Crazy Catch-up and then Back on the Road!

Unique art on display at the Exquisite Creatures Exhibit.  

Are we nuts? Maybe. After an epic trip that was just a little shy of six months, we had a mountain of catching up to do at home. I had just four days to get the interior of the rig detailed and help with the neglected yardwork before I took off for my annual girls-only glamping trip on 9/16. This year we returned to Fort Columbia, but Elaine (our cat herder in chief) scheduled the trip to coincide with the annual kite festival in Long Beach, WA. We had an amazing time! Great friends, way too much food, an excess of adult beverages, and a stunning array of kites on the beach. So much fun!

The Kite Festival was a hit!

We trekked down to the beach, and...

... found a perfect spot to watch the kite festival.

Love all the variety, next time we'll bring our own kites too!

Soooo much good food...

...and good friends. Tiara time! Lol.

All my favorite vices were well represented. 😉

After the glamping trip, I dove right back into house/yard work. It wasn’t all work and no play, though. Rog and I went into Seattle to see the Exquisite Creatures Exhibit, a fascinating display by artist Christopher Marley. He uses a vibrant collection of preserved insects, plants, minerals, fish, invertebrates, and reptiles to create stunning works of art. We spent over two hours there in awe of his talent and creativity. 

The butterflies and beetles were my favorites.

Stunning!

Nature makes a beautiful medium.

So many creative displays, the pictures don't do it justice. 

Definitely worth checking out. 

We enjoyed a family BBQ with Tim and Mike at Lake Connor Park. Somehow I only managed to take pics of Riley and Raney. Lol. We also joined Elaine and several of my favorite troublemakers in Bellevue to celebrate her birthday and watch the opening Seahawks game. It was close, but we won! On the homefront I tackled another long overdue project, repainting the front of the garage and all the trim. The more you look the more you see that needs to be done, so that snowballed into touching up the house paint and trim (read "touch up" as repaint whole sections, Lol). Whew! A couple of days, I worked until I ran out of daylight, because I had another trip planned. Yes, I was heading to Texas to go wedding dress shopping with Randi!

Raney and Riley on the trail by Tim's place.

Now there's a cast of characters!

Rian (maid of honor) and Randi’s best friend Jessica (bridesmaid) also flew in to assist. We arrived on Friday, 9/18, and because both the girls had to fly out on Sunday to return to work, we had just one day to shop.  Randi pulled out all the stops and scheduled appointments at three bridal shops in San Antonio on Saturday for a dress shopping marathon! You have to understand that Randi HATES to clothes shop, so when I say she was a trooper, you have no idea. She tried on 18 different gowns and her two favorites twice, for a total of 20 dress on/dress off. Rian took notes on what Randi liked or didn’t and had her rate each dress on a scale of 1-10, while I photographed each gown. I have no idea how any bride-to-be manages this without a support team. It was an exhausting but spectacularly successful day. By the end, Randi had two clear contenders and then we went home so she could sleep on it. What I hadn’t expected was that we were already bumping up against the deadline for ordering and the wedding isn’t until March 2027! Who knew?

No spoilers, the dress will be a surprise!  

Randi reviewed the pictures and notes and made her decision, and back we went to San Antonio on Monday, 9/21, to seal the deal. Taylor at Oliva Grace Bridal had helped us on Saturday and given us great advice. The girl was an absolute gem. 

She said, "Yes to the dress!" Mission accomplished. 

While Jessica and Rian flew out Sunday, I hung around until Thursday. It wasn’t all wedding work, Randi and I had fun too, doing little projects around the house, binge watching animated movies, and cuddling my grandkitties.  While I was enjoying kitty cuddles, Rog was hard at work at home trying to rehab the lawn. He mowed, thatched, swept, added some topsoil, reseeded, set up sprinklers on a timer, and has his fingers firmly crossed. He tried soaking the seed to jump start the germination process and some of it got a little too far along. That made it impossible to use the spreader, so he had to hand seed. Ugh! I really hope all his efforts are rewarded. Riley and Raney were banned from the newly seeded area and they were not amused. Have you ever seen a mastiff pout? I think loading them into the RV for a road trip was probably a good choice. Lol.

The perfect gift for my gamers, Lol.
Custom Funko Pops of the bridal couple. 

We hung a net in the game room and filled it with Randi's stuffies. 

Cleo and Flint - grandkitty cuddles.

I got back home late Thursday night, and we had just Friday and Saturday morning to pack the RV for this trip. Whew. Was it a whirlwind. Yes. Did I doubt my sanity? A few times. But we got it all done. Rog had the rig out and fueled (ouch!) and we pulled out around 1pm on Saturday, 9/26. In addition to spending some time with Rog’s Mom in Redding and visiting Rian in Sacramento, we have a few things planned that should be fun. For now, the return trip home is totally up in the air. We shall see where whim and weather takes us. For sure though, this will be a much shorter trip than the last one. 😊

We spent our first night at Hazelnut Haven, a Boondockers Welcome site in Hubbard, OR. This is our go-to stop whenever we’re heading south on I5 (which seems to be just about every time we leave the house, Lol). We got in and set up around 5:30pm, fed and walked the pups, and then dashed to 19 Acres Cidery to pick up some Brazilian Limeade. This stuff is so good and also very hard to find. 19 Acres can’t keep up with the demand and were limiting folks to four cans per person. Sigh. My dreams of scoring a couple cases and coming home a hero were dashed. I will save a few to share though, promise! 😊

Not the haul I was hoping for, but better than nothing!

On Sunday we moved just 88 miles south to Armitage County Park in Coburg, OR, a lovely campground right on the MacKenzie River. We really need to do more than just an overnight here, there are trails to explore and the river looks like it might be a good candidate for kayaking.  

Armitage County Park, Coburg, OR. 

Raney at the river.

Boat launch in the campground. Kayaking, anyone?

We weren't there just for fun though. The driver’s side windshield of the Short Bus cracked on the last trip and we opted to wait until we got home to deal with it. As noted, we were pretty darn busy and finding someone who specializes in RV windshields is tough. Rog found RV Glass Solutions in Coburg, OR and got us scheduled for the trip down. Our plan was to roll in at 8am when they open the door and try to get back on the road as soon as possible. Since the website said they typically want you to wait until 4pm to move the rig, we were a little worried about timing. We had nearly four hours of driving to get to our next stop in Ashland, OR. When we talked to the technician, he said if the windshield gasket needed to be replaced, we'd have to spend the night (they offer parking spots with hookups). Luckily, it did not and the new windshield was installed and we were able to get on the road by 2:30pm. Woohoo!

The large pet friendly waiting room was great.
Obviously, the pups do not seem too concerned about the wait. Lol. 

What do we have planned in Ashland? You know that with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in full swing, we have tickets! You’ll have to check out our next post for the details!