Hunkering down and a crab feed

Hi there everyone,

Well, we are settling in for the biggest storm of the season. The jet stream has moved south from the northern part of Oregon down to central california. As a result, we are expecting rain for the next 7 days straight. The rain started to move through today, but knowing it was on it's way, I decided to batten down the hatches on Saturday. After checking out the roof and repairing some rongs on the ladder on the back of the trailer and putting away un-needed items, I felt we were ready to 'Weather the storm'.

Later in the afternoon, Carol and I attended a crab feed for the Up-country rotary. Though Crab isn't Eric's favorite food, they had plenty of Salad, rolls and Clam Chowder. That meant there was all that much more Crab for Carol!!! It also gave us a chance to help Bill Ealy celebrate his 60th birthday. It was wonderful having some 200 people singing 'Happy Birthday' to the old boy!!!

Eric's been fighting alergies this weekend so he has been laying kind of low on Sunday, but he is re-bounding nicely. Eric is off this next week. We were hoping to go to Quartzsite arizona for an RV Rally, but with the weather being kind of marginal and Carol needing to do some typing practice we have decided to stay home for the week. This will give us a chance to get cought up on a few things around home this next week.

Today (Saturday), we spent most of our time just hanging out in the trailer. We did have quite a bit of rain and wind. The power was out from Fiddletown to Martell for about 3 hours, though we are not quite sure of the cause.

We'll be trying to stay dry and hopefully you will be able to as well.

Happy Camping! - Eric and Carol -

Happy Anniversary!!!

Hi there everyone,

Well, today we celebrate one year of full timing and we could not be happier. Ok, maybe we could be happier if we were young enough or rich enough to not have to work, but we're getting there. DH still works for his brick and morter employer, DW is still looking for work. But, since DH is the only one collecting a full pay check, having the lower costs of living full time in an RV, has really helped out. We are both working towards telecommuting jobs so that we can hit the road and truely live and work from the road.

And, we are truely living life on the light side. With the exception of couple items, a bear carving that is awful heavy and two planters, we are able to pack everything into the 5er; and we do so when we go on our adventures, which we do, on average, once a month.

The pets are doing great. The three dogs and two cats are very comfortable finding their own spots in our 30 foot Cougar. The trailer is holding up very well. There is still maintenance associated with living in the 5er, but the costs are a lot less then they would have been if we were still living in a stick and brick house. I've got a couple items that I need to work on this weekend, but all in all, it is holding up well.

While we have been full timing, DH has managed to finish his second book.

Happy camping!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Goin north, to Ashland, goin north the rush is on!

Hi there everyone,

Well, we went north to Ashland Oregon for New years and a memorial for Mike, Chuck and Steve's mom, Louise. The gathering had four purposes, celebrate Christmas and New years, have a bit of family reunion and for all of us to remember Louise. It was the first time in a very long time that we all had gotten together. We were so lucky to have Steve, Elena, Morgan, Marina and Mia along with Mike, Karen, Marq, Kris and Laura and last but not least, Chuck, Teri, Scott and Kim all made it for the gathering.

We were all bummed that Mia spent most of the holidays at the Ashland Hospital giving birth to a baby appendix. The weekend was filled with virtually non-stop gatherings. The pinnacle event was the luncheon to remember Louise at Calahans restaurant and Lodge south of Ashland. It was kind of exciting 'cause the lodge burned down in 2006 and re-opened in 2008. The exciting part is that there was feared there was a fire in the chimney at the lodge. We even had fire fighters come through checking for a problem. They opened the chimney up a little bit and put things out, but we didn't have to evacuate.

There was also a wonderful bowling tournament that consisted of three games. Everyone had a great time and though most of us saw our score go down in the last game, Marina had her score increase through all three games.

This was such a special weekend, I enjoyed it so much. I am so lucky to have the wonderful family that I do. I got pretty emotional at the luncheon for Louise, but that is ok, it was an important day for all of us to remember and offer up some release.

One other great thing about this weekend is that just before we left for Oregon, I was fortunate enough to meet Bob Livingston, publisher of TrailerLife and Motorhome magazines. Hopefully he will have a chance to give me some feed back on my book so that I will have a better product in the future.

Well, time to call it a night, it was a long drive home for both Carol and I.

Merry Christmast, Happy New Year and Happy camping! - Eric and Carol Anderson -