Summer Catch up

It has been a long time since I have posted anything. Mostly it has just been summer. We have done the usual summer stuff. A trip to Walla Walla Golf and Country club in June got a couple more polo shirts. The last two shots of the weekend got us in the money. We didn't do Longview this, so the next up tournament was in Richland at Meadow Springs. We did not do very well and got shut out. We did have a great time. Meadow Springs is always a lot of fun. they put on a really good party.

The only bad thing about the trip was that our hose AC decided to not work and it was 95 degrees outside. We left all the windows open for Charlie. We were parked under a tree that made some shade. We got by. I did some checking around and found that the only place to get it fixed was in Portland, Oregon. Seems with the economy that they don't make replacements anymore. So fix is all you can do. The AC in Snuffy is built in the back so it takes some work to get it out. Here is the process.

After it came out they took the top off and the problem was evident. There is copper tubing running all around and where it hit the compressor it broke. You can see it in the picture.  No wounder it quit.  Most likely from the fact that a motor home is best described as a rolling earthquake.

So I left the AC in Portland, came home, we loaded up and headed to Moses Lake.  We played with Joann and Jerry Burbank at Moses Point on Thursday and again Friday for the practice round at Moses Lake Golf and Country Club.  Friday night was Speed golf.  We talked Joann and Jerry into playing. It was a bit slow this year.  Took 18 minutes and 30 seconds to play 18 holes of golf. 

Speed golf puts teams of four on the first few holes.  How many holes depends on how many sigh up to play.  Each team sets up with one player on the tee,  two in the fairway and one on the green.  When the whistle blows the tee ball is hit.  The players in the middle of the fairway break their butts to  get the ball to the green anyway they can. Hit it, throw it, Kick it or any thing they can think of.  Once on the green that player gets it in the hole and blows their whistle and the next player tees off.  Those players then jump in their golf carts and drive like maniacs to their next assigned hole and start over again.  This year we were assigned 2,8,and 14.  By the time we got to 8 the ball was already coming up 7.  That's Speed Golf the way we play it. There are really no rules.  Pay off is who predicted closest to the final time.  You don't have to play to win.  Everybody buys their times before the contest.  $5.00 per time or $10 for 3 times.  The winner gets ALL the money. 



Joann and Jerry Burbank



Saturday afternoon was the gold old Horse Race.  I got partnered with Judy Rodia and Sue got a guy form Glen Acres.  It was a big circus as usual with something like 38 teams of golfers.  As opposed to speed golf the first couple holes took over an hour. Judy and I made the three hole cut but only lasted two more  holes.  We had a lot of fun.    

A horse race puts boys and girls together.  The lowest handicap guy plays with the highest handicap gal.  So that puts the low gal  with the high guy.  Then we play alternate shots to the hole.  Boys tee off, gal hits and on to the hole.  As opposed to Speed golf  the fasting moving thing on the course is the bar  cart.  After three holes they start to cut players until the get to the last hole with two teams left.  Competition is for wining  the  tournament and para mutual betting in the pro shop before the event.  I only betting you do not have to play. 

Judy Rodia my pardner

Does anyone recognize that golf swing

As always we stay at Suncrest RV  Resort just up the road.  We commute by golf cart to the course.  Charley has all the sniffs  down pat. 



So that's a summer catch up.  Sue has been playing lots of golf with the girls as I have with the guys.  Business is lousy so I have played a lot more golf this year.  I have also been doing a lot of ratings with the WSGA.  I have spoiled the rating committee by taking them there in the motor home.  Its been fun.  Doing Tumble Creek at Suncadia Monday.  Sorry for not putting anything up for so long.  I'll try and do better in the future.  As usual Charlie was exhausted. 

Getting up to date

As I guess that most of you know that we are back in good old Federal Way. Sue is very happy. She has been going around the house saying "Hello Washer and Dryer", Hello Iron. On to the dish washer and says the same. As for me, well I would like to still be in Arizona. That is mostly because I now have to work again. The only thing saving me is that there isn't much work. That is good because I don't want to work, but bad because I also can not get any money. Terrible thing to happen. Actually I have had a few jobs, thanks to people needing surveys for insurance. Nothing going on boat sales.






We had our first family get together with Monica and Kelsey. We had a nice after noon dinner and visit.



Sue has been on a rip since we got home. She had the hot tub fixed. She is getting the left sliding door fixed.(We can't see out as the seal broke). She has new drapes and blinds on order. As I mentioned before we are back as Twin Lake members. I can't keep up. Oh yes we also have a new bed with all the new covers and such. I think there are 12 pillows involved now and a dog blanket. Only proble with new bed is it is tall and Charlie can't jump that high.




So I guess we are all back in to the swing of things around here. Sunday before last we had all the kids over. Tony and Kristy, Jeannie, Monica and Kelsey and Jeff and Trish as well as one of Trishes sons Caleb. It was a late event so I never got any pictures. We all had a good time visiting and catching up on the last 5 1/2 months.


Our trip south was a great experience. For blog readers you all know what we were doing. Sue sort of started getting home sick about the middle of March. She says 5 1/2 months in the motor home is too much. In some ways I agree as it is a little hard to do much entertaining. Still no decisions on when or where to move. I'm still for Arizona but Sue isn't. We will figure something out. So for now we are back golfing and moving along. As usual posting gets sort of slow when I home. Keep checking I try and keep everyone posted thru the summer.

Welcome home well almost

Past blog readers have seen my little calender that I put on my laptop. I mark an x every day we are gone. I put O on the days home at Christmas. It's hard to believe that after about 5 1/2 months we are about back to Federal Way. There is no more room for and X.

When I last left you the next day was up in the air. It turned out that with my cold, I decided to stay home for the day. Sue and Elaine went out to lunch and did some shopping. I went over in the afternoon and we all went to dinner for the last time in California. It was sad to say good by. We will see Elaine in a month or two back in Federal Way.

Thursday we headed north. I Wanted to get a little closer to the Napa Valley so we drove a bit past Bakersfield to Pixley RV Park in Pixley California no less. It was a good place to stop. A neighbor had a dog that looked like a twin to Charlie. His name was Charger. The moon was nice as well.

Friday we headed north again. We got to Calistoga in Napa Valley about 6:00. We stayed at the Calistoga Fair grounds again. This is the fourth year for the Fairground. It was late so we went out to dinner. After dinner I watched Star Trek again, then we hit the sack. I was glad as my cold has slowed me down. Saturday morning we got up had breakfast in town and went to Cakebread winery. Remember, Sues favorite place. After Cakebread we went to Mumm for Champagne. We rejoined the club. That means we get a couple bottles of Champagne every other month in the UPS truck. We then headed back to Snuffy. Sue needed to do her last laundry on the road. (She wants here own machine at home) There was no laundry at the Fairground so we decided to hit the road.

Now the original plan was to head out of Napa to I-5 and up north with a stop at the Lake Shasta area for some sight seeing. Only problem was that there was this late season storm coming in, so we went the 101 route up the coast. Which got us to last nights stay.

Last night we stayed at a spot called Redwoodriver RV Resort I found this place thru Trailer Life RV parks. Lets just say that the place did not meet up to the advertisement. It was a place to stay and that's about all you can say. I did not take any pictures mostly because when we woke up this morning the monsoons had arrived. Sue got her laundry done, but she was really upset about the cleaning of the place. We were glad to leave this morning.

After a long drive thru lots of rain and snow. Yes snow. The reason for giving up I-5 was because of snow in the Sisques remember. Yep we got snow along the coast. Not too bad, but it was snow.

Anyway after all this we have ended up in Brooking Oregon at the Port of Brookings RV Park. This is one of Sues favorite places. We are about 100 feet from the ocean. It is raining and the wind is blowing. I have talked about this place before. There are a lot of cats that like to live in the rocks of the jetty. Just click on this (Sue is in heaven) for a review of the area. The weather was a lot better that day.

So today is Easter and Sue made a really great dinner. We had ham, Scalloped Potatoes and Carrot salad. Charlie hoped for spillage. Tomorrow we should be in Lincoln City to visit the casino and home Tuesday. Just hope the weather is OK. So as you see today was our welcome back to the Pacific Northwest. Rain snow and oh yes a lot colder. Happy Easter everyone.

Indio

A final comment from Happy Trails. I was reading the rules for the Hot Tub a couple weeks ago. I found it was really funny, the people that were not suppose to use the hot tub. The only rule that is most likely not broken is the Pregnant Women clause. With the average in the tub being over 70. That would be a good one. Some of the bobbers. I miss the pool already.

So we are now in Indio, California visiting Elaine, Cuz and Bonnie. We got here Sunday afternoon. We ended up parked right behind Gary and Janice Herring. They are members of Twin Lakes and next door neighbors to Ken and Elaine. We did a little visiting in the afternoon.

Monday we went to Elaines with Charlie of course. The girls made potato salad and a key lime pie. While they were at that I went out and picked up some supplies to bring home. The liquid kind. Now I'm ready. I took this picture of the entrance to Heritage Palms. It is really pretty going in there. Their gardeners really do a bang up job.

Monday night was a hamburger cook off. Neighbor Jim and Ellie were there as well. I got to be the cookie. Potato salad and pie were good as well.

Tuesday we played golf with Elaine and Jim. There course is always a pleasure to play. The maintenance is great. After golf it was cocktails for a bit then we went down to the club for dinner. Ray, Bonnie and Bonnie's mom were guests as were Gary and Janice Herring. They put out a very good meal. Charlie was guarding Elaine's house while were were gone.


Not too sure what is happening today. I have a bit of a cold so and not too ambitious. Elaine wanted to go the the General Patton Museum south of town. We are suppose to go out to dinner tonight. Tomorrow we leave to start the trek home.

Last Days in Arizona

With Steve and Mad in town we had to show them how classy we are. While we were at it we invited some of our other friends that are here. Where else should you take someone go for a touch of class. Why Roman's Oasis of course. So that's what we did.

Here are a few. From right to left Carolin Nelson, Jan Holt, Sue, Linda Abbott, Ellen Edwards, Elvis Presley and Mad. They posed the group photo. Also around besides Steve and me was Kent Nelson and John Ward.

Jan and I beat John and Carolyn on the shuffleboard. I forget how came next but we beat them too. Jan and I were killers. We all order lunch along with a few drinks. Everybody had a good time. We might make this a regular event.

That pretty much took care of Wednesday. I'm going to miss the tough days down here. Anyway, Thursday was just a hang out day. I was going to play golf but didn't quite feel up to snuff so I just sat around. About 3:30 we went to the Brookside Sports Bar and Grille to have some food and watch the Husky game. As I'm sure most know the first half was good while the second half was not. We had a good time even thought they lost. It was apparent that there were quite a few Husky fans in the room. As they say, Better luck next year.

Friday morning we got up and met Steve and Mad at the Enterprise Car rental place. They dropped off their rental car and we took them to the airport. They were flying to Las Vegas and then driving to the AVI casino in Lughlin to meet friends. We told them that we should have planned differently and all driven in the motor home up there. That would have been a real gas. See you guys when we all get home.

As things are down here we had the next stop. We had been invited to Mary Ann and George's house to see it. We had talked about this when we at, where else "Roman's Oasis" They have a very nice home in Pebble Creek. Pebble creek in about 12 miles south of Happy Trails. They have a home on the end of a Cul-d-sac which makes for a huge back yard. It is beautiful. They have so many Cactus some of which were blooming. That is one cool thing about being down here this time of year is the Cactus bloom. After a beer and checking out their place we went to Wadells Longhorn Salon. We were there last with John and Linda during a Cardinal play off game last year. We good to see them. Again more plans for next year.

So here we are on Saturday. Sue has some laundry, going to clean house, is at the store now and generally READY to go home. I on the other hand am not excited about that plan. I already have WORK (A nasty 4 letter word) scheduled at home. Tomorrow morning we pull out for Palm Desert for a few days. We will be seeing Elaine and Cuz and Bonnie. I'm sure I will make more reports from there.

Seeing the sights

We have been doing the tourist thing. Monday we took Steve and Mad out to Scorpion Bay and Dillons restaurant. The weather was in the 80's so it was a really nice day to go. We had lunch and then went for a walk on the docks. I got a shot of the fire boat testing the equipment.

I don't know if you can see them or not, but there was a swarm of bees inside this boat. We didn't want to get to close.

On the way back from Lake Pleasant we stopped at Richards house. I had taken my cooler with some wine and stuff for a picnic at the park. We decided to do it at Richards instead. Sue gave a tour of his house. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the day.

Yesterday Steve wanted to check out booze prices. So we went the the Adult Candy Store (Totl Wine and Spirits) We also went to Cosco. Costco ad a coupon for &3.50 off on Absolute Vodka, That made a 1.75 ltr bottle less than $20 bucks. It's $54 in Washington and most likely going higher thanks to our Governor and her spendy friends. On the way back home we stopped at the Desert Palms for lunch.

Later in the day Steve and Mad came over here and we went to Virginia's for a visit. We sat around on her patio for a couple hours before we came back here for some cheese and crackers. So far we have had two great days.

Today will be the biggest adventure. We are going to Roman's Oasis. We also invited some of the Twin Lakes gang and Traditions gang. We will have a crowd, I'll report on all that tomorrow. Sadly our time in Arizona is coming to an end. We will starting home Sunday. AHhhhh............