Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Red Dale National–Black Hills

Saturday, June 15, 2013

We got up and headed over to Shade Valley Campground – oh man, we’ve never seen sites this big! We got settled in, said ‘Hi’ to some of the Black Hills Hillbillies, then we headed over to Elk View to a pot luck dinner with the Jackalopes. What a great time with lots of yummy food! I made a pot of ham, green beans and potatoes, and it was scrumptious! We said goodbye and headed over to the Rally site about 8:30 – got home, fiddled with the TV a little and went to bed!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

We got up and puttered around, I made a good breakfast of eggs benedict, then we went outside and watched the parade of units coming in for the Red Dale National Wagon Train Rally. We went over to the ‘Registration’ table and got our bars, event schedule, etc. While there we got hugs, and some catchin’ up done!

We went back to the MH and just talked to people, more hugs, more catchin’ up! I went over to the club and played BINGO – won the cover all and prize of $91.00!

Since it was Father’s Day I had marinated Steaks on the grill, which we had with baked sweet potato and asparagus – it was yummy! Then we went back over to the club and had a memorial service and door prizes, where I won $25 cash prize – wow, I was on a roll!

I apologize in advance, since neither David nor I took a single picture all week – our bad! We were just so busy chatting with everyone…I’m hoping Brenda Badgley, the club historian will email me some that I can insert in the blog!!!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Hospitality from 7:30 – 9:00 AM Coffee, Juice, donuts, cookies

Raffle Tables Open same time

8 – 8:45 Line Dancing lessons

9 – 11 – Horseshoes

1:30 – Washers

6:30 Evening program & events

PLUS wonderful Sloppy Joes, Special Beans, chips and sodas provided for dinner.

Tuesday June 18 – Hawaiian Bowling

Bean Bags – I expected to play 1 game and done, and instead my partner Evelyn and I won the Championship. Took us 6 games but we did it…totally amazed!

Dinner was leftover ham, beans, potatoes!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Golf Scramble – 8:30 until ???

9:00 am – Ladder Jacks

Very high winds all day – we had a grill your own meat and bring a side dish to share with the Drifters – I made Cloud 9 and we grilled a Ham Steak – YUMMO.

2:30 Ice Cream Social

We had ‘happy hour’ that stretched for a couple hours until the mosquitos chased us in!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Flea Market, Craft Sale, Board of Director’s meeting

Wonderful sitting around chatting with Joe & Sandy Fryberger, Greg & Kay Sluyter, Kathy Bernard, Jim, Joan Myers, Dixie Cox, Mick & Sharon Bushlack – had a couple hours with these good friends!

Evening Banquet – Trash can dinner – sausages, corn, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions – and cornbread!

Dance band, pictures, door prizes (won another $25 cash prize).

Friday June 21, 2013

Hitch up and go breakfast – the Hillbillies provided omelets in a bag and mini cinnamon buns, coffee, juice. It was all very good but sad to say farewell to these good friends, and since there are no guarantees in life chances are we won’t see some of them again. Live every day to the fullest!

We left the campground about 11, gassed up the MH and went 60 miles up the road to Mountain View RV Park in Sundance, WY. Devil's Tower (6)Devil's Tower (7)Devil's Tower (8)We got set up than went in town for lunch, which was very good! The waitress said they were closed on the weekend, but recommended the Buffalo Jump Saloon in the town of Beulah.

We got a call from friends Lynn and Joyce Marlatt saying they were coming up on Saturday to visit with us, so we did a little cleaning and I made a great steak salad for dinner.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

I made us a good breakfast about 11 am of eggs, fried ham, toast and we cleaned up and rearranged some ‘stuff’. There is always that to do in this lifestyle – clean out a drawer, or cupboard, or inventory something – I did start a pretty big grocery list, since we are at least 30 miles from a Wal-mart!!!

Joyce and Lynn arrived about 2:30 and we settled in for quite a chat! Suddenly the wind started to howl, and it got very black – rain started and then the hail came! We got several inches of pea sized hail, but it was exciting while it lasted! We finally got out to dinner about 5:30 and drove to the Buffalo Jump Saloon where we had a marvelous meal! I had Prime Rib and all the fixins, David and Lynn had the Rib Eye Steak Special and Joyce had a filet…we shared turtle cheesecake and they shared carrot cake.

We came back home and chattered until almost 9 pm, when they went over the hill to a hotel.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

We were expecting Lynn and Joyce to come over and yammer some more, and then we thought we’d go have an early lunch somewhere before they headed for home. We were sitting around drinking our coffee when David got a text from Joyce, saying they got up and left at 5 am, driving through the Black Hills…SO

We got cleaned up and headed for Gillette, where we had a wonderful Chinese Buffet for $16 for both of us, and then we made a big Wal-Mart run. I cooked and we ate up most of our groceries while in Sturgis, so I needed to replenish. Well, $175 later we headed back to the MH. Oh by the way, the reason we went the 60 miles to Gillette was that the closer Wal-Mart in Spearfish was closed – they had egg sized hail that did tons of damage, cars windows broken out, all the skylights in the stores, etc. Wow, glad we were not down there!

I made a pot of potato, onion, beef soup using our leftover meats from our dinner last night. I got too much salt in it – probably the bouillon!

Monday, June 24, 2013

We puttered around this morning – made a great breakfast of sausage, potatoes, onions, fried up and put a couple OE eggs on top – it was very tasty! We decided we would go to Devil’s Tower, so we left about 11 and got there about 11:30. We drove up and were amazed at the amount of people there! It’s a good thing we have handicap plates or we would have never gotten a parking space! I went into the visitor center and got my book stamped, and we did get some good pictures. Devil's Tower (1)Devil's Tower (9)

After visiting there, we decided to take the ‘scenic’ route back to the campground. It covered about 34 miles with great scenery! We stopped in Aladdin, where there is a restaurant recommended by our Campground Host as well as the man at the visitor center! The name is Cindy B’s and the pie lived up to the hype! They only had cherry left at 2 in the afternoon, so that’s what we had and it was excellent and you could tell it was made on site – so we’ll be going back probably Thursday for some coconut cream, and get there by 11!

Once again in the early evening (about 6) we had torrential rains with lots of thunder and lightning. It is so green here it almost hurts your eyes, really not what we’re used to seeing in WY!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Glacier National Park MT to Sturgis SD

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Got up early and hit the road to Glacier National Park. It is 140 miles from St Regis, and I wanted to get my ‘passport’ stamped, so off we went. We drove through some amazing country, and since most of the way the speed limit was 70, it didn’t take as long as it could have! We stopped in Lakeside and had breakfast – it was good but nothing special. We went on up to the park, stopped at the Ranger Station, and watched the web cam they had showing the front end loaders getting rid of snow. The drift was 60 FEET deep…and over a mile long! They hope to have the road open by the 21st of June, but last year it was July 4th! WOW – lot of snow!

We drove to the Lake Macdonald Lodge and got some good pictures – as usual pictures do NOT do it justice! We stopped at ‘The Huckleberry Patch’ where I indulged in a huckleberry shake, and got a bottle of chipotle huckleberry glaze to put on cream cheese – it will be a ‘happy hour’ appearance at National! Also came upon a sale of Glacier National Park T-shirts – now I don’t usually buy these ‘cause they are normally about $19 each, this was buy 3 for $27 – so I bought 3! I got the size that will fit David and work for me as well! Yaay for a bargain!

When we got back here to St Regis, it was 5:30 and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast – so we stopped at ‘Frosty’ for burgers and shared an order of onion rings – very good!

I hooked up the car tonight since we had a pull through site – that makes the morning go so much faster! We’ll be traveling 185 miles to Butte, MT tomorrow!

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June 6, 2013

We got up and hit the road, expecting to make it to Billlings, MT…but after about 40 miles of 10 mile stretches of very bad construction – we stopped just outside of Butte, MT. We stayed at a PA park and what a bargain - $15 for full hookups…but we only used elec and water J We unhooked the car and drove into Butte, and lo and behold there is a Taco John’s there. We had not enjoyed that for 2 years, so of course that is where we ate! After a stop at Wally World we headed back to the MH. It was a LONG day!

June 7, 2013

Drove to Reed Point RV park – never even unhooked the car.

June 8, 2013

Drove to Garryowen, MT and stayed at an Escapee’s park there. Very nice park, but at $32.93 a little pricier than we like. However, the Little Bighorn National Battlefield/Monument is there, so we un-hooked and off we went. First stop was at the Trading post where we had marvelous Indian Taco’s…so good – we were too full to even have a piece of the fantastic looking homemade coconut cream pie!

We toured the battlefield, where you can buy an audio tour on CD OR you can call on your cell phone and follow the markers, which is what we did. WOW – I think that Custer should have waited until all his players got there before they started the fight. Just driving around those hills, you could tell that anytime you popped up a head it was gonna get shot! Amazement at the tomb stones all over and the stories that we heard held us spellbound.

We then stopped at the Museum and upon learning that it was $7.50 per person to go in gave it a pass. There are far too many ‘free’ wonderful museums to have to pay to see one. When we go to the free ones, we ALWAYS make a donation of at least $5 and sometimes $20…but don’t like having to pay prior to seeing! How do you feel about that?

 

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BIG sky country!

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June 9, 2013

Drove to Belle Fourche MT, and are staying at Wyatt’s Hideaway, a very nice RV park that is also PA and Escapees - $20 per night. Nice grassy sites, well taken care of. We went for dinner at the local chinese restaurant and it was fantastic. I had pork lo mein and David had egg foo young – both meals were great!

June 10, 2013

Got up this morning and headed out to see if we could find someplace to do some repairs on our coach – we have some water leak issues. We went to Spearfish first, which is 11 miles away. The big draw there was a ‘smart style salon’ in the Wal-Mart. We both got haircuts and David got a beard trim! Then we headed down I-90 to Sturgis, drove around town and then went into Rapid City. Of course by the time we got there it was 1:30 and we were starving – so we stopped at Golden Corral and had a feast! They really have a great deal for seniors – it was $16 for both of us including drinks, and the food was very good!

We left and started back to the park, and found an RV Repair place at the junction of 34 and I-90. When we went in and talked to their service department we asked if we could bring our rig by and have them tell us what parts we needed, we could get them ordered and bring it in for service in about 2 weeks. They were pretty arrogant about not even having anyone available to LOOK at it for 3 weeks – possibly longer. He did recommend a place in Belle Fourche to get the oil changed and lube done – we have an appointment for that tomorrow morning at 10…they are also supposed to flush the radiator and service the generator. We haven’t had anything done since we left TX and we’ve put a lot of miles on this old girl!

June 11, 2013

Spent all day at the garage – took the MH in at 10 am – finally got it out at 3:45. Spent the day driving around – breakfast at Taco Johns, saw the spot in Belle Fourche that is the CENTER OF THE NATION 100_6813100_6819100_6820– stopped at a park for an hour and let Cinder play, tried to find a winery and never did – shopped a little and bought some Red Ass Rhubarb wine, which I expect to share with someone at National J Had a late lunch early dinner at Belle Inn, and it was very good – bought a caramel roll to go – we had it last night and man, I wish I’d a bough a dozen of them! Creamy, caramel, moist goodness!

We were under a severe thunderstorm watch and we got it – but we did NOT get the hail and the wind that they did in some places!

June 12, 2013

Got a late start today, couldn’t get David moving until 10:30 – we drove out to Shadow Ranch where our rally will be next week – lovely place about 12 miles outside of Sturgis. Talked to the owner who said we would have everything there we could possibly need – he was a very nice man!

Then we went up to Spearfish to Lincare. David was out of oxygen in his small bottles, and we stopped in there to see if we could get some – they needed a prescription. David called the VA and they faxed a prescription to Lincare, and we gave them 2 bottles empty and they gave us (for $24) two full bottles. Sheesh!

We had lunch at a place called Pizza Ranch, which is a pizza buffet, but they also have a good salad bar, fried chicken, Mashed potatoes, gravy and two veggies…it came to $16 including drinks. We decided that I would use what I planned for dinner tomorrow, as neither one of us was hungry for dinner.

We then drove through Spearfish canyon, a scenic trip of 14 miles – breath taking! We once again saw Bridal Veil Falls – we’ve seen falls with this name in almost every state on this trip! Not very original :)

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Drove through the towns of Lead, Central City and Deadwood. Did not stop to gamble.  We will probably go up to Deadwood another day.

June 13, 2013

Clean up day – David got the ladder down for me and I cleaned the entire cockpit area – windows plus all the ‘bugs’ on the front. Boy was it dirty!

Caught up on all the laundry, made up a menu for National, then rested!

Friday, June 14, 2013

We were going to drive to see Crazy Horse, but decided to do that the week after National and before Escapade!

I drove into Sturgis wanting to get a mani/pedi, only to find out they could only give me a pedi…small towns! We try to spend our money in the towns we’re in, BUT I would have been better off to drive to Spearfish to Wal-Mart. It was $47 for a PEDICURE…I could have had both there for $55…

I went to the grocery store here in Sturgis too – besides not being able to find part of the stuff I wanted, I think I over paid by at least 20%. Ggggrrrr! I think I’ll be driving to Spearfish (15 miles away) to do any more major shopping!

Meanwhile back at the RV, David dumped tanks and put up the hose. We’ll have full hook ups at National – yaaay!

At around 5:30 we drove over to Elk View Campground where part of the Jackalopes (our home club from Red Dale National Wagon Train) pulled in today. We got great hugs and lots of ‘catch up’ from Pam and Gary Wisecup, Joyce and Bob Parker, Shirley Marsh, a wave to Ken and Brenda Badgley, and a quick ‘Hi’ to Joe Dereemer. What a great group!

Here are some pictures of some beautiful flowers we’ve seen lately!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

May 16, 2013 through June 4, 2016

Thursday, May 16th, We traveled up 395 back to Bishop to get the motorhome…and on our way, we passed a sign that said Manzanar National Monument…Of course we had to stop. It is an internment camp for Japanese Americans from Dec 7, 1941 through Oct 1945. It was a very emotional stop – got to talk to a man who was 79 years old and was imprisoned there from the time he was 7 until he was 11. WOW – how great that we happened to be there when he was, and he told us all about his family, what happened to them, and how it shaped their future. WE arrived back at the MH about 4, unpacked, and rested from an awesome week!

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IMG_2290Friday, May 17, We left Bishop, and made our way to Carson City, where we stopped at the Carson City Inn, Casino and RV resort – it was nice and clean and lovely, and we had a wonderful dinner in the Casino, David spent most of the evening coughing and being ill.

Saturday May 18th, we dove from Carson City to Milford, CA, where we parked at the Honey Lake RV Resort – a resort it is not, but a nice place to park it is! Right off 395, but on the hill, so you hear zero traffic noises, you are under beautiful redwood pines, so you hear the breeze blowing through them! We drove up to Susanville because we were out of drugs for David (cough syrup), and while there had lunch at Lassen Ale Works – I had wonderful fish and chips, David had a Rueben – both were excellent!

Sunday, May 19, 2013 – we spent the day here at Honey Lake. David was recuperating – I took the opportunity to clean the MH, all the glass in the shower area, and I did a lot of cooking. I made smoked pork chops, eggs, home fries and toast for breakfast – then for lunner we had Italian sausage sandwiches, macaroni salad and baked beans – so it was a domestic day! I hooked the car back up to the MH, and we’re heading to Red Bluff tomorrow morning where we will be staying at a Moose Club!

Monday, May 20 – Got to the Moose club and got a pull through, so didn’t unhook the car – we did stop at a roadside stand on the way and got a wonderful just picked cantaloupe, as well as some fresh cherries – yum! We spent the evening just hanging out – I read my kindle and David watched movies on the computer J

Tuesday, May 21 – we drove from Red Bluff, CA to Talent, OR, where we stopped at the American RV Resort (Passport America – NOT a resort) where we backed into a site and since we unhooked the car we drove through the town (3 mins), found a little bistro and had lunch. It is raining here and they are calling for snow overnight! It is May 21….sheesh! Not to worry, we have heat :)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013 – we drove about 50 miles to Hugo, OR, a suburb of Grants Pass. David’s nephew, Lance Koehler lives in Grants Pass and David hadn’t seen him for about 25 years. They had connected on Facebook and made arrangements to meet. Since today was a short hop, we didn’t hook up the car, and I followed the MH. This is a very very nice Campground. It is Joe Creek Waterfalls Resort, and with my Escapees discount it was $25 for the night. Beautiful level pull through spot, last one available as people are rolling in for the Memorial Day holiday! We got set up, took Cinder for a nice long walk, had oatmeal for brunch, and then took naps.

We took off at 3 pm for Grants Pass Super Wal-Mart, since I had a rather lengthy list, having bought nothing for two weeks but fresh fruits and veggies. We were in the check out line when Lance called and said he was off work and he picked the Tap Rock Restaurant/Brewery for dinner. We met there about 4:15 and laughed, ate and chatted for 2.5 hours! It was wonderful for me to meet him, and for David to get reacquainted with the man he has become. I had fried Cod and the guys had burgers – all was very good!

On a very sad note, just found out that my Uncle Ross Gary has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer – please add him and his family in your prayers if you would – thank you!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Arrived at the SKP park in Sutherlin, OR. Got set up on lot 110, drove around the park, went to the Post Office to pick up our general delivery mail – wow, it was our mail from Hondo, Bob Wheaton you were not kidding, there was a bunch of drugs!!! We grabbed some Taco Bell and came back to the MH and ate a very early dinner or very late lunch…2:30 pm…which meant that we had cereal at 7:30…it was good. While we were watching out the window we saw a flock of wild turkeys that were enormous! There was 1 tom and 6 hens – two of the hens got into a great big fight and were screaming right in front of the MH – Cinder just lay on the patio and watched them! I’ll try to get some pics posted…they say the deer walk around in this park too – but we haven’t seen any of them yet!

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Friday, May 24, 2013

We drove over to see a very old covered bridge that is still being used. Took a couple pics, hope they come out!

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We then drove down to the North Umpqua River where they just opened a new fishing ladder that they built to help the salmon and trout get back up river to their spawning grounds. Amazing – they had not been able to get back for a couple years, once they opened the ladder within a day they were going up it like crazy! Sometimes we do get it right!

We then went into Roseberg and had lunch at a place called ZEN – which is a Mongollian Grill – you know we can’t pass that up! It was delish! We stopped at Safeway and I stocked up on some fresh fruits/veggies, they had BIG watermelons for $3.99 – and I got stuff to make the Asian cole slaw for the BBQ on Monday!

We went to social hour here at 3 pm, and chatted with folks for more than an hour – when we came home I made dinner – I had chicken salad and David had a huge artichoke…he was loving that! We also finished up the cantaloupe and macaroni salad!

Saturday

We did the ‘local’ thing – went to a couple wineries – did some sampling, had lunch at Tolley’s, a local inn on the Historical register – really wonderful lunch special, prime rib open faced sandwich with hand cut fries, plus homemade bread and butter pickles…came home and kicked back with some ‘wine’ and made a wonderful ‘holiday’ dinner of baby back ribs, baked sweet potatoes, tossed salad, corn on the cob and angel food cake with fresh strawberries and peaches – wonderful!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Oh what a day! We hit the road at 8:30, heading for the Redwood National Park/Forest. We drove 138 miles to get there and it was worth every mile. The trees are totally amazing, and the smell of the forest is unbelievable! It smelled piney – loamy- earthy…heavenly! Then we headed up Highway 101, the coastal highway, from Crescent City, CA to Gold Beach, OR. Oh my – everything we heard about the Oregon Coast is true. At first it seemed like we were on the wrong road or something – but suddenly we saw the Pacific…and then we saw rocks with waves beating on them – and then more and more and more! We stopped several places and took pictures – but I’m sure they won’t do it justice either!

We turned our GPS on because I couldn’t remember the road that cut back over to Sutherlin, and she had us turn on this National Forest Service Road…for 29 twisty, turny, twisty road. Then she sent us another 39 miles on a HORRIBLE – 1 lane with turn outs road – took us 2 hours to go 60 miles, and the tension – it was sheer drop offs on the right hand side of the road, and we met about 15 cars/trucks on it – you had to time the pull offs so you didn’t have to back up…by the time we got back to I-5 my shoulders were aching like I had pulled them out of socket! We had another 76 miles to go, but it was a piece of cake – we stopped at Abby’s Legendary Pizza for dinner because it was 6pm by then, and the end of a very long day!

May 27, 2013 – Memorial Day – we slept in late for us – I guess yesterday was tougher on us than I thought! At any rate, we started moving around – it was raining hard, so I took Cinder out in the rain, then gathered up the laundry and went to get that done. The laundry room here at Timber Valley is really nice, and at $1 to wash and .75 to dry, I’m all over that! Have not done laundry for 17 days. It was past time!

The park held a bring your own meat and a dish to share potluck at 1 pm, so I made an Asian Slaw and it turned out pretty good! We took cheddarwurst to grill, and it was excellent! TIP – when you are at a hot dog roast or pot luck where you are having something in buns, make up your buns at home with ketchup, mustard, onion, etc…wrap them up and take ‘em along – when the dogs are done, just slide them into the buns. Then you don’t need to cart bottles of all the condiments…easy peasy!

We came home and then just vegged out the rest of the day.

May 28 – was a work day. We cleaned the coach and steam cleaned the carpets – then we took Cinder and treated ourselves to lunch at Taco Time in Roseburg while it all dried. When we got back home, it was time to wipe everything down before we put it all back. It was a very long day!

May 29 – FUN day! We drove across OR 138 to Coos Bay where we had a marvelous lunch with friends Linda and Howard Hatfield. It is a funny thing this full time life, you make new friends everywhere – and when you get a chance to meet them ‘down the road’ it is always special! The Hatfields actually are our neighbors at Lone Star Corral in TX…almost right across the street! I had sent out an email to our LSC newsgroup, saying where we were and they replied they were in Coos Bay. A couple of emails later we were all set to go spend some time with them!

On the way we stopped at the Myrtle Wood factory and gifts store. Amazing…look up myrtle wood and read about it! I indulged in a pair of salad tongs that are so beautiful it will make me smile every time I use them I’m sure!

As we arrived in Coos Bay there was a farmer’s market set up in town – actually a pretty nice one, but a little spendy for me $6 for a loaf of sourdough bread, and $8 for a loaf of cranberry walnut that I really wanted and left there!!! I’m going to try to make some when I am either in PA or TX with my breadmakers! Can’t be too hard right? The only produce they had was organic lettuce – at $3 for a bunch – left that there too!

After lunch we drove 21 miles down to Bandon, a little seaside village that’s claim to fame is cranberries – yep, I always thought cranberries were a New England thing, but here in OR they grow cranberries – LOTS of them! I did get a bag of dried cranberries, along with some English Toffee Bites and white chocolate covered pretzels! We’re set for snacks for quite a while. I use the dried cranberries in our oatmeal.

We managed to get home about 5 o’clock and got into the ‘get ready to go’ mode where I put things up and David dumped the tanks since we would be staying at Moose Clubs for a couple nights.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Left Timber Valley Sutherlin, OR this morning about 10 am. We chatted and drove along for about 50 miles, then decided it was time to have some breakfast. I said we could stop at the Elk Viewing area, and David laughed and said fine, but there would be no elk. Well, we pulled in and lo and behold, there was a herd of ELK – everything from young’uns to a HUGE Bull Elk with his antlers in velvet. What an amazing sight! I made a great breakfast of homefries w/onions, eggs and toast, and we ate while watching those magnificent creatures!Oregon Coast (9)Oregon Coast (10)

We continued up the Pacific Coast Highway, 101 until we got to Waldport. On the way up we kept catching glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, smashing against rocks, and making us ache to find a spot to pull over…alas, pulling a motorhome and car over on 101 is no easy feat!

When we got here to the Moose Club, Lodge 326, got backed in and hooked up, we got in the car and headed up 101 to Newport, where we had been informed there was the best clam chowder in the world, at a place called Mo’s. I can say it was delicious, however, the cup we shared at Shark Bites was better – much more clam flavor and full of clams! But, Mo’s was classic thick with lots of potatoes – never did find a clam in my bowl!

We drove back down to Waldport, only this time we stopped in all the little side view areas – took lots of pictures and oohed and ahhhhed over the ocean. People have told us for years ‘You gotta go to the Oregon Coast’ – and now we see why it is so loved!

We’ll be going over to the Moose for dinner – special is Reuben’s N fries so no cooking for me tonight!

Friday, May 31

Drove over to Tillamook, the Moose club was a bust, so we went to a ‘resort’ NOT! We paid $35 AFTER our discounts! The sites were too short and it was all dirt – and the only grass had a huge sign on it that said NO ANIMALS ON GRASS…I’d never stop there again! Anyhoo…

We went to the cheese factory where I was tempted into buying several cheeses – interesting and I must say that the cheese curds we bought in WI were better…just sayin’.

We drove out to Nestarts and took the loop for one last look at the wild Oregon coast…absolutely worth coming for!

We stopped at a little hole in the wall place and had marvelous clam chowder and a piece of smoked cod that was to die for. They smoked it with a teriyaki glaze – never had anything that tasted even close to that!

Saturday, June 01, 2013

We drove from Tillamook to The Dalles OR today, about 200 miles, and Portland was no fun to get through! We are at an Oregon State Park Deschutes River. David's nephew Scott and his wife Diane live in The Dalles, but campgrounds are almost non-existent! We could find no private campgrounds at all. This is a beautiful state park, very green and extremely well maintained. The best part is that today was a FREE day at the park, and because David has all the right passes, tomorrow night is FREE too! Woot woot! Makes up for that $35 a night last night! Scott and Diane came out about 2 and stayed chatting until almost 7pm...Scott Diane (23)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Got a late start this morning since I decided to make breakfast – made pancakes, smoked pork chops and eggs – it was gooooood! We puttered around the park and then went into visit with Scott and Diane and take them to lunch. We had a great tour of their home and then we went to IXTAPA for lunch – then we took a driving tour through some wine country and a local ‘safari’ type place. We also found a little roadside fruit stand where I got some fresh asparagus and some wonderful just picked cherries! YUM!

On the way back down the mountain, we noticed a huge cloud of smoke, and it looked like it was in the area of our park. We drove there immediately and the firetrucks were there – as were the rangers. We asked if there was any danger and they said not at this time, but no guarantees. They had David’s phone number so we headed back into The Dalles. We got there and were sitting visiting with Scott & Diane when David’s phone rang – it was the rangers saying they were evacuating the park, come get the MH…well, talk about quick good byes! We headed out, about 18 miles, and passed quite a few units from our park – when we got back there were only 5 of us left – and it was 5:30 pm. We do NOT like to travel that late in the day…so we went about 7 miles away at a COE park with no hook ups. We spent the night there!

Monday, June 3, 2013

We were on the road very early, since I had no clock when I got up at 6:15 there was no going back to sleep! Off we went – and we drove until about 3 when we stopped in Ritzville, WA for the night. Got a very nice site for $27 with full hook ups – and boy, did we need them! Hadn’t dumped for 5 days, so we were full! There was cable TV but no internet L It was a pull through site, so we didn’t unhook the car. I made swiss steak, noodles and asparagus for dinner! It was filling and good!

A couple sites away from us was a very nice looking Tradewinds, which is a brother to our Dolphin. I met Barbara Skinner and her husband Mike – they said they were having a National rally there, started Wednesday and ran through Sunday. They were expecting 30 Dolphins, Tradewinds, Tropicals…darn, we wish we could have stayed!!!

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Left Ritzville WA this morning at 8...pulled into St Regis, MT this afternoon about 1:30. We're staying put for 2 days at this fantastic RV Park, Nugget RV Park which is only about 2 miles from I-90. We are in the mountains with beautiful gravel sites, picnic tables and lovely green grass. We got settled in and then went into town for lunch/breakfast since we just had a cereal bar and I had some fresh cherries. Lunch was good - but dessert was better. Warm huckleberry pie ala mode...this must be heaven!