2013

Here we are again. It is getting harder to find interesting things to report as our lives continue in a familiar cycle. January was colder than usual but we had a stretch of about 10 days with exceptionally sunny skies. Each morning there was a significant frost, but the days were beautiful. We look forward to those sunny days for our solar panels. We returned to rain for the last week or so of the month.

Janet and I both fared well in her brother's football pool. We each won three times which leaves us in the plus column - not an easy feat with this particular pool. We'll probably use our winnings towards one of our RV weekends.

We had our 9th Annual Superbowl Party with 10 friends over for chili and other good food. This is the first year most of us were excited about who was playing with the 49ers against the Ravens. The first half was pretty depressing as the 49ers only managed 2 field goals against 4 touchdowns. Shortly after the half time show, the power went out in half of the stadium which delayed the game about a half hour. That helped the 49ers who managed a great comeback, but were unable to bring it all the way home. The final score was Ravens 34, 49ers 31. Maybe next year...

February 9th was the Annual Crab Feed in Charleston. We went once again with our friend Louise. June's birthday in March was pretty quiet. She got a frozen pie she likes very well for her birthday and we went out to dinner with our friends, Linda and Tully.

We started our RV weekends in March in Harrisburg which is a little town not too far from Eugene. It's always good to see our RV friends again after the long winter. Since it was close to Easter, there was an Easter bonnet contest which we both entered. June was surprised to win for her creation!

In April we celebrated Janet's 74th. Again, we just went to dinner with friends but next year, Janet wants a blowout for her 75th. That will be fun. April also took us to Woodburn with our RV group. We missed the tulip festival there by a few weeks but went to a peony farm instead. You don't see a lot of peonies on the coast, but they will grow here. We looked for one for our yard and found we have exceptionally good taste. The one we liked turned out to be considered "rare" and the price was $180. We found another we liked because it reminded us of a peace rose - pink on the outside and yellow on the inside. That was only $18 - much more in our price range.

Our May rally took us to Toppenish, Washington. That was a long ways away - something like 400 miles. But we were going for the mural painting weekend which Toppenish is quite famous for. They have adorned the buildings of the town with historical murals and each year on the first Saturday in June they paint either a new one or a replacement for one that has gotten too weather worn. They paint the mural on paintboards near the chamber of commerce and then move it to the selected building. Artists enter paintings for consideration and the winner is helped by other artists to paint his or her mural in one day. What's amazing is you would never know multiple artists have worked on it. They blend their talents into one whole very seamlessly.

The day before the painting took place, we took a tour of some of the town's murals via horse drawn wagon. It was a fun way to see all of them though there were many more than the ones we saw.

While we were in Toppenish, we were invited to the home of two of our members, Cathy and Karen. They live in Yakima which is fairly close to Toppenish. Since they aren't able to host one of our rallies, they decided to invite us all over for pizza and pie. Inviting 30+ ladies to your home for dinner is a brave undertaking, but they have a beautiful place and managed to fit us all in without any problems. The pizza and pie were scrumptous and everyone had a great time.

Shortly after arriving home from Toppenish, we started talking about trading the trailer for a Class C Motorhome. Not ones to let grass grow under our feet, we went to Gib's RV and found a used Jayco Class C that we both liked. The deal was struck and a few days later we unloaded all the stuff from the trailer into the RV. We discovered it is indeed a lot smaller and has less storage but we sorted through everything and set aside what we didn't want for the auction that was planned for the Gold Beach rally. We found a place for everything though we don't necesarily know where that is when we want to get something out. We hope that will improve in time. There is a lot less floor space since there is no slide so we have to work out getting around one another at times. The dogs also have to get used to traveling in the moving rig as opposed to the truck. BUT - it is much easier to set up than the trailer was. We did find out we had some mechanical problems we were not aware of, so after another trip to Gib's where they agreen to pay half the repairs, we eventually had everything taken care of. We were, however, disappointed to find we only got 8 mpg after our first RVW trip to Gold Beach. We were hoping for 10 to 12. Sigh... We have named the new rig "Jenny Too" since she is also a Jayco. We traded the truck for a 2004 Ford Focus. It has manual transmission so that we can tow it if we want to. Setting everything up for towing will run about $3000 so for the time being we are going to pass on that.

Our first official trip with Jenny Too was to Gold Beach in July. The drive was easy and we really appreciated the small size of the rig on the winding road out to the RV park. We were sited along the Rogue River and some of our members took the mail boat ride on Saturday. Sunday night we had a weenie roast and made S'mores by the large fire pit. Doris Westoby went overboard hosting this rally with lots of breakfast foods every day plus all the fixin's for the weenie roast. We raised $392 at our auction and many of the ladies donated their purchases back to Doris who planned to resell them to other RV groups or use the items as Christmas gifts for the Brookings Christmas tree project. She later reported making $148 for her group in Brookings. Everyone had a good time and all the donated items were sold, one way or another.

The most memorable thing about this summer so far is the unrelenting north or northwest wind. It's always windy here in the summer - it is what keeps it cool when Eugene and other inland cities are in the 90's or 100's, but this year is without precedent in the time we have lived here. It seems like every day for the last month or more the winds have blown in the teens and twenties. And when you expect it to calm down at night, it might calm down to around 8mph. The only days we have had any relief from it are when it is overcast - when the marine layer comes on shore. Now, I must also add that we had a few very hot days at the end of June and first few days of July. I actually had shorts on for about a week. That's the most I've worn shorts here since we moved here in 1998. But since then we have had many, many days in the low 60's with a wind chill that makes it around 50. That's pretty chilly for July!

In August, June went on a two week trip to New York. Janet stayed home with the dogs. The reason for the trip was June's 45th High School reunion, but the best part of the trip was getting to see other friends all around New York and Pennsylvania. The reunion was fun though - seeing people you haven't seen in 40+ years does bring a start - where did all those old people come from?

A week after getting back from New York, we were off to another RVW rally - this one was in Lincoln City. We had some guests and one of them called square dances and volunteered to call a square dance for us which meant she had to teach us how to square dance first! Elementary gym classes, where I first learned about square dancing, were a long time ago. We all had a fun time trying though none of us are ready to buy the frilly skirts the gals usually wear.

In October some of our friends headed off to the annual RVW convention which, this year, was in Sacramento. It was originally our intention to join them, but when we found out how expensive it would be, we elected instead to go on our own RVW trip to CA with our eventual destination being Janet's brother's house for their Halloween Party. Janet had told me about their party for years so this would probably be our one chance to attend. We left home on October 12th arrived in Escondido on the 28th after visiting friends and sightseeing along the way, helped them decorate for the party, helped them take down decorations after the party, and headed home arriving on November 7th. It was a great trip and deserving of its own page click here or on the photo of Big Sur.

The rest of the year slid by without too much fanfare. We missed the last ORVW rally while we were on our trip, but we look forward to seeing our friends next year. We played bridge with our Marathon group again, celebrated Thanksgiving without much ado since Janet has given up meat and poultry and slid on ahead to the holidays. We did join a party bridge club that plays twice a month. That has been fun. We made up bags of goodies for 6 seniors again but kept our own celebrating to a minimum. There is nothing we need or want so it is better to share our good fortune with others.

See you again in 2014!