Happy New Year

Today we moved from Yuma to Indio, California, near Palm Springs. Gracie is entered at the Palm Springs Kennel Club dog show this weekend and then we'll stay around the area for a couple more weeks.

Cocopah Golf Cart Christmas Parade

Tonight was the annual Golf Cart Christmas Parade here at the Cocopah RV resort. Many of the residents who own golf carts do them up with lights and decorations and they all parade up and down the streets of the RV park.

Tom and I sat out front of our RV with a glass of wine and Christmas songs playing on our iPod speakers and cheered them on. It was all very fun and festive.

Tamale Festival

Last Saturday was the annual Tamale Festival in Yuma. There were over 30 vendors with various kinds of tamales. We were able to buy a string of tickets which could then be traded for one tamale each from any vendor we chose.

We sampled all sorts of tamales. Everything from the traditional pork to beef, chicken, cheese, bean and any combination thereof. But the really different ones were the dessert tamales with pineapple, raisins, cinnamon, etc. The most unique was a chocolate tamale.

There was also a stage with various musical acts performing throughout the day. Our favorite was the Mariachi Band.

We had a great time.

Yuma, Arizona

After the dog show, we settled ourselves into the Cocopah Golf and RV Resort here in Yuma. We'll be here for the month of December. Tom immediately decorated the palm tree behind our RV with Christmas lights. This park has a regular 18 hole golf course as well as a driving range, so Tom is happy.

I have a friend who spent some time in Yuma last winter and made the trip to Mexico to have some dental work done. She told me her dentist had state of the art equipment and low prices. So when part of one of my fillings fell out a couple days after we got here, I decided to call her dentist to get it fixed. They got me in the next day.

We drove to the border and parked the car on the U.S. side, then walked across the border into Los Algodones, Mexico. The dentist's office was only a couple blocks away. Everyone in the office spoke english which made it easy on us. Turns out the reason my filling fell out is that my tooth was cracked all the way through. Which meant simply replacing the filling was not going to work. The entire tooth actually had to come out and I was fitted with a temporary bridge - two crowns attached to "real" teeth with a fake tooth in the middle.

Today I went back to have the permanent bridge installed. All went well.

While we were there, we decided Tom should also have his teeth checked since it had been awhile since he'd had a checkup. Poor guy had six cavities!

The good thing about it all is the cost was probably about half what it would have been at a U.S. dentist and insurance should cover the majority of it.

After the dental work was complete this afternoon, we wandered around town a bit and bought a beautiful ceramic bowl and a colorful planter in the shape of a frog. We have named him Francisco.

Thanksgiving weekend show in Yuma

Gracie was entered in four days of dog shows starting the day after Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving day found us on the road to Yuma, Arizona. We put a turkey breast in the crock pot, using a recipe that would make the turkey, gravy and stuffing all together, and had that cooking as we traveled down the road.

Once we got to the Yuma Fairgrounds where the show was being held and got ourselves set up for the weekend, the turkey feast was ready to go.

As for the show, we had a great time. Our friends Tish and Orville were there and we had fun getting to know some other Norwich exhibitors better.

We showed Gracie the first day and she was second in her class. The next day, she took first in her class and then went Winner's "female dog" which means she got points towards her championship. It takes 15 points to become a champion and the number of points a dog earns at each show is determined by the number of dogs competing in that breed. Among the 15 points, you have to earn two "major wins" of 3 - 5 points (5 being the max available at any show no matter how many dogs are entered). So once you get to 9 points without any majors, the dog is said to be "singled out" meaning it needs majors now to finish its championship. 1 or 2 point wins won't help. After Saturday's win, Gracie is now singled out. Now we need to find shows with a big enough entry for major wins. So we didn't show Sunday or Monday. If she had won the points, it wouldn't help her and it would take points away from another dog who could use them. Plus, if truth be told, we had early morning ring times on Sunday and Monday and I'm not a fan of early.

Our next show will be Palm Springs in early January and we're hoping for a big entry there.

Casa Grande Ruins

A couple of weeks ago we visited more ancient ruins, this time in Casa Grande, Arizona. This was a ground dwelling village built by the Hohokam people hundreds of years ago. They used "caliche" which they found just a few feet below the surface and is much like cement. When mixed with water, it formed a mud that dried extremely hard and almost an entire house has survived the elements over time. Several other partial walls of houses and other structures remain from the original village. The roof over the "big house" was built in the '30s to help preserve the ruins.

Tucson Dog Show

We just got back from 3 days of dog shows in Tucson this past weekend.

The first day Gracie won "Winner's Bitch" which means she earned more points toward her championship. The second day she won her class but that was it and the third day she again won her class and then took "Reserve Winner's Bitch" which is sort of like Miss America Runner-Up. No points, but nice to know she was close.

Our friends Jeff and Karen were there too and our motorhomes were parked next to each other so we got to do a lot of visiting. They had a big pot-luck gathering one night and then they came to dinner at our place the next night. It was great to be able to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since we left Arizona last spring.

Are You Ready for Some Football?!?

I am a diehard San Francisco 49ers fan and last Monday they played the Arizona Cardinals for the Monday Night Football game and we got to go watch the game live! We went with Tom's daughter, Shannon and her husband, Pat who is also a huge Niners fan.

It was a well fought game that was decided in just the last few seconds. Unfortunately, the Cardinals won but we had a great time cheering on our team right to the end.

This was the first time Tom had ever been to a live professional football game and the first time I'd ever gotten to see the Niners play in person so it was a thrill for both of us.

Tom's favorite team is the Washington Redskins and we're hoping maybe we'll get to go to one of their games when we are on the east coast next year.

Pickleball

What is Pickleball you ask? Well, it's sort of like tennis but on a smaller court, with paddles instead of rackets and a whiffle type ball instead of a tennis ball. It's also a lot of fun! They have Pickleball courts here at the RV park where we're staying this month and the park's Pickleball club offers lessons. We took the lessons a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it so much we went right out and bought ourselves our own set of paddles. We've been at a few other RV parks that have Pickleball courts so hopefully we'll have the chance to play often as we travel around.

Back in Casa Grande, AZ

We are now in Casa Grande, AZ at the Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. We stayed here for a month this past spring and enjoyed it so much, we made a point to come back again. It's a very nice RV park with lots of ammenities including two swimming pools, billiard room, exercise room, computer lab, sewing room, silversmithing shop, etc.

But our favorite ammenity is the 18 hole "executive" golf course. An executive golf course is one that has all par 3 holes, or mostly par 3 and a few par 4s. No par 5s like a regular course would have. So this course is easy enough to be fun, but still has a few more difficult holes to make it challenging. And the best part is it's very inexpensive for residents of the RV park.

We arrived here on Monday afternoon and Tom was out on the course Tuesday morning at 7:30 am!

We will be here until Thanksgiving so we should have lots of chances to work on our golf games.

A Visit with Aubrey

On Friday we drove an hour north to Flagstaff where my niece, Aubrey, goes to college. Aubrey is a music/voice major and is part of the elite jazz choir at the school. They had a concert on Friday night. It was the first time I've actually been able to watch her perform. What a treat. Before the concert, we had dinner with Aubrey and her boyfriend, Ben. It was so wonderful to spend time with Aubrey and get to know Ben better. I wish we'd had more time together.

Jerome

We took a day last week to visit the town of Jerome. In it's heyday as a major copper mining area, Jerome was once the 4th largest city in Arizona and was sometimes known as the wickedest city in Arizona. After the copper mine shut down in 1953, it almost became a complete ghost town, but is now a small community just outside of Cottonwood. Most of the buildings are the original ones built back in the late 1800s. The town is built on the side of Cleopatra Hill which has about a thirty percent incline, making for steep streets and precariously perched buildings. But it also makes for beautiful views of the valley below.

Montezuma's Castle

Today we visited Montezuma's Castle (a national monument) which, like Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, is not a castle and was never lived in by the person it was named for. The early modern day settlers who first saw it mistakenly assumed it was an Aztec structure which is how it came to carry Montezuma's name. Somehow the name stuck.

Montezuma's Castle was built by the Sinagua people in the early 1100's in the Verde Valley. They started with natural caves found high up on a sheer rock wall near some fertile land along a creek and then built walls to close off the face and form individual rooms. It is five stories and has 20 rooms and they say it is still about 90% intact. It was reached by a series of ladders which could be pulled up if there was a threat.

The Sinagua lived in the area for about 300 years but sometime in the 1400's they just seemed to disappear and no one knows if they died out or moved on.

Sedona Scenery

Yesterday we took the short drive up to Sedona. I'd really been looking forward to spending a bit of time exploring their "downtown" area which is supposed to have a lot of unigue art galleries, shops and restaurants. But when we got there, the entire area is in complete chaos due to some major road construction going on. So we decided not to try to stop but just drove on through and got out of the way as quickly as possible. Still, it was not a wasted trip. The scenery in and around Sedona is beautiful. Everywhere you look there is an interesting rock formation or canyon or something unigue to look at.

Williams, Arizona

We stopped in Williams, Arizona on our way down to Camp Verde, Arizona with the idea that we would go up to see the Grand Canyon today. It's about an hour north of here. But somehow when we woke up this morning, neither of us could muster up any enthusiasm to make the trip. So it seems we'll just have a lazy day at home before we continue on to Camp Verde tomorrow. Maybe later today we'll have enough energy to do a little exploring around the historic downtown of Williams which was a center for the railroad, ranching and lumber industries in the late 1800's. It was also one of the towns along the historic Route 66.

Lake Havasu

Yesterday we took an hour drive south to Lake Havasu to see "The London Bridge". It was originally built in 1831 over the Thames River in London, England. It was bought by Lake Havasu City in the early 1960's when it was going to be torn down in London. Each brick was dismantled, cleaned and numbered, then shipped to Lake Havasu, Arizona and rebuilt on a man made canal off of the side of Lake Havasu. It is guite amazing what a community will do to attract tourism! Hey, it got us there didn't it? It was a fun day and we even took the dogs and had a picnic in the park beside the lake.

Tomorrow we will leave Bullhead City and drive about 150 miles East to Williams, AZ which is close to the Grand Canyon.


The London Bridge















Lake Havasu

Bullhead City, Arizona

From the dog show we drove about an hour and a half south to Bullhead City, Arizona. Bullhead City is just on the Arizona side of the Colorado River at the southern tip of Nevada. We're staying at another of the parks in our campground membership network. So another park where we only have to pay $1.00 a day. We're feeling pretty good about our decion to buy into the park membership networks. The RV park is only about one half mile away from the river and thus the state line and our site gives a great view of Lauglin, NV. Here's a day and night view.

Dog show in Boulder City

We had another show this past weekend in Boulder City, NV, just outside of Las Vegas. We showed Gracie in the classes (for dogs who are not yet champions) and Dash in Breed (for dogs who are already champions). There was only one other class girl entered. Both girls acted like little bunny rabbits the first day, hopping around the ring instead of a proper trot. The judge was good natured about it. She gave winner's (which is what a dog needs to earn points toward its championship) to Gracie. Hooray! Dash took best of breed but did nothing in the terrier group. On the second day, Gracie behaved a little better and again she took winners. Dash took breed again but it was cold and windy and we were the last group so we decided just to leave early and not show in group.

This weekend gave Gracie two more points so now she has a total of 6. It takes 15 points to become a champion, so she's almost half way there.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam

During our stay in Las Vegas we decided to do the tourist thing again and visit the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Hoover Dam is about 30 minutes east of Las Vegas as is Boulder City. Boulder City grew because it was the area that all of the workers who built the dam lived in during the time of construction.

We took a tour of the hydroelectric power plant at the dam. This brought Tom back to his power-planting days in the not (at all) distant memory. The plant is a heck of a lot quieter than the oil fired turbine plant that he was in.

We were able to walk across the dam and back from the Nevada side to the Arizona side. To see the dam up close and personal was a truly awsome sight and made you think of the major undertaking that the men of our country performed. It is an absolutely amazing feat of engineering.

The waters of Lake Mead flow into the intake towers and then cascade down to the water turbines of the power plant which turn the generators and then exit to the other side of the dam to the Colorado River. There are two banks of hydroelectric generators, one bank per side of the river.

Death Valley and Scotty's Castle

Before leaving Pahrump, we took a drive west back into California and Death Valley National Park. The terrain is vast, varied and forbidding, but strangely beautiful too. This picture is from an overlook near the south east edge of the valley, still at the upper elevations, around 3000 feet. You can see the valley floor, which drops down to about 200 feet below sea level, in the distance behind Tom.

From here we drove down into and through the middle of the valley to the north end, a drive of close to 60 miles.

At the north end of the valley sits "Scotty's Castle" which is not really a castle and was never lived in by Scotty. "Death Valley Scotty" was a rather colorful character. He claimed to have found a gold mine in Death Valley and convinced several rich businessmen to invest in it, all the while living large off their money and never actually doing any mining. Most investors just dropped out after not seeing any profits, but one, Albert Johnson from Chicago, made a trip out to Death Valley demanding Scotty show him the gold mine. Instead of exposing Scotty for the fraud he was, Johnson fell in love with the area and somehow he and Scotty became fast friends. Johnson and his wife built the mansion in the 1930's as a vacation home and Scotty began telling everyone he was building it with the profits from his gold mine, a claim Johnson never disputed publicly. So, the house became known as Scotty's Castle. We were able to tour the house which still contains all the original furnishings.

There is a picnic area on the grounds with a sign saying "Don't Feed the Coyotes". Which we thought was rather odd until we saw a coyote resting in the shade of a tree on the lawn.

Red Rock Canyon

Yesterday, we took a drive into Las Vegas, which is about an hour east of Pahrump. Our route took us through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon. Here is a slide show of some of the 60+ pictures we took along the way.

In Pahrump, NV

We are now in Pahrump, NV which is a town of about 40,000 an hour west of Las Vegas. We're staying at a park that is part of our campground network so it's only costing us $14 for two weeks. We like those kind of prices!

This is a very nice RV park attached to what I think is Nevada's only winery. While the wines are made here in Nevada, they get the majority of their grapes from California. We visited the winery yesterday and tasted about a dozen wines. One was a delicious sherry that we had to taste twice, just to be sure we liked it. It was great to just be able to walk home afterward.

Today we went golfing at an eighteen hole par 60 course. Most holes were par 3, with six par 4's which made it easy enough to be fun but hard enough to still be a challenge. We had a great time. This was the first time I golfed since we left Deer Park and I was thrilled that I wasn't awful. In fact it was one of my best rounds ever.

Another Dog Show

We are now in Vallejo, CA to visit friends in the area and for the Sir Francis Drake dog show in San Rafael, CA. We were able to visit Gracie's breeders, Rich and Dana, before the show for some last minute grooming tips and after I incorporated their suggestions, Gracie looked fabulous.

There was a match (which is basically a practice show) on Friday before the real show and given Gracie's wild ways in the ring, we thought it would be a good idea to enter her in the match. We hoped it would help her to be more settled on Saturday for the real show. Bill McFadden (a rather famous professional handler) was the terrier judge. Gracie was the only Norwich and she behaved beautifully. I figured when we went back in for group with all the other dogs, she'd be her usual crazy self. But she completely surprised me and trotted around like a seasoned show dog. I was so pleased that she was behaving, and then I was thrilled when Bill gave Gracie first place in the terrier group!

That meant Gracie would compete for Best in Match with the other group winners. The judge was Mike Stone (another well known professional handler.) Again, Gracie surprised me by acting like a champion and went around the ring in a lovely trot, posed like a star and behaved beautifully. I didn't even care what the outcome was at that point, I was just happy that Gracie was showing so well. So I was ecstatic when Mike gave her Best in Match!

And yes, that is a ribbon made out of one dollar bills. A nice little bonus. I don't know if it will ever get spent though. Right now it's hanging on a wall in the motorhome.

Saturday was the real show. There was a large Norwich entry, a total of 21 Norwich with 8 of them in Gracie's class alone! I guess a light bulb has gone off in her little head because she again showed wonderfully. Unfortunately there were several other very nice girls in her class and Gracie took 3rd. But I don't even care that she didn't win. We are just too happy to see her finally behaving like a proper show dog. Hopefully this wasn't just some fluke and she'll do as well at her next shows.

Balloon Races

On Sunday, we went to the Great Reno Balloon Races. Wow! What an experience. We got there around 5:00 in the morning so we could see the Dawn Patrol, a group of 5 balloon pilots who are qualified to fly in the dark. They take off just before dawn and it is an amazing sight. Here's a short video of them "glowing" when they fire off their propane torches to heat the air in the balloons before taking off.

After the sun comes up is the mass ascension. It is such an awesome sight to see the 100+ balloons inflating and rising up all around you from what seemed moments before like a flat field. We took a zillion pictures. It will probably take a while for us to sort through them and get them posted online.

Ostrich and Camel Races

Tom and I took a drive up to Virginia City today to watch the first day of the annual camel and ostrich races. It was hilarious. The camels, and especially the ostriches, did not always want to run in the right direction. The ostrich races are complete chaos.

This video shows the first race where one bird gets loose from his chariot harness almost immediately, one runs the first half of the course quickly but doesn't want to make the turn, and the other requires a great deal of coaxing just to get going.



This video is of one of the camel races.

15 Year Anniversary

Today was our 15 year wedding anniversary. We have been so blessed to have had fifteen wonderful years together. We thank God every day for each other.

As many of you readers know, I lived in Reno for about 10 years before moving to Alaska. It has changed a lot in the years that I've been gone and there are several new big casinos that were not here when I lived here.

We visited one of those new casinos, the Atlantis, this afternoon. We signed up for their rewards program and got $8 in free play which took us an hour or so on the penny slots to use up. We also donated an additional $10 before heading home again.

This evening we celebrated with what has become our traditional anniversary dinner of Lobster Thermador that we cook in the RV. YUM!

Tomorrow is the start of the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races. We are only a little over a mile away from the field where the balloons take off so we'll be able to watch them from our RV each morning. We do plan to go down to the staging area on Sunday though to be in the thick of things as the over 100 participating balloons make their mass ascension.

Tomorrow is also the first day of the Camel Races (yes, with real camels) in nearby Virginia City and we're going to drive up there to see what that's all about. So come back in a few days and we should have some fun pictures to share.

More on the Dog Show

We have friends who live in Southern CA and we generally only see them at dog shows. Tish and I had recently been exchanging emails about which dog shows we were going to be going to when we got further south, trying to figure out where we might meet up with them next. But somehow the Grass Valley shows never came up.

Friday night we had the dogs out for their last walk before bed when a large Tiffin Phaeton motorhome passed us on it's way to the check in area. We both remarked how it reminded us of Tish and Orville's motorhome. Then I got a look at the personalized license plate and realized it was Tish and Orville!

We love these little surprise meetings we keep having with friends all over in our travels.

Now on to the dog show results. The first day Gracie - who has a tendency to be a bit of a wild indian in the ring - behaved quite well by her standards and I thought that she was competitive with the other girls there. But still we only took 3rd in our class. On the second day, Gracie again behaved herself in the class competition and moved up a spot to take second place in her class. Which meant she was then eligible for the "Reserve Winners" award - sort of like runner up in Miss America. But when I took her back in for the reserve competition, she was back to her wild indian ways. She went in trying to run way ahead of me and put her head down at the same time - she probably looked like a bucking bronco or something. I think the judge wanted to give her reserve, because he let us go a long way around the ring before he finally gave it to another girl. I think he was waiting for Gracie to move correctly but gave up. Wouldn't you know it was just about then I got her into a good gait and she trotted out of the ring pretty as you please.

Oh well, there's always another dog show around the corner.

After we were done showing on Sunday, we left for Reno. It took us just under two hours of easy driving to get here. We're at an RV park on a hill at the north end of town and we have a view of the valley below. It will be a nice place to spend the next week.

Grass Valley dog show

We're now in Grass Valley, CA at the Nevada County Fairgrounds for a dog show this weekend. Gracie is the only one we have entered. The fairgrounds has a great RV park on the grounds and that's where we opted to park. This is the first time we've ever been to a dog show where we've had 50 amp power, water and sewer hookups. Usually you're lucky if you even get 20 amp power.

It's been hot, hot, hot here so we've really appreciated the 50 amp electricity. It means we can run our air conditioners in the motorhome without having to run the generator. The dogs are thankful for that too.

We show tomorrow at around noon. This is the first time Gracie has competed as an adult, rather than a puppy or junior. There are 8 female Norwich entered in the classes so that means there are 2 points up for grabs each day. I'm hoping Gracie will take them at least one day.

Olive Pit & Rolling Hills Casino

We're spending a couple nights at the RV park attached to the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, CA. It was a good stopping point to break up the drive down to Grass Valley for the dog show this weekend. There is a golf course attached to the casino as well which offers a 2 for 1 special for golf and the casino buffet on Wednesdays. We planned to take advantage of that, but with temps in the 90's by 10:00 am, we changed our minds. Risking heat stroke for a round of golf didn't seem like such a good idea. Tom did manage to get out to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls this morning though.





We decided to take the short drive to visit the Olive Pit store in Corning instead. Corning is a huge olive producing area and the Olive Pit is a huge gift store featuring just about any kind of stuffed or marinated olive you could imagine.



Jo is not an olive fan but Tom was in olive heaven. He chose habanero/garlic stuffed olives, almond stuffed olives, and smoke flavored olives to buy. If we had a bigger budget, he would have bought several other varieties as well.



We got our first close up look at olives still on the tree on the trees outside the store. We were surprised that they grow in clusters similar to grapes.



We learned that just about all olives everywhere are still harvested by hand because they are so easily damaged.


Once we left the Olive Pit, we stopped in at the casino to make a donation. It wasn't that bad, we played the slots for a couple of hours on our $20. We were up to about $30 for a little while, but big surprise, we gave it all back. It was entertaining anyway.

Now we're back in the motorhome relaxing with cocktails and thankful for air conditioning. It is 104 degrees outside! The dogs will just have to wait a few hours for it to cool down before they get their after dinner walk.

Diesel Price Surprise

We'd been dreading the time we'd have to buy diesel fuel in California. It had been our prior experience that California prices were significantly higher than just about anywhere else. So it was a pleasant surprise when we pulled into the Flying J in Corning, CA and topped off the tank for $4.21/gallon. That's the least we've paid in almost a year. I know prices are dropping again - thank God - so that accounts for some of it, but we had just paid $4.30 in Oregon a few days before and we thought that was great! Kind of sad that we can think anything over $4/gallon is a good price, isn't it?

Are We Done Yet?

YES! We are. Finally. All the issues on our list have been addressed and repairs completed. Yahoo! As much as we like the Eugene area, we are looking forward to being on the move again. We'll leave tomorrow morning and go to Rogue River, OR for a few days to visit with Jo's mom and stepdad.

Then Gracie is entered in a dog show in Northern California and after that we plan to go Reno for the annual balloon races.

And so the adventures continue.

Secret House Vineyards

While trying to figure out ways to spend our days while the motorhome was in the shop, someone suggested we make a trip out to a local winery, Secret House Vineyards. We did a search in our GPS and it was one of the pre-programed points of interest so we poked the "go to" button and started following the directions - which took us to some dead end back country road. Hmmm, didn't look much like a winery to us. Luckily the phone number was also pre-programmed so we gave them a call and found out this was a common problem among GPS users. The street address of the winery does not quite translate properly on a map. We were given the correct directions and off we went. Once we got there, we realized the GPS had originally taken us to the very back of the vineyard property. If the road had just gone through another couple hundred yards, we would have come out right at the tasting room.

Ultimately it was worth the effort. We tasted 5 varieties of wine, including their own special concoction "Vinotaboo." They start with pinot noir wine and add a small amount of lingonberry juice, chocolate (right there you know it has to be good) and cinnamon. They make a limited amount so it's only available at the winery.

Another good reason to come back to this area in the future.

How Cheese is Made

When we were visiting with Tom's brother Jim and his family, my niece Katie asked me how cheese was made. I had to admit, I didn't really know. So when we had the chance to stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory we figured we'd better do it.

So this blog entry is for Katie.

They start by cooking the milk in huge vats to kill some bacteria, but use a low enough heat to preserve its beneficial enzymes and certain types of bacteria which affect the flavor, body and texture of the cheese. Starter culture is added to produce lactic acid, critical to the cheesemaking process. Natural colorings may also be added at this point.

Next another additive is mixed in to coagulate the milk which begins the process of forming curd made up of a naturally occurring milk protein. When it's sort of like a thick pudding, large knives are used to cut the soft curd into small pieces. The temperature is then raised to help firm the curd and release it from the remaining liquid, known as whey.

When the curd reaches the correct texture, the curds and whey are pumped into the “cheddarmaster” which drains the whey from the curd. The curd particles begin to adhere to each other and become stringy, forming large slabs. The large slabs are cut up again into small pieces which are then passed through a salting chamber where they are dusted with salt.

The salt is absorbed by the curd and the curds are then put into pressing towers where the excess moisture is removed. From there, huge blocks are cut from the base of the towers and sealed into airtight plastic bags. The sealed blocks are then aged in cooling rooms for at least two months.

When the aging process is complete, the blocks are cut and packaged and sent to market.

Warranty work in Junction City, Oregon

Well, we're done with our warranty work at the Guaranty Service Center in Coburg.... now we're 13 miles away at the Guaranty Paint and Body shop in Junction City. I think that's progress.

We originally thought we'd be done here by Friday, but now it looks like we're not going to be done until at least the end of next week and even then I can't be entirely sure we'll be done. There are several areas on the motorhome where they didn't really do a good job with the paint at the factory and now that Tom has found out we can have all that fixed under warranty, he's been going over the RV with a fine tooth comb finding all sorts of other little anomalies he wants fixed which of course adds to the amount of time it will take.

Thankfully, Guaranty provides free overnight parking right next door to the body shop. They have electricity at each spot and a sewer dump station on site, so it's convenient. Each morning the "coach jockey" comes and gets the motorhome to take it to the shop, then each evening we pick it up and take it back to the overnight parking area. But the challenge is what to do with ourselves (and the dogs) in between. It's been hot here so we can't just go to a movie or golf or something like that where we'd have to leave the dogs in the car for a couple of hours. We've been hanging around the service center's waiting room with the dogs next to us in their crates a lot. We try to keep ourselves occupied with the computer, or reading or playing cards, but mostly it makes for long boring days. I guess I shouldn't complain. It could be worse - we could be working.

Warranty work in Coburg, Oregon

After the Safari Rally in Newport, OR and a brief stay at a "Thousand Trails" rv resort on the Oregon coast we traveled east to Coburg, Oregon to keep a long standing appointment with Guaranty RV Service Center to complete our list of warranty issues. We originally bought our Safari Cheetah from them in Coburg last year. Throughout the year we've kept a list that kept growing longer with "bugs" in the rv that you can't find until you live in it for awhile. This is our fourth visit and this should finally take care of it all.

When we're done here we will go about twelve miles down the road to Junction City, Oregon to have some paint anomalies taken care of at Guaranty's other service center. That should last through next week.

Since we're full-timing it in the motorhome we stay in it at night and then turn it over to the service guys during the day. The only drawback to this is that we have to wake up early like we did when we had jobs. EEEK!!!!

Today while we were wandering around to kill time while the motorhome was in the shop we paid a visit to Junction City. As it turns out they are holding their annual "Scandinavian Festival" for four days. We walked their streets looking at the local's wares and tasted some delicious Scandinavian dishes. Uhhh....no, it was not dietary food.

While staying around Coburg and visiting the Monaco service center (maker of our motorhome)we ran into two couples who we met at the Safari Rally in Newport. But the big surprise was running into Phil, a retired electrician from Tom's old job. The world is getting smaller everyday.

We don't quite know what we'll be doing tomorrow but life always seems to throw a little spice along our paths.

Newport Beaches

After the Safari Rally, we spent a few extra days in Newport, Oregon exploring some of the many beaches in that area. These are photos from Lost Creek Beach & Seal Beach.

The Party's Over

Friday was the final day of the Safari Rally and we were sorry to see it end. We had a great time and met many new friends.

The closing ceremonies were held after Friday night's dinner, starting with a drawing for a 50/50 cash raffle. They actually had one of these every night. We bought tickets every night and came away empty handed every night. I didn't expect the final night to be any different. So imagine my surprise when they called one of our ticket numbers for a $50 prize!! The night was looking up.

After the usual acknowledgements and thank yous to sponsors and volunteers, it was time to announce the winners of the golf events. For the main tournament, Tom's team came in second place, earning each person on the team a $10 prize. Then the mini scramble results. And Tom's team was tied for first! Earning him another $4.

What a night. We walked out with an extra $64 which paid for our 50/50 raffle tickets for previous evenings as well as Tom's golf tournament fees. Tom says he's ready now for the PGA tour.

Mini Golf

Pacific Shores Outdoor Resorts, where the Safari Rally was held, has a small, six hole, chip and putt course. The longest hole is only about 40 yards. This is true mini golf. In addition to the rally's regular golf scramble tournament at a "real" golf course, they also had a mini scramble tournment on the resort's course. You can see the whole course standing in one place and it was hilarious watching all the particpants swarming all over the course like ants. Tom played on a team in this tournament as well, and just like before, we had to wait until Friday night to hear the final results. But Tom was the best chipper on his team so I guess that means his short game is really coming around.

Safari Motorhome Murals

Most older Safari motorhomes have murals painted on the back of them. They stopped that practice a few years ago with the newer models which is too bad because most of the murals are really beautiful. While here at the rally, we went on a Safari Mural safari to take pictures of as many of them as we could. And we want to share them here with you.

Safari Rally

Yesterday we traveled from Ilwaco (such a fun word to say) to Newport for the Safari Rally.

We did manage to find time to stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory along the way, but more on that in another blog entry.

We're now in day two of the rally and having a great time. This rally has a completely different feel from the other two rallies we've been to. This one is basically just a chance to socialize with other Safari owners. It's been great fun so far. Today Tom participated in a golf tournament. It was a scramble format (all players hit from the spot of the best ball on the team) and Tom hit one spectacular 285 yard drive on a par 4 hole to land just short of the green. His play earned the team a birdie (one under par) on that hole and the team finished 3 under par. We have to wait until tomorrow to hear the final results.

Ilwaco, WA

Today we traveled from Silver Creek to Ilwaco, WA which took us across the Columbia River twice. The route we chose dipped us down into Oregon, then along the Columbia River for about 40 miles, then back into Washington. This is a picture of our bridge crossing from Astoria, OR back up to Washington.

The bridge, which is very close to the mouth of the Columbia where it empties into the Pacific Ocean, is raised on both sides of the shore to allow ships to pass beneath, but through the middle, it's fairly close to the water.

We are staying at another Sunrise Resort property in Ilwaco for the night. It's a lovely wooded campground with glimpses of the ocean from the clubhouse building.

But between this park and the one we stayed at last night, both of which have dirt/gravel roads, our motorhome is d-i-r-t-y! We are afraid we'll look like the poor relation when we get to the ritzy Outdoor Resort park where the Safari Rally is being held. Weather forecast is for showers tomorrow morning so if we're lucky it will be a strong enough downpour to rinse off the worst of the dust.

Tomorrow we will follow Hwy 101 down the Oregon Coast to Newport. We'll pass through Tillamook and I'm trying to talk Tom into stopping there for the cheese factory tour. Should be a lot of gorgeous scenery along the way.