Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #30 – Family Time and our Annual Vintage Trailer Rally

 

Wednesday, July 12^th., 2023……  We were up early and had the girls out. I spoke with Mark, who was here today working on cutting back Rich & Linda’s field. Rich told me he was coming this week so I contacted him and he will be coming back here on Saturday to cut our field. We fed the dogs and then ate breakfast. After that, we headed out to the trailer and got everything ready to go. We hooked up Cat’s truck and she loaded some stuff in the truck bed and I loaded other things in my truck. We set off to go park the trailer. I followed her and took a quick pic! 

When we got there at around 9:30am there were already 20 trailers in place. Wade said they opened the gates at 8:00am and there were folks who were parked there at 6:00am. Anyway, we found a spot (same as last year) and got parked and leveled and hooked up. 

We unloaded everything and as we were leaving, another trailer came in next to us. We met John and Tammy and welcomed them as our neighbors. He wasn’t sure if he had enough electrical cord to reach the junction box so I offered him my extra which I wasn’t going to use. And we left. We got back home and did some chores. We will go back later with a few more items we forgot and see how many more have some in. They accepted 132 trailers this year. That fills up the area but doesn’t make it congested so folks have room between trailers. The main grassy field was still open when we got there but they are mostly filled with highly restored trailers. We call it the hoity-toity row! Campers with attitude!, so, we didn’t want to park there. I’ll add pics of that area later. 

We do plan to put up a for sale sign on the trailer while there. Cathye is ready to sell it. She says we don’t use it enough and wants someone else to enjoy it. She won’t give it away, so we’ll mark it at $12k and see what happens!

We got back to the park after we watered and did some other chores around the house. Boy, it got busy and filled fast while we were gone!  Events don’t start until tomorrow. We’ll come back with the dogs after breakfast in the morning. When we returned to the house, I did have a chance to work some more on our new tractor. I cut the wooden crate away from the wheels so it would be easier to just drive off the bottom section. That worked well and I cleaned up the mess. Then it was time to start her up!  I had already added gas and I spent some time working on the battery connectors. They don’t give you a lot of wire length to work with so I had to maneuver the hot wire around a few times to get it to lay in there just right. But, when I got everything done, it started up right away!  Cat came out and took a turn around the driveway. This is actually her tractor!

Next step is to install the bagger, which I did. I still need to speak with Home Depot about the seat. It’s got two small fray marks in the upper back part. I want to find out if they will just do a swap out for me. That means I can’t install the armrests until I get that resolved.  

Thursday, July 13^th., 2023…… We were up and going pretty early this morning. We already had most everything at the park but there were a few other things to load up. We took the Acadia this time because we needed room for the butthead. We got there and unloaded the dogs and the other items and took stock of what we had and what we forgot. Needless to say, I went back once more. I have been coordinating with Mark, my lawn guy to mow the field and he said he would be there on Friday to do a partial and leave the mower, but might be there finishing up the neighbor’s fields. He wasn’t there yet.  I had no problem getting back home and loading up some of the things we had left. Good thing it’s only 11.6 miles from our garage to the camp site! We have her truck and the Acadia at the park and they are right across the road from our space. We have one of the shadier spaces and folks have been driving by looking for spots in here as well. They don’t allow you to park your tow vehicle at your site unless it's vintage. There’s one guy with an old suburban who has parked it in front of his trailer right out in front of us, but it’s still pretty open for other vehicles to get in.  That nice lawn area with all the ritzy trailers has filled up. Here is a pic at night and also one with some really nice old vehicles. I like the Studebaker truck the best of anything I saw this weekend!

Later in the day, Judy and Lynn came over for dinner. I cooked hot dogs and chili and we had a nice easy meal!  After they left, we walked around a bit then took our chairs and the dogs over to the area where they had set up a movie screen and projector. If you look past the screen on the left in the bottom pic below, you can see our trailer!

I think this was the first time they had tried showing movies They chose Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which brought in both kids and adults. It was cute but the mosquitos were out in force so we came in early and settled in for the evening. Rylee has taken claim to my bed!

It is still warm at bedtime but I found I would need to close the windows when it got chilly later in the early morning.  Of course, Butthead had to get me up to pee so I took them both out at 3:26am! Too bad I didn’t see anyone around because we found out next day that Wade, the event organizer, found that his ebike was stolen in the night! Bummer!  But he said he was tired and just put it in the storage area and forgot to lock it.     

Friday, July 14^th., 2023…… Wade was by this morning and told us the news. We suggested he go out to the homeless camp just out of town and check there. Sorry if that sounds judgmental, but they have a reputation of prowling this park looking for articles they can use or sell. Still pretty sad though.

Randy is due in today sometime. He and his riding buddy, Steve, spent some time riding mountain bike trails on their drive up here from SoCal. They stayed last night in Ashland and got up and rode this morning before heading on up. He called later in the afternoon and said they got to our house and were going to get the motorhome unloaded and set up.  He said they would come visit later.  He also said that there was a guy driving up our driveway with a tractor. Yaay, Mark was there!  Mark got unloaded and started out on the perimeter around the field. Randy and Steve got the motorhome hooked up and they got my truck out and drove down to visit. We already had Rylee out in the Calapooia River swimming and having fun. Plus, it is really hot outside (90°) so it was refreshing for all of us. We even had Jama in the water!

We were back at the trailer and relaxing when the kids got there. Penny had come by a few minutes earlier to join us.  We did another round of chili dogs and then they left for the evening to catch up on some needed rest. I had a few beers and then later, we opened up the apple cinnamon whiskey and had a small drink before bed.   

Saturday, July 15^th., 2023…… I was up and out around 9:00am. My plan was to go back to the house and touch base with the boys and with Mark. Plus I needed to pay him for the field work.  Neither were there. The kids went out again. There are trails all around this area and I forget where they go each day.  I got the cash for mark and put it in an envelope and used painter’s tape to attach it to his tractor, which he had left way back behind the rv building. He said later that he was called away but would be back later to finish. He only had 1/3 left to do and it looked great!  I needed to remind him to scoop up on each lap, the previous grass in my pile so he could spread it out as he mowed (I saw later that worked well). I headed back and we joined the neighbors for the ‘open house afternoon’. They give you a sign – one side says open, the other closed. Anyone who wants folks to peek inside leaves the open sign out. Since we have a for sale sign on ours, we got some interest. We wanted to see if there was someone who might really want to pay up for one at the rally. So, we marked an, “I really don’t want to sell it” price on the sign. No one has yet made any offers but they said they have friends who were looking and may call in the future. We’ll see. No worries, we can store it away and, maybe we’ll change our minds and fix it up (either a complete or partial restoration). Who knows…   

Anyway, more drinks and visits with campers and then we called it a night. We did start putting a few things away in prep for leaving tomorrow morning. It was a nice outing. 

Sunday, July 16^th., 2023…… After a nice night’s sleep – yes I do fit in there and now actually I find it quite comfortable for sleeping! – we were up and going around 7:00am. We fed the pups and I loaded them up in the car and added a few things that would fit there with them and made a run home. Cathye relaxed and had coffee and then worked on getting things ready. The kids were out for yet another ride. I unloaded and headed back. When I returned, Cathye had the truck out in front of the trailer 

and we hooked up and loaded up the rest of the stuff and I drove the trailer home and she took the car. We got back and I backed the trailer back onto the gravel driveway and found we were pretty much done. Did I mention it was hot!  We removed the perishables and I did a few more little things and we came in and relaxed for the rest of the day.  We were planning on going out to dinner later in the evening after the boys got back from today’s ride. I think Randy says he has tracked over 85 miles in the three days here!  Later in the evening, Penny met us at Tallman Brewery for dinner. This is our local food truck court so each of us picked our dinner truck. Cat and I chose the new seafood truck and had their shrimp boil. It was pretty good and you got a ton of food!  We all sat inside and had beer and hard cider. Pretty relaxing. Later, we went back to the house, and Steve, who has been a musician almost all of his life, pulled out his guitar and entertained us for a few hours.

 Thank God we only had to walk in the house! Needless to say, we were asleep in a few minutes.     

Monday, July 17^th., 2023…… The boys left early to head to Eugene to ride in Oakridge. They spent all day there, so I had time to relax and recoup. But I did take the seat off of the new tractor and took it in to Home Depot. Yeah, that went well! NOT! Their customer service person told me I would need to contact the manufacturer myself to resolve any issues. She said to call, quote “Club Cadet”!  It’s Cub Cadet, you moron!  When I came back to tell Cat, she assumed I went off on the lady, but I did not. I was frustrated but I held my tongue. I did as she suggested, called Cub Cadet and ended up on the phone (on hold for one hour and 7 minutes between routed calls!) with two very nice people who eventually took my model and serial number and said the seat was in stock and a replacement would be shipped within a few days. Plus, I can keep the old one, which isn’t really that bad. So, now I have a spare! Later in the afternoon after the boys got back and cleaned up, Corey and Vickie brought Brandyn and Bailey over for a bbq. They brought pork loin and we already had New York, so we had plenty of meat. Steve got out his guitar and played more songs, some of them just for the kids! Lot’s of fun!      

Tuesday, July 18^th., 2023…… Today, we were split up for most of the day. Randy and Steve headed off to Salem and then to Black Rock to ride. I went off for my massage and Cathye went in as I was leaving. Later, when the kids got back, Penny came over and we left for dinner at the Point. Cathye had tickets for us for the movie The Sound of Freedom, playing in Sweet Home. But, since the boys were here, she took Judy instead, so I could go with the rest. We had a nice meal and then made a loop around Foster Lake and then around some of the areas around town that Steve had never seen. He was especially excited to see the monster rainbows in the holding pen at the Santiam Fish Hatchery! There were only a few salmon around that had come up the river and I was able to point them out headed to their birthplace. We came back and they went out and fixed the driver’s window on my truck that had lost a bolt and fallen off the track. A 5 min. fix. They also adjusted the headlights that they said were way too low. I don’t drive the truck much at night so I guess I never noticed!  Thanks, guys! They leave tomorrow.  Since they were planning on a super early (5:00am) departure, they both stayed in Randy’s motorhome. So, we said our goodbyes and turned in. It was sure nice to see Randy. Maryanne is planning on coming up later in the summer. Randy is also planning on coming back up again as well. He wants to order us a new ac unit for the house. Ours is working but it’s getting louder and he says is old enough to be replaced. He can get one at cost in Calif. and he and Perrin can come back up and install it. Yaay us!