Hanging Out in Sequim, WA

I’ve been in Sequim, WA since June 12th or so and I think I’m in love…with Sequim and the Olympic Peninsula.  What I like about Sequim is how laid back it feels.  There’s no frantic traffic and the people are very friendly. 

What I don’t like about Sequim is the lack of a Chipotle and Fred Meyer.  The two largest stores here are Costco and Walmart.  Since I refuse to shop at Walmart my options are a bit limited.  Costco is good for gas for the rental car.   Unfortunately, they don't carry diesel which I need for my View.  

Port Angeles is about 15 miles from here and they have Swains, which carries a lot of stuff and is fun to walk through.  It feels like a throw back to times long gone.  Since there’s also no Camping World close by, they’ve saved me a couple times in their limited RV section. 

Seriously needing a Chipotle fix, my friend and I drove to Olympia a couple weeks ago, which had both a Chipotle and Fred Meyer.  It was also 90 degrees there, part of a heat wave going through the area.  Even Sequim was impacted although, fortunately, it never reached the 90s.  Seattle and everyone else got the 90s.

Living in the desert I’d forgotten what heat and humidity felt like and I’m glad it finally got cloudy and cool. 

This feels so right to me being back in Washington.  I lived in the Seattle area for about 45 years, so I think that’s understandable.  However, I like it over here on the peninsula a whole lot more than I do on the Seattle side. 

There’s less traffic and franticness over here.  The summer temperatures I've experienced have been in the high 60s to low 70s, until the heat wave went through. 

It feels clean to me. I think because of the grass and trees. 

The RV parks here are interesting.  The first one I stayed at is across the street from Sequim Bay.  It’s called John Wayne’s Waterfront Resort.  This is the view from the spot I’ve settled on and call mine…

Sadly, lots of people also like this spot, beat me for reservations, so I’m in and out of it.  Right now I’m out of it and parked in front of my friends mother’s house.  While I don’t have a view here, I have quiet. I also just two deer across the street in the cup-de-sac I'm parked in so I guess I do have a view.  

John Wayne’s Waterfront Resort is graveled and gravel is noisy.  I haven’t decided yet if the view compensates for the noise.  Also included in the noise are diesel trucks.  Gravel, diesel trucks…noisy. 

The other RV park I’ve stayed at here is the Gilgal Oasis RV Park.  It’s paved so it’s much quieter, but it’s jam packed.  The spaces are so close together the second vehicle has to be parked in front of the RV.  It felt very claustrophobic to me. On the plus side, it was immaculate.

I have made it a point of taking a picture of my motorhome at each RV park I've stayed at and it never crossed my mind while I was at Gilgal.  Hmmm.

I'm leaving Wednesday to go Renton, WA to visit a friend from graduate school.   Also, to get away from the Lavender Festival on the 17th, 18th and 19th.  I've been to it four times and don't need to attend any more.

Since I've stayed here longer than ever before I've been able to go to the Lavender Farms without the benefit of the festival.  It's much calmer, I have no trouble parking and I've been able to talk to the owners.  Win, win all the way around.  

Here's a cool adirondack chair at a local Lavender Farm...

Can you tell how tall it is in the picture?  I'm thinking 10-12'.  

I'm thinking this will be the last time for back to back posts on the same day.  I type my posts in Word and then copy them over to my blog.  It appears that I've copied all the previously written ones over.  From now on I can type in real time.

June 12th Post That's Being Published Late, Late, Late

There was a long delay on 101 this morning because of an accident.   A pickup truck went into the woods and it was in pretty bad shape.  I couldn’t tell if any other vehicles were involved. 

I decided to go to I-5 to get away from the wind but it was just as bad on I-5.   I finally gave it up in Albany, OR and ended up finding a space in The Blue Ox RV Park.  The only downfall was the lack of cable.  Oh, well.

Went to the mall to kill time.  Saw a shop advertising aqua massages so I decided to check it out.  My neck and shoulders were so tight from dealing with the wind that I thought it was worth a try.  While it won’t replace regular massage it worked for me.  It looks like a tanning bed and the water is in the lid that is lowered just above the back. 

Bought some DVDs to make up for the lack of cable.  First one, Ted, was awful and I turned it off after about 20 minutes.  Then we watched The Dallas Buyers Club and it was pretty intense. 

Something I had forgotten living in Tucson is how long it stays light up here.  It is now 9:12 PM and still light out.  This would never work in the desert because the hot sun would be shining for way too long. 

I’m putting out special messages to Mother Nature to stop it with the wind.  I hope she hears me. 

Big Gap in Posts...Here's Why

When I started full timing in Tucson, I had a rental house in Bellevue, WA.  When the property taxes went over $9,000 a year I decided it was time to get rid of it. 

Off and on for probably the last five years I’ve been looking at houses in Tucson.  I stayed with the same real estate agent and wish that I had kept track of how many houses we looked at before I found the right one.  I know it was a lot.  I kept telling her to hang in there with me because I’d know it when I saw it and that’s exactly how it happened, only I found it online and I had to call her in order to see it.

I was pretty sure when I first looked at it that it was “the one” but I needed to think and look at it more than once.  I decided that it was indeed “the one” and made an offer which was accepted.

I still had my Alfa when I bought the house.  In fact, after I received the house keys on my birthday, July 1^st, I went back to my Alfa and stayed there for a few more days. 

I started shopping for furniture right away because I didn’t have any.  I had gotten rid of most of my stuff when I left Washington for Tucson.  When I down-sized I kept what I felt was most important to me and that had been in storage in Tucson.  Now I was sort of starting all over again and I just kept getting more and more stuff. 

The house I bought has turned out to not be the one.  I’ve struggled with it from the time I moved in.  Too big, too far away from the places I hang out at, too lonely, etc., etc. 

The most disturbing element has been the pool.  Yes, a pool.  My house is on an acre and has a pool.  What disturbs me about the pool is the water.  When I lived in WA, in the summer I would refuse to water the grass because I considered it a waste of water and eventually it would rain and all would be well. 

With pools, the water evaporates and it needs to be replaced.  I did not think about that because I'd never had a pool or known anyone with one.  It’s way worse in the summer…evaporation.  The part of me that refused to water the grass in Washington is going crazy.  When it’s time to fill it the water runs for 1 to 1.5 hours at a time.  Yikes. 

I have a really nice pool guy and he doesn’t come cheap.  But, I have no worries about the pool because I have a pool guy.

Probably the biggest reason I bought on an acre was so that I could park Olivia, my Winnebago View, at home and not at a storage facility.  That worked until I learned about pack rats.  Specifically, they like to get in engines and chew the wires.  AARGH. 

Fortunately, they didn’t do too much damage to Olivia.  Before leaving for this trip I took her in for service and the damage wasn’t too extensive.  I had purchased strobe light thingies especially for deterring pack rats.  Apparently, pack rats like dark places.  So I raised the hood about 7”, put in the pack rat strobe lights  and added a string of lights.  I saw no evidence of pack rats after I did that.  What a pain. 

Another thing about being a home owner again…STUFF.  My accumulation of stuff has increased dramatically and I’m realizing I’m not happy about it.  I liked the simpler life in an RV.  Built in furniture, limited storage for stuff, etc., etc. 

I think I’m at a crossroads.