I can’t believe how fast the last three weeks went. We arrived in Salem, Oregon on the evening of the 6th, and went out early on the 7th and cut down a fresh Christmas tree. Amazingly, we had it up and decorated by that night. From there on the rest of the time we were in Salem is just a blur. I did catch a bad head/chest cold, so for one week I really didn’t get much done. The rest of the time we shopped, visited with family, went out to dinner with friends a few times, and even managed to babysit our youngest great grand-daughter a couple times.
On Christmas Eve, we had two family gatherings and watched our three oldest great grandchildren go ape over all the presents Santa and family gave them. The two youngest (babies) let their parents open their gifts (much more civilized). Of course we managed to eat ourselves silly on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day where we gathered with our immediate family for a huge meal. Sadly our two sons live out of state, but we managed to spend some time with them on the phone.
Christmas Eve, Ken & I went to Midnight Mass to celebrate the true meaning of CHRISTmas. The congregation gathers one half hour before Mass to sing carols along with the choir. We were thrilled to hear our nephew, Brendan, playing his trumpet along with the choir. Our niece, Larysa, was also singing in the choir. It was a beautiful, meaningful Mass, and the choir were excellent!!
The day after Christmas, I had the tree down and all the decorations put away. We spent the rest of that day packing our Jeep for the trip back to Queen Valley, Arizona.
We left Salem at 6 am on December 27, and drove 743 miles to Tonapah, Nevada (one very long drive!) We hit snow on the road in Oakridge heading up over the Willamette Pass to highway 97.
Once we got on highway 97, the roads were in good shape. Yes, we did have a couple snow flurries along the way, but nothing to keep us from traveling the speed limit. We got to Tonapah at 6:30 (12 1/2 hours after leaving Salem) and it was 29 degrees. We didn’t even turn the TV on that night. Just grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack in order to get up early the next morning.
The next morning, we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed for Arizona. Even though there was a smattering of snow in the mountains, we didn’t have any on the roads. In fact, we had mostly sun until we got through Boulder City and across the Hoover Dam. Once we got into Arizona, the skies became cloudier the closer we got to Phoenix.
We had left Tonapah at 6:30 the morning of the 28th (18 degrees) and arrived in Queen Valley (550 miles later) at 5:45. Of course we had the hour time zone change, so we actually drove 9 plus hours. When we got out of the Jeep, neither of us was feeling very limber. We vowed never to do that trip that fast again. 1300 miles in two days is insane!! Yes, we did change drivers, but only stopped long enough to get fuel and hit the restrooms.
Anyhow, we are back to being settled in the coach, and unfortunately I am back down with a sore throat and a terrible cough. I hear there are several folks in the park that are also sick. Not a fun time, but I am on meds and hope to get over this crud soon. No, I am not going out this evening to bring in the New Year. Instead, I will be taking my meds and heading to bed very soon.
I hope you all have a healthy, prosperous new year!!
December 31, 2009
December 13, 2009
Home for Christmas
We are home in Salem, Oregon for the Christmas Holiday. We got here on December 6 after a very long 3 day drive from Queen Valley, Arizona.
Before we left Arizona, the night temperatures had been dropping into the low 40s. Well when we left on the 4th of December, it was actually 37 degrees at 5 am, and it didn’t get any warmer the further north we went. Our route out of Arizona was north through Kingman where we caught highway 93 towards Las Vegas. Before Vegas, we crossed the Hoover Dam and had a good look at the new bridge they are building. We could see a lot of progress since we crossed it last year.
Once we got through Las Vegas, we took I-15 north to highway 93 and headed west to Ely, Nevada. We were in a hurry to get to this point, so didn’t do any geocaching beforehand which would have slowed us down. On the road to Ely, we stopped to find 10 caches, but it was way too cold (high 20s) to do more than that. We made it to Ely about 4 pm and got a nice room at the La Quinta for the night. It was 17 degrees when we checked in!
The next morning, we woke to see the temperature outside was 4 degrees. We quickly got our bags in the Jeep and went for breakfast then headed out of town on highway 50 towards Fallon (one long very lonely road). There is nothing along that road but flat valleys, and some mountain passes. I think we crossed three or 4 mountain passes and only two mining towns, Eureka and Austin. I would not want to have any problems along there because there were only a few spots that we had cell service. That would not have been fun to break down out there!!
We did happen to spot some wild life at one point! There were actually two, a Doe and last year’s fawn. This is the yearling that wanted to cross road to be with mom, but didn’t like our Jeep, so stayed up on the hill. Not a good picture, but it didn’t give us a lot of time to take its picture.
We did geocache along hwy 50, but it was way too cold (10-20 degrees) to really do much, so only stopped for a few that were right on the side of the road and really quick. As we got closer to Fallon, we could see clouds building and thought we were going to get some snow.
But, we were lucky and didn’t get anything but a couple flakes in the higher spots. We got to Fallon about 3 then Reno at 4 where we went to Ken’s aunt and uncles’ place to visit and spend the night.
We were really hoping to spend a couple nights with them, but there was a severe winter weather alert in effect for most of Northern Nevada, so we decided to stay just one night and leave Reno before the storm hit. We did have a very nice visit with Francis and Velma, but sadly missed seeing some of the cousins we were hoping to see. Hopefully, when we head back to Arizona, we can stop by again.
Sunday morning, we woke to an outside temperature of 11 degrees (brrr). After having some wonderful waffles that Velma made for breakfast, we left Reno at 8:30 and took highway 395 north through Alturas and Klamath Falls towards Salem.
As we passed Border Town west of Reno, we could see the snow clouds building.
The snow hit shortly after crossing the CA/NV border.
From there all the way to Alturas we were in and out of snow flurries. The temps were in the low teens all the way so the snow was very dry and powdery. It was kind’a mesmerizing as we watched it swirl around on the road. The only time it really was dangerous was when we were being passed by trucks or larger cars which would swirl the snow up in front of us and cause zero visibility. We just made sure we didn’t have anyone close in front of us, so we didn’t have problems.
This picture is of where we like to park for the night when we are heading south to Arizona in the motorhome. It is the volunteer fire station's parking lot in Likely, CA and normally, there is no snow there.....but this is what it looked like when we passed on the 6th.
I didn’t get any pictures of it, but as we went through Klamath Falls, the lake was totally white. The lake was frozen and the snow on top of it caused an eerie effect. We did stop in Klamath Falls and have a late lunch early dinner so we wouldn’t have to stop again until we were home.
When we got to the highway 97/58 junction, we took highway 58 west to Willamette Pass. Of course, there was snow, but not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
Once we got beyond the pass, the snow disappeared and we were happy to see the temperature warming up in the 30s. Actually hit 35 when we got to Eugene, Oregon.
We got home at 6 pm on Dec 6 to a nice warm house. Thanks go out to LeighAnn and Tim for turning our thermostat up!!
It stayed very cold until December 11 when the temps finally went above freezing. We were supposed to be having rain for the next week or so, but so far, it is sunny and in the high 30s. Hooray, sure hope it stays this way for a while.
Before we left Arizona, the night temperatures had been dropping into the low 40s. Well when we left on the 4th of December, it was actually 37 degrees at 5 am, and it didn’t get any warmer the further north we went. Our route out of Arizona was north through Kingman where we caught highway 93 towards Las Vegas. Before Vegas, we crossed the Hoover Dam and had a good look at the new bridge they are building. We could see a lot of progress since we crossed it last year.
Currently large busses and trucks are not allowed to cross the dam and are forced to bypass via highway 95. We did find out that RVs are allowed to cross the bridge, but they are subject to a thorough search before crossing. Since we were in the Jeep, they just took one look at us and waved us through. Guess we didn’t look too threatening.
Once we got through Las Vegas, we took I-15 north to highway 93 and headed west to Ely, Nevada. We were in a hurry to get to this point, so didn’t do any geocaching beforehand which would have slowed us down. On the road to Ely, we stopped to find 10 caches, but it was way too cold (high 20s) to do more than that. We made it to Ely about 4 pm and got a nice room at the La Quinta for the night. It was 17 degrees when we checked in!
The next morning, we woke to see the temperature outside was 4 degrees. We quickly got our bags in the Jeep and went for breakfast then headed out of town on highway 50 towards Fallon (one long very lonely road). There is nothing along that road but flat valleys, and some mountain passes. I think we crossed three or 4 mountain passes and only two mining towns, Eureka and Austin. I would not want to have any problems along there because there were only a few spots that we had cell service. That would not have been fun to break down out there!!
We were really hoping to spend a couple nights with them, but there was a severe winter weather alert in effect for most of Northern Nevada, so we decided to stay just one night and leave Reno before the storm hit. We did have a very nice visit with Francis and Velma, but sadly missed seeing some of the cousins we were hoping to see. Hopefully, when we head back to Arizona, we can stop by again.
Sunday morning, we woke to an outside temperature of 11 degrees (brrr). After having some wonderful waffles that Velma made for breakfast, we left Reno at 8:30 and took highway 395 north through Alturas and Klamath Falls towards Salem.
As we passed Border Town west of Reno, we could see the snow clouds building.
This picture is of where we like to park for the night when we are heading south to Arizona in the motorhome. It is the volunteer fire station's parking lot in Likely, CA and normally, there is no snow there.....but this is what it looked like when we passed on the 6th.
When we got to the highway 97/58 junction, we took highway 58 west to Willamette Pass. Of course, there was snow, but not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
We got home at 6 pm on Dec 6 to a nice warm house. Thanks go out to LeighAnn and Tim for turning our thermostat up!!
It stayed very cold until December 11 when the temps finally went above freezing. We were supposed to be having rain for the next week or so, but so far, it is sunny and in the high 30s. Hooray, sure hope it stays this way for a while.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving & Beyond
Last Summer, I was pretty lazy about blogging, but I plan to do much better this winter. My last post was only six days ago and we were getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, we hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did. On Thanksgiving Day, we had a very nice dinner here in the park’s main activity hall. There were seven tables set up with 12 people signed up per table.
Each table was treated as a separate dinner/meal, and each person at the table brought an item to share. Of course we had to have a taste of everything that was brought at our table, and even though we thought we were just taking a small amount, we were stuffed. The picture below is just a small amount of what was brought for our table.
On Friday, we took the Wrangler out Jeeping with the same group we were out with last week. This time, we drove close to an old mine called "The Golden Bell," but the road ended before we got there. We did get within .17 mile of it and could see the mine tailings, but since the road was blocked and washed out, we couldn’t get closer. You can see some of the mine tailings in the photo below. Ken took this picture with his iPhone and I zoomed in on it, so the quality is not the best.
What was I saying in my last post about Arizona having no rain? Well Arizona is still way behind in its annual rainfall, but some parts of the state got rain this weekend (they had snow in Flagstaff). Queen Valley got a bunch of rain on Sunday, and we even had thunder and lightning. Ken & I were south of Queen Valley picking up some Cholla stalks earlier in the day and noticed some heavy clouds over the mountains. It was nice and sunny where we were at, so really didn’t pay much attention to it. See, it looks like some rain, but nothing to really worry about....
After getting the Cholla stalks, we decided to drive back into Apache Junction to put fuel in the Wrangler and give it a good wash. Big mistake! We really should have know better.....everytime we wash one of the Jeeps, it rains. Sunday was no different!! On our way back to Queen Valley, this is what we saw. Those previous dull gray clouds had turned much darker!! See the darkest part? That is where we were heading (yikes).
As we got closer we started feeling the wind (lots of it) then we saw the lightning and heard the thunder. By the time we were at the coach, it was raining hard. It was very dark out, but it was only 2 pm. Thankfully, the heaviest wind and rain didn’t last long. But it did drizzle on for a while.
At 4:15 we headed out to dinner with friends and drove 18 miles east to the town of Superior for pizza. When we got back home. the only sign of the rain was a few puddles in the road.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, we hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did. On Thanksgiving Day, we had a very nice dinner here in the park’s main activity hall. There were seven tables set up with 12 people signed up per table.
The photo below is my dinner. Notice that gorgeous bottle of red wine! That's from my brother-in-law's vineyard "Terra Nativa" in Boise, Idaho. Oh so good!!!
We ate at 1 pm and thankfully had the rest of the afternoon to wear it off. We missed being with our kids, but were very happy to have had a quality phone call with each of them before we headed off to eat. We couldn't have asked for a better day! It was sunny and topped off at 81 degrees.
On Friday, we took the Wrangler out Jeeping with the same group we were out with last week. This time, we drove close to an old mine called "The Golden Bell," but the road ended before we got there. We did get within .17 mile of it and could see the mine tailings, but since the road was blocked and washed out, we couldn’t get closer. You can see some of the mine tailings in the photo below. Ken took this picture with his iPhone and I zoomed in on it, so the quality is not the best.
These next two photos show some of us heading back out to the main road.
At 4:15 we headed out to dinner with friends and drove 18 miles east to the town of Superior for pizza. When we got back home. the only sign of the rain was a few puddles in the road.
November 24, 2009
Arizona Fun
The last couple weeks have been marvelous! Record low temperatures before we got here, then record highs after we arrived. Finally, around the 12th, our temperatures actually dropped into the high 80s, then leveled off to the high 70s. Our evenings are cool (mid 40s), but sooooo very nice. We did have one day and night of some rain (if you can call it that). The rain we got was just enough to get the coach and car dirty (spotty). Sadly, none of the storms hitting the Pacific Northwest have brought the badly needed water that Arizona needs. So the drought continues with no end in sight.
Shortly after we arrived, we had an off road geocaching function, so took the Wrangler out for some fun and a little caching. During that outing, Ken noticed some wires (one continually hot) hanging loose under the dash. Also, the compressor, lockers, and air shocks weren’t working. Last year, we knew there was a problem with one of our rear lights and blinkers, so after Ken decided he couldn’t fix it, he took the Jeep to the shop. It took four days and lots of bucks, but they got it fixed and now it’s supposedly right. Seems they had to rewire the whole thing because the diodes were literally crumbling and very close to an electrical fire. The wiring was done completely wrong when all the extras were added ages ago and things were getting very hot. The guys at the shop were amazed we didn’t have a fire, but we never had the Wrangler out long enough to overheat the wires. Ken now has the wiring diagram in case something should ever go wrong again (hope that never happens).
Tuesday, Nov 17, Ken & I picked our friend Connie up in Gold Canyon and drove two hours west to Buckeye for some intensive geocaching. There is a road there called “Sun Valley Parkway” which is loaded with many caches. We call it a “Power Trail” because a cache is located every half mile. We hit the trail at 7:30 am and finished at 4 pm and had a total find of 111 caches. In all that time, we only had three no finds. We even took time for lunch. It was an incredible time, but we all were very tired and sore. After the long drive back to Apache Junction, we stopped and had some marvelous ice cream. Connie figured we were in and out of the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) 115 times. Wow, no wonder we all were sore.
I guess we hadn’t been punished enough physically because on Thursday the 19th, Ken & I took the Wrangler off road and found another 23 geocaches. Also, found some new roads we didn’t know existed. Fun day!!
Another opportunity we had to play with the Wrangler was on the 20th when we went out with “The Axle Twisters” to see the Coke Ovens.
I found this blurb regarding the ovens on the Internet:
"The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are each about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town) and the smelters."
There are several ways to the ovens and all are difficult, but do-able. The easiest (or so we thought) was by crossing the Gila River near the extinct town of Cochran. Since AZ is having a drought, the Gila River is running very low and we figured that was our best chance of getting there. We took off around 9 am and got to the ovens after 2. Of course, we stopped for lunch on a gravel bar in the middle of the Gila River (LOL). You can see the road we crossed from on the right side of this picture.
We had a few obstacles along the way, but mostly the drive was easy and lots of fun!
Our first obstacle was having to cross some rail road tracks. The high clearance Jeeps had no problems, but a small Tracker needed a bit of help. This is some of the guys adding extra rail road ties to the tracks.
A big obstacle was on way back out having to crawl back up and through a washed out area. The first is where Norm took went too high and had two tires just spinning. The guys pushed him back out and he took a lower path and easily made it through.
After we all got back to town safe and sound, we stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant for some great food. A fun time was had by all.
I must say the Wrangler performed great and we never had any trouble at all. We are so looking forward to our next trip out with this group Friday after Thanksgiving.
Here's wishing you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Shortly after we arrived, we had an off road geocaching function, so took the Wrangler out for some fun and a little caching. During that outing, Ken noticed some wires (one continually hot) hanging loose under the dash. Also, the compressor, lockers, and air shocks weren’t working. Last year, we knew there was a problem with one of our rear lights and blinkers, so after Ken decided he couldn’t fix it, he took the Jeep to the shop. It took four days and lots of bucks, but they got it fixed and now it’s supposedly right. Seems they had to rewire the whole thing because the diodes were literally crumbling and very close to an electrical fire. The wiring was done completely wrong when all the extras were added ages ago and things were getting very hot. The guys at the shop were amazed we didn’t have a fire, but we never had the Wrangler out long enough to overheat the wires. Ken now has the wiring diagram in case something should ever go wrong again (hope that never happens).
Tuesday, Nov 17, Ken & I picked our friend Connie up in Gold Canyon and drove two hours west to Buckeye for some intensive geocaching. There is a road there called “Sun Valley Parkway” which is loaded with many caches. We call it a “Power Trail” because a cache is located every half mile. We hit the trail at 7:30 am and finished at 4 pm and had a total find of 111 caches. In all that time, we only had three no finds. We even took time for lunch. It was an incredible time, but we all were very tired and sore. After the long drive back to Apache Junction, we stopped and had some marvelous ice cream. Connie figured we were in and out of the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) 115 times. Wow, no wonder we all were sore.
I guess we hadn’t been punished enough physically because on Thursday the 19th, Ken & I took the Wrangler off road and found another 23 geocaches. Also, found some new roads we didn’t know existed. Fun day!!
Another opportunity we had to play with the Wrangler was on the 20th when we went out with “The Axle Twisters” to see the Coke Ovens.
"The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are each about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town) and the smelters."
Our first obstacle was having to cross some rail road tracks. The high clearance Jeeps had no problems, but a small Tracker needed a bit of help. This is some of the guys adding extra rail road ties to the tracks.
This is Ken coming through!
Here are two others coming through.
After we all got back to town safe and sound, we stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant for some great food. A fun time was had by all.
I must say the Wrangler performed great and we never had any trouble at all. We are so looking forward to our next trip out with this group Friday after Thanksgiving.
Here's wishing you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
November 6, 2009
Arizona
We are now in Queen Valley Arizona! We got here on Monday, November 2 around 2 pm.
Happily, our trip began on Friday, October 30th. Up until the time we left, we weren't too sure which way we were going to travel because a few days earlier, all the passes were covered in snow. I was keeping up with the weather reports and watching the road cams on the passes, so felt comfortable about going when we did, but I just wasn't sure of our exact route.
We left the house in Salem at 9:15 am and stopped in Coburg to top off our fuel. We took on 41 gallons at $2.68 a gallon. The morning was cloudy, but thankfully, no rain. I again checked the road cam on highway 58 (Willamette Pass) from my iPhone and saw the bare pavement with no new snow. Hooray, that meant we could cross there and not have to go all the way down I-5 through California. We continued to have clouds all the way to the summit, but once we crossed the pass we had sun and 52 degrees. There were some more clouds north of Klamath Falls, but the temps were warming up and when the clouds finally gave way it was wonderful. Later in the day, it got up to 67 degrees.
Our goal for the first night's stop was to get across the California border and down highway 395 to a neat little place called "Likely" before the sun went down. When and if we get to go this way, we like to stop at the fire department's large gravel lot and spend the night. Likely, CA is a very small town located south of Altures and only has a couple stores, cafe, bar, and of course the "volunteer" fire department. It's a nice quiet spot to stay and not have to deal with a lot of semi truck noise. Ken was very happy to get to Likely at a decent hour and have a bit of a rest before dinner.
Saturday, we were up early and on the road by 7:30. It was 38 degrees when we got up, but it got much colder as we drove down the mountain to lower elevations and into fog. The lowest temp we saw was 27 degrees (brrrr). As we were making our way through the fog, we came up on a herd of deer that were quickly getting off the highway and watching us go by. No, we weren’t going that fast!! We even had a truck towing a trailer in front of us, so we were never in danger of hitting any of them. There were quite a few Doe in the herd and only 2 bucks. Thankfully, the fog was gone by the time we got to Standish (near Susanville) and the rest of our drive to Reno (and beyond) was nice and sunny. In Reno we took I-80 east for several miles and stopped at a Love’s station near Fernley to fuel up. We took on 37 gallons at $2.86 a gallon. At exit 48 we took hwy 50 through Fallon and hwy 95 south to Tonapah where we stayed the night at Miller’s Rest Area.
We love that rest area because semi trucks are not allowed and a lot of RVers like to spend the night there. It was sunny and 65 degrees when we got there at 3 pm. Ken was tickled to get the windshield washed and still have time to sit in the sun and enjoy a snack and drink before dinner. I wish I had taken a picture of that, but just didn't think of it.
The next morning (Sun, Nov 1) when we got up, it was a 28 degrees. As we grabbed a bite for breakfast, we let the engine idle to warm it and us up. Even though we were still in the Pacific Time Zone, we didn’t set our clocks back, but stayed on Arizona time. We took off at 8 am and drove through Las Vegas to Laughlin, Nevada. We still had lots of fuel but decided to stop in Searchlight to add a few gallons to insure our making it to Phoenix without running out. We have a 130 gallon tank, but they say only 80 percent is useable, so we didn't want to get too low. Fuel cost in Nevada was $2.81, but we knew Phoenix was much cheaper, so we just put on 25 gallons. The drive from Tonapah to the AVI RV Resort and Casino just south of Laughlin was short and we were checked in and parked by 2 pm. It was 85 degrees there....sooooo nice!!
While in Laughlin, we unhooked the Jeep and drove over to Bull Head City for dinner and stopped at a store to buy some dry ice. While in Salem, we bought a small freezer to take to Queen Valley and place in our shed there. We were carrying it in the coach. Ken also had a cooler of frozen meat in the Jeep and was keeping it frozen with dry ice. To make sure we made it all the way to Queen Valley with it still frozen, he needed more dry ice just to be safe. Once we were back at the coach, we re-hooked up the Jeep and had it ready for towing the next morning.
Monday, Nov. 2, we left AVI at 8 am. We drove south through Needles, CA and took hwy 95 to Vidal Junction, then crossed into Parker, Arizona at 9:30 am. From Parker, we took hwy 72 to Vicksburg and on to I-10. By this time the temperature was quickly rising to 73 degrees. At 10:30 am we stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop in Phoenix and took on 81 gallons of fuel at $2.69 a gallon (actually $2.79). In Arizona, RVs get a 10 cent break on fuel cost, which is very nice.
After leaving Flying J, we drove to Apache Junction and filled up our propane tank, then headed on to Queen Valley. I was watching the temperature rise all along and when we got to QV, it was 84 degrees ending at a high of 89 for the day.
We got to QV at 2 pm and were set up shortly after. There was a lot of stuff to do to be completely settled, but we had enough done by evening to be comfortable. Yes, we got the little freezer set up and now we have more capacity to keep frozen food on hand. Our trip miles from Salem to Queen Valley was just over 1,300 miles.
We've now been in QV for 4 days and have the little Jeep (Wrangler) out of the big shed (yes, we have two sheds) and even taken it out geocaching. Ken has trimmed our tree next to the small shed and coach, so our site looks much better. I still can’t get the satellite working, so will be contacting a tech next week to see what is wrong. The TV does get nice digital HD reception, so the satellite isn’t that big of a deal. I should just turn it off and upgrade to a new system, but need to find out what that will cost before doing so.
Tonight, we are going out for dinner with close friends in the park and celebrate each of our anniversaries. Theirs was the 5th and ours is the 8th. There is a whole bunch activities in store for this season, so hope to have a lot more to talk about soon.
You can also keep up with a lot of my daily ramblings by following me on Twitter; see the link to Cachinbird on the side of this page. I am also on Face Book, so you can always send me a friend notice to view more of my pictures and daily doings.
Happily, our trip began on Friday, October 30th. Up until the time we left, we weren't too sure which way we were going to travel because a few days earlier, all the passes were covered in snow. I was keeping up with the weather reports and watching the road cams on the passes, so felt comfortable about going when we did, but I just wasn't sure of our exact route.
We left the house in Salem at 9:15 am and stopped in Coburg to top off our fuel. We took on 41 gallons at $2.68 a gallon. The morning was cloudy, but thankfully, no rain. I again checked the road cam on highway 58 (Willamette Pass) from my iPhone and saw the bare pavement with no new snow. Hooray, that meant we could cross there and not have to go all the way down I-5 through California. We continued to have clouds all the way to the summit, but once we crossed the pass we had sun and 52 degrees. There were some more clouds north of Klamath Falls, but the temps were warming up and when the clouds finally gave way it was wonderful. Later in the day, it got up to 67 degrees.
Our goal for the first night's stop was to get across the California border and down highway 395 to a neat little place called "Likely" before the sun went down. When and if we get to go this way, we like to stop at the fire department's large gravel lot and spend the night. Likely, CA is a very small town located south of Altures and only has a couple stores, cafe, bar, and of course the "volunteer" fire department. It's a nice quiet spot to stay and not have to deal with a lot of semi truck noise. Ken was very happy to get to Likely at a decent hour and have a bit of a rest before dinner.
The next morning (Sun, Nov 1) when we got up, it was a 28 degrees. As we grabbed a bite for breakfast, we let the engine idle to warm it and us up. Even though we were still in the Pacific Time Zone, we didn’t set our clocks back, but stayed on Arizona time. We took off at 8 am and drove through Las Vegas to Laughlin, Nevada. We still had lots of fuel but decided to stop in Searchlight to add a few gallons to insure our making it to Phoenix without running out. We have a 130 gallon tank, but they say only 80 percent is useable, so we didn't want to get too low. Fuel cost in Nevada was $2.81, but we knew Phoenix was much cheaper, so we just put on 25 gallons. The drive from Tonapah to the AVI RV Resort and Casino just south of Laughlin was short and we were checked in and parked by 2 pm. It was 85 degrees there....sooooo nice!!
While in Laughlin, we unhooked the Jeep and drove over to Bull Head City for dinner and stopped at a store to buy some dry ice. While in Salem, we bought a small freezer to take to Queen Valley and place in our shed there. We were carrying it in the coach. Ken also had a cooler of frozen meat in the Jeep and was keeping it frozen with dry ice. To make sure we made it all the way to Queen Valley with it still frozen, he needed more dry ice just to be safe. Once we were back at the coach, we re-hooked up the Jeep and had it ready for towing the next morning.
Monday, Nov. 2, we left AVI at 8 am. We drove south through Needles, CA and took hwy 95 to Vidal Junction, then crossed into Parker, Arizona at 9:30 am. From Parker, we took hwy 72 to Vicksburg and on to I-10. By this time the temperature was quickly rising to 73 degrees. At 10:30 am we stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop in Phoenix and took on 81 gallons of fuel at $2.69 a gallon (actually $2.79). In Arizona, RVs get a 10 cent break on fuel cost, which is very nice.
After leaving Flying J, we drove to Apache Junction and filled up our propane tank, then headed on to Queen Valley. I was watching the temperature rise all along and when we got to QV, it was 84 degrees ending at a high of 89 for the day.
We got to QV at 2 pm and were set up shortly after. There was a lot of stuff to do to be completely settled, but we had enough done by evening to be comfortable. Yes, we got the little freezer set up and now we have more capacity to keep frozen food on hand. Our trip miles from Salem to Queen Valley was just over 1,300 miles.
We've now been in QV for 4 days and have the little Jeep (Wrangler) out of the big shed (yes, we have two sheds) and even taken it out geocaching. Ken has trimmed our tree next to the small shed and coach, so our site looks much better. I still can’t get the satellite working, so will be contacting a tech next week to see what is wrong. The TV does get nice digital HD reception, so the satellite isn’t that big of a deal. I should just turn it off and upgrade to a new system, but need to find out what that will cost before doing so.
Tonight, we are going out for dinner with close friends in the park and celebrate each of our anniversaries. Theirs was the 5th and ours is the 8th. There is a whole bunch activities in store for this season, so hope to have a lot more to talk about soon.
You can also keep up with a lot of my daily ramblings by following me on Twitter; see the link to Cachinbird on the side of this page. I am also on Face Book, so you can always send me a friend notice to view more of my pictures and daily doings.
October 29, 2009
Time To Go South
We are packed and ready to head south for the winter. Problem is the weather. Because of snow in the mountains, we still aren’t sure which route we will be traveling. I plan on watching the road cams as we head on down the road and decide at the last minute whether we will go across the pass on hwy 58 or go all the way south through the Siskiyous.
Sorry again about not posting more often, but we have been very busy. Even though most of what we have been up to wasn’t very interesting, I will try and recap most of what happened this last month.
On September 28, we took our coach to Cummins Coach Care in Coburg for its annual service work and engine/generator checkup. While they were working on coach, we drove into Eugene for some needed shopping and even managed to find a few caches. We really haven’t had time to geocache lately, so it was fun to take a couple hours and find some. When the coach was finished at 4:30, we decided to spend the night in one of Cummins sites because we had another appointment scheduled for the coach in Eugene the next morning. It really didn’t make sense to drive all the way back home, then have to be back in Eugene the next morning.
Since Ken had new tires put on the coach last year, he thought it a good idea to have the front end realigned. Our appointment was with Keizer Wheel Alignment downtown Eugene which is about 10 miles from Coburg where we spent the night. We were up early the next morning, and instead of hooking the Jeep up to be towed, I drove the Jeep and Ken drove the coach to the alignment shop. Good thing because it was pouring down rain and it would have been miserable trying to get the Jeep hooked up. Since it was so miserable out, we just went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the time at the shop waiting for coach to be done. The work was finished at 10:30 am and happily the rain had quit. We hooked the Jeep up and made our way out of Eugene and headed for Newport, Oregon where we had reservations at South Beach State Park for a week of camping with friends.
Our week at South Beach was supposed to be rainy and windy, but we really lucked out and ended up with great weather. Out of the whole week, we only had one morning of rain. The rest of the time it was somewhat overcast with lots of sun breaks. This is a shot at Boiler Bay.
Besides us there was, Rod & Lynda and Darryl & Kathy camping at South Beach. On Friday afternoon, we were joined by Gary & Shannon (Rod's daughter and son-in-law) and their adorable 5 month old Madi. Isn't she a cutie??
Sadly, they could only spend the one night, but they had a nice time visiting and hiking on the beach. We all managed to take several walks along the beach collecting agates and some shells. Ken and I also took a whole day and went geocaching up and down the coast line. We found a lot of caches and had a great time enjoying the scenery. The evening meals were the highlight of our time camping. One evening we had fresh BBQed Oysters and Shrimp plus Ribs for some who didn’t like seafood (you know who you are… grin). All in all, we had a marvelous time enjoying each other’s company and spending lots of time just sitting around the campfire, which was going day and night.
This is Rod finishing off a succulant Oyster!
It’s hard to believe how fast a week can pass, but it did, and on Oct 6 we all packed up, emptied our tanks, and headed back to our respective homes. Ken & I got home early afternoon and quickly prepared for a trip to Salt Lake City. We were scheduled to be in SLC on Friday the 9th to attend several geocoin events that were taking place that whole weekend. Since it was a short stay and all the events were taking place at the Marriott City Center, we decided to drive our Jeep there and take advantage of the event’s special hotel rate. We left the morning of Oct 8 and drove to Twin Falls where we met up with our son Bill and his family. We visited for just a short while before heading on to Burley, Idaho where we stopped and spent the night.
The morning of Oct, 9, we were up early and headed for Salt Lake City. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to waste, we only stopped to find 5 geocaches. All were side of the road pull offs, and didn’t take much time at all. We arrived in SLC and had trouble locating the entrance to the hotel parking. The Marriott City Center is a part of The Gallivan Convention Center, so we weren’t sure where we were supposed to park, but finally spotted the sign for the underground hotel parking entrance. Well, once in the underground garage, we got lost (sigh). Yes, there were signs all over for hotel guests and arrows showing where to go, but we circled several parking levels before actually finding the very small area assigned for guests. Happily, we found a spot very near the hotel elevators and made our way up to the lobby. We were a bit early, but our room was ready and we were able to get checked in and settled into a gorgeous room on 5th floor with a very nice view.
We have never stayed in a Marriott before because of the outlandish nightly cost, but this room was really steps above all that we have ever stayed at. The mattress was wonderful and I slept fantastically!!! Thankfully, we got a huge break on the cost of the room, but even at full cost, the place would have been worth it.
After we settled in, Ken got his coins (several hundred) together and we went downstairs to the first of three events. There were so many geocoin collectors there looking at and enjoying all of Ken’s coins. He was delighted that he sold a bunch of coins that evening!!
This was just a preview of coins to come.
The next day, Saturday, was the main event where all the geocoin vendors were showing off their latest and newest coins and gadgets. We got there early and were among first people to enter the hall. There was one vendor in particular that Ken really wanted to see. Her coins are hotly sought after and we were lucky enough to be about the third or fourth in her line. Yes, Ken bought “many” of her coins.
We left Salt Lake City at 7 am on Monday, Oct 12 and drove all the way home to Salem. It was an extremely long drive, 13 1/2 hours to be exact, but we did gain an hour when we crossed the Oregon/Idaho border. We did stop two times to find a geocache and another time in Hood River to drop off a special travel bug that wanted to be left there. Of course, we had to stop a few times for fuel, food, and potty breaks. For safety sake, we did switch drivers a couple times, and got home at 7:30 that night.
The rest of this month has been spent working on an old house that needed to be cleaned out. The place has been empty for quite a while and we needed to get it kinda liveable because our grand-daughter is thinking of moving in there later. There is still lots of work to be done inside and out, but our son-in-law will take care of what is needed while we are gone.
Arizona here we come!!!
Sorry again about not posting more often, but we have been very busy. Even though most of what we have been up to wasn’t very interesting, I will try and recap most of what happened this last month.
On September 28, we took our coach to Cummins Coach Care in Coburg for its annual service work and engine/generator checkup. While they were working on coach, we drove into Eugene for some needed shopping and even managed to find a few caches. We really haven’t had time to geocache lately, so it was fun to take a couple hours and find some. When the coach was finished at 4:30, we decided to spend the night in one of Cummins sites because we had another appointment scheduled for the coach in Eugene the next morning. It really didn’t make sense to drive all the way back home, then have to be back in Eugene the next morning.
Since Ken had new tires put on the coach last year, he thought it a good idea to have the front end realigned. Our appointment was with Keizer Wheel Alignment downtown Eugene which is about 10 miles from Coburg where we spent the night. We were up early the next morning, and instead of hooking the Jeep up to be towed, I drove the Jeep and Ken drove the coach to the alignment shop. Good thing because it was pouring down rain and it would have been miserable trying to get the Jeep hooked up. Since it was so miserable out, we just went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the time at the shop waiting for coach to be done. The work was finished at 10:30 am and happily the rain had quit. We hooked the Jeep up and made our way out of Eugene and headed for Newport, Oregon where we had reservations at South Beach State Park for a week of camping with friends.
Our week at South Beach was supposed to be rainy and windy, but we really lucked out and ended up with great weather. Out of the whole week, we only had one morning of rain. The rest of the time it was somewhat overcast with lots of sun breaks. This is a shot at Boiler Bay.
This shot is of the bay at Florence.
This is Rod finishing off a succulant Oyster!
Here is Ken enjoying a nice fire!
The morning of Oct, 9, we were up early and headed for Salt Lake City. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to waste, we only stopped to find 5 geocaches. All were side of the road pull offs, and didn’t take much time at all. We arrived in SLC and had trouble locating the entrance to the hotel parking. The Marriott City Center is a part of The Gallivan Convention Center, so we weren’t sure where we were supposed to park, but finally spotted the sign for the underground hotel parking entrance. Well, once in the underground garage, we got lost (sigh). Yes, there were signs all over for hotel guests and arrows showing where to go, but we circled several parking levels before actually finding the very small area assigned for guests. Happily, we found a spot very near the hotel elevators and made our way up to the lobby. We were a bit early, but our room was ready and we were able to get checked in and settled into a gorgeous room on 5th floor with a very nice view.
This last shot is a gorgeous view from the 10th floor at night.
After we settled in, Ken got his coins (several hundred) together and we went downstairs to the first of three events. There were so many geocoin collectors there looking at and enjoying all of Ken’s coins. He was delighted that he sold a bunch of coins that evening!!
This was just a preview of coins to come.
After buying the coins he wanted, we set his coins up at a table and proceeded to sell more coins. Here is Ken showing off some neat coins.
We didn’t sell our own personal coin, but did trade it for many other cacher’s personal coins. We saw several geocachers from Arizona and Oregon that we know and had a great time meeting many more that we had heard of but never met. The event went on till early evening when we all packed up and called it a day.
The next morning was Sunday and there was a group of cachers scheduled to go out on a geocaching adventure on a bus. We didn’t want to go on the bus, but did attend an early morning gathering for breakfast and coffee. Later, Ken and I got in our jeep and drove out to "The Great Salt Lake" and did our own geocaching. We found a lot of caches and had a fun time viewing the lake. We didn’t get very close to the lake because most of the beaches required some long walks and we didn't want to take that much time. We did stop at one of the original tourist buildings, but that was all locked up and fenced off, so we got to view it from a distance. We did stop at the lake’s marina and saw several sail boats on the lake, but again we couldn’t get too close because there was a fee to get in the main area. Alas, we saw what we could and did a lot of geocaching. Fun day!!!
We left Salt Lake City at 7 am on Monday, Oct 12 and drove all the way home to Salem. It was an extremely long drive, 13 1/2 hours to be exact, but we did gain an hour when we crossed the Oregon/Idaho border. We did stop two times to find a geocache and another time in Hood River to drop off a special travel bug that wanted to be left there. Of course, we had to stop a few times for fuel, food, and potty breaks. For safety sake, we did switch drivers a couple times, and got home at 7:30 that night.
The rest of this month has been spent working on an old house that needed to be cleaned out. The place has been empty for quite a while and we needed to get it kinda liveable because our grand-daughter is thinking of moving in there later. There is still lots of work to be done inside and out, but our son-in-law will take care of what is needed while we are gone.
Arizona here we come!!!
September 22, 2009
Alaska Fishing
Another month has gone by and I have so much to talk about! We are once again home from our annual fishing trip in Alaska. We are safe, sound, and have lots of fish!!
Last time I wrote, we were just finishing up from our grandson’s wedding. Well after the wedding all of our kids, who came from out of town, headed home. We were once again back to normal and preparing for the Alaska trip,
We did take some time out of preparing for Alaska to travel to Portland and visit my sister. On August 15, we and our daughter (Leigh) visited my sister (Vonna) my niece (Judy) and my nephew (Pete). My sis is 14 years older than me and even though she lives in Portland, we don’t get to see a lot of each other… of course, it is because I am usually on the go so much. Even though she has become a bit forgetful (haven’t we all?) she is still holding her own and managing life as it comes. She, like all of us is slowing down, but she still enjoys her freedom. I can certainly identify with this! We had a marvelous visit and vowed to do it more often.
The next week I came down with a bad chest cold. I was down the whole week! Ken had medical appointments and had to deal with getting all the gear ready for Alaska, plus working on cleaning the yard up at the old house we are managing. Wasn't a fun week for him! We are looking at selling the place just for the land because the house itself is not liveable. However, it doesn't look like it will get done this year!!
On the 28th of August, we shipped our boat motor, fishing poles, and a crate of supplies to Alaska. We also did some needed shopping and some geocaching before attending an evening Geo Club Meeting in Clackamas. Ken had some geocoins with him and ended up selling some very nice ones.
August 29, we spent the day at the Oregon State Fair. We had to sample some of the various foods, take a peek at all the vendor merchandise, have a Dairy Wives Milk Shake (yum), and of course visit the miniature horses. They are sooo cute and about the size of a Great Dane.
The day we were there, they had a Veteran's Appreciation Day Parade.
A new structure was added on the State Fairgrounds and they are having a contest to name it. Some have come up with something like "Tower of Hope" and many other names beginning with Tower. Hmm what would you name it?
Of course, the Ferris Wheel is always a highlight.
No, we didn't ride it, but there was a long line for it.
September 4th was the birthday of two of our great grandchildren, Noah-6, and Adriana-3. Yep, both were born on the same day, just three years apart. The party to celebrate was on Saturday, Sept 5 and we had the whole family there…what a wild time that was with the wild itty bittys running amok. There were 4 running around, but it seemed like a legion (grin). Thankfully, the 5th great grandchild (Ciara) was just 2 months old then, so she slept most of the time. I am sooooo not used to the noise of all the little ones, so it was nice to finally get back to the peace and quiet of our own home.
The next couple of days we were busy finalizing the packing our bags for Alaska (stuff we didn’t ship) and packaging up 26 oil paintings (and frames) that a very old friend (Mike-who passed away several years ago) had painted. We made arrangements with his niece (Bev) in Seattle, who wanted the paintings, to pick them up while we were there to catch the plane out of SeaTac.
On September 7 (Labor Day) we drove to Seattle. We didn’t do much geocaching because we were in a hurry to get there and meet Mike’s niece, but we did find a few from Kalama, WA north until it started to rain, then we quit.
Once we got to the Airport EconoLodge Hotel, where we had booked a room for the night, we contacted Bev, and she drove down to visit and pick up the paintings. She was so very excited to get them because Mike had meant so much to her. We told her that we are still in process of cleaning out the old house, and if we find more, we will make sure she gets them.
September 8, at 7:20 am, we boarded the plane for Yakutat, Alaska. We had been at the airport since 5:30, which was a good thing, because it seemed to take forever to get through the baggage check in, security, and boarding process. Our flight to Yakutat made one stop in Juneau at 9:25. Actually, it was 10:25, but we crossed into another time zone, so we had to set our clocks back one hour.
We got to Yakutat, AK at 11 am. Once we got the rental van, we had to pick up our shipped cargo (boat motor, box of supplies, and fishing poles) and get checked into our room at the Glacier Bear Lodge. We had the rest of the afternoon in which we got everything unpacked and ready for the next 7 days of fishing. The weather was cloudy, but not raining like it was in Seattle. We were told a storm was coming in, but no one knew exactly when it would hit (oh joy).
The next couple days (9th & 10th) were fantastic days for fishing. We were up at 5:30 each morning and had a hearty breakfast (free for lodge guests) then it was to the river where we had a boat waiting (a small John Boat).
The river we fish on is a tidal water, and we like to go up it during low tide because the fish bite the best then.The fish tend to hunker down and not bite when the tide is outgoing. Well, these two days the tide was fairly high when we got to boat and motored up (about 1 ½ miles) to where we like to fish. This is Ken fishing the high tide in the chute.
We found so many fish in our favorite spot that we were being very choosy on which ones we kept. We threw back ones that were too small and some that were darker (more red than silver) than we liked, plus some that Seals had taken bites out of (hate those Seals). We had a fantastic two days and ended up with about 70 pounds of Salmon Filets after all was said and done. Both days all of the fish were cleaned, vacuum packed, and in freezer before 1 pm. Wow, we thought we were in heaven this year!!!
Do you remember my saying a storm was coming in? Well mid-afternoon on the 10th it hit. It poured down rain all night long and was coming down really hard the morning of September 11. The wind was ferocious, but we thought we could still fish in it. We did get ready and drove to the boat and even managed to get up to where we like to fish, but the wind was gale force and we had a very rough time navigating the river in the small boat. Yes, we were stupid, but soon realized we shouldn’t be out there and, very carefully, made our way back to where we kept the boat docked. It wasn’t too bad when we were either facing the wind or had it at our tail, but when we were sideways to the wind, we were really rocked and the waves were as high as we were. Thank God, we made it back safely! The rest of the afternoon, we spent it in the room watching the rain come down sideways. We even ended up with a lake behind our room at the lodge. I had two books with me, so I was very comfortable.
The next day, September 12, we were again up at 5:30 and having a wonderful breakfast before heading to the river. It was still raining, but not near as windy as the day before. Out on the river, we didn’t have near the luck or catches that we did during the first two days of fishing. We only got 3 fish that day. Could have had our limit, but when I had one to the boat, Ken tried to net it and ended up knocking the lure out of its mouth (I wasn’t too happy about that). Of course that same day we both had hooked more, but they either threw the lure or broke the line taking the lure with them (dang).
We continued to fish on September 13 & 14, and only got a total of 7 more fish those days. We hardly saw any sign of fish. Seems the storm added a lot more water to the rivers and the fish quit biting. Also the fish in the bay won’t enter the rivers until the water level goes down. The 14th turned out to be a nice day and we actually fished without having our rain coats on. However, when the rain quits, the bugs come out. Our moisturizer was DEET (grin). Thankfully, we didn’t get eaten up too much. Ken only had a couple bites around his hat, and I had 2 on my right wrist where the gloves and shirt met. Not near as bad as in past years. Since we literally had 3 full boxes of fish filets at the end of the 14th, we decided to quit fishing for the season and turn the boat back into the lodge. Since Tuesday the 15th was going to be another nice sunny day, we thought it would be great to get all the gear dried out before packing to go home. Also, it would be a nice time to rinse out the motor and winterize it.
As predicted, Tuesday was a beautiful day. We got a lot accomplished and even tried to find some ripe Cranberries and Blue Berries. The Blueberries were abundant, but not very big and there were no Cranberries to pick. Seems the unusually warm summer held down the growth of the berries……of course the bears could have gotten there before we did. We did see lots of wild life this year, but no bears. We had some deer (Sitka Deer) run down the road in front of us one morning while on the way to the river. They look very much like our White Tail Deer, but are a lot smaller. Eagles, Geese, Cranes, Swan, Ducks, and Seals were all spotted by us. This cutie her name is Angel, is quite the begger around the lodge. She also loves to chase bears away from the lodges fish cleaning station. Just a few days before we arrived, she was spotted biting one bear on the rear as she chased it away.
After cleaning out the boat motor and winterizing it, we left it at a friend’s house in Yakutat. We usually ship it back to Oregon and have it serviced and winterized here, so hope leaving it in AK doesn’t cause it to have problems next year. I guess we will find out. We did ship the fishing poles and a box of fishing gear back to Portland, OR (they were what we had shipped up to AK).
Wednesday, September 16 was back to heavy rain, so after we checked out, weighed the fish boxes to make sure we weren’t over the 50 lb limit on each box. We had two that weighed just over 49, and the third was 46 lbs. Of course that included the weight of the fish boxes too. We equaled out the boxes and had no problems as using them as our luggage. A seabag full of our fishing clothes along with the S&W 500 that Ken wears while out fishing (and picking Cranberries) was our fourth piece of luggage. Since we didn’t leave until late in the evening, we waited out the time at the Lodge, and I was finally able to get on their computer and clear up what email made it through my blocking of messages. Yes, I did have the iPhone with me to catch the WiFi at lodge, but half the time, the WiFi was bouncing on and off, so I gave up and didn’t use it.
At 6:10 (7:10 Oregon time) we boarded the plane and in the air at 6:55 (right on time). We landed just over the mountain in Juneau at 7:30 and were told it would be a short turn around, so stay on the plane. But…. about the time we were to take off, the Pilot got on the mike and said a flight out of Anchorage that landed in Ketchikan was disabled, and the passengers that were headed for Portland were stranded and needed us to stop and pick them. He said it would only be a short delay (yeah right). We sat on the ground at Juneau for another 45 minutes while the baggage guys rearranged ALL the baggage and cargo to balance the weight for the extra passengers.
Finally, at 8:45 we left Juneau and landed in Ketchikan at 9:20. With all the new baggage and passengers being added to plane, we were very full and didn’t get off the ground and headed to Seattle until 10:20. We originally were supposed to land in Seattle at 11:30 (Seattle time)…..well, that didn’t happen. With the time change and all, we didn’t get to Seattle until just after 1 the morning of the 17th. We ended up getting Alaska Air to put our fish in their freezer, so we could get a few hours of sleep before heading off to Salem.
After getting about 5 hours sleep, we picked the fish up at the airport and headed for home. We did find a few caches on the way home, but with the Jeep loaded with frozen fish, we skipped a lot of them. We did stop in Tracy so Ken could check out the Cabelas store there. Of course, that was a special stop because there also was a cache in the parking lot (grin). After an uneventful drive, we arrived home about 1:20 pm and got things unloaded and put away for the afternoon.
The rest of this week we have been getting all the gear washed and back in working order for next year. The big thing to finish is getting the coach ready to move for traveling. We will be taking it to Cummins on the 28th for its annual checkup and service. The 29th we are getting the front end realigned, then head to the coast (Newport) to camp with some friends.
At this time, it looks like we will be heading to Arizona sometime near the end of October, but we don’t have an exact date because there is still a lot of things we have to finish up here first.
Last time I wrote, we were just finishing up from our grandson’s wedding. Well after the wedding all of our kids, who came from out of town, headed home. We were once again back to normal and preparing for the Alaska trip,
We did take some time out of preparing for Alaska to travel to Portland and visit my sister. On August 15, we and our daughter (Leigh) visited my sister (Vonna) my niece (Judy) and my nephew (Pete). My sis is 14 years older than me and even though she lives in Portland, we don’t get to see a lot of each other… of course, it is because I am usually on the go so much. Even though she has become a bit forgetful (haven’t we all?) she is still holding her own and managing life as it comes. She, like all of us is slowing down, but she still enjoys her freedom. I can certainly identify with this! We had a marvelous visit and vowed to do it more often.
The next week I came down with a bad chest cold. I was down the whole week! Ken had medical appointments and had to deal with getting all the gear ready for Alaska, plus working on cleaning the yard up at the old house we are managing. Wasn't a fun week for him! We are looking at selling the place just for the land because the house itself is not liveable. However, it doesn't look like it will get done this year!!
On the 28th of August, we shipped our boat motor, fishing poles, and a crate of supplies to Alaska. We also did some needed shopping and some geocaching before attending an evening Geo Club Meeting in Clackamas. Ken had some geocoins with him and ended up selling some very nice ones.
August 29, we spent the day at the Oregon State Fair. We had to sample some of the various foods, take a peek at all the vendor merchandise, have a Dairy Wives Milk Shake (yum), and of course visit the miniature horses. They are sooo cute and about the size of a Great Dane.
The day we were there, they had a Veteran's Appreciation Day Parade.
A new structure was added on the State Fairgrounds and they are having a contest to name it. Some have come up with something like "Tower of Hope" and many other names beginning with Tower. Hmm what would you name it?
Of course, the Ferris Wheel is always a highlight.
No, we didn't ride it, but there was a long line for it.September 4th was the birthday of two of our great grandchildren, Noah-6, and Adriana-3. Yep, both were born on the same day, just three years apart. The party to celebrate was on Saturday, Sept 5 and we had the whole family there…what a wild time that was with the wild itty bittys running amok. There were 4 running around, but it seemed like a legion (grin). Thankfully, the 5th great grandchild (Ciara) was just 2 months old then, so she slept most of the time. I am sooooo not used to the noise of all the little ones, so it was nice to finally get back to the peace and quiet of our own home.
The next couple of days we were busy finalizing the packing our bags for Alaska (stuff we didn’t ship) and packaging up 26 oil paintings (and frames) that a very old friend (Mike-who passed away several years ago) had painted. We made arrangements with his niece (Bev) in Seattle, who wanted the paintings, to pick them up while we were there to catch the plane out of SeaTac.
On September 7 (Labor Day) we drove to Seattle. We didn’t do much geocaching because we were in a hurry to get there and meet Mike’s niece, but we did find a few from Kalama, WA north until it started to rain, then we quit.
Once we got to the Airport EconoLodge Hotel, where we had booked a room for the night, we contacted Bev, and she drove down to visit and pick up the paintings. She was so very excited to get them because Mike had meant so much to her. We told her that we are still in process of cleaning out the old house, and if we find more, we will make sure she gets them.September 8, at 7:20 am, we boarded the plane for Yakutat, Alaska. We had been at the airport since 5:30, which was a good thing, because it seemed to take forever to get through the baggage check in, security, and boarding process. Our flight to Yakutat made one stop in Juneau at 9:25. Actually, it was 10:25, but we crossed into another time zone, so we had to set our clocks back one hour.
We got to Yakutat, AK at 11 am. Once we got the rental van, we had to pick up our shipped cargo (boat motor, box of supplies, and fishing poles) and get checked into our room at the Glacier Bear Lodge. We had the rest of the afternoon in which we got everything unpacked and ready for the next 7 days of fishing. The weather was cloudy, but not raining like it was in Seattle. We were told a storm was coming in, but no one knew exactly when it would hit (oh joy).The next couple days (9th & 10th) were fantastic days for fishing. We were up at 5:30 each morning and had a hearty breakfast (free for lodge guests) then it was to the river where we had a boat waiting (a small John Boat).
The river we fish on is a tidal water, and we like to go up it during low tide because the fish bite the best then.The fish tend to hunker down and not bite when the tide is outgoing. Well, these two days the tide was fairly high when we got to boat and motored up (about 1 ½ miles) to where we like to fish. This is Ken fishing the high tide in the chute.
We found so many fish in our favorite spot that we were being very choosy on which ones we kept. We threw back ones that were too small and some that were darker (more red than silver) than we liked, plus some that Seals had taken bites out of (hate those Seals). We had a fantastic two days and ended up with about 70 pounds of Salmon Filets after all was said and done. Both days all of the fish were cleaned, vacuum packed, and in freezer before 1 pm. Wow, we thought we were in heaven this year!!!Do you remember my saying a storm was coming in? Well mid-afternoon on the 10th it hit. It poured down rain all night long and was coming down really hard the morning of September 11. The wind was ferocious, but we thought we could still fish in it. We did get ready and drove to the boat and even managed to get up to where we like to fish, but the wind was gale force and we had a very rough time navigating the river in the small boat. Yes, we were stupid, but soon realized we shouldn’t be out there and, very carefully, made our way back to where we kept the boat docked. It wasn’t too bad when we were either facing the wind or had it at our tail, but when we were sideways to the wind, we were really rocked and the waves were as high as we were. Thank God, we made it back safely! The rest of the afternoon, we spent it in the room watching the rain come down sideways. We even ended up with a lake behind our room at the lodge. I had two books with me, so I was very comfortable.
The next day, September 12, we were again up at 5:30 and having a wonderful breakfast before heading to the river. It was still raining, but not near as windy as the day before. Out on the river, we didn’t have near the luck or catches that we did during the first two days of fishing. We only got 3 fish that day. Could have had our limit, but when I had one to the boat, Ken tried to net it and ended up knocking the lure out of its mouth (I wasn’t too happy about that). Of course that same day we both had hooked more, but they either threw the lure or broke the line taking the lure with them (dang).
We continued to fish on September 13 & 14, and only got a total of 7 more fish those days. We hardly saw any sign of fish. Seems the storm added a lot more water to the rivers and the fish quit biting. Also the fish in the bay won’t enter the rivers until the water level goes down. The 14th turned out to be a nice day and we actually fished without having our rain coats on. However, when the rain quits, the bugs come out. Our moisturizer was DEET (grin). Thankfully, we didn’t get eaten up too much. Ken only had a couple bites around his hat, and I had 2 on my right wrist where the gloves and shirt met. Not near as bad as in past years. Since we literally had 3 full boxes of fish filets at the end of the 14th, we decided to quit fishing for the season and turn the boat back into the lodge. Since Tuesday the 15th was going to be another nice sunny day, we thought it would be great to get all the gear dried out before packing to go home. Also, it would be a nice time to rinse out the motor and winterize it.
As predicted, Tuesday was a beautiful day. We got a lot accomplished and even tried to find some ripe Cranberries and Blue Berries. The Blueberries were abundant, but not very big and there were no Cranberries to pick. Seems the unusually warm summer held down the growth of the berries……of course the bears could have gotten there before we did. We did see lots of wild life this year, but no bears. We had some deer (Sitka Deer) run down the road in front of us one morning while on the way to the river. They look very much like our White Tail Deer, but are a lot smaller. Eagles, Geese, Cranes, Swan, Ducks, and Seals were all spotted by us. This cutie her name is Angel, is quite the begger around the lodge. She also loves to chase bears away from the lodges fish cleaning station. Just a few days before we arrived, she was spotted biting one bear on the rear as she chased it away.
After cleaning out the boat motor and winterizing it, we left it at a friend’s house in Yakutat. We usually ship it back to Oregon and have it serviced and winterized here, so hope leaving it in AK doesn’t cause it to have problems next year. I guess we will find out. We did ship the fishing poles and a box of fishing gear back to Portland, OR (they were what we had shipped up to AK).Wednesday, September 16 was back to heavy rain, so after we checked out, weighed the fish boxes to make sure we weren’t over the 50 lb limit on each box. We had two that weighed just over 49, and the third was 46 lbs. Of course that included the weight of the fish boxes too. We equaled out the boxes and had no problems as using them as our luggage. A seabag full of our fishing clothes along with the S&W 500 that Ken wears while out fishing (and picking Cranberries) was our fourth piece of luggage. Since we didn’t leave until late in the evening, we waited out the time at the Lodge, and I was finally able to get on their computer and clear up what email made it through my blocking of messages. Yes, I did have the iPhone with me to catch the WiFi at lodge, but half the time, the WiFi was bouncing on and off, so I gave up and didn’t use it.
At 6:10 (7:10 Oregon time) we boarded the plane and in the air at 6:55 (right on time). We landed just over the mountain in Juneau at 7:30 and were told it would be a short turn around, so stay on the plane. But…. about the time we were to take off, the Pilot got on the mike and said a flight out of Anchorage that landed in Ketchikan was disabled, and the passengers that were headed for Portland were stranded and needed us to stop and pick them. He said it would only be a short delay (yeah right). We sat on the ground at Juneau for another 45 minutes while the baggage guys rearranged ALL the baggage and cargo to balance the weight for the extra passengers.
Finally, at 8:45 we left Juneau and landed in Ketchikan at 9:20. With all the new baggage and passengers being added to plane, we were very full and didn’t get off the ground and headed to Seattle until 10:20. We originally were supposed to land in Seattle at 11:30 (Seattle time)…..well, that didn’t happen. With the time change and all, we didn’t get to Seattle until just after 1 the morning of the 17th. We ended up getting Alaska Air to put our fish in their freezer, so we could get a few hours of sleep before heading off to Salem.
After getting about 5 hours sleep, we picked the fish up at the airport and headed for home. We did find a few caches on the way home, but with the Jeep loaded with frozen fish, we skipped a lot of them. We did stop in Tracy so Ken could check out the Cabelas store there. Of course, that was a special stop because there also was a cache in the parking lot (grin). After an uneventful drive, we arrived home about 1:20 pm and got things unloaded and put away for the afternoon.
The rest of this week we have been getting all the gear washed and back in working order for next year. The big thing to finish is getting the coach ready to move for traveling. We will be taking it to Cummins on the 28th for its annual checkup and service. The 29th we are getting the front end realigned, then head to the coast (Newport) to camp with some friends.
At this time, it looks like we will be heading to Arizona sometime near the end of October, but we don’t have an exact date because there is still a lot of things we have to finish up here first.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)