The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

Jim & Rhonda met in fall 1988 and got married in June 1990 & 15 years of bliss have followed. Jim is currently 40 years old and does outside sales for a worldwide fastener company. Rhonda is (almost) 38 years old and works in the sales & airline reservation department of a company that runs escorted group tours… mainly in Europe but a few other destinations as well.
Jim was born & raised in Oregon. He has lived for a few months in Alaska while working on a fishing processor.
Rhonda was born in Minnesota and also lived in South Dakota and Iowa before moving with her family to Oregon in 1984.
So far, our love of travel and new cultures has taken us to 4 continents and 24 countries. We are planning to sell the house & take off on a 1 or 2 year RTW journey once our beloved basset hound, Sophie, passes away. Since she is almost 12 years old we’re thinking we don’t have a lot longer to go.

We live on 3 acres in the foothills of Mt. Hood and also have a horse (an Arabian named Bug whom Rhonda has had for 22 years!), and a goat named Butler plus our cat Muffin and the neighbor cat Rudy who has chosen to live with us instead.

We love the outdoors, food, adventure and good friends. Hopefully you will all enjoy following us on our journeys.

We headed off on Friday afternoon to a fishing resort near Florence, Oregon. Our brother in law Ken, who works for the BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) has been based at their campground for 2 months for work so we thought we’d go down and check it out. We had rented their bungalow unit and Jim’s parents had rented a 1-bdrm cabin for a couple of nights.

Upon arrival at our bungalow we opened the door to the horrific odor of old urine. Jim said he wasn’t at all sure he’d be able to sleep in the place but since it was already 9pm we thought we’d unload, open up the windows to air it out, and go hang in the 1bdrm cabin for a bit. Bad idea.. we should have just gotten our money back at that moment! We were woken up many times that night by the stench of old urine…too horrible! So, next morning “checked out” of the bungalow and told the owners we’d sleep on the sleeper sofa in the 1bdrm Saturday night and then just take over on Sunday when the in-laws left. That worked for Saturday night but , unfortunately, the place was already rented for Sunday night… we’d figure we’d deal with where to sleep that night when the time came around.

The resort (campground really) is a great location. Really gorgeous, huge lake, docks, restroom-showers, etc. and a lot of people w/ camper hookups or tents. Normally we spend Labor Day Weekend backpacking and were regretting not just having our tent with us on this one.

After a day of bocce ball, fishing, lazing about ,etc we spent another long night on a 30year old sleeper sofa but at least woke to another perfect day on the lake. After mom & dad D took off Jim & Ken went fishing in a different location and Jims sister/ Kens wife Wendy and I took the dogs for walks, lazed in the sun, drank too much and finally required a nap. Jim & I had planned on just driving home Sunday afternoon as is only a 4hr drive and he had to prepare for a work trip anyway but… since they didn’t return from fishing until after 7pm we decided we’d just sleep on the convertible table-bed in Ken & Wendy’s camper. As you probably guessed by now..we were destined for another night of little sleep with the 2 of us (both tall) and our basset hound Sophie crammed on their table! But, a fun time was had by all as we sat around the campfire smoking cigars, having adult beaverages, and toasting marshmallows for smores.

Monday dawned bright and was another perfect day..sunny and a high of around 75degrees. We left the lake at around 9am in order to avoid traffic home and also to get home in good time to feed the 2 B’s (Bug, the horse, and Butler, the goat) & cats and relax before another work week. Our dreams & plans for our RTW trip are getting ever stronger and although we are not looking forward to Sophies demise it will be nice to finally sell the house, get everything in storage and be off to explore still more of the world!