The Peanut Butter Saga continues...

June 14 -24, 2013 Armitage County Park, Eugene, OR

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RV LIFE:
We are back in civilization!!! We went from the closest grocery store being 60 miles away to now having multiple choice grocery stores within 3-5 miles! And yet, our park is quite, roomy, and full of grass and shade trees.
We are parked right across the street from Suzi and David . Close enough to be social but far enough for our privacy. Although, I can look out our kitchen window and "spy" on their site if I really want to be nosey. Suzi can't spy on me because our huge pickup truck is blocking their view.
Our first night here, Suzi invited us over for a Gin & Tonic. Suzi's special "Lake drink" (strong!). We had nice conversation and then I headed home and crashed. Next time, I'll make my own wimpy Gin & Tonic.
Good news & Bad news aka PB saga continues....
Since we are back in the land of convenient grocery stores, I stopped by Safeway yesterday afternoon.  Picked up some necessary items such as toilet paper, bread, paper towels, vegetables, both fresh and canned, and of course NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER. Unfortunately, they didn't carry my normal brand, so I only bought one jar, to get me through until I look at another store. Oregon is a very "green" state, which I like. They don't regularly use plastic bags. The grocery store used paper bags at 5 cents charge per bag. Suzi forewarned me, so I was prepared with my reusable bags. Some of them are more sturdy than others. My precious peanut butter was in a flimsy nylon tote. Can you guess what is coming up next? I load my bags of precious cargo into the back seat of the truck. All is good. When I get back home to our site, Scott is mesmerized on the computer, so he is no help unloading the bags. I open the back door and bump, bang, crash, splat!

Oh, woe is me! Why? WHY? Another day without peanut butter is like day without water! Should I borrow a tablespoon of PB from Suzi, my neighbor? I WILL survive this ordeal.
So I'm sure you are all wondering, what I had for breakfast this morning? No worries, no need to say a prayer for me. I had a delicious almond danish pastry thingy, I got from the Farmer's Market yesterday. Shhh, I hate to admit it...but the danish trumps PB!!!! Did I really say that?





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PETS:
Unfortunately, we have to buy another crate. At 9 years old, Lyla has become untrustworthy loose in the RV. I NEVER thought we'd need a crate for her. Scott can say "I told you so." He wanted to bring 2 crates on our trip..."just in case". I said no, one would be fine. Chomp, chomp. I'm eating my words, and I paid for the new crate. We have a perfectly good crate in our storage unit in NJ. I headed for the PetSmart that is only 2 miles from us, as soon as they opened at 9am. I needed to pick up the crate and return before 10am because we were meeting Suzi & Dave to go the the Farmer's Market.
All went well. I got up around 7am. Had my coffee and last piece of white bread and jam, took the dogs to the 2 acre dog park that is a 5 minute walk from our site, went to PetSmart and made it back in time for the Farmer's Market.
Our poor doggies looked really pathetic as we left for the market. Crates side by side and both of them standing hunched over looking so sad at us as we went out the door.
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FARMER'S MARKET REVIEW:
Saturday Market, Eugene, OR (No dogs allowed)
Our rating 5 out of 5
Ever since going to the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, I am in love with this activity. Not only because of all the fresh produce, but there is also usually many other local items for sale. There is usually local honey and artisan breads, as well as food vendors.
The Eugene Saturday Market is huge and crowded. I will many times forego attending a function because I do not want to deal with crowds. They have free high rise type parking, but we weren't sure if our truck would meet the 7 foot limit. So we opted to pay for parking at around $1. an hour. It was worth it.
Some booths were  difficult to get to because they were so popular and people were crowding the table and waiting in line. I kept talking to myself and giving myself encouragement to calm down. This is much easier to do since I'm retired. My time is not so precious, simply because I have a lot of free time now.
We had a boiling hot cup of delicious, strong, but smooth coffee. This was a very popular vendor. They line up all these coffee filters, put a huge scoop of fresh ground coffee in each filter and pour boiling water onto the coffee grinds. Let the water naturally seep through into the cup. I always thought that method was because you couldn't afford a coffee maker. I learned something new! I may have to try that method at home.

L to R: Scott-Suzi-Dave-Jessie-Erin

We met up with Suzi & Dave and their son, Jessie and his long time girlfriend, Erin. It's not often that I get a photo of Scott smiling. He looks good, doesn't he? Oh, and just skip over the blonde next to Scott. No, that is not Scott's significant other, but it is someone who'd rather not have her picture taken, so just pretend she's not there.

So many vegetables, so little refrigerator space! We picked up tri-colored string beans, kale, lettuce, mixed greens, golden raspberries, goat cheese, a roast, and pastries. We searched all the booths for fresh peas, but Suzi snatched the last of them and then made a point of showing us how beautiful they are. She really has no sympathy for us. Next week, peas will be the first thing we pick up. Also, next week, we'll pick up our produce, etc first and then we'll walk our purchases back to the truck. We can return to the other section of the market where the crafts and food vendors are. There was so much to see, taste, and buy. Our bags were loaded and so heavy! Scott decided he wanted to check out the food vendors. I'd had enough. I needed to get rid of our loaded bags. But being the good wife I am, I smiled and found a seat in the shade while I waited for Scott to get his root beer float and just cut, home made french fries from The Blazing Chef vendor. You know I've "had it" when I didn't want anything to eat. I took 2 french fries (delicious) and left my overweight bags with Scott and walked around for a while, until Scott finished eating.
And while walking around, I spotted this cool hand made items booth. I refused to buy any unless I had a use for them in the RV.

I bought this itty bitty basket made out of pine needles and walnuts from OR Pine Needle Baskets. See the sliced walnuts on the ends? I am fascinated by making things that you can pick up for free. I'm going to use this to hold wire twist ties as you see above the basket. Damn! $30.00 just to hold twist ties! I'm on a mission to try this craft out myself.
Next week I'll take photos, or you can check out Suzi's blog and her photos of the beautiful bounty of produce.
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WHERE WE'RE GOING:
June 25- July 8, 2013 River's End RV Park, Chinook,WA
July 9-17, 2013 Port. Hudson RV Park, Port Townsend, WA
Tentative:
Neah Bay, WA
La Push, WA
Coeur d'Alene, ID

WA, ID, MT, ND, SD, WY, then south for the Winter of 2013/214