Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #56 – The New England Adventure Begins!....

 

Note: I also just posted BLOG #55 for the week of 9/1-9/7 so check that out first!

 

Wednesday, September 8^th., 2021…… We went downstairs early to the free breakfast buffet and then headed off to catch the Blue Line train to downtown (about 15 minutes) to meet up for the Freedom Trail Walking Tour in downtown (the Commons). Turns out we screwed up and left the printed tickets in the room!  We had to go back on the train to get them and so we missed the tour, but it turned out ok. We found the on/off tram tour pickup stop and showed them our tickets at stop 5 (of 18) and got seated. The guide was very good, and we enjoyed the trip from that stop all the way around the route back to the seaside stop (1) where we got off to eat. Here are some shots along the way up to that point…

So much history! Our driver told us they were working on Harvard and Cambridge so we missed that, but we got to see the group who received medals of honor at the state house so that was cool!  At the seaport stop, we had a lobster roll and clam chowder soup at an outside table at a nice restaurant called Provisions. The lobsta was great but the soup was too runny for our taste. Oh well, there are plenty more places to try!

We went back to the bus kiosk and found that our package included a harbor cruise, and she said one was boarding about 200 yards away in 30 minutes!  So, we joined the line and got a seat in the front row on the top deck. We discovered that neither of us brought sunscreen (and all the little shops in and around the docks were closed) but we found we could use lip balm on our necks and ears and feet. Hey, it’s still 30% spf!  Now that’s Yankee ingenuity! The cruise was excellent. The guide was very well spoken, and the weather was perfect! Here are some shots from the ship….

 

We got back on the tram and continued on. Here are pics up to stop 8….

Stop 8 was Cheers. The pics before were from the vehicle and we wanted to go in and get a t-shirt for one of her friends, so we got off and did that. 

We know – the inside is not the same as the tv show. So, we only were in there a few minutes. While I was in the bathroom, Cathye got hit on by some firemen and it turns out they were from Lake Oswego, which is just south of Portland OR!  They were on a job assignment of some sort and took time off after that to go to tour Boston.  Really - they were nice guys and happened to mention Lake Oswego when Cathye walked by, so she mentioned we were from Oregon too.  Small world!  We got the next tram coming by and went around to stop no 1 again where we could easily go underground to catch the blue line train and head back to the hotel. Highlights of the tour were Bunker Hill, The North Church, Paul Revere House, Gravesites of Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams, the USS Constitution, Converse shoes, Boston Garden, Boston Commons, and many more I’m forgetting. Seriously, if you go there, take the city tram tour.  Missing the walking tour was ok after that!   We rested at the hotel for a while and then headed out again. We had a list of the restaurants within walking distance from our hotel and we chose the Reel House. It was about 1.5 miles one way and we thought we’d never get there!  But it was worth it, and the food was excellent. She had the swordfish, and I had another lobster roll. This was reversed. I liked the other lobster roll better but this chowda’ was “wicked good”! 

Along with a couple of mai tais, we found the slow walk back was not so bad!  We turned in after a very long, but satisfying day!    

Thursday, September 9^th., 2021…...  Today was ‘get outta town day’! It was 120 miles and took 3 hrs. to Walpole, NH, where her daughter, Terisa and her husband Daniel and son Felix lived. Her son, Michael and his wife, Crystal, had driven up from Missouri and were already there. He brought some stuff from Jim’s collections that were given to Teri. Cathye visited with her daughter, and I rode over with Michael and Crystal to where Daniel was working. He and his brother, Ben, own a company that has equipment to move and crush rock. You’ve seen the large rock in landscapes and the smaller crushed ¾ rock used for gravel driveways and roads, and also the fine stone dust, which is used for base for patio pavers and such. Michael wanted Crystal to drive the loader, which is a massive piece of equipment and takes 3 cubic yard loads of large rock and deposits it into a hopper where it is crushed and re-crushed to get the different sizes. She had her turn and did an excellent job!  Then he asked me if I wanted to drive it. Duuhhh!  It was super fun

and I brought home some of the rock from my scoopful.

 

After dinner, they took us up the road to Daniel’s parents’ old home, used now as a guesthouse and they showed us to our room. It was super old, with floor planks over 15” wide!  Old dressers and modern conveniences, it was really great to be there!  

We settled in for the night and since we didn’t have any tv there, it was an early evening.     

Friday, September 10^th., 2021……  After a nice breakfast at Terisa’s, we took three vehicles and caravanned to a place called The Montshire Museum. This is just across the river in Vermont. Geared more for kids, this place was also fun for adults! They had interactive displays which kept us busy for sure!

We spent a good deal of time there and then we went across the highway for lunch to a place called King Arthur’s Baking Company. This is now in a new timber-framed building held together with the pegs that Daniel’s dad and third son makes on his property. After that, we kept going north and went to Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury VT. It was a nice drive, but I sure wish we would have done more homework because they are not doing tours at this time. Bummer!  But we got our ice cream anyway and then toured the gravesite of dead flavors and had fun reading about some of them…  

Since we were out and about, we chose to find a place for dinner on the way home and chose Lui Lui’s which was Italian. We left and got back to the house so we could meet Teri’s other adult kids. Josh is 24 and Tatum is 22 (or maybe 25 and 23, I lose it sometimes!). Nice kids. After our long day, we called it early and went home to bed.

Saturday, September 11^th., 2021……  A Birthday party for 5 of us! September birthdays, besides mine and Cathye’s, were Daniel, Scott (Daniel’s father), and Crystal.  Terisa and Daniel have friends who run an rv park a few miles from them, and they arranged for us to have the group pavilion for the evening. We left after breakfast and went to The Vermont Trading Company and shopped in there. Yes, we bought a ton of stuff! We also stopped at a well-known bakery in the area (Grandma Miller’s) and bought favorite cakes for everyone’s birthday. Their friends had hauled over a bbq and Daniel cooked steak bites and fish and we had potato salad and cake.  Michael brought a bunch of firewood and we sat around til after dark and enjoyed the evening. It was a nice day!

Sunday, September 12^th., 2021……  Today, we were off to Maine!  We took three cars again and left about 7:30am and made the 140 mile, 2 ½ hour drive with little traffic. We went to a little village called Ogunquit (just like it reads oh-gun-quit) and had a nice walk around the rocky coastline. We took some pics of the houses around there as well as the shore and harbor area and beach hotels then walked to the boardwalk area and went to the Lobster Shack for dinner. We split a “Twin” (2-lobster) meal. With the requisite bibs, we dug in. It was delicious!

After that, we (our car was us and Michael and Crystal) drove down the coast to Neddick Lighthouse but couldn’t find parking so we headed back up to York Beach and walked around in the surf

and then went to the shops around town. On the way home, we found Sonny’s Main St. Pizza in Henniker, NH across the river from New England College, which we found out later is a private liberal arts college (Gina Davis is a graduate).  We shared stuffed shells which were really good! We hit a lot of traffic – due to an accident on the highway resulting probably from folks watching the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds at an air show at Pease Air National Guard Base at Portsmouth International Airport NH. We managed to get a couple of pics as they drove over us, almost parked on the highway!

 

We got through all of the mess and got home around 7:00pm.  It was a long day but so much fun!

Monday, September 13^th., 2021……  We had bought two quiches at Grandma’s and Teri heated those up for breakfast. We walked across and up the road to our house and by then Scott and his son Chris and helper Brian, were taking a break from their peg shop work.  We had coffee and Danishes with them, and I sat and talked with Scott about fishing for a bit, then they went back to work and gave us a vip tour. It’s really a small shop but they have a good corner on this market. They supply any tolerance peg, of any requested type of wood, ordered for timber-frame homes. They even have a shipping area and ups pickup and ship around the world!  Pretty good business. Chris showed us the machine operation and then Scott showed us some ‘special work’ machines that will make other custom order items. I was especially interested in the handles he makes for a guy in Idaho for custom wood chisels. With a piece of metal on the end, they can be used for years and years. He said the guy charges upwards of $100.00 for each one. I have the name and we will look them up next time we are in Idaho! 

We thanked them for their generous hospitality and said goodbyes to the rest of the family and then headed back south. We were headed to Boston but had one more stop to make. Cathye’s mom had been with a man, and he had a daughter that became Cathye’s “sister from another mister”. Her name is Roxanne, and she lives in Pittsfield, just a short distance from Concord NH, so we stopped in to say hi. 

After a really fun visit, we left and made the drive back into Boston. We were headed back to the Embassy Suites again and decided to not park the car there. I took us to the hotel entrance, and we unloaded the luggage and cleaned out the car. Cathye checked us in, and I drove the short distance around the block and turned the car in and just walked out the employee gate across the street to the hotel. Easy peasy! We rested a bit then headed back for another nice crabcake meal before calling it a night.

Stay tuned for the next post for the last day of the trip!   

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #55 – Not Enough Time in the Day & Getting Ready for Chowda!

 

Wednesday, September 1^st., 2021…… Another appointment day!  We had to meet with several folks prior to our leaving for such a long period. Plus, we had to take in the truck again for more work. The camper shell on her truck had a bad hinge and we took it to the installer in Corvallis to be replaced. We walked over to Panera Bread and had dinner and hung around there for a while so they could finish. It was done in short time, and we headed back home.

Thursday, September 2^nd., 2021…...  Housekeeper come today. Cathye had acupuncture and an appointment with Robin, who will be looking after Jamie while we’re gone. We met later to get our hair cut. I came back home and worked with my Directv service to replace one of the receivers and got that ordered. I checked in at the trailer and saw that Randy was finishing up the grouting. He is very careful, and the job looks terrific! He also has the dryer vent done and will be working on some other items before he is finished. He is willing to do some of the obvious plumbing connections, but we still have no word from the plumber, who needs to confirm everything is ok under the house so the water can be turned on.        

Friday, September 3^rd., 2021……  Water turned on at the trailer today!  Yaay! It was not a big deal, but we couldn’t remember why it was off in the first place (other than waiting for the washer, sink and dishwasher installs). No leaks so that’s good!  Spent time packing and/or getting things staged and ready. It’s tough when you are planning for two separate trips!  

Saturday, September 4^th., 2021……  Mowed the lawn today. Cathye worked some more on unpacking boxes for the trailer. Some rooms she can move into, like the kitchen. Some still need additional work, like touchup paint, baseboards, etc. so she will just bring boxes into those rooms for the time being.  

Sunday, September 5^th., 2021……  Today we went over a few things at the house with sis, who will be staying and bringing Quincy over to be with Rylee.  She needed to know about the carport because they called and said they would pick a date and let us know. I needed to show her exactly where and how I wanted it placed. Later, we met up at Gametime with Cherrelyn and Penny and had a nice meal.

Monday, September 6^th., 2021……  Prep work still going on. We met with Randy, who is still working on Cathye’s trailer to go over his ‘list’ of things we needed done. No worries on most of them but some will need extra help. He is not an electrician so we will need to address that but that can be done at a later date. Later, we had everyone over for dinner. We agreed that each of us would bring what we wanted to eat. I set up a couple of easy-ups and tables and they brought their own chairs. It was nice. We went to bed early because we have a drive to Portland PDX (100 miles).    

Tuesday, September 7^th., 2021…… We were out early, and it was an easy drive to the airport. We chose long term parking and got her truck parked and locked and toted our bags to the shuttle bus (more on this later). We had pre checked and dropped off the suitcases and settled in and had a nice breakfast. Complete with mimosas!

The flight was not a problem but when we shuttled over to the rental car place, it took forever to get through the line to the one person working the counter. But once we were done and found the cars down in the garage and got assigned one, we were off. All the way around the corner to our hotel. It was literally ¼ mile to the Embassy Suites!  We valet-parked the car and checked in. It was a bad idea to get the car at the start of the trip because we had to pay $55.00 per day to park it. But we felt we needed the assurance of having the car plus we didn’t know we could walk over there to get one!  I’m glad it was only 2 days!  Once in the room and unpacked, we found we were hungry. The three-hour time difference made it 8:00pm so we just stayed in the hotel and split a meal. I have to say that we had the best crabcake sandwich I have ever eaten! It was delicious! Tomorrow the fun day starts!   

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #54 – Finalizing the House Sale & Finally Getting Trailer Work Started Again!

  

Tuesday, August 24^th., 2021…… Last day in Crawfordsville! The plan today was to go over and get Corey to clean the carpets and for us to bring back the Shasta trailer. But first, we had to go deliver the fridge we picked up last night from Home Depot. We went there to look at and buy a stackable washer/dryer combo (which we did) and we happened on a nice fridge that was a scratch and dent and was marked down, so we bought it. They loaded it up on my truck and we left it on the truck for today. There was a gentleman driving by who got out of his truck and came over and helped us get it off the truck and up the stairs. Thank you, sir!  I had to take the freezer door off so we could get it through the front door, but we got it done and moved into place. We ordered an icemaker for it which will be delivered in a few days. Once we were done there, we went back to the house and got her truck.  I left a message for Kirk’s guys on what I wanted them to do to the yard/flowerbeds today and off we went.  Corey met us there and had Cathye’s shampooer. He made quick work of the carpets and we had the trailer uncovered and hooked up pretty quickly as well.

We made a last run down to the orchard and went to the blackberry bushes in and around there and made one last pick. That done, we headed back home for the day. I backed the trailer into its temporary location.

 

I need to do this because I am still waiting for the carport delivery/install, which is sometime late August early September, and they will need room to get in and work.  Once we got the cover back on, we went back to check on Don’s progress. He only has a few items left but took some time off because his sister had passed. Our condolences to him and his family. He was extremely glad he had something to do while he was here, so we were relieved to hear that. He has one more day to work and anything he doesn’t get finished will go on to Randy for completion. Randy will be scheduling a day/time to come over anyway to install the backsplash. 

Wednesday, August 25^th., 2021…… I made a mistake. We have one more day over at the house. She wants to clean up the kitchen and I want to blow out the breezeway and clean up the pathways with the blower. But first, she needed to go pay Don and then come back and work on some calls for her stepson’s disability care, which needed some updating and review to be continued. He is really close to going into a care facility but doesn’t want to leave his rent-controlled place at this time. When we got to the house, we made quick work of all of our tasks, and I gave her some time alone as this was definitely the last time she would be here. We closed up and came back home to rest. Later, we took another bunch of stuff from my garage over to unload, including the bed, which I set up. She needs curtains/drapes and new rods so that will be on the list to go shopping for tomorrow. Once we got everything done there, we stopped by the Hangry Food Truck and got a chicken bacon wrap to share and came home and rested from our day.     

Thursday, August 26^th., 2021…...  I was up early and out because I was needed to walk Q this morning. Sis was going in early for her scheduled colonoscopy. I got that task completed and stopped and brought coffee/tea back from Starbucks. Cathye had breakfast burritos ready, and we rested and enjoyed that. Then we headed off to Albany to shop for curtains and hangers for them. We hung around the house until the afternoon. Today was closing day on her house!  She had already gotten together all of the keys and documents/receipts from the house, and she had her routing numbers ready for the bank transfer, so we were ready!  We headed off to the escrow company in Albany and met up her stepson Chris, and they went on in. I went over to Abbey’s pizza to wait for them.  They got everything done and came in and we had a nice meal. Chris was heading back home to Arizona and we came back into town and headed for the Lebanon Library for a benefit concert for Alzheimer’s. We had our chairs and found a good spot with my sister. We enjoyed to local bands before calling it a night.     

Friday, August 27^th., 2021……  We were up early and went over to check on progress on the trailer. Since we fired Taz, we have been looking for help in getting things done. I already mentioned Don, who was amazing!  He got everything done that he could given his brief time in town. We are now down to a few things that need expert help. She has the other guy, Randy, who will be setting her backsplash tiles and will drill through the wall for a dryer vent. The washer/dryer unit is in place and needs to be hooked up. The plumber, Sean, needs to add a receptacle in the wall for the hookups and needs to hook up the sink and disposal, and also the dishwasher, which Don installed. Baby steps but it’s coming together!  We have been shopping!  We headed over to Home Depot and looked at more items for the trailer. We stopped by Big Lots, and she bought new curtains and rods for every window. My job will be to install all of the rods. While we were there, a fireplace unit caught her eye!  She also spotted a coffee/end table set, which she liked. Maybe another time….

Saturday, August 28^th., 2021……  Today was spent at the trailer. I installed eight curtain rods and she measured to see how much of the curtains need to be trimmed. Remember – this is a mobile home, and the walls are not as tall as in a house. We got all of that done and called it a day and came home to rest.

Sunday, August 29^th., 2021……  I mentioned the fireplace and tables would be for another time. Well, it’s another time!  We went back to Big Lots and picked up the coffee table set. They were out of stock on the fireplace unit but the Eugene store had one. We took the tables back to the trailer and continued on to go get the fireplace. Boy, that thing was heavy and was in a big box that I needed help loading. Unloading back at the trailer was no problem though because we just opened up the container and removed it piece by piece and staged it in the house.

Monday, August 30^th., 2021……  Contractor Randy has been there and started the tiling job. He does really nice work. We ran some errands and made some appointments. We leave for our Boston trip on the 7^th. so we needed to get some things done ahead of that. We get back on the 14^th. and will have one day at the house before we head down in the motorhome to California on the 16^th.  That trip will be for 20 days. We have two Camping Squares campouts in that timeframe plus Lydia’s and Jeff’s celebrations of life. On that subject – I have almost all of the planning done. Lydia’s will be on Sept 22^nd (12:00-3:00pm) at a friend’s clubhouse in Cypress. I will post again later (both here and on Facebook) with more details. Randy is working on a location (Glory Days or Joe Jost’s in Long Beach) so the date and time is still to be determined.  Things will be a little limited for both events, given the covid restrictions, but they are both still on track.  Today was mowing day. This time we caught it in time and the grass was short enough to mow easily and it only took one trip to the recycle yard with the clippings.   

Tuesday, August 31^st., 2021……  Today we have an appointment with Safelite to get Cathye’s windshield replaced. Sean was also coming today to work on the plumbing. Randy was due back again to finish tiling. So, we decided to split the tasks. I wanted her at the house in case any decisions were needed about what went where so I took the task to drive to Keiser to the glass shop. We chose to drive to them because they were booked out past our time left in town. We took two vehicles and she stayed at the trailer, and I headed up and made the 45-mile drive in time to check in. Two hours later I was out of there and on my way home. Turns out the plumber was a no-show again. She is really frustrated with all of the delays and now knows she won’t be in the trailer before we leave on our trips. But they know what needs to be done and they can work while we’re gone, so we’ll just have to wait on that whole process! But right now, we can see some!  The backsplash is almost done and looks great so far (even without grout!).

I got the fireplace unit built and in place and it looks nice too. 

                                       

 We were done for the day and went home to fix dinner and relax after the busy day!