the Amazing Vanstones! » Motorhome Travels

Oregon Coast

Larry Vanstone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:49:41 +0000

Nice Spot eh? We are near Reedsport, on Winchester Bay and here’s the view from our site.

Last spring I showed you pictures of a Crawfish Farm in Louisiana, this one is an Oyster farm in Oregon. I guess the similarity is water and lots of it.

The sand dunes in this area are amazing.

The weather is warming as we move south and the country is truly gorgeous.

Camping Trip

Larry Vanstone — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:46:58 +0000

We are going camping today. Not only are we going camping, we are throwing in a 4 hour drive. We haven’t really been anywhere far away from home in our new coach. Obviously, we are excited. We are off to Madoc for the weekend to see Dale and Sheila. While I was washing the coach this morning (Mar was cleaning the inside. Come on, you can’t show it off dirty!) I was thinking back probably close to 40 years ago, so far back I even had a different wife and a different life. We were off on a holiday in our tuck and camper and stopped at an RV store to “see the new ones”. I was completely blown away by the shiny new 1970 something Frontier class C’s. That is, until I saw the new Vanguard’s with the full fiberglass roof. I know, I’m dating myself.

Anyway, not long after that I was looking at pictures of a new Winnebago Custom, dreaming of the day when I too would be rolling down the highway sitting way up there, watching the world go by.

Today we are not only going down that highway in our coach, we are doing it in a coach that both Mar and I are pleased to call our Home.

I promise we’ll wave as we roll by, and maybe a toot of the air horn.

Holy Shit!

Larry Vanstone — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:10:35 +0000

The last time we talked I mentioned that we were having an issue with our black water tank. For those of you who aren’t familiar with RV Lingo, a black water tank is the one that sits under the toilet and collects all your deposits until you transfer them to a place closer to their final resting place at a “Dump Station” (more RV Lingo).

So our issue was that our tank was plugged. You could put anything you want in, but nothing would come out. Sooner or later that’s not going to be a good thing! We started to try and fix it with chemicals designed to aid movement of the blockage but to no avail. No matter how much chemical we put in (and we put in lots), our blockage continued. Yesterday was my day off and my focus was to solve once and for all our “situation”. I started with a shiny new toilet snake and worked at it diligently for half an hour, no change except my snake don’t shine anymore.

Now RV parks are full of friendly helpful people and so my next move was to ask the neighbors for a little advice.

The words had hardly left my mouth and my neighbors were on it. Rick and Bonnie (we’ve never met a toilet problem we could solve. No house, no boat, no RV!) have a super water powered snake they brought over, John and Mary were there to help too. I won’t bore you with the details because we all know where this one is going, right?

20 minutes later, still nothing. We decide Bonny will work her super snake from the toilet side, and since it’s my sh_t anyway I’ll work on the sewage drain end with my snake. I sit down in front of the termination valves and work my snake up the tubing. All of a sudden and only a milli-second too late I hear Bonny yell “Lookout”.

Before I can close the valve I am hit with about 50 gallons of our finest. I am completely covered from the chest down with big chunks of brown gooey shit. Bittersweet I must say. I was happy our problem was solved but not too pleased with my new situation.

And that is my story, as shitty as it is.

No Fixed Address

Larry Vanstone — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:41:08 +0000

We are in the coach, have been since Thursday night. First night was at the lovely Camp Sicard also known as “behind the service department of Sicard Holiday Campers”. Friday we moved on to Fifty Point (yes, we love this place) for at least week, maybe the summer. This morning we found Wifi down at the Marina, that’s where we are now. This is certainly Marilyn’s favorite place, probably near Cedar Keys, I’m just happy to be in the coach. This morning it’s a coffee and a muffin while I write, who knows, tomorrow it could be a cold beer on the patio while I blog. I think I might like this spot.

We are having a few issues, nothing too serious, all will be great stories when they near history, but not yet. I can tell you our Blackwater tank appears to be plugged. We can put all we want down the toilet, only get a teeny bit of moisture out the drain. Kind of a “shitty situation” you might say. Certainly another story to add to the pile (that was a completle coincident). It would make sense, the previous owners had not used the motorhome for over a year (they were in a car accident) so it’s quite possible we are carrying a full load of dried #2. Our monitor pnel says we are 3/4 full, so if that’s right we should have a day or 2 to solve that issue. Then I will have a new topic for RVQuestions. I’m beginning to think my life is nothing more than a story. A very good story from my point fo view, bu a story none the less.

This afternoon we are off to Toronto to the Fringe Festival. Jason and Elizabeth are performing, so are we. Marilyn and I will playing the parts of the proud parents in the front row, applauding wildly.

While I was gone (where was I anyway?) my Sitemeter counted visitor 1,000. I just want to say thankyou for reading, If you stick with me I promise regular and interesting reports as we begin our new adventure.

My next projuect to day is to quite litterally “Raise A Little Shit”

Thanks for being here.

It’s Official!

Larry Vanstone — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:28:24 +0000

Our townhouse is rented to a young couple from Northern Ontario. They and their children will be here for 2 years while he attends a School to complete training to become a Baptist minister.

This home is their home as of August 1. We hope they enjoy it as much as we, it’s a gorgeous spot in a really neat little town and has amazing neighbors all around. They couldn’t have done better. As we move on to our next adventure I’m sure we will think about WestBrook Village often.

And that’s what we are about to do: Move on to our next Adventure. Our relationship with Kijiji has been extemely profitable and we hope it continues so. We have just 3 or 4 items left to sell, most of our stuff is in the coach and while we have over a month to go living here is becoming increasingly difficult. Almost every thing you look for here is packed. Our internet and Vonage are going away July 8, we probably won’t be far behind.

If only we could see what adventures are waiting out there for us. Stay Tuned, I promise you, it’s gonna be fun.

111 Days and Counting

Larry Vanstone — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:35:42 +0000

Today our new coach got the final installs done. As Marilyn says “We now have enough toys”. We added a large solar panel, a new CB (you can’t listen to the truckers with out one) and a slide out drawer in what was a wardrobe so we now have room for all our appliances including our state of the art Coffee machine (Latte anyone?) .

I could tell you that we are not getting excited but you wouldn’t believe me anyway. Smart move, it’s not true. It looks like we may have our house rented, if not at least it’s getting action, we are living in a large echo chamber. Our Kijiji ads are working great, stuff is quickly disappearing.

This weekend it’s back to 50 point in the coach for it’s Official Maiden Voyage. Wanna Come? Sorry, it’s designed for cocktails for 6, dinner for 4, sleeps 2.

117 Days

Larry Vanstone — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:58:12 +0000

Fortunately we aren’t counting. We are not even mildly excited. Our house is a disaster: Our daughter Pam was moving in to a new apartment so she came out Sunday last with her boyfriend James and a truck and kinda cleaned out a lot of our furniture for us. The good news is that will save us storing it.

We are preparing for a garage sale this Saturday and then will sell off a bike, fridge, TV’s and such in preparation for renting our Townhouse. Our coach is almost ready, only a few items need to be done. The plan is we will be ready to move in to it and rent out our current home by July 1. We can do it, I think, all we need at this point is the tennant for the townhouse.

And what are those Obscene picures you are seeing on the top of this post? That’s Bahia Coyote in the Mexican Baja. We sat their for a couple of days in 2002 and look forward to sitting in the same area for at least a couple of weeks this time out.

i promise we will think about you all…..daily…. promise!

Our New Wifi Antenna

Larry Vanstone — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:37:36 +0000

So, we were out this weekend in our new coach with about 100 things we wanted to try. The first test went very well. The freezer makes great ice cubes and the fridge cools beer very quickly. One of the other important, but not as important tasks was to check out our new Radio Labs Wifi Antenna. You can see it in the picture I posted yesterday. See the pole to the left? Just to the right of that is a white antenna, that’s it. Right next to the TV antenna. Anyway, so I booted up our laptop and tried to connect to Wifi. Nothing, Zero, Nada. Our computer could detect no signal. As I plugged in the antenna I got 5 bars, just like I was sitting right next to someone’s router. Their site was secure so I couldn’t use it but I certainly had the strength. I paid attention when we were travelling this winter; there was almost always an unsecured site that I could find, it was usually too weak to really use though. I would suggest that unless we are really out in the boonies, we now will have someones Wifi at least 3/4s of the time. Now I just need to remember to put it down before I drive under low trees. Hey Mar, I just found another pink job: Remind me to put the wifi antenna down before we take off.

Our New Home

Larry Vanstone — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:07:56 +0000

Finally, a picture. We are out at Cayuga for the weekend, last night was our first night in our new coach. It was quite nice thankyou. The drive out here was amazing, the coach is nice and tight, no rattles and it handles like a dream. We are all extremely comfortable, even the dogs.
We have lots to talk about.
Later.

To Test Drive The Dutchstar

Larry Vanstone — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:55:53 +0000

Good thing I was not having a busy day at work today. That gave me time to work on moving all our stuff from the Itasca to the DutchStar. And with some help from Mar later in the afternoon, we are all moved in. The new coach is not already to go yet, still needs new tires and a safety but it’s sporting a new MotoSat satelite dish (this one is automatic; you turn it on it finds our satelite), no more cursing and swearing! It also has Sirius Satelite radio and a WiFi antenna that is supposed to pull in a wifi signal from up to a mile away.

So tomorrow afternoon we head off on our maiden voyage in the new “V”. We are off to the races at Cayuga Speedway for the weekend. We have a hundred new toys to play with and only a couple of days to play with them all. Marilyn is already planning on which dirty clothes she will do first in her new washer dryer and I have almost figured out how I will re-organize the basement storage. Plus I need some time for a cold beer or 2. We’ll have fun!

Wish us luck