News from Camp Dewey

Grab a cup of coffee, it is a looooooooong blog post.

 

Gas prices have really put a kabash on our plans to travel across the USA.  It takes a lot of money to fill up & with a large truck & trailer, well you get the picture.

 

Since March we have looked at property in different areas of Nevada & Oregon.  Fell in love with Yerington, Carson City, & Verdi in Nevada & we have always dreamt about finding something on the coast of Oregon.  We love the ocean & fishing, crabbing, going for mussels & clams for Rod & anything that's around for me.

 

In April we found a house, actually it was two houses on a large lot in Lakeside, OR near Coos Bay to the south &  Florence to the north.  Obviously it is on a large lake, it's near the ocean & one of the houses we could rent & it would pay for the mortgage, property taxes & insurance while we have the other house.  Both have large yards & outbuildings.  They are in a small neighborhood, walking to everything in town, & of course lots of fishing in the lake for Rod.

 

It was hard for Rod last year travelling because in the desert there really wasn't anything for him to do & I know he really missed having a yard & garden & his workshop.

 

Soooooooo, when we contacted the realtor on this property in Lakeside in April he really wasn't interested in showing us the property or even contacting the owner.

 

Fast forward to 4th of July week.  Our friends have a second home across the street from this property & called us that the price had been reduced.  We contacted another realtor who just so happened to be looking at it to buy as an investment property.  Great realtor, by the way so when we contacted her she said, if we wanted it she would work it for us.

 

The next day our friends called us to tell us the owner was at the property mowing the lawn & get down there (we were in Florence & 35 minutes away) there to talk to him.

 

We did & on Monday we put in a very low ball offer, never imagining he would accept.  He did.  He was going through a divorce & was forced to sell even though he didn't want to because both the houses had been amazing rentals for him.

 

Since the 8th of July we have been going through everything you have to go through to buy a house, but in the case 2 houses.

 

We have jumped & cleared all the hurdles & now we are just waiting for the appraisal & closing.  It will close between Aug. 16 - Sept. 1.  After it closes we will do a few things with the big house we are renting, then get renters.

 

The cottage we are going to fix up & redo & eventually we will live in the big house which we will remodel & rent the cottage maybe for summer rentals for people who want to vacation on the coast.

 

Our heads are swimming & we are so excited we were able to find property like this for a smoking great price!  Whoo Hoo!

 

We can still travel, but not as far as we wanted, but along the coast & there are a lot of Thousand Trails & RPI places which are free or $10 a night.  We LOVE the coast so we win, win, win!

 

We had gone back & forth going south one more year or staying & we decided to stay at our new, old house.  Frankly I am so happy & I know Rod can't wait to fish, etc.  We have plans for the cottage.  It is so cute & we wanted a fixer upper to do & my head is spinning with ideas.  We will still live in the trailer for awhile until we redo the cottage, but that is OK.  Plenty of room & storage in both houses.

 

Anyway that's it for now.  We are staying between Coos Bay (The Mill RV Park), Lakeside (Osprey RV Park) & Florence (Port of Siuslaw RV Park & Marina).  All of them are really nice, have cable & in Florence we can walk to everything!

 

Can't wait to get started.

 

 

Where has June gone?

I blinked & June was gone.  One reason for the blackout, we have been in Internet hecky-poo.  In other words, the only real Internet we have had is on our phones or if we lug the computer to a building with the Internet.

After we left Florence we went to Roseburg & stayed at the Escapees RV Park in Sutherlin.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Lots of activities & an amazing lending library!  I went to a Craft afternoon & met some really nice people.

After a week we headed to Bend, Oregon & the Thousand Trails RV Park.  It is the one we signed up with TT many years ago.  Beautiful campground, NO TV, NO INTERNET (except in aforementioned outbuildings), lots of activities, craft selling every Sat. & Sun.(I sold cards 2 Sat.), lots of rain.  Rod fished - NO fish!  Watched lots of movies!

We wanted to go to Bend before the hot weather started, but we got almost 2 weeks of cold & rainy weather.  We were able to swim at TT 1 day when we took an water aerobics class together.

We did some exploring - Peterson's Rock Garden in Redmond, OR.  Rod went there as a little boy & wanted to go back.  It was really cool.  This man made scenes, bridges, houses, the Statue of Liberty, etc. all out of rocks & minerals.  The place had lots of peacocks & peahens.  Some of the peacocks had their feathers out completely shaking them at other peacocks & visitors.

Found an amazing stamp store in Bend.  It's called the Christmas Presence (spelled exactly that way).  So much stuff it was a little overwhelming, but fun.

Rod is obsessed with "Slap Yo Mama" hot sauce ever since he saw it on Redneck Vacation.  Well, they don't sell it anymore in Roseburg, so we started looking online.  Happened to see it was at World Market (aka Cost Plus) & drove by one in Redmond on the way to the rock garden.  We stopped on the way home & sure enough they had it as a sauce, spice & fish coating.  We bought it all & I have a very happy husband.  Amazon was charging as much to ship as it cost for the bottle of hot sauce.

Before heading to the coast we stayed 3 nights in LaPine, OR, 14 miles south of Bend at Cascade Meadows RV Park. (RPI)  The first really nice day we headed to Paulina Lake.  I sat under a tree with Kilo & Rod fished.  He caught 2 Rainbow trout!  Yeah!  Wish we could have gone there earlier because I guess everyone was having luck. It was so hot that day when we returned, we went swimming & in to the hot tub. 

The last week in June found us back at the Escapees RV Park.  Next, to the coast & not soon enough.  The hot weather has been brutal.  Can't wait for the coast & cooler weather.