Bev and Mike's Visit

Bev and Mike arrived at Portland Airport Thursday night July 17, so down we went to pick up our new guests to our motorhome. Saturday down to Portland to visit Dan in the hospital. Afterwards Mike and Bev rented a car and went on down to Eugene, OR to visit Mike's son. Monday down to Portland to visit Dan in the Hospital and bring Mike and Bev back with us. We stopped and visited Mount St. Helens on our way back to the motorhome. Mount St. Helens was both very interesting and fascinating It was even a clear day. The next day was moving day. We needed to move from the Chehalis campground to another one about 20 miles away in Silver Creek. Bev and Mike got to experience what this entailed. After getting settled we headed out to the other side of Mount St. Helens to view the damage on that side but to no avail. It was closed. So a u-turn was made and off to Mount Rainier we went. This was not a clear day but a more typical Washington day. We never did see the top of Mount Rainier for all the clouds. There was snow still on the ground in places. Bev and Mike having just coming in from St. George with 100+ temp, weren't quite ready for this weather. Wednesday morning up at 3am to get Mike down to Portland Airport. He had an appointment in St. George so he had to leave a day early. Thursday we only had to get up at 4:30am to get Bev down to Portland Airport. We had a wonderful time with Bev and Mike. It was like we were on vacation also. We hadn't been sightseeing for awhile. We also had a good time playing on the Wii and Uno Attack.


Mike and Bev at Mount Rainier visitor center. Yes it's July

Tree snapped by the force of the Mount St. Helens eruption

Mount St. Helens

Bev and Mike with Mount St. Helens in the background

Way to go Dan !!!

As most of you know my brother Dan had surgery on April 9, to replace a heart valve. During surgery he had a mild stroke. He was working hard to recover from open heart surgery and the stroke when he found himself with decreasing energy instead of the hoped for increase. A few tests and doctor visits later it was found that the new valve was leaking. A new surgeon performed the repair and also repaired another valve discovered during surgery to be of some concern. Dan should be good to go for a long, long time now. You can see in the picture taken 5 days after surgery how well he looks. Way to go Dan!!!


Dan and Glenda at Providence Hospital in Portland,OR
This is the Monday after his second surgery on 7-16-08.

Sarah and Julia

On Friday, July 11 Duane and I went to Sarah's to pick Julia up to come down and stay with us in the motorhome. We had a good time doing crafts, mini golf, swimming and playing Wii. Julia was like a duck to water when it came to playing all the different games on the Wii. She bowled a 130 on her first try. Sarah came down on Wednesday to join us. Richard had to work. Sarah found that she loved the Wii also. Sarah and Julia went back home late Friday night after smores and a last game of Wii.






Sarah brought her tent and Julia was looking forward to "camping out"

A little "mini" golf as Julia calls it.

Sarah and Julia in the pool at the Thousand Trails Chehalis Campground. It wasn't as hot as Sarah would have liked but Julia loved it and never wants to get out.

Julia with her "friend" Isabella

Thousand Trails Campground, Chehalis, WA

OK, OK!!!!! Karen has been after me to keep up our blog. So here goes.....
We are now in Chehalis, WA. This is where we have our 3 acres of land, which is actually in a place called Adna, WA. Adna is about 5 miles west of Chehalis and is not very big. They have a Post Office. That's it. And it is very small at that. They do have a grade school, secondary school and a high school. But that is it. Anyway, we love the location of our property. It is sort of at the end of a big cul-de-sac. The road basically goes to our place and then winds back on itself about 3 miles further. Forms a giant loop. But because of that, we don't get much traffic, only the people that live out that way.
As I was saying, we are in a Thousand Trails Campground in Chehalis. It is a beautiful campground. It is like being in a BIG PARK. Lots and lots of trees, green areas, etc. In fact, there are so many trees, that it is almost impossible to get satellite TV. (I know, poor babies, can't get satellite TV while we are camping)
The weather has been quite warm (for here). The temps have been in the low to mid
80's. It is plenty warm for us.
As I had said in the last blog, Jo's brother Dan and his wife Glenda had come over to see us when we were in Seaside, OR and they had such a good time that they came up to see us in Chehalis. We arrived here Tuesday morning and they arrived Tuesday afternoon. We had a great time again. We showed them around our little town of Chehalis and our property out in Adna. Then we played lots of Uno Attack and bowling on the Wii. They left on Thursday evening, so they could be home before it got dark which is about 9:30 to 10:00 pm. A little side note, the day after Dan and Glenda left, Jo was in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower. I should tell you that we keep our exercise ball in shower. Well anyway, Jo started to take the ball out of the shower and saw a large black object under the ball. She rolled the ball back and there was a giant black tarantula spider under the ball. She came flying out to me and shrieked that there was a giant spider in the tub. So I went to see and sure enough, there was a giant spider. Well, on closer inspection, we discovered that it was a rubber spider. When we called her brother, he said, oh, did you find our pet spider??? BROTHERS!!!! Speaking of Dan, for those of you who don't know, he had heart surgery in April to replace a heart valve. During the surgery, he had a stroke which has left his left arm and hand somewhat paralyzed. Well, he went in for some tests last week and they discovered that his new valve is leaking. So he is going in tomorrow (Wed) for more surgery to have the new valve replaced. Our prayers are with him and his family.
Last Friday, Jo and I went up to Seattle to visit with Sarah and to pick up our granddaughter Julia. We brought her back on Friday and have been having a wonderful time entertaining her this week. We've mostly been going to the pool and playing on the Wii. What's embarrassing, is that she is only 7 and is getting better than Jo and I on the Wii. Sarah is going to come down tomorrow and stay with us until Saturday. Jo's sister from St. George, UT is coming into Portland on Thursday, and she and her husband will also be staying with us for about a week. We are going to have a motorhome filled with guests.
We went into the county offices and applied for a permit to put in a driveway last week. It seems that that is the first thing we need to do. We also talked to several people about putting in a well and a septic system. Actually we got names of people who do that sort work, we have not actually talked to the people who are going to do it. I'm not sure how much we will get done this time around because we seem to be having company alot. Which is a lot more fun.

Long Beach, WA

We are currently in Long Beach, WA which is approximately 35 miles north of Seaside, OR. As you can see, we don't travel great distances anymore or at least until gas gets back down to $2 a gallon (fat chance). Long Beach prides itself as the longest beach in the world (28 miles of white sand). We have been here since last Tuesday and will be leaving for Chehalis, WA this Tuesday. As you can see in the picture, they have some lighthouses here also. We checked a couple of them yesterday. Really pretty cool. Also we went into Ilwaco (which is a little town right next to Long Beach) and went to a local craft show. It was about 20 to 25 little tent canopies along the beach. Lots of touristy things. A good time was had by all.
When we were in Seaside, Jo's brother Dan and his wife Glenda came over to visit us. They live in Dallas, OR which is about a 100 miles from Seaside. We just hung out, played some games (Uno Attack, which if you have not played it, it becomes addicting after a few games). They had such a great time that they are going to come up to Chehalis to visit us again next week.
Another new item: Jo and I bought a "Wii". So we have been bowling, playing baseball, tennis and golf. That thing is amazing, it is just like playing the sports. Of coarse, you don't have the actual equipment, but you have the control in your hand and the "Wii" recognises what you do. If you don't throw your bowling ball straight (for example) you will get a "gutter ball" just like the real deal. And the next morning, everything hurts (just as if you had gone bowling). Well that's about it for now......

Duane and Jo

Catching Up........

Dear Friends and Family...
Here I go again with our "blog". I had written the long one earlier but somehow had lost it in cyberspace???? Joanne got with Karen and figured out what I had done or at least found it and "published" it.
We are in Seaside, Oregon right now. We had been up in Chehalis, WA before that. We had spent about 3 weeks in Chehalis (which is where our property and home are) looking into getting some stuff done. ie: we applied for and got an "address" for our property. We are officially now 661 Jefferies Road, Chehalis, WA. But don't send anything there because we don't have a mail box or anything. We also looked into getting a driveway put in (we currently have to use our neighbors driveway to get on to our property). We also talked to the power people about getting "power" brought on to our property but we have to have a "driveway" first before they can bring power in. The reason we are in Seaside is because we can only stay 3 weeks in our campground (Thousand Trails - which we belong to) at a time. Then we have to move on to another TT campground for at least one week and then we can go back to the one in Chehalis. I know, I know...it sounds confusing but it works. We will be going back to Chehalis in about one week (for another 3 weeks) and then we will be going to another campground near by for a week and then back to Chehalis. We probably will be leaving the Chehalis area in late August and heading back to Calif. for a week or so. I guess that is about it.......ps: I will include pictures as soon as I can figure out how to do it (I can't seem to get the camera to "download" the pics that I have) Sorry.....

D & J

On the road Jan 2008

We started out Jan. 2008 in Lake Havasu, AZ with our good friends the Albee's. Duane is standing in front of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu. From Lake Havasu we headed up to Washington to visit Shonda and the family and then over to Sarah's. This is where we encountered our first snow. It wasn't until leaving Washington and heading to Gardnerville, NV to visit with Bob & Carole that we had to put chains on the motorhome.