Our Tumwater Hometown

We got back "home" to Tumwater about 9 days ago. Tumwater will always be our hometown even though our true "home" is our motorhome. We got a nice spot to stay for the winter at the Allimor RV/Mobile home park. It will suit our needs just fine.

We took 3 nights to get back up here from Pismo Beach. We stopped at the same 2 casinos and did some boondocking in order to save some money. Fortunately, the price of diesel fuel had come down a good bit since we left in September to go south so it cost less money for us to drive back north. We stayed our 3rd night at the WalMart parking lot in Chehalis because we had to go to Uhlmann's RV the next morning to arrange for some awning repairs. We'll take the RV back in a week or 2 to get those repairs finished. Uhlmann's has done a good job for us in the past and we like to return there for our service requests.

We also took the motorhome to the Cummins dealership in Chehalis to get the oil changed. While there we had them check out the engine also as it was having some "issues" on the drive back north. We have a 400 hp engine which should be lots of power. However, when we were climbing some hills and mountains on I-5 the engine would bog down to about 35 mph. That is not normal. They changed the fuel filter and said that it should do the trick and restore the full power we should have.

We were happy to see our little granddaughters when we got back home. Zoey, the 3 year old, was jumping up and down when her Mom told her we were back in town. They are coming over next weekend for a sleep over. They both love to come to the RV and be with us.

Last night we went over to the girls' house to go with them trick-or-treating. That was fun. It had rained all day long so I was wondering how Halloween night would be. Fortunately, it quite raining about 4 pm and the skies were clear later. Zoey was happy to get dressed up in her angel costume but then she got spooked about something and wouldn't go out. Go figure! She stayed home with Stephanie to pass out candy and the rest of us took Mackenzie out for some fun. We went to about 20 houses and that was it. That was more than enough candy.

We are into our normal routine now that we are back. We walk for an hour 6 days a week. It is dark when we go out at 6:30 am each morning but we get the job done. 3 days a week we still go out to McDonald's for breakfast and we go to church on Sunday. Same old thing.....but it is the familiar rut we like.

We will stick it out for the winter this year as we will be leaving for the east coast come March 14th or so. We are already looking forward to that big adventure. We haven't decided what route we will take next spring. A lot will depend on what the weather is like at that time. Driving east on I-90 through Montana and Wyoming might be dicey at that time of year so we may have to go south to I-40 and go that way. Time will tell.

No matter which route we eventually use, we are going to try to spend as little money as possible on rent getting back to Virginia. In 1999 we took a vacation to the east and we only spent $13.50 between Tumwater and New York for RV park rent. That was great!

Stay tuned to this blog and we'll let you know how we make out once winter really gets here! I'm sure the electric blanket will get a work out this year.