Pictures For You All

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19361752@N02/sets/72157605500290028

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/19361752@N02/sets/72157605500562468 The Berglund Brothers

Way Too Soon

As I said at the funeral, to get up and give tribute to Rocky came way too soon. And as he would have it, it was a surprise. His showing up on our door step, Surprise!!! Who is this shaggy, lanky, scary looking guy wanting to crash at our house. As long as I had known Jody she had never mentioned the name Rocky, but I could tell by her warm greeting they were old friends. Surprise!!! We have had several people crash at our place over the years and I thought Rocky was another stay dog needing a nail to hang his hat for a while. Turns out it was for a little longer than a while. His talents and skills were untold and they came in handy when he converted our two car garage into an office, changed the counters in our kitchen so I could install a dishwasher and the list is so long I can't remember all the times he pulled my ass out of the fire. Rocky worked on my Sportster and was one of only a couple of people to ride it besides my self. I knew that Rocky would be a life long friend, but I never had any thought he would become my brother-in-law, now that was a surprise. Gale and Rocky rode the marriage roller coaster with the best, and I can only describe it as an E-ticket adventure at least from my point of view. Jody and I retold our Rocky stories on our trip home and we laughed and cried and still can't grasp the fact that he is gone, and as fate or luck or Rocky intervention would have it he pulled our ass out of the fire again, I won't say one last time because I know it won't be. Jody and I stopped at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and as we were leaving the first view point I realized I had locked the keys in the truck(Oh Shit). Call Chevron Travel Club, locksmith, break a window all time consuming a expensive options, none very attractive. In my pocket was the Buck knife Rocky carried that Gale had given me and with a little luck I was able to pop the lock on the sliding glass window and get back on the road with only a little delay. So once again Rocky came to the rescue and saved the day. We miss you Bro and love you, and know you are riding the long and winding road with all the Free Food you will ever need.

Dead Cousins

The recent passing of cousin Carl has brought up thoughts of the other cousins that are no longer with us. As I recollect there was Grant, he was in the Navy and on leave and died in an auto accident. I don’t know his last name; his mother is Vivian, Dad’s sister as I believe she had a husband before Darrel. I don’t think I ever met Grant at least I don’t remember, of course I was pretty young, his death being sometime in the early 60’s. If anyone has a memory of Grant I would love to hear it.

Cheryl died of a brain aneurysm in the late 70’s or early 80’s she grew up in the most beautiful part of Oregon. Cheryl’s parents are Clayton and Fern ; Clayton is Mom’s 2^nd oldest brother. Cheryl had a couple of kids that her brother Larry adopted. They are both great kids that Jody and I got to meet at Clayton and Fern’s 60^th anniversary celebration. I remember Cheryl as a bossy teenager, but at that time in my life everybody older and bigger than me was bossy. I never got to know her as an adult, wish I had.

Marsha died of cancer in the late 90’s or early 00’s; she was living in Texas at the time. She was married and had several kids, which relocated to Portland after her death. Marsha was a big wig in the hospitality industry, hotel management, corporate level and all that cool stuff. I got to know Marsha a little bit as an adult when she would come to San Diego for business and we would get together for dinner and tell all the old stories. I liked Marsha very much she had her stuff together. By the way Marsha was Clayton and Fern’s oldest child.

Tom died of cancer or the cure I am not sure which in 05. Tom was career Air Force retiring as a Major after 25 years. His parents are Paul and Wanda and have two sisters; Paul is Dad’s youngest brother. Tom was the closest to my age of any of my cousins and we had a lot of adventures as kids, teenagers, and young adults. He was a little older than me and had a car first; we had a lot of firsts together, we could have gotten into a lot of trouble if we had known how . Tom’s family and religion were his life but he never shoved it down your throat. My last visit with Tom was at his house in Clarkston and it was good, but very somber as we talked about the end and it was harder for me than for him. I miss you Tom.

Carl died of cancer around the 1^st of May 2008, I am currently located about 3 hours away and I did not make the trip to see him before he passed. I am really sorry about that. His parents were Carl Sr (deceased) and Rosalee, they live in the same house in Petaluma Ca. for as long as I can remember he had one brother. Carl and his wife Robin still live in the same house that I first visited in the 70’s and they have two kids. He was upper management but saw the big picture and was lured to the real life of higher wages and way lower hours. Carl was 10 or more years older than me and my first memories of him were when he came to spend the summer with us when we lived in Hell’s Canyon. As a young sailor I would drive or fly or sail from San Diego and spend long weekends at his and Robin’s place, we went to a fireworks show on the 4^th of July 1976 in Petaluma, when my ship pulled into San Francisco for the bicentennial. Carl resembled Cookie from 77 Sunset Strip and lived up to it. RIP Carl.

I have to admit I shed a couple while writing this.

P.S. Any Memories pass them along.

Check out the web site of our new digs

Here is a link to the Hidden Lakes Recreation Area web site, you will also find a link to Flickr for some pretty good Pics.




www.freewebs.com/hiddenlakesrecarea

Blog Slacker Here!

Wow, almost a month since the last post and nothing going on. Finally things are slowing down, wait a minute things would have to speed up to slow down, so I guess it's all the same. We are fully functional, power, water(though sometimes a little smelly), sewer, Direct TV, a phone line, and four dogs. Most of the RV park construction has been put on hold and our role has been changed to back up security and clean up flunky, we have a small problem with homeless folks wanting to live on the property and leave a mess. So we go on a couple of patrols a day looking for fresh tracks and trash piles, if they would just clean up after themselves we would never know. But NO!
As far as fun goes Jody and I have done a small amount of sight seeing, checking out the local towns and a lot of flat ag land, we visited some friends in Woodland and they took us to a very cool Truck museum. Also on the sight was an Agricultural equipment museum, and as you will remember our place in Idaho we are fans of the old(Rusty) farm machinery. No more promises about keeping the blog updated, it will happen when it happens. So until next time, Blog On Dude!

It's Been a Busy Month

March started out pretty slow, doing the daily routine. Checking things off the To-Do list prepping for the big move. Spent a few days with Cleota and Stan helping them move out all the old furniture while they had the carpet replaced throughout the house. Played with the thundering herd, they are such good dogs, we will miss them. Checked out a few of the local museums, Hurricane(very nice a little disorganized), Silver Reef(old mining town, cool history) and my personal favorite Dinosaur Tracks(a fossil fan must). Spent a good portion of the month sorting papers for the tax man, but got past that nasty chore and can't wait for next March. Got the final piece for my personal PA system, and it worked just as planned, I love it when a plan comes together. The Xetava Gardens gig went well except for the weather, temperature was good but the wind didn't stop blowing so with the wind chill factor it made things a little unpleasant. Took a break at the halfway point and the owner asked me to move inside for the rest of the night and I was more than happy to oblige. Finished out the gig unplugged all acoustic and a hat full of tip money. The morning of the 25th came early and we were all hooked up and on the road by 9am, it was a leisurely pull, even with the fuel prices ranging from $3.99 to $4.39. We spent the night in a cheap motel in Bakersfield, didn't want to hunt for an RV park as the house was full of stuff and not easy to setup for a one night stay. If you ever have to spend the night in Bakersfield, DO NOT stay at the Vagabond Inn North, especially in room 153, the previous tenant (Hank) got repeated phone calls(til we had them shut off the phone) and a midnight visitor, not sure what he was doing in the room but he had a pretty good clientel. Next day finished the trip and we got into Marysville about 3pm. Been set up for a few days and we both like it, quiet somewhat isolated, great fishing I have witnessed haven't drowned a worm yet but will get to that in the near future. Today we are going to walk over to the Flea Market and check out all the junk(I mean Merchandise). Will try and keep up the ol blog a little better. Ya'll have a good week.

Getting it all together

Well we are down to 24 days and counting until departure. You would think that it is just a matter of hooking up the truck and hitting the road. But when you have parked in the same place for several months the things that make a house a home have been unpacked and and put on display. Pictures, books, music stuff, computer stuff times 4, not to mention the things we have stored at Jody's moms. It's not like we have that far to go but even if we had to change spaces in the park here it would be the same exercise. Luckily at our new destination there is a Large weekly swap meet within walking distance where we can purge again, not to mention it is a great place to buy cheap fresh local produce or a new fighting rooster when your old one wears out. And for those interested, in the same complex is a 1/4 mile Dirt track, Go cart track, Putt Putt Golf, open wheel driving school. Getting anxious to hit the road and see some new country. We'll keep you posted.