September 13, 2008

Dear friends,

This is “How we be “ Letter No. 80.” Hard to believe we’ve been on the road four years, about to start our fifth year. What a trip.

The adventures are not all sterling, but certainly memorable. We’ve been in La Grande, Oregon for two weeks and I spent four days of it in the Grande Ronde Hospital. I went in for asthma, but we knew something else was wrong. I have been fighting the asthma for more than two months, and have been on high dose prednisone, which it always takes when it’s bad. But the three prescriptions for prednisone, gotten from my Bend doc and two urgent care centers, wereÂ
not enough to get over the hump. Urgent care only wants to treat you for a week, not three or four weeks. Anyway, by the time we got to La Grande, I knew I was in trouble so we just went down to the emergency room and I figured I would get a breathing treatment and maybe more prednisone to get me through to Bend. Turns out I have steroid induced diabetes and they admitted me for a regimen of more prednisone, oxygen and insulin. It was a great hospital but it wasn’t a good time.

I ended up with a very nice doctor who said “We have been trying to put the fire out with gasoline.” The high dose steroids interfered with my body’s production of insulin and the resulting diabetes probably prevented the healing of a low-grade lung infection which kept the asthma going. They were reluctant to let me out until I had a 90 percent oxygen saturation on room air.

I’m better now, have been able to work limited hours, and fortunately get a map done for this little park. I am tapering off the prednisone and the hope is that once I am off, my blood sugar will stabilize and I won’t have to take insulin. For now, I am still sticking myself four times a day and shooting up at least twice a day. I don’t feel very well and as tempting as it is to be brave and perky, I’m actually a little depressed. Also bloated, weak and shaky. I figure this is a wake up call and I’m on the program to drop 50 lbs.. I’m sure as the pounds come off, the perky, brave part of me will rise to positively irritating proportions and I’ll be writing testimonials.

We had a great Sunday supper with Bruce Nolf and Gerry last week. Gerry is such a good cook and uses all the fruits and vegetables they grow. We really enjoy seeing them. Today we went out to their place and raided the garden in their absence (they are camping somewhere in Wyoming). What a gift! We brought home tomatoes, zukes, plums,Â
peaches and blackberries. I made a peach and blackberry cobbler for dinner tonight and while it wasn’t as good as the one Gerry made (guess which new cookbook I’m using), it was almost as good. A great combination.

On Monday we will head for Bend to do our whirlwind doctor appointments. We were just going to drive over and stay at a motel, but I’m just thinking I might have to have some more testing done, so we are taking the Bird and will stay at Scandia. I’m having some serious vision problems which could be due to either steroids or diabetes, and hoping it hasn’t worsened a cataract. This is not a good time to have cataract surgery.

The good news is that Dave fixed the awning that was ripped off when the guy at Lake Sawyer ran into us. Dave ordered the parts from the factory and did the repair for $47.20. I thought he was exceptionally clever to find a very tall guy parked next to us the other day, who agreed to hold the awning up while Dave wound up the spring. It was very slick.

The night we went to the emergency room was not frantic by any stretch of the imagination, so I remember being sort of startled when I saw Dave’s belt hanging from his pants. Turns out the hook on the buckle broke off and he lost the buckle. We were both just sick. To make matters worse, I lost an earring, one of the silver hoops Davey bought me at the old Bangle Tree in Bend in 1976. The belt buckle was the silver swan we bought in Montana on a trip in the 70s. We looked everywhere, and turned in a description with the little Q-tip ladies at the auxiliary desk. Bummer.

We were so startled when one night after 9 PM this little old lady called and said she had found the belt buckle! Yee-Haw! Dave went over the next morning, had to go early because she had plans for the day, took flowers and thanked her profusely. Turns out she is the Auntie of Bobby Baum who used to work for the Bend Bulletin and they had a wonderful talk. What a small world.

And the next day Dave found my earring in the weeds outside the door here at our site. Very good omens, to find the things you lost and missed so much.

Love to all,

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.

Today we drove 36 miles to our third park in the area, this one up in the Snoqualmie Valley. Another membership park, Tall Chief RV Resort has 189 RV sites in a heavily wooded area. The spaces are not close together, everyone has their own little spot in the trees with a picnic table, and it’s very cool and pretty. But there’s no TV reception and the Olympics are starting ….

This park has a lot of rules. Normally the park rules go on the back page of the map we make, but Tall Chief has seven sheets of rules and notices and thinly veiled threats inserted in the fold of the maps they hand out. Those of you who have been on the entire journey with us will recall this park as the one demanding incontinent folks use adult swim diapers ($3.50 in the office) when using the pool. We were stopped by the assistant manager before we could pull into our site. She drove up, waving a rule out the window, yelling “I’ve had two complaints on you already!!” Apparently we were clocked doing more than the allowable 5 miles per hour. (“You were flying when you went by the laundry!”) It’s very hard to come into a park and try to find the assigned space and read 7 sheets of rules at the same time. Every park has a posted 5 mph sign. We don’t speed. And we have rarely “flown,” even when we knew where we were going. But this park has a severe dust problem and their way of dealing with it has put their map makers off just a touch.

We enjoyed our stay at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, near Enumclaw. It’s a small, totally wooded park, heavily used all year. The host spot, with full hook-up, was supposed to be held for us, but next month’s host showed up a month early, so the park had two hosts for August and none for September. We ended up parked in the sunshine, next to the shop. We ran an electric cord under the garage door and after the Roto Rooter guy fixed the backed up toilets in the shop and office, we had the use of a sewer! It was just fine. Sales were pretty good at both Lake Sawyer and Kanaskat-Palmer and we met some really nice people.

The last month has been a very social time for us, as we soak up family visits that will have to last us through the winter. A highlight in our “good friends and good meals” chapter was spending an evening with Jim and Linda Beecher. Jim was Dave’s best friend in high school and it’s been 50 years since they last split a pizza! The reunion notices got them both thinking, and before you could say Google me, we were catching up. It was really great and we hope to stay in touch.

Daveâ€s sister Carole took us to the Snoqualmie Forest Theatre again this year. We saw “South Pacific.” and it didn’t rain this year. (Not that the rain slowed them down last year!) This outdoor theatre is very rustic, with benches set into the hillside, and closely surrounded by tall fir trees. The acoustics are pretty good, though, and the actors are mostly pros from the Seattle area. We really enjoyed it. PLUS, the salmon dinner was outstanding again, supplied by a well known chef. We love the meal: salmon, baked potato and salad with raspberry vinaigrette is SO Pacific Northwest! They sort of let down for the dessert, though; some kid comes by and pitches you an ice cream bar. We understand, though, as the cast has to eat and get back down in the holler to do the evening performance!

We had bad news from our Fairgrounds Park in Redmond, Oregon. They don’t want us to do a map for them this year. They want to do it themselves and incorporate it into an Expo package. (I’ll bet 50 bucks they hired an in-house communications person.) Anyway, we’re very disappointed. We have doctor appts in Bend in mid-September but won’t have the time there we had planned on. From here we go to Moses Lake and Yakima, then we are going to try to loop up to Livingston, Montana to see our old friend John Sullivan and drop back down to do our New Mexico parks.

We send love and warm thoughts to you all.

I am finally getting things together from our trip west. I have so many pictures and stories to tell that I have been a little overwhelmed and so have put it off for a couple of weeks now. So I will dive in…I will do it in several entries.

The flight went pretty well, Susie was worried we were going to get on the wrong plane, even as we stepped onto the plane she was whispering to me “Are you sure this is the right one?” One of the channels on the TVs showed how fast we were flying, when I showed Susie her eyes got huge…”600 mph!!!” She was very impressed! Becca was funny, she was scared but trying not to be. Right at take off she closed her eyes and said over and over “I am at home…in Daddy’s chair…watching TV…I am at home…in Daddy’s chair…watching TV…” during part of her chanting she reached over and grabbed my hand. But once we were up she was fine. Katie just started laughing out loud and said “This is FUN!!!” during take off. She loved the entire experience, looking out the window, seeing clouds and tiny cars, houses, pools etc. she thought it was all pretty cool! Xander was very excited too. At the airport every plane we saw out the window he would ask if that was our plane. When we finally made it on the plane and waited for take off he asked “Are we flying yet?” waited 20 or 30 seconds and asked again…When I could finally tell him “Yes we are flying” he held his puppy up to the window and said “look Puppy we are flying!”

The first few days we stayed at Lori’s house. The kids had a great time in Ashley’s pool. We also planted tulips, girls did ‘make-overs, went to a movie and Jake’s baseball game. But the best and most entertaining was when we finally kicked all the kids off their Nintendo DS games and game boy’s and told them to play together. They went downstairs and Lori has always had a great stash of dress ups. So Susie and Ashley dressed up Becca and Katie and Xander. One outfit after another. It entertained them for quite awhile! Lori’s favorite was ‘Princess Katie Cat. Mine was the ‘cowboy-pirate-ninja turtle’.

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We left Lori’s and headed to Cache Valley. We had a wonderful visit with G’ma Gunnell, G’pa Gunnell was at the temple so we had to catch him later. We miss them so much! What a blessing it was to live next door to them for several years. It was great getting caught up with all of their family and most importantly seeing Sister Gunnell doing so well health wise, she is battling this cancer with full force! She is an amazing woman! We did find out a few days after we got home that her cancer is officially in remission—YEAH!!!

Next we dropped Susie off at her friend Richelle’s house and the rest of us went to see the Fullmers. It was almost Becca and Rylee’s birthday and Gavin’s is soon after theirs. So we decided to surprise them (Allison was in on it obviously). We put bows in the girl’s hair so they could be surprise birthday gifts and knocked on their door. I was standing to the side ready to take pictures of it all. We could hear the kids running to answer the door and then we heard Rylee say in a very nonchalant way…”oh it’s Jamie” like it is the most normal thing in the world for us to stop in when we live clear across the country now!!! Crazy girl! Well Gavin didn’t waste any time, he threw open the door and plowed his way through to Katie and gave her the biggest hug ever! It was awesome! We visited with them for a while, the kids had a great time playing. They have all missed their best friends. It was great to reconnect with the Allison, Clint and their kids.

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We gathered everyone up and met up with Lana, Colin and Penney and went out to dinner. I can’t believe how much Penney has grown, she is a foot taller I swear! Anyway we had a great time together. We stayed at their house that night. I love Lana’s house. It reminds me of when I lived in Wyoming that one summer. Beautiful green hills, cool evenings, so peaceful. The house itself is very countryish, perfect for them. We spent Saturday with them riding horses, well Colin tried to get bucked off, glad it was him not Susie!!! 🙂 He also took them on the 4-wheelers. All of them loved it except Xander was too busy “fishing” in Lana’s wishing well to leave and go for a ride. He spent a lot of time ‘fishing’. It was very cute.

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Next morning we got ready and went back to Logan so we could go to church with G’pa Gunnell and visit Logan 10th ward. It was great to be back and see so many wonderful people again. We have such great memories of that ward. We only stayed for the one meeting and then we went to see the temple, USU campus and the cemetery. That was really tough. I cried and cried, called Jason and cried some more…but we made it through and enjoyed our picnic together. After church was over we went back to the Gunnells for another visit. I loved that the kids were just so comfortable there. Xander came in, gave hugs and asked if he could go to the playroom! Later he helped himself to their snack cupboard and asked to play on the swings. He remembered where everything was just like he belonged there. We went and visited our old home and he didn’t act that way, didn’t seem to remember our house like he did the Gunnells house. Maybe because of all the changes the Sheppherds have made (it looks soooooo nice, how we always dreamed of fixing it up but never could!) I am not sure but I thought it was really neat that this little boy who was only 2 1/2 when we left remembered how happy he was at the Gunnells and slipped right back in like we had never left!

After a great visit with the Gunnells and the Shepherds we went back to the Fullmers to stay for the night. The greatest part about that night was Xander and Chase. Chase introduced Xander to the sport of football!!! And Xander went, well… he went bonkers on us!!! There is no other explanation…the two of them started tackling each other. Chase showed him how to do ‘one two three hut…’ I have never seen Xander that way, it was like something clicked in his brain, something like: wow this is cool I LOVE FOOTBALL! And he went crazy, taking Chase down in a full side arm tackle, over and over and over. He was sweating so bad. It was absolutely hilarious! I am a little embarrassed to admit that I bought him a football the next day!

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Susie had stayed at her friend Kate’s house so we picked them up and Richelle and we spent the next day at the aquatic center with the Fullmers. It was a great day hanging out enjoying friendship! I was thrilled to see Missy Perkes there too! It was great chatting with her! The great day had to eventually come to an end…and what a dramatic end it was. We were all a mess saying good-bye. Even little Xander was sobbing saying “I want to stay here!” As we were getting in the car to leave Katie yells at me, literally yells “I MISS THEM ALREADY” she was so upset leaving Gavin, poor kid!

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We went back to Lana’s to sleep and then had another great day hanging out with her and Penney. More fishing for Xander, trampoline for the girls and just some much needed relaxing and sister bonding for me! We left early afternoon and ran some errands in Logan and of course had to make a stop for Aggie Ice Cream! Before leaving town we stopped and visited the Horsley family. We miss these guys so much too! It was wonderful to visit with them and catch up on their lives. They are an amazing family…we were also able to squeeze in a quick visit with Sherrie Daniels, so fun to see her again. And dear sweet Bea, she is an elect lady we cared for and fell in love with in our years with our business. We visited with her until I couldn’t stand my kids anymore…shoved them back in the van with a happy meal and more chapters of Harry Potter on CD!!! Phew…back to Tooele for the Freston Family Campout!

We were so glad that it worked out for us to be out in Utah during the time we usually have my family’s summer campout. We had a great time hiking, playing in the stream, catching lots of bugs and creepy crawlin’ things, doing crafts, shooting BB guns, roasting marshmallows and doing alot of hanging out… It was great!!!

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We did leave Camp one of the days and went to Lagoon. They were offering the bounce back passes so some of the family went back on Monday as well. This was Xander’s first time at an amusement park, he was pretty hesitant. The first ride I took him on was the log ride, I didn’t even give him an option of going or not I just got on with him. We sat behind my brother Jim so he thankfully, couldn’t see much. After the drop down into the water he said to me “My Puppy didn’t like that!” He was even nervous on the kid rides. He had such a serious look on his face during the ride and then after it was over he would smile and say “let’s do it again”. He would have been happy to ride the little cars all day long. Katie was CRAZY, wanting to go on everything, even the big scary adult rides. Becca did pretty good, went with the older girls for awhile but then came back and joined the younger group after awhile. She doesn’t get into the wild rides like Katie and Susie. Susie’s favorite was the new ride ‘Wicked’ she was very excited to be at Lagoon with her cousins.

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The second trip to Lagoon didn’t go so well at the beginning of the day…we lost Katie. Let me rephrase that we left Katie… We had just got there and several of the younger kids got on a kiddy ride, I thought Katie got on with them. But the ride was full so she waited for the next one. Well the other kids got off and off we went to another ride clear across the amusement park. She was very brave and did the right thing. She stayed there and waited for us to come back and get her. She waited and waited and started to get sad. A man noticed her and asked if she was lost, she said yes. He found a security guard and they took down all her information etc. and then they were taking her to the lost and found children’s place…I don’t know what it is called…this is just awful I know… and Katie saw her Uncle Gilbert coming out of the bathroom. She told the security woman that he was her uncle so they approached Gilbert. He just about fell over when he saw Katie, boy was she glad to see him. So then Lisa comes out of the bathroom and sees Katie there and hears what happened and she flips out, now here is the really bad part… Well with 14 kids running all over the place we didn’t even notice she was missing. I know it is terrible, I am a horrible parent AGHHHH!!! Lisa calls Tenisha on the cell phone and tells us to do a head count that they just found Katie!!! I have to admit that I am grateful she was found before we knew she was missing so I didn’t have to go through that absolute PANIC of finding her but I will tell you what, I didn’t sleep well for several nights having nightmares of loosing my kids!!! There is a neat side to this story too for Katie, she had her own little miracle in all this. She told us that as the security lady was walking with her she decided to say a prayer for help. And just a few steps away out comes Uncle Gilbert! Now what are the odds that Lisa and Gilbert happen to stop to use the bathrooms at that time and at that restroom and that the lady was walking Katie right by there, not even near where we had left Katie, good timing??? I don’t think so… miracles do still happen and thankfully Katie was sent one that day!!!

We hung out at Jim and Jo’s house for a day, Xander thought he had died and gone to heaven in Jo’s playroom. I didn’t see him most of the day he was too busy playing. We had a birthday party for Kennedy and Parker that night. We also celebrated Becca too! It was great to see Grandma Leola as well.

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After two full weeks of playing hard it caught up to us I guess. Becca and Xander both woke in the night throwing up. Becca hadn’t felt totally herself for couple of days but I thought it was more homesick than anything else. But the two of them picked up something nasty and were very sick for a few days. So I gathered everyone up and we went to Mom’s to rest. The next several days we went from house to house for various activities when the Becca and Xander felt up to it. Susie and Katie stayed with Lisa alot of that time. She took them on a hike one of the days to see the Freemont Indian Petroglyphs.

With Lisa and Mom we also went to the Neola Kid Rodeo. Justin and Tenisha came too.. It was a hoot! Xander was very excited about the idea of catching a bunny. Susie was with him but he caught it by himself. It was a big black bunny, he picked it up and then set it back down, it had scratched his tummy, that is why he isn’t looking too happy in the picture. Susie helped him pick it back up and carry it over to Aunt Lisa. He was very proud of his bunny, he named it Bunny Foo Foo! Katie did the bunny and chicken race with her cousin Brittney. The first race she didn’t catch anything and she was pretty upset. The second race was the chicken one and she did it. She caught a black chicken! Talk about big grins!!! Later as she was packing the poor chicken around showing it off and playing with it it pooped on her arm and she sure let everyone know what had happened, we all know how loud she is…if we didn’t look like city slickers already, we sure did after that incident!!! Susie wanted to do the chicken and pig races. For the younger groups they had lots of animals but for the older group there wasn’t as many. They actually threw in a huge turkey for Susie’s chicken race, Aunt Lisa hollered at her to NOT get the turkey, the look on Susie’s face was like ‘are you kidding me, I am not touching that thing…’ Susie didn’t catch a chicken and there were only 2 pigs to about 60 kids for the pig race so she didn’t catch a pig either…she was bummed! I had to talk her into doing the pig race. She wanted to do it with Jaicee but Jaicee didn’t want to. What finally did it was I told her how much G’ma Sam and G’pa Dave would love a picture of her catching a pig to go along with the other picture they have of someone we know who did a little pig wrestling in their day!!! 🙂

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We went to Justin and Tenisha’s house a few times for a BBQ. We celebrated the 4th of July there, doing our own fireworks and watching the cities fireworks. We had a great view of them! Our last night there Tenisha gave Xander her cowboy hat. It looks so dang cute on him and oh boy was he proud of that hat. He wouldn’t let it out of his sight for days. We got a lot of great smiles and comments on our flight home. It was great! When he had seen Uncle Justin wearing his cowboy hat at the family campout he came to me with big eyes and said “That MAN is wearing a COWBOY HAT” he was in awe!!! I told him that ‘THAT MAN’ is Uncle Justin and he IS a COWBOY! Wow, Xander was very impressed!!!

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Since we had gotten sick we had to change some plans, we didn’t get to see several people that we wanted to. We also wanted to make one more trip to Lana’s and Logan but just couldn’t do it. We were too wiped out… We spent one last night at Lori’s before flying home. It was such a wonderful trip. So great to be with family – meeting my niece and nephew, spending time with friends, seeing friends that I haven’t seen in years. It was all just really great. We are so grateful that we were able to go and look forward to doing it again next year!!!

Dear friends,

We’re back at work after three weeks of pretty much non-stop socializing. Mother and I made our annual road trip to Eugene, seeing friends and relatives. We spent a little time with my cousin Gary, and had a happy meeting with his daughter Denise, with whom I’ve corresponded, but never met. It was a great connection. My brother Steve hosted a couple of dinners so we could spend time with his kids and their kids. Steve’s wife Jane was laid up with foot surgery, so when I say he hosted, I really mean it. He was great. Dave’s sister Carole lives in the same town of Bothell, WA; her son Kurt very generously let us park in his driveway. It was just a 20 minute trip from Kurt’s place to Mother’s apartment if I hit the traffic right. We enjoyed time with Carole and her kids and their kids. Kevin and Morgan and Shelly are about an hour from Bothell and we spent as much time with them as we could. Morgan is 16 now, driving and has a friend who is a boy. I don’t know if Ian is her boyfriend but we liked him. Kevin is dealing with the transition of his baby into a lovely young woman as best he can (“ …mmnnngggrrhhh … he touches her … nnnnggrrrahhhhg”) We gave Ian a lot of points for courage.

A highlight was going to a Mariner’s game at Safeco Field. It turned out to be a 15 inning ball game and was a fantastic experience. Kevin got us tickets, Honey-Ma too, and we all got to sit in the handicapped section. Mother looked really cute in her fancy Mariner’s jacket even though she doesn’t like to use a wheelchair. (“I€™m 93 but I’m not an invalid!) Kevin and Shelly are so good with her. One time they took her to a Mariner’s game and took her scooter. Kevin said he could hardly keep up with her as she zoomed down the concourse. He also wondered if she should have the two martinis she ordered. Wuh!

We’re at Lake Sawyer-Sunrise Resort outside of Black Diamond, Washington. Black Diamond was established when a California coal mining company moved the company, and the families in the town, to this coal-rich area of the Maple Valley just north of Enumclaw. The “resort” is a membership park and totally meets our standards of funk. The spaces are so cramped the RVers can’t all open their awnings all the way. The membership rules state that members can only stay two weeks at one time but new owners are commercializing the venture by letting people stay as long as they want, as long as they pay a commercial rate and move spaces every two weeks.

Mr. Snider, down the row went to move his 5th wheel a couple of days ago, left his slides out because he wasn’t going very far, and clipped our bus. Broke the right rear awning off but fortunately didn’t damage the bus body. It was very unsettling. We’re at the end of the row, which we thought would give us some space, but we feel very vulnerable as this Rubik’s cube of movement goes on nearly every day. We’ve got a good repair guy (I sold him an ad) but I’m sure we’re probably not through dealing with Mr. Snider and his insurance company.

This weekend we had a choice (not really) between the Pacific NW Chihuahua Festival and the Black Diamond Miner’s Day celebration. We had been looking forward to Miner’s Day but it turned out to be seven garage sales and a chili cook-off. And you couldn’t buy a bowl of chili; you just bought a little pill cup and a spoon and went around and sampled. So we went to Michael’s Pizza and Deli. I tried to sell Michael an ad the day before and made the mistake of asking if he delivered to the park. “NO I don’t deliver! If people are too goddamned lazy to come and eat in my place they don’t deserve my food!”

And the beat goes on.

We got home from our trip to Utah on Wednesday night really late, well technically it was Thursday. We slept in till almost noon, which was wonderful. And then after talking to a couple of Becca’s friends we decided the only time we could do her birthday party so everyone could come was to do it on Friday, yes the next day. So we quickly threw together a party. And as it turned out it was probably the best birthday party we have had. It was really alot of fun for all of us. Becca wanted to do a Harry Potter Party. So we had a costume party. On such short notice we were worried about everyone having a costume, well smart little Becca pointed out that if they don’t have one they could always come as Muggles! Perfect!!! So we had 3 Muggles (Susie, Marjarie and Abigail), 3 Witches (Becca, Casey and Sophie), 2 Professor McGonagalls (Brooke was definately better than I was, she won the costume contest!) 1 Dementor (Katie), 1 Harry Potter (Xander, and he was dang cute!) and Jason was, well not sure who he was but he was magical… 🙂

Katie and Sophie are not in this photo…Sophie came late and Katie got in trouble (big surprise!).

We started out the party with the sorting hat, that was a hoot, Casey had to go find the voice of the sorting hat because she didn’t even get a chance to sit down on the stool before the ‘hat’ hollered “Griffindor!” It was very cute. Then we went into the ‘Great Hall’ for the ‘feast’. We had candles and lots of food, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, rolls, plums, and of course pumpkin juice (ok so I substituted peach nectar for it, but it looked good!) and goodies like cake, doughnut holes, ‘Treacle Tarts’ and I made fudge and forgot to set it out along with the jello – opps! Becca’s cake was fun, we put sparkler candles on it. She had to really work at getting them blown out, and then they would light back up and she would have to keep blowing. It was great!

They had a chess tournament and then Harry Potter movie marathon. They watched one and two that night (didn’t fall asleep until 2:30 am) and then started number three the next morning. It was a huge success, the kids had a great time! Oh I forgot to tell about her gifts for her guests. We put together a bag with Sorceror’s Stone (red glassy stone), golden snitch (wrapped golden Lindt candy), Bertti Botts Every Flavor Beans (jelly belly’s), Droobles Best Blowing Gum (bubble gum), and of course a licorice wand! It was a hit!

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Dear friends,

Well, we be seeing new views and old friends this trip. We took a loop into Montana to visit Dave’s old memories and good friends of his parents. Montana is beautiful, somewhat like northern Utah valleys. It feels as big as Texas, very green, miles of natural pasture, some cattle. In the course of our drive up and the visit, we crossed the continental divide about six times and found snow patches near the road. There is still snow on the hilltops and of course the Rockies are still white.

John and Priscilla Wood emigrated from England in 1857 and for some reason none of us know, settled in Lincoln, Montana. Lincoln, situated in the Blackfoot River Valley between Great Falls and Missoula, is infamously known as the home of the Unabomber. The town looks very much like pictures from the early 1900s, a one-road, no- stop-light, dusty logging town of maybe 1200 souls. John and Priscilla homesteaded 1,000 acres or so out of town, up Stemple Pass; you can still see where they had a way station. Their son, Arthur, and his wife Anna, built a small cabin on the homestead and when they couldn’t live there full time anymore, they spent summers in this cabin. Arthur and Anna were Dave’s grandparents, and Dave and his sister Carole spent probably 10 summers at the cabin.

We found the cabin easily, up Rochester Gulch. it has been added to and raised, but is still being used, probably in summers. (Grandpa built the cabin without a ladder, so Dave remembers the door being really low.) Family lore is sketchy as to what happened to the cabin. Personally, I like the story of uncle Art losing it in a poker game. We left a long note with the family history for the new occupants.

(Just as an aside, I looked for the Unabomber’s cabin, but it seems to have gone to town, intact, as forensic evidence.) Lincoln still bears signs of being part of the last frontier of Montana: One of our favorites, “Residential area. No shooting.”
 From Lincoln we drove to Polson and checked in with Lyle and Ruth Baxter, friends of Dave’s folks. They hadn’t seen him since he was a youngster, but it was just like visiting family you see once a year. We’re grateful to Dave’s sister for keeping in touch with the Baxters, her godparents. The Swans, Buck and Dorothy, talked Lyle and Ruth into joining the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1944 and going to Alaska to be radio operators at a remote air field in Tanacross. Dave has some memories of the place; Carole was born in Fairbanks.

Lyle and Ruth took us to a little campground they’ve been visiting since the 60s. Camp Tuffitt, on Lake Mary Ronan, is the most beautiful little piece of Americana we’ve seen in years, maybe ever. Lush and green, full of lilacs and wild roses, birdsong in the air, folks have cobbled up their little camp sites with love, and returned year after year with more cobbling and more love. Camp Tuffitt does not advertise and isn’t on the main road. There is a pool table in a room with a gravel floor and no door on the wall, a screened can full of “baby rattlers,” and a common area with chairs placed in a ring around a fire pit. Lyle and Ruth bought us dinner at the Crawfish Shack and we met a kid with a duck on a string from Bend, Oregon (!) (The duck was abandoned and the kid has imprinted on it but he says he’ll bring it back next year and let it go.)

This Western Montana country is staggeringly beautiful. The Mission Mountain range is close, craggy and snow capped. The rolling hills are a watercolor wash of pale green over pink. Fields of screaming yellow mustard are dotted with patches of bright lavender knapweed.

We treasure this visit to Lincoln and the couple of days we bothered the birds at Camp Baxter. It’s a really good thing to visit active, happy folks who are 90-ish when you’re pushing 70, to witness the importance of today, to cherish the moment and truly appreciate the rich fabric of our lives. We’re reminded that tomorrow will take care of itself; all we can do is make today count in a meaningful way. Watching Ruth tend tomatoes (enough for all the ladies in Polson who don’t grow tomatoes), and taking the tour of Lyle’s shop, seeing his great fence of raspberries, we feel touched to have such great role models.

We made it to Electric City, WA in one day from Polson. Our park is Steamboat Rock State Park on Banks Lake, which was formed for irrigation with water pumped from Grand Coulee Dam. The park is beautiful, but we have no phone service and no computer service here. We have to drive 10 miles to get service. We’re just about finished, though, and it has been one of our best jobs. We’ll leave Monday and head to Bothell, WA where Dave’s nephew has generously offered his driveway to park the Bird. We will have a couple of weeks with family and are looking forward to it. We will do three parks within an hour of Tacoma or Bothell, so will be in the area until mid-August.

We’re had two weeks of rain and wind, very unusual weather for this part of the country that only has about seven inches of precipitation a year. But today is sunny and warm and it looks like summer has arrived. The Grand Coulee Cruise-In is this weekend, as well as the Goose Bill Festival. We’ll have to check them out. Dave spotted a lot with about 10 old busted Hudsons on it and got pretty excited.

Love to all,