August 29 – September 7, 2012
Just a Note - sorry this is so long, but a lot was happening and not a lot of time to write. Hope you enjoy it. Love you all, Alan
I was going to get back to my blog before Annie and Ervin,
Vonna’s cousins, got here. But we have
been a little busier than I thought we were.
Anyway, I will try and catch everything up.
I thought I would start this one with our move day. We both had problems sleeping, thinking about
new adventures and the trip ahead. We
got up and had a cold breakfast and started getting ready to leave.
I got the truck loaded, most items fit better than on the
way here. We are getting better at
loading and getting ready to move. Vonna
had the inside ready. Our neighbors were
also moving today. They have a motorhome
and it took them about 5 minutes outside to put everything away and get the
jacks up. They left about 10. I had to get up on the top and sweep off the
slide out before we put in. Vonna put
the side in and we got the jacks up and truck backed up, and everything else. Only took another hour or so.
We had to dump the sewer on our way out. As I was finishing up Vonna met the couple
next to us that were dumping also, and found out their life story. It is something about how open people are
about where they are going, where they have been, what they like and don’t
like. A lot different than at home when
we talk to people and don’t get much farther than a grunt.
Anyway, we left the campsite, driving through Florence and
getting ready for the next 15 miles of winding roads. Vonna was really worried about it, but we did
great. We had to watch the sides a
couple of times, but no problems. After
about 15 miles the roads were fine, but still a lot of trees.
We got to Pacific City about 2:30, and started looking for a
spot. We were both getting tired and we
unhooked the trailer in a spot that looked ok.
We drove around a little and found a couple of other spots, but decided
that we would stay where we were. Vonna
was not happy. It was overcast and
dreary, and a lot of trees. We got the
camp setup and we both went to take a shower.
We made dinner and prayed before we ate.
I prayed that the sun would come out and shine of Vonna…He did pray that
& when he was praying I was thinking to myself I really don’t think god is
going to rearrange his whole creation of trees just so sun can shine on me.
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Looking at Ocean from the
Clubhouse |
A few minutes later the sun shined through the window on
Vonna. We both laughed, but I knew that
God was with us and everything was going to be fine. We are still not happy with our spot, and
will move when everyone leaves on Monday.
We will have a good time no matter what.
We went up to the clubhouse the next morning to look around
and get our email. We drove around the
area looking at the ocean, finding town, and looking at the area. We found a drug store that had everything,
including an ice cream fountain. We had
a malt and sundae. We started back to
the campsites, and stopped at the ocean to look around. I said lets go get the dogs and come
back. It was almost 6 and I made
hamburgers for dinner, we wrapped them up and headed back to the ocean to
eat. It was a great day, sun all day,
and great company.
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Vonna always finds a
place to phone home |
A day or so later we made a trip to Lincoln City and walked
through the few stores and antique shops.
People are not as friendly here as they were in other towns we have been
to. I don’t know what the difference is,
but I don’t feel as welcome, except for the coffee shop. There was a nice bakery and coffee shop, and
I sat down to read and have a cup of coffee.
The lady was friendly in there, and said she was from somewhere else. It was a nice, sunshiny day. Couldn’t have asked for more.
We did a little grocery shopping and headed for Pacific
Bay. We stopped at the Pelican Pub and
Brewery for dinner. The food was great,
and Vonna even got tips on where to get her hair and nails done if she wants
to. (and I want to, it’s looking pretty tacky…Angie did it when she was here
& she got the stuff at Salley’s for me to have it done while we are on our
trip…yay!
Over the week end we stayed around the campsite, except for
Saturday morning. There was a sale at one
of the shops in Pacific City, and we didn’t want to miss that. And as long as we were in town we decided to
try the Grateful Bread Bakery for lunch.
It was great, had fresh tuna sandwich.
We got back to camp just in time for the ice Cream
Social. We got our sundae, and sat
down. It was a little cool so we moved
to the sun and sat with a couple from South Dakota. They were full timers for 5 years and have settled
part-time in Eugene OR and part time in Hemet CA. They talked for a while and told us about the
difference between having a motorhome and a 5th wheel – they have
had both. Asked us to stop by and see
it.
We came back to the house and enjoyed the rest of the day
having a small dinner, and playing games.
We play different dice games almost every night, and if we aren’t tired
we will watch a movie on DVD or just read.
In this way it is a lot different than at home because we spend a lot of
time with each other.
Sunday we had to run into town to go back to the sale to see
if they had a pillow that Vonna liked.
They didn’t, but it was a nice day.
We saw the people we had met the day before and stopped to say hello. They invited us in to see the motorhome and
it was very nice. It was a 27 foot and
had everything you would need. We
visited for a while and headed for town.
Talk about a lot of people!
We stopped at the grocery store for a couple of minutes and stayed in
the truck so Vonna could write and text for a few minutes. Then back to another Ice Cream Social. Keep eating like this and I’ll have to go on
a diet.
Monday was a laid back day.
Spend some time at the Recreation Center updating our emails and other
items. Really didn’t do much. Vonna’s cousin is coming in on Tuesday, and
we thought that we wouldn’t have much time after they get here. Well, be did clean the trailer because we
wanted to have everything clean when Annie and Ervin got here.
 |
| Ervin & Annie |
Tuesday morning we got up, had a small breakfast, and
straightened up around the trailer and campsite. Annie said that they would be here at about
11. At 11:30 Vonna called to make sure
they had our address. They hadn’t left
home yet, but were leaving in the next few minutes. They had to have their garage door
fixed. Anyway, we read and rested till
they got here. It was our 47
th
Anniversary and we were just enjoying each other’s company and talking about
what we would like to do on our 50
th.
Anyway, Annie and Ervin got here and we talked for a while, and
then headed to Lincoln City for dinner. Ervin
said that they have the world’s shortest river and the restaurant was right on
it, and the ocean and the lake. We got
to Kyllo Restaurant. It was very
nice, but the sun was coming in the window and was hard to see. Ervin said let’s move to the table behind
us. And we did. The sun was still coming through the windows,
but we had our side to it and we could see.
The sun went down, and we had a great dinner. The fish was fresh and the shrimp was fresh,
and we talked for a long time. It was a
great end to our anniversary. Watching
the sunset on another day on the Oregon Coast, with friends and family.
We stopped for coffee at Starbucks, and then back to pick up
our truck at their campsite. We drove
back to our campsite, and as we rounded one of the curves there was a doe
standing on the side of the road. Missed
it by inches. We got back to our trailer
without wrecking the truck, and read for a few minutes. Vonna was not real tired, after having a mocha
that wasn’t decaf. She tossed and turned
most of the night.
The next day Annie and Ervin came to pick us up at the
trailer. We sat at the trailer for a
while talking, and then off for Tillamook for the day. Our first stop was the Cheese Factory. It is really something the size of it and how
much cheese they make each day. The tour
was self-guided and we enjoyed it. We
were going to eat lunch there, but it was really crowded so we just had some
ice cream, bought some cheese and crackers, and did some shopping. Annie bought Vonna a beautiful mermaid that
we have sitting in our living room in the trailer.
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| Erv & Annie Driving the Cheese Van |
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| Vonna drives crazy! |
We left there and stopped at a good friend of theirs so that
we could meet him and see his fishing boat.
Dave is a guide and takes groups out fishing. We decided to go to lunch with him, and go
fishing with him the next day. We left
his house with a ice chest full of crab.
It was good.
 |
Annie can out shop Vonna -
Erv said it's in the genes! |
We went off to Rockaway Beach, and looked around the
town. Back through Gibraltar, and then
to Fred Meyer’s in Tillamook, OR to pick up our licenses for the next day and
some groceries so we can eat. There was
also a Starbucks. Vonna had decaf, but
didn’t like it. Took her a while to
drink it. We headed home and to bed a
little early. We have to be to the boat
by 6am.
I slept good, until about 2 am. Worried that the alarm wouldn’t go off I
guess. Anyway, I was up a little before
5, and to the gate at 5:20, Ervin met me there and we drove to Gibraltar where
the boat is docked. We got there about
6:20, but Dave waited for us. We both
made sure that we took our pills – seasick pills – just in case.
As soon as we got there Dave gave us his safety talk, and we
took off. There were four of us on the boat, including Dave. It was
cold and rough. The Coast Guard was out
and started out of the bay. Dave was
talking to the Guard and found out that we couldn’t go out to the ocean because
of the danger of the change in-between the bay and ocean. It would be maybe a couple of hours before
the tide changed and we would be able to get out.
Dave said no problem, changed the rods, bait, and we started
trolling in the bay. Within 30 minutes I
had pulled in my first salmon – Chanouch – on my first time salmon
fishing. It was really great and Ervin
got it all on his iPhone. We got a few
pictures, but wanted to get back out fishing.
It was going to be a great day.
We were watching others getting some fish, and it was cold
and a little rough, but I really wasn’t noticing it. John, the other person there, brought in the
next fish. He wasn’t feeling to good –
didn’t take the pills – but got the fish in.
It was a nice salmon, not quite as big as mine. A little while later Ervin brought in the
next one. Three fish on board.
We were getting a little hungry – all of us but John. He had already lost his breakfast. Ervin said how about a banana, and I said
there were a couple in the bag I brought.
Dave asked if he could see them, and wanted to see both of them. I thought he was going to pick the best of
the two or something. He threw them as
far as he could. My jaw dropped a
little, and Ervin was laughing and pointing at the sign on the other side of
the front seat – a banana with a line across it. Having bananas on board is bad luck. He said we would have caught our limit by now. I will remember this next time.
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Not a good picture of
Pulling in the Crabs |
A few minutes after this I was reeling in the final catch of
the day. The Coast Guard opened the bay
and we headed for the ocean. Our first
stop was for crab. We got about 21, or 7
each. We put the pots back out and was
going to pull them up after we got our salmon limit – which I had, but we
needed four more for all of us to get our limit. John looked at Dave, and said “I have to go
in”. Dave said ok.
We headed for the barn.
Took the crabs to the cooking pots, and took a picture of the fish. Ervin and I helped Dave get the boat cleaned
up and everything up to his truck. We
went over to where the crabs were, and while Dave was fileting the fish, we
cleaned the crabs. John took off, was
going to sleep for a while and head for home.
The rest of us headed for some lunch.
Ervin and I stopped in Tillamook so that I could have some
of our salmon smoked. Then back to the
trailer. The ladies got there just a few
minutes before we did. It was about 7
and it had been a long day. Vonna and I
cut up the rest of our salmon and put into bags to freeze.
The next morning we were up early. We were meeting Annie and Ervin in Lincoln
City for breakfast. They were headed
home, they have a sale this week-end and had to get back. It was great spending time with them and
getting to know Ervin. We sure will make
time to stop every time we get up this way at their home and see them. We had a great time, and are looking forward
to the next trip, more fishing, and more time to talk and see what is new in
their lives.
They left for home about noon, and Vonna and I headed for
the grocery store. After a couple of hours
and a couple of hundred dollars we headed for the house. We stopped at the post office and had a
package from Tammy. She had sent us an I
Love Lucy DVD of first season and Popcorn, M&M, and Wherthers for our anniversary. It was really a surprise. Guess what we will watch tonight after our
games? Right, I Love Lucy.
We decided to take our dinner to the beach. I BBQ'ed the hot dogs while Vonna got
everything else ready. We loaded the
food and dogs and headed for the ocean and got a front row seat. It was foggy, and we couldn’t see the big rock,
but we still had a great time. It
cleared up enough to see the rock and the surfers. We talked, Vonna got to talk to Tammy, Pam,
and Brenda, and text with Debbie. We
both got on FaceBook, and I ordered a couple of items from Amazon. We headed back to the campsite at about 7:00
or so. It was starting to get dark and cold.
We got back to the camp, finished getting the meat out of
the crabs, and called it a night, after we watched I Love Lucy.
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| Getting crabs ready for eatting! |
It has been a great trip.
We are enjoying every day together.
It was nice seeing Annie and meeting Ervin. It was like we had known him before. We are looking forward to a restful weekend,
and then we will go exploring more. We
leave here on the 19
th and I will get back on before we leave. Have a great week. We love you all.
Another day – they start running together and I forget
exactly what day, retirement does that to you – we drove up the coast to Cape
Meares Lighthouse. It was a sunny day,
we could see forever as we drove up the coast.
There were spots that we only had trees to look at, and other spots
where you were looking a long ways. We
took a lunch, but didn’t have an bread, so we had to wait till we found a store
to get some.
Cape Meares is the shortest lighthouse on the Oregon
coast. We walked to the lighthouse, it
is a paved walkway. Vonna’s knee and leg
have been giving her fits, but when she found out there was a gift shop at the
lighthouse she roughed it out. She was
hurting by the time we got back to the truck, a lot.
On Saturday we headed for Garibaldi to catch the train. They have a historical train that runs about
10 miles per hour to Rockaway Beach. We
had a great time on the train. We just
sat there, looking at the scenery, and enjoyed the sunshine. It was a great day on the Oregon Coast. We even stopped at Dairy Queen for an ice
cream. On our way to the campsite we
decided to stop at another food place that we found, Ben & Jeff’s Tacos and
Burgers, and get dinner and sit and watch the sunset. They have a Boca Burrito and Chicken Tacos
that are great. Vonna found that
pineapple is good on tacos. It was a
great day, we headed back to the campsite and played a couple of dice games,
and watched a movie. It was a wonderful
day.
On Sunday we got up and decided to see if they really had a
bible study at the clubhouse. They
didn’t, so we checked our email, had a cup of coffee, and started to
leave. The recreation director asked if
we wanted to play bingo and Vonna jumped at it.
She gets tired of just playing our games with just me, and so the two of
us and two guys played campers bingo. It
was a great game, and we even got a lot of candy – just what I needed. We had a great time, and even met some new
people.
