Moving

Why Are You In Oregon?

The title of this post comes from the sentiment my cousin Louise (AKA: Weezie) wrote on the envelope of her Christmas card to us. And for good measure repeated inside the card as well. Donna has said she is going to write her a note explaining our relocation, but has been putting it off for the last week or 10 days, so I’m going to write the reason down here, maybe spurring her into doing it in that card.

For more than the past dozen years, in nearly every one of those summers, we have taken a 2 week vacation to come out west. One of those weeks has been dedicated to visit Donna’s youngest brother and his fledgling family. The first year it was to attend the baby shower for he and Beth’s first child. Along the way James has been joined by two subsequent sisters and this year that number one child will be getting his driver’s learner permit. Yikes!

The other vacation week has been to explore western America, just the two of us. Mostly Washington and Oregon, but we’ve been through a bit of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The desert southwest, while stunningly beautiful in its own way, didn’t hold a candle to the Pacific Northwest’s appeal to us. So this is where we visited more than anywhere else. We spent time on the Olympic Peninsula, in the San Juan Islands, central Washington, the Cascade Mountains and the Oregon coast. Every time we returned from one of forays out here we would come back, look at each other and say, “We need to move out there.” After 2017’s western trip we started seriously considering a move away from our home of 30 years, Aiken, SC.

We started with a couple criteria for our new home, 1) a small, but not too small, town, 2) was nowhere too close to the big cities of Seattle or Portland and 3) be close, but not too close to brother and family. We used started by looking in Washington state and the first serious contender was the town of Sequim (pronounced skwim) on the Olympic Peninsula. It was less than 100 miles to the Morrison Manse in Granite Falls, but took over two hours to get there because it involved two ferry rides. The ferry rides were actually a big plus for us though, as we always managed to get in several on every visit out that way, we enjoyed them so much. When we started home shopping on Zillow in our price range it was apparent that, even in a small town of just 6,000 souls, that that money wasn’t nearly enough to put us in something nowhere as nice as we are used to.

Our 2018 trip out west was to Lake Tahoe for a wedding, because we were both retired at that point, we drove and took our time. When we got back to South Carolina we were now more determined than ever to move out west. The leading contender had become Carson City, Nevada because we enjoyed ourselves there one weekend day visit. But when we started looking at houses on Zillow it had the same cost problem as Sequim.

I then made a spreadsheet of towns in several western states with some specific criteria, population of 25 to 40 thousand, altitude of a minimum of 2500′, fairly temperate (not as hot as Aiken, but not too much lower than there in the winter) and more sunny days than cloudy, plus the big one -housing affordability. The field was quickly narrowed down to one city, Klamath Falls, Oregon. We searched around the internet as best we could to look the place over, from afar it did look like a winner. We started virtually stalking house on Zillow and were pleasantly surprised with what we found.

Our trip out west for 2019 was now set, one week for visiting family in Washington and the other in Klamath Falls. We picked the last week in June for Oregon because there were lots of events scheduled for then and that left the 4th of July week to visit Granite Falls. We had an AirBnB for a week in Klamath and wandered around town, enjoyed several car related events, ate at a few local restaurants, did some geocaching and even had a realtor show us 4 homes that we had chosen from Zillow. We both agreed, we could live there.

We returned to Aiken on July 10th, we put our house on the market July 29th, we agreed on selling the house September 9th, we closed on it on October 11th and started driving to Oregon on the next day.

Movers Review

Everyone wants a review when ever you buy something, anything, from a pack of 50¢ widgets on Amazon to a new car from your local Shubert dealer. And apparently moving companies. Our movers sent us an email asking for a review, with links to do it on their Facebook page, on Google and on Yelp, like practically begging for one. Well, I usually shun this marketing crap and I will this time too, at least publicly, I will reply directly to their email though. Here is what it will say:

A Mayflower crew packed us out at our origin. A United Van Lines driver delivered and unloaded us at our destination with the help of two local crew.

The Mayflower folks packed our items in wooden crates for local storage. Our estimator/salesman told it was okay to keep or pack our stuff in desk or dresser drawers if they were tight. The packing crew then told us all drawers needed to be empty. The crew was polite and respectful and did their job well with a couple of exceptions: Some jewelry items were packed in items of clothing and ended up in scattered between boxes. The plastic cabinet loaded with various nails, screws, bolts, washers and nuts in the garage was taped up in front, but not the back causing a substantial amount of screws/bolts scattered in a box.

The delivery driver opened all crates and disassembled a few items so he could pack them more tightly into his truck: an office chair, a computer desk, two leaning ladder-style shelving units and the wheels were removed from our 4 bicycles. Our household goods were packed tightly mid truck and that location was misjudged in a way that caused the unloading crew to spend the first 45 minutes or so trying to push, shove, wiggle, pry two dressers out the door so they could get to the rest of our items, not a pretty sight. It is amazing that not more than the one bent desk drawer handle and three hooks broken off a decorative towel rack were damaged. This delay along with a slight weather delay of the arrival, put them in a bind to finish because the driver had to be 400 miles further north by the next morning for another delivery.

Six people packed us out, but only three unloaded us, there should have had more folks, took way too long. It didn’t help that one of local crew was either very new, incompetent or lazy and had to be constantly instructed or corrected in the manner to handle the unloading. After nearly 5 hours everything was in the house, but they still had to assemble everything. They were struggling with the computer desk and fearing they would put it together wrong, I told them I’d do it (I had already put the bike wheels back on.) I also told them I would put together the shelves, so the driver could get going. He had the local guys put together the desk chair while he and I went over the inventory.

Even though both the chair seat and base were clearly labeled with the word FRONT, they still managed to get it together backwards. The two leaning ladder shelves were quite a challenge. These were made by a carpenter friend and were not mass produced, so all the screw holes were close but not exactly in the same place. This was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The first one took 4 hours, but second one only took 20 minutes. The vertical parts for each shelf were wrapped together, the horizontal supports were separately wrapped together, but the horizontal shelves were not. The screws were separately packed nicely, but he should have labeled each piece for each set.

Too Many Sweaters

We got around to opening the last few clothing boxes today. How many sweaters does a retired person need? A dozen? Nope, narrowed it down to five. Also kept 2 Hawaiian shirts out of 4, two button down casual shirts out of four and just 2 of 4 Lands End quarter-zip knit shirts. Some needy folks in Klamath Falls will be dressed a little nicer and warmer after we donate these.

We are down to just a dozen book boxes to open up and shelve. After that, it is figuring out where to hang the eleven-hundred framed photos, prints and completed jigsaw puzzles around the empty vertical surfaces. Sometime not long after that, they will come down again as we add color to all the beige walls.

The garage is still a mess, all the tools and what not will be needed, arranging still on the existing shelves in the back. I will also need to figure out how to store our half dozen bikes while allowing easy access to them and the two cars. Then there is reinstalling the RaceDeck tile flooring and possibly adding some more for under the Mini…

One Month In

We arrived in Klamath Falls a month ago today.

We are still stuck in that awkward time between agreeing on a price and actually taking possession of the house and the big hold up is the bank’s appraisal, there is a 4 week backlog. At this rate we will have to get lucky to get into the house by Christmas. We have agreed to extend our stay in the AirBnB until 12/21. The Host wrote back saying she was going to block off the place until the 5th of January, just in case we need longer.

Both the rental car and the Mini were returned to their respective homes this afternoon. On further troubleshooting it was determined that both the #2 and #4 cylinders were reading bad. Because we had the coil pack on #1 replaced in May and now #2 & #4 were acting up, we agreed to go ahead and change the coil pack on #3 because sure enough in a couple weeks that probably would have started acting up as well. Add in the cast of the rental car for a week and are out over $600.

Over the weekend I developed some pain in the upper left of my mouth. It really didn’t feel too bad, until this morning when the pain increased to about a 3 of 10. I though maybe it was time to see a dentist. There were 10 listed that were in our dental insurance network. Several were a little too far away so I eliminated them. There were two practically next door to each other, not far from our favorite grocery store, so I called one of them hoping I could get to see the doctor this week. The receptionist said, “We just had a cancellation for 4:00 PM. Would that do?” I said, “See you then.” They took x-rays. After the dentist took a look them, she then poked and scraped and prodded around the two bad teeth. She said’ “I don’t see anything obvious, maybe it is just a sinus infection.” She prescribed an antibiotic and said if it doesn’t clear up in a week, call me. Then she added, “And call me if it does work.”

We have had a fairly mild November so far here, but things are about to get real with highs in the 40’s and lows in the upper teens to low 20s. And next week leading up to Thanksgiving there is a good chance of a bit of the white stuff.

Yawn

One good thing about living way out west is Monday Night Football starts at 5:00 PM. When living on the east coast it started at 8:00 PM and usually ended around 11:30 PM, which is almost too late to stay up for the whole game.

The one bad thing about living way out west is it gets dark early in the fall, so that when Monday Night Football ends at 8:30, it is hard to resist not going to bed right after it is over.

Its a Small World After All

On our last day of driving we went 283 miles from Carson City to Klamath Falls, 211 of those miles were in California and for the most part were on very rural forested roads. The biggest town we passed through was Susanville with a population of around 18,000. The rest were small little places, I hesitate to call them actual towns they were so small, named Hackamore, Newell, Ambrose and Buntingville.

Just outside one of these kinds of places, Adin, population 272, we stopped at a little gas station called Juniper Junction for a nature break. There was one other vehicle there too, getting gas, but we didn’t really pay attention to it. We both went inside and Donna asked the clerk if they have a restroom and was given the key, attached to a small plunger so it wouldn’t wonder off in a pocket, and pointed around outside to the other end of the building. As we were leaving the store we could hear another individual ask about a restroom as well, so I turned and said, “Follow us.”

As we walked by the car gassing up I noticed a familiar looking license plate. Donna went into the bathroom leaving me and the guy outside, where upon I asked him, “Is that SUV yours?” He replied, “Yes.” So I pointed at the back end of our Mini and said, “Small world.”

I launched into our story of selling our house and moving to Klamath Falls and that it has been a long and scenic trip, but were happy to be near the end. He told me that it sure is a pretty drive, but all his family and friends said he was crazy to drive all this way instead of flying. He lives in Duncan, South Carolina and was returning there from Klamath Falls. He was in K Falls because he had just attended the funeral of his father, who was a lifelong resident there.

I apologize for the earworm, if in fact the title of this post effected you like it did me.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #9

Carson City, NV to Klamath Falls, OR. Carson City was on our short list of new home towns, it was a bit on the large side population wise and a little more expensive than we wanted, but the real negatives were the existence of legal brothels and casinos on most any street corner. Not that either of one of us would remotely consider patronizing either one of those types of establishments, but the possible criminal elements they could attract were not welcome.

The one thing that Carson City had going for it, which we discovered this morning, was a place called the The Cracker Box Diner. This is the kind of place that Guy Fieri should cover, but probably won’t, because nothing here is over the top enough. What you get here is plain great diner food. The eggs at breakfast tasted like they were pried from the fingers of chickens in the back room. Their take on homes fries was thin sliced potatoes with fresh chopped tomatoes and chives. Both Donna’s sourdough and my rye toast came from the Truckee Sourdough Company and was delicious. The coffee tasted even better than what I had yesterday at a place called The Coffee Cup in Boulder City. The pièce de résistance was the orange juice…it was fresh squeezed right there in house. Not only was this the best breakfast of the trip, it was the best meal period.

We are here now in our new hometown and looking forward to finding a new home in it. Maybe Tuesday we’ll start looking at some of the houses we have zeroed in on as possibles. But first, tomorrow is find a bank, get a post office box and finish some more grocery shopping.