7/18/07

I have been meaning to update this blog for quite some time now but would you believe it, our air card developed a major problem and we have been unable to connect for about a week or so. Now that we have convinced Verizon to send us another one, we are reduced to driving 26 miles to Cle Elum to the Radio Shack/coffee place where they have a WiFi connection. Good – that means I can download some of the pictures I have been wanting to put here for you.

The big news is that last Friday we had a major freak wind storm go through our campground. A camper came running down to get us yelling about trees landing on campers and injuries. We hustled down there and found that at least 8 huge hemlock trees fell over in Thetis Loop, which had only been open for 2 weeks. One tree landed directly on a tent trailer, one on a tent, and one on a car. (see pictures below) There were 4 trees down on the loop road which prevented anyone from evacuating. Thank goodness there were no injuries because we could not have managed to get an ambulance in there until Marvin cut up 2 of the smaller trees, and then the fire department arrived with their huge chain saws and cut up the larger ones. Everyone was very upset about all the danger and quite a few people left the other loops as well. We had no trees down in our 2 loops, but the Gale Creek Loop had 2 trees down (on the road, of course), and Box Canyon had one down. Right after the wind did all this, a thunderstorm hit too, so we were working in the pouring rain. The entire campground was closed down until things settled down, at about 2 in the afternoon. The amazing thing is that because this happened on a Friday, the entire campground was full of campers again by 6 PM!

Things have been very busy for us because we have full campsites every weekend now, the day use areas are very busy every weekend too, and we have lots more campers during the week too. We continue to have many visitors. Sunday, Elaine’s friend Linda Lightfoot, whom she has known since kindergarten, and her partner, Greta, drove out and brought us a delicious dinner. Monday Handlebar Jim and Yolanda, from the Boomers, arrived. Jeanne and Rodger, from Park Sierra, will be here Friday. Another Boomer called us a few minutes ago and the call was cut off, but I suppose they will be coming soon too. Our close friends, Mike & Marilyn, Joe & Carla, and Pat & Linda will all be arriving Aug. 5. Next week we are going to visit Kathy & Sally at their place in Coeur D’Alene, ID and then Aug. 13 they are going to visit us. It is great to see everyone!

Yesterday Frank (our friend who is the host at Gale Creek Loop), joined us and we drove to all the other Thousand Trails campgrounds in the Cle Elum area to see them. Then we drove to Wenatchee where we got haircuts and did some shopping. It was good to get away from the campground for a while.

The blueberries and huckleberries are getting ripe all over the campground, so now we need to find time to pick some of them. It was lucky that the weather was so good while my twin, Marsha was visiting us because now we are having another rainy week. At least it is warmer than it was during rainy June, and we do have periods of sun. We are doing well and will try to do another update as soon as our new air card arrives.

I can’t find some of the pictures I wanted to download for you, such as the ones of me and my twin, and also some of my granddaughter, so I will download those next time. Please see the damage pictures below.

Blog Update – July 10, 2007

More Lake Wobegone – opps-I mean Lake Kachess stories. Sorry about the long lapses in updates but we have been VERY busy with both work and visitors.

We had a big upheaval last week which was caused by our area managers. Our unit managers, Marvin & Laraine, are wonderful and all of our Lake Kachess staff get along well, work hard and do a good job. Then our area managers, Donna and Ken, show up and start nit-picking everything, never recognizing that a good job is being done here, and they lean all over Marvin & Laraine. Several times Marvin & Laraine have been very, very close to just quitting and leaving after Ken & Donna were here yelling at them and interfering in everything. Elaine and I told Ken & Donna that if Marvin & Laraine left or were fired, then we were leaving too. The other 6 hosts here agreed. On the 4^th of July, we were absolutely slammed in our day use areas by picnicking families and in the boat launch area by boaters. Everyone worked really hard all day long and handled everything. Ken & Donna came over and weren’t happy with a few things and decided to fire Marvin & Laraine. They were going to tell them last Friday. But when we all got wind of it, threatened to have a mass walkout, and started calling and e-mailing the Thousand Trails office in Federal Way, they jumped on Ken & Donna and told them to handle the problem. After lots of meetings with everyone, things are now stabilized, and we are all staying on the job (for now).

Too bad all this was going on when my sister, Marsha was visiting, and also during the second week of my granddaughter, Paige’s, visit. Both have been delightful and cooperative house guests and we hope they had a good time here. The good thing is that the weather has been fabulous – so warm even that it is possible to swim in the lake. Paige & Marsha went kayaking with Frank yesterday, Marsha has done some fly fishing in nearby streams, and we have been able to drive them to local tourist places such as Leavenworth on our day off. Leavenworth is a town with buildings like a Bavarian village and is very charming. It is located in an area with lots of fruit trees and other crops as well as beautiful rivers. It was 101 degrees the day we were there! We were glad to get back to our campground which had temps in the 80’s. Marsha and Paige have seen deer, snowshoe hares, chipmunks, squirrels and lots of birds, even though the campground is busier. Yesterday, we drove to Seattle and had several hours and wonderful temperatures to visit Pikes Place Market and the waterfront. The views across Puget Sound were fabulous and we could see the snow capped mountains over on the Olympic Peninsula. Then we took them to the airport, where Paige’s flight left on time but Marsha’s was delayed by about 6 hours!! Avoid United Airlines if at all possible. Marsha has flown on it 4 times in the last 3 weeks and three of the four flights had delays of over 3 hours.

Two friends of Frank’s, Joe & Robb from Canada, were here for a week and we had so much fun with them on walks, at happy hours, and they served a delightful dinner. It seemed like we were laughing the whole time they were here.

Here is a campground story, typical of what hosts have to deal with. At 10:15 the other night 2 campers knocked on our door to tell us there were very noisy young campers next to them. We went over and found 3 young men with a huge campfire going. They had pulled big logs out of the forest (illegal) and had not registered or paid (illegal), and had their radio going loudly (illegal after 10PM). Elaine told them to turn off the radio and get a bucket of water and douse the fire. We suggested they go to the dispersed camping area outside our campground where they could party all night with their friends and camping is free. I escorted them to the entry gate and gave them directions and off they went. They were in the boat launch area the next day with their jet skis and they thanked us for telling them where to go. The other campers were also very happy because these guys had left. Hopefully, all of our incidents will end this well.

Last weekend was another very busy time at the campground, plus we had a Sunday afternoon visit from my step-brother, Richard and his wife Carol. They live about 40 miles from the campground, at Fall City, near Snoqualmie Falls. After they did a short hike, we had a clam linguine dinner by the campfire in the late afternoon. It was great to see them again, and we were glad they could come while Marsha was here. The warm, sunny weather continues and it is great to be here (provided the labor problems continue to be resolved). I will try to attach a few pictures below but since my internet connection is iffy, even with this new air card, I don’t know if I will be successful.

6/25/07

Hey-finally we’re back on the blog with more stories from Lake Kachess! Have been so busy and been trying to find time to write and post some pictures but it isn’t easy with the schedule we have been keeping. The good part is that it hasn’t just been work that is keeping us hopping. We have been having lots of visitors and we love it. Also, we have managed to go and visit several friends on our days off and enjoyed seeing them and their beautiful homes and surroundings very much.

In our last blog update we mentioned that we were going to visit Jim & Diane Fisher-Baker. They were camp hosts here for 3 years and we got lots of good tips from them during our time together. They have recently purchased a very nice manufactured home in a gated community overlooking Lake Chelan so we were able to drive up there in our car and stay in their spare bedroom. Their home is lovely and so is the view and the weather there – much warmer and drier than here. We enjoyed 2 days of yakking and walks in the area, great meals prepared by both of them, and a nice lunch out at Blueberrry Hill Restaurant. On the way home we did some much needed shopping in Wenatchee, the largest town in the area.

When we got back from that visit, we had an e-mail from Terry & Vicki Webb, a Boomer couple we met last January at Quartzsite. They wanted to come to our campground with 2 rigs of people from their Unitarian church. So we reserved them 3 spots in our loop and had three days of visiting with them at Happy Hours. Their friends were delightful, we so enjoyed getting to know Terry and Vicki better, and we hope all three couples come back again since they all have homes in the Seattle area.

Next we were very pleasantly surprised when our young friends Anja and Ole and their dog, Moritz, appeared at our campground. We met them in Mexico about 10 years ago and have had several visits with them since then but not for about 5 years. They live in the Los Angeles area and work in the film industry. They were on their way to a wedding in Seattle and came early to see us. What fun, with lots more yakking, Happy Hours, and shared meals for 2 days.

On our next day off, we went with Frank, one of the other camp hosts here, to visit his friends Chuck and Jerry who have a small farm in Enumclaw. They have done wonders with the property, which has a fabulous view of Mount Rainier. Since it was a sunny, beautiful day, we had an awesome view of the mountain. We were also able to enjoy a delicious lunch in their garden in the sunshine-hooray! They raise a few chickens and turkeys, as well as a pheasant and a few baby turkeys, plus three horses. After serving us a feast for lunch, Jerry took us to do some exploring and shopping in nearby towns. They sent us home with dozens of fresh eggs-yum.

The day after that trip, we were very pleasantly surprised by a phone call from our old friends Lee & Susie Blattner, that they were heading our way. Luckily we have a campsite fairly near our rig with a long parking slot for their rig and car. They stayed three nights and there was, of course, more gabbing and eating. They were here through part of the weekend and we are always busy checking in campers and doing other chores, so we were glad they understood about our time restrictions.

They left early on Saturday, and several hours later, our friends Joe Jackaway and Karen Blue arrived. Joe traveled with us down to the Panama Canal and back in 2004 and we haven’t seen him since. Blue has been his traveling companion ever since we introduced them on that trip. She was a high school friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in 40 years. She wrote a book about women reinventing their lives by moving to Mexico and when I read that book, I got her current e-mail address and arranged for our Panama group to visit her in Ajijic, near Lake Chapala and Guadalajara. She and Joe hit it off and the rest is history. It was fabulous to see them again and catch up on all their news. They could only stay until Sunday, but we managed to have a great dinner together around a blazing campfire and a nice breakfast the next day before they left.

Since we have been complaining about the weather, we need to admit that we finally had about 4 days of nicer weather last week. The sunshine rejuvenated us and recharged the batteries on the rig as well as our own! Unfortunately, after all the wet and then the warmth, it also brought a big mosquito infestation. They were here for about 5 days and smoky fires were encouraged to keep them away! Today we noticed that they are pretty much gone, but perhaps that is because we had a huge rainstorm starting yesterday and continuing all night and the temps today were cold again, with snow returning to the slopes above the lake.

Despite the changeable weather, we have been having more and more campers. Last weekend the campgrounds were all full again, the first time this has happened since Memorial Day weekend. I’m sure we will be having lots of campers over the week of the 4^th of July too.

Tomorrow we drive to SeaTac to pick up Adrianna (Paige), my 16 year old granddaughter, who will be staying with us for 13 days. I’m sure we will be getting out the kayaks, going for bike rides, and hopefully getting in some fishing while she is here.

I am posting some pictures below of the people mentioned in this episode. I have some great ones of Chuck & Jerry and the super shot of Mount Rainier from their place, but I am having trouble keeping my internet connection so I will try to post those next time.

6/10/07 Another rainy Sunday here at Lake Kachess!! It is getting tiresome and we are hoping for warmer weather soon. Since we have been having rain off and on for the last 8 days, we have had very few campers, which has been kind of nice as we can then get a few backlogged tasks done. Last Tuesday we went in to Cle Elum on our day off, which is a decently sized town about 25 miles east of here. We wanted to arrange for a Radio Shack guy to come out to help us get hooked up to satellite TV using a remote dish, since all the trees here prevent reception using our roof-mounted Motosat. He can't come until this Wednesday. Cle Elum is a nice little town and we enjoyed being there. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant called El Caporal and it was delicious. We also hung out at the coffee place in the Radio Shack store because they have great flavored coffees and fast wireless internet.
Tomorrow we are driving to Lake Chelan to stay overnight with our friends Jim and Diane Fisher-Baker. They were the ones who worked here 3 summers in a row and they hooked us up for this job. Now they have bought a small place at Lake Chelan for the summers, but will still be RVing the rest of the time. We are anxious to see them and discuss things about the job! Also, it is usually warmer and drier there so we are hoping for better weather. Next weekend should be very busy here as we are already getting lots of reserved sites for Father's Day.
I've got to go because tonight we are having a staff potluck at the A-frame cabin we can use. Movie night will follow. It beats sitting in the cold and rainy evening here by ourselves.

6/1/07 For the past week we have been at Lake Kachess campground, having sunny days and being very busy. This situation of being employed 30 hours a week really cuts into our free time! But what a beautiful place this is, with trees everywhere and a large, gorgeous lake. Because of all the rain and snow this past winter, the lake is the highest it has been for about 30 years. In fact, as we drove here, we passed many areas where there was still snow on the ground. We have seen deer, chipmunks, squirrels, and lots of birds.
When we first arrived here, we expected that we would be camp hosts at a loop called Thetis, which is right on the lake. Because this is a small loop, we would also be responsible for working in the entry booth to collect day use fees on Fri, Sat, and Sunday. Well, because of downed trees and other damage, Thetis loop is not open and there is no projected date for it to open. It all depends on the Forest Service and when they get all the clean up done and the sites ready. One of the other loops, Beargrass Flat, was without a host, because they hadn’t arrived yet, so we parked there and worked that loop, and also the booth. Last Wednesday we had to move because those hosts were arriving and we were in their spot. So we moved to site 55 and hated it. It was too surrounded with trees for us to have any solar, we couldn’t get level, and it wasn’t very private. The very next day Ron & Charmaine, the camp hosts on 2 of the other loops, Mineral Creek and Lodge Creek, quit. They had worked here last year on a different loop and were not happy with the manager this year and with the way some things were handled over the very busy Memorial Day weekend. So we were again moved, this time to their spot and we are now working both of those loops and have an occasional stint in the front booth and at the boat ramp. This weekend will probably be fairly quiet, which suits us fine because we are still in the learning phase of this new job. The other camp hosts are very nice people and we are also getting along well with the manager, Laraine, and her husband, Marvin, the maintenance man. There have been a couple of meetings and also a social evening together last night. One of the nicest hosts is a guy named Frank, from Yuma, who handles Gale Creek loop and the picnic area all by himself. I have taken a few pictures around the campground and I will try to attach them at the end of this.
One of the problems here was no internet access, so on our first day off we went into Issaquah, and purchased an air card. Now we have access but it is slow. We also have limited phone access because we have a low signal unless we are attached to our trucker’s antenna. This means we can’t have the phone with us when we leave the rig. So we leave the phone off and just return calls if people leave messages. Today we tried to tune in our satellite TV and are unable to do it at this site because of the location of trees around our site. So on our next day off, we will probably have to go into town again and purchase a portable dish and long cable that we can put in a clearing to get a satellite signal. It is looking like we will be spending all our earnings on items to make our stay here more comfortable!
Another problem we had was another leak in the hose going into the water heater, a problem Pat Jenkins helped Elaine with when we were in Quartzsite in January. This time Elaine got a better hose and appropriate fittings and installed it and our leak is fixed. Isn’t she a marvel?! Actually, I have been wanting to tell a story about what a marvel she really is, so I will do it now.
When we were on our way back from Spain and stayed overnight in Madrid, we told the guy at the hotel that we had to leave early in the morning to take the metro back to the airport. He said to just leave the keys in the room. So we did that and when we got down to the entry area of the building, we learned that there was a big deadbolt type arrangement being used at night and we could not get out without a key. So we tried to get back into our room to get the keys, but those doors were locked automatically behind us. We tried knocking, ringing the bell, etc. but couldn’t get anyone to respond. Time was passing and we were going to be late for our flight check-in if we didn’t get out of that hotel very soon!! So Elaine got her Swiss army knife out of her suitcase and used the little screwdriver tool to take off the latching hasp for the deadbolt. We managed to make it to the airport in time thanks to her wonderful mechanical skills. They are also helpful here in the campground, and with our new rig. It would have been priceless to see the looks on their faces when they arrived at their hotel that morning and found their lock all disassembled!
We have been having warm weather, even hot (89 degrees today) but colder, rainy weather is predicted for next week. More stories from Lake Kachess (is this like Lake Wobegone?) in a week or so.

5/23/07 Haven't had time to write anything here since returning to the USA because we have been so busy fixing up our vacant rental in Santa Clara. Hooray, we got it back, cleaned it up and re-rented it all within one week! Now we are on our way north because we have to be at our summer campground host job by tomorrow, so we can get ready to start work on Friday. Since that is the start of the Memorial Day weekend, and the campground is likely to be packed, this should be quite a "trial by fire" right off the bat.
Currently we are parked in the driveway of Lee & Susie Blattner's son's house in Vancouver, WA. We have been here 2 nights and have been enjoying visiting with Lee & Susie since they are parked here too. Troy & Janelle have allowed us to use their FAX and other infrastructure to complete some business and now we are ready to leave this morning for Lake Kachess. We should be there by mid-afternoon. Remember, we will be here all summer and are hoping that we will have lots of you people visiting us. Contact us ahead of time so we can save you a spot on our loop.
I have finally downloaded a few pictures from our trip and will put a few on this blog so you can have some idea of our activities. The first picture is of our table of friends on the cruise ship. Maddie & George, Joe & Carla, Mike & Marilyn, Elaine and I all managed to EAT our way across the Atlantic!! If we hadn't been walking 5-6 miles a day and working out in the gym on the ship, we would have been gigantic by the time the 13 day cruise ended. The second picture is Mary, Jerry & Lori (Elaine’s nephew & his wife) with Don Quixote in Seville. The next picture is Mary and Elaine with one of the 22 baby goats that we saw when we visited our friends Tom & Pat Bryant on their farm near Canyonville, OR on our way up here. They provided us with a delicious dinner and we had a great time reconnecting with them again. The last picture is of their farm, taken from the patio of their lovely home.
I would love to write more at this time, and especially tell you about a few of the incidents that happened on our trip back, but I don’t have time right now. More later.

5/10/07 We are still at Moron Air Force Base south of Seville, visiting Jerry & Lori Traughber. But we have had a few interesting experiences so I thought I would write this. Tuesday we all went in to Seville and did some exploring. We had been there last year with Lee & Susie too, and seen some of the highlights such as the Plaza de Espana. This is a very beautiful and different building which was built for the international exposition in 1929. This time we saw more buildings from that event and they were obvious because they had the country name across the front of them in tile, such as Guatemala, or Mexico. The Plaza de Toros, or bull fight ring, was near the parking garage but we only saw the outside. It is right in the middle of the old downtown part and there are buildings all around it, which surprises us because we are used to arenas where there are parking lots all around them. Elaine and I visited the cathedral and the attached Giralda Bell Tower. Not only is this the world's third largest cathedral, after St Peter's at the Vatican and St. Paul's in London, but it is so old that it was first built as a mosque when the Moors were here. It is also the world's largest Gothic cathedral. It was started in 1181. In 1218 it was changed to a cathedral. Entering the cathedral we experienced one of the only advantages of getting this old - a break in the entry fee from 7 Euros to 2. Hooray! The interior was quite ornate and had interesting and complex carved choir stalls, altars, etc. but lots of them looked like they needed to be dusted! There is a section called the Treasury, where objects made of silver, gold and other precious metals and gems are displayed. The workmanship is incredible. The attached bell tower is 98 meters tall, and climbing it is fairly easy because there are no steps, just inclined ramps and you circle around and around in a square pattern. The view of Seville from the top was fantastic and we had a beautifully clear day for taking a few pictures. We decided to leave just in time because a school group was coming up there so there was going to be hundreds of noisy kids in a small area. Jerry likes the Irish pub nearby, called Flaherty's so we had lunch there. Very good beer (Murphy's) and excellent food, plus a nice place to sit outside. After a walk through Maria Luiza Park, a huge wonderfully green area full of trees and flowers and right in the middle of the old town, we headed back to the air base.
Yesterday there was an exciting event here at the base. The Airbus A380 flew in for a few days because they are testing it here. This is one of the few places in Europe that have a big enough runway for it. The runway here is large enough that they can land the space shuttle here and every time there is a launch, this place has to be in readiness. So we went over to the flight line to see it and it is HUGE. It can hold over 500 passengers, although none were on it this time. They are now doing lots of approaches, landings, touch-downs, etc. so we are seeing it in the sky a lot. It is amazingly quiet for such a huge plane. The Spanish fighter jets that fly in and out of this base are about 10 times as loud.
Today Lori is driving us to Jerez. We will try to see some places such as the Spanish Riding School and one of the sherry bodegas for which Jerez is famous. Then she will drop us off at the airport for our flight to Madrid. The next post will be from back in the good old USA!

5/7/07 I don't know if this message will be in English or Spanish when it gets posted because I am typing it on a computer in Spain and all the text on this website is in Spanish. Hope you can read this!
As you know, we have been on a 13 day cruise between Galveston and Barcelona, which is why there have been no new updates for a while. The cruise ended yesterday morning, and we made our way to the train station in Barcelona, took a train to the airport, and flew to Seville. Elaine's nephew, Jerry Traughber, picked up there and we will be staying at their home at Maron Air Force Base until Thursday. His wife Lori, and their two children, Mitch and Maddie, have made us feel very welcome and we are enjoying our visit. The daytime temps are in the low 80's, so this is a good time to be here. Tomorrow we will go exploring in Seville.
The cruise was quite enjoyable because we were with two other RV couples: Joe & Carla Calwell, and Mike and Marilyn Harrison. Additionally, friends of Joe & Carla's, Madelyn and George, were also at our table. So every late afternoon there was a cocktail party at someone's room, then we went to the live entertainment, then had a delicious dinner. Since we had the late dinner seating, often we didn't finish until after 10 PM. Not wanting to go to bed on a full stomach, we often continued with more entertainment or dancing in one of the lounges. Most nights we were staying up until 1 or 2 AM!! The fact that we were having to advance our clocks an hour forward about every other day also affected our bedtimes. Then we wouldn't get up until 10:30 or 11 AM. This was a very unusal lifestyle for us, as we usually hit the sack by 10 PM and are up by 7 AM. So this cruise timeline was a real departure from our usual habits, to say the least. We did make a real effort to continue our walking and exercise program, which was a good thing or we would have been blimps by the end of the trip, the way we were eating...
The only ports we stopped at were Key West, Punta Delgada in the Azores, and Cadiz, Spain. We have been to all of these before so our adventures in those places were pretty low key. Luckily, we had pretty good weather the entire 2 weeks and only slightly rough seas one night.
Friday we fly back to San Francisco, Monday I have to have another surgery on the same skin cancer spot on my shoulder, and then we will be moving our RV up to Santa Clara to work on our vacant rental house there. It looks like we will have to put the pedal to the metal to get up to our camp hosting summer job in Washington state by May 25. Thank goodness Elaine's daughter, Tarra, can finish things up for us with the house and install a new renter once we have cleaned the place up.
I am happy to report that both Elaine and I are well and enjoying this vacation. Jerry, Lori, Mitch and Maddie are also doing great and hopefully, are enjoying our visit, even though they are also getting ready to be moved back to the USA in 37 days. We will be posting some pictures from this trip as soon as we get back to our own computer and download them from our camera. Adios Amigos.

4/15/07 Another lapse in updating this blog - sorry. Also, I have no new pictures to post to keep you interested - just a short update. Today was the last day of Stagecoach Days here at Park Sierra and it was a good thing it was over after breakfast because it was cold and overcast here today. The event started Thursday and it was cold and windy that day so the campfire dinner and entertainment that was supposed to have been held outside at the pole barn was moved to the clubhouse. Our friend from RoVing Rods, Ed Bonham, brought 2 friends and the three of them were the entertainers. They did a fabulous job singing and playing guitars and mandolin, and everyone loved them. Friday and Saturday Elaine and I led a morning hike and then helped out by picking up food from various places, including Costco in Fresno. We also helped with the live auction, in which our friend Ken Kimpton was the auctioneer. Over two thousand dollars were raised for the park with all the stuff that was sold! Evenings, we helped with the raffles at the dinners and desserts. Other things happening here were hayrides, craft lessons, a dutch oven cooking demo, geocaching, various tournaments, and lots of eating!! It was fun and there were over 300 people participating. About five thousand dollars was raised overall. Great job Ken & Janice Ryder!!
Good thing there were fun things happening to keep my mind off the bad things that had been occuring previously. First I shattered one of our dual pane windows in our new RV when I was mowing the weeds on our lot and a rock was thrown up by the mower. Then, my computer crashed. Five days and $150 later, I got it back. Next, we got a 30 day notice from one of our tenants in the Bay Area. Worst of all, I had my surgery for the two skin cancer spots last Tuesday and the next day the doctor sent me an e-mail saying the pathologist report indicated they hadn't gotten it all and I needed to schedule another surgery. So when we get back from our cruise and trip to Spain on May 12, we will return to Park Sierra and I will have another surgery on May 14. Then we will pack up the RV and drive to Santa Clara to work on the vacant rental. Thank goodness Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and her partner, Alonzo, live nearby and can finish things up for us because we have to drive up to Washington to start camp hosting by May 25. The cruise will be a much needed vacation for us!!
Other than all this, things are fine. We are using this week to pack and Friday we will drive to Fremont to stay overnight. Saturday we fly to Houston to stay with friends. Sunday we pick up four other friends who will be cruising with us and then we drive to Galveston to stay overnight before catching the ship on Monday. I will try to update this as internet becomes available. Bon Voyage!

4/4/07 It has been so busy here at Park Sierra that we have forgotten to update this blog! Today we went for a day hike in Yosemite with Jeanne & Rodger from the park and then had lunch at a burger place in Oakhurst. Last week we also went hiking with this couple and we went up Goat Mountain (see picture). Besides being fun, these hikes help keep us in shape, which seems like a never ending battle.
Next week the big event at this park is Stagecoach Days. Between Thursday and Sunday there will be meals, events, nature walks, entertainment, auctions, raffles, etc. all as a fundraiser for the social things that go on here. Already there are quite a few visitors here and the boondock areas are filling up fast. Our friends, Ken & Janice Ryder have done a fabulous job of planning this and getting very good people to head the main committees. We are going to be "floaters". Wherever help is needed at any time, we get called on to do it. We are already lined up to pick up food at stores, help with setting up tables, and leading a daily walk, so I'm thinking there will not be a dull moment. It should be fun.
Now for the bad news. Last Friday I went to the dermatologist and had two biopsies and got the results yesterday. Basal cell cancer in both spots. So I have to go in Tuesday for surgery. One spot is on the right side of my neck and the other spot is between my neck and shoulder, also on the right side. They will probably just remove it under local anaesthetic, and then sew me up. I am hoping I am mostly healed by the time we leave for the cruise on April 20. All those years of being a swimmer, lifeguard, coach, etc. and getting so much sun are finally catching up to me!! I know that Elaine was a very good doctor at one time, now we will get to see what kind of a nurse she is....

3/20/07 Below are a few pictures we took while visiting our Boomer friends, Carole & Dick Schneider who have a lot at Jojoba Hills SKP Park. We were there about 10 days ago and stayed for 6 days. What a great time we had with them and what a lovely park that is - you can see the beautiful and refreshing swimming pool. They also have 2 hot tubs, which we used and enjoyed nearly every day. Carole is a great cook and we shared many delicious meals with them. While we were there, Elaine's son, Darran visited us. That is him, hugging his Mom. It turned out to be nice that we were staying only 1 1/2 hours away from him because we took our BIG recliner out of our rig and drove it down to him for his new apartment. Then we went out and bought a new chair of a more appropriate size (smaller) for our rig. We did this the same day we were having a propane oven installed at the National RV Factory Service Center in Perris, CA. We are very happy to have it and are sure we will have LOTS of great meals using it.
Now we are back at Park Sierra where it is raining today but the other days have been sunny, warm and beautiful. The spring flowers are out and we are enjoying our daily walks. In a few weeks there will be an event here called Stagecoach Days and we are going to be helping with it. Our other plans are to reorganize things in our new RV and get totally packed a ready to drive up to Washington for the beginning of our camp hosting stint on May 25. We fly to Houston on April 20 for our next trans-Atlantic cruise, which ends in Barcelona on May 6. We will visit Elaine's nephew and family near Seville for a few days and then fly back for our drive up to Washington. We will be camp hosting at Lake Kachess, near exit 62 off I-90 between May 25 and Labor Day weekend. This is such a departure from our usual summer plans! Neither of us has worked for 20 years!! We hope that any of you who can will visit us there. Just call us ahead of time so we can reserve a campsite for you.

3/4/07 Sorry we haven't posted for several weeks. Not much exciting news. We have been in Laughlin, NV, first at the Avi Casino and for the past week parked behind the Ramada Express. Several sets of our friends have been with us and we enjoyed their company very much. Lee and Susie Blattner were here with us at the Ramada and other friends, John and Vi Primmer with us at the Avi. Other RV friends, John & Cathy Robnik, joined us for one day and night on their way to NASCAR work in Las Vegas. We went out with them for a microbrew at the Colorado Belle one afternoon at about 4pm. One thing led to another and by the time the evening ended at about 12:30 am, we had imbibed enough to allow ourselves the craziness of going bowling at the Riverside. We haven't been bowling for about 28 years and we paid the price with some sore muscles for the next few days. Our current plan, the next time we get together with Cathy and John, is to skip bowling and try roller-skating...
I have finally finished some paperwork and the dreaded taxes, while Elaine has managed to keep herself busy in the casinos. We paid our camping fees that way, but luckily didn't take a huge hit to the wallet except in the Sam's Club and thrift stores. The sun has been shining most days but unfortunately, the wind has been ferocious and has even kept us from doing our daily walk on a few occasions. Since we are trying to get in decent shape before our next cruise, this has been annoying! Today we are heading towards California, where we will spend some time at the Jojoba Hills SKP Park, in Southern California while waiting for our appointment at the National RV factory on March 12. This new rig we have, which we still love, didn't have a propane oven when we bought it, just a convection oven. As all you RVers know, this means we have to use a lot of electricity to bake anything, and we like to boondock all the time, so usually don't have electrical hookups. We NEED an oven - so we are paying big time to have one installed.
We have friends at Jojoba and are looking forward to some fun times with them too. More on that in the next installment.