Today Joanne did our final ( large ) load of laundry before departure on Tuesday. I did a final preventive maintenance on Lanoire ( the truck ) ; adjust the air pressure on all seven tires, and top-up all fluids. I ran the bathroom and range hood fans all day to dehumidify the house, and will keep them running until we depart. Running the fans continuously has a tendency to make the house a bit chilly, because the fans are expelling moist indoor air and cold ( but dry ) outside air is being drawn into the house.
I finished the monthly medical travel records keeping that I have been keeping for Gord to submit to the Saskatchewan Workers' Compensation Board. I gave Marcie her second and final lesson in cleaning and treating Ozzie's ears to prevent a recurrence of the horrendous ear infections that he had, that took me about five months to "cure". Our neighbour / friend Jeanine came over and visited with us this afternoon. I returned a book to the clubhouse library, and selected some books to replenish my personal supply of books to read.
I did my regular weekly investments summary review and analysis. I posted my weekly journal to my blog. We ate supper ( home made cream of celery soup ... Joanne has to use up fridge contents that wouldn't be allowed across the border ) while watching Downton Abbey.
Monday ; Hallowe'en ; Cloudy, mild, no wind, a fairly nice fall day.
We both worked all day on departure preparations. And now ( 6:30 PM ) we're ready to go tomorrow morning. The minivan is winterized. My beard and moustache and eyebrows are trimmed, I look somewhat civilized again. HA HA HA ! All yard furniture is stored. The dog has had a bath. The DAMP RID containers are all filled and ready to be arranged around the house tomorrow morning to absorb moisture during the winter. Month end bank and investment statements are retrieved and printed.
I'll reconcile them while travelling. Ink cartridges have been removed from the printer. A book that Joanne just finished reading has been returned to the clubhouse library. We went to the dog park with Bo, and then a long walk in cold drizzle ... YUCK ... around the RV park. And Joanne has just finished a long phone call with her sister.
Tuesday ; home to Omak, Washington
Mostly cloudy, cool, a few drops of rain in the morning.
This morning ... and afternoon ... we prepared for departure from home. Usually we are ready to leave home on November 1 around lunch time. But today we did not leave home until 3 PM. I ran into some problems with our park model manufactured home winterization procedures. Specifically, I had some difficulty with draining the water heater. I am going to have revise the procedures that I use in the future to drain the water heater to make it a quicker process.
Before leaving home we dropped off a large bag of recycling at the home of our neighbour / friend Jeanine, so that she can put it out for pick up on Friday, we said our goodbyes to Gord and Marcie, and we ate lunch in the camper while waiting for the water heater to drain. We both think that today was our final farewell to Gord.
We left home about 3 PM and drove east on Hwy. 3 into Keremeos where we refilled our five gallon water jug and made a small purchase at the grocery store so that we would have a purchase receipt proving that we were still in Canada on November 1, should it ever be necessary to prove to our travel medical insurer that we did not leave Canada before November 1. We continued east on Hwy. 3 to Osoyoos where we turned south on Hwy. 97 to the border crossing.
We crossed the border at 4:30 PM and it was the first time that we crossed the border at Osoyoos and were not subjected to an inspection by Agriculture. Do the Agriculture staff at the Osoyoos / Oroville border crossing only work until 4 PM ? The border crossing was easier and quicker than usual. The Customs & Border Patrol agent asked six sensible and pertinent questions ;
1. Where are you going ? Yuma, Arizona
2. How long will you be in the United States ? 175 days
3. Do you have any plants or fruits ? No
4. Do you have any vegetables ? No
4. Do you have any tobacco or alcohol ? 1 bottle of wine
5. Do you have any drugs or guns ? No
We arrived in Omak about 5:30 PM. By the time we had done a bit of grocery shopping at Wal-Mart it was dark and we decided to spend the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We took Bo for a long walk, then had an early ( for us ) supper about 7 PM.
Wednesday ; Omak, Washington to Memaloose Rest Area ( & State Park )
Gloomy and raining this morning in Omak. The rain stopped and the sky slowly cleared throughout the day as we drove.
We left the Wal-Mart in Omak this morning around 10 AM. We drove to the nearby Omak Fairgrounds to use their sani-dump station. The water was already turned off for the winter, so we were unable to refill our freshwater tank, but we did dump our waste holding tanks. We headed south out of town on Hwy. 97 which we followed for most of the day.
We stopped at Lincoln Rocks State Park to refill our freshwater tank. While I did that Joanne took Bo for a walk. She discovered a "fairy ring" of mushrooms. Well ... quite a few "fairy rings" of mushrooms, actually. We have seen pictures of mushroom "fairy rings" in my Mushroom Hunter book, but had never seen them in reality. I picked one of the fairy ring mushrooms, and tried to identify it using my Mushroom Hunter book later while we were having lunch, but I was unable to positively identify it.
We stopped in the picturesque small town of Cashmere, home of Liberty Orchards, producers of "Applets & Cotlets" fruit candy confections. We stocked up on enough of their products to last the winter. We'll stop and buy more for next summer when we're northbound next spring.
We refilled Lanoire with diesel in Ellensburg, Washington. The price of diesel fuel is quite cheap in the U.S. this year, especially so when compared to Canadian fuel
prices ! We drove more miles today than usual, so that we would be near the small city of The Dalles, where we will be meeting our 95 year old friend Eilene for lunch tomorrow. When Hwy. 97 crossed over the Columbia River, the border between Washington and Oregon, we turned west on Interstate 84 and followed the very scenic Columbia River Gorge, about a dozen miles past The Dalles where we need to be tomorrow at lunch time, to stop and spend the night at Memaloose Rest Area, adjacent to Memaloose State Park. When we arrived at the rest area, precisely at 6:15 PM as
I had planned, which is when it becomes dark, we took Bo for a long, leisurely walk around the very large rest area along the banks of the Columbia River. We all enjoyed that after a long day of driving.
Joanne made a wonderful supper of Maple Syrup glazed, baked Sockeye Salmon. MMMMM !
Thursday ; Memaloose Rest Area to The Dalles to Portland to McMinnville, Oregon
Sunny and mild. A very nice fall day.
We left Melamoose Rest Area this morning around 11 AM and "back tracked" about a dozen miles or so east on Interstate 84 to the city of The Dalles where our 95 year old friend Eilene lives. We arrived in The Dalles a bit early for our noon luncheon date with Eilene. Joanne needed to finish drying and styling her hair so we pulled into a shopping mall so that she could do that. While she dried and styled her hair ... I went browsing in the Goodwill Thrift Store that was in the mall where we had parked. Bought two pairs of pants. HA HA HA !
When we arrived at the seniors' residence where Eilene lives she wanted to walk to a nearby restaurant since the weather was so nice. So ... we walked a few blocks to the restaurant she chose for lunch. It's very impressive to us that at her age Eilene still enjoys going for walks like that. We had a pleasant lunch, then while walking back to her residence Eilene wanted to show us a local glass blowing artist's workshop and display store. What lovely blown glass art. I watched the glass blower and his assistant working for awhile, making blown glass flowers, then bought a freshly made blown glass Christmas ornament. All of our Christmas ornaments are special mementoes of people and / or places. This ornament will always be a reminder to us of Eilene.
After saying goodbye to Eilene we drove to the shopping mall across the street from where we had lunch, to shop at Walgreen's and refill with diesel at the Safeway Fuel Bar before leaving The Dalles. Diesel was quite inexpensive at the Safeway Fuel Bar. Could that be because it was 20% bio-diesel ?
From The Dalles we drove about an hour and a half west on Interstate 84 following the Columbia River Gorge to Portland. First stop in Portland was Camping World where
I bought a couple of repair items I require for our fifth wheel trailer in Yuma, Arizona. We searched for a PetsMart that Joanne had poor directions to, but I abandoned the search before we found it. We continued west on I-84 to downtown Portland where we went shopping at Trader Joes's. WOO-HOO ! Eighty-four bucks worth of impulse purchase exotic / gourmet food items. That should be enough Trader Joe's items to last us until our next Trader Joe's shopping trip in Palm Springs when we go there for New Year's Eve. HA HA HA !
We left the Trader Joe's store at 6:05 PM and were back on I-84 at 6:15 PM, just as daylight ended. A few more miles west on I-84 then we turned south on Interstate 5 for a dozen or so miles, then southwest on Hwy. 99A to McMinnville, arriving at the
Wal-Mart in McMinnville around 7:30 PM. From Trader Joe's in downtown Portland to the Wal-Mart in McMinnville was about an hour and a half of bumper to bumper, high speed, rush hour traffic. WHEW ! I certainly am glad that we don't have to drive to work any more in urban rush hour traffic every day.
We spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot where we were stranded two years ago for about twenty-four hours because of a truck dead batteries problem.
Friday ; McMnnville to Grand Ronde, Oregon
Mild temperature, extremely thick fog, not lifting until mid-afternoon. And it didn't lift very far. It rose to about tree top level, creating a cloud ceiling above fifty feet above ground level. Pretty tough IFR flying conditions !
We were a bit uncomfortable spending the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in McMinnville last night. All around the periphery of the parking lot were cars with homeless people in them. And at every freeway exit and entrance ramp that we used in and around Portland yesterday afternoon were homeless panhandlers. In the past we have seen this kind of homelessness and panhandling in California, but it now seems to have migrated as far north as Portland.
We didn't drive very far today. Only about 50 km. / 30 miles. This morning while I was getting myself ready Joanne went into Wal-Mart to do a bit of our semi-annual Oregon tax free shopping. When she was done we drove across the street to check if Petco accepts competitor ( PetsMart ) coupons. They don't. We left McMinnville heading southwest on Hwy. 18 to Spirit Mountain Casino near Grand Ronde.
When we arrived at Spirit Mountain Casino we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank at the casino's RV parking lot's sani-dump station. How convenient ! We have been here once before, two years ago, to see a Penn & Teller performance. We selected a parking spot, then Joanne and I went into the casino to wander and explore. We decided we wanted to have a late lunch at the buffet restaurant. I did a bit of online work in the casino's Business Centre, where computers were available for use.
After a leisurely lunch in the Cedar Plank Buffet we returned to our camper and took Bo for a long walk and play session before we all went for a long nap. Joanne napped much longer than me and Bo. While she continued napping Bo and I went for another walk, then I puttered around with more computer work, doing some travel planning, reconciling month end bank statements and financial statements, etc.
Geeeeez, it was dark at 6 PM. And tomorrow night the clocks fall back, so on Sunday it will be dark at 5 PM !
Saturday ; Grand Ronde to Tillamook & return
RAINING ! ! ! Note to selves ; no more travel to Oregon coast in November !
This morning we dumped our waste holding tanks and refilled our freshwater tank then left Spirit Mountain Casino heading west on Hwy. 22 towards the Pacific Ocean coast. About 50 km. / 30 miles west we reached Hwy. 101 at the coast and turned north ... yes, yes, the wrong direction ... to travel about another 50 km. / 30 miles or so to the small city of Tillamook, and our goal for today ; Tillamook Cheese Factory. Long way to go for a grilled cheese sandwich. HA HA HA !
Tillamook Cheese Factory was crowded today. Must be a popular outing on a rainy weekend in November for the Portland crowd. Mind you ... this is the Oregon coast. Aren't all weekends in November rainy ? ! ? We decided against standing in the extraordinarily long line-up for the cheese sampling bar and went straight to the retail shop. We bought a large selection of cheeses, including freshly made, squeaky curds. MMMMMM ! ! ! After paying for our cheese selections we had lunch in their café ; their world famous “Tillamooker” grilled cheese sandwiches, with bowls of creamy tomato soup. Again ... MMMMMM ! ! !
After lunch we drove an alternate but equally scenic route back to Spirit Mountain Casino. Very tough driving on those wet, curving roads. There were fishermen in the streams by the roads. BRRRRR ... what miserably cold, rainy conditions in which to be fishing ! I don’t know if they were fishing for trout or salmon. By the time we arrived back “home” at Spirit Mountain Casino I was ready for a long afternoon nap.
After a late, light supper I went to the casino to use their free Wi-Fi in the Business Center for a couple of hours before returning home to set the clocks back before bedtime.
DSK
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