Oregon for the Summer

After our fantastic time Australia and New Zealand, life in AZ seemed kinda mild.  The weather was even mild, somewhat cooler than we normally have and even wetter than normal.  Again the time flew by so fast it was hard to keep up with what day it was.  We did the usual park things: dinners, pot lucks, games with friends, happy hours, evenings out to various entertaining venues, and even found a lot of time to do just nothing!  Every Monday, we had a morning coffee gathering to catch up with the weekly events and past happenings.  Ken would spend Monday afternoon monitoring in the Lapidary Shop while I got my weeks worth of reading done.  Ken would also work in Lapidary Shop on Wednesday's and Thursdays getting his own stuff done and then later work on his jewely line.  Every Friday we took off with the park's Jeep group (Rough Riders) for a fun day Jeeping out in the desert.

Alas, the winter quickly wound down and it was time for us to head back to Oregon.  Just as we were packing up and planning our departure, I was notified that my sister passed away.  She was 13 plus years older than me and had been in a care facility for a couple years with severe dementia.  I was so thankful that we were ready to head home and would be able to make her memorial service on June 2nd.  It was a sad, but joyous, occasion knowing that she was finally at peace and in the arms of our Lord and her dear departed husband.  Rest in peace sister, I will always love you and miss you!!

The month of June is our month to get all of our medical stuff done before embarking upon any other adventures and this June is no different.  While in Arizona, I started having vision problems in my left eye.  Once back home I saw my eye doctor and was informed I have a Retinal Pigment Epithelial Detachment in my left eye (right eye is fine).  This is a form of "wet" Macular Degenration.  I was also told that this is a fast moving degeneration and that if left untreated, I would lose vision in that eye in one year.  So, after that appointment, I then had another appointment to have Fluorescein Angiogram to see where the leaks were coming from.  After that test, I had another appointment to start treatment (Intravitreal Injection).  The injection is in the lower left part of the left eye and will need to be done every 4-6 weeks up to three times before rechecking (so not fun).  I was told that these treatments have been successful when eye problem is caught early and will maintain and sometimes make better the vision in the affected eye.  Since having the first treatment and catching up on all of our other medical and dental appointments, it looks like we will be in Oregon till very late in October.....even that is up in the air because I may need more treatments up into November.  After that, we have no idea what will happen.

We still have our Alaska Salmon fishing trip scheduled for September and talking with the eye doctor he said he can work around most all of what we have scheduled including our next cruise(s) in late March to May 5 of 2016.  As it stands right now, we are scheduled to leave Fort Lauderdale March 27 on a ship for 14 days that ends in Barcelona.  Once in Barcelona, we will stay 3 nights, then fly to Rome where we will stay 5 nights.  On April 18, we board another ship out of Rome for 12 nights ending in Venice on April 30.  Our plans are to stay on in Venice till May 5 then fly back to Phoenix.  After that, it will be up to what I have to get done for my eye as to how long we will stay on in Arizona.

Hopefully, I will be better at keeping this up in the future!!  I know, I have said that before and usually end up forgetting.....but I really hope I will be back soon with more news on what we are up to.

Australia & New Zealand

It's been ages since I was last on here, and I have no idea how the time got away from me.  It seems that every time I think about writing something down, I get carried away on something new and forget about writing on this blog.  Anyhow, after we finished our Alaska Cruise trip, we decided to set sail on another cruise in October 2014, but saw the air flights were going to cost an arm and a leg, so decided to use our air miles getting us to Australia and getting us back from New Zealand.  All I can say is "What an experience"!!!

Our flights to and from Australia/New Zealand were to die for as we flew business class both ways.  I have never been pampered sooooo much!!  Our seats were very luxurious recliners that completely went flat for a very comfortable sleep.  Quantas Airlines even provided a quilted pad for extra comfort.  We flew a Quantas 747 to Australia and a Fiji Airlines Air Bus back to the U.S.  Both airlines were fantastic and the seats were so comfortable, we had no feeling of being on a plane for 14 plus hours each way.

On Oct 13, we flew into Brisbane (via Phoenix & Los Angeles) and after a short layover flew into Cairns where we stayed for 6 days.  Because of crossing the date line, we lost a day so were in Cairns October 15-21.  We had a great time playing on the Great Barrier Reef, touring the quaint town of Kuranda (via skyrail over the rain forest), spending a day at a Crocodile Preserve where Ken got to feed a Croc, and visiting an Aboriginal Cultural Center……even learned how to blow on a Didgeridoo, but couldn’t master playing it. 

On Oct 21, we flew to Sydney and toured the city before boarding our Holland America ship on Oct 24.  Sydney is very large city with some beautiful harbors.  We mostly toured the city via a Hop on Hop off bus and got our bearings before visiting the Toranga Zoo (across the bay) where we saw Kangaroos, Koalas, Wambats, Cassowarys, and the so very mean (but cute) Tasman Devil.  Also saw the usual animals, birds, and reptiles that are in most zoos, but the Taz and the Koalas were our favorite.

Our big adventure was 14 days on the Holland America ship “the Ms Oosterdam (Oct 24-Nov 7).  We sailed out of Sydney on the Tasman Sea to Melbourne, where we were able to tour the city and beaches on another Hop on Hop off bus.  With only one day there, it was the only way to really see the city.

Our next stops were to be Hobart and Milford Sound, but as we were leaving Melbourne, the Captain said gale force winds (upwards of 100mph plus) and high seas (50 feet plus swells) were predicted, and he didn’t want to put the ship (and passengers) in danger, so he planned to out run the storm and head for the Cook Strait that goes between the north and south New Zealand Islands…. We were at sea (Tasman Sea) for 2 ½ days and stayed on the edge of the advancing storm.  Even being ahead of the storm, there were still some very rough and windy (75 mph winds) seas.  In fact, one day and night the Promenade Deck was closed off because it was too dangerous to be out there.  We had a Verandah room on deck 6 (Upper Promenade) and did step out a few times, but it was just too windy to spend any time out there.  Once we were on the Pacific Ocean side of New Zealand, the seas were much better…..still windy in many ports, but nothing like what we experenced at sea...

We stopped at 6 ports before ending our cruise on November 7 in Auckland, New Zealand.  We toured the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Dunedin, took a jet boat ride and 8 wheeler high country ride in Akaroa, and saw the Glow Worm Cave (and the worms) and Kiwi Birds in the Kiwi House while in Tauranga (Rotorua).  In Napier, we visited a Maori Village to learn of their history and culture.

Once in Auckland, we extended our stay for two more days and had fun seeing the sights of the city.  We saw hundreds of Penguins at the local sea aquarium and even watched the Stingray(s) being fed.

Just around the corner from our hotel was the Sky Tower of Auckland.  The tower stands over 1,000 feet tall with a viewing platform at 770 feet.  There is also a revolving restaurant on one level and a bungee jumping platform on another level (no, we didn’t jump).  It took every bit of my courage just to get up to the viewing platform to look at the city below.  It was quite fantastic, but I was so glad when I was back down and on solid ground.

We left Auckland on Sunday, Nov 9 via Fiji Air and flew through the night to Los Angeles where we actually landed on Sunday, Nov 9 before we left Auckland (now that is a very strange feeling).  In reality, we had two Sundays that day.  Instead of flying back to Phoenix where our coach was at, we flew into Portland where our kids picked us up and we spent two weeks at home in Salem before driving our Grand Cherokee Jeep back to Arizona.

We had a grand time and are now looking at doing another cruise in 2016….Destination TBA.

September, October, and November

We spent Sept 3-11 in Yakutat, AK fishing this year.  The weather was horrid, but we caught a lot of fish.  It was raining when we landed and it was raining when we left.  There was only one day we saw blue skies.  The rest of the time was wind and lots of rain….in fact the back of the lodge had standing water most of the time we were there.  The weather was so bad that a barge heading for Yakutat had to be turned around because of rough seas.  However, we were out every day (thank goodness we have great rain gear) and caught a lot of fish.  The fish were smaller this year, but more abundant.  We came home with four full boxes of Salmon Filets (about 175 pounds).  Still had great fun, and yes, we are already booked for next year.

One week after we got home from Alaska, we took our coach in for its annual service and maintenance check (Sept 19) then we spent the next four days (19-23) camping at South Beach State Park in Newport, Oregon.  Our friends Rod & Lynda joined us for a fun weekend.  The weather was fairly decent, and we had one nice day where we walked from our campsite to the beach and back.  We even found a geocache during that walk.  It was wonderful to spend a lot of our time sitting around the campfire and visiting.  Of course, we had to have dinner in town several times and even drove up to Lincoln City to do some shopping at the Outlet Stores.

Once we got back to Salem, we spent many days getting the coach cleaned out and repacked with what we would need in Arizona.  Our plans were to head to Arizona on Oct 11, but we still had too much to do, so put it off till Oct 13.  Good thing we did because the refrigerator in the coach suddenly quit working.  We have a neighbor that is a Norcold Rep, so we called him and he discovered the cooling unit died.  There was coolant everywhere (ugly).  Thankfully, it happened while we were home and not on the road somewhere.  Once again we were fortunate to find a place that we could take it in and get it fixed.  The coach was taken in on Oct 15 and was scheduled to be finished on Oct 17 late afternoon.  Needless-to-say, everything we took out of coach had to be put back in, so the plan to leave Salem for Arizona was delayed until Oct 19.

Saturday, Oct 19, we left Salem and drove south to highway 58 where we had a colorful drive across the Willamette Pass into Central Oregon.  It was so nice to have no rain or snow!  We crossed into California and made our way through Alturas and ended our drive at a little town called Likely on highway 395.  There we stayed the night in a large open parking lot next to the volunteer fire department’s building.

The next morning (Sunday) we had an uneventful drive through Reno, Fernley, and Fallon to a rest area just north of Tonopah, Nevada.  This is a nice place to stop and spend the night because they don’t allow any large trucks to pull in there.  We arrived early enough to spend some time out in the sun having a nice glass of wine.  Up to this point, we had no problems and all was going well.

Monday, we were up early and prepared for the drive to Laughlin, Nevada.  We made it through Las Vegas with no problems and ended our day at the Avi Casino and RV Park just south of Laughlin.  Since we got there early enough, we got cleaned up and walked over to the casino for a wonderful dinner and drinks.   Again, this was another wonderful day with an easy drive.

Tuesday, Oct 22, we were up early and headed into Arizona.  Our drive south was getting warmer as we got closer to our destination.  We pulled into Queen Valley RV Resort about 2 pm and quickly got set up and turned on the AC because the temperature was in the 90s.  Not long after we got set up, Ken noticed a propane smell and discovered the regulator was leaking a little (not good).  He quickly turned off the gas and decided we would have to have the regulator replaced again (this has happened before). 

The next day (Wednesday the 23rd) Ken noticed the inside of the refrigerator was in the 50s.  It was another hot day (90-95) and the sun was beating on that side of the coach, so we pulled the slider awning out to shade it, but the temperature didn’t go down.  Ken then opened up the outside panels and noticed the fans weren’t working….. That really wasn’t good because we just spent $2,300 to have the whole cooling unit replaced.  Thankfully, we have an extra freezer in our shed, so we pulled stuff out of the coach freezer and put it in the shed’s freezer.  We weren’t worried about stuff in the fridge because there really wasn’t much in there that would spoil.  The temperature did go down after the sun set, but not to where it should be.  The next morning (Thurs), we called Norcold and they gave us a name of someone in Apache Junction who could work on our fridge.  We then called Apache Junction RV Sales & Service and were told they could come out, but to run a couple tests first.  We ran the tests, which took 4 hours, then called them back with the results.  They then said they could come out the next day (Friday), but we would have to pay the travel cost ($50) and the diagnosis cost ($94 an hour) because Norcold would only pay the warranty on the cooling unit IF it was bad.  We had no problem with that because it would be more trouble to pull up stakes and drive the coach all the way into Apache Junction (24 miles one way).

Friday was another hot day (88) and with the fans not working on the fridge, the inside temp never got below 50.  Freezer was barely freezing, but that was not acceptable.  We were thrilled when Tom of AJ RV Service showed up and took one look at the unit and said Roberson RV Service wired the fans wrong.  Tom had the fan wires fixed and working in less than five minutes (whew).  Tom also noticed that with our fridge on the slider we have two outside vents.  Well, the fans are at the lower portion of the unit and the upper part of the unit should have a baffle to move the air into the cooling unit (it didn’t)……SO, he quickly got one made and installed (yay).  Tom then looked at our propane regulator and replaced that ($23).  He had everything back to normal in just a bit over an hour.  We were thrilled to not have anything more serious wrong.  Total cost of the repair was $178.  What a relief!!!

We have now been in Queen Valley almost 3 weeks and have seen many residents coming back.  We had our first official coffee social on Nov 4 and enjoyed seeing so many of our friends.  The weather has been fantastic with only a few days in the 90s with the rest in the 70s & 80s.  The evenings have been wonderfully cool.  Yes, we did have one night of rain, but it passed through quickly and didn’t leave too much of a mess behind.  There wasn’t much dust in the air, so didn’t have the mud residue we normally get after a rain (yay).

Soon, it will be time for us to fly home to Oregon and spend the Christmas Season with our family.  We fly on December 9 and will be driving our Grand Cherokee back to Arizona around December 27.  We have a couple stops while driving back to Arizona, so don’t plan on being back till after the first of the New Year.  Until then, hope all have a wonderful Thanks giving, Christmas, and New Year.