Fun times with Ellen and John

Mesa, AZ, was our base the past two weeks as we traveled to Payson and Show Low, sailed leisurely down Canyon Lake on the Dolly paddleboat, enjoyed many delicious meals, and played cards and games with John's sister Ellen and her husband John. We stayed at Valle del Oro the first week, a Cal-Am park we enjoyed previously with the Passport America discount. The weather was unusually hot for this time of year so John wrapped sun shade fabric around the RV. The desert plants are flowering and we even had one brief storm

Dolly on Canyon Lake

Ellen

Flooding and beyond

The rain returned to Redding in the evening and flooded the road into our side of the park. A tiny, decrepit barely one lane bridge was the alternative route, which concerned us since it didn't appear strong enough to handle the tonnage of our RV the next morning. Luckily, the flooding diminished overnight and we were able exit via the road.

Our next stop was at Vacaville, where the RV park consisted of unmarked sites in a grove of eucalyptus trees that had been planted by the railroad for future use as ties. Eucalyptus wood proved too hard for use as ties, so the trees remain a fragrant canopy over the park. The host was very helpful, printing out alternate routes for us to buy diesel. A caboose has been transformed into a laundry and bathroom facility and a rail car is utilized for maintenance.

We drove through Vacaville, admiring the lovely historic homes.

We spent a week at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and made day trips to San Francisco, Armstrong Redwoods, Muir Woods, and Bodega Bay.

Armstrong Redwoods are impressive in size and the day we visited was drizzly, so all was quiet and serene. The purple trillium flowers were finishing their bloom, I remember that as a child we called them stinkpots.

Over the Siskiyou Pass

Wikipedia says "Redding is a city in far-Northern California, located on Interstate 5 exactly halfway between the Canada and Mexico borders."

The weather over the Siskiyou's has been snowy and stormy so we planned to cross the pass between storms and discovered that the snow was gone, except for distant mountains, but it was snowing as we drove over. The snow turned to rain for the remaining hours of the trip to Redding, CA. But as we pulled into the Premier  RV Park, the rain slacked off. John asked the host to shut off the rain and she did! So much nicer to set up and unpack the RV without rain.
 

Mt. Shasta

You History Channel buffs will recognize the State of Jefferson in northern California.

Not bad for shooting out the truck window as he tows the RV!

Heading for California

We departed Lincoln City and the Left Coast on Thursday afternoon, after discovering we needed two new batteries for the truck! We replaced both RV batteries and the converter the previous week. 

Our trip across the Coastal Range to McMinnville was uneventful, no snow or fallen trees.

We "camped" at the Old Stone Village Park is beside the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of Howard Hughes' famous Spruce Goose. Our site was shaded by beautiful delicate pink blossoming trees.

Evergreen Aviation Museum - Spruce Goose inside

We went to McMinnville for John to have a root canal done, which took 3 hours, due to his unique tooth and root structure. He was in pain for several days afterwards. It was time to have the Prius tires rotated but they were needed replacing, so we now have 4 new tires.

Saturday morning we packed up and moved south on I-5 to Sutherlin, OR, stopping at the Hi-Way Haven, a converted drive-in theater.

Sunday we continued south to Grants Pass, hoping to make it over the Siskiyou Pass on Monday before the next storm hits. On this stop in Grants Pass, we stayed at Bridgeview RV Park on the Rogue River. Our site was beside the river so geese visited us and one even left an egg!

The Valley of the Rogue State Park is near the RV park, so we spent the afternoon strolling through and admiring emerald hills, blue skies, and a rainbow.

Pittock Mansion in Portland

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the Pittock Mansion in Portland recently. It is the estate of Oregon Trail pioneers, Henry and Georgiana Pittock. Henry was the founder of The Oregonian newspaper and former Pittsburger. They built the mansion when in their 70's and lived there until their deaths a few years later. Nestled in the West Hills overlooking the Willamette River and Mt Hood. Generations of Pittock heirs lived here before letting it fall into disrepair then selling it to the city of Portland. Only a few original furnishings have been found and reinstated, one is a bed given to the Pittock's by Mary Todd Lincoln. Great care has been taken to refurnish the home in period style of the time Henry and Georgiana lived in the mansion.

Mary Todd Lincoln bed

Ceiling of Turkish smoking room

SNOW!!

Last week we broke the record for snowfall on the Oregon coast in March, set in 1951! To northerners, a mere 8 inches of wet snow isn't much but here it is unusual and brings down trees and power lines and ties up traffic for hours. The aptly named Cape Fowlweather, which lies on Hwy 101 (the only north-south coastal road) half way between Lincoln City and Newport, was clogged with stranded cars and stranded emergency vehicles for hours, until a snow plow was finally able to make it through. Given that in the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest, there is often only one road inland to civilization, the few roads from the coast through the Coastal Range to I-5 (Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Portland) were clogged with downed trees. So folks can't just take another route inland, if they are lucky not to be stranded between downed trees on the roads, as one tractor trailer was recently, they stay home as many days as it takes for volunteer and ODOT crews to clear all of the streets and roads. There are A LOT of trees everywhere here, so one is constantly in danger of having huge branches or entire trees fall on, in front of, or behind their cars and homes.

Did I mention the frequent landslides which happen during stormy weather and add to the road hazards and which take months to remedy.

Snow beside our RV before it got very thick

Folks pay $50 at Disney World to get the kind of ride we had in the 80mph wind gusts of the past few days! Sustained 30-40mph winds and horizontal rain has lashed against us for the past two days.

Snow later in the night

Of course, all of this weather happens while we are experiencing a catastrophic failure of the RV electrical system, with both batteries and converter dead. The refrigerator has a propane backup system but it requires battery power to operate the electronics that sense the need for turning it on. We have electricity but none of the RV lights use it. After a several day wait to get a new converter shipped to us and the purchase of new batteries, we  no longer take lights or cold/frozen food for granted!

Most of the snow happened at night and morning rains dissipated it by dawn, so our photos don't show the full extent of it.

Coastal Reading

As future Lincoln County, Oregon, residents, we are assimilating by reading about and attending seminars and meetings on the area and its past and future.

Matt Love, a local writer, teacher and proprietor of Nestucca Press, describes the birth of and on going struggles to keep Oregon beaches open to the public, instead of permitting hotels and home owners to cordon off their section against the casual visitor, as is done in all other ocean front states, in Grasping Wastrels Vs Beaches Forever, Inc. Matt invested 10 years restoring the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Preserve as related in Gimme Refuge. I share Matt's love of the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, the subject of his latest work The Green Lady. He is currently working on a book about the adventures and tales during the filming of the 1970's movie Sometimes A Great Notion  with Paul Newman, based on Ken Kesey's novel. Ken Kesey also wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. http://nestuccaspitpress.com/.

The Oregon State University's Hatfield Science Center presents a weekly graduate seminar on various oceanic topics, which are open to the public. So far we've been the only "public" to attend but have been welcomed by the faculty, staff, students, and volunteers.

Recently, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology hosted paleontologist Kirk Johnson and artist Ray Kroll, whose collaboration Crusin' The Fossil Freeway follows their travels across portions of the west in search of fossils and meeting paleonerds. They are funny and inspiring in person and Ray's paintings are fanciful and colorful, check them out on his webpage. Their current project is sited on the west coast from California to Alaska.  http://trollart.com/fossils.html



Many leisurely afternoons are spent on the beach at Taft, virtually across the street from the campground, which is often populated with agate collectors and crabbers.

John's Taft Beach Rescue

We were on Taft beach yesterday when the following happened. John lifted the log off the woman.

Salem woman injured by drift log

Posted: Feb 14, 2012 9:23 AM PST Updated: Feb 14, 2012 9:28 AM PST

By FOX 12 Staff - email

LINCOLN CITY, OR (KPTV) - North Lincoln Fire & Rescue said they were dispatched to assist a woman who had been struck by a drift log a quarter mile west of Mo's Restaurant on the Siletz Bay in Lincoln City on Monday afternoon.
The 62-year-old Salem woman was walking near the surf when a surge carrying a six to seven foot drift log knocked her over and pinned her to the ground until a man could lift the log off of her ankle.
North Lincoln Fire & Rescue personnel stabilized the woman, who had suffered a broken ankle, and moved her further inland until paramedics arrived.
The woman had to be carried over a quarter of a mile to an awaiting Pacific West Ambulance because the large amount of logs on the beach prohibited rescue vehicles from reaching her location.
The woman was transported to North Lincoln Samaritan Hospital.
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