Summer has arrived!

The 4^th of July the RV park had a BBQ Potluck and we took brownies. The night before the night time temperature went down to 34º so I wasn't too keen on going into town to see fireworks at 10 PM on the 4th but did manage to view about 15 minutes worth from the park. They were nicely spaced so you didn't have to wait very long for the next one. La Pine had some very pretty ones that I saw but I'm sure they were much nicer closer to town.

We made a trip into Bend to get our mail and then stopped at Sundance for a package that arrived after we left and they wanted us to come get it and not wait until we returned in August. It was something I ordered two weeks before we left there and it was coming from Corpus Christi, TX so I never imagined it would take three weeks!

We moved to Bend-Sunriver on July 14 for two days and enjoyed seeing our Chapel in the Park church family on Sunday. Several of us went out to eat afterwards where we cobbed at ride with the pastor and his wife. Always fun to visit with friends.

Chapel in the Park family lunch

Monday July16 we headed to Eugene for our appointments stopping on the way in Oakridge at Subway. We spent the first night at Monaco in Coburg and Monday morning headed out at 7:30 for Camping World just ½ mile away to have all three A/C units replaced. After we got signed in we walked to the TA truck stop on the corner and had breakfast, really was a nice breakfast and we decided we liked it better than Gordy's truck stop in La Pine. I walked to see a friend from Phoenix who I hadn't seen in many years and we had a very nice visit. We left Camping World around 4:30 and headed to Kaiser's Alignment for the night. They were able to work us in and we left there around 4:30 on Wed. and headed back north to Cummins for our 12:30 appointment on Thursday to have the grease in the differential changed. Thursday evening I discovered a problem with our A/C units so Friday morning we headed back to Camping World. They were unable to get the necessary parts until Monday around noon so we left and arrived at our appt. at AM Solar in Springfield about an hour late (we called them to let them know). Once our appointment with the solar folks was done we headed to Dexter Shores RV Park in Dexter, OR where we had reservations for one night. We were able to stay there the two extra nights so on Monday July 23 we could go back to Camping World to get the problem fixed. Searching on the internet I found a church next door to the RV park so Sunday we walked to church and then after the service we stopped at the Rattlesnake BBQ located between the church and the RV park (how convenient is that?) Sunday afternoon on my walk I discovered lots of ripe blackberries so I picked a big bowl full of them and enjoyed them for the rest of the week. (Larry doesn't like the seeds so I had them all.)

Our view of Dexter Lake from Dexter Shores RV Park

We were well taken care of at Camping World as our favorite Monaco tech, Steve, is now the service manager at Camping World and he treated us right. We left Camping World on Monday around 4 PM and after stopping for fuel at The Towne Pump in La Pine arrived back at Cascade Meadows at 7 PM. We had a smokey trip from the fire near Crater Lake (now out) and have since had a few smokey days due to other fires in southern OR and northern CA (Carr Fire). Summer has arrived as we have had a week of mid 90º temperatures.

When we returned to Cascade Meadows we discovered the battery on the bike was dead and would not take a charge (we never took it off the coach since we left Cascade Meadows on July 14) so we had to order one in since we had no way to go get another one. This is the third time in less than a year that we have had to replace the battery so Larry is hoping BMW will step up to the plate and reimburse us for the new lithium battery (we didn't want another BMW battery since they don't seem to last.) It seems it is always something but God is good all the time and has provided and protected us through it all.