Reorganization, Again

So in Winters, at Toni’s, while Kat and Toni went shopping I did some reorganization, ‘again!’ It’s not easy moving all your stuff from one RV to another even if is a little bigger. It’s still different and shape and configuration matter. I can hear what your thinking, “but you’re so good at this”. Yeah well “#&$#@”. Remember there are two of us with all of our worldly possessions and what I may think is important to be accessible may not be exactly the way it is. If you take my meaning? And remember the girls went shopping, so storage priorities can change, ‘in a hurry.’

I guess if your from anywhere near Sacramento or the Bay area you would know about Apple Hill. But we didn’t know about Apple Hill and it was the right time of year to go to Apple Hill, so Tony took us. If you go east from the ‘Govenators’ house it’s probably an hour into the Sierra foothills. And it is what it sounds like. Lots of orchards and produce and the associated farms and stands to sell it. But in some cases ‘stands’ does not cover it. Some of the farms have set up autumn or harvest festival areas. I guess an October fest setting would be an apt description. Vendors, eateries, crafts and the seasonal Halloween family stuff. All very nice. We had lunch, bought some stuff and had an adult beverage or two and didn’t come back with more than we can load into my reorganized RV. No small task with Toni!

Toni is an RV’er too, but in a little more permanent mode right now with some storage and way too much ‘stuff’ and a mentality that just demands more ‘stuff’. As I implied above, she is a ‘shopper’. Now I mean all this in the nicest way ‘cause Toni may have been just Kat’s friend when I met her, but now she is my friend too and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can hear you thinking, here comes the ‘but’ and you are right. But! We have a really hard time controlling Toni’s urge to make sure we have more ‘stuff’ that we just gotta have. We did OK this time though. We controlled both her desire to share the wealth with what she already has and her desire to buy us something new. I didn’t have to empty any basement storage compartments or anything to fit it in. And it was nice to see her again. She really is a good friend!

Breaking it in

We didn’t get very far the first few days after Scenic Beach. Rick and Tina’s is about an hour away and then we met Toni and sisters Pat and Darlene at Ike Kiniswa State Park just off Hwy 12 near Mossy Rock and on Merriweather Lake, just another hour down the road. My apologies if I misspelled any of that. I don’t have the info in front of me at the moment and I’m not inclined to get it right now. The fact is I wrote this segment once already and then lost it to byte heaven and I’m trying to reconstruct it and I’m on a little bit of a role and don’t want to break up, “Breakin it in”! Either that, or I’m just filling space while I’m trying to figure it out.

Anyway, we got to Ike (for short) and got all set up in our new rig and got everything all lit up and running and it was cool, and bright. The Southwind has 50 amp service and just all kinds of bells and whistles, so to speak, and lights. I forgot to relate our first nights experience which is relevant right here. Right after we got the Southwind and on the way back to Scenic Beach we stopped at an RV park for one night just to try things out. It was near dark and we’re in a new rig, in kind of tight quarters setting up and its new and we’re being extra careful and then we realize we’re in a 30 amp park with 50 amp service and no 30 amp adapter. Damn! Kat went to the office but had no luck. So rather than do it somewhere else in the dark in a new rig ( our new rig) we decide to just stick it out. We are self contained and had battery for the necessities but we couldn’t try out all of our ‘bells and whistles’. And back at Scenic Beach we were running on 20 amps, so we just hadn’t been able to ‘light it all up’. Now we did!!

And it is neat! And bright! The rig has about ( I was doing a quick count) two dozen 12 volt lights in the living room/galley area and I swear if you turn them all on you need smoked glass for eye protection, well sunglasses anyway maybe? But wouldn’t you know; we had to put in a florescent light so you can see to do dishes. Go figure? So we’re making ice and playing with surround sound, making things in the convection oven, washing and drying Jade in the combination washer/dryer, and just generally trying things out. Way cool! Nice to look at, and lots of room. I played man servant for all the girls and did breakfast and dinner in the new galley. I guess things turned out OK because Toni was wondering if I had a twin brother. Maybe she was just being nice? But its all pretty neat.

So we continued an down the road and stopped in Woodburn to see Heidi and the Wendy and did a little more breaking in and organizing. We still can’t find stuff we know we put somewhere. We stopped in Lincoln City to see George and Janis on the way the down the coast and had a very nice visit. From there we had to kind of ‘beat feet’ south because of scheduling. Down through Crescent City and the Redwoods over the mountains to Redding all much too quickly. We passed too many places we would have liked to loiter a little longer. Next time! This time we needed to see some friends.

And I was just kidding about Jade.

The Seabeck Addendum

As you know I like a little history and there is some here. (Well duh!) Anyway Seabeck got off to a great start in the lumber industry and for a time around the middle of the 19th century looked like it might be the center of commerce in the Puget Sound area. There were those who thought it would best or at least rival Seattle. That was, until the big fire in 1873 ( I think ?). The fire wiped out the wood mill and pretty much the rest of Seabeck to the point that it did not recover. There is still downtown and uptown though. At least that’s what the sign says. I guess you can see from the pictures that it no longer compares to Seattle. But it was a long time ago and Nancy, Harry, and Barney weren’t around to bail them out.

Hugs all around

Or as the Other Kat would say, “we are so outa’ here”. It was finally time to leave Scenic Beach and head for sunnier, warmer climes. We had a pretty good send off as you can see, Linda (with Macy, not Tucker), Kat, the other Kat, and Shawn (with Bo). I suppose it was fitting that it was raining when we left. But it was a good summer. One of the warmest summers in a while according to the locals. But as Kat ( my Kat) would say “when’ you enter the gate to Scenic Beach you lose two hours and 20 degrees.” Not far from the truth. It’s dark and cool in the big woods here. I accomplished my Social Security goal which was a real biggy and we enjoyed all the folks we worked with in the park. Not pictured are Richard, Fred and Ruthie, all the Mikes, Art and Judy. And I must not forget that we got the new coach. A good and productive summer.

If you’re ever in the vicinity you should give Scenic Beach a try. It’s not big, nor are the sites, but you can squeeze a 36 footer into some of the sites and just sit back and relax for a few days. Stop at Barbies Café in Seabeck and if you’re lucky they’ll have apple dumplings the day you’re there. You might want to get a box of firewood from Harold, just up the road from Seabeck (pictured) before going into the park. They don’t sell firewood at the park. Then its sit around the campfire roast a hot dog or marshmallow and unwind a bit. The beach isn’t a long walk and the view of the canal and the Olympics is spectacular. Don’t try it on a summer weekend though, not without reservations. I can guarantee, it’s full. That’s because a bunch of other people had the idea before you did and they already knew what a little ‘jewel’ on the Hood Canal it is. And that’s because of the neat group of people I was talking about. We’ll miss them all.

Leaving the whole gang and the S’klallam’ tribe on the beach we headed south. We stopped in Tacoma to have lunch with Heather and Tom, who we had not seen in way to long. They are doing very well as are Birdie and the kids and the rest of the family. It was great to catch up! That was my side of the family. As I write this entry we’re parked at Rick and Tina’s in Alder WA visiting Kat’s side.



If you’re scratching your head about the S’klallam’ tribe I will clear that up a bit. They had come to the park the day we were leaving to harvest Oysters. Part of the treaty I guess. I suppose they’re entitled. But if they are entitled maybe they could be a little better stewards of the environment. And that’s enough politics for this entry and it probably didn’t clear anything up but……………. I’ll take comments as they come!