bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday-  We went to the Saturday Market in Eugene. This is one of my favorite markets! Just so different from other markets. It  had changed since the last time that we were here in 2011. It is still 4 blocks long. The first block, which is not actually a part of the market, and there are signs saying that, was a marijuana fest with lots of pot paraphernalia. Last time we were here this was the religious area, with people preaching fire and brimstone from a soap box.

The second area had also changed. It was still a lot of crafts, but there was also a food court in the center with a stage for performances. We only saw one tarot card reader and no palm readers this time. There were many of these last time. Last time there was tie-dye everything, even diapers! This year there were only a few stands with the tie-dye items.

The third block was more of the craft artists with some food sampling. The final block was the farmers market with food carts, samples, fruits, vegetables, cheese, bakeries etc. At the back, where last time there was a beer garden, this time there were several beverage carts with wines, ciders and beers.

We wandered through the areas at a leisurely pace, even with the crowds. We found the strawberries to be over priced at $5 a small carton. We purchase two heads of Romaine lettuce. I purchased a glass item of jewelry.

We ate lunch at the food court. Bob had a tamale and I had a crepe. We had put 2 hours on the parking meter, and used 1:45 of the time. When we left, we went to Ninkasi Brewing Company for Bob to have a flight of beer.

We returned back to our part of town and stopped at a Fred Meyers grocery store. Bob found that they were doing beer tastings and he had another beer, the Elysian Dagonstooth Stout, which was so good, he added it to his purchase list. I shopped while he was having his beer,then I drove Bob back to the MH!

We had a quiet rest of the afternoon before we went to Panera for salads for dinner.

Sunday- The neighbor on our right had asked us, yesterday,  when we were leaving because they did not think they could get out around us. I had told them between 9 and 10. It was Fathers Day, so we went across the street to the Old Time Pancake House for  breakfast. We returned, finished getting ready, and drove out of the site about 9:30. We drove back to the I-5 and north to Salem. It was only 61 miles. We stopped at the Pilot for diesel. While Bob was pumping the diesel, $3.65/ gal, I ran over to the Freightliner. It was closed and the gate was locked. There was no way to get into the facility to spend the night. When Bob had originally checked, they were open on Sundays, but when he checked last night the website said that they were closed. There was a new sign on the gate giving the hours, saying that they are closed on Sundays.

We backed into a site at the truck stop to eat lunch and to decide what we were going to do…. On the far side of the site next us, there were yellow lines, as we were on a curve. So we decided to just stay at the truck stop. Bob moved the MH into the next site,and he crowded the line on the left side, so we could also open the back slide on our right, without encroaching on the site next to us on the right. We are going to spend the night at the truck stop.

I have been back and forth with friends Tom and Diane Johnston and so I sent a message to Diane letting her know we had arrived. We decided to meet for lunch at the Gustave’s Biergarten Restaurant, about 2 miles south on I-5.

We met up with Diane and Tom and had a delightful German lunch. Bob had a brat plate and I had the Jager schnitzel . Bob also had some beer. We sat catching up leaving around 2 to return to the MH. We took a short nap, and worked on some tasks around the MH.

It is going to be a loud night, as the trucks all have their generators running and we are backed up to I-5.

Monday– We were packed up and ready to enter the Freightliner at 7AM. We drove in and signed in for the repair. We had the dogs with us in the car, so we stopped at McDonalds for Egg McMuffins for breakfast. We decided to check out the Fairgrounds to stay at this evening. We drove through and discovered that you have to make a reservation through Reserve America for $8, plus the cost of the night, $25. So we went to the Elks Lodge, where they are first come first serve. There were a couple of empty sites, so Bob paid the camp host for one night, $28 FHU 50A.

We stopped at Costco for gas then returned to the Freightliner. They said they could not find an issue. Electrical issues can be tricky. We might have a loose wire that is causing the issue, and until it goes out completely, we just have to live with the problem.

So we paid the outrageous $362 dollars($160 hr. labor, the highest we have ever seen) and took the rig to the Elks Lodge. We ate lunch and then Bob used his electrical meter to check the hook up again. It worked perfectly. Grrrr!

I have a first cousin, once removed (second cousin) Mark Redmond, here in town, so we went over to his house to visit. He is also a craft beer connoisseur, and he and Bob have very similar tastes in beer. Mark has four barrels of beer on tap in his house! So Bob was in heaven…

We sat talking for several hours. Mark’s home is dog friendly, so we had taken the dogs with us. His dog, Winston, and our girls got along really well. I packed Bob up and took him home, post lots of great beer!

We ate a dinner of leftovers, and Bob walked over to the Lodge and paid for another night. We had decided to stay another day just to relax. We are off our schedule, so now we have to re-group and change plans. We are trying to figure out where to go next. Of course, since we have FHU, I am doing laundry.

We received an email today that friend ,and fellow Roadrunner, Terry Noble had passed away unexpectedly post surgery. Too many losses….

Tuesday- We worked on various tasks around the MH. We ran to Costco to check out vacuum cleaners. Ours was dying, so it was time. Oregon has no sales tax, so we decided to take advantage of this fact. We purchased a Shark Ion cordless vacuum. I had checked on what kind to purchase. It was a little more expensive than we usually pay for a vacuum, but it folds up small and is very powerful. The reviews were very good.

I also picked up two bottles of Tropical Mango Moscato. I had purchased one bottle at the last Costco and really liked the wine. It is a larger bottle for $9.99. As we were checking out, the guy who was loading the cart raved about the wine. I agreed with him!

We returned to the MH, walked the dogs, and left to meet up with Mark at Vensis Cafe. It is a brew pub with interesting food. Bob and Mark had beer, and I had a Cider Boy Strawberry/Apple hard cider. Yummy! We both had interesting ‘bowls’ and Mark had a Quesada.

We returned to Mark’s house, where he has a huge chest refrigerator that he had put in several years ago. He has 4 kegs of beer on tap!

BUT, Mark had found a large bottle of Grand Crew Tough Love, it is a bourbon barrel age stout. Evidently it was yummy, as we had to go in search of it at a liquor store to purchase a bottle. While there, I purchased a six pack of the cider! 

We decided to purchase some ice cream as it was in the 90’s. We stopped at an ice cream store called 22 Below. It was a rolled ice cream store. Okay, so what is rolled ice cream? We chose a flavor, and they take an amount of basic liquid cream and the ingredients. In my case, I had ordered chocolate Oreo. The guy took 2 Oreos and put them on the very cold ( I guess 22 below) flat surface. Then he chopped up the Oreos and pushed around the cream, which was freezing, chopping up the Oreos, mixing them up. Then he squirted chocolate syrup on the mix. He flattened it all out, then scraped it up into rolls. Then he put them into a cup, in my case a small cup, standing up. Then he put on whipped cream,and any 3 toppings I requested. It was interesting, but been there, done that! We liked the Ice Cream puffs we had last week much better.  Below is someone else’s large order.

We returned to the MH, walked and fed the dogs, then went to Taco Tuesday at the Lodge. Bob had a chicken Quesada and I had a Taco Bowl. We walked back over to the MH and watched TV while doing more laundry.

Wednesday- Another moving day. We drove out of the Lodge RV park at about 9:30. We traveled on Hwy. 22, right thru the town of Salem. Salem is the Capitol, but is is not that busy. We were not happy about traveling thru town but it was the only route.

We continued on Hwy. 22, until we reached Hwy. 18. Mark had said not to take Hwy, 22 all the way to Tillamook, as it becomes very curvy, so we turned onto Hwy. 18. A little way down the road, there were accident signs posted. We ended up stopped in a line, waiting to go past the accident.

We eventually turned onto Costal 101 and drove up to the Tillamook Elks Lodge RV Park. It is not located at the Elks Lodge, it is several miles south. They had recently upgraded their sites, and we pulled into a very nice 50 amp/FHU site. $25 night for 4 nights.

We settled into a site, set up, and ate lunch. We did some tasks, then took a short nap. We had a quiet evening at home.

Thursday-  We were out the door by 8:30 and we traveled to McMinnville. Our destination was the Evergreen Aviation Museum. We arrived at almost 10:30, as the road had been wet with rain. So far, the weather has not cooperated!

We entered and paid $24 each, senior price. I though that was a little expensive, but it includes several movies, none of which interested us. Below is Howard Hughes Spruce Goose, from the rear. It is so large it is almost impossible to get a picture of the whole plane!

We walked around to look at the exhibits. At 11:00, they were having a free guided tour. It was to last 2 hours. I listened for awhile, then I went over and sat by the Goose. We had watched to short movie about the plane and Howard Hughes. If you have seen the movie, The Aviator, it tells basically the same thing.

Bob went to the very end of the tour. Lee, the tour guide was excellent, but a little long winded. By the end, there were only 3 people left in the tour. It actually, only went to 12:15. Bob came and got me and we went over to the café and ate lunch.

Here are a few other of the planes.

Below is the miniature of the plane, which was used in the film the Aviator.

Below is a picture of the whole Spruce Goose, as best as I could get the whole thing. You can see how it is so large, in comparison to the rest of the planes.

Below is a Huey Helicopter.

Below is a replica of what could be considered the first airplane. It is from a conceptual model be Leonardo DaVinci. It could not fly, due to the weight to lift ratio,  but he had the right idea, just not the tools or materials. Flying could not really occur until we had engines.

Of course, there was info on the Wright Brothers. and their plane and flight.

When we went back to tour the Spruce Goose. When we were first there, we watched the movie, and then a school bus full of kids has shown up, so that was why we went to the tour.

Now we had it almost to ourselves. To be honest, they do not give you much to see inside. It was disappointing.

You can purchase a tour of the cockpit, 4 people for $30. Another guy was there and asked if we wanted to split the tour. Sure we said, so the four of us went to get tickets. The next tour was at 2:45, too late for us, so we left and went to the Space Museum. There was a plane there that Bob wanted to see.  It was a Lockheed SR 37 A. It was big…

We stopped at the town’s Farmers Market, which was larger than it first appeared. It was about 2 blocks long.

By this time the weather had improved inland, but when we returned to the coast, it was still raining. We had a quiet dinner at home.

Friday- We did some tasks around the MH. At about 11:30 drove about 6 miles north to Tillamook. We stopped at a seafood dive directly across Hwy. 101 from the Tillamook Creamery. We had an excelled lunch. I had shrimp tacos and Bob had the Fried clams and fries. He said both were delicious.

We stopped at a store that advertised camping/RV  supplies. The fan over the bed had died, and we are going to replace it. They did not have one. So Bob dropped me off for a mani/pedi, and he returned to the MH. I had a very basic mani/pedi, and texted Bob to pick me up. We drove a little bit north to the Creamery.

Since we had visited in 2011, the place has changed. This week, they opened a new Visitor Center, with an enlarged parking lot and a new overflow parking lot. The facility was mobbed! We walked through the gift store, and did not purchase anything. Even if we wanted to, the line was very, very long.

We went up the stairs and viewed the exhibits and watched the workers making the cheese. Then we moved into the very long tasting line. We tasted 4 different cheeses.

We returned back downstairs and moved into the next very long line for ice cream. We purchased 2 scoops to split, 1 of Mudslide and the other of Oregon Dark Cherry. Both were excellent, and when you combined them you had Black Forest flavors.

We stopped at Fred Meyers and purchased a few items. The cherry’s are very good right now, as are the strawberries.

We returned to the MH. I went over to the book exchange and picked up 2 DVD’s and 1 book. I will be returning with 3 DVD;s and 2 books.

We went to dinner at the Elks Lodge. They had a nice menu, but their prime rib was $21.95, which we thought was pricey. We opted for the ribs. OMG, they were the best ribs I think we have ever had! The meal was a small salad bar, roll, ribs, potato salad, and baked beans. The ribs literally fell off the bone, without any burned areas! The potato salad and baked beans were excellent also and the roll was a nice hot yeast roll. We ended up bringing home over half of each of our potato salad and the beans. Good cook!

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