RUNNING INTO RAIN IN OREGON

Yesterday we moved from Eureka, California to Brookings, Oregon, a short and scenic drive up the Pacific coast.  And I made a big boo-boo.

We have a few loose items around the motorhome that ride on the bed as we travel.  During our departure preparations, I retract the back slide, then move these loose things from the front of the motorhome to the bed in the back, and retract the front slide.

As I moved a small – but heavy – box to the bed, I leaned over the bed too far, reached across the laptop computer, and turned a bit sideways to set the box down.  Yikes!  A jolt of pure pain hit my back - I groaned, and dropped the box.  Ow, ow, ow!  (Those weren’t my exact words.)

I hobbled through the rest of the departure preparations, rubbing my back and hip and wondering how I’d feel by afternoon.  The answer?  Old!  Old, stiff, and painful.

We settled into a spacious site in at the Brookings Elks lodge (read our review and see photos here), but walking around was out of the question for me and I had to confess my disability to Odel.  I did nothing the rest of the day other than rub my back with an ointment for aching muscles, take ibuprofen, drink plenty of red wine, and lounge around looking pathetic, asking Odel to hand me this and that.  (He was very understanding.)

Today I felt MUCH better when I awoke – the do-nothing-but-drink-and-drugs treatment really worked.  :)  But Odel had his own health challenge – an annoying, on-again, off-again earache.  Since our day was getting off to a slow start, he sat down at the computer and googled for treatments.  Garlic, or garlic and olive oil, caught his eye.

We are lucky to have on hand the mother of all Garlic, grown by our friend Marlene Dopp in her organic garden and passed along to us this summer.  This stuff could repel any vampire within half a mile.  The heads are gigantic and the cloves downright juicy!  If any garlic would cure an earache, this would.

So far, he has tried two treatments: the standard “half-clove of raw garlic in the ear” and the more exotic garlic-infused olive oil eardrops (we didn’t have a dropper, so just rubbed the oil in with a Q-tip).  It wasn’t an immediate cure; we’ll have to see if things have improved by tomorrow.  It entertained us for most of the morning, though!

Once my back limbered up and Odel removed the garlic from his ear, it was noon.  The fog had cleared to reveal overcast skies, but we had time for a walk at the harbor, a hike at nearby Harris Beach State Park, and a stop at Fred Meyer for dinner ingredients before rain set in.  Now we are cozy at home, sports on TV for my lightly garlic-scented husband, a light rain falling outside, a rotisserie chicken on the counter (to be accompanied by a quinoa/dried cranberry salad and waffle-cut fries for dinner), plenty of wine on hand. 

And now, a quick RAVE: way back in January, when we decided to have the outside of Scoopy restriped, cleaned and polished, we also decided to spring for an electric awning.  It was a difficult decision, a BIG expense that we weren’t sure would pay off. 

Well, 9 months later, I am SO convinced that it was worth the money and effort to switch.  We use the new awning a hundred times – no, 1000 times – more frequently than we ever used the manual awning, all because I can put it out and bring it in by myself.  When it looked like rain today, I deployed the awning and moved Luna’s crate under it to keep the crate dry.  A moment ago, the “rain drain” feature kicked in, lowering the back end of the awning about 6 inches to drain the water that would otherwise pool on top of the awning. It is SO COOL!  So, if you have been considering such a change – go for it!