September 5th

You got to love full timing to really understand this next statement.  You meet the neatest people in the world on the road and they are friends forever.  Today we finally got together with

 Dave & Lynn Cross.  We first meet them at a Gypsy Rally.  While we were talking to them up walks another couple,

Nick & Terry Russell.  We got our hug's from everyone and started talking about everything under the sun, well I should say cloudy day.  It was great to see both couples.  Next there was a car show going on in town and they did a cruise by here in the park.  Here are a few pictures of some of the cars.  Can't show them all.

Like the camshaft for a front bumper!!!

Nick was checking out a new job as Taxi driver, but couldn't pick up anyone!!!

This had to be our favorite of all the cars that showed up here at the park.

Yes, their is a roster in the cab!!!
After the cars were all through driving by the 6 of us headed out for dinner, and a lot more talking about what has been going on with our life's.  Nick keeps everyone laughing and we had a great time.  Looking forward to visiting with them again tomorrow. 
Oh yah, I almost forgot, I got all the sand washed of the rig this morning and it looks new again!!!!  The roof was the worst, but I made it up and down the ladder OK!!!
One other thing, we almost forgot what it was like not having to do anything but taking care of each other and just having fun.  Sorry to say, we are not going to miss that job!!!!

September 4th

First, I am going to tell you a little bit about what we did yesterday.  We have been asked to come and tour the Reddy Ice plant here in Coos Bay.  The owners (two brothers) of the camp ground where we have been all summer, also own and run the Reddy Ice plant.  We have been wanting to see how they make the ice, we have been selling, and everyone buys to keep there favorite drink or food cold.
It was real interesting how they do it.

 

 They run water over these racks and freeze the water, when it is all frozen they run hot water thru the lines and it fractures' the ice and it falls into the hopper below and it starts all over again. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for a cycle to be completed.  From there it is augured into another room where it is a hole lot cooler.

 Cyndy stepped into this room for about 30 seconds and was out again.  Anyway in this room they kind of have a big bind where the ice is tumbled and dried to -10 degrees so that it keeps that clear look that the ice has.  It is kind of hard to explain but it was cool in that room with all the air moving around too!!! I was glad to get out of their too.

 Here is were all the ice is bag and put on pallets for the cooler and out into the trucks for all the different stores here in Oregon.  I don't remember the number of bags that they do in an hour but they ship out about 90 to 150 pallets a day.  For a small opreration they send a lot of ice out.

Each one of these pallets have 200 bags on it.
The rest of the day we waited for our check and finished packing the trailer for the early drive today.

The last day here was beautiful, but we are looking forward to heading back home.  Last night Steve and Laverne took us out for dinner and to thank us for helping them this last season.  We had a good time working for these people and we have gained another couple that we can call friends forever.  We had a lot of fun last winter with these two and look forward to see them again this winter, just not as a employee.  We are planning two trips to the desert, one for the Roughneck Rendezvous Off-Highway Geocaching Adventure and the other is for the 4x4 event the first weekend in March!!!
This morning we got on the road early because it has been a while, and we were just itching to get going.  It has been a while and we didn't have any problems at all.  I like the new gears that I put into the rear end 463's and the new exhaust brake I had installed called a BD. 

Here are a few pictures of our trip north to Seaside.

It was a cool drive along the coast, being from this area it is not surprising that it is overcast.

 

Turbo setting where he gets the best view.

The king of our rig, yep Turbo!!!

The trees are really leaning from the wind of the coast, you see this a lot along 101!!

 

It is amazing some of he pictures Cyndy takes.

 

 

Cyndy's favorite stop along the Oregon 101, Lincoln City's Outlet Malls.

We seen these on a lot of Barns here in Tillamook County, with a pattern from a quilt painted on them.  We had a good drive, it was nice and slow and enjoyable sights.  I know that these two lane roads are good for a nice ride and not being in a hurry to get any where fast!!!  We made it to Seaside and looking forward to seeing some friends that are here.

 



 







September 2nd

What a relief, we have done something that was very hard to do?  Maybe not that hard, but we have finished our year with Steve's ATV Rental with a smile :).  It has been fun but there comes a time when you have to say this is to much like work.  Any way we are back to being retires and looking forward to it.  Tomorrow we pack things up and stow stuff away, to get ready to leave for Seaside, OR.  We will stay their for a couple of days to say hi to some friends that we haven't seen in a couple of years.  Then it is off to where we call home!!!!
I will be posting a little bit more as the weeks go by.  We are hoping to find out what trips we will be doing for Adventure Caravans in the future so we can let people know.  We should have something solid by the end of October to the first of November. 
Its great to be hitting the road again!!!!!!

August 28th

I can hardly wait to be on the road again.  Cyndy was busy cleaning the trailer from one end to the other today.  It really looks good, she does a great job and I really enjoy see here smile when she is busy in our coach getting it ready to move.  We both can't wait to pull the slides in and hit the road again.
This afternoon we went for one more ride out to the beach before we head for home.  We wanted to see how Turbo would do on the ride.

Here we are leaving the campground and he can't wait for the open dunes.

He really did good, and enjoyed the wind blowing in his face.

Yep, Turbo likes the wind in his face.

Here he is looking at me and I can tell he is ready for more.

OK, I am getting a little tired of this, lets pick up the pace.

Ok, I know there has to be some more "woppy does" here some where.
I really don't like them, they cause me to bonce around to much.

Yah, we made it to the beach, but that water looks to cold for me.

I like mom's lap, it is warm!!!
We had a pretty good day, we don't know what we are going to do tomorrow.  It is suppose to rain so maybe just sleep in and do nothing.

August 27th

These last three months have just flew by.  Next week at this time we will be loading up everything and getting ready to open a new chapter in our traveling life style.  We have enjoyed working for Steve's ATV Rental, I have learned a lot about RZR's and look forward to keeping ours up and serviced when needed.  Steve has treated us really well and hope our paths cross in the future, but not working playing would be more fun.
Today I got the final repairs done on the truck, the only thing left is getting the oil changed and that will be next Tuesday morning.  Then it will be time to start loading the trailer.  We are slowly moving things around, but taking our time.
We will be leaving here on Wednesday morning and heading to Seaside TTN park for a few days before heading home.  I paid all that money to us these parks we might just stay in one for a couple of days before heading home.  We don't know what is going on tomorrow yet.  In the morning I have to install a new gas pump on our tank so that will take a couple of hours then it is time for us to play, maybe we will go to the farmers market in Coos Bay!!!!

August 22nd

Cyndy and I looked into the jello bowl after it settled down and found that it was time for us to really look at what we are doing.  As some of you know I retired in 2007 and we became full timers and really enjoyed it.  But last year at this time we though I needed to take a job and build up our reserves a little bit.  After a year in one spot, way to long, it is time for us to hit the road and spend some time with our family and friends again.
We gave our two week notice last Monday and we will be gone from here on September 4th heading back up to Washington to spend some time with our family.  We are not sure what is going to happen this winter yet, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.  It seems like both Cyndy and I are ready for us to start another chapter in our life as full time RV'ers.  We are looking at going back to Adventure Caravan as Wagonmaster/Tailgunners.   We really enjoyed this life style and look forward to see some of our old friends and making new ones. 
As we find out what trips we will be doing this next summer we will let everyone know.  But for right now we are happy to be going home to be with our family and friends.

August 8th

It is hard to believe that it has been over a week since I last posted anything.  It seems like all we have been doing is working and laying around waiting for the weather to get better.  As we say here on the coast if it is hot in the valley it is foggy here on the coast.  Boy has it been over cast lately, we get up to Oregon mist and go to bed with Oregon mist.  Today was really nice though so we got up had a great breakfast of biscuits and gravy, Cyndy's favorite.  I really like it too, but she just ate a little bit, but me I made a pig out of my self.
With the sun out we headed up to Bandon to get some pictures of the Coquille River Lighthouse and check out the Face Rock Creamery.

  Yep, when we got to the lighthouse it was still a little foggy, and this Seagull was in no hurry to move.

Turbo got up on a log and looked at me and said see I can stand here like that dumb bird did.

Here is a little history about the Lighthouse, this is easier to take a picture and post it then type it all in.

Yep, the fog is still here, but I think the sun is starting to burn thru.

Ok the sun is out get some picture's before the fog comes back in.  There is a nice visitors center here and you can take a tour up into the lighthouse.

As you can see by looking out towards the ocean the fog is coming in!!!!!

 

I hope when we get to the other side it will still be clear!!!

As you can see we didn't make it before the fog rolled back in, maybe next time.

There is a fellow here in town that made these art works out of things he picks up off the beach.

It is amazing how some ones junk can be art when put into the right shapes.  We were going to stop by his shop and get some information about some of his other art but he was gone, must of been out collecting more stuff!!!

So as you head into Bandon from the north on 101, watch for this sign.  They had their grand opening in May of this year and they have some really good cheese here.  We sampled a few of them and I walked out with garlic cheese and Cyndy found a couple of more also.  We also tasted some of there specialty wine and yes got a bottle of that too.

We were hoping to see them making some cheese today but we heard they just got done and everything is nice and clean now.  But if you are in the area stop by and sample some of there cheese and maybe have and ice cream cone also.  Because I am on a real good diet I didn't have any, the truth being I was still to full from breakfast to have one, but next time I will come in with a little less in the belly.
We headed back to Box Car and low and behold the sun was still out so Cyndy and I went for a ride.

Cyndy wanted to see where I take everyone when I bring them out on a tour here in the dunes.  After climbing to hills I stopped here to take a picture of the bridge going into North Bend which is part of 101.

If you look real close in the upper right corner of the picture near the water you can see a house there.  It took me over a month of coming out here before I found that place.  It is owned by Ducks Unlimited from what I heard.

Here is a better picture of it.  Below are a few other pictures of the dunes.

Here down by the lake we find another house, with solar panels on it.

We had a great ride I thought, Cyndy said do you really take people through all of that.  Maybe you should tone it down a little.  I said I haven't had any complaints yet.

It has been a while but we had a great ride.  We are looking forward to this next week because out kids will be down and I get to chase them around in the dunes.  So maybe some more pictures next week.