Family First

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since our last post. We spent the summer with family, visiting and helping. It was wonderful, but we were happy to finally get back on the road. We wish we could see our grandchildren more often. Just look at these precious faces that we had to leave behind in Montana!

But there's one grandchild we didn't leave behind.

Here's Jan with our grandson Damien. Damien is going to be traveling with us and going to school online as he does so. This was kind of a surprise for all of us, but circumstances evolved that made it seem like a good idea to all involved. It sure changes our focus in our travels!

Also, it has a great deal to do with why we haven't posted much lately, as it involved some preparation, not the least of which was getting his school arranged.

Hot Days at the Old Homestead

We've spent the past 2 months at the house, in northeastern Washington, sorting through the stuff, having a massive garage sale, and doing some improvements on the trailer. We've been living in the trailer for a year and a half now, so have a pretty good idea what it is we want and need. We haven't had Internet except when we went down to the library or McDonalds, so it's been hard to keep up the blog. I'm just not quite up to blogging with the smartphone, as I'm still figuring out how it works and discovering new things all the time.  I'll try to catch you up over the next few days, as much has happened.

It has been hot. I don't think the actual air temperature was quite this high, as the sensor was on the sunny side of the trailer, so I was surprised to see this one afternoon. It was definitely over 100F that day, though. The air conditioner ran constantly to keep the inside temperature in the low 80s most days. This day was hotter, so you can see the inside of the trailer was warmer too. The bizarre thing is, when coming in from that kind of heat, it actually feels cool or even chilly to come into the trailer that is in the 80s. Unfortunately, the trailer was in full sun.

Because of the energy-sapping heat, progress was slow, but we're finally underway and will have more to tell you.

We have the travel trailer and a 5 x 10 storage unit. The rest of the stuff is gone, gone, gone. We do still own the house, but none of our stuff is there anymore, and our renter has taken over the shop building we had been storing our stuff in, with an appropriate adjustment in rent.

A Beautiful New Sink

While working though the STUFF in storage, we have also been making a couple improvements to the trailer. The kitchen sink was plastic, with plastic faucets, and I had found the large single bowl wasn't very practical for dishwashing. And the plastic wasn't looking very good any more.

But now I am enjoying this beauty. Just look at the faucet!

We found the sink on Amazon. We had to cut the opening 1/2" wider and 1/2" longer. That countertop material was really hard to cut! That's a good thing, I think, as it may mean the counter will hold up.

This new sink with a sprayer is making me love dishwashing again!

Stuff, Stuff, and More Stuff

I've written before about how clarifying this RV living is for sorting out what we really need. We've gotten rid of so much, but there is so much left. We're parked on the edge of our lot, and my job every day is to really deal with the stuff.

Now, here's the depressing picture. This has to be empty when we're done with this round.

I'm making progress. Really, I am. We've had two garage sales in the last 2 years, and frankly, I'm just not up to another. So I have a big pile I'm listing on eBay, things that wouldn't be properly appreciated at a garage sale. And I also have a big pile of boxes of things for the thrift shop. These are garage sale things, but like I said, I'm just not up to it, and the money from this pile just isn't enough to make me do it. Every time we go downtown, we take a box to one of the thrift shops, so we're not flooding them. The pile is going away slowly.

There is a third pile. I am going to try out a new method. I know for a fact the local second hand store owners shop at garage sales, as I have seen my garage sale items show up there. I am going to take the in between stuff, stuff that's either too hard to ship or not quite up to eBay standards, and see if I can sell it at the secondhand stores. The household stuff I am talking about is exactly what my favorite secondhand store stocks, and I only expect garage sale prices.

And there's one more pile. That one is some things for Craig's list. Too hard to ship, too hard to haul around, too valuable to give away. An air conditioner, tools, a few other things. Not many in number, but important.

We watched a lot of episodes of "Storage Wars" last winter and have really gotten it through our heads that most stuff isn't worth storing.

The exceptions? Papers, personal memorabilia, and things that would be almost impossible to replace. When we see how small a pile we can make, we'll explore options on where it will go. It isn't staying here.

Our renter is looking forward to taking over this shop building, for an increase in the rent, of course. He's at the "acquiring" stage of life. And if we sell the place, we won't have to come back to deal with it.

Time Out For Family

In coastal Washington, we enjoyed ten days with our daughter and her family. The time went by so quickly, and it is only now that I am catching up on Accidental Trailerist. We said a reluctant goodbye and we are now traveling slowly across Washington. Our destination is in northeast Washington, where we really need to deal with the house and take steps to get it sold. This year and a half living in the travel trailer has shown us we won't miss the house when it is sold, nor most of the stuff stored there.

Tillamook, Oregon

Next we headed to Tillamook, Oregon, where we boondocked at the rv park adjacent to the airport. We had a pleasant surprise, because there is a very nice museum, the Tillamook Air Museum, at the airport, and the admission fees were much more reasonable than at the McMinnville one that we had decided to forego. This one was housed in a huge, wood-framed hangar that was one of two constructed at the Tillamook airfield during World War II to house huge blimps that were used for patrol and escort off the west coast of America during the war.

There was an entire network of similar installations, and they did serve their purpose, as there were enemy submarines offshore.

In between the war and becoming a museum, the hangars housed lumber milling and, after that, hay storage. In the early 90s, there was a huge fire in one of the hangars where hay was being stored, and that hangar was destroyed.

Now, there are informative exhibits of World War II history

and, of course, lots of airplanes.

This was an enjoyable, worthwhile museum, and we were now glad we had decided to give the pricey air museum at McMinnville a pass. At the entrance to the museum is a cute cafe and a nice gift shop, where we found a couple well-priced jackets we very much needed to cut the wind on all those beach walks.

Next, we stopped in at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Unfortunately, they were done for the day, and there was just one worker doing some cleaning. However, the place is very visitor-oriented, with displays, free samples, a couple of gift shops, a cafe, and an ice cream bar. The company also makes wonderful ice cream. Dairying is an important part of the Tillamook economy.

Tomorrow we head for Washington state.

Kicking Around Lincoln City, Oregon

We had some time to catch our breath in Lincoln City. Our beautiful riverside campsite was paid for for four nights--we had set aside a day to go inland to the air museum at McMinnville, which we had heard was marvelous. I hope it truly is, but I will never know. When I went online to check hours and admission fees, I discovered it was $25!!! for me and, with Jan's senior discount, $24!!! for him. We are not paying $49 to look at some airplanes. So we spent another day just kicking around Lincoln City, which was enjoyable. One of the things I love about this life is getting the feel of what other places are like.

Lincoln City, like most of the Oregon coastal towns, is very accommodating to tourists, but Lincoln City seems especially so. We did some more beach walking, of course. And we checked out the outlet stores. We used to go to the outlet mall in Post Falls, Idaho, but that place is a virtual ghost town now. I'm not sure why. This outlet mall is one of several nationwide, a Tanger Outlet Mall.  Being a big spender, I did find a new lens cap for my camera to replace the one I'd recently lost. And better yet, I bought a "lens cap leash" so I won't lose it again. Yay!

Here's the mall: