Dog, Cat and Driftwood

This is Valley Freightliner who is servicing our RV chassis before we start the trip back to the San Francisco Bay Area. They are performing a major service

that will take about 17 hours plus oil and filter changes on the Cummings diesel and Onan generator. We dropped the RV off at 7am on Oct 27th and then lived out of our car with the cat until a little after 8pm that evening. We were able to “live” in the motorhome parked in their lot for the night. I didn’t know you could rev up a diesel engines that high or that loud at 3am in the morning yet, they are a 24 hour truck shop by the way! In the morning they started work on our motorhome around 7am again and we began another long day in our car.

Although its lightly raining compared to yesterday when the wind blew and it really rained, we decided to go the Post Susan’s private beach. On the way we noticed this Wolf, Coyote or dog in front of a house. Note the yellow eyes!

I forgot to put Buffalo in the title but they were out roaming the range.

We finally arrived at the beach and Ty led us down the trail.

Finally the "trailblazer" notices that there’s water at the beach. You can tell he’s bum’d by the fat tail.

I’ll stay on the driftwood and the water better stay in the Sound!

Hey! There’s sand at the beach. There is nothing a cat loves more than sand! Ops! I promised him I wouldn’t put this picture in the blog.

He should have know better he just had to ask Debbie about her pictures.

Hey! Don’t get so close to the water.

This way to the car.

Ah, nothing like home after a long day at the beach. It's way down just past the white one. Yes it’s still raining and cold at night. Around 40 degrees!

Next, we head south and meet a real mountain man along the way!

A Day of Soccer

Back in October, has the time passed that quickly? Debbie and I were invited for lunch by my nephew Aaron and his wife Dianne. Their son, Dominic was playing a soccer game later in the day and we were anxious to go see the game. It’s been so long since we have watched our own boys play. We had such a fun time at the game we are going to pester Aaron to get us a schedule next year so we can enjoy more of the games. They live about a half hour from Port Susan so it’s not very far to go.

The Halloween decorations are out already! Debbie watches Aaron filling a fountain in the front yard.

Dominic, in soccer uniform, stopped long enough for a quick picture.

Victoria, Dominic’s sister also posed for a photo.

The game was at a school field. The coach gets to lug all the balls and other equipment to the field.

Debbie hasn’t forgotten how to do a soccer game. The sun was out but it was cool.

Dominic was obviously the best player on the team (my opinion).

He plays with intensity.

Aaron is the kind of coach that every parent wishes for. He’s low-key and his primary goal is to make sure all the kids play and they have fun.

Victoria enjoys her brother's game with a friend

and a doll.

Meanwhile the game continued at a furious pace.

After the game the coach’s wife hands out snacks.

The end of a great day. Dominic’s team won in a high scoring, exciting game and he made a goal for us. Though it was not big deal for him. I couldn’t even get a smile after the shot.

Next time dogs, cats and driftwood.

Ty Gives a Tour of the Interior

Ty wanted to show everyone around his new 5th wheel. He's on the kitchen counter which runs along the right side of the rig. No cooking yet. The counter is covered with tools and supplies. Oh and the cat.

The entry door is just to the left and the bunk room is through a door to the right.

Ty and Debbie both wanted to point out a small problem with the wood framing of the slide. It's only problem we have encountered so far. The slide is in so it’s a little cramped until we get it fixed and out.

A closer look at the restoration. We had to cut the wall paneling and then remove the rotten end of the studs. Ran out of time so we’ll have to replace the bottom of the studs next year.

The small bath is located toward the front of the RV. Ty would like you to notice the small bath tub, which is not usually found in a 5th wheel.

Here is the main bedroom. Ty is walking on the walk-around king sized bed platform. We got rid of the mattress. The closet has double sliding mirrored doors.

There’s a window at the head of the bed and cabinets above.

At the other end of the RV was the bunk bedroom with a small closet and bunk beds. The door going in is small, made even smaller when the slide is in. You can see below that we widened the door quit a bit. When the slide is out it will become more of the living area.

Here what the ex-bedroom looks like with the closet, bunks and desk out. It’s now becoming a sewing room!

The water heater and converter have been boxed in and will be paneled. We ordered a custom counter top to fit across the wall below the window. That’s quite a view out the window.

So it’s all buttoned up for the winter.

Next our visit with my nephew and his family.

Port Susan Redux I

Debbie and I actually own two side-by-side lots in Port Susan. Two year ago we were sitting out on our lot when the next door neighbors walked over and said they were going to sell their lot and asked if we were interested. At first we declined as we didn’t really need two lots. But after driving around the area and looking a few lots that were less than attractive, we started to worry about who would buy the lot . Since the living side of our RV faces their lot, we became concerned. What if they parked a broken down school bus there? Or worse? What ever the new owners put on the lot would be what we would look at when sitting outside. So we decided to buy it to protect our little piece of heaven.

Now we’ve owned the lot a few year and last year we decided to look for a low cost trailer or 5th wheel to put on it. It would give our kids and other guest a place to stay during their visit. Debbie also wanted to set up a sewing room with a real ironing board. I also figured that when I got kicked out of the house I would have a place to get in out of the cold and rain.

We wanted a rig that we could remodel on the inside but looked ok on the outside. We all so wanted one that didn’t have any roof or water leak problems.

Last year we looked at several units but didn’t find any to fit the bill. This year we stated looking again and we finally found a deal. It’s 35 foot long 5th wheel with a rear bunk bedroom. A large 12’ x 4’ slide opens up the living area.

Now I had to level the lot so the 5th wheel have a level parking spot when we rolled it in.

I also had to build a small retaining wall to keep the electric service above ground. A lot more work than I planed since I come up to Port Susan to relax!

With the parking area leveled Debbie and I enjoyed a drink and fire in the fire pit that she re-designed. Being a brick-layer’s daughter playing with bricks is in her genes.

Finally the 5th wheel arrived and got tucked in.

Another view. Inside tour and construction next time.

Digital TV

In our location we are able to receive several digital TV channels including NBC and CBS. But the FOX network experiences very irritating glitches that come and go. Probably caused somehow by the liberals up here in Washington. The FOX channel is very important because it carries the Seattle Seahawk’s football games.

I had read about a Wingard accessory which attaches to the existing antenna and improves the digital signal. I thought it would be worth a try so we drove up to the Camping World in Burlington and picked one up. When we returned back to camp I opened the box and found it was a return and the plastic bag containing the special locking screws was torn open and one of the screws was missing. Damm! Back to Camping World. No problem with the exchange and also received an apology. This time I opened the box and looked in. I should have pulled everything out because when I got back to camp I discovered this unit had also been a return. At least all the parts were present this time, but with two return units I began to wonder why. Maybe this add-on doesn't work!

Since the units were being returned I wonder if they might not work that well. I decided to find out for my self and when ahead and installed it to the existing Wingard antenna on the roof of the Motorhome. It’s the post with two small wings and the box on the bottom.

It actually did improve the signal. Fox now comes in fine and other problem channels come in better also.

The Salmon Are Running

But not today! I went out with Rich fishing for Salmon a week or so ago in his Lund aluminum boat. I just went along for the ride because I neglected to get a fishing license. Actually he took me out before and I had a great time but I wished I’d brought my camera. He also had a great time catching several crabs and two salmon. This time I remember the camera but the fish weren’t biting.

I’m holding the boat at the bottom of the boat ramp while Rich parks the boat trailer. The Kayak County Park fishing pier in the background. The weather was overcast and cool.

Despite the weather fishermen were out in force in small boats and

Larger ones….

Rich catches the only fish of the day for our boat. In case you can’t see it, it’s at the end of the pliers.

The native Indians here use nets to catch their salmon. Here they are pulling the net back to their boat.

Here they are with a net full of fish.

Back at the boat ramp a starfish was hanging out. Rich was skunked this time out and I might get blamed for being bad luck.

A few days later he and his brother-in-law went out and both caught their limit. Rich had been out a few time and dropped off a few salmon for us.

5th Wheel Interior Tour by TY

Ty wanted to show everyone around his new 5th wheel. He is on the kitchen counter that runs along the right side of the rig. No cooking yet. That is all tools and supplies. Oh and the cat.

The entry door is just to the left and the bunk room is through a door to the right.

Ty and Debbie both wanted to point out a small problem with the wood framing of the slide. The only problem we have encountered so far. The slide is in so it’s a little cramped until we get it fixed and out.

A closer look at the restoration. We had to cut the wall paneling and then remove the rotten end of the studs. Ran out of time so we’ll have to replace the bottom of the studs next year.

The small bath is located toward the front of the RV. Ty would like you to notice the small bath tub, which is not usually found in a 5th wheel.

Here is the main bedroom. Ty is walking on the walk-around king sized bed platform. We got rid of the mattress. The closet has double sliding mirrored doors.

There’s a window at the head of the bed and cabinets above.

At the other end of the RV was the bunk bedroom with a small closet and bunk beds. The door going in was small, made even smaller when the slide is in. You can see below that we widened the door quit a bit. When the slid is out it will become more of the living area.

Here what the ex bedroom look like with the closet and bunks out. It’s becoming a sewing room!

The water heater and converter have been boxed in and will be paneled. We ordered a custom counter top to fit across the wall below the window. That’s quite a view out the window.

So it’s all buttoned up for the winter.

Next our visit with my nephew and his family.