Moses Lake

Dear friends,

We’ve done Tall Chief Resort, and are now in Moses Lake, doing another membership park called Pier Four. It’s right on Moses Lake, and pretty nice, although it’s just a different experience compared to the woods of Tall Chief. They have 204 sites, all on a concrete pad, with green grass, very clean. The sites are fairly narrow, though, so when we eat at our dining table we can look down on the neighbor’s picnic table. We already know what they are eating, because we smelled it when it was on the barbecue!

When we were doing the State Park at Ravensdale I got real taken with the idea of having a Ravensdale address. We have been seriously considering changing our residence. We don’t have to pay that much Oregon income tax but we pay sales tax everywhere else, so it seemed like we should check it out. Come to find out Washington would charge us over 9% of the value of our coach, plus some percentage of the car, just to live here. Now paying on something we already own? That’s even more irritating than Oregon income tax. This tax changes after seven years of ownership, so maybe we’ll check it later. There are a number of states that welcome RVers and do not have income tax (namely Texas, South Dakota, Florida) and do not have such a big tax on stuff you bought elsewhere, but until we can find a health insurance that covers us literally everywhere, we’ll just leave things as they are.

We really like the Snoqualmie Valley area of Fall City, Snoqualmie and North Bend. It is very bicycle friendly. The weather has been hot, though we’ve had T-storms the last few nights, and rain for two days. Dave’s gotten a couple of rides. Part of “bicycle friendly” to me, is that a lot of people ride. You can see XL people in the bike shops. I like that. This area is inconspicuously wealthy, million dollar plus estates but no gold shoes. Eddie Bauer all the way.

I have had asthma for a month. Had to get treatment. Serious drugs. Awful. Couldn’t go to Wenatchee with Kevin and Shelly and couldn’t see a number of folks who live here that we wanted to call. I get asthma when I’m not in line with what is true for me: I can’t go out tonight, or I need to stay home today, or I’d like to but that won’t work for me. If I go ahead and do it all anyway, I’ll pay. I’m paying. I can usually power through the day, wheezing and hacking, but can’t sleep. I barely have the breath to blow my nose and the cough is one that makes even nice people bang on the motel walls at 3:00 AM. Got another breathing treatment and more drugs at Urgent Care today and think that will get me over the hump.

Thanks to all of you who alerted us to the NY Times article about the two gals traveling in a Bluebird, working for our competitor, AGS. We’re trying to touch base with them. I’d like to give them a few days, though, because we’re sure every old geez on the vintage Bird network has called them on the price of radiator hoses or something they said about their coach.

It was 105 degrees here in Moses Lake last week. We rode in last night on a little rain with a nice breeze. Still relatively cool today. Hope our luck holds. Since our last note we have picked up two jobs in Rawlins, Wyoming, so we probably won’t get to make that Livingston, Montana side trip until spring. From here we go to LaGrande, and then to Wyoming. We have had to negotiate and compromise with the last three parks just to get in to do the maps. Parks don’t like to give up a paying space to “host” us while we make the calls. I called this Moses Lake park three weeks ago and arranged our time here, then called 10 days ago to confirm, but when we came in last night, they said, Well, we’ll give you 5 days at no charge, but after that you’ll have to pay. Plus, you can’t have the full two weeks, because we’re full on Labor Day. Argghhhhh. We cleared up the “misunderstanding” this morning, but we still have to leave for Labor Day. I knew this three weeks ago of course, because we go through this every year. The reason I mention this is because I got such a great response from Eagles Hot Lake RV Park in LaGrande when I called them and asked if they were full for the holiday. “Hell, no, Hun, we ain’t never full. You jist come on down here whenever you want, hear?” Don’t you love it? We won’t make much money on that park but I’ll work my hardest for them and we’ll make sure they know how much we appreciate them.