Blog from the Gathering

[HeathGal]

Sharen & Simon from Bullard's B-60 finally have returned home to Whidbey Island. Following 7 great days & nights in Bandon, especially enjoying the Fiberglass RV folks (all of you!), we spent the next 3 nights in NO CA at Prairie Creek Redwoods. Lovely.

Then 3 more nights on the road taking a leisurely drive up the coastal 101 (awesomely beautiful - yeah Oregon, you're an outstandingly beautiful state!), into all of its nooks and cranies - funky Pacific City, cheesy Tillamook, hoity toity Cannon Beach (lah dee dang dah) - and now back home in Langley. My floors are spreckled with cramping ditritus - sand, bits of woodsy stuff, unmentionables... Our smelly laundry is enduring a sterilization process. Roadtrips sure do accumulate grit and grime.

Highlights of our Bandon time:
DUTCH OVEN lessons - Kudos to Linda and the cast iron team. You gave us great tips, increased our confidence (I went on to bake penne pasta one night in the redwoods), and fed us delicious grub. Thanks you!
NANCY & DONNA, our planners extraordinaire! Abundant thanks... as I told Nancy, it was well-planned but not overly planned, if you know what I mean.
DONNA - Who said to our fuzzybutt Keeper, "Hey! I was a b***h before you were a dog!" Donna's full of fun and laughter.
SHARON HERMAN - Mahalo for the pomigranit martini! Just wait till Graysland... next time we expect to see bartenders in coconut bras and grass skirts! That includes ERIC B!
MEXICAN TRAIN - to 82 y/o JOHN, who dang near took us all down, kudos for keeping us on our toes. Oley! Thanks to ADONNA for hosting the games.
LORN - who contributed some mightly fine good reads to the Book Exchange, including one of my fav authors, Geraldine Brooks ("March"). Thanks to all who came by with books - it was great fun meeting all of you, and I was able to offload remaining books at Prairie Creek Crampgrounds, as their welcome kiosk had a proper book exchange.
BOB & all great photogs - LOVE the pix that you provided that we failed to take. (Below is one I did take of the inside of our 12 y/o Casita - all plaid-ed up!)

Oh, and special RECOGNITION & THANKS to MA NATURE who kindly provided us with 13 straight days of sunshine on the first long roadtrip vacation we've taken in years... today, much-needed light rain falls on Langley and my garden is happy again.

All in all we loved our time together.
Thanks to each and every one of you - see you again next year, if not sooner!
xo
Sharen Heath

[ERIC B.]

Hey Adonna and Bob, did you realize you had McGyver (aka Eric) camped in your drive way?

Hey now, I resemble that remark!

Eric

[ERIC B.]

... next time we expect to see bartenders in coconut bras and grass skirts! [b]That includes ERIC B!

Me thinks not!

Eric

[Donna D.]

Me thinks not!

Eric

Oh come on Eric. We know you don't like your picture taken, this way you could be incognito

[Frederick L. Simson]

grass skirts

I plan to bring Lei's next year.

[Sharon Herman]

Me thinks not!

Eric

Oh come on Eric....I will if you will!!!!!

[HeathGal]

Sharon,
YOU in a coconut bra and grass skirt... Oh mama! What are you trying to do to our men??? All our guys think/know you're a hottie... you're just blowin their minds with THAT image!!!

As for Eric, ok, no coconut bras on guys, but we want to see you in an Aloha shirt at the very least... start shopping those OH thrifts!

Simon and I have some special "island" surprises for the Grayland gathering... think Tiki Tavern and palm trees swaying in the breeze. We shall bring a big bottle of you-know-what to help stock your bar.

Bottoms up ol' girl!
SharEn

Oh come on Eric....I will if you will!!!!!

[Lainey]

I'm late posting, but we just got in this afternoon after a 2653 mile round trip full of memories.


Thank you Nancy and everyone who helped out. The gathering was well organized, we had a wonderful time and met many wonderful people. Mitchell made and I made some great friends and had a ton of fun.
Thank you Louise for the beautiful quilt you made that I was the lucky recipient of, it will be treasured.
Thank you 'McGyver' for your help with my trailer challenges.
Thank you Dave & Leslie de Beaux for the nice note you left on my windshield - sorry I missed you!
Thank you Peter & Lynne for the foam that I brought back for my neighbour's Boler - they will sure appreciate it! Mitchell appreciated it on the way home as I ended up putting a layer under his bed so it took up less space - spoiled!

Mitchell's already working on me to come back next year (several times a day!)

[Gina D.]

Lisa?

I THOUGHT Sticky was doting over his milkbone toy a little too much. I am SURE he knew it was from Jobe and his heart is renewed knowing she thought of him and just KNEW he would receive her gift...

[Adonna & Bob Roelke]

How nice of them! Hey Adonna and Bob, did you realize you had McGyver (aka Eric) camped in your drive way? Did you ask his advice on fixing anything?

Nancy

Hmmmm..... now that you mention it, the kitchen sink garbage disposer has been giving me problems recently, and I really would like some electrical work done out on the back deck. Hey Eric - your camping spot is ready and waiting for you! What would you like for dinner??

[Robin G]

Wow, it looks like everyone had a great time. Sure wish we could have made it, not only did we miss the Rally, But I missed out on some Martini's. hmmmmm, sounds yummy. Robin

[Frederick L. Simson]

Robert and I reclaimed our 2006 spot, #B21

The new electrical service and sewer connections are VAST improvements.
The site, however, is as lumpy as ever.

[brian m.]

I'm still on the road, but had a great time at my first Oregon FGRV Rally. Here's a couple of shots from the bonfire night.

[Per Walthinsen]

Digital Delight.

[BobB]

Good photo of Nancy and Mike! My chair made the Home page photo--doesn't get any better than that. It's the multicolored one behind Donna's right arm. I apologize for abandoning it.

[Guillaine]

Well we have arrived back home after many more side roads of touring and visiting Oregon and Washington!
Many THANKS to all for the hard work put into arranging this meet. We all had a great time!!!
The emails and hours of arranging done by all has been very much appreciated. Thanks to Nancy for all the private emails when I was looking for a site and trying to register.
It was so nice to meet so many of you in person. I have read many of the posts and now to have met some of you - this is awesome!
The 3 of us talked about the gathering after we left and I believe the topic came up everyday while in the car in regards to something from the meet.
I still have to go thru all the pictures from our trip and I know there are many from the gathering that will great memories.
Again I can't say thanks again for making us feel welcome to our first Oregon Gathering!!

Guillaine and Guy
and of course my dad (the second Guy)

[Donna D.]

Guillaine, it was great meeting you and Guy (and Guy ), glad to know y'all got home safely and had a good time at the gathering. Hope you can make it again sometime

Care to share some pictures?

[Del Chasteen]

HELLO ALL . We just returned from our summer trip 100 days in the Casita and 25 miles short of 10.000 miles . We hope to be at the Oregon gathering in 2009 to give the award for furtherest traveled .It was a real hoot geting the award this year . Many thanks to eveyome who puts the gathering together . We are off again on the 12th of September for New England and the Canadian Maritimes will be back in texas some time in November. DEL CHASTEEN

[Donna D.]

Del, sounds like quite a trip! Please post some pictures in the Camping forum

[Del Chasteen]

We have never posted pictures really don`t know how .