After leaving Reno we stayed at Kla-Mo-Ya, Indian Casino in Chiloquin, Oregon. It was pretty noisy with trucks and other traffic coming and going, but it did quiet down after 6:30. Would you believe we even found a cache in their parking lot? Just one, no more till we got to Prineville.
Earlier in June, we made arrangements with the Marion County Sheriff’s Dept in Salem to renew our concealed weapons permits which were going to expire before we got home. Our appointment was scheduled for June 24, so we left the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino on June 23 and drove to the Crook Country RV Park in Prineville, Oregon. After we made sure the coach was secure, we loaded the Jeep with some un-needed stuff and headed to our home in Salem. We arrived home three hours later and unloaded the Jeep. Later, we met our friends, Rod & Lynda for dinner at our favorite Pizza place (Paddington’s).
The next morning (June 24) we were up early and off to the Marion County Sheriff’s office to renew our concealed weapons permits. Once they had all the pertinent information, did another background check, and took our mug shots, we had our new cards in hand. It never fails, the pictures they put on those cards always makes us look like criminals. We have never had a good picture taken there…. Oh well, at least now we are legal for another four years to pack (in Oregon).
When done at the Sheriff’s Office (and before we headed back to Prineville) we went by our daughter’s office and surprised her with a short visit and hugs. She was very surprised and I think we all had a few tears in our eyes when we left. The drive back to Prineville, was uneventful and we arrived at the coach about 2:30. Once we put our stuff away, we went down to the river and secured our site for the campout.
The 25th we attended the Gem Show at the Prineville Fairgrounds where Ken perused many wonderful rock slabs and some beautiful gem stones. He did buy a chunk of nice rock to take back to QV to work on.
June 26 & 27, we went caching on top of the rim above Crooked River finding a series of 32 caches that were hidden in the shape of a face frowning.
June 28, we moved the coach down to the Crooked River and set it up for12 days of dry camping. We weren’t totally primitive, we had the generator and did use it for electric power. We even had 100 gallons of fresh water, so we enjoyed some (not many) showers. We were later joined by friends Rod & Lynda, and Daryl & Kathy. Our weather was warm and sometimes windy. Yes, there was even a slight sprinkle on one day, but in general every day was perfect! Rod saw a Bald Eagle fly by early two mornings, and we all got to see several deer. Ken & I even saw a Badger trying to come out on the road, but he soon decided not to when we showed up. There was a day that the girls went into Bend to do some shopping while all the guys went hiking (and caching). We all did go into the town of Prineville for dinner a couple times. We had a great time and are looking forward to next year.
Everyone broke camp the morning of July 10 and drove the RVs to Prineville to dump the tanks and head home. We were the last to empty our tanks and we made it home by 2 pm. We did encounter an event taking place in the town of Sisters, so were routed around the town, but after that, there was virtually no traffic stalls of any kind.
We are now home and the work has begun on cleaning out the coach. It is amazing what we can amass in just 7 months. I have taken many items out that we haven’t used in a long time and Ken has checked and rechecked what he really needs to be carrying in the basement storage. We are now getting ready for a Monaco RV Rally here in Salem on August 4-7.
We also have looming a goodbye party on Aug 14 for our grandson who is leaving for boot camp on Aug 24. Justin joined the Air Force and will be going into Special Ops (like the Navy Seals) and is facing up to two years of intensive training. We are very proud of Justin and know he has some tough times ahead of him. He is very determined and we pray he does well and achieves everything he has his mind set on. We love him very much and will miss him a lot!!
