Good Sam, Apricots, and Moochdocking

Last weekend we went out with the Appleland Sams, our local chapter of the Good Sam Club. We manned a courtesy booth at a prominent rest area on Highway 2.

Many people made a stop here while traveling over Stevens Pass. We greeted folks and gave out cookies and coffee in exchange for donations. We raised several hundred dollars for our charities.

Several rigs camped out for the weekend.

Here is Donna and my brother Jim and his wife Eileen.

After the outing, we got a call from Bruce and Carol, that the apricots are getting about ready to pick.  We officially started the season Friday. We will help pick, and pack the boxes.

Here is Bruce, Carol, and Donna.

And me!

Saturday, some of Carols siblings showed up and we all did some serious picking/packing.

It was pretty hot out. It was a good time for all.

We also had an opportunity to do a bit of moochdocking. Our friends Eric and Jeanette offered to let us park our rig at their house while we work in the orchard. They have a nice long concrete driveway, with sewer connections, a 30 amp outlet, water and a cable tv connection too. We are very blessed to have such good friends.

We drove the 27 miles from Crescent Bar to their house and got set up in no time.

What a great spot. Crescent Bar was 27 miles away, and we would have burnt through the diesel fuel driving to the orchard and back each day. Now we are 3 miles away.

Fun times galore!

Retired Life and Killing Time

I am getting use to this retired life style. Everyday is like Saturday.

 One thing I really like is not having to remember a million passwords, changing them every 60 days, and all the color codes and technical stuff that I had to deal with in my telecom career. The thing we have to get going now, is a regular routine. We must stay active and watch our diet. Once we hit the road, I believe it will be easier because all the new places to explore (walks and hikes).

 The first week of September is our planed departure.

Our daughter Kim is now living in Vancouver, WA with her sister Candy. With college behind her, job hunting is her priority. I hope she lands something soon. We visited them when we moved all of Kim's dorm stuff to her....and her cat.

 We have had KC and Boo Boo for quite some time now. KC was her cat. Now that she is out of school, she has KC again. Now we just have Boo Boo.

I have been working on our full timer's budget quite a bit lately. I put a lot of thought in how our finances will be working out while on the road. We have started tracking every penny this month (June) since I retired on the 3rd. We will have to watch our spending for the first 2 months because my retirement money won't be transferred to our financial advisor till August or so. Two items in our budget need work. We are way over in the 'food' category, and traveling to visit our 3 kids who are scattered around the state, we are over in 'Diesel fuel' too. Once on the road, we can stay put for longer periods and travel when we want to. We will see.

We will take a trip to South Dakota sometime in August to get our Driver's Licenses and the rigs registered.

That will finalize our domicile plans. We then will be South Dakotans. We are coordinating the trip to meet up with our friends Ruth and Dale Finkenbiner, who we met up with at he RV Dreams rally back in September 2012.

 It will be fun to mix a little fun in with the business.

Last Sunday, after church, we had lunch with our good friends Bruce and Carol. They are the ones who own the apricot orchard that we are going to help out in early next month. The cots are starting to turn and we will be picking and packing soon.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

Graduation & Good Times.

With Candy and Tim here. It was our old family back together again. We headed off to Eastern to Kim's graduation. Lot of people there. Lots of happy people. Graduation at last.

Roo's Field. Cool red turf.

Kim posing for the optional photo.

Getting her diploma. We should have brought our binoculars.

Good thing they also had a big screen.

The happy Kim.

Tim and Candy congratulating her.

Then we all went back to the park for photos and fun.

 Our 3 kids...all grown up.

The whole fam damly.

I actually won at 18 holes with Kim and Candy. But Kim did get a hole in one...she had quite a day. Her birthday and graduating too.

We fixed a birthday/graduation/Fathers Day/family reunion meal.

Then Tim had to head back to Bothell. It was a good visit.

The next day, we headed into Spokane to see the sights.

Cool stuff at Riverfront Park.

Kim hugging a totem pole.

I found a garbage eating metal goat.

And a really big wagon.

Found some big blocks too. Definitely a photo op spot.

Before returning to the park, we passed a strange sight. A place filled with oddities.

What a collection.

What a great weekend.