November 26, 2004 - Lake Minden TTN, Nicolaus, CA

Yup, we're on the road again!  The doctor said that while there was still some infection, it wasn't anything to keep us in Washington about.  Drove 418 miles (with plenty of help from Barb) to Grants Pass, OR, where we spent the night in the Wal-Mart there, and then yesterday another 310 miles, and here we are in Nicolaus CA, about 35 miles north of Sacramento.  Of course, it was raining most the way here so a large portion of today was spent scraping the crud off the Jeep.  Going to go play with Lexi and her folks tomorrow, so we'll have lots of new pictures pretty soon.

I guess my beard has always had some white in it.  Well, actually that's frost I'm afraid.  We'd been cross-country skiing someplace, probably at Russian Jack in Anchorage sometime around 1978 or so.  Tied around my waist is a sweater that Barb built for me before we were married.  My birthday is October 2, and we were married 8 days later.  Wonder if there is any connection.  And then some proof of our location on the beach, where most the remaining pictures come from. 

Yup.  It rains in the Pacific Northwest.  Stepped out the door and discovered our mat wasn't going to dry our shoes very well at all.  These shots were taken at Oceana TTN near Ocean City, WA.  What you can't see behind the electrical pedestal is our Autoformer.  That little magic electrical box that keeps our voltage from surging or sagging.  It was sitting on the only high spot in the area, purely by luck.

They closed the section we had been parked in because it was the end of the season, not because of the rain and a few puddles.  So we moved to higher ground, and I simply couldn't resist a picture of our home along with three other hearty souls, two of whom are parked in this area.

Yeah, Barb spotted the flowers, beautiful fuchsias--in November yet, and I spotted Jeff, one of the maintenance people doing some painting in the shop.  We'd walked by, heard voices, ignored the "Employees Only" sign (which always bothers Barb), and walked in.

Preserve Manager Dean (I think that was his name) does maintenance work too, along with telling good stories.  Ed is working on putting together a laundry room in a trailer that was too far gone for living in.

Besides always being busy at something, you can depend on Ed's smile.  He even grins when he's all mucked up digging clams.  And then we took a walk on the beach when it was nearly high tide and deserted.  Yeah, it was cold and damp too--can you tell that's Barb?

The area that got closed for the season backs right into the dunes.  A short walk through the dunes is all it takes to be on the beach.  Ed and Rosie had a day off, and gave us a little tour of Ocean Shores.  Sort of a "behind the scenes" look at it.  Ed used to work this area when he worked for the telephone company and knows it pretty well.  And besides that, their daughter is a busy real estate agent married to a builder, and we got to see some of their projects.  When we drove past this house, we noticed the cats enjoying the view from that open upstairs window.  Because friends Chris and Evelyn said they'd pay more attention to the website if we included more cats, we simply had to stop and take the picture.  See Chris?  We do think of you even when we're not there.

A better shot of the cats, and then a rather unusual home.  It's a rail car (sitting on tracks) and a couple of cabooses (also sitting on tracks) right in the neighborhood with normal houses.

Ed had been in the home when it was being set up and says it's nice inside.  I liked the fact that both Burlington Northern and Great Northern Railway were represented.  Curved staircases on the outside and a fence made of a rail sitting on couplers added a nice touch to the theme.

Where would we be without friends?  Well, in my case, it would be a sad life indeed.  On the left are Bill and Maelyn.  I like to tease Bill about being one of my oldest friends.  We met in 1976 and have stayed in touch ever since.  We met Maelyn in 1982.  Bill had invited us to church and as bait told me he'd buy lunch and we could meet his new wife.  Both Barb and I were eventually baptized at that church, so these are pretty special people in our lives.

And there's Henk and Thea (they are Dutch transplants to Canada) who drove down from Canada to spend an afternoon with us before we left and headed south.  We met them at Whalers Rest, a TTN preserve on the Oregon coast in 2002.  They were standing in the rain waiting for a bus.....that had already been by, and we took them into town.  We've been in touch with them ever since, met them at different times in various parts of the country, and are planning on going to Mexico together in February.  Matter of fact, the reason we're going to Mexico is because of them.  When we were in Birch Bay we ran into them again, and they wanted to show us their new condo, so we went up to see it as well as take in a small RV show that was going on.  The El Dorado Ranch booth was at that show, and we decided to take the "tour" of the place near San Felipe, Baja, Mexico.  And we invited friend John and Bill and Carol Nelson to join us.  Then Bill and Carol ran into Jerry and Susan at church and found out they too were going, so Jerry and Susan changed their schedule so they could join the party.  And I understand another couple from the same church will be joining us as well.  Is this a great lifestyle or what!