Winter Leaves A Mess

Winter time takes a toll on many things.  We notice that many times just driving down the highways.  The roads become “weathered” with pot holes and settling.  The yards and gardens need maintenance when spring comes.  Then, to top all of that off, if you’ve been sitting in the deserts of the Southwest during the winter, you’ve accumulated more than what you feel is your share of dust and dirt.  However, until you’re actually out of there, you can’t do much.

Another place I’ve discovered that winter takes it’s toll is on us.  We become so accustomed to eating and eating and more eating that the pounds start coming back on.  Spring and summer usually means cutting back on some of the eating out because most of the RVing friends have headed in other directions.

Even our summer home base took a beating this last winter.  We have a little cabin (very little cabin) at an elevation of about 1400’.  That’s not very high but it’s high enough in the state of Washington that it gets a bit of snow.  This last winter the snow and ice brought down some pretty heavy branches and even cracked a tree in half.  Some of the branches nestled into the deck and the property we have.  The part of the tree that cracked away …. fell onto the roof and then down the side of the cabin.  The gaping hole isn’t large but it’s there and needs to be replaced.  

So now we have lots of cleaning up to do.  One nice thing is that some of the grass we had thrown around last summer is showing through where we had a second RV site dug out.  Hopefully, it’ll keep on spreading and keep on growing to help keep the mud and slides out.  We can’t plant much else there or the deer would have a frenzy with the fresh vegetation.

Speaking of deer we did spot a few grazing.  Their winter coats are starting to give way to the summer coat but not quite yet.  It won’t be long though until we get to meet all the mothers introducing their  new babies.  I guess we probably need to stock up again with the wet cob we feed them.

Elks RV parking  - St. Helens, OR

Terry left on Tuesday for a couple dental appointments in Phoenix.  Moving doctors and dentists around when you’re on the road can be a little challenging.  First we had to move them from Texas where we lived to Arizona where we resided for a short time.  Now we have all the doctors in Portland but still have the dentist in Phoenix.  That’ll get changed next.

We took a ride across the bridge from Longview, WA to Rainier, OR and then drove south to St. Helens on Hwy 30. We didn’t go far. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive. We love the cute little town of St. Helens. It’s small, has everything one would need, close to the river, little traffic and is a bedroom community to Portland. If we were ready to settle down, it would certainly be a place of interest.

RV park on the Columbia River in Goble, OR – usually fills up with fishermen

There are several places right on the Columbia River where RV parking is available.  The private little marinas are still pretty empty but with fishing season and summer just around the corner, they won’t be that way long.

Fishing at Trojan Lake – close to Rainier, OR