Grandparenting at the Palmer's!

       Fortunately we took our trip through the Columbia Gorge on Thursday, as both of us came down with some kind of 24-hour bug that two of the grandchildren had had earlier.  It affected Becky all day, Jim didn't catch it till the evening, and it made for a pretty lacksadasical day Saturday. 

     One thing we did get accomplished, however, was having the grandsons affix "state" stickers to our RV.  When we bought it last year, we purchased a map of the US and of Canada with the state/province outlines, and colorful stickers to put on after we went to thoseplaces.  Beth and Drew placed the stickers for our trip up to Texas, and Cormac, Colin and Bennett took care of this leg.  Here Bennett puts on Washington State with Jenny and Colin's assistence.

        We felt better in the evening, which was great as we got to watch Colin participate as an actor in the play, "The Pied Piper of Hamlin".  He did a great job, and we all really enjoyed the play.

        Sunday was prepare to depart day.  After the Palmers took us to breakfast, we washed and cleaned the RV, did wash, gathered all our "stuff" together, and kept real busy. 

      We took a break, though, and with Jenny took the three dogs to the nearby "Dog Park", which is the best we've ever seen or been to.  There are actually two, one for small dogs and one about an acre in size for everyone else.  Our three had a fantastic time (it is Lily's regular running spot, so she was right at home).  Our two must have felt like they had died and gone to heaven--50 some-odd other dogs of all shapes and sizes to play with, friendly kids and adults--and they could run free.  They did, for about 45", and at the end were completly and utterly tired out.

     After lunch, the whole family went for a walk at one of the Oregon State Parks between Lake Oswego and Portland, and it is a truly beautiful walk through a Pacific Northwest woods!  There was a "Trillium" flower festival and sale going on, and the boys are shown here proudly pointing out some of the Trillium they found along our walk.We had a great time, got good exercise, and bought some stuffed animals for the 3 boys.

       For our final "event" with the family, we took them to an Italian restaurant.  It was a nice ending for our 10 day visit.

    

A day trip up the Columbia Gorge

       We had a most interesting day today, and experienced some of the craziest weather we have seen on this trip.  We decided to take a day trip in the RV out through the Columbia Gorge, something that Becky had done once before on a previous visit.  We drove to old Historic US 30 east of Portland, and climbed up the mountainous road overlooking the Columbia River.  From the top, it was like you could see forever--that is, if it weren't raining!  As we were driving up there, it started sprinkling.  Driving backdown to river level again, it would rain sporadically and switch back and forth to sleet.  

     Driving along the road, it was one beautiful waterfall after another, often in conjunction with beautiful old bridges built in the early 20th century.  One in particular was the Latourell Falls bridge.
     The road goes for perhaps twenty miles, and the BNSF railway parallels the road.  For the most part, it's some 30-50 feet above water level.
     It was interesting how the whole Columbia Gorge was created, and predominantly carved out 15,000 years ago when an ice sheet fell onto the Clark Fork of the Columbia river near Missoula, creating a 3000 square mile lake up to 2000' in depth.  The ice dam gave way one day, sending 9 1/2 cubic MILES of water per hour down the gorge, for 40 hours(that's more than 10 times the normal flow of all the rivers of the world combined!).  In the Gorge, it stripped away soil and rock up to 1000' above the current river level.  Amazing!

     We arrived at our primary destination, Multnomah Falls around 10:30am, and went into the lounge/restaurant for coffee as we were somewhat chilled.  They serve a great breakfast there, so we had brunch and did some shopping in the gift store.  Then out to the Falls themselves, at 620' the second highest year-round falls in the United States.  The two photos of Becky and Jim were taken before we ascended up to the bridge over the lower falls, as the weather was merely damp at that point.  Note the bridge in the background.

      No sooner had we arrived there when hailstones started falling!!  We beat a hasty retreat back down from the bridge and into the information center, and then retired back to the RV and the dogs.  It's a great place to stop and spend some time, particularly if the weather is nice and you're into hiking the trail up to the top!
      We decided to continue to the east, and drove on I84 out past the Bonneville Dam, through the Dalles, and on to a crossing point bridge at a place named Biggs.  We filled up on diesel before crossing--$3.19 per gallon, and it's full service (you can't pump your own in Oregon, just like NJ).  When we crossed into Washington state, where we could have pumped our own, we would have paid $3.45!
      Just before getting to the bridge, we observed a massive wind farm on the Washington side shown here.  When we got over there and climbed to the top of the hills, we were close to the level of these huge modern day wonders.  The drive back was on WA Highway 14, and is quite a beautiful drive.
       We would have enjoyed seeing some of the Oregon mountains on the trip, but clouds prevented that the whole day.  And so did the precipitation!  As we drove along the road, we went from sunshine to rain to sleet to hail, again!  The next two photos show Columbia River views in the sunshine, and again after we came out of the hail storm shown here.

     All in all, it was a great day trip, and we're glad we did it!  Weather notwithstanding!!

The visit at the Palmer's Home

       This is basically grandparent visitation time!  We're staying in the house, doing all the great things one gets to do as grandparents, and the dogs are enjoying a respite from all the driving.  They are getting along fine with Lily, the resident canine in the household, and have established their "pack pecking order"--Dudley is the Alpha dog, Lily the Bravo, and Rosie is on the bottom rung.
       We particularly enjoyed spending Easter with them, and watching the kids actively participate in the Saturday Easter Egg hunt at church and then going to services with them on Sunday morning.  Jenny's ears, incidently, are not really her's--they are a bi-product of helping at the "Hunt"!

Waldport to West Linn, OR

     What a difference a day makes!  Overnight and into the morning, we had one of the fiercest gale storms we had encountered hit the campground!  In the 15" or so it took Jim to break down our equipment outside and walk the dogs, he got drenched through to the skin.  The winds were so bad that we decided not to drive our original route over to West Linn, which would have taken us back across the Alsea bridge, and instead drive north.  We were glad we did, as the route was relatively protected and the weather remained miserable until after we had turned east on route 18 north of Newport.

      We decided to take advantage of the change and stop and visit the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville.  When we arrived there, the dogs hadn't been out of the RV for a couple of hours, and Jim took them for a walk among some of the Korean War aircraft and some Russian tanks.  All of a sudden, the dogs took off at full tilt racing to the parking lot, and there was another couple walking their Newfoundland, Griffey!  Griffey had never met a dog bigger than him before (he's two), and was a bit intimidated by Dudley!  Fortunately, the three dogs got along!
      The Evergreen Air Museum is where Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose" permanently resides. It was acquired by Del Smith of Evergreen Aviation back in the 1990's, and his son Mike was to have eventually taken over the company and was the co-founder of this Museum.  Jim had been there back in 1993 when he was with AMR Services, and Evergreen was looking to sell their ground handling business. He had gotten a tour of the Spruce Goose before it was reassembled, and then was flown to Marana AZ where Evergreen had a facility and kept most of their vintage warbird collection.  He had the opportunity to fly as a passenger in the P-51 Mustang pictured here with Mike, who died in a car crash in 1995.

      We really enjoyed seeing the Spruce Goose, which is still the largest seaplane ever made and one of the largest aircraft ever.  It dwarfs everything around it, such as Becky and the F4J Fury aircraft pictured here.  One can only walk in the forward fuselage door, however, without getting assessed an additional $25/person to see the cockpit.  We chose not to!  The interior is nevertheless impressive, which you can see from the entrance "hallway" to the aircraft.  All in all, it was a nice stop, and we arrived at the Palmer's home around 1:30pm.

The beautiful Pacific Coast highway

     We were up and off by 8:30am, and headed north along the spectacular coast.  Before our planned first stop at Lady Bird Johnson Grove, we saw an RV park (Stone Lagoon RV Park) with about 200 elk roaming free!  We pulled in and drove through the herd, and Dudley went bananas wanting to get out and visit!

       Continuing on to the Redwood Grove, we met a Ranger and asked about walking the dogs.  Couldn't do it there, but he suggested we drive up to the Newton Drury scenic road, which featured about a 15 mile drive through a redwood forrest and places where we could walk the dogs.  We walked a little in this grove first, and it was terrific seeing the beautiful, unspoiled forrest.  Katahdin enjoyed it, too!
     As we drove along the forrest road, Becky spotted a guy on a bicycle with a trailer broken down, and he was waving for help.  Kind of a sad down and out guy, his tire had gone completely flat and wouldn't hold air, and he had his very large cat in the trailer which he held up for us to see!  There was no way we could transport him and we had no cell phone reception, so we gave him some refreshments and called the Rangers for help when we got out of the forrest.

          It's hard to describe how gorgeous it is riding along the coast on US 101--like driving through one postcard scene after another, all the way up through northern California and into Oregon.  The dogs loved getting out in sea air, too!
       When we arrived into Oregon, we stopped at their beautiful Welcome Center right on the beach.  Though it was well supplied with brochures and information, we were disappointed in the seeming disinterest and unknowledgable person who we talked to.  It was a good place for our in-RV lunch, and the dogs loved going out into the dunes--Dudley really wanted to go on the beach, but it was not to be!

      We made the decision to push through to Waldport for the night, as it was still early in the day.  We made a quick stop at Battle Rock State Park and observed the place where the first settlers in 1850 held out on this small piece of land for two weeks besieged by the local natives until they successfully escaped (and returned permanently several months later).

     We finally made it across the spectacular Alsea Bridge over Alsea Bay to a beautiful KOA campground overlooking both it and the ocean.  Jim had a great time going up to the vantage points to take sunset photos, and two of them are posted here.

Around Eureka & Arcata

          About a week ago Becky discovered on Facebook that her good friend from Hudson, OH (and later NJ), Julie Clarke, had moved to Eureka. It was an unexpected move (new job) that happened rather quickly back in January, and they only just closed on a house and their furniture arrives next week.   Becky called her on the 29th on her old Vonage number, it worked, and they agreed to meet today.  They took off at 9:30, and had a great time catching up, seeing the new house, and driving around the area.

     Jim found that he could attend a Rotary make-up meeting at the Arcata, CA club at 12:15, which he did.  On the way, though, he took the dogs to Clam Beach, a beautiful beach that is about 400 yards wide, and dogs are allowed to run free.  They had a fabulous time, so after lunch at Rotary he took them back and they had an equally good time again frolicking in the sand and racing around like there was no tomorrow!  They met a few other dogs, people, and had a great time.

     In the "small world" category, when Jim and the dogs returned to the RV the first time he found a guy in a wheelchair and his wife looking at our map on the side of the RV.  He greeted Jim with "Semper Fi", having seen the USMC sticker on the back of the RV.  As the conversation went, it seems his time in the Corps and Jim's coincided almost exactly, though he was an A-6 Intruder mechanic and spent his Vietnam time in Chu Lai.  The "small world" part comes from where he was born and grew up--Jersey City.  And he was born in the same hospital as Jim's sister Jane and twin brothers.

     We both got back to the RV park around 2:30, talked with Julie for awhile and then spent the rest of the day "catching up" on things.

Redding and the drive through the mountains

     Redding is a beautiful city!  It's clean, green, and very people friendly.  It also has two major attractions that caught our attention, and a visit from us!

     The first is the "Field of Dreams".  The city has a sports complex with 3 baseball fields.  Because of  the weather in Northern California, they are used year round.  What is unique is that they are three quarter-sized replicas of major league ballparks:  Wrigley Field, dastardly Yankee Stadium, and the center of the Red Sox Nation universe, Fenway Park.  Becky took a whole bunch of movies there, and Jim did the still photography.

       After we finished there, we drove to the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay.  There is a beautiful park there, and the modernistic footbridge is clearly used by thousands of folks for strolling, walking, jogging and biking.  We walked the dogs there, and they had a great time socializing!

      The drive from Redding to Eureka was really interesting.  It took nearly 4 hours to drive about 130 miles.  Why?  Because we went up and down over several mountains, usually starting from 1000' and reaching peaks of about 2300, 2600, and 3400.  In each case, we transited scores of "S" curves, went through two snow storms (one practically a blizzard), and on and off rain the whole voyage.  We'd go for miles without seeing a single building, and went through several towns with populations between 100-200 souls.  Most of these consisted of worn out trailers or RV's in poor shape; we presume most of the folks living in these towns were workers in the parks and forests that we went through. 

     The views were spectacular!  Trees, mountains, valleys, you name it, it was there.  From the vantage point where this picture is taken, we could see a large bridge far below and wondered where it went.  We found out about 15 minutes later after our downward journey when we crossed it!