.  We'll keep you posted as we find wifi!

Eugene & Salem, Oregon

We left Florence on Sunday morning and drove over to Eugene to visit our friends Alyse and Neal.  It was great to see them again, the last time was almost three years ago to the week in 2009.  Alyse and I go way back to the mid 80's when we took classes together in the interpreter training program at Hillsborough Community College.  We also worked together over the years.  Alyse is the one who convinced me to continue my education and go on for my BA as well as my MA.  With her support and encouragement as well as Mike's and numerous other friends I acquired a few degrees.

This picture was taken on their new deck, you can see Neal in the reflection taking the picture.  

Thank you, Neal!!  

We had a delicious meal with them, Neal prepared burgers on his new grill and we got caught up on each other's lives.  After lunch Alyse drove us back to the parking lot where we left the motor home and we headed for Salem.

Friends we met in Tucson at Far Horizons (David & Linda Buchanan) had arranged for us to park our motor home in the synagogue parking lot next to their house.  The last time we came through we parked in their driveway but since then they have downsized to a smaller home and their new driveway was downsized as well.  The good thing is they now have a huge parking lot next to their house which is great for RV parking.  When we arrived there was a big yellow extension cord hanging over the fence ready for us to plug in!  Linda prepared a yummy meal for us that evening (do you notice a theme here of us mooching meals?) and then took us on a walk around their new neighborhood.  David is having an issue with his back so was unable to join us.

On Monday Linda took us on another walk (thank you!) and then we went out for lunch to the Orchard Heights Winery.  It was another beautiful day as you can see from the picture of us on the patio at the cafe at the winery.  The view was awesome and we even got to see a red tail hawk hovering above us.

From there we drove over to Willammette Valley Vineyard and as we pulled into the parking lot we were greeted with a hillside full of poppies.

There were several shades of gold and even some striped ones!

We tasted a few more wines then wandered out to the deck to ogle the view.  Wow, what beautiful rolling hills with vines growing everywhere.  Here is a picture of Mike with the valley behind him.  

After dinner that evening other friends we had met in Tucson who also live in Salem came over for dessert.  Again it was such a nice evening to be outside enjoying the deck and sunshine.  Lando & Mary live not far from David & Linda and they also have park models on the same street in Tucson at Far Horizons.  We enjoyed visiting with everyone and are very happy we had the opportunity to see Lando and Mary, too.  

That's Mike, David & Linda on the left and Lando & Mary on the right.

One interesting thing is that people get Linda and Mary confused in Tucson.  They are both tall, dark haired and striking women with very similar glasses.  Here is a pic of the two of them, can you tell which twin has the toni?  (If you don't remember that commercial you are too young!!)  

FYI, Linda on the left and Mary on the right.

Early this morning we were awakened by rain falling on the coach.  Ahh, we are still in Oregon.  We leave this morning to head back to the coast.  We'll miss everyone but will see most of them again in Tucson this winter.  Adios!

Our last day in Florence...

Every Saturday in the summer the downtown area of Old Florence has a Farmer's Market at the marina.  We got there early so not very many vendors were set up.  It was a beautiful day, one of the few with no rain and lots of blue sky and sunshine.  We walked around for about an hour then did some wine shopping (surprised!) at the Bridgeport Market.  They have over 1,200 wine selections and really great prices.  From there we went to Safeway because all of their wine is on sale for 30% off and if you buy 6 or more you get an additional 10% off for a total of 40%!!  Who can say no to a deal like that?  Not us!!

Not a lot of vendors today, too early in the season.  

Here is a collage of some of the pics Mike took today.  Notice that Florence, Alabama is only 2,590 miles away.  That's the historic bridge coming in to Florence on the south side near Old Town.

This evening we went back into town for dinner at the Depot, a nice seafood restaurant on the river.  It only has 10 tables and they start taking reservations at 3 PM.  I started calling at 3 and got a hold of Desiree at about 3:07, she only had 2 seatings left, 4 PM or 9 PM!  I opted for the 4 PM and she said she would make it worth our while and give us the table at the window overlooking the river.  She wasn't kidding!  It was a great table and the meal was fabulous!  The manager of the park where we are staying suggested the crab encrusted halibut for $13.  I did.  Wow!  The prices were very inexpensive including the bottle of wine we had for only $20.  It was a blend from a winery in Washington and it was quite tasty.  Dinner was over and we were home by 6 PM, does that make us part of the 'Blue Hair Crowd' now?

I'll close by saying that Florence has been a great place to visit and it would be a great place to live if the sun came out a little more regularly.  The downtown "Old Town" section is very nice and a lot of fun.  If we come back this way again Florence will be a repeat destination.  I'd also like to add that the RV park we stayed in was very comfortable in spite of it really being a "trailer park."  It is a 55 and older park which makes an incredible difference.  Our stay was pleasant and quite, no gun fire and no fighting in the streets.  Gotta love the old people!!

We're having wine with George & Joann before dinner.  Us at the Farmer's Market on the way to dinner.  Joann and I at the restaurant and a picture of the front of the restaurant.

Two days without constant rain!!

Yesterday late morning it cleared up and the sun actually came out!  We decided we'd better get in some outside activity while we had a chance.  Besides, Jenny was itching to go for a long walk.  She has been restless with all of this rain.  There are several places nearby to access the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area so we headed out.  We went to Siltcoos Beach Access Road a couple of miles south of our RV Park.  Fortunately, it's all National Recreation so Mike's "old fart card" works perfectly well here!  We drove out to the entrance to the dunes and spoke with the volunteers about where we could go with our dog.  As long as she is leashed she can go pretty much anywhere.  I looked at the sand dune we would have to cross to get to the beach and decided we could do that another day when we had our boots on.  That's a LOT of sand!!  We drove back midway to the highway and hiked a trail near one of the lagoons.  It was beautiful, green, dark and full of mosquitos!

While we were waiting at the stop sign to get back on Highway 101 and go back to the park we noticed a motor home approaching from the south.  We knew George and Joann were headed this way today because they have reservations at the Honeyman State Park just up the highway from us.  As the motor home passed us we realized it was them.  I pulled out behind them and phoned George to let him know we were right behind him!  Too funny!  They got behind us as we came into Crescent City, CA and now here we were behind them outside of Florence, Oregon!  We met up with them later for drinks at their site in the State park and then went out to dinner.  Mike and I finally had dungeness crab.  It was ok, not as sweet as king crab and not as tasty as the crab we had in Florida but it was still good.  

Here is a pic of the Old Town Harbor in Florence outside of the restaurant.  Blue sky!!  :)

Today began with sunshine so we went for a hike on the beach, this time we were prepared for all of that sand and the wind from the water.  The hill up to the top of the dune may not look like much but it was tough!  Walking through all that sand is work!!  

As soon as we got to the beach Jenny decided she needed to poop.  Sigh.  Mikey bagged it and made the climb back over the dune to the trash can and back while I waited with Jenny on the beach.  When he returned we walked north about a mile then turned around and came back.  The picture with Mike is him checking how far we walked on the iPhone.  Love that phone!!  

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday so we'll find activities to do inside.  The weekend is supposed to be fairly clear which is good since we'll be traveling again.  

See ya!  

Now we're in Florence, Oregon

The evening before we left Crescent City the moon came out early and was such a pretty sight I had to share one last pic with you.  I stepped outside the motor home to snap this pic.

On the drive up from Crescent City to Florence we stopped for lunch in Coos Bay, Oregon.  We're parked on the side of the road next to the railway station on the water.  Beautiful spot except for the traffic whizzing by!

I tried to set these two photos side by side but couldn't get the blog to cooperate!  Imagine the water pic on the left and the RV pic on the right, that's what it looked like.  

We arrived in Florence, Oregon on Sunday, June 3 about 2 PM.  I almost drove past the RV park where we had reservations because it snuck up on us real quick!  This place is technically a "trailer park" but with a much different feel to it than the one at the "OK Corral" in Crescent City!  There are 6 RV pull throughs in the middle of the park, on gravel sites with full hookups.  We're in the site  furtherest from the road and closest to the wifi antenna!  Yay, finally a great internet connection!  And a laundry facility with inexpensive machines, I'm in heaven!

I took this picture about 8:00 AM this morning when the sun broke through and it finally stopped raining!  It is 8:30 AM now and it's raining AGAIN!   I can't complain too much about the rain because  when we arrived in Florence I mentioned to Mike that I hoped it would rain to rinse off the coach and the car, they were both covered in salty sea spray.  I got my wish.  In triplicate.  

The only drawback to this spot is we have a telephone pole right in front of us but hey, we've got a private yard with grass!!  The laundry and fitness rooms are to the right in this picture, that's Hwy 101 straight back on this side of those trees.  Speaking of those trees, the dang things are so tall and so thick that our XM satellite radio fades in and out whenever we are on the highway!  

The only other bit of news to report is that since we were in Plymouth, CA I have been having an issue with my right eye.  It felt like I had either scratched the cornea or something was embedded in my eye lid, either way it was uncomfortable most of the time.  I've been using artificial tears eye drops during the day and at night putting in an opthalmic ointment we had leftover from years ago.  The pain had gotten worse again when we got to Florence so on Monday morning I called an eye doctor.  They did not have a doctor in the Florence office that day so referred me to an optometrist in town.  I called and they said they could see me that morning.  The optometrist examined my eye and found an object that he said looked like an asterisk ( * ) embedded just in the surface of my cornea.  It was probably a grain of sand or a piece of pollen.  (I remember feeling something blown into my eye one day in Plymouth when we were walking Jenny.) The doctor was able to remove the object after numbing my eye then he placed a "contact bandaid" over the cornea to let it heal.  I go back today, 24 hours later, to have the "bandaid" removed.  I have to admit, my eye feels much better and the bandaid contact did not bother me at all.  

Tonight we are going out to eat dungeness crab at a restaurant on the bay.  It's supposed to be all you can eat dungeness crab.  I'll let you know how much we eat next time...