The Accidental Trailerist: Harry and David

After sticking close to home for a few days, we were ready to venture out, so more or less on the spur of the moment we set out to nearby Medford, Oregon. Usually I like to get out my stash of travel literature, do a little Internet research, and, you know, make a plan.

And the difference showed. We bickered about what to do and wandered around trying to make a plan. Still, we had a wonderful time. We enjoyed a stop at Lowe's, going up and down most of the aisles, watching for ideas for the trailer. Home improvement is so fun when there are real boundaries to how much it will cost and how much work it will be. Our projects are mostly little, like our last one.

In the rear room of the trailer, where we play our instruments, watch tv (second tv), or just get away from each other for a bit, there is a large window where I would set my keyboard up on a little folding table. I wanted the table to be available for other uses and felt the the most efficient thing to do would be to put up a shelf that would fold down out of the way when not needed or when the slide needed to come in. As the studs were oddly placed, we hit upon the idea of mounting a prefinished shelf from Home Depot to the studs, and then using that to mount the fold down brackets.

Then, the fold-down brackets, which we found at Camping World.

Then, the larger shelf that would be so useful.

And here it is folded down,when not in use or when traveling..

Anyway, while Home Depot and Lowes carry many of the same things, there are some real differences in style, so we always enjoy visiting both.

I visited Michaels, where I got some paint. I've decided to act on a long buried desire to learn watercolor painting, and need a couple more colors for my beginner projects in my learn to paint book.

Then, lunch. If you know us, you know we are extremely frugal when it comes to eating out. Other than an very occasional dollar menu hamburger for purely utilitarian reasons, it's a rare occasion. Last time, in fact, we wrote about in this blog. It was still August, and our big splurge was a hamburger in Virginia City, Montana. From a real restaurant. Not from the value menu. Sublime!

This time, for lunch we decided to shun our franchise habit and stopped at this Medford eatery.

Fancy, huh? Actually, by the time we stopped here, we were crabby because of the aforesaid lack of a plan. But this place was frequented by locals, and my mushroom burger was so thick that all the mushrooms didn't fit in the burger, and they automatically served it with a fork. Our frayed tempers were much soothed by the time we had enjoyed our hometown hamburgers.

After a stop at Bear Creek Park, where the dogs enjoyed an off-leash romp in the dog park, we headed to Harry and David. This is what is known as a "destination store," listed in tourist literature as a sightseeing must.

Harry and David was a pioneer in the mail order gourmet food business. I remember seeing their catalogs as a youngster. They were especially well known for their "Fruit of the Month" club, whereby you could gift your loved one or business associate with a monthly basket of seasonal fresh fruit.

They have tours, but due to our lack of preparation, we had missed the last bus. Still, we had a wonderful time exploring the store, and we plan to go back another time for the tour.

They are especially famous for their pears, which they had many varieties of. In addition, they certainly had stunning displays of all kinds of beautiful produce.