ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I'm talking about the wine, not the vacation. This pile of wine is only the bottles that didn't fit under the bed.  We've been to the Willamette Valley and the Anderson Valley and now we are in Paso Robles. They go wine tasting and then they bring home bottles and bottles.  We have ENOUGH!

Even Kathe and Jim agree, we don't need anymore wine.  We don't have room for it anyway. Yesterday they over did it a bit, so today instead of wine tasting they drove to Cambria for some lunch and sight seeing. They had a delicious lunch at a restaurant called, Linn's.  The owners also have a farm out in the country outside of Cambria where they sell homemade jams and fruit pies.  Of course they drove out to the farm after lunch and bought an Olallieberry pie for dinner. .  

I'm a little sad tonight knowing that this vacation is just about over.  Jim has the map out tonight, and tomorrow we head for home. It has been another great adventure, but I will be glad to be back in my own back yard for a while.

I do love traveling in the motor home and I hope you enjoyed traveling along with me again.

BACK TO HAVING FUN

Well. it has been a long time since I sat down at the computer. I haven't been at my tip top best, but another trip to yet another veterinarian helped, so now things are better.  We were in Santa Rosa for four days and although we had fun with my cousins, we didn't do any exploring worth writing about.

Things are more exciting now, we are in Paso Robles at one of my favorite places, Wine Country RV Resort. Although it was a long day driving here, it is totally worth it.  We are right in the middle of the vineyards and there are tons of places for Kathe and Jim to go wine tasting.

So today, as soon as the breakfast dishes were put away, off they went out to do just that. First they went to Daou vineyards for tasting and a delicious lunch. It's one of the most picturesque vineyards in the area. These pictures show a little about how beautiful the setting is in the hills of Paso Robles.

Since they didn't have any dessert at that vineyard, they went to another of their favorites, Le Vingne, which is right down the road from our campground.  Le Vingne has a chocolate and wine pairing that Kathe really enjoyed.  She even let Jim taste a little of her chocolate.

Me, I'm taking it easy, just relaxing in the air conditioning and taking nice slow walks around the park when I feel the need.  It's great to feel tip-top again, even if the vet told them not to feed me any more people food for a while.  I'm practicing my cutest looks, but so far, it's no go on the people food.

JUG HANDLE

Thing are looking up.  Today I feel a lot better and while not exactly tip-top, I'm definitely on the mend.  Don't like that medicine they have to give me twice a day, but the worst part of being sick is that they are not giving me any treats at all.  I've tried all my usual cute tricks, but nothing works.  No treats until tomorrow night, that really stinks!

While I stayed home pouting, they went on with the vacation. Kathe found out about a really great fish restaurant from a local gal.  D'jango's Rough Bar was at the harbor on the Noyo River, and the fish and chips were tasty.  Fresh Rock Cod and real homemade potato chips!

After lunch they went to Jug Handle State Park and took a nice hike.  There was a two mile path out to the cliffs overlooking the ocean, and then back under the freeway into a wooded riparian area, and into several different forest areas. It was a self-guided tour identifying all sorts of trees; Redwoods, Blue Spruce, Bishop Pine, and a Pygmy Forest.  It was an easy shaded hike with only two other people on the path.  A great way to end our time here on the Northern California coast.

That brings me to the my next subject, what are we doing for the Labor Day weekend?
We plan to spend the next four days in Santa Rosa with my cousins and my Grandma. I'm not sure that I'll have much time for my blog because I have to visit with everybody.  Catch you later when we get to Paso Robles--we're not going home yet!!

COASTING IN MENDOCINO

It's been a few days since we had real internet and there is a lot of catching up to do.  We are on the Mendocino Coast.  It is beautiful here but we have had some issues.  First of all we had to take the most winding, back and forth road in the whole world. Highway 20 from Willits to the coast was so curvy that we never went any faster than 20 miles per hour the whole way, and it took forever to get to our RV Park. When we finally pulled in, all three of us hated the place. We were packed in like sardines and it was just a dirt lot with hook ups, and no cell or internet at all. It was close to the ocean, but the sun didn't come out until late in the afternoon.

The next day Jim and Kathe went to the botanical garden in Fort Bragg which was very large and on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. On the way back home they found us a much better place to stay. We moved this morning and are now staying in the Pomo Campground.  It's much nicer and we have a huge site that backs up into the pine trees.  I don't know if it was the horrible drive up here,  but I've been under the weather since we got to this town. Today I spent the morning at the vet and now I have to take some really bad tasting medicine.  I hope I feel better tomorrow or I'll have to go back to the vet again.

While I was resting this afternoon Kathe and Jim went wine tasting in the Anderson Valley and tasted some really great Pinot Noirs. The drive there was spectacular, through the giant Navarro Redwoods on highway 128.

PATRICK'S POINT

It's hard to remember to blog when you are having so much fun.  We had an all day drive yesterday from Brandon to Trinidad.  The 101 was washed out in many places and we had to stop for road construction in others, it was so bumpy that my stomach was upset by the time we arrived at the Sounds of the Sea Resort. That wasn't the fun part.

Our site is really great, we can see the ocean from our patio, and there is nothing behind us but huge trees. Uncle Mark is still visiting and he has a tent site that is very interesting.  Lots of gopher holes all around, he swears he hears them digging under his tent at night. Now that's fun!

Do you know why they call it "Sounds of the Sea?" Because there are seals are barking all day and night.  Today all the people went hiking while I stayed home to listen to the seals.  No one here got up early enough to catch the low tide at Palmer's Point.  But there was still plenty of stuff to see this morning, and the guys took lots of pictures of sea urchins. They took a second hike to agate beach where Kathe found two really pretty agates for Mark.

Kathe packed a lunch for them and they went for a picnic after hiking.  Now that everyone is napping I have a chance to catch you up on our adventures.  

BANDON BEACH

It didn't take too long to get here, but once we did we sure have been busy.  We are here at Bullard Beach State Park in Bandon, Oregon for 2 nights. We have a great site in the trees, but we barely fit. Our car is kind of hanging into the road and it's so dark here at night we were afraid someone would hit us. Luckily, Jim removed the bikes from the back of he car and squeezed us into the space.

Uncle Mark surprised us yesterday and was able to get a tent site here in the park. He will spend a couple of nights with us.  I'm so busy playing and entertaining everyone that my blog has to take a back seat.

Last night the ranger program was all about cranberries. Uncle Mark had never been to a ranger program so Kathe and Jim introduced him to the "camper entertainment." A local cranberry grower showed us a film on the farmers in this area that grow berries for Ocean Spray.  Seems that they grow the best cranberries right here in Bandon.  It was really a great evening and after the talk they handed out lots of Ocean Spray samples.

Today we all went to the Lighthouse and then into Old Town Bandon for some lunch and shopping at the craft and farmers market. Tonight the ranger program is going to be, "Old Time Oregon Fiddlers." and Jim and Uncle Mark are really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow we are headed south to Patrick's Point and the "Sounds of the Sea" resort.

HIKING HONEYMAN

Boy do we love it here.  This must be the most beautiful park in Oregon. It may be a little foggy today but we love being in our site between the pine trees. Jim and Kathe are enjoying the peace and quiet here after the crowded park we were in in Salem for the eclipse. This morning Jim took a bike ride after breakfast while Kathe and I did some needlepoint until he returned.

Later in the morning while Jim was sprucing up the motor home Kathe broke our printer.  A whole bunch of paper got pulled in and got stuck, and that was that. I had to hide under the table for a while while she tried to fix it by yelling at it, but it wouldn't fix itself. There isn't a Staples for miles, but they managed to find the exact printer they needed at a Fred Meyers here in Florence.  They just about have everything in that store.

While they were in town they did some window shopping down in the Old Town and had some clam chowder at Mo's at the harbor. And when they got home they took me for a hike on the nature trail. We walked through the woods all the way down to the lake and I sniffed a whole lot of nature.

BACK IN THE WOODS

Today we said goodbye to our friends Monet, Zeba, Roger and Maryn and left Salem to head for the coast. Those guys are lucky, they are headed north to Idaho and Canada, while we have started back downhill and south to go back to California. We still have over a week of fun left, but I hate it when the coach makes that inevitable turn south.

Let's concentrate on the positive---we are here at Honeyman State Park tonight, in the town of Florence, Oregon.  It is so very beautiful here! We are only staying here two nights, but I wish we could stay here longer. There are lots of pine trees, chipmunks, and blue jays. Much better than staying in the city of Salem as we had to do in order to see the total eclipse. Here are the views as we  look up and down our loop.


It  was very smoky as we drove today through Eugene, but as we turned toward the coast the sun came out. When we checked into the park they told us that the burn restrictions were lifted here and that we can have a wood fire at our campsite.  Kathe and Jim are so spoiled, all they do is flip a switch and turn on the fireplace.

Maybe tomorrow I'll talk them into a nice campfire and some some-mores!

TOTALLY ECLIPSE

We all got up early this morning to set up our chairs in the perfect spot to view the eclipse. People looked really funny wearing welding masks, and little paper glasses, it was like a party without the party hats!

The eclipse was totally cool. Really. It slowly got dark when the sun went away and then it a minute it came back.  It was actually really scary for me.  I got so excited that I had to take a walk right away, if you know what I mean.

I'm sure you saw the eclipse on the TV, but try as we might, we never got a picture.  The sun is just to bright to capture on an I-phone. Hope you enjoy this picture of me with my special eclipse glasses.

What does the man in the moon do when he needs a haircut? Eclipse.

MEETING MY FRIENDS

We had a very busy day yesterday.  We had to change our plans to camp in Metolius for the eclipse due to all the smoke up in the northern part of Oregon.  We drove back down to Salem where the sky is blue, but our RV Park is not one of the best.  Any port in a storm.  At least we have electricity and we are with our friends.  About the best thing Jim could say about this place was that we don't have to worry about the sprinklers coming on to make spots on the motor home. That's because all the grass is dead!

Anyway as soon as we arrived yesterday we found out that we had six dead batteries in the motor home.  So, we left the Jeep in our site and made a mad dash down to Eugene to get our batteries replaced.  Then we drove back to Salem, a 100 mile round trip.  Jim drove very fast because the car wasn't attached and it made my head spin. The only good thing about the situation is that now all our air conditioners work and our slides come in and out like they are supposed to when our batteries are strong.

I'm very happy here because my friends Monet and Zeba are camping right next door and we are all going to see the eclipse together.  Last night we joined the people after dinner and all three of us took a walk together. Of course we play follow the leader, and I'm always the leader.

Today is Kathe's birthday and I expect that she will bring me home a present from the restaurant. Steak please.

ERRAND DAY

Even when you are on vacation, there are still errands that you must do. Today was one of those days.

First there is the laundry. Lucky for us we have a washer and dryer so it's not really much of a chore, at least not for me.  The only thing is, for some reason on laundry day I always end up in the kitchen sink getting washed as well.  I tried hiding under the dining table to get away from Kathe, but that never seems to work.  I guess nobody likes a dirty dog.


Kathe and Jim went out to do some shopping after that. There are all kinds of stores right around our campground.  They even have a Trader Joe's. Jim was on a mission to find a new hand held shower hose as he discovered a leak in ours this morning.  Three hardware stores, two RV supply stores and one plumbing supply house later, Kathe finally put her foot down and demanded LUNCH!  They went back to Lowe's and bought a hose.  It's not the ultimate shower hose that he was looking for, but now that it's installed it works just fine.

They went to the Old Mill District for lunch.The Old Mill District is a historic areas which was formerly occupied by two lumber mills.  The area encompasses 270 acres along the Deschutes River. They ate in one of the several nice restaurants along the river.  While eating their lunch they could watch people having fun floating down the river in all kinds of boats and tubes.  It looked like fun, maybe next time they will take me along.

NINE FIRES

As we drove from Silver Fall today to Bend we encountered several fire areas on the highways in both the Willamette and Deschutes Forests.  The scenery on the roads was beautiful, but there was smoke everywhere.

When we checked into our RV park this afternoon they told us that there are nine fires burning in this area.  I'm glad we are only going to be here for two nights, because it it really smoky and the the sky is red tonight.

I'm kind of depressed.  Who wouldn't be, going from a beautiful forest full of chipmunks to the city of Bend.  It's an okay place, but very small and I've already walked the whole park three times and its only just past dinner time. They don't even have a dog park, just a patch of stinky grass.  It's  a good thing we are only staying here two nights.

The most exciting thing that happened today was that Kathe got scalped.  The same thing happened to me here in Oregon a few years ago at a strange dog grooming/welding shop. Just don't count of anymore pictures of Kathe for a while. Wonder if she brought a hat?

One of these pictures was taken along the highway by Lake Detroit where we camped a few years ago and one is a picture of the sky in Bend tonight.

HIKING FOOLS

They started out this morning with a lunch and a backpack.  I knew something was up, they usually only take a couple of bottles of water so that meant that they were going to be gone for a long time.

There are 10 waterfalls here in Silver Falls State Park.  They are all connected by beautiful hiking trails. Most (younger) people hike all the falls in one day.  Kathe and Jim took three days but they managed to hike them all.  They only hiked four falls the first two days we were here, so that meant that they had six more to see on our last day here.








From the trail head at Winter Falls, they hiked to Middle North Falls, Drake Falls, Double Falls, Twin Falls and Lower North Falls.  The Falls were all magnificent and they enjoyed the hiking paths, but boy were they tired when they got home.  Kathe was actually stumbling when she took me for my walk. Then we all took naps in the lounge chairs for the rest of the afternoon.

Things seem to be getting back to normal now and Jim is setting up the barbecue.  I'd better go out and supervise, maybe he is so tired that one of the hamburgers will fall on the ground.  I want to be sure it doesn't go to waste.

MORE FALLS

Everyone was busy,busy, busy today.  Jim went for a bike ride early this morning.  He had to wear a jacket because it was only 51 degrees outside.  We have been used to such warm weather, that this is certainly a change.  I snuggled up next to Kathe all night and took up my share of the down comforter. It's very pleasant once the sun comes out, but it doesn't get really warm at all.

Jim didn't get enough exercise, so he cleaned the motor home when he got home from his ride.  Kathe found more blackberries at the site next door and picked a another whole bucketful before the next campers checked in. She cleaned and froze the berries, so I guess there is another cobbler in the future.



I went for a bunch of loops around the park, mostly chasing chipmunks.  If Kathe would let me, I might catch one. The ones here are skinny and fast. I guess the tourists are so busy hiking that they aren't feeding the wildlife Cheetos like in some parks we've been to.  I can out run a fat chipmunk any day, but not these guys. I will keep trying!

After all that activity they still had energy to go on two hikes this afternoon.  First they hiked a rather level trail to the Upper North Falls.  It's a wide falls but only 65 feet high. After that they hiked to the North Falls which was a more strenuous hike.  North Falls is 136 feet high and the hike included 72 steps which they had to walk down to view it. Going back up was even more strenuous, so they had to come home and drink some Oregon wine to recover.

HI HO SILVER FALLS

It was a supposed to be a short drive today, but where have we heard that before?  I'm not sure, but I think we might have taken the wrong highway or maybe we took the right highway the wrong way,  I couldn't figure that out. Anyhow, there was a lot of discussion and cussing before we finally all agreed upon the right direction to Silver Fall State Park. So we got here and everyone is smiling now.

This place is so beautiful, I never get tired of coming here. There are lots of trees and fields to roam for me and lots of chipmunks to pester. We have a great site right next to the blackberry patch.  At last Kathe was able to pick some and make a berry cobbler for dessert.  Everywhere we have been on this trip the berries were just not there or just not ripe. Of course no one would share their cobbler with me, not even a tiny bite.  Something about "people food"not being good for me.  I'll be the judge of that.



After we got settled in and Kathe picked all the berries she could reach without falling off the ladder, they decided to get started on hiking some of the 10 waterfalls here in the park. First up was South Falls, and then they hiked to Winter Falls before it started getting dark and it was time for my dinner and a well deserved nap.

HOUSE HUNTING

When we went to bed last night they were predicting rain in the early hours of the morning. The prediction was a little off as it rained all night long!  I tried to wait for the rain to stop before waking Kathe, but I just had to go out at 4 AM.  And again at 6 AM.  Luckily the rain had stopped by my second time outside and we only got a little soaked.

The rest of the day was cloudy and no one felt like doing much. Kathe and Jim are "wined out," so another day of tasting was out of the question. Jim got the idea to go house hunting in McMinnville, and found a few that looked interesting on Zillow.  They found an open house to tour in an area called "Cottonwood," but there were several others for sale in the neighborhood that they liked as well. There also saw some really beautiful large homes south of town that were surrounded by an old growth forest.

Of course they were "just looking," but this is really a beautiful area.  There are many vineyards and farms surrounding the town and the weather here is very near perfect.  It's very reminiscent of the wine country in California. There are only 30,000 people living here and it's close to Portland and only 50 miles from the Pacific ocean.  We really enjoyed out short visit here and will definitely return.

Didn't take any pictures today, but here is the view of the RV Resort out our windshield.  I wanted you to show you the BLUE SKIES!

Tomorrow we will head to Silver Falls State Park for some hiking and for, you guessed it, more wine tasting.

CHOCOLATE AND WINE

I have discovered something.  If you don't get out of bed and eat breakfast until 10:00 and then you go to the hardware, drug, and grocery store, there isn't much time left to go wine tasting.  Not that I ever want to taste any wines, it just seem to me that Kathe and Jim should get started a little earlier if they want to taste as many wines as there  are in Willamette Valley. They haven't even made a dent in the number of vineyards here.

They drove all the way out to Maysara Vineyards in Amity, only to find that it was closed for a wedding today, more time wasted. Maysara is supposed to be the number one winery to visit here according to Trip Adviser, but that may have to wait until tomorrow.

Thanks to a tip from cousin Fran, they took a trip to the Brigittine Monastery for some handmade fudge.  The property was beautiful and the chocolates were delicious, but still no wine to taste!

Next stop: Yamhill Family Vineyards  which is the oldest vineyard and winery in the McMinnville AVA.  The wines Kathe and Jim tasted were 100% estate grown on the 150 acres of grapes from their vineyard. Jim liked the Pinot Noir and Kathe liked their unoaked Chardonnay. They ended up taking home six bottles.

We do have a couple more days here, so lets home they get an earlier start tomorrow.

BLUE SKIES

We woke this morning to blue skies and some white puffy clouds.  Quite a change from our usual cloudy/smoky skies.  Maybe the winds have changed and we will get to see the eclipse after all.

Last night was another adventure. We were all settled down in bed when all of a sudden we were hit with water cannons on three sides of the coach. Well, it felt like water cannons, but it was the agricultural, super duper sprinklers, sweeping across the front, back, and the side wall right behind our heads. It was even spraying on the roof. We talked to the camp host about it this morning and he said he'd take care of it. He put a large brick on top of the sprinkler, hope that works.

We are camped next to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum, so Kathe and Jim walked over to it late this morning.  It was a fantastic museum with over 500 planes in two huge buildings. One building was dedicated to fighter and passenger planes. The centerpiece of that museum was the Spruce Goose.  It was the first time Jim had ever seen it and he was amazed at the size and the fact that it was really made of wood. The other building was dedicated to space exploration and vertical planes. Jim liked the moon landing vehicle and said it would be fun to take that on some Jeep trails.

They also saw an IMAX film called Fighter Pilot, which was about Operation Red Flag at Nellis Air Base in Las Vegas. It focused on Air Force fighter pilot, John Stratton, one of the American pilots participating in extensive training exercises with pilots from Canada, Germany, and England. It was the best IMAX film they had ever seen.

YESTERDAY AND TODAY

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday.  Kathe and Jim left me home and went out to visit their friends, Marika and Nate in Portland, and forgot to leave the computer on for me. Nate and Marika used to live next door to us before they moved to Portland and built a beautiful new house 10 years ago. I guess they had a lot of catching up to do because they didn't get home until way past my bedtime.

Don't worry you didn't miss much. Yesterday, Kathe and I walked down to the river and watched the barges go under the bridge.  Later, Kathe and Jim went out to lunch and then to the mall to go shopping and take advantage of the fact that there is no sales taxes here in Oregon.

Today we drove south to McMinnville and pulled into "Ye Olde Stone Village" RV Resort. For once Good Sam was right.  This place is definitely a 10-10-10.  Everything is new and clean and we have a 65 foot long site with a view of some pine trees and lots of green grass.

McMinnville is in the heart of the Oregon Wine Country, so as soon as we got settled Jim and Kathe went out to taste some wine. They went into historic downtown McMinnville to window shop and tasted several Pinot Noirs. They came home with 4 bottles.  On the way back to our campsite Kathe spotted a Farmers Market and they bought some peaches and strawberries. Delicious!

TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES

It's a given, almost every RV park has a train nearby.  This is especially true in Oregon.  After a night or two, you kind of get used to the train whistles and you can sleep through the noise. This RV park is special, not only do we we have trains, we are under the airport and within walking distance to the Columbia River and the barges.

Kathe picked this "Resort" because it had a very high rating with Good Sam.  It's rated 10-10-9.5. I've always suspected that Good Sam takes bribes, now we have proof.  Our site is long, with a tiny patch of dead grass, and our picnic table is practically out in the street. Plus, when you look at layout of the resort online it looks like it's right on the River, but that is just blue paint on the picture around the map. The River is 3 blocks away through a mobile home park.  False advertising!

Despite all this I'm happy to be here and have another new place to explore. Kathe and Jim took me for a walk down to the river right after lunch.  There is a very nice paved walking path which I enjoyed sniffing my way along.

Traffic here is worse than Los Angeles and the smoke is really bad.  I'm glad we are only here two nights.

NO HIKING TODAY

Based on all the moaning and groaning this morning I thought Jim and Kathe were never going to get out of bed.  Kathe finally hobbled to the door and let me out, but I didn't have much hope of an adventure to write about today.

After breakfast, at about 11:00 AM, they started to get out the maps and plan something for today. There was no way Jim was going to get Kathe to put on those hiking boots again today, so they compromised and picked out a couple of Jeep trails to nearby lakes.

First up was Clear Lake because it had a dirt road all around it which was fun for awhile. It was very dusty and the campground was very primitive.  No water, pit toilets, and lots of fine dirt. The lake looked fun, but us  RV campers wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes there much less overnight.

On to the next stop, Frog Lake, which was much smaller and very green.  There were thousands of tiny frogs crawling all over the place.  At first they looked like little bugs, but they were actually frogs about the size of a dime. So, back to the Jeep!  The campground wasn't much better than the one at Clear Lake, but the Frog Lake Trail intersects with the Pacific Crest Trail so they walked a little on that trail.  A very little.

Tomorrow we are off to Portland.  I'm looking forward to a nice grassy campground, keep your paws crossed for me.

ZIGZAG

Today Jim promised Kathe a nice easy hike. They set out for Zigzag Falls Trail, a nice little half mile hike in the forest.  It was a beautiful hike and because it was Sunday there were quite a few families enjoying the trail with their doggies. You might be wondering why Kathe and Jim never take me with them on hikes anymore.  Simple, I'm 12 years old now and I'm good for a while, but someone always ends up having to carry me back home.  I prefer to stay home  in the first place, instead of bouncing around in a backpack, or being passed back and forth like a sack of potatoes.

So back to the hiking, they had so much fun at the falls and it was such a short hike that Jim decided they should try the trail to Mirror Lake next.  An okay choice on paper, but it was uphill, rocky and switchback after switchback in reality. The sign said it was a 3 mile round trip with an elevation change of 750 feet.  It didn't say, 750 feet straight up, with absolutely no downhill stretches to catch your breath.  It took a while to reach the Lake, but they made it.

The draw to Mirror Lake was the spectacular reflection of Mount Hood in the Lake. But the forest fires have just about hidden the mountain from view with smoke so all they got was a picture of the Lake.  It least the hike was completely down hill on the way back.  The only thing that kept Kathe going was the promise of a hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen on the way back to camp.

Everyone is home now and stretched out on the sofa, I'm just glad they made it home in time for my dinner.

HISTORY LESSON

With their maps and a magnifying glass Kathe and Jim set out this morning for a day of hiking and driving on the trails around Mount Hood. First up was the Trillium Lake Trail hike that was recommended by the Ranger a couple of days ago.  Kathe and Jim drove out the forest road to the Trailhead parking but there were so many cars that they drove on.  There were hundred of people at the Lake enjoying Saturday in boats and rafts. There wasn't a spot open on the beach.  So much for that hike.  It was a beautiful spot with the beautiful Mt. Hood in the background.

Moving along they started to look for the Barlow Road. The Barlow Road was built in 1846  by Samuel Barlow and Phillip Foster as the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail. It's construction allowed covered wagons to cross the cascade Range and reach the Willamette Valley, which had previously been impossible.  It was a difficult trail to find but they were able to find it hidden off the road near a primitive campground.  They walked on the actual wagon trail used by the pioneers. Then later in the morning they found a Jeep road that was part of the Barlow Road and drove that until it became too dangerous for them.

As for me, I stayed home and watched out the window as a little gray squirrel was stealing peanuts from the next door neighbors picnic table.  Silly campers left out a whole bag of peanuts--boy were they surprised when they got home!

INTO THE WILD

It's Friday night and the masses have arrived.  I doubt if there are any of the 400 sites vacant tonight. There are lots of kids on bicycles so you have to make sure that your leash is short and listen for the wheels.  I guess that's what you have to expect when you camp in a resort in the middle of summer.

Kathe and Jim went to the Ranger Station this morning to find out about the various trails in the area. They bought a map of the Jeep trails in the area, some of which are actually part of the Barlow Road portion of the Oregon Trail.  They never get tired of that stuff.

One of the hiking trails that the Ranger suggested was right down from road from our campground. Wildwood Recreation Site is a wooded wetland that has trails along the Salmon River. You are allowed to bring doggies on the paved trails, but there have been bears seen in the area.  So they decided not to take me along.  I was okay with that because bears stink anyway.  I remember smelling one at a Thousand Trails Preserve in Oregon a few years ago.  Once was enough!

Later this afternoon Kathe and Jim drove up to the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. They were going to take the chairlift up to the top of the mountain, but they arrived too late. They toured the hotel which is being restored to the way it once was when the WPA built it 1937.  It was really a beautiful building. The tourist were all asking for souvenirs from the movie, The Shining, that was filmed at the hotel.

MOUNT HOOD VILLAGE

We woke this morning to another overcast day. Seems that there are fires everywhere and the smoke is drifting our way.  We learned that the biggest fires are in British Columbia but there are smaller ones here in Oregon as well.

Our drive today took us along the Columbia River for about 100 miles before we turned onto the scenic route to Mount Hood. There were lots of beautiful pine trees but my pictures were unable to show the true beauty because of the hazy smoke  We couldn't smell any smoke but it looked alot like a fog above us.  Eventually Mount Hood popped out of the trees and the view was incredible.

We are staying tonight at the Mount Hood Village RV Resort. It's a large Thousand Trail/Encore Resort and it's really nice.  Lots of tall pine trees and very rustic, just what Jim wanted.  I've taken a couple of spins around our loop and met several doggies.  Some nice, some not so nice.  Oregon doggies are a little different from L.A. doggies, more aggressive and barky than I'm used to.   I'll try to make friends because we are here for 5 days.

It's over 100 degrees tonight and it's 7:00 PM. Guess we will be listening to the hum of the air conditioner again tonight.

50 MILES AND STILL NO WHERE

This morning Kathe and Jim went for a bike ride along the river. Kathe managed to stay upright and rode for about 5 miles before the lounge chair started calling her name. Jim kept on riding for another 10 miles.Kathe rides for the scenery, but Jim rides for exercise.  I like to relax in the grass.

It was another hot day, over 100 degrees so we didn't really do much.  When they went shopping in the town Hermiston yesterday they found out that the area is known for producing delicious melons. Kathe went a little wild and bought three of them; a cantaloupe, one red and one orange watermelon. They are very tasty, but we now have to eat melon at every meal. Tried it, didn't like it!

After lunch things were a little boring so we all jumped into the Jeep for a road trip to the town of Heppner, about 50 miles  from here along the Oregon Blue Mountain Scenic Route. Heppner is the county seat so we thought it would be a bigger town than Boardman.  Nope.  Population 1,291. Enough said.  This is a picture of the courthouse, one of the few building left standing after a  flash flood in 1903. Torrential rain and hail fell on the town and within 15 minutes a wall of water 15 to 50 feet high and wiped out 1/3 of the town and killed 247 people. A dam has been built so that this will never happen again.

Tomorrow we move to Mount Hood Village.  It's a Thousand Trails/Encore Resort so you never know what to expect.  We might have Internet, and we might not.  So don't worry if you don't hear from me tomorrow--I've gone rural!

FARM TO TABLE

We are really enjoying our time here in Boardman, Oregon even if it is really hot every day.  This morning after breakfast the three of us sat outside under a shady tree in our lounge chairs.  Well, I wasn't actually in a lounge chair myself, but the grass felt so cool under my tummy that I fell asleep.We watched the tug boats pushing barges up and down the river to the Port of Morrow.

Kathe and Jim went to the SAGE center, an interactive learning visitors center where they learned all about the technology that takes place at the Port of Morrow.  SAGE stands for sustainable agriculture and energy, and there were exhibits on all the industries that are located in Eastern Oregon.

They had some really great exhibits, like driving a virtual tractor and milking a cow with an electronic milking machine. Kathe did okay on the tractor and Jim managed to get a few gallons of virtual milk out of cow #244. They had a lot of fun learning about all of the things that are grown and processed in this area.

The area is known for growing wheat, onions, melons, beans, potatoes, bean, barley, mint, mustard, and canola.  They had a great exhibit showing how potatoes are processed into curly fries here at a plant in Boardman.  And did you know that the potato waste from those fries is fed to dairy cows. There are thousands of dairy and cattle farms in this area as well.  The Port of Morrow also processes milk for the Tillamook cheese plant.

They learned about the irrigation and energy that is needed to produce the food we eat. They even took a virtual hot air balloon ride above the county and saw 30,000 poplar trees that are being farmed just down the highway from our RV Park.