Home Again

12/04/04 - Back to Carlton
Today we got up at a our leisure and headed north. We remembered, somewhere along the trip, several things we had left in Carlton, OR (Map) that we wished we have taken with us, so we decided to go back and start again. Because of weather reports that indicated the possibility of snow along I5 we headed up US101 back toward Eureka (Map). We made it as far as Benbow this evening and are spending the night at a great RV Park there (the Benbow Valley RV Park Resort). The drive today was a little rainy but very beautiful.

12/05/04 - Computer Accident
This morning I was getting something out of a cabinet above my desk and it fell and spilled a glass of water all over my computer. I immediately shut it down and turned it over while my wife grabbed the hair dryer and tried to blow all the water out. This evening I tried turning it on again and got only a wildly flickering screen. Needless to say I was pretty upset and disappointed about this accident.

Beautiful Victorian Building in Eureka

We spent part of the day exploring Eureka's old town (which has many beautiful Victorian buildings) and had dinner at a great Chinese buffet where we ran into my cousin's daughter and her husband who we had spent Thanksgiving with a week or so before. One of the shops we went into had a very wide selection of beautiful and interesting things to see including stained glass, carvings, clothes and even shoes, all packed into a fairly small space.

We spent the night at a little RV Park just north of Eureka called Widow White Creek RV Park in McKinleyville. They had dozens of well manicured little pine trees all decorated in colored lights. It was very pretty and really started to get us in the Christmas mood.

12/06/04 - JoSonja's Studio
Today my wife wanted to go back to Eureka and visit Jo Sonja Jensen's studio. We had stopped the day before but because it was Sunday it was closed. My wife has known of JoSonja for many years and recently has grown to love her line of Acrylic paints which she uses in her decorative painting. So she was thrilled to finally meet JoSonja and see her studio which was filled with great examples of decorative painting from both recent times and hundreds of years ago.

This afternoon we continued our journey north in the rain and enjoyed the beautiful northern California coast. As darkness fell we decided to stop at the KOA in Crescent City. The park seemed open, but there was nobody around, so we picked out a spot that seemed pretty easy to get into. Just then someone showed up to help us and suggested another spot which she knew was longer and would accommodate us better. So we registered and then unhooked Scout in the pouring rain.

As I backed the coach up, I realized that my visibility was very poor. The person in charge was trying to be very helpful however and escorted us to the camp site using a flashlight. As I was about half way into the site I realized that I was very close to a wooden fence post and stopped to get assurance from my guide that I would clear it OK. She waved me on and (being the trusting person I am) ran right over the post. After getting parked I went to inspect the damage and could not see much in the pouring rain.

12/07/04 - More Damage to the Coach
This morning I looked again at the side of my coach and found that two of the basement doors had been damaged in the accident the previous evening. So I found the person who had directed me, along with her manager and we all had a good look. After taking some photos we were told we needed to contact the owners.

I guess I need to learn that, while it is good to trust people, it is better to trust my intuition.

It was a rather wild, windy, rainy ride up the coast today. We got into Coos Bay (Map) before sunset and found an RV Park there which suited us very well. We had heard many people say the Coos Bay was a great place, so we went exploring for a little while. We found nothing to write home about.

12/08/04 - Back to Eugene
Today we headed inland to avoid high wind warning along the coast. We had another beautiful drive, spotting a heard of Elk along the highway, and arrived at the RV Corral in Eugene before dark. The service department took a look at my awning while the body shop wrote an estimate on the basement door damage. We have some warranty things for them to look at in the morning, so we'll spend the night here.

I decided to try out my computer again tonight and was very pleased when it booted right up. I guess I won't have to take it in for repairs after all. Halleluiah.

12/09/04 - Home Sweet Home
The folks at the RV Corral did another great job at taking care of a few minor things that we had concerns about. Then we went to visit Rick at Davis Cabinets and he took a look at our table and a couple of other minor problems with their custom cabinets and asked us to come back in a week for the repairs. So we drove the rest of the way back to Carlton as the sunset and took on another load of diesel in McMinnville.

It was good to be home. Everything was exactly as we had left it. The first order of business was to heat up the hot tub so it would be ready for us the next evening. Our neighbor Armand came over to greet us which was very nice. it was great to see him again

12/10/04 0 - New Software Release
My wife did a lot of laundry today while I worked on a new version of one of my software products called Rental Property Tracker Plus. I had intended to get it out last week but had some problems with Virtual PC on my Mac. With the help of my trusty Compaq desktop, I got the new version out easily. I guess I'll have to find room on the coach for the PC in case I need it again. I much prefer my Macintosh PowerBook G4, which I can use to develop, test and deliver the software, but I need some kind of PC to build the Windows installers.

12/14/04 - Dinner with Carlton Friends
Last night we had our Carlton friends Tom and Marsha over for dinner. Tom had come over earlier in the day to fix the doors he had installed in our breezeway that had swollen in the rain to the point that they would no longer close. He also helped me swap the mattress in the coach with the one we had originally received with the coach which was in the bedroom in the house. it was good to get to know these relatively new friends better.

Today I got a new version of another one of my products, Vacation Rental Tracker Plus, delivered. It always makes me feel good to deliver a version which I feel is much better than the last one. I also spent considerable time evaluating what I had on the coach and how the load was organized.