Saturday, May 23, 2009
Our time away from home is winding down. This morning, we slept in because we are heading back to Weed and it is only a two-hour drive. We got up and had a leisurely breakfast, unhooked everything, dumped our tanks and headed south at around 11am. We arrived around 2pm after stopping to get something to eat and get fuel.

An hour after we arrived and I had just got everything hooked up, the rains came...and we had a good rain. It seems that no matter where we go, we have rain. Oh well, being a So. Cal. person, it is a nice break from sunshine day after day. Once it stopped raining, Barbara and Darlene went down to the goat pen and fed the goats. We had a nice dinner, sat around and talked and had a good time of visiting.

Sunday
We found a small AG church in Weed and attended Sunday AM services. AND, guess what, they had a missionary from Romania. He was interesting and knew some other missionaries we did.....one being Regan Goulash (sp?). The people were very friendly. After service, we returned back to the RV and Roxie fixed a small homemade pizza to tide us over until dinner. While we were away, Ray had built an inclosure for the veggie garden and Roxie had already started planting the veggies. It is a nice setup to keep the varmits out of the garden. In the late afternoon, all of us piled into 2 vehicles and headed to downtown Weed for dinner. We ate at the HiLo dinner and the food was great. After we rolled out of the restaurant (we were stuffed), we went back home and rested until almost dark. Ray had made a fire ring in the back yard and he started a fire and we sat around, talked and had s'mores. It was a very relaxing evening and got us ready for a good night's sleep.

Monday
This morning, we decided to go and explore the area. Barbara, Darlene, Wilbur and I headed toward Mt. Shasta City and walked around the shops. We then headed to Dunsmuir, CA and had a great sandwich at Manfredi.......yummy. We then went out to Siskiyou Lake and drove around the lake and took in God's beauty of mountains, streams, and lakes. It was beautiful. Next, we went up to Castle Lake, a little lake tucked in the mountains with some snow around the lake. Another beautiful sight.

Siskiyou Lake

Castle Lake
Panoramic View of Mt. Shasta from Castle Lake

We stopped and did a little grocery shopping and headed home. Once we arrived back at the RV, Barbara packed away a few things we had bought to get ready to leave tomorrow to return home.

We have really enjoyed our trip. It has been very relaxing but busy and we had some great times with special Friends and family. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place and a wonderful place to see the different aspects of God's creations. We are also thankful that we were able to bring Darlene and Wilbur to see their son and daughter and their families. They have had a good time also. It was so important for Wilbur to be with his family before the time comes when he does not recognize them. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease.

Tonight is our last meal here and Roxie is going all out with Shis-ka-bob. The Mendells and the Arkies have been extremely hospitable and treated us like family - you know, the one you like! We thank them for allowing us to hook up our RV and share the meal table with them.

Tomorrow, hopefully by 8am, we are starting our drive back home. It is a two-day journey and we expect to be home sometime Wednesday afternoon. So, this will probably my last blog unless something blog-worthy happens on the way home. See you in Corona!

Love and Blessings,

DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara

Late afternoon Thursday, 5-21-09

OK, it has been a very interesting 24 hours since I blogged. A short note to set it up......There has been a bear visiting the home here from time to time. She has gotten more brave and adventurous. Last week, she was seen once on the lawn walking around. Another time later, she was seen chasing the dog and then the dog was chasing her. Yesterday, we also saw evidence of her going into the garage, getting in the trash can and ripping open a bag of salt. Everyone was getting a little nervous since there are small dogs and young grandsons playing in the yard. OK, now back to last night. Nathan was coming up to the house last night..around 8pm and he saw the bear going down off the property. He came to the house, dropped off his two young boys and got his rifle and headed out to see if he could get the bear. He went to the edge of the hill and saw the bear was coming back up the hill to the house! Barbara and I went into the house to be with his sons. We heard two shots and waited until Nathan came back to the house. He told us that he hit it and it turned and ran back down the hill. He was definitely pumped and his adrenaline was running high. He waited a few minutes and then went back down and tried to find it in the brush. He was very careful and he finally spotted it and once his friend arrived went down and the bear was dead. They got some rope and after a couple of tries pulled it up to the road. We all went down and checked it out.....even the young ones. They decided to skin it and save the meat. They took it to the barn and hung it up and started to skin it. They did and arrived home at around midnight.....after the skin and meat was properly stored. Nathan is going to tan the hide and then take the meat and make it into sausages and jerky. Very eventful evening.

Friday

This morning we got up and got ready to go to Crater Lake. Before we went to the lake, we had to drop off the RV to get new shocks and alignment. We headed up to Crater Lake. For those who don't know....Crater Lake was formed many moons ago when a volcano erupted and when collapsed within itself....causing the almost 2000 feet deep area.......causing the lake, of course after many rains. It was a two hour trip through beautiful tree-lined roads. Once we got into the higher elevation, we saw a lot of snow. The park was just opened two weeks ago for the new season......most areas we could not see because of snow. There was a lot of snow along the side of the roads. Once we got there and climbed up over the snow banks, the view was incredible! The girls did not like the snow!

WOW. Blue water...perfectly still water reflecting the scenery. The pictures do not do it justice. You could just barely see where the water ended and where the shoreline started....just like a mirror.

We went to a three different lookout areas and I took a ton of pictures. We went into the info center and the Crater Lake Lodge. Everywhere we went, the views were wonderful.

After an hour and a half, we headed back to Medford to pick up the RV. They couldn't align the tires as the RV was too wide. But we got the shocks. We headed back up the hill to the house and hooked up again and settled in for the night. Barbara fixed a couple of things for dinner and now we are watching NBA basketball and relaxing. A fantastic 24 hours.

Now you are caught up through friday evening.....next update will be in a couple of days.

Love
DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Today, I did the rest of my "brother-to-do" list for my sister. I had already replaced a light in her office, looked at her sweeper and worked on her TV. This morning, we went to Wal-Mart and purchased another light (just like the other one I installed). I installed the second light and also installed a new shower head. After I finished the work, Bennie and I headed to town to meet my sister and Barbara at the local restaurant for lunch. It was good - eggs, biscuits, gravy and hash browns......yummy! After lunch, we went to a "Rhoadie" nursery and picked up a couple more rhoadies for Barbara....a purple one and a two-tone (light and dark pink). OK, now we have three plants to take home with us sharing our shower with us. :-) After getting the plants, in the rain, we went to the alpaca ranch, the largest alpaca ranch in the Northern Hemisphere! It was still raining so we couldn't go into the fields to see them, however, they had four in the barn and we went in to see them. They have such cute faces and the fur (fiber) is so soft. Afterward, we stopped outside in the rain and I took some pictures of the little ones.

We returned home and got ready to leave tomorrow. We went inside and had a great flat-iron steak with 5-cheese mac and cheese. Yummy! After dinner, we watched an old movie...Ugly Dachshund. And then we watched American Idol. I know.....such up-lifting entertainment. :-) Then we retired for the night.

Wednesday

Up early and get ready to leave Washington. We took a few pictures together...one classic with my sister holding our two girls....she is not a dog person. After pictures, I hooked up and we left. At the time we picked up our RV after the repair, they commented about the condition of my front tires.....severely cupped because of worn shocks and alignment. We make arrangements to buy tires in Medford, Oregon. We left close to 9am and arrived in Medford around 4pm. We got our new tires installed and were headed to Arlin's house at 6pm. A twenty minute drive turned into one hour since I made a couple wrong turns, called Arlin and since I was towing, I could not turn around except in a large parking lot.....few of those out in the country. We finally arrived and had a great dinner and a pleasant evening visiting with Arlin, Cathy, Nathan and his two boys and Peter. We retired early because Cathy and Arlin was headed to Hawaii tomorrow (6am flight). Watched the final Idol show and was shocked but happy with the winner.

Thursday,

We had a 10:30am appointment to go on a tour of Harry and David operations. We had a good time....large group. We went through the packing, shipping of gift packages. The workers were few since the push for Mothers Day was over and some had left early for the holiday. However, we did see some of the product being packaged. Next we went by some of the 3200 acres of orchards and headed to the candy, cookies and sweet things bakery. They were making some Moose Munch (caramel covered popcorn), cookies, fruit cakes, chocolate covered graham crackers and truffles! WOW...it smelled, looked and tasted great......we got a couple small samples. Chocolate-covered graham crackers

Fruit CakesCookiesMoose MunchGift Baskets

After the tour, we returned to the Harry and David store and picked up some of the product, as if we needed it.

We then headed to downtown Jacksonville to walk around and just browse all the tourist shops and had lunch at a Thai place....just OK!. They had a trolley that took you around the town with a driver that told us all the history associated with the town......from mid 1800s, a stage coach stop, the gold rush, the little facts about the local colorful people as well as the old buildings.


We even toured some of the newer homes but was built in the style of pre-1900s. We had a good time and learned a lot of cool facts.

We went by the horse pasture and got a good look at the newest colt born since we left two weeks ago. Cute little guy and the mom was very protective. Once we finished, we headed back to the RV and Barbara did some wash, fixed a good dinner and we decided to relax.....in the cool RV - It reached the mid-80s today here. We decided to watch a little Lakers playoff.

OK, that catches you up to the present time.

Love
DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara



You are now caught up

Ok.....here is the situation......It has been 10 days since I posted so you have to decide whether or not to read this long epistle. Here is a synopsis: Went to CA for a funeral, a Japanese garden, church, saw Birdie, found RV broken, fixed RV, went to ER, traveled to Pasco and back to Bucoda.....Does it interest you? If so, read on....if not......the RV is fine and I am fine and we are having a good time.

Well, if you are a glutton for punishment, here goes......BTW, we are still at the Twiggs in Duvall, WA.

Thursday

As most of you know, our good friend, Ron Todd (age 43) passed away. We decided at the last minute to attend the funeral in Southern California so we got up at 3am and Bobby and Sharon took us to the Seattle airport and we flew to Ontario. Donny, Kim and the boys picked us up at the airport and we headed to the funeral in Whittier at Rose Hills. The service was heart-warming and celebrated the life of Ron. After the funeral, we went to our church in Corona for a dinner with the family. It was a good decision to go as we felt that we were able to support Tammy and the kids. We also got to see some of our church family for a couple of hours. We returned to the airport and left at 5:45pm to return to Seattle. We arrived at 9:40pm and Bobby and Sharon was there to pick us up. We went back to their home and, after checking on our “girls”, we fell into bed exhausted but happy that we was able to do that.

Friday

First thing today, we went to the second-hand store and found a “playpen” for our girls. This way, we don't have to hold them all the time or leave them in the RV. Afterwards, we went to an Outlet Center and did a little shopping. We then headed to the Seattle arboretum and had a good day of looking at the rhododendrons, rhodies for short......Barbara loves these flowering bushes/trees and this is one reason we came at this time of the year. They had some beautiful ones in bloom and a lot more yet to bloom. The colors were magnificent. After that, we headed to the Japanese Gardens and was swept away with the beautiful plants and garden layout. So much effort to maintain and keep these gardens looking so good.

After the gardens, we went up to Kerry Park in Seattle and took some great pictures of downtown Seattle.....one that you normally see with the Space Needle in the foreground. After that, we headed to Kirkland and went to a little coffee shop and relaxed. After we finished our coffee, we headed home after a full day. We set the “playpen” up in the house and they settled in there and seem to be content to be in the house with us.

Afterwards, I got on the phone and talked to Rachael (Birdie) Nettleton, a young friend of our that we had been with in Honduras on a mission trip. We had visited her once before while she was in college here in Kirkland, WA. We tried to set up a lunch date and found out she went to Overlake Church....the same one we would be going to tomorrow. We made a date to meet and then go to Claim Jumper.

Saturday

We got up early and headed up the mountain to Deception Falls. This is a very fast moving falls coming off the mountain terrain and running under the highway. The park was closed but we went in anyway and walked about 50 yds to the falls. We had the trail to ourselves. It was beautiful and a very strong current. After the falls, we had our “picnic” lunch in the car as it was too cold to eat outside. Once we finished lunch, we headed back to the Twiggs home. I went downtown Duvall and I picked up a fuel filter and an air filter for the RV. I had some problems with losing power on hills coming up to Duvall. I installed the filters and prayed that it would solve the problem. We then had a good dinner.

Sunday

Up early to church - Overlake Church with Bobby and Sharon. We went to the early service (good service) and then to Sunday school and the class was great. We met Birdie, after church, and headed to Claim Jumper. Her boyfriend and his Grandmother came also.....remember....it is Mother's Day and we celebrated. We had a great visit catching up and vowed to keep in touch. We had “met” up again in Facebook several weeks ago.

We went home and rested for a couple of hours and then headed to Bellvue, WA to see our granddaughter, Jordyn. She was with the Cal Baptist choir and orchestra on tour in the Northwest. Bobby went up to Jordyn and told her that her grandparents (us) had told them about the performance and they came to see her. They told her we were wanting to be there........and we walked up....She was surprised. It was a wonderful performance. Bobby and Sharon were very impressed. We got to visit a little with her and was able to get and give some hugs and kisses.

Monday

This is the day to leave the Twiggs. We had a great time and was sad to leave. It was time to check out the RV to see if the power problem was solved. Bobby and I took in out on a test run. I am glad that we didn't go very far because we almost didn't make it back. The RV was not fixed! I got on the phone and called our emergency road service (Good Sam) and they said they would send out a mobile mechanic. After waiting for two hours, they finally arrived. After spending one hour to find the computer port, they checked the computer readout and called Ford and they determined the RV was at risk to drive so we had to have it towed to a RV service. After a couple of hours, we finally found a place in Marysville, WA about 35 mile further north – wrong direction from my Sister's home. The tow truck operator finally arrived and hooked up the RV, dropped the drive line and we followed in our car. After approximately 10 hours after determining we had a problem, we arrived at the RV service center. We were able to back into a stall, hook up and settle in for the night.

Tuesday

Up early and in to talk to the service manager. We left the RV and he told us that he hoped to get to it late Wednesday and hopefully be repaired on Thursday. We headed to Bucoda, WA to my sister's home. It took about 3 hours to get to her home. Barbara and my sister, Dawn, went to an Avon sales meeting and Bennie and I went to Home Depot. Early afternoon, I heard from the RV service manager and he told me he had found out the problem.....the O2 sensor needed to be replaced. He said that he had ordered the part and it was expected that afternoon. After our running around a little, we headed to Tumwater to eat at KFC and then go to another Jordyn Cal Baptist concert. Around 4pm, we heard from the RV service and they had not only received the part but installed it and the RV was ready....almost $600! and we could pick it up on Wednesday. After I quit hyperventilating, we decided to go on Wednesday and picked it up and drive it back.....3 hours up and 3 hours back...On well. Back to the present, we headed to Jordyn's concert. She knew we were coming so we didn't surprise her. Again, the performance and ministry was excellent and my sister and Bennie throughly enjoyed the concert. Again, we got to visit briefly with Jordyn after the concert.

Wednesday

Up early, we headed to Marysville (in the rain) to pick up the RV. We arrived and I talked to the service manager and he has able to give us a senior discount – 10%. But it still took our two “Stimulus” checks from President Obama! Boo Hoo! BUT it runs fantastic. We headed back (rain, rain, rain and more rain) and decided to stop at Cabela's – a place similar to Bass Pro Shop. We had some good time walking around seeing things, especially the stuffed animals....all kinds. However, I did not completely enjoy myself as I was having some urinary problems....going and going and going plus some blood. It finally eased up and we arrived home but it came back and we headed to the ER to have it checked out. After spending 3 hours in the ER, they told me I had a “raging” urinary track infection. The doctor gave me some meds and gave me a prescription and sent us home.

Thursday

After breakfast, went to the Fire Station where my sister works as a receptionist 3 day-a-week. They gave us the $100 tour throughout the station and we talked quite a bit about their fire and medical responses. They have about 800 calls a year with the majority being medical calls. I really enjoyed this tour. It was larger that I thought for a small community – impressive.

We headed to Wal-Mart for my prescription and do a little shopping. After Wal-Mart, we headed out to Grey Wolf lodge for lunch. This is an exclusive family lodge that caters to young families with all kinds of things to do for kids.......an inside water park....a kids spa....ice cream and cookie bar.....an arcade and other things. It was fun to walk around and see everything. After the lodge, we headed back to another outlet mall to a Nike shop and Bath Works. We headed back to home and got ready to go to visit my niece and her family in Pasco, WA.

Friday

We left Bucoda, WA at 11am for a 5 hour drive up over the pass to Pasco, WA. We stopped a couple of times.....once to see some fields of tulips – beautiful......then we stopped at the top of White Pass to eat. It was a beautiful drive – through the mountains and along the river. We arrived a little after 5pm. It was great to see my niece, Robyn, and her family – husband, Dan – daughter, Kandace, her husband, Billy and their son, Marcus. Robyn fixed us a good meal and we settled in for a night of visiting and catching up.

Saturday

We got up early and had a great breakfast and started running around – doing a little garage sales and taking a look at the city of Pasco. Robyn had looked on Craigslist and found some TV cabinets and found a couple at a warehouse and it took a little time to find it. We picked up a couple of small items and we went out to Kandace's new home and went through it......old home in good condition and dated in the 60s/70s but a lot of potential.....they are doing the work themselves. It will be a very nice home for them when they are finished. Afterwards, we went home and had a nice steak dinner. Robyn is a very good cook. The weather was fantastic – sunny days and warm. After dinner, we went for a 3-mile walk along the Columbia river and looking at the beautiful home overlooking the river. Then back to their house to settle in for the night.

Sunday

Dan and Billy picked up the TV cabinets early and we helped carry one up the stairs and installed it in the house. We had a light breakfast as we were going to Famous Dave's BBQ for lunch – ribs, pulled pork, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob and potatoes. It was good and we had plenty. We left the restaurant and headed back to their house and loaded up to return back to my sister's home. We around 1:30pm and headed back. Again, a beautiful drive along the river and through the mountains. We got a special treat and saw Mt. Rainier. It was almost cloudless and a great view. We arrived home around 6pm and rested.

Monday

We slept in a little and had a good breakfast and headed into town for an appointment, had lunch at Bennie's favorite buffet, stopped and bought Barbara a rhododendron (pink), stopped by and looked at some alpacas at the largest alpaca farm in the western hemisphere. We then headed home. I changed the oil and filter in my RV while Barbara did some heavy duty cleaning inside. It started raining and we went inside to relax.....that is where we are now.

Sorry for the long blog but this catches me up and I will try to be a little for diligent in keep my blog up-to-date.

Love you

DAD and MOM

Jerry and Barbara