Our Mesquite neighbors (and our Oceanside RV Resort nextdoor neighbors), the Carnicellis, moved down the road to Bayside RV Park yesterday. And, our good friends, the Quinns, are moving into The Mill Casino RV Park, in nearby North Bend, today. We, on the other hand, will be staying put for the next twelve days.
For the next week or so, we will have two sets of friends to socialize with here in the Coos Bay area. How nice!
We’ve been here at Oceanside for two weeks. The weather has either been sunny and around 60 degrees (high) or foggy with 60 degrees. The coastal fog days are dreary, to an extent, but we are able to read a lot, watch TV, fool around on the computer, and do some shopping and dining out. Even on the fog days it is better than in Mesquite, Nevada: I can still exercise the dogs down at the beach, and they love it. It makes their day.
There was a nice community bike race the other day.
We’re still having some issue with the air bag leveling system, despite having six air bags replaced this past Spring. Our site here at Oceanside is not level at all and I have to re-level the rig at least every four hours or so. There must be a pinhole leak in one of the air lines or possibly a leak in one of the non-replaced air bags. I will have to take it back to the shop in October.
Galen (Carnicelli) will be calling me today to drive over to Bayside RV Park and help him replace some propane gas line and fittings on his motorhome. He has a bad back and can’t get under the rear of his rig, so I can help him. Later in the week, he will return to Oceanside RV Resort and help me replace a thermostatically-controlled ceiling exhaust fan.
Charlie and I are going through the learning curve with our brand new Splendide washer/drier. It is a much higher level of technology from our previous appliance, with all manner of digital controls and features. We have yet to master it, but we’ll get there. It is so nice to be able to do small loads and avoid having to go to a laundromat.
It’s all part of RV’ing.
I take the dogs to the beach every morning when I get up (usually about 6:30 a.m.) The tide is very low then and the beach just goes on forever. I take along a tennis ball and we three Amigos play “fetch”. Baby is, of course, a world class ball retriever, and will bring it quickly back to me and drop it at my feet. BonBon is learning from this example and, after only two weeks, will now return it to me every time and let me take it from her mouth. Good dog!
We typically sit outside in camp chairs when the sun is out and the dogs mill about off leash. They are both really good about not charging off to greet people and dogs who are passing our coach. However, BonBon is extremely social, like Booger used to be, and has an impulse to “visit” dogs who might be staying at the immediately adjacent site. So, we have to watch her. However, occasionally, when our screen door is open and we’re inside, BonBon will exit the rig without permission. When we realize what has happened, and rush outside, we will find her soaking up sunshine in one of the camp chairs.
Just like Booger, BonBon is a sun worshipper.
On Friday, we sat with a notary for an hour and signed an inch and one-half stack of legal documents for a refinance of our Mesquite property. Who knows where interest rates and inflation are going in America, but we felt that 3 percent APR was too good to pass up and it is going to drop our monthly mortgate payment by $500 so…why not? We won’t be around to pay off the loan anyway, and there should be plenty of equity for the heirs to split up when we finally croak.
With this move, we will essentially only have a mortgage payment, a car payment (for less than 12 months), and our $151 per month H.O.A. dues. Our motorhome is paid off, as is an infrastructure bond that came with our house.
As long as Social Security and the California Public Employees Retirement System remain afloat, we should be okay.
Of course, with the current state of affairs in America, who knows what will happen in the future.
Coos Bay is a working class town featuring a lot of loggers, fisherman, and assorted blue collar “Lunchbucket Joes”. The economy here, as in many places in the U.S., is on the rebound in a tentative fashion…as if waiting for the next shoe to drop. There are a lot of homeless folks in this town and families who are right at the financial tipping point. Many of the businesses who employed minimum wage workers have yet to rehire the Covid-19 furloughed help.
Heaven help us all if the resistance to vaccination causes another pandemic wave this Fall. The last thing we need is another round of business closings, masking, and social distancing. It might devolve into a Civil War between responsible people and the idiots who think they know better.
The more I travel around this country, the more I realize how many of those dumbasses there are out there among us. It’s scary.