Dateline Willamette Valley Oregon, March 25, 2011 11am PT

Dateline Willamette Valley Oregon, Friday March 25, 2011, 9 a.m. PT

We left Lake Jovita Country Club on Monday March 14 to begin our wonderful journey. The first week our travels took us from Florida to Arizona with stops along the way. Our second overnight stop was at the Hidden Lake RV Park in Beaumont Texas.

Who would have expected individual bathrooms and showers and a beautiful lake with a magnificent sunset.

The manager and his wife stopped there a year ago on vacation and became the managers, he is a college professor and teaches online daily from his RV..go figure.

We had a few bumps in the road with repairs in Houston, folks could have not been nicer but set off our timing a little.. We eventually arrived in Tucson Arizona.

The next day we headed out to the Sonora Desert Museum. It was beautiful and we had a great time.

We then visited Lelia and her mom Betty Lou, BL has been a dear friend of John’s family for over 40 years.

We all talked with John’s brother Will and sister Carol on the phone. All the old stories were gone through and it was just a wonderful time. Since it was John’s birthday, BL baked a cake. It was great.

Next stop my dear friend from my IBM Poughkeepsie days Shirley (aka MOM)..

Great to have time with her hopefully next time we will play some golf.

Next, my best friend Marty and her “crockodile dundee husband” Jeff.

Since John just had a birthday and Marty’s was the next day, we had another party. Marty cooked a salmon to die for! Good food, good wine, great times.

The second week we ventured through California. Our first sleep over at Walmart, the first of many I bet, in Palm Springs California.. then..Holy COW..we took unexpected routes not paying attention to the directions (photo of pass in california).

It then began pouring and we arrived into the next campsite in Sonoma. We discovered water that soaked the carpeting with no view of its origin..the next day we stopped to get it checked and a small leak was repaired and off we went. We continued on 101 up the Redwood Coast ..too bad it was pouring the sites were incredible the redwoods more than we imagined.

We stopped overnight at a wonderful inn The Benbow Hotel and Resort and had our first meal out..outstanding food. We would return there during warmer weather to see all the sites. The inn has rooms and also a very nice RV parking area on the river. Because it was rainig cats and dogs we :”dry camped”, what an oxymoran that is.

At least we didn’t go out in the rain and just drove out in the morning heading to Oregon..but..we got a big surprise going through the Costal mountains..wow…

Of course we have learned much, met wonderful people and made several stops for repairs..all in all things are GREAT! For those that thought we wouldn’t last a week together in tight quarters, we are doing fine, the tensness comes and goes with a lot of humor.

We will continue through Oregon today (a few wine tastings), stay in McMillville tonight and tomorrow more wine tasting then on to Seattle to John’s brothers house.

We will keep you all up to date every week or if something magnificant happens.