Our Washington / Idaho Gig

Dang it's just beautiful out here.  We're absolutely loving it ... until the snow flies ... then not so much!  These are photos from one of the farms we adjusted.

Nice Horsey Horsey

AD's encounter with Nice Horsey Horsey

Special Show Geese; she ships them all over the USA

Somebody's Thanksgiving or Family Pet?

We both found this Buddhist Temple intriguing.  You could definitely see if from several blocks away.  It was in a VERY ROUGH, SCARY part of Spokane; interesting!

Front Elevation

Right Elevation

I flew home for a few days to greet new grand baby Svea.  Philoberto and Adjuster Dog picked me up at the airport on Friday.  AD refused to leave my lap for the one hour ride home ... she missed her mama!

Sleeping Baby Girl

My Lap Dog

Most of our claims have been "wind" claims.  They had three large wind storms move through the area; the result was 50 year old pine trees snapping off or being uprooted from the ground.  It's a very "woodsy" area and everyone loves their trees.

Philoberto caressing the uprooted tree

Snapped off

We've also been assigned flood, hail, large house fire, theft, vandalism claims.  Getting some great experience out here and enjoying the beauty at the same time.  As we write this we have been asked to go on stand-by for the California Earthquake.  We have about two weeks of inspections scheduled here so it's not looking good for us to head to CA.  We'll see ... depends on how much damage is really there.

Idaho and Washington

Bizarre but true ... we're working in WA/ID instead of Hawaii.  I KNOW!  We've never been to Hawaii so we were pretty excited about the possibility of actually working two hurricanes.  For us, it wasn't meant to be and we accepted an assignment in the NW.  Even though it's not Hawaii, I was excited to see a part of the country that I hadn't seen before.  First on the list was Montana; the picture below was taken on Interstate 90 just outside of Billings, MT.

Philoberto noticed black stuff in the mirror and thought we might be losing our bikes (I love my bike so naughty words were uttered)!  A closer look let him know that the rear RV tire was shredding into pieces so we pulled over to change it out.  AD and I sat comfortably inside the cab while the boy changed the tire.  Just as he finished, Officer Friendly showed up for a motorist assist.  From my air conditioned cab I noticed Phil's T-shirt and rushed back for the photo-op of the day.  We needed a laugh cuz nothing had gone right on that day!

Phil & Officer Friendly who offered to cuff Philoberto

On Saturday 8/9/14 we landed in Newport, WA (on the WA/ID border) for a couple of weeks.  Half of our claims are in ID and the other half in the Spokane area so we're halfway between.  The pics below are from a claim we stopped at today ... amazing!

Treetop landed on their entrance

 

HOLY WIND BATMAN!

Dachshund vs. Badger (ground squirrel)

I had some videos from IL that I forgot to share so I'll share now.  We call it "Dachshund vs. Badger".  We tried to walk around the lake daily and Adjuster Dog discovered ground squirrels.  OMG!  Entertainment City for us (all work for her).  Dachshunds were bred to hunter badgers and she was just doing her thing ... we're so proud!

The following is Adjuster Dog rolling in the grass then getting scared by who knows what.  She jumps into Mama's lap (thus disrupting the video) and is safe once again. She's so NOT brave and mama's so proud!

AD loves her grass!

Last Sunset in Monmouth, IL

The Pacific Time Zone change has been difficult.  We're so used to East Coast we can't seem to adjust.  People are very friendly and the outdoor activity is HUGE!  Basically, we feel comfortable here because it's exactly like being in the CO Rockies (only the elevation is 2000-2500).  And more importantly, they have lakes and rivers everywhere!  It really is a gem ... we had no idea that Eastern WA/Western ID was like this.

That's it for now so until later,

Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!

The Land of Lincoln

The view from our front door

We've been in Western IL working Mississippi River flood claims for a little over a week now.  Didn't get nearly as many claims as we'd hoped but every one helps and it's great experience.  Last Tuesday 7/15/14 was our 21st anniversary so we took the day off to tour the area.  Phil's Mom is from Quincy, IL (a couple of hours south of us) and Phil was born in Carthage, IL sixty short years ago.

AD and Philoberto standing in front of the hospital where he and two siblings were born

The hospital was pretty new when he was born

AD & Philoberto at the Cemetery where his Sister Theresa is buried

Touring Nauvoo, IL

They reinact the olden days there

Temple in the background

Happened to be a wedding the day we drove by

From there we continued the beautiful riverfront drive along the swollen Mississippi.  

AD checking out the lily paddies along the river

Original Jail House just down the street from one of our inspections

AD napping under the table

They flood so often on the MS they mark water height inside buildings

Just some cool bridge across the MS River

Drive through Biggsville almost daily

We are finished with our inspections and now Philoberto spends all day every day writing reports.  When he's comfortable that he has everything in the area that he needs we'll hit the road.  Heading West with a detour through SB, NE.  Then home.  So until later,

Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!

In Monmouth, IL

These are some random photos of street signs we saw while running claims in MD.

Watching 4th of July celebration from Sea Bee Beach.  It was pretty darn cool!

I liked this sign on base!

Phil & AD relaxing before guests arrived

AD guarding the campsite

Photo below is me trying to dry wet delicates so they didn't shrink in a dryer. Takes a long time in high humidity!

Let us NOT take our laundry appliances for granted!

Pretty much ran out of work in MD after the 4th of July weekend so we reached out to several companies.  We're in Monmouth, IL where we'll do Mississippi River flood claims for awhile.  We're used to rushing to a location to inspect properties ASAP.  Different situation here ... the river is just now receding and people will be able to get to their properties next week.  One guy offered to take Phil in on a boat; that should be interesting!

We're in a very nice campground.  Lots of green grass, lots of strict rules (smoking, drinking, pets, etc) but it is lovely.  We back up to the municipal pool so that's fun.  Little lake across the way, It will probably be busy with fishermen this weekend.

That's about it for now.

Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!

Happy July 4th!

SIR YES SIR!

This is the chant over and over, "SIR YES SIR"!  Very cool and very intimidating!  They are standing at the entrance to our campground which is where they run an obstacle course.  We woke up to the Navy Boys yelling/screaming at those who were finishing the course.

Just a few hundred yards from the CG is Sea Bee Beach.  It's very small and used mostly for fishing.  Apparently tonight the boys in blue will load a barge with fireworks and light up the Severn River sky.  If the beach isn't too crowded and if AD isn't too scared we'll try to watch the sky from there.

This is the only bench on the beach

We strolled around more of the Navy Base this morning.  We ran into so many different groups of soldiers (never know what to call them cuz we're not sure who they are).  We watched a few drills beginning with how to disrobe in correct order (cap, blouse, belt).  Then they ran a different obstacle course.  

Down to t-shirts

AD was nervous

View of their slice of life across the river from the Academy

Their cute little boats all lined up.  Guys in lower right are putting the fireworks together for tonight's show.

Just one piece of the obstacle course

So ... as most of you know there is this Hurricane floating out in the Atlantic.  We're on standby to hopefully work flood claims should there be enough to go around.  We probably won't know more about that until Sunday-Monday.  We'll spend the weekend here finishing up our Maryland files and be ready to go anywhere.

Until we know more,  Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!