5 Days And Counting

Welcome aboard and Happy New Year to my latest "Follower", Tom McEntegart.  I'm so glad you found my blog and hope you enjoy reading about our Full Time Journey as we begin traveling again....in just 5 days!

In our small RV/mobile home park in Tumwater, Washington even folks with very small yards have gotten into the holiday spirit with Christmas decorations.  This small house is right across the street from our RV.

The home owner has gone all out to make his yard lite up with this small, but brilliant display.  During the extreme cold weather we had about 10 days ago, this guy's furnace broke and the water pipes in his laundry room ruptured.  He sent his wife and 3 kids to a local motel to stay until everything could be repaired.  They were gone for about a week.  After their return, everyone got into the act of putting up their yard display.  I snapped a couple of photos Saturday night to post on this blog.

In preparation for our departure on Saturday, we've been monitoring the internet weather page for conditions along our route to the sunshine.  We will be going directly south on I-5 from Tumwater.  So far, things are looking OK.  We check the cities of Ashland, Oregon, Hilt, California and Yreka, California.  They have posted nightly "lows" around 24 F, with some rain showers, but NO snow indicated as of yet.

If road conditions get iffy, we will cut over to the coastal route, Hwy. 101, and continue south that way.   Normally we go over near Cottage Grove, OR...Hwy. 99 to Hwy. 38. through Drain and connect with Hwy. 101 at Reedsport.  We have also gone west out of Eugene on Hwy. 126 to Florence.  Both work well.  One route we do not like to drive west on is Hwy. 199 from Grants Pass, OR to Crescent City, CA.  We have done this a couple of times with motorhomes and it just isn't a route we prefer.  It is narrow in spots and has some tight curves that scare the heck out of me.  Last March we had to go over to the coast and we chose the route through the tiny town of Drain.  All good.

This year we are hoping to be able to go through Northern California on I-5 so that we can stop and boondock in Corning on Sunday night.  We will stay at the Rolling Hills Casino in the "free" lot.  They have a great little RV park, but we have just boondocked on previous trips and will do that this time.  We want to stay there because they have the greatest buffet in the casino...and we have A FREE COUPON.  We are member's of their Player's Club and we got an e-mail coupon for one FREE buffet meal.  This buffet is one of 3 eating adventures we are planning for ourselves on this RV trip.  

We always join all the Player's Clubs at casinos even though we aren't big gamblers.  First of all, I have very bad luck at the slot machines and I might just as well throw the money out the window....I'll get the same return on my investment as when I put it in the machine.   Secondly, I hate the cigarette smoke air in the casinos and I choose not to spend much time in there.  We join the Player's Clubs just for the discounts on meals.  It costs nothing to join, and we never know when we may just give in to the urge for a fattening buffet meal.  We try not to do it often since we are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle while living a full time life.  But, we are human and the lure of roadside restaurants calls to us often.  Most of the time we try to plug our ears to the call and can be successful with that.

So with just a few days more until Departure-Day, we are spending some time with the family, getting things organized and ready in the motorhome, and tie up loose ends with errands and such.  We're ready for a change of scenery after 4 months of being here in Tumwater.  It will be good to once again get out on the road for an adventure.

Until next time.....so long for now!