Wednesday, July 31, 2013

July 31st

The last day of the month and I can't believe it, the wind has died down to something around 8 or less.  Finally, we can sweep the sand out and not see it blow back in as fast as we sweep it out.  I think one reason it has stop blowing is that inland it has cooled down and we are getting a off shore push of cool weather with a little rain.
This morning we got up and went for a ride up to Winchester Bay to see what all the hop law is about this so called "Dune Fest".

This is what this area looks like on just any normal weekend or week day.  But when Dune Fest comes to town it turns into this.

As you can see it has turned into a small city of RV's and sand toy's. We had a heavy over cast all day too.
Each year Dune Fest is put on to promote family fun here in the dunes.  It is a five day event with Treasure Hunts, Poker Rides, moto-cross racing, sand drags, along with a 3 days of safety lessons for all kids.  Then on Friday and Saturday night they will be rocking the Dunes with classic rock bands.
Our first stop was vendor row to see all of the new things coming out in the market for Side by sides.
As you can see, we got here before the crowds started to show up, like 10:00 AM.
We had to take a good look at this RZR.  The guy that owned it was getting some new shocks put on it by this vendor, they went for more then what I could afford.   Any way this guy races this down in the desert of California, Arizona and Nevada.  It was nice talking to him, the only thing be could say is this sand is easy to get stuck in.  He has added a 20 gallon fuel tank to this and along with all of the other things it is a little heavy for playing in the sand. 
 Cyndy found her favorite sweater and t-shirt shop, "Girls get Dirty Too.  She did a lot of looking and talking to the owner, she is hoping to talk the owner of Steve's ATV Rental into buy some sweatshirts and T-shirts for the desert this winter for us to sell.  More clothing for the store!!!
Cyndy even found the Geico lizard to have her picture taken with.
Now this is my kind of tour vehicle, only if it was a Ford.
Cyndy is always looking for a good by on a trailer, has to be better then the one we have now.  Don't tell her but I kind of like this one, too!!!
Lets see if Cyndy gets a new trailer maybe we can get this 1000 RZR.  Polaris had a big display here day viewing the new 1000, starting tomorrow you can test drive them.  I went to sign-up and all the slots had already been taken for tomorrow. 
All of the big side-by-side manufacture's had displays here.  This is all the closer Cyndy would let me get, it is better for both of us, our 800 will do us just fine.  That's what I keep telling myself.
We did spot a couple of off the wall vehicles out here.
That Camaro really looks sharp.  but I still like

  this one the best!!!!
After a morning of walking around this area, (wish I had brought the RZR) we head out for lunch and a drive up to the Elk viewing area to see how the elk are doing. 



They are still in velvet, but I think there antlers have stopped growing and they have some nice racks.  There was a lot of cows hanging out here to but did not see any spicks of two points.  They must be hiding up in the woods.  We had a nice enjoyable day of just be tourist and see the sights.  We don't know what we are doing tomorrow, that's the nice thing about RV living if you don't feel like doing nothing you don't!!!!!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

July 25th

Got up early this morning, 7:30AM and head to the Ford dealership in Coos Bay.  Got their at 8:00 and by 3:00PM they had the new 463 gears installed and replaced all the bearings also.  I had a felling something wasn't right when I took it in and sure as all get out one bearing was shoot and the other one was on its last leg.  So now I have a 410 Pin and Ring gear that looks like new.  Maybe some one might need it, so I will pack it back home.  Oh, Yah, and I got a senior discount also, it does pay to ask when you get something done like this.  I just have to make sure every time I ask!!!!

We also took a ride to the Coos County Fair & Rodeo.  There as a lot of FFA and 4-H displays.  Cyndy looked at a lot of quilts and I looked at them also, but a lot faster.  We enjoyed walking around the Fair and see all of the other 4-H & FFA.
Most of the day we got some things done around the coach that needed to be done.  Its hard to believe that in just over 6 weeks we will be pulling out of here and heading to Washington for Doctor appointments and visiting with family then south for the winter.  Time fly's when you get older.!!!!!!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

July 24th

We had a great day today.  We started off with a big breakfast, which I like and Cyndy kind of picks at.   But I can't complain, she has been losing weight lately which she really likes and she is felling a hole lot better and if mom is happy everyone is happy.  Keep it up honey!!!!   I just wish I could lose as much as she has?
Anyway we took off this morning for some Geocaching around the area.  We have finally went over 200 finds, and we are on our way to 300 some time in the future.
One of the places that we found a cache was near this memorial in Florence, Oregon.




This was a War Memorial and it was done in a beautiful back drop of the bay.  To find it was just a lot of luck but we did find the cache here after admiring the wall.
We found these birds nesting on some old pine trees that are dead from all of the bird poop.  These birds are called, "Cormorants" they are known for their great fishing skills.   We did find this cache also but first we had to watch out for falling bird poop, the trail took us right under these birds.
So we can say now that we are at 205 fines and going forward, we are hoping before we leave here to be close to 250.  There are a lot of caches in this area so maybe we will meet our goal.
Tomorrow I take the truck into Ford dealership to rebuild the rear-end dif.  It has been making some noise's lately that I don't like to hear, so while I am doing that I am gearing it down to a 463 gears.  It should make a big difference or I am hoping in pulling and backing. 
Today they started building up the dune here in our park, hoping to cut down on the wind. 
 When it is all done it will be about 30 to 40 feet higher were they are at right now.  It will help cut the wind down from 40 to 9 mile per hour when done.  They are going to be adding bark to the mix and that is to help hold the sand and start some vegetation growing which will stop the sand from moving over the parking lot.  I hope it works.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

July 23


We were really busy these last few days at work; they had drag races here in the sand all weekend.  I was surprised there were not more people here, but with the strong wind we have been having the sand is really soft.  They worked on the track all day Friday so that they could use it Saturday & Sunday.  Late Sunday afternoon I went up to the people that are running the track and asked if they were going to have anymore race weekends and the old guy said NO the sand is to dry for us to even use.   The guy seems to have a chip on his shoulder so I left that alone.  Oh well not everybody can be happy all the time, I hear he is this way all the time.

Today I decided to do some maintenance that I have been forgetting about for a long time.  It is the 5th-wheel hitch in the back of the truck.  With all the sand that has been blowing around here the grease was collecting a lot of sand.  So I pulled it out of the truck and went through a full can of brake cleaner, which seems to cut the old grease pretty easy.  After about an hour of cleaning it was looking pretty good.  So I wrapped it up and put it under the work bench here in the shop until we get ready to leave here in September.

Cyndy and I even had time to go and watch a movie today.  It was the Lone Ranger; we thought it was pretty good.  Acting great, stunts out of this world, and it was downright funny.  Johnny Depp was great in this movie, but then I am not a movie critic, so I may not know what I am talking about.   

Tomorrow we are going to do a little Geocaching and learn some more back roads around here.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

July 18th

The last three days have been just a blur, we decided on Sunday to go up to Washington and see the grand kids for our days off.   So Monday at noon we took off for Washington, which is only a 6 hour drive home.  That does sound like a lot, but it goes by fast when you know you are getting closer to the grand kids.  We stopped by both kids house Monday night and got our hug's from the kids then it was off to our temp housing at Dennis and Rose's.  They are the greatest and we Love them both a lot.  We have a lot of good times together.
Anyway we spent Tuesday with Jared for a while did a few doctors stuff and then went to Jared's house for dinner that night.  It was great to see then all again.  On Wed. Cyndy and Rose did there shopping trip in the morning.  I am glad I get tired of just looking at stuff and they both like doing that kind of thing.  Me I am more the type to just go and get what I need and get out of the store before they get any more of our money!!!!  Then in the afternoon we headed over to MJ's & Morgan's house to spend time with them.  Those two little ones really keep you on your toes.

 MJ is talking a mile a minute and PAPA has problems understanding her, but with a little help from mom I do pretty good, and Morgan is crawling all over the place and starting to walk just a little.  Mom & Dad can't wait for her to start walking, but I tell them enjoy it now because you can keep up with her.
Cyndy got all of her hug's and cuddles from the three grand kids we got to see, the other two stay with there mom and maybe when we are home in September they may come by, we hope.
Today we drove back here to Coos Bay and we had a great weekend visiting with our children and grand kids.  We tell our kids we didn't come to see them just the grand kids.  There the ones that need to be spoiled now, and we really like doing that.  Well back to work for 3 plus day then we don't know what we are doing on our next long weekend, maybe just lay around and rest!!!!!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

July 10th

Today we thought we would go out and do a little Geocaching in the dunes.  When we left it was pretty good weather, but by the time we got to what they call Bull Run, it was starting to get a little windy.
This was an easy find, we dropped a bug at this one and we will keep an eye on this one to make sure it keeps moving.
I think we can make it over this one.
We found another cach just to the right of these trees, this lake seems to be growing every year.
The wind was really starting to pick-up so we did some motoring around and found these people out in the middle of the dunes.  We headed to the beach from here with a stop at the restrooms.
 Yep, Cyndy even drives the old sports car once in a while, as long as it is flat and no hills.

I don't know if you can tell, but this little drop is about 5 feet straight down, then it runs down hill.
These lakes that are in the middle of the dunes are drying up pretty fast now.
You know the wind is blowing hard when you see white caps on a little pond like this,  the wind was up over 25 MPH today .
We even seen this little guy wondering which way we were going to go, he finally went up the hill to the right.
We made it back in one peace with a lot of wind.  It has been blowing hard all day, and they say it will keep up for about another week or more.  Tomorrow we are going on a road trip Geocaching up to Florence, OR.  I think it must be time for a bowl of clam chowder.  Should have some good picture from this trip, never know what we might see.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

July 9th

For last week we have been having some pretty good winds, up to 25 miles per hour from 1:00 Pm to about 10:00 PM at night.  One thing with the wind is that it keeps the sand nice and smooth for riding on, it also keeps the nits & mosquitos away.  Its funny when people come into the store and ask how much longer the wind is going to blow and we tell then enjoy it while it is blowing, because when it is not blowing the sand is rough and the bugs are eating you up!!!!
Today it was Cyndy and Turbo day at the spa, Cyndy got her nails done and she is happy again.  Remember if mom isn't happy no one is, and Turbo had his spa treat meet, nails, bath and all that other tings they do to dogs.  Me I just waited for them and picked them up when they were done.
After everyone was done we took a little road trip to Bandon for something to do.  Yes we left the camera at home again, one of these days I will just put it in the truck and leave it their.   We did find a great Mexican Restaurant to eat at, I think we were both looking for the same thing when we seen the restaurant.  It is kind of funny, here we are in a sea port town with all kinds of sea food around and we go to a Mexican Restaurant.  We then walked around the sea port of Bandon to wear of the lunch we just ate.
We did have our camera on our phones so we got a couple of pictures.  There are a lot of carvings all over the board walk.  Got Cyndy by this Sea Lion.
There must be about 30 of them all over the place.
Cyndy got one of Turbo & I .
We seen this Lighthouse Coquille River Lighthouse, we want to explore this area a little bit more so next time we come up this way we are bring our good camera.  There is also a place that we want to explore called Face Rock State Park.  Can't wait to see what that is all about.  It was getting late so we head back home and look forward to the next two days off and relaxing a little bit.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

July 4th

HAPPY 4th of July to all of our friends, may we remember why we are celebrating this day of independents and thank a person today that is wearing that uniform for keeping us free!!!!
Today was another day to just take it easy.  I think I will back up a little to yesterday and tell you what we did.  Cyndy & I went to the movies.  It has been a while but well worth it, we seen "The Heat"  yes it is rated "R" and yes they us that word that I hate to hear my children us.  But it was done is some what of a comedy way about it.  I recommend see the movie it was great.  We kind of hung around the coach the rest of the day and watched the fireworks from our front door that the Mill Casino put on last night.  It lasted almost 20 minutes. 
Today we decided to head out and do a little geocaching.  We had a good day and seen some neat things traveling the back roads.
   Our first find was by this old boat left to rot away to nothing.  I would like to hear some of the stories this boat could tell.
We found another beached boat that has also been left to lay.  The stories they could tell, I would really like to find out what happened to this one.
This old barn was near another cach.  I think it may still be used, but I think the black berry's will take it over real soon!!!!
These flowers were really pretty by one of the caches that we found today.  In its log it say to bring a camera for some great pictures.  Well the cach was a camera hanging from a tree.  We did pretty good today, we started out looking for 12 caches and only found 8 of them.  Some have not been logged since March or April.  So I feel we did pretty good.
After a short lunch break we headed out to see if the Elk were at Dean Creek Elk viewing area.   About a month ago we got some fair pictures of elk.
 As you can see they are just starting to grow there antlers, and the grass is high.
As you can see in just a month they have grow a lot.  They were laying around and giving everyone a great show today.
As you can see all of them are growing pretty darn good, we will be back in couple of weeks to see what they look like then.  Tonight the town of Coos Bay is putting on a Fireworks display and we are hoping to be able to see it also from our front door.  Hope all of you have a safe fourth!!!!!

Monday, July 1, 2013

July 1st


Where did June go, it is hard to believe that it is already behind us.  Look out July we are going to make you last a day longer then June.  Cyndy and I have been trying to stay out of trouble the last couple of weeks.  We made a fast trip last week to Pismo, Ca to deliver a side by side and pick up 5 ATV’s and head back the next day.  If it wasn’t for getting paid for the trip I don’t think I would do it again.  It was really wet all the way down and back.  But when we got back to Oregon the weather started to change and now we have some nice warm weather.

We are hoping to get home this month for one of our weekends, but don’t know which one yet.  We have the next 3 days off and want to do a little Geocaching.  We did get out last Thursday and found 4 more caches so will try to build on that.  We have a bug that we forgot we had picked up in Salton City, so we are going to find it a new home this week.

Hope everyone is doing good, wish we could be at the Escapees Rally in Gillette, WY with all of our RV friends.  Next year we will plan on going.