Here we are at Stub Stewart State Park, up in the Oregon Coast Range at 1,200 feet elevation in October going on Thanksgiving. We just walked down to lock up the Day Use restrooms at seven o’clock, one of our regular chores. It is totally dark and the temperature is 42 degrees with a 10 mph wind out of the south west. I am dressed in high top shoes, woolly socks, long pants, regular tee shirt, long sleeve tee shirt, long sleeved sweatshirt with a hoody, a fuzzy vest and a wind breaker over it all. I have my volunteer hat and volunteer vest and my hands jammed deep in my pockets. Judy is dressed similarly except she has her woolly gloves on.
I am thinking, “I could be in California by now wearing shorts.” I think we let the beautiful weather in early October lull us into complacency. Those of you who live in Oregon and Washington know what I am talking about. Rain, daily rain, intermittent showers followed by steady downpour. An occasional “sun break” just to keep your hopes up followed by a black cloud skimming over the nearby hills and giving us yet another shower.
Today we discovered our wardrobe is sweating on the outside wall behind our cloths. The cloths provide an insulating layer and the moisture condenses on the cold wall. Well I had a brilliant thought. I’ll bet someone makes a combination heater and de-humidifier. Well almost. It will cool and dehumidify at the same time, but its heat function is as a heat pump, so it cannot de-humidify at the same time. The unit weighs 70 pounds and must be vented outside. In reality it is a full blown heat pump, that is; it is an air conditioner like we have on the top…of…the…..coach…
You know what? We tried it and it works. With the heater pumping out hot, dry air and the air conditioner pumping out cool, dry air we dropped the relative humidity from 66% to 46% in about 15 minutes and the inside of the windows cleared up. Don’t try this unless you have 50 amp service and it is possible that the air conditioner might ice up in this cool weather.
We are still having fun. Today I rode shotgun with another host and we blew the leaves off of the Banks to Vernonia State Trail. Riding shotgun entails hopping out at every cross road to unlock and remove the bollards so that we can get through with the ‘Gator and the turbo fan. I think they use something similar to dry raceways and ball fields. This unit looks like a jet engine mounted on its trailer and the nozzle can be rotated and aimed at the road behind the trailer. The wind it creates is probably a hundred mph and the leaves just scatter.

Tomorrow is our day off and we will be going back to the Casey Eye clinic for Judy’s second shot to treat her macular condition. I will hold this up to give an up to date report before sending it out.
Well this got a little stale waiting for me to finish it. Here is the scoop.

Judy’s shots are working wonderfully. The retina has reattached and is no longer leaking. Her vision has improved in the right eye to where she can read with it again.
Judy’s doctor, however, talked us into waiting and getting the third monthly shot. I said above that it was October going on Thanksgiving. Well it is true, we will wait until Thanksgiving to start south now. So we extended our volunteer stay to include November at least through Thanksgiving. We will share that with Renee and Neil and the two granddaughters, Georgia and Mathilda. Last night we did Halloween with them.

They were so cute. I will include a photo of them in the blog. Two year old Mathilda insisted on walking all the way. She also wouldn’t let any of her loot out of her sight, so she had to carry her bucket with her too. Her formula was very simple. Be little, and cute, and sing out with your “thank you” and “happy Halloween.” It also helps to have a big sister who looks out for you and brings you the candy when you lag behind.
So to our friends in California and Arizona, we will see you when we get there. That is if the creek don’t rise and we don’t get snowed in.
Gary and Judy