Full-Timing For Five Years (Plymouth, WA)

We are in Plymouth, WA on the Columbia River for the next three days before moving on to Spokane.  Here's a photo of our new neighbor nesting in a tree directly above our RV.  She would like to invite one of our cats up for dinner, so we will be keeping an eye on our new neighbor.

So, for some catching up...March may have been a very wet month, but we managed to stay busy.  

We said good-bye to Newport and to our sea loving friends.

Newport, OR

Next stop was to Nehalem Bay State Park for five days.  We found a nice site near the sand dunes with the beach on the other side.

After our 4-hour travel on windy and very bumpy roads, the cats were very insistent about getting outside. Once they had their leashes on, it was mayhem and cat-a-wallowing until the door opened.

They all spilled out and immediately - Hitch started climbing trees (it's a good thing he is on a retractable leash), Dusty cried while chewing on grass and the last two did a lot of exploring...in different directions, of course. It was like watching land-lovers getting off a boat, dropping to their knees and crying "land! We love you Land!"  Gee, it wasn't that bad of a travel day, but we could not get them to admit it.

Here's a view of our "backyard" in the state park.  Wouldn't you love to have a house here with this view?

We spent one day driving around the area.  We stopped at Wheeler to walk around their downtown area.  Their little train stop is quite cute.

 We spent most of our time around the state park.  We walked along the beach from the state park to Manzanita - a quaint and very interesting artist-filled town.  

We like this town so much that we went back a couple of weeks later.  The second time, we brought our son, Shaun with us and we ate at a nice little restaurant called Left Coast.  

Shaun and Dan

After five days, we moved back to Seaside.  We got a couple of sunny days during our stay. 

 Spring break has been going on between Washington and Oregon so the area has been very busy with families enjoying the beach.

This drummer was keeping people entertained.

The Seaside Resort is set in a wetland area.  The ducks and geese have been spending a lot of time in the area.  The cats have been alerting on a couple of Mallards as they waddled by our motorhome totally oblivious of the dangerous drooling cats in the windows.

A great place to walk with scenic views of mossy trees and water....

...lots of water flooding the campsites.  At one point, the mini ponds had ducks swimming around.

The fifth wheel owner almost needed a boat instead of a car.

The Flavel House Museum

Shaun drove down from the Seattle area during our last weekend in Seaside.  We tried to show him the beautiful coast of Oregon, but the weather wasn't cooperating so we took him to Astoria to show him some of the lovely old houses like the Flavel House and the Astoria Column.

Shaun's visit with us was short, but it was wonderful to see him one more time since we are not sure when we will be in this area again

Work and Travel Plans 2014

Dan has been busy lining up work for us.  He has the rest of this year all planned out.  We will visit family in Spokane in mid-April.  From there, we will head to South Dakota to renew our drivers licenses.  In May, we will be working as camp hosts in Glenrock, WY, in a small campground on a river that also does rental kayaks, tubing, and paddle boarding.  Not too bad of a job working 20 hours each with another couple and the owners.  That will last through September.

In mid September through 23 December, we have lined up a job with Amazon for seasonal work in their Kansas warehouse.  That will be a tough job with 4/10 hour days and later 5/10 hour days, and some potential voluntary 6/10 hour days if we want the additional overtime.  After we are finished with this last job, we will drive through Lawton Oklahoma for a quick visit with our daughter and grand daughters, before heading, hopefully, to a warmer and drier early new year winter stay somewhere in the south of Texas.

5 Years Of Full-Timing!

March marked our fifth year on the road.  Wow, we have seen so much and have met so many people in the last five years.  Sandy put together some simple collages to show where we have been and what we have experienced in our five years full time RV living.

from NW Washington to Key West Florida

South Dakota, Florida,
Montana, Arizona, Texas

Utah, Missouri, Kentucky, Montana, Florida

So, here's to our next five years on the road....
Happy Trails!

What Does a Month Mean to You? (Seaside, OR)

Okay, so our plan for posting once a month did not work out too well.  So, what have we been doing since our last posting?  We started out August in Pacific City for two weeks and for the last two weeks, we were in Seaside.  We returned to Pacific City in early September...the black-hole for any kind of signal service and that is why we have not posted until now.  We have decided that it is our least favorite Thousand Trails due to limited full hook-ups, roads, space to maneuver, no cell phone service and very limited internet connections.

During our two times in Pacific City, we kept ourselves entertained with lots of walks on the beach and around the campground.  There were two things we did like about the campground - the healthy walks were really good because of the hills and the friendly rabbits were entertaining.

 The rabbits come running up to our feet looking for carrots.

It is definitely a lot wetter here along the coast which doesn't bother us most of the time.  It was rather nice to walk through the woods on a foggy days, but the mud wasn't much fun to walk through at times.  Every once in awhile we would discover small streams along the way.

Cape Lookout trail

Now, we are back in Seaside for the second time with a better connection to the world.  We haven't been back very long...only a few days.

During this time, we were going to install a new shower door that we had special ordered from Home Depot.  The old shower door was falling off  its hinges.  We thought about just doing a shower curtain, but the cats find it fun to hide behind and scratch holes in it.

We were going to do a before and after photo.  Unfortunately, our plans have been delayed because the company sent the wrong size.  Now, we are waiting for the second shower door and we have extended our stay in this area by making reservations at Ft. Stevens State Park for an additional five days.  Hopefully, by the time we blog again, we will be showing off our new shower door.

The last time we were here, Dan ordered and hooked up a Tailgater portable antenna for Dish Network via satellite.  Now, we can watch TV and just in time for the new fall season.  Yea!!

During our first visit to Seaside, we visited with Dan's Aunt and Uncle in Astoria along with their youngest son's family.  It was great seeing and catching up with all of them.  Dan's cousin's family came to Seaside for the day before heading home.  

We had a wonderful time watching their son ride the carousel at the Seaside Carousel Mall.  Afterwards, we walked around the downtown area as well as on the beach.

 We also had the opportunity to watch the relay racers from Hood to Coast Relay cross the finish line.  This is one long race.

  

 

Sandy's quilting blog is updated more often than this travel blog, and has pictures on each post.  You can read the quilting blog here: http://quiltincats.blogspot.com/ 

 

We hope everyone had a great summer.

Happy Trails!

 

 

NW Oregon's Coast (Seaside, OR)

We have been spending a lot of time outdoors visiting the area.  Seaside is just as lovely as we remember it.  We walked along Seaside's Promenade along the beach and then around the downtown area.  So here are a few of the sights we saw on one walk...

Quaint gingerbread style beach houses...

 

Love birds in the garden.

 People and birds mingling together.

Psst!  Can I have the extra coffee?

 Retro and bright colors....

Along with lighthouse style buildings adds a wonderful festive feel to the downtown area.

We stopped by the Carousel Mall to watch the carousel.

 Flowers everywhere....

 We visited the Ecola State Park south of Seaside on Hwy 101 and just north of Cannon Beach.   

 

We had a great view of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.  The story of building the lighthouse and maintaining it is quite a defeat against weather and sea.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

Wind bent trees

Last, but not least...this little guy was sitting pretty on what looks like a dry Queen Anne's Lace flower. He is missing patches of feathers, but that seems to add to his character.

Wheels Waves, Seaside, OR

Ah the smell of salt air mingled with car exhaust, the crashing thunder of waves blending with rumbling car engines vibrating off Seaside’s downtown buildings. Even the weather was cooperating – no rain! If you love cars, this was the place to be. Most of the cars were older than 1962. Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge – you name it, they were probably there. Most were modified hot rods and hand built customs. They lined the streets, the alleys, and the convention center’s parking lot.

Starting around 1 pm, our plan was to spend a couple of hours looking at the cars, have an earlier dinner, and go home. It took us almost five hours and I don’t think we saw all of them! Around 6pm, the cars started a Cruise parade. It was a blast! Taking us back in time to our teenage years.

We also drove down the coast of Oregon on Hwy 101. We stopped in Cannon Beach and at Hug Point so we could walk the beaches. Sandy has uploaded pictures of the Wheels & Waves car show along with a couple of the beaches we visited while staying in Seaside, OR.