Oh, we're SO close! Bill and I have been living full time in our RV since the 26th of June. We are currently at the Portland Fairview RV Park and will remain here until Cody registers on the 14th, then we are wheels up and hittin' the road first thing in the morning of the 15th. (http://www.portlandfairviewrv.com/)The first few days of living fulltime was spent getting the trailer (30' Terry Dakota 830Y) settled and going through to make sure everything was put where it needed to be.
We had a couple of small hitches to get through in the first week or so. One, we got food poisoning, not fun. I won't comment much on that except to say that we never want to experience that again, and it's a damn good thing we didn't both need the bathroom at the same time. Consequently we are both feeling much better, thank you!
Two, our first grocery shopping trip for just us, without having to buy for the guys, was just...well...weird. Buying one package of two little steaks instead of buying 20lbs of the biggest steaks we could find, was a bizarre experience. Also having to think about consuming everything before it goes bad, the fact that food lasts long enough to go bad....strange!
Bill and I have been trying to get out and see some of the things that people always talk about when visiting Oregon. We drove the Mt. Hood Scenic Route which was nice and had some wonderful views of the mountain at 40 mph. We did catch one spot that had a nice view of Mt. Hood (above), one....one....on a 4 hour drive! Neither of us understands why you would have a Scenic Route and not have pull offs at the most scenic parts. But it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves. ( http://www.mthoodterritory.com/byway.htm) It was really pretty to stand at Mt. Hood lodge and look out with Mt. Hood to our backs and see Mt. Jefferson in the distance with the Three Sister just to the left (below).
You can't really see Three Sisters in this pic, but you'll have to trust me.Another day we went to Multnomah Falls but didn't have the camera with us since we both forgot to charge the batteries. For some reason the blog won't let me put the URL to the falls in here without messing up where the pictures are...so you'll have to Google for Multnomah Falls, there are some great sites with nices pics of the Falls that you can see.
We also went to Stevenson, WA (left) because of an article we read in one of our RV magazines, it was pretty, and nice....and really not exciting enough to make a day trip of, but still pretty. Stevenson is known for it's windsurfing, kiteboarding, and other water sports due to the wind that is a constant through the Columbia Gorge. If you are into any of that, than Stevenson might be a bit more exciting for you than it was for us. Mostly the best part for us of going to Stevenson was seeing the Columbia River Gorge. Again, beautiful scenery that you have to take in at highway speeds because there are virtually no turnouts to take pictures at, and we didn't want to take the time to get off at every exit to see if there was somewhere to take pics from. To get across to Stevenson we had to cross the Bridge of the Gods. Driving across at 15mph presents wonderful views through steel girders. The legend is even better: http://www.inthegorge.com/bridge_of_the_gods.htmlEvery day that goes by, the more excited we get to hit the road. It's been a little odd getting used to having so much time. Bill asked me today what it was we used to do that took up so much time, because he can't understand why we now have so much of it.
We've also been to The Grotto and The Chinese Gardens, but I will put that in another post either tonight or in the next day or so.
Hugs to all,
Kari
