January 1st, 2007

We left Coos Bay about 2 P.M. it was a cloudy day with showers. The highway was so awful with all those bumps, curves and steep hills. Sharon reads her book a lot to keep from seeing how narrow the road is or how steep we are going down hill. Kent tells her to close her eyes sometimes when she isn't reading when the hills get too steep for what she likes. We arrived at our next stop to camp ( Trinadad, Ca.) about 5:30 PM. and it was already dark----- no fun setting up camp in the dark. Kent was not a happy camper when he stepped in two piles of Elk droppings trying to get parked and set up. The next morning when we got up and saw the beauty of the camp and a huge herd of Elk that made the problems of the night before seem minor. We stayed here two days and it was chilly with a constant drizzle. Sharon's asthma is acting up again and she is not feeling that good. We are headed now for Petaluma, Ca. where we hope to find more sunshine and less rain.

December 30th & 31st

We left Salem on December 30th for California on Highway 101 to avoid any snow that might be in the pass. We knew that the road was going to be real bumpy and winding,but it was a lot worse than we thought. The good part is we are in no rush to get anywhere and we just take our time and see everything we want to on the way. We are sure you aren't surprised to read that we only got as far as Coos Bay, Oregon for New Years Eve. We stayed at a campground there at the casino and we had New Years Eve dinner in the casino there. They had music and party hats and the works but it seemed kind of strange to be there.

December 2006

What a busy month to be home with family and friends. Sharon's family has a lot of birthdays in December including hers. So we had a lot of fun with parties and shopping together. Sharon had a fun night going out for dinner and a gift exchange with the girls from the Beauty Salon where she used to work.
Christmas Eve we went to Sharon's daughter Lisa for dinner and opening of presents. We have our traditional oyster stew and always a second soup for the non oyster eaters, plus meat and cheese trays and the usual Christmas goodies.There are so many of us, we can hardly fit in one room to open the presents. Watching the kids open presents is the best part. We watch them open their presents and afterwards they go off and look each others gifts over and play leaving us more room to enjoy our gift exchange. The grandkids are growing up so fast though that there are less each year that want to go off and entertain themselves.
Christmas day we drove to Portland to Cindy and Erik's for Christmas dinner. Both of Kent's daughters and their families, their Mom and her husband and some friends were there. We do our gift exchange there before dinner and we share together how good Santa was to each and everyone of us for Christmas. Kent always has a great time checking out the kids presents and new video games.
Kent fixes the Prime rib and twice baked potatoes and Sharon is his #1 Elf. The girls do the rest of the dinner and we always have way too much food. Cindy sets the most beautiful table and all the adults are seated there. We always have a great time before and after dinner catching up on everything.

November 2006

It was so nice being home for three months. Kent was restless to get back on the road and Sharon was in her element doing fall cleanup in her yard and flower beds. We did a lot of bark dust and pruning to make it easier to keep up when we are gone.
Picture of Sharon's Granddaughter Blaize and Pepsi.
Thanksgiving day we did Sharon's annual big Thanksgiving breakfast for her family. The girls come over the night before and set the table and find chairs for all19 to 23 of us. They started a tradition of someone making a center piece for the table by buying the ugliest Thanksgiving candles they can find when shopping the big after Christmas sales. Every Christmas they put a set of candles in somebodies stocking. That person has to make a centerpiece out of the ugly candles for the Thanksgiving breakfast. This year Bill and his kids got the candles and they made the centerpiece.(pictures) It is amazing how creative one can be with so little to work with. We have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs doing it and our table proudly exhibits the centerpiece.
We drove to the beach house for Thanksgiving with Kent's daughters in the afternoon. We had our dinner one day late but we had 3 fun days together. The ocean is always a fun place to go and be together, there is always a puzzle to work on or something to do. The kids have a ball on the beach even when it is so cold outside the adults are inside hugging the fire place. They get their parents to play ball, walk the beach or walk down town and go through the shops. We snack a lot on the left overs from the day before and a good time is had by everyone.

October 21, 2006

Tony and Deedee's wedding was held October 21st at the Lewis River Golf Course in Woodland, Washington. The day of the wedding was so beautiful and everyone enjoyed the grounds where they took all the pictures. Tony and Dee Dee had their four children stand up for them in the wedding party and her father gave her away. That made the wedding even more special in the uniting of two families.
A lovely buffet dinner was served and it was followed by music and dancing with everyone taking their turn on the dance floor. It was fun to watch the grandchildren dancing a new version of dance steps. Oh, to be so young again! A good time was had by everyone and we were all pretty tired at the end of the evening from all the fun.

September 2006

We think it is time to catch up on our blog and fill everyone in on our journey. We started back home in September, Kent's daughter Dee Dee got married in October and we wanted to be home a little early for the big event.
We drove Highway 2 across the very top of the United States enjoying a part of the United States we had never seen before and will probably never do again. Our last stop on our way home was Boardman, Oregon. This is one of the most beautiful campgrounds that we stayed in on our travels and it is right on the Columbia River in Oregon.(pictures) It was so spacious and green and watching the tugs push the barges was quite interesting. We would recommend it to all of you to try sometime for a weekend, it is close to Salem and Portland.
We arrived home in Salem on Sept. 29th to find Sharon's son Bill and grandson William mowing the lawn. Everything looked so nice and it was good to be home again.
The first morning home we found ourselves going in two directions to watch our grandsons play football. This is one of the things we miss the most, watching the grandkids sports.(picture Sharon's grandson Ray)