Vancouver, WA

We arrived here almost four weeks ago and I really did not feel like blogging lately. Thank you to all our friends that have been sending e-mails of concern, since I have not been keeping anybody updated. We are okay, even though it has rained here almost every day since we arrived.

It has been a challenge since we got here. First we pull into the campground and I saw that the sewer gate dragged a little bit as we are trying to pull into the campground. I just don't understand why you would have a big old dip in your entrance way. The gate broke, but at least the sewer pipe itself is okay. The sites are not as long as we had been told. Doug thought we can fit and we started checking in. The rig and car fit just fine, however, the truck did not fit in the spot. It is parked right now in a site that they use to store their landscape gravel. We are close to I-5, but you really can't hear the highway at all. What you can hear is the logging trucks driving over the bridge and using their jake brake to slow down for the traffic light. They are so heavy that it actually makes the rig vibrate a little bit while they drive over the bridge. At least they seem to stop around 6 pm so the evenings are peaceful, if you are able to ignore the train whistles throughout the night.

We got here on a Thursday and got the local newspapers on Sunday to see about job opening. Well, apparently they don't use newspapers much anymore for job postings. Everything seems to be on the Internet and of course not all in one place. We went to Washington Worksource to register for work and got some tips from them on how to go about finding a job in the area. So we have been filling out applications on the Internet for the past three weeks and so far I have not had any hits. It is somewhat troublesome when 1500 people look at one job posting. We knew it was not going to be easy, but I did not think it was going to be this bad.

So in order to not go crazy, we have also done some sightseeing. We went to the shore for a day and went back to Mount St. Helen for the 30th anniversary of the eruption of the volcano.


As you can see, there is still snow in these mountains here! It was cold, but still a beautiful sight.

Doug had an interview the other day in Boardman and we decided to take the scenic route back to Woodland. The Columbia river has some beautiful views and than we came across a whole group of wind surfers.

It sure looked like a lot of fun. The dam was pretty interesting also.

It sure is a beautiful area here, it is just very difficult to find a job with a 12% unemployment rate in the county.

So now you are all caught up and I will blog again when I have news again.