Final week of July, 2004

Tuesday--July 27, 2004

It seems interesting that for a year I’ve been sweating bb’s wondering if I had the “right stuff” to create a website and now that I’ve found a vehicle and actually published some text and pictures, I find myself wondering what to say next. Go figure!

For quite some time, my shining example has been: http://vagabonders-supreme.net/

George and his “team” (the handy dandy Sony Mavica camera—“Mr. Mavica”—and all of the onboard electronics as well as the motor home—Ms. Tioga—herself) have been full timers for several years and George publishes two or three paragraphs and two or more very beautiful and/or interesting photographs of the surrounding landscape daily. His needs are few and he views the world around him with childlike enthusiasm. Truthfully, I’m in awe of his expertise but continue to hope I will become more proficient at using my favorite thing (the Internet) as time goes by. Thank you George for helping me to believe I could do it!

Wednesday—July 28, 2004

If you watch the national news, you’ve probably noticed our heat in the northwest continues. The long-range forecast does not include any of the wet stuff we’re so famous for but thankfully, the high temperatures are a few degrees lower than last Friday and Saturday when it hit 100! And, wonders will never cease—my body is starting to acclimate because it isn’t bothering me quite as much.

My hardworking partner rented a big floor sander for four hours yesterday and soon, after finishing the hand chipping, sanding and patching he’ll be ready to put down new sub-flooring then next is preparing the walls for paint. It’s a big house and all but one room needs to be repainted so that will take some time. How long—is anyone’s guess but he’s moving as fast as his body allows. Phil jokes that he’ll have to go back to work to get some rest! HA!

Robin and Walt left for home #1 in Pleasanton, CA on Tuesday with plans for their usual overnight stop in Ashland, OR: http://www.el.com/to/ashland/ where they had tickets for a play. When they arrived home on Wednesday, Walt wrote, “The play in Ashland was very good: The Royal Family. It was first produced in 1927 to needle the Barrymores, but with enough differences so that there would not be grounds for a libel suit.”

Besides nurturing my new baby (the website) I continue to sort, clean, price for the garage sale and load our “keepers” into the motorhome. Best of all, our desktop computer is running like a new one. (Knock on wood!) Our computer guru, Phil’s cousin Randy will be happy to hear that. My next step is to start reloading all the documents I saved on CD before the overhaul. One of my favorite projects is my “state by state address book”, an alphabetical listing of the United States I created in Excel where I’ve logged all the family and friends, names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses I’ve managed to acquire, under the appropriate state. Some time ago I decided to generate this “cheat sheet/notebook” to make sure we don’t miss anyone as we travel across the country. I’ll print it out just before we leave and what fun it will be to put that wonderful reference book to good use! Here we come, ready or not! ;-)

Friday—July 30, 2004

Wednesday was a take care of business and shopping day. We drove to Olympia (about 20 miles south east of Shelton). We searched through Target and Home Depot (from end to end)looking for specific items we needed then, returned to Shelton and trekked through Wal*Mart (of course, the things we needed were in opposite corners of this huge super store) crossing off the things on my list then crisscrossed our local Safeway picking up some favorite foods that were on sale. Besides all that we made stops at the pharmacy, two banks and the post office. My “dogs were barking” when we got home and it felt really good to get out of my shoes and into my slippers.

Early Thursday morning Phil and I drove a mile or so south of town to the Elk’s Lodge. We went there to pick up an application for “Camp Host” at their beautiful RV park located behind the lodge. On Monday of this week, we discovered the park when we attended the memorial service for a good friend at the Moose Lodge that occupies the daylight basement floor of the same building. We were so pleased to find this hideaway in the forest (Shelton has only one other old and rundown RV park) we spent a few minutes visiting with the current caretaker and were told the lodge is looking for new hosts. Since we will be coming back to Shelton every spring for medical appointments until Phil is eligible for Medicare we were tickled pink to discover this little (20 spaces) RV haven nestled in the shady woods where we can park our motorhome for the summer.

We don’t know if the host job includes any compensation but we are fairly sure the space is free in exchange for keeping the grass mowed (we saw the riding mower), picking up the trash and collecting the fees, ($10 per night that includes electric and water). No sewer hookups (except at the host site) but there are two free dumpsites on the property for guests. Phil filled out an application to join the Moose on Monday and we picked up an application for the Elks while we were there on Wednesday when we realized they have RV parks at many of the lodges across the country. The price of membership is small compared to the money it will save us in camping fees. Unfortunately, the secretary informed us that the lodge would prefer a year round host so our chances of getting the job are not very good. We will submit our application anyway and offer our services as backup if we’re not hired.

Finally, as my last entry of my first month “on the web” (I believe Blogger will archive July at the end of the month), I’d like to apologize for the seemingly mixed up dates on my entries. So far, each new post has been four of five days of dated notes (written in WORD, then I copy and paste into the Blog) so I can keep track of where I’m at and I know that’s confusing to some. Stay with me, I’m trying to figure out a way to improve the flow. Any suggestions?