Ready to Roll

Ready to Roll

Our History

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Ohio, United States
Having recently retired we are fulfilling our long time dream. We began our camping life with a tent in 1969 adjusting as each of our three sons arrived over the years and gradually progressed to a 32' Class A in 2007. Even after our sons became too busy with their own interests, we continued dreaming over the years. The Louisville, KY 2003 Great North American RV Rally and the book "Movin' On" convinced us that a motorhome after retirement was really for us! In 2007 we sold our home and disposed of most of our belongings and awaited the wife's retirement on February 1, 2008. We were out in our first motorhome ten times in our first summer in 2007, with our grandson joining us eight of those ten times. Since he must stay behind with his mom and dad to continue school, we told him he can join us on vacations (by car or plane) anywhere we are as we travel the US. Imagine the history lessons he could acquire! However, Mom and Dad don't look at it that way, especially the flying. Fortunately we don't miss work one bit!! We just miss the friends there. We have many hobbies to keep us busy when we decide to sit still for a day. Hope to see you on the road.

Monday, September 19, 2011

VIEWS OF MT HOOD AND SMOKE FROM FIRES

Mt. Hood has been a very present icon for our stay in Oregon. It was a gorgeous view seen from several locations when traveling down Rt. 26 from Portland and Gresham. There were just two good views when leaving Sandy OR and I usually grabbed the camera most trips down the road. We liked to compare the shots!! We hope that you enjoy the views as we did!! May 20, 2011 2:17 pm June 17, 2011 3:52 pm
August 15, 2011 Loved the clouds!!
August 19, 2011
August 22, 2011 2:23pm
Love the clouds in front and above the mountain and you will notice that there does not seem to be as much snow on the top. However, they boast the only place in the western US where there is skiiing year around.
When we became aware of the fires around Oregon caused by lightning, we began to watch the news daily from the first of September.
This map shows the location of what they called the Dollar Lake fire and it's proximity to Mt. Hood Village RV Resort in the lower left of this picture. It was across the highway and across one mountain ridge from us.
This particular fire also was of interest because of the location of the Portland water shed in that valley. That water shed provides Portland with it's entire water supply.
On Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, we decided to go to IKEA on the north side of Portland near the airport and the Columbia River. When we came out of the store, this was the smokey view!! The report was that the fire near Mt. Hood River, a little town east along the Columbia River, was giving off so much smoke and the humidity kept the smoke low so that it traveled west along the Columbia. To say the least, we were amazed!!
Sept. 3, 2011 1:57 pm
Sept. 3, 2011 2:04 pm
Sept. 3, 2011 5:08 pm
View from Highway 26 going east from Sandy OR
After getting back to the campground and talking with some people who have lived for years in this area and had connections with people working in the area fire departments, we decided to pack the Jeep with important things, especially completed scrap booking pages and photographs of the kids childhoods, medical records, etc. We also packed a suitcase to be able to leave for a week or so. Just in case!! We figured we could leave the motor home if we had to. And of course, if we were away when they made a decision to evacuate we would not be caught out unprepared!!
Sept. 8, 2011 12:10 pm
The view going east on highway 26 from Sandy OR
Sept. 10, 2011 6:09 pm
Saturday evening the smoke smell was strong so we decided to take a walk around our campground. This was the view looking north from the campground, over highway 26 and the mountain ridge. Sept. 10, 2011 6:17 pm
Saturday evening view looking west from our campground. The sun was a beautiful red, but our camera could not pick up that color properly!! I was disappointed!!
Sept. 11, 2011, 7:56 am
Sunday, this was ash found on our car when we left for church. We decided to stay away from the campground and the smoke for the afternoon. We stopped for blackberry cobbler at Shari's for lunch and then shopped in Gresham at some of our favorite stores including Goodwill. That store has been my favorite for finding things that I can put to good use for scrap booking, especially Creative Memories stuff including albums. I am not sure if it is local donations there or if it comes from their warehouse, but I sure have benefited and tried to stop back at least once a week!! I will certainly miss that store!!
Sept. 12, 2011 6:56 pm
I hope that you enjoyed the comparisons as much as we did.
We worked our last day at Mt. Hood RV Village Resort and enjoyed the employee picnic that day also. Then on Thursday evening Tim and Judy from Sandy Baptist Church stopped out to bring us dinner before our departure. We again had a wonderful visit with them and so regret that we did not get better acquainted with them earlier in our stay in Mt. Hood area!! We just have to hope that they get to Arizona while we are there or connect back up with them on our next tour through Oregon. But we have no idea when that might be!!
On Friday, September 16th we left Mt. Hood and Portland for points on west. Stay tuned for the next points of interest!!
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