TravelStream™ news feed for member chictravelers2 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/chictravelers2 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:52:40 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1254420321/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1254420321/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1254420321/tpod.html Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:52:40 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Rogue River, Oregon, United States

From Coos Bay we continued on to Sami and Scott's farm on the Rogue River. We spent almost a month there last year, which was a blast and this year was, too.We didn't do all the wine-tasting, at the various wineries in the area, but that's not to say that we didn't drink wine (although I'm not a great wine fan). However, we did do a lot of other things.It seemed like several times a week, we had a few friends over for drinks and pupus (Hawaiian for appetizers) or even a BBQ dinner, etc. Then on Labor Day weekend we had two big parties. First, on Saturday, we had about 25 people at Sami's for BBQ chicken and pot luck dishes and most importantly, for me, was the Costco cake (that I really like and never have a chance to get), so we called the party an 'Un-Birthday Party' and everybody had a good time.Then on Sunday, we went over to other friends, Patty and Tim's place for BBQ hamburgers and lots more. Again, there were about 25 people (only about half of which were also at Sami's on Saturday.We also went to gatherings at a few other friends' homes, like Janine and Larry's and Stephanie and Lyle's and a couple of Pampered Chef parties, too. Stephanie has mules and donkeys, including one of the biggest donkeys I've ever seen (close to 5' at the shoulders). I only got to go horseback riding once, but it turned out to be a rather interesting ride. There were four of us and on the way home, as we were walking down a dirt road, a 'mad' cow jumped up along the fence, startling the horses. Actually, it was sort of a domino effect....Jenny, on 'Bridget' was in the lead (and the closest to the cow) and 'Bridget' spooked, jumping up and sideways, which, in turn, spooked my horse 'Hannah' but I managed to control her and stay on. Meanwhile, Sami was behind me on 'Raker' (one of her Icelandic horses), and when he spooked, her right foot slipped out of the stirrup and she decided to bail (jump off), however, she landed badly and got her hands and left elbow scraped and also rather badly bruised (or slightly cracked) a couple of ribs (therefore, she couldn't do any more riding for 2-3 weeks). While she was down, 'Raker' ran off up a side road but came back when he encountered a cattle guard, then Madi and Jenny caught him. Once we got everything under control, that crazy cow raced the fence a couple more times, so the horses weren't too happy until we moved on past the cow's territory. However, shortly after that, there were a couple of deer just down the road ahead, eating some apples from a tree, (that could have possibly been a problem...either by getting spooked or spooking the horses) so Jenny rode ahead to 'move' them along, etc.  Never a dull moment.  For those of you whom might remember my Travel Pod about last year's visit at Sami's, they had 10 horses (one has since died), 2 cows (their freezers are now well stocked), 2 pigs (one was also butchered, the other is now used for breeding), plus they still have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 rabbit (one ran away), 20+ chickens, and there's always a lot of chores to go with them, etc. Again, never a dull moment.They own a construction foundations company, which doesn't seem to help much towards finishing the remodeling of their house. They've been at it for over two years. At least they were able to move back into it when we were there last year and now they're just about ready to finish the 2nd floor (master suite, office/den, deck with hot tub, etc.). When it's finished, it will be a very beautiful house.Besides the house, the newest project was to make a 'riding arena' in the huge front yard. We all chipped in to help and it was ready very quickly. For the time being, the arena just has fence posts and rope around the perimeter but will eventually have white fencing to match the other fencing they already have around the property. Then we got a bunch of chairs and sat back, drinking wine or beer, and watched 13 year old Madi put on a show as she rode around the arena on 'Raker".  Madi 'shows' at various horse shows and while we were there, we went down to one at Yreka, CA for a weekend. Sami, Madi and I stayed in Sami's motorhome (Scott and Terry only helped on the going and returning, but stayed at home otherwise...it's only about a one hour drive OW). A couple other friends also were there and showed their horses and/or mules. Stephanie and her daughters Samantha and Jessie did very well with their mules, winning lots of ribbons and prizes. Madi got several ribbons and a nice silver belt buckle.The week before the horse show, Sami, Madi and I drove down to the 'R' Ranch, where they had just purchased a membership. It's just across the OR/CA border (less than an hour from Sami's) and has stables and riding trails, as well as, RV campsites, pools and clubhouses, etc. Unfortunately, neither one of the two camping areas are real close to the stables and the one that's right next to the Klamath River is over six miles away. Nevertheless, it's a fun place. Finally, after about six weeks of fun with great people, we hit the road headed south into CA.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250842063/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250842063/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250842063/tpod.html Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:14:13 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Coos Bay, Oregon, United States

We left Long Beach, WA and drove down the Oregon coast to the North Bend/Coos Bay area.Our friends Sami, Scott and Madi, plus several more of their friends, whom we had met the year before, came with their RVs and horse trailers with a bunch of horses and ATVs to a horse park called Wild Mare that is part of the Horsefal Dunes Park.We stayed Friday night dry camping at the Mill Casino about 4 miles from Wild Mare. Then, Saturday night we dry camped at Wild Mare, but returned to the RV park at the Mill Casino, this time with full hook-ups for Sunday night.The time at Wild Mare was full of great food, campfires and great company. They rode horses a couple of times a day and also had a bunch of ATVs for fun on the sand dunes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250840592/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250840592/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250840592/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:07:11 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Long Beach, Washington, United States

We had wanted to stay at one of our memberhip on the Oregon coast, however, they were all not available, so we stayed at the Pacific Beach Resort in Long Beach, WA. We actually drove into Oregon and across the Astoria, then across the bridge back into WA to Long Beach.The resort was only so-so, but at least it was flat, with not too many trees, with paved sites, albeit that they were very close together. It made for getting to know your neighbors and everybody was friendly. We heard that the resort had recently had a change of management, or some form of 'new' money, and they have a lot of plans for improvements. The weather was mostly overcast but only occasionally rainy.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250838492/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250838492/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250838492/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:39:49 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Silver Creek, Washington, United States

The next&nbsp;membership park&nbsp;in the direction that we wanted, did NOT live up to it's name of "Paradise"! Almost all of the sites were buried under trees, which some people like, but we don't because it's difficult to find a 'open shot' so we can get access to the TV satellite. Plus the sites were all unkept dirt and uneven, so it took <i>forever for us to set up level and with TV access.&nbsp;The sites didn't have picnic tables (most parks have them at each site) and&nbsp;were also quite close together, so our awnings almost touched our neighbors, etc. The roadways were mostly dirt and since there hadn't been any rain (which might have been worse with mud) the dust was reallly bad. By the time we left there, our dark red SUV was completely covered in tan dust.Other non-paradise things were the swimming pool wasn't heated, so it was cold! The 'store' was only open for a few hours 5 days a week (and there wasn't any other stores for minimum 12-15 miles). The WiFi only was available at the Clubhouse...when it worked...and wasn't very good to start with. Basically, the only thing good about the place, was that it was free with our membership.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250837784/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250837784/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250837784/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:06:13 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Fall City, Washington, United States

The next morning we drove on down and around, by way of&nbsp;Tacoma to the Tall Chief RV Resort near Falls City.While there, we visited with friends Gary and&nbsp;Angela&nbsp;in Redmond and on another day, Vern, who we met in Mexico the year before, drove over with his girlfriend from Gig Harbor. We went to the Snoqualmie Casino for their great buffet lunch and a nice time chatting.After lunch we went back by way of the Snoqualmie Falls Park, which was rather impressive. We were a bit surprised to&nbsp;see a scuba diver in the middle of the river, below the falls, and we could only guess what he was doing there....maybe looking for gold?&nbsp;Unfortunately, some of the other people&nbsp;who we had hoped to see while in the area, were out of town&nbsp;or otherwise unavailable. So it was soon time to start heading south.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250830386/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250830386/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250830386/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:53:07 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

As I said, we took the first ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. It was a 90 min crossing, however, between the required getting there early, the loading, the crossing and then the unloading and Canadian Customs, it took almost 5 hours!! I think, since we were almost the last car off, the Custom&nbsp;inspectors just wanted something to do, so they almost completely emptied our SUV making sure that we weren't smuggling anything, etc.First, we drove along the scenic, oceanside&nbsp;Dallas Drive, then we drove on up to our motel in Saanich. After a short rest we went on over to the famous Butchart Gardens.Butchart Gardens have been&nbsp;on display&nbsp;since 1927 and are definitely worth a visit. The only thing that we (and many others) were disappointed with, was the lack of identifying placards for the hundreds of different floral species. Only in the Rose Garden are the various types of roses identified. Apparently, they want people to enjoy the view, which is really beautiful,&nbsp;not necessarily&nbsp;get an education.&nbsp;We had been told about the fireworks display that&nbsp;they put on each Saturday in July and August, so after checking out a lot of the gardens, we found a good&nbsp;spot to wait and 'people watch' until the 10:00 pm start of the fireworks. The fireworks were good..,.a lot of ground displays, but over all pretty good.On Sunday, we took a nice drive up Hwy 1 with lots of scenic lookouts and quaint villages. We had a delicious soup for lunch, then headed back to&nbsp;Victoria Harbor for the early check-in&nbsp;at the ferry.&nbsp;The return trip was a bit quicker and easier, but when we got back to the RV, most of the batteries were dead, so it took a while to recharge them. The next morning we drove on down and around, by way of&nbsp;Tacoma to the Tall Chief RV Resort near Falls City.While there, we visited with friends Gary and&nbsp;Angela&nbsp;in Redmond and on another day, Vern, who we met in Mexico the year before, drove over with his girlfriend from Gig Harbor. We went to the Snoqualmie Casino for their great buffet lunch and a nice time chatting.After lunch we went back by way of the Snoqualmie Falls Park, which was rather impressive. We were a bit surprised to&nbsp;see a scuba diver in the middle of the river, below the falls, and we could only guess what he was doing there....maybe looking for gold?&nbsp;Unfortunately, some of the other people&nbsp;who we had hoped to see while in the area, were out of town&nbsp;or otherwise unavailable. So it was soon time to start heading south.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250812126/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250812126/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1250812126/tpod.html Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:33:44 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Black Diamond, Washington, United States

From Yellowstone we crossed Idaho on into Washington and we stayed a week each at the Ponderosa Falls RV Resort in Chaney, WA and the O'Sullivan RV Resort in Othelo, WA before getting to the Lake Sawyer RV Resort near Black Diamond, WA. We always try to stay at one of the many parks that are part of our memberships with The Resorts of Distinction or Coast to Coast. They're usually nice parks and they save us money.&nbsp;Black Diamond is about a 35-45 min drive from downtown Seattle. We took advantage of the City Pass that Seattle offfers, which allows entrance to 5 major tourist attractions for a discounted rate of $54.00 each.So we went to the Seattle Aquarium, we took a sightseeing boat ride around the harbor, and then had dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. On another day we explored the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field, with was interesting. We missed out on doing the Seattle zoo because we ran out of time and energy. I really miss my electric scooter for these kind of things. It's out of commission now&nbsp;because it needs a new transmission, but I haven't been able to afford it yet, so I have to make due with borrowing a regular manual wheelchair at the various venues (if they have them).From Black Diamond we went over to&nbsp;Ocean City on the&nbsp;WA coast. We stayed the first week at the Ocean Shores RV Resort, then the second week we divided between the Oceana RV Resort and the Copalis Beach RV Resort. The weather didn't co-operate very much...it was mostly cool, dreary and off 'n' on rainy the whole time.From the&nbsp;Ocean City area we did the loop up and over the Olympic&nbsp;Peninsula up to Port Angeles and dry camped at a RV Park about 4 miles from the Port Angeles Harbor starting Friday night. Then Saturday morning we took the first ferry over to Victoria. We had to be there early to get our SUV&nbsp;in line and most everyone got out to chat or walk around etc. There was even a cute raccoon that was probably looking for a handout, but I didn't have anything, so I just took some photos.See my next chapter for our trip to Victoria and Vancouver Island.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1246403854/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1246403854/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1246403854/tpod.html Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:48:09 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Livingston, Montana, United States

From Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore, we headed west along the I 90 and the weather was rather gloomy. We spent a night at one of the Billings' WalMarts, then a night in Livingston and drove from there into Yellowstone National Park.&nbsp;Unfortunately, the weather got worse as we got close to Yellowstone. Almost&nbsp;our whole time there it was wet...from light drizzle to heavy rain...and quite chilly! There was even lots of snow all over the mountains, but thankfully,&nbsp;not on the roads.&nbsp;The weather really spoiled our visit to this marvelous park, so we didn't go all the way to Old Faithful and we only did the northern loop.We saw a few animals but nothing like I'm sure we would have seen if the weather hadn't shorten our visit.&nbsp; Also, sadly, most of the few photos that I did take of&nbsp;a few&nbsp;elk, some bison&nbsp;and some scenery, accidentaly got deleted. Oh well.The next couple of weeks were rather quiet and unexciting, so there's not much to say.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243371780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243371780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243371780/tpod.html Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:08:56 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Rapid City, South Dakota, United States

We left Minnesota early Tuesday for the long drive across South Dakota to near Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore. Due to park restrictions, we stayed at Hart's Ranch,&nbsp;a Coast to Coast Resort for one night, then moved over the next day to Rushmore Shadows. Actually, Hart's Ranch is the nicer park, but Rushmore Shadows is nice, too. Unfortunately, both are quite a bit outside Rapid City, so it's about a 12+ mile drive to a supermarket or a little farther to WalMart. The first evening at Rushmore Shadows, we had a nice surprise when about 15-18 White Tail deer trotted across the grass, right in front of our RV.&nbsp;It happened rather quickly and we were so involved with watching, that I didn't get a photo. I kept hoping to see them again, but unfortunately didn't.&nbsp; It's&nbsp;several miles to the Mt. Rushmore and/or&nbsp;Crazy Horse Monuments, so as we started to make plans, we&nbsp;heard about a recommended full-day bus tour of the area, so we signed up and did the tour on Friday. &nbsp; After checking in and a pancake breakfast, we got on the bus with our driver/guide Dan. He was pretty knowledgeable and a good driver, which later became <i>very important. First stop was at the Mt. Rushmore National Park. If you ever saw the Hitchcock movie 'North by Northwest' it made seeing it in person even more unique. We had both been&nbsp;to the Monument&nbsp;before, many years ago,&nbsp;before all&nbsp;the Museum and Exhibits that they have now, which really enhance the experience. After that, we were driven on&nbsp;the very scenic, narrow and winding&nbsp;Iron Mountain Highway (that originally was built in the Model-T days) over the mountains, through the old fashioned 1860s style&nbsp;town of Custer (yep, Gen. George Armstrong Custer left his mark throughout the area, even though he wasn't here that long). Along the way, we saw lots of different wildlife like&nbsp;both White Tail and Mule deer, Prong Horn Antelope, wild turkeys, Big Horn Sheep and American Bison.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Some of the Bison were right next to, or very close to our bus, however, the larger herds were farther away. We also had a fun stop to feed the wild, but very tame, burros. Dan gave us leftover pancakes to feed to the burros, which was fun....especially, when I was trying to feed them with&nbsp;my left&nbsp;hand while trying to take photos with&nbsp;my right. Then, after a lunch stop at the Lodge in Custer State Park, we continued over the Needles Highway, another scenic, impresive, narrow&nbsp;highway originally built by the same man back in the 1920-30s. We also stopped at Sylvan Lake, which was beautiful. You might recognize it also from the National&nbsp;Treasure movie &nbsp; Along the way, we went under and over several 'pig tail' (wood beam construction) bridges and through several tunnels that the bus just barely squeezed through...one of them only had&nbsp;4'' clearance on each side and the one near "The Eye of the Needle" only had 2" clearance on each side!!! We finally got to the Crazy Horse Monument. Even though it's a work in progress and doesn't look like they've completed much, the movie showing the work that started back in the late&nbsp;1940s puts things in a better perception. It's amazing to see how the sculpture artist, Korczak Ziolkowski, conceived and originally worked with mostly hand tools and dynamite.&nbsp; Korczak&nbsp;(until his death at age 76 in 1982),&nbsp;his wife Ruth (18 yrs. younger)&nbsp;and 7 of their 10 children have worked on the mountain and/or in the tourist area ever since. The tourist area is <i>very impressive and <i>huge!&nbsp; The twin movie theaters&nbsp;show the 'Dynamite and Dreams' film every 20 minutes.&nbsp;There's a&nbsp;large museum of donated artifacts from a multitude of American Indian Tribes, including things used by historical people like Pocahontas and various Indian Chiefs, a full-size tipi (teepee), several Indian artists making, displaying and selling their crafts, and lots more. Then there's the Gift Shop with tons of stuff. Beyond that, outside, there's&nbsp;a restaurant, a snack shop,&nbsp;their original log cabin that Korczak built himself, and the scale model of what the finished monument will look like. &nbsp;There's also the Native American Cultural Center and a lot more fascinating stuff. Unfortunately, we only had about 90 minutes to explore...I think I could have spent a week just looking at all the&nbsp;museum exhibits. I was very impressed....even more so because it has all been done with funds donated and/or by the entrance fees, etc. no government money of any kind. They adamantly&nbsp;want to keep it independent, although, the work could probably progress faster with more funding. Also, at night during the summer months, they put on a spectacular laser light show, which, of course, we couldn't stay to see. I highly recommend that you should Google them online and check out their website. So, our visit here has been a good one. We've had several short bursts of rain almost every day, the days have been pleasant in the high 70s, with chilly nights great for sleeping. There's another tourist attraction at the entrance to our RV park called&nbsp;Old McDonald's Farm...I think it's more of a petting zoo type thing...we didn't actually go inside, but they have a plank and rope&nbsp;suspended bridge (about 20'-25' off the ground and 30+' long) that often has billy goats walking across it (they occasionally put some food up there to entice them, but by now the goats are so used to it, they don't need the enticement).&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243277340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243277340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chictravelers2/6/1243277340/tpod.html Mon, 25 May 2009 15:53:01 -0400 Time for our 2009 travels, but first we bought a place of our own at Winter Haven.

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Owensville, Missouri, United States

From Oklahoma, we went diagonally NE to Owensville, MO in the mid-eastern part of the state. It's totally out in the boondocks, but was a very nice resort. It covers over 500 acres, has two lakes and several smaller ponds, all supposed to be good for fishing, however, Terry didn't catch anything the one time he tried.They had a lot of things to do, including several swimming pools, both indoor and outdoor; a sports arena with lots of games to play and an adult lounge with WiFi. Plus a little general store and small cafe. The new huge clubhouse is still under construction after&nbsp;having burnt down last year.In spite of having many nice features, including modern clean bathhouses, it wasn't much to my liking, in that it was so spread out. Also, the area where&nbsp;we were could use quite a bit of improvements for the sites...they were just vague gravel, not well defined or level, etc.The weather stayed nice while we were there (sunny and not too hot),&nbsp;and also on the day we left to drive further north. We had to leave on Friday 5/22 because, like most resorts, holidays are reserved for owners only, not outside members like us.&nbsp;So we drove to just north of Des Moines, Iowa for one overnight at a WalMart and got some grocery shopping done as well.The next morning, as we were driving north to Minnesota, it poured for most of the morning.&nbsp;We finally got to the Checkers Welcome Campground in Welcome, MN where we sat out the Memorial Day weekend. The park didn't have anything special, but it had the requirements...WiFi, clear satellite access,&nbsp;adequate bathrooms and nice people.
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