Our first 5 days... whew!

I don't know how we have survived 5 days without Internet or at least our emails... I opened mine up to find all sorts of nice notes from friends - thank you! So you want to know what we've been up to? Here's the scoop thus far:

• Florence, Oregon was awesome! The day we pulled in, we had a not-so-good site, because we couldn't ride our quad to the dunes (and we have no way of transporting it without the trailer, so that's a bummer), but the 2nd night we were able to move to the H Loop, where it was definitely happenin'!!! It was like another world out there. Every spot was taken and EVERYONE, I mean if they were older than 2 and could walk, they had a quad. It was nuts. The first few pictures are of us cruisin' around on the toys in the dunes. It was a blast!!! We grilled some chicken on our new BBQ (THANKS MAURA & MARC!) and it was delicious. NOTE: To all you who say I don't cook, things are looking up for me now... Matt did the BBQing, but I've found my "place" in the kitchen. Matt says, "It's about time." Ha.



• Coos, Bay was a bit different, because it rained, hailed, and even snowed the nights we were there, so we didn't get to ride the toys but we did have a fire one night and were able to use the axe (THANKS ADAM & BRYAN FOR IT!) and roast some marshmallows (THANKS MARK, JANIS & CANNON for the roasting sticks!). The days it rained, we rode into town and visited the local Walmart to do some shopping. Hey, don't knock it, we live in a trailer now so we can shop there!



• We drove all the way down to Mt Shasta, CA today, but stopped at the Vortex on the way down. What is that, you ask? Well, some sort of freaky, crooked house that sits on a magnetic pull or something wierd. (check it out: http://www.oregonvortex.com/) It was worth the stop, but Bailey, having had to sit in the car for the hour-long tour, thought he'd be a %^&$ and tear up a bean-bag pillow. Yes, you can just imagine the miniature foam balls that are ALL OVER in the car (and will be for years to come, I'm sure.) Naughty dog.



• Mt Shasta, CA - we're here now and we drove into the KOA park that is a dump. This place is double the price of anywhere else we've stayed and it's like a trailer park, so we're leaving early in the a.m. and heading for Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA tomorrow. We thought we'd be in Reno, but don't want to drive that far in one day. After all, we have a year to get there... hee, hee.

Enjoy the pictures. Thanks to you ALL for the fun gifts. We've been using some of them every day and are finding them to be very beneficial. I've been writing in a journal every day and I'm already looking forward to the day when I look back at all of this. We have found that it's pretty easy to live comfortably even when "camping" with our renting of movies at RedBox/McDonald's locations - if you haven't tried it, I recommend it, espresso in the a.m.'s, and hot showers everyday (gotta keep up on the hygiene - well, at least ME). We have all we need right here. We're loving every minute of this trip, still getting along just fine, and ready for the next adventure!

P.S. Thanks to Monica & Bryan for my comfy camping chair. I have to admit, it's WAY better than Matt's!!! :)

All we can say is, "It's time!"

This is it. We're shutting off the cable today on the house, so no more internet for a few days. We have reservations at campgrounds all the way to Reno, NV. We had to get them set as this upcoming week is Spring break in Oregon and places are filling up fast. Especially those places where we can ride our "toys" around in the dunes, so we're all set. Here's the first of our itinerary:

Sunday, March 23-Tuesday, March 25 - Florence, OR (Jessie M. Honeyman State Park)
Tuesday, March 25 - Thursday, March 27 - Coos Bay, OR (Tugman State Park)
Thursday, March 27 - Friday, March 28 - Mount Shasta, CA (KOA) - WI FI here for sure
Friday, March 28 - ?? - Reno, NV
Then off to Henderson & Las Vegas, NV to visit Adam, Kayli, Connor & Karen for a week or so.

If you don't hear from us, don't panic (MOM!). We'll definitely have wi-fi in Mount Shasta. I'll update blog with our adventures and pictures at that time.

Gotta go clean the house...stuff to do!!!

We're Ready for Launch!

This is it. Only 3 more days and then we're "launching" our adventure!!! We're leaving our home (up for sale if anyone's interested!) and heading South.

Remember to all stay in touch and check back to the blog often. Thanks to all of our close friends and family who have wished us well and have taken the time to spend with us these past few weeks. We'll be seeing many of you along our travels and the rest of you whom we're leaving behind - we'll miss you!!!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Melody!!! I was so glad I got to see you on your special day! Hope you have a wonderful birthday - you deserve it. :)

Another friend visits - from even farther away...

Noah came all the way from Norway to spend some time with us in good ole' Oregon as he's hoping to move here in a couple of months. We had a great week showing him around Mount Hood (where he and Matt did some snowshoeing), downtown Portland (where we played pool and drank beer for St. Patty's Day), and in Salem, where he bought himself an awesome Toyota 4-Runner to cruise back North to Minnesota.

Thanks again for coming out Noah! We had a great time with you and hope you do decide to live out this way. It would be great to be able to hang out with you once we come back from our trip. Safe travels on your way across the U.S. and back to Norway. We wish you the best of luck!

Good Friends from Far Away

We are so lucky to have met so many great people that became our true friends - many of which are from up in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where we had to utilize our adventurous spirits to survive the island for 3 years. However, we wouldn't have changed it for the world!

This last weekend, our close friends whom we met in Dutch, Jim and Teri, and their two little troopers came down to have a dinner with us (well, actually they were here touring around Oregon, but we talked them into meeting us for some of their vacation time.) :) We had a wonderful time catching up and it was just like we had seen each other not that long ago. Now that is when you know you have good friends; when you can start off a conversation right where you left it 4 years earlier.

Teri, Jim, Shane, and Jacey - thank you for meeting up with us! Please keep in touch and make sure to share your future plans with us. We will meet up with you again someday. Safe travels to you.

Trying it all out

We were so excited about our new rig that we decided to take it out on Sunday, March 9th-Wednesday, March 12th to try it all out. We wanted to make sure all worked and we're glad we did as we ran into some minor glitches that, thanks to our friends at Al's Trailers in Tangent, they're fixing it all now.

Issues:

• We tested out the battery and found out that if it runs too low, we can't do anything, like start the generator. So we're having a 2nd battery installed.


• There was a kink in the fuel tank on the trailer so it took 30 minutes to put 5 gallons into the tank (generator runs off the fuel, plus we use it to gas up the Quad and motorcycle), so it is being fixed this week.


• The TV didn't get reception, but we were able to watch some movies, which was cool.

We went out to Sand Lake, OR, which was AWESOME! There was barely anyone out there (being the middle of the week and all) and we had the dunes to ourselves and our toys. We were able to ride the quad and motorcycle along the beach and into the dunes. I, Holly, even "rescued" a stranded motorcyclist who's motorcyle ran into problems out in the dunes. Although I'm still learning how to shift gears, I safely brought some guy back to his truck so he could fix his bike.

On the last night, some campers in a big rig close to us had their (2) quads stolen. The Park Rangers came by and asked us if we saw anyone, which we hadn't, and said that it's only happened twice. Thank goodness Matt thought of getting us a long chain and lock for our toys so no problems for us.

In all, we enjoyed the rig, slept well in the queen size bed, loved having a warm heater and cold beers, had ourselves cappucinos in the morning (thanks to Brian and Sharon for the espresso machine) and loved having a bathroom with shower and toilet. Oh... even the pump out went well today - our first ugly chore, but all was easy.

We have much to learn, but our first experience was a great and fun one. We are heading out by March 21st on our long trip and can't wait. Let's hope we worked out all of the kinks this first weekend, but I'm sure we'll run into more "adventures" along the way.

Getting Rid of Food & Booze!

OK, I've had requests to get the pictures from our Going-Away (Get Outta Town) party last weekend. We hope you all had a good time drinking our booze and eating our food. Good thing we have such great friends, because we need to get rid of it all somehow! Just think of it as you doing us a favor!!! :) Thanks to you all for coming - We will miss you all!!!

Work is D-O-N-E

Well, we survived the last week of work. It was very emotional for me - both trying to get things done, but mainly because all of the folks I work with were more than generous with kind words, gifts and a going-away party. It meant a lot to me!!! What great friends I've had the pleasure of working with these past 4 years. Thank you to ALL of you!!! I will miss you tremendously and will stay in touch.... hope you do too! You promised.

We're getting closer to the big trip every day. I think we were so caught up in the "busy-ness" of finalizing all at work, that we didn't have much time to think about the upcoming trip. It's becoming more and more of a reality each day. We now will be busy with getting the trailer set up with the necessities (the few things that will fit), preparing the the truck for towing, and getting the house up for sale.

Here are some pictures of the party that they surprised me with at Figaro's Pizza, Inc. on Thursday night. We had a blast! I was showered with items for the big trip and I was able to spend the evening with my fabulous friends. Thanks again!!!

NOTE: For those of you in the area, please come out to our going-away party next weekend, Saturday, March 8th at 6pm. You're all welcome! Email me if you need directions to the house.