Saturday through Monday,
April 20-22, 2012
Saturday morning broke sunny
and nearly 80-degrees before noon. A beautiful, yet hot day in
Paradise. We arrived at Debbie's home after 8:00pm the night before,
and today would be a day of rest. Duffy and Debbie went off to the
plant sale with a friend of Deb's, while I stayed behind. The cough
and congested head I have traveled with all week has proven relentless.
While not feeling particularly sick, both coughing and blowing had
worn me out. On Duff and Deb's return, we ate lunch, and all three of us
elected to nap rather than go to New Clairvaux Abbey. I relished
having a quiet, non-travel day, doing very little but sitting on Deb's
patio watching birds flit in and out of her very lovely, peaceful
backyard.
On Sunday, Deb went to her
church early to sing with the choir at the early service. Meanwhile,
Duffy and I gathered our belongings, ate and cleaned up after
breakfast, and left Paradise shortly before Deb was due home. Our
original intention to spend the entire weekend with Duffy's sister
changed when we learned that our granddaughter, Maya, is due to leave
in the wee hours of Tuesday morning for Washington D.C. with her
class at school. We want to be home to see her before she leaves for
nearly a week.
We drove to Canyonville, Oregon
hoping to touch base with friends Frank and Jeannie Moore near
Roseburg the following morning. Unlike previous years stopping over
at Canyonville and the Seven Feathers Resort and Casino, we checked
in to the RV Park. In previous years, we have camped in the dry lot,
where RVs and Tractor-Trailer rigs can spend the night for free.
There are no utilities, no running water. The facilities, however,
are wonderful – among the best and cleanest of any we've
encountered. This time we needed the hook-ups in the park, and to
our delight, they offered a Good Sam discount PLUS a Player's Club
Card discount. This park is outstanding in its design and upkeep.
The fee for one night with the two discounts was $31.49. Amazing!
Additionally, all of the people, staff and volunteers, are friendly,
helpful, and polite. We suspect the training for all people who
represent the resort, and thus the tribe (Cow Creek Tribe of Umpqua
Indians), is thorough and required. Full customer service with a
genuine smile.
Dinner in the Casino Restaurant
and breakfast in the Creekside Restaurant across I-5 at the truck
stop met all our expectations. That mean they exceeded expectations
and met what we have come to expect. The casino was not unfriendly
to us either, though not overly generous. We walked away from the
penny slots with $5.10 more than we played. (The one other time we
played pennies at a casino was in Tucson, where we netted $16.20. We
were feeling like lottery winners!
This morning, Monday, we slept
in, then Duffy spent a couple of hours doing bookwork on the laptop,
while I slept in a little longer then showered and straightened up
the inside of the Casita. We pulled out at noon and stopped about an
eighth of a mile away at the truck stop for the breakfast at the
Creekside. The balance of the day has been spent driving north to
Champoeg, (we are almost there at this writing), and our last night
in the Casita. We have amazed even ourselves by spending every night
in our Baby Beluga since picking it up on February 29th.
Tonight we will see Carol and Woody Wood, and enjoy swapping travel
stories. Tomorrow we will head home with a stop in Aloha, OR to
share trailer adventures with Vern and Betty Groves, who have a Scamp
that they tow with a smaller vehicle than our own.
Our trip is nearing an end and
we are looking forward to home. We have thoroughly enjoyed our
travels and will need to re-read this blog, review our photos (some
of which I would have included here if I had been able to do so
easily and quickly), and check our expenditure log for details on
where we've been on particular days. Since we have been gone from
home, we have watched no TV, gone to no movies or plays, hung out at
no night clubs, unless the streets of New Orleans count, attended no
fairs or expositions. We have read no newspapers, listened to no
news reports other than those translated to us by friends and family,
then researched on the web (tornadoes and severe storms).
Since leaving home, we did
visit many National wildlife refuges, national seashores and state
parks, briefly held low-key tournaments at two casinos (those of you
who know how we play, know that we risk very little on gambling, such
as it is, and have a method to our
play), watched diminishing sunsets, went whale watching on a calm sea under blue skies, and spent time with family and friends laughing and talking, catching up. We cannot think of many happier times. And, the birds – oh, the birds we've seen. I do not know how many “new” birds we have added to our life list, but I will make a count and add the report to this blog.
play), watched diminishing sunsets, went whale watching on a calm sea under blue skies, and spent time with family and friends laughing and talking, catching up. We cannot think of many happier times. And, the birds – oh, the birds we've seen. I do not know how many “new” birds we have added to our life list, but I will make a count and add the report to this blog.
Well, we've arrived at Champoeg
State Park near Salem, Oregon. It's time to wrap up this posting for
now.
Until next time,
Pam
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