18.11.01-30 McMinnville

I was sad to be leaving Newport, but enjoyed a trip to the commercial fishing dock area on getaway day....

where I had lunch with a friend and got to watch him at work activities packaging the fish 

caught by charter fishing boat guests when the boat came back to the dock. 

Bonus for me I was gifted a couple freeze packed meals of ling cod and a crab for cooking later. 

It is a short two hour drive from Newport to McMinnville, and I timed the drive to arrive just before dark.  Immediately I was reminded I don’t need to be at the coast to see a beautiful sunset 

Now I live in a beautiful RV Resort park 

only a 10 minute drive from Eric and Claudia’s house. Mateo made his first trip to grandma’s house my first weekend in town

and we went for a walk in my neighborhood - there is a huge air museum complex next to the RV resort which I enjoy walking for exercise on a regular basis. 

I go to their house on a regular basis as well ...for meals - this one was to celebrate Carletta’s birthday.  I made chicken piccata following her hand written recipe card, and her famous strawberry pie for dessert.
.....and to help Clau on her sewing machine by finishing up a couple projects that Lupita started while she was here but did not have time to finish before returning to Cancun because she was busy with newborn activities.

We had a quiet and delicious Thanksgiving together at home

where Eric has a hammock set up in the living room for all to enjoy 
And I get to cuddle with Mateo
Happy baby. Happy Grandma

Besides family activities, I’ve been having fun getting to know McMinnville and the surrounding area.  I go lap swimming in the McMinnville public pool 

and am finding places to enjoy live music in the downtown area on 3rd street

I walked the parade route when Santa came to town 

and tapped down some fermenting grapes during an open house on Thanksgiving weekend at one of the (literally) hundreds of wineries in the area. 
I met a new friend while enjoying music at a local restaurant and she came to visit me because she is on the verge of being a part-time RV traveler as well and wanted to see my set-up

I made one day trip out of town to visit an Art fair where I lusted after beautiful quilts
but am happy to report I continue to derive great satisfaction from my knitting - it is therapeutic and takes up less space at home - if you don’t count my large inventory of future project yarn:) - and  is more portable than sewing. In fact, I took one out of town overnight trip back to Newport where I had a nice overnight visit with Linda, my ranger friend from South Beach State Park

and spent the next day at my table at a craft fair and sold a good number of my knitted items. 

Future business?  I doubt it from a financial perspective, but being a traveling crafter makes good emotional sense!

Happy knitting to me!

18.10.04-31 Off duty at South Beach State Park

Newport is a short two hour drive to McMinnville where Eric and Claudia live, so I went there twice during the month. Once to visit while Lupita, la otra abuela de Mateo, was there

And once to visit while tia Isa, la hermana de Claudia, was there.

We celebrated Clau’s birthday

And enjoyed a nice “peace, love, trees” walk through the fall colors with a happy sleeping baby. 
Besides being a grandma.....

I also enjoyed staying in Newport on my off duty days. I rode my bike to see the sunset a few times 

and in the mornings for exercise I took the nice bike path from the state park through the dune forest to the jetty

where I went to observe the tide changes and the fishing fleet traffic on the water, and ride inland along the south side of the jetty to the bay front fishing pier where people come for crabbing. No crabbing for me, I just enjoy the view. 

One beautiful day I rode OVER the bridge.
for a good view into the south side pleasure marina and the Yaquina Bay. 

I was thinking about how much this physical geography is so similar to the Golden Gate (on a much smaller scale, of course, but similar - beautiful bridge, beautiful sheltered harbor along the Pacific coast) and thinking about Mike and all the time we spent here AND there together. He was thinking about me at the same time because I felt the full body tingles
 and saw his image walking along the shore under the bridge. Now THAT is (and was) a good day:). 

Here I am looking back toward the bridge through the north side commercial fishing port 
I stopped on my way home at Rogue Brewery on the bay for a bit of refreshment and toasted Mike
for sharing our good memories of being here together in 2014 and in earlier years. 

Once a week I joined a group of people at the Newport Senior Center on Wednesday afternoons for Pinochle. I am really enjoying that game - it is a bit of a challenge to learn, and I have my cousins in Iowa to thank for getting me started. 
I went three different times on sunny days to my favorite sun bathing spot on the north jetty

Where I let fly some of Mike’s ashes fly last year.  
Fun times in Newport. I look forward to returning next year to do it again:)

18.10.04-31 camp hosting at South Beach

I missed the camp host orientation on Oct 1st, but this is my 5th time hosting here, so I did not miss/need all the information - but I did miss the introductions - there are 12 total host spots, and it is always fun to regroup with familiar faces and meet the new ones.   

This year I’m staying in a new area of the park - the four space host loop right by the front entrance, (but just off the main road, so it there is not as much traffic as there is in front of the six space host row on the main road into the camping area.

I met my three host neighbors when they stopped by to say hello in my first 24 hours. 

My main assignment is working in the Hospitality Center. 

This is the large solid-walled yurt just inside the park where guests come for firewood, ice, information and yurt registration. 

I was trained by Kathy 

We recognized each other from 2016, but did not really meet that year.  We are well acquainted now though, after a month of cooperation in the hospitality center. 

I volunteered for the last shift: 4-8 PM four days per week. 

I’d work the cash register, stock the firewood carts, pass out yurt keys to incoming guests and chat with guests who came in to get warm, stay dry, or use the internet. 

It was perfect for me because I could maintain my night owl routine.  I’d close up shop at 8 and get home at about 8:30 ( a short 2 minute walking commute), have dinner and start cooking the next day’s food ( for me it  is better to cook at night so I don’t waste the daylight hours in the kitchen but there is always something healthy and delicious to eat).  Then I’d stay up too late, watching movies and knitting until the week hours of the night, then sleep until I woke up naturally the next morning. 

Besides the hospitality center,  when the weather was nice ( which turned out to be more often than any other year I’ve worked here in October) and it was an on duty day, I assigned myself to Scotch Broom “search and destroy” duty.  I really enjoy this work - it is outdoors ( better than cabin/yurt cleaning) and independent ( I choose where I want to work) with lots of variety ( the park is large and I know where the scotch broom problem areas are ). Here I am out in the back tent-only campsite area which is closed this late in the year.  

I was able to completely “sweep” through this and other areas I’ve clear cut in prior years to catch the little straggler plants which are now bigger and still easy to remove as isolated plants rather than a solid patch.

A two hour session of this activity is all my body can handle in one sitting. The end of scotch broom pulling always led to a trip to the burn pile to offload the current haul. 

On my last sunny day of work , after a good rain spell the rangers were burning the pile.  Quite a sight to see! 

After my load had been dumped at the burn pile, I would return home, gather my knitting and food for another four hour session in the hospitality center.

Sounds like work?  Well, it was not ALL work and no play.  The details of off duty play time are coming in the next post.  The on duty time I call better exercise than going to the gym, enjoyable outdoor activity, and fair exchange for the site and the pleasure of living in this beautiful spot for a month.  For an example of the beauty: here is a view of the beautiful wide unpopulated sandy beach

and a sunset equally as beautiful on the Oregon coast as the many I’ve posted from sunny Southern California!