November 15 - 30, 2005

11/15/05

Flew to Seattle on the evening flight and stayed at the usual Hampton Inn arriving about 11:30 p.m.

11/16/05

Took a Towne Car service downtown to the Alaska Marine Lines terminal. The driver was newly arrived from Russia and got lost on the way.  Drove our truck and Doug's Suburban down to Baydo's RV Center, the dealer's lot in Fife, to have the hitch installed.  Left the truck there and drove the Suburban to the motel with a Jacuzzi tub for the night.  The tub did a great job on our sore muscles and bones--very nice.  Before going to the motel we picked up some things at Camping World that we needed for the RV.  The Global Positioning System (GPS) worked great directing us to our destinations.  

11/17/05

Went to the RV dealer for our 9:00 AM appointment for the RV walk-through.  They weren't even close to being ready.  They had a cleaning lady cleaning the inside, a guy on the roof washing it, and the carpet cleaning person had not yet been there..  They had a Washington license plate on it and I reminded the salesman that we talked three weeks ago about the need for them to get the title and get the vehicle registered in Alaska.  He had assured me that they would take care of that and that they deal with Alaskans "all the time" so they knew how to handle it. 

We went for lunch at the Warthog Restaurant right next to Baydo's.  Garrey had a great pulled-pork sandwich and Karen had chili with cornbread and honey butter along with coleslaw.  We went to shop at Camping World for a while again and returned to meet with the Dan who did the RV orientation.  He was very thorough and he had personally checked all of the appliances and other equipment on the RV the day before.  The orientation took 3 hours and was exactly what we needed-- particularly because the salesman had promised to get us some user manuals for the RV but hadn't done anything about that either.  We took lots of notes.  After that we looked at the trailer for the first time with it hooked to the hitch in the truck and realized we need to raise the suspension on the trailer because the truck is too high to allow for the clearance we want on the back.  We were happy about that because we weren't quite ready to take it off the lot.  We needed to digest all the information we got so we left the RV and went to the motel again while they made the necessary changes.

11/18/05

This morning we returned to the dealership for the hitching and driving instructions the salesman had promised.  It turned out that the hitching instructions were thoroughly handled by Dan from the orientation but the salesman didn't come through on his promised driving instructions.  Dan showed Garrey in the parking lot how to back up and go forward.   G. felt comfortable with it so we drove off after picking up some more good food from the Warthog.  The salesman also finally admitted that they had no title in hand for the RV and therefore were unable to even get it registered in Washington, let alone Alaska.  They then said all they could give us was a 3-day trip permit and when we left Washington we would have to pick up further permits in Oregon which the RV dealership would pay for.  At some time we would get our title so we could send it back to Alaska to get our license.

Garrey left them many harsh words and we took an extra blank trip permit and drove off to the KOA campground in Kent, Washington to test all of the equipment for a few days before heading south.

The trip to the camp ground went fine with Karen following behind in the Suburban.  After fumbling around a bit we managed to get the RV disconnected from the truck and set up with some help from a fellow camper who came out when we pulled up.  Hookup included cable TV (not many stations) and wireless Internet if you brought the computer to the laundry room.  Worked fine.

11/19/05

We rested in the morning and did some shopping in the afternoon.  Got some wood blocks to put under the RV stabilizers since they don't reach the ground after having the suspension raised about 5 inches.

11/20/05

We tested the GPS today by going to Pioneer Square through all the freeways of Seattle.  We went to a tour of the old Seattle underground starting in Pioneer Square which was very informative.  Then we had a nice visit with Karen's friends', Jeanne and Ed Snook, for a few hours.  They had moved to a new home in Kirkland since our last visit.  It was a beautiful home on the shore of Lake Washington, also, Ed had moved his law firm from downtown Seattle to Kirkland a few years before they moved there.  The GPS guided us back to the campground after sunset.

11/21/05

11/22/05

Drove to Corvallis/Albany, OR  to a KOA campground 135 miles.  Drove around Corvallis, the beautiful OSU campus, and got gas for the Suburban.  Lots of cable TV channels but no wireless Internet.

11/23/05

Drove to Doug and Landa's house in Oakland, OR.  The drive was fine and traffic for Thanksgiving weekend was getting heavy so it was nice to go only 95 miles.  I made the first driving mistake at our destination by turning too tight without extending the hitch.  Pinched the back of the truck making a small dent before realizing my mistake.  Oh well, the truck needed a dent so I won't worry about dents any more and I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again!

Doug and Landa's home, new almost finished barn, and acreage is beautiful.

Doug's son Reeve worked all afternoon making an excellent cannolli dinner with a  Greek spinach salad  for all of us.  Doug's son Drew was also there and his wife Shannon, and 6 year old daughter Lauryn arrived in the evening after Lauryn got out of school.

11/24/05

Thanksgiving dinner with the Baily Family:  Reeve Baily; Lauryn, Shannon, Drew Baily; Karen; Landa & Doug Baily.

11/25/05

Stayed around the house to recuperate from all the food yesterday.

11/26/05

Went on a wine tasting tour at Henry's Winery near Roseburg, OR--lots of great horsdouvres and tasty wines.  Beautiful countryside and lots of turkeys, quail, and deer along the way.  Karen and Landa went shopping in an antique shop in Roseburg while Doug and Garrey took a walk around the old town.

11/27/05

Church service at the Oakland Presbyterian Church.  The pastor's wife, Kristy, a daughter of Pastor Leon Thompson was from Juneau.  In the afternoon Karen and Landa went antique shopping in Oakland while Doug and Garrey went for a ride/walk on BLM property looking for deer sign.  Saw a couple of nice bucks on the way back.  The weather was beautifully sunny today.

11/28/05 M

Woke to pouring rain again and it's been raining steady and hard most of the day.  Just found out on the Internet that there's a winter storm warning for all of southern Oregon, Northern California, and Northern Nevada so we will stay here again tomorrow instead of heading south as was planned.  We got a set of tire chains for the truck and for the RV since Oregon and California close the passes to those without chains under some snow conditions.  Landa had to go to work so Karen went to Oakland alone to check out the Oakland Traders establishment and stopped at Tolley's Restaurant for a piece of sour cream-cream cheese, raisin, nut pie and coffee.  The pie was so richly delicious she could only eat 1/5th of it and brought the rest "home."  The old restaurant was elaborately decorated for Christmas and has a redone old-time long soda bar and fountains behind it, as well as, antique tables and chairs, and various other antiques as decorations.  She also went to the Art Gallery of local art with woven, knitted items also--beautiful!  She then stopped at the Ray's store, going by the old road with a white covered bridge on it, for dinner items.

11/29/05

Karen called the RV dealer and they have the title to the RV finally.  Will send it to us by DHL and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. It was a rainy stay-in-the RV kind of day.  Doug and I fixed turkey soup for dinner.  Steve White from Juneau arrived in the late afternoon to visit and spend the night.

11/30/05

Steve left for Juneau in the morning.  The RV title arrived late in the afternoon but we made it to the Roseburg, OR Division of Motor Vehicles in time to get a 10 day trip permit so we can travel again tomorrow. 

There's a lesson in this.  If you are an Alaska resident and you buy an RV in any other state, you need to personally make sure the title is readily available and that you or someone you know personally takes it to an Alaska DMV office to get the new title, registration and plates.  No one we encountered seemed to know how to handle that.  We had our last of 8 dinners with Landa and Doug staying a lot longer than we had expected.  We all had an enjoyable time since we slept and ate breakfast and lunch in our RV.  

Doug and Landa have a wonderfully well constructed and decorated home on their five acres.  They also have an almost completed barn which is more like a home as it has a workshop-garage area and then an apartment on the first floor and then two guest rooms on the open top floor with a hay loft over the garage area.  It's well insulated and sheet rocked and has a wood stove to heat all of the back part of the building.  They'll have a large sink, and a bathroom with a shower in the barn.  Then there's a chicken coop with a large penned in area for roaming in back of the barn.  They already have a variety of chickens--non-laying at this time.