Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #30 –  Fires and Concerts - a Busy Week!

 

Sunday, July 21^st., 2024……  We slept in this morning. Ok, Cathye slept in.. I was up and had the dogs out and then loaded them up in the car and I took them home. I unloaded them and swapped out the Buick for my truck and went back, stopping for breakfast and coffee on the way back. When I got back, Cat had a lot done. We finished up the packing my truck loaded. We also got the lights and awning off the trailer and we were about ready. I was able to get Cat’s truck backed in and we got everything loaded in there. The drive back was pretty easy and we made it the whole 15 miles in no time! I backed the trailer in and Cat started unloading the fridge and the dirty clothes and straightening up the inside. I unloaded the trucks and we were about done. I think the only thing left out was the ice chest after I rinsed it out and left it to dry. We came in and rested for most of the day. I think we both fell asleep watching our tvs! Anyway, we had a nice Sunday.  John and Tammy told us this morning that they weren’t coming by. We have had several fires that are still out of control in Oregon (and Washington and California for that matter). They wanted to leave and drive east to Sweet Home and hoped to get over the Cascades and on to Bend before they closed any roads. While we were out yesterday, we checked on the fire that was burning around Diamond Lake, where we are going next week for our square dance festival with long-time friend and caller Michael Kellogg as the featured caller. The Trail Fire was just east of the lake and there were at level 3 (go now) evacuation orders in most of the area. Our RV park is at level 2 (ready to go).

Sadly, we got a message later from the festival that they would be cancelling the weekend. It made sense even though the fire was headed to the east and out of immediate danger, there was tons of smoke on the lake and the campgrounds. The dance would have been on the patio area outside the lodge. That wouldn’t help breathing! They contacted me later to ask if I wanted to roll over our ribbons for next year or get a refund. We opted to rollover. Next year our friends, David and Dawn Mee, will be featured caller/cuer. I will still need to check with our campground to see about cancellation policy.

Monday, July 22^nd., 2024……  No gym today and breakfast at home. First thing this morning, I was on the phone to the Diamond Lake RV Park. They were busy but called back later. She confirmed what we knew – the area was inundated in smoke. So, we cancelled our space. They will be sending a refund later today. Bummer…

Today turned out to be more relaxing than we expected. Since we didn’t have to scramble to load the bikes and the bike rack on the Honda, load the motorhome, shop for food, etc., we had a pretty easy day. The weather is again turning hot but those fires in our area haven’t affected us yet. There are more thundershowers w/lightning predicted throughout the middle of the state, so we are not out of the woods yet! Fingers crossed.  Cathye got a visit from Omalea and they headed out to The Point for lunch, while I needed to go to Lowes to get some more bags of rock salt for the water softener.  Later, they toured around the property on the Truckster and cat showed her our gardens. 

Tuesday, July 23^rd., 2024……  We slept in this morning and then took the pups out for their walk and then fed them. After breakfast, we were able to catch up on some shopping and Cat also got to go see Jamie and then Judy before she made it back in time for us to go help out at the square dance workshop. Later, Jo, our friend and fellow square dancer came by to pick up some tables and chairs for her game night this weekend. We had stopped by Papa Murphy’s for u-bake pizza and she joined us for that and we visited for a bit. Later, it was tv and spa and then bed.

Wednesday, July 24^th., 2024…… Since we were supposed to be relaxing in the motorhome at Diamond Lake this week, we find nothing on our calendar! So, we started a few projects around here. I needed to get my shop cleaned up so I spent a few minutes on that. I rounded up some sandpaper to put on the palm sander for Cat’s cutting board project. She had bought a nice piece of black walnut and she wants to sand it and use some cutting board oil on it to bring out the color. It turned out to have a pretty deep gouge down the center which I would need to use the belt sander to remove. No worries, that took a few minutes. I would need to get some finer grit sandpaper before she can continue. After that, I worked on the bar top. Since the board is narrower at one end, I needed to trim the bracket underneath and for that I had to remove it, which took some effort to brace up the wood. But, I got it done, painted and reinstalled with no issues. I also needed to sand down one section on the top that had sawcuts in it and was pretty rough. That took a few minutes but it looks good now. Cathye is still taking it easy. She gets out of breath pretty easily so she only does what she can and then rests. Today, she watered her plants and found she will need to deadhead her roses. Maybe later…

Nothing else today so we spent some time watching tv and relaxing. The weather is still pretty warm and since there is little wind, it feels hotter. As I posted the map above, the fires in Oregon are widespread, and we noted that there are two fires just above us in Sweet Home and Detroit Lake areas. No danger but we expect to get some smoke around here soon. But right now, we can only see the haze as we look east toward the Cascades and our air is clear.   

Thursday, July 25^th., 2024…… Cathye has a rash which is bothering her so she wanted to go to urgent care to have it looked at. Since her current doctor has the responsibility for urgent care in his office, Cat had a chance to ask him about her ongoing issues with being out of breath and tired. Her stress test is coming up but he has decided that she would not be able to hit the higher heart rate numbers in her present condition so he is rescheduling it to be a chemical stress test. That’s next Monday. They decided that she could get a walker to help out plus he would authorize a disabled plaque, which he signed off on. So, she headed off to the DMV to get that. When she got to the counter, she noticed that neither the doctor nor his assistant checked off on a permanent or temporary plague. So, she filled in permanent!  Yaay!

Today we start a series of concerts. Tonight, Cat will be meeting up with her girls at Monteith Park in Albany to see and hear Tower of Power in concert. I have no interest so I will pass. They picked her up and headed over to Subway to pick up sandwiches for their dinner. Misty had already gone over to the park and set out blankets to reserve space. Cathye would tell me later that they were close up to the stage. She thought too close when it came to the sound! But she said they had a good time and the old band members still with them did a great job.

Not her favorite music but she was out with her friends and enjoyed the evening.     

Friday, July 26^th., 2024…… We both slept in this morning. Cathye was still pretty tired from her late night out. Weather is still hot. We do get a nice breeze west to east so we are happy about that. Cooler air and no smoke. But we would pretty much be staying in all morning to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. We enjoyed it but it was way different from others!  Later, we would leave for our next concert. Tonight was a fundraiser at the Mennonite Retirement Village in Albany. They had a bbq dinner and concert featuring a Peter, Paul and Mary tribute band. We joined up with some square dance friends and we all got in line for the food. The place was super packed. This facility reminds me of Leisure World and Laguna Woods in SoCal. They have this huge lawn area and set up tents and a mobile stage for the trio. Like I said, we waited in line for a long time and when we finally got to the food, all they had left was the meat (pulled pork and/or brisket) and watermelon. But, we took it to our seats and enjoyed it just as the trio took to the stage.  The concert was really fun! Most everyone (all of us goobers!) knew the classic P,P&M songs and sang along. The cover did well and all enjoyed the show.

We made the drive back with no issues and hit the spa before calling it a night.  

Saturday, July 27^th., 2024…… Today was nice. Temps are starting to cool off a bit. They say we will get a break in a few days with temps going down to the high 70s. Nice! The girls like walking in the mornings so I took them out while Cat slept in a bit more.  Our neighbor had texted me earlier to let me know that he just finished spraying out by his ditch so we could avoid that with the dogs when we went out. No worries, we just used the other side of the street. Later, I went to town to the new Harbor Freight which just opened here. I bought a hammer tacker and the sandpaper I needed. It will be nice to have them so close! I chose to mow today since the weather was cooler. They say we could get some rain tomorrow or Monday so I joined all of the neighbors and got it done. I did all of it by myself so Cat could take it easy. Later, she left for a memorial service in Sweet Home. Both she and Judy knew the family of the young man who was killed a few weeks ago at the Foster Lake dam from a crash in his truck. The plan after that was for Cat to go on to Eugene and meet up with the girls at a fund raiser to Haiti, which they all united for. But she decided that she would not be able to get there in time so she stopped by Pioneer Park to visit with Corey and family, who were camped out for the weekend. After that, she came back in time for us to head off to the park at the Lebanon library where The Oaks Retirement Center were holding their annual Alzheimer fundraiser. Since Jim had Alzheimer’s, this is near and dear to Cat, and she has supported it for many years. The concert was a Heart tribute band called Barracuda.  We set our chairs out and went and found food at one of the catering trucks there for the event. The concert was not as moving as we expected. I guess we both didn’t follow Heart that much because we only knew 2 or 3 of their songs (What About Love, Magic Man, and Barracuda). They did those well, but for the most part, it was a lot of heavy metal music. 

Once we got back home, we watched some tv (and caught up on the day’s Olympic highlights) and then crashed for the night.  Wow, three concerts in three days!     

 

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #29 – Mowing & Heading off to the Rally

 

Monday, July 15^th., 2024……  We slept in this morning. The temps are creeping back up again!  We were lucky to catch a break when the kids were here last week. But it is supposed to be 91° today and will hit 99° tomorrow. The plan was to go to the gym, go to breakfast, then go pick up the last of my yard sale tables from Penny. But since we had leftover breakfast casserole, we changed it up a bit and ate at home. We got the tables and I got them put away. The rest of the plan was to mow today. I had turned off the sprinklers so the grass only needed a couple of hours to dry out. We started in around 9:30 and, with Penny helping, we were done by 10:30. I hosed off all three mowers and came in to rest. I will still have to go out and put them away but that will be later. I worked on last week’s blog and got that posted. We pretty much stayed in the rest of the day. I think tomorrow I will plan on starting in on sanding the bar but that will be early in the morning when it’s still cooler outside.  Later, we munched on leftovers and watched tv until spa and then bed.   

Tuesday, July 16^th., 2024……  We have a few things to do today. After we were up and had the dogs out and fed, we started in on getting the trailer hooked up and loaded. We leave tomorrow so we wanted to get everything going today so we could leave bright and early.  We managed to get everything in and the only thing we have left are the groceries and ice, which we will get later today. Later, Cathye made sure to give her deck plants an extra watering. One of us will be coming back during the outing and will take care of that again. We had a light dinner and settled in to watch tv and then hit the spa for a bit before calling it a night.     

Wednesday, July 17^th., 2024…… We were up and going early. I had loaded up my truck and all we had to do was add ice to the ice chest which we would do later. Cathye took off in her truck with the trailer and I followed. The plan was for her to continue on to town to get propane for the trailer and then meet me at our spot, which I would try to save ahead of the crowd. They told us they wouldn’t be letting anyone in before 8:00am this morning, but when I got there just before 8:00am, there was a nice check-in line (which I bypassed) and headed for our spot. Turns out they let folks in yesterday afternoon so the pickings were slim. I did pull in to our usual area and backed into the spot we had last year. But after I did this, I was approached by guy in the trailer I cut in front of who said I took his spot!  No worries, I moved over a few spaces and that turned out to be the best move!  This spot was level and would have more shade than the one we originally wanted. Cat came in and I backed her trailer in and we set up camp. I had already unloaded my truck and since her truck was loaded as well, we started in on that one. When we had everything out, we found we probably have more chairs and tables, etc. than anyone else could haul in with them. It took a while to get everything set up the way we wanted and we rested for a bit before tackling the lights. I had previously bought three 100’ strings of mini yellow lights. We ran them around the trailer and the awning and then everywhere else we could think of to use up just one of the rolls! Wow!  After we had everything done, we headed back home. We weren’t going to stay tonight since there were no activities planned for Wed. except for the ‘night glow’ when all trailers turned on their lights. We rested at home for a while, then drove back to check out the park. We turned on our lights…

 

then walked around the park to check out the other trailers. We heard later from folks saying we had the best light setup in the park!  Imagine if we had used the other 2 100’ rolls!  After a bit, we headed home for the night.

Thursday, July 18^th., 2024…… Another hot day!  After breakfast and watering again, we loaded up the dogs in the Buick and headed down for the weekend. During the day, we took the girls down to the river, visited with our neighbors, and watched the remaining trailers come in to squeeze in to the remaining spaces around the area. You can park anywhere you want but unless you have a vintage tow vehicle, you must remove your trucks and cars from your sites. We managed to get two parking spaces right across the street. Cat’s truck would stay put all weekend and we would put out a lawn chair every time we left so we could keep the spot, which was at a premium. After lounging around a while, we took the dogs out for a walk around the park. They have so many nice trailers and you could see some folks went to the extreme to restore their toys! Our favorites were the pontoon boat trailer and the woody with matching painted trailer!

 

I spoke with the ‘boat people’ a bit. The guy claimed to just be a fabricator but we all thought he was a fantastic engineer as well. He had solely designed and built the front of the trailer to hydraulically lift up and become a covered patio! It was brilliant!

Tonight they provided hot dogs and watermelon in the pavilion and we took advantage of that. We walked around and checked out more of the trailers. They had games for the kids and I think tonight they painted rocks and decorated their bikes for the parade tomorrow. We hung around our campfire and had a few drinks. Cathye had this package of mixes for rum – which we brought! – so we had to sample all of those. Yep, we killed them all before calling it a night. At home, Jama sleeps right up next to me and Rylee stays at Cat’s feet for a bit before getting too hot. But here, it was reversed. I had to share my tiny bed with Butthead for most of the night! But we made it work and I got a good night’s sleep. Maybe the rum helped! Cathye had Jama and said she slept well too!       

Friday, July 19^th., 2024…… This morning we were up and going early. We walked and fed the dogs then went to the pavilion where they had pancakes, sausage, orange juice, and coffee for breakfast. When we paid our fees, they included all amenities so that was nice. I had two helpings! But the coffee was terrible!  After that, I left and went back home to shower and get coffee to bring back. I made a run around town to the place where we heard the Hermiston watermelon truck was, but no luck! When I got back to the rally, we relaxed and visited a bit. Later, Cathye visited one of the two food trucks and brought us back Hawaiian pulled pork and rice for dinner. In the late morning, they started the Clue game. Folks had to go around from marked trailers and get clues as to who did the murder, where it happened, and with what weapon. We were Ellie Mae, the 64 Shasta. I think there were 10 groups trying to figure out the murder. It was a fun game and later, we went to see the results. It was Professor Heinz, with a trailer stabilizer bar, in the 69 Guardian. Prizes were handed out. Later, we went back to the trailer and hung around the campfire and visited with neighbors and had another round of drinks before calling it a night.       

Saturday, July 20^th., 2024…… I was up early again. This time I would come back to the house and water the plants (which I forgot yesterday!) and then get us breakfast and coffee. I went by and saw the watermelon truck was there so I bought one to take back to camp. It was my turn to go find us lunch and my choice was limited. They had the Hawaiian truck and a waffle/dessert truck. So, this time I chose the chicken teriyaki which was just as good as the pork. Watermelon for later. Today was open house at the park. If you wanted to let folks take a peek inside, you put up your ‘open’ sign. We had ours out and saw many people come through. They also had a car club come in for the day. Nice cars!

We had Cat's girls show up for a nice visit. Some from her church came by as well as a few folks from our square dance club who found us too!  Later, Lynn and Mike and Cheryl came over for chili dogs. I brought my propane bbq - but when I opened it I saw that a couple of the critical parts weren’t in there!  So, we cooked the dogs on the fire! After pie for  dessert, we had a nice visit, and before long, everyone left. 

Today was the bike parade and later the karaoke party on the lawn. They had some talented folks and some maybe not so much, but it was fun anyway! Our favorite was a group who called themselves The Saggy Bottom Boys. They were fun! 

Later, we headed back and had a nice visit around the campfire with our neighbors, John and Tammy, and turns out they were interested in the floor model radios we still have from Jim’s collection. We talked about them swinging by our place tomorrow after we break camp to get a look at them before they head back to Washington. We’ll see… We loaded up a few things in the truck to help prep for our departure tomorrow and then called it a night.

It was a fun few days.  

 

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #28 – Family Time!

 

Sunday, July 7^th., 2024……. Hot, Hot, Hot!  Temps today in the high 90s! So, Cathye skipped church and we hung around the house today and did nothing. I watched races. I have been watching the Tour de France. I am always impressed that those riders have so much stamina and can peddle in excess of 40 miles an hour for over 100 miles! And they do it in 21 stages over the next three weeks. Interestingly, the tour doesn’t end in Paris this year. They didn’t figure they could handle both the race and the Olympics at the same time. So, the tour ends in Nice this year. 

Monday, July 8^th., 2024……  We were up and going early this morning, to beat the heat. We went by the gym and then on to Kevin’s for breakfast. Cathye read the results of her test on My Chart. Of course it’s in medical-ese so she could only get so much from it. She went to Lynn and Judy because they were have more experience. They gave her some insight plus she sent the results to her daughter, who has some training as well. Being proactive, Cat sent off a message to her doctor, asking him for input. He did respond this afternoon that she still needs to wait until her upcoming stress test (Aug. 5^th), but right now he says he can see that she was in AFIB during the echo. AFIB - just like I was!  Considering all of the alternatives, that’s pretty good news so far.  And at least now we can better understand her symptoms because they mirror what I had. Fingers crossed!  

Tuesday, July 9^th., 2024…… Nothing today except our square dance workshop. That’s inside a nice air-conditioned senior center! It is supposed to hit 104° today! The good thing about temps up here is that it cools off nicely at night and the mornings are really nice. It was a little warmer than we like it when we walked the dogs but we’re still ok. I am still expecting a call from the guys working on cutting the bar top. It was due before the holiday so I called them this morning. They responded that it was done and when would I like to come get it? Of course I said ‘tomorrow!’ Oh yeah, we have been using the hot tub again. We set the water temp several degrees cooler and with the weather cooling after dark, it’s actually really pleasant out there!  

Wednesday, July 10^th., 2024…… We were up early and had the dogs walked and fed. The plan today was for me to go out and hook up my trailer and then we would go get the wood. But the first stop was Cathye’s dentist. She had a cleaning and it was on the way so I dropped her off and went around the corner with the trailer to the local park and waited for her text. Then we were on the road. We needed to go up to Aurora, which is south east of Portland, about 60 miles. We decided to stop on the way at the Covered Bridge Café in Stayton on the way. I managed to get a close up stop for the truck and trailer and we got in and got seated. They serve a great breakfast so whenever any of you comes up, be sure to ask us to take you there!  We made the drive to Aurora and met with the folks at Goby Walnut. They brought out the piece and we checked it out. It was perfect – except they were told to taper the cut so I could easily fit it in between the gazebo columns. But they flipped it over by mistake and chamfered the wrong side! They saw I was upset and said there would be no charge for the cutting (which would have been $220.00) and if I didn’t like the final result when I put it in, they would work with me to exchange it for another piece. Fair deal. I ended up buying $120.00 worth of epoxy mix so the savings helped! I think I can make it work.  We got it home and Cathye and I unloaded it on dollies on the back porch. Turns out we would get a test fit later because Vikki was in the ER here in town with a smashed finger, and Cathye volunteered to go get the kids while she was getting treatment. Corey came by later after work and the four of us tried to install the plank. No luck. I need a different tactic. I would resolve that later…

We finished cleaning the house and rv before our visitors came tomorrow. They will be using the motorhome for sleeping while they’re here.  Kyle and Tiff will get our bed, Hera and Cora will get the couch. I put the single blow-up bed out there as well for Luke.  I think we are ready!  Tv and spa until bedtime.

Thursday, July 11^th., 2024…… I was up early because I wanted to hot-mop the floors in the house. Cathye made a run to Walmart to pick up a few more things for meals. In talking with Kyle last week, he gave me some insight into what they thought they would like to do while here. A lot of it was to hit the local restaurants that he liked from his last visit here. He is definitely a foodie! So, that meant we weren’t going to do much cooking for the next few days. Later, it was time to take off for the airport. We needed all of the seating for the six of them, so Cathye stayed home while I headed down to Eugene to pick up the crew. Their connecting flight from Vegas was late plus it took quite a long time to retrieve their luggage and Luke’s car seat. But it wasn’t too bad and we got everyone loaded and got going. I was told they would need food on the way home, so I told them we would stop for lunch at The Junkyard Dog (a Guy Fieri ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ featured place). Problem was it was closed due to a problem with mechanicals. So, we drove up to Route 66 diner, just up the road and had lunch. It was a small meal because of the late time and the fact that I had reservations at The Point for 5:00pm!  

We got home and they got set up in the motorhome and Frances got in the guest room and then we all rested for a bit before it was time to head off to Sweet Home. Penny came by and Cherrelyn would meet us there (since she lives close by there). We took two cars and headed out. We had an outside table and the weather was really perfect. We had a nice lake view and a nice meal. Once we got back, we settled in and they made it a short visit before they headed off to bed after their long day!       

Friday, July 12^th., 2024…… The plan today was for me to take everyone to the coast. Cathye had a luncheon at Lynn’s later this afternoon so it was just me and the group. We left and hit Elmer’s for breakfast. Kyle remembered the German pancake and enjoyed that. 

We made the 115 mile drive up to Tillamook Creamery to take the tour. The kids liked everything there and saw the cheese making and packing process. 

I must say I was disappointed in the sample section. They had two pre-packaged cheeses and one sample of white cheddar pepper jack.

But they did have a new section called Kelly’s Jellies. We sampled some habanero flavors today which were very good!  We had to have lunch there too! I think most of us had the grilled cheese sandwich with roasted tomato soup. I enjoyed mine but Frances said it wasn't as good as before. 

After we left, I was tasked with finding a good spot for the kids to walk the beach and play in the surf.  Now we know they wouldn’t be getting wet because it’s super cold but they have never been to the ocean before and I wanted a good place. I settled on the beach area just past Chinook Winds Casino. We walked down to the sand and then on to the shoreline. It was really windy and extremely cold but they all enjoyed their time there. The girls didn’t want to stop playing, and dodging the waves at the shoreline. 

Later, we left and rinsed off the sand and headed back home. 

The kids had a nap on the long drive home, so they had renewed energy. I went out and cleaned Rylee’s pool and they had a blast playing with her and getting wet. We didn’t have plans for dinner tonight – most of us just wanted leftovers - but Kyle made a run to Carl’s Jr and got burgers and chicken nuggets for him and the kids. The littles were ready for an early bedtime. After that, it was another early to bed night for all of us.       

Saturday, July 13^th., 2024…… Breakfast this morning at Kristi’s. We needed two cars today. Kyle took the family in Cat’s truck with the second seat. After Kristi’s, we headed out and they followed Cathye, Frances and myself, in our Buick, to Silver Falls. Kyle had been here before and was anxious to take the family down the trail at walk under the falls. Cathye was wanting to go down too but we felt that we could both get into trouble on the hike back up, so we stayed up on top and took pics.

After a quick stop at the gift shop, we headed out of the park and got back home pretty quickly. We rested for a bit then loaded up the two vehicles again and this time we brought the dogs. We drove down to Brownsville and to Pioneer park so we could go swimming in the Calapooia River. This is our favorite place for the dogs and the water would be shallow enough for the kids to swim or wade. When we made our way down with towels and chairs, we saw that Corey and Vikki and Bailey were there! Vikki had brought Brandyn to Lebanon to visit with his mother, and they had time to take a swim. Corey, who was out on delivery in this area for Amazon, took his lunch break with them. We all had a nice visit and swim. Rylee and Jama as well. The kids loved the water and we let them stay until they were pooped out!   

Tonight was dinner at Dos Arbolitos. It was to celebrate Tiffany’s birthday! She was surprised! We also had a cake at home to celebrate. Cathye shared her day. 

Sunday, July 14^th., 2024…… This morning was Cathye’s last chance to cook for the family. She had bought all of the ingredients for her hashbrown casserole. She made one with bacon bits and one with sausage.

Turns out the kids are pretty picky eaters and we had plenty leftover. After that, they finished their packing and loaded the car. Before they left, Penny, Cathye, Kyle and Tiff and I muscled the bartop into place. That thing is heavy!  This is a trial fitting and I think it looks good. 

I need to decide if I want to remove it to epoxy or maybe I can just do it in place. Either way, I can work on it and prep for coating while it's there. Later, I took everyone down to Eugene for their 12:10pm flight out. They needed to wait out another long layover in Las Vegas before their flight would leave for Tucson. He would text me later at 8:15pm saying they had made it safely home.  We cleaned up a bit and got some bedding in the wash. The rest we will work on tomorrow. Next up for us is the Vintage Trailer Rally in Brownsville starting on Wednesday. Much to do for that, but we both chose to rest for today!

It was a great weekend seeing and visiting with family. Kyle and Tiff are great parents and the kids are extremely well behaved. It was nice to see Frances again too! Later, we watched a couple of shows and then hit the spa after a long weekend!