Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The adventure of a life time

Some of you asked how the trip was and is. Here is a cliff note version. We put
29000 miles on in 5.5 months and we still did not do or see as much as we
thought we would. Do not get me wrong we had a great time and do not regret
what we did or did not do. We made a lot more friends, put faces to names
and saw things you would not traveling down the freeway at 80. We rode into
Dryersburg Tn for lunch, the owner of the cafe asked if we were there for
the rally? What rally I asked? He said the boss hoss rally. He gave us
directions to the town square, it was a town square. Boss hoss's everywhere.
We were able to sit on some. It is things like this that has happened, that
one could not plan in a two week vacation. Most part everyone was friendly
and helpful. We sure did meet some interesting people. We did learn that ALL
of Quebec Canada speaks french. I do not, and we were lost in the country
some where trying to get directions. I love you BC guys:) We have a lot more
stories, those are for later around the campfire. Our plan is to travel this
summer also, staying closer to the west side at least until labor day
weekend, lobster is so good and than we are off to Newfoundland. We sure
missed all our friends here in the west. We are now living in Sunnyside Wa,
in a 39 foot fifth wheel trailer on Penn's parents small ranch. We are
helping out where ever we can. Hope to see you all
real soon. Oh yea we liked Ore-gun, SC,Tenn, Ark are the four states we
would live in, that is as of right now, have not made it to the southern
states yet. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Enjoy
the ride, life is too short not to eat dessert first, J&P or P&J your pick:)

The move to Sunnyside

Howdy everyone,

An update of where we are and how we are doing. We decided to move to
Sunnyside Washington to be closer to Penn's parents to help them out.
Here is our story on the move. Came up to Sunnyside to get the trailer
spot ready. Don and Lorraine are Penn's parents, they have a piece of
property that is between them and Penn's nephew's (Lance) place. There
is a new septic system on it. We had to locate the septic tank; Don
and Randy (Penn's bro) located it.

Monday we drove to Sunnyside, 750 miles 8 hours:(

Tuesday we dug and found the inlet pipe and brought it to the surface
and prepared it for the trailer dump hose. Then we located the
irrigation pipes, this way I would not cut through them with the
trencher. The trench is for the electric and water.

Wednesday we rented a trencher and dug the ditch, 340 feet from the
house, and 260 from the well. While I was trenching Penn and Lorraine
dug out around the irrigation pipes I did not cut through. Lorraine is
74 years old and out worked Penn and I. Trenching was easy work, but
the machine was worn out. The chain jammed once, no problem I had the
proper tool to repair it, 8 pound sledge hammer. Then Penn and I ran
the water line and electrical conduit.

Woke up Thursday morning to 4 inches of snow. Penn and I finished
gluing the conduit together, and then we finished connecting the water
line to the well. Turned the breaker marked well off, Penn stood in
the yard with a hose running the pressure out of the tank, well the
breaker was for the old well, Penn stood there for 10 minutes and the
pressure never changed. Now I had to call Randy and ask him which
breaker he used for the new well. Once the correct breaker was flipped
it did not take long to run the pressure out of the system. Than I
built the landing pad for the trailer, by the end of the day we had
water, septic hook up and a landing pad. Again Lorraine out worked us.

Friday morn Randy and his crew came over and ran the power to the
landing spot. It only took them about and hour and a half to run the
wires, connect to the breaker box and connect and mount the plug to
the pole. Fast and easy when you have professionals at hand, Randy is
an electrical contractor and has his own business. I drove back to
Selma to get the trailer ready to be moved. Penn and Lorraine filled
in the ditch, Penn said her mom out worked her again.

Saturday I prepped the trailer, Dad and uncle Pat came up to move the trailer.

Sunday we got up at 5:00am connected the trailer to the pickup and
drove to Sunnyside. It was raining, at times it was a frog strangling
rain. Called Penn from Cascade Locks Oregon to find out if Satus Pass
was clear, no it had packed snow and ice, traction tires required.
After some discussion and ice cream we opted to go around the pass. It
only added about 40 minutes to the trip. We tried to get here before
dark, missed it by about an hour. There was still snow on the field in
which we placed the trailer. Dad pulled into the field and started to
spin, uncle Pat and I chained up dad's rear tires. Dad was able to
move until he throw a chain and got stuck, had to get the ford tractor
to pull him out, got the chain back on. The front of the tractor was
raising up, uncle Pat volunteered to lay across the nose and hold it
down, let the rodeo begin. After much maneuvering the trailer was in
place. Penn and her mom went and got dinner KFC, after dinner and a
beer we all felt better. I love living in a trailer, the moving is
simple, couple hours to prepare the trailer, couple more to organize
it when you arrive.

Monday Dad and Uncle Pat left at 6:45 am, the snow was gone.

Penn and I appreciate and thank you for all your help. Everyone went
above and beyond the call of duty and no one died.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you soon.

Here are our new addresses, mailing is POBox 697 Sunnyside Wa, 98944.
Physical address is 530 Camp Lane, Sunnyside Wa, 98944

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, hope to see you real soon J&P

Update

We're now living in Sunnyside, WA next to my parents.  We decided since we didn't have much to do in the Grants Pass area we might as well move to Sunnyside to help my parents out around their farm.

Hoping to get Internet service soon and will have more updates then.