A Little Wet on the Oregon Coast

Hello again, welcome back to the story. Our last chapter ended when we arrived at the Paradise Cove RV Resort and Marina, near Wheeler, Oregon, on Sunday, June 9^th. The resort is on the Northern Oregon Coast, between Tillamook and Astoria. The resort actually sits on Nehalem Bay near where the river enters the Pacific. We can't see the ocean from our site, but we do look out across the bay to the coastal range of mountains to the north. Very pretty views. However, instead of the 80's we were getting used to inland, it is in the 50's and 60's here on the coast. Time to get out the warm pants and jackets again. We got into the resort a little after noon and after we got settled in we just spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Monday, June 10^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove south on Highway 101 to Tillamook, about 20 miles away. We were taking Jackie back to the urgent care at the local regional hospital. She had visited the urgent care in Grants Pass about a month ago with stomach pains. The folks there had diagnosed it as diverticulitis and given her some medication and diet advice. However, the pains have not abated and she was getting concerned. She got in quickly at the urgent care facility at the Tillamook Regional Medical Center and was in there for quite a while. When she came out she said that the doctor, and it was a real MD this time, not a PA, said he really didn't know what it was, but he knew it wasn't diverticulitis. He scheduled her for a CT scan at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Now I was concerned as well. No one likes to hear that kind of news about the one they love. I guess we will have to wait until Wednesday for something more definitive, but it will be a tough wait.

After we were done at the urgent care we stopped at the local Fred Meyers store to do some shopping. We also picked up a geocache in the parking lot near the store. After shopping we headed home and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, June 11^th, we woke up and found that our great view across the bay was mostly gray clouds. It rained most of the night and the forecast was for rain on and off all day. Between the apprehension about the CT scan tomorrow and the rain, we decided that today was a good day to just stay in and play on the computers to keep our minds busy. I did a couple of minor chores and repairs, but for the most part we just relaxed as much as possible and enjoyed the rainy, cloudy and cold day.

Wednesday we drove back down to Tillamook again for Jackie's 1:00 CT scan appointment. We went into the main hospital and got her checked in and then waited in the out-patient area until they called her in. This is a small hospital, only 25 beds, but they seem well equipped and staffed, and the staff are exceptionally nice. It was also interesting that while we waited in the out-patient area, it seemed like everyone who came in knew everybody else, including staff. I guess that is a small town for you.

Jackie was finally called in and I went in with her for the exam. I got to stand and watch the computer display while the machine was taking pictures. Very interesting. It could have even been considered fun had it not been Jackie being looked at. I have a basic knowledge of anatomy, so I recognized most of the organs coming up on the screen during the scan. There was nothing that popped out to me as significant, but clearly I'm not the expert. The procedure didn't take long and Jackie said the contrast dye they injected didn't hurt at all, notwithstanding all the warnings the technician gave her about the stuff. The technician is not allowed to say anything about the results of the test, that only a doctor can do that. She said the radiologist would review the file sometime today and we would probably not hear from her doctor until tomorrow. We stopped at the urgent care and confirmed with the nurse there that the doctor would probably call tomorrow.

Once we were done at the hospital we left Tillamook and stopped at a restaurant in Bay City, the next town north on Highway 101. We stopped at the Pacific Oyster Company, which was located on a pier just south of town. It is a part of the Pacific Seafood Company, a large Northwestern seafood packer, and is part of a working oyster packing plant. The place had been highly rated on the review sites. I had a shrimp poboy, which was OK, but not great. It was really just a shrimp salad on a roll and the shrimp were the tiniest little bay shrimp I have ever seen. Not a lot of shrimp taste. Jackie had the fish tacos and said they were very good. The fries were excellent and both of us had a bowl of clam chowder which was exceptional. After lunch we drove back to the campground and stayed in the rest of the day since it was still raining pretty hard off and on.

Thursday, June 13^th, we packed up our laundry and left the coach after lunch to wash clothes. There is a laundry here at the resort, but it was small and not real clean, so we decided to just drive back into Tillamook to find a regular coin laundry. We were fairly certain that the doctor Jackie saw on Monday would call with the results of the CT scan and blood tests and figured that if he wanted to see us we would at least already be in town.

We found a laundry in downtown Tillamook and got all our clothes done by about 2:30 or so. The doctor had still not called, so we decided to just drive back to the urgent care and at least talk to his nurse. We didn't want another restless night wondering what the results of the scan were. The doctor was not available, but his nurse came out and gave Jackie copies of the results of both the CT and the blood tests. The bottom line on the CT was the radiologist found “nothing remarkable” on any of the images. All the blood findings were similarly unremarkable. The nurse was very nice and explained that this was good, in that we know she probably doesn't have a tumor or other major issue, but not good in that it does nothing to explain the continuing pain. The nurse told us the doctor was still mystified as to the source of the pain and suggested that she consult a gastrointestinal specialist. Basically the nurse was telling us, in a nice way, that this particular doctor didn't think he could help any further – time to move on.

I suggested to Jackie that we see if we could get a copy of the actual CT scans on disk, in case we needed them for future doctor visits in another city. We had the written reports, but the actual scans wold be more useful to a new doctor. We walked back to the hospital, right next door, and went up to medical records and talked to a very nice clerk. She told us that they would provide us with a disk of the CT scans, but that it took 24 hours to fulfill the request. She said there was no charge and we could pick it up any time after tomorrow.

Jackie just happened to mention to her that we were trying to find out how we could find a gastrointestinal specialist to see, since we were new in town, and the woman told us that in addition to the urgent care, there was also a medical practice center attached to the hospital. She told us she would get us some literature and jumped up, left the office and headed down the hall. She came back a few minutes later with some papers but also told us that she had talked to the director of medical services for the medical center suggested that two of their staff doctors had training in that specialty and that, if we wanted, she could get us an appointment today with one of them.

We told her that would be great and she jumped up and ran down the hall again! She came back in about five minutes with an appointment slip for us to see one of the doctors in about a half hour. This has got to be one of the best medical practice experiences we have ever had. This hospital and it's staff are fantastic. This gal we were working with was just a medical clerk and she could have very easily said, “not my job,” as I think would happen in any big hospital in a big city. Instead, she went out of her way to take care of our needs. I can't say enough about the people here.

We walked back across the parking lot, checked in with the clerks, and within 20 minutes were in with another doctor. He took a lot of time talking to Jackie, getting medical history, and doing an external exam of her lower abdomen. He wouldn't, or couldn't say exactly what the problem might be, but suggested that the prudent course of action would be to perform a colonoscopy. Jackie had one about seven or eight years ago that was completely clean, but he said it was pretty close to the normal time for another anyway, and it would go far to help narrow down the diagnosis. When we explained our time constraints, that we would probably only be in the area another week or so, he told us that he could get her in next Wednesday for the procedure. Again, great service. He got Jackie to sign all the paperwork, gave her the necessary prescriptions and instructions, and we were on our way.

The only issue we had is that he likes to have a follow up appointment a week after the procedure. I told Jackie that this would not be a problem because I had just discovered yesterday, while poking around the Internet, that the Tillamook Elks Lodge had a big campground, with full hookup sites, just outside of town. The only change we would have to make to our plans was to go to the Tillamook Elks campground when we leave Wheeler instead of going back to the Kiezer Elks, which had been our original plan. With that we were able to make the followup appointment with the doctor for the Thursday following the procedure. On the way out Jackie asked the nurse to ask the doctor, who was already with another patient, if he could prescribe some light pain meds to hold her over until next week. She said she would check with him and, if he approved, would phone it in to Fred Meyers when she phoned in the other prescriptions.

We left the Tillamook Regional Medical Center feeling much better than we did when we arrived. Jackie still has the pain, but we are relieved that it doesn't appear to be anything serious, like a big tumor. Yea! We took a quick drive south out of town to check out the Elks campground that I had read about. It's about five miles south of town and is very nice. It sits out in a meadow, surrounded by wildflowers. There are a mix of pull through and back in sites and everything has 50 amp, water, sewer, and wifi. All for $20 a night. We were going to try and make reservations while we were there, but the camp host was not at home. I will have to call tomorrow to make a reservation to be sure we have a spot.

We drove back up through town on our way back home and decided at the last minute to stop at the Elks Lodge for a cocktail. It was pretty close to happy hour and we had things to be happy about. There were quite a few people in the bar and they were very nice. We had a cocktail, got a lodge pin, and decided to play the slot machines for a few minutes. Lucky us again, Jackie hits four deuces and wins $250. Yea again! We left the Lodge and drove back towards Wheeler. We decided that since we were having such a nice day, and it was getting close to dinner time, we would try and find a decent place to eat in Wheeler. It is a very small town, only about 400 population, so we weren't sure what we would end up with. However, an Internet search found a place called Tsunami Bar and Grill that had very good ratings on the ratings sites. It was right in Wheeler, on the waterfront, within sight of our campground.

We were again lucky that we found a hidden gem of a restaurant. It was a little on the pricy side, but the food was outstanding. We had calamari first and it was some of the best we have ever had. The seafood chowder was great, and our entree's were wonderful. Jackie had seafood fettuccine and I had fish and chips. We both walked out with to go boxes and very full tummies. I don't know if you will ever find yourself in Wheeler, Oregon, or even FIND Wheeler, Oregon, but if you do, stop at the Tsunami Bar and Grill. The food is fantastic. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night with the TV.

Friday, June 14^th, we finally had a nice day, mostly sun, no rain, and we didn't have to address any medical issues. We left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. Since we got here on Sunday we have only scored one new cache. All of the caches were on or near Highway 101 north of our resort. We cached until about 3:30 and ended up with a dozen new finds and one DNF. On the way back to the RV park we stopped in the little town of Nehelam Bay, population 250, at a local gift shop that was going out of business and selling everything at 50% off. I ended up with a tee shirt and Jackie got some decorative flowers for the coach. We also stopped at one of the three antique stores on main street in Wheeler. We spent almost an hour in that shop, they had a lot of really neat things. They specialized in Art Deco era stuff, especially light fixtures and lamps and had some of the prettiest, most unique pieces I think I have ever seen. Almost made me wish I had a house again. Almost. Once we done with that shop it was almost cocktail hour, so we headed back to the coach. The other two shops will have to wait for another day. Once back it was cocktails, dinner and TV for the rest of the night.

Saturday we again went out after lunch for some geocaching. Yesterday we did north of the RV park, today we went south. Within a couple hours we had captured another ten finds, along with another DNF. We were already pretty close to Tillamook when we stopped caching, so we drove down to town and stopped at the hospital, hoping to pick up Jackie's CT scan CD. Unfortunately, this is a small town hospital and most of the non-emergency or in-patient services are closed on the weekend, so we couldn't get it. We stopped at Fred Meyers for fuel and some groceries before heading back north to the RV park. Once we got home we stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  At one point during our caching we were on the highway between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach and saw the excursion train running down the tracks.  The train does daily runs between the two towns during the summer.  About every six weeks they do a dinner train run all the way up to Wheeler.

Sunday, June 16^th, my oldest daughter Tye's birthday. Happy Birthday baby girl! Also, coincidentally, it's Father's Day today too. We left the coach after lunch to go out and do some more geocaching. The day was overcast, but the forecast didn't call for any measurable rain and temps in the low 60's. Today we went north again on Highway 101, a bit further than we went a couple of days ago. Our first cache was in the little beach town of Cannon Beach. The cache was just off of a parking area for public beach area known as Hug Point. We pulled into the parking lot, parked and headed out of the parking lot on a trail. After a few yards we evaluated what our GPS units were telling us and decided that it would be easier to get the cache from the beach, so we started walking down towards the beach.

When we got to the bottom of the parking lot, just before walking onto the beach, we ran into what was clearly a family group, a man, woman and four kids, all wearing identical turquoise tee shirts. As we approached them one of the kids, a boy of about twelve or so asked, “did you find it?” We were shocked and said, “so you know what we were doing?” It turns out they are a family from Washington State on vacation and they are geocachers also. We chatted with them for a bit, helped them take some family pics, and then they told us that we had been on the right path after all and that the cache was not accessible from the beach.

We walked back up to the path and eventually found the cache. The family had walked up with us too, to make sure that we got the find, and we spent a few minutes chatting with them. Turns out they actually have six kids, the two older girls not so much interested in caching as the younger ones. They were more into hanging out on the beach. They were a very nice family and it is good to see them using it as a way to have an interesting family outing.

We drove into Cannon Beach and found a couple more caches. The second cache of the day we ran into yet another couple that was looking for the same cache. They are still in the thinking about it stage and don't have a caching name, but they were staying in the hotel across the street and knew that there was a cache near that location. We had found the cache and they had noticed, so we chatted with them for a while. This is the third encounter we have had with cachers in a couple of weeks. Normally you rarely run into other cachers.

Cannon Beach is a very nice little town, about 1,700 population, that is a typical touristy beach town. Today being Sunday, and Father's Day, the town was packed. We had to bypass a couple of caches because we simply couldn't find anywhere to park close to the cache. One interesting fact about Cannon Beach is the way the town was named. Back in 1846 the U.S. Navy survey ship, the USS Shark, ran aground and wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia River, some fifty miles north of the current Cannon Beach. A few weeks later a piece of the decking of the ship, with a small cannon still attached, washed up on the beach near the current town site. The cannon is still mounted on a monument alongside Highway 101 just outside of town.

We also drove up to the next town north, Seaside, and did some caching. Seaside is a little bigger, just under 6,500 population and is also a beach resort town. Seaside has a number of large condo and time share complexes near downtown. We were still having trouble getting to caches because of the crowds of people and traffic, so we stopped caching with seven finds and one DNF. We were going to drive around a little in Seaside and noticed the Elks Lodge, so we stopped in there for a drink. We didn't remember if we had ever visited the lodge before and it didn't look familiar. We had a cocktail, gambled a little on the slots and lost, got a lodge pin and then hit the road for the 26 mile drive back to the coach. After we got back to the coach we discovered that we had been to the lodge back in 2005 on our first trip through Oregon with the coach. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and relaxing. By the way, I did get messages from all three of my kids on Father's Day. Made me feel good.

Monday, June 17^th, another nice day, but the last for a few days according to the weather report. Not to worry, we will be tied up Tuesday and Wednesday with Jackie's procedure. Tuesday is a prep day, and those who have had a colonoscopy know you DON'T leave the immediate vicinity of a bathroom during prep day. Wednesday is the procedure, which is done under full anesthesia, so we probably won't do too much that day either.  We left the coach after lunch and did the last few caches we had fairly close to the RV park. These were on the road that leads inland, northeast from Wheeler. We ended up finding all five caches within about an hour. After caching we drove back down to Wheeler and spent another hour or so walking around the antique stores before going back to the coach. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.

Tuesday, June 18^th, we had a stay at home day because tomorrow Jackie has her colonoscopy. Today is prep day and I don't need to go into any more detail than that. Not a day you want to be too far from a bathroom. I got a few chores done, but mostly we just relaxed in the coach, or at least Jackie did her best to relax.

Wednesday morning we were up and out of the coach by 7:30 so we could get Jackie down to Tillamook General Hospital by 8:15 for her procedure. They got her into the out patient center pretty quickly and I just waited out in the waiting room. As we have found in days past, the staff was great. One of the volunteers came around and brought me some coffee and showed me how to check the status board. They have a TV out in the waiting room with the status for each patient. The patient ID number is there along with a status, waiting, pre-op, in process, or in recovery. Kind of like the boards at an airport with the flight info.

After about 90 minutes Jackie was in recovery and they came and got me and took me back for a quick conference with the doctor. He said the procedure went fine, nothing remarkable or bad found except for two very small pollups, which he snipped out and sent to the lab. Like the CT scan, this is good news and bad news. Good news, nothing seriously wrong, bad news, still don't know why her abdomen hurts. Within fifteen minutes they wheeled her out and we loaded up in the car. She was alert, but still a little groggy, but also hungry.

We stopped at a cafe in Garibaldi, the next town north of Tillamook, and she had a nice chicken fried steak breakfast. She hadn't eaten in about 36 hours, so she was hungry. The food was OK, nothing special, certainly nothing worth mentioning or recommending, so I won't even ID the cafe. After lunch we went back to the coach and Jackie spent most of the rest of the afternoon sleeping. She hadn't slept well the night before and we got up early, so that, combined with the residual effects of the anesthesia kind of had her zonked out. She kind of woke up for dinner and we watched TV until bedtime. We have one more appointment with this doctor next week, so maybe we will have some answers then about the pain.

Thursday, June 20^th, the forecast called for a fifty percent chance of rain, but the skies didn't look that bad. We decided to go out after lunch and just do some exploring in some of the small towns. We have pretty much run out of geocaches to find that are reasonably close by. We first went into Wheeler and finished checking out the antique stores there. Then we drove down to Rockaway Beach and spent an hour or so going through the shops there. In one of the gift shops I found a neon pink flamingo just like the one I used to have. I have a couple of small, neon lights that I put up on the dashboard for decorations. I used to have four, a multicolor Corona parrot, a blue martini glass, a red, white and blue USA, and a pink flamingo. A couple of years ago the USA and the flamingo got broken in separate accidents, so I only have the two now. The signs are hard to find and I was surprised to one of the flamingos, identical to the one I had, on display at the gift shop. It was $36, but I wanted it. They didn't have one in a box, so they gave me the display one for $32. Yea! Now all I have to do is find the USA one again.

After checking out the Rockaway Beach stores we drove a little further south and went to a couple places in Garibaldi. We also found one geocache in Garibaldi, and DNF'd another one. By this time it was after 4:00, so we started back to the RV park. We had a fun day, didn't spend too much money, and after we got back to the coach we had some nice chicken fajitas cooked on the BBQ and then watched TV until bed.

Friday was a stay at home day. Jackie worked pretty hard most of the afternoon, cleaning out cabinets and doing some rearranging of stuff. I got up on the roof and tried to find the source of a small water leak we have near the front of the coach. I didn't find anything conclusive, but did seal up a couple of possible suspect spots. Now we'll just have to wait until the next rain.  I did manage to get some pictures of the dinner train as it left Wheeler late in the afternoon, headed back to Garibaldi.  The tracks were only a few yards behind our coach.  The trailer you see in the photo was in the row right behind our coach.  Thank goodness the trains didn't come through often because they would be pretty loud.

Saturday, June 22^nd, our last full day here in Wheeler. We were running out of things to do in this somewhat remote corner of Oregon, but we still had a handful of geocaches within 20 miles or so that we could go after. We left the coach after lunch, on an overcast but dry afternoon and did out caches. It took us about two and a half hours to get seven new finds, and one DNF, mostly because the caches were widespread, most about five to eight miles distant from each other. That's what happens when you are down to the dregs in a given caching area.

Our next to last cache was in Bay City, not too far north of Tillamook, and it was located in the parking lot of the Tillamook Country Smoker factory and outlet store. They make beef jerky and beef sausage. Tillamook is mostly known for their cheese and the big Tillamook Cheese factory down closer to town. I guess the jerky factory is where all the dairy cows end up when their milk days are done. They had flavored beef stick bites on sale, so I bought a few packages. Jackie doesn't like them, but I like them for an evening snack sometimes. They're really kind of gross when you think about them too much, but they are tasty.

After our caching we went back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I spent a half hour or so before dinner putting things away outside. We were both in a little bit of a funk because we had talked to our good friends Barry and Colleen Cohen today and Colleen's cancer was not improving and she told Jackie she figured she had four to six weeks left. Jackie said she sounded resigned to the fact she was going to die soon and was pretty upbeat, but Jackie took it really hard.

Sunday, June 23^rd, moving day again. We woke up after a night of almost continuous light rain and it was still raining. We left about 10:20 or so and got on Highway 101 for the short, 27 mile trip from Wheeler to the Tillamook Elks Lodge RV camp, about five miles south of Tillamook. The trip took almost an hour because the roads are winding and narrow, and it was raining for most of the trip. I just took my time and we got there before noon. We didn't even hook up the car, Jackie just drove behind me.

We got checked into the park, which is very nice, and got the basics set up. It is still raining and the forecast calls for rain the next three days, so we didn't set anything up outside. Unfortunately, we still have the leaks in the coach, including the one that the guys at Elite were supposed to have fixed a few weeks back. I guess we will have to have someone else look at them when we get back to a drier part of the country. The leak in the front that I tried to fix was also still there. We are not flooding inside, but it is annoying and I know it's not good for the coach to have any water in the walls or cabinets.

The Elks campground here is very nice. It is about a half mile off the highway in the middle of a big meadow. The entire campground is surrounded by a riot of colorful wildflowers, very nice to look at. They have about 20 full hookup, 50 amp sites, and only $20 a night. Yea! After we got everything set up we drove back into Tillamook, which is now only a five mile trip instead of 25 miles, and did some shopping at Fred Meyers and Safeway.

Since it has been two weeks since we published, I am going to close this episode out and get it on line. We will be here at the Elks for a week and then moving inland again, back down to the Grants Pass area, for a week or so. We will publish again in a couple of weeks. Until the next time remember that life is for living, not watching. You never known what's around the corner, so pay attention to where you are now and enjoy every moment to it's greatest extent. See ya.

Another Nice Ten Days in Oregon

Welcome back friends. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, May 31^st with our departure from Harrisburg, Oregon after a couple of weeks. We didn't move too far, only about 60 miles north to Keizer, Oregon, a suburb of the state capital, Salem. We settled into the Keizer Elks Lodge which has a very nice RV park with about 40 full hookup sites. We have water, sewer, 50 amp electric, and cable, all for $17 a night. A real bargain. It was really nice that we had mostly clear skies for the entire trip. No rain for the first time in a week.

After we got settled in early Friday afternoon we just relaxed until about 5:30 or so when we walked over to the Lodge for a cocktail. The place was very busy as this lodge has some very nice Friday night dinners. Tonight was steak night, but they have a full dinner menu

as well. We were sitting at the bar enjoying our first cocktail when another couple sat down next to us and engaged us in conversation. It turns out that they were also out in the RV park and had seen us come in this afternoon.

Their names were Ben and Annie Snoddy and they are originally from Northern California and are members of the Lodi Elks. We have stayed at the Lodi Lodge a number of times and will be there again later this summer. They were about our age, and Ben even has a little pony tail. They are full timers like us but they are in a big fifth wheel trailer instead of a motorhome. They were very nice people and we talked to them for about an hour before they went off to have dinner. While we were talking to them the topic of geocaching came up and they expressed an interest in the hobby. They were vaguely aware of the sport from talking to other people, but didn't know any details and had never tried it. We made arrangements to take them out on Saturday for a “sample” caching run. After they went in for dinner we had another cocktail and then went back to the coach for our dinner.

Saturday we woke up again to the promise of mostly clear skies. About mid-morning we had one small cloud go over that dropped some rain for about two minutes, but then it went away and the sun came out again. After lunch, about 1:00, we picked up Ben and Annie in our Jeep and went out to do some local caching. We did caches in Keizer, most within a few miles of the lodge and within about two and a half hours we had 13 new finds along with one new DNF. Ben and Annie really got into the hobby and were excited when they actually found about half the caches. By the time we were done caching Annie had downloaded a caching application to her smartphone and was trying to register for a caching name. I don't know if they will stay hooked, but they certainly seem excited now.

We went back to the coach a relaxed for a while and about 5:00 Ben and Annie came over for cocktails. They were already cachers now, having registered on the website with their new caching name. We sat and talked for a couple of hours before they went back to their RV. We had a quick dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening. We are looking forward to seeing Ben and Annie down the road in our travels. They hang around the west coast for the most part, so there is no doubt we will cross paths again. Unfortunately, they are leaving on Sunday, so we won't be able to take them caching again on this trip.

Sunday was supposed to be another mostly sunny day, but we woke up to clouds and it didn't change too much for most of the day. There were times when the sun came out for a while, but it was mostly cloudy and windy. At least it didn't rain. I got Jackie her beloved Sunday paper and we decided to just make it a stay at home day. After lunch we both did a few little things around the coach. I did some repairs and Jackie did a little spring cleaning. I did watch the NASCAR race, but we didn't leave the park all day and just had basically a nice, relaxing day at home.

Monday, June 3^rd, another nice day on tap. I am actually able to go back to wearing shorts again during the day. We left the coach after lunch with Benji in his carrier and headed to the Petsmart store in Salem to get his nails clipped. The girl at the store was very nice and thought Benji was really pretty and well behaved. He got his nails clipped, but for some odd reason, the Petsmart stores here in Oregon will not put on the plastic nail tips. We had it done at a couple of stores in California, but we contacted at least three stores here in Oregon and none of them would do it. They sell the tips in the store, they just don't let their employees put them on the cat. Weird.

After Benji was done we went next store for a quick Walmart run and then headed home to drop off the cat and the groceries. Once we were done with that we went out for about an hour to do some caching. We managed to get three new finds and one DNF in about an hour. We then had to pause to get some fuel for the Jeep. While heading to the gas station we passed an accident at one of the major intersections in Keizer, north of the Elks Lodge. It appeared to my practiced eye (years of investigating vehicle accidents during my time with the Sheriff's Office) that a car had pulled out of a gas station in front of a big pickup truck pulling a really big fifth wheel RV. That's a lot of weight to try and stop and they failed, hitting the car. Then another small car ran into the back of the trailer. Fortunately, the impacts did not appear to be too severe, so I doubt anyone was seriously hurt. However, it really made a mess of the intersection as the police and tow truck folks tried to figure out how to clear everything out.

After we got our fuel we went back by the scene of the accident and they had the first car gone and the truck was up on a big wrecker. It appeared they were going to tow the truck with the trailer still attached, which made sense. By now it was rush hour and traffic was really backed up so I know the cops were getting a little frustrated and impatient. We drove back to the Elks and relaxed in the coach the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, June 4^th, the eighth anniversary of our being full time RV'ers. June 4^th, 2005 was the day the sale of our house in Indio closed and the day we took delivery of our new motorhome. My how time flies when you are having fun. We left the coach about noon and went over to the Lodge for lunch. The Keizer Elks serves lunch six days a week in the bar. Jackie had a burger and I had a Philly cheese and both were very good and fairly inexpensive. Including a couple of drinks lunch was just over $20 for the both of us. The food was about what you would pay for fast food, but you can't get a bloody Mary at Burger King. After lunch we drove to the nearby UPS Customer Service Center to pick up our mail. A quick glance showed no surprises. I got my new Sheriff's Office retired ID card, Jackie got some pills, lots of magazines and some junk mail. I also got the new sensors for our tire pressure monitoring system. I had to send the old ones in for battery replacement after four years. I will feel better with the sensors back on the coach tires.

Once we had our mail in hand we set out to do some geocaching. We ended up getting ten new finds in about two and a half hours. We also ran across another cacher, an event that happens less often than you might think. Although there are five million cachers in the world looking for over two million geocaches, we rarely see one in the field except at an event. We were approaching a cache in a city park in Keizer and we saw a man get out of a car with a walking stick and go into the park. We thought he was just another muggle, a non-cacher, our for a walk. As we started to park I told Jackie, “I think he's a cacher.” He wasn't going into the park, instead he was poking around the entrance area, looking behind and under things. Very cacher type behaviors. We got out of the car and he sort of stood there looking at us and I said, “I know what you are doing.” He said, “Yea, what's that?” When I told him I thought he was a geocacher he pulled his GPS out from under his tee shirt. We both found the cache and then chatted for a little while before moving on to the next cache. He was fairly new to the sport, with under a hundred finds. We later saw his caching name on the logs of some of the other caches we found. After we had our ten finds we went back to the coach and just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday morning promised another warm, sunny day here in Oregon. We went out again after lunch for a little more geocaching. We were able to get eight new finds, along with one new DNF. By about 3:00 we decided to quit because our allergies were acting up and we had neglected to take our medications before leaving the coach. Several of the caches were hidden in bushes or trees, so the pollens were kicking our butts. After we got back to the coach I spent a little time getting the outside decorations and sun screens taken down and stored, getting ready for our leaving Keizer in the morning. We spent the rest of the day and evening relaxing in the coach.

Thursday, June 6^th, the 69^th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France. We had the coach packed up and folded up by 9:30 and were on the road leaving Keizer. Our final destination for the day was Sherwood, Oregon, a smallish town on the outskirts of metropolitan Portland, only about 40 miles north of Keizer. However, we had to make a couple of stops. About three miles after getting on I-5 outside of Keizer we stopped at the Pilot Truck stop for fuel. Then it was back on I-5 for another 18 miles to Aurora, Oregon where we got off and stopped at the Speedco truck service center. I like to describe Speedco as a sort of Jiffy-Lube for big rigs. They are in business to do relatively simple lube, oil and filter maintenance for over the road trucks. Since the underpinnings of our diesel pusher coach are very similar to those in a big truck, it is a great place for us to take the coach. Based on the mileage we put on the coach, about 9,000 miles a year, we fall under the “once annually” provisions for the maintenance recommendations for our engine and chassis. Every year, around the first of June, I take the coach to get the oil changed, new oil, air and fuel filters, and the chassis lubed.

For the first couple of years we went to either Monaco Service Centers or one of the big Cummins Diesel shops for our annual service. We always ended up paying around $1,000, which was ridiculous considering what they were doing. Then we discovered Speedco. The service today was less than $300 and we got everything done we needed to have done. In addition, even with the wait time for a bay to open, we were done in two hours instead of all day like it was at the fancy places. I have used Speedco exclusively for the last five years now and highly recommend them to anyone with a diesel motorhome. While they were working on the coach Jackie and I found one geocache which happened to be hidden only yards from the Speedco shop.

By about 11:30 we were done with the coach service and back on the road for the last 20 miles to the Sherwood Elks Lodge. We had stayed at this lodge a few years ago for a couple days and enjoyed the experience. Sherwood is a small town, less than 20,000 population, about fourteen miles southwest of downtown Portland. The Elks is on the edge of town on the top of a hill overlooking the Willamette River valley. They have a couple dozen RV sites with water and electric and only charge $10 a night. We had called ahead to be sure they had a spot and ended up in a spot right next to the campground hosts.

We were in and setup by 1:00 and spent the rest of the day just relaxing around the house and getting some chores done. We will be here for three days before moving on to our next destination on the Oregon coast.

Friday, June 7^th, another nice day on tap. It was a little overcast in the morning, but by the time we left the coach about noon it had cleared up and we had lots of blue sky. We set out to do some geocaching in the Sherwood area and by about 3:30 or so we had a dozen new finds, along with one DNF. A couple of the caches took us into the old town part of Sherwood, which dates back to the late 1800's. Sherwood was originally named Smockville, after the founders, James and Mary Smock, however, after a couple of years everyone discovered that no one, not even the Smock's, liked the name. They held a town meeting and a gentleman who came to Oregon from Sherwood, Michigan, suggested Sherwood. The name was approved by the town and by the Postal Service, and in 1893 the town was incorporated as Sherwood. Supposedly, Sherwood, Michigan had been named after Sherwood Forest, England, so the Oregon town has a slight connection to the Robin Hood fable. The Sherwood Elks Lodge goes by the nickname Robin Hood Lodge. When we were in Old Town we saw that the street signs all had a little sign on top of them that said Smockville, in honor of the original name.

While we were caching in a very nice residential area we happened to drive by a couple of houses that were having garage sales. We spotted a small, two drawer night stand that we decided would fit in the corner next to my chair. We needed a table over there and the two drawers would be handy for putting things in. We bought that for $5 and then went to the sale next door and found a nice cloth basket that we bought for a buck. Both would look nice behind the new chair, where the couch used to be.  We also came across a large, probably fifty or so, kids walking down the street in a parade that we guessed was some sort of commemoration of the Oregon Trail.  They had a whole bunch of wagons decorated as covered wagons and most of the kids were in some kind of frontier dress.  They seemed to having a great time doing whatever they were doing.

After our caching we went back to the coach and relaxed until about 6:00 when we went to the Lodge for their Friday night dinner. They had either prime rib or salmon. Both of us ordered the prime rib and it was fantastic. For $12.50 you got a salad, baked potato, veggie and a huge piece of perfectly cooked prime rib. Jackie got a very rare end cut, which is almost impossible to get, even in a fancy restaurant. I always order very rare, and my piece was really thick but still very rare. We both ended up taking a big piece home for lunch tomorrow. We stayed after dinner to play the slot machines for a little bit. I lost $15, but Jackie won and cashed out just a little over even. We walked back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, June 8^th, my brother Dennis' birthday. Happy Birthday Bro! Dennis is the next oldest in the brood, born in '55, and the only other one of the five with the last name Holt. He lives in Cottonwood, Arizona and is in the banking industry.

We left the coach after lunch, about 12:30 or so, and drove back to old town Sherwood for their annual “Cruising Sherwood” car show. They had the entire downtown area, commercial and nearby residential streets, closed and they were lined with hot rods, customs and other show cars, as well as a lot of vendor booths. For a town of just over 18,000, I was impressed that they could pull together a car show with upwards of three to four hundred entries. They had some really unusual and interesting entries, including an early 1947 Cadillac ambulance conversion that was very nicely restored. That really brought

back memories as all the ambulances when I was a kid, and I was born in 1947, were based on station wagon cars. They also had a very rare 58 Fiat 600 Multipla. It was a very compact w
agon that seated six people. It looked a little like a mini-VW minivan. I have been to a lot of car shows and never seen examples of either of these before.

We spent a couple of hours walking around on a very nice sunny day looking at cars and booths, taking pictures and just enjoying the afternoon. We stopped at the American Legion Post, which was conveniently located right downtown, for a beer. Although I am a member of the Legion, the post was open to the public for the weekend. They were selling a lot of beer and drinks as I didn't see any other vendors with alcohol. They also had a big BBQ area set up outside and were selling burgers and hot dogs.

After the car show we took a drive to Camping World. Camping World was in Wilsonville, a town on I-5, about six miles or so east of Sherwood. On the way we stopped and picked up a geocache. We really didn't need much at the store, but Camping World had sent us a $25 coupon, no strings, so we knew we could find something we wanted. We ended up buying some carpet step covers for our inside steps. We ended up with over $30 worth of merchandise for only about seven dollars. Sweet Deal!

After Camping World we went to Home Depot to pick up some new drawer pulls for the nightstand we bought yesterday. They had some that were virtually identical to the ones on our cabinets in the coach. The irony is that the drawer pulls and a little touch up color pencil to fix some dings on the cabinet cost us twice what we paid for the cabinet. We did a couple more caches, ending up with three finds for the day. By this time is was close to cocktail hour, so we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Sunday, June 9^th, we packed up the coach and were on the road about 10:00, leaving Sherwood and heading about a hundred miles northwest to the Oregon coast. We were headed for an RV resort located just outside the town of Wheeler, Oregon. Now Wheeler only has a population of 350 and probably doesn't show on most maps, but the area is about 20 miles north of the city of Tillamook and maybe 40 miles south of the city of Astoria, which sits on the Columbia River at the very northwest corner of the state.

We arrived at the resort, Paradise Cove RV Resort and Marina, a little after noon and got settled into a very nice site. The resort is a membership place that we have access to through Resorts of Distinction (ROD), one of our membership groups. As a “resort” the place is not much, the parking places are gravel parking lots for the most part, and the amenities are not much to brag about. However, where we parked gave us one of the nicest views we have had in a very long time. We are parked facing Nehalem Bay, where the Nehalem River widens out just before it dumps into the Pacific. We look north, across the bay to the trees and mountains of the

Coastal Range and it is beautiful. This is a bit of a remote part of the Oregon Coast, but we will be here for two full weeks and I know we will find lots of fun things to do.

Our arrival here on the coast marks a perfect place to close out this chapter of the blog and get it published. We will publish again at the end of our stay here in Wheeler. Try and stay on the sunny side of life's street, but remember that if it looks like everything's coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane. See ya.

The Coach Remodel Project

Hello again friends and loyal readers. Glad you're back. Our last episode ended on Thursday, May 16^th, when we arrived in Harrisburg, Oregon, in central Oregon, after a week long stay near Medford and Grants Pass in southern Oregon. We settled into the River Bend RV Resort for an indeterminate period of time, indeterminate because we are here in the old RV manufacturing heart of Oregon to have some remodel work done on our coach. We have an appointment to get started on the work next Monday, but right now we don't know if the work will take one week, two weeks, or longer.

Harrisburg is a small town about fifteen miles northwest of Eugene, Oregon, the second largest city in Oregon with a population of 156,000. The city was founded in 1862 by Eugene Skinner, a trapper and trader who came to the area and established a trading post in 1846. The city began it's climb to prominence in 1876 when the University of Oregon was built in the city. Today the University has some 25,000 students and 1,500 faculty. For those not familiar, the sports logo for the University of Oregon is a gold “O” on a green field and the team mascot name is The Ducks. Eugene has a lot of heavy industry, especially industries related to forest products. Lumbering was a major economic mainstay in the area up until the 1980's when environmental issues nearly collapsed the industry in Oregon. Lumber and paper mills are still important in the area, but since the collapse in the 80's Eugene has seen a big increase in more high tech operations. As I stated in the previous chapter, the area north of Eugene was a mecca for the RV manufacturing industry from the 70's into the early 2000's.

The company that we are going to use for our remodel was started a few years ago by three ex-employees of the Monaco Coach Corporation, which had major manufacturing facilities, and it's corporate headquarters, in the area. Monaco went bankrupt in 2009 and ultimately closed all of it's facilities in the area except for a trailer plant in Harrisburg and a parts and repair facility in Coburg. Elite Coach Remodel was recommended to us by Ray Babcock, who also owns a Monaco coach and has used Elite for a lot of repair and remodel jobs. The guys at Elite are Erik, Mark and Marty. We went over to Elite to talk to Erik for a few minutes to get a clearer idea as to what kind of flooring to get, and where, and also make sure that the timing for our work was still on track.

On Friday, May 17^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove down to the Eugene area to pick out flooring for our coach. Elite will do the install, but we needed to go down to the local supply company and pick out the materials. We are having most of the carpeting removed from the coach and will be putting in a wood laminate floor. There are some areas that, because of the design of the coach have to be carpet, and we will be putting in new carpet in those areas. The guys at Elite gave us some suggestions as to brands of flooring that they have had good success with and sent us to a place called Jerry's Home Improvement to check them out.

Jerry's looks like the local Oregon version of Home Depot. A very large, well stocked home improvement center. The big difference was customer service. You were never left to venture about the store on your own. They have very helpful and knowledgeable staff and it was a pleasure to shop there. We spent an hour looking at different colors and textures of laminate flooring before finally settling on three “finalists” to be checked out in the coach. We loaded up on samples of the three choices. We also looked at carpeting at Jerry's, but their selection was mostly low end stuff that we didn't care for.

After Jerry's we took a lunch break and stopped at the IHOP near the freeway. Not a great experience. Jackie really wanted IHOP because she wanted breakfast, even though it was early afternoon by now. The service was pleasant enough, but very, very slow and the waitress spent all her time hanging out in the kitchen area, rarely coming around to check on the tables. Jackie's food, an omelet, came out cold and she had to send it back to get nuked before she could eat it. The restaurant also looked a little tired and dingy, badly in need of a makeover. It was not a good example of what I have come to expect from IHOP.

After lunch we hit a couple of carpet stores that were recommended by Elite. We found several different samples that we thought might work and took pieces home with us to check inside the coach. We settled on a short shag style carpet, the only choice now being colors. With the back seat full of samples of flooring and carpet we made a stop at Walmart for provisions before heading back to the coach. We finally got home at 6:00 after a busy day. We still have decisions to make, but we have narrowed the field somewhat. After our late lunch we didn't have any dinner, just watched TV until time for bed.

Saturday we woke up to more cloudy skies with the threat of rain, light showers probably, but still rain. During the morning we spent some time looking at the samples we got yesterday for flooring and carpeting. We laid out the samples on the floor, discussed the pros and cons and after about fifteen minutes of deliberation settled on a flooring sample and a carpeting sample. The flooring is called Glazed Hickory and is just a shade or two darker than our light oak cabinets. The grain pattern is very similar, so the match should be good. The carpeting is a good quality short shag that is quite a bit darker than the beige carpet we have now, but not too dark. It is also a mix of colors, better to hide stains.

We decided that even though we have settled on what we think we want, we were going to drive into Springfield, another suburb of Eugene, to look at one more home improvement store to see if they had anything that we might like better. On the way down we had to drive through Coburg which was where our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock were heading. Just before we left we got an email from them that they had arrived at the Monaco Service Facility in Coburg, so we decided to drop in and surprise them.

At one time Monaco, the old pre-bankruptcy Monaco, had three company owned service centers. One in Coburg, at the motorhome plant, one in Elkhart, Indiana, at one of their manufacturing plants there, and one in Wildwood, Florida. All three of these had fairly large RV parks right adjacent to the center where you could park for free if there was space and you were having work done. During our first year of ownership, when the coach was still under warranty, we were at the Wildwood facility twice and the Elkhart facility once. We never stayed at the Coburg plant, which is now the only one still open.

Peggy and Vernon are having some major electrical problems with their coach, which they bought used. They have spent a fortune at private RV repair places but are still having problems. They finally decided to make an appointment with Monaco and let the people who built the coach try to fix it. They were parked in the free parking and we stopped in and visited for a half hour or so. They will probably be here for a week or two like us, so I would imagine we will be spending time with them as our coaches are being worked on. We are only about twelve miles up the road from Coburg.

After the quick visit with Peggy and Vernon we drove into Springfield and found the Jerry's Home Improvement store. We weren't in there too long as we found that they had exactly the same selection as the store in Eugene, so we finalized our decisions on the flooring and carpeting. With that off or our minds we set out to explore Springfield a little. It is a large, 56,000 population, suburb of Eugene, just to the east. Interstate 5 is the dividing line, Eugene to the west, Springfield to the east.

Our first stop was the Springfield Moose Lodge. I had read that they advertised RV parking and we wanted to check it out in case we ever needed to stay in the Eugene area in the future. It is too far from Harrisburg for our stay this time. They do have a neon sign for RV parking in the back, but it is really just a big parking lot. They had a few RVs back there in storage, but I didn't see any that looked like people were staying in them. The only hookups they have are a couple of 20 amp household outlets. Enough to charge batteries, but that's about it. Not the ideal place to stay.

We then went to the Springfield Elks Lodge to see if they were open. Turns out they don't open until after 4:00 and we didn't want to hang around that long today. We may come by next week when we are in the area. We then went to the mall and hit a couple of craft shops before driving back to Harrisburg. We did find one geocache in Springfield, just so we would have one for the day. After we got home we had cocktails and dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, May 19^th, we stayed around the coach for a leisure day. It was still cloudy and raining off and on, so there was no hope for any caching. We did a few chores and put a few things away in preparation for the coach going into the shop tomorrow.

Monday we were up early and had the coach folded up and ready for travel by 9:00 a.m. We drove the half mile from the RV park to Elite Coach and parked. Within a couple minutes one of the guys came out and parked the coach inside the big steel barn that they are using as their shop. We spent about a half hour walking around the coach with Erik, talking about the different things we wanted done. Some of the items are remodel related, some are repairs. Erik looked at the flooring we had picked out and let us know that it was not quite the material that he preferred to use on the floor. He got an idea of what color wood laminate we wanted for the floor and said that he would go by the store tomorrow and pick out a couple of color samples of the material he preferred. He did like the carpet and got the information on it from us.

Erik told us that today they would be doing some of the repair jobs, but would not start doing the demolition on the floor in the coach. He said he always wanted to make sure that he had the new flooring in the shop before he tore out the old stuff. Since they were not going to be doing anything in the bedroom we left the cats back there with the door closed. They have food and water, and their litter box, and will be just fine. With all the noise going on in the shop, they will probably stay hidden most of the day anyway.

Peggy and Vernon had driven up from Coburg after their coach had been pulled into Monaco's shop and were waiting for us outside the Elite shop. Once we were done with Erik we went out to do some exploring with the Bullocks. It was still raining, so we wouldn't be doing any caching. We took separate cars because both of us had our back seats full of stuff and they had their dog, Belle with them. We drove into Eugene, actually a little south of Eugene on Interstate 5, to a place called Northwest RV Supply. It is a huge warehouse filled with new and used RV parts of every conceivable nature. Everything from screws to air conditioners and chassis parts. They have a lot of brand new stuff because they bought a lot of stuff at the bankruptcy auctions when Monaco and Country Coach went out of business. Both companies had factories in the area and had all kinds of parts on hand when they folded up.

We spent about an hour wandering around the warehouse and then drove back up into Springfield for lunch. The four of us stopped at a Thai place called Noodles and Thai right on the main street of downtown Springfield. Lunch was good, not outstanding, but pretty good. When we were done with lunch we drove into downtown Eugene and visited the other store that Northwest RV Supply operated. It wasn't quite as big as the one off the freeway, but it still had a lot of stuff. We spent another hour or so there before we decided to head back up to Harrisburg. The Bullocks drove back to Coburg to check on their coach and we went back to Harrisburg to check on ours.

We arrived at Elite just before closing time and found that they had moved the coach to the outside of the shop and parked it alongside the building. They have a 50 amp electric service out there and a water hose, so it works as a short term parking space. Checking with Erik we learned that they had fixed two of our maintenance issues. Our entry door was so out of adjustment that Jackie could not open it from the outside, she didn't have enough strength in her fingers to pull the latch out and release the door They took the door and the mechanism completely apart and fixed a couple of things and now the door can be opened with one finger. They also put new weather stripping in the door and fixed a place over the top of the door that allowed water to drip down on the inside of the door in a heavy rain. The big thing was they fixed our road side front slide. For the last several years we have had problems getting that slide to come in. I have to go outside and push the slide to get it to come in. Erik told us that he could fix that problem and we found that they had done so. We were able to just push the button and the slide came in and out just like it did when the coach was new. Yea! It was not a cheap fix, about $1,500, but well worth it in the long run and not much more than the cost of a new motor, which we would have had to get in the not too distant future if the problem was not fixed. The strain of trying to get the slide in with the problems was very hard on the motor.

They also worked on the curb side slide to try and fix a small leak we had there. When I told him where the leak was Erik was pretty sure he knew what the problem was and said they would look at it. He said they resealed everything on the slide and that he was pretty confident that the leak was fixed. I told him we would see because it was still raining and was supposed to rain all night.

After we got done with Erik we went out to the coach and put the jacks down and the slides out to spend the night right there next to the shop. We had water and electric so we were good to go for a few days. The only issue we had with the location is that the shop is literally right next to the busy railroad tracks, so the trains were pretty loud. However, that is nothing new to us, so we didn't think it would bother us much. We spent the rest of the night watching TV and resting. We did get a phone call from the Bullocks, who told us that Monaco had fixed the electrical problems with their coach today. The said it was a relatively simple and inexpensive fix, so they were very happy. We were going to spend tomorrow running around with them again, but they said they were leaving in the morning to drove the coach up to the Portland area so that they could get their washing machine fixed. The company that makes the machine has a plant up there.

On Tuesday morning we woke up after a night of on and off rain and found that we had no leaks. Yea, one problem fixed. We didn't have to be in a big hurry this morning because we were already parked at the shop. We only needed to be ready to leave about 9:00 or so when the guys came in to start work. We took a last photo of the old flooring.  This picture is looking from the bathroom towards the front.  They moved the coach into the shop again a little after 9:00 and started doing some other odds and ends of work. Erik came in about 10:00 with the samples of wood laminate and we picked out one that we liked pretty quickly. He told us that he would pick up the materials tomorrow, both the laminate and the carpeting, and that they would start doing the demolition work on the floor today. He told us that they would not need to take the bedroom door off today and that we could leave the cats back there again if we wanted too. That was good for us because we weren't looking forward to having to carry the cats around with us in the car all day.

Once we got everything settled with the shop we drove back down to Eugene and went to mall to do some shopping and go to a movie. We walked around the mall for a while and then went to an early matinee showing of the movie “Identity Thief” at the theaters in the mall. The movie starred Justin Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, who is he comedian who stars on the TV show Mike and Molly and was also in the Bridesmaids Both Jackie and I think she is very funny and were looking forward to seeing the movie. The movie was a fairly typical romantic comedy with a little twist, but it was very funny. After the movie we walked around the mall for another hour or so and then went to a couple of stores for some supplies.

Once we were done with our shopping we drove back to Harrisburg and the shop. Once again the coach was parked outside already and when we went in we were shocked to find most of the furniture gone as well as all of the flooring from the bedroom door forward to the firewall. All we had left on the floor was the chip board underflooring. They knew that we were going to spent the night in the coach again, so they were nice enough to not take out the toilet yet. However, the little bit of old tile under the toilet was the only thing that was left of our old tile and carpet flooring.

We got with Erik and confirmed that he was picking up the carpet and laminate flooring in the morning and that they were going to start laying the floor tomorrow. They were also going to start on the repairs to the bed, so after tonight we would have to spend at least one night out of the coach. We had spent some time checking on hotels and finally decided that the best bet for us was to just stay at the hotel that was a part of the same RV park we had stayed in earlier in the week. We had checked on a couple of hotels in Eugene that were less expensive, but their pet policies were not so good. One place was only about $50 a night for the hotel, but they wanted another $25 for each cat, per night. The hotel at the RV park in Harrisburg was about $85 a night, but their pet fee was a one time $15 charge. We decided we would just book the room for two nights and give the guys plenty of time to get the coach done.

We spent the night in the coach, parked next to the building again. We spent some time in the bedroom emptying the storage compartment under the bed so that they could fix the bed. The materials that Monaco used to build the bed frame were very flimsy and after almost eight years of constant use, the bed was badly in need of a rebuild. We packed an overnight bag for our hotel stay and spent the rest of the night watching TV.

On Wednesday, May 22^nd we were up and out of the coach just after 9:00 again. They pulled the coach into the shop and we waited until Erik arrived and confirmed that he had picked up the materials for the floor. We put the cats in their little carriers, took our overnight bag and went over to the hotel to check in. The cats were really funny to watch when we let them out of the carriers to run around in the room. They were very hesitant at first, mostly because of the strange surroundings, but also because neither of them had been somewhere with that much space in a very long time. The hotel room was nicely set up for the cats in that the beds were on solid platforms, so they had nowhere that they could go where we couldn't get them if we needed to.

We hung around the room for an hour or so helping the cats get acclimated before we left for the day. They had food and water, a liter box and we let the maid know not to come in the room. About noon we left the cats in their new hotel room and we went to lunch at a little restaurant in Harrisburg called Jake's. The place had good reviews and they were well deserved as the food was excellent. Jackie had breakfast, chicken fried steak, and I had a French dip. They serve lots of food and it is quite tasty. It was odd in that we noticed that the menus had Grubstake Cafe written on them, even though the signs outside said Jake's. The waitress told us that they just changed the name of the place and had not changed the outside signs yet.

After we had lunch we drove over to Coburg to pick up a couple of small parts from the Monaco Service Center there. We needed a new set of trim pieces for around the front entry steps because our old ones were broken and couldn't be used any more. I also needed to pick up a switch that I wanted the guys at Elite to fix for me. It was easier for us to drive over and pick up the parts than it was for them to take the time to drive over for them. After we picked up the parts we stopped and put fuel in the car and then drove back to Harrisburg.

After we dropped the parts off at Elite we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the room relaxing with the cats. We had a restless night as the bed was not very comfortable and the pillows were tiny.

Thursday, May 23^rd, we left the hotel about 9:30 and took a drive, a very long drive. You may recall from the previous chapter of this blog that we had purchased a new recliner at the Lazy Boy store in Medford, Oregon when we down there last week. They were holding the chair in their warehouse for us. The original plan was that when we were done with the coach remodel, we were going to drive back down to Medford and pick up the chair and put it in the coach. We have now revised our travel plans and have realized that we would probably not be back down in that area with the coach for another month or so. Given that we decided that we would bite the bullet and drive the car down there to pick up the chair.

We stopped at the shop so I could unload the stuff in the back of the Jeep to make room for the chair. Our car is more than big enough to hold the chair, but not with all the crap we normally carry in the back. Once we had the cargo compartment ready for action we hit the freeway and started the 190 mile drive south. Although it was a little rainy from time to time, there wasn't too much traffic and we made the trip in just over three hours. We went to the store, paid the balance on the chair, and they helped load it into the car. The back of the chair is removable, so getting it into the car was no problem at all.

Once we had the chair loaded up we stopped at Arby's for a quick lunch, and hit the road for the return trip. Again we were done in just over three hours and made it back to Harrisburg before 5:00 cocktail hour. We did stop at the shop before going to the hotel and were pleased to find that most of the new flooring was in and the bed had been fixed. We were actually pretty close to being done. Although everyone was gone from the shop by the time we got there, Erik had let us know on the phone that we would be ready to leave on Friday. It was a long day, nearly 400 miles on the road, but I now have my nice new chair to sit in soon.

When we got back to the hotel we found that the Bullock's had returned from their trip to Portland to get their new washer. They decided that since this was a holiday weekend coming up they would stay until Tuesday and then start towards home in California. We had cocktails with them in their coach before going back to the hotel for the night.

Friday morning we went over to the shop early, about 9:30 to talk to the guys and make the final determination on which couch we were going to keep. As a little background, our coach has two slides in the living room. The one on the driver's side is what they call a flat floor slide. When the slide is extended the floor of the slideout is level with the floor of the coach. The one of the passenger side is not flat. The floor of that slide is actually a platform that is about two or three inches above the level of the coach floor In most motorhomes, as in ours, the kitchen is on the side with the platform slide, along with a coach that fills in the rest of the space on the slideout. That way none of the platform is visible, it is all hidden under cabinets or furniture.

The other side, the flat floor slide, also had a small couch, but that is the side where we knew we could put the new recliner. Because the floor is flat when the slide is out, you can put a chair or other furniture on the floor of the slide, or even partly on the slide, partly on the coach floor. The coach on the passenger side was a fabric sleeper sofa, however, after almost eight years on the road the fabric was in pretty bad condition. The couch on the driver's side was a leather-look material that still looked pretty good, but the couch was a little smaller than the one on the other side. Our decision was which couch to keep, the one that fit fully in the space, but was in poor condition, or the smaller one, which is in good condition, but might not look right in the space.

It didn't take too long to decide. The guys moved the big couch off the platform and put the smaller couch on it. There was about an eight inch gap between the side wall of the slide and the couch, which Erik said they could build a very nice little cabinet in. We really wanted to keep the leather couch and the cabinet was a good idea, so we told them to mount the smaller couch on the passenger side and get rid of the bigger fabric sofa. No more overnight guests for us now, although we didn't have many even when we had the sleeper sofa.

After we made that decision we went back to the hotel and gathered our belongings and the kitties and went back to the coach to drop off the cats in the coach bedroom again. They were done in the back and the door to the bedroom was back on, so we could leave the cats in there again while they finished up in front. Once we had the cats settled we went out to run some errands.

We and the Bullocks went to brunch at the Grubstake Cafe again. I say brunch because they all had breakfast, I had lunch. After that we drove down to Eugene, with the Bullock's in trail in their car, to run a few errands. We still needed a few odds and ends for the coach, new floor vents to replace the old beat up one's, and a few little items. We first stopped at Jerry's Home Improvement and got the vents, but they didn't have some of the other stuff we wanted. So, we took another drive out to the Northwest RV supply place where we got a couple of things.

We got back to the shop about 3:00 or so and the coach was done and parked outside. We did a walk through and then paid our bill. The total for all the work and materials was $7,200, a bargain when you consider what a new coach would cost. We have a great new look in the front and are really happy with our choices. The only thing that remains to be done is for the guys to build the small cabinet for next to the couch. It takes a few days for them to build one and we are going to be in Oregon for at least another three or four weeks. We told them we would be back towards the end of June to have them install the cabinet. They also helped me get the new recliner into the coach.

After we were finished I loaded all the stuff I had taken out of the back of the car and from under the bed back into the car and coach and we drove the coach back over to the River Bend RV Resort and parked in the spot next to Peggy and Vernon. We spent some time in the afternoon putting stuff away, making the bed, and getting the coach back into living condition. We had cocktails and dinner with Peggy and Vernon in their coach and celebrated our new interior look. Yea!

Saturday, May 26^th, we finally awoke to a mostly clear sky and no rain in the forecast. It has been raining on and off since we left southern Oregon to come up to this area and it was nice to see the sun and some blue sky. We left the coach about 1:00 with Peggy and Vernon in our car to go out and do some geocaching. We have done very little lately because of the weather. We were out for most of the afternoon and we managed to get 18 new finds with only one new DNF. Once of the finds was number 5,300 for us. Yea! We had a couple of caches that were hidden in old cemeteries and it was interesting to walk around and look at the old headstones.

After caching we went back to the RV park and did a little more work getting our coach put back together inside. We had cocktails at the Bullock's and Peggy cooked dinner again for us, some fettuccine today. We talked for a while after dinner before going back into our coach for the night.

Sunday morning I watched most of the Indy 500 race and after lunch we and the Bullock's took off for an afternoon of shopping in Eugene. We all went in our car and ended up going to Costco, Walmart, Fred Meyers, and several other stores. We didn't need too much, but what we needed was all from different places. Unfortunately, just before we left our coach our television sound went kaput. The picture was still good, but there was no sound. This was the very nice Jensen 26” HDTV that Jackie had won in a drawing at the Monaco Rally in Salem, Oregon back in 2010, Jensen is supposed to be a really good TV, so we were surprised that it would go bad in just three years. We did find that Costco had a really nice 32” Samsung TV that will fit in our space with very little modification, so if I can't get the old TV working again tonight, I may buy the new one on Tuesday.

We went back to the coach and I played with the TV and tried everything to get it to work, but no dice, it's broke. I did manage to get the satellite box connected directly to the surround sound system we have in the coach, so we can watch TV even though the TV's sound is not working. That will keep us until next week when I can replace the TV. Tonight we hosted cocktails with the Bullock's and Jackie cooked a nice chili rellano casserole for dinner. We had a nice dinner and talked until about 8:30 when Peggy and Vernon when back to their coach and we just relaxed with the TV until bedtime. By the way, I am really loving sitting in my new chair! Very comfortable, and nice looking too.

Monday, May 27^th, Happy Memorial Day and a huge thank you to all who have served our country and remembrance of those who gave their all in that service. We had a really rainy night and it was still pretty drippy when we woke up. It was too wet to cache, so we just stayed around the RV park all day. Jackie and Peggy took a quick trip into nearby Junction City to go to the grocery store for some things they needed for tonight's dinner, but other than that we just stayed home. About 5:00 or so our friends Jerry and Bev King came over to the house. Bev and Jerry are folks we met through Monaco International and FMCA and with whom we have stayed in fairly close contact. They are not full timers, but they go to almost all of the rallies, so we run across them frequently. They have a home in San Dimas, California and an RV lot with a nice villa in Indio.

They are on their way to the FMCA rallies up in Wyoming and have stopped in this part of Oregon for a few days to get some work done on their coach. They are parked in Coburg right now and will be having new tires put on the coach on Tuesday. Then they will be coming here to Harrisburg for a couple of nights so that Elite can do some small repairs to

their coach. They came over tonight in their car so they could have dinner with us and the Bullock's. Peggy and Vernon came over and joined us and the six of us had cocktails and talked, catching up on everyone's travels, trials and tribulations.

Jackie fixed some escargot for appetizers and then a big pot of risotto for dinner. The risotto had shrimp, mushrooms and asparagus and was a wonderful dish. It is a lot of work, but Jackie likes doing it for company. We talked after dinner until the King's left to go back to Coburg about 8:30. Peggy and Vernon also went back to their coach and we just cleaned up and then watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday morning was cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining. After lunch we drove down to the Costco in Eugene and picked up the new 32 inch television for the coach. We also stopped at the RV supply company for a couple of things and then started back towards home. Once we got home I spent the rest of the afternoon taking out the old flat screen and installing the new one. This task was not nearly as hard as it was when my brother Dennis and I replaced the original tube-type TV with the first flat screen. At least this time the mount was in place and all I had to do was disconnect the old TV, change the mounting bracket to the new one and hook up the wires.

I did have to make a quick run to the hardware store because the new TV had different size mounting bolts, but I got the TV in and working in about two hours. It really makes a difference. The new 32 inch is 23 percent larger than the old 26 inch, and you can really see it. All I have to do now is fill in some trim pieces around the frame and we will have a nice new TV. After I got that work done we just had leftovers for dinner and watched our nice new TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, May 29^th, we woke up with rain – again. I am beginning to see how people in the Northwest can get depressed with the weather. After lunch we packed up our laundry in the car and went to the laundromat in Harrisburg. While the clothes were washing I drove to Junction City, just down the road, to the hardware store to get some things I needed to redo the decorative frame around the new TV. After we got the laundry washed we went back to the coach and I spent a couple of hours doing woodworking, trying to make a decent looking frame. I got it pretty much done except for a cloth covering over the lower portion. I need to go to a fabric store tomorrow to get something that will work.

About 5:30 we picked up the King's, who are staying in the RV park for another couple of days, and the four of us drove to the Mexican Restaurant in Harrisburg. The place is called Casa Torero and it had very good reviews on the review sites. As it turns out the reviews were correct for the most part. It was a very nice, clean place with an excellent menu. The service was good and the food was excellent. I had the red chili, which is a measure I use for Mexican restaurants, and it was very good. The portions are large and everything was tasty. My only complaint is that the tortillas they gave me with my dinner were the tiny, soft taco size and useless for eating a nice, beefy red chili. After dinner we went back to the park, dropped the King's off at their coach and went into ours for the rest of the night.

Thursday, May 30^th, our last full day here in Harrisburg. Jackie and I left the coach after lunch and took another drive down to Eugene to shop. I needed some fabric to finish off the installation of the new television and Jackie wanted some new rugs for the coach. We went to Jo

Ann's Fabrics and got a yard of black cloth for the TV and then to Fred Meyers where Jackie picked out a couple of rugs. We went back to the coach and I spent a couple of hours finishing off the TV installation. It is not perfect, and a professional cabinet maker could find some flaws, but all in all I think it turned out pretty well. We now have a decent sized TV in the front of the coach and we didn't have to completely rebuild the front cabinets. Yea! We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in front of the TV.

Friday, May 31^st, we had the coach packed up and ready to leave by about 10:00 or so. After we left the RV park we made a quick stop at the Elite Coach shop. We had a couple of minor things we wanted them to take care of before we left the area. They needed to adjust the couch a little so Jackie could be comfortable, and they needed to fix a couple of minor flaws in the flooring. Just little areas in the corners where they miss-cut the wood and left a tiny hole. They also had to screw down the new floor vents in the bedroom.

We were finished with Elite and on the road by 10:30. We only had a short 60 mile trip from Harrisburg north to Keizer, Oregon, a suburb of Salem, the capital of the state. We arrived at the Keizer Elks lodge just after noon and were pleased to see that there were plenty of open spots. This lodge has nice 50 amp, full hookup spots. We are going to stay here for about six days before moving on to the Oregon coast. After we got the coach hooked up and everything setup we spent the rest of the day doing chores and administrative tasks.

Our arrival here in Keizer marks a good spot to close out this chapter. Look for the next episode in a week or two. Until next time, a little thought for my friends who always want to get “an early start.” The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Bye!