Stuck in a rut

/On Aug 4^th we went to the Saturday night Potluck at Cascade Meadows where they had 'build your own sub sandwich' and they were wonderful! Probably the best Potluck we have been to in a long, long time.

Sunday Aug 5 after church and our usual Chinese lunch we took a ride up to Paulina Lake and East Lake on the bike. It was a great day for a bike ride and we went all the way to the end of the campground at East Lake.

August 6 we moved back to Sundance Meadows in Bend and our friends Art and Sherry welcomed us back.

We experienced smokey skies several days in a row so didn't do much outside.

Smokey skies but contented cows at the Ranch

Hard to see the sun through the smoke

On Sunday the 12^th the skies cleared so after church we took a ride to Prineville the back way, stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream and then returned via Redmond and north Bend, stopping for gas getting 45 mpg. A great day for a ride. The only rain we had all month was on the 15^th and it rained all of .03”!

I had a shop at Costco but when we went, what I was to critique was not there! That has never happened to me before in the five years I've been 'shopping'. I did the report anyway (not much to report) which was accepted so time will tell if I get paid or not.

One of the items we bought at Costco was 'Take and Bake at home' sourdough bread. It is wonderful, makes the place smell great, and takes only 12 minutes to bake. We've gone back for more it is so good.

Larry replaced the front brakes on the Volvo and then decided he needed to do the back brakes also so he had them delivered. He had a problem with the jack while doing the back brakes but in the end got everything back in place and finished so we now have good brakes. He decided not to replace the rotors and just ground the groove down with his grinder while spinning the wheel. Worked like a champ!

Larry grinding the rotors on the front brakes

Getting ready to work on the back brakes

Fortunately several days we had beautiful blue skies with no smoke (all depended on the wind) so I was able to enjoy my daily walks again and took some nice pictures of the ranch.

ATV/Dirt bike track at the Ranch

RC track at the Ranch

Beautiful skies without smoke

We ended the month with a visit to Applebee's in Bend for Larry's birthday and then stopped at Dairy Queen for blizzards with his 2-4-1 birthday coupon.

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.

Where's summer?

As soon as we arrived in Bend we started looking for a vehicle to drive on BLM land since there are thousands of acres adjacent to Sundance. We traveled to Redmond, La Pine, Tumalo and Sunriver all to no avail. We found people lie. So we decided we didn't need a vehicle after all and if God wanted us to have one He would have to drop it in our lap. Well He did! Two days after saying that as I was coming back from the office with a package, I saw a car in the campground with a 'for sale' sign on it. We test drove it and bought it on the spot.

Our 'new' car for Oregon

But God knew we needed it because two days later Larry's computer died and we needed to take it to Mac for repair and that would have been really hard on the bike (it's a desk top 27”). Then Larry started having pain that ran from his left ear down to his chest and the pain didn't go away so we ended up taking him to the hospital. After five hours in the hospital and the pain had not subsided and lots of tests, they decided to keep him overnight. Without the car I would not have been able to visit him. They were ready to release him on Sunday (Father's Day) until he decided to take a walk and when he returned to his room (these rooms are really nice, nicer than many motels we've stayed in!) he set off all kinds of alarms and the nurses came running. He was diagnosed with A-Fib. This is the fifth time he has been in the hospital for basically the same thing but when he arrives, all the tests show him to be in great shape. At least this time he was attached to a heart monitor when 'something' happened so they could see what was going on. He doesn't have the usual symptoms and he was unaware anything was happening to his heart during this episode. They changed his meds slightly and he came home on Tuesday and has felt fine ever since. He has been to the VA clinic in Bend twice and has a wonderful doctor there. It is nice that he now has doctors in both Phoenix and Bend to look after him.

Larry's hospital room, all rooms are singles

View of Mt Bachelor from Larry's hospital room

It has been unusually cool here and we have had the heat on nearly every night.  It has gone down to 36º on several occasions.  Will we have summer or not?

During our stay at Sundance we each got new glasses, mine from Costco and Larry's special tactical glasses from Sports Vision, the only place in Bend we could find that could do them.

Since we are 'owners' of the ranch I mowed our grass twice in the month we were there. The ranch truck died while we were there and since it is a Ford F350 dually with a 460 engine (Larry's favorite) Larry volunteered to look at it and fixed it. It needed a new battery and starter which we used the car for (again) to get at NAPA. We also picked up his computer which needed a new logic board.

Sunset at Sundance Meadows Ranch

Pond at Sundance Meadows Ranch

Bluebird I saw going to the office at Sundance

We moved to Cascade Meadows on June 30 for two weeks, about 30 miles away. We detoured to Gordy's truck stop to have the MH washed before checking into Cascade Meadows. It really needed a good washing as we came though rain several times on our way to OR and it was quite dusty at Sundance.

New park in Oregon

We left AZ May 1 and spent the night in Palm Springs.

our site in Palm Springs

We then went to Menifee and on the way there met a fellow who does work on Aqua-Hots and sold him our left over parts and tools. While at Menifee Larry replaced the fluorescent bulbs in several of our light fixtures with LED strips. They are so much brighter and take less electricity so it is a win-win situation.

Larry working on the ceiling lights

Geese and their goslings at Menifee

While we were there we took a nice bike ride to the Sundance Meadows in Aguanga, CA and the SKP JoJoba Hills RV park just to 'check them out'. Along the way we saw some awesome sculptors along the road.

Sundance Meadows clubhouse in CA

sculptor we saw on the road

Another sculptor along the highway in CA

I had a nice text from Todd and Dawn sent me a gift card for Red Lobster for Mother's Day and I received this red rose at church. We rode to Winchester to Jolene's for lunch and then stopped at Stater Bros. for a few groceries before heading back to the rv park.

my mother's day rose

We went to Girard to have our awning repaired on May 15 and left for Acton, CA May 16 traveling right through LA –not fun!

out our windshield at Girard in San Clemente, CA

Hope we never have to do that again! Since there was no Red Lobster near Menifee but there was one in Palmdale (15 miles from Acton) we went there after church May 20. The wind was really bad and Larry had a hard time keeping us going so we returned taking the side roads instead of the freeway where we could go slower.

We were at Soledad Canyon TTN over Memorial Day weekend and I wish I had taken pictures of all the 500 tents plus hundreds of trailers, 5^th wheels and motor homes that were there. I've never seen so many campers in one place before! I did walk down to the pool on Monday after most everyone had left and it is a big pool.

Pool at Soledad Canyon in Acton, CA

We were glad to leave CA May 29 and spent the night at Preferred RV in Pahrump and May 30 at New Frontier RV park in Winnemucca, NV, a new park for us. It is further from I-80 so less interstate noise and nice views of the surrounding mountains.

We arrived at our new RV ranch in Bend May 31 around 3:30 PM to very cool weather, 57º! We set up only the necessary things and will finished today when it is supposed to be warmer. So grateful to be back in OR and to be sitting for a month.

It's Time!

I started the month off with an eye appointment that took much longer than I anticipated followed by a dentist appointment in the afternoon. I had planned to eat lunch between appts. But there was no time for that so it was a day of fasting for me. Didn't hurt anything!

Larry had an appointment for his Apple computer and ended up having to leave it for a few days. He used the PC he bought at Christmas so he wasn't totally deprived. I made an appointment with my primary care doctor at the request of the eye doctor just to be sure of an issue and all the tests came back OK. Both doctors wanted to see me again in three months but that isn't happening so I will go back to both in November when we return to Phoenix.

Our granddaughter, Cerét and her baby, Calvin, came for a visit and we had a lovely visit for three hours. He is a real sweety and Cerét is a wonderful caring mother.

Cerét and Calvin

Great-grandma and Calvin

Calvin, Great Aunt Dawn and Great Grandma Ellen

After eight years, Larry finally decided to put the air tabs on the MH. He put them on the trailer when he first bought them in 2009 and since then has procrastinated about putting them on the MH. It will be interesting to see if they make a difference in mileage and if they do, how much did we lose by not having them installed?

Larry measuring for the air tabs

Putting the air tabs on the back of the MH

Finished on the passenger side

While putting items away in the shed, getting ready to leave, Larry discovered our big oscillating fan and brought it inside to blow the cold air into the bathroom where the temperature probe is located since the living room was a 'cool' 73º when the thermostat was set at 83º. Only he didn't think about how it would blow and it blew all the toilet paper off the roll all around the bathroom! He wouldn't let me take a picture of it in the bathroom but I did manage to get one when he was trying to roll it back up.

Rolling the TP back on the roll

The culprit

We left early by one day and stopped in Avondale for the night to miss the Phoenix morning traffic. We did that last year and it worked well so did it again this year.

We arrived in Palm Springs at 12 :45 PM today (May 1) and can report the air tabs work!  It was quite windy with a head wind and they helped keep the MH on the road and there was less motion when trucks passed.  Time will tell if they help with the mileage.

Busy, busy

Larry has been busy, busy, busy getting everything ready to go. He was concerned about the hard downshift we experienced coming to Phoenix from Oregon so he took the driveshaft out of the MH to have it checked out by Precision Driveline.

Driveshaft out of the MH

It weighs 60 lbs but he was smart and used ropes to hold it to both get it out and put it back it. It was a job he did not really want to do as the under side of the MH is filthy after 15 years of driving grime and he had very little working space but he got it done and feels so much better knowing it is OK. He had new U joints put in but it was not bent which he thought it might be. He also greased the coach with his new grease gun and said it was a joy because it worked so well. He is always glad when the annual grease job is done.  Larry finally got around to cutting the extra off the added drainpipe under the new driveway from last year.  He had to actually get inside the pipe to cut it off! 

Larry cutting the drainpipe

The end product. Amazing how many rocks were inside!

Since the driveshaft is finished Larry has been re-wiring the electric so he won't have extension cords running across the patio. He is putting outlets on both sides of the patio so next year he will have electric for his planned projects.

On the 18^th we went to see the movie “I Can Only Imagine” after church. It is a great movie and I highly recommend it!

March 23 I met with our old friend, Sharon, who we haven't seen in seven years, in Scottsdale at a Chick-Fil-A, about 20 miles away for both of us as she lives in east Mesa. We had a nice two hour lunch catching up on family. One funny thing is her granddaughter is a senior at U of A and works with my cousin Alfred. What a small world we live in!

We ended the month celebrating our grandson Colby's birthday by going to Red Robin just down the road and then returning to the house for cake and ice cream. We usually play games but instead we just talked about what was happening in each other's lives so it was a good evening.

Dawn, Colby and Krista at Red Robin

Vince and Dawn

Us at Red Robin

Bethany and Ellen

Krista and Colby back at the house for birthday cake and ice cream

Marching on

We went to our first INTRO FMCA rally in Tucson the first week of February.  The weather was wonderful and we had a good time, meeting people God wanted us to meet  We replaced our day/night window blinds with ShadePro Legacy blinds the last day.  I was so impressed with them I called to see if the company sells just the fabric as I wanted to replace the windshield  privacy shades when we are parked.  They do not, so my next step was the nearby commercial fabric shop.  The Legacy blinds are solar with 95%UV protection but the best I could find was 85% UV protection but it was on sale at 50% off.  I ended up making shades for all our windows that were not covered by the Legacy blinds and I’m thrilled with them!  We also replaced our broken flagpole while we were in Tucson.

Ua at the Tucson INTRO Rally

One of the nightly get togethers at the Tucson Rally

Our new flagpole

We continue to play Mexican Train each Friday night and Vince often wins but Larry won a game last Friday so he was feeling great.

Our insurance renews in March so we both took the on line defensive driving course to save $200 on our insurance over the next three years.

Larry has put up two solar powered security light and now is working on putting electric under the  patio to the other side by the wall.  When we laid out the patio he put a pipe under the patio just for that purpose. 

One security light on the east wall

The other security light on the Man Cave so I can see to read the electric meter at night

Burying the electric

All done with the sewer re-attached over the electric cable

On the other side of the patio where the light fixture will go

We went out to dinner at Chili’s with our neighbors, Randy and Isabelle and had an enjoyable evening.  We are hoping to see them again this summer when they visit OR in their new 5th wheel.

We continue to prepare for our departure in two months now.  The weather is again turning nice.  I cannot complain though, as we have had a mild winter.