Settling in to Oregon~

Well, we made it to Fairview, Oregon this past Tuesday and are nicely settled into our site. We are right on the top level of the Portland/Fairview RV Park and just inside the entrance. The park is beautiful, full of all different types of trees, bushes and flowers. I absolutely L.O.V.E. the cherry trees which are in full bloom with pink blossoms … so beautiful. There are tons of rose bushes around but they aren't blooming just yet. Everything smells wonderful and there is green everywhere you look. Awesome!

We are in the "honeymoon" phase of our new jobs after just two days of work. Wayne is busy, busy, busy with a ton of maintenance work to be done. This park has 407 sites with grass on each and every site! As the maintenance supervisor, he is learning all of the various things that need to be done daily, weekly and monthly. Lots to learn but I have every confidence in him. I, on the other hand, am wearing a few different hats. I am in the office for four hours in the mornings, have the afternoons off, and then on again as night host for four hours in the evenings. Right now when it still is pretty slow, the evening hours are a piece of cake. I just have to relax at home, on my couch where I can see out my window. If a rig pulls up, I walk over to them and help them register by filling out the night paperwork. Then at nine o'clock, I have to drive through the park on a golf cart and check the restrooms, make sure no one is parking in the fire lanes and note any non-functioning lightbulbs or signs. If I find any problems, I just write up a note for maintenance. Since the park is quite large, it takes at least a half hour but still, that's it! Not bad for four hours of "work." I also have one "outside" day right now but I haven't done that yet. Not sure what that will entail.

We had a nice vacation after leaving Carlsbad KOA. We spent the first ten days just relaxing on our way to California, most of that time in a nice RV park in Las Vegas. We walked around The Strip for a few days, seeing some water shows at a couple of casinos and eating some awesome food. The food highlight was when we went to Gordon Ramsay's BURGR restaurant. Yum!
After leaving Las Vegas, we were able to spend Friday the 7th through Sunday the 9th with our oldest son Jon, his wife Cristen and his beautiful daughters. We had a great time getting to know their two girls a bit more. Anne thrilled us with her reading … at just over five years old, she can read pretty much anything with confidence. Two-year-old Maddee is a happy little girl almost all the time and it was so much fun just watching her smile and laugh.


We drove up to the Central Valley on Monday the 10th and spent the next few days with our daughter Julie, her husband Ray and their kids. All four of their children—Josh (16½), Kaitlyn (almost 14), Emily (11½) and Beth (9½)—have grown and changed so much since we saw them last. It was great being able to spend time with each of them. As a family, we played miniature golf one morning and went to the LEGO movie later that afternoon. I also got to watch Kaitlyn in her ballet class and Josh in his guitar class. Emily and Beth have ballet on Mondays so I wasn't able to watch them as well. Maybe next time.


Finally, we drove to the North Bay Area to spend Friday the 14th through Sunday the 16th with our youngest son Joe, his wife Daunielle and their one year old, Oliver. The four of us took Oliver to the Discovery Museum in the area, geared to children from eight months (I think) through eight years old. It has a room where crawling babies as well as toddlers can have fun bouncing on waterbed "ponds" and crawling through tunnels. This was the best spot for Oliver at his stage but very soon, he will be ready for some of the other rooms with even more to offer as he grows. Really a cool place and very different from anything else we have seen before. It was great fun! Besides that, we mostly just hung out at their place and played with Oliver. What more could grandparents want?

We plan to check out a nearby Calvary Chapel church on Sunday and then go to lunch with Wayne's mother, brother and sister-in-law in Salem. All in all, a very successful relocation for us so far. We have high hopes~

On the Road Again … February 25 - March 1, 2014

We left Carlsbad KOA on Tuesday, February 25th at about 10:30 a.m.  We intended on leaving at 8:30 but the wind came up early in the morning as opposed to the typical noonish time frame so we were delayed somewhat. It slowed considerably just after ten o'clock so we got on the road shortly thereafter.

We had a very nice trip with only a few miles of windy conditions—nothing too bad though. We stayed at Sky City RV Park near Acoma, NM, adjacent to the Sky City Casino. It was a gravel parking lot … truly … but the sites were long and level and for not even $20/night it was all we needed. We simply wanted an inexpensive place to stop, eat dinner and sleep so we didn't even unhook the fifth wheel. We had homemade stew to eat so there was no need to worry about going to the buffet. According to some reviewers, the food was adequate but nothing to write home about so no big deal. The only negative thing that happened was that I tripped and fell due to very uneven patches of asphalt while walking to the registration building. I now have a bruised and very unhappy knee. Oh well, it could be worse.

Beautiful New Mexico scenery going to Acoma

We got up early on Wednesday and were back on the road west around eight in the morning heading toward Winslow, AZ. We had another non-eventful travel day, which is the best kind of course. We stayed at the Meteor Crater RV Park, which is owned by the group running the meteor crater site. The RV park was really nice—attractive, priced right, and gated. It would definitely be a place we would return to if in the area again.

Meteor Crater itself was an awe-inspiring sight to say the least. The crater’s diameter is 4,100 feet and is 570 feet deep. And to think that the meteor that hit here was not much bigger than a school bus!

Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ

We had not been able to make any reservations at campgrounds for these first few days since we had no idea up until Monday afternoon exactly what day we would leave Carlsbad. Southeastern New Mexico can be extremely windy and we were watching the weather diligently to determine the best plan. When it became obvious that the area was going to get messy by Wednesday, we decided our best bet was to get out of New Mexico and through Arizona as quickly as possible.

Sunrise at Meteor Crater RV Park

That said, on Thursday morning we left Winslow and again headed west, hoping to stay in Needles, California for eight days. When we arrived, we quickly discovered that the snowbirds had pretty much every RV site in the area! As Wayne said at the time, "Recalculating!" We quickly decided to head to Las Vegas instead and are now comfortably ensconced in the Las Vegas RV Park. It is a very nice and inexpensive park (due to their current special). We are getting some maintenance and cleaning done plus doing a lot of relaxing.

INSIDE Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile Shops!

We will leave here next Friday morning and head to Torrance, California to spend the weekend with our son Jon and his family. We will head to the Central Valley on Monday to be with our daughter Julie and her family through Thursday and then over to the Bay Area to spend the next weekend with our son Joe and his family. We sure are looking forward to that! On the 17th we will continue our trip northward, staying at the Klamath Falls KOA on Monday evening and then into our new somewhat permanent campground at the Portland/Fairview RV Park on Tuesday. The adventure continues~