Ok.. I thought I would put a couple of pictures up of the house. As you can tell, it's a basic brick rancher that is in need of landscaping. I'm actually glad that it's a blank slate, this way we don't have to spend time digging up or changing stuff. Our plan is to eventually make the small carport a part of the house by enclosing it and then having the driveway head over to the left to a new carport with an entry in the back off the deck (which we have to build). Then we're going to take out the part of the gate that sticks into the yard (and looks wonky).

We have a pretty big yard and I think with some flower beds and trees it will look much better. Our first purchase of course, was a self-propelled lawn mower! Can you believe we paid someone to mow our yard in Portland, and it was the size of a postage stamp!

Sooo... open invitation to anyone who wants to visit NC :-). Feel free to bring your electrician, plumbing and construction worker friends!

Sorry I don't blog very often... I must be a very boring person. Plus I did start my new job last week. For those who don't already know, I am working for American Express. I'm training to become a corporate travel counselor. So far I like it a lot and I like all the people in my training class :-).

That's the update for now.

Ok.. so here are some more pictures from our trip. Sorry it took me so long!

Alrighty... first picture for your viewing pleasure is our camping spot in Gothenburg, NE. I just knew that many of you were probably excited to see an actual KOA... since we've talked them up so much! No... I didn't accidently upload a picture of the parking lot at the Waffle House... this is the KOA.

Ok.. so it was pretty cool that on our trip we spent a lot of time traveling along the Oregon trail. How did I know we were on the Old Oregon Trail you ask.... well, 'cause they had lots of signs!


And of course mom was with me!

We stopped at the Scotts Bluff National Monument... here's the view as your driving towards it.
It's 800 feet to the top... I'm very proud of mom because she let us go up there. Of course she wouldn't let me drive HaRV up.. so we took the conveniently offered shuttle.

Here's the visitor center sign thingy.
Here's the visitor center...
Here's a cool authentic pioneer wagon. I had to ask myself if I thought we could have fit everything that was in HaRV in this wagon? Do you think the pioneers packed their house plants?

Here's a really cool tree ring display inside the visitor center. The picture is bad.. but I think you can read the tags on it. It's much bigger and the tags go out to include things like the 1983 space shuttle Challenger explosion.
Also on display at the visitor center are chunks of rock that pioneers carved their names on. (and we look down on people who write on bathroom stalls... who's to say 100 years from now they won't be on display in some museum!)
Here's what the rock says.
After leaving Scotts Bluff we headed towards Chimeny Rock National Historic Site.
After that.. well it was pretty much corn fields. Miles and miles and miles of corn fields. I think the next exciting thing that happened were the flat tires. Which by now I'm sure everyone has heard about. Somewhere in Indiana.. on a road flanked by CORN fields we had 2 flat tires.
Then one more night at a KOA and then a stop in London, KY to visit Beth, Charles and Matt! It was a great visit... plus we learned how to squeeze 3 adults, 1 car seat, 1 dog and 1 cat inside a large cat carrier into a car! A skill that I'm sure will come in handy again some day. Then on to Knoxville, Bristol and finally Lexington!

:-)

Ok.. ok.. ok... sorry there haven't been any posts. Sorry that I never finished the trip stuff. No, we are not stuck in Dubois, WY! As you all know by now, we made it safely to Lexington and we are in the new house. We were without internet access for about 2 weeks, now having issues with the lack of network in the house. I download all my photos to the laptop and since I don't know how to hook up my Linksys it's going to be a pain getting the pics to the desktop computer. I was so good when we packed all the computer stuff in Portland. As I took it all apart, I made little drawings of how it was all hooked into the computer. I carefully labeled all the cords. I made sure to write on the box I packed it all in "Linksys" so I would be able to find it easily. Then Lexcom (local phone/cable/internet axis of evil) messed everything up. Why?? Because it was sooo much cheaper to get VOIP phone service. So now, my carefully drawn schematics are shot to hell... there are 3 little boxes now to hook up. I only had 2 in Portland! The blue cord should go in the top hole on the modem and then connect to the top hole in the Linksys...but how can I connect the blue cord when they've already connected it... and to the wrong box!!!! Sure.. I can call them up and they'd be happy to send out a dude who in 10 seconds could fix the problem... but I have issue with paying said dude $100.00 just to plug in my router! ARG :-(

So until I fix it... or just take 30 minutes and transfer files from one computer to the other I can't share the rest of the trip pics. I'll do it.. I will, just give me another week. HA!

Plus i've been fighting, what I have self diagnosed as cross country move lactose intolerance mystery disease, for about a week now. I'm sure it's either that or a case of delayed cross country move realization ulceritus. :-)

Yes... we are alive!! Not lost in Montana.. as rumored. (Nor eaten/killed by Clyde)

So.. we left Missoula on Wednesday morning heading for Upper Canyon Outfitters.. where Val, Jim and Brooke are spending the summer. The skies to the East were filled with smoke. Fire season in full swing, but we made it thru. Allthough it did fog up our view.

Sooo... on approach to Upper Canyon our directions from Val said "after the Ruby Dam.. it's 12 miles of paved road.. then 12 miles of unpaved road." Now if you've ever ridden in a tin can, over vary "washboardy" roads.. you'll know exactly what it sounded like inside HaRVy on this 12 miles of unpaved road. Mom was on guard duty in the back.. holding doors closed while the plants were grabbing air in the bathroom. It's only 12 miles you might be thinking.. but this 12 miles took us 45 minutes to an HOUR to travel. You'll see said road pictured below!

But all worth it.. had a great visit with the family and the folks at Upper Canyon were absolutely wonderful to us. Welcomed us in for as long as we wanted to stay. We would highly recommend them to anyone looking for an adventure in MT!!! Here we are plugged in at their place. You can see a small piece of the beautiful view they have.

Thursday morning it was off to Yellowstone. (Of course we had to take the same road out.. that we took in!) We made our way down to Old Faithful passing numerous geyser.. smoky.. stinky.. bubbly pools of mud and water punctuated by clouds of steam. Old Faithful of course didn't let us down. We had to wait about an hour and it did start to rain.. but it was worth it. Pretty cool.

We spent that night at Fishing Bridge RV park, which looked like the mall at Christmas. We had a loooooong walk to the bath house.. and speaking of mauls... we feared going back a second time after dark!!

EARLY the next morning we packed up and did more sightseeing around Yellowstone. On constant lookout for bears (which of course we never saw) we did however see other inhabitants. Buffalo of course being one.

Leaving Yellowstone, we headed towards the Tetons. Beautiful drive.. of course offering mom numerous occasions to tense up (cower.. grab upholstery..whimper.. groan... you get the picture).

Pshew... we're outta those mountains....screeeeetch... wait.. are those the ROCKIES??? Why yes.. more opportunity for mom to do abdominal crunches!! But again absolutley amazing views in every direction! Of course we did hit road construction.. which included blasting areas and 21 miles of UNPAVED road. (see picture above).

Currently Kamped at the Dubois, WY KOA... Kool! Heading out tomorrow for Kimball, NE. 400 miles to go.. should take us only 9 hours... including Bonnie walks and road side naps.

The Road Ain't No Place For Wimps!

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Ok.. we left Portland 5:30 Monday night and drove to Pasco WA... where we stayed with friends. (Kelly and Kevin.. thanks again for letting us plug in at your place!).

Our second day start was delayed because we discovered on day 1 that we had no A/C. Which did not make Bonnie or Clyde very happy. In fact Clyde looked as if he were going to die. So we stopped at Gary's Auto Center in Pasco and he filled up our freon. Ahhhh... much better.

The trip to Missoula has been nice.. but long. I think we're still in shock that we're moving. HA HA. We've hit some road construction and I think we've decided that indeed I will be driving the entire trip! Weeeee Two words: WIND GUSTS!! Mom not happy. I'm okay with driving.. because now she's so guilty she is like my own personal flight & fuel attendant! MUAH AH AH She does real good at scraping the bugs off the winder!

We are now in the Missoula KOA (with 7 zillion other RV enthusiasts.. and their 4 kazillion children!!) We pulled in too late for the ice cream social :-(, but there are loads of other activities... at the Kafe.. or the Kabins or the Kapool... it's Krazy fun at the K O A!!

Showers and bed await us. We're off to Upper Canyon Outfitters tomorrow... meeting up with Val (Mom's niece from NJ) her hubby Jim and their little girl Brooke.

More later.. if we survive another day... ON THE ROAD!

Soooo... if all goes according to plan, we'll be pulling out for North Carolina on the 30th of this month. We plan on posting pictures of our trip along the way for your enjoyment and also of course as proof of life for all those concerned. I'm also thinking I'll need to come up with some kind of insane-o-meter for the blog. That way I'll be able to keep you all up to date, as what's left our sanity slowly erodes away. Between the cat, the dog and of course Mrs. Furious, I'm sure it will be one interesting trip!

"Move ‘em on, head ‘em up. Head ‘em up, move ‘em on. Move ‘em on, head ‘em up Rawhide

Count ‘em out, ride ‘em in. Ride ‘em in, count ‘em out. Count ‘em out, ride ‘em in Rawhide!"

Cape Lookout Here We Come

Alrighty... we loaded up Harvey (get it.. Ha-RV.. ha ha) and we headed west. We went camping at Cape Lookout State Park in Tillamook. Here's a picture for everyone. You can see the other pics I took on my Flckr page (last link on the right). As always 8X10 prints are available for a mere $50.00. HA HA


Here is our very first, non driveway, camping spot. Everything went smooooth as ice... Well, after we couldn't get it started in the driveway at home and jumped right to the conclusion that we had bought a big square lemon. (I think I just flooded the engine). Then it was all downhill from there... Well, I did leave the lights on when we reached the State office in Tillamook, where mom had a board to do. So of course the battery died and we had to call a dude to come jump start us. (Hey.. apparently RVs built in 91 don't have the buzzy "you've left your lights on" noise) Then, piece of cake... Ok, ok... mom was gripped to her seat tighter than a fat man in a wet suit as we wheeled down the very narrow road to the campground. It's funny how curves become harder to manage when your vehicle not only bounces up and down, but sways from side to side. But a good time was had by all... yes even Clyde calmed down and got into a routine. Actually he slept the entire way home :-)
Yes.. that is a gnome on our table. David the gnome in fact! (Thanks for the gnome, Dave :-P) we haven't decided yet, what exciting things we'll make him carry in his little basket!

Clyde's Story

R V there yet?

Ok.. here are a few photos of our newest member of the family. I'm not sure if I should say "Don't be jealous" or "Don't be afraid"! We've done some practice "driveway camping" to figure out sleeping arrangments and to get Bonnie and Clyde used to the RV. It's a good thing too because Clyde just isn't having any of it. He settles down if we're just sitting up playing cards, but when it's lights out he becomes a little crazy. Won't settle down and scrapes at the back door to get out. So, I think there's gonna be another plane ride in his future. Now to find someone to board him for 2 or 3 weeks? Any volunteers?
Oh.. and just to show my amazing driving abilities, here is a photo of the driveway I backed this puppy into! Muah ah ah.

Notice the concrete walls on either side!

San Juan Trip

Here are a few pics of our recent birthday/Mother's Day trip to San Juan Island.

Of course we went to see some whales, of the killer type.. and we did. We saw them, they were waaaaaay over there. I'm half convinced it was some dude under the water with a huge fake whale fin!

Oh well, at least I can say I've been.

We saw lots of other creatures and it was a fun trip.

We saw an Eagle..

A Fox...

A baby Fox.

We saw a Llama..

some Alpaca

and a Seal.

We saw a Deer..

and last but, but not least, we saw a rare pod of Orca Cows.

We also visited the the Westcott Bay Sculpture Garden located on San Juan Island... but we decided not to venture in too far. It's like 19 acres with sculptures littered here and there.. but it was raining and the grass was like 3 feet high and we left the machete in the car!

An Arch..
a crocodile..

a gate..
gate #2

and a turtle.

Oh what crazy wild people we are.. and ohhhh the mischief we get in to!