Olde Stone Village in McMinnville is a beautiful RV community with a neighborhood of pretty manufactured homes surrounding the large transient rigs. We had stayed in this park two years ago and it proved to be a good base for us to visit our family in the Portland area. It still was a 45-minute drive to any and all of them but there are few campgrounds near Portland so this one works for us.
On our first night in Olde Stone Village, we were thrilled to have our daughter Julie and her husband Jake, and our two grandchildren, Paisley and Griffin come for dinner. Our little ones love our “bus” and get very comfortable, very quickly in our small home.
We spent lots of time with Julie and her family doing all kinds of special things – buying Griffin an Elephant at Build-A-Bear and Paisley a Unicorn Dress at Washington Square Mall; a morning of excitement at Oaks Park Amusement Park, a babysitting/sleepover, lots of visits to our RV and it’s toddler-friendly playground; lots of time at other playgrounds, a wet and sandy day at Road’s End Beach; a great time visiting the animals at the Portland Zoo, especially Samuda the Elephant in the pool; a trip to the library where we loaded up on more books to read – mostly with elephants or unicorns in them. In between we hung out at Julie’s playing with toys and trying to cuddle these active little ones.
We loved spending time with Doug’s Dad. We hosted a family birthday party for his 97th birthday party – lots of good food from Olive Garden and cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes and best of all, plenty of loving family around to celebrate with.
We got to see almost all the family in a very busy three weeks. It is always nice for us to have folks visit our home, especially since I love cooking for them. Our nice site in Olde Stone Village made it easy to entertain more family members: Jenn, Trekker, Odyssey, Bev, Barry, Grace, Sammy, and Bekkah. There were lots of good meals in local restaurants too.
We even fit in a 2-night stay in Eugene where we had our damaged windshield replaced on our RV. Somewhere in Georgia we started to notice a tiny crack on the passenger side that grew to almost 12 inches over a few days. Doug tried to have it fixed in a few places along our route but their schedule and ours didn’t work out and we weren’t too happy about the repair techniques.
After much research, we went to RV Glass Solutions to replace our cracked windshield. There we received excellent customer service and most importantly the technical expertise we were looking for. Their service techs took great care of our rig and we stayed in a very convenient lounge during the day where we had a kitchen, comfy couches, TV, tables, patio, restrooms and friendly staff. The first night we slept in our motorhome outside the service bay – no slides out. That means it’s a little tight inside, but in our rig, we can still use everything – bathroom, galley, couch, dining table and bed – just in much smaller quarters. On the second night, we were in an electric site on the side of their parking lot – slides out this time. It turned out to be a pleasant interlude and we were glad to have a shiny new crack-free windshield.
It’s always great to be in this area to see these wonderful people and that makes it even harder to leave. But our journey continues. We left Olde Stone Village on September 1st for a long but scenic ride to Umatilla Marina and RV Park. We will never tire of the Columbia River Gorge – and the spectacular views along the way. We got a little extra time with Julie and family as they stopped at our RV on their way back from their family reunion camping trip. One more lunch together and last kisses.
Time to move on. Missing them all already but looking forward to new and interesting travels.
Is that girl in the pic with your father in law your daughter Julie? I thought I was looking at you circa 1980 with long hair!! She is your doppelganger!
Yes, that’s Julie. You would smile to see how much Amy and Julie act like me!