What's for lunch?

We're at Maryhill Museum on the Gorge. It's a fascinating place housed in a mansion built by Sam Hill (really. Is that where we get "What in the Sam Hill?") who was a flamboyant businessman around the turn of the century. He knew the Queen of Romania, and a famous dancer, and they convinced him to turn this place into a museum , and then got a lot of donations from all over. Marie, the queen of Romania, brought truck fulls of stuff from her country, he has some Rudin's and it is altogether delightful.--a little like the Frye, excepet in a better setting, and not free.--some of the best Indian basketry I've seen. One of the residents invited himself to lunch and startled Missy enough that she decided to retire under the bed. We're nearer Portland right now in whath has been promised as beautiful country. If it stops hailing, we'll find out.

Judy

Help! Where's the warm weather?

We've just about finished at Brian's and we're looking for the next place to go. So much for spring. Everywhere we look within a thousand miles is cold or cold and rainy. Anybody know of a nice spot to land? Please email us at fhpickering@gmail.com, or judithhrhodes@gmail.com

Judy and Frank

camping out, urban style

We looked dubiously at Brians' driveway. It had seemed much longer when we were here with our car last year. (We're in Pullman, with Brian, Frank's son. ) When we arrived, toward dusk, with a hint of sleet in the air, we measured. Yep. 27 feet. The Cruiser is 30 feet. Hmm, and cars were parked right across the street. Brian hastily looked up a city RV park, and we refugeed in there for a night while the snow fell. The next day we went back and took another look. We could camp on the street without the slides like those homeless guys in Ballard, (but with much better equipment), or we could try the driveway and hang out over the sidewalk. I had visions of a jogger running along , blissed out on his iPod , and running full tilt into the front of the RV, but I was told I was being ridiculously City. No one uses the sidewalk here. So here we are, hooked into power, on Brian's fast network. Hey, it works. We're slowly learning to live in the Cruiser. We still have organizing to do, but we're getting there.
Judy

We Did It !! We're Off !!

Calendars are deceiving, so organized, so clean and crisp, each day a square waiting to be filled.. We pulled out our calendar and looked at the first week of April. “We can do this”, we thought. “Look, hardly any problem at all.” We wrote “Outdoor Work” in the Thursday square, and “Move Furniture” in Friday’s, followed by “Clean and Wax floors” on Saturday. –a little longer, but still fitting nicely into the square on the calendar. Elegant, simple, each day clearly delineated. Surely we could finish the tasks with time to spare. But reality is messy and full of little surprises and thousands of details. The bamboo had escaped and was making a break underground for the house. A 1000sq. foot house looks infinitely larger when seen from hands and knees with a wax pad in hand. Who knew the kitchen had so many drawers and cupboards, all needing to be loaded into boxes and scrubbed. But here we are on the last square we filled in, “Load truck and drive to Pullman.” It’s not perfect, there are still boxes and bins waiting to be sorted. Frank worked amazing feats of packing to get everything into the truck for the drive to the RV, and we made it with nothing blowing off, the cat screaming the whole way. When we got to the RV she found a hole under the bed and crawled in to be safe, and then couldn’t get out and had to be rescued by taking the base of the bed apart. But she is now asleep, blessedly quiet, the bed is made, the site along the Columbia is gorgeous and we are about to begin.

Learning to use the RV

Learning about the RV systems operation

For 2 days this week, we got to enjoy our new 5th wheel and learn to use all its systems and enjoy camping again - even as it rained sometimes. There is a lot to learn about how much electricity is available from the batteries and the Honda 2000 watt generator. Since one of the main types of camping we are looking at will not have any electricity, water or sewer hookups, we will need to know how to work all the built in systems work. With the generator running (even our "quiet" Honda makes noticeable noise) we have full 110 volt AC. Without the generator running, we have only 12 volt DC for lights, water pump. The refrigerator runs on either AC, if available, or propane if not. The stove is propane. The water heater is propane with AC boost if available. The furnace needs both 12 volt and propane, but uses up battery power quickly if run.

We now have to figure out ways to charge all our battery operated computers and tools and the RV battery system. We don't want to run the generator long enough to charge everything up. There may be a way to hook up the inverter Janie and Brad gave us for Christmas and wire up charging circuits, but we may be limited by the ability for the built in electrical controller to charge up the 12 volt battery system. Lots to work out but thanks to many RV forums and many knowledgeable RV'ers are glad to share their experience through the internet we will find good solutions.

We were very impressed with our Sprint broadband EVDO system with the cellular router we bought with advice from 3Gstore.com. Though speeds varied considerably during the day and even the best speed will not compare with our current cable internet connection, we were quite functionally connected to the net. However, there was no T-Mobile connection at all, so we will be looking into Verizon when contract time runs out in August.

The 2 days were so much fun that we can't wait for the house to lease and we can get going.

Frank

Cooking on the campfire with the new grill rack I built:




Here's the whole rig:

first day out

Well, we've done backing and filling 101, and learned that the batteries don't last as long as we thought, but we came through everything unscathed and we woke up this morning to THIS. Isn't it beautiful? This is going to be so much fun.

Judy

The Time is Near

As the weather gets warmer and we finish up our work for King County Elections, we get itchy to get going.

Now the equipment we need is starting to arrive - all ordered over the Net, of course. Our new Honda 2000 watt generator arrived this morning. The new router, EVDO card (with data service by Sprint) and booster antenna was ordered today. A Webber "Baby Q" gas grill will arrive tomorrow.

On Tuesday, March 18th, we will take possession of our RV and camp out at Deception Pass State park for 2 days to try it and all of our new toys out.