Today was brutal. I had to drive the Winnebago over 165 miles, all by myself, in order to lead Diane, who was riding in the comfort of her luxury SUV, to South Beach State Park where we will stay for the next five nights.

Preparation began weeks ago. “Things” we’re staged in various places around the interior of the house and I was given a list of “must do’s”, which I did last night and this morning. Once again, we loaded those staged items, as well as anything that was laying around on horizontal surfaces, emptied both refrigerators, half of the small freezer, and some last minute choices from the garage.

Consequently, both the RV and the Buick were packed to the brim with with everything we owned that might come in handy for pretty much any situation. It’s good to be prepared.

We stopped in Philomath to visit a short while with our friend Mary Jane. She and her special friend, Bob, each have a PT Cruiser. Maybe it’s MJ has two of them and she let’s Bob drive the old one. That’s probably more correct. It was good to see her. She and Bob lives very close to Reser Stadium, home of the Oregon State Beavers.

Philomath is about two thirds of the way to Newport, our destination, so once we left there we only had about in hour or so to go. It was exciting in the RV because it was a winding, two lane, up and down hill kind of road. Typical for this part of the world, it was beautiful, made more so because of the rain shows interspersed with bright sunshine. Once we arrived in Newport, there was no more rain and we got checked in and hooked up in no time at all. First on the agenda was dinner since lunch for both of us had consisted of a tube of crackers each. And coffee.

After dinner it was off to the beach for a walk in the sand. We had two choices for getting there … one path is 1/4 mile long, the one closest to us is 1/3 mile. We took the closer one. Shortly after starting up the path we were surrounded by hoards of Mosquitos who demanded all our blood. Not willing to part with more than as little as possible, we fought back. Here’s what Diane’s back looked like most of the time until I smacked the hell out of her with my hat, then did the same to myself.

Poor little Ozzie went airborne a few times when they picked him up and tried to cart him into the brush. Thankfully, we had a leash on him so got him back each time but not without a fight. We made it about halfway before turning back. It was a choice of finishing the trip and having to battle the entire way back, or turn around then and only fight halfway. Once back, we got in the car and drove to the beach which proved to be a very good choice. Here are some of the things we saw there …

Sadly, I must report an injury to myself. It happened within seconds after arrival as I was attempting to enter the RV the first time after hooking up the power. It hurt a great deal and it got mood n my shirt which is interesting because it didn’t tear anything but skin. I guess I’m more delicate than once I was …

It was a vicious, unprovoked attack on myself by the door latch for reasons that still mystify me.

Another odd thing was when Diane’s front teeth became swollen. We can only presume it was caused by a radioactive mosquito that washed ashore in the tsunami debris from Japan. Thankfully, the swelling went down quickly, but we don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow. It was frightful …

Now it’s late and time for sleep.