Where is Jack, Day 115

Today will be a day of rest and a day of getting ready to move, tomorrow. We won't know where we are going until the rubber meets the road. I've been thinking and thinking, so has Nancy, and we can't make a decision. Does this mean it's time to turn east? I wish I knew.

Well, it turned out not to be a day of rest. After Nancy took her shower, we went for a walk and then we got in the truck and went to Hebo one more time, and on to Pacific City where we had fun on the beach, then sat and watched the waves for a while. Then, we went to the supermarket to stock up, came back to the campground, and Nancy hooked up in 5 minutes. All that's left tomorrow is the water, electric, cable, and dump after her shower and we'll be hitting the road.

We didn't take any pictures, today. Just soaked up the wonderful scenery and relived happy memories.

Where is Jack, Day 109?

We are unexpectedly packing up to move. Maybe across the RV park, maybe on our way. Nancy's mail hasn't arrived from Susan, yet, and Nancy lost track of days and thought she was signed up through the 30th. Nope. She forgot that they screwed up the original reservation. Have to move as someone has reserved the spot. Check out isn't until noon so we have time since it's early. There isn't much to do. Nancy's already dumped and backed the truck in. She's just waiting to see if the mail comes; then she'll decide. She just vacuumed. I had a hard time not laughing as she diligently vacuumed the whole place, then the dirt holder fell off the vacuum...like a cloud of smoke!! You don't want to know what Nancy said. Well, it's all re-vacuumed. She's glad that she put the couch back up. It feels so much roomier and neater in here.

The question is whether we want to leave this weather, and when we look at the weather map, the answer is NO!


We could stay here or hug the coast up to Washington, but as soon as you go inland just 20-25 miles, it's in the 90s. The problem is that coastal campgrounds are full--people escaping the heat from nearby inland. Aunt Judy agreed with Nancy that we'd regret moving anywhere inland.

I'm feeling a lot better. I want to go on a long, long walk, but Nancy says she wants me to finish my medicine, first. That's another reason not to leave here, Nancy wants to stay close to the vet who treated me.

Nancy went to a walk-in place to see if she could get her bp medication. It was full to the brim. Nancy realized that it was a county health free clinic. All signs were in Spanish as were all the people waiting. It took her about 5 seconds to come back out. It could be that the people are migrant workers or maybe they are running from the new Arizona immigration law. At any rate, she wasn't about to wait six hours to get a few pills. She has about a week and a half of doses left, so there's time. BP is good 127/67 this a.m. Pulse 68. That's for you, Susan, if you're reading.

We have the news on and they just announced that cell phones are dirtier than toilet seats and handles. Sure glad I don't use either!

Well, we moved about 100 feet to another spot. It didn't take any time at all. Nancy's actually getting better at hooking up. She got it on the first try this time. Set up and take down time takes less and less time since we left Atlanta.

The mail is coming, today. Susie gave Nancy the American Mail number and they tracked the package--it will be here before 4:30 p.m., today. Thank goodness for Susie. The mail forwarding service isn't so hot. They never sent the real estate tax bill, but Nancy went online and was able to pay them that way. She knew she always paid it in July. After the mail arrives, we're going out for a ride. Nancy doesn't want me to exercise too much until she's sure I'm protected by the medication. I have to take it until it is gone. Now that we have another week, here, there are some places in the area that Nancy wants to go--some places she can bring a chair while I am off leash. She's already told me that I have to behave and quit eating grass, otherwise she'll make me stay on the leash.

Uncle Paulie called this morning. He just bought a Mac!!! Hoorah. He's going to have such a good time with it. He got a 27" screen. Wow, pictures are going to look great. He has more toys than most old boys. ;-) I'm happy for him. Now, he'll see what Nancy means about Mac. He's going to love it, especially with all the movies, greeting cards, etc., that he likes to do.

Susie called after work, but she and Nancy couldn't stay connected. With our luck, just moving across the way may have changed the cell signal. Michael called last night, and John called yesterday morning. We're not really homesick, but Nancy does miss her kids and friends. Actually, we feel like we're home in the trailer. The house will seem gigantic when we get home.

We're going down through Yellowstone when we leave Idaho. There were two bear attacks, yesterday. One man was killed and a woman was injured. We were surprised that they allow people to camp in tents inside the park. Unless we misunderstood, we thought you had to have a hard-sided camper. Maybe the attack was near the park, not in the park. Jack Hannah also had a very close call in Montana. He has a beautiful home up on Flathead Lake. Nancy half thought about going to Montana, but it would add a lot of miles. I suppose we'll here more on the news about the attacks, tonight. The search is on for the bear to kill it. They said that there were no food violations around the campsites so there may be something wrong with the bear. The woman who survived said the bear had her by her arm. She could feel him breaking her bones and she had the presence of mind to go limp and play dead. Can you imagine? I'd be yelping and howling like crazy.

Well so much for two day mail. Didn't come. Tracking now says tomorrow.

Nancy said she was happy to hear Aunt Judy sounding so much better. Boy, when she gets a cold, she gets a cold. She and Uncle Frank have a score of over 7 million (and that was the other day) in Text Twist.

We did get out for a ride today, like Nancy promised. We tried to follow the Trask River to its beginnings, but we couldn’t get to its very beginnings. Nancy thought it was the same river we saw running down to the ocean when we went toward the Three Capes Scenic Area, and she was right. We'll go back there another day.

John called while we were driving, so did Susie. Nancy was telling John about how there is nothing “spectacular” about this area except the weather, at the moment, but it’s an easy place to be. All within 10 miles you can see rivers, lakes, ponds, the ocean, mountains, dairy farms, forests, and sand dunes. It’s very unusual and while she’s been here quite a few times before, she had no idea what nice country it is. She said she could live here. It reminds her of the Amish country, in a way; clean, big expanses of fields—just a lot to see of another culture. In the driveways, it's not uncommon to see tanker trucks that carry milk.

When we were driving on the narrow back roads, we came across sirens. We wondered whether they were for flood or fire warning. Nancy found this while searching for the answer on the internet, so now I know what that policeman was doing on the back roads the other day, and why he wasn't the most pleasant person. America's Speed Traps See, I knew Nancy was caught in a speed trap in Arkansas, only that cop was a pleasant guy. Back to the sirens--Surprising to be in the middle of the forest and see Tsunami sirens. There's some interesting bits of history in the article--Rich used to talk about the Tillamook Burn.

We learned something about cows, today. Nancy always thought they were non-responsive animals, but she stopped (because there was room) to talk to these cows and mooed at them.

When the cows that were in the barn heard her, they came literally came running out to see what was going on, answering her “moos”. It was a riot!

There is nothing ostentatious about the way people live in this area. They are, supposedly, fairly wealthy farmers as they own the factory but they all live in fairly modest, pretty little houses off the main roads. We came across one – someone liked birdhouses!

It's a shame that it's impossible to take pictures of so much of the pretty scenery that we passed.

Where is Jack, Day 105?

We were slow to start, today. I didn't want to get out of bed.

Nancy's thinking she'll leave the couch bed down as she doesn't use it. She was storing the mattress on her bed, but it made the mattress too soft. It takes away a lot of room, but she'll probably try it for a while. The only reason she doesn't like it is that it doesn't look as tidy in the trailer.

We decided to take a ride and see some of the backroads we may not have been on and on the way home she could pick up a couple of things she needed at Fred Meyers. There was so much to see on the little winding roads amidst the dairy farms, but it was hard to take pictures because there was no place to stop and there were more cars and tractors than Nancy had anticipated. She did pull over to take a picture of these black and white cows, and as her luck would have it a policeman pulled up and told her to move. What's a policeman doing all they way out in the boon docks? We found a small park, and it looked like there was a reunion going on so we just drove through and left.

When Keely was out here she had seen cows walking under a bridge. These cows were walking under a bridge to get to the barn.

Like the ark? Two by Two?

On one side of the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge on the way to the barn.

This one liked us.

Who knew there are Hydranga Farms?

A Barn and Silo seen along the way

In the northwest, they wrap the baled hay to prevent mildew.

Deer are almost as plentiful as cows. There are cute little farmhouses in and among old broken down houses. If we didn't know better, we could have been in Pennsylvania or New England.

We found a herd of brown cows. Nancy said she's going to research what the difference is between the different color cows. She said that she felt sorry for cows because they are not pretty so no one wants to take pictures of them. If they were a herd of horses, there would be no question--people would take pictures.

When we were finished exploring, Nancy took me for a walk in the town of Tillamook. It's empty on Sundays so she thought it would be a good time to walk around and look at the stores. There are really no "pretty shops"--almost everything is utilitarian. We had fun on our walk, though, and we didn't have to deal with crowds of people.

Where is Jack, Day 104?

We woke up to a chilly morning, and a very quiet morning. Robbie, my cousin who we visited in Portland, emailed us pictures of Normandy. Nancy has always been fascinated by the stories of the raw bravery told about this particular place and these particular Soldiers. Rob has traveled all over the world for his job with Nike and tells the most interesting stories. He lives in a condo that overlooks the city of Portland.  He can see Mt. Hood from his balcony. Nancy doesn't think he'll mind if we posts them, here, as log as we attribute them to Robert Lotwis. He has a natural talent for capturing real life in his photos. See his facebook for more. Our favorite is the one he has of himself on a camel--now, maybe he didn't take that one, but I'm sure it was his idea!

Oddly enough, these pictures came while Nancy and Michael were communicating with men who are holding a reunion at Hebo on September 11th and 12th. Nancy thought she might stick around the coast to go with the hope of meeting someone who knew Rich, but then decided that it would be all men and couples.

We will go to Hebo, this week, for the last time.

The rest of the day was spent vegging, and I mean vegging--doing absolutely nothing except for a couple of walks. Tomorrow is Sunday, so probably more of the same unless we go for a walk in Tillamook. Then, Nancy has to get busy with the errands for the week before we move on to ...

Where is Jack, Day 103?

Michael and the girls left a little while ago. Nancy and I miss them and are a bit sad tonight. We had a full day filled with fun, though. I don't think we could have fit anything else in the time that Susie spent with us or when Michael and the girls were here. Days were packed. Nancy was a little apprehensive about how we would fit four people in here, comfortably. She bought extra pillows and aside from sleeping, we used them to sit down at one end of the trailer on the open couch and table bed to talk and watch tv. We really weren't in much except to sleep so I think everyone was as comfortable as could be expected. Last night, Nancy woke up and was cold. She had put long underwear and sweats on to sleep. Peyton had the bed across from her (the girls switched every night) and the window was open and she looked like she was freezing. Nancy closed the window and covered her back up with the blanket and she sleepily said, "Thank you Gramma, I love you." Nancy turned the heat up and before we knew it, it was TOO warm.

The girls are very good to me, and Michael played ball with me this morning before we took off to take the Three Capes Scenic Drive.

We saw Tillamook Bay, Cape Meares Lighthouse, the Octopus Tree, and other beautiful sites along the way. They stopped for lunch in Pacific City at the Pelican Brewery and Restaurant—the same place Nancy and Susie went to—the same one where Nancy and Rich used to get lunch and eat outside. They didn’t have a patio, then. Michael got to see “his Dad’s haystack rock” and wanted to drive through Hebo once again. He also saw the little air strip that Rich always talked about. Nancy didn’t take many pictures because when Susie was here, she took pictures, but there are a few.

Michael really liked this part of the Oregon Coast. Okay, there are a few more pictures than I thought.

This is the sign on the lighthouse side. Michael and the girls took me, but Nancy stayed back and read her book. I can't remember if I told you, but the lighthouse was vandalized and suffered a lot of damage. They caught the teens who did it. From what we were told, they shot the windows out and damaged a lot that can't be replaced, i.e., the original glass. Such a senseless thing to do.

Michael always takes the time to explain things to his girls. He wants them to see as much as they can see as they grow up. 

You've seen the Octopus tree before, but not with Michael and the kids.

Nancy walked part of the way with us to take some pictures.

To top the day off Nancy and Michael took the girls to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. The girls saw how cheese was made, and then they and Nancy sat in the café waiting for Michael to come in. He was on the phone trying to seal a deal. Nancy and I have our fingers crossed that it works out and is very fruitful for him and his company.

The girls had ice cream while they waited. When he came in, they went and got him and Nancy ice cream. They are such great kids. I’m very proud of them and I know Michael is proud as a peacock, too.

Nancy had a great time, but she told me she's going to relax for a few days. Then she needs to have the oil changed in the truck, stop in the RV place, hopefully get the truck washed. The trailer will have to wait. She doesn't want to think about driving right now or where we're going next. We think it's Washington, but she's a bit burned out planning trips so she'll renew her spirit. This area brings many memories flooding back, and I think Nancy is tired mentally and physically. A little down time will help.