It's been a long and hard month. I was going to name this post "How I spent my Summer Vacation At the Dennis Dillon RV Center" But we finally got away from there. As you can see, we have a New Coach! We had discussed the idea of looking for something smaller and while we were going to spend a few days in the Boise area, and passed by this dealership we decided to spend an afternoon and look at what they had. Who would think we would spend the next three weeks between Boise and Caldwell. We had a wonderful sales person, Dan - and the first coach we went into had everything I wanted plus it was in our price range! I wasn't going to opt for Brand new..but with the great deal, we couldn't pass it up. Our Betsy has been a very good coach, but we are wanting to go places that it wasn't comfortable for her! (or me either!) So.....we have a new house! You will hear me refer to this rig as "Teddy the Road Warrior!" It is smaller but has wonderful features, 4 slides and made by the Thor Corporation. A 2013 36ft. Thor Tuscany.
The ride is much more comfortable, even though I'm having a little difficulty getting used to the seat! The inside is oh so much roomier. I have a wonderful floorplan, king bed, stack set washer dryer, stainless residential side by side fridge and all my appliances are Residential Whirlpool Gold. Bumper to bumper warranty for 7 years, so we're set. No more looking at houses for now. We will plan on being in Alaska next summer, and taking our house! The fireplace will be nice this winter and colder places. We sure don't need it now!! The move was pretty taxing, as any move can be. Losing as much storage and 7 ft of length was challenging and the Goodwill thanks us, as we made several trips!
I may have to have a Uhaul to make the trip to the hunting lodge in the fall. Lots of stuff that I won't throw away, but won't haul around all the time either. It has been an adventure in itself, as with any new or different coach, there's a learning curve and bugs to work out and issues to deal with. One week it seemed like everything I touched broke!
Most things we have resolved and still waiting for a couple parts to finish up...but the dealership will ship those where we are and we will have an approved service facility do the repair.
We finally took off for the maiden voyage and headed through the corner of Oregon and up into Washington, making a loop and heading back towards the center to Washington.
The ride is lots better and lots easier than we're used to! He's a trooper and pulls the Suburban like a champ! We are sitting at a very quaint park until the 1st of August, when we will head to Kalispell Montana. We wanted to make the trip to the coast and visit friends, see sights and tour, however, with the extra expense and spending more time with this project, we had to change our plans.
Remember, our plans are written in jello!!!! Hopefully we will include that plan next summer.
For now we are doing a minimal amount of touring, but enjoying Washington and the diverse crops they have around here and trying to relax a bit after the moving stress.
DH spends most of his spare time reading his Kindle. This past week, we spent one day touring Soap Lake, Dry Falls, Coulee City, the Grand Coulee Dam, Omak and Wenatchee. Today we drove to a couple of wildlife preserves, saw a coyote standing on a road, travelled over the O'Sullivan Dam and had lunch at the Blue Heron park in Moses Lake. We bought fresh ripe cherries from a roadside stand and enjoyed the ride through areas of very diverse crops.
The wheat is really ready, but no harvest so far. This area has 19 different food items that they produce. Apples, blackberries, cherries, beans asparagus, onions, potatoes, grapes,wine and the list goes on and on..
.. lots of alfalfa and hay too. We made it through a rather severe thunderstorm yesterday that brought heavy rain and lots of wind.
The most weather we've seen outside of 6 days over 100 in Boise. Our closest City is Moses Lake WA, and we'll be headed through Spokane and on east next week. Stay tuned!
Every parking spot was taken, clearly a very popular spot to visit while in Washington. We stopped at a family owned fruit stand on the edge of town on the way home, and sampled some Apelets and Cotlets, a confectionary treat made from fruit and nuts with a setting syrup and dusted with powdered sugar.
In Cashmere, a town just a few miles away, there's a factory where Apelets and Cotlets are made...and we stopped there too on the way home.
It was a very good day, and even KayCee had a good time. 
They have a pet store in Leavenworth that welcome pets, so we clipped a leash on our fur kid and in we went. Usually in Pet Smart she sniffs around and is pretty mellow. Not so with this place, she about went wild greeting all the dogs and smelling all the treat and toys. Today we have been busy, replenishing the food supply, taking care of some ordinary chores and now this evening we will watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Can you remember where you were for the last Olympics 4 years ago? I can.... we were in the Wapiti Valley on the edge of Yellowstone Park. That was the only channel we got back then! This time we will spend the duration in Kalispell MT. We only have 3 nights left here and we will be on the move to the mountains!
