Allison's Post Work Thinking - now that I have time to think

Perfidy and Malfeasance

2012-01-30T18:05:00.004-07:00

Greetings maties! Just when we thought it was safe to come out of the burrow, we discovered more perfidy and malfeasance perpetrated by our friends at McMahon's RV in Palm Desert, CA.

We've had the RV in for work, and we provided Premier RV with our receipt, and our policy and our brochure for First Extended, which is our extended warranty provider. Problem is, First Extended has never heard of us. It would seem that McMahon's accepted our check for the extended warranty and then kept the money. They did not send it in, and we do not have coverage at the moment because they kept the money. I can not tell you how angry I am at these people. I knew they were snakes, but I did not realize they were in the business of theft, which is what this is. They've had 4 months to transfer payment to First Extended and they have not done it. So, tomorrow, we'll be back at Premier, on the phone to the Head Finance Weenie of McMahon's starting the laborious process of making them do the right thing. I have such a headache.
So, for those of you entering the glamorous world of Class A ownership, here is another pitfall of which you should be aware.
The really cute mammal in the picture is a round tailed ground squirrel.

We're Home

2012-01-28T21:17:00.007-07:00

I took this last night. It was a pretty spectacular sunset.

We're back in the RV. We have no clear root cause. If I were running a post mortem for a computing system crash, I'd say we're going to WFR it. That's pronounced woofer, and stands for Wait For Recurrence. So, there you go, and Bob's your uncle.

A New Hike

2012-01-27T16:01:00.005-07:00

We had planned to bike today, but neither of us is sleeping well in the hotel, between the noise, the suboptimal pillows, and the constant thoughts of "what if they can't fix it". So we were tired. Plan B was to hike Pontatoc Trail, but upon arriving at the trail head there were no parking places. It's surrounded by a neighborhood that has invested much money in no parking signs. So we went elsewhere.
The trail head for this hike is off Ina. It's Pima Canyon. It was a delightful hike. It's not a ridge line hike, but there is much to look at.

There is a slow moving creek. We sat on a rock in the shade and had a nosh, it was quite nice. We're going to have to start moving earlier, it's warming up here. Remember, my personal comfort zone is between 68 and 72 degrees F.

This was cool. The big bright round thing is the sun. Those of you in the GPNW may not have seen this for awhile. The straight white line is a contrail. The dark line to the left of the contrail is the contrail's shadow being cast on the clouds. If you look right around the sun from nine o'clock to noon positions you can see pink and green clouds. They were more evident in person, but not as much for the camera. I'm amazed that I got any sort of picture, aiming the camera right at the sun.

Jim is off to ask the RV people what, if any, progress was made today. I did not go. Too much time in the car causes me to become car sick.

Day Three of the RV in the Shop

2012-01-26T19:37:00.010-07:00

Greetings maties! Gather round and listen to our tale of woe and unhappiness. Today is day 3 of having the RV in the shop. This place would not have been my first choice to repair an electrical disaster. I think they're fine for TV installations, cabinet work and the like, but not weird power stuff.
Exhibit one: There are 3 multiplexer boards in the panel. Two of them were fried on Tuesday. Wouldn't you think that it might have occurred to the techs to pull board number three and look at it? If two out of three are fried to a crisp, wouldn't you look at the third? Apparently not. They discovered that number 3 was toast this morning. Its replacement will be here tomorrow.
Exhibit two: Great whanging goo-gobs of electric current were required to fry the boards. Where does that volume of power come from? The alternator. The owner told us today that the only source for that much power is the alternator and they were in the process of removing it to send it out for rebuild or replacement. If they knew this, why did they not do this on day one?
So, we're aggravated. They may have it done tomorrow, but it's not likely that we'll be able to drive it away as the extended warranty people will want to come out and look at it first. That will not happen until Monday at the earliest.
This has been trying on so many fronts. One of the reasons we really resisted buying a Class A is because of exactly this type of situation. There are so many power management systems on board; there is shore power, generator, batteries, inverters, converters, 12V. 110V and etc. Jim and I are not engineeringly inclined people because we haven't needed to be. Until we're further down the learning curve, we have to rely on the repair people, and many of them do not deserve the trust placed in them. If this shop is able to positively identify the root cause of the problems then we can go forth happily. If not, then we're in the position of not really being able to trust the RV.
So, that's where we are as of Thursday night. The good news is that we have clean clothes and we got our bike helmets out so we can ride tomorrow.

It's Always Something With the RV - Part 2

2012-01-24T18:19:00.006-07:00

A scene from Sunday's hike, back when we were happy and carefree, unaware of our impending doom. How was that? Ominous enough?

We took the RV in to Premier RV today for 3 minor fixes, and to obtain a quote for cabinet work. HAH! Double HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!! We got there, and the engine wouldn't shut off. We called Monaco from the parking lot and they said it's either a bad ignition switch or a bad ECM relay. The guys at Premier decided to back the coach into a service bay before trying to kill the engine. Good thing.
Techs swarmed the battery bay and the front bay full of wires. We were asked if we had the full schematics for the coach and we set about looking for them. After I had gone through the manuals we keep at the front of the RV, I got up and walked to the back to see how Jim was doing with his search. I walked through a cloud of smoke the smell of hot electronics, and said to Jim, "I think we're on fire." Reader, if you own an RV, fire is the word you never, ever want to hear in conjunction with your coach. Two of the multiplexer boards in the cabinet in the bathroom just cooked themselves. COOKED!

So that is how our day started. They spent several hours trying to identify the root cause for the failure of the engine to stop running, immolation of the multiplexer boards and a general WTH? The solution proposed by the tech is that an incorrectly wired circuit for the docking lights in the dash was the cause. We are having trouble buying it. The amount of electricity required to fry that board did not come from the dash. We don't know what caused it, and we probably won't ever know.
So, tonight we are sleeping at the Hampton Inn out by the airport. Parts are being shipped from around the country, and maybe we'll get the RV back tomorrow, but I doubt it. At this point we will find out if we bought an extended warranty from a good company or a bad company. Some vendors are better about paying than others, so we'll see.
So maties, this is today's report from the glamorous world of full time RVing.

On the Road in Tucson

2012-01-21T21:31:00.003-07:00

This is not something one sees on the road every day.

But hey, this is Tucson. We were just stunned that it wasn't dripping body parts as it went down the road.

Cool cloud formations tonight.

Images from Jim's Trip to Seattle

2012-01-21T10:40:00.009-07:00

Here is Jim's Mom. She just got her hair cut. It was down to the middle of her back and she was sick of it. i think it looks cute short. She's 97.

I copied this from the Seattle Times website. If SOPA passes, my website will probably go dark due to my borrowing of copyrighted material. I did give photo attribution. Anyway, the is highway 202 between Fish Hatchery and Snoqualmie Falls. This is a road we ride a lot in the summer. Technically Jim didn't see this, but I thought it was a very evocative picture of the area during Snowmaggedon.

This is off the back deck at May's house.

Click this one to enlarge. I like the way the lights are so yellow in the house windows.

There is a new memorial on Bainbridge Island to the Japanese-American citizens who were deported to the internment camps during WWII. This was one of the more shameful chapters in American history. Jim said it's really well done and worth a ferry trip over to see it. We'll be back up in April, and will take more photos.

Sunlight on the city.

Thus ends Jim's trip to the frozen north and his narrow escape from Winter Blast 2012.

Status of Seatac and Snowmaggedon - updated

2012-01-19T12:09:00.007-07:00

Winter weather update 1/19/12 10:20 a.m.

One runway/taxiway at Sea-Tac is open for arriving and departing flights. Another runway is open for departures. Please check flight status online or contact your airline for any flight delays.

So far, Jim's flight is showing on time. They're on their third gate change, but they do have a plane on the ground. Yay. He reports that they are de-icing with vigor.

Kim in Issaquah reports that they have no power in the RV park. She plans to bury bottles of champagne in the snow, for medicinal purposes only. Our friend Don in Manitoba has been reporting temperatures of -40C. MINUS 40. I'm not going to tell you what it's doing here, that would be cruel.

Update: Jim has been sitting in the airplane for two hours. One of the baggage doors broke and had to be fixed. Last time I spoke to him, they were waiting for de-icing. I don't know if they're going to leave today or not. Poor baby, he's hungry and he wants to go home.
Update: They've pushed back from the gate, maybe he'll get outta there, and back to this.

Snow in Seattle

2012-01-18T17:45:00.003-07:00

I got this off the King5 web site. It's a pretty cool picture. The GPNW is in the grips of Snowmaggedon! I'm hoping Jim gets a flight out tomorrow to return to warmer climes.

Later the Same Day

2012-01-17T17:45:00.003-07:00

Beautiful day! Just gorgeous. I hiked about 5 miles, did the usual plus a little more.

When were first learning the trails in the Tucson Mountain Park, this was our landmark. It's visible from just about everywhere and we'd use him to navigate. We call him the Tiki God. He looks like a Tiki, doesn't he?

Then, after all this loveliness and happiness, the wretched TV finally died. There's no more sound. So aggravating, just makes me want to throw it through the window. So, now I'm back to the little TV in the interim. There's a definite trip hazard on the floor.

Overhead I have secured the coax, so that is not a hazard. I really really want this resolved.

This ends my reportage for Tuesday in the Old Pueblo.

Trivial Complaining

2012-01-17T09:53:00.005-07:00

Clearly my life has reached new depths of non-interest if I am blogging about stuff that annoys me, but it has and I am. Exhibit One: The dedicated brownie maker. Why would one own a single function electric appliance whose only function is baking brownies? This company also markets a device that makes donut shaped items, and circus animal shaped items. I think I'm losing touch with my culture again.

My second complaint concerns NPR. I was listening in the truck yesterday and the announcer says, "Up next is actor ........ who plays the spy in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." The movie just came out and they're already broadcasting spoilers and telling us who the spy is. WTH? The media used to not do this, I remember a huge uproar when Time magazine discussed the ending of The Sting months after it had been released.

The pigeons are on the roof of the RV. The males are ready for love. They're very annoying. They make a one note call, over and over and over. We need some hawks here.

The weather heads are predicting 9 inches of snow tomorrow in Kitsap County and Seattle metro. NINE! It's really hilly, there are very few plows, and the area will be paralyzed. Jim is supposed to fly out on Thursday, we are really hoping the he makes it out of there.

Other than this maties, I have nothing to offer.

Issaquah

2012-01-15T17:53:00.004-07:00

My friend Kim sent me this, taken with her phone in Issaquah, WA. Happy I am to be in Arizona, even if it did rain a little today.

Friday the 13th

2012-01-14T10:07:00.001-07:00

Pretty day in the Old Pueblo.

Crafts and Return to Seattle

2012-01-12T18:04:00.009-07:00

We're still in the grip of frigid temperatures! We hiked yesterday in the upper 50's. It was brutal, but it had to be done. I think we went about 4.5 miles or so. It was a very pleasant walk.

We also did crafts together, and lived to tell about it. Drawers in RVs have stiff latches. When one opens a drawer one yanks. One closes the drawer with vigor, as well. As a result the non-slip drawer liner ends up bunched up at one end or the other. We went to Target and bought poster board, cut it to fit the drawer, and taped non-slip drawer liner to it. Now it says put and stays flat. I have domestic bliss.

Jim left for Seattle today. He's renting an all wheel drive Subaru because snow is forecast for the lowlands. Snow!

We had a pretty good sunset today.

An x-ray taken yesterday reveals that May has a fractured patella. She doesn't actually remember the x-ray being taken, so we were not able to get any details from her as to how bad, how long ago or what happens next. It would be nice if this meant that things would get better for her. Jim will interrogate her PCP for further details.
Other than that maties, I have nothing to report.

RV Maintenance

2012-01-09T18:20:00.011-07:00

Greetings Earthlings! Have you seen reports of the snow falling in Alaska? One poor town has received 18 feet. Ina in Alaska posted a video of her dog in the back yard, of particular interest to me was the height of the snow piles she has created while making paths for the doggoes. The post can be found HERE. Alaskans are tough.
Here we are not so tough. Friday was a halcyon day, we rode with the Rincon bike club north, then south with a stop for coffee by the UofA. Just delightful in every dimension.

When one buys a Class A, one resigns oneself to the fact that there will be maintenance on a scale hitherto unknown when one owned a 5th wheel. Class As have significant systems. Here is the battery system. On the left are the two chassis batteries (which are dead as door knobs). On the right are the house batteries, two out of four are dead. The wiring is shoddy, with insufficient gauges used, and done incorrectly. And then there was the corrosion. Current will not flow through corroded cables. Everything had to be removed to the waste bin.

Here is Ken of Cameron's Reliable. It took about 2.5 hours to fabricate and install new cables, which involved cutting them to length, attaching connectors, and then shrink wrapping the connectors to the cables. It was a lot of work. I had no idea what would be involved in redoing the batteries.

Here are the new lovely batteries. These will not leak or corrode like the old ones. They require no maintenance what so ever. Notice the difference in the cable runs. Ken's work is very, very good.

We also had maintenance done on the Hydro-Hot (the thing that burns diesel to make hot air and hot water), which was way overdue. This is one of the items that the dealer said he had done as part of the pre-delivery inspection (which we paid for), but didn't. Dealers! If their lips are moving, they're lying. Those batteries had been bad for awhile. Oh yes, battery inspection was another pre-delivery item.
I think the person who owned the RV before us lacked situational awareness. We discovered that at some point he moved the RV forward, jamming the gravel guard into the ground with enough force to unbend an I-bolt, and a big one at that.
Anyway, we now know why the bay doors hit the slide and won't open. The slide is retracting ever so slightly, which causes it to droop. Ken thinks the solenoids are fried. We're taking the RV to Premier RV to get the solenoids replaced. The hydraulic pump for the slides is under the RV and Ken would rather not spend time under it, and risk being crushed. I do not blame him. Premier has a pit and can do the work safely.
Sunday morning was cold. Yes, I know, I am a weather wimp and should be banned from using the word cold. We set out on a hike at about 11:00 and I was cold! It was 50 degrees with a stiff breeze. A heavier shirt would have been good. We set a blazing pace uphill and eventually warmed up. It was a gorgeous day in the Old Pueblo.

We stopped for water this afternoon. I get the biggest kick out of this group on D street. They're out in the street chatting almost every day about 4.

In other news, I'm locked in mortal combat with Medco, who is our drug insurance company. I'm pretty sure I'm done with drugs by mail. Getting them locally may cost more, but at this point I have two hours of cell phone time dedicated to trying to get them to replace a lost order. There may be a follow on post about them with a timeline and quotes from the various and sundry people with whom I have spoken.
May remains at Wyatt House and has not dialed 911 yet.

Note to Self

2012-01-06T11:21:00.002-07:00

May was released from the hospital yesterday, January 5. Nothing has changed, her knee still hurts. I think she's got it in her mind that going to the hospital will result in her condition improving. Unfortunately this is not the case and will never be the case.
We went mountain biking yesterday. It was a beautiful day and a pleasant ride, except for the toll 6 weeks of not working out have taken on the old fitness level.
So, other than keeping track of dates, I have nothing of interest to report.

The Bird is not the Word

2012-01-04T18:27:00.009-07:00

Do you have any New Year's resolutions? We are resolving to reinstate multiple day menu planning so we stop going to the grocery store every single day. That gets expensive and then we end up with convenience foods. We haven't started yet, but I'm hopeful. I need to write down everything I know how to cook, assign it a number, and then use a random number generator to come up 7 days worth of menus.
We found a new RV resource today and happy we are. They are Premier Motor Coach Services. We originally were going to use them just to install a new TV (which will require cabinet work), but they do it all. They can replace flooring, remove slide rooms, cover the walls in wood, whatever. I'm about to throw a rock through the TV. It gets stuck on the install menu and/or the sound goes out. It's not muted, it's not making sound. Anyway, it looks like we'll be able to get the TV installed and the shelving we want done locally. They do nice work, they took us through a couple of RVs they're working on, and their cabinetry is impressive.
Ken of Cameron's Reliable came out to look at the RV yesterday. Our BIRD is dead. It's a Bi-directional Isolator Relay Delay that uses shore power to keep the chassis batteries charged. It's broken. We're fortunate that we were able to start the engine upon our arrival from Seattle to build up air pressure to level the coach. Ken is bringing new batteries Saturday, I am aghast at how much they cost. Aghast and aggrieved. However, it is what it is.
We went for a hike today, it was just a beautiful day. Upper 70's, halcyon breezes, just perfect weather. My feet are not so happy, all my callouses are gone from lack of use.

Our furnace and hot water burn diesel. While we were in Seattle, the RV went through about 18-20 gallons. Since we can't drive the RV, we're bringing fuel to the RV. Jim's leaving for Seattle next Thursday and I want to burn diesel with abandon in his absence. We got the fuel, but we're going to need a funnel. The spout is too short. It's always something.

May continues her stay in the hospital. At this point we don't know what's going to happen next.

It's Always Something with the RV

2012-01-02T20:04:00.003-07:00

Chassis battery is dead. The RV won't start. Apparently that which is supposed to run current from shore power to the battery is not actually performing the task. So aggravating. Ken will bring new ones, all will be well.
May remains at Swedish, not sure how long they're planning to keep her.
That is all maties. I need to get out and take pictures of something interesting.

New Year's Day

2012-01-01T08:45:00.002-07:00

The downside to living in an RV park is that generally they're not in the most desirable part of town. Often they are close to freeways, trains, airports or all three. Frequently one is in a part of town one would not normally choose to inhabit. Our part of town has a New Year's Eve tradition of firing guns in to the air at midnight. Last night was no exception, we're pretty sure one of those guns was fully automatic. Apparently the local school system did a poor job of teaching the effects of Newton's law of gravity. At 4am we had a helicopter hovering over the wash, tracking the progress of some miscreant, accompanied by sirens on the ground. If you're beginning to suspect I didn't sleep much last night, you'd be correct. I'm glad it's only once a year.
May 911'ed herself back into Swedish Hospital last night, they admitted her. No new word on that front.
May you all have the sort of year you're hoping for.

Sunrise on the Rock

2011-12-29T09:54:00.004-07:00

Sunrise today was pretty good.

Jim took that. Yay Jim!

Last Night on the Rock

2011-12-28T19:10:00.004-07:00

Oy. We have headaches and are sad. May's pain is no longer responding to her current meds. She ended up in an ambulance at 0300 hours because she just couldn't take it anymore. The ER gave her dilaudid which did ease it. Unfortunately, dilaudid can only be given in in the hospital or a skilled nursing facility. Her doctor is going to talk to her tomorrow about leaving Wyatt House for a nursing home. We really hoped Wyatt House would last longer than this, it's a really nice facility.
Tomorrow we'll finish cleaning, and back out of the house vacuuming as we go so we leave those nice diagonal marks on the carpet. There will be final trips to the dump, to Wyatt house, and then a ferry to the other side. Friday's flight is too early to risk leaving from here.
Jim will be back up here sooner, rather than later.

Life Tips for the Aged

2011-12-26T20:59:00.004-07:00

If you're advancing in years, actually if you've already advanced; for each and every utility bill you have, you should name someone who is authorized to speak for you regarding the account. I tried to disconnect the land line phone today and was unable to do so. Tomorrow we'll put May on the phone and let them try to talk to her.
May was released from the hospital today. She's back at Wyatt House. She went down to dinner, and did well with the walker.
We're entering panic mode on our departure, we still have a ton of stuff to do, and only two days left.

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T06:00:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T19:15:00.003-07:00

May remains hospitalized. This is the view from her room. I can not tell you how unusual it is to see blue skies this time of year. We'll take it, however. It's so much easier to do stuff when it's not raining sideways.

After leaving May, we went downtown and walked around. The Lynden LaRouche people were out singing Christmas carols. The singing was a nice touch to their nut-bag politics.

We walked down to the market.

This guy was amazing. Playing guitar, harmonica, singing when not harmonica-ing, all the while hula-hooping.

View of Harbor Island.

This was in front of Nordstrom. This is wrong on so many levels. Wrong, just wrong.

It was nice to get out of the house for awhile and walk around. We're trying not to be melancholy about the holiday and etc., but sometimes it sneaks up on us. This is the first year I have sent out zero Christmas cards. When packing I did not bring a spare pair of contact lenses, or the address book. So, there you go.

Christmas Eve Eve

2011-12-23T23:09:00.003-07:00

Without going in to details, because that would be a HIPAA violation, I will say this. May lost ground today. It's unlikely that she will be returning to Wyatt House tomorrow. We will go visit her tomorrow and see how it's going. That's all I have to report maties. Go hug your loved ones, and realize that tempus fugit.

More from the GPNW

2011-12-22T20:53:00.003-07:00

I took the photo this morning. That's the weak winter sun in the middle-ish of the photo.

May continues to improve. We took the ferry over to see her today. Her color is good; nail beds and gums are pink. She'll probably be discharged day after tomorrow.
I lost the bet with Jim, the trash haulers got it all in one load today. So, I'll take the $5 off the gazillion he owes me already.
Aargh. One thinks one is ready, administratively, for these things, but one is not. The long term health care insurance requires forms to be filled out by all and sundry. Setting up electronic bill pay is tedious beyond belief. We think we've misplaced a piece of equipment that belongs to Comcast, but we're hoping that since it was so old that they won't want it back. And then there are the unknown unknowns. So parents; I say to you, anticipate the worst, hope for the best, plan accordingly.

Day Two of the House Empty

2011-12-21T19:16:00.004-07:00

May is doing better today. She spent the night in ICU, but they moved her out to a regular room this afternoon. Her lungs have less fluid and her kidneys are performing better. We don't know when she'll return to Wyatt House at this point.
Speaking of which, this is her new living room. It's very pleasant, she has her recliner, and guest seating for 3. Her living space is bigger than ours, so she wins.

The guys who take the stuff to the transfer station were here at 0800 hours today. They worked like animals, all day. Clearing the shop just about finished them off. There was much heavy stuff there. This is the first of today's two loads. Jim thinks they'll finish in one load tomorrow, I think he's underestimating what's left. They still have the dreaded shed and all of the wrought iron deck furniture. I bet him $5, I plan to collect.

The chimney guy also came today. The situation was not good. Chimney liners are supposed to be stainless steel. For some reason, the people who installed this furnace used aluminum. It melted, today the tech pulled out the collapsed portion and it was just cooked. So, the furnace has been venting into the shop area for quite some time. There are 3 possible fixes:

Insert a 5 inch diameter liner into the 6 inch chimney flue
Convert the existing furnace into a side venting system, which will involve drilling through the wall
Replace the whole shebang with a new furnace and venting system

The options are listed in ascending order of cost, anyone want to place bets on which it will be?

We're having difficulty getting cleaning people out here. I called ServPro today, they're the people who advertise that after a major disaster, they'll make it like it never happened. They "aren't sure" they want to clean the shop. I don't get it. No flood, no disaster, just a little soot. I may have to call the head office and ask them what they consider to be a real disaster. I know they do the crime scene clean ups in this area, how bad could some soot be?

We went to Central Market for stuff for dinner. They have crabs, at least 4 huge tanks of them.

So, tomorrow we'll see the end of the house emptying process. We're looking forward to that. If we can't get a cleaning service out here, we're going to have to buy a vacuum cleaner. Nooooooooooooo.

Another Year

2011-12-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

Another wedding anniversary forgotten. Jim, are you reading this? We're bad.

Photos from Day One of the House Empty

2011-12-20T22:47:00.005-07:00

Photo from this morning. Black and white and grey. Except for cropping, that's straight outta the camera.

A historical piece. It's an eating set. Here we have the embossed leather case.

In the olden days, when you traveled by stage coach or train, one took an eating set. You'd go down to the meal, and whip out your knife, spoon and fork. They're sterling silver. It's an interesting thing. The auction guy said he hadn't seen one of these in about 15 years.

These are chickens from Aunt P's house in Loogootee Indiana. At one point in my life I really, really wanted these. Now I don't. That was then, this is now.

No new information about May. Maybe tomorrow.

Day One of the House Empty

2011-12-20T20:49:00.006-07:00

It's been a day.
May is back in the hospital. She's got fluid in her lungs and impaired kidney function. It's not yet clear why her kidneys are not functioning well. She took the ambulance to Swedish this morning, and was admitted.
I spent the entire day clearing out closets, drawers, bathrooms and the kitchen. I'm feeling like I have brown lung from the dust.
The auction guys came and removed a fair amount of stuff. They did take the 33 1/3 albums, and I am pretty dang happy about not having to haul them out of here. Today I learned that old ratty towels are in high demand by dog groomers. Goodwill and other stores like that consistently sell out quickly because the groomers want cheap towels. Who knew? The auction guy was saying that his business will be gone in not too many more years. The young pups are not interested in wall furniture (art), tchotchkes, photos, and etc. Homes have become very spare and digital.
Tomorrow the trash guys are coming. After looking in the giant shed in the back yard, I'm pretty sure this will take at least two trips. We're hoping they'll get the interior done tomorrow so the house can be shown, and do the yard and shed later.
In the mean time, ya'll should start throwing away anything you haven't touched in a year. Hell yeah!

Another Day in the GPNW

2011-12-19T19:54:00.007-07:00

It's very strange. This is the driest December in recorded history. Apparently there is the mother all all high pressure systems sitting on this corner of the country. Its presence is pushing the bad weather into the south west, and is causing the blizzard that will be hitting New Mexico.
Parents, again; if you love your children, do not do this to them. Here we have another giant box full of photos in no particular order.

Here we have the deadly drawer of slides. Slides! That drawer has two layers of slide boxes. If you're going to own stuff, honor your stuff by keeping it organized and accessible.

Here are a few old photos from today. This is Caroline (one of Jim's Dad's older sisters) and Jim's Dad at Fort Benning, Georgia. This was at ROTC camp before WWII. Check out the boots.

A picture of the wedding of Jim's parents.

This is Olga, one of May's sisters. Olga died early under mysterious circumstances. My favorite genealogist has not been able to find a death certificate, so c.o.d. remains a mystery. It was weird to find a picture of her. We've never seen one.

Tomorrow the auction people come to pack up all of the items that they think will sell. That will be a day and a half. Wednesday, the guy that takes the remaining stuff to the transfer station comes and gets the rest of it. That will also be a day and a half. We're pretty happy about not having to rent a dumpster and haul it all up the stairs. I've been checking airline seat availability, it's diminishing rapidly. I think we're just going to have to pick a date and say if we're not done, then we're not done. I think 80% if it will be done by Wednesday. The rest may get shoved back into a closet or two.

A Day off the Rock

2011-12-18T13:16:00.007-07:00

The Rock would be Bainbridge Island. May's house is actually on the Kitsap Peninsula, but these distinctions are somewhat uninteresting, except when one is selling real estate. The Kitsap side has lower property values than does the Bainbridge side. They both look at the same water, but who am I to argue with these things.
Anyhoo, this was yesterday morning, just before the fog cleared up. It was a pretty scene off the deck.

After crossing over to the Seattle side on the ferry we drove south on I5. We noticed this DC3 fuselage laying on the grass verge of Boeing Field. We drove over to look and it and wonder how it got there and why.

Then it was over to the old Boeing headquarters building. Things just haven't been the same since the executives abandoned this site in favor of Chicago. It will be a shame if this facade isn't preserved. It's pretty cool.

This a 787. The engines are off the wing at the moment. Look at the swoop of the wings, it's just a beautiful plane. The interiors are also nice, they're very pretty.

Last night we had dinner at the CO's. It was, as always, just delightful. Food was great, dinner companions were scintillating conversationalists, all in all just a pleasant evening and delightful respite. We thank you all for the time out.

We awoke to rain this morning. This is the GPNW we all know and love. Rain, mist, overcast. I took this from the ferry.

Notice the cloud layer obscuring the tops of the Seattle skyline.

This is us on the ferry, wearing fleece vests and jackets, the official uniform of the GPNW.

I found myself back in the dreaded pile of old photos this morning. This is Jim's Dad at 9 months. Cute Cute Cute.

The real estate agent is coming over to discuss furniture staging this afternoon. Tomorrow the auction guy comes to tell us what interests him. That will determine the size of the dumpster we'll be ordering. We may have to hire some help, there are a couple of Ikea-like particle board entertainment units that we can not lift. So, there will either be help or a Sawzall.

Day of the Move

2011-12-15T20:52:00.002-07:00

Oy, it's been a trying day. The movers were promised to us noon-ish, they arrived at 3:00. We got a late start on it, but I will say the two men they sent were efficient and efficacious. The truck was loaded and out of the driveway in 30 minutes.
May is struggling with not being in her home anymore. She's (understandably) not happy with the fact that dinner is served at 4:30 pm, but plans to adjust her eating timetable accordingly. There were tears, there was guilt on our part, but it's the only living situation that makes sense for her now. We're hoping that, early dinners not withstanding, she'll be happy at Wyatt House in the time she has remaining.
It's a process. Tomorrow we will return with all of the items we forgot to pack today, and will be assembling a writing table and dresser from Ikea. We must get tennis balls for her walker. When she pushes it, it sets up a harmonic which is probably driving the lady below her nuts.
That is all I have to report maties. The captain has authorized an additional tot of grog, and I intend to have it now.

Old Photos

2011-12-14T12:52:00.006-07:00

One of the biggest time sucks in emptying a house is the dreaded pile of old photos. One feels compelled to look at them all, just in case. In case of what, I don't know. I just hit the deep drawer full of photos of people we don't know from a long time ago. Here are two examples. These two are from Jim's Dad's side of the family.

This is an old studio portrait of someone. I left it really big, click on it to enlarge. I love the look on the little boys' faces.

This is Jim's Dad, just after WWII. It was taken at a wedding. We've always loved this photo for its film noir feeling.

Jim and his Mom in 1947.

Now I must get back on my head and box up all of this.

An Admonishment for the Aging

2011-12-13T21:53:00.006-07:00

Reader, I am telling you this with feeling. If you love your children, do NOT leave them with a house full of a lifetime of accumulation. We cleaned out the storage area under the staircase today. If I develop an unexplained fever, I strongly suspect it will be hantavirus due to the rodent droppings in said closet.
We found large boxes full of bank statements from the 1970's and 1980's. We found a camping stove full of white gas. We found many things that did not need to exist.
THEN, I was in the second bedroom looking at a rather large chest. There's no drawer, but I knew (with the knowing of someone who used to own furniture) that it was a storage device. We took everything off the top of it, and lo and behold, the top lifts up. It is FULL TO THE GILLS of Franklin Mint porcelains and commemorative coins; some coins are from the British Virgin Islands, others celebrate the independence of New Guinea. None of it has any value, whatsoever.
We're getting very overwhelmed. Today the furnace guy came out to tell us why everything in the room with the oil burning furnace is covered in soot. The chimney is clogged. The maintenance guy who came out in the spring noted this fact on the receipt, but apparently May did not realize that action was required on her part. We can't get this taken care of until the 21st.
I feel like we are spending a lot of time walking in circles. Until the auction guy comes to tell us what he thinks they can sell, I'm hesitant to start piling it all in the carport. However, we may start piling it anyway.
Anyway, that's today's report from the GPNW. I don't have any pictures that do this justice. Perhaps at a later date.

Mountains and Moonbeams in the GPNW

2011-12-12T17:04:00.007-07:00

Click on the photo (please). Look in the very back ground, you can see mountains. That's the Cascade Range, they're almost never visible from here due to clouds. It was pretty cool that the mountains were out.

Tonight we had a great moon path on the water. It truly is beautiful here, when it's not raining.

Nothing much new on the move to assisted living. Virtually no progress was made on any front today. Hopefully tomorrow items will start moving toward the door.

Sun in the GPNW

2011-12-11T19:34:00.004-07:00

Today was a glorious winter's day in the GPNW. Cold, but beautiful. I took these off the back deck of May's house.

The north end of Bainbridge Island, Agate Point.

This is the back of May's house, where it looks at the water.

We had two showings scheduled today. One did not go because the idiot real estate agent could not figure out how to undo the dead bolt. Door unlocking 101 should be part of the real estate curriculum. Alas alack. Anyway, the 2:00 showing was able to unlock the door. We're still overwhelmed by it all. May leaves for Wyatt House on Thursday, project management projects that moving her will take two days. Saturday we will start the removal of non-sale and non-donating items to the carport. We have a trash removal service coming the 22nd, and I hope to have this wrapped up by the 23rd. We're going to stay through Christmas, and then return home. I am really hoping we can get plane tickets out of here. We may not be on the non-stop flight we generally take.
May seems to be coming to terms with this new stage of her life. I think the thought of not having to clean and deal with a large house is a welcome one for her. Plus, there will be three meals a day served with no effort on her part required. She's had a good run here, but all things end eventually.
Over and out maties, I am just whooped.

Pots and Pans

2011-12-08T21:32:00.005-07:00

I did not know an electric stove could melt the copper bottom off of a sauce pan. Apparently it can. We found this tonight, trying to determine how May's cutting board got this burn mark. The two silver colored areas are where the copper cladding was burned. Oy.

Today we signed contracts for May's new apartment in the assisted living facility and with the real estate agent to sell her house. Both activities were draining. We're tired.

Agate Pass

2011-12-08T08:56:00.006-07:00

Well, here I am in the GPNW in the winter. It's not raining, but it's cold.

May, Jim's Mom, will be selling her home of 50 years and moving in to an assisted living facility. At 97, the time for her to be living alone is over. She'll have about 500 square feet of apartment, so she's very limited in what she can take with her. Jim and I spent some time wandering around the bottom floor of May's house last night, looking in closets and drawers. We're in a heap of trouble. There is stuff everywhere. She has her deceased husband's discharge papers from WWII. What does one do with documents like this? We're struggling with how much to involve her in a massive downsizing. We have to respect her boundaries, but then again, it's going to be a massive downsize that needs to happen in short order.
The real estate agent refers to the house as a "period piece". I like that. It is pretty classic mid-century modern architecture. We'll see how it goes. The fact that there are five other houses for sale in close proximity is not encouraging.
The force of the internet here is erratic, I'll post our adventures as the force allows.

Cold in the Desert

2011-12-07T09:41:00.004-07:00

The RV behind us has a drip off his water hose. This ice formation was made last night.

That's it. This is all I have to post.

Going to Seattle

2011-12-06T21:54:00.003-07:00

I'm leaving for the GPNW tomorrow. Can't say that I'm looking forward to it.

This is a very cool post from another blogger in the GPNW. Check it out HERE. It's amazing.

Gates Pass

2011-12-03T14:48:00.004-07:00

Jamie and I got a ride off this morning. It was cold! It was 47 when we left, the jacket and tights were feeling pretty good. After climbing a bit, some of it came off, but over all I think the jacket was the right choice. Anyhoo, we both rode well and got back before the rains came.

Storm number two is now moving in to visit us from the north.

More Whining from the Desert & Olive Oil

2011-12-02T18:14:00.007-07:00

Bored! Bored spitless I am. It rained off and on for much of the day. I spent 1.5 hours on the treadmill which contributed to my state of boredom. It's been awhile, I'd forgotten how much I hate the treadmill. Anyway, it eventually stopped raining, but I have to say it did not warm up much.
Here is the desert after the rain.

I had hoped for a better sunset, it was pretty puny.

I heard an interesting interview with Tom Mueller, who wrote Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil. It was very interesting. "Extra virgin" means more than just the first pressing of the olive. It must be free of defects such as musty, fusty and several other undesirable flavor characteristics. Most of the "extra virgin" olive oil on the grocery shelves is not extra-virgin. Some of it is not even olive oil. The bulk producers take whatever and then flavor it with real olive oil. This adulterated product will not confer the health benefits of olive oil. The worst outcome is that producers of high quality oil are becoming unable to continue production because they can't make any money. People won't pay for the quality product because they're accustomed to the inexpensive bad product widely available. Your tip off to the good stuff is that it's expensive, should be in dark glass (not plastic) and it's green. I've linked to the book on Amazon in case you are interested.

Jim has started taking his Mom around to look at senior living facilities. The one they visited today is run by a woman Jim has known for decades. He didn't know she was there until they arrived. That was kind of cool. It's close to May's doctor, which is high on her list of priorities. The process is progressing.

The weather heads are predicting rotten weather through Monday. Aaaarrrrgghhh.

First Generation Airbags

2011-12-01T11:14:00.005-07:00

Jim's Mom's car was a 1996 Bonneville. It had the first generation of airbags. I think the "cure" was worse than the risk of an accident. The passenger bag took out the windshield as well as damaging the passenger seat. Pretty amazing image.

Our weather has changed drastically over night. We are suffering a 20 degree drop in temperature, and high winds. Tomorrow it may rain, quelle horreur!

Other than this, nothing new to report.

Last Day of November

2011-11-30T20:40:00.002-07:00

End of the day in the Old Pueblo.

Mid-week Round Up

2011-11-29T17:42:00.007-07:00

Greetings Earthlings! Was your black Friday fruitful? We gave it a pass. I personally am closing in on being done with the Christmas shopping, due to the magic of online shopping.

The climate of late has been very good in Tucson- here is an example.

I got a couple of questions about the braking system we had installed in Mesa. M & G Engineering is the company who makes the equipment. It converts air pressure to hydraulic pressure in the truck braking system. Their website is here. There's an independent product review, with pictures; that link is here. It's pretty slick, if the truck gets away from the RV while under tow, it slows itself down using a small air reservoir. According to Chevy it does not invalidate the warranty on the truck, which is good.

This week we learned a new Class A thing: put the wheel covers on when the RV is at ride height. Our site is lower at the front and on the passenger side. Getting the back passenger side wheel cover on was just a bear because the back of the coach is low and tipped towards the passenger side. The cover is on there, but it's not pretty.

Our new mattress arrived yesterday from Florida. All things are available on the web. We got it from Comfort Custom Mattresses. It's good! Ordering a mattress sight unseen was sort of unnerving but it worked out. Don and Jamie were invaluable in the effort of getting the old one out and the new one in. Progress was being made on the list of things to do and fix.

Jim has gone to Seattle. His Mom is not doing well. Last week her knee starting hurting big time. The first theory was that she was bleeding into the joint as a result of a cortisone injection. Further examination did not support this theory. Then, on the way home from the doctor's office, she totaled her car. Both airbags deployed. Mom was not hurt in the least. Given how closely she sits to the steering wheel (she's short), I can not believe that she sustained no damage from a first generation airbag, but she did not. Anyway, her knee is still killing her. Jim would like her to stop driving and move into a senior living facility, but so far she has nixed both ideas. So, he's in the cold wet, rainy GPNW to discuss her plans for the future.

Other than this, I have nothing new or interesting to report.

Thanksgiving at McDowell

2011-11-25T21:46:00.005-07:00

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours could not have been better. After departing Mesa and the icky RV park there, we went out to McDowell Mountain Park. It's one of the best places on earth. This is the sunset from the first night we were there.

This was last night.

The campsite with the brown and cream Class A and the blue tent is Roger and Peggy's site. Roger is a camping legend. This year he brought multiple outdoor cooking surfaces, multiple propane lanterns and the blue tent. The tent was excellent for keeping the blazing sun and sporadic rain off of our heads.

Our friend Greg was out from the east coast. It's always a treat to see him. Greg's in excellent shape now; he's riding and running strong.

Roger and Steve. Steve and his wife Brenda were also down from Utah. Brenda is new to mountain biking and did an excellent job of riding the rocks. Steve's an ex-racer, and it shows. His bike handling skills are superb. Note the propane lantern behind Steve's shoulder. That's the cook line Roger had set up.

Roger and Peggy.

Are they not a lovely couple?

Roger made his signature Thanksgiving dish - seared ahi.

The group.

As with all parties, there is clean up. This morning we stopped by and helped fold the tent (literally) and take out the garbage. The Utah natives are on their way north and we headed south.

Here is our new truck with the new canopy, providing shelter for the road bikes. Note the front slide out, with the attached storage units below. Note the concrete blocks on the ground. During the years we lived in the 5th wheel, we looked up for possible objects to be hit by the slides. Now we must look down. We came so close to running that slide into the concrete barriers. But, we didn't and that lesson is now firmly imprinted on our brains.

With any luck, we'll get the gravel guard soon, get it installed, and I will no longer have to follow the RV, driving the truck. I hate driving! Just hate it.

Mesa, AZ

2011-11-21T18:00:00.002-07:00

This is an RV we saw at Rincon West. It's a Dodge, from the late 60's. It's very cool.

We had nice looking skies on the way to Mesa today.

We're at the Aztec RV park in Mesa, it's an old park, constructed when RVs were 30 feet long. Jim did a magnificent job of getting into a very tight, short spot. It's so tiny that we're sticking out into the street. If we still had the 5th wheel, I'm not sure we could have gotten it in here. We provided entertainment for the residents as we backed and filled. A couple of older gentlemen came out to offer encouragement and advice on how to best get in to this space.

After parking, we nipped down to the welding shop to see where they'd want us to park in the morning. Jim asked what time they'd be done and was told it's a 10 hour job! TEN! We'll be lucky to get it back at 5, it's 20 miles to McDowell Mountain park, so we'll be parking in the dark. This is all so character building!

Sunday Ride

2011-11-20T18:22:00.007-07:00

Today was the Sunday morning breakfast ride. We had a very pleasant ride through downtown Tucson on the way to the Rincon Market. We rode by the OWS camp, it was fairly quiet there.

After breakfast we were riding home through the Dunbar Spring neighborhood. They were having a community gathering in their P-patch. This year they had three flour making machines running. These are mesquite pods that have been harvested from the desert.

Here is the mesquite flour making equipment.

They were demonstrating solar cookers. This one was maintaining 300 degrees in the sun.

The kids were really enjoying the day.

This little girl was holding an impressively large gopher snake.

Isn't he pretty?

Did everybody watch 60 Minutes? They did a piece on Grover Norquist, one of the most influential men in America, that you never elected. There was also an interview with Christine Lagarde; she's an amazing woman, currently at the helm of the IMF.

Tomorrow we're driving up to Mesa for the tow bar/braking system to be installed.

Tour de Tucson

2011-11-19T18:53:00.010-07:00

Today was the Tour de Tucson. It's America's largest perimeter ride. The long route is 111 miles. These two did it in 4:29:30. The guy in the red ended up second by 6/100's of a second. They were going at it hammer and tongs at the finish.

This was the first big group after the 9 or so leaders went through. They, too, were just hauling.

A tandem in one of the early finishing groups.

This is the Stanford racing team. They did not make platinum, they made gold. Platinum requires that you finish in 5 hours.

Some of the guys from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. That team does really well here, this year they had 4 out of the top 10 spots.

There were many food vendors at the finish line. I love this food cart.

Isn't this lovely? It's a house near Armory Park. Beautiful, just beautiful.

A church downtown.

A new building downtown. It's kind of cool.

Our friend Dave, of the Manitoba Fast Old Guys club, finished 18 out of 1,266 riders on the 60 mile course. Good show!

We got the canopy on the pickup today. Tomorrow we will rebuild the bike rack to go in the bed of the truck. Now that the bikes have their new home, life will be better. We have one more major push towards finalizing the configuration (tow bar with braking system) and then we move in to maintenance mode.

Update: Barry Bonds (baseball) and Bill Walton (basketball) did the ride. Pretty cool.

Hidden Trail

2011-11-17T16:00:00.003-07:00

This is who we saw on the Hidden Trail today.

They're pretty good sized deer.

Rock Wren Trail

2011-11-15T16:32:00.002-07:00

Today was just spectacular. We took a hike and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the horse water tank, the area is very green after rain.

Is it not lovely?

Organizational Monday

2011-11-14T18:54:00.008-07:00

Are you plagued by big puffy comforters, or ski clothing, or other items that take up too much room? Get a space bag! U-Haul sells them. One puts the bulky item in, sucks the air out with a vacuum cleaner, and the result is a much smaller item.

Even though we don't wear shoes in the RV, we noticed the edge of the carpet up by the door was getting dirty, so we bought a runner at Lowes. We knew it would creep, but honestly, we thought it would creep in both directions, so there would be a net travel of zero. No. It only creeps in one direction, away from the front door toward the kitchen. I thought it might be related to the nap of the carpet and got a rug pad to put between the runner and the carpet. No improvement. Then we got out the sticky backed velcro, and stickied velcro to the tile and the underside of the runner. This thing's desire to creep is so strong that it's overpowering the glue on the velcro strip. Tomorrow I'm going to hot glue the velcro to the runner. I will have a stationary runner, I will.

We spent the day re-doing the basements. The bikes are out on the bike rack with a new water proof grill cover on them. I decided that my desire for order was trumping my desire for the bikes to be inside. It went fairly smoothly. Storage always looks bigger than it is, and one's stuff always looks smaller. We have everything in there, with space reserved for things that are out now, but must be stowed for travel. This is Jim in the big storage bay under the living room slide. It holds quite a bit of stuff. Luggage, chairs and less frequently used items live here.

The pull out tray will be the home for the frequently used stuff. It's pretty cool, it goes out on either side of the RV. Cleaning and utilities things are on the driver's side bays, but I didn't get pictures. Too tired.

We're now done with this phase. Monday we're heading to Mesa to get a Blue Ox aluminum tow bar, base plates for the truck and a pneumatic to hydraulic braking system installed. That will allow us to tow the Chevy, and stop it when necessary.
So, that was today.

Rain in the Desert

2011-11-13T18:19:00.009-07:00

Yesterday we rode the road bikes. Yay! The new Santa Cruz River trail is open, and it's very nice having a new north south bike route. One of the southern bridges is closed, but there's a detour, so it's all good. This is me, putting the shoes on in the passenger seat of the new RV.

Today was a gruesome day in the Old Pueblo. It rained like heck! This is Tucson Boulevard where the water was pretty dang deep.

Pusch Ridge with clouds on it.

More clouds.

We're getting closer to being moved in to the RV. We still can't do anything with the basement until we get the canopy on the pickup. Once we get the bikes into the truck, everything gets taken out of the basement and assigned a location based on probability and frequency of use. Bins will be purchased to closely match available storage so that volumetric efficiency can be maximized. If the economy would pick up, I think there would be a future for me as a professional organizer, I am that good.
60 Minutes is on and we just saw a piece on why it's not illegal for members of Congress to profit from inside knowledge of financial markets which are impacted by bills they have or have not passed. It's hard to fathom how venal and corrupt US politics have become. The article is here, if you need to be further aggravated.
We went to Home Goods this afternoon and got a Calphalon air bake cookie pan for $5. One corner is a little bent, but it's ok. The cool thing is, it fits in the convection/microwave and the square frozen pizza will fit on the pan. I do miss flinging the frozen pizzas into the regular oven. However, we are confident that we will prevail over the new kitchen paradigm.
OK, here is an uplifting piece from 60 Minutes profiling a smart and good person involved in education.
So, that is about all I have to offer, over and out maties.

Weather

2011-11-10T21:23:00.003-07:00

It was a windy day in Tucson.

We spent the day registering the RV, buying stuff for the RV, and thinking about the RV. Sometimes one is owned by their stuff. Hopefully tomorrow we're breaking a sweat.

Trip to Lordsburg and More Technology

2011-11-09T18:41:00.002-07:00

Oy! Evading the tax collector is a laborious and time consuming process. The drive to Lordsburg NM was 164 miles each way. My behind feels like it's pleated from all the time in the truck. Here is Jim putting diesel in the one ton for the last time. I will miss that truck, with her heated 8 way power seats, and spacious cabin.

Interstate 10 - on the way to NM. There's a lot of space out there.

We met the out of state delivery driver at McDonalds and then drove over to the courthouse. It's a terrific old building. It houses the clerks, the judges, the trial and jury rooms, and the jail. We had the piece of paper notarized, traded vehicles and then drove back to Tucson. This is an out of business restaurant in Lordsburg.

Coming back, we got behind this.

We're not sure what they were, but they were big.

Over the last two days we have gotten our technology on. Pat from Desert Satellite came out and got our satellite receiver hooked up and working. We're using the Winegard on the roof because the installed Kingdome is too old to automatically switch between satellites. We'll either replace that at a later date, or just keep putting the carry out on the roof.
Today we received the CenturyLink modem and the phone guy came out and activated our phone connection. The Verizon mi-fi doesn't work well at all in Tucson, so that service is now suspended. So, we have satellite and wifi.

So far, the weather is not totally wonderful here, it's supposed be windy, blustery and rainy this week end. Hopefully this will not be the case all winter, snowbird weather rebates have been difficult to obtain.

Rain, a New Pickup Truck and Packaging

2011-11-07T18:09:00.004-07:00

We awoke this morning to a ferocious rainstorm. After awhile it passed, the sun came out and we had a rainbow.

Look at the hill, between the palm trees. It was cool to see the rainbow in front of the hill. I have not seen it this clearly before. Unfortunately, before I could climb on a picnic table for a better shot, it was over.

We've been towing a 5th wheel with a 2 wheel drive, Chevy 1 ton. It can not be towed behind the Class A since it's not 4 wheel drive. So, a new towed vehicle is required. Would someone like to explain to me when pickup trucks got so expensive? We have sticker and vehicle weight shock. We spent yesterday visiting car dealers looking for a 4WD car. None are big enough for 2 bikes to live inside, along with groceries, laundry baskets and all of the stuff required for life. It's tragic that there are no towable mini-vans. I love the mini-van as a sports mobile. Our road bikes used to live full time in the middle of the van, and life was good. Anyhoo, we bought a 2011 white extended cab 4WD Chevy Silverado half-ton today. I'm not crazy about it, it's the bottom of the LT class, so the passenger seat is not great, but I keep reminding myself that we will not be doing epic driving in the truck, we'll be doing that in the RV. If the seat kills my back, there are after market options, all that is required is an application of money.
We take delivery Wednesday, in New Mexico. Yesssss, we'll be driving to New Mexico. Like California, AZ requires delivery to be notarized out of state to avoid their pesky sales taxes. AZ rates are as high as CA. Road trip!
This is an amazing example of packaging run wild. See the two metal racks on the floor by the boxes? I had to order convection oven racks from Sharp. Those two racks required two giant boxes each, 3 rolls of bubble wrap, and those giant bubbles as well.

After we get the pickup, we'll have a canopy put on the bed. Then and only then, can the road bikes leave the under RV storage area to take up their positions in their new home; safe, secure and dry. One of these days, maybe we'll ride them again. Jim appears to have caught my cold. I'm pretty sure he'll recover, he's not so sure.

Return to Tucson

2011-11-03T18:25:00.004-07:00

We're back. It's been a long day. Here is Jim driving the RV. His lane position is pretty good, although he still has a tendency to be a little too far to the right in the lane. After 3 hours of me on the walkie-talkie saying "move left", he's doing much better.

Owning an RV generally requires a learning curve. Today was on a steep part of the curve.
Our first learning experience was slide management. The manual says to bring the slides in before going to ride height. Well, we did that, and the slide behind the driver's seat bound up because the frame was still twisted from leveling. After calling Monaco, we learned that one goes to ride height and then pulls in the slides. We were able to leave after that. It was very distressing, seeing the leading edge of the slide mashed up against the body of the RV.
After arriving in Tucson, we went to level the RV. The airbags are working, but we think the thingy in the back that knows when level is achieved is not working correctly. We went old school and got the level with the bubbles out. I think we're going to have to call HWH who makes the systems and ask a few questions.

Anyhoo, we're here, we're level, and we're glad to be back.

Buckeye AZ

2011-11-02T21:39:00.003-07:00

We're out of Indio. Tomorrow is a three hour drive to Tucson. I am really looking forward to being in one place for awhile.
I just read a really good op-ed piece in the NYT. Click here, and see what you think.

Indio - Still no Departure in Sight

2011-11-01T09:17:00.006-07:00

Palm trees in the park. They're lovely obstacles for people moving 40 foot vehicles around them.

We are still here in Indio. The punch list is down to: leveling, over the air TV antenna, and the right rear tail lights. One down, three to go. The board for the leveling computer did not ship Monday morning because they must build it first. It might ship Wednesday. So, scheduling the drive out to the desert to sign papers is now on a day-to-day slide.
The finance guy schedules the guy that drives us to Arizona. The parts guy who knows when the board will get here sits about 100 feet away from him. However, the finance guy wants us to keep him apprised of the board's status. Why can't he just ask the parts guy? This dealer does not have one single positive review on Yahoo, and I am beginning to see why.
So, I am sick with a sore throat and feeling bad. It's more than likely viral, so there is nowt to be done for it. We were going to go to Joshua Tree today, but I feel too bad. So, poor Jim is not only stuck in Indio, but now has a sick and cranky wife.

Pictures of the Class A

2011-10-30T18:23:00.009-07:00

Here is the new house. Below is the kitchen area. The kitchen was the biggest change for us. We no longer have an oven, so now we must learn to use the microwave/convection oven. Otherwise we will never have pizza again, ever. I did get the convection rack from the dealer, so that was good. The other major change is, in the 5th wheel I would dry and put away dishes behind Jim while he washed, now I have to stand next to him, with an open cabinet door. Open cabinet doors are dangerous to the head.
Behind the double doors to the right of the microwave is one of those dumb wire rack pull out pantries. Half the volume behind the doors is completely wasted. When we go to the cabinet maker, shelves will be put in there, doubling available food storage.

Jim's couch. This is where Jim reclines and watches the news and PBS.

On the other side of the RV are the recliners, I sit in the one that is farther away, with my PC in my lap. The blue "area rug" is a furniture pad we have down on the carpet, since the techs will be walking on it again this week.

This is the dining region. The table will pull out to seat four, but it's usually in. This is Jim's computing area. Note the extension cord running along the base of the cabinet. There's not enough 110 in here.

The vanity in the main bathroom. I really like the under mirror lights.

The powder room. Note the flowers next to the sink. It has one of those built in soap dispensers, which immediately broke, so we stuck flowers in it. I like them better. We still need to get a soft soap dispenser in there.

Left side of the bedroom. The bedroom has a fair amount of storage, including a very large closet. We didn't lose storage in the bedroom, just the kitchen.

There was a washer/dryer combo in the bottom, which is gone. We're either going to have a floor to ceiling pantry put here, or else just shelving in the bottom. I kind of like having that flat surface, but there could always be more storage.

We're still getting used to a new floor plan. We're on the hunt for a paper towel solution. We're concerned about drilling into the underside of the kitchen cabinets, because that's where they put the 110 outlets. I don't know why that it is, but they're all on the underside of the cabinets. Driving a screw into that wiring would be bad.
Hopefully they'll fix the over the air antenna and the right rear tail light tomorrow. Did I mention that one of the guys from the dealership drove the RV over to Thousand Trails, parked it, and then took the ignition keys with him when he left? They're serious about us not driving it until we sign papers in Arizona. After that, we're free to drive about the United States with no training what so ever!

Indio - Still

2011-10-29T18:33:00.003-07:00

We're now in the Class A. We finished up moving around 2pm today. However, we're here until Wednesday. Why, you ask? Well, after having the RV for 6 days, the techs failed to notice the following things aren't working: leveling, the 110 outlet in the dash, the over the air TV antenna, and the right rear tail lights. I'm somewhat irked, it seems like one of the first things they should have done was to go around and stick a tester in each and every outlet. The service manager assured me that they had replaced the guts of the mechanism that raises the antenna, no word on whether they tested it or not. Anyhoo, the leveling failure is serious, Monday they will order the new board, and hopefully overnight delivery will have it here Tuesday. Wednesday we will drive to the border to take official delivery.
While we're waiting for it to be Wednesday, we are staying in a Thousand Trails RV park (the dealer is paying for it). TT is a membership park, you pay money to belong to the network. This is one of the worst places we have ever been. The thought of joining TT to stay in a dirt park with no cable, no wifi, no nothing is just amazing to me.
Sorry, no pictures yet, I'm too tired.

Indio

2011-10-27T18:25:00.008-07:00

Tonight I have the headache that ate Tokyo. Think of my headache as Godzilla, sitting on my head, gnawing on my brain. Yes, it's that sort of headache. A careful examination of our mattress in the 5th wheel reveals that it is 2 inches wider than the space allotted for it in the Class A. We're going to shove it in there anyway, and see how bad it is. We decided to try to take our Lazy Boy recliners, they may or may not fit, either. Then we spent an hour with the finance guy and signed many papers. This has been more stressful than I thought it would be. When we bought the 5th wheel we had been in the travel trailer for 6 months, and the 5th wheel was such an improvement. There were no downsides and there was joy everywhere. The Class A improves some areas, but dis-improves others. Case in point, we have a 2 by 2.5 foot area of counter space dedicated to a cutout for two gas burners, the burners themselves are so close together that I doubt if two pots can be on there simultaneously. Who designed this? I'm pretty sure it was a man. RVs are always a giant compromise. Tomorrow we take possession, and then unload the 5th wheel into the Class A. I'm expecting my brain to explode.

This morning I took this picture. Note the shallow depth of field. I am really impressed with my new Lumix camera. I like it.

This is Palm Desert. Note the word desert in the place name. THIS is why the poor almond farmers in the Central Valley are being denied irrigation water, so all of these rich old farts can have grass and trees.

The valley is just surreal. If you see an expensive car, it's more than likely being driven by someone really old. We watched one of them run a red light, make a right turn into not one, but two lanes of traffic, all without ever moving his head to see if there might be any cars around him. The communities are all gated, with huge security huts, gates and key cards. There are, however, dedicated golf cart lanes on the major thoroughfares. I can't wait to leave here.

Monday will be interesting. To avoid paying CA sales tax (10%) on the Class A, one must have the RV driven out of state by someone other than us. Once in AZ, we visit a notary in the Wendy's parking lot, finish signing papers, and only then do we have legal possession. I am not making this up.

San Diego - It's Always Something

2011-10-25T11:55:00.009-07:00

Monday we drove out to Point Loma. It was sort of a dreary, overcast day so none of the photos are really inspiring. This is part of the Navy real estate, you can't see them, but there are submarines in the water down there.

After Point Loma we drove over to Coronado Island. These people have a sign ordinance in place that puts all others to shame. We saw a very attractive building with benches and fountains, and wondered what all this beautiousness was. It's a switching station. You know, those concrete bunkers full of phone stuff. Here, they made at&t spiff it up a bunch.

Walking on to the historic Hotel del Coronado. It's really beautiful.

Taken from the inner court yard.

The next two were taken from the high point of the deck at the hotel.

Upper left is an F-18 landing at NAS North Island. The noise was fairly impressive. Our neighbors told us that they had seen them doing formation landings that same day, so that must have REALLY been loud.

One of the many very lovely haciendas in the surrounding neighborhood.

A fuschia, planted in the ground, where it grows, year round. In the GPNW we beg these guys to survive our summers, potted and hanging in the best light available. Here, they grow outside.

Coming back from Coronado Island, we got the dreaded "service trailer brake system" warning message. This is the fault that tells you that there is a fatal error within the integrated trailer brake controller system. We got home, plugged in the 5th wheel, and discovered yepper, no lights, no brakes, no awareness on the part of the truck of the 5th wheel being plugged in. So annoying. I called the local Chevy dealer, and they took us this morning.
So, after taking the truck in at oh:dark:thirty, we went for a short walk. This is what we saw.

You know, all we needed was for the brake controller to live for two more days. TWO! Is that asking so much? But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Chevy can't reproduce the fault, it's an intermittent electrical thing. Based on what they know isn't the cause, they believe it's the master control module for the whole shebang. So, several hundred dollars later, we will get the truck back. There are huge hills between here and Indio, so there you go.

It's unfortunate that we didn't see more of this area. Today's plan had been to take the trolley in to Old Town and walk around and look at stuff. Instead, I think we'll do a long walk around the marina. We did do weights and stretching this morning, so we're not totally worthless. This is a great park, we may come back in May after Tucson becomes unbearably hot.

Later that same day.........
We saw this guy walking around the marina.

He reminds me of the golden squirrels in Zion. We got the truck back, the brake controller now knows when the 5th wheel is attached, so that is good. We're leaving in the morning for Indio. I really hope we don't have to stay there too long.

San Diego CA

2011-10-23T17:15:00.003-07:00

We're in San Diego at the Chula Vista RV Resort. Even though it's foggy and cold, it's SO MUCH BETTER than the Pomona KOA. It's actually a beautiful park; wide, level, paved sites with no over hanging trees and no leaves and sap falling on the vehicles. In short, everything that the Pomona KOA is not. OK, enough on that topic.
California vegetation is amazing. Where else do they plant Birds of Paradise on the landscape strips between RVs?

So, we're here until Wednesday morning. Hopefully the weather will clear for better photography. We want to go out to Point Loma, which is very beautiful when the sun is out.

Pomona RV Show - Day Final

2011-10-22T20:09:00.003-07:00

Today we could see the mountains for the first time. The wind direction changed and cleared out the LA basin. It was hot without the smog filtering the sunlight.

Still no decision about financing. I've decided to quit thinking about it for awhile. It'll be what it is. Today has been difficult. We've lived in this RV for 3 years, and it's a lot like selling a home. I keep looking at stuff and thinking it will never be like this again, it'll be different. Hopefully it will be better.
There is no reason to stay on in this miserable, awful, wretched park anymore, so we're going to go down to San Diego for three days. After that, we'll head over to Indio to wait for the RV to be ready. Transferring 3 years worth of stuff out of the 5th wheel into a Class A is going to be painful.
So, perhaps fun will be had in San Diego.

Pomona RV Show - Day Eternity

2011-10-21T20:04:00.006-07:00

This is the new Fiat 500. It is so unbelievably cute. Here is the cabriolet version.

The dashboard.

A red interior. It gets good mileage. Driving it across country would probably be painful, but for an in town car, it's a hot ticket.

The rest of this post will be whining and complaining. So, if you continue to read, you've been warned.

We "bought" the Class A. We are having trouble getting financed. Why, you ask yourself, would two people with a near perfect credit score, and no debt, have trouble financing? Well, that's an excellent question.

It appears to be related to being full timers. After that, the stories diverge.

The web says it's due to:

The new lending laws imposed by Regulation Z Section 226.35 require banks to escrow property taxes and insurance on any RV or boat that is the borrower's primary residence. Since full-time RVers don't have a "permanent residence," the banks may have difficulty determining what taxes to withhold and in what amount.
Well, this is crap. I do have a permanent address; it's in South Dakota and there are no property taxes. Further, why would a loan to a full timer require the escrowing of insurance, and not a loan for a recreational use RV? It makes no sense.

One of the salesmen said it's due to:

Banks don't want to lend to full-timers because if they default, the banks don't know where to go to repo the unit.
Well, this is crap. What's to stop someone with a stick frame house that's underwater on their mortgage, from walking on the mortgage, taking the RV, and disappearing into the wilds of Alaska?

The finance guy we're talking to can't articulate the problem at all. A torrent of words came out, but with no real meaning. So, it's two days later, and we still have no word on financing availability. Personally, I find this annoying because we're having to stick around in this wretched park waiting for some sort of decision.
From a more global perspective, think about the long term ramifications of full timers not being able to finance. This park is full of people who live in their RVs full time. None of them can ever buy a new unit unless they pay cash. The RV industry was just about killed by the collapse of the global economy. Whose interests are served by making it impossible for people to buy the product unless they're able to pay cash? SD and TX are going to be hit by this because they pull in big dollars from full timers paying sales tax, registering their vehicles, and paying for mail forwarding services. This is the most stupid idiotic thing I have ever dealt with in my life, and I have seen much stupid stuff in my life.

Then on top of all this, we unwrapped the pork tenderloin we were going to have for dinner, and discovered it was spoiled. We're having pizza and asparagus for dinner because that's all the food we have left. Spoilage just made a shambles of the week's menu planning.

I have more complaining to do at a later date about the FCC, full time RVs and local channel availability, but that will have to wait for another day.

Over and out, maties.

Pomona RV Show - Day 2

2011-10-20T08:21:00.014-07:00

These people scored big time in the good RV site lottery. They're permanent residents. If you look carefully behind the swing, you will notice their hot tub. They do have a nice green oasis in the park. There is also covered parking out of the frame.

Covered parking.

This individual only has a 6 gallon hot water tank. He grew tired of running out of hot water while showering. So he added a tankless hot water heater. He did this 4 years ago on his own. We're now seeing the technology making its way into RVs.

On to the RV show. Can you see the mountains in the background of the photo? The air quality here is is just abysmal.

After a bit we were faint with hunger, major bonking. So, under the influence of low blood sugar, we had a hot dog. They're not that good. German hot dogs are way better, and so are the ones at the Pike Place Market. I would not squander my bad food allowance on these dogs again.

Winnebago has started making towable RVs. They are really well done. This is the living area of a 30 foot travel trailer. Isn't that lovely? Their designers are very good. They make a 5th wheel with two bunks (you don't see that very often) so the kids have somewhere comfortable to sleep.

It's been a neurotransmitter depleting two days. What to do, what to do. We spent a long time looking at the Landmark San Antonio, which is a 41 foot fifth wheel. Yes, a 41 foot towable. Tuesday night both of us were struggling with the concept of threading that much RV through older, smaller parks, much like the one we're in. While Jim has become a genius RV backer upper, it's still tedious to dodge the over hanging trees, parked cars and etc. What to do, what to do. On our way over to the show, there was a salesman starting up one of the used class As that they had in the KOA park. Used RVs are not allowed on the show grounds because they compete with the new RVs. They also make it clear how much depreciation occurs the minute you drive one off the lot. So, banish the used RVs!
Anyway, I digress.
We stuck our heads in and asked if we could look. He was firing it up to take his girlfriend for a demo ride, and if she didn't buy it, he'd call us. We met her later, he actually did take her for a test drive. She didn't buy it because it would not fit in her back yard, and she didn't want to store it.
Here is the interior. The slides are in, which is why the corridor is so narrow. It's a quad slide, so the living room and the bedroom expand when the slides go out. It's a mid-ship bathroom

Here is the exterior. We were not that fond of the color scheme at first, but it grows on us.

We did a test drive. It's so weird being up that high off the road. Jim will have to readjust his eye as to what proper position in the lane looks like. But he is confident he'll master it. That's a good thing, because we bought it.
We have a Class A!

Pomona RV Show - Day 1

2011-10-18T18:30:00.005-07:00

Oy! We spent the day on our feet touring the RV show. It's exhausting, all of those entry way stairs; up down up down. Kidding just kidding. There is solid nutrition to be found at an RV show, so that the customers can keep their strength up for the search for the perfect home. Pink's is a world famous (although Jim had never heard of them) LA hot dog institution. We didn't eat there, we went home for better food. Bummer, I love hot dogs.

I referenced toy haulers yesterday, and wondered how many people could visualize one. Here is a toy hauler in all of its hauling glory. They're geared towards the weekenders who are taking toys out to the boonies. We toured a couple with an eye towards a gut remodel, but it would be expensive. Walls would have to be moved, plumbing changed and etcetera.

This is why one shops an RV show. I don't understand the economics of it, but allegedly the manufacturers will subsidize the cost of an RV so that they will sell for less at a show. When we bought the Montana we're in now, we had a deeply discounted price, plus they gave us a boatload of money for the trade-in. So, shows would seem to be a good place to buy.

We're closing in on models for 5th wheels. Inside storage is close to what we have now, and should not require Jim to jettison too much of his stuff. The issue is the storage underneath. Due to our pesky requirement that our road bikes travel inside and not on a rack, we need space in the basement. We're going to go back and measure some more and think.

Pomona KOA

2011-10-17T18:51:00.013-07:00

Well, we're here. It was a veeeeeery tedious drive. The freeways in California are just abysmal. The noise level is just unbelievable from the rutted bumpy roads.
After leaving Coalinga, one must climb out of the Central Valley. It's steep coming out of the valley. One travels from sea level to 4,183 feet.

Then there is descending back to sea level. There's a 5 mile 5% grade to endure. It's a pain because the trucks are limited to 40 mph and they won't stay in the far right lane. So everybody ends up having to excessively brake.

After the descending, there is the 210 bypass. It takes one well north of metropolitan LA. I can not stress enough the importance of not entering 210 with a full bladder. There is no where to stop (if you are towing a large RV). We hit it fully dehydrated.

We're at the Pomona KOA. It's a terrible park. With the exception of the end slots, they're very narrow, close together, and covered in trees. Satellite reception is not possible with the trees and there's no cable. So far, over the air reception is good, hopefully it will not rain. We're somewhat concerned about leaving here Saturday, people tend to park in the streets which has the potential to make the turn out of our slot painful. The other thing about this park is the flies. We have never experienced so many flies. They're agile little buggers, we've got one in the RV and thus far have been unsuccessful in killing him. Additionally we're on the final approach course for a local airport, and very close to a rail line. Perfect!
This is one of the coveted end slots. I suspect someone has to die before one becomes available.

We'll be doing the RV show starting in the morning. We bought our admission wrist bands this afternoon, and we both got the senior rate. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I got one salesman to admit that the 5th wheel manufacturers are moving away from the full-timer demographic and more towards the week-enders. Apparently there are more week-enders than full-timers. It's kind of a bummer to think that our current coach represents the pinnacle of massive amounts storage. We're seeing a trend of larger living rooms and smaller bedrooms with really pitiful closets and fewer drawers. Depressing, very depressing. I suggested to Jim that we buy a toy hauler (half the RV is dedicated to hauling motorcycles and stuff) and have the entire interior gutted and redone by a cabinet maker. Could happen, yet.

Petaluma to Coalinga

2011-10-16T20:04:00.003-07:00

This is what the first part of the drive looks like. After that it's orchards. Everywhere. Sort of like corn in Kansas, but with trees.

Leaving Petaluma

2011-10-15T19:29:00.006-07:00

Today is our last day in Petaluma. I have to say that this place is very nice when the sun shines. Last May was fairly dismal from a climate perspective. Thursday and Friday were just delightful. We were able to ride two days in a row. Here is Jim out in the boonies.

This morning, fog rolled up from San Fransisco and it was cold and windy. We went down to the Helen Putnam park and walked. We saw wild life. This is a black tail deer.

Don't you love that tree? I love that tree.

These are the rolling hills of Petaluma. When you ride, you get to experience the rolling hills close up.

By the time we got back to the car, the overcast had burned off and it was a beautiful warm day. That's the path our walk started out on, up the hill.

This guy was sitting on the fence near the truck. This is the third day in a row I've taken pictures of this species. This one sat still and presented a profile for me. I need more zoom.

Petaluma has been fun. We've enjoyed our time here. The weekend is in full swing at the park. There are children everywhere, the KOA people are hauling the kids around in the hay wagon, and they're burning wood like there is no tomorrow.
Tomorrow we're staying at a park out in the toolies near Coalinga. We've stayed there before and it's not terrible.

Petaluma KOA

2011-10-12T18:10:00.008-07:00

This is what we awakened to in Eureka this morning. It was the wettest fog I have ever experienced. We were glad be gone. It sounds stupid, but I swear the misery in that area is palpable. I would like Congress to spend a month in Arcata or Eureka in the $33 a night hotels and mingle with the downtrodden. Perhaps they could stop the political sparring and do something about this economy.

Here we are just outside of Petaluma. We pulled off on the side of the road for lunch and a bio break. We're in wine country now.

Notes to self:

At the Petaluma KOA, sites 143, 144 and 163 are the good sites and have 50 amp. Just these three. 163 is close to the water filtration system, but so far it's not too noisy.
101 from Eureka to Petaluma is a pleasant drive. There are some state parks, up down (a couple of 6% grades), and a lot of 2 lane road, but all in all not a bad way to go.

So, today Congress passed a new trade agreement with South Korea. Here is an article from NYT discussing the impact on the US textile industry. How is this possibly good?

We're here for 4 nights.

Redwood Trees

2011-10-11T19:30:00.007-07:00

Today was redwood tree day. We drove down to the Avenue of the Giants to view the trees. On the way down 101 we saw these two people. Sorry about the picture quality, the camera wants to focus on the dead bugs on the windshield. They're homeless. We saw quite a few homeless people on upright bikes towing kid carriers with all of their stuff in them. There is a lot of poverty in this part of California. It's an economically depressed area. Actually, it's kind of grim, there are many people walking around with everything they own in a grocery cart or in a backpack.

There are many hiking trails in the area. We did a flat 2.5 miler. Redwoods are amazing. Big, tall. It's very quiet in there.

Then it was on to the Immortal Tree. Here are the details of the tree.

Here you can see the fish that marks the level of the flooding, and the axe which is where the loggers started to take the tree down.

After the tree viewing, we decided to go out towards Honeydew on a scenic drive through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. You know those people who follow their GPS down a forest road and end up stuck out in the woods setting their cars on fire to signal for help? That's what this road felt like. We went up for a looooooooong time. We finally stopped and put Petrolia into the GPS, which was not quite half way on the scenic route, and it was another 25 miles. We abandoned. It was a very narrow road, with giant potholes. And it would have been a looooong drive on a really terrible road.

Tomorrow we're up at dawn an heading out for Petaluma. We're thinking we might get the bikes out and do a couple of rides before we forget how.

Eureka CA

2011-10-10T18:45:00.006-07:00

Currently we're in the Eureka CA KOA. It's not a terrible KOA.
Here is yesterday, this was taken just after we entered California. Lovely day, just lovely.

There is the truck and the house we live in.

If you are traveling down 101 you must stop here. Forget the Trees of Mystery, basically they're big trees. What they do have here is one of the most amazing collections of Native American baskets I have ever seen.

These two are out front, so you can't miss the stop.

Two photos from the museum part of the building. The woman that owns the collection is 90, and has been acquiring all of her life. Recently her friends who also collect have been passing away and leaving her their collections, so it has grown fairly large. It's free and it is absolutely worth stopping for.

We have been shocked, nay stunned, at how many people are bicycle touring south on 101 this time of year. Four people came in last night on bikes, pitched tents and got rained on all night. It was just gruesome. This morning it was still raining when they left. This guy was the first out, smoking a cigarette. I don't get that.

So, it rained all day today, and we spent most of it doing trip planning between here and Pomona. Good thing we did that. It's difficult to get from 101 to I5 in the northern part of the state if you don't want to cross the coast range, which we don't (want to). The other issue is once you get to I5, there are not many RV parks. We were using an RV park rating site to check on parks on one of proposed routes. They were all uniformly dismal. Here's one review of a California KOA. It's surprising, they're not usually great, but they're not usually this abysmal.

Small sites, very crowded with extended stay campers. Could have been a good place with the creek and all. The bathrooms were filthy and the office staff was like children and laughed at me when I mentioned the trash. Where is management. Maybe the owner doesn't care. Won't return. Too much drinking and drugs for a KOA. Smelled Marijuana all night long. Dirty everything, even the store. Won't return. Went down the road to a better place.

We kept checking places and getting some really awful reviews. We're going back to the KOA in Petaluma. It's a known quantity and the weather is better than it is here.

Two more squalls went through just now. It's supposed to clear up, but so far that is not happening. Tomorrow we're going to look at giant redwoods. Hopefully we'll get a hike in, I need some exercise in the worst way.
So maties, that is all from here.

Gold Beach - RV Resort at Turtle Rock

2011-10-08T18:15:00.003-07:00

This is the view from the Waldport KOA this morning. It started out nice, but then a bunch of rain moved in while we were undoing the utilities.

Part of the drive south is extremely uninteresting. The road goes inland for the stretch of road in the dunes area. After Port Orford, the road goes back to the water and it looks like this.

This is the beach at Gold Beach.

This is a terrible RV park. It is beyond me how it was rated as highly as it was in Trailer Life. The sites are short, not level, and the general ambiance of the place is rustic bordering on primitive. We were out walking this afternoon and went by another park that had a sign out saying meth users would be arrested immediately, and that renters were responsible for their guests' behavior. I believe I would turn around immediately after seeing that sign.
So, we're outta here in the morning, heading for Eureka CA.

More From the Oregon Coast

2011-10-07T20:23:00.004-07:00

Well, what a difference a day makes! Today was cold, windy, foggy and rainy. Just yucky. Even with the unpleasant weather, it's still beautiful.

Tomorrow we continue on down the coast. We're still loitering, waiting for it to be RV show time.

Waldport OR

2011-10-06T19:17:00.008-07:00

We're at the beach. If you haven't been to the Oregon coast, you should. It's one of the most beautiful places anywhere. We lucked out and it quit raining.

This is about 25 miles north of the first picture, and closer to the cloudy weather. See the difference in the sky.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse, built in 1873. In 1966 it was automated.

More scenic beauty.

Here we are on a Newport Bay pier. Those are sea lions. They are incredibly noisy and territorial. The guy upper left was constantly proclaiming his right to the real estate.

Newport is still a working waterfront. Actual fishing occurs here.

This is the bridge to Alsea, not far from the park where we are staying. I took this at the very instant the light was good, just before more clouds rolled in.

This is a detail from below the bridge. Those are seals.

Seagulls on the wing.

We're in a KOA. There's some sort of group function going on, many people are sitting outside in the cold, watching television and drinking beer. You gotta want to do it.

Portlandia

2011-10-05T17:35:00.012-07:00

Today we drove in to Portland to walk around and look at stuff. Driving in, it was not looking encouraging for a dry walk, but the rain held off. It was cold and windy. We were wearing jeans and tall socks. I hate jeans, I like shorts.

Wouldn't you like to be a Portland dog and go to this day care? They also offer wholesome food and socialization for your pooch.

Here is Jim at Powell's bookstore. It's a Portland institution. The store covers an entire city block, with multiple floors. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

Tillamook is a local firm. I love this VW van they've cut down to be a Baby Loaf.

A street in Portland.

We had lunch here. I like a simple menu for breakfast; egg, meat, cheese. Everything you need, and nothing you don't.

One of Portland's food trucks. They had a very eclectic menu. I like the name.

Portland has a China Town. We walked through. It was weird, no one was on the street. It was oddly deserted.

This is the train station. It's undergoing a massive renovation. The station has been in continuous use since 1898.

We're leaving in the morning. Our first thought was to head south on I5 to Canyonville. We were going to stay there and drive up to Crater Lake Friday. Unfortunately, it's snowing there and it's in the mid-20s. Even if we wear all of our warm clothing at the same time, we'll freeze. I checked their web cam, and they're totally clouded in. So, we'll do that next year. Instead, we're off to the coast of Oregon. I think we'll meander our way down the coast highway. We're basically loitering until the 18th, when we will be arriving in Pomona, CA.

Walla Walla to Portland

2011-10-03T18:37:00.005-07:00

Eastern Washington.

Western Oregon.

Travel plans will now have to be calibrated with weather reports. The snow levels are dropping! Ahhhhh! Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or not.

Walla Walla Part Two

2011-10-02T16:27:00.014-07:00

The weather was so delightful this morning, that we decided to spend one more day in Walla Walla (henceforth referred to as W2). I shall now hit the highlights of the past two days. Yesterday's key learning is to take a picture of the signs at the vineyards so that it's possible to remember all of the places visited. I failed to do that. Sorry.
These are flowers behind a winery from Friday.

Saturday morning we walked into downtown W2 for coffee and breakfast. This nice lady is almost 90. She trained as a nurse in W2, spent her working years in Seattle, and is now back here because she wanted a smaller scaled, slower pace of life. She was interesting to talk to. She thinks the wineries are good because they've brought tourists and their money to W2; but the down side has been skyrocketing land and housing prices, difficulty in parking downtown, and the Macy's is not really marketing to the locals, but to people from Seattle who are here visiting. I really enjoyed talking with her.

Then we walked around downtown for a bit. This is one wall of the Odd Fellows Temple.

A theater downtown.

Then it was off to the farmer's market.

There was a big 4H stand. There were chickens on leashes and bunnies. All of the animals were very well behaved.

After the tour of downtown, it was off to the wineries. The airport in W2 used to be a training base for B17s during WWII, the 91st bomb group was the first to train there. There are many old small buildings left over from that era. The Port of W2 has been successful in getting many of the wineries to open tasting rooms in the old buildings. We visited several before going out to the incubators.

This is a genius public-private partnership. New vintners can spend up to 6 years at a low rent in one of the five incubator tasting rooms. Each year the rent goes up, and after 6 years, they move up and out. It gives people new to the industry a chance to perfect their craft and build a client base. It helps the industry and it helps the individuals. One of the guys we talked to is a 6th generation resident of the area. His dad is a wheat farmer, owns thousands of acres of land, some of which will be turned over to grape production in the future.

Here are Jim and Jim in front of CAVU. Much wine was purchased.

Flowers in CAVU.

Then we drove out to Pepper Bridge. It's just gorgeous out there. They have a large facility with a great deck. You drive in through apple orchards and vineyards. Beautiful, just beautiful. This is the view off their deck.

After Pepper Bridge we drove over the border into Milton-Freewater, Oregon to the Tero winery. They also have the stunning scenery.

We walked out to an orchard adjacent to the vineyard to look at the McClellan Fuji trees. It's amazing how many apples are on one tree.

Given that it was such a nice day, a small plane was flying low and slow over the area. Look at the size of his tires, he can land on the dirt.

We went out to dinner at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe in Waitsburg. The population there as of the 2010 census was 2,013. It's out in the middle of wheat country. So what would you expect to be eating for dinner there? I was expecting big grilled steaks and no vegetables. Wrong. It's upscale Cajun inspired Southern dining. I had ravioli stuffed with ricotta and pureed potatoes in a red broth with crayfish, escarole and preserved lemon slices. It had a sneaky kind of heat that built throughout the bowl of wonderfulness. My face was all sweaty by the time I was finished. It was so good. Kim had a Cuban inspired shrimp stew which she liked very much.

This is dessert, which we split. It's bourbon glazed peach bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. It was so good. It's amazing to me that Waitsburg can support this restaurant, and two other upscale bars out in wheat country.

So today, we got up with the intent of driving to Portland (where it is raining), looked out the window and decided that the weather was better here. We went out to the Whitman Mission National Historic site. The mission was founded in 1836 by Dr. Whitman and his wife. They were Presbyterians, sent from the east to convert the Cayuse. This is the view from the memorial dedicated to the Whitmans.

This is the pond on the site with turtles.

When the Whitmans arrived in 1836 the Cayuse population was about 400. The were nomadic hunter gatherers. Dr. Whitman attempted to teach them to read the Bible and to farm. He knew that given the number of settlers coming in to the area, the nomadic way of life would be unsustainable, due to the Northern Europeans' penchant for fencing off the land. The Cayuse were not really interested in learning either topic, and were very unhappy about the number of people who were staying at the Mission.
All that remain are the foundations of the buildings. This is the Mission proper where the Whitmans lived.

In 1847 measles came with the continuing influx of settlers. The Cayuse had no immunity to it, and 50% of their people died. The Cayuse thought that Dr. Whitman had not done enough to save them, and retaliated by killing Dr. Whitman and his wife, and 11 other settlers. The buildings were burned, and the remaining settlers fell back to Fort Walla Walla. Oregon was declared a territory so that federal troops could be utilized to find the 5 Cayuse suspected of the murders and hang them.
The Oregon trail went right by the Mission. The western expansion continued along its route.

Afterwards we drove out to Whitman college and looked at it. It's a really pretty campus. Whitman is a private liberal arts college. Here is one of their attractive buildings.

So, that was W2. Tomorrow we are going to Portland for a couple of days. Hopefully the weather will be better than the forecast.

Walla Walla WA

2011-09-30T20:44:00.005-07:00

We're in Walla Walla - a premier wine producing part of the country. Kim and Jim know many of the winery owners; it's fun going with them because we get to meet the producers.
Barrel tasting at Saviah.

Winery dogs at Balboa. Their wine is fabulous. The dogs were fun to watch.

Dinner was at Olive Marketplace and Cafe. Really good food. I'm stuffed, and tired. Thus, a short post.

Fog

2011-09-29T11:03:00.007-07:00

I took this (through the windshield) driving east from dropping Jim off at the park and ride. It's interesting how fog comes off the hillsides and flows across that stretch of freeway.

This is our last day here. Tomorrow morning we load the wagons and head out.

Wet Fall Day

2011-09-26T21:16:00.002-07:00

Today was gruesome. Just gruesome. Here is pictorial evidence to support my position.
Harbor Island, taken from the West Seattle Bridge.

Parked at Alki, eating lunch, viewing the water.

Three more days and then we head out.

Prosser Balloon Festival

2011-09-25T18:51:00.038-07:00

This past weekend was the Prosser balloon rally. It was fun. We should have gone over Friday night but we had another engagement. Balloon rallies are very dependent on weather. Saturday morning, when we weren't there, was a perfect day for a mass ascension. Kim was there and took mass pictures.

Saturday morning.

Aren't they lovely? Thank you, Kim, for the images.

Prosser is a very small town in eastern Washington; in a heavily agricultural part of the state. Corn, cherries, apples, and grapes. Lots and lots of grapes. Everywhere you look, there is a winery. It was a warm there Saturday, it was close to 90.
This is a tavern in Prosser, I love the fact that they also buy gold. This tickles me. Bring gold, drink beer.

There are several antique stores. Cute stuff.

In addition to the balloons, there was a street fair going on. Crafts, food, the usual.

Part of the musical offering was a marimba band. Marimbas! When have you ever seen that? They were really very good. These are high school kids.

One of the food vendors was doing major fried stuff. Fish and chips, and PICKLES.

Never eat these, they're really awful. As Kim said, they taste like fried salt.

There was also face painting for the kids. I stalked this little kid trying to get a shot of him. He had a pretty good design.

The other thing they do is chalk drawings on the street.

These are pretty good.

There was a balloon glow Saturday night. We really didn't know what to expect. We got there when the gates to the high school opened and staked out our turf on the grand stand. There was a steel band playing. There was a middle school band, and a high school band as well. They're from the Tri-cities area. I find it very interesting that Prosser and Richland have programs for marimba and steel drum. The steel drum website is here.

The steel drum bands were really good, and very engaging. Here is crowd participation in the limbo, while the band was playing the Harry Belafonte song "Jump in the Line". The kids just loved it.

Then they played a can-can, and the non-playing kids got out and danced. They had a pretty good line going.

The kids in the bands were just a hoot to watch. They had a tremendous amount of poise and self-confidence. I think every school should have steel drum bands.

Then it was time to inflate the 5 balloons that were there for the glow. They roll them out on the field and use a giant fan to get air into them. As they inflate, then they light off the burners to make hot air.

There was a show. They flamed all at once, or one at a time in time to the music. It was really well done and we enjoyed it very much. If you get a chance to see a glow, you should go.

The balloons couldn't fly this morning - too windy. There was a significant front moving through. We drove home taking a diversion off I90 between Yakima and Ellensburg on the Canyon Road. It's very scenic. Eastern Washington is high desert and has its own severe beauty.

Coming over the Snoqualmie Pass, the clouds were in the trees and it rained. Welcome to fall in the GPNW.

Tomorrow is supposed to bring us heavy winds and high winds. It's time to GO!

What I Have Learned About Medicare Supplement Programs

2011-09-23T18:58:00.008-07:00

How many people took Operations Research in college? Who remembers how to set up a system of simultaneous equations and solve for min/max? I remember doing it, but not exactly how. Deciding on a medigap vs. medicare advantage vs. a straight up drug plan vs. the former employer's really expensive gold plated supplement is starting to feel like solving a system of equations.
If you, gentle reader, are approaching 65, I can not recommend strongly enough that you start examining your options ahead of time. Perhaps I am the only procrastinator on the planet, but Jim and I left it a little late.
First, know that Medicare does not pay for everything. Often, a supplemental policy of some sort is financially prudent.

Here is what we think we know so far.

You have a 6 month window after turning 65 during which you can buy a medigap policy with no underwriting (this means looking at your medical history to determine if you're well enough to insure).
You have a 3 month window after turning 65 to do something about Part D, which is drug coverage. Failure to do this will result in fines, and I think a life long increased cost to have Part D.
Medicare advantage programs are basically Medicare Part C. They have low monthly premiums (Humana offers 2, one is $24, the other is $36). They pay a little more on top of what Medicare pays, but they limit your yearly out of pocket costs to $3 or $4k. They include drug coverage, with copays. They also have some vision and dental which Medicare doesn't. If you do not see the doctor often, this may be a good option. There will be co-pays for some services. Both PPO and HMO plans are available. Due to our moving about, we have to have PPO.
Medigap policies are named A - F (or L or something). Plan F is a Plan F is a Plan F. So go for the lowest cost, highest rated carrier. At present this would be Mutual of Omaha. They charge $103 a month, and pay all ( I think ) the deductibles, and there are no copays.
Drug benefits are extra if you have a medigap policy. The coverage plan you select depends on what meds you are taking. Each plan has its own formulary and rate schedule.
Neither Medicare advantage plans nor purchased drug coverage protect you from the donut hole. When the amount of money you paid (including your deductible if you have one) and your insurer paid for your drugs hits $2840, you're in the hole. You stay there until your TROOP (true out of pocket) hits $4550. Then money flows your way once again. I am still fuzzy on the math that gets you to the $2840. I think it's important to know the retail cost for a non-generic that the plan you are considering has negotiated with the pharmacies, I think that's the largest factor in the events driving you to the edge of the donut.
All plans are local. You have to get something that is offered in your zip code. If you move, rates will probably change. Some states have more plans than other states. We're SD residents, and we appear not to have so many options.
There are many brokers on the web. Some only broker medigap, some broker medigap and medicare advantage plans. Be aware of what they're selling, because that will determine what they tell you about.
AARP offers plans underwritten by United Health care. They are different in that they don't start significant questions about your health until you've been on medicare for 3 years.
Everything changes every year. Every dang year you will have to revisit your plan to make sure your non-generics are still covered and that they didn't move into a more expensive tier. There is no fire and forget.
Changes must be made during the open enrollment periods which are generally Octoberish to early Decemberish.

I'm writing this to synopsize what I think I know, and to point out that this is something that will not be accomplished over a couple of days. As I said, I may be the only person on the planet who did not realize how time consuming this is, but I didn't. Now you do.
Having only ever worked for one employer, who provided gold plated coverage, I never had to know any of this stuff. They provided it, I used it. This has been a very enlightening experience for us.
Nothing in this post can be taken as being accurate. This is what I think I know, which might be totally wrong, so do your own research.

Riding the South End of the Lake

2011-09-22T15:20:00.005-07:00

Tuesday we rode around the south end of Lake Washington. It was a beautiful fall day. Look pretty much dead center in the photo, that's Mount Baker, which is frequently unseen due to clouds. For the Seattle native (or ex-native) it's always nice to see it. It's about 100 miles from here.

We rode past the Renton Boeing plant. The train from Wichita had just delivered 737 fuselages (nose to tail). This guy sits on one of the cars, and then hops off to open and close switches. He had a great day for it.

Those are the boxes the cabs used to come in. We're not sure what's in there now.

A green airplane on the Boeing flight line, next stop will be the paint hanger.

So that was Tuesday.

Tomatoes

2011-09-21T18:24:00.004-07:00

Finally, a tomato has ripened in Issaquah.

Olympic Sculpture Garden & 3 Day Walk

2011-09-18T18:12:00.006-07:00

The weather in the Issaquah microclimate was gruesome today, just gruesome. We drove west to Seattle, where it was better. I've been wanting to go to the Olympic Sculpture Garden all summer. Finally, we got there. I did not get names of all of the artists or their works, so some of these will be unlabeled.
This installation is nicely situated among some small trees, I like the one on the left (the tree), it looks like it has eyes. The art is not really speaking to me.

This sign amuses me. When you put sculpture outside within the reach of the public (especially the very young public) they're going to touch!

Alex Calder - Eagle. It's impressive.

Richard Serra - Wave.

A metal tree sculpture.

Typewrite Eraser, Scale X. This was donated by Paul Allen. It's an object he helped to make obsolete.

It was a typical blustery fall day. Windy, changeable skies, warm, cold, warm. It you don't like it, wait 5 minutes, it'll do something else. The sail boat lower right is Obsession. She's available for rides in the sound. She docks somewhere around Pier 61. With today's wind, she was just hauling.

Cruise ships at Pier 91. This used to be a Navy pier, but has been returned to the city of Seattle. The structure on the right is used to fill grain ships.

We also saw the last few miles of the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk. Some of the ladies had fabulous outfits. Spirits were high, it's almost over.

The is a new trolley for Seattle. It used to be called the South Lake Union Trolley. Given its unfortunate acronym, it's been renamed to the Seattle Streetcar.

So that's what we did today and what we saw.

Dinner with Many Frends

2011-09-18T10:50:00.007-07:00

Last night we had dinner at the COs with three other couples, two of which we had not seen in years. Years! It was good to see them, and notice that things just picked up where they left off. There's nothing like learning how old someone's children are to bring home the whole concept of tempus fugit.
Those are mussels being assembled. First they were steamed and then covered in a really good marinade for awhile. At this point the mussels are being reinstalled on to shells, and placed on shaved ice for presentation.

Food photography with a point and shoot is hard. This is the best photo of the mussels, and it's not that great. You will have to take my word for it that they were just lovely, and they were good. None survived.

I like this picture of Jim.

It was a wonderful evening with friends and good food beautifully presented. I stayed out of the red wine, which was good for me.

Today, it's raining on a charity bicycle ride. I feel so badly for them, it rained on them last year, as well.

Aggravation in the Blogosphere

2011-09-17T09:33:00.004-07:00

This past week, Blogger, in their infinite wisdom, decided to start rolling out a "lightbox" photo viewer for the users of Blogspot; without telling anyone before hand. The help forums are all a-buzz with haters of the feature wanting to know how to disable it. So, a piece of html code was put up on the forum, and I have cut and pasted it into my html design template. This required some faith due to the fact that I do not know anything about html, other than it's a scripting language.

Anyhoo, I would say that the blog is 99% back to normal. Hopefully this will keep the dreaded lightbox at bay, and enlarged photos will display as they used to.

If you do see any odd behavior, please let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Update to post: Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggh. The fix is not consistent. I'm not sure which is worse, something unattractive all of the time, or something that is fixed most of the time. In user interface design school, they taught us that inconsistency was a terrible design error. I don't know. Maybe I'll move to another hosting platform.

Kirkland

2011-09-15T19:02:00.003-07:00

Kirkland at night. It's become a very pedestrian friendly place. Lot's of shops and restaurants. Sort of like a European city.

Changes to my Blog

2011-09-14T20:39:00.005-07:00

For some reason, Blogspot has made a change to my blog that I really hate. If you click on a photo to enlarge it, you'll be taken to Picasa viewer. You'll see the enlarged photo. To get back to the blog, you must close the viewer by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner. Clicking on the back button will take you away from the blog, so don't do that.
I have noticed than in much older posts, the viewer comes up, but it doesn't show you any pictures. In that case, just close the viewer and hold the screen closer to your face.
The template is new, as well. I tried rolling back to an older template to try to fix the viewer problem, but it broke other things. So, it forced me to this new template that I don't like, either.
All in all customer satisfaction with Blogspot is low at the moment.

Marine Push

2011-09-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

This is what we get with an on shore flow. Clouds in the trees, gray skies, generally ookey weather. This is why we don't live here anymore.

Wildlife Photography

2011-09-12T18:25:00.003-07:00

We've been hearing tree frogs lately. Saturday, Jim took the cover off the grill and found a frog living in there. We released him back into the wild. Yesterday, we found another one in the grill cover. Here he is on the top of grill lid.

Now he is hiding from us.

Peeking out, prior to heading into the grill and certain death.

I picked him up (and he peed on me) and put him in the tree, where he belongs. They're really pretty. It would just be awful to incinerate one of these guys.

After a stunningly beautiful weekend with temperatures in the upper 80s, the weather changed. We had a marine push; clouds in the trees, cool temperatures.

Last Carnation Valley Ride

2011-09-10T21:28:00.004-07:00

Today was the last day of riding in the Carnation Valley. The road closes Monday, so that's it for that route. It's weird, we're entering the count down of "last time we'll do x" before leaving. We're out of here 9/29. It's like every other extended stay, when we arrive it feels like we'll be here forever, and then suddenly, we're packing it up.
A last view of the always lovely Sikes Lake.

We were stopped on the road by a very flustered young woman looking for the Tall Chief RV park. We sent her to the only park we know of, which is in Fall City. We drove down there after riding, just to see what was there, and it's a very long drive way. This is a park that we've always seen on a different ride route, and it never occurred to us that it was reached from Fall City. So there you go. It's not a place we would want to stay, no sewers.

So, that was today. It was a good ride. Jim was feeling good on the way back and towed me in at 19 to 20 mph. It was fun, made me feel young again.

Knife Sharpening and Photography Class

2011-09-09T18:24:00.007-07:00

Oy! My little feet are tired. We took the bus in to downtown Seattle. It's just too difficult to park the giant pickup truck in the garages. You either get a very tight spiral entrance/exit ramp, or the arm on the gate whacks the roof of the truck, and/or the the radio antenna whacks the exit signs. We took 4 knives in for sharpening (not nearly as much fun as buying new ones) and I had a photography class. There was about an hour and a half between dropping off knives and class starting so we walked. If you haven't been to Seattle, it's hilly. These are some of the things we saw.
A firehouse.

The water feature at Westlake Center.

New apartment buildings in Seattle.

The class was worth doing. I learned how to better use my new camera, and the Picasa photo editor for post processing. The camera is way smarter than I am.

This weekend will be the hottest two days of this year. How weird is that? It's September.......

Smoke

2011-09-06T21:44:00.003-07:00

It's a lovely evening, the kind of night where one opens the windows and the front door and savors the scent of the night. Except for us. Why, you ask? Because there are cigar smokers in this park. Would someone like to explain to me in this day and age, with all that is known about tobacco products and oral cancer, WHY are these people smoking? It just boggles the mind. This is really pissing me off.

Labor Day in Seattle

2011-09-05T18:54:00.009-07:00

Today got off to a slow start, we watched a few episodes of House Hunters International, and then went out to lunch. After that, it was downtown to check out the sale at City Kitchens and to walk around. Brian Tracey owns a fleet of WWII amphibious landing craft which tour the city and go in to Lake Union. We've never taken the tour, it looks like it might be fun, especially the water part.

This is a totem pole in one of the city parks. The pigeons have learned to stand on the sides of the anti-pigeon spikes.

One of the fish stands at the Pike Place Market.

We saw this on the way home. It's a Dodge Travco RV! It's from the early 1960s. The paint was just immaculate.

Other than that, I have nothing new to report.

Last week in August in Review

2011-09-05T12:17:00.011-07:00

Did you know it's possible to make fresh cheese at home? Vicki had us over last week and we had a cheese making class. We made ricotta, chevre, and marscapone. It's not difficult to do.

This is the ricotta. Vicki made toasted baguette slices. We put the fresh ricotta and halved cherry tomatoes with basil and olive oil on the bread, and it was just delightful. It's entertaining to see how little cheese is produced by large quantities of milk.

The weather has been great (finally). Today (Labor Day) it's not raining. However, the trees are starting to turn. Fall is coming, and with it the rainy season. The wolves are coming down from the mountains, and the caterpillars are growing wooly coats.

This is a bummer, we'll have to ride elsewhere after the 12th. But, since the bridge had water over it, repairs must be performed.

An old red barn. Jake Groeneweg is selling his dairy farm in Carnation Valley. The bulk of his land is a flood plain, so hopefully the evil developers will not pave it and plant houses all over the place.

The cows were watching us as we rode by.

So, this begins our last month in the GPNW. Then we well be away from here, going elsewhere.