The Adventure Begins Again

12/15/04 - Preparing for A Long Journey
Today we made final preparations for an extended trip. I drained the hot tub this time, we did a little last minute gardening and looked for tax papers in the huge pile of boxes still in our garage. Unfortunately we only found some of them. It's kind of embarrassing losing something important like that. My wife has been searching for days for some jewelry she has not seen since we moved too. I guess we can live without these things for a few more months. When we return in the Spring we will go through all the boxes again and really get settled in to our Carlton home.

As usual we did not actually leave until after dark and had to drive through fairly thick fog to Eugene (Map) where we have an appointment to get the awning replaced and some other things repaired. Although a little nerve wracking, the trip went safely and we pulled into the RV Corral about 10:30PM.

The trip was rather cold however, mostly due to the fact that we could not get the dash heater to give us any heat. The fans barely kept the windows defrosted. So we wrapped ourselves in coats and blankets to stay warm. We'll have to get the heating system checked out tomorrow.

Leaving this time was a bit different than last time. We felt much better prepared after having lived in the coach for nearly six weeks. It was kind of weird being home, not knowing which bedroom to sleep in or which refrigerator to find the salad in. We will miss our hot tub and our Lazy Boy recliners.

12/16/04 - RV Corral Service
The RV Corral Service department was not quite as efficient today as it has been on other occasions. They spent most of the day working on making the shelves in our pantry stronger because they had begun to fall apart and installing new lights above my wife's work station. The awning did get repaired but not without some extra time and effort on their part.

Fortunately the night crew was able to pick up where the day crew left off and repainted our peeling steps and looked into our heating problem. They replaced a valve that they believed to be stuck closed.

12/17/04 - Davis Cabinet Repairs
This morning we drove back up to Davis Cabinets in Junction City to get our table repaired. They also finished installing three drawer pulls, adjusted some cabinet doors and put locks on my big file cabinet drawers which had been flying open on mountain roads. We were done by about 3PM and went back to the RV Corral where we reported we now had heat and decided to spend the night.

Rocky Oregon Coast

12/18/04 - Back Down the Oregon Coast
Today we headed south down I5 to OR38 where we cut back over to the coast the way we had come about a week ago. It was a beautiful sunny day and a great drive through the rolling hills along picturesque rivers. We made it as far as Bandon before dark, where we stopped at an RV Park and watched the sunset. The dogs had a great time playing on the beach as darkness set in.

The one problem we had on the trip today was that instead of the dash heater not blowing warm air, now it would not blow any cool air, so we were too warm instead of too cold. I'm not sure where we will go to get this resolved.

12/19/04 - A Beautiful Oregon Day
Another beautiful day and drive down the Oregon Coast. We stopped at a restaurant in Gold Beach for brunch that we had also stopped at on the way North. This time instead of a howling wind and rain it was clear and fairly warm. So after lunch we walked next door and admired some fine carved Myrtle wood. Later in the afternoon we stopped at a beach and let the dogs run and took a bunch of pictures.

Retracing our steps some more we spent the night in McKinnleyville where we had stayed on the trip North. We also had dinner at the great Chinese Buffet we had previously discovered.

Elk Grazing near Eureka

12/20/04 - Back to California
This morning we stopped by JoSonja's studio again on our way through Eureka and my wife bought some more paints and some wax to put on our newly refinished table. It was another beautiful day and we had a great trip down the coast and through the Redwoods.

We stopped in Willits to see a dear friend for a little while and then stopped for the night at the Ukiah Fairgrounds. After we got settled we drove to Redwood Valley and had dinner with our friends Susie and Gene. They served us venison which I have only had one other time in my life.