August already?

We moved to Cascade Meadows RV on July 1 during a rain storm that lasted just long enough to get us wet and ended as we pulled into our site.

On July 2 Larry had a C-Pap appt at the VA and we stopped at Costco and stocked up since it was the last time we had the car. On Sunday June 30 we stopped at Ace in La Pine and a fellow rode up on his bicycle and ended up buying the Volvo and we signed the deal on Tuesday after he got paid. It was such a God thing as he had prayed before he left on Sunday that God would lead him to a good car he could afford and Larry lowered the price on the spot to just what he could afford!   It was so cool as we thought we were going to Ace for a part, instead we sold the car.

July 9 Larry saw his primary doctor at the Bend VA. He has been waiting to get another night test to see about his oxygen level. Finally he took it July 25 but is now waiting for the results.

We moved back to the Ranch on July 15 and found a very nice site, next to the one we had last month. The lawn had already been mowed which was a blessing. We try to walk each day and I had to take a picture of the 'Montana Rest Stop' that is located on the Ranch.

I ordered a new keyless entry keypad for the MH as we have been having intermittent problems with the old one.  Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.  It took a week to arrive and yesterday Larry finished putting it in. He found a broken wire which is probably the reason we were having problems. The new one is bigger, easier to see, requires less pressure and works!

Larry's work table

Making the hole bigger for the new keypad

All finished

Can't believe it has been three months since we left Phoenix.  Time goes by so fast.

On the move

We took the car out onto BLM land for Larry to test some new ammo he recently purchased. It was a great day and he enjoyed the time.

Larry testing new ammo on BLM land

On June 2 I found some free rhubarb after church and made rhubarb sauce. My paternal grandmother loved rhubarb and ate it nearly every day and often said that's why she lived so long (98).  They even have a Rhubarb festival in La Pine on June 15.

Our new Medicare Advantage program by Humana sent an in-home doctor to check me out. It turns out he is a Hoosier too and recently retired from St Charles Hospital in Bend and found too much time on his hands so he is now working part time doing in-home check ups. He found I have Orthostatic Hypotension, which means my blood pressure goes down when I stand up. That explains why sometimes I nearly pass out upon standing, so now I know to take extra care to stand up slowly.

We have made several trips to Bend on the motorcycle. For Father's Day we went to Olive Garden for lunch and then stopped at Home Depot (across the parking lot from Olive Garden) because Larry wanted 'something' but couldn't remember what it was. He found the new Octane Ridgid batteries on a special offer that including the grinder he wanted for free. We then went to JC Penney's for him to find a new Sunday shirt. After trying on nearly every shirt in the dept. he came away with one I had to alter because he likes to wear them 'untucked'. It looks really good and will go with either tan or black slacks.

Larry's Father's Day shirt

On June 22 we went to the annual meeting at Sundance and then skipped out early to be out of our site by 11 AM.

Sunrise at the Ranch showing the geese and goslings one month after last month's pic.  How big they've grown!

At Bend-Sunriver TTN we found a really nice site with 50 amp, satellite and very close to the restroom since there are no sewer sites there. It is only the third time we've found a 50 amp site since coming here in 2004. We can even put out our awning and the site is wide and long-nice way to end coming here! We went to a spur of the moment Bar-B-Q with our church family and had great food and good conversation. Always fun to see old friends!

Church family BBQ

George grilling the burgers at the BBQ

We've had hail twice since we've been at Bend-Sunriver but it has been small hail so no real damage. It did pack on our big awning and Larry had to get out with the broom and clear it off. It seems its always something!

Larry with the broom trying to get the hail off the awning

One pile of hail from the awning (there were many!)

Double rainbow after the hail storm

Hunen Chinese in La Pine after church June 30

We moved today to Cascade Meadows and it started pouring down rain almost as soon as we left.  I was driving the car and couldn't remember how to turn the window shield wipers faster and had to stop because I couldn't see to drive.  Of course once we arrived at our site, I figured it out!

Back in Oregon for the summer

We started out the month of May by taking Vince, Dawn and Bethany to Red Lobster for Vince's birthday since we would be gone on the actual day.  They surprised me with Mother's Day gifts which was a very nice surprise!

At Red Lobster

Vince's birthday cake at Red Lobster

My surprise Mother's Day gifts

We left Phoenix on May 6^th for Verde Valley TTN and found a wonderful site with no one in front of us, just lovely views of the hills and valleys around us. It rained several days while we were there so the first day it looked nice we headed out, first to Wendy's for 50¢ Frosty's and then to Montezuma's Castle which we had not seen before. We took the back way to Camp Verde and stopped at the Ace Hardware for some things Larry needed. There are two new RV parks being built in the area so we checked them out too. The one closest to TTN we cannot stay in as our MH is too old. It has no shade whatsoever but it does have fabulous views.

Our view at Verde Valley TTN

Montezuma's Castle near Verde Valley

Showing what it looks like inside the cliff dwellings

We left Verde Valley May 20 staying in Las Vegas TTN for the night, then onto Hawthorne, NV where we stayed at the El Capitan Casino. A nice level, large gravel parking lot for RV's and trucks with a dump station and it was right across the street from the PO where we picked up our mail. On Wed. the 22^nd where I had planned to spend the night, we arrived around 2:30 and Larry was not ready to stop saying the best part of the day was ahead of us so we went on to Riley, OR.   We had rain off and on every day we were traveling which kept the bugs off the MH!   We arrived at Sundance Meadows on Thurs. May 23 around noon and found a nice pull-thru site with a tree behind us which keeps the afternoon sun off of us. We have the same neighbors on both sides that we had last year.

View of the new snow on the mountains as we traveled in NV

We went to the Potluck Saturday evening and had a good time with lots of good food. Then Sunday morning we went to Cowboy Church at the Lodge. Two different times in a week we found the Chinese restaurant we were headed to CLOSED, first in Hawthorne and then by our mailbox in Bend so on Wednesday the 29th when we went for our mail we ended up at Chan's Chinese for lunch and ended up bringing home 3# of food!   It will be our new 'go to' Chinese place.

Before the Potluck on Saturday night May 25

Geese and 26 goslings that crossed the road on front of me as I was walking one evening.  

Countdown-- 6, 5, 4, ...

I started off the month with lunch at Cracker Barrel meeting up with a long time friend, Judy, and we had a great meal and good conversation. I then went to the dentist.

The pump on our Splendide washer decided to die so we had to call Splendide and ordered a new one. Thankfully Larry is good at repairing things and was able to put the new pump in. The hardest part was getting the washer out and back in the cramped space and took longer than he had anticipated.

Pulling the washer out

Replacing the pump with the washer on the bed

Larry decided he needed to take the bike to Go Arizona for the yearly oil change so he dropped it off and then we went to breakfast and two days later we did the reverse, going for breakfast and then picking up the bike. The traffic on the 101 seems to be getting worse every day so both days we returned via Bell Rd.

The original welder Larry had lined up didn't show up so Larry was able to find another certified welder who is the brother of one of our neighbors and he spent six hours under the MH repairing the cracks and adding additional braces that Larry had measured and cut to fit beforehand. There was more to do but Roger was really hot and tired after six hours under the MH so Larry sent him home and finished up with his new welder a couple of days later.  Then he replaced the shocks and air hoses and re-mounted the six back tires and I helped him torque the lug nuts, a total of 80, all to 475 ft lbs. We took turns and the only way I could do the torquing was to sit on the end of the seven ft. bar!

Added braces and cross weld

Brace on the back of the down tube

Certified welder, Roger, hooking up the tank

Larry torquing the lug nuts to 475  ft. lbs

Ellen trying to torque the lug nuts with an added bar (worked best when I sat on the bar!)

We both have had doctor's appt. and everything is looking good for both of us. We are getting everything ready for us to head north for the summer. Larry has re-worked the Hydro Lift to make it easier for us to load the bike on the back of the MH. Need to make things easier as we get older!

The desert is really lovely now with the Palo Verde blooming and I enjoy the views as I'm walking. Next month we should be writing from OR.

Beautiful AZ desert in bloom

Still working

We are both doing much better health wise. I had a colonoscopy and then a brain scan and both came back OK. Larry had his dentures re-lined and much of that was covered by our new Humana plan.

The weather had been nice riding weather so we have ridden to church several times during the month.

All the recent rain is making for a very pretty field of yellow weeds in our neighborhood. I had to take a picture but I don't know what they are called.

We have resisted upgrading to HD TV because of the cost but got a free upgrade and new programming at a really nice rate with DirecTV. It did take some 'doing' and several hours on the phone but we are happy now and really enjoying the HD picture on TV as it is so much sharper and much more vivid.

The 16^th was Colby's 30^th birthday party and was supposed to be a surprise but he surprised us by arriving 30 minutes early! In the end he was surprised because his Dad and stepmom plus his best friend from childhood were there. We all played “Relative Insanity” which is a hilarious game and we all did a lot of laughing.

Bob and Larry

Dawn, Bethany and Amy

Cards on the table are part of Relative Insanity

Larry did a sleep study at the VA on the 26^th and left at 5 AM. He had to kill some time since nothing else was open at that time of the morning but he was able to get the Smart aligned at a 'first come, first served' alignment place. He was the first in line and said the line was quite long by the time he left.

All wired up

Nearby neighbors have a MH made by the same folks as our and a comparable model so Larry was able to measure the axles and down tubes on it to be sure he was fixing ours correctly. It still is not finished but is getting closer to being done. He wants to be sure everything is as it should be and will make it better than new when he is done.

Larry underneath the MH

Showing the solid steel tube in the broken down tube

March 30 we went to see the movie “Unplanned” at the nearby Harkins Theater. It was a real eye opener for me.

March 31 was our church's Family Service where we had only one service followed by lunch for everyone. It was good as usual.

Stuck

The MH is not repaired yet as Larry ended up with pneumonia from his C-PAP machine and was down for most of the month.  He is doing better now but is having to take is slowly as he gets tired very quickly from being in bed for two weeks along with numerous trips to the VA including the emergency room.  These are called 'the Golden Years' so where is the gold??

When he was feeling some better and the weather was too cold to be outside, he finished a project he has thought about for several years, making it easier to get to the electric panel behind his clothes cabinet.  It took a lot of re-doing but it will make repairs and changing fuses in the area so much easier in the future.

New access panel Larry put into his closet

It also has been quite cold so he couldn't have done much outside anyway.  While we didn't have snow where we are, we could see snow on the mountains to the north of us as well to the east of us.  Really awesome as that is a very rare sight for Phoenix!

Snow to the north of us in Phoenix Feb 24, 2019

It's always something!

We celebrated Dawn's birthday by getting take out from Red Robin since the newest member of the family was being fussy but we all had a fun evening.

Dawn's birthday party

Our kitchen sink faucet broke again so Moen sent us a replacement since our old model is no longer made. The arm on the new one is shorter and lower which I don't like but it does work.

Almost hits my dish drainer

We were preparing to move the coach on Jan 14 but it rained the night before and Larry didn't want to get stuck in the driveway like we almost did in October so instead Larry decided to put the MH on jack stands to get the tires off the ground and we could run the engine to get the fluids moving. When the jack stands arrived Larry went out to get them ready to place under the MH and found the uprights that hold the rear end to the frame were broken loose! PTL God sent the rain so we didn't move the MH!! After removing the tires and carefully checking plus much prayer he has found a certified welder who will come out and repair our big boo boo on February 9.

Driver side break of the upright to the frame

New jack stands to hold the coach without the tires

Passenger side break from the back

Passenger side break from the front

For my birthday we went to Cracker Barrel so I could have fried okra and then returned to Dawn and Vince's for cake and ice cream. On my actual birthday Larry and I went to Old Country Buffet where I again had fired okra, a real treat for me!

My birthday cake at Dawn's

Us at Cracker Barrel

We ended the month with Larry going to a new dentist since we now have Medicare Advantage with both dental and vision coverage. The appointment was no charge-nice!