After our National Park trip in Washington, we headed back to Oregon for the Labor Day Grand Opening of the Styring Vineyards new Tasting Space and to prepare for our Fantasy RV Tours Polar Bear Migration trip. Oh, and it would be nice to get the Jeep back from the body shop!
LL. Stubb Stewart State Park
Other than being an hour away from most of our family, we love staying at Stubb Stewart State Park. This large wooded park west of Portland, Oregon provides nice contrast to the gravel parking lots that are common along the road. We always try to find places like this to stay whenever we can.
Too Busy?
There are very few places to stay close to the metropolitan areas in any city, and the Portland area is no exception. With an hour-long commute each way, and plenty of doctor appointments, errands and visits with friends and family, we felt a little too busy.
We will be on the lookout for a closer place to stay along with a more relaxed schedule next time we are in Portland.
Body Repairs for the Jeep and Joyce
Who knew how much time a rear-end collision in mid-July would require of us. Both getting the Jeep repaired, and getting Chiropractic care for my somewhat minor injuries to my neck and arm and a knee that just won’t heal.
That Jeep repair was only supposed to take two weeks, but here we are at the end of August, still driving a rental car. It just kept being extended. First it was a parts delay, then the suspension and lift gate required repairs which was only identified at the end.
Due to spotty cell-phone service it had become rather stressful to try to coordinate the timing and details of the Jeep repairs while traveling in Washington. As a result, I was driving around to find a cell signal to return phone calls while using the rental car as a phone booth. We were ready to drive to Oregon and trade the rental in for the Jeep at any time, but it did not happen.
Now being back in the area, we are anxious to finish up the repairs. The Jeep had only been back for a few days when the electronic parking brake failed and we were stuck, late for a doctor appointment and needing a tow from the vineyard. Finally, after more than six weeks and two rental car contracts, we had the Jeep back again.
Care for my injuries had been on hold during our Washington trip and I was feeling the effects so I returned to chiropractic and massage care as soon as we were back.
One challenge about RV living is having to adjust the schedule to be in one place longer for ongoing repairs or medical procedures, or delay the appointments until we are in a stable location.
Megan Drops In
Megan flew in from Tempe, Arizona for a long weekend visit. It was the first time she had been back to Oregon since we sold the house three and a half years ago. Since we don’t get many visitors in our condo on wheels we were thrilled! We stayed at the Maxwell’s in Beaverton Thursday night and returned to the RV at Stubb Stewart Park Friday.
After moving the RV to the Styring Vineyard on Saturday, we had a great visit with the Styrings and the Parkers in the new Tasting Space.
Sunday, most of my family joined us for a luncheon picnic at my Sister’s house before Megan flew home. We took that opportunity to celebrate Dad’s birthday and to give my brother Dan a photo book like the one I made for Mom. It was so fun to see Dan’s reaction, to say he was delighted with his book is an understatement.
Styring Vineyards Tasting Space – Grand Opening
We’ve been proudly watching the Styrings build their winery business for almost 15 years, from one building to four interconnected buildings. Pouring tastings during Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends for most of that time has blessed us with many wonderful memories as shown in the photos below.
We felt honored this Labor Day weekend to be pouring for the Grand Opening Celebration of the new Tasting Space building. It was a nice milestone to share with good friends! The new building is stunning and really helps elevate the tasting experience that the Styring’s highly rated wines deserve.
As we departed down that winding drive past the nicely ripening grapes, we thought how nice it would be to help during harvest someday!
Prepping for The Polar Bear Trip
The Jeep repairs were finished just in time to depart for the Eugene area. First Coburg for Cummins annual service on the RV. Next, Davis Cabinets in Junction City for some minor repairs on cabinets. Both were finished fast and gave us more time to prepare for the Polar Bear Trip while staying at Pheasant Ridge RV Park in Wilsonville, one of the closer full-service RV parks. This time we were in a larger site that backed onto a green belt making it a good mix of the wooded parks we prefer and the closer location that has become a necessity.
