5/24/2023 Where in the World is Entiat?

Since we have been doing more and more reservations while hangin’ in central Washington, we had a couple days to kill before our next reservation at the Pasco/Tri-Cities KOA. Jeanne found a popular boondocking spot called Rufus Landing right on the Columbia River in the massive dot-on-a-map town called Rufus. It is close to the intersection of Highway 84 & Highway 97, just west of the John Day Dam. It was literally a large dirt lot used by salmon fishermen with its very own pit toilet. The views in this area continued to be spectacular as we could see the John Day Dam, Mt. Hood, and even cruise ships heading up river.

The one touristy thing we did manage during our stay here was a short crossing of the river into Washington to see a replica of the English monument “Stonehenge”. This one was built to honor the (13) WWI veterans who died in battle that were residents of Klickitat County, WA. In addition, there is another memorial on site to honor the Klickitat County veterans who died in battle during all of our wars, up to and including Afghanistan & Iraq. 

Pasco/Tri-Cities KOA was our next temporary home. This stop was more chores than fun. However, we did manage to give the bikes a workout, albeit on a trail(s) we had ridden back in 2020, the Sacagawea Heritage Trail/Columbia Park Trail combination. Some of the pictures may be similar to those taken the first time, oh well…

Wenatchee River County Park in Wenatchee was another return trip for us, we needed to kill a little more time before our next reservation. It is a small RV park right on the Wenatchee River and boy oh boy was there some water in that river! It looked nigh on close to flooded as the waters raged downriver appearing to have expanded beyond their normal boundaries. We took a pass on a revisit to the Apple Capital Recreational Loop Trail and again took care of some shopping chores before heading farther north (hey, Wenatchee is not so small as to not have a Walmart, what can I say?!)

Next up for a new home was the Entiat City Park, still on the banks of the Columbia River. This is a VERY nice campground! It seemed to be popular for locals to do some family camping, a lot of barbecues and suntan lotion whilst lazing at riverside. The campsites are very well maintained, surrounded by the greenest of green grass, and have nicely maintained raked sand tent sites besides the paved RV sites. There is a bit of an over-abundance of geese taking their walkabouts throughout the park, depositing the remnants of their last meals all over, keeping the camp hosts and city workers very busy cleaning the pavement/walkways and firing off some type of fireworks to shoo the geese along (kinda like the bird cannons the wineries sometimes use to keep the birds from eating the grapes). They also have a nice paved walking/biking path alongside the river through the entire park, then continues as gravel alongside the Entiat River which empties into the Columbia River at the park. At the confluence of the two rivers there is what locals refer to as “Numeral Mountain”. It seems since the 1920’s each graduating high school class scales/repels the cliff of that mountain and paints their graduating year on the rocks. Oh boy, rural entertainment at its finest!

About 30 miles up the Entiat River off of Entiat River Rd. we found Silver Falls Trailhead in U.S.F.S. territory. Always up for a look-see involving waterfalls, we headed out one fine early morning. Now Silver Falls is on, you guessed it, Silver Creek, which feeds into the Entiat River. The trail is pretty well maintained, USFS built quite a few sets of rock stairs throughout the whole trail and they have a lot of wood rail handrails scattered along the trail. The trail heads up the mountain alongside the creek, to a point where it forks left and right (it is a loop trail and this is where the two converge). I would suggest taking the right fork; this will afford you spectacular views quicker. The trail gains a lot of altitude pretty quickly but after the steep climb the trail makers took pity on us old folks and transitioned to several L-O-N-G, more gradual elevation gain switchbacks. It is very well worth the effort to get to “the top”, very beautiful scenery. I gotta backtrack a little. The body of water really is named Silver Creek. But it starts at the top of the mountain and flows/falls/cascades ALL the way downhill, in essence a continuous water fall down to the road! And a little more backtracking, I mentioned getting to “the top”. Well, the trail loops up to a point where it is pretty much “the top”, but you can see the creek is still slightly cascading from farther above your “at the top” viewpoint. But by this point at the top of the loop all of the dramatical waterfall action has been experienced. In all it was about a 2.3 mile round trip hike with a 700’ elevation gain and it took us about 80 minutes.

On our drive to Silver Falls we happened upon Box Canyon Viewpoint. OK, we’re in! It was a short dirt road to a parking area with a small trail down to the viewpoint. Box Canyon earned its name from early settlers who found it and described it as a straight sided box. The Entiat River created it by chewing through the granite over a whole lotta years. There was a nice viewing platform from where to observe the raging waters.

As if none of the previous day’s activities infirmed us enough, Jeanne found the Chelan Butte Trail and decided we would tackle at least part of that one. The trail starts in the city of Chelan and quickly gains elevation as you climb the massive mountain. We hiked (huffin’ & puffin’) a couple of miles to near Elephant Head, then doubled back. This trail affords vista views overlooking Lake Chelan, Chelan, Manson, and a great amount of the area around them. Once we got back to the Jeep, it was off to Chelan Butte Rd. and a run up to the lookout near the top. Part paved, part gravel, part 4-wheelin’, the views at the top covered the lake and a big swath of the Columbia River. 

So now you are caught up with us. Stay tuned for our next destination. Until next post…

5/11/2023 Playing In The Columbia River Gorge

Continuing our trek northward, we made a short stopover in Bend, OR and a return stop at the Elk’s Lodge. Since the Bend Elk’s Lodge RV sites are E only, it was a short stay. Jeanne had a gift certificate for REI so we ventured on down to the Old Mill District on the Deschutes River so she could spend her money. We did a little walkabout and checked out the scenery there also. Being in a fairly good sized city, we needed to get a new set of shoes for the Jeep, so a stop at Discount Tires was in order. A little tip for ye who don’t live in snow country…April/May is a bad time to want to get new car tires here at Discount Tire. Everyone and their mother who run snow tires on their family ride seem to go to Discount to get the snow tires swapped out with the good weather tires. We waited almost 4 hours for our tire job! Oh well, the joys of full-timing…

We managed to avoid the on again off again snow forecasts for the areas of Oregon we were in, but still got some good rain showers. We plugged on, our next stop being the Cascade Locks KOA at the Columbia River Gorge. A little bit of rain and cloudiness was not enough to discourage a little outdoorsiness. The area is permeated with hiking/biking trails, waterfalls, and overall great scenery along the river.

First order of business was a quick recon spin through the megalopolis known as Cascade Locks on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The view across and down the river from the Bridge of the Gods was pretty cool. We also checked out the old historical locks in town, a set of locks from days of yore, no longer operating. In fact the lock doors aren’t there any more. But it gave us a straight shot down the river to the Bridge of the Gods.

The Wahclella Falls Trail was our choice for the first hike. It is a fairly easy 2+ mile round trip on a well maintained gravel trail with no real rock scrambling to speak of. The trail follows along Tanner Creek and actually accesses 2 separate water falls. The first one is Munra Falls. That was a neat “little” falls that is just a matter of feet off the wooden bridge along the trail. I say “little” with just a touch of sarcasm…Munra Falls is about 68’ tall and classified as a horsetail falls. A couple of more wooden bridges (well built, sturdy, well maintained, and solid) and we arrived at Wahclella Falls. It is a two-tiered waterfall, the upper falling about 50’ while the lower horsetail style fall is about 65’ and lands in a nice little pool area. We did hit this trail fairly early, right around 7:30 am, and found nobody else on the trail all the way to the end. But judging by the number of hikers we encountered on the return trip, it seems to be a fairly popular and busy trail as the day goes on.

We made one road trip from Cascade Locks, a little over an hour’s drive to the area of Goldendale, WA. We crossed the river and drove Hwy. 14 along the Columbia River and got some cool views from that side. At the area of Little White Salmon River flowing into Drano Lake which flows into Columbia River, on Drano Lake in an area locals call “the Toilet Bowl” there were multitudes of small fishing boats trolling in a circular pattern at a tiny end of the lake. Kinda like the “Keystone Kops” version of a fishing tournament.

Bonneville Lock and Dam just happened to be up the road from our homesite and Jeanne discovered they have a fancy visitors center. We graced them with our presence one morning just after they opened up. The dam is huge in the world of power generation and churns up the river in a pretty big way. There is a large fish ladder system on site as well, with a nice fish viewing window area at the lower level, below the water level of course (no duh!) Due to all the rain this season, the water was a bit, OK, a lot murky but still the fish are drawn by the back lighting at the windows so you can still get a glimpse of the power swimmers. The lock area was closed to the public, so we were unable to get a close peek at the massive lock system that elevates/lowers the big barges pushing cargo up and down the river.

After a couple of hours at the dam, it was time to break out the bicycles for a two-wheeled road trip. The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail runs right through this area, so we hopped on at the Bridge of the Gods and headed west. It was a nice, paved bicycle path which had some pretty healthy grades as far as pedaling goes. The path travels alongside Hwy. 84 and the Columbia River. At one point we crossed Ruckel Creek and got treated not only to fantastic views of the creek cascading down the mountain, but Jeanne spotted what I think was an Osprey’s nest in a treetop nearby. We got to see incoming and departing Osprey’s, very cool.  We rode the trail to the Cascade Salmon Hatchery at Eagle Creek. A quick self-tour of the holding tanks and it was back to base. I have to hand it to the infrastructure folks of the state of Oregon. This stretch of Hwy. 84 we were on had a ton of construction activity going on, and all of it an improvement project for the Highway State Trail. It’s nice to see governments spending our tax money responsibly on projects to benefit We The People.

The Eagle Creek Trail was in our gunsights, so it was off and running (no, hiking) one brisk early morn. The trail length approaches 14 miles, one way, to the end at Wahtum Lake. Since Woodrow Wilson (the family ankle biter) has given up on family hikes, he gets to stay and guard Rosie (the bus). Unfortunately, we get to suffer in that our hikes must be limited due to said ankle biter and his peanut-sized bladder. This hike we chose to go as far as Lower Punchbowl Falls, which made it a 5+ mile round trip. The whole trail boasts 8 “main” waterfalls, with numerous small falls along the way. Our trip we got to see Lower Punchbowl Falls, Metlako Falls, & Sorenson Falls. The trail was well maintained with not a lot of signage needed (or so I thought). There is some minor elevation changes, the steepest bit was going down the mountain to arrive at Lower Punchbowl. There are a couple of very narrow stretches along the cliffside high up on the mountain where the Forest Service people have installed thick cables for hand-holds, those sections might not be suitable for the squeamish. But hey, I’m squeamish and I made it, breakfast still in tact…Metlako Falls and Sorenson Falls are in the same area however they are not visible together (twists & turns in canyon and trail, you get the gist). Sorenson Falls is said to be about 100’ tall and is the first one you will spot. A touch further on the trail you will be given a view of Metlako Falls. It is about 82’ tall and both feed into the same deep pool in the creek. All along the trail we spotted a myriad of small falls and leaking mountainsides. We were able to hike all the way to Lower Punchbowl Falls and do some rock/tree scrambling around that small area of canyon. The sad thing about it, (as we learned after our return) is that supposedly about 100 yards upstream we could have encountered another waterfall called Punchbowl Falls. The entire canyon and its stability were compromised in the big wildfire of 2017. People used to be able to walk the creekside to see those falls, but now some major rock scrambling or wading/swimming the creek is required. This would be one of those times a little signage would have been helpful. Oh well…Water break and snacks done, it was off on the return trip. We encountered only a few fellow hikers on our trek out, but quickly realized we picked a good time to do the hike because on our way back we passed a whole bunch of hikers headed up the mountain. This trail requires a $5 use fee, or in our case the America The Beautiful pass. I think there is a point where back country use permits are also required, but as long as we have the Woodster, we will never be in danger of needing one of those.

Our final excursion for this area we chose to hike Beacon Hill. It was across the river in Washington and described as the core of a volcano 848’ high. Over the years, the Columbia River has eroded the outer parts of said volcano, leaving only the core standing tall. The rock (as I call it) has some limited areas for mountain climbers to scale, but none were there for our entertainment. There is a trail to the top with an intricate system of switchbacks (55 to speak of, if my count was close) to help mediate the 800’+ elevation gain in the 1 mile distance up. The trail has a mix of sections made of concrete, rock/basalt, and some wooden boardwalks. It definitely will give you the willies if you have altitude issues, thankfully there is solid hand railing all the way. The trail and top give you sweeping vistas of this area of the Gorge and a long-distance overview of the Bonneville Dam. The hike took us a little over an hour to go out and back and again, we did this one early in the morning, no other hikers around. But once we started the downward trek, we met numerous upward bound hikers, one even had her dog along for the trip. I’ll let these pics speak for themselves, no captions…

Well, weather looking like it is improving, it’s time for a change of scenery. Stay tuned, until next post…

5/2/2023 Chores And Visits Over, Back to Land Roaming

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s been a few months, I know. From our venture into Joshua Tree N.P., we headed deep into the belly of the beast (Kalifornia) for some birthdays, Spring Breaks, a little babysitting (Chad started a new job, Crissy was out of town on business, so we had a week of babysitting Hailey & Ellie), some routine medical appointments for Jeanne, and general family visits. We did manage an outing or two with family, but for the most part I will not bore you with a lot of verbiage here, instead let the following pics describe our time here. (Viewer alert: Lots of photos of the wee ones!)

Happy Birthdays to Ellie, Hailey, and Jeanne’s brother Dave, it was Kalifornia in our rear-view mirror once again and “Off to see the Wizard…”. We decided we wanted to do some more wandering throughout the Northwest, keeping a sharp eye out for a possible “landing spot” for our eventual exit from “life on the road”. Just a reminder, we have been full-time RVers since 2012. We are currently of the mindset to downsize from the 40’ motorhome when we locate our landing zone and maybe doing some seasonal recreational wandering. But for now, we are not close to finding that one spot.

First stop outside the Twilight Zone was Klamath Falls, OR. It has been over 40 years since we were last here and not much has changed other than the addition of a few “modern” stores such as Walmart, TJ Maxx, etc. We made our home at the Klamath Falls KOA which was right in the middle of town. From the frequency of jet engine noises and fighter jets buzzing the treetops we discovered we were smack dab in the flight paths for the jets out of Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base. Oh boy. We were blessed with less than optimally pleasant weather during our stay, being on the receiving end of more icy cold rain and chances of snow (in April/May !). But on a couple of semi-clear days we took road trips on Hwy. 97 up to the area of Chiloquin. That stretch of the highway traverses the shoreline of Upper Klamath Lake which is the largest body of water in Oregon (in surface area, 25 miles long by 8 miles wide). During those trips we saw NOT ONE boat anywhere as far as the eye could see (dang near all the way to Mt. Shasta) on the water. We did manage to see no fewer than 9 Bald Eagles on the hunt for top water fish/snacks. I later asked some locals about the lack of boats on the lake. They advised me that Upper Klamath Lake is a dying lake, average depth of about 9 feet, and currently experiencing not only some type of toxic algae bloom but also polluting chemicals/nitrates from local farmers being dumped into it. They did not recommend bodily contact with the water. Oh joy.

Jeanne found the OC&E Woods Line State Trail, another section of trail as part of the Rails to Trails system that runs right through the middle of town. It is a 100 mile section of trail, 50 of it from Klamath Falls to Bly, OR. We fired up the bicycles one day and attempted a ride down the trail but got forced short about 6 miles out due to a nice little thorn in my rear tire (not a goat head). We limped it back home, picked up a new inner tube, and hit the trail on another day. We did not go all the way to Bly (100 miles round trip? You bumped your head…) but stayed to the paved section of trail. Crappy weather cancelled any additional forays down the trail…

With an underwhelming experience in the big city of Klamath Falls, we went jacks up and headed…Well, you’re gonna have to wait until next post!

Circle the Wagons, Squaring the Circle, Circular Logic…

You get the picture, right? Circle? We basically left Idaho, “circled” back down to Kalifornia then back to Idaho (with Jeanne’s mom Yvonne in tow) to give Yvonne a little break/vacation from Anderson, CA. The “circling” went like this…

Our first stop after leaving the Cd’A Casino was the Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick, WA for a few days. This is a very nice RV resort in the tri-cities area. We managed to make time for some drive around exploring as well as a bike ride along the Columbia River on the Sacagawea Heritage Trail and the Columbia Park Trail. During our bike ride we rode through a section along the river where workers were setting up for an upcoming event. In a unique response to the current bull$hit China virus hysteria, the workers were setting up assigned spaces right on the river for the upcoming annual air show that was about to be held over the river. The assigned spaces were for spectators to park their cars on (in good ol’ American “drive-in” fashion). We got some nice river views, including highway bridges and the Gateway Arch, Tower Beacon lighthouse. On our local drive we found the Bombing Range Brewing Co. which we just HAD to check out. The beers were OK, as was the rather large taco salad, and it is definitely a pro L.E. outfit. 

From Kennewick we returned to Caldwell, ID to offload our bicycles, then continued south toward Anderson, CA. We overnighted at a brand new (in fact, still in progress) RV park in Burns, OR, called Quail Ridge RV Park. Quail Ridge is not much of what I would call a “vacation destination park”, but it does have FHU’s on a large open gravel lot. Since we had left Caldwell, we were plagued with smoky skies from all the left coast wildfires. We sucked it up and drove straight on through to Anderson, taking Hwy. 395 down to Alturas, then Hwy. 299 into Redding, smoky skies all the way. A couple of nights at the Win-River Casino and then it was back toward Idaho, trying to escape the ever-increasing burnt skies, with Yvonne riding shotgun. We initially wanted to drive up through Klamath Falls, OR into Bend, then over back to Caldwell. Those plans, like most well-laid plans, changed on the fly due to wildfires and road closures. We were forced to backtrack the way we came into Kalifornia. “$%#&*@!”

We were unable to find much relief from the intense smoke. Here is a bit of a montage of what we encountered all the way back into Idaho.

We overnighted at the Desert Rose Casino in Alturas, CA. This is a small, hole-in-the-wall casino but they do have a large flat back lot area on which they allow free overnight RV parking. Then it was on back to Quail Ridge RV Park for a 2 day rest, and finally back to Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell.

Our whole time, so far, here in Caldwell has been cursed with smoke filled skies. With just a few days left, we will be making the return trip into Kalifornia. And right now, as it stands, our plans are in perpetual change mode. You’ll just have to wait…until next post.

Life goes on…

China virus… Riots all around… Goofy politicians. Unneccessary societal closures… & tons of new RVers out there making it a little tougher to find spaces at RV parks…like I started out, life goes on. Sorry, it’s been a little while since my last real post, but we’ve been floating in limbo pretty much all year, as have most of you. A big change for us has been our decision to change this blog over from WordPress hosting to Bluehost shared hosting. The big drawback was we could not bring the entire 8 years prior worth of posts over to Bluehost, so we are basically starting from scratch here. So be it…

I am still trying to get acclimated to Bluehost, so this post functions as a test procedure, as well as keeping y’all up to date on our limited activities. From Kalifornia, we headed up to Idaho. We are still looking for a possible landing zone to come off the full-time road gig, and the southern part of Idaho is currently on our radar. Jeanne wanted to do some boondocking, so one of our first excursions was to some Forest Service land near Sun Valley, ski area to the stars. As it turned out, someone mentioned that to get to the area we stayed at, we had to drive past Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fancy digs. Not sure if that was true or not, no sightings of the Terminator. While here we walked Woody around the area of our site, checked out the ski lodge area, and took a drive to Stanley to see the valley below the Sawtooth Mountains. 

We stopped off for a couple of days to stay at the Mountain Home RV Resort. We ran into a little plumbing issue with our kitchen sink drain hose (OK, a leak!). Unfortunately, I found trying to find some replacement one & a half inch flex hose to be a daunting task. In the tiny hamlet of Mountain Home, I hit every plumbing, hardware, and ranch supply store they had – not a one had what I needed. They all pointed me to the tiny local RV parts store, which just happened to be closed that day. I called the big boys, Home Depot & Lowe’s in Boise (50 miles away) and neither of them had it either. I lucked out and found Dillon’s RV, Marine, & Powersports in Boise that just happened to have my hose. Yippee! A short road trip and wham, bam, fix was done! 

We had to make a side run back to Eugene, OR, to get some body work done on Rosie the bus and once finished, we headed back toward Idaho. Ourt next stop was the Elk’s Lodge RV lot in Bend, OR. There, Jeanne found the Deschutes River Trail, about a 3-mile loop trail that followed a section of the river from Farewell Bend Park. We left Woodrow Wilson at home for that one. It was a nice, easy, scenic hike on well kept dirt trails. I felt like we were living out the sci-fi movie “They Live”, what with all the goofballs using the trail while wearing the stupid face masks and getting nasty stares from some of them because I absolutely refuse to wear one outdoors.

We also took a short drive up to the ski lodge area of Mt. Bachelor. There, we found an RV area on the paved lot, some sites (20, I think) with power, and a large area for boondocking. They did have a nice shower/restroom building but I found they want $50/night for the power sites, just a bit way too much for the location.

From Bend we returned to the Boise area. We are planning to spend a good part of this winter in this area, provided we can get a monthly gig at one of the local RV parks. But in the meantime, we spent a very busy couple of weeks scouting, checking out properties, sub-divisions,  and the area in general, everything short of contacting realtors. No decisions made, but as I started out, life goes on… Until next post.

11/16/2018 Well, Smoky Skies is the New Norm, I Guess…

Work finished on Rosie, it was back on the road to visit the kids and grandkids in Kalifornia and get some medical visits out of the way. Our first stop  was in the megalopolis of Sutherlin, OR. We made a return trip to the Escapee park there, the Timber Valley SKP Park for a couple of days. This is a fairly nice park as far as Escapee RV Club parks goes; spacious sites, nice dry-camping sites also available, lots of wild critters to see, and what I call “SKP Reasonable” as far as nightly rates go ($22 per night). I don’t know how I managed to do it but I found my cousin Mike and his wife Cherie, whom we have not seen in over 30 YEARS(!) or so. We got to have a very enjoyable “catch up” visit with them during our stop here.

Jeanne’s brother Dwayne and his wife Shelly have been on “piglet watch” of late, their pet pig Penelope about ready to pop. So our next stop was a 4 day layover at the Red Bluff (CA) Elks Lodge in the hopes we could be there for their “blessed event”. But alas, it was not to be during our stay. We still had nice visits with Jeanne’s brothers, Dwayne and David & families.

Our trek continued southbound, our next destination Coarsegold, CA and a visit with Jeanne’s mom Yvonne and her boyfriend, Fred. Fred was generous to allow us to once again mooch-dock at his daughter’s vacation home just across the street from his house. Besides being a nice visit, we managed to turn Yvonne onto the TV series “Suits” (I think it was a USA network series) through Amazon Prime. Now she is addicted… (It is a great show, once you start, it is hard not to binge watch…).

Then it was back to Atascadero to see our son Chad, wife Crissy and our granddaughters Little Miss Hailey and Little Miss Ellie. We split our time there between the Atascadero Elks Lodge (1 week limit per month) and the Vines RV Resort up north in Paso Robles. As is one of my favorite things (NOT!) about Kalifornia, the prices of everything continue to climb beyond ridiculous. Not only the $4 +/- per gallon for diesel fuel ($3.75 +/- per gallon for unleaded), but the Vines RV Resort (a SUN Resorts affiliate) upped their cheap sites to $65 per night and the Atascadero Elks is up to $35 per night for a dirt lot with hookups. And don’t get me started on the prices of groceries!

So the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero puts on a yearly event called “Zoo Boo” at Halloween time. The whole family loaded up and took Hailey and Ellie to see Zoo Boo. Hailey had fun playing the games that were scattered around the zoo for non-edible “treats”.

We got the chance to babysit a few days and take Hailey and Ellie to the new playground just installed at Atascadero Lake Park. We also got some adult time in and visited the Barrel House Brewing Co. and Santa Maria Brewing Co. for snacks and tastings. BHBC has live entertainment in their yard where we got to see a guy named Patrick Contreras wail away on a fiddle (OK, v-i-o-l-i-n) while enjoying the best fish tacos I have ever had from Ruddell’s Smokehouse food truck.

The last couple of days we were here turned out to be the beginning of another Kalifornia inferno. The Camp Fire erupted up near Butte County, about 360 miles north of Atascadero. The smoke quickly filled the air as the fire was growing uncontrollably. And if that was not enough, the area of Ventura County to our south also began to burn out of control. These fires raged as we relocated north to Sonoma County for our medical chores and a visit with daughter Jenn, husband Gus, and grandson, Maximus the Gladiator. The smoke filled skies were horrendous, and some news outlets were claiming these skies were the most unhealthy, worldwide. Burning eyes, frequent hacking and sneeze-fests, I believe it! Our home in Sonoma County was the Petaluma Elks Lodge.

While back in this area, we wanted to go by and see the progress on restoration of the Coffey Park area, where our former lifelong home burned down in the big fire of October, 2017. It’s been over a year, but houses are starting to rise from the devastation. 

In between visits and medical appointments, we again found adult time to visit a couple of the local breweries, Russian River Brewing Co. (Windsor) and Henhouse Brewing (Petaluma). Russian River built a huge brewery in Windsor.

Well, that about catches us up to the present. Stay tuned, until the next post…

10/13/2018 Back In The Saddle, All Systems Go.

From Hi Valley RV Park it was W/B Hwy. 26 to our next chosen stop at Clyde Holliday State Park between Mt. Vernon and John Day, OR. This was a very nice state park albeit out in the middle of nowhere. The park was very green, lots of color-changing trees, grass, and spacious W/E sites with dump station on site and nice hedges separating the sites. They had a nice little trail along the John Day River that led to a small fishing pond/lake at a day use area.

We loaded up Woody and ventured out from the campground to visit the  John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. At the north end of the area we found Cathedral Rock. Then we hit the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center (kinda the main visitor’s center) and watched an 18 minute video of the area’s history, then Woody led us on a hike combining the Blue Basin Overlook Trail & the Island in Time Trail. Woody (and his humans) got a heck of a workout! The scenery was well worth the effort. The only glitch was when we got to the top of the Blue Basin Trail. Now, my standard practice when hiking such trails is to carry a Roscoe in my back pack/camel back (it’s a Mustang .380, more effective as a noise maker than a bear-stopper). When we got to the top of the trail, I spied a good-sized coyote kinda paralleling our travels up the hill about 200-300 yards from us. It was just close enough that I transitioned Roscoe from my pack to my pocket. We kept Woody moving and continued on the trail to the downhill side until it appeared we had “lost our tail”. Whew! Near the bottom of the trail it intersected with the Island in Time trail and we took that one to it’s end. The park folks did a nice job of placing re-creations of fossil finds throughout the trail, with signs describing a little history about “the history”.

Another sight to see in the area was the Kam Wah Chung Heritage House in John Day. This is touted as a living time capsule originally built in the 1870’s when Chinese Immigration to the area was “booming”. In 1887 Ing Hay (a prominent herbalist and pulsologist) and Lung On (a big time businessman) bought the building and set up shop. They stayed, even after the Chinese immigrants took off for bigger cities. Lung On developed some medical issues that caused the two to lock up the building and set out to obtain medical attention for Lung On. They never returned to the building, Lung On died in 1940 and Ing Hay never returned, himself passing away in 1952. His wish was that the building be deeded to the city of John Day, to be maintained as a museum. After some clean up and restoration years later, here it was. The free, ranger guided tour of the building was interesting for all you history buffs out there.

We had planned to make one other stop on our way to Harrisburg, that was a boondock site near Painted Hills to check them out. Well, my luck ran out many moons ago, it seems. We found the small boondock area off of Burnt Ranch Rd. Pulling off the pavement into the dirt road area and through an open gate, I caught a rut pretty good which kicked up and nailed the front corner of my front cap. The cap being made of fiberglass, you can imagine which surface won between the solid earth and flexible fiberglass. It ticked me off just enough to cancel the stop altogether. So, off we were all the way into Harrisburg. It was a quick 1 hour job at Elite to get some aluminum plating installed at the base of the slide-out, over the 4 rollers, then on to RV Corral in Ugly Gene (more commonly known as Eugene, OR). They include Tiffin products in their sales and service and are, in fact, the dealer we bought Rosie the bus from. The bummer of the whole deal is the extra 2 days wait for the paint to settle down for the Diamond Shield guy to come and do his thing. But, hey, they let you stay on the lot with power hook-ups, so I can’t complain much. Besides, the folks at RV Corral are great to work with and they give a discount to military and first responders, even broken down old ones who roam the country aimlessly in an RV. 

Another day and a half and we should be S/B and down, headed back to see family and do medical appointments in Kalifornia, hoping for clear, non-smoky skies. We’re back in the saddle, all systems go, until next post…

9/8/2018 Southern Idaho Follies Begin…

Our first stop was at the Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell. We were able to get a few days, but had to relocate to the Caldwell Elks Lodge for a few more days, then we returned to Ambassador for a little bit longer than a week. Thus is the lifestyle of those of us with no reservations and no plans set in stone! The Ambassador RV Resort was a nice RV park albeit small. The interior roads are paved, sites are gravel with FHU’s, nice concrete patios, and well kept grass strips between sites. There is a clubhouse, with small gym, game room, pool, sauna, and spa, and nice fenced off dog area and the park is surrounded with a dog walk area. The Caldwell Elks Lodge is a bare bones parking area behind the Lodge with 8 RV sites, 30A power, no sewer hookups or dump site, and 4 water spigots for sharing between the 8 sites.

Jeanne & I were able to catch up to a couple of my former co-workers from Sonoma County, Stacy and Jim Camara, who now live in the area. They played tour guides and took us into Boise to its famous Saturday Farmer’s Market. It was refreshing to attend a farmer’s market that did not revolve around the “hippy” culture and one that was not overrun with dope smoking paraphernalia for sale.

Jeanne discovered a place called Leslie Gulch in the Jordan Valley area (actually back in Oregon, near Lake Owyhee). We took a Jeep ride out there and found Leslie Gulch to be a scenic dirt trail through volcanic rock formations. The 7 miles of trail through the rocks had views that evoked images of Death Valley and Flaming Gorge.

We also did some everyday living stuff while in the Caldwell area. Of course, we had to hit The Village, a fancy-schmancy outdoor mall in Meridian. I found Rolling H Cycles and got our bicycles tuned up and ready for, hopefully, some near future use. I did a couple of minor repairs and some maintenance on Rosie the bus. We got reservations set up for our next stop in Boise. And before we head that way, we checked out some local properties for sale, both undeveloped and several sub-divisions. We find the prices here are a bit steep and the locals complain of that, blaming it on those dang Californians coming up here in droves. California(n) are descriptors best left unsaid around here. Glad we are TEXANS!

That about catches me up here. Until next post…

8/24/2018 Back on the Prowl

Well, I have to say it has been a bit rough for the past 10 months as far as second hand smoke goes. Since we arrived back in Moonbeam’s state last October (when the fires burned down our previous family home), we have pretty much been in constant smoke-filled skies with just a tiny bit of respite here and there. With all the California wildfires scattered statewide, we were unable to escape the smoke. We had very nice family visits and thoroughly enjoyed our kids and grandkids, as well as other family members. But now we’re back on the road. 

We started out with an overnighter at the Merced Elks Lodge. They have a very nice RV lot at a satellite location to their main lodge. We got up the next day and promptly headed into Sacramento and to the Sacramento Truck Center (Freightliner) for the newest recall work on the bus. We overnighted there until our appointment, which took all of about 30 minutes to re-route some hose in the engine that was in jeapordy of burning up at it’s current, original location. Hose moved, we sped north, desperately trying to flee the smoke filled skies. We overnighted in the “hopping” town of Weed, CA, at Friendly RV Park. Smoke was still thick as we continued north on I-5 and into Oregon. We had 4 days to burn until our appointment for our new captain’s chairs at Countryside Interiors in Junction City, so we decided to settle in Junction City at Guaranty RV Park again, relax, get caught up on chores, and even give Rosie (the bus) a bath. Plus, we got a couple of days break from the smoke (but ONLY a couple of days!). We took the opportunity to check out Eugene’s Farmer’s Market. It was quite the hippy-fest. Lots of veggies, tie-dye, jewelry, art and otherwise typical stuff you find at a farmer’s market.

It took all of less than an hour to swap out the captain’s chairs and onward we went. Next stop was Northwest Cummins in beautiful downtown Coburg, OR for the yearly service on Rosie. They have power and water for overnight stays in their lot, very convenient. They found a couple of extra things that needed attention ($2K total, ouch!), then it was road time again. Sisters, OR, was our choice of destination. The Deschutes Nat’l Forest contains an area on Harrington Loop Rd. just off Hwy. 20 south of town and behind the Bend/Sisters RV Resort. There are numerous boondock sites off this dirt road that are big rig friendly to get to and not too forested so as to interfere with our solar panels or satellite TV. We shared the area with about 3 others, scattered far away from each other.

Our first foray was onto Hwy. 242 out of Sisters and up through the lava beds to the McKenzie Pass and eventually to Proxy Falls which has a moderate trail (1.5 miles roundtrip) to the upper and lower falls, and it is dog friendly. This is a fee area (5$) unless you have the N.P Annual Pass, Senior Pass, or Access Pass, whereas it is free. Woody had a fun jaunt along the trail, as did we.

On our way back we stopped at the Dee Wright Observatory, a rock structure built overlooking the  lava beds and viewing all the mountains in the area like the 3 Sisters, Mt. Washington, Black Butte, and others. The only problem was the #&%$@*ing THICK smoke, we could barely see the peak of Mt. Washington.

In keeping with our past practices, we discovered the Bend, OR area hosts an “Ale Trail” which includes 16 breweries in the area. We picked up our Ale Trail passports and for the next couple of days we road tripped around Bend, Redmon, and Sisters hitting up all 16 breweries, tasting at some, eating at others, or just browsing gift shops. I have to say, sampling beers nationwide (the lower 48, anyway), and being a porter/stout fan, my favorite breweries thus far in no particular order are Founders Brewery, Evil Twin Brewery, Omnipollo (noa Pecan Mud), and Firestone Walker Brewing. I am always looking for new favorite breweries, so that hunt continues. Finishing the trail, we collected our prizes at the visitor’s center, 2 silicone pint-sized beer mugs and a couple of bottle openers. 4 days of boondocking in the dirt and trees and we were ready for civilized living and FHU’s.

In the midst of trying to drown our livers in all that beer, we discovered the Smith Rock State Park just north of Redmond. We got up and headed over to the park to give Woody a real test of stamina. We loaded up hiking snacks and water and set out to tame the Misery Trail, about 4-5 miles with a killer uphill approach that circles around the top to Monkey Face, then back down along the Crooked River and back to the start. The park is highly popular with mountain climbers and boasts a thousand climbing faces within the park. Monkey Face is the crowned jewel for mountaineers. We definitely were sucking wind on our ascent…But hey, all three of us survived none the worse for wear. I did suck down a Gatorade in record time when we got back to the Jeep.

So, “in a cloud of dust with a hearty ‘Hi ho, Silver’” we were off eastbound and down to Caldwell, Idaho. We had change of plans (#9,583) and decided to forgo a trip back to South Dakota and instead spend some time in the southern Idaho area, looking for a possible landing zone for when we decide to retire from full timing. We have been on the road for 6 years now, having completed the lower 48, and we still plan on an Alaska run next summer. But we also want to get a head start in searching for a landing zone, since we have the luxury and opportunity to do so.

So, as our time starts in Idaho, I bid you a fond farewell for now, stay tuned until next post…

5/26/2018 Finishing Up in Oregon  (Sort of)

So, to kill a week before heading back to Harrisburg, we decided not to forge ahead into Idaho but to stop short in Salem, OR. The Salem Elks Lodge was our home for a week. The lodge is situated next to the Walter L. Wirth Lake and city park area. We were lucky to find space in the 38 site Elks RV lot, it seems most of the spaces are taken up by permanent residents. And it was further disheartening to discover the magnitude of the homeless population in these parts of Oregon, every corner occupied by homeless with signs trying to tug at the public’s heart strings. The park and lake area we were at contained beat up, broken down RV’s and vehicles parked everywhere, even in the tree lines. It was so unpleasant that Jeanne said she would not take the dog for a walk alone through the area. And as we checked in at the Lodge, we were quickly briefed on the need to keep all our stuff locked up, not exactly what a traveler wants to hear. But we dared fate…

Silver Falls State Park seemed to be calling our names. We learned the big trail did not allow K-9’s, so Woodrow Wilson had to stay back at the bus. The park is a busy one, but for $5 parking (no separate entry fee) it was well worth the effort. We took the Trail of 10 Falls, about an 8 mile trek, and off we went. It was a moderate hike, winding amongst and behind numerous waterfalls, very scenic. In these photos I will try to keep the names of the falls accurate, as best I can.

The Stayton-Jordan covered bridge was close by so we just had to do a drive-by. It was a bridge that burnt down and was re-built in the 90’s.

While in Salem we checked out the Santiam Brewery for lunch and a taste of the local brewfare. A couple of gyros for lunch and wash down with a flight of samplers was just the ticket. They have a Pirate Stout, rum barrel aged with a hint of coconut, and a Russian Imperial Stout named Impersky, bourbon barrel aged, both very tasty!

Next stop was a walkabout with Woody at the Salem Riverfront Park. It was a beautiful day and we tripped for about 2 +/- miles with Woodrow leading the way. 

Time up in Salem, it was a return trip to Harrisburg and Elite Renovations and Repairs. They were able to replace some slide toppers that they had to order in a couple hours, then we hit the road southbound and down. In the blink of an eye we found ourselves back in California, in the area ALL of the locals wish to call the State of Jefferson. They’ve had a movement to try to split away from California and become their own state for several years now. I don’t know if there is much chance of that happening, but I wish them all good luck. Seeing we were on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, moving along without reservations for where we were going to stay, we found space at the Waiiaka RV Park in Yreka, CA. Actually, for a small town, this park was not bad at all, and very quiet. We’ll see how that lasts tonight, they have what I call the Round-e-Rounds (that would be dirt track racing) across the street from the park. But the plus was the folks here at Waiiaka gave us free passes to said Round-e-Rounds, so we may be able to experience them firsthand, we’ll see.

Checking out the downtown area of the huge city of Yreka, we stumbled upon the Etna Brewing Co. Well twist my arm, will ya? We tried their sampler flight, but I think this was the first brewery that we have encountered nationwide where I did not care much for any of their offerings. However, among the samples, they did include a sample of their non-alcoholic root beer. Holy Cow! That was the best root beer I have ever had!

Next up for us, we had to stop in and explore the big town of Weed, about a 30 mile drive south of Yreka. With all the legalization going on in this part of the country, I figured I could find a cannabis themed shirt or two. I was not disappointed. You will have to keep checking up on this blog if you want to see the shirt designs, I will make sure to post a pic or two. And keeping with my lifestyle of trying to exacerbate my gout at every turn of the screw, we found the Mt. Shasta Brewing Co. in Weed. A stop off there, some short samples of their brews, and I found 2 to my liking, the Shastafarian Porter, and my favorite the Stout of Jefferson. I had to get a growler to go of the Stout of Jefferson so I can tantalize my son Chad’s taste buds when we arrive back in Atascadero in a little over a week. Along the lines of a non-porter or non-stout, they also have a Jalapeno Weed Ale. It was different, I’ll say that. Nice spice, the heat is not bad but does build as time elapses.

Well, we are about ready to head over to Jeanne’s niece’s (Justine) house here in Yreka for a visit, then it will be moving day tomorrow, back to southbound and down. Until next post, thank you to ALL who gave some, and to SOME who gave all, for your service and sacrifice so that we can live in our free society, the United States of America! God Bless America!