Marie took a friday off, this week, so that we could shoot out of town a bit early with The Toaster in tow. Champoeg State Park, a large, beautiful and well serviced Oregon State Park, which is only about 35 minutes from our home, is a great place for us to land with our 1964 Airstream Tradewind Land Yacht. We take some videos along, and our laptops, and if the weather is inclement, as in cold and rainy, which it has been for most of our time here, we just hole up and catch up on a few documentaries or other dvds we have been wanting to watch. This weekend, we saw three of them, and once again, my Documentary Filmaker Wife Marie came up with some great stuff. At amazon.com, they just call her by her first name.As you can see from the photo above, our Bichon “Pippi” is well at home in the trailer, as long as she is glued to her Mom or Dad.
Poppi, pictured here, is our more mellow Bichon, and she tends to find a place to lie like a lump more often than her sister. It’s great fun to have Bichons, whether at home, or on the road. We brought our bikes this time, and if it gets nice later today, we may try to bike the paved bike path they have here, along the Willamette River, with our dogs secured in strap and velcro doggy pouches attached to our breasts as we ride. I hope to get a photo of that, just to make my kids wonder, yet again, if Dad and Marie have completely lost it. This little weekend jaunt is our first foray of the trailering season, so last week I de-winterized The Toaster, where it sits in storage on its pad in my commercial building’s parking lot. I checked out the parking lights, etc., got it ready to roll. Unfortunately, I did not discover the serious water line leak in the galley area, so when I turned the water on here in this full hook-up park, we endured a bit of minor flooding under the kitchen sink, and decided we were going to have to rough it this weekend without cold or hot water in the trailer. Marie and I tend not to dwell on mishaps, and once we realized that we were stuck, we just adapted. We do have heat, and the fridge works fine, no worries. Next week I will get my friend Dean Pottle The Plumber to fix the busted water line.
As I sit here writing, my dog by my side, and Marie reading in her berth, the sun streaming in on my hands and keyboard, the only sounds I hear are the second hand movement of our retro chrome-look wall clock, an occasional small plane engine, and the voices of other campers, kids mostly, their reverb tinged conversations cutting through the stillness and quiet of the park. Marie said this morning, over our fresh hot coffee, 
that she had heard owls and possibly coyotes last night in bed. And yesterday, when I drove out of the park on an errand, I had to stop to allow four young deer to cross the road directly in front of me. This park is greatly accessible, and we intend on bringing our son Blaine here, who uses a wheelchair, another time, and renting one of the accessible cabins for him, or possibly a yurt. As you can see, they both have accessible entries. But the restroom facilities located near the cabins are much more accessible, and even include a roll in shower with a hand held shower head! I look forward to sitting next to the fire with Blaine and Marie, the pups, maybe Granny, and any other family members I can talk into meeting us here, and crankin’ out some gooey marshmallow and fine dark chocolate gourmet s’mores.
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