Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

Before I post Dunsmuir, I’m going to post the pictures we took at the lighthouse. You can’t see the lighthouse from the parking lot anymore(they need to cut a tree down) as you could the first time we saw it, only the Innkeepers cottage which is a BnB is visible now. We were lucky one trip and got a room there. They serve a 7 course breakfast😋😋😋. It was awesome.

⬇️but then you drive a ways to the vantage point and get another view. Sorry for the lousy photo. It was beautiful in person.

We’ve done the whole Oregon coast lighthouses. Back in those days we could climb those stairs to the frenzel lens light. Never again.
(Tracy and Tony, remember when you bought us a camera for our 50th anniversary? I think we’d like one for our 63rd anniversary too; hint hint💗)

We have passed this elk viewing area before but never spotted any elk. This time we did🙂

The lone male at the back of the herd is heading his females home.

Some of them got very close to the us.

So he came over to get them. He made a very loud noise. It was very exciting. How often do you get to see wild animals?

I did this short post while Jerry took a nap😀

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We hated to leave Hannah and her family, but Jerry was anxious to drive the coach home. It has been a great feeling to be in it again. We never pictured having it again, but it happened and we are going to relish every moment we spend in it. We spotted this model in a Reno parking a lot years ago and said one day let’s get one. That day came in 1992 when we re-financed the house and bought our brand new ‘Jamboree Searcher’ motor home. It was a dream come true. We paid off the 89 Brono 2, the mortgage, and got lower monthly payments. But of course for a longer time. We never regretted it.

Our first stop was the ‘Lewis and Clark National Park’, one of the newest established in 2004. We have crossed their paths several times in our travels and always enjoyed the information we encountered. A remarkable endeavor spearheaded by Thomas Jefferson. The visitor centers at National Parks are always a wealth of information plus we always get a park medallion for Jerry’s walking stick and a postcard to stamp with the parks date for me.

I think we all have heard about Sacagawea and the role she played for Lewis and Clark in Washington. Amazing with baby on her back.

Seeing all these beautiful familiar sights again traveling down the Washington and Oregon coast reminded me of how hard is to get good photos from the windows in the coach.
The big side mirrors and front cab overhead are hard to get out of the shot, and ruins the picture. Example below⬇️ I wanted a picture of that fence to try and duplicate somewhere in our yard. Plus reflections of the sun on water wash out a shot.

Our next stop was Astoria, you cross from Washington over to Oregon on this bridge. We would always stop here to have dinner at the Rouge Brewery and restaurant, and camp right next door. There used to be a neat campground we would stay at right on the water that we could walk to the restaurant. But it’s now the site of a big Westin hotel. I guess that’s progress. Oh well, we found a campground across the bridge from Astoria with a nice view.

We don’t always stay that near to the water. The campsites in the trees are beautiful too.

I loved this campsite it was so peaceful. The electric post got in the way of the photo though.

So about the coach. Jerry thought we may have needed an alternator. It turned out we needed a new battery. So we got that and went on our way. When we were getting off the freeway for our destination, Dunsmuir, everything went dead. Luckily Jerry coasted to a safe place and we called triple A. Turned out we didn’t need them. Long story short a local repair shop gave us a jump, we got to his shop and he put on a new alternator belt and we went to our campground and breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed a double nine game of dominos.

Today we will enjoy this little cute town

so stay tuned for that

💗jilly

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Can you believe we have a 62 year old daughter and we’ve only been married 63 years.
November 2nd to September 28th is 11months and she was a month early, so we did not have to get married! We just wanted to get married and be together for the rest of our lives💘

some random pictures to share with you

Tracy was there for her first granddaughter Melody

on a very happy note

She got surprise guests for the occasion. Jessica and Hannah flew in to be there with her. How sweet is that?

the Wi-Fi has been spotty on this trip, so not posting much. Tonight we are at an auto repair shop waiting for them to open tomorrow to see why the battery is not charging. Oh well it’s a cheap campsite. The expense comes tomorrow.

we are having a good time in spite of it.

stay tuned

💗jilly

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The train is a very enjoyable way to travel. It’s not the cheapest, but once in a while, it’s doable for us. We are getting the coach back, but that will be for shorter distance travels. No more four month coast to coast trips.

Since getting my knee surgery, we get the redcap service and are taken to the train on a vehicle. Actually anybody can get it, all you do is ask.

We enjoyed the time on the train as before, but this time we just got a ‘roomette’. It’s much smaller and doesn’t have its own bathroom, but that was right across the hall from us. The halls are so narrow on trains, which is good because they help you balance. It’s like a one lane road, someone has to back up to pass, which never seemed a problem. People are so polite and friendly on trains.

Our room was on the top floor so we didn’t have to go up those skinny stairs to get to the dining car. Remember those Martha?

But we still had to cross those plates between cars three times, four times to the observation car, we were the last car on the train. You press a button and the door will open and give you time to cross. Sometimes it’s pretty shaky but you get used to it. I’m sure you remember those too.

The dining car is the highlight of the trip. We met so many amazing people. One night we stayed until 9:00 when they closed. I wish I had my phone that night to get a picture. We were having so much fun with the remaining three couples. All the meals were included and good, but the same exact ones we had last trip.

We were scheduled to arrive in Tacoma at 6:38 Thursday night, but about 20 minutes out we made an abrupt stop. No one knew what happened. Or just wasn’t telling us. Jerry nosed around and found out a few things but didn’t know all the details. We were finally told the train had hit a woman on the tracks and was killed. They said the facts pointed to a probable suicide. Very sad. Every one was bummed. So we were an hour late getting to Hannah’s. The girls were already asleep.

The next morning Scarlett still wanted to check Jerry out. She wasn’t afraid, just curious like everyone else is about Jerry😂. Our last morning she even went over and got on his lap.

The pink around her neck is a skirt I bought for Melody but she chose to wear it that way.

Another dress for Melody, but she didn’t like it so Scarlett wore it.

Hannah was telling her she looked beautiful.

Daddy’s home, “look at our new clothes”. Melody is wearing the dress she liked. You have to go up stairs to their house and there’s a gate so they can’t go down. They have to set against the wall when someone is coming or leaving. Very good rules.

We said our tearful goodbyes and headed south in our very missed coach💗down the Washington, Oregon, and California coast.

more to come

stay tuned

💗jilly

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We didn’t take many photos in Portland, we were having a good time, and a lot of our shots didn’t turn out. The weather was nice most of the time, but the afternoon after the gardens it was hot. Portland does get hot in the summer, it helps those hops grow, don’t ya know. We stopped at a farmers market and Jessica got some very interesting looking pasta to cook after we left. She sent a picture of the finished dish, looking very fancy.

Jerry wanted an afternoon nap so we went back to our place and Jessica and Carter got some free time before dinner. Jessica picked a great restaurant and we all loved our food and had a great time. No photos taken though.

Next day we drove by their new house they had just bought. We couldn’t go in since it hadn’t closed yet, missing it by a just few days before it was theirs. Darn.

It’s a beautiful house, I love the style and the color of the paint. We drove around a little more traveling along the Willamette river, seeing glimpses of it now and then. It runs through the city of Portland, which is, by the way, a complicated city. They use St,SW, and Ave all in the same address. There are little pocket neighborhoods, with shops and places to eat in every one, kind of like New York. They said one drawback to the new house it’s more in a suburb and won’t have all those close choices to choose from. I think they’re going to love the openness of their new neighborhood.

We ate at a bbq restaurant the night we got to Portland. It was in one of those pocket neighborhoods, just a few blocks from the Airbnb. We could have walked to it but chose not to. Unfortunately Jessica hadn’t picked it for us and it was so spicy we couldn’t eat it🥵very disappointing. The name ‘podnahs’ Jessica explained was slang for ‘pardners’ like “howdy pardner”😄

That final night we had another great meal at this really fun restaurant. We were buying all our meals the whole trip, just as we did for Hannah and Javier, so I encouraged them to eat well and experiment with cocktails. We all did that and enjoyed everything. It was fun meeting Carter, he’s such a cool, down to earth guy. Just right for Jessica. They drove us back, we hugged and said our goodbyes, hoping to see them again.

here’s a short side story~~~~

Around 2008 when Jessica was 13, she adopted a kitten from a litter of four kittens that found their way from the alley to our back yard. With help we were able to have them all fixed. Jessica was wanting a cat so she came and looked at them. I had names for all of them. One who had a two part crooked tail, I named Zorro. It looked like a z. That’s the one she picked. With help again, a long story, we found homes for the other three. We think Midas was a litter mate but he came to the front yard instead and adopted us. But he only wanted to live on the street, and he did for almost 17 years.💗

There were two with bent tails, I forget which one Zorro was, probably the one in between the two, trying to get to the food. She does like to eat.

Zorro today⬇️

She’s a house cat so doesn’t have to deal with the dangers Midas did. She wouldn’t come out from hiding while we were there but maybe next time. I love the color of her eyes, not as much as Midas’s gold eyes though 🤩

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The picture of the girls in the last post was actually at a birthday party. Hannah said they were having a good time but a friend snapped that picture at an odd moment.

I love Scarlett’s new haircut.

I’ll end with this photo all mothers know and have dealt with. Sorry Scarlett, this photo may be used to embarrass you in the future.

We have a new adventure coming up. We’re taking the train to Tacoma again September 17 arriving the 18th. We will be bringing the coach home again. It developed problems too expensive for Hannah and Javie to afford to fix.

So stay tuned for what develops.

💗jilly

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