We're Finally High and Dry

We are now in Soap Lake Resort which is about 50 miles south of Grand Coulee Dam. The climate is much like we're used to. It's a nice park with a pool, hot tub, lots of activities, and very nice people. We are going to rest up and dry out for a few days before we go exploring. Our plan is to stay here two weeks before heading south. You can find out more about Soap Lake by linking to <http://www.soaplakewa.com/> I finally downloaded a few pictures I took a couple of days ago. You should be able to see them in the last post.

Headed for Dry Ground

The sky is falling and falling and falling!

Lots of logging trucks on the road.

Leaving the ocean side and into an inlet.

Look Ma, the sky is blue.

Well, we got sick of the rain, so we left Ocean Shores this morning. We traveled through the Olympic Rain Forest. It rained on us the entire trip. It had its own beauty. I'll try and download some pictures tomorrow. We met lots of logging trucks, passed several winerys, and got glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. We couldn't see Mt. RAINier because of the clouds.

This afternoon we arrived at Diamond Point RV Resort just east of Sequim. It doesn't rain as much here and is just beautiful. There is blooming lavender everywhere. They have an annual Lavender Festival in Sequim. The sunset was breathtaking. We went to a Casino for dinner and I played Texas Hold'm. I won $112. Willard played a Keno machine and came out about even. In the lounge they had a nice dance floor and a Small Band playing Big Band music. It was a joy to watch a full dance floor filled with senior citizens. They were wonderful dancers. We danced a few dances, but both of us were so tired we decided to call it quits and head back home. We walked Duster and enjoyed a nice rainless evening. I would come back to this area again.

We are going to leave early in the morning and try to get to Black Diamond, WA. It is near Flaming Geyser State Park east of Seattle.

Rain Greeted us at Ocean Shores WA

We arrived at the WH RV Resort in Ocean Shores, WA last Wednesday. I have no pictures to post because IT HASN'T STOPPED RAINING SINCE WE GOT HERE! That was 4 days ago. But, we are determined not let this gloom get us down! We have found some good restaurants and drove around the area to orient ourselves. And, we did drive down to the beach to look at the Pacific Ocean through the raindrops. Of course, we stayed in the truck with the heater on full blast. A few young brave tourists were running through the ankle deep waves, as their grandparents huddled together shaking their heads.

We went to WalMart and got Willard a Jigsaw Puzzle to work. He has it spread out on the table. I discovered a web page for writers and have immersed myself in the discussion form. I've also tried to work on several manuscripts. There's not much on TV, so I have been reading a couple of books. Willard tried metal-detecting here in the park between rain storms, but the mosquitos almost carried him off. And poor Duster can't find a dry place to pee.

"It will be nice next week," the locals say. "But, this rain is normal."

Tomorrow we hope to visit the Olympic National Park, if it's not raining. But, we understand it is the only rain forest in North America, so I think I'll take my umbrella along, just in case. Here is their web site if you're interested: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/.

Last evening, Willard and I entertained a group of about 30 here at the resort. They seemed to like our music. About halfway through the program a man jumped up, removed my hat and proceeded to pass it around the room. They filled it with money. We in turn donated it to the park's Fun Fund. Our goal is to entertain in at least one RV park in 49 states (Willard won't fly to Hawaii). So far, we've played in Arizona, California, Utah, Montana, Oregon, and now Washington.

Mount St. Helens

Mount. St. Helens





Today we drove about 35 miles to view Mt. St. Helen. It was a great trip. Great views. And an eerie feeling. It was hard to believe that the destruction occurred 27 years ago. A new forest is emerging. And time heals all. The pictures above are of Mt. St. Helen. It was about 9677 feet before the eruption. Now, it is 8365 feet in elevation. To find out all about Mt. St. Helen go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens

I hope you can see all of this downed timber. It was everywhere. But, as I said earlier, the forest is coming back. And this too shall pass.

This is one end of Spirit Lake. That is not water you see, but thousands of logs still floating at one end of the lake. It looked as if you could walk across it.

I just loved this view of the river at the base of Mt. St. Helen.

HWY 12 in Washington

The drive down highway 12 was an awsome mountain drive. It was exciting with steep grades and hairpin curves. We were headed for an RV park in Randel, WA. to spend a few days. Here

are a few pictures of that adventure. We were glad to get to the park. Willard was so drained after driving today, we decided to stay in Randel two days. Glad we have a disel and lots of power. No more worries about traveling mountain roads.

I thought this was a great way to block those rocks in slide areas. The blocks are made of rocks wrapped and shaped with wire. They were all along HWY 12 in Washington.

On the Road Again

Sunday, July 15 - We are spending the night in Pioneer RV Park in Hermiston, OR. The area is rolling plains and farmland. It seems they grow lots of grain and potoatoes. The sunset was beautiful this evening. Tomorrow we will cross the Columbia River and into Washington tomorrow. We plan on staying in the Mt. Helen area for a few days before heading for the coast.

Memories

I was thinking about our 49+ years together and found this scrapbook page that I thought I'd share. From left to right: I'm pregnent with our first child, Robbie ( June 1959); Willard and I ready for the 1958 Senior Prom at Alvin, Texas; Willard and I at the Galveston beach (abt. 1957). Guess we weren't interested in the waves; Willard and I hugging in our Snyder Street home in Alvin, Texas (abt. 1968); Willard and I at our home in Norwood, Co. (abt. 1974). This is only a small fraction of our wonderful memories. We have had such a great life, and we did it our way. We still follow the beat of our own drummer. Here's to many more wonderful years together.

(Click on the picture to enlarge, but it takes a long time to reload.)

Memories of Blue Bucket 2007

This a picture of Willard and I 49 years ago on July 11. It's hard to believe we have been married that long. We didn't do much celebrating: had lunch in Baker City, went on a drive up in the mountains. The BIG celebration is next year. We will have our family reunion and celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary at the same time at Joey's home in Ogden, UT.

We met this wonderful couple from Florida. In the picture you can see Tom (far left), Willard, and Andra (far right). Andra and Tom invited us over twice for delicious meals Andra prepared. We invited them over for hamburgers, then for hot dogs. We also met in Ontario for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We drove our Tacoma and they rode their motor cycles. Tom helped trouble shoot and fix several things in our rig. He is a real Handyman. Not only is Andra a wonderful cook, but she creates beautiful wearable art and quilts. She made us a really neat pillow for 4th of July. And she helped me to start a quilted pillow. They left Wed. and we really miss them. I'm sure we'll met them again on the road.

This is the gold Willard recovered at Blue Bucket. It's quite a bit considering he didn't spend much time prospecting here. He used his high-banker to acquire the gold.

On July 4th we went to Huntington, OR for the parade and picnic in the park. Usually there is a band playing and we enjoy listening to them. Well, this year we asked where the music was and they said they didn't schedule a group. So, we ran back to camp and got our guitars, amps, etc. and entertained for about an hour. Most stayed to listen and no one threw tomatoes, so we felt pretty good about our performance. After that we came back to camp to have grilled steak, potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad, and watermelon at Tom and Andra's. It was a good July 4th.

We played in about 3 jam sessions in Baker City, OR. It was so much fun and we learned a lot. I took a few bass lessons with Tim. Practice, practice, practice.

Tomorrow we plan on heading for the Washington Coast for about a month. So, we are packing our rig and preparing to travel. It's amazing how many things we can drag out in such a short period of time.

Blue Bucket Camp in Oregon

Looking out my front door. I like to go walking south down this road. It wanders by a creek and up the hill. A great morning walk. The road going north leads you into the main part of camp. We are parked in the last sight south of camp. We can play our music and not bother anyone.

The picture below is of our camp at Blue Bucket, OR. Willard and Duster are relaxing in the front yard. Yesterday we had to go to Ontario to get some gasoline for Willard's high banker pump. Of course, we had to stop in at WalMart to get a "few" things. The temperature is in the mid-80's during the day with a nice canyon breeze. Nights are in the upper-50's. It's very relaxing here. Willard prospects for gold early in the morning and has been putting together a puzzle in the Club House. I seem to be busy all day and well into the night, but I can't for the life of me name anything constructive that I've done. I did wash clothes, we grilled steaks last night for supper. I also baked a potato and warmed up some green beans. I've been on the phone a lot, and at my computer finishing up some projects. Time just slips away, and Willard's hungry again. We plan on staying here for awhile (maybe a month or more). But, you can never tell. We might just hitch-up and move on within an hour's notice. That's the beauty of this lifestyle.

This link, http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OR-BlueBucket.html ,tells the story of "Blue Bucket."

Missoula, Montana

We had a wonderful week visiting my brother and Nancy in Missoula. We fit just fine in his big driveway. Even though it rained several days, we managed to enjoy the hot tub most afternoons. In the hot tub we caught up on family news, shared experiences, and just enjoyed being together. Charlie fixed some of the meals, I fixed one, and we dined out for the rest.

Of course, we shopped. It seems like we always need something. Or are they really wants? Anyway we went to Cosco's, Home Depot, Lows, Linen and Things, Wal Mart, Ross' and looked at some new and used motorhomes at Bret's RV.

We tried to tour the Smoke Jumper Facilities, but they were closed. We visited the museum there, watched a video and then Charlie took us to meet some of the people he used to work with. I really enjoyed seeing where he used to work. In his younger days Charlie was a Smoke Jumper, working out of Missoula. Then, he helped coordinate people and supplies for fires in many other parts of the States. Now he is retired. Maybe I should say semi-retired. He helps out with the big fires whenever he can. That's why we try to visit him early in the summer. In May he was in Minnesota helping with a fire. Soon after he got home, we showed up at his door step. We had told him we were coming for a visit, but wasn't sure when, since we have no real schedule.

Willard and I went to a Casino while Charlie and Nancy had another commitment. We won some and lost some. Their Casino's are very different from the ones we are used to.

Brandy and his lovely family came over Saturday afternoon and Charlie cooked hamburgers on the grill. We enjoyed getting to know Charlie's grandchildren. One is 2 1/2 years old and the other is about 13, (both girls). We went out for breakfast with them the next morning.

On Monday Willard and Charlie golfed. I stayed home and did my own thing. I also fixed dinner. We went to Wendy's for lunch.

As usual I forgot to take pictures while in Missoula. I took this one with my cell phone at the Farmer's Market where Nancy and I went on Sat. morning. I bought fresh cheese, butter, eggs, breads, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, onions, and some fresh flowers. I could hardly carry it all back to the car.

Trip to Helena, MT

We visited with our friends, Bill and Karen, in Helena, Montana. They invited us to park in their son's yard next to them. They were so gracious and we had such a great exhausting three days.

The family attended his high school graduation. They made shirts to wear to graduation: Chad's Grandpa, Chad's Grandma, Chad's Mom, Chad's Dad, Chad's Big Brother, I'm Chad. And they rang cow bells as Chad received his diploma.

We took a boat tour down the Missouri River to the Gates of the Mountains, the same river Lewis and Clark traveled. We also saw Man Gulch where 13 young smoke jumpers gave their lives to a fire back in 1949.

We went to a baseball game to watch Chad play.

It was a nice sunny day. We had a great time.

A trip around Helena on a tour train was another wonderful activity. We learned so much about the history of Helena and enjoyed seeing the beautiful homes built in the during the gold rush days.

Each evening we dined on barbecued hamburgers or elk steak, mushrooms, salads, etc. After dinner, we would sit in the hot tub to relax guaranteeing a good night's sleep.

Tim took us to a quaint little restaurant to have a Piglet Sandwich. It was like a hamburger, but the meat was deep fried pork. Delicious!

One morning we went to the Farmer's Market. We bought some jellies, syrups, gifts, and vegetables.

And one afternoon we went to Houser Dam to prospect for sapphires and gold. While sitting on a rock along the water a little downey chick came out of the brush, waddled by us unafraid, making its way to the swift river. In he went, paddling down stream all alone, leaving us with many unanswered questions.

We also went Geo Caching. We found two Caches. This picture shows us finding and Karen recording one Cache. One thing great about this activity is that it gets you out and about in just about any area you visit.

We wouldn't have missed this visit for the world. The Coulter family went out of their way to make us feel at home.

Jean relaxes as Willard and Bill pans for gold. (Photos by Karen)

Pine View Reservoir

Joey, Beth, Jason, Willard and I took our boat up to Pine View Reservoir to take in a little sun and do a little fishing. It was a beautiful day with a wonderful view. No fish, but a relaxing time together. Life is good.

Newspaper Article

Millie sent us a copy of a news article about us that appeared in the Wickenburg Sun on March 28, 2007 after we had already left the area. I really don't want to retype the entire article,but I will summarize it. Patti James (staff writer) tells about Willard's love for gold prospecting and his searching for the "mother lode" around historical Stanton, AZ, but doesn't make a "job" out of it. She described how we met in highschool, married, had our children, then began our college education about 10 years later. She mentioned that Jean was the Queen Mum of the Stanton Red Hat Goldminers. And that we love this lifestyle. It was a nice article. Click on the picture and you can read the entire article.

We're still in Ogden, UT

We just got home from watching our son, Joel, make the final few yards in a 26.2 mile marathon run in Ogden. We were so proud of him. He had some cramping that slowed him down a bit, but he kept on running. As he is recoving from the run, he is planning the next one.

We have really been busy since we arrived two weeks ago. Willard waxed our motorhome, cleaned the roof and put rubber protectant on it, serviced the generator (filters & oil), put air pressure extenders on the tires, bought a air pressure hose to air up the tires, and sanitized the water tank.

We put together a storage unit in Joey's back yard for the snow blower, lawn mower, bicycles, tiller, etc.

We also bought a Comfortaire bed and gave our other mattress to Joey and Beth.

Bill and Karen came down from South Jordan and we took them to the Hot Springs in Honeyville. We stopped at KFC and got lunch to eat when we got there. After a long soak in the hot mineral water, we treated ourselves to Shakes before shopping at Smith & Edwards. It was a wonderful day. They are now in Montana at their son's house.

Willard and I entertained at the assisted living center here in South Ogden. They really seemed to enjoy our music and invited us back. We'll probably play for them again in September on our way back through, as we head for Arizona for the winter.

Willard's brother, Elvin, passed away last week. We did not attend the funeral which was held in Texas City, Texas. Robbie, our oldest son who lives in Austin, represented our family. We are now in the process of selling the house he lived in. I inherited it from my Mother years ago and he was buying it from us. We plan on selling it, keeping the balance he owed us, then give the equity to his children. I'll just be glad when it is sold.

The weather is just beautiful here. Warm days and cool nights. I just love this time of year in Utah. I also like the fall. We hope to take our boat up to Pine View for some fishing and boating. Willard is planning on golfing some while here. Dan is planning on coming down Memorial Day weekend, then we will be on our way to embrace another journey.

A Lot Has Happened the the past 3 weeks.

We went to the Escapees Escapade in Stockton, CA. It was great. About 2000 attended driving about 1500 rigs. Organization is the key. We attended classes on tire safety, fire safety, and how to clean the rig. I can't remember all the classes we attended. We shopped and bought some RV stuff, which included a Comfort Air bed. I attended line-dancing classes.

We had to take Duster to the vet. He had some kind of rash on his feet and was chewing his feet until they bled. He is fine now after taking medication.

Willard and I entertained at the Ham-A-Rama before about 1500 people. Guess we were okay, since no one threw any tomatoes and they clapped when we finished each of our two songs. There were about 12 acts, mostly comedy and music. The next night we attended the farewell party and met some wonderful people. We hope to see them again on the road.

We also traded in our Sea Breeze for a 2003 40' Alpha See Ya! It is the first used vehicle we've ever bought. Hope we are not sorry. We offered them an offer we thought they would laugh at, but they accepted it. You can see it in the pictures below on our way to take delivery. You see, if we license it in another state, we can't take delivery in California, so Tom drove it to Boomtown, NV where we took possession.

We spent 6 days at the dealership in Salida, CA while they fixed the slide motor, replaced the seals on the big slide, washed, and serviced it. It took us two days to move in. We have since discovered some minor problems with door latches and the like. But, it is ours now and we must deal with any problems we encounter. Willard loves to drive it and I like the interior. We have to remember a rig is like a home in a 3.5 earthquake everytime you take it down the road. So, things happen.

I remember when we moved to Cedar City and bought our home there, we had many costly repairs to make and thought nothing of it. Guess we will have to have the same mindset with our roaming home.

We drove from Boomtown, NV to Winnemucca, NV and stayed two nights. It rained most of the time we were there. Then we headed for Wendover, NV (on the Utah border). We should be at Joey's (our middle son) home in Ogden by 3:00 this afternoon. That's when they get home from church. We just hope we can park this bigger rig in the area we parked our Sea Breeze. If not, we will just have to go to an RV park.

We don't think they serviced the generator because it started leaking oil last night. I hope we can fix the problem. I guess it's things like that causes us some concern about purchasing a used rig. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it's just a small inexpensive repair.

In the posts below, I published some pictures of our stop at Donner Pass. There was a big snow storm at that elevation the day before we left the valley. Chains were required on Wednesday. On this day the roads were clear, but snow was still covering the countryside.

Donner Pass, CA (May 3)

This picture was taken at the Rest Stop at the summit of Donner Pass.

The Rest Stop at Donner Pass

It was cold at the rest stop. We just stretched our legs, took Duster for a walk, and left for warmer conditions.

Donner Pass, CA

A Cold Spring Day in Mojave, CA

It was a cold dreary day. I couldn't put off washing clothes any longer, and Willard has to walk Duster morning, afternoon, and night rain or shine. We did manage to find the time to go shopping for groceries. And we checked out California City, CA., a small community just north of here. while we were out and about. When we got back home, I made cornbread and red beans (I put the beans in the crock pot this morning) for supper. Then we fixed strawberry shortcake. We watched CSI Miami before we started putting up all the things we dragged out since we travel tomorrow. Four more rigs came in today. The park is just about full now.

We are in Mojave, CA

What a nice day to travel. No wind, cool, not much traffic. Now, the view could have been better. Miles and miles of desert and small shrubs with rugged mountains in the distance. We did go through Apple Vally and I was reminded of visiting the Roy Rogers Museum here many years ago. I think they moved it when Roy passed away.

We are parked at Sierra Trails RV Park, a nice little park. The spaces are a little snug, but Willard backed in like a pro. I fixed lunch, put the motor home back together, then took a nap. We met our neighbor, a full timer, and exchanged experiences. I was surprised when 5 or 6 rigs came in this afternoon. Of course, it's the only park in the area. We will depart on Friday. Tomorrow should be very relaxing. Rain is in the forcast. Sounds like the kind of day to curl up with a good book, or start another story. Maybe I'll even work on some genealogy. I do need to wash clothes and buy groceries. That never ends.

Joey called today and told us Jason was filling out his papers to serve an LDS mission. He said it was like Christmas around his house. We will make sure we are in Ogden to attend his farewell. It's a big decision for a young man to make. He needs his loved ones around him before he leaves for two years of service. Wonder where he will be sent?

All is well......