Month: September 2017

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Heading Back East

Our last week at the campground was nice and quiet because we were the only ones there!  We finished up some last minute items and had a nice meeting with our managers about the opportunities for next year.  We won’t know for sure until November, but we’re confident something will work out. We also changed our days off so we could leave on Sunday, because we thought we might be able to meet Cori and Greg in Cheyenne along the way, and the extra day would allow us to spend more time with them, instead of just a few hours at the end of a long day of driving.  Unfortunately on Saturday we learned that Denver was supposed to get snow, which changed the plan quite a bit.

We really wanted to see them  (and as an added bonus Dave and Sharon just happen to be with them!) so I spent some time on Saturday re-routing us while Lee finished up last minute items on our rig.  We definitely would be able to meet up with them, but in order to do that a few of our travel days would have to be a little longer than 300 miles, which we like to keep as our outer limit of driving, but it would definitely be worth it.  And we would be going on new stretches of road (through Utah and Idaho) which is something I always enjoy.  So we finished up our last gate closing on Saturday and were both up by 5:30am on Sunday.  It still took us 3 hours to get on the road, but that was mainly because we double and triple checked everything.  When you have been sitting for a while, it’s easy to forget your normal travel day routine and we were both extra cautious to ensure we didn’t have any issues.

The weather was absolutely perfect and because I-84 was still closed due to wild fires along the Columbia River Gorge from Troutdale to Hood River (we heard on the radio once we were under way that they opened one lane Sunday morning, but we were already going the other way) we headed east on U.S.  26 (Mt. Hood Highway) instead. From just past Government Camp we took OR-35 to Hood River to catch I-84 eastbound from there. We got to see Mt. Hood with a fresh dusting of now!  It was a nice way to end our stay in Estacada, and the drive itself was a nice one.

Mount Hood

Mount Adams

Driving along the Columbia River

Our route actually took us through western Oregon, which we didn’t have time to explore this summer.  It gets pretty hot there, so next time we will definitely take some trips early in the season, and it’s always a surprise how quickly the landscape changes.  Lots of farmland, and quite arid, although we did have some beautiful views of the Snake River.  Our campsite for the night was even along the Snake River, and the views were spectacular.  We stopped at Catfish Junction RV Park because it was Passport America and the owner was really nice, and it was neat as a pin.  Plus it only cost $16 which was very reasonable considering the view! Not to mention there were only about 4 rigs in the whole park. We particularly love travelling in the off season and shoulder season, because even parks that are normally cramped feel wide open when there’s nobody in them.

Pendleton area of Western Oregon

Catfish Junction

Our site was on the end and easy to back in. If you have a larger rig you might want to call ahead because not all sites would be that easy to get into.

Gorgeous view from the front of our rig

There are also numerous boondocking spots along the snake river and close to the campground, but on our first night on the road we wanted full hook-ups.  When we have sat for a while Lee fills the black and grey tanks with about 1/3 water (I use the water meter to keep track of how many gallons I am putting in. It’s a very handy gadget to have for lots of reasons. – Lee) and the agitation from traveling helps to loosen and break up whatever sediment may have collected in either tank from sitting for so long.  Lee calls it a poop smoothie. Since we sat for almost 5 months the tanks definitely needed it!  We woke up the next morning and got on the road by 8:30am again, because I wanted to make sure we arrived at our next destination somewhat early. By choice I did not make any reservations, and generally in the off season this is not an issue.  But you never know what you are going to run into, so if you time your arrival by around 2-3pm, you still have time to deal with anything that comes up.

This day of driving was not nearly as interesting, unfortunately.  I didn’t really like the terrain all that much, although it did get much better when we hit Utah towards the end of the day. That was OK because I am trying a new thing while Lee is taking his driving turn.  I can’t read in the truck, it makes me carsick, but I can cross stitch, and this is a fun thing to do because I can just stop when there is something interesting to look at.  Lee and I have been splitting up the driving as well, changing drivers about every 2 hours, which also helps break up the long day. There was lots of construction and I swear it always happens on my turn, but surprisingly they still allowed people to drive 70 despite being down to one lane.  I just set the cruise control to 65 and let folks pass me, because despite the relatively flat terrain, I just felt more relaxed.  That section of highway was actually 80 mph but since there were 2-3 lanes folks didn’t seem to mind my slowpoke speeds.

Idaho

Some mountains as we got closer to Utah

Finally we arrived at Willard Bay State Park and I was pretty disappointed.  (Overall we are finding that state parks are not our cup of tea. They tend to be a little pricey for what we get. – Lee) There was no one at the gate so we had to use $30 cash, and since we didn’t have a campground map we had to drive around the campground, select a site, then drive back up and pay.  None of the sites had water views,which was disappointing considering it’s on the water, and it’s pretty close to the interstate so you can hear a lot of road noise.  On the plus side, the sites are nice and large, although not very level, and there was a nice paved path that took me down to the water.  It was pretty down there and I saw lots of birds, but overall it was just too pricey for a very average overnight stay.

Our site was on the end which was nice

The paved nature trail

The beach area was great. I can see why this would be a big draw in warmer temps

Egrets were in the marsh and lots of song birds

Even saw a huge flock of what I think were coramonts flying overhead

 

Overall it was pretty, but I was really hoping it would be special enough to qualify us for a state sticker, but that was not to be.  Our rule is we only get a state sticker if we spend the night AND see or do something unique to the state.  The last piece is a bit subjective of course, but when I tasted the lake and it wasn’t salty I had to decide to save my state sticker for something else.  Hopefully we will be able to get our Colorado sticker and Iowa sticker on our way to Indiana and Ohio, because it has been too long since I had the pleasure of putting a sticker on!

And then next morning I woke up pretty early and was as I was looking at Facebook and waking up I got pretty bummed out.   Some people we know are taking their time exploring this area and their pictures really made me sad that we were flying by without doing or seeing anything. Utah is an area we have been wanting to explore for a while now, and I hated that we would be so close to Moab and not see it.    It’s one thing to have Moab on your bucket list for example, but quite another to be less than an hour away and not be able to stop because of a schedule.  That’s not exactly true, we could change our plans and see it, but for me, it’s not a place I want to just jump out and take a picture.  It’s a BIG bucket list item and as such deserves more than a quick peek.  It’s worth noting that in my old life I definitely would have stopped, because I wouldn’t have been sure we would ever get back. Now I am confident enough that we will return that I can afford to wait, but it’s still a bummer.

Plus, we are spending money like crazy.  Gas Diesel on the highway is around $2.90 a gallon, even with our 8 cents off Pilot discount and it’s about $100 every time we gas fuel up the truck. So, it’s going to cost us about $1,000 in gas diesel to get from one end of the country to the other, and it’s hard to watch the money we worked so hard for this summer slip away.  More importantly, we are also “spending” 9 days of our precious time off, and since we don’t think we will have another long break until April, it’s hard to lose the time.   We could slow our pace of course, and the temptation to do that is strong, but we have family and friends who haven’t seen us in over a year and that is important as well.  I guess my point here is there is a tendency to see this lifestyle as freewheeling and completely without boundaries, and that simply is not the case for anyone we know.  People have doctor’s appointments, family obligations, repairs to attend to, and financial constraints, all of which impact their travel. When you are just looking at Facebook pictures or blogs you forget about that, and even though I know better than to judge my life by someone else’s “highlight reel” I am still guilty of it.

Basically I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, and then as often happens, the universe gave me a little nudge. Not ten minutes after writing the above couple of paragraphs I walked outside and there was a beautiful doe and her adorable, furry fawn less than 15 feet from our rig.  I just stopped and stared and she stood there for a long time staring back at me, and finally they strolled away, unconcerned with my first-world full-timer problems.  If I have a spirit animal, it is definitely deer, so the moment really spoke to me.  It definitely brightened my mood and I quickly finished our morning routine and we got on the road.

The drive through Utah was much prettier than the day before.  I had timed it so we missed most of Salt Lake City’s morning traffic, but it was still congested enough that it took some time getting through the city.  It was more industrial than I thought it would be, at least what we saw from the highway, and the surrounding mountains were really pretty.  Lee took the first shift, but we switched outside of town and our route took us off the interstate south of Salt Lake. We were driving US-6 to get between I-15 and I-70 and both of us were glad to be going through the countryside a bit.  That part of the drive was really beautiful and although the road was pretty twisty turny it had great signage, and lots of passing lanes so I could drive at my own pace.  The terrain also changed during the drive going from beautiful tree covered hills to some amazing canyons.

Grabbed a picture of the beautiful mountains at the Flying J before we jumped on Highway 6

This terrain was really pretty and we started to see some color

Then it turned into mining country with some amazing rock formations including Castle Gate pass. Unfortunately there was no place to stop and get a picture but this was really majestic

We also found a really nice, large travel plaza on Highway 6 and stopped for our lunch.  Since the huge parking lot was practically empty I practiced backing up and I think I did OK.  I haven’t backed up the rig since I went to RV driving school waaaay back in Spring of 2015 in the Outer Banks,  so I was a bit nervous, but Lee talked me through it step-by-step and overall I think I did OK.  I really need to take advantage of opportunities to practice this more in the future, because it definitely has an element of “feel” to it.

I wasn’t quite on the center line, but I was in the two outer lines

After our lunch stop we switched drivers again and the terrain down to I-70 was pretty barren. But when we reached I-70 and headed towards Moab we got to see some absolutely beautiful canyons, from the outside at least.  We talked again about changing our route, it’s nice when you have no reservations so you can talk about things and Lee is great about last minute changes, but once again we decided to push on.

The drive on US-6

The canyons on I-70 from a rest area we stopped at

Finally we left Utah and entered Colorado and the terrain changed once again.  There is a section along the Colorado River that has lots of wineries and fruit trees , which really surprised me and we were close to our stop for the night.  It was only 3pm at this point, which turned out to be a good thing since I had planned to stay at the James M. Robb state park.  I knew it would be pricey ($28 for full hookups and $7 daily entrance fee), but I wanted to try one of their state parks. The first section was in Fruita and since it was in town we skipped it for Island Acres which was outside of town and about 12 miles farther.  Unfortunately I had the wrong address and we actually ended up in a third section which was day use only.  Lee went inside and talked to them and we headed farther down the road, but it was actually 4:00pm by the time we arrived.  The park was in this really cool canyon, but when we pulled in, once again, not impressed.  Despite being right beside the river you couldn’t see it from your site and there was a train that ran through really close by, just on the other side of the river.  Plus there was a distinct sewage smell in the area and after some discussion we finally decided to move on, to a more reasonably priced option that would put us a little closer to where we would be meeting up with our friends.

Cool entrance to canyon

I looked in Passport America and there was a nice campground about 1-1/2 hours away that was only $25 (with the discount) for the night. Lee said he was fine with driving and we kept going. Unfortunately we had to go farther east to turn around, and then go back 25 miles the way we came to get on US-50, but eventually we made it. About 11 miles outside of Montrose we checked in to Centennial RV Park. The office was still open when we arrived a little after six and it was a well-maintained and friendly campground.  The Passport America price was right and we checked in and Lee quickly hooked us up to water and electric, and sewer. I made a quick dinner, trying a new fish recipe which we both really liked, and we both sort of collapsed.  It was a long day and the driving wear and tear is a little cumulative.  We knew we were tired when the person at check in asked us where we came from and neither of us could remember lol.  I finally said Utah, above Salt Lake, but for the life of me couldn’t remember the name of the campground.  But we are here and only about three hours away from Cori,Greg, Dave, and Sharon.  Tomorrow we will be going  over Monarch Pass, which on the eastern descent is about 6 1/2% grade for 10 miles, so we definitely wanted to be fresh for that drive.  Looking forward to seeing our friends and taking a day off from driving, plus still hoping to get that Colorado State sticker!

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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

 

 

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First Time Working In A Utility Co. Park – Summary

Disclaimer: The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy.  I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part.  

Overall, it’s been a really nice summer working and playing in Oregon, but as we are heading out soon I thought this would be a good time to write up our summary. If you would like to read our daily account you can start here.  I’ll start by saying these are absolutely the nicest seasonal employers we have worked for since being on the road.  We have had direct contact with managers/supervisors and every single interaction with them as been professional and pleasant.  Not that we haven’t had moments of frustration or conflict in this job, but because we are working for a corporation, those situations were handled with a “rule book” that I was familiar with, and very much appreciated.  This type of behavior has not been our experience with most of our seasonal positions, so for me it was one of the best benefits of the job.  It wasn’t all great of course.  The work was harder than I expected, and cleaning bathrooms and emptying trash all day every day was definitely not something I would sign up for again, but the overall experience was so positive that for the first time we are planning on coming back to the same place for another summer.  This is no small thing, as we have a list of places we would like to explore during our summers, but the combination of the people, the pay, the weather, and the many places to explore in this area make us both want to return.  Ultimately that is the highest praise I can give a position. The devil is in the details though, so let’s walk through it.

Pay – Lee and I both earned $14.25, which is the highest hourly  wage I have earned while on the road.  Lee earned $15 an hour while in Alaska, and of course we earned more with overtime during the Beet Harvest.  Despite the high wages though, we barely broke even this summer.  Yes, we earned more, but we also spent more as there were many places to explore in the area. We also only worked 35.5 hours a week and the combined loss of 9 hours per week definitely had a financial impact.  Overall we made a combined $16,527 and our expenses for the same time period were roughly $14,333 for a net gain of  $2,194 for the summer. I say roughly because we started getting paid on May 10th and left on May 24th, so I removed some of the monthly expenses like fuel and food at each end. Also, if you remove the $750 we spent on a new cell phone for me we would have made around $3,000, which isn’t quite enough to cover our expenses prior to starting our next job, but that’s also because we are traveling across country back east.  Again, our choice.

 I knew coming in we would be breaking even because of the hours, I was fine with it because I thought we would be working a light schedule.  What I didn’t understand was we would still be working 5 days a week and split shifts on the weekend, and as I told our boss in the exit interview it felt like we were working at least 40 hours.  We never really went anywhere during our long break on the weekends and I at least couldn’t just turn off the work switch and turn it back on when it was time to go back in.   So a lesson learned for us is to have a handle on the work schedule prior to accepting the position and not to assume because we would be working less hours that would mean we would have more available time off.  And to be clear I in no way felt we were taken advantage of here.  We made assumptions and didn’t ask the right questions and since many people don’t have an issue with split shifts, how could they know? Going forward we will definitely ask more questions in this area. 

Benefits – Every seasonal job we have worked has some extra benefit, but this company by far had the most available to us.  We had a free site and it was a really nice one with a beautiful view of the river so this was about $1,400 in savings. Medical insurance was an option, but we stuck with our ACA plan. We did sign up for dental and life insurance.  The dental coverage was an amazing bonus and very inexpensive; only costing $2 per paycheck.  We took full advantage of the insurance and because we both had cleanings and X-rays, and I had some detailed periodontal work, I estimate those benefits alone as being at least additional $1,200 in savings, which is no small amount of money especially for a seasonal job. We could have signed up for 401K, but we chose not to. If we come back next year we will be vested for 1 year and the 401K match is pretty good based on that.  We also receive a small “profit sharing” bonus at the end of the year and that is based on hours worked and hourly wage.  Again, it’s not a ton of money, but those small extras do add up and it’s nice as a seasonal to be eligible for “regular” employee benefits.   We also had access to a company vehicle which we drove for work every day and since we were allowed to stop in Estacada for a quick errand here and there I estimate saving at least 20 miles a week on wear/tear and gas for our personal vehicle.  We had a couple of potlucks (free food) and an end of the year party where each of us received a gift and a $25 gift certificate.  We could have rented a boat down at the marina and gotten a 20% discount and the marina also provided free coffee to the employees.  Plus, for my job I was able to grab recyclables as we emptied trash and I think I made around $250 over the summer, although I could have made more if I would have started sooner.  But my favorite benefit of all was free firewood.  On the one day each week each of us worked in the campground proper, when we cleaned up the sites we were allowed to keep any firewood campers left behind, and since so many people were weekend campers that was quite a bit.  We had enough for tons of fires and enough to fill up our truck for departure which saved us about $100.  I don’t put any of these extras into revenue column in the accounting, but it was definitely a few thousand dollars in benefits which was very nice. 

Working Conditions –   Of all the jobs we have had this category was the most varied depending on several factors.  We worked outside, so of course weather played a huge part.  It wasn’t much fun doing our jobs in the rain during the beginning and ending of the season, but then we had a stretch of almost 90 days where the weather was nearly perfect.  We had a couple of weeks where the heat was pretty intense, but compared to other places in the country this was minimal.  Towards the end the smoky days were really unpleasant, but since the entire state was being affected by fires, not much we could do about that.  The most important thing was that throughout the season, our boss gave us a ton of flexibility on how to handle the weather.  He encouraged us to do our tasks when the conditions were the best and the company provided weather specific information and gear to help.  That being said, there were times when we just had to power through, but being given the flexibility to use our best judgement went a long way for me. 

Type of Work – It’s worth noting we received more training in this job than almost any other we have had so far and that included getting First Aid certified and some cool “Verbal Judo” training to help with customer interactions.  I also received three days training on the Hercules Reservation system which was another nice thing to add to my work kamper resume.  Despite the training, since our position was somewhat new, we kind of had to figure things out on the fly.  Lee didn’t mind so much as he likes working with minimal supervision but I could have used some more structure in the early days.  The work itself of course was not that difficult.  Cleaning bathrooms and emptying trash cans isn’t rocket science, but because of the large amount of traffic our locations were experiencing there were many days where I felt stressed that we couldn’t keep up.  There is no doubt in my mind that we overthought the job, but since that’s how we do things, finding an efficient route and schedule took a while.  That pressure was largely self imposed, by the way, and our bosses seemed very happy with the quality of our work, but I don’t know that it ever came up to our own personal standards until we started working opposite shifts on the weekends.  We also worked one day a week in the campground and that was largely a mixed bag.  Although we both enjoyed the variety that came with doing something different, walking into other people’s work routine is always a little tough.  Overall, the best part of the job was the river view, which never failed to please, and the worst part was when we would open a bathroom door and get a “surprise.”  Never fun, and ultimately we judged our days on whether or not the bathrooms were a mess.  I also struggled with how physically demanding the job could be at times.  Big trash bags are heavy and mopping floors can take a toll.  Again, it all depended on the size of the crowds, with many days being a cake walk and others leaving me wrung out and very tired.

Living in the Area – We liked the small town of Estacada very much, and the local events they had were definitely fun.  Our Tuesday/Wednesday days off were perfect for avoiding the crowds and we were able to run some errands during our breaks on the weekends.  The very best thing about our schedule was having Monday afternoon/evening off, then Tuesday/Wednesday off and having between Thursday afternoon and Friday evening off.  That gave us lots of time for grocery shopping, doctors visits, etc during non-peak times which was good because Portland traffic is pretty crazy, and we didn’t waste many of our days off running errands. We also got to see lots of friends who were passing through the area.  Most of our errands were in Gresham or Clackamas/Happy Valley, and both of those areas had almost anything we might need.  The people were also very nice and my experiences at the grocery store, local gas station, and getting my hair cut were all very pleasant.  That’s how I judge a place, by the way, by those common, everyday interactions.  The only downside to the area was a pretty weak ATT signal, even in town. Without our WeBoost on the 22 foot FlagPole Buddy, we wouldn’t have had any signal at all. 

Exploring the Area –  Of all the places we have been, this area had the most to do and see.  When we came to town I made a list, and there are still many items left on it, which is a main reason we are interested in coming back.  We used our new Coleman Steel Creek tent a few times to explore different areas and took several long driving trips to see new things.  Unfortunately, we did not do nearly as much hiking and exploring as I originally intended.  Part of that was that we were physically tired on our days off during peak season.  We also lost a couple of weekends to smoky conditions or extreme heat and although we certainly could have pushed through, neither one of us felt up to it.  Thankfully we had a beautiful site off by ourselves with a nice view of the river, so we still felt close to nature while we stayed home and “vegged out”.  And we got to see some pretty cool things.  As always, I judge our life based on the pictures, so here’s the pictures of our summer. As always you can decided for yourself if you think it was worth it. 

Our office for the summer

Which included watching a nest of baby Ospreys grow

And numerous beautiful sunsets on the reservoir

 

 

 

Waterfalls

Waterfalls

Waterfalls

And thankfully Lee got to see this before much of the vegetation was destroyed by the gorge fire

We got to see several sections of the beautiful Oregon coast

There was some mist on the ocean which made for beautiful pictures

Which included an amazing sunset with our friends Rick, Jim, and Diana

And culminated in an amazing camping spot right next to the ocean

Plus of course lots of lighthouses

Including a magical moment standing underneath Hecata Lighthouse at night

 

We visited the Stonehenge Memorial

Several museums

We experience chills as we stood on the Oregon Trail

And the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail

And explored downtown Portland

We saw Crater Lake with our friends Bert and Kat

And Mt. St. Helens with Diana and Jim

 

Plus lots of people came to see us including Sue and Jonathon who came twice!

 

 

We attended a white water festival

 

A lavender festival

A Timber Festival

And saw bunny agility at the Clackamas County Fair

And Rick and I got to explore the Fruit Loop which is like a fruit festival everyday

 

Plus of course we stood in the totality of an eclipse which was an experience I will never forget!

And all throughout we had numerous views of beautiful Mt. Hood

 

So was it all worth it?  Absolutely yes.  Certainly we cleaned a lot of toilets and emptied a lot of trash, but we also got to explore a beautiful state and reconnect with many friends in the process. It was a jam packed summer and there is enough left to do here in this beautiful part of the country that we hope we will be able to come back next summer.

Now that the season is over, the workload is significantly lower, and we’ve been busy this week wrapping things up, taking care of last minute pre-travel details, and getting ready to hit the road for our 2300 mile drive back East. Tomorrow we roll out headed for Indiana, where we’re getting our rig suspension replaced, and then on to Ohio and possibly Charleston, SC to see our oldest daughter before we head to Campbellsville, KY for the Amazon Christmas season.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First Time Working In A Utility Co. Park – Getting Ready to Leave

It never fails. When we settle into a place for a few months, we are rushing at the end to get everything done.  We come to a job or location with a list of things we want to get done and places we want to see and we have months and months stretching out in front of us, and then suddenly……”Holy Crap we only have TWO weeks left” and the mad scramble begins. With experience we have learned that sometimes it is OK to leave things left undone, but both of us try to check as many of the boxes as we can. (I also try to do at least 2 purges a year, and mini-purges in between. I also like to pull everything out of the various storage compartments and nooks and crannies and put my hands on everything. Partially to remind myself of what we have and where it is (you’d be AMAZED at how easy it is to “lose” things in a 40 ft box!) and partially to see if i can rearrange things to make them fit a little better. Plus I just like to organize and putter. – Lee) 

This time around it’s not only personal tasks though, but it’s also a few work projects that we didn’t get done through the season.  As you know from reading, this job has been much busier than we originally thought it would be, and the pace coupled with heat and smoky conditions have delayed several projects.  Our bosses have been totally fine with this by the way, but there were a couple of things they mentioned at the beginning of the summer that I really wanted to try and get done.

So when I had some extra time last weekend, I decided to tackle one of the projects. At Moore Creek the roof colors on the bathroom building and the changing room building are mismatched, one is grey and the other is green.  I know that sounds kind of silly, I mean who cares about the roof color at a bathroom, but since it was mentioned more than once at the beginning of the season, I always noticed it and it started to bug me too.  Lee thought I was nuts, by the way, starting something major this close to the end of our season, but I was determined, and after some conversation with my boss, I headed out with a plan.

The weather thankfully cooperated, with relatively smoke-free skies and moderate temps.  And about one o’clock I headed up with an 8 foot ladder, two brand new cans of paint that hopefully were the right color, an extension roller, and lots of energy.  Two hours later I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

The bottom of the roof was relatively easy, as it was a smooth surface and the ladder reached easily.  What I didn’t count on was the small section between the building frame and the roof, which would need to be done with a brush by hand.  That was a bummer, and since it was pretty hot by 4pm, I decided to stop and regroup for the next day.  I also didn’t count on the bugs that hang out near restrooms, and since the wind chose that time to die down, towards the end I was being attacked by one particularly tough biting fly.

On Sunday it was a little cooler and there was more of a breeze, so armed with more supplies I headed back up.  This time I was determined to pace myself and started on the top of the roof.  Lee had warned me that this was going to be pretty tough, because the roof mold had a shingle like appearance and there were lots of nooks and crannies.  He wasn’t wrong about that, but I couldn’t stop once I started and with lots of paint and lots of breaks in between I managed to get a first pass done.

Thankfully the wind kept the bugs away, but the sun became a real issue as the day progressed.  The original roof was green and the new color was grey, so at certain angles it was hard to tell what was painted and what wasn’t.  The top of the roof was difficult in particular and since it was at the outer limit of my arm length I just did the best that I could.  After several hours I called it quits and overall I felt pretty good about the job I had done.  The colors matched almost perfectly, and although I knew a third trip would be required for touch up, I planned on using the company intern to help on Thursday.

All season long we have had an intern help with summer programs, and as he was almost finished they had scheduled him to shadow several of us as we did our normal jobs.  My turn was Thursday and I was excited to have the help to finish up.

Here was the ladder I used and the VERY long pole. Those are the intern’s legs and feet.

 

As you can see the roof was so steep using a roller was the only way to make it work

 

But the fake shingles had lots of nooks and crannies that required several passes.

 

 

The green to the right was the old color and the grey to the left was the new one, so it was tough to differentiate in bright sunlight. Pretty happy about how it ultimately turned out though!

Along with work projects we had several personal ones to get done.  Lee spent several hours, organizing and washing the truck inside and out (The last time I did a thorough interior detailing on the truck was before the beet harvest last fall, so there was a LOT of dust from that and south Texas. It turns out that the interior of the truck is a lovely gray, not brown. – Lee) and doing a mini purge in our RV storage area.  We are constantly reassessing what we actually are using and it’s not uncommon for us to get rid of things at the end of a season.  I have been focused on paperwork, doctors visits, and job searching, but I also have been making lots of new recipes.

I rarely want to try something new when we are traveling, so I took advantage of these last couple of weeks to try as many recipes as I could before we left.  I also needed to make/freeze spaghetti sauce and chili as these are common travel day meals for us. You’d think that after all the time practicing last summer I would be better at picking “winning” recipes, but I have to say my “failure” rate is still pretty high.  Failure generally doesn’t mean the food is inedible by the way, it just means that the taste, amount of work, or availability of ingredients doesn’t make the cut for me to add it to the next recipe book.  For every winner there are at least 7 losers, and as usual Lee is being a good sport about trying new recipes.  I do make sure I throw in a tried and true recipe though to make sure he gets something he likes and I made one of his favorites from my cook book, Crazy Marinade Pork Chops, last night.

Along with all the chores I was also dealing with pretty sore teeth.  It took about twelve hours for my teeth to stop hurting and the front ones in particular were so sore I had to eat all soft foods last night.  (More pork chops for me. – Lee) One of the nicest things that happened was around 7:30pm I received a call from Dr. Compton checking in on me.  I can’t remember the last time a doctor called to follow-up, and the fact that he did rates him pretty high in my book.  Finally around 8:30pm I took some Tylenol PM and just went to sleep and actually ended up getting the best night’s sleep I have had in a long time.  Wednesday morning, as promised, the pain was gone, and although the front teeth are still a little tender things are largely back to normal.

That was good because Wednesday morning we needed to go get our drug tests for the upcoming Amazon jobs.  After our last experience trying to get drug tests while traveling, we were thrilled this was scheduled while we were still in the area, but shortly after we headed out I noticed the experiation date on the paperwork said September 12th.  Well double crap…it was September 13th and when I called Qwest they confirmed I needed new paperwork.  So we turned around and went back to the house and I started making calls.  Luckily we were able to get new paperwork reissued very quickly and I rescheduled the appointment for 11am.

Off we went again and despite pretty heavy traffic (they really need to upgrade the highway system around Portland) we made it to the location.  Well, we made it there but we drove past it initially because it turned out the drug test facility was a small 1950’s cape cod style house tucked in an industrial park.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate people who run businesses out of homes, but for a drug test facility it was kind of weird. There was only one guy, and although he looked professional and was very nice, it was just weird and the house itself was a real hodge podge.  There was a mix of personal and business stuff throughout the rooms and the whole thing badly needed a fresh coat of paint.  I will say the one bathroom itself was very clean, but the sink was in another room and he ran out of soap after I washed my hands.

Seriously, the whole thing was weird, but at least we go it done and hopefully we have no issues with the test like we did last time.  Afterwards we stopped at Panda Express for some lunch (still leaning towards soft foods at this point) and then we got back around 12:30pm and I started on the job search.

Things have been a little slow in this area, but I am hoping that is because it is fiscal year end for so many companies.  I recently heard on NPR that 27% of the companies are planning on hiring starting in October, so that might be a good thing.  There are jobs out there of course, but at this point I am still trying to find something on the East Coast and wanting a job that only lasts a few months is very limiting.  I’ll keep plugging away and let you know if anything breaks free when it occurs.

One thing I have been doing while searching for job is watching/listening to Project Management educational videos.  As I mentioned before I need to complete continuing education to keep my Project Management Professional certification, and I have another 21 hours that need to be done prior to March 2018.  I did apply for a volunteer job with the National Organization, and have discussed trying to take a Scrum Master class to add that certification to my bag of tricks, but the easiest and cheapest alternative is to just watch online training videos.  Thankfully they are available for free with my PMI membership and the only downside is it’s 1 PDU per hour. I am a big fan of “double dipping” when it comes to getting things done, so I have been listening to a webinar as I have been looking for jobs.  Two birds, one stone…a major tenet of my life philosophy 🙂

We also put together our upcoming route for getting to Mor-Ryde in Indiana, and it seems that finally we have a solution that works for us.  We’ve tried every combination of routing (me doing it alone, Lee doing it alone, us doing it together, and all of those seemed to be pretty burdensome.  Lee and I think about things differently, so we bring different ideas and tactics to any task which can either make things easier or more difficult.  Our current methodology for planning our route seems to work perfectly, so I thought I would share it.  Lee picks the general areas we will stop every night based on attempting to have roughly 300 mile travel days when we’re traveling on a deadline. For whatever reason I have a really hard time doing that, but the way he thinks makes it easy for him.

I then take that list of cities and try to find us campsites in the general area.  I look at Ultimate Campgrounds first (for BLM, City, and State Parks) and Passport America second for half price, easy to access campgrounds. For whatever reason this is very easy for me and I fill in the gaps with campground suggestions.  He then takes the list of campgrounds and double checks availability, location, reviews etc and we are locked in. Really pretty simple with our divide and conquer strategy and it only took us 2-1/2 years to figure out the best method for us. One of the coolest things about getting ready to go somewhere is that suddenly you realize you may cross paths with friends.  We are going to be “near” Cori and Greg, Deb and Steve, and Jo and Ben, and although we may not be able to work the schedule so we can see all of them it’s nice knowing that we are all that close to each other.  I’ve said this before, but it’s worth mentioning again that in my head I see all of our friends like little points of light all around a map of the United States.  I don’t always know exactly where everyone is, but I see those lights moving and I find that amazing and very comforting.

But back to travel scheduling.  Doing it in advance definitely makes travel easier for us and doing as much prep work in advance accomplishes the same thing.  Because despite being on the road for almost three years we can still find travel days stressful.  Lee has gone to a significant amount of work to minimize that as much as possible and we have learned to just accept that about ourselves and roll with it.  Part of it may be the way we travel of course.  Our “hub and spoke” approach usually has us staying in an area for a quite while, and using it as a jumping off place to explore so we have less “true travel days” than many of our counterparts.  But we have certainly experienced enough of them to know that a day here and a day there is never our preferred method of seeing a place.  Your mileage will definitely vary on that one of course as there are many people who are perfectly content moving every few days.  That’s just not us and so we take steps to make those days as pleasant as possible.

Anyway, this time is preparing to leave is definitely more mellow than in the past.  I believe a big part of that is knowing we might come back next summer, but I also think we are just getting better at the logistics of the lifestyle. Either way I’ll take it and hope that the stress level doesn’t rise as we get closer to the departure date. This time I even had time to fit in one last trip to the Farmer’s Market and local book store and it was nice to say farewell to both of those activities.  Estacada has been a very nice home base for us and I will miss some of the people and places we have gotten to know this summer.

Disclaimer: The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy. I will not be mentioning them by name, or mentioning the specific names of anyone I am working with, except for Lee.  Also, because it’s not really that difficult to figure out which company it is, I want to be clear: I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part.  

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

 

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First Time Seeing a Periodontist

Fair warning, I am writing this post fresh from my first visit to a periodontist and since I am in significant discomfort, I am not in the best of moods. As you know if you have been reading along, dental care has been a real challenge while we have been on the road.  It’s been a problem since the beginning, but unlike other challenges I have yet to find the solution. I wasn’t worried because I had near perfect teeth when I went on the road and had consistently seen a dentist twice a year for many years.  But I understand on some level how important routine maintenance was to proper dental care and if I wasn’t worried for myself I was certainly worried for Lee who had a brush with gum disease that had required several very deep cleanings.

Initially I thought we would use Aspen Dental and I was very excited about leveraging their national network as we traveled.  Unfortunately I was told that the different locations wouldn’t always accept the x-rays of other locations so we would be treated as a “new patient” every time we went to the dentist.  That was crazy to me, and I even called Aspen Dental headquarters to verify this was indeed the case.  I was told that despite the alliance each office was independent and they didn’t have to accept the exams/x rays of other offices.  This was 3 years ago, and their policy may have changed, but getting new x-rays was not only time consuming but costly.  When I had dental insurance it wouldn’t cover the x-rays and even in offices with “free exam and x-rays” the results often required one or more “deep cleanings.”  So Lee or I tried Aspen three different times in the beginning, but each experience figuratively left a bad taste in my mouth and ultimately I determined that I would never go back.

At this point we decided to listen to RVer conventional wisdom and try getting our teeth cleaned in Mexico.  That experience went better than expected, especially because we went with our friends Ellen and Mario who are fluent in Spanish, and I not only trusted the doctor but also only paid $30.  Perfect solution, except our travels don’t always take us close to Mexico and it was almost a year before we were in a place long enough to make an appointment.  This time it was in  Alaska  and again we had a really good experience.  The doctor worked with many patients who lived in the wilderness and was used to helping people with unusual lifestyles.  Not only did they do our cleanings, but the dentist gave up his lunch break so he could fill two cavities for me and although it cost me $500 out of pocket I thought it was well worth it.  At this time, the hygienist was concerned about our gum health, but she recommended Phillips Sonicare toothbrushes and gave us some tips for keeping our teeth clean while we travel.

So this last year I relied primarily on home care and although I wasn’t 100% vigilant with flossing, took better care of my teeth than I ever had.  With our work schedules, we didn’t get that 6 month cleaning, but as soon as we arrived in Oregon I started looking around for a dentist.  Our trainer, who comes here every year, was very happy with her dentist, so we made an appointment for early August.  I hated to wait that long, but this job (unlike any other we have had) actually has dental insurance so of course we waited the 60 days until the benefits kicked in.  Initially, things went well.  I explained that we traveled when setting up the appointment and the office was very good about getting our insurance information lined up prior to arrival.

Finally on August 15th the appointment came and I was very excited about getting my teeth cleaned.  Yes, I know that is odd, but I am weird like that and I looked forward to “resetting” the dental clock and not having to worry about paying for the exam and cleaning.  Because we had to drive an hour, Lee and I both had “double appointments”.  They required a full new patient exam and then said they would do our cleanings as long as we didn’t have gum disease.  Fair enough, I thought and since the dentist was recommended I felt confident we would get our cleanings.

Unfortunately this was not to be, as once my exam was done I was told I required two “deep cleanings.” I immediately got upset and asked to talk to the dentist, who was younger and was obviously playing things “by the book.”  I was trying to talk through my options with him, but he didn’t seem to understand or care that we were leaving in less than a month and at some point I realized this was the wrong guy for me.  So I went to the waiting room and explained what had happened to Lee and at that point we both decided to leave.  This isn’t the first time we have walked out of a dentist office by the way while on the road.  I had set up a couple of appointments early on that ended up with the same result, because they were recommending costly procedures, but this time was worse. I actually had insurance and could have afforded the treatment, but I just didn’t trust the diagnosis.  Basically I had a bad feeling and trusted my gut and left.

At the end of that experience I was beyond frustrated.  I didn’t completely dismiss the claim that something was wrong with my teeth, but I also needed to work with a dentist I believed in.  After a few days of feeling sorry for myself  and worrying I was going to ultimately lose my teeth over these issues I decided to buckle down and try again.  I finally decided to start cold calling dentists.  I googled dentists in our area and started at the top of the list and worked down.  I said we “were traveling in the area” and would it be possible to get cleanings.  The first dentist office started talking about new patient exams and the need for two appointments and I thanked her and hung up.  The second office was very different.  She actually listened to me and started talking about my options.  Yes they could do a cleaning and they would do the best cleaning they could.  The doctor did need to have an exam and bite-wing x-rays, but since I had just gotten x-rays done, if I came in and signed a records release she would get them from the other dentist. OK then.  They also had appointments on our days off and would get us in by September 1st.

When we went into the office to sign the forms it looked like an “old school” dentist,  No fancy schmancy waiting room, or “boutique” vibe, just a good old-fashioned dentist’s office, like the ones we went to when we were kids. It wasn’t substandard or out of date, just homey, welcoming and comforting. We made appointments for September 1st and I felt much better about the whole experience.  This time I made Lee go first and he had the detailed exam.  A detailed exam is where they measure the gaps in the gums and based upon the numbers decide what kind of cleaning you need.  Despite doing a great job of flossing this year, Lee had a few fours and fives, but unlike the other dentists we had seen this office was willing to tackle those in a regular cleaning.  They did spend a little extra time on him, but he came out with nice clean teeth and armed with some ideas for maintaining them while on the road.

I was next and after his experience was feeling good about the situation.  While I was waiting, the dentist (who didn’t have any procedures that morning), talked to me quite a bit about RVing.  Turns out he has been RVing for 25 years and is fascinated by the full timing lifestyle.  Dr. Thoreson was extremely nice and I even gave him my blog information and my level of comfort with him was much greater.  They are a “conservative” dentist office and not only understood our situation, but wanted to help us.  Unfortunately when I had the exam the results once again came back poor.  This time I had numerous 5’s, 6’s, and even a couple of 7’s and this meant gum disease.  Obviously I was upset, I couldn’t understand how this had happened so quickly, but both the hygenist and Dr. Thoreson explained it to me and we talked through my options.

They were concerned enough that they wanted me to see a periodontist, but I didn’t think there was any way I could get an appointment before September 24th.  Dr. T said he would call in a favor to make sure I got seen and the hygienist even called on her day off to lock in an appointment for me. I can’t tell you how grateful and relived I was at this point.  OK, I had gum disease, but through some miracle I also had dental insurance and even better a dentist who was looking out for me.  Dr. T even fixed the bond on my front tooth that was sticking up a little and absolutely refused to charge me because he said it “was fun for him.”  That’s my kind of guy.

On Wednesday, I heard back from Dr. T’s office and then I called Dr. Compton, a periodontist in Happy Valley. His office was already informed about our unique situation and scheduled an immediate exam and blocked off two time periods for deep cleanings, under the assumption that I would need them before my insurance ran out.  OK, that was new.  Normally dentists will never book appointments in advance of the exam and once again the whole tone and vibe was comforting.  So I went in for the exam but this time instead of a hygienist the periodontist did the number rankings.   It was actually worse when he did it, I had more 6’s, 7’s and even an 8, but he seemed less concerned.  Maybe it’s because he sees the worst of the worst, but he was confident we could stop the damage and he could address the issue.  I left with two cleanings scheduled and a good feeling, although I was concerned overall about how all of this would play out long term.

This morning at 8am I had the first of the two appointments.  Rachel, the hygenist who is VERY interested in RVing and volunteer camp hosting, spent about 30 minutes talking through how I cleaned my teeth and putting together a plan for me that I could use on the road.  At first I felt like I was a kid again learning how to clean her teeth, but soon realized that this was valuable information.  Think about it, you learn how to clean your teeth as a child, but then years pass and the situation (and available tools) change.  The time was well spent and probably the best thing I learned was they recommend 30 seconds of gargling with Listerine twice a day.  Wow, that was old school, but it’s all about fighting bacteria and Listerine is still a great way to do that.  They didn’t care what flavor (except stay away from the whitening version) and once in the morning and once at night gargle. That along with flossing, and more detailed brushing would help keep the bacteria under control.  Everyone has bacteria by the way, and you are fighting a war in your mouth on a daily basis, so constant vigilance is pretty much required.

Afterwards, Dr. Compton came in and first he numbed my teeth and then shot them to numb them more.  The shots weren’t that bad and my mouth was pretty numb, which was a good thing because he really had to scrub in several areas.  He mainly focused on the problem teeth (two front teeth and the ones on the side), but also addressed the ones in between.  It took quite awhile and the worst part was my jaw hurt from keeping my mouth open that long, but when it was done I had no doubt that what he did would have an impact.  I have one more appointment scheduled on the 19th for the other side and then hopefully I can keep things at bay with good daily maintenance.

The problem is that once you have gum disease, you have it forever.  There might be some recovery, but my exam numbers are going to come back high from now on.  And since I have had so many issues finding dentists to clean my teeth when I had no issues, I have no idea what this looks like going forward.  Dr. Compton did include a follow-up exam for next year if we come back to the area, but this cleaning he did was $1100 and although my portion of that was only $300 because of insurance, I can’t afford to pay that out of pocket every six months.  In all fairness, I shouldn’t need this level of cleaning every time, but if I can’t find a dentist/periodontist who is willing to accept his exam results then I will need to start over every time.  Except now, starting over will always require more expensive cleanings and honestly I am not sure how this is going to work.  Dr. Compton and Rachel did say they would do everything they could to help.  They emailed me a “packet” with all of the information and are more than happy to pass their findings along to any doctor I choose.  I guess we will find out 6 months from now when I try to schedule a cleaning and if nothing else I suppose I can go the Mexico route because they don’t seem to care about any of this.

The whole situation stinks though.  I freely admit that this could have happened if I would have stayed in Keene and kept my regular dentist, but my gut tells me it never would have gotten this bad. Even if it had, I wouldn’t need to start over every single time and having a trustworthy dentist who is working a course of treatment with you is no small thing.  But to some extent it is what it is and I am at least grateful that for right now I feel comfortable that I have done everything I could possibly do.  Lee’s teeth and gums “bounced back” some after he had this work done a few years ago, so maybe I will get lucky and the same thing will happen.  It’s not an insignificant problem though and I am not a special case.  One of our fellow camp hosts is going through the exact same thing, and she as I believes it is because of the difficulty in getting regular cleanings. At least I am not alone in dealing with the problem.

Well thanks for listening, and if Rachel or Dr. T is reading this, thank you VERY much for doing everything you could to help.  As always, I will keep you posted and we will see how this plays out.

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August 2017 Budget (with Revenue)

This was the first month since we have been working this summer that we actually ended up $377 in the negative.  This was caused by the $752 spent on a new Iphone and although I could have spread the payments over 30 months and included it in the budget, I chose to pay cash for it and just take the hit in August.  A couple of reasons for this.  First and foremost we are trying to drive down our monthly expenditures and I didn’t want to add to them, but also I felt that the expense was what it was and it should be reflected that way.  Without that expenditure we would have been $400 to the good, but I think this is a good time to take a minute and talk about these budgets. 

I think we have proven that we can manage to scrape by on these seasonal jobs.  It’s tough to cover the “off times” when we are traveling to the next job, but generally we can manage to eke out enough extra to cover travel costs either before we make the trip, or once we’re working again. We also have been able to cover most “standard” extras in our wages as well.  What I mean by that is minor repairs, overages in monthly expenses, or little treats we give ourselves along the way.  And if we lived a stable life where nothing major ever occurred this could work indefinitely. But that’s not really realistic, and in all fairness I don’t think it was realistic in our sticks and bricks life either.  Life happens, and whether it is optional (like the Vegas week with Kay) or mainly required (like the upcoming Mor-Ryde upgrade), big expenditures don’t just go away.

The difference between now and then is we no longer have large influxes of cash to boost up our piggy bank.  We have done a really good job of holding onto what we have, but I think it’s fair to say that most people who start this life with no recurring revenue eventually start to drain their savings.  Whether it’s a few big expenses or a multitude of minor ones, it’s hard to maintain the bank account over time.  That doesn’t mean we don’t have options. I am looking for consulting work to provide some additional cash and we can limit our travel and budget expenditures to help.  We aren’t bleeding money by any means, but sometimes it does feel like “death by a thousand paper cuts” and we have to be constantly vigilant about what we spend.

It’s important to note however that the vigilance hasn’t produced that panicked feeling I remember from my youth.  Whether it’s the fact that our costs are low, seasonal work is plentiful, knowing we can live on less, or a combination of all of these factors, we are in no way feeling like money is going to drive us from the road.  But money “pressure” is an ever present factor in our lives, whereas it wasn’t before we left. Of course constant fear of losing my job was ever present in my previous life, and I rarely worry about that anymore.  When we can pick up stakes and move down the road to the next gig, it isn’t much of a concern.  So I suppose we have traded one worry for another and rating the intensity of concern, our current budget doesn’t even come close to worrying me like losing my job did before.

I hope that makes sense for those of you who follow the numbers, because obviously you can see a steady trickle of savings loss. Keep in mind that we do have Amazon scheduled for the end of the year and although we have no idea how much OT we will be making, hopefully we can recoup some of the YTD deficit. Either way, I am truly fine with where we are and believe me I am just as amazed to be saying that as you probably are to be hearing it. I think coming to the end of Year Three that I just have more confidence in our ability to handle whatever is thrown at us.
And that is really no small thing.  OK…enough of all that.  The details are listed below.

 

Campground Fees – We spent a little bit of money on a campground at the ocean and we booked a campground at Silver Falls and then cancelled it because of heat and smoke.  Two things I learned this month were NOT to make reservations too far in advance and we will definitely need to keep tent camping to a minimum because the sites, gas, and food do add to the overall budget.  Doing it once or twice a month should be fine and we really like how much it extends our travel range while in an area for long periods of time.

Groceries – We were $100 under this month and that was because the money I got recycling was spent in this category.  I’m absolutely fine with that.  It allowed me to buy more farmer’s market food and treat myself a little and since the money I earned was extra it seems like a fair place to put it.

Dining Out/Entertainment – We went over by about $30 in both categories and since we both had birthdays that wasn’t too bad.  Hot temps drove us towards more expensive indoor activities and we definitely splurged at the county fair.  That was a $100 day. 

Cell/Internet – As I discussed above, the $752 expenditure was for a new Iphone7, otter box, and tempered glass screen.  I don’t feel that bad about it since I haven’t had a brand new iPhone ever, and since my screen cracked, and it was a need not a want.  

Truck Fuel – We did really well in truck fuel despite a couple of trips to the ocean, Portland etc.  We were $153 to the good. We have also been buying our gas at a place locally that is as much as 50 cents less per gallon than other places we have seen around Portland.

Truck Insurance – I just wanted to mention that our truck insurance keeps going up and I finally called Miller Insurance to get some quotes.  Unfortunately, Florida rates are on the rise and she couldn’t find anything better for us.  I like the company we are with and are going to stick with them, for now. Hopefully the rates don’t get much worse, but with the hurricane I am not counting on it.  Technically we could change our truck policy to liability only since it is paid off, but since it is our only vehicle no way are we going to roll the dice on that.

Gifts – I sent flowers to my uncle’s funeral.

Home Repair – We had two major mandatory expenses this month.  The inverter in the truck died. We use that inverter to power things while we travel, so it needed to be replaced.  We also bought replacement light bulbs when the fourth one in our living room/kitchen area died and we bought some extra ones.  Those were actually very hard to find and ended up costing us $93.

So it was a kind of pricey month and no chance to recoup since we aren’t getting paid for the entire month of September and will need any extra money for traveling.  We need to make our way across the country and pay for Mor-Ryde before we have any other money coming in. Again, we will see how it all works out at the end of the year, but projections are we will be a little short this year and need to use savings.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

 

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First Time Working In A Utility Co. Park – Smoky Labor Day Weekend

Disclaimer: The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy. I will not be mentioning them by name, or mentioning the specific names of anyone I am working with, except for Lee.  Also, because it’s not really that difficult to figure out which company it is, I want to be clear: I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part.  

I haven’t written about the job much lately, so before starting on the labor day weekend I am going to take a couple of minutes and catch us up.  At this point we have have the job pretty much down, which is nice from a work standpoint, but things were a little boring.  We all knew it was the calm before the storm though, as Labor Day is always a big weekend in a campground.  The most exciting thing that happened was I dropped my phone and broke the glass in it.  I can’t remember ever breaking a phone before.  Not that that I don’t drop them, but I am a big fan of the Otter Box case so when I do drop them they usually bounce! This time the phone landed face down and since I was in a gravel parking lot a rock hit the bottom just perfect and a large crack formed near the button.  The phone was still usable thankfully, but since it was an Iphone4 from 2012, Lee thought it was time I bit the bullet and bought a new IPhone.

I actually can’t remember ever buying a new IPhone before either.  I had a Blackberry at my old job, then was issued an iPhone, and when I took the buyout I bought a pretty basic Samsung to use with our Verizon account.  Ultimately we got rid of the Verizon account (turned out we didn’t need two carriers as we traveled) and when I got on Lee’s AT&T account I used his old iPhone 4.  So it was kind of exciting getting a new phone, and although I looked online for something used, ultimately I just drove over to the nearest AT&T store and purchased an iPphone 7.  $750 later I had a new phone, new Otterbox case, and an installed tempered glass protector.  Yes, I could have done it cheaper, but the experience wouldn’t have been easier and the customer service I received was very, very good at the store. Plus, as blase as I tend to be about all things electronic, I have to say I really like the phone.  I went with the 7 (versus the 7s) because I really like the smaller screen, but even the small one was MUCH bigger than the tiny screen on the 4 I have been working off of. And after getting all my contacts and programs moved over, I have to say I am a huge fan. Plus they made it so very easy, compared to my other new phone experiences and I really appreciated that.

The other exciting thing that happened last week, was we had an exit interview with our boss. That went extremely well and not only were our thoughts about improvements for next year taken seriously, but we also had an opportunity to talk about future opportunities.  Up until this point, we have never liked a job enough to commit to a second season, but with this company we are seriously considering it.  There are so many parts of the country we haven’t explored yet that we are always looking for what’s next on the horizon, but the company is really great and our boss is the best I have personally worked for since starting this lifestyle and that matters to me. It helps that there is so much to do in this area.  When we arrive at a new place, I make a list of Things to See and usually get through at least 75% of it.  That hasn’t been the case here, and there is enough left on our list that I am confident if we returned there would be plenty of “First Times” to carry us through another summer.

The job itself wasn’t that great of course.  It’s hard to get excited about cleaning toilets and emptying trash all day, but thankfully they have several locations and other jobs we might be a good fit for.  It was also the first time any employer really looked at us as individuals and talked through our options with us.  That scenario was pretty common in our old lives, but in the world of seasonal employment, generally the jobs are what they are and you either want them or you don’t.  This boss and company had no issue with “tweaking” a position to help make it work for us as  individuals and the fact that they would go to that much trouble was frankly very gratifying.  We left the meeting with high hopes about opportunities for next year and will be having a follow-up meeting as we get closer to the end of the season.

Oh and we were finally able to change the closing time on the Lower Launch from 9pm – 8pm.  We have been struggling for a couple of weeks with it getting dark sooner, and trying to clean up and clear the Lower Launch in the dark was stressing both of us out. We pushed back the closing time a few minutes every night and mostly people were OK with it, but every once in awhile someone got fussy because the sign said 9pm.   Yes, the sign said 9pm, but it was pitch black by 8:30 and at that point they had to stop fishing anyway.  It didn’t help that for some reason the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife chose not to stock as scheduled during eclipse week.  We were supposed to get 16,000 fish in the North Reservoir and people were pretty upset that the schedule changed.  Now normally I don’t have a ton of patience for all of that…it is called fishing not catching..but since the schedule was posted online well in advance and they didn’t change the schedule until last minute it really wasn’t very cool.  Many people had scheduled family trips based on that information, or they made a long drive down just to find out there were minimal fish.  They were still in there of course, but the ones that remained were pretty canny and often they didn’t start biting until late evening. Of course frustrated fishermen didn’t want to be chased out of the lower launch “just when they started biting”, but it’s not legal to fish here after dark and we had to worry about people’s safety in any event.  It just wasn’t a good situation and could have been avoided if they would have simply stocked on the published schedule.  I am sure they had a good reason, but it’s not like they didn’t know the eclipse was going to happen much sooner.  It’s all anyone talked about for months.

Thankfully they did stock right before Labor Day weekend though and since we also were able to put up the signs stating 8pm closure of the gates, we were feeling pretty confident about how the weekend would go.  The forecast called for high temps, which we knew would bring big crowds, but Lee and I had decided to start our new weekend schedules which we thought would help.  A couple of weeks ago, Lee and I decided we needed more alone time, so as soon as the gate closing went to 8pm we were going to work opposite shifts.  Lee would be working 5:30am -11:30am and I would work 1:00pm – 8:30pm.  After much discussion we decided  Lee was going to come back at 7pm to help me close the gates.  This would give us both several hours of alone time, which at this point was desperately needed.  One of the downsides of this particular job is that we are together a lot especially on the weekends. And since our separating gave us more coverage time on the river, our boss was totally fine with the change.

I took the later shift, because Lee is more of a morning person and although I knew it would be hotter I was hoping I could use the AC in the truck to keep myself reasonably comfortable.  What I wasn’t counting on was the smoke.  Friday we had some, but we have seen worse this summer, but by Saturday it was really bad.  And our sites were packed. What I mean by that is the parking lot is full by 2pm, tons of boats and inflatable crafts in the water, and lots and lots of people in the water.  This meant lots of toilet paper and lots of trash and I was out of the truck way more than I was in it.  I was surprised by the amount of smoke of course, but to be honest was more focused on the task right in front of me, and it completely escaped my notice that a huge fire had broken out on the Columbia River Gorge, which is just 20 “crow” miles north of us.

What I discovered on Monday, and yes I am that clueless or busy, was that a fire broke out at Eagle Creek  and stranded 153 hikers.  The hikers were cut off from their return path and rescue workers had to setup a temporary base camp for them to spend the night and then they all walked out 14 miles out on the other side. Because of hot, dry conditions the fire grew quickly and was eventually 4,400 acres causing several communities to be evacuated and a section of I-84 to be closed down.  That is a major deal as there aren’t that many interstates here in Oregon and this was a major East/West route for truckers.  Although we have visited the Columbia Gorge area numerous times since we have been here, I didn’t really understand how close it was “as the crow flies”.  It takes us about an hour to drive there, but that’s because we have to drive up and around.  Our fellow camp host told us it was only about 20 miles away, which is why we were seeing so much more smoke.  Again, totally clueless.  All I knew was air quality was getting worse and worse and by Sunday at 5:30pm I had too take an extra long break in the RV.

Smoke on Saturday. The picture really doesn’t do it justice as the smoke haze was like a wall that ended at the dam

The only up side was we had two pretty sunsets and again the picture doesn’t show how much smoke hung in the air, but as you can see the sun was totally obscured by the smoke.

(Update: Right before publishing this post we checked the news and as of 9/5/17 9pm PST the fire has grown to over 10,000 acres and over 40 miles of I-84 is closed. Below is a link to a local news channel with a gallery of photos of the fire.)

http://katu.com/news/local/gallery/eagle-creek-fire-explodes-forces-evacuations-i-84-closed-multnomah-falls-threatened#photo-1

Overall though I felt great about the service we provided over the weekend.  Couldn’t do much about running out of parking spaces, but with vigilance we were able to make sure the boat spaces stayed open for boat traffic.  We didn’t run out of toilet paper anywhere and we kept the trash mainly in hand and for the first time in weeks I cleaned up on recyclables, pulling out at least 7 bags of bottles and cans.  Monday though was a concern, because I was in the campground and Lee only worked the morning on the river, but since we were both pretty tired at that point, we did the best we could and then the sites had to ride through the evening.

Turns out Labor Day Monday is not the best day to work in the campground as I had 36 sites I had to turn.  Everyone else was busy starting the tear down of the yomes, so I was on my own to clean all the sites.  Air quality was particularly bad that day as well, and I was hopping as I turned site after site.  Thankfully, I could skip the yomes, which made it manageable and ended up getting all the sites except three cleaned by the end of my shift.  The deal with the yomes is that they have to be completely disassembled by the end of the season and this is a multiple day process.  The beds have to be disassembled and all of the mattresses stacked in a cabin.  The sides have to be power washed, dried, and then treated with water proofing, before the sides are taken off and stored. Then the top portion is lowered and rests on the base and finally tarped for the winter.  So even though we have two weeks of campground left, they started the process at labor day because the one thing that can really screw with the schedule is rain.  The tarps have to dry between the various stages and obviously can’t be put away wet.  The whole thing is a pretty labor intensive process and overall I am thankful we are largely out of it, especially because the weather conditions are so hot and smoky.

The tarps are power washed, then treated, the the sides are taken off and stored

The bed frames are disassembled and left. The top comes down and the whole thing is tarped

I was super impressed by how many mattresses they fit in one cabin. That’s efficiency!

Also based on the weather we aren’t planning any activities on our days off, but just hanging out and getting caught up on some things.  I need to spend more time on job searches (throwing resumes out there but it’s slow going) and need to get caught up on housework, blogging, etc.  One really nice thing though is Sue reached out to me and she and Jonathon are going to stop by on Tuesday.  They are getting close to finishing the US leg of their adventure and are planning on heading overseas soon.  We are in the home stretch now and both happy about that as our feet are starting to get a little “itchy.”

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

 

 

 

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First Time at Cape Disappointment

This is a long one, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee.  Two weeks ago I made a reservation for us to stay at Silver Falls State Park with the plan of walking the 8.7 miles worth of trails and seeing all of the waterfalls.  Unfortunately, Monday night it hit triple digits, and worse, there was a lot of smoke in the area from wildfires.  Thankfully, we both know our limits and instead of pushing through and possibly not having a good time, we decided to cancel the reservation and go in a different direction, and although we lost some money to the cancellation I don’t regret the choice.   One of the other items on our list of things to do was to visit Cape Disappointment State Park and see where the Lewis and Clark expedition ended up.  We went online and got lucky, snagging a campsite right next to the ocean on Tuesday night.  As a side note I learned a major lesson about making reservations in advance.  With Tuesday and Wednesdays off we are better off waiting until the last moment to make our travel plans and then having a list of choices and picking the best one based on availability and weather.

Since check-in wasn’t until afternoon, we took our time packing Tuesday morning and then started the four hour drive. It was a pretty one,  on roads we hadn’t been on before, and we stopped somewhat randomly at the Berry Patch Restaurant for lunch. Reasonable prices, great service, and hot and fast food.  Just what we were looking for!

They had a nice selection of locally made products

The hamburgers and fries were really good, plus the service was fast which was good because we were starving.

And of course we had some pie! Huckleberry which was pretty good, although Montana huckleberries are better 🙂

Afterward, we continued on and eventually we came to a huge bridge that crosses the Columbia River to Washington State.  The bridge was VERY tall, to allow for the large freighters to go underneath,  on one side, but then goes straight down and then rests on the water the rest of the way.  It almost looks like two completely different bridges put together and luckily we were able to get a couple of pictures to show you. (It’s just over 4 miles long, and 196 of clearance between the bottom and the water, at high tide, for those who appreciate that data!)

You can see the scale with the very large fishing boat going underneath

Coming down the hill to the flatter part. As you can see one long bridge

The piece of land you can see in the picture above if the tip of Washington and the whole area is full of Lewis and Clark memorials.  I am a huge fan, by the way, their expedition captured my imagination in grade school and as we have traveled the country criss-crossing their route has only given me more appreciation for their monumental achievement.    We driven some of those roads and they idea that they crossed it on foot, not having any idea of where they were going is amazing to me.  I was very excited to see where they ended up and even more excited to see the ocean, which is always one of my favorite sights.

We arrived at our campsite (B104) and were thrilled with how big and clean it was

The first thing we did was walk the path behind it

And got out first view of the ocean

Next we set up our campsite (we are getting better at pitching our tent)

And walked out on the beach to check it out

We had wonderful views of one of the two lighthouses in the state park

And were amazed by how much driftwood their was on the beach

Seriously I have never seen this much driftwood all in one place before

There were lots of pelicans to look at

And this cute cocker spaniel puppy who I got to play with

The weather was drizzly, but with a fire going it wasn’t too bad and we had nice separation between us and other campsites and a decent set of restrooms right in the small circle we were in.   Plus the park is absolutely huge (over 1800 acres) and their are lots of RV choices.  It’s pricey though, our spot with no hookups was $35 for the night, but it was totally worth it to listen to the ocean all night long.  I guess we got really lucky with our site though, because the park attendee mentioned to Lee “those sites are never open.”  We also had to pay a $13 state park fee because we were non-residents but since this pass was good all day, we were able to use it at a variety of places in the area.  So for me it was totally worth the $48, but in all fairness not a place I would choose for “casual camping.”

Checkout wasn’t until 1pm, so we could have explored and then come back and taken down the tent, but we decided to go ahead and take care of it in the morning so we could leave straight from the museum.  The main reason I wanted to visit the park (other than to see the ocean) was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Jodee, one of our fellow RV dreamers, had raved about it, and I really wanted to check it out.  It didn’t open until 10am though, so we stopped along the way at a little roadside memorial and saw a commemoration to the Lewis and Clark trail.  As I mentioned these are kind of everywhere in the area, but I loved walking the same trail they did and we went up a pretty steep 1/4 mile trail to get the same view of the ocean that they had.  Love those moments.

The tall grass was really pretty and the signs showed excerpts from their journals describing the “tall grass on the path” that was really neat

It’s hard to see because of the gray, but the ocean is right beyond the lagoon

At the top of the trail we also found something really neat for Lee.  Turns out this entire area was part of the  coastal defense and there are a series of batteries and forts that were used through WWII. Lee loves military stuff and as excited as I was about tracing Lewis and Clark’s steps he was excited about seeing what remained of the gun battery. This one was completely open and he was able to walk through and explore.  You can see by the look on his face how excited he was and I was glad there was something for both of us at the end of the walk, because as I mentioned it was pretty steep.

The battery

Where the big gun went. Check out that smile!

Lee’s explaining to me how big the shells were that the guns used

The whole experience was another great of example of the benefit of just stopping and taking a walk, and ended up being one of our favorite parts of the day.  After we finished coming back down it was exactly 10am so we headed over to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. 

We parked in the parking lot and walked up the path. RV’s aren’t allowed in the lots by the way so if you don’t have a car it’s better to explore the area by bike

Saw this super cute red squirrel eating breakfast along the way

When we got to the top we were surprised that the interpretive center was on top of Fort Canby so we started by walking around and exploring the remains

Lee said he felt like he was in a Call of Duty game exploring the locations

They even had some shells in one of the rooms

Picture showing how it was used

Translates to Yield to None

Lee was super excited and I was sort of patiently waiting for him to finish so I could actually see the Lewis and Clark Center, when something unusual caught my eye. It took me a moment to register that, yes, I was indeed seeing what I thought I was, and then the conversation turned to talking about that.

Do you see what I saw in the picture? Hint..upper right corner

That’s right their was a deer on the roof!!

She was munching away contendedly

And could not have cared less about us

Amazing and even more so when we walked around and saw this was the path the deer took to get on the roof. Good for her!

After the deer experience we walked up to the center and looked at some amazing views.  There was another lighthouse and although it was still grey when we went inside, the sun peeked out as we were leaving and I was able to get a few decent shots.

 

Although my Uncle Jimmy, who recently passed away, didn’t die at sea, I took a moment and thought about him here.

Entering the Columbia from the ocean is treacherous because of the moving sandbars and the ships are piloted in

Finally we got to enter the center though and it did not disappoint. Seriously I loved the museum, although in all fairness I am a total Lewis and Clark geek.  It might be less interesting for those folks who don’t care as much, but I read almost every sign that talked about their journey.  The cost was a very reasonable $5 and the museum was quite large, although most of the exhibits were signage.  That was the cool part for me though, because in my opinion the amazing thing about their journey was the detailed documentation.  They wrote about the land, the animals, the people, and the journey itself and those entries really let you feel like you are with them.  I’ll share some of my favorites with you, but I get it if you aren’t as enthused as I was.  Either way though, I definitely think this place is worth a visit.

Yes I am a dork

 

They had very specific instructions on how to talk to the natives they met and they were selected because President Jefferson felt they would be good ambassadors. It’s a good thing they had those type of personalities, because they never would have made it without assistance from the various tribes they encountered.

 

Sacagawea had been captured when she was a young woman and on their trip actually reunited with her brother who was now chief of her tribe. Really fascinating stuff and the fact that she led them, with a baby in tow, is absolutely amazing

These are the type of observations from the journals that I find so interesting. Really gives us a feeling for what people were like in those days.

I didn’t know that on the way back Lewis and Clark actually took separate paths. I guess they needed a break from each other 🙂

I always thought Lewis names it Cape Disappointment and wasn’t sure why, but it turns out that a British Captain gave it its name

After finishing the museum Lee really wanted to see one of the forts where the guns were still in place.  Our State parks day pass was good for multiple locations so we headed over to see Fort Columbia which was on our way back to the bridge.  The fort is now a state park and some of the buildings are turned into places to stay, but Lee liked walking around and I enjoyed the ocean views. The woman in the museum was also very nice and gave us lots of information about the area.  We could easily have stayed several days here and I absolutely want to go back and see some of the sites we missed.

The fort

 

These big guns are two of only six left in the world

Lee liked that you could walk right inside them

The barracks has been turned into a museum

The movie was actually very good and the best part of the museum in my opinion

One of the neatest things we learned in the movie was about the disappearing guns. They would pop-up, take the shot, and then the recoil would place the cannon part below the wall. Pretty ingenious

They also placed mines in the mouth of the river, which could only be exploded by electrical current from the shore. 

This section was redone by grant from two veterans and showed the barracks area

I loved the old tin ceiling

And this sign about a salmon war was fascinating. Apparently fishermen have been fighting over these salmon for a long time and in this case, both states national guard units were called out.

After seeing Fort Columbia, we started back home, knowing that there was plenty more to see in the area when we returned.  We also were able to take a different route back along the ocean and got to see another section of the beautiful Oregon coastline.  I’m just really glad we changed our plans and got out for a couple of days.  It was exactly what I needed and exceeded my already high expectations.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.