Red Bay, AL

Well, I've been so lazy since we've been in Pennsylvania this year. Or maybe I just have tunnel vision. We made this appointment a long time ago to take the motor home to Red Bay, AL, to get some warranty work done. It was SO hot and humid there. I stepped out of the RV this morning, and you can see how immediately my camera lens fogged up! The last picture was taken looking to the rear of our coach (on the right). I wiped the lens off and took the other two pictures.

Tiffin Motor Homes is a big industry in this tiny town, and they treat their customers great. It's impressive to look down the rows and see all the motor homes parked there, awaiting service. We had full hookups with 50 amp service and wifi, which didn't work about 75% of the time! Anyway, they are very efficient and we had 7 windows in the rv replaced, plus various and sundry little problems which they also fixed, all done before noon on Tuesday! Since our coach is out of warranty (the problems were all documented prior to the end of the warranty), we had to pay $10 a night. Still, that's pretty cheap for full hookups.

Red Bay is a nice little southern town. Everyone knows everyone else and they're all friendly. Most of the houses are very neat and well-cared for.

We rested up and got back on the road on Wednesday. Tonight we're just south of Louisville, KY, at a place called Grandma's RV Park. It's laid out very nicely, and I'm hearing some road noise, so it may be an earplug night, or perhaps we'll put on the rainstorm CD! We went through some rain just prior to arriving here, and got a little bit of water in a couple of the compartments underneath the motor home, but nothing serious. We're planning on taking off tomorrow morning and hopefully arriving at the Mountaintop Bluegrass Campground in PA tomorrow night. I hear it's hot in Pennsylvania, too!

The little boy in the picture is our nephew, Jesse. Isn't he darling! I just had to put his picture in here, since it was on the memory chip out of my camera. He will be three in November, I believe.

We are soon to become "snowbirds". That means you leave the cold weather in the winter and fly (drive) south, like the birds. Most of you who follow my blog know that we have bought a house in Pennsylvania. It is truly a gem of a house, and we are supposed to take possession of the house on Tuesday. It's exciting, but scary. Since we've been full-time rvers, we have few possessions. So, we have to buy everything from soup to nuts for the house. I'm planning on making a few garage sales in the next few weeks. We already have a couch, chair, mattress, and box springs ordered. I will post pictures of the house when we get moved in. It is about 3 miles outside Butler, which is the county seat. It's on the side of a hill and is hidden from view, except for one glimpse through the trees. It's beautiful there in the summer, with huge green trees and a pleasant deck to sit on and enjoy the birds. When it cools off, there's an awesome finished basement with full bar and beautifully bricked wall, and a freestanding gas fireplace to enjoy Steelers football games. Well, I HOPE we enjoy them this year. The house is actually 4 feet shorter than our motor home, and of course, a bit wider. It's a small house but there's only Gary and me, so I suppose we don't need that much room. The folks we are buying it from are so awesome. They've taken great care of the house and done a lot of redecorating.

I'm taking advantage of the fact that we have good wifi at this campground, and writing in my blog. We no longer have our hughes.net satellite; it bit the dirt. We didn't feel like having someone come out for $125/hr to tell us we needed a new setup, so we got a Verizon air card, or Mifi. We only have 5G/month so I have to be careful about how much internet time I use. That's a real pain. I usually check it every day. Needless to say, I don't download any music and try not to look at any online videos. So, my friends, don't send me any movies unless they're really, really good. Ditto for emails with lots of pictures. Unless, of course, you're showing me your grandchildren. Then you can expect an email back from me with my grandchildren's pictures!

My son and his wife have their first baby, a little boy, born July 13th. His name is Henry Douglas Brown. He's a real cutie and looks a lot like Matt did when he was a baby. I can't wait to see him and hold him.

I think it's about time to end this rambling. More pictures of the house and our newest adventure later!

Arrived in Pennsylvania

We've had a whirlwind of activity since we arrived Sunday in Pennsylvania. We left Seibert, CO, last Thursday headed for Salina, KS. Weather was clear but there was a strong northwest wind, not the best time to be driving an RV, as it feels like driving a billboard down the road. I wasn't looking forward to going through Kansas, as I thought it was just flat and treeless. We arrived in Salina and were beginning to see rolling hills with trees along the creeks and draws. The second, third, and fourth pictures were taken in Kansas. You can see they have had plenty of rain.

The RV park was quiet, pleasing, and neat, around a man-made lake, and we had a good night's rest. The first picture is this campground. Wifi worked great! We even drove into Salina and did some shopping at Wallyworld. We found very courteous, friendly folk in Salina.

We carefully watched the weather reports and saw that rain was headed toward Missouri, again. We checked the DOT website and, after seeing how many roads in Missouri were closed, decided to scrap plans for staying overnight in Missouri. So we took off early and just started driving. In Missouri, several of the frontage roads were under water! We were able to get through the rest of Kansas, through Missouri, and about 50 miles into Illinois with only a few sprinkles in Missouri. Check out the mighty Mississippi at St. Louis in the last picture--muddy, swirling water but we had no problem getting across the bridge into IL, thankfully.

Our RV park in Illinois was off the road and amidst some tall trees. We were happy to be off the road, resting, and noticed that we had dodged a bullet in MO, as they had more heavy rain and we would have been caught in it. But I digress. Back to the RV park. It was one of those weekend destinations for ?locals?, with built-in patios around most of the rvs, and LOTS of kiddos running around. Kids were driving golf carts all over the place. Our site overlooked a cornfield, and after the young lady had directed us to the site, she came over and smiled sweetly, saying that if we wanted to use Wifi we had to walk up to the office with our laptops! Was I ever steamed! They advertise Wifi and then you can't get it except at the office. So, we ate some dinner and then headed up to the office. We sat down on a swing at the porch and got online. We were immediately attacked by mosquitos, due to the fact that there were ponds, well, they called them "lakes", all around the park. After checking our email, we returned to the rv for a well-deserved night's rest.

Southern Illinois is not the most scenic area in the world, but we were once again reminded of the richness of our farmlands in the midwest, from eastern Colorado, to Kansas, not so much in Missouri, but lots of nice farms in Illinois. We took off the next day for Richmond, IN. Gary was still a bit tired but we knew we had to get on down the road. I should add that driving this motor home is a piece of cake compared to driving the truck and 5th wheel that we used to have, since the seats and padded and comfy, and the suspension is more forgiving than the one-ton truck we used to drive. HOWEVER, the roads in Illinois and Indiana were pretty rough and we had lots of potholes on the drive. You feel them, too!

We were headed for Grandpa's Farm outside Richmond, IN. We had stayed there many years ago and it was a lovely place. Well, not so this time. I was surprised to see an area that looked like an RV sales lot, it was so crowded. There were folks, kids, and dogs everywhere. Apparently it, too, was a weekend destination for locals. We were escorted to our site, after paying $30, and settled in...or tried to. The back of our MH was not 30 feet from a two-lane highway, and we immediately noticed the loudness of vehicles going by. It was like living beside a racetrack. To add to that, the next-door neighbors, about 10 feet away, lit up a smouldering campfire, which wafted over to our site. We went to bed and it had warmed up a bit, so I tried to open the window but their porch light and smoke made it difficult to get to sleep, not to mention the loud mufflers going by on the highway. So I closed the window, pulled down the shade, and Gary put on the thunderstorm CD for me. I was able to get to sleep but we were glad to get out of there! That's just one of the inconvenient parts of living our lifestyle.

Pennsylvania is a beautiful state, I have to admit. Spring is just beginning here, but dogwood and rhodendrons are blooming everywhere. We arrived at our destination in Pennsylvania about 3:30 in the afternoon last Sunday. We've been coming to this campground for years and know the campground owners. We were welcomed by the owner, who was out mowing grass. He's always working on something. Gary's brother and his wife came out on their motorcycle and we visited with them for a couple of hours. Then the folks next door came over and asked if we'd like to sit around their campfire, and they were going to have a jam session! So, I unpacked the banjo and headed over there. I should add that the sites here are very large, compared to most of the other rv parks we've stayed at, so the campfire smoke didn't wind up in our rig!

The campground owner's wife, Francine, plays mandolin and loves old-time bluegrass. They had invited a young fellow over who played banjo and fiddle. We were treated to some great music, until...I tried to play! I still have stage fright and fumble with my playing. I was embarrassed but they were very encouraging. It made me realize that I need more practice.

We visited Gary's mom, who lives about 10 miles north of us, and his second youngest brother. He has four of them! We still haven't seen the other two. Everyone has to work and we usually have to wait until the weekends to visit.

We've been looking at houses since we arrived, and saw one yesterday that we liked. Today we have an appointment with the realtor to look at the house. I get a little nervous about spending money but seems like a good time to buy a house. Unfortunately, there aren't many that we saw in our price range that we liked. I want something in a quiet area, near town, with a little acreage, CHEAP, easy to drive to. We aren't getting any younger and have to be careful about what we buy. So, we'll keep you posted!

Sitting in Seibert

We delayed our trek east by a day to wait out the storms that were supposed to hit central Kansas. As it turned out, we probably could have made it to Salina, KS, without any problem, but it's a gamble. We erred on the side of caution and stayed here in Colorado.
This is not a bad RV park. It's quiet, although now, at 9:30 pm, I did hear a train whistle. I don't think too many trains come down the tracks, located about 1/2 mile from here. We're probably 1/2 to 3/4 mile from the interstate here and I didn't hear any road noise at all last night. Milagros!
I was comforted when I found that there are tornado sirens in the town and a storm shelter in the basement underneath the owner's house. We've certainly been in situations in past years when we had no idea where the nearest storm shelter was, with tornadoes all around the area.
We met the folks in the 5th wheel next door, a very nice couple from Texas who are also Escapees. I guess I'd better explain! We are life members of the Escapees, mainly for their mail forwarding service. It's an organization of full-time RV'ers and wanna-be's, and they have a magazine and all sorts of benefits. Anyway, the folks next door are headed for Gunnison, CO, tomorrow. They're from Livingston and Houston area.
We decided to take our walk this morning, despite the fact that it was 42 degrees outside with an occasional very light mist. We wore our long-johns and were darn glad we did. We stayed out about 35 minutes and were glad to get back because not only was it cold, there was a north wind blowing. It's been cloudy and threatening rain all day. We are supposed to get snow showers tonight and are under a freeze warning, but the low's only going to be 31.
This is a very small town. There are several abandoned houses around town and several houses for sale. In the "business district", we noted mostly closed and boarded-up businesses. The grocery store was not bad for this little town. They had fresh produce, dairy products, etc. I didn't see any meat. I don't think there would be anything to hold young people here, as the only commerce is farm and ranch-type stuff. There is a feed mill and huge grain elevators beside the railroad tracks.
I'm glad to be moving on tomorrow. We are planning on getting to Salina, KS, as I said. Forecast is for clear to partly cloudy weather. I can handle that. We should be in Pennsylvania in two or three days.
So, nothing much is going on here, thankfully. We're just waiting to get on the road tomorrow!
Have a great one!

To Seibert, CO

I didn't take any pictures today because there was nothing impressive, to my way of thinking.
We took off this morning about 8:30 from the Terry Bison Ranch south of Cheyenne, WY. Within a couple of miles, we were in Colorado, headed toward Denver. Wow, some of the roads were cement and there was the regular bump...bump...bump...over the joints in the cement, which is experienced prior to the time of year when the cement expands. Man I hate that. I got nervous because the television is up above Gary's and my seat and it was certainly jiggling! I can just see it falling down and hitting us some day. Then, suddenly, we were on asphalt and the road was smooth. We experienced the rough roads several times.
There really wasn't much to see heading from Cheyenne to Denver. It is flat and there are many farms and ranches along the road. Turning east from Denver, we missed the hustle and bustle of downtown Denver. The land gradually became gently rolling hills with trees along the creeks. I think spring is just now getting to Colorado, because the trees were just barely budding out. We did see some pretty farms and ranches.
As we neared Limon, CO, the wind picked up and was blowing hard from the north. Skies were glowering and we figured we were heading into a thunderstorm; but the storm was moving off to the south, to our right.
We had determined that we should "hunker down" for a couple of days here in Seibert, which is 42 miles west of the Kansas border, in order to avoid the severe weather in Kansas. We had a little sprinkle after we got here, but the severe weather has been further to our east, although in the same county where we are located. We have the weather radio turned on and will keep it on all night.
Our RV campground has good wifi and we are finally getting some local programming on their cable network. Seibert is a very small town with a huge grain elevator. We drove around after we got here, and there was one supermarket, which was pretty good sized for this little town. We had to wonder what people here do for a living, and if the young people graduating from high school can even find work here. There's not much going on.
We'll stay here tomorrow and leave Wednesday morning for Kansas. Gary needs a little respite from driving every day. I'm hoping this park is going to be quiet and we won't be able to hear the highway noise. Last night we put on the thunderstorm CD and it was way too loud. We're about 1/2 mile off the interstate in this park.
I'll keep you posted on any new developments! Pray we don't get into a tornado tonight!

To Cheyenne, WY today

We had a good night's rest last night at Ft. Bridger, WY, and took off early this morning, headed for Cheyenne, WY. The weather was chilly, especially last night. I believe our water was beginning to freeze, because the water stopped flowing when I turned the faucet on, then when I turned on the faucet again, it started flowing. I was happy that we had no precipitation on the drive today.

The first picture was taken day before yesterday in Utah, heading toward Wyoming. There are beautiful mountains to the east of Salt Lake City, and, of course, the Great Salt Lake is to the west of it. We didn't get into the city very much, taking the interstate out of Ogden, UT, toward Wyoming.

After we got into Wyoming, the scenery was not very impressive. Most of it was flat, brown, and treeless. The second picture was taken in Green River, WY, and I hesitated to put it on this site because we'd been hitting lots of bugs and were having problems keeping the windshield clean! Well, some days you're the bug, and other days you are the windshield. There were places in Wyoming that reminded me of the Badlands in Montana, if you've ever been there. We did go over the Continental Divide twice (how'd we manage that?).

We made a quick stop at a rest stop after we took off this morning, and I noticed Gary coming back to the RV to get the camera. I looked outside to see little prairie dogs begging for food. He was trying to take a picture of one, and it was so close to him the camera wouldn't even work. He did take a few pictures. The prairie dogs were cavorting and chasing each other and were so cute. I know, it's bad for people to feed them, but I couldn't help watching them. Horse riders hate them, of course, because horses step in their prairie dog holes and have to be destroyed because of broken legs.

We knew we were in high elevations because our ears were popping. We came to a rest stop called "Wagonhound Trail", and got out to take some pictures. You can read about the area from the historical marker. Am I lazy or what. Elk Mountain was magnificent. It is 11,000+ feet high. We noticed that the snow was no longer on top of the mountains, but was at the level of the road in places. There was no snow on the roads, however.

We made it to Cheyenne today about 2:45 pm. We're staying at the Terry Bison Ranch RV Park, and were hoping to go to the restaurant on the grounds for a bison burger. However, since it's Mother's Day, they were having some kind of special buffet for $23 a pop, so we decided we'd pass on the bison burgers this time. We do have good wifi here, and are able to get some local stations with the antenna. Unfortunately, there's lots of road noise, so we'll probably listen to the Thunderstorm CD tonight. We went to the Sierra Outlet but didn't find anything of use to us, then over to a Walmart Supercenter for a few groceries. Cheyenne is a small town but they have a rodeo here (didn't catch the date), but many big-name country music stars are supposed to be there.

Tomorrow we're headed for Denver and points east, and will try to spend a few nights at a little town called Siebert, CO, to let the storms in Kansas pass on through before we head through there.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! There's no better title than being a mother. I do miss mine and Gary's children today! Love you all!

On the Road Again~~~~~~~~~~~~

We left my cousin's house on May 5, and I was really disappointed that we never got to see Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. I kept looking though, to no avail. We headed east from the Cinebar, WA, area toward Whites Pass. It was a pretty good road but got curvy and steep the further along we went. The first picture looks a little eerie and Mt. Rainier was off to the left somewhere. As we continued to climb, we once again saw snow. The second picture is a ski area at Whites Pass. It was only about 4500 feet elevation, but had lots of snow left. The third picture is another mountain that I thought was interesting.

As we descended, I noticed the vegetation changing. The fourth picture is on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, quite a change from the western. I remember learning in school that as the clouds come in and rise along the mountains, they drop their moisture, and by the time they start the downward slope, they are dry, hence the change in vegetation. We dropped down into a valley with many vineyards and apple orchards.

When we got to Yakima, WA, we had the satellite radio on pretty loud and the GPS told us to turn. However, the place we turned was 82 NORTH, and we needed to go south. So we were committed to the turn and continued down the road, winding up in a little place called Selah. We were finally able to get turned around and found our road.

We spent the night at Hermiston, OR, a small town but the RV park where we stayed seemed to be on a main thoroughfare. You know where I'm going with this, right? Lots of road noise. So Gary put in the "Thunderstorm" CD that his brother gave him and it played all night. It really helped. We left early in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of northeast Oregon. We did some steep climbing and then came down, finally crossing over into Idaho. The last picture you see was typical of Idaho...flat country with snow-capped mountains to the south. I wondered how it would feel to wake up every morning and look at those mountains. We saw many dairy farms and farming operations in Idaho.

We stopped at Glenns Ferry, ID, to spend the night at a small RV park. It was well kept with arbor vitae planted along the edges of the park. I heard lots of road noise and it was next to a railroad track with several tracks. Trains kept coming through during daylight but we didn't hear any in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, we had to bring out the old thunderstorm CD for me.

We took off around 8 am, once again headed east. As we progressed east, the vegetation became more like desert plants. We crossed over into Utah, again amazed at the tall snow-capped mountains to our left.

The trip through the northeast corner of Utah was pretty, too, and as we progressed on toward Wyoming, the mountains were no longer snow-capped but were orange-red in color with lots of rock formations and green juniper trees on the sides of the mountains. It made a nice contrast with the bright blue sky...when you could see blue sky, that is. Skies have been mostly grey today but we were thankful there were no strong winds, rain, or severe weather while we traveled.

We drove a long time today and are staying at Ft. Bridger, WY, tonight. The RV park is a little pricey for us, so we're not going to stay another day, although Gary could use a rest. I will say this...it's quiet and the wifi is GREAT. For a change! We're anticipating driving all the way across WY tomorrow if all goes well.

Once again, thanks for reading my blog! More later.

Washington! The Great Northwest!

We arrived in the little town of Lafayette, OR, on Friday to find a small RV park which had many permanent residents living in little rusty travel trailers. It certainly wasn't my ideal park. I noticed a railroad track about 30 feet from our MH, and just figured it wasn't used any more. Was I ever wrong! A freight train came through and vibrated the whole RV. However, this was the only train that came through the whole weekend. Actually, the park was quiet at night, despite being located on a main road through the town.

We visited with my cousin Gary and his wife Mary, who live about 10 miles away in Newberg, and had a great time with them. He was just like I remembered him in 1961, except now he's bald and about 6'2". We shared many memories of good times we had when their family would come to Oklahoma to visit my family. (His mom and my mom were sisters). Somehow I find it comforting to talk to others who knew my family, because most of them are deceased now.

We left the next day, partially because we didn't like the looks of the RV park, and we also knew that Gary and Mary had lots of things to do that weekend. None of these pictures are from that area.

We headed for Gary's brother, Terry's, and his wife Amanda's home, in Cinebar, WA. Or near Cinebar, I should say. Amanda had to fly back east to take care of an ailing relative and we missed her so much. The house you see is Terry and Amanda's. It is made of concrete siding, and I think that's a great idea! Now, the view out the back of the house, which you see in the last picture, is looking toward Mt Rainier. It remained shrouded in clouds and fog as long as we were there. If you look to the left of the tall tree, I believe that's where it is. Now, if you look to the right of the back of the house, which you see in the 4th picture, you see Mt. St. Helens. Of course, we could never see it. We were there for four days. The weather was uncooperative, to say the least. The road you see is their driveway. It was steaming because the sun came out one day briefly and I snapped the picture.

We took a walk down the road with Terry one day, and walked about 1.5 miles. During the walk, we had sunshine, rain, and hail pellets. It started raining hard so we took shelter underneath some tall pines and then it started with the hail pellets. We stayed there until it let up a little, then walked back to the house. Talk about COLD!!! It was usually in the 40's, although some nights the temperature got down to 38. It was a WET cold, too. We stayed in the house with Terry because he only had 20 amp power for our MH, and no sewer. Not enough power to keep our MH warm.

Terry is quite the hunter and fisherman. We had elk sausage (absolutely delicious!), elk steaks, mmmm, smoked salmon, and steelhead trout. Now those of you who know me, know I DON'T like fish, but this fish was different. It was all so good. We had so much good food there! Terry's a pretty darn good cook, and he caught or killed almost everything we ate. He and I had a ball playing cribbage. He looks so much like his mother.

We drove up to Spanaway, WA, to visit another of my cousin Ann, daughter of another of my mother's sisters. Unfortunately, her mother just passed away about a month ago. Her two daughters came over to visit, and I had only seen one of them when she was very small. We had a wonderful time talking about the old days, too, and I really hated it when it came time to leave. I don't know when we'll ever get back to the west coast again.

We saw such beautiful sights on the way back and skirted Mt. Rainier, but again...no mountain in sight. It remained shrouded in clouds and fog. The steam engine you see in the picture was taken on the way back from Spanaway, in a little town called Elbe.

This morning, we left Terry's and headed for Hermiston, OR. We are spending the night here and will take off tomorrow for Idaho! I've never been to Idaho before. Should be interesting.

Well, more later...thanks for reading my blog!

Crater Lake

We piled into Wayne's truck the next day after we got there and headed for Crater Lake. Going through the Rogue River Valley and into the Rogue National Forest, we saw so many beautiful sights. As we climbed, we began to notice snow along the edges of the road, and the farther up the mountain we got, the more snow we saw. We almost got to the entrance of the park but we could see around the next curve that the snow completely covered the road. We turned around and came back down the mountain. The lake in the picture is formed by the Wild River, I believe.

We stopped in a little town called Jacksonville, OR, to eat lunch at a Jewish Deli. It was SO good. I only ate half of mine because I figured it was pretty high calorie food. What fickle weather! We had an episode of pea-sized hail while we were in the cafe eating. Up there, hail is a kind of large sleet pellet. There wasn't any thunder or lightning like we get in Texas.

After we ate, we went into some of the little "junk" stores (read tourist trap) stores and then drove around. Our hosts showed us a subdivision of new houses built to look like old houses. What a unique idea! The houses are a little too close for my taste, however. Wayne said one of them recently sold for $500K! It was a very pretty subdivision.

We returned home and enjoyed more visiting. The next morning, we took off for Lafayette, OR, to visit my cousin who I hadn't seen since 1961 or so.

From Klamath, CA to Williams, OR

Finally! Good wifi! I can upload pictures. Last week, we left Klamath, CA, heading for Oregon. We traveled to Crescent City, CA, then got on Highway 199 to go to visit our friends, Wayne and Becky, who live outside Grants Pass, OR. The house in the second picture is theirs. You will notice that our motor home is parked beside it. They have a full hook-up for an RV there. So nice! Sweet setup and a very nice, comfortable home. They have an RV and we have known them for several years at Georgetown, TX.

But I must tell you about the trip up there. We didn't have much choice but to go up Highway 199 to see them. It was either that or go many miles out of the way. We were told that several miles of the highway is very narrow and curvy. We started out climbing through beautiful redwood forests, and sure enough, we hit the curves. You can see, in the last picture which looks down on the Smith River, the guard rail. Sure seemed like a small guard rail! I was fascinated by the wild river with all its white-water runs. We continued with the curves, climbing, and soon the trees were flocked with snow. I spent my time looking down the steep precipice out my window going EEEK, and looking up at the mountains, trees, and snow, going WOW!

I am always fascinated by water, and there was an abundance of streams and rivulets flowing down the steep hills. I took a picture of a waterfall which ran down the hill above the road into a culvert and drained out below the road into the river.

After crossing over into Oregon, the road smoothed out a bit and we began to see evidence of some civilization. There was logging on the mountains and we were seeing some logging trucks, who, by the way, drive like a bat out of hell. Another EEEK situation.

We turned off onto the road to Wayne and Becky's, and arrived safely at their house about 1:30 pm. Their house is completely surrounded by trees, and they have about 5 acres. It was really nice, and they made us feel very welcome. Becky is also a nurse, and she and I had lots of fun talking about the old days and our experiences. Wayne had promised to take us to Crater Lake, so the next day, we took off. But that is another story. Stay tuned for more!

Helloooooo! Long time, no see!

We made it to Washington State, to my cousin Terry's house, outside Cinebar, WA. We've been here for about 4 days and haven't had computer access, so I'll let you know what's going on. We're in the shadow of Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens, but haven't seen either of them because of RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!!! A couple of days ago, we went out walking with Terry and got rained on, hailed on, and the sun shone. How about that! Plus, it was cold and has been getting down to around 38 degrees at night. So we've been freezing. It doesn't seem as cold tonight as it has been.
Terry's been feeding us well: Smoked Salmon that he caught and smoked himself, Steelhead trout that he caught himself and baked in the oven covered with Mayo, lemon juice, and spices. You may or may not know that I don't like fish, but I had to confess that this was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!! Tonight we had elk steaks, (he shot the elk himself), and they were delicious. The only "fly in the ointment" is that Terry's wife Amanda, who I adore, had to fly back to Kentucky to take care of her aunt who is sick. I miss her very much and am so sorry that I didn't get to see her. We've been enjoying their beautiful house and surroundings.
We drove up to Spanaway, WA, to see my cousin Ann, who I haven't seen in probably 40 years. We had a great visit with her and her two lovely daughters, Anita and Karen. I really hated to leave her.
We're going to leave tomorrow and head out to PA. We'll stop at Hermiston, OR, for the night. There is wifi there and I surely hope to have better access because I have LOTS of beautiful pictures to share.
This is really pretty country. It's green and beautiful with lots of rivers and pine trees!
I can't wait to enter some pictures. Soon!

Lafayette, OR

We arrived in Lafayette, OR, yesterday after a wonderful visit with our friends, Wayne and Becky, who live outside Grants Pass, OR. Our campground here in Lafayette leaves much to be desired, but it does have Wifi, although it is incredibly slow, like 2 mb/s. I haven't put any pictures on because I think I could come back eight hours later and the computer would still be trying to upload the pictures.
I won't give any details about our trip because I'd rather wait and put pictures with the story. We've had a safe trip so far and have been enjoying the beauty of the Northwest. Today we are heading over to my cousin Gary's house. I have not seen him since I was in highschool, and we are looking forward to a nice visit with lots of catching up to do.
So, more later!

Trees of Mystery

On Saturday we visited the "Trees of Mystery", a commercial entity, located about 4 miles down the road from us. I had my doubts about the place at first, as there was a huge Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statue (?) out front of the entrance. They looked as if they were made of papier mache and Paul had a silly, automated wave and a recording welcoming visitors to the park. Anyway, upon entrance, we found the obligatory junk store selling trinkets and souvenirs. We paid $11 per person (senior entrance fee...perks of getting older, etc.) to ride a gondola, which was like a ski lift, up to the summit of a large, heavily-timbered hill. I say "hill" because it was 752 feet above sea level, so it looks like a big mountain but really isn't. However it is STEEP. The lifts looked like they were well maintained, at any rate.

We boarded and were fortunate to have a car all to ourselves. It stopped several times during the trip for photo ops but I got a little nervous just knowing how far it was to the ground. When we reached the summit, we could see all the way to the ocean, which you see in the last picture above. The opposite direction is seen in the second picture. As we were viewing the sites, a Mennonite couple was standing near us, and as I heard her speaking, I knew she was from Pennsylvania because she sounded just like my mother-in-law, Chris (Hi, Mom!) We struck up a conversation with them and they were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that day. Nice folks.

We contemplated taking the steep trail back down but I didn't think my knees could take it, plus I wasn't wearing hiking boots, so we decided to take the gondola back down. Slipping and falling can ruin your whole day.

After we arrived safely on terra firma, we walked around the trails. I just can't stop taking (a) tree pictures and (b) beach pictures. So I took more tree pictures. There were those brown and yellow signs everywhere, such as "Seen in Ripley's Believe It Or Not". The picture looking straight up at the top of the trees was called the Cathedral Trees, coastal redwoods. The picture with several trees growing at even intervals was called the Candelabra Trees, and these trees were growing out of an almost horizontal tree trunk across the trail (we walked under it). I didn't see what kind of tree that was but I don't think it was redwood.

The final section was the cheese-iest...It was a "Paul Bunyan" walk with all kinds of wood carvings and recorded messages depicting the life of Paul Bunyan. I did relent and take one picture, the squirrel you see in the final picture below. I suppose it was done with a chain saw, which is quite a feat, if you ask me.

When we finished the trails, we went back to the gift shop to visit the "End of the Trail" museum, a native American museum. It was interesting and there were displays, all well-taken-care-of, featuring relics from tribes all over the United States. There was also a small museum store but I resisted buying anything. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to buy! All told, it was a nice place, despite human attempts to exploit nature.

After we got home, we decided we'd just walk down to the beach, not going ON the beach. Well, that changed, and we couldn't resist going back out on the beach to watch the crashing waves again. We got home, tired from another good day of sightseeing.

Yesterday we decided we'd better go to Crescent City, about 20 miles from here, to buy groceries, since on Monday (today) there's supposed to be rain and storms. (Well, today's Monday and there's no storms...yet!) We drove through more beautiful redwoods and it was amazing and so beautiful. However, I didn't take any pictures because like Gary says, there's only so many tree pictures you can take! We went to a restaurant called Wing Wah in CC. I made the mistake of ordering lemon chicken and when it arrived, it was deep fried, covered with a sweet lemon sauce. I ate it anyway, along with an egg roll and fried rice, because I was famished, and because I had to pay for it! When we got home, we walked down to the beach and onto the beach AGAIN, and I still gained half a pound this morning! *sigh* When will I ever learn to ask about the dishes I order in a restaurant.

Tomorrow is "weigh-in day" on my Weight Watchers, so I do hope I can behave myself today and stick to the plan.

We're just doing some laundry today, getting ready for the trip on Wednesday. I really like to get everything done before we take off. We'll be going to Oregon to visit some nice folks, fellow RV'ers, we met in Georgetown, TX. They have a house! I'm looking forward to visiting them.

We'll keep you posted on our adventures, and thanks for reading my blog!

Redwoods

We took off this morning, headed for the Redwoods National Park. We drove down the coastal highway(?), which was more like a narrow little trail with potholes so deep you'd break an axle, should you hit one. One of the first places we stopped was the farmhouse on the left. It is on the coast and it is NOT a farmhouse. During World War II, it was a radar station and was disguised as a farmhouse to prevent the enemy from recognizing it. It's been kept up nicely, I think.

We then headed on down the coast and started to get into the redwoods. The fog was rolling in, and most of the pictures we took at that time didn't turn out too well, due to the fog. However, we continued on exploring and came to the Prairie Creek State Park, another part of the redwoods. The trees you see in the pictures above were all taken there, as the sun had come out brilliantly. We walked around the trails through the trees and almost got a crick in our necks from looking up so much. Most of the pictures I took were STRAIGHT UP! Talk about feeling small! The tallest redwood known is 385 feet tall. The trunks are big, too, as you can see from the picture I took of Gary at the base of one of them. There was a wonderful article in National Geographic about the redwoods, and it said there's a whole 'nother ecosystem up there in the tree tops. Prairie Creek is known also for its elk, although there weren't any in the field where they were SUPPOSED to be. I guess nobody told them where to be today.

We drove down to another area where the elk were known to congregate, but didn't see any. We sat at a picnic table and ate a light lunch, then headed back, still appreciating the sunshine. We drove down to Klamath and went up high on a hill overlooking the mouth of the Klamath River and took some pictures there. Really, we were wanting to see some grey whales but we weren't able to spot any. However, I did see a large dark bird flying which I thought was a hawk, but after locating him in my binoculars, saw that he had a WHITE head and was carrying something in his claws. I believe it was a bald eagle. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him, but he was flying very fast and went out of view after just a glimpse.

We decided that we hadn't walked enough today, so we drove back down past the RV park to the beach where we went yesterday. Well, what a difference a day makes. The wind was still chilly but blowing at much less velocity than yesterday. Gary, artistic Gary, took the picture of the driftwood and the small sand dunes on the beach. We took many more pictures of the surf and found the waves to be every bit as big as they were yesterday. We looked for rocks and picked up quite a few, but really didn't have the foggiest idea what we were looking for. Gary would almost get caught in the sea foam and several times he did get his pants legs and shoes wet. We ran like little kids from the ever-encroaching water sneaking up the beach toward us.

So, we finally made it back home and then had to edit our photos and organize them. Thank heaven for digital photography! So convenient.

We're still reeling from the beauty and huge-ness of the redwoods. So amazing. We'll go out and explore some more tomorrow.

We left day before yesterday morning, heading north toward Oregon, following Highway 101. I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful the drive was. I have heard of the Redwoods all my life, but never dreamed how tall, graceful and majestic they are. We drove through several groves where the road narrowed to two lanes, and in many cases, the big redwoods were almost at the edge of the highway. The road was very curvy and all you could see when going around a curve was another huge trunk. I also didn't take too many pictures through the front window because it rained on us almost the whole trip and I didn't want to get raindrops in the picture! The trees were so big and tall, I would have needed a wide angle lens to capture the whole tree. I'll take pictures of them later, because we're at the edge of Redwoods National Park. On the other side of us is the Klamath River, and we are also on the Yurok Indian Reservation.

By the time we arrived here yesterday, we had seen several signs advertising "drive through trees". We learned that yes, indeed, you can drive through them...for a fee! So we didn't bite. I think those are the Sequoias. Anyway, we got here yesterday and Gary graciously set up the satellite dish, despite having slower-than-dialup wifi here at Kamp Klamath. So now I can upload photos to my blog and facebook.

We're about a mile from the beach, so we put on our hiking boots and walked down the road to the beach. It is a beautiful, cloudless day here, but by the time we got to the beach area, the wind had picked up into what I'd call a gale. The beach is at the mouth of the Klamath River, and we could hear the roar of the surf. We continued walking until we reached the summit of the small peninsula which separated a fresh water lagoon from the ocean.

What huge waves! The wind, like I said, was strong and cold, and several times I thought it was going to blow me over. We took many pictures of the big breakers and I was a little nervous that the tide might be coming in. I didn't want to turn my back on the ocean very long, because the waves were roaring and unpredictable. We finally arrived at a group of rocks up the beach and got into a little shelter from the wind, snapping pictures all along the way. It was funny because sometimes we'd get between the rocks and it would be like a wind tunnel.

We started back, and thought the haze we saw was sea spray. No, not exactly. It was beach sand picked up by the strong wind, and we had to walk a little closer to the water to try to get out of the blowing sand. I was getting even more nervous about being close to the water. After leaning into the wind and struggling to walk, we finally were able to get back to the big rock where we entered the beach, and walked back up to the road. I had to laugh, thinking of how we were laying on the beach on a blanket at Manhattan Beach with my son and his wife, listening to the surf. We surely wouldn't be doing that here!

We began the trek back, and unfortunately, I didn't have my wide angle lens on the camera, so I couldn't give a perspective on the tall trees in the forest beside the road. There were many fallen trees which were covered by moss and a myriad of ferns growing all along the road. We saw many plants which resembled Mayapples, and still don't know what they were. I was a little apprehensive and kept watching for bears! We finally arrived back at the RV and had some lunch, tired but happy that we'd actually been that close to the pounding surf...and survived! Believe it or not, the wind is now light. I suppose it's always windy next to the water up here. Oh, and I've got some beach sand to clean out of my camera!

Well, that's about it for today. Tomorrow we'll go hiking in the national park and hopefully get some good pictures.

Marin Headlands, CA

Today the weather was not as cooperative as the day we went to San Francisco, but at least we had a few miles visibility. We drove about 30 miles south to the Marin Headlands, where I used to live almost 30 years ago. The area, at that time, was owned by the U. S. Army, and had military housing on three forts in the area. There is a one-way tunnel off Highway 101 which goes under a large hill into the area. It has a five-minute red light so it can be used both ways. Under the base closure acts back in the late 80's, the three areas, along with the Presidio in San Francisco, were closed. The National Park Service has taken over the area. The housing is now used for employees of NPS, the youth hostel, and other government workers in the area. I was surprised at how the area had been "let go". The grass and weeds were growing and the whole area was run down. We stopped in at the visitors center, a former Army chapel across the way from the house where I lived.

I was amazed at how little I remembered about how to get around in the area. I guess you forget a lot of things in 27 years! We went up on the high hill to take some pictures of Rodeo Beach and the Point Bonita lighthouse. In the fourth picture, you can see the lighthouse which warns ships entering San Francisco Bay. We tried to go all the way up the "mountain", but the road was closed. We stopped and took some pictures of the Golden Gate and then headed down to Sausalito. By that time, the traffic was building and there were tourists everywhere. Sausalito was almost bumper to bumper, so we just drove through. There are many houses on the hills in Sausalito, overlooking the bay. And they are VERY expensive, I might add!

We drove on through Sausalito and made the mistake of trying to go to a Super Walmart over in American Canyon, about 30 miles away. It's the only one anywhere near here. There were creepy-looking people everywhere, and I was uncomfortable there. Frustration! Gary couldn't get his prescription filled for 2 hours, so we decided to just let them put the prescription in the computer there and we'd pick it up at another Walmart (not Super) about 10 miles north of here tomorrow.

We decided we'd drive back through Napa Valley, and saw lots of vineyards and farms. On the way, we were passed by a couple of CHP cars going Code 3, sirens blaring and lights flashing. We turned on a little road heading for Petaluma. Big mistake. There's where the accident was, so we had to sit in a line of cars waiting to get through. That was OK, though, because the scenery was beautiful and there was a nice cool breeze blowing. Some poor soul on a motorcycle collided with a car. We never saw an ambulance, but I'm sure it would have come from Novato, which was on the other side of the accident from us.

We finally got home about 5 pm, tired from doing...nothing!

Oh, let me tell you about the flowers. You know I love taking pictures of flowers. The pink ones grow on ice plants, which is a succulent that grows on the beach and all over the place out here. Some of the ice plants bloom red or yellow. However, these yellow flowers are California poppy, and I believe that's their state flower.

We're may go to a wine tasting tomorrow, but since I'm on weight watchers, I hate to take in empty calories, so there's really not much point in going to a wine tasting when I know I won't be buying any.

I'm looking forward to leaving on Tuesday. We are headed toward the Redwoods in Northern CA, and will be there for a week. There's a storm forecast to come through on Tuesday, so we may be driving in the rain.

Until next time...thanks for reading my blog! More later!