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Published: April 26th 2010
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How long has it been since we blogged??? That long??? You may have the following questions…. Have Mike & Kathy lost the ability to type?....Have they gone to live with a tribe of primitives in the mountains of Borneo and turned their back on the modern world?..have they stopped traveling?...Are they dead? No to all of the above. We did take a travel break, sort of. We went on a tour of China in spring 2009 and I’m still trying to write that blog and get it published but it’s slow going. I’ll catch you up on things. After China we flew from Hongkong back to Oregon to visit family for a couple of weeks then kept going south back to our little house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. And there we planted ourselves for 7 blissful stationary months. No suitcases, no buses, no planes, in other words…HEAVEN. We spent our time catching up on our favorite TV shows (via TV on the internet), reading and home improvement. Ah..it was just great. We also kicked around ideas for what to do now or where to go next. Kathy was much more burned out on travel than Mike. He still had
some get up and go left but Kathy????? No way. What to do? So we hung out, relaxed (cigars, fresh limes from our tree, margaritas and fresh tortillas) and waited for lightening to strike. Something would happen to show us the path. And, as usual, it did. Both of us had some CD’s maturing and we didn’t feel like renewing them so we didn’t. Instead we crunched some numbers and decided we had enough $$ to buy a motor home and little tow car and get back into the life. We had both been feeling the call to return to Oregon for more than a visit and we loved the 3 years we spent fulltiming in our 5th wheel trailer. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. Small amount of travel but still staying home. Great compromise for both of us.
We stayed in Mexico until January when we came back to the US. My sister and her husband (Joan/John or Juan y Juana (depending on where they are)) go south of the border for a month every year. We had made a deal whenever they go south for a month, we’ll come north and housesit/dog sit for them. It’s a
sweet deal all around. They have satellite TV with DVR and central heating!!!! Treat for us, let me tell you. So we spent part of January and all of February in La Grande Oregon reconnecting with family. We also spent a lot of time on Craig’s List looking for the perfect used RV coach and car to buy. It took a lot of work but we were successful. There were quite a few RV’s for sale with the market in the shape it’s in. Many people bought their RV’s for weekend/vacation use and now can’t afford to make the payments for something that is just sitting there.
We ended up with a 2000 National Tropical 36 foot gas motor home and a little 2005 Toyota Scion to tow behind it. After La Grande we headed south to Mike’s family in the Grants Pass area and worked on fine-tuning some details and making it comfortable for us. We removed a recliner in the living room which was bolted to the floor. Huge job to tear it out but definitely worth it. Then other things like changing carpeting, putting in our own decoration, etc. I also had to set up a household. Since I didn’t have an old house to take stuff from I had to stock the kitchen and everything from scratch. That can get pricy! So I started out by hitting the thrift stores like Goodwill. I found quite a bit of kitchen stuff there and saved some money.
When we stopped RVing in 2005 we left all our RV stuff with Mike’s mom and asked her to find good homes for it. She questioned our judgment with “What if you need this again someday?” But (like kids who are sure they know more than their parents) we stood firm and said it would be “years” until we did the RV thing again. Our definition of “years” was more like 15 or 20 and her’s was more like 5. Guess who was right? She actually still had a few of our things stashed in corners at her place which we immediately reclaimed. The rest? Well, I’m sure it all went to good homes. Wish I could put out a recall for it.
When Mike and I decided to go back to the RV life our next question was what to do? That was easy. We LOVED volunteering in the state parks. I started scouring the internet for places to host and found the volunteer website listing all the available volunteer positions. We put together a list/calendar of where we wanted to go and started emailing the rangers. We are booked into volunteer jobs for most of 2010. We’re starting with 2 months back at Heceta Head lighthouse in Florence (we worked here in 2004), then moving on to Yaquina lighthouse in Newport. We’ll be on the Oregon coast for about 4 months before moving inland to the Eugene/Springfield area then finishing up with a couple of months at a fish hatchery in southern Oregon.
It’s a great deal for all involved. We don’t pay any camping or hookup fees and only work a few hours here and there in return. The lighthouses will probably require the most hours from us. Right now we are working 4 days a week, 4 hours a day each. But it’s a fun job with a great view.
An added benefit to my internet surfing regarding state parks was the discovery of a sweet veteran’s benefit. Veteran’s camp free in Oregon state parks (Oregon residents only). So if we don’t have a job we can still camp for free. It’s not unlimited days and we had to apply for the special camping permit but when you combine both Mike & Kathy’s permit it comes out to almost totally free camping. We just have to move around. We can only stay at a campground for 5 days at a time per permit. This saves us about $20 + per day.
So, it looks like the next year will have us wearing the stylish brown Oregon State Park volunteer vest and camping in places with a fantastic view and changing our scenery every month. We still have plans for more travel but it’s a more in the future. On the top of our list is a Panama Canal cruise and then a long journey to the UK. We plan to keep our home base as the RV for quite a while (at least 5 years), parking it whenever we get the urge to cross a border again. It will be strange to have someplace familiar to come home to and not traveling with all our possessions. So, until next time dear readers.
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Keith and Anne
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Welcome Home!
So good to have you back! Your adventures were and still will be wonderful reading. With such strong skills volunteering will be rewarding personally and to society. The family is fine. Dale and Leanna presented us with a brand new great grandson! Best wishes and love to you both, Keith and Anne