The Ouseys in Victoria Page

Good old Momsy always keeping Dennis on his toes.

Sue. I am also half way through Da Vinci Code, it is good, and you will enjoy Angels and Demon's as well. Although it is a prequel to Da Vinci they don't have to be read in order. They each stand alone quite well. Say Hi to your Mom and Dad for us and especially our best wishes for your Mother.

Glad to see Helen made it back home through some trecherous weather in the passes. Also looks like they will be busy for the next while. We enjoyed our time with them, of course it always is with good friends.'

Looks like our tenants are leaving this weekend. They too are leaving earlier than expected and it works out well since we are back. Her sister has discovered she has colon cancer so Marion wants to get back to support her. Sound familiar Helen?

So the next time I am online will probably be from home.

Happy Birthday to Andrew. Hope he has a great day and that our card and stuff got there in time.

Ciao all.

We are back at Noni's. Shower time. Just so much more convenient (read Warm) than the unheated shower trailer back at Mary Hill. Carolyn is also doing a load of laundry while we talk with Chelsea. Oh she is gone, but Noni is home now so we are chatting with her.

Nothing much else is new. We will be talking to Marion and Burt tomorrow to get a reading on when they are leaving. Then we will be back in the house a day later.

We had a great meal at Lyn's the other night. Roast Beast, cooked to perfection, medium. MMMM. Some vino and veggies, and it was great. Apparently one of the few times they had all 4 kids at the table at the same time.

Other than that we have been reading a lot. TV reception at Mary Hill being spotty at best we tend to do crosswords and read. Just getting into the prequel of the Da Vinci Code "Angels and Demons" as a prelude to reading the Da Vinci Code. Looking forward to it.

TaTa for now, the laundry seems to be dry so time to head back to the Hill.

Well our nice weather has departed and we got some rain last night and probably will get more over the next couple of days.

We say Noni and Chelsea yesterday and went out for a feed of Chinese food and today we visited with Sue and John and are now at Lyn and Alan's. We are gradually catching up with everything.

The big news is David, wait for it>>> he has applied to the Saanich Police force to become a policeman. Yes it was a big surprise to us but its what he wants to do, guess he always had a secret desire to be a cop. He hasn't been accepted yet, but he thinks he has a chance. We wish him well, and hope he gets it.

Well Lyn says dinner is ready so must go eat, it sure smells good.
TTFN

Happy Easter all

Weather still quite nice, tho cool. about 3 or 4 C at night and 12 during the day. Was sunny up to noon today, but the cloud is coming in and rain expected tonight. We are at Noni's today, and we are going to shower here. The showers at the campground are hot but the building is unheated. So, talk about 'shrinkage' when stepping out of the shower there. Of course we could shower in the motor home, but Noni's shower is so much roomier. Plus I get to use her High Speed internet.

Hope you get over your cold Dennis. Room at the Inn? Of course, always have room for youse guys. We were counting on your staying with us. Everyone here is excited altho you couldn't tell it by their blogs.

We went to My Chosen Cafe with Andy and Chris on Tuesday night and got caught up on their trip and all the goings on at the hospital. also caught up with Chris' love life too. He got a camper for his truck and is quite pleased with it, and his girl friend likes camping too as an added bonus.

My shoulder has been improving but still sore. I have an ultra sound scheduled for early May. Must make sure I get the date and time right hey Dennis???

The shower calls...TaTa

We are home or at least in Victoria. Helen took off for Spokane on Monday to see to her brother, who has not been doing well. Hope all goes well there. Ken took off with the motorhome for home and we headed for the Port Angeles Ferry. Thought we would try it for change. We didn't make it for the last ferry that day, but parked on the street overnight to catch the first one in the morning. Unlike the Victoria end where you can actually park and stay in your rig in the ferry terminal parking lot, the Port Angeles end does not have the space to do that. So you must find your own spot. However, no problem right on the street, which we did.

The ferry itself has been primped up since we were on it last. but still bare bones compare to the BC ferries. However, we saved about 20 dollars in gas, 36 dollars in fare and drove 100 miles less, so it was worth it. Mind you to save the in the fare we had to disconnect the car and drive it on separately, other wise the cost was about the same. We were sure that both vehicles would get on so we took the chance. It was easier to manouvre the rig on the ferry as well. Alas no Casino as some would imagine.

We thought we would go to Fort Victoria for a week over Easter, but the curling championships has everything booked up here including the campground, so we are Mary Hill for two weeks while we wait for our tenants to depart. Its been beautifully and sunny both days, but rain in the forecast for Easter.

We just had lunch at "Tim Horton's" Ah welcome home. Right now Carolyn is doing laundry at Noni's and catching up with things with Chelsea, and I am hooked in on-line through Noni's high speed. So thats about it for now.

I see by looking at my charge account that the cruise in June is now paid for, and since we are home we can think about packing. Dennis, you packed yet????

This rather large craft had 8 reciprocating each the largest recip-type engines ever built.

Planes including a DC3 Dakota under the port wing of the Spruce Goose.

Evergreen Museum in McMinnville where the Spruce Goose is kept.

SR71 under wing of "the Spruce Goose"

Being in the Willamette Valley, wine country, we did a tour of various wineries’ yesterday. Some were very nice, and some so-so; a fun day, for sure. When I said the other day that we visited the Tillamook creamery, it is located in McMinnville not at Tillamook on the Coast, just to avoid confusion.

We are leaving a day early from here as Helen has to take off for Spokane. Her brother has not been improving and may have taken a turn for the worse. So she is driving the car directly there while Ken drives their Rig home in Steilacoom. So we are heading for Port Angeles and may get a ferry across tomorrow or the day after.

I’ll probably be off line until then but who knows. This WiFi can show up at the oddest times.

Take care everybody. Ciao.

Wow, we had a good visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum near McMinnville or LaFayette where we are staying. I am trying to upload some pictures, but currently are having problems for some reason.

Anyhow the owner of Evergreen Aviation put up a building specifically for the Spruce Goose and had it moved to its current location. (Which is why it wasn't in Long Beach Dennis). I knew it was big but didn't appreciate how much until you see in the flesh (er... wood). It is huge, it fills the building it is in, they have many aircraft parked in, around and under its wingspan. Under the left wing is a DC 3 and under the right wing is an SR71 Blackbird, amongst other aircraft. Overall a great spread of aircraft in a new museum. Even go to go inside it, although not very far, only enough to see up and down the cargo space. I quite enjoyed the whole experience and will post pictures when I can. If not within the week then soon after we get home next week.

We have decided to head for Victoria on Tuesday, and may cross over on the Port Angeles Ferry on Wednesday. We had thought of going to Nanoose for the Easter Weekend Cleanup, but we are anxious to get home; we want to see the kids, and with my arm shot I wouldn't be much use at the cleanup. Soooo Victoria it is.

Tomorrow we head for the Winery's for some Wine tasting.

Hello. I have a WiFi connection here, and with being off line for a few days was pleasantly surprised at all the new updated blogs to read, Jack, Lyn, Charlene, Lewis, Dennis (of course). It is just great to get up to date. Well done all.

We had a wonderful 5 days at the Sea & Sand resort. It is an older resort, the spaces are small, but what a view. Great sunsets, lots of surf and of course rocks; Carolyn added to her collection of Lucy Rocks.

We visited Tillimook and visited a couple of cheese making places, very interesting and tasty I might add. We took in some cheese tasting as well as wine tasting. Tillimook is well known for its cheeses.

We left this morning and headed for Lafayette and will be here for the weekend, and then, probably Tuesday head for home. We just may cut our trip a bit shorter and head for home, not sure just when or by what means but we are getting the “horse headed for the barn” feeling.

We will be going to the air museum near here; this is where Howard Hughes “Spruce Goose” is located. That will be interesting. More later.

This is the Eagle Sculpture at the 7 Feathers Casino.

We are happily ensconced at the Sea and Sand Resort. I am looking out my windshield at this time watching the surf pound the beach, and it goes on left and right as far as the eye can see. We are not right on the beach but about 30 feet above it with this spectacular view. The Kirkwoods are here and we will enjoy the next few days with them. The weather is clear sunny and about 13 degrees C (56 C). but it feels warmer than that in the sun. The evenings and nights are cool.

The trip from 7 Feathers to here was uneventful. Highway 20 across from I5 to the coast was narrow and twisty as expected but no real problem. Upon arrival at about 11:30 am we found that our site had not yet been vacated, unusually late check out time of 2:00 pm here, so we left the motorhome and headed back to Depoe Bay for lunch. Quite a tourist town, with all the usual tourist traps, shops etc. Today we are going into Lincoln city for the afternoon, and to find an internet place so I can post this, since this is one of the few campgrounds not to have on-line facilities. So you may not hear from me again for a few days. Carolyn will probably do some phoning though.

Carolyn has done her hair and primping so I guess she is prepared to face the world, so we will be on our way.

Helen just walked in and she wants to say Hi; she won’t be blogging at this time, so she just wanted everyone to know that she is still around and not ignoring anyone.

Keep blogging, I sure enjoy them.

We made it out of CA and are at Seven Feathers Casino, Resort, Campground and groceries.

We may be here 2 days and then off to Sea and Sand at Depoe Bay in Oregon, pending word from those busy Kirkwoods. Then??? who knows, we don't.

TTFN

This is called a Roadrunner. I didn't take the picture on of the neighbours here took it, and I liked it enough to get a copy. Nicely composed.

On the road again, its good to be on the road again….

Sunday, and this is our last day here. It has been a fun week and Val Vista will certainly be high on our list of places to stay, if for no other reason than the people.

Tomorrow we leave and we are thinking of Indio/Hemet area for tomorrow. It is supposed to be a good area that we have zipped through but have never stopped at. We will spend a couple of days there and then proceed north. If all goes well we should meet up with the Kirkwoods at Depoe Bay on the Coast of Oregon somewhere around the 14th.

So I may or may not be online over the next few days; it will be hit or miss depending on connection. Yes we will drive carefully. TTFN

Charlene Blogged. Whoopee news of the Coffeshop of the North. Well done Char.

Wow, we had a good series of thunderstorms last night, and it appears to be starting again this afternoon. However, it was nice and sunny and warm most of the day.

We went to Florence about (here it comes Dennis) 30 miles away. (in joke). We thought we would look for a friend from Lions club Jerry Clements. We know they have a spot in and RV resort there but we didn’t know which one. We tried several to no avail. We then went to the Casa Grande Ruins, which is about 17 miles towards Coolidge. These are the ruins of the Hohokum natives that set up quite a civilization from 300 BC to about 1500. The picture is of the largest building they created which is why it was called Casa Grande, and where this town derived its name. The exhibit is excellent and was well worth the visit.

Night before last we went out with Bob and Mark for a Chinese food feast at the Hong Kong Kitchen which was excellent. Last night we were back at Nat and Gerry’s for some delicious chicken. If nothing else we are eating well.

Well must get some stuff put away before the rains come, which is almost here. TTFN

This is the original Casa Grande. The biggest structure of the Hohokum natives, thus its name. This is where the town I am at gets its name. It is a structure 4 stories high.

Bob arrived late afternoon, and we had Pizza at Nat and Gerry’s and did what we usually do when old friends get together, and reminisced swapping old war and new war stories. Wednesday the guys went golfing, except gimpy me. Wishing I were with them Carolyn and I went shopping. We found our way around Casa Grande and got the necessities for supper, which we were having at our place, Steak, of course, and other stuff. The dinner and company were very enjoyable. A friend of Bob’s, Mark, arrived that day from Langley BC. So he brought some news from the “Beautiful Province”. Our Sat. TV is inoperative since the 15th of Feb, so the only Canadian news comes from word of mouth.

Today, Carolyn is on her own shopping, and I am relaxing, blogging, emailing and reading. I sure do a lot of reading on the road. I hardly pick up a book back home, but I go through a couple per week while traveling.

Glad to see Lyn’s & Jack’s blogs, and Lewis’ blogs regularly; it is great way to keep up to date; and of course the blogger supreme, Dennis, always a hoot if over the top sometimes.

Speaking of which, I must go and find a connection and read those blogs, and post this one.

Ta ta TTFN

Pay attention now Dennis, we are at Val Vista near Casa Grande. OK?

Sunday we spent the afternoon in the pool at Picacho and otherwise prepared to move on to Val Vista. Monday we did just that and then spent the afternoon in the pool there. The weather has been gorgeous and is expected to remain this way until we leave here and make our way to Oregon. We hopefully will meet up with the Kirkwoods there, maybe on the coast for a few days.

Today Bob Sexton is arriving and we will be getting together with them and several others for pizza. All the people here at Val Vista are particularly friendly, we had several neighbors come and introduce themselves before we had set up. Just so we would know someone. They were pleased when we told we did and of course everyone knows Nat and Gerry. They have been coming here for 9 years. They purchased a park model here last year and were cursing themselves for not doing it sooner. It is a very nice park.

I had a good chat with my Mother and she seems in good health and spirits. Also talked to Lyn (who blogged again recently) and it appears that Rachel broke her pinky playing rugby, see her blog for details.

Well back to the sun.