April 27th

We have been real busy this last week after picking up the new coach.  We got back to our sons house on Tuesday.  Wednesday we got up and hit the packing hard and heavy.  Cyndy was busy packing things in the coach and I was busy putting things back in the bays.  We have a lot more storage in the belly of this rig then the other.  I looked at setting up the surge protector but will do that this next week.  It is on my to do list along with a few other things.   Sunday we had finally got everything some what packed into the coach.  At least it is some where in here.
This morning we got up and planned on leaving about 10:00 AM for Longbeach TTN.  Cyndy's best friend is living down here and we will spend a little bit of time visiting with them.  We haven't been to this park in a while and now I know why.  It seems to be run down a little bit.  We like Seaside a lot more so we will be spending more time over there.
Anyway we are here to get some rest and make sure everything is just where Cyndy wants it.  But first we are going to take some well deceived rest.  We will start that tomorrow.
I took some inside pictures of the coach.

The most important thing fit in the garage,and still have room to put the paddle tires also.

We both like the kitchen area, it is nice to have the room to move around and have some nice counter space.

We have room to sit up to 5 people at once in the front room.

These two recliners are the best, they have a massage and heat pad build in and Cyndy loves it.  I think Turbo is even enjoying it tonight.  It is nice having the room to move around.

We have a lot of room in the bedroom.  It is nice to be able to walk around the bed, the other rig was really small.  Anyway Cyndy & I are really happy with this one and looking forward to many miles of fun.

April 23rd

We were hooked up early Tuesday morning and ready to head back to our sons house to start packing this rig up for our next trip. We left about 8:00 AM for home out of Pasco, WA.  It was not to bad of a drive but, about the time we were really rolling the truck told me it was having a problem.  Lost all boast when climbing a small hill.  When we were back on some what flat ground everything was working OK.  So we found a Ford dealer in Prosser, WA.  The mechanic that worked on the truck did a great job.  After checking everything out, fuel filter replaced, checked pressure of fuel pump, checked turbo and all of that OK.  I should say we checked air filter to start with and it looked clean, notice I said look clean.  After doing all those test and no problems, we noticed the air check showed the air filter plugged.  So we took the air filter out again and dropped it on the ground, and guess what fell out a ton of nice white dust!!!!  New air filter another test drive and everything is good as new.  Its hard to believe that when we looked at the filter to start with it looked pretty good.  Oh well, back on the road two hours later and truck is running great.  We made to our son's house with no other problems.
Yesterday we spend all day building shelf's in where the wash/dryer are at and in the pantry so Cyndy has better us of the space.  If I say so we have done a pretty good job.  I have one more shelf to build but we have to look at it a little closer.

  Up in out closet, we think Turbo may have found a place he can hide.  He has really been checking things out and making sure it is safe for us both.  We both are real happy with this rig.  It has a nice homey felling to it.  I think the nice thing we like the most is the two recliners, they have a build in massage and heat for after a long day of unpacking stuff and moving it three or four times.

Here is kind of what the kitchen looks like.  We are hoping to have everything pretty much set up by Friday, or later Saturday.  We will be heading to Longbeach on Monday for three weeks to see what else we can find that needs fixing before we head to Alaska.  We may have to stop over in Pasco for a few minor repairs but we will see.
Hope to have more pictures as we bet things cleaned up a little bit more in the next day or so.

April 18th

Woke up to a great sunny morning here in Eastern Washington.  Two days and counting and we get to pick up or should I say load everything from this old coach to the new one.  We had a great breakfast, Cyndy wanted a ham & cheese omelet and I thought it was a great idea.  I fixed the omelets and then we started to do a little bit of packing but ran out of boxes.
I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride?  She asked where would we be going?  I asked her if she would like to take a ride to see the new coach, it is only 50 miles away and it is a nice day for a ride.

This is the new rig we are getting, as you can see Cyndy is real happy with the way it looks on the outside.  We could not get inside, but that will be Monday when we go through the walk thru.

Here are some of the pictures that Cyndy took.

We can hardly wait to get it, we are like two little kids who can not wait for Christmas.  So we headed back to our rig and maybe get some more stuff packed up.  We are hoping to have more done by tomorrow so will try and get some more box's tomorrow.
We have most of the kitchen stuff packed, so tonight when we were cooking dinner it was where did we put this or that?  So after looking through  a few box's we found most of the stuff we need.  We have 2 nights and one day left.

April 17th

This morning we got up and left our son's place and head over the mountain to Sunnyside, Washington, about 200 miles of some beautiful country side.  Any time I can find a reason to go over White Pass here in Washington (Highway 12) I do.  We left out of town about 8:30 AM to a great sunny day of driving.

Just outside of Randle, Washington we came across this small herd of elk working there way towards the highway.  If we would of been another 3 or 4 minutes later they would of been crossing right in front of us. Cyndy did a great job to get this picture, because we came up on them real fast.  As you can see it is a beautiful days with sun and blue sky's.  It made for a great drive.

As Cyndy always say's this is here mountain, Mountain Rainier, it is just over 14,000 feet tall, and you can see it from just about any where in Western Washington.  When we get to Eastern Washington it gets a little bit harder.

 I don't think Turbo is really interested in the sights today.  I think he is trying to get a little shut eye and mom is bothering him with pictures.

This is Rimrock Lake just pass the top of the pass on the east side of the state.  They have all of the lakes really full, but there is not any snow left, just what has fallen in the last week.  They are really worried about fire this summer, with the state being so dry this winter.

A lot of the cherry trees are in full bloom right now, I hope when we come over the first of June to head towards Great Falls, Montana we can find some nice cherry's.    We will be staying here tell Sunday afternoon then heading towards Pasco for Mondays pick up of the new trailer.  We can hardly wait.  We might have to go for a ride tomorrow to see if we can fine there shop.  It is only 50 miles from here and we need to find the Walmart, because Sunday night we will be staying there.

April 15th

Tax Day!!!!  We did one thing better, we mailed it yesterday so they will get it early and really screw with there heads.  Yes, we did not get a return, it is amazing all those years we got money back I was working at Boeing.  Now that I am retired and only making about a 1/3 of what we made when we were working we always have to pay.  We need to find more writ-offs, maybe I will put Turbo on our tax's, all I have to do is get him a social security card.  He can't get a job so we have to support him, I am going to think about this real hard and run it by our accountant.
The last two days we have been unloading the coach of everything in the out side storage binds and the two bunks that we us for storage inside.  Our little utility trailer is stuffed full and we have put a few things in the kids trailer too.
Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Sunnyside for a couple of days. Then on Sunday we head to Pasco for the Walmart.  Then we will be at the shop for our walk through on Monday morning at 9:00 AM.  We are hoping to have everything moved into the new trailer by late Monday night.  Then on Tuesday we will head back to our son's place to finish packing things back into the coach.  We hope to have a few pictures by Monday.  

April 13th

Boy, I have been bad lately not writing a blog for over a week.  We have made it back to the Tacoma Area with not much problems.  We had to do a little work on the truck but that is mostly maintenance stuff.  But we did have to put a new Power steering pump on, it does have 260000 miles on it so some stuff will wear out.  All and all the truck is doing pretty good.
We got back to town on Thursday evening and had dinner with Jason and his family.  We are staying here at his place while in town.  It is fun seeing the girls, they are growing so fast and they really enjoy their grand parents.  We came into town early so that we could see MJ in the Daffodil Parade on Saturday.
On Friday we got invited to Makenzie's Birthday at a Mongolian Restaurant.  The food was OK, but the time with these two were great.

It is hard to believe that she is 12, they grow up way to fast.  Mikeal is looking good to and it was good to see the both of them, I wish they would come and spend more time with their Dad though, that way we can see more of them.

Here is a picture of all of Jason's kids,  I know he enjoys seeing them any time he can.
Saturday morning we were up and on our way to the Parade.

Here they are getting the horses ready for the parade.  As you can tell these are real big horses.  MJ will be walking one with the help of her mom and Jason will be walking Peter who is here in there picture.

Here is Tinkerbell, this is MJ's horse but I think mom does most of the work with her.  But it is fun watching how MJ moves Tinkerbell around and she does just about everything that MJ wants her to do.

I think someone is getting a little bored, having to hurry up then wait to leave for the parade.

OK, now I am happy I can ride Tinkerbell.  I would say by next year she will be riding her.  Jason said she does pretty good with the saddle on her, but during the parade they were not sure how she would do with all the noise.  So this year they are walking them.

Here comes our little princess with her horse.

Look at that she even knows the Daffodil Parade wave down.  They made it all the way through the parade with out getting rained on.  We had a great day and it was kind of nice watching a little bit of the parade.
We have been looking for a while for a new 5th wheel toy hauler.  We have looked at a lot of models, walked into them and some of them we walked right back out.  After over 6 months of looking at a lot of models we finally found the one that we wanted and will hold up to the type of traveling we do.  It is a 2015 Dutchman Voltage V3970.
 
Here is a copy of the floor plan.  It has a nice living area and kitchen area which we do not have now.  It also has the bed and bath area that we like, and the most import thing Cyndy likes it!!!! Here is a web site that you can look at some of the pictures of it http://dutchmen.com/voltage/floorplans/floorplans-detail/?modelId=6741.
We get to pick it up next Monday.  We had been working with two other dealers and this one finally came into the price we wanted for our old coach and for the new one.  Every one is happy.  We have been unloading it here at our kids place of everything but food and cloths.  We will be leaving here Friday and heading to Pasco, Washington for our walk through on Monday morning.   So yes we have been busy, but I can still take some time and write at least every other day.  I will try and get better here in the future.
Oh yeah one more thing, we leave for Alaska in less then two months.

April 6th

What a fast 5 days with our grandson Jared here with us.  We had a great time and always look forward to spending time with him.  This last week we took Jared out on some Geocaching and he had a blast.

Here we are walking down a muddy trail and Papa had a little problem walking, but all in all we found the caches.  He is hooked.

This one was out along side the road in Long Beach but after a little bit of looking he found it with no problem.  As you can see he had Turbo helping him find it.  We had a great time this week while out geocaching.  We stop by our friends place Brian and Rita to see their new house that they are moving into.  They have a lot of work going from a 2400 square foot home to under 1800 square feet.  We are going back there tomorrow so if I remember I will take some pictures.
While Jared was here he wanted to see a movie called Home.

It was a good funny movie and all of us enjoyed it.  We took Jared home on Sunday had a great dinner with the kids and got some grand kids time with the other two.  Looking forward to spending next week with them while we are back in the area for doctors and TAX TIME!!!!!!
Today we spent some time cleaning up the coach and getting things packed back in the bunk area where Jared sleeps.  We are also getting rid of our big cabinet in the garage, it is just becoming a junk collector and we need to lighten the load a little bit.  SO Cyndy has been going through it and I hope  some of the stuff goes to the dumpster.

   After being here for almost a week, we finally made it to Mo's for our clam chowder fix and sea food fix at the same time.  It may be a while before we get back this way.  While Jared was here he has started not wanting to go out for dinner.  That even includes McDonald, for some reason this last year while wrestling took to not eating any kind of fried food.  That made it nice for us, and we saved a little bit of money.  But we made a few more trips to the store for food so I guess we broke even on that one.  Tomorrow we are heading back over to visit with Brian & Rita and help them with a little bit of unpacking, and visiting.  We haven't seen them in over 9 months so a lot to catch up on, Cyndy & Rita go back to the 5th grade and have been best friends.

What a great sunset tonight, just as I was finishing the blog I took this picture.

April 2nd

We finished up at the FMCA Rally doing pretty good.

We had a great booth but not much traffic.  We did sell a few trips but over all it was a small show from what was suppose to be here.  We heard only about 840 rigs were here, down from the 2400 we were told that were to be here.  Ken and Carol Adams worked this show with us. We had a good time and look forward to working with them in the future.
We left LA on Monday morning early so we could miss the early morning commuter traffic.  We were at the top of the grape vine by 7:30 AM and heading north.  We made it to Redding, CA by the first night.  The next day we pulled into the Seaside TTN about 5:30 PM.  We are looking forward to the next 10 days of doing just about nothing.  But we had a reason for driving that far that fast.  Our grandson was coming to spend his spring break with us.  We really look forward to seeing all of our grand kids.
The last two days we have been spending time in the pool with Jared.  I am getting pretty water logged.  It is the most I have been in a pool since the last time he spent time with us.

Today he wanted to fix spaghetti sauce, so he did the cooking of the sausage.  He told Nana that he need some onions to cook with the sausage before it went into the sauce.  He added all of the spices and here he is with Nana's help getting the meat into the sauce.

Here he is checking it to make sure it is just right.  He said now it needs to slow cook for a few hours.  So Jared & Papa headed over to the pool for some swimming time before dinner.

If I didn't know any better I would say the spaghetti sauce turned out really good.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the movies to see "Home" it looks like a pretty good movie and is to be funny.  I bet we even make it back to the pool at least one more time.  Sunday we are going to run him back home for Easter Dinner at our Daughters house.  Then we will be heading back down here that night to relax some more.  What a way to spend spring break with the kids.