Long Beach and great Weather

We have been having some great weather here in Long Beach, WA.  On our way down here got a picture of Willapa Bay.

As you can see we had great weather and the tide is out while we were heading down here to Long Beach.  The last 3 days have been great.  We have spent a lot of time with Brian & Rita the last three days.  Cyndy & Rita have been sewing which I here they both like to do, but some times we here some choice words, but they keep right on going.  Brian & I have been doing a little bit of everything, from running errors for the girls and us.  Tomorrow we are going to hang out here and give them a break and us a break, plus I want to watch the race tomorrow morning. It starts at 10:00.
Tonight on our way back to the coach we spotted a couple of deer.

We see at least one every time we go out to Brian & Rita's or on our way back to the coach.  There were three of them, but I only got two of them in the picture.
When we went into Long Beach on our way back I drove out to the beach and took a picture to show you how clear it is.

If you look real close you can see a few people down clam digging, it is only a .5 tide tonight.  Next week it get to a -1.2 low tide on Friday, we will stat digging on Friday and dig through Monday if they keep it opened.

When we were here the first of February, it had rained a lot and the water was building up a lot.  As you can see with the picture below the water is down about a foot but has a little bit farther to go.  We can hope that the rainy period is over for this winter/spring time period so that this area can dry out a little bit more.

Tomorrow watching NASCAR and relaxing.  I do have a small job on the coach this next week, the water pump stopped working so order on off of Amazon and it will be here by Tuesday.  That will be an easy install.

Long Beach here we come

We have been having some outstanding weather here in Washington.  The last two days the weather has been great.  Sun out, temp in the high 60's to low 70's, being from Washington you can't ask for much better weather.  It is going to be this way through the weekend.
This morning we had a little bit of running around to do, then it was time to hook up the the trailer and head for Long Beach.  We are going there to get a few things done for the company and pick up a few things in Astoria, OR for the trip to Alaska.  We are going to check out a few place that would be good for the starting of the West Coast Tour.  There is so much to see around the Astoria area it will be hard to list them all.  So watch what we find out !!!
We will also be visiting with our friends Brian & Rita. while we are staying here.  We really enjoy their company and have a great time together.  They had us down for dinner tonight and it was great, tomorrow the girls are going to do some sewing and I don;t know what Brian & I will do but who knows what kind of trouble we can get into.
 Tomorrow picture from the Ocean!!!!!

Easter Sunday

All I have to say today is wish and hope everyone had a great
Easter Sunday.

Weather Getting Better

That is right the weather is getting better around here.  It does most of its raining at night, YAH and during the day it is getting better.  By next week we should have sun and some clouds.  But here in the northwest we need all this rain to bring on the April flowers.  One of the old says here is the March comes in like a Lion and out like a Lamb.  So the first part of the month was a pretty good dumping of rain all the time, now it is getting a lot better and with the sun being out more it makes it a lot better.
Cyndy has been busy sewing a new bag together, but I think it is driving her up a creek.  I have never seen her do this much ripping things apart like she has on this project.  But the words are getting better coming out of her sewing room, so she must be making head way.  When she gets it done I will take a couple of pictures of it.  It is going to be a computer bag for our God-daughter Decia,  but it is not done yet so we will have to wait and see.
Myself I have been doing little things like sending e-mails out to our guest about things we may or may not need to know.  I like to keep them informed about what is going to be offered on this trip and things they can do.  Cyndy and I have been getting ready for this trip and really looking forward to it.  It might be a while before we go back to Alaska, so we want this trip to be the best one we have done.
Next week we are heading to Long Beach for a couple of weeks to do some shopping in Oregon.  We hope to pick up most of the food we will be using on this trip.  We try and make out money go as far as possible, and get the most for our dollar.
Anyway I hope your weather is getting better where you are, because here in the northwest it is looking up!!!!

All Bolts Replaced

This morning after we ran Jared to school we headed down to Six Robles to get 4 sets of shackle's.  I need three on the left and one for a spare.  What a beautiful drive today the sun is out and we can see both the Olympic Mountains towards the coast and they have a lot of snow on them, along with Mountain Rainier to the East.

This is looking from Tacoma up the Puyallup River towards the mountain.  What a beautiful day.
We got back home around noon, so it was time to get started on the left side of the coach replacing the rest of the bolts and plastic bushing.  This side was a little more work and took me just over 4 hours today.  All of the shackles that I took off looked pretty good but still replaced them with the new ones I got, will keep the old ones for spares.  Glad this project is over, I can really feel it tonight and am looking forward to taking it easy the next few days.
One more day of nice weather then the rain will be back starting Saturday afternoon, spring showers bring April flowers.  Hope everyone is surviving the weather and enjoying it were it is nice!!!!

Replacing Spring Bolts

Well for the last week we have been just doing not much of anything, but running from the coach to the truck when it is raining and we need to make a run to the store.  Cyndy has been going to physical therapy for her back.  She has been to 3 sessions and say her back is getting better, YAH!!!!
Anyway the middle of last week we were due for a reall bad storm and the mountain showed how bad it was going to be.

  The old Indian legion is "if there is a cap on the mountain it will rain within 24 hours, well this looks like a big hat so it must be going to rain a lot.  Which it did last weekend into Monday with some real good winds and rain!!!!!
Today the weather is changing and it will be nice for the next couple of days, so it is time for me to change out the bolts on the springs with new grease able bolts and brass bushing. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take we, but I set it up so I would do one side today and the other tomorrow.  I am glad I gave myself a lot of time.  I think I worked on it for just over 3 hours with a good break in the middle.  Had to make a run to Six Robles to pick up a longer bolt for one of the shackles.
With a few hiccups along the way I did a pretty good job.  Tomorrow should go a lot better.  Here is a couple of pictures of what I am doing.

 Right here is were I had to make the trip for a bigger bolt, but all is well.

I had to take two wheels off at a time to do the work correctly, but tomorrow it will go a little faster, I hope.  All of the plastic bushings were just about gone.  I think with just about 15000 miles them it is not to bad.  Brass should give me a lot more wear and using rease fitting will make them last a lot longer, too.

As you can see the plastic bushings are gone, but one thing I was not expecting was see the shackles already egg shaped.  Lucky for me I had a spare set for replace this set.  Tomorrow morning before I get started I will head down to Six Robles for a couple of more sets encase the other side has a bad set or two.  There was only one bad set on this side where I has 3 sets.
Tomorrow some more crawling around on my hands and knees, I can feel it a little tonight so a couple of Advil and a good nights sleep will help.

Love getting Phone Calls!!!

Yesterday we got the truck back with its new Clutch, and we did it again.  This time we got it done before the pilot bearing on the transmissions shaft went all the way out this time.  The needle bearing were gone this time but everything else was good, so Greg said this time they put a brass bushing, which should take care of this problem.
Last night at about 1:00 AM it started blowing and raining real good, It put me back to sleep, but Cyndy had just a little problem getting back to sleep.  It didn't let up tell after about 7:00 AM this morning, but the rain keep coming off and on.  We took a short ride up to our friends Dick & Rose to give them some things that we ordered on Amazon for her.  It rained all the way up and back.
Now to get to what I enjoy doing when I get a phone call from some phone recording, here is how it went, oh yah this phone call came from Kentucky:
Would you like to lower your interest rate on your credit card, just push "1"
Being it is raining out and I can't do anything else to bug some one out side and Cyndy has already threaten me once today what do I have to lose.  I wanted to here what they would do so I pushed "1".
(hear is our conversation that I had with some one)
I see you would like to lower your interest rate on your Visa or MasterCard.
Me " Sure"
We can help you with this and I see here that you make a payment of more than the minimum amount every month, we show you pay 3 to 4 times over the minimum each month.
Me "Yes"
Well we would like to help you so which one of the cards would you like to get the lower rates on?
Me "Visa"
Great we should be able to get it way under 10% with know problem, you have great credit report from our records here.
Me "good"
(I think I have got him hooked now)
Anyway can you please give use the expatriation date on this card.
(OK now for some fun I am going to play this one now)
Me " Do you not have this information in front of you, because you called me and I don't know who you are so can you please tell me if you have the right date."
We need to verify that you are who we have on our computer here before we go any farther.
Me " So what you are saying you know who I am, what my card number is and you want me to verify it for you."
That is correct, can you please read them to us?
Me " Well you called me so I want to verify who you are and what company you are with"
Next thing I know the phone went dead, can you believe it he hung up on me.  The nerve of some peoples kids!!!  The same thing happened about and hour later this time from Florida.  It was still raining so I had some more fun, but this time they got tired of playing and hung up sooner.  These people just don't like playing.  So I guess what I am say be careful when you get a phone call wanting to lower your interest rate on your credit card.