Day 715, The Traveleze comes home.

The Traveleze ready to come home.

After a few days at Flyte Camp getting the last few items tweaked, the Traveleze is ready to roll.  All of the items on the list were carefully addressed and everything should be ready to go.  I had really wanted to head home and head to the coast, but that just wasn't going to happen.  With two late in the day meetings and the last one going well past 6:30 pm I wasn't going to get home in time to drive to the coast.  It's about 4 hours to the coast and I was just too tired.

The Traveleze needs to be repacked and I'd like to try it out again, to make sure everything is ready for the next adventure.

Day 714, Traveleze gets a makeover

The crew at Flyte Camp, quickly ran through my punch list of small adjustments that needed to be made and they addressed each item quickly.  One of the items on the list however, turned out to require substantial more work than expected, but they did an excellent job in assessing what needed to be done and then making the correction.  I was very pleased with the work being done and Justin, as always, was most concerned about providing excellent service and keeping the customer happy.  The fact is, is I love the trailer and Justin and Anna are awesome.  The trailer is so much fun and building anything from scratch, with no blueprints is going to require a little tweaking.  Justin was going to have the trailer ready to go home on Thursday.

Hey, what's in the bag?

With visions of taking the trailer off on an adventure to the coast, I needed to get my chores done so I could be gone.  I needed to mow the lawn and jumped on the mower as soon as I got home.  listening to Delilah on the radio and mowing around the yard, I forgot all the stresses of the day.  Delilah, cracks me up, with people from across the country calling in with their sappy love stories and troubled life stories.  Yet some how Delilah's comments about life and enjoying each season, whether its Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall, she seems to find the joy in each little moment of life and I'm reminded to stop and appreciate the blessing that are all around me.

I love the look I get I get from the horses when they hear me fire up the mower.  They love the fresh cut grass and I have to be careful to spread the clippings out thinly, so they can't gulp it down and plug themselves up.  Still the look I get from them is one of those life's little moments.

Day 713, Pulling the Traveleze to Bend.

I was out the door at 7:15 am, and had the Traveleze hooked up in 5 minutes.  The trailer had a somewhat majestic appearance as it emerges from the shop and into the early morning sun. The drive to Bend and Flyte Camp is about 25 minutes.  The Traveleze pulls great and you really don't realize it's behind you.  At 14' you can see clear through the trailer and see the traffic behind you, so it is really easy to pull.   One of the punch list items is one of the big cabinet doors doors does not like to stay closed and it tends to pop open and then it blocks part of your view through the trailer.   I have created  foam spacers to hold the wood blinds open so they don't close while traveling and they work great.  I just really like being able to see through the trailer.

Another beautiful Central Oregon sunset.

With the trailer dropped off it was back to the office for a busy day of meetings.  Life in Central Oregon is truly amazing and after a long day at work there is nothing like going home and enjoying the outdoors.  The sunset was spectacular and once again I am reminded at how blessed I am to leave in this part of the country.

Day 722, Monday

The weekends always go so fast and now it's July 16th and the month is half over.  It seems like only yesterday we were getting ready for the 4th of July.  I can't believe how fast time is flying and summer will be over before I know it.

Tomorrow morning I am taking the Traveleze in for some service work, so I need to clean out everything, to give them access to all areas of the trailer.  I had a few things that needed attention and Flyte Camp was ready to button up these last few adjustments.   It's amazing how much "stuff" I have packed into the space under the bed and in the cabinets.  It took me about an hour to get the trailer ready for pulling to Bend in the morning.  I had thought about hooking it up to the truck and being all ready to roll in the morning, but the skies were looking a bit threatening and didn't want to take the chance of hail coming by and pelting the trailer.

Day 711, Visit with my brother.

After the party I made the short drive to my brother's house and spent the night.  It was nice to catch up with the family and see my niece and nephew who are growing like crazy.  I stayed until late morning and then headed for home.

I got home and started working on more yard work, including cutting out  huge limbs from the tree at the front entry.  I'm amazed how fast this tree is growing and I cut out limbs that were 4" in diameter.  It really opened up the front of the house and now I can park my truck under it again without the branches hitting the roof.

I even managed to replace the voltage regulator on the Chevelle, but the Generator light still was flickering on.  I'm not sure what to check next so I placed a call into Rick and he said he would help figure it out, ie, he'd figure it out.

It was a fun weekend and I was sad to see it come to and end.

Day 710, Busy Saturday

A cake a kid of any age would love.

It was so nice to sleep in until 7:30 am, after a great night sleep.  I woke up and started the usual Saturday morning chores and received a phone call from my Mom wanting to know when I was going to help my father prune some vines back on a building downtown.  I had forgotten, or actually hadn't realized this was the day they wanted it done.  Needless to say, 2 seconds later I'm on my way downtown.

With the vines pruned and stuffed in my truck I headed home.  I had several outside projects to get done before driving to Portland for a Birthday party of a friends son who was turning 30.  This was not your ordinary birthday party and promising to be a huge hit.

A styling Alpaca

After a three hour drive I arrived at the family's estate and it is truly impressive.  The them was kind of a blend between child, redneck, meets sophistication.  There was a petting zoo, a huge Slip and Slide, a row boat in the pond, a mechanical bull, DJ and fireworks.  The food was everything from pork, beef, chicken, hot dogs, Mac and Cheese and tater tots.  There was even a Hostess Twinky, Ding Dong, Ho Ho, cake.  There were even cans of spray cheese on Ritz crackers.  It was really an amazing party with about 100 people there to pay tribute to a monumental birthday, well it was really to enjoy the crazy party that this family is known for.

It was a party to remember

Day 709, Barbecue with friends

Christian invited Tracy and I to join him and his daughter for a barbecue at his house after work.  Tracy and I were were both happy to have the opportunity to have dinner with them.  First however, I had promised Tracy I would help caulk her house in preparation for painting her house.  I drove the Packard and stopped off at the office to barrow our extension ladder to reach the high parts of the house.  Naturally it was warm, but I manage to get the worst part done before we had to head to Bend for the barbecue.

Tracy and I ran two quick errands, one to the store to pick up turkey dogs for Tracy and a few condiments and the other to the mechanics, so I could pick up my car.  My leaking power steering turned out to need to be completely replaced at a price I was not expecting, ouch.  It was hard to believe it would fail with just 42K miles, but now it works great and no drips.  Moral of the story is cars need to be driven and should not sit.

Dinner was excellent and it was the perfect summer evening for sitting outside.