Friends & Family, Thunderbird TT - Monroe, WA - May 23 - May 30, 2015

Friends and RV Dreamers, Bill & Diane (bjoyce) are wonderful. They gave us an auxillary braking unit for our Jeep. It is a Brake Buddy Vantage Select.

That pretty much saved our financial lives. We were going to have to do without (illegally) for a while. We will 'pay it forward' later.

I drove them over to their storage unit in Poulsbo to pick it up. We crossed over and back on the Washington State ferry system.

It was a neat day. Good views of Seattle.

The next day we went out to burgers at Five Guys. Good burgers, and good friends.

Then we had an appointment to have a base plate and some electrical work done on the Jeep at Poulsbo RV in Everett. After an hour, they finally got us in.

And out! They ordered the wrong part for our Jeep. We will do it again next Tuesday. That gave me time to wire the 'brake away' switch for the brake unit. We hope it is the correct part this time.

We did some visiting with our Son & family. Donna is crocheting toys for the boys. And I did some more work on the solar/inverter install.


I installed a switch to kill the power between the panels and the charge controller.

I ran the 1 inch 'smurf' tube under the rig to contain the 4 gauge solar wire from the combiner box on the roof to the electrical compartment.

Here is where the conduit goes up and into our bedroom, on it's way to the roof.

With all the wires and cables now into the electrical compartment, I'm ready to get everything hooked up.

I'm getting there!

Saturday, we travelled over Stevens Pass to East Wenatchee, for our first ever Ferguson 1st cousin family reunion. Kim, our daughter was there too. My dad had 8 brothers & sisters, our Aunts & Uncles, and they produced 28 children. My cousins showed up from WA, ID, MT, and NE. There were 16 of us there.
What a great time.

My cousins:
Joy, Chuck & Darrell

Judy, Larry, Richard & Donald

Reita & Sara

Alex & Kris

Marilyn, Dusty, & Corky

Sharon

And me.

Here is our group shot.

There was lots of spouses and family members there too. A great time!

We finally got our Texas plates for the motorhome... yee haw!

Our cats are happy.....

And we are too!

Thunderbird TT - Monroe, WA - May 18 - May 22, 2015

Monday, a good travel day. Donna followed me in the Jeep since we do not have it set up for towing as of yet. 65 miles later we pulled into the Thunderbird Thousand Trails by Monroe, WA. We have been here many times. It is the closest park to stay in while visiting our Son Tim and his family.

We have a good full hookup site and will be here through Memorial Day.

We met up with fellow RV Dreamers Bill & Diane (bjoyce) who are also staying at this park. We went out to dinner at the Outback in Redmond. Good food, good company, and lots of conversation. We last got together here at the same park last year.

I made arrangements to get the Jeep in at Polsbo RV in Everett next Tuesday and have a Towmaster baseplate installed. They are also doing the electrical wiring for the lights. I expect a $1,475 bill. Argggg!

Now that we have a toad, we have been able to get out and do things. Like going to Costco and buying a new TV. We are replacing the dinosaur giantosaurus TV with a Visio LED 39inch flat panel TV.
After removing the monster, I installed a wall mount bracket to a cross piece I put in the cabinet.

Pretty cool.

I will strap it before traveling. I don't want any surprises.

We also have been able to visit with Tim & Shannon. Donna made Roman a gnome (like ours). She crocheted it.

And Roman loved it.

She is working on a bunny for Ryker. We love these Grandsons of ours.

We are still waiting for our Texas plates for the motorhome. There was a snaffoo, but they are now on the way. I also called Miller Insurance and got our Jeep insured. I wanted just liability on the Jeep, and after searching for a good quote, they came up with $702.00 a year through Progressive. It seemed kinda high, but what the heck. Gotta have it.

We are going to be here for 2 weeks, then head over the Cascades to the drier, warmer part of the state. We sill have yet to see our oldest Grandson (Erik), and our Great, yes Great Grandson Oli. They are in Wenatchee, And later we will finally get to see our daughter, Kim. She is in Pasco.

Later......

Mount Vernon TT, Install Work, & A New Toad- May 11 - May 16, 2015

The Mount Vernon Thousand Trails resort just off Interstate 5 near Bow, WA is pretty nice. It is really wooded, with plenty of space beween sites. Kinda like a state park.

Yea! A mini-golf.

Big pool area. Too bad it isn't open yet.

Nice lodge.

Wooded and green.

Large spacious sites.

Here we are.

Rumble Bunny on guard.

We have been doing a lot of just 'kickin back' here. Donna is crocheting a big old gnome for Grandson Roman, laundry, a little spring cleaning, walks in the woods, and I just finished II Chronicles in my goal to read through the Bible in 1 year. And I worked on the solar/inverter install.
#/4 inch flex conduit to hold the feed to the inverter, and the romex that will feed the sub panel.

A new hole into the electrical compartment.

# 6 rounds for the inverter and solar controller.

There's the new conduit under the rig.

The sub panel getting wired.

Sub panel done.

One 10ga romex feed to go into the ac panel, 3 10ga runs from the sub panel to tap into the house wiring behind the ac panel.

Finishing the wiring in and out of the inverter.

It s coming along nicely

.Saturday, Tim came and picked us up and took us to their house. Besides playing with the kids...

Ryker and me.

Me and Roman

Donna and Ryker

Donna with Ryker, Shannon & Tim

He let us use his car to check out a few vehicles we found on Craigs List. We have been without a Toad for just over 2 months.

And...Gloryoskii!!!

We found one.

Our new Toad. A 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport.

Perfect.

Next is to get it setup for towing.

It is nice to be a little more mobile.

Kinda fun too!