Our First Week

Our first week of full-timing has come and gone and despite a few hiccups we are excited with all the prospects ahead of us. We headed out of Brookings on Saturday 8/13 and decided to head up the Oregon coast. Our first night was a quick stay at Darlings Marina & RV Resort outside of Florence, OR. The park sits on Siltcoos Lake. They have some spots right on the lake but we ended up in one of their spaces up the hill from the lake. The area is tight and we had to carefully maneuver the motorhome into the space. It was a nice overnight stop over for our trip but not someplace we'd want to spend much time at due to the tight quarters. The staff was friendly and helpful and they are very dog friendly and our furry- kids were good with staying here. There are many lakes in the area, besides a short drive to the ocean, to take the kids and let them play. We were able to wear them out after getting settled in. The park also has it's own pub and deli with a small but nice selection of beer and cider and exceptional fresh-made pizza.

We left Florence on Sunday morning and headed to Newport, OR for a stay at Beverly Beach State Park. We've been here before and it is a nice place with beach access as part of the park. Spaces are nice with plenty of room. We did find that we had limited cellular service on Verizon so doing any work online was not possible, luckily the Starbucks in Newport had good wifi so I was able to get my work done there. Also the spaces are in the trees and well shaded which is nice but does prevent using satellite TV.

Newport and the surrounding area is a great place to spend time with lots to do, both outside activities (hiking and other activities) and sights to see. We also found a couple fun breweries in the area with Newport being the home to Rogue Ales.

After a few days at Newport we headed towards Medford, OR with a quick stop in Junction City, OR to have some items fixed in the motorhome that were missed when we had a bunch of items upgraded before heading out full-time. This was a pain but having our couch not secured to the floor properly wasn't a good idea 😀.

We then headed to Valley of the Rogue State Park which sits on the Rogue river between Grants Pass and Medford. We needed to be in Medford for a couple of days for some medical appointments so decided try this park. The weather was hot while we were here for two nights (highs in the high 90s) so it was nice that we had a 50amp site and could cool off the motorhome. The babies like their comforts of course! The site was nice and wide and the one we picked backed up to the Rogue river. Unfortunately the access to the river was minimal so Vinnie wasn't able to swim since he'd probably get swept away and Alan didn't really want to go swimming  to recover him. The site offered enough sky view that getting satellite TV was possible and the Verizon service was adequate to get online.

Besides taking care of appointments, we visited Jackson and Ashland while there. Jackson is a cute little town with many little shops and cafes to explore. The babies enjoyed taking a break at one of the coffee shops!

Ashland is the home to the Oregon Shakespeare festival and lots of shops, restaurants and other things to see. We didn't get much time to see Ashland but we have been there before and enjoy the town.

We enjoyed both state parks and like that all Oregon state park campgrounds are dog friendly and don't have an issue with the number of babies as long as they are well mannered and cared for. We also have never had an issue with setting up our fencing to sit out with the babies at any of the state parks. After two nights, we decided to head back to the coast since the temperatures were predicted to be even hotter over the weekend (100-105!) and not what any other us were ready for yet.

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Here we go!

About 2-1/2 years ago, also when we started this blog, we started thinking about embracing the full-time RV lifestyle and jumping into it. Due to many different work and life situations it didn't work out at that time. We started thinking about this idea again and with some recent events that happened in our lives, which maybe I'll talk about some day, we decided to jump in with both feet. Kim did all the hard work and got our house on the market and we got a full priced offer within 4 days! We are now heading out after doing lots of downsizing and putting some items in storage (thank goodness for great relatives). For the next couple of months we are planning on staying in the Northwest then head south for the winter months. We will update as we change locations and talk about how we make this lifestyle work for us and the furry babies and where are good places to stay with 4-legged kids.

We are excited to make this change and start a new part of our life and look forward to sharing it with everyone.

One of the recent changes that I will mention now is that we lost Bruno to canine lymphoma on July 28th. He fought a great fight and was a real trooper going through almost 6 months of chemotherapy but unfortunately did not go into remission at the end. We are thankful for the many years we got to be Bruno's humans and the joy he brought to us. He is now resting peacefully with his big brother, Merlin. This blog will always be Five Dogs and Us in their memory and they travel with us in spirit and watch over their brother and sisters.

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Umpqua Lighthouse State Park

With four days off over Easter weekend (March 25th-28th, 2016) we took off for Umpqua Lighthouse State Park outside of Reedsport, Oregon. Our daughter, Danielle, and her four legged baby, Gucci, got to come along as well for a nice get away for all of us.

We had stayed here once before and found the park small and in a nice location. The spaces have nice spacing with trees between all the spaces. The park even has yurts and cabins to rent. The yurts look like they'd be a nice get away.

The area is dog friendly and as in all the Oregon state parks they have no issue with all our furry kids camping with us. Spella approved the site and she and all the kids enjoyed new smells to check out and there was a nice 1 mile hiking path around Lake Louise just a short walk away to get them out on.

Just down the road is the Umpqua Lighthouse and it is open for tours on some days.

We found the best bakery, Sugar Shack Bakery, for donuts and other sweet items in Reedsport and they were even open Easter morning so that became the Easter treat for all of us.

While we were there we also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. It is worth the time to see all the critters there and they have a nice educational aspect.

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Catch Up Time

So it's been quite a while since I've gotten any posting done. We've had quite the change in our lives to say the least. In a very sad turn of events, Merlin became very sick with sudden onset in July of last year and we had to make the difficult decision to end his suffering. It was the right decision for him as he could no longer get up at all and didn't even seem to know where he was. He is now resting comfortably.

In August we made a move from Merced, California to the lovely southern Oregon Coast. We had spent a year living in the central valley of California and decided it wasn't the best environment for us and the kids (4 legged of course) to live in. We now live in a small town and get to visit the ocean every day besides getting a peek-a-boo view of it from the deck of our house. Having rain all winter long was different for us after spending many years in Reno but it is a nice change, especially not having shovel snow.

Of course with the move our travels have been limited while we settled into a new home and down sized at the same time (1/2 the size of our previous home!). New jobs also occupied our time as well. It's funny how they don't want to give you lots of time off right after starting 😀. We have also been busy taking care of Bruno. Right after Christmas he was diagnosed with lymphoma and has been receiving chemotherapy since. I'm happy to say that he is doing much better and acting like his old self. He has just five treatments left and he seems like the lymphoma has gone into remission.

We are now hoping to start more traveling and I'll report on our first trip of the year in the next post. Stay Safe on the road everyone!

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On the road to Brookings, Oregon

We left on Friday, May 12th from Merced, California for a week on the southern coast of Oregon. Since we don't like driving more than 4-5 hours with the kids (they get antsy after that many hours) we broke up the trip into two days. The first night we spent in Willits, California at the Willits KOA. We have always found KOA's welcoming to us and the five kids. The down side of all the KOA's is that they have lots of two legged kids camping there and the noise level can be a bit loud during the day. This KOA has some very nice water features that the furry kids weren't allowed to explore but the two legged variety we saw there seemed to like them. It was very hot while staying there, high 90s so we didn't spend much time outside during the day.

The downtown area of Willits, about 2 miles from the KOA, is quaint and fun to wander around . We had a late lunch at Buster's Burgers and Brew and they have great burgers and a small but nice selection of local brews. Unfortunately I'm not good at remembering to always take photos so don't have any of the KOA or Buster's.

Saturday morning we got on the road for drive up to Brookings. Highway 101 is always a nice drive with great views of the redwoods and ocean. On the way up we stopped in Trinidad for lunch and found a BBQ stand in front of the grocery store. Great Elk burgers for me and tri-tip sandwich for Kim. The babies liked both as well :)

We made it into Brooking mid-afternoon and headed to the RV park we had booked based some pictures we saw and calling around. It was a busy weekend apparently in Brookings so our first choice was booked and the second choice only allowed two dogs. We ended up at the Brookings RV Park. As we discovered the park caters to permanent residents and there were only a couple of us travelers staying there. The park could use some sprucing up and the managers need to get the permanent residents to pick up around their rigs a bit. We did find everyone we spoke with friendly and one resident at the park was helpful with giving us some local insights. Here's what it looks like:

We spent from Saturday until Thursday, June 18th at the park and explored the area but more of that in the next post. As for the park, they were accommodating with the furry kids and we appreciated that. They have good wifi and provide a cable box so you get a lot of channels. I wouldn't recommend the park to those with two legged kids and it won't be out first choice for return trips to the area.

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We're Back!

We've been crazy busy with work and life in general so haven't had much opportunity to travel and especially blog but we are going to try and make up for some lost time so we will be working on some posts for our last week long trip.
Hope you like them!

Kim & Alan

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Start of 2015

We finally had a chance to get out in 2015! Spent Valentine's weekend at Harmony Ridge Resort outside of Nevada City, California. It turned out to be a great weekend of nice weather, hiking and dog walking. We have come to really enjoy Naggier Vineyard and went their on the evening of the 14th for a nice time of dinner and live music. The babies loved getting away and spent all their time soaking in the sun and rolling in the red dirt (Kim's favorite to clean up). Even though we had Monday off, the weekend ended all to soon. We are making plans for a trip to the coast for March.

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Harmony Ridge Resort

Have been spending the week at Harmony Ridge Resort outside of Nevada City, CA. We have a camping membership here and are able to camp here with all five furry kids without any problems. Our favorite camping includes being able to set up a large pen around the side door so we can sit outside with the kids and let them roam in the pen as they want. It is so nice to have place that we can enjoy with our furry kids and that allows them to enjoy themselves as well as us enjoying ourselves.

Has been a great week up until this morning when while out walking the furry kids up a fire road, we ran into a yellow jacket nest in the ground. Vinnie loves holes and was looking into this one when a swarm came out and started attacking  all of us. Poor Vinnie and Kim got the worse of the deal with multiple stings. All the other kids also got stung as well. Took the little guys to a local vet after giving them some Benadryl to make sure all would be okay. Thankfully, all are doing well this evening.

Heading to Reno tomorrow morning to have some work done on motorhome and visit with family.

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Five Dogs and Us

Welcome to our new blog. Stand by for exciting things to come as we start our new adventure with our motorhome and 5 four legged furry kids.

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