Gordon and Juanita travel in Tiramisu II Seeing the USA in our Chevrolet

Winter plans made Aug 31, 2011

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Except for a brief brush with an errant thunderstorm several evenings back, the weather here has been excellent. The storm left about 6 drops someplace around the camp, but wasn’t enough to dampen streets or our spirits. There has been some morning fog along the shoreline and the nearby Cape, but it has remained clear at our location.

Since atmospheric conditions have not presented me with the desired light, inspiring cloud formations or low level clarity that I would like to use with my new lens and photo processing programs, I have recycled some of my older photos processed with new (to me) techniques. The results might not appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed playing and achieved some interesting images.

While I have been playing with photo archives, Juanita has continued to work on the large quilt for her daughter. She is making good progress and is about 55% through the hand quilting at this point. My dear wife hopes to complete the project sometime in November.

In the title of this entry I noted that winter plans have been firmed up. We put a deposit check in the mail to reserve a space at The Tiffany RV Park in Mesa, Arizona beginning on November 1. With only 25 spaces, no pools, hot tubs, meeting or club rooms, hobby shops, bocce ball, shuffle board or tennis courts, no park models or casitas, and no concierge services of any sort, The Tiffany is exactly what we are looking for in snowbird deluged Arizona.

The small park is family owned, very clean and located in downtown Mesa near numerous shopping centers and restaurants. I have been assured that there are a good number of quilt shops in the local area. Juanita should be pleased.

We will also be just a mile distant from good friends who happen to be the human pack members of our borrow-a-beagle friend Casey from last summer at RedRock Park in Idaho. Steve and Karen hosted us at their nice home for two weeks in early January and we are looking forward to spending four months close at hand during the winter months.

Since we will be leaving the Oregon coast in three or four weeks, I have begun the long process of travel preparations that will continue right up to wheels rolling time. I have repacked two of our three basements and today waxed the front cap of our fiver. The sides are still looking good, so I will end that process with some wax on the end cap.

We have not set up any particular travel plans for our fall travel schedule other than avoiding California if at all possible. The combination of too much familiarity, far too many people and vehicles, high prices for everything, rapidly decomposing infrastructure and a social and political situation completely out of control will keep us at a distance...unless a suitable bypass is unavailable.

Most of us are aware that the home can be a dangerous place. My dear wife discovered another lurking danger in our rolling home several nights ago while baking a meat loaf in the convection oven. Most of these ovens are located above kitchen counters and just a bit high for folks of less than average height.

Well, Juanita is one of those folks and, when reaching for the baking dish, lost her grip on the hot grease filled vessel splashing the front of her tee shirt and pants with scalding meat juices. She had the presence of mind to immediately pull the shirt away from her skin, but not before receiving a moderate burn on her lower belly.

Fortunately, she was not badly burned. As a result of this incident, I have been conscripted to retrieve hot objects from the convection oven in the future. I will be most happy to do so.

Abbey continues to add constant humor to our lives. She is a real clown and leaves us laughing (almost) all of the time. The little hound has developed a very predictable routine and it will be interesting to see how our upcoming travels affects her. She has proven to be quite adaptable to short trips, but hasn’t traveled extensively since our short spring journey to Washington and back.

The wax on wax off project this morning has left me without much more energy, so I will wrap this up with a promise to check back in with you all again soon...........................