» Windseeker RV Blog for our 2025 adventures updated 06/09/25 (previous years)
» Windseeker Photo Gallery: 2025 adventures updated 05/25/25 (previous years)
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Welcome to our current Windseeker Blog for 2025. Please note: This website is best viewed on a computer... PC or Mac, it doesn't matter which. People often receive emails with links on their phones and tap on the links to view in their phone's web browser. Many commercial websites are designed to detect the viewer's equipment and display a page formatted specifically for it. If you can only view this website on a phone or touchscreen tablet, use the landscape mode, but note it has been optimized to take full advantage of the far greater range of computer capabilities and so can best be enjoyed on your computer.
If you have visited our blog in the past, you will be forgiven for being slightly confused. Yes we are back in top gear with our new 34' Thor Motor Coach Miramar 32.2 Class A Motorhome. After two years with our Forester Class C, we decided to sell it in January '21 because of all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, vaccines, etc. Fast forward 4 months, and as it seemed the virus was abating and we'd both had our double Moderna Vaccine, we felt empowered to resume RV travels, at least on a limited scale. And what better way to hit the road again than with this beautiful Miramar Class A motorhome , which is at the high end of RV manufacturer Thor's gas-powered motorized line. Take a moment to read why we did it. For lots of great photos, see the large format Miramar photo gallery.
The travelogue and photo gallery linked top & bottom are my personal pictorial journal for our RV, sailing and sportscar backroads adventures, which I am pleased to share with friends. In January 2021, we decided to rearrange our RV holdings... we sold our beautiful 2019 Forest River Forester 3041DSF . This left us with one RV, the magnificent 40 foot fifth wheel (right), a luxury Vanleigh Vilano 375FL which we purchased summer of 2020 to remain permanently stationed at the lake. See the large format Vanleigh Vilano photo gallery. We briefly added a Jayco White Hawk travel trailer alongside our Vilano to serve as comfortable guest quarters for friends and family. But we subsequently resold the Jayco trailer after we acquired the splendid Thor Miramar Motor Coach so we could resume traveling in the shoulder seasons.
How we got here: In 2019 we spent the summer  sailing season at Fern Ridge Lake, staying in our Forest River Forester, now sold. Camping at the lake is the only option to stay at the lake, so we decided to add a major new recreational toy to our arsenal to serve as our summer headquarters in the coming years, a gorgeous new 2019 Keystone Avalanche 382FL . This RV is called a 5th Wheel, designed to be towed by a pickup truck. Since we do not own a pickup, we bought it already positioned at the only lakefront RV Park here in Eugene... Fern Ridge Shores RV Resort. In 2020 we enjoyed sailing and hanging out at the lake so much, in late summer we decided to upgrade the Avalanche to the ultra deluxe Vanleigh Vilano. You can read why we made this choice.
For those who have been following our blog over the past decade, you will certainly remember our magnificent Tiffin Allegro Bus . After returning from our multi-year Windseeker Grand Tour around the entire US in late 2016, we finally sold the Allegro Bus. In 2017 we laid low, concentrating on my recovery from Total Knee Replacement surgery on both knees. I also endured a difficult summer and fall in 2018, undergoing chemotherapy for Lymphoma . In the summer of 2019, mostly recovered from my health challenges, we decided a new smaller motorhome would most appropriately complement our flexible retirement lifestyle. So after some deliberation, we purchased a splendid new 2019 Forest River Forester 3041DSF, and two years later we replaced it with the amazing Thor Miramar Class A Motor Coach.
As a quick overview, I'll just offer this brief recap of our past travels. Before selling the Tiffin Bus in 2017, we'd spent 7 years cruising around the country in a variety of different RV's as we visited many interesting destinations (above right).... all while towing our sailboat , a beautiful Catalina 22 MkII (right), and chasing the warm winds coast to coast in search of new sailing adventures. We hope you enjoyed traveling along with us online with Windseeker III. Our remarkable itinerary for the last decade is linked below. You can also refer back to the earlier Windseeker III Blog and the individual Travelogues and Photo Galleries for each year of our Grand Tour. As an overview of our USA National Tour, I have put together a page of highlights (and a few 'low'lights) from those extraordinary few years.
Random Quote of the Day: (see all quotes here)
- ... Happiness is as a butterfly which when pursued is just beyond your grasp. But if you will stop and sit quietly it may alight upon you.
- ... Time on the water is not deducted from your lifespan.
- ... Irish toast: 'Ere's to us, 'ho's like us? Damn Few!"
- ... We cannot direct the winds... but we can adjust the sails.
- ... A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had but not preserved except in memory.
- ... Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.
- ... Religion is sitting in church thinking about sailing. Spirituality is sitting in a sailboat, thinking about God.
- ... Simplicity afloat is the purest form of happiness.
- ... A bad day sailing is better than a good day at work.
- ... Age is an issue of mind over matter... if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
- ... Don't worry about old age; it doesn't last.
- ... Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
- ... Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. It's never too late to have a happy childhood!
- ... Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
- ... Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
- ... Not all who wander are lost. We can't be lost because we don't care where we're going!
After returning from our travels, we spent all of 2017 at home in Vancouver , WA, sailing our sailboat, the Anne Marie, out of our local marina on the Columbia River, Steamboat Landing , just a few minutes from our home. We also added a classic 1980 MGB Roadster to our stable. We had a lot of fun with the MG. If you like classic British sports cars, please visit our special MGB photo gallery. In 2023 I replaced it with a gorgeous silver Ford Mustang GT convertible. You can see my special Mustang photo gallery. After a couple years of fun with the Mustang, I decided to move it along... we were just not using it much any more... the dogs didn't like riding in it and we get more than enough exposure on our sun-damaged skin with the sailboat. A convertible just is not in the cards any longer.
After dealing with some major health challenges in 2017 & 2018, we were really excited to get back on the road, following our 2019 itinerary which included the extended glorious summer sailing season at Fern Ridge Lake. This ultimately led us to purchase the Vanleigh Vilano as our full time quarters at the lake so we could maximize our time on the water. Our summer plans now mostly revolve around sailing our Catalina 22 at Fern Ridge Lake. For us, now, summer is really ALL about sailing! After spending some 30 years devoted to the sport windsurfing, most of it windsurfing Oregon's Columbia River Gorge , I finally made the natural transition to sailboats in my later years, a tamer but equally fulfilling sport activity. Our little pet westie Taffy loves sailing too - she finds it very relaxing .
In 2021, we also made some major changes. As the COVID-19 Virus which turned the world upside down seemed to be abating, we purchased the new Thor Miramar Motorcoach and we are again planning road trips when we're not at the lake boating. It gives us some marvelous options to spend a few months during the dark chilly winters traveling to warmer climates, like our winter trip in 2022 to California and Nevada. But for most of the sailing season each year - spring to early fall - the plan is to spend our time at Fern Ridge Lake when Libby and I will hang out in our new luxury Vilano 5th Wheel for the boating season, and still be able to make occasional brief trips back to our comfortable home in Vancouver, WA.
In spring 2023 we made an exciting road trip during the months of March, April, May in our beautiful Miramar Motor Coach. Heading south, we embarked on our ambitious itinerary . We crossed into California spending a few days visiting friends, and the grandkids in San Diego. Next we headed on to Las Vegas, then over to Utah starting our long awaited Utah National Parks tour. We visited Page AZ and Kanab UT and then spent a week in Monument Valley UT . From there we headed on to Moab UT to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands, Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Colorado National Monument and much more. I'm not sure what travel we may embark on in 2025, but we will certainly be back at Fern Ridge Lake for our 7th season this summer. Stay tuned to this blog in 2025!
Just a week before we left on our spring 2023 Utah trip we made a big change in our lives and acquired a second dog... not just any dog, but a purebred Miniature Schanuzer puppy, just 10 weeks old whom we named Riley. We weren't too sure how well a new puppy would adapt to life on the road, but he was just so adorable we could not say no. As it turned out he added a lot of fun and enjoyment to our trip, and our Westie, Taffy, taught him the ropes in short order. They kept each other company while we were out touring the sights.
Our Utah trip was a huge success, indeed a most memorable 10 week odyssey visiting many awesome places on our bucket list. Truly a trip of a lifetime. We were very comfortable in our Miramar Motorhome and as you can see in some of the webpages for these places, we flat towed behind us our trusty 2016 Dodge Durango , which performed admirably for the entire trip. We have been so fond of this very capable SUV that in August 2023 we decided to buy a new one... a beautiful white 2023 Dodge Durango R/T. This is the last year for the powerful hemi engine, so we thought we would buy one now. You may enjoy visiting my special Durango photo gallery.
For the summer of 2024, we finally decided to make a serious addition to the fun quotient here at the lake. We bought a new 2024 Sun Tracker Party Barge 18 DLX pontoon boat from Mel's Marine in Eugene. We have a slip at Fern Ridge Shores Marina where we will keep the boat when using it here at this lake. The marina even has its own launch ramp , so we can launch and pull the pontoon boat on its trailer anytime we want to trailer it to another nearby lake. In 2024, we enjoyed trailering it with the motorhome to other lakes in the area like beautiful Tenmile Lake and Siltcoos Lake near the Oregon Coast for lake expeditions. You can see a whole page of photos of the new boat on our special Sun Tracker Gallery Page.
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