A View From My Window

I have not done "A View From My Window" since we were in Arizona. I've been slacking!!

This summer we volunteered at Wallowa Lake State Park in NE Oregon. We enjoy being here and plan to return next summer. The campground is located at the base of the large mountain in the photo below. The international Kokanie record was broken at Wallowa Lake in June. Here are a few photos from our time at the Lake.

Our grandson Joshua at BC Falls. The Falls are located 1.5 miles up the Chief Joseph Trial. Quite a hike...all up hill. Over rocks and roots. You wind up the trial and in several locations you are looking down on Wallowa Lake. Dwain lead campers on several hikes up Chief Joseph trial. He taught them how better use their cameras. The campers were enthusiastic and appreciative. Our Lucy went on the hikes too. I was amazed that her little legs didn't get tired 'til part way down the trail.


Many deer who roam the park. Above is a photo of a big old buck, a new fawn and the buck investigating a food cooler. There are signs to tell people NOT to feed the deer. Unfortunately, some do. The deer get creative in opening coolers, cereal box, etc in order to help themselves. They are dangerous wild animals even when they appear friendly. They are accustomed to having people in their environment. Several people a year are sent to the ER with deer injuries. They also carry ticks and lice.

This is my birthday dinner. Dwain cooked a pot roast, potatoes, carrots and onions in the dutch oven. It was yummy!! The pot roast is under the veggies. It cooked all afternoon. Not every campground has a fire ring. We are happy they are at Wallowa Lake. Dwain has used his dutch ovens often.

Wallowa Lake has over 200 sites, five loops plus three group camp areas, with each loop having a shower house/bathroom. There are handicap sites. They have three day use areas and do not charge a day use fee. There is a marina with boats, paddle boats and kayaks to rent and a boat launch. A paraglider is for rent too. Swimming is always fun. There are programs scheduled for the evening along with the traditional Jr. Ranger Program. There is local shopping, restaurants, cabins, bumper boats, miniature golf, horse riding and two private campgrounds. There are any different length hiking trails, including overnight backpacking opportunities. A tram runs up Mt. Howard. At the top you can enjoy gorgeous views along with hiking trails. There is a grill at the top of Mt. Howard so you can have lunch or a snack. Many pack their own vitals. Wallowa Lake State Park borders the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Here are new photos of Lucy. She is 6 months old. She has been such a good puppy that I was beginning to wonder why she didn't do what other puppies do, like chew our shoes. We had a cold, wet evening and we were selling fire wood. We felt she wouldn't enjoy being outside so we left her in the RV and checked on her every hour. She did great until the last hour. During that time she chewed the inside of the heels of my slippers. She has been pooping stuffing foam for two days!

Heather and I took her for her first grooming appointment. To make the story short, the groomer did not trim Lucy as I asked so we won't be returning. Lucy did not like the groomer or being left.

I don't have a photo of her new haircut without her sweatshirt. The cut does show us her poodle-side. The other Park Hosts love Lucy so she gets more than her share of attention.

This photo was taken at the beach on July 4th. She is true to her Dachshund breed in that her nose is always to the ground sniffing, hence the sandy nose!

Lucy is a good traveler. We have a little bed between us in the truck. Most of the time we are driving she is sleeping.

What's New?

We are still at Wallowa Lake State Park. We've been asked to stay through September. That works for us! As of today, we will spend the month of October at Manhattan Wayside just north of Rockaway on the Oregon Coast. November and December we will be at Nehalem Bay State Park. We haven't decided if we will go to Arizona this winter. We don't head south until January, so have time to discuss.

Our Lucy has shown us that she is a sweet dog. She learns fast. At four months she weighed 5.7 pounds. We had her spayed 10 days ago. She recouped well. Had her first shower since the surgery today. She looks so much better. She has given us hours of comic relief. :D
I'm thankful she doesn't eat much because finding a place for a bag of dog food is at a premium. We are able to buy a six pound bag, which doesn't take much room. It lasts about six weeks.

We put our 8 x 10 dinning canopy over our picnic table. This time of year it provides needed shade.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and laundry. Dwain has phone calls to make. Then at 4 pm we sell wood until 9 pm. I must be creative for our dinner meal. When we are selling wood, we take turns eating so need something that can be kept warm or warm up easily.

Wallowa Lake State Park

We decided to park host for a month or two. We called Wallowa Lake State Park, located in NE Oregon in Wallowa County and they had a place for us. For who are unfamiliar with park hosting, I will give you a short description.

Oregon State Parks require you to file an application. Once a criminal background check has been completed, you are placed on a list. Each park has a Host Coordinator who will select a host from the list. Hosts are given a full hookup site in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer work. We work five days a week. Some State Parks have you work 20 hours.

Federal Campgrounds, BLM, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife and private campgrounds also have hosting. Some exchange for a full hook up, others will pay a monthly wage.

We enjoy hosting. We visit with campers from all walks of life and from around the world. We work with hosts who are fun to get to know.

We would recommend hosting to anyone.

The FREE Puppy!

This is a new experience for us! I know that millions of other rv'rs wouldn't think of traveling without their pet, but for the past seven years we've not had a dog. We had lots of dogs before becoming RV'rs but not until now as RV'rs. We had a parakeet named Sunny that tolerated us fairly well but he passed on a couple of years back. We talked about getting another one and even visited every pet store that had them if we were close by. Well, we now have "Lucy Sue." a mixed breed of Dachshund (we know) and Cocker Spaniel (we think!). She is totally black with long wavy hair and is very mellow for a puppy. This is good for old people like us.

The dog was free! Yesterday we spent just about 100 dollars on the first vet visit, shots, harness, leash, toys, food, etc. A friend gave us a crate for her to sleep in (yeah, right!) and now we need to figure out where the crate will go as well as how to get her to sleep in it.

Lucy is still training us and we are working hard to learn her lessons. Even though she is only 9 weeks old, she knows to go outside from time to time to eliminate what needs to be eliminated. To teach us when it is time for this, she goes to the door and then looks back to see if we're coming. If we're not, she paw's and nips at a nearby shoe which we remove on entering our home and keep by the doorway for quick access when we want to go out. If we haven't figured out by then that she wants out, the next sign is unmistakable and she no longer needs to go outdoors.

She likes to take lots of naps now, which is well and good because we do too. She is napping by my foot as I write this, but she doesn't seem to want to sleep at night. At least not in the crate. Have you ever seen a dog that doesn't go nuts over peanut butter? We bought a small Kong and I put peanut butter inside and placed the Kong in the crate. This is what the vet and others said to do to encourage the puppy to begin liking the crate as a sleeping space. This dog doesn't care for either peanut butter or the crate. We feed her there though and she will go in for treats I place inside to entice her in there. She just brings the treats, food, or toys back out to eat or play with on the carpet.

I'm sure we have many more lessons to learn form our new friend, and hopefully we will be good students. For now though I think I'll take advantage of Lucy's down time by attempting to sneak her in the crate in her blanket and see how long it lasts. She's still sleeping by my foot so there's a chance it might work, wish me luck!

It's been some time since I've posted. We are in Wallowa, Oregon, staying in the Wallowa River RV Park. We have been spending the summer at this park for about 7 years. It's a quiet park with friendly owners and occupants.

The weather has been a typical spring. Winter fights with Spring to see who will win. One day Winter wins and we have snow and cold winds. The next day Spring is on top with sunny days, but still freezing at night. Soon Spring will win and we will enjoy warm weather.

Our roof collided with a tree while on the Oregon coast this winter. We will be taking the Montana into Curt's RV in LaGrande to provide us with a new roof. Down side...we will be without the Montana for four to five days while the repair is completed. We will stay in our small Komfort. There goes our insurance!

I am not looking forward to having the Montana gone. I guess it is the unknown that might come about. I know I should not worry about that, but I do. So will put clothes, bathroom supplies and food in and know we will be fine. It's only a few days!

We checked into park hosting at Wallowa Lake State Park. The host coordinator, Shawn, will contact us in a couple of days. The decision was made because of saving approximately $320 a month for a few months.

Have enjoyed watching Josh's baseball games. Patrick's baseball won't start 'til the end of May.

We have family who moved to Enterprise this last month, David and Donna Handler. It will be nice to have them here. We will be able to see them more often. I like that!

A View From My Window...My Friends and Neighbors

One of my favorite parts of full-time RV'g are the different animals we see and enjoy.

Here are photos I recently took...

Quartzsite, Arizona is home to this colorful bird who sings beautifully. He looks like a House Finch, except my books show them as red, where this little friend is orange.











Here is a little neighbor who comes to eat often. He is
a Broad-Tailed Hummingbird. We have seen
several different Hummingbirds, but this little guy
returns more often.

A View From My Window

This is what I saw when I looked out my back window in Quartzsite, Arizona. This is a morning shot taken just after the sun came up.




While in Quartzsite, we boondocked in Tyson Wash, which is a long term visitor's area on BLM land. It is a quiet area with not as many campers as in the other long term areas. We paid $40 for the privilege of camping on on BLM land. Across Highway 95, we had access to water and a dump station. We buy our drinking water.

We took the time to visit the many booths in Quartzsite. It's amazing how many RVs converge on this small town during the winter.

Senator's Wash

We arrived at Senator's Wash on Thursday, February 4. We found a parking spot in the same area we stayed two years ago. While I readied the inside of the RV, Dwain set up outside, including the solar panels and satellite dishes.

Senator's Wash is located at Imperial Dam, behind the Army's Proving Grounds, 20 miles north of Yuma. It is a Long Term Visitor's Area. There are more rigs here this year.

A lady we met two years ago came by to welcome us. It was wonderful to see Judy. We will visit on Saturday and I look forward to our time together.

Thursday was a relaxing day.

Friday morning we went to Walmart in Yuma. We picked up groceries and had the oil changed in the truck. We also dropped off two prescriptions for refill. There are so many retirees in the area that we were told it would take two days to fill the prescription.

We had a relaxful afternoon.

The Next Stop

Here's our set up in Quartzsite, Arizona. We've been here about eleven days and this has been a really good arrangement. I was expecting strong winds when we arrived so I set my satellite dishes and solar panels so the trailer would shelter them. We had a couple of strong gusts that would have caused minor problems had I not done this. The only problem with setting the dishes so close is that I could not open the awning if I wanted to. I didn't here because of the constant wind but it is a consideration to be made.

We chose to park in a Bureau of Land Management, LTVA. "LTVA" stands for "Long Term Visitor Area." There are four of these in this area and you must pay a minor fee to use them. We paid $40.00 for two weeks. The dump site and water fill is about two miles away.

Tomorrow we head South to another LTVA near Yuma, AZ. It's called Senator Wash and is actually in California on the other side of the the Colorado River. Near Imperial Dam.

Reorganizing

We took on the task of pulling all containers from the basement. They were brought into the house and gone through. Very little disposed of. Mostly it was reorganized and condensed. I had a container with small holiday decorations and a box of clothes we do not use but wanted to keep for a colder climate. Everything fit in the basement. It was nice to clear the corner behind the table and chairs.

We had two boxes containing maps, travel info and our Passport and AOR books. I was able to condense them into one box.

Being in the desert allows us time to accomplish projects and it feels good.

Quartzsite, Arizona

This morning we prepared our Montana to hit the road. Once ready, we had a final visit with Sonny and Mary. We were able to leave by 10 am. We took Highway 15 to 210, then onto Highway 10. Our travel was uneventful except for a few drivers who need to take a Drivers Education class.

We contacted the BLM registration booth by 2:30 pm. Their fees are $40 for two weeks or $180 for the season (September 15 to April 15). We registered for two weeks, then proceeded to find a place to park. Dwain was able to set up the TV and internet satellites and to repair the stand for the solar panels.

Looking forward to tomorrow.


We discovered tomorrow is the last day of the Main Event tent. We decided we will check it out Sunday morning. We must be home by 1:00 ... AFC and NFC games will be on.

On the Road Again

We are preparing for travel from Apple Valley, California to Quartzsite, Arizona. It is approximately a five hour drive.

Tomorrow is an errand and laundry day. It is also the last day for visiting with our friends Sonny and Mary. They are the perfect hosts.

It has been raining and blowing so hard we haven't been able to do much outside.

I have rearrange a couple of cupboards. We were in such need of closet space that I took clothing we won't need this winter, packed them in a box and will route to Heather's. She can store them in our smaller RV until we return to Wallowa in the spring.

With all the rain Apple Valley is receiving, I keep checking the seasonal leak under the refrigerator. Our luck has held...it is still dry. :D

On The Road to Apple Valley, California

An unusual situation occurred when we left Charleston ... It was not raining!! We are usually plagued with rain when preparing the RV for travel. The dry weather was a nice gift.

We traveled a few hours south and stopped at Harris Beach State Park near Brookings, Oregon. Oregon was experiencing storms which included high winds. We thought it was a good idea to get off the road for a couple of days. The surf of the Pacific Ocean was so high you couldn't walk the beach. It was a relaxful couple of days spent mostly inside. It allowed me to do a few chores I had been putting off.

Because we were about to cross the border into California, we tried to remember what food could not cross the California border. We assumed it was fruit. We had three apples, four oranges, four kiwi, two lemons and one lime. OMG! I didn't want to give up this much produce. That's like throwing away money for me. So we ate the kiwis, oranges and an apple. I grated and squeezed the lemons and lime for the freezer. Just before leaving, I quartered the remaining apples and hoped we could eat them before arriving at the border. We were so full of fruit, we didn't eat the apples like I hoped we would. When we arrived at the check point, they questioned us about fruit and produce. They didn't want our apples!

Driving Highway 101 in northern California is scenic. First along the beach, then into the Redwoods. We stayed at a Passport America park, Stafford RV Park, in Stafford, California. This park is owned by a local church. They had monthly renters. It had been raining and the ground was soft. It took our 4-wheel drive to park and pull out. We were the only rig parked in the back, so it was quiet.

South of Sacramento we took Highway 20 east to I-5. It was foggy beside Clear Lake. I was disappointed because the last time we drove Highway 20 it was dark. I was looking forward to seeing the lake.

We stayed at a truck stop in Santa Nella, California. After midnight, the trucks settled down and it was quiet for several hours. We woke to thick fog. We talked about waiting for the fog to lift, but decided to take off. Driving was fine. At times the fog was thick and other times it had raised a bit.

We arrived in Apple Valley at about 3:30 pm. We are enjoying our time with our friends Sonny and Mary.

Charleston, Oregon

We are on the road again, finally! We spent our first night at South Beach State park near the Aquarium at Newport, Oregon. This park was easy to move around in and because we were there in the off season we didn't need reservations. We just pulled in, found a spot we liked and self registered. The park has a welcome center where you can get hot coffee or tea, free popcorn, and visit with a campground host. There is also books to buy, puzzles to check out, and other things that might be of interest.

We hiked most of the trails to the beach and to the south jetty of Yaquina Bay before leaving the park. The only problem we had was that most of the other folks in the park had dogs. One of these decided to bark during the night which some of the other dogs were inclined to join in with.
All the dogs were well mannered, but I can't quite say as much for their masters.

We're now located at a nice little private park near Charleston, Oregon called "Oceanside RV Park." Our trailer is actually about 300 feet from the beach. We found this park as we were headed in to the beautiful Sunset Bay State Park. The problem with the state park for us was that we needed to be able to use both our cell phone and internet connections. Both these parks are located near Shore Acres State Park which is famous for it seascapes and flowers.

Oceanside RV park has reduced its winter rates to $10 dollars per day sunday through thursday. Friday and Saturday are still $20 bucks a night for over-nighters. The park offers cable TV and WiFi along with the regular full hookups. Propane is available here for $2.70 a gallon right now. We'll fill our cylinders before we leave. Sunset Bay State Park gives you water, 30amp electric, and sewer for $16 dollars per night.

Most of the other people in the park right now are paying by the month, but a few short term folks stop in too. The roads here are gravel and in wet weather your rig won't stay clean but that's what you deal with when you RV in the winter.