To all our family and friends....

Wether your in Wales, Australia,Canada or within a few miles of us. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that your new year is filled with health, wealth and joy.

Quite Christmas...

Well no traveling for awhile. We are just going to relax, stay put and do some holiday baking. Enjoyed some awesome enchilada soup last night that my brother made.
Planning out the next trip/move to Virginia so we will be just two days from our kids. Guess we are selling everything to lighten the load for moving, but it won't be until sometime in July/August 2012.

In the mean time just gonna enjoy the time we have here.

Yippeee.......

Tomorrow starts the 12 days of Christmas.

Coming Home

Mocha is coming home tomorrow morning. Two and a half days at the pound, think he has learned his lesson?

Dog lost and found

Mocha our chocolate lab slipped his collar last night and ran off. He was found 3 miles away by animal control and now is @ the whatcom animal shelter until tues whan they re-open. Now to try to raise the funds to cover his bail. Good news is he was found and is safe. Thank God for microchips.

Things are slow

It's hard trying to find something to do to keep busy. I guess there is only so much you can do before you just have to sit around and relax. Even that gets boring after awhile.
Anyone have something that needs to be done that you need help with?

No Need....

to keep your fingers crossed anymore, the deal for the antique shop fell through. No worries something will turn up. Stay tuned.

New Adventure..

Well if things go good, by the first of the year we will be co-owners/managers of an antique/art shop. Just a few details to be worked out and the paperwork to do. Keep your fingers crossed. Should be a good learning experience. Plus we will have a place to put the stuff we have for sale now. :)

Found Items..

Had someone requesting open end wrenches and sockets/ratchets. Happy to say we were able to find 24 wrenches and about 30-40 sockets for them. Glad we could help get you a good deal Bill. Thanks.

Have Items for sale?

We will be setting up a booth at O'Donnels flea market on Champion St in Bellingham. Planning on being there the 4th, 11th, and 18th of December. As of right now we only have a few misc. items plus we will have a table  selling jewelry made by a friend of ours. If you have any items you want sold give us a call. All items have to be priced and have your name on them. Give us a call and let us do your work for you. 360-362-9272

Original Photography .... for sale......signed

Will be adding more photos and pricing tomorrow.

My Favorite Photo's From Our Trip

for you..

people from Germany, Malaysia, Russia, Australia, Canada etc. I DO SHIP, no COD's  payment plus shipping cost must be received before shipping. :) thnx

Items sold!

Yeah I've sold a few items.......from the craigslist listings. Have sold the WW2 swords, made a nice profit. Sold the Coach handbag again made a nice profit. With any luck I will be able to sell a few more items this week. I'm beginning to like doing this.
If anyone is looking for something in particular let me know, I've discovered I have a knack for finding items at an exceptional price. Hmmm must be the Dutch in me.

Additional Items...

1950's Bisque doll.....15.00
Noritake Pink Azalea Sugar and creamer (hand painted). 8.00
2 Large glass bowls and a large platter. 12.00
8 nice glass serving plates. 8.00
Vintage Deco vase 5.00

Vintage Leaf dish made by Pioneer Ceramics of California 4.00

Here is the stuff...

                                                                                                                                                                                    This is almost everything that is available for sale. The rest of the items I will post in the next few days. here are the prices....

                                                                                                                

1. 1960's Chinese wooden lantern ......50.00
2. 8 gallon Red Wing Crock......25.00
3. 2 sets of Nascar Jeff Gordon ornaments 1st has 3 ornaments 2nd has 1 ornament and a Jeff Gordon color changer. 10.00
4. 2 Dale Earnhardt 1/64th die cast cars a #3 and a # 30. Also a Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 AMP/National Guard car. (The #3 was selling on EBay for over thirty dollars) 15.00
5. 1960's Hand crafted Little Companion "Quintin" porcelain doll. 40.00
6. Custom made commercial grade rug. Rubber backed to help prevent sliding. New customs sell for two-hundred forty dollars plus the art work. 100.00
7. Set of Japanese swords possibly from WW2.    100.00
8. Stag horn serving knife and fork. 12.00
9. Nice authentic Coach handbag. New it sells for four-hundred dollars. 35.00
10. Ozzy Osbourne bobble head pen. 5.00
11. Nash Bridges Cuda 1/64th scale die cast with tv card (yellow) and a green Cuda both by Johnny Lightning. 8.00 for both. Check them on EBay they sell for a lot more.
12. Dolphin sculpture by John Perry. 24.00
13. Blue on white 12" vase. 5.00
14. (not pictured) Pre 1947  71/2 foot Salt Chucker Troll fishing rod made by  Wright & McGill No.SCT 71/2   Eagle logo 9-E. 150.00
15. (not pictured) antique fishing rod (fiberglass) with a 30-40's Penn 49 Deep Sea Reel (amber reel handle) 100.00
16. (not pictured) Antique fishing rod made by Wright & McGill. Champion 8ft No.MTR 8. Eagle logo 14. The guy I talked to at Wright & McGill said "I'd hang them up on the wall and fish with something else cause you wouldn't want anything to happen to those. He aslo said "It's nice that you have a piece of Eagle Claw history. 250.00                                                                                                                 The rest of our items I will list tomorrow. If you see something you like call us 360-362-9272  Everything is listed on Craigslist (Bellingham) for nearly double. This is "Friends pricing" hope to hear from you and yes I will negotiate pricing for you. Tell your friends to check our blog they may see something they like. Remember :) Christmas is coming. :) Thank you

OK SPREAD THE WORD.....

That we have a lot of stuff to sell. We will be posting pictures of everything along with prices. Have your friends check out our blog to see if there is anything they may want. We would appreciate it if you would. Give me a few days to get the pictures posted. Thanks all.

This weekend 10/22 & 10/23

We will be at O'Donnell's flea market this weekend. Saturday and sunday 10am-6pm. The new market is at 405 east champion st in Bellingham. We have some good stuff to sell.
1) 8 Gallon Red Wing crock
2) Unique chinese latern (new style)
3) Various picture frames
4) Wooden chop sticks, engraved with different designs.
5) Jeff Gordon scale model racing car
6) Wright McGill fishing rods one is pre 1947 the other a "Salt Chucker Troll" 7 1/2 foot rod
7) A Penn 49 Deep Sea Reel
8) A set of 4 Schuibe burled wood style tv trays and stand. Around 300** new online, our are much cheaper.
9) A set of vintage swords
10) Various collectors plates
11) My personal favorite......A one of a kind commercial grade "Dumbass" rug approx 3x5
12) Other varied items

stop in and see us, there will be music and It would be good to see someone we know.

9-11-11

Very emotional day today. Was glad to see they were rebuilding even bigger and better than before. Photo is from May 2011. Having worked at the Trade Center towers many times in the 80's it's still difficult to imagine they are gone. Even harder for the families (survivors) I remember standing in the window sill on the 66th floor  
and looking down on the city and the freight elevators which were larger than my apartment. Never Forget!

I haven't forgot ten

I haven't forgotten about you all. Now that we are back it seems life is getting in the way of blogging. :( All is well here. Been busy refinishing some furniture and have found a few more deals at estate sales. Now I just wish I could get rid of some of it. Say What? Yes we are buying good items to resell on EBAY or Craigslist. Something to do and maybe make a little extra too. Anyways it'll all work out. Did sell our kayak...for nearly double what we paid for it. It's a start.

                                                      Be Well

nothing new

Not a whole lot going on lately. Went to the casino, just about broke even. Did some repair work for a friend of my cousins. Went to a few estate sales. Did get a good deal on some snack trays, Burled wood like tops, new they sell for over 300** got them for ten bucks. ( I investigated the pricing online) Overall very uneventful week. At least the weather has been good.
Think I'll re-post some pics from our trip starting from day one through day 125. Any thoughts?

Finally the last 375 miles of pictures

From Spokane to Bellingham. The Colombia River crossing Colombia River gorge and the wild horse monument. The Cascades mountains and the giant cedar stump near Bellingham.

Our new accommodations.

Maybe......

I'll post some pics of the new digs.......that ought to keep me busy for about two minutes.

Hmmmmmm

Thought I was getting rested up but apparently that's not happening. More tired than ever, must be this retirement thing.
I believe I just need to find more to do. You know "give and you shall receive".  So I need some energy, guess I'll have to give some.
Anyone know of anyone who needs some "handyman" work done leave a comment here. BTW it has to be local. More later..........
                                           Sleepless north of Seattle :)

In and getting settled.....

Actually finally getting rested up. Fourteen weeks of travel and two weeks looking for an apartment. One week of moving. I'm still exhausted but it's good to be in a place of our own and have the conveniences we missed while on the road.
House is almost settled, except for the fish tanks. Next a thorough cleaning and some good meals.
Hope to be back volunteering soon.

It helps to....

It helps to know people. Called someone I know, fortunately they had an apartment available.
Second day of moving items from storage to the apartment and should be able to finish up moving things tomorrow. Then the real work will be putting everything away and organizing it all.
Thankful we have a place but will be glad when it's all done so we can relax and recuperate before we start volunteer work again.
A huge THANK YOU to my cousin who let us stay there for a week while we searched.

How hard can it be?

If you don't count Sunday then I guess its' been three days.
We have called at least 50 apartment complexes, have been able to look at two apartments.
I guess in the long run we should have kept our apartment to begin with. I just couldn't see paying for something that wasn't going to be used for thirteen weeks. Hind sight is always 20/20.
Well the problem being this, if  you don't have a dog that is the size of a rat and barks at everything (in other words, if you have a larger dog that is behaved and quite) then they don't want you to rent from them.
All in all I guess I'd say I'm a bit frustrated. Don't get me wrong there are apartments available that take larger dogs, I just can't afford them. And who can afford a one-thousand dollar deposit for a dog?
Don't worry It'll be fine, something will turn up, it always does :)

BTW.........THANKS FOR LETTING ME VENT!

well.....

As we arrived in Bellingham Washington I checked the odometer. We have completed our trip, traveling just over 15,000 miles. It was more than we anticipated.
Seeing many National Parks...amazing
Seeing the wildlife and meeting new people....wonderful
Being home..........priceless :) :)
It's definitely an experience we won't forget. Luckily I have been able to experience it twice. Next time I think we'll go someplace warm where we can just relax. While this trip was an experience of a lifetime it wasn't the easiest. There was a lot we wanted to see and do that we didn't get to do but we are grateful for the experience and that we had good fortune while traveling.
Thnx again.......Paul, Kris, Mocha

arrived in Bellingham..

Arrived in Bellingham last night. Now to search for affordable housing, that will except a good pet.
I have pictures I took from Spokane to Seattle, may post some of them later. Time to go look through our mail for the past three months and take care of business.
Overall our trip was good. Thanks to all of you who followed us along, we were happy you joined us. We were glad we were able to share our experience with you.
We will still be blogging here probably until we get moved to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, sometime next year.
See all of you soon.

on our way

Left Spokane this morning and on our way to.......well we aren't exactly sure. :)
I think we are going to go to Aberdeen for a few days, go to Ocean Shores to spend some time on the beach. Mocha needs some time to run, run, run and play. In the mean time we are just taking things day by day.

Back in Washington.........

It has been a long trip. Not as long as we had planned but it has been good. We have seen new places, done new things and met new people.
Mostly we have made it safely for which I am very thankful. We are 375 miles from home, have made it this far with little vehicle trouble. I believe our total miles in in excess of 14,000.
Now we face new challenges, finding an affordable place to live that will take a dog. And saving money as we are planning to move to a climate that will be better for our health (one without snow, or very little). I know Bellingham doesn't get much but we are looking for less.

A few last sight seeing trips and then back to business.  I think I'm going to continue to blog, while it hasn't been the easiest to do while traveling I have enjoyed sharing our adventure and pictures with everyone. We have thousands of pictures which I'm going to try to put on a CD today. Hopefully for those who have not been able to follow us on our blog I'll be able to show them on CD.