Windseeker RV Blog with Joe and Libby

After a very rainy fall the weather has turned around we are well below normal rainfall for January... and the 10 day forecast, right, shows none in store for the next ten days. While it is kind of a welcome break for people who want to get outside, this is a La Nina year and should be much wetter than it is. I hope rains will return in February. March so we have a normal rainfall year which will lead to full lakes and streams. Also that we do not reenter a drought condition which would lead to an active wildfire season. Right now, in the midst of a crippling record drought, the massive wildfires in Southern California, as I write this, between Pacific Palisades and Altadena, are the worst in California history, and some of the very worst in modern times.

Here's wishing a Merry Christmas to all our friends and fellow travelers across the US and across the globe. Please join us and our furry friends as we once again repeat our fervent hope: "May Peace Prevail On Earth" as part of the The World Wide Network of Peace Makers with the goal to awaken the inherent consciousness of love, peace and harmony in all people.

Thanksgiving is a time for feasting... traditional roast turkey and all the trimmings. With Libby gone visiting the grandkids in San Diego, I treated myself to a feast of my own today, Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful clear bright sunny fall day, so I fired up the Mustang and headed over the bridge to Oregon to the Wood Village Burrito Shop. I ordered my favorite - the Carnitas burrito. This is really the best burrito ever. And at around 8" diameter, a real feast. Happy Thanksgiving!

We wish all our friends and readers a Happy Thanksgiving. This is our westie and our Mini Schnauzer in Turkey costumes. Fitting look for them as they are both sometimes real turkeys.

Today, Thursday, we attended the first day of the Portland RV Show held at the Portland Expo Center. We were looking for a little change of scenery and some mental stimulation. Looking at new RV's, one sometimes gets interesting ideas for enhancements to one's own RV. We saw some interesting features and variations on 5th wheel RV's and motorhomes. We were even tempted to consider upgrading the Miramar to a Tiffin Open Road 32 FA. Nice coach for sure... but now is just not the time for us to consider such a change. I did consider downsizing our 5th wheel at the lake to the trailer at the right. LOL!

This is the Sunday before the 2024 election and the world is on edge. We are relaxing at home, feeling confident things will work out, and focusing on the competition figure skating (the ISU Grand Prix de France) recorded Friday and Saturday, and The Breeders Cup Thoroughbred Horse Race recorded yesterday, while Riley and Taffy are laser focused on squirrels in the backyard. That is, when they are not resting up from the continuing squirrel campaign (note Riley's leg casually sprawled across Taffy's back).

Everywhere we drive these days the beautiful fall colors are on full display. Autumn is a beautiful time of year in the Pacific Northwest. We are home until after the November election. If things remain calm we plan to head for California to spend Thanksgiving with the grandkids. If things are too dicey then we'll probably just stay home. Fingers Crossed!. For the moment, yesterday Libby flew to New York to visit son Patrick and wife Linjia for a long weekend. I stayed home with the two dogs, whose focus, as always, is on the squirrels in the backyard. My job is to keep the squirrel feeder on tha backyard fence full.

We left Veneta too soon. Last night a rare and spectacular Aurora Borealis was seen across lower latitudes coast to coast in the U.S., something usually reserved for more northern latitudes like Alaska. One of our neighbors captured several photos and sent us this one. Pretty spectacular all right! Sorry we missed it.

Well, we have returned to Vancouver to enjoy the early fall months at home. We'll be home for about a month, after which we will then return to Veneta to pick up the motorhome and head for southern California to visit some friends, and to spend Thanksgiving with son Tim and family in San Diego, to spend some quality time with the grandkids.

After pulling the sailboat out of the water for the season and retrieving the pontoon boat from the dealer after servicing and winterizing, we drove the motorhome over to the coast to Winchester Bay where we have stayed many times before. Our friends Chris and Carol were on their way back south to California and we arranged to meet up with them for a few days. We didn't want to bring our pontoon boat along as the lake is so low now and the launch ramps are too precarious to use, so we rented a pontoon boat for a couple hours from the Tenmile Lake Marina so we could show Chris and Carol the beautiful lake. More photos on our gallery page.

Make a wish! This exceptional rainbow was visible across the lake today, in the aftermath of a rainy day. Rainbows have often had major significance in my life... like the time I was driving through the gorge to negotiate a deal to purchase the Rowena property with the owner, and as I turned the bend I was driving towards a crystal clear rainbow coming down right in the middle of the Rowena strip, symbolizing for me what I believed would be my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. and 23 years later when I sold it, that is exactly what it was. This one today was something different, but hopefully my wish will be granted to enjoy another 10 summers of sailing here before I have to say adios.

Today marked thirty days of sailing this season, our most ever since we have been coming to Fern Ridge Lake. And FR did not disappoint... as you can see from the wind forecast (right) we had winds gusting above 20 mph. We sailed with jib furled in to storm sail size. The gusts were stong and sailing challenging but we were happy to get a solid wind day for our final day. We are going to haul out tomorrow because we have plans to head over to the coast for the rest of week on Wednesday and meet up with friends Chris and Carol again.

Today the wind came up early and I decided to invite a neighbor Kim out sailing on the lake. Kim has been out with me before and is an avid student. He's been out with me before and really enjoys it. We sailed from about 2:30 - 5:30. Days are shorter now so the windy hours have shifted earlier in the day. We had a few other sailboats out with us.

Here we are a few days earlier on a really windy day making the most of the waning days of summer in this video "Sailing Fern Ridge Lake Summer 24" on youtube.

Today was our second of 4 days here cruising Tenmile Lake in our pontoon boat. Yesterday we cruised south through the entire eastern section includng both fingers where it splits at the southern end down to Johnson Creek. Today we cruised down the shorter western section including the northern finger and then on down to Chutter Creek at the extreme south end. The dogs were along for the ride of course, and enjoyed the cruise as much as we did. Temps in the mod 60's were a welcome reliefe from the mid 90's back in Veneta. Libby and the dogs were snuggled up and comfy. Look at those little white faces!

We really thought the intense heatwaves were behind us for this summer, but we were wrong and temps are predicted to briefly reach 100 again this week! Arghhhh. We got a nice treat with excellent sailing winds in the late afternoon yesterday for our 25th day of the season. Now today we have rescheduled our trip over to Tenmile Lake near the Oregon Coast. It is forecast to be 30 degrees cooler over there which will be welcome for people and dogs. From all appearances this should be a really fun lake to explore with our pontoon boat with 23 miles of shoreline. We'll be staying at Osprey Point RV Resort up at the NW corner of the south lake near the town of Lakeside. We'll also explore North Tenmile Lake while we're here. More photos on our gallery page.

We both struggled for about a week with covid symptoms... I still have some residual congestion left over from it. But we were able to get out sailing today, our 22nd day of the season, and our first time out in two weeks after dealing with unseasonably hot weather follwed by covid. Winds were excellent in the 10-12 range, with very clear blue skies after the rains rinsed the atmosphere. And with high temps in the upper 70's it was very pleasant indeed to be back out on the lake. We are expecting more of the same for tomorrow. We are hoping all the unseasonably hot weather is behind us for the summer. [Ed: we got a couple more excellent days of sailing this week, days 23 and 24, on Monday and Wednesday.]

After umpteen vaccines and boosters and four years after this thing started, Libby and I finally came down with COVID. We really have no idea how.... she gets out and about more than I do so perhaps she picked it up in a store or something and then shared it. No idea. But we got it and got it good. She started showing symptoms on Monday and had a fever peaking over 102 on Weds. Mine hit 101 today. We're hoping we have seen the worst of it. Our doctors started us both on a five day course of Paxlovid anti viral medication. Libby had to, of course, cancel her trip to San Diego to see the grandkids.

Today we headed home to Vancouver for the rest of the week so Libby can fly down to San Diego to visit the grandkids for a few days. At the right are Ollie 4 and Emery 2. Libby will fly down there Thursday to Sunday, then next Tuesday, a week from today, we will drive back down to Veneta to finish out our summer, We are hoping to get in a bunch more sailing, as well as a planned trip over to Northlake RV Resort & Marina on the shores of Tenmile Lake near the Oregon coast to do some exploring of its 25 mile perimeter with the pontoon boat.

Our first day at Darlings having dinner at the little cafe where they serve emaxing barbeque - brisket, pulled pork and bacon - we made some new friends Mel and Matt from Bend, OR. We all arranged to attend the Community Block Party in Florence on day 2 which they told us about. We all had dinner together at a riverfront restaurant, Waterfront Depot, with the background of live music from the Block Party. And then today, day 3. we invited them to join us for some pontooning down the lake. Libby took this photo of the three of us chatting and relaxing on the pontoon's comfy lounge chairs, while Libby was at the helm.

Today we left Veneta in the motorhome, driving separately with Libby driving the SUV and towing our new pontoon boat. We drove Hwy 126 over to Florence on the Oregon Coast. We will be staying at Darlings Marina & RV Resort on the shores of Siltcoos Lake. We are excited to explore some new area lakes... and this month we'll start with Siltcoos Lake, a shallow 3,164 acre lake with 28 miles of shoreline to explore. Just a couple miles from the ocean, it will be a lot cooler over there. We are packing our parkas!

Today my friends Gary and Kate from Eureka came to visit. They are staying overnight making use of our accommodations in the motorhome. There wasn't enough wind to take them out sailing, but I took Gary and Kate out on the new pontoon boat. I also invited the RV Park owner's young daughter Mary and her friend Erin to come out with us. They were thrilled. They told me they had never been on a pontoon boat before and they had also never driven a boat. So this was a highlight in these girls' summer for sure. And it was a highlight for me too... adorable girls 11 and 12 years old. Mary and Erin switched places and the girls took turns driving.. It has always been a great joy for me to introduce young people to fun new activities.

Every 4th of July, Fern Ridge Shores hosts a picnic down by the lake. Everyone brings some contribution like a salad or dessert, the management supplies hot dogs, hamburgers, buns and soft drinks. It's a chance to mingle with the neighbors and celebrate the 4th. That's the owner Ed in the golf cart in the foreground and his darling little daughter Mary. After the picnic we went sailing in excellent winds for the 4th day this week.

After leaving Crown Point we took I-84 west directly out about 55 miles to the little community of Rowena where I spent 25 years of my life developing, cultivating and enjoying my 5 acre property right on the Columbia River on one of the best stretches for windsurfing in the Gorge, a sport I thoroughly enjoyed for those 25 years. In 2009 I sold the property to a wealthy windsurfer who took my meagre efforts and turned it into the premier showplace in the Gorge. This is a shot looking up from the river at the incredible house he built, surrounded by really extravagant landscaping. More photos of the day's trip on our gallery page.

During my friends' visit to the Portland area, we came home to Vancouver for part of the time, and on Thursday I toured Chris and Carol out thru the Columbia River Gorge stopping at Crown Point (a.k.a. The Vista House) which affords some magnificent views of the Gorge such as this one looking east. Then we went to Rowena to show them my original property as it now exists after I sold it to a wealthy windsurfer in 2009. Then we had lunch at Cousin's in The Dalles and then visited my old windsurfing pal and Raging River Band partner Ted Matzen, followed by stops in Hood River and finally Multnomah Falls. More photos of the day's trip on our gallery page.

As the name Party Barge implies, the new Sun Tracker was born to party hearty. Here we are out on the lake mid afternoon enjoying margaritas, hanging out on the lake with visiting friends Chris and Carol (Carol is taking the photo)

We had a remarkable full moon tonite, known as a "strawberry moon", to coincide with the Summer Solstice. The term "strawberry moon" is named for the full moons in the 1930s, states that some Native American tribes named the full moon in June as the "strawberry moon" to match the short harvest season for strawberries. Photo taken down at the Fern Ridge Shores marina with our new Sun Tracker pontoon boat parked in its slip in the foreground.

Here's Libby and the two dogs onboard the new Sun Tracker Party Barge 18 DLX in its slip at Fern Ridge Shroes marina, just a few undred yars from our RV space. We can ride in the golf cart down to the boat whenever we wanna go out. You can see the green golf cart in the background. We also look forward to trailering the new boat to some other intriguing lakes in the area like Ten Mile Lakes. Dorena Lake, Siltcoos Lake, Detroit Lake, & Prineville Reservoir. We can take the motorhome and camp near each lake for several days while we explore the lake in the Sun Tracker, something that is not possible with the Catalina sailboat.

Well we finally decided to make a serious addition to the fun quotient here at the lake. We bought a new 2024 Sun Tracker Party Barge 18 DLX pontoon boat from Mel's Marine in Eugene. It was delivered today and they even launched it for us at the Fern Ridge Shores Marina where we will keep the boat when using it here at this lake. We also plan to travel to other lakes in the area with the motorhome and take the Sun Tracker for lake expeditions. This photo is me driving it from the launch ramp to our slip in the marina. You can see a whole page of photos of the new boat on our special large format Sun Tracker Gallery Page.

Today we had excellent wind all afternoon, first at 8-10 and later 10-12. We took Chris and Carol out for several hours and had perfect weather. Afterwards we all went back to their campsite and enjoyed a margarita, some homemade quacamole and some soft tacos. Yum!

My old friend Chris Ryan and his wife Carol came up for a visit. They are full timing in their motorhome and are spending a couple weeks in NW Oregon. They are staying near us at Richardson County Park Campground fpr two weeks. We took them sailing on Weds and today we all jumped in the Durango and did a 3 hour driving tour of some of the many historic covered bridges in this part of the Willamette Valley. Here's Libby standing with Chris and Carol in front of one named the Currin Bridge built in 1925.

Pink Martini is a marvelous latin jazz group who we have seen twice before, including last year at the Hult Center in Eugene where they played again this evening. We had tickets for excellent orchestra seats and joined our friends Rosie and Don for dinner at a local Thai restaurant then the concert. Very enjoyable evening. If you have never heard them, treat yourself to their Youtube channel.

We had been thinking of buying an electric golf cart for zipping around the RV Park here at the lake. We're hoping it will encourage me to get out and about more often... I just can't handle the idea of buy a mobility cart. Even though my mobility is limted ever since my spinal surgery for the lymphoma tumors back in 2018, it's too depressing to act like I am disabled. A Golf Cart is more of an active person's toy. So we bought this like new 2016 EX-GO TXT in British Racing Green. And the dogs love it. Libby and I can cruise over to the far side of the marina to let the dogs wander about. And it will allow me to socialize with other park residents without being stuck standing for long periods. I can just sit in the cart and out of the sun.

The weather has been mostly beautiful the past month. We got in a record 8 sailing days in May. Today we got a welcome break with a real soaking rain - great for the landscape, the trees and the lake levels which are brim full. They're calling this an 'atmospheric river' with a couple inches of rain forecast for today and tonite. Very comforting pitter patter on the roof of our Vilano RV all day. It is supposed to clear up tomorrow afternoon and be mostly sunny for the next week or so. Lots more good sailing ahead!

I bought this 1977 1000 Kawasaki LTD new in 1978 when I lived in L.A. A few laters later I modified it into a full custom with a full race engine. I rode it for 20 years, put over 43000 miles on it on winding roads in southern California and then it went into storage. Many happy memories on this bike. And today after advertising on Craigslist and FB Marketplace, an Iranian fellow named Kayvan drove down from McMinnville and gave me $1750 cash for it. Sad to let it go, but clearly I will never ride it again. It will take some serious work to get everything back in running condition after 25+ years of storage but should be well worth the effort.

We stopped back home for a few doctor appointments. We were in time to catch the many beautiful rhodies blooming and our majestic dogwood tree out front of the house, benefiting from the cool damp weather we have been having at home.

We were treated to an excellent display of the Northern Lights here at Fern Right Lake. A friend who has a lakeside lot captured this photo off her deck late last night. That's Orchard Point Marina with the lights across the lake. I guess it was pretty spectacular. Unfortunately we had fallen asleep.

A couple weeks ago, as noted below, we launched the boat and got in our first day of the sailing season. Then more inclement weather set in so we we loaded the dogs in the car and drove the 2 1/2 hours back home to Vancouver to wait it out. It's just easier to be home in chilly stormy weather. But now the forecast finally looks like the sailing season has started in earnest with temps reaching above 80 degrees this week and winds fairly consistently in the 10-15mph range. Fern Ridge Lake here we come... winds look promising tomorrow and for most of the next ten days.

After arriving in Veneta and opening up our RV for the season, we got the boat launched on Friday. 4/19. and today Sunday was our first day out on the lake. The weather was beautiful, if still a bit chilly on the water with temps hitting only 61 degrees today, but sunny and clear and winds at a good steady 12-14mph. Libby's brother Chris was visiting with his wife Denise from Denver, and having grown up sailing as Libby did with their father, he was treated to a marvelous day on the lake.

This morning April Fools Day, we left the Columbia Riverfront RV Park and jumped on I-5 to head to Veneta. After a quick stop home to pick up a few things, we drove the Miramar back to the lake. We have our secondary covered space there where we generally store the Miramar. We had temporarily left it in an outdoor RV storage lot for several weeks after taking it up to Seattle to see Kandace Springs. But before our month was up we wanted to get it back to Veneta and under cover. We'll start setting up the fifth wheel for summer. Just a short visit before Libby will head down to San Diego to visit the grandkids, then we'll head back to the lake in earnest in mid April, get the boat launched and start another glorious season at the lake. NO FOOLIN!

We got a nice break in the weather and decided to take the Miramar and head up to the Columbia Riverfront RV Park in Kalama, WA just half an hour from home in Vancouver. The Columbia River flows through our veins having been the cornerstone of my life from the mid 80's to 2010 when I sold our property in Rowena right on the river. It is also one of the fundamental things that drew Libby to migrate from her roots in California. We don't get out to Rowena very often any more since we are always in Veneta in the summers. And while the Columbia River Gorge is one of the premier spots in the US for windsurfing, for sailboats, Veneta and Fern Ridge Lake has it all over the gorge. But it's always invigorating and satisfying to visit the Columbia River from time to time. And this RV Park in Kalama is a great place to do so.

Spring always brings the beauty of cherry blossoms and pear blossoms which line many streets here in Vancouver Washington. So beautiful... Here's a collection of nice photos taken a couple years ago of magnificent cherry trees in our neighborhood.

After a rainy winter, finally we can announce that spring is officially in the air. Our daffodils are blooming, the cherry trees on our street are starting to blossom, and the squirrels are busily raiding our feeder tray for the black oil sunflower sees we set out for them. The goal is less about feeding the little furry critters, but rather to entertain the dogs. Our little Schnauzer puppy Riley has learned the game well from big sister Taffy who has been an avid squirrel chaser since birth, almost. Now Riley has joined the SQ...uad and spends a large part of his day at our little view window in the family room watching the back fence for the little critters. Here are both dogs scanning the fence for signs of action! My recliner is just a few feet from this window as well so it is a regular source of entertainment for me as well.

We drove up to Seattle for the weekend to see and hear Kandace Springs appearing at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley. Kandace Springs is a marvelous jazz recording artist who hails from Nashville, TN. She sings beautifully, reminiscent of Sarah Vaughn, and is also a concert pianist. She plays clubs and concerts all over the world, but we are very pleased she is coming to Seattle for a second time, to play the cozy jazz club, Dimitriou's Jazz Alley. Staying at Issaquah Village RV Park, we purchased tickets for two successive nights, Friday and Saturday, including dinner at the club first on Saturday, which entitles us to a table right down in front of the stage!

Tim and Kristin and the two children Ollie and the little one, Emery, came up for a visit. They stayed in a VRBO rental in Portland for the week and we visited them there and they visited us in Vancouver. Grammy had a lot of fun entertaining the two kids while the parents were out checking possible neighborhoods and pre-schools and the like with the possible motive of moving up here from their temporary status in San Diego. Time will tell

Nice sunny day in mid February today - perfect day to snap a quick photo in our backyard showing off the absolutely magnificent Blue Spruce in the corner. We planted it at about 8 feet high shortly after we moved in late 2013. We had it professionally and lightly pruned recently. Hard to imagine a better looking specimen. Just gorgeous. Also to the right is the Weeping Alaska Cedar we also planted.

For those readers who have been following us over the past 15 years, you may recall our venture into Texas real estate investment, owning a total of three different residential homes there and a commercial property. At one time we planned to move to Las Brisas (Seguin), TX but plans changed and over the years we have sold off our holdings. The commercial property, on 1.2 acres in Austin, is the last to go. It has been a marvelous investment since we bought it for cash from a 1031 exchange in 2008. It remained rented the entire time to American Medical Response (AMR) on a NNN lease, which has involved little more than collecting the monthly rent payments for 15 years. It has been the cornerstone of our retirement income. Finally the tenant decided to move on to larger headquarters and we listed it for sale with an Austin realtor. The area has exploded and we sold it instantly for almost 2x what we paid. The deal closed escrow today! We're holding contract with a monthly installment income for the next ten years, netting us more than we have been collecting for rent plus a very large balloon payment in ten years. Nice!

Here we are celebrating the escrow close of the Texas property at our favorite local Mexican Restaurant Catedral Tapatia celebrating with fishbowl size margaritas. We ordered our usual chicken and pork fajitas which are always the perfect dish to split.

Today we watched the women's competition in the European Figure Skating Championship. I recorded all the competitions as run on E! online... Pairs, Dance, Men's and Women's and between Peacock streaming and the recorded programs, we watched them all. Today we watched Women's Short Program and Free skate. Some beautiful skating, and at the end it was Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium for the bronze, Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia for the silver, and Loena Hendrickx of Belgium (center) for the gold with a winning total of 213.25. Some beautiful young ladies. This was indeed a wonderful way to stay inside out of the cold. We still have the US Championships, the Four Continents and the Worlds... all posted with times & dates on Fanzone.

Well it may be cold and a bit snowy at home here in Vancouver, but we are snug and warm at home and we sure as heck wouldn't want to be at the lake right now. Here's a screenshot from the Orchard Point Weather Cam, which is the marina at the north end of Fern Ridge Lake, directly across the lake from where we keep our sailboat in the summer at Richardson Park Marina. Of course the lake is closed now, they have released water from the dams for winter flood control, the boat docks are high and dry and everything is covered with snow including a frozen lake. Looking forward to spring and being back at the lake!

Many parts of the country are experiencing record cold... Not a record cold here (which was -11 F) but it was the coldest day in decades. It reached 13 degrees F here today but that's about as cold as it is supposed to get tonite and it should start warming a bit tomorrow and back to normal by midweek. We also had a dusting of snow, but the weather is not slowing down the dogs who have been in and out the doggie door all day chasing squirrels at the feeder.

We've all made it through another year. As we watch that chaos that is happening around the world in so many places, we feel blessed to be leading a quiet, abundant life, retired from life's stresses and just enjoying our time together with the company of our wonderful dogs. We hope 2024 may bring us all peace and prosperity and a cessation of hostilities all around the world:
    Cheers!   Prost!   Salute!   Santé!   Sláinte!   Salud!   Na Zdorowie!   Skål!

Looking back over 2023... from our monumental trip to Utah and the magnificent national parks, to our time at the lake to the changes in our family from the grandchildren to our upgrade to dogs 2.0. Click on this link to review the entire Utah trip and summer of 2023.

If you have not visited this blog recently, you might want to have a look back at some of our previous logs which depict our lifestyle as we continued our RV and boating activities over the past decade. Each Travelogue features photos like the ones at the right from 2022 as well as many more in the drop down menu from our big trips in years past. Left to right and top to bottom those thumbnail photos are our Vilano 5th Wheel, MG Adventures, our new Miramar Motorcoach, Joe sailing, the Anne Marie sailing, Libby & Taffy sailing, MGB travels, Taffy and Poe, and the Blokart I tried..

Windseeker 2023 Northwest Travelogue

Previous Windseeker Travelogues 2012-2023:
Select another Windseeker page from the dropdown menu  :   2023:  Windseeker VI  Miramar - Western Travels 2023; 2022:  Windseeker VI  Miramar - Western Travels 2022 2021:  Windseeker VI  Miramar - Western Travels 2021 2020:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2020 2019:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2019 2018:  Windseeker V  Forester - Western Travels 2017-18 2016:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Eastern Tour - PART II 2016:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Eastern Tour - PART I 2015:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - National Tour - PART II 2015:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - National Tour - PART I 2014:  Windseeker III  Allegro Bus - Western Tour 2013:  Windseeker II  Country Coach - Western Tour 2012:  Windseeker I  Gulf Stream - Northwest Tour 2011:  Windseeker I  Gulf Stream - Shakedown Cruise 2010:  our first RV - Ford F250 with Lance Camper ---------------------------------