NO WONDER WE ARE SLEEPING GOOD AT NIGHT!

As you all know by now, we have taken a temporary hiatus from full-time living and traveling across country in our RV here in Shelton for what will probably be about a year or longer. I won’t go into all the reasons why as most of that has been said already. We arrived in May 2010 and will most likely be here until late August or September 2011. Since we arrived, we have bought a mobile home in a senior park and are currently renovating and remodeling before we move in. During this time, we continue to be comfortably bedded down in Penny the Pace. She is parked at Gloria and Les’s house in downtown Shelton with all amenities. Phil and I feel like it is time to let everyone know how good they have been to us, graciously giving us space in their basement for temporary storage and supporting and encouraging our wild and crazy decision to buy this fixer-upper, which has extended our WA stopover for many months. We aren’t sure how long this adventure is going to take but since our hosts seem to be agreeable to our parking in their back yard for as long as we want—we are not in any hurry. We are working at a steady pace and doing things the way we want rather than making this a rush job. Thanks again to our dearest friends!

Last Sunday we worked on our mobile home all day. I had purchased eight porcelain dolls at the auction on Friday night. Our friend, Sandy missed this auction and specializes in dolls at her garage sales so we offered them to her. She told me, “You did good!” and in spite of my offer of just reimbursement for what they cost me, she bought them all making sure I made a profit. That was a nice surprise and even though it wasn’t what I expected, I am grateful for Sandy’s generosity. Thanks again, Sandy! I hope you make a ton of money on those dolls!

Phil finished the bathtub, shower and washer/dryer plumbing then we drove out to the house of a young couple we met at a garage sale that had given us a queen size spring and mattress a month or so ago. After repainting their bedroom, they finally purchased a King Size bed and needed us to come and get it. Well, of course, we are not ready yet so another item went into storage. We purchased a little (like-new) microwave and actually cooked our first meal in our new home base. So … it was only TV dinners but it was a meal just the same! :)

Phil and Les squeezed a day in for fishing on Monday but Phil forgot the camera again so there are no pictures. Actually, the fish won that day but I was told they didn’t get “skunked” but the catching was far from rockin’ hot! While Phil was taking a day off, I spend all day Monday and Tuesday cleaning and organizing my daughter, Bobbie’s garage where we plan to have a garage sale sometime in September. We met our friends, Gloria and Les and Andy and Millie at my sister, Dixie and her husband, Paul’s for dinner and cards. It was a lot of fun, as we haven’t played since we left two years ago. Unfortunately, neither Phil nor I won any money but we had a great time all evening for just six dollars apiece. Morning came early the next day, as we didn’t get home until around midnight.

Phil joined me on Tuesday and worked in Bobbie’s garage most of the day. He finished most of the wiring in her garage but still needs to chase down some circuits and find out what wire goes where to finish up her outside lights. My granddaughter, Bobbie’s daughter, Sara finally found an affordable rental and came to retrieve her things that have been stored at her mom’s for quite some time. She took advantage of Phil’s empty truck and had her grandpa haul her belongings to her new place. Phil said it is small but cozy and the price is right! We met Sandy and Ray at the Little Creek Casino for Linner and they insisted on buying to say “thank you” for our taking care of their two furry kids while they were on vacation. After “linner” we took one truckload of boxed and priced merchandise for our upcoming sale to Bobbie’s garage. Bobbie’s garage was barren of any storage shelving and Andy had a big open front cabinet with 3-4 shelves that he gave us for hauling it off and we found a perfect spot for it. We can use it for displaying our treasures during our sale and she will have some much-needed storage afterwards.

We worked at the trailer all day on Wednesday and that night, my cousin, Sharon and her husband, Brownie arrived from Portland in their rental car. They had flown in from Nashville the day before and were doing the family “hop” in Oregon and Washington that I know so well from visiting relatives as we travel. We met them for breakfast the next morning and proudly introduced them to our many friends that also eat breakfast at “Blondie’s” then in our new luxury vehicle (I LOVE that car) we took them sightseeing along Hood Canal. We made a stop at Rocks ‘n Rhinestones to introduce them to Gloria and Les and Sharon was impressed with all the beautiful things artfully displayed and for sale in the store. Later we stopped for lunch at “The Tide’s”, a tourist stop near the tiny wide spot on Hiway 101 North named Lilliwaup. The clam chowder was very good but we were disappointed that they no longer serve pie of any kind! What’s up with that? The waitress said, “Lilliwaup is pie less now!” After we said our good byes to Sharon and Brownie we dropped in on friends, Carol and John for an hour or so then met more friends at Denny’s for our third restaurant meal of the day

The next day with rain in the forecast, we finished cleaning the carport, taking several loads to Bobbie’s and covered the remaining items with a tarp. A flying trip to Belfair got us to the auction just as the bidding started! On Saturday morning, we unloaded our treasures, finished hauling garage sale treasures to Bobbie’s and cleaning the carport then drove back to Belfair to pickup the things we forgot to bring home the night before. In between loads, Phil built some hand rails for the back door stairway and I tried to pin point the remaining leaks in our carport and patio roof that grandson Joe put so much work into repairing. We knew he would probably miss a few but it is a thousand percent better than it was. I think we will be able to get it watertight when it stops raining which is supposed to be today.

Sorry this blog is so long today but we had a busy week and I wanted to bring everyone up to date. As always, thank you very much for stopping buy and checking in on us!

Until next time …