I’ve been remiss in not keeping everyone informed of our whereabouts which, I’m sure, has become a concern for many of you who use your valuable time to read this stuff. Rest easy. We’re home, now. Actually, we’ve been home since Tuesday or Wednesday. I can’t remember because immediately upon arrival in St. Helens my mind shifted from vacation to mode to not-vacation mode. If you don’t understand what I’m by that, make something up.

We spent Monday night in Armitage Park near Eugene. It was very peaceful there. The RV spaces are about 40-50 feet apart, in some areas, and there are lots of trees but none obscure a good view of the southern sky. So, the satellite worked great just sitting on a picnic table. Didn’t have to climb on the RV roof which is a huge win. I’m pretty certain that one of these days I’m going to tumble off the roof and break something important. That’s one reason I like spaces not cluttered with bushes and trees because it ensures I have a clear shot at the ground should I fall.

We got up Tuesday and got on the road home in record time. The plan was to leave around 0900 and we left about 1030, right on time. The drive to St. Helens, through Portland, was uneventful and we made it without any near mishaps for which I was thankful.

Once home, Max jumped out of the RV, looked around a bit, then took off. He can run about 50 mph, I’m sure, and there’s absolutely no way I’m going to catch him. He just as to run until he gets it all out of his system, then he comes back. His route seems to always take him across our neighbor’s back yard, sometimes around their house, then down along the creek, into our yard, around our house, then finally he returns and flops on the ground with his back feet sticking straight out behind him. It was pretty evident that he was happy to be home, as were we.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing stuff. Some of it I can remember, like our trip to Longview to get a new ceiling fixture for the laundry room. It was on the blink, literally, and was causing Diane to twitch a little while doing the laundry. Nothing worse than a twitch while folding clothes. Regarding laundry … I know Diane changed her clothes every day but I chose to make it easy on the environment by wearing the same clothes every day. I took about ten pairs of jeans on the trip but only wore two. I switched out my boxers and socks whenever Diane suggested that I do that, but only then. Doing that eliminated my need to bend over, open a couple of drawers to get replacements, open my tiny closet for a pair of jeans, pull my belt out of the possibly soiled jeans, thread my belt into the known clean jeans, then take Max for a walk to break in all those new clothes. Also, this is all done in the dark most of the time so I won’t wake Diane up. It’s really not easy.

So, we got the new light at Lowes and had lunch at Stuffy’s, one of our favorite places. One of these days I’m going to take Suffy’s challenge to eat one of their 10 1/2 pound cinnamon rolls. Seriously. The other challenge is the 7-pound 12-egg omelet with all the trimmings. Skipping the challenge for this visit, Diane just had a hamburger and I had fish and chips.

One of the things Diane did was go grocery shopping. After bringing all the food in from the RV she noticed that the fridge had a lot of empty space and they needed to be filled. So, she filled them.

Now it’s Friday morning and I’ve been up for a couple of hours. Had breakfast, escorted Max around the block letting him take all the time he wanted to sniff stuff, and had my two cups of coffee. Now I must get myself ready to flirt with danger and install Diane’s new light up so she can get to work.

Until next time I hope all remains well with everyone,