We’ve escaped the snow and flooding in the Pacific Northwest to embark on our first adventure of the new year! More on that in a moment. We left you all last July with hopes for a fall trip. Instead, we opted to stay home and have family members visit us, not a bad plan. Lol. So, here’s a brief recap of the remainder of our 2021.
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| Holiday snowfall! |
After returning home in July, we had the garage reroofed. Then Rog tackled putting a new roof and gutters on the shed. He also installed new garage cabinets and a workbench. Now we just have to get everything reorganized. It’ll all get done… eventually. I did a major culling in the house and held a huge garage sale. I also joined and fell in love with the local Buy Nothing group. Buy Nothing groups are hyper-local Facebook groups where members offer up or can ask for items. No money changes hands, everything is free. There is an amazing sense of community and it feels great to rehome items and know they’re going to someone who appreciates them. I highly recommend them!
Although Riley is now 4½ years old and
over 200 pounds, he still demands multiple daily play sessions. I keep
threatening to get a puppy so he has someone besides us to play with! However,
I haven’t quite convinced Rog that two mastiffs in a 33’ RV is a good idea. While home, Riley’s had weekly playdates with his
Great Dane best buddy, Mina. We found a new place for our playdates where the
“kids” can play in the woods. The property owners have several acres and a
hobby farm with chickens, goats, rabbits, and two Scottish Highland cows. I am
in love with the cows!
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| Mina and Riley |
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| Meet Johan. How can you not love this face! |
In October we were so happy
to host a houseful! My brother Tom and his wife, Kim, visited from
Pennsylvania. The trip was originally scheduled for March 2020, but you know
what happened then. It all worked out though, because Tom was finally put on
the lung transplant list in March 2021 and was only on the list for 10 days
before he got the call. He is still on the road to recovery, but he is doing
great. Our daughters, Randi and Rian, and Randi's boyfriend Jose were able to visit while they were here too. We had a mini family reunion at Lake Connor
Park, where my other brother Tim has his RV. It was great to all be together! We did a day-trip to Olympic National Park.
Kim got to dip her toes in the Pacific Ocean at Kalaloch Beach and we hiked in
the Hoh Rainforest. It was a lovely visit and over way too soon.
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| Kalaloch Beach |
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| Tom and Kim at the Tree of Life on Kalaloch Beach. |
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| Hoh Rain Forest. |
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| Love the primeval moss covered trees. |
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| More than the Usual Suspects gathered at Lake Connor Park. (Jose, Randi, Tom, Kim, Teddi, Roger, Rian, Floyd, Mike, Alice, Tim) |
After Tom’s visit in October, Rog and I decided we needed to stop procrastinating and get back on the calorie-counting bandwagon. We also started seeing a personal trainer once a week. To say she challenges us would be putting it mildly, but we are already seeing results (if sore muscles count as results 😀). The trick will be continuing our workouts on the road. We also look forward to our weekly fireside happy hour with our friends, Bob and Carol. It has been a sanity saver throughout the whole pandemic. Bob and Carol also have e-bikes and we’ve done several rides together, including a 33-mile ride that went through the two-plus mile long Snoqualmie Tunnel. Rog is the only one on a traditional bike and yet somehow he is still always in the lead!
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| Snoqualmie Tunnel bike ride with Bob & Carol. |
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| A stop at Imbibe Taproom, a perfect way to celebrate a successful ride! |
We had a great Christmas, both of our girls made it home for the holidays and we had a houseful on Christmas day. The day after Christmas, five inches of snow fell and then more a few days later. It was beautiful, but certainly complicated holiday travel. Randi and Jose ended up stuck with us far longer than they planned when their flight home to the LA area was cancelled TWICE. I’m afraid it will be a tough sell convincing Jose to come back. Lol. They finally made it back to California, but six days later than planned. Jose was recently offered a promotion that will entail a move to Texas. They don’t have a timeline yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation since visiting them (wherever they are!) is on our itinerary for this trip.
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| Randi and Jose (not!) enjoying the snow while Riley guards the presents and the house lights illuminate the snow. |
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| Rian plays with the snow dog. Later Tim, Riley, and Rian snuggle on the couch. |
We took down the
Christmas tree and undecorated the house a few weeks early with plans to leave
Friday, January 7th. Since our departure date and route were totally
weather dependent, we were happy to get out just one day later than planned.
The post-Christmas snows had mostly melted, but an atmospheric river dumped
inches of rain causing floods and closing I-5. We might have been able to
detour around it, but decided it was better to just wait a day and get an early
start on Saturday, 1/8.
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| No snow, but the flooding was bad enough to close I-5 for awhile. |
So where are we headed now?
The primary goal of this trip is to attend the RV Rally in Quartzite, AZ. Every
year thousands of RV’ers congregate in and around the tiny town of Quartzite.
There’s a huge, big-top tent trade show along with several rock and gem shows.
The area offers many opportunities for boondocking on public lands, so we’re
playing it by ear and will find a place to land once we get there. We’ve always
been intrigued by the gathering, but this is the first time we've ever attended.
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| This is where we're headed! The Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show. (Photo from the 2022 show website) |
Our first stop on this trip was a new campground for us, Armitage Park Campground near Eugene, OR. We really liked the campground and would enjoy coming back for a longer stay. Our second night was spent at the Randolph Collier Rest Stop outside Hornbrook, CA. From there we made it to Roger’s Mom’s house in Redding, CA on Monday, 1/10. We’ve mentioned the awesome moochdock setup there with full hookups, however we only stayed two nights. We had a nice dinner out and provided some technical support. Barb upgraded her iPhone 5 and Rog helped her get the new phone set up. We resolved a few other tech issues for them and Rog knocked out a couple things on Mom's “honey-do” list. Riley also enjoyed the world’s largest water bowl, although some people still insist on referring to it as a swimming pool. How silly! Lol.
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| Colorful trucks near Black Butte Summit, CA. |
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| Mt. Shasta |
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| Snow along the freeway, but the roads were clear. Yay!! |
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| Gorgeous sunset in Redding. |
On Wednesday, 1/12, we headed to our younger daughter Rian’s house in Sacramento for two days. Rian will soon celebrate the first anniversary of her home purchase. We spent several weeks there last year and were happy to take advantage of another cushy moochdocking spot. Rog made his yummy Hatch Green Chile stew Thursday evening and Rian surprised us by getting up early on Friday to bake some delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Hazelnut cookies to send along on our trip. Remember what I said about being good, working out, and counting calories....well look away! Lol.
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| Yummmmmmmm! |
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| Vista Ranch and Cellars. |
We’d noticed on the drive a godawful creaking noise that seemed to be coming from the front passenger
wheel area. Rog took a quick look and it appeared that the front fittings needed
greased. Rog had the grease gun, but no grease so we did a quick run for a few
groceries and hit an auto parts store. When we got back he lifted the front of
the rig with the jacks and crawled under. Uh Oh. The front passenger side shock
had completely come apart. (And keep those comments
about the heavy load on that side to yourself! 😊) The threads on the metal shaft were
stripped. Rog managed to get it back together and we left Saturday, 1/15, for
our next stop in Bakersfield.
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| Now that is not good. |
Rog checked his temporary repair when we stopped to fuel in Visalia. It had come apart again, so I got on the phone and spent the next hour trying to track down a new set of shocks while we continued toward Bakersfield and cursed every rut and pothole in Hwy 99 (and that's a lot of cussing!). I finally managed to score just one shock from the Freightliner dealer in Bakersfield. We swung by just before the parts department closed to claim our prize and then proceeded to Orange Grove RV Park where we had a reservation for the night. Rog was confident he could install it, so we fudged a little on their “no repairs in the park” rule. We didn’t want to head into the desert, especially since we’ll be going off-road to boondock, without a functioning shock absorber on the front. Hey, this is why we call it an adventure!
Orange Grove is another
repeat stop for us. It’s a nice RV park with some great amenities. It has a
couple of dog runs, a DIY wash rack for RVs and cars, a laundry, a large club
house, pool, etc. Most of that we won’t have time to use on this stop. Another
perk of the park are the oranges – guests can pick all they want! And we did, about five dozen or so. Lol.
Nothing like fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast.
Orange Grove RV Park
Rog got the new shock
absorber installed with no problems – a small miracle, since repairs usually
involve at least one minor catastrophe and a trip for additional parts or
supplies. We also made time to hit the California Fruit Depot just around the
corner. We love their huge selection of snacky foods (free samples!), homegrown
fruit and dates.
About 30 minutes and all is well again.
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