Serene Wandering

This is our patio at our campsite at Farragut State Park.   It has been a great stay.  We really like this park and have discussed that this might be a good place to park host.   We asked the current hosts, who have all been doing this for years, and they agree it is the best place to be.   The park is a former WWII naval training base so there is lots of room and lots to see and do.  We would like to stay a few more days but, being summer, the campground is booked for the weekend.    It does make us look forward to other times of the year when we can presumably come and go and stay places as long as we’d like.

Plus, the good side of going is that we’ve got family and new adventures in Newport, just over the Washington border! 

We spent the last four days/nights at Dworshack State Park, somewhere we had never been before. We were again in a cyber hole with only the state park Wi-Fi to keep us semi-connected. We had satellite service by just barely having room for our “dish” in our driveway, and just barely getting around the trees for a signal. We set out our Bronco flamingos (Thanks Sheri and Chip!) to call attention to the area so a driver didn’t accidently clip it.

The satellite dish and the flamingos were conversation starters with a variety of people in the park. Fortunately for us, they started a conversation with our neighbors Dee and Fred. They are from San Jose and were at Dworshack on a fishing trip. Dee was really interested in World Cup Soccer, so we invited them over to watch the US-Portugal game and they invited us to dinner. It was a nice afternoon and evening. We hope to have many of those type of experiences with people we meet on the road.

The road going into Dworshack has 2 miles of steep grade and hairpin turns. Randy didn’t love it going in – although I liked that there wasn’t a cliff on my side like highway 64 – and we had some smokin’ brakes when we got down the hill. Randy did go back out one day with the truck to tour the Dworshack Dam, but he still didn’t like the road. Coming out was much less adventurous than going in. We had a quiet trip to Farragut State park, one of our favorite repeat stops. We are here for 4 nights and will likely take a few hikes, play disc golf and go to the Brig Museum.

I thought I knew how to pronounce this town’s name “Ka-me-I”, but Google didn’t understand. Google Maps had no idea what I was talking about until I purposely mispronounced it, Ku-MY-uh. That wasn’t our only technological challenge…

We had quite the adventure getting from Winchester to Kamiah. I had read in our RV Resort book to avoid Highway 64, but because we were using a paper map that didn’t even show Highway 64 and a new, unfamiliar GPS, unfortunately, that was exactly where we ended up, on Highway 64 … It was a 7 mile, high mountain, switch-back, descent on a very decent gravel road. It would have been just fine in our truck, but in our truck pulling our 38 foot trailer….not so great. Randy says we were never in danger but I was definitely uncomfortable and I am not easily spooked.

Once we arrived, all has been well. We were able to get our forwarded mail for the first time. We called the UPS store that is now our mailing address and had them send it, and they did. It worked!

We are in a private campground that needs some TLC but it has a cold pool, a warm hot-tub and full hook-ups for our membership price of $10 per night. After a week of just water and electric, it is nice to have the sewer connection to be able to do laundry. We have this cute little washer/dryer combo that takes in dirty clothes and about 3 hours later produces clean, dry clothes. Somehow it dries by using hot water. I don’t get it at all, but it works.

This RV park has some large beautiful trees but we opted to be on the street side edge to be able to use our satellite TV. I am glad for the satellite since it has mostly rained since we got here. During breaks in the rain we have taken Elko across the street to walk around the “Heart of the Monster.” This is part of the Nez Perce creation story and included in the area’s Nez Perce National Historical Park.

Yesterday we took a drive up into the mountains and saw some beautiful scenery and went to Pierce “the oldest town in Idaho”. Since I had previously learned that Franklin, settled by Mormon pioneers just north of the Utah border, was the oldest town in Idaho, that took some researching. Apparently Pierce had that designation for many years but more recently, Franklin was given that distinction by a few months. Pierce hasn’t changed their signs or their visitor information.

Today we went to Faith Lutheran Church in Kamiah. It is a small congregation, maybe 30 people in attendance, but was most welcoming. They had a welcome gift, a crochet dish cloth and wooden spadel, and we were the first visitors to ever receive them. As they use the “red hymnal” instead of the “green hymnal” that we were familiar with from our Lutheran days, we were occasionally lost, but it was good worship nonetheless.

The Good – We are currently at a beautiful site on the lake at Winchester State Park.  After a walk around the lake,  I rode my bike into town for a few groceries.   This is really the first time we can see our future full-timing and it looks good!

Over the weekend we spent great time with Natasha, Seth and Archer, my parents and my aunt and cousins at Union Campground between Baker City and Sumpter.  We all love the campground.  Campers among you should check it out.  Archer was a super hit with family that hadn’t seen him in a while, or seen him yet.  OK, he was a hit with us too!That leads to the Bad, and the Dirty….One of the things we were going to do this weekend was to deliver my Audi to my mother.  I had said numerous times that I was glad she was taking it so I didn’t really have to get rid of a car I loved in this “dispose of almost everything” process.  She sold her car last week in anticipation of getting the Audi.

On Friday as we were preparing to leave town, we dropped the truck and trailer off to get new tires.  I dropped Randy off at Banbury Golf Club for a tournament with his buddies.  I had a few errands to do, including washing the car in preparation for giving it to mom.  As I drove up the hill on Eagle road the Audi lost power and had to limp into the Target parking lot.  To make a long, painful story shorter, my Audi came to a dirty (It was never dirty!) inglorious end at a salvage yard.  The timing chain blew the engine and my car was done.  I’d like to think someone will put a new engine in it and it will go on, but it wasn’t going to be cost effective or time effective for us to deal with it.

My parents, down to one car, decided they might like to try Randy’s BMW Roadster which had been for sale for several months.  We picked it up at the consignment lot and left for Sumpter Friday late afternoon.   In the end they decided they liked the idea of having a fun little yellow car and took it home to Vancouver.

So, except for my car, all is well that ends well.  We do feel very fortunate that the car gave it up while we were still in Boise, while the great folks at Boise Audi could help me trying to deal with this by myself (Randy was on the phone a jillion times) and while neighbors Gary and Judy could take Elko for the day.  It would have been far worse for the drama to have happened while we were on the road to Sumpter or while my parents were on the road to Vancouver.   Blessings can come in strange forms!

This is our first RV home – Albion #3, Riverside RV Park along the Greenbelt in Boise.

May 19 – After a long night of packing and purging we made it to the RV park after dark to find we couldn’t fit in our designated spot! We had to get creative, going in backwards and sitting mostly in the empty spot next to “ours”. We ended up at McDonalds at 11:00 pm to finally eat dinner. It wasn’t a great beginning!

May 20 – The bad news was we weren’t going to close on the house after all due to a paperwork snafu. The good news was the RV park management moved us to a much nicer spot and things felt much better.

For the next few days we settled into a routine of me finishing my school year and Randy working on projects for us and Natasha’s family.

May 23 – We still hadn’t closed on the house but we left for Memorial day weekend at our favorite site on Lake Cascade with Darrell and Cindy. We have spent many nice weekends with them in that campground in those two sites. Darrell and I book MONTHS ahead to get them. Labor Day weekend is already ours.

May 26 – I woke up Monday morning to wet carpet – that isn’t good! Our toilet foot pedal had not retracted fully and fresh water had flooded the immediate area around our bathroom and fully into our “basement” storage area. Fortunately, most items in the basement were in storage tubs so it was just a mess, and because it wasn’t black water, not a catastrophe.

It was, however, one more opportunity to reorganize and purge. We had thought we had done really well getting down to a manageable amount of stuff to come into the trailer but a small amount in a big house does not equate to a manageable amount in a big trailer. We got rid of quite a bit more.

By Monday afternoon we were headed back to Boise. On the way back, there is a truck weigh station. We were both half afraid to stop and see what we weighed. The trailer came in just over 15000 pounds. That sounds like a lot, but what it means is that we have a little less than 3000 pounds of “stuff” in our trailer, and we are within recommended limits. We think we will eventually weigh even less as we get rid of some stores that remain.

We did FINALLY close on the house on Tuesday, a week late. Randy spent some time with the new owners that afternoon to acquaint them with the house we had called home for 21 years. We are very happy that they are very happy with their new home.

As I write this on Friday evening, we have one week left in Boise. We leave town Friday after Randy golfs in one more Brian Olson Memorial Golf Tournament with his golfing buddies. Between now and then I will finish with my last two kindergarten classes and Randy will complete a few more projects. We will take a few more walks along the greenbelt and see a couple more horseraces from the other side of the track. I will have one more Book Club dinner with my reading ladies and Randy will finish his golf league with his longtime partner Ralph. We will go to our church for one last Sunday and enjoy time with a few more friends that we won’t see for a while, and then we will embark.

It is exciting to be so close to actually doing this! Our first stop will be a family gathering with Natasha, Seth and Archer, my parents, and my aunt and cousins near Sumpter, Oregon. We have camping reservations through the end of July in northern Idaho and Washington. We also have an Alaskan Cruise and time with my parents in Vancouver. It makes it a little easier to leave knowing we will be back in Boise in August to see everyone again. And then there is Archer’s birthday in December….

Even though this post has not been fast in coming, the sale of our house was fast!   Less than 48 hours after going “live” on the MLS we had a full price offer.  Yeah!    We have been moving at frantic speed to get everything done and out of here.   Tonight is our last night in the house we have spent 21 years in.   Mostly it is very exciting, but a little bittersweet as well.   It has been a great house in a great neighborhood and we have enjoyed our years here.

We will move down to Riverside RV park for about three weeks while I finish my last year in kindergarten.  I found out recently that I do get to return for the month of September next year so I will be able to retire instead of resign.  It matters for benefits so I am very appreciative.  The district did not have to make that accommodation for me but the superintendent made that decision herself.  As I said, we are very appreciative.

We officially embark on June 6th and will start in Sumpter, Oregon for a gathering with family.  Then we will head into northern Idaho and across northern Washington and eventually work our way to Vancouver in late July.  We will be back in Boise sometime mid August for about six weeks.   Then we will be truly done and off!   Desitination TBD.

This past weekend was the big garage sale.    Randy had sold most of our worthwhile things on Craigslist so most of the items in our garage sale sold for $2 or less.   It was a HUGE amount of work to prep.  Thanks to Cindy and Darrell for helping us the night before!

A couple of our $2 items were Elko’s beds (he had 4).  He looked a little concerned when two of them came out to the driveway and one sold right away.   The second stayed a little while and he eventually went and laid on it as if to say “Don’t sell my bed!”    A lady had already seen it and wanted it, so when she was ready, we brought his favorite bed from the house out to the driveway – and did not sell that one out from under him.

Don’t sell my bed!

We survived, got rid of a bunch of stuff and made some money in the process.     But – never again!   We will never collect 30 years of “stuff” again, and if we do – we’ll donate it.

Next step is listing the house.   Our bedroom and kitchen are the only normal rooms left.   The plan had been to stage the main floor but the local Parade of Homes has all the stagers too busy.  We are going for the empty look, which is a good thing since almost every other room in the house is empty.

Randy has a variety of small projects to do that are mostly cosmetic and we expect to be ready to list next week.

In the months since we last posted, the best thing that happened was the birth of our grandson!   Grandpa has been babysitting one or two days a week!

He has also been trying to empty our house using Craigslist.  The stories we can tell!    Here are a few highlights to chuckle over.

Just today,  a man was very determined to be the first to buy our shop vac.  He came, purchased it for our advertized $30, and then sent a text asking Randy for the pictures so he could re-list it for $49!

Randy created a “feeding frenzy” with a couple of Natasha’s cast-off furniture items.  She had a very rough dresser and nightstand which Randy identified as needing to be completely sanded and repainted.   He posted it at 10:30 pm and eventually took the post down and turned off his phone so we could get some sleep.

Our son in law had an old dresser he thought should be thrown out.  Randy listed it for $40, and created another frenzy.  It was purchased by a family who came and purchased the dresser and five other items.  We have created a bit of a showroom in our living room with our items for sale.

Our dining room furniture was posted for moments.  Randy posted it, got up from the computer, and walked to the garage.  His phone rang with a buyer asking if we still had the set.  It had been posted for about 30 seconds.

We had a cardio-glide exercise machine and a bread maker that had been listed for months and price dropped many times.  For no apparent reason, they both sold in the same morning.

A buyer was interested in a queen size bed we had posted but we were at a basketball game that went to overtime.  The buyer wanted the bed and met us at home at 10:30 pm.

We have other craigslist stories but you get the idea!

Even though we are getting pennies on the dollar for many of these once valued possessions, it is freeing to let them go – with just a couple of exceptions.  My piano (that I have had “longer than Randy”) was given to a friend’s granddaughter who is excited to begin piano lessons.   My grandmother’s sewing machine that I had acquired several years ago was sold to a young woman just hours before the piano was picked up.  That was a hard day for me.

We have received several question about our RV.  I thought I would give a quick review on how we decided to go with a truck/fifth wheel combination.

Like many families, we have been tent camping for a long while.   As the years went by, and sleeping on the ground got uncomfortable, we decided to get a pop-up trailer.  That didn’t work out very well for a variety of reasons.  It turned into a nice boat that we enjoyed for 24 years.  We just sold it this fall.

In 2001, we bought a small Keystone Laredo fifth wheel.  We loved that trailer and it worked great for trips up to a week or 10 days out.  As we though about going full time, it became clear the Laredo was not the answer.  We started researching what we really wanted.

We have been visiting the Boise RV Show for many years.  Serene and I always agreed not share our opinions until we had looked at all the models. Four years in a row we both liked the Montana 3400RL fifth wheel best.  We believed it would fit our needs.

We decided to go fifth wheel instead of the more common Diesel Pusher Class A motor home and towed vehicle.  We will use our truck (or legs and bicycles) as transportation and forego the additional engine, transmission, and additional maintenance. We opted for the more spacious living quarters available in the fifth wheel as compared to a Class A motor home in our price range.

In March of 2012, we bought the new Montana 3400RL. This model has been the number one selling fifth wheel for the last 11 years.  That was a selling point for me since I reasoned that most of the issues have be worked out.  Also, we knew that feedback from their customers had been incorporated in the newer models.  As with any product, there are always slight changes that take place, and I already see a few differences in our 2012 as compared to 2013 and 2014 models.  

2012 Montana 3400 RL

Here is anRV dealership YouTube links for a 2012 Montana 3400RL:

Short video

We also bought a new 2012 Ford 1-ton (350) Super Duty diesel crew cab pickup to tow it.  We opted for single rear wheels, as opposed to dual rear wheels.  That allowed us to get a short bed, rather than a long bed.  Turning  and parking are better with a short bed, but it can’t tow as much.  However, it tows the Montana easily.

2012 F-350 Super Duty Crew Cab Short Bed

Combined,  these two new purchases were less than any newer Class A diesel floor plan we have seen.  In fact, we haven’t seen a Class A floor plan we like yet.  But we keep looking just for fun.