2017 Trip – Blog #18 – Looking at More Houses!

                                      

Saturday, July 1st, 2017…..  My sister, Penny, flew up today.  She is interested in relocating to Oregon and buying around us so she wanted to come see what’s in the area.  She’s here till the 5^th so today we picked her up at the Eugene airport and headed north to Albany to meet with Aimee. She had set up the first of a couple of places she has found in Albany.  Penny’s price range is going to allow for mostly smaller homes or larger fixer uppers and we’ve heard both are going pretty quickly right now. In the next few days we’ll see what she likes, if anything, and what she wants to do.  One possibility is to find a short term rental so she can be close by if/when something lists. Or she can stay with us just to be close by. We’ll see. We did see four homes plus one that we peeked in that was not yet on the market.  That done, we went back home but stopped first at Coburg Pizza and had dinner.  She was pooped and went to sleep pretty early.    

Sunday, July 2nd, 2017…..  Today the plan was to go to Lebanon.  We gave her a quick tour of the town and drove out to our place so she could orient herself.  Then we did drive-bys on homes she had info for.  She was interested in several of them.  Aimee volunteered to meet us at 3:00pm but we decided to ask for viewings tomorrow to give her the Sunday off. We drove back to Eugene and then headed up to Leaburg.  We wanted to show her the other house we had interest in. After seeing both (although she only saw Leaburg from the outside), she said she liked our choice better.  Since we were coming back via Springfield we decided to stop back at Plank Town Brewery for dinner.  Penny tried the pulled pork/sliced apple, Lydia and I had chicken sandwiches which were both good.  I sampled a flight of 4 beers, liked 3 of them. Just enough to taste! We drove home and had cookies for dessert and I watched a tape of the Tour de France.     

2017 Trip – Blog #17 – Sticker Shock and Cough Medicine!

  

Thursday, June 29th, 2017…..  After sleeping on it, we decided to go get the $1519. mower from Sears.  But we did have to make a trip to BofA to get info on what would be involved in getting our wire transfer done.  Escrow sent us instructions which I emailed to our bank guy so he could be prepared. That done we went to KFC for a light lunch.  We stopped at the Sears store in Corvallis to check their returns but it was just a satellite store so they didn’t have anything. We drove to Lebanon and went down Hwy 20 and I noticed a lawnmower sitting out in front of a used tool store.  We stopped and here’s where it gets interesting!  It was Walt’s mower!  Turns out he sold most of his stuff to that store, probably in bulk like I wanted to do with him.  I found the table saw, his lathe, drill press, etc, etc.  All were ridiculously priced (they wanted $2999 for the lawnmower!) so we drove on, knowing where his stuff went and that we could expect the place to be bare when we get in (which is what we expected). We headed back down to Eugene via back roads and stopped in Brownsville at another quilt store.  Then we went to Sears. We got a younger salesperson who was ready to write us up.  He was just explaining that the returned mower came with a 30 return policy but that the 30 days starts when we buy the mower, not when we take possession.  I was upset.  Then Tom, the older fellow we spoke to yesterday took over and immediately said we didn’t want the returned mower.  Turns out that even though it was the previous model, it was returned for whatever reason a year ago and is still unsold.  Tom had previously checked the serial number but didn’t get much info and said he couldn’t even guarantee that it would even run.  That and the 30 day policy convinced me!  We looked at the other models and long story short – we opted for the new model plus upgraded to the Pro series. Walt's old mower had a 52" blade.  This model has a 54" blade and is the largest they make (short of those commercial models you see mowing the parks). The next step up is a brush hog that you pull behind a big tractor. 

Here's what I have to mow:

And I got the 3 year extended warranty. Plus they will deliver as I don’t have my truck up here yet. So I’m now is sticker shock for real! But at least we know that we have the best they sell and that it will do what we want it to do. We headed home and rested.  Lydia was napping on the drive.  She has had a nagging cough for a few days now.  She thinks it sinus drainage as it only bothers her when she first gets up and then lessens as she gets hot liquids in her. She’s taking an antihistamine which is making her sleepy. We’ll get a non drowsy version when we get back to the store.  But she called Scan anyway just to double check if there are any restrictions about finding an urgent care should we need to go.  We’re good plus I’ll be keeping a close eye on her. 

Later, I was out talking with our neighbor, Lee, when Lydia texted asking if I was hungry.  She’s feeling fine so we decided to go out for a light meal.  We chose Elmer’s and she had a cobb salad and I had French dip both of which were very tasty.  I think she’s decided that she’s come down with a cold that she thinks she got by laying in bed with the air conditioning blowing directly on her.  We looked up CVS stores in the area in case she calls in to her doctor for a z-pak or something else. Turns out the Target close by us has a CVS pharmacy inside their store. After that, we went home to find a line of rigs waiting to check in.  Interesting note – the office here closes at 5:00pm sharp.  We see rigs coming in for the day as late as 9:00pm. Remember, it doesn’t get dark here until 9:30! These guys have to either find their reservations on the board or self register and find an available space. Maybe I should volunteer to man the office for them!  NOT!  

Friday, June 30th, 2017…..   We’re still getting used to the weather here.  Nights and are cool (in the 50s) and this morning, even though the skies were crystal clear with no clouds, it was still pretty chilly. I go out for my walks each morning and I’ve found the round trip to the Dari Mart is about 1 mile.  Better than nothing! By the time I get back I have to take off my long sleeve shirt.  It got up to 85° yesterday so we usually run the air for a while especially if we’ve been gone for any length of time, to cool off the rig if there’s no breeze. Lydia’s cough is no better and she called in earlier to her doctor so we hung around the rig for a while.  We needed to go the grocery store for a few things so we did that.  The doctor sent a prescription to CVS so I headed there to pick it up.  Hopefully it will help. We fixed dinner and then drove into town for ice cream and then came back and watched tv.  

2017 Trip – Blog #16 – Laundry, Quilt Stores, and Lawnmower Shopping

   

Tuesday, June 27th, 2017…..   We needed to do some laundry today so that took up some of the morning. Luckily, we have 5 washers and 6 dryers in this park and the one person in there was drying her stuff and was almost done. So we used all the washers and got this chore completed pretty quickly. Later, we went back to Mattress Firm to check on a request from Treasa. She is looking for a split queen adjustable bed. Turns out they are rare birds indeed!  Our guy knew about them but they don’t stock them and he’s never had a single request for one in the past. And queen split sheet sets are also hard to find.  Most folks get the regular split king. Lot of work to find and put together but maybe you will have good luck in Ohio! After that we drove into the downtown area and went to Fisherman’s Market for dinner.  We had been here before so we ordered and got out pretty quickly. While eating, we met a young family from Fresno who are looking at property in Corvallis.  Their kids had been in the car all day so they were a little wound up and very loud.  But we didn’t mind too much – they were cute kids! We made our way back home (we now know the side roads and can avoid the freeways if we want) and relaxed for the evening.

Wednesday, June 28th, 2017…..  Each day finds us looking for things to do.  We’re tired of driving around all day but we’re also tired of hanging around the campground too. I asked if Lydia had found any quilt stores in Eugene she wanted to go visit.  Of course she did so off we went. We stopped at Ye Olde Pancake House for breakfast and then hit four different quilt stores in Eugene and Springfield.  I got a text from Aimee saying that the owner has sold all four of my items.  Bummer! My fault because I should have contacted him weeks ago and didn’t. Oh well! So while she shopped I racked my brain remembering where we had priced mowers.  We even drove by a lawnmower repair shop in Springfield so I stopped there. He had a used Cub Cadet ($800) but it was a yard tractor and not a garden tractor (see, I am learning!). We went to Sears and looked at their stock. They have what I want but most everything is $2000-$3500 which is way out of my price range! On the way out we found a section of the store with returns and found one we liked.  I got the salesman over there and was told it was last year’s model and was either a demo or a return but it still has a new warranty. It was $1519.  I also got a call from Patti our new insurance agent.  She has both home and vehicle policies ready for us to review so we arranged to meet her at 3:00pm. So we went back home to rest for a bit then left again to see her.  In our research we found that insurance would be cheaper up here and we did find out that it was - but turns only slightly.  We upgraded both our policies so we ended up spending more. That task accomplished, we went back to lawnmower shopping so we headed to Lowe’s and Home Depot but they didn’t have anything that I liked.  We found a Husqvarna dealer but their prices were waaay too high ($3500-$6500)! Even their trade-ins were expensive. After the sticker shock we decided to head back home. On the way I stopped at Jerry’s Hardware but they have a sparse stock being prime mowing season. I also wanted to swing by Dick’s Sporting goods to check out their 4^th of July tent sale - bought a ball cap.  We got home and chatted with our neighbors a bit before coming in to watch tv.  

2017 Trip – Blog #15 – A New Week

                

Sunday, June 25th, 2017…..   Sundays are kick back days.  We just hang around the park doing nothing. Today was no exception.  We spoke with our realtor, Aimee, yesterday and she is having issues with the seller about septic maintenance/repairs on the septic system.  There’s $365. worth of work recommended but he says its working fine and he won’t pay anything.  I see his point as we went through that when we sold our house. We’re hoping to buy some of his items on the property and we’re wanting him in a good frame of mind right now so we’re not pushing the repair thing at this time.

So we just relaxed and watched tv and ate leftovers for dinner.  A typical Sunday for us at home!  

Monday, June 26th, 2017…..  This morning after my walk I got on the phone and called PODS to get our three storage containers shipped to Eugene. They were stored in SoCal waiting on my move order. Getting them close means we have no time issues and it’s only a 3 day wait to get them to the house once we get in.

That done, we hung out and cleaned up the rig a bit and then went out to buy our suitcase. We ended up choosing one at Ross. That done, we went to Mattress Firm to check out their sheets.  Same scenario – not many places stock Cal King split sheets – they didn’t have any.  We’ll wait to see what Walmart sends us as they are cheap enough to get more colors.  I had touched base with Aimee about getting money wired vs. a cashier’s check. We will arrange to sign closing docs and then have a wire transfer done on the same day. We also heard back from Aimee that the seller expects to be out sooner than arranged.  No date yet but we’re ready whenever he is!  I also sent her a request to pass on to the seller regarding four items to see if he has any interest in selling them to us: trailer, 4 wheeler utility vehicle, lawnmower, and table saw.  If he gives me a package deal I’m interested but he may want to take them all with him.  If we don’t get them it’s just more stuff to put on our shopping list! 

2017 Trip – Blog #14 – Traveling Around and then Kicking Back

     

Friday, June 23rd, 2017…..    Not much on the calendar for today. We need to meet with our insurance agent but she hasn’t quite got everything ready for us yet. So we decided to take a drive. We had wanted eventually to drive over to Bend. It’s up and over the Cascades east of us about 120 miles.  We’d been there before back in 2012 when we visited with our friends Daryl and Glenda on the start of our 3 month trip east. Plus we drove to Sisters back in 2013 when we did our 7 week Oregon trip. We missed their famous annual quilt show but we saw a lot of the area.  This time we took a different route (via McKenzie Hwy 126). This route follows the McKenzie River up and over the mountains. It also took us by the Leaburg house we had looked at and were interested in before.

The drive is pretty but it made us realize how isolated that place was out that busy road!  We crossed over the Cascades and right before we got to McKenzie Bridge, we ran into road paving.  We sat for over 10 minutes waiting for the escort to take us through! But no worries, we weren’t in a hurry.  We eventually got into Sisters first but just drove through.  We’ll stop on the way back.  We drove the remaining 11 miles and got into Bend and immediately got stuck in traffic! We spent 30 minutes going one mile so we decided to stop for lunch.  We chose El Rodeo a place Daryl took us to last time we were there. I remembered the food being excellent and it did not disappoint! Plus we got their luncheon prices!  After that we cruised the town and then hit the local Walmart for a few things. Then we went north up hwy 97 about 10 miles to Redmond.  We’d never been there before and wanted to see it. This city gets a lot of rv rallies from various organizations and I can see why. They have a ton of rv dealerships plus they have an expo center there that is very impressive and that will hold 500+ rv’s.  As a matter of fact, The Good Sam Rally will be held there in August and our new Camping Squares members, Jack and Jennifer, are planning on coming up (if you’re reading this blog guys – get with us and set up a visit to our home while you’re in the area!). We took the road from there and drove back over to Sisters and stopped at a gift shop we visited once before.  Lydia was hoping to find a decorative item we had seen before but didn’t buy. No luck. We also hit a Christmas Shop outside of Vida as well. No purchases there either. But the drive was pretty. We decided that since we had lunch out we didn’t need to stop for dinner.  When we got home I fixed grilled ham and cheese sandwiches as a light dinner. Pretty good. I walked the park (new folks coming in for the weekend) and then we watched taped programs and then called it a night.    

         

Saturday, June 24th, 2017…..  As I said before we don’t do much on the weekends.  We leave shopping and such to the folks who work during the week.  But today we did hit Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, looking for split king sheets for our new bed.  We are going back to the mattress place and get one set at ½ price but we wanted to see what other stores have.  We stopped at Firehouse Subs for lunch. This has been my favorite sub shop for a while so I’m happy to find them here in the area.  We got home and went onto the internet and ordered the sheets from Walmart.  We’ll still go check out Mattress Firm later for their sheets. We rested for the day and then Lydia heated up the rig by baking a chicken noodle casserole. It was worth it though! Extra cheesy and very yummy!  After that, we walked dinner off and then came back to watch tv until bedtime. 

2017 Trip – Blog #13 – Our Anniversary

         

Wednesday, June 21st, 2017…..   We must have had a good rest last night because we both got up earlier than usual this morning.  So we got ready and left to head north to spend the day in Salem.  We decided to drive through Lebanon on the way and even though we stayed away from the house, we wanted to find a good breakfast place close to the new house.  We found Appletree Restaurant about a mile down the road from Oak Creek Way.  It was really good and I liked their gravy. Afterward, we drove the 36 miles to Salem and located the shopping malls and larger box stores plus we found the emergency room/hospital for future reference.  We stopped at Kmart and then drove back through Lebanon to locate another rv park I found online.  It’s a smaller park, with only 21 sites and will be full from now through the holiday, but we made note of it as it’s only a few miles from our house. It’s called Gills Landing and it’s right on the Santiam River with nice sites and good rates.

          

Thursday, June 22nd, 2017…..  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! 49 years! We didn’t do anything until late morning when we headed off to visit the Owen Rose Garden in Eugene. It was not very big nor was it well maintained (guess they don’t get enough volunteers) but it was pretty.

After that we decided to go find the local square dance hall around Eugene.  It’s actually in Springfield but the two cities pretty much touch other. 

We might decide to go visit one night before we move north.  We looked into either a brewery or a nice Italian place for our anniversary dinner.  Lydia found Plank Town Brewing on the web and it had good reviews so we went there.  It was early so it wasn’t crowded.  We hadn’t eaten lunch but neither of us wanted a big dinner.  Lydia chose a cheeseburger and I had the Apple and Pork Dip sandwich w/apple and swiss cheese on ciabatta w/beer cheese jus. It was REALLY good! House beer was Plankster Pale Lager and I liked that as well.  Afterward, we made our way back home but we made a stop (more of a drive by) to a John Deere store to scope out the lawnmowers.  I’m still having dreams about mowing that property! Once we got home, Lydia called the kids and told them that we are putting money into Jeff’s checking account as our wedding gift to them.  That way they can plan out what they want to do with it. Later, we stayed up late and had a nice time together watching tv.

2017 Trip – Blog #12 – Dad’s Day & Shopping

Sunday, June 18th, 2017…..   Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! Saturdays and Sundays we always try to avoid shopping centers and big box stores (yes, even up here we have crowds!). So today we avoided the families out for dad’s day and just hung around the campground and cleaned up the rig a bit and then kicked back and rested.  Earlier this morning both Jeff and Randy called to wish me a happy father’s day. The weather has warmed up a bit like promised. It got up to 85 today. One thing I wish we had at this park was a pool/spa! Lydia set up the crockpot for a new meal – garlic parmesan chicken. It was very tasty and a definite keeper. Although we both decided she could cut down on the seasoning a bit next time.

     

Monday, June 19th, 2017…..  Tough sleeping for both of us last night.  We started out tired but neither of us could sleep.  I tossed and turned and Lydia got up to read for a while.  Then later she got up again with acid reflux.  So today since we had nothing planned we hung around the rig and napped for a few hours.  Later we took off to try a restaurant called The Kozy, about 3 miles back on the way into Eugene.  It was diner food.  Lydia had the roast beef and I tried the liver and onions.  Both were pretty good plus the price was good too. We left there and then went to the show.  We saw Cars 3 (in 3D which was neat). It was ok but I liked 1 & 2 better.  Afterward, we came back and had snacks and watched tv for awhile.   

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017…..  Happy Birthday Treasa! We called her this morning to wish her a happy day. They were on their way to celebrate on a luncheon cruise on the General Jackson in Nashville.  We did that and it’s a cool trip! 

We did sleep in a bit, I guess to catch up on last night, and then ate breakfast and then went shopping. Lydia still needed shoes and I needed pants and a shirt.  We stopped at the Eugene Mall and found Payless where she found a couple of pairs of shoes then we walked to Kohl’s and Sears where I couldn’t find anything.  We drove to Nordstrom Rack just down the road and I bought both shirt and pants.  Now all we need is a suitcase which we are still looking for (probably end up at Ross). We went to Walmart for water and stuff for breakfasts and then went home and rested until dinner. We had pork loin with mashed potatoes and gravy and asparagus. Yummy!  We discussed tomorrow’s plans. We talked about going back up to Albany tomorrow and then to Salem just to look around.