July 13, 2013 Oregon’s delightful summer season

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July 2, 2013, Salem, OR--Views of the Midwest

Yes, it is hot in Salem too.  Not as hot as other places in the country where we hear numbers that are on a toaster oven--like 110 degrees, but we are enduring the 90s in this part of the country.  With the humidity, it means running the air conditioner from about 9 a.m. until midnight. 

One great point of being in Salem is the temperatures cool down after sunset and we wake up to comfortable temperatures. I love the early morning coolness and thank my lucky stars that we are here in beautiful Oregon.

We try to have a weekly drive around the Salem country side. The views transport me to other places we have visited in the past—such as Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  Here are a few views of the Midwest:

Is this a Wisconsin barn?  Or did we see it in Iowa?

I swear I saw this scene in Indiana!  (And, no, it is not a golf course!)

And this view….

Like Indiana’s Amish households with their fruit stands, many Oregon farms have produce for sale.  And it is yummy!

These fresh berries are sweet--no sugar needed!  (I swear I never thought I could say that, ha ha.)

Meanwhile, we have been busy with activities here at the Elk’s Club and my pottery classes.

The Salem Elks Club hosted their annual car show.  The owners show off their restored “antique” vehicles and some of us reminisce about dating in these cars—when they were just “used” cars—not antiques.

 

The show attracted about 40 vehicles.  The cars from the late fifties looked like big boats compared to our smaller cars today..

We saw these three cars pass us on the road in Molalla and followed them to take a photo:

  

The three 1929 Speedsters were on a road rally. Each car was restored by the driver.  They offered to take a photo of me in the white car, but I declined; the cars were cute enough on their own--without me in it.

This next photo is for my friend Marge—a picture of the Willamette River as it passes the town of Independence, OR.  Here is the boat launch in the middle of town.

And here is the Molalla River ferry landing in Canby, OR.  Don’t you just love the green water rivers in Oregon?  Texas rivers tend to be dirt-brown colored.

It is fun exploring the country side, but you need to come visit yourself—to absorb the beauty of this state.

We hope you have found a comfortable place to be during this hot summer.  Stay cool and look forward to Fall weather—coming soon to a place near you.

June 3, 2013 In Salem, OR, for the Summer Season.

I am going to do a bit of catch-up blogging.  We did the Antioch, CA, to Salem, OR, trip in three nights.  See, I said we were slowing down.  First night we stopped in Redding, CA, at the Elks’ Club so we could visit some long-time friends, Jack and Nancy Reed.  We met them camping at Lake Shasta, just north of Redding, about 40 years ago.  As they were busy during the day, we took a side trip up to Whiskeytown Lake.

 

It is a beautiful lake, but the RVing facilities have always been a bit too slim to spend much time there.  The RV section is a large, sloped parking lot with side ways parking, so it takes two ways to level the rig and it is a dry camp.  The Redding Elks is on the edge of the Sacramento River with water and electric—and a sewer dump. 

The second night we stopped at one of our favorite camp spots, the Valley of the Rogue River State Park located behind the Rest Area.  It is convenient to the freeway and has pine trees!

 

We arrived at the Salem Elks Club the following day and got set up for the next month or two.

Salem works for us in several ways.  We are close to Wal-Mart, Costco, U.S. post office, Great Harvest Bread store,and even A.A.A. We found a convenient laundry mat with large machines and few visitors early in the morning. And most importantly, Larry can use our HMO doctor’s offices for his lab tests and other medical needs.  Plus it is a beautiful city located in a beautiful area!!

This year I am signed up to take a 8-week pottery class at the Willamette Art Center.  I start Wednesday, and I am looking forward to playing with clay and being surrounded by creative potters.  I think it will be fun to learn new techniques and get my hands and clothes dirty.

One of the main reasons we came this year was because my “walks-on-water” daughter-in-law’s family is having a entire-family reunion—which meant our son and his family drove over from Boise, ID.  They offered to come to Salem to see us first.  What a wonderful deal for us!  We only see them every couple of years because Boise, ID, which is HOT during the summer, isn’t on our “fly way” to and from Texas.

Our GRANDdaughter Chelsie and her boyfriend Shawn drove over from Boise too.  Left to right:  Chad, Chelsie, Shawn, Alika, and Natalie.  Chad and Shawn fished the park pond behind our camper while I took Natalie, Chelise and Alika around Salem.

State Capitol building and one of the two water features in the Capitol mall area.

The roses are in bloom in Salem and Portland.  What a colorful time of the year.

This is the paddleboat that gives tours on the Willamette River.  Larry and I are going to take a tour in the next week or so.  We have had rain almost every day since we arrived, so haven’t done much exploring yet.

And here is how we all gathered here at the Elks’ Club.  We were lucky they all brought chairs with them as we only carry two.

Then it was time for them to pack up and leave.  Darn!  They had a two-plus hour trip to Rockaway Beach to meet up with Natalie’s family.  Bye beautiful family.  We will miss you!

I will close with a funny photo—of Larry helping me with the housework.  We washed the sheets and had to remake the bed—a chore I hate, but doesn’t bother Larry.  I wonder why??

We will doing a bit more now that summer has caught up with us here in Salem.  We hope your summer plans bring you peace and contentment!  And make time to try all the fresh fruits and vegetables from your local farmers’ markets. Salem is blessed with several each week.  Life is good! 

May 13, 2013 - Reflections on 30th Anniversary

Today is the 30th anniversary of my 39th birthday.  While I was walking this evening, I was thinking that I should feel a bit depressed as life is whizzing by way too fast.  How did I get so old when I wasn’t looking?

Instead, I was thinking how incredibly lucky I am!  I have enjoyed the company of my best friend Larry for 42 years.  We have worked and played together—through thick and thin, good times and scary medical issues—and still he is my best friend!   We are able to travel and explore, even with his health issues.  I have two sons, one walks-on-water daughter-in-law and two wonderful grandchildren.  We have a small, comfortable house and my pottery shop in Texas, surrounded by a wonderful, caring community-with some very special friends.  And we have a community started by the Escapees RV Club which was founded and is still run by the Peterson-Carr families.  I was even lucky enough to work for Bud and Cathie Carr—two of the most special people on earth—not once but twice—first in the 1990s and again in the 2004-2008.  Both jobs gave me opportunities to learn new skills and grow.  And by accident, I decided to try pottery again and found my love of throwing clay again.  Eventually, I overcame my fear of fire and with Larry’s help, fire the pottery kiln all by myself.  I am amazed at the things I have learned since I turned 50!  Life is continuing education—with no degree in sight yet. Who would have thought the senior years could be so exciting and fulfilling?

And even with Larry’s failing kidneys, we have been able to continue traveling because we have two wonderful doctors who are willing to work with our plans.  We stay in touch via email and fax monthly lab test results back.  We have learned what to watch for with his test results and know we may have to head for an Emergency Room if things get too bad.  We carry SkyMed insurance should his kidneys fail completely and Larry has to return home without delay to start dialysis.

So, instead of being depressed at my advancing age, I feel empowered to use the rest of our time doing what we want—until we can’t!  No sitting around waiting for old-age issues to consume our days, we are ready to head off for another adventure.

We have been here at Sugar Barge Resort for 2 1/2 months.  It has been a very nice experience being in one place for so long.

 

We would have loved to stay here this summer to enjoy the produce from the numerous local family farms.  Brentwood-Oakley is on the edge of the bountiful California Central Valley which feeds a large portion of the US. However, our son and his family will be in Vancouver, WA ,around the first of June, so we are going to Salem, OR, to see them. 

One new thing is that I learned from my sisters is how to make bead necklaces .  I have been stringing beads to help them build stock for their upcoming craft shows.  My fumbling fingers have been able to assemble about 15 necklaces.  Diane (on right) assembles a kit with beads she thinks would be pretty in a necklace—and I string them while watching—listening to—TV..

 

This is the basic pattern and then we fill in with seed and pearl beads.  I do prefer making pottery, but throwing clay in the camper would be a bit unrealistic! Darn!  Anyway, it gave me something to do with my hands while we have been here.

Our plans are to head north on Thursday toward Salem, OR.  We will be stopping at least twice, maybe three times on the trip.  We should be in Salem by next Tuesday. 

On your next birthday, I hope you are able to feel as full and excited as I am today—with much behind me in years—yet looking forward to many more new experiences waiting around the bend.

 

 

 

 

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Mar. 28, 2013 Where did March go?

Yikes, it has been over a month since I wrote on the blog.  I feel like we slept the month away, as we have little to report.
This past month in Antioch, CA, has had us mired down in doctor and dentist issues, along with  coming down with “the cold” going around.  We both woke up yesterday and said:  I do believe we are going to live.  Life is good.
We left off on the previous the blog leaving Quartzsite, AZ, for another trip back to Antioch, CA, so Larry could have the cancerous spot on his wrist removed.  As in February, we made the 620-mile by spending three nights instead of just one.  We returned to the Needles Elks’ Club, the Bakersfield Elks’ Club and Tracy Elks’ Club, on our way to Sugar Barger RV Resort.  I always try to keep an extra day or two with the trip in case we run into snow at Tehachapi, fog in Bakersfield, or heavy winds on I-5.
Have you heard about the bee-hive collapse situation?  Bee hives have been dying off at alarming rates.  Here is one reason:

See those white boxes?  You can’t hear it what they mean, but we did:  Smack, smack, smack!  Hundreds of the little beasts leaving their sticky yellow guts all over the front of our RV—as well as every one of the hundreds of RVs traveling up and down I-5!  It is incredible that the beekeepers haven’t figured out that bees fly in a big circle—right over the heavily traveled interstate.  In the case of Bee vs. RV/18-wheelers = bee loses!
We got into our usual spots—thanks to the caring Sugar Barge staff.  This is our back door view:
 
I am going to share a few fun photos taken during the past month—as we drove back and forth to our medical facility and other appointments.  Spring is the time to enjoy California!



One of the many reasons we like to stay at Sugar Barge is the number of RV rallies held here.  We were surrounded by Airstream trailers recently. 

I noticed the Airstream owners spent more time outside visiting than the owners of the big motor homes do.  It was a fun group.
Here is Larry, with his new slimmer, wrinkle-free wrist enjoying the view:

The plastic surgeon removed more of the skin around the cancerous spot on his wrist, stitched  and added steri-strips over the incision.  Larry had to avoid showers for 2 days, and within two weeks, the steri-strips fell off and stitches dissolved.  Very little pain and very minimal scarring.  Well done, Dr. Chong.
We are waiting to see his kidney doctor next week to see how our summer is going to shake out.  Would love to head back to Texas and my pottery wheel for a few months, but I think that isn’t going to be in our near future.  In the meantime, we will explore the Bay Area until we can head out for a month or two. 
I will try to write more often.  I hate that our plans are so dependent on doctor appointments, but we knew that when we packed the camper to travel and explore.  We just have to sneak in fun times between the medical issues!   

Feb. 22, 2013 Best-made plans fail, again.

February has been a busy month.  Larry had a kidney doctor appointment on Feb. 7, 2013, so we packed up the camper and headed toward Antioch, CA.  We got a late start on Feb. 1, so we decided to find the Needles, CA, Elks’ Club.  It gave us a 100 miles start on our 620 miles trip back to the SF Bay Area.  We never know what the club offers to traveling Elks, but at a bare minimum, we have a safe place to spend the night dry-camping.

We were delighted to find a full-service campground for $18 a night.

The following night we stopped at our regular travel spot--the Bakersfield Elks’ Club—which offers over-night parking with electricity and a RV dump for a $10 donation. 

It is located downtown and doesn’t offer a full-hook-up site, but we are delighted to have a place to spend travel nights—with electricity which is required during the HOT summer months.

Using Elks’ Club RV parking option is nice; inexpensive parking and helps support the clubs--a win-win situation.  These two show the differences available.

We spent 8 days at the Contra Costa Fairground campground in Antioch, CA.

It isn’t fancy (for $17 a night), but the location works while we do the doctor visits and lab work.  One disadvantage is we are allowed 14 days in a six-month period which creates issues if we need to be in the area for longer visits.

The doctors’ visits weren’t as reassuring as we had hoped.  Larry’s kidney function is not doing as well as before.  If he doesn’t get his albumin levels up by April lab tests, our traveling days may be curtailed for a while.  Plus he had three biopsies done on his scalp and wrist when we visited our GP.

We headed back to Quartzsite, AZ, with plans to work on increasing his nutrition levels to bring the albumin level back up over the next 5 weeks.  I planned on cooking yummy dishes to tease his appetite and increase his nutrition.  We did about 300 miles each day to get back in two days.  We arrived Tuesday, Feb. 12, very glad to be back in the quiet desert—and tired!

Alas, our five weeks were not to be.  We received a call the next morning from the dermatologist.  She had some good news that the two spots on his head were fine; however, the one from his wrist is “squamous” cell cancer and he needed to return to have a consultation with a surgeon to have more of the area removed.  We asked for the six weeks at Q before returning—NOPE!  We agreed on March 15th at the latest!  This kind of skin cancer can spread. 

The surgeon’s office called later that day—we were still in shock from hearing two batches of not-so-great news.  We made an appointment for March 5th and then called the next day to move it closer.  Larry will see the surgeon Feb. 25th and then we hope to have a surgery date prior to March 15th!  So, yesterday we packed up our stuff and headed to CA—21 days after the last trip west. 

We called our favorite RV Resort--Sugar Barge Resort to see if they could fit us in one of our favorite sites for the next 30-60 days.  Tracy came through for us—AGAIN.  They are fantastic!  We will be in Site 113 until both the wrist surgery and April labs are completed. 

The other thing taking up so much of my time is illustrated below.  I feel like I have been immersed in a new language course for the past 30-plus days.  So much to learn—so few fresh brain cells left to train!

Yes, it has taken both books to try to learn how to make the phone work for me!  I must say, I love the phone!  It is a small computer on steroids!  I can hear people’s voices and the phone doesn’t garble to sounds like my Razor phone did!  I think it could do handstands on its own! 

In closing this episode, I want to share some of the beautiful jewelry my sister makes along with one final photo from Q—showing why we love the area:

Isn’t she talented?  We took some photos for her website.

And finally, Good-bye Q—until next year.  We will miss your beautiful colors!

Check back to see what the Jennings will be doing as they wait out the next five or six weeks!  We feel blessed to have been able to travel and explore the country even with Larry’s health issues.  We hope things shake out so we can continue.  Prayers for Larry’s continued health are welcome!