September and October 2009 Cruise News

We left you at the end of August with a computer that was dying, our boat up for sale in Bellingham and us in California looking for a new home. To backtrack a little, we unpacked all of our "stuff" from the boat, put it all in storage in Bellingham and flew north to Sitka to get the truck/camper. We spent two days in Sitka saying goodbye to friends and hopped the next ferry to Prince Rupert, BC. We made haste through British Columbia since we were eager to get to California to find a new home. The ride through BC was beautiful.....

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Oh Canada!!!!

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Most of the drive was along one river or another.

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We will definitely return to Canada to see more of this beautiful scenery.

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Before arriving in California, we decided to look for a home in the Pioneer, CA area. We've spent time here and like the countryside and the weather. We got hooked up with a realtor and the second day we arrived, we looked at 15 houses. The first few were horrible. We thought for sure we would not find anything that didn't require MAJOR work and MAJOR money. The last house we looked at was this one.

It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, laundry room, separate dining room. It is bankowned and needs some TLC but nothing MAJOR. We made an offer and not 24 hours later, the bank accepted the offer. We were shocked and delighted.

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There are wooden decks around most of the house overlooking the 1.68 acres of mostly oak, pine, and madrone trees. There is a separate fenced-in garden area that deer cannot get into which will be nice. Escrow doesn't close until October 23rd but we are hoping the bank will want the $$$$ sooner and close sooner.

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One of the things Chuck did while waiting for the house to close was to take photos of the critters in and around Pioneer. Here is a red tailed hawk flying over Chuck's son's house.

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It has obviously seen something it wants and has moved into the dive/kill mode.

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A turkey vulture.

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Not far from our house is a beautiful small cemetary. All kinds of animals and birds spend time on the lawn. On this day we saw wild turkeys, peacocks and deer.

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We've taken several rides in and around our new house and found a beautiful spot up in the "high country".

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A beautiful sunset at our new home.

We were hoping the house would close before the 23rd but it didn't. We got the keys on the very last day which was 30 days from the day we signed the contract. In the meantime we have been living in our camper on Chuck's son's property just a mile from the new house. We spent a lot of time at the local Lowes and furniture stores window shopping. Couldn't buy anything since there was no place to put it. We even went to yard sales on the weekends to see if we could find any "deals" (which we did). Since getting the keys, we have painted the garage and moved in the 50+ tubs of "stuff" that came off of LucretiaB.

The November issue of the cruise news will include pictures of the house and work we are doing to make it "ours".

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Chris and Chuck