New Page 1

What's new 2007

December 12, 2007—We’ve Got a New Boat!

Marc was home for only five days over his Thanksgiving break after a longer than two month stint of six and seven day work weeks in New Mexico. I knew I was in trouble when on the second day he grabbed the keys and hitch ball for the Dodge and said “Common’ Baby, take a drive with me to Eugene”. Six hours later we returned to Coos Bay pulling a brand new boat.

This isn’t some frou-frou cabin cruiser which sucks gas like it still costs 45 cents a gallon, but an all aluminum plain-Jane true fishing boat. It’s rugged, industrial looking, and won’t matter a wit when fish guts and crab stink hits the decks. It seats four, will hold six crab pots or more, is 20 feet in length and sports a four stroke 115 hp Suzuki which so far seems to sip fuel at a pretty moderate rate, although holding a 45 gal fuel tank cost us $125 to fill. It also has full canvas and we immediately added a propane heater so we’re prepared to weather any weather inside and protected! After all, the crabs are out there free for the taking and it’s our mission to take them!

Livin’ large at the coast: Yes, that is a fresh caught home-cooked feast you see before you: barbecued oysters, Dungeness crab, and clam fettuccini! Stay tuned for more great adventures with the boat!

December 10, 2007—We Didn’t Really Disappear!

A lot happened very quickly in our lives since our last update in July. Marc continued to be sent out of town to work on projects in trouble, plus we dealt (very quickly) with the park model move and set up (to Coos Bay).

Fall passed with Marc being sent to a project in Clovis, New Mexico where he continues to work until approximately next March. I stayed behind in the park model and got it all settled, with good intentions of obtaining a local job. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to pass since the job market here is so poor plus I have been fighting an injury to my rotator cuff which has required physical therapy three times a week. As a result, my time here passes with quiet endeavors as I wait for Marc’s return. His visitations are short and sweet and we will be happy to move on to the next project together.

From all indications, the Gresham project we expected is on indefinite hold and we have been told we may be going out of state in spring. I won’t mention the location until it is finalized although it may be at least in the PNW. However, between the time Marc finishes up in New Mexico and the next project, he needs to work in knee replacement surgery, which is scheduled for March 18^th. He will recuperate here at the park model.

In a very quick time frame in September we hauled the Travel Supreme into an RV repair facility in Eugene and tried to have new carpeting and a new roof installed. They accomplished replacing the roof but only got through three quarters of the carpet job before we needed to pick it up. Currently, the RV sits in storage in Bend, as yet not put back together for Marc to use. With his upcoming surgery we don’t know exactly when it will be put back together. The bedroom still needs to have the new carpet laid, the bed needs reattached, all the vents and a/c units need to be cut into and installed into the roof, and the new kitchen countertop and sink needs to be installed. For the astronomical amount of money the repairs cost we were very disappointed that the shop did not get the job completed. We will not be returning it there! Marc has had to live in a motel for the duration of his job in NM—not a pleasant experience!

To catch more details of what we have been up to, please tune in to the Fulltime Journal.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers!

July 21, 2007—Marc goes on the road

Things have been slow with getting the Gresham project rolling since the final plans aren’t yet in order or approved. Once plans have been submitted for county approval the job still needs to be bid out to various subs. The company decided that Marc was too valuable to just sit around the office so they will be sending him out to do trouble-shooting on various projects that are lagging. Next week he will check on one in Moses Lake, WA. Most of the projects will be far enough away that Marc will be required to fly but he will plan on driving to Moses Lake in the Dodge. That requires us to make a trip to Bend to pick it up since this RV park charges $30 extra to park the extra vehicle so we haven’t had it with us.

If Marc makes it back to Salem most weekends we still plan on getting in some nice bike rides this summer. If he’s tied up on the project sites that won’t happen so it may be awhile until we have another web entry. I’ll spend the time between Salem and Bend getting the park model ready for its final move. A new couch I ordered is set to be in about mid-August. Marc will need to be around enough to get it over to Bend!

August 5 PS: It’s been lonely with Marc gone! He made it back from Moses Lake, had the weekend off and will fly out tomorrow for two weeks in Montrose, CO. We got to ride the Wing a little yesterday looking for an RV park near Gresham but were unsatisfied with what we found. So far, there is only one potential park in the running but I hope to also check out another late this week on my way back from Bend. We’ve got to find a new home soon!

July 3, 2007—Summer’s Here; It’s Time to Ride!

Marc barely returned from Wisconsin before the company wanted him working on the new project out of the main office in Salem. We are currently back in the Phoenix RV Park where we kicked off for Wisconsin last May. This is a pretty park with lots of high end rigs but they are too adamant about all their rules for our tastes. Give us boondocking any day!

Gresham seems to definitely be our new project location but we will likely be here in Salem getting all the pre-construction work done for at least two months. One of our new friends from last year still lives here and is a Harley rider so we anticipate doing lots of riding on the weekends with the first outing being a large poker run on July 8^th.

Just before leaving Bend we also joined a much smaller poker run presented by the VFW hall in Redmond to benefit veteran’s survivors. We started by following the Crooked River Gorge to Prineville Reservoir and then cut west through Alfalfa, gaining perspective on the beautiful Central Oregon landscape. From there our next card stop was in LaPine before tackling the gorgeous Cascades Lake Scenic Byway which afforded some great views of Mt. Bachelor’s ski slopes and Lava lake, our next to the last stop. Once back in Redmond we were treated to barbecued hamburger dinner but unfortunately our three nines poker hand was soon being bested by three Queens.

On a different note, the arrival of our park model delivered to Bend on June 15^th is keeping us busy getting it all decorated and filled. We had a marvelous three day journey to the Oregon coast in late June to join in an Escapees RV club rally of the heavy duty haulers where we arrived on the Wing and enjoyed a fabulous potluck dinner and were treated as part of the group. The best part was seeing the demonstration of how one RVer travels with his new Smart car loaded on his big truck. Our RV remained in Bend but Winchester Bay was as beautiful as ever.

That Saturday we visited with the owner and managers of Midway RV Park in Coos Bay and made arrangements for a better permanent spot for our park model which conveniently, was also available two months quicker. So, on September 12^th (instead of November) it will be professionally transported by movers from Bend for its permanent placement. Midway has developed one nice tent site so we decided to spend Saturday night right there which the manager kindly made complimentary to us. And of course, Marc just had to check out the clamming beach to make sure there were still some left for us to dig later! So, a note to any of you doing motorcycle camping—stop in at Midway and see if the tent site is available. It goes for $20/night but will soon have electric & water and the four private sumptuous tiled bathrooms are available to you as well. Midway is on Cape Arago Highway about mid-point between Empire and Charleston Harbor on the way to Sunset Bay State Park, a must do ride.

June 18, 2007—Back in Oregon

Things moved quickly for us once we were set to finally leave Wisconsin on May 15^th. We had so much extra material to bring back that we decided I would ride back with Marc in the rig and he would return for the Dodge, cargo trailer, Wing and all the extra stuff. That worked out well anyway since the company needed him back on the job so flew him out from Bend two days after we arrived back. He ended up spending another three weeks in Wisconsin finalizing everything.

The trip from Wisconsin with the rig went well and we only had rain the first day. It was a little bittersweet leaving the state—we really enjoyed our time there but it was time to get back to family. We decided to cut across the southern portion of Minnesota and connect with I-80 at Des Moines for the trip west. We managed to find free camps the entire trip; some truck stops and some abandoned old parking lots and finally on the fourth night as we entered Oregon, one of our favorite boondocking spots right along the Malheur River. It was wonderful to be back in the west!

We’re currently parked at our official home at my parents’ property in Bend. It’s been a busy time for us since getting home since we have much to catch up on, especially with the delivery a couple days ago of our new park model trailer. We haven’t heard from the company yet what location is in store for us for the next project but we expect it to either be Gresham or Eugene.

March 4, 2007—Isn’t March supposed to be the start to Spring?

If so, what is wrong with these pictures?

The latest storm to blow through Wisconsin literally blew the roof off Marc’s new building. It is a sickening mess and caused leaking into a nearly finished unit which was ready for carpet. The jury is out on whether it will need to be stripped back and re-sheet rocked, taped, textured, painted and trimmed.

The pressure is on to present the building, albeit not totally finished, to a public open house on March 25^th. Much of the finish detail remains painfully slow and unfinished and will come right down to the wire.

Meanwhile, the weather will remain unsettled and stormy, with more snow, at least into the middle of the month. Wisconsin Winter is a bitter old man who doesn’t want to let up. He seems to have the Freightliner clutched in his icy grip as though to never let us go.

February 9, 2007—Just a Sittin’

Ok, ok, I know I need to get off my duff and fill you all in on what’s up with the Duskes lately. We are getting lots of comments of whether we are keeping the website up these days so I guess some of you are missing new stories.

Alas, unfortunately there just hasn’t been a lot happening with us beyond work. For those who don’t know, Marc had a job injury the first part of October which severely tore his rotator cuff. It took three doctors to finally find one who thought there might be a chance of fixing it via surgery so Marc had open, hospitalized surgery on January 10^th. It will be a long recovery process, up to a year of physical therapy, but the doctor holds out good hope that it will nearly be back to normal within that time-frame. Right now he is on a much reduced work schedule for a few weeks.

One of our biggest concerns was Marc’s ability to both pilot the motorcycle and handle the big rig. Our tow vehicle has a nine speed manual transmission and before surgery Marc had no use of his right arm to move above his waist. We hope his release to drive will happen before we are due to leave Wisconsin. However, right before his surgery, he was able to get out one last time on a rare clear day on the bike, just so he could say he turned 10,000 miles on the Wing last year. Of course, clear didn’t translate to warm.

In addition to the disability with Marc’s arm has been the recent very cold spell blanketing much of the Midwest and east. Living in the RV and keeping all systems functioning has been a nightmare. I have not had water to the kitchen for over two weeks and at one point we lost all water to the rig for nearly three days. We have auxiliary electric heaters running all the time, both inside and out underneath the RV surrounded by batts of insulation.

The building has continued to progress on a fairly good schedule and we expect it to be finalized in May. Cabinets and trim arrived and are being installed. We have requested that our company send us back to the PNW for our next project so we can be closer to my family and in a more temperate climate so winter doesn’t affect our ability to ride the motorcycle and is not so taxing on both the RV and us! We got really hooked on a riding trip every weekend and have been in severe withdrawal all winter!

It doesn’t look like we will have the opportunity to do any weekend jaunts on the bike before fall so we appreciate everyone’s patience with our lack of activity to post on the website. Eventually our lives will return to normal and we’ll be heading down new highways and more stories so please check back with us! We have a new phase of our fulltime adventures we are making plans for that we hope to implement this year which we will post here when finalized.

Until then, we are eagerly waiting for spring….