June 10th

We arrived at Dicks RV Park yesterday about noon.  We got all set up and then went looking for the other group that is here now.  We wanted to see our very first Wagon Masters Dan & Carol Begy. We learned a lot from them and always enjoy seeing them.  We visited for a couple of hours then talked with their Tallgunners Curtis & Jenine Overby.  They were our trainee's on the Grand Circle last year.  We had a lot of fun with them and hope to have them for our tailgunners some time in the future.
We went to their social and they have a great group of people with them.  After social the 3 couples of us went out to dinner at Golden Coral and closed the place with just sitting around talking about our trips and what we are doing.  It is great just to bump things off of each other.  I think we took care of all the problems in the world also.
Today Cyndy and I have been busy getting things done for our trip.  We got all the back packs filled with things the guest will need.  Then it was on to getting everything together for out book we give to them to help out with what the extra things we will be doing.  It also helps the guest know when Potlucks are, and other things.
We have one guest here already and she is from Florida.  Her statement is she is looking forward to the rest before starting this trip.  Tomorrow we will be seeing one more guest and after that they all start rolling in.  We are so looking forward to meeting everyone after all the long talkes on the phone and the mountain of e-mails, just kidding.    

June 8th

After the last four days of hot weather I needed to look at something that is nice and cool, Mount Rainier. I could enjoy a little bit of that cool weather.  But if it got that cool I would be wanting some more warm weather, so I will just enjoy the weather we have right now.

We left early this morning to get east before it gets to hot, we didn't make it.

We head out of Walla Walla on highway 12 north.  I enjoy these two lane back roads.  The Garmin wanted us to go back to Tri-City's, but I went a different way.  Sometimes you have to look at a map before you take off so that you and the Garmin can be on the same page. After about 20 miles the Garmin came around and went the way I wanted to go.

Every small town we went through had grain elevators for the farmers to store their grain for the best price through the co-op. 

The rolling hills just keep going on for ever.

The picture speaks for its self.

The history in this old barn must be something.  You have to wonder when it was build and what happened to it.

We seen a lot of the wind mill farms all over this part of the middle east side of Washington.  

We seen a few crop dusters out flying today spraying the wheat fields.  It was a good day and we made it to Lincoln 50,000 Dollar Bar in MT.  What is nice is they have spots to spend the night out back with a little bit of electricity, it will help keep the rig cool tonight I hope.  We are going to leave again early tomorrow morning and get to Dicks RV Park by about 1:00 and hope beat the hot part of the day.

  

June 7th

Another hot day here in Walla Walla, we have had the air on and it is keeping it some what cooler in here than out side.

Turbo likes the sun, he laid here for about 10 minutes then went down on the couch to cool off.

Spike has had to much sun and is enjoying the cool spot here on the couch.  They both really have a rough life.  I hope they don't turn us in for puppy abuse!
Nancy was coming by to pick us up and run us out to where Gary was doing another representation of a Lewis & Clark Camp at Walla Walla Museum.

Gary is representing Sgt Patrick Gass  during the Lewis & Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean.  I wish I new half of the information that Gary is able to talk about.  The older I get some of the stuff I hear sometimes gets put in the wrong file and is lost in no mans land up here in my head.

Here was his sleeping quarters during the trip West, I don't think Cyndy would like to give up her bed for this one.  Gary your knowledge is amazing and look forward to our next visit. I hope one of these days we get to do the Lewis & Clark Trip that Adventure Caravan offers, just to see and learn more about the trip west and to see your presentation you do for us.

This is some of the things he carries when doing these things.

 Nancy it was great to visit with you for these last two days and fun see what Gary's hobby is all about.  The gentleman standing next to Nancy is her baby, Grant.  We look forward to seeing you in the future and do some more great visiting.  It was great talking about the fun times we had as "KIDS" when we visited each others family.

They have a lot of cabins around the Museum from the 1890 and 1900's. It was getting real hot and we said this is getting just a little warm for us.

I seen this mouse poking it head out of this power box for the light.  Almost had Cyndy believing it was alive.
We had a great day visiting with  Nancy & Gary (next time more time spent with Gary).  We hope to see them again next year as we head to Alaska then.  Tomorrow we head north & east for a two day drive to Great Falls, MT.  We are planning on stopping at Lincoln 50,000 Dollar Bar and spending the night and then heading on the next day to Great Falls, MT.  I will try and post tomorrow but it all depends on internet connection.

June 6th

We are staying here at Blue Valley RV Park in Walla Walla, WA.  We were suppose to stay at my cousins place in Dixie, WA which just up the road about 11 miles.  But because it is so hot we are staying at and RV park with 50 AMP service which helps keep the rig cool at night and during the day for our 4 legged friends.
This morning I tried calling Nancy & Gary's house twice but no answer. So figured something had come up so we headed down town to the framers market to see what they had in fresh vegetables.  We did get some fresh asparagus and cherry's. We found some fresh cinnamon swirl bread that will make some out of this world french toast.  Going to have that in the morning.  After we were done their we headed up to Nancy's house to see if anyone was their.  When we got their here was Nancy waiting  for us.  We talked for a while but then we had to go down to where Gary was doing a demonstration on fire starting.
So off we went towards Pendleton, OR made a right and headed towards the Umatilla Indian Reservation.  This is where Gary and his son Grant was putting on a demonstration on fire starting.

Here is Grant showing us how to start fire with bow, stick and a lot of work.  Well after a couple of minutes and a little luck he had fire.

Now it was my turn, after a lot of work and a lot of work I had no luck at starting a fire.  Give me a match or lighter and I can start a fire.

Here Gary is using a steel and rock to get a fire started.  After a little luck and the wind let up we had fire.

I think you can see the smoke and a little bit of flame's.
We had a great day visiting with them.  This is a hobby that Gary does and enjoys a lot.  He knows the history of the area very well and does a great job of putting on demonstration about how Lewis & Clark traveled through this are.  He worked as a Park Ranger around this part of the country for a long time and finally retired a few years ago.  His knowledge of the outdoors is great.
Tomorrow we are going to the something else he will be doing, I am looking forward to it and hope to get some good pictures.

Got to love the look of this trike and the words on the back "BOSS HOGS", see this down town Pasco.

June 5th

What a day, we started early this morning, I mean early.  We had talked to Blue Dog RV about getting things fixed and after a lot of phone calls and e-mails we are getting everything looked at and the gray water tank valve fixed.  So this morning we were up by 5:30 AM, yes there are two 5:30's.  We had said good by to Rose and Dick last night so that we were not going to bother them at this time of the morning.
As some of you know I put air bags on the rear of the truck.  I have to say they work great and the ride is 100% better.  The truck rides nice and level now.  I had forgot how long we had been riding this rough.  I recommend air bags for trucks that are pulling big loads like we are.
Now for how things went at Blue Dog RV.  We arrived just about 10:30 AM, went into the office and talked with a young lady that helped us and said just drop the trailer and they well get everything done.  Now two weeks ago when we started working towards getting the rig in for fixing, mainly the gray water valve.  They said that it would not happen this time because they are just to busy.  After that phone call I made one to our finance guy and explained everything that we are heading to Alaska and I really don't want to go all that way with this problem.  He said I will get back to you shortly.  Well I waited until about 3 days ago and started calling people again, and can you believe it they where going to try and fix everything including the gray water value.  It took them just about 4 1/2 hours to get everything done.  I am happy and so is Cyndy.  The only thing that they did not get was the new shower current, they said it will be mailed to our daughters house.  It should be their by the time we get back home.  So after pushing the right buttons everything is almost fixed.  We will have the floor done when we are in-between Alaska and the West Coast tour.
Did I tell you it is HOT here, yes almost 91 degrees today and by Sunday it will be up close to 100 degrees.  I am going to sit in the air conditioned rig as long as I can.  I have a cousin that lives close to where we are staying here in Walla Walla, WA.  We were going to stay at her place but they have limited electricity, so we will stay here and go and visit instead.  So we are staying here until Monday, then we are heading to Great Falls, MT.  We will get another early start so that we are not driving in the heat of the day.  Cyndy will not be happy but some times we have to do things we don't like.

June 3rd

Cyndy has been very busy the last two days we have been here.  She is doing something that she really loves to do and that is QUILTING.  Every time we show up here Rose and Cyndy get into a zone and away they go quilting.  I am happy that she has a pastime that makes her feel great.  So today this is a short blog but with a few pictures of what she is working on.

Here they are in front of their machines, working hard.  Rose has one of those machines that is programmable and does all kinds of embroidering.

  Her machine did this but it was all in small pieces and then she had to put it together, pretty neat.

Here is a small wall hanging Cyndy finished, not bad dear.

Cyndy really likes Christmas stuff and she finished up this nice wall hanging.  She picked it up five years ago and dug this one out and finished it yesterday.

What she really wanted to work on was our quilt for our bed, I don't know if you can see it but it is full of snowmen.  Anyway yesterday, on my way back up after getting the air-bags installed on the truck I stopped by to look for the rest of this quilt so she can finish this one too.  We thought that they were with us but I found the last few parts in our storage trailer.  Now she is very busy working on finishing this one up so that it can be placed on our bed.  It has been in the making for two plus years, and she hasn't had a lot of time to work on it.  Great job dear.  Tomorrow she is hoping to have it done all but the backing on it.
I have a few odd jobs to finish up on the coach before we leave on Friday morning.  We are heading to Blue Dog to hopefully get things done that need to be fixed on our coach.  They said today that they will fix the gray tank, I am keeping my fingers crossed they are able to get to it.

June 2nd

We left Jason's house yesterday for a long drive to Mineral Lake, WA (40 miles, like these long drives).  We have some very close friends here that we have not seen in a couple of years.  It seems like every time we were going to spend some time up here they were off an running some where.  We have known Dick & Rose for over 30 years, we go way back to the days that we were involved in the Lions Club. We had a lot of fun back then visiting other clubs.  Anyway it is fun getting caught up on old times.
I have been busy getting the truck ready for our trip to Alaska.  First I went to Les Shwab for a new pair of rear shocks.  I bought my first pair for the truck back in 2005 with a life time warranty, I have done good on that purchase, 4 sets of shocks and now I had the rear one up grade and it only cost me $28.00 and I still have life time Warranty. The manager asked when I was going to get a new truck, when hell freezes over and we both laughed.
Well with this new trailer I have a little bit more hitch weight then the last coach, plus the springs may be wearing a little.  Anyway it is time to put a set of air bags on it.  Got that done today and I will find out this Friday how it works when we leave here for Eastern Washington.  We are going over to Blue Dog RV were we bought the coach and pick up a few things and set up a time to get some things fixed.  Wish us luck.  Right now I have a gray water tank that I can not shut,  at least this is better than having it stuck shut.  I have a shut off at the end of the drain, so it is not really to bad, but I want it fixed.
It is hard to believe that in 15 days we start our trip to Alaska, we are so pumped for this trip, can't wait.  Anyway we are getting things in line and looking forward to meeting all of our guest.  We are planning on being in Great Falls, MT by the 12th or earlier.  Will keep you up dated on whne we land.