Lookin for Sun on Hwy 101

We drove south on US Highway 101 today, and for the first 60 miles, we were socked in with cold, damp, sea fog.  Yuck!  As our drive continued, we eventually broke into warm sunshine.  It was a pleasant change from the dark and foggy woods. 

By lunch we were well into the blonde rolling hills of interior California, bright and warm.  For our late lunch we pulled off on a side road and picnicked in our little trailer alongside acres of merlot grapes.  It was nice. 

We got to our reserved park, just outside Pt. Reyes National Seashore.  The park was recommended by our community friends, Phyllis and Ron T.  It seems to be a good tip.  We are recouping from our drive now, with some adult beverages.  Tomorrow, we will track down a few local wineries and visit the National Seashore.

Here are a few shots from our lunch site.

In case you are looking for a good deal on a used travel trailer, we saw this on the side of the road today.  The sign says..."Free to good hippy".  Ah, California.  :-)

At Olema Campground

Surf and Turf

Ran errands today, and visited more groves of giant coastal redwoods, as well as a couple of other sections of shoreline.  Heading further south tomorrow.  Here are a few scenes from our travels today.

Visiting the very old

Today Kathy and I visited a real seniors' community.  We were hardly even infants compared to the residents there.  I felt small and young. 

Walking through groves of coastal redwoods, some of which towered over 350 ft into the fog, absolutely made you feel small.  With some of their ages topping the two thousand year mark, pretty much everything else around was young. 

Redwood National Park is partly these old giants, but also quite a long and beautiful stretch of Pacific coastline.  Both terrains were great, and we spent most of the day going in and out of each.  Here are a few pics from the adventure...

The Klamath River

We are staying at a park on the beautiful Klamath River for the next 3 nights.  The park is just a couple miles from where the river empties into the sea. 

For 263 miles the Klamath flows southwest through Oregon and Northern California.  After setting up camp today, Kathy and I explored the river's mouth, and some of the rocky coastline.  It turned out to be the second cloudy day of our trip, but the lower temps were welcome.  Here are a few pictures.

View of the Klamath from our camp

The mouth of the Klamath

Rocky Pacific coast 

Oh the blue

It has been 39 years since Kathy and I visited Crater Lake.  I was just out of the Navy and we were moving from California, back East via a cross country road trip.  I remember the lake being unbelievable.  Today... it is still unbelievable. 

7,700 years ago, the top of Mt. Mazama collapsed down into a huge underground cavern of lava.  It swallowed up the entire top of the mountain.  The eruption that spurred this collapse was 100 times that of the Mt. St. Helen eruption of 1980.  This left a massive cauldron that over the years filled with rain and snow melt.  The result is the present day Crater Lake.  It is the deepest lake in the US, and it has the purest water of any lake in the world.  In case you are wondering, the depth drops to 1,940 ft.  The water is so pure because there are no rivers feeding the lake.  It is all rain and snow melt.  

We drove the 33 mile rim road, stopping at many of the dozens of overlooks, always being stunned.

It was difficult to choose, from the 80 or so photos I took today, the photos to drop into the blog.  Anyway, here are a few.

Traveling to Crater Lake

Today we traveled south from the Sisters/Bend area to just south of Crater Lake National Park.  Our RV park here is small, quiet, and peacful.  A huge surprise as we were checking in, someone tapped me on the shoulder.  It was Carol and Steve O that we know from our community back in Tucson. What a nice surprise.  They are staying in their RV just a couple miles down the road with two more folks, Linda and John M, also from our community.  What a small world.  We are looking forward to visiting with the four of them later this evening at their place. 

The park here is on a small, spring fed creek, and they offer free use of canoes to those staying here.  Kathy and I have already tried this out briefly, enough so to know we have a lot to learn about canoes.  It was fun though.  This place also has a pickleball court, so we intend to try to get a game going this afternoon with others here in the park.  Tomorrow we plan to spend the day around Crater Lake, day hiking, exploring, and picnicing.

Here are a couple pictures of our camp.

Patchworks of Creativity

On a Saturday in July, 38 years ago, Jean Wells Keenan hung a dozen of her students' quilts outside her quilt shop, The Stitchin' Post.  This seemingly small gesture quickly grew into an annual event in Sisters, Oregon, now the nation's largest outdoor quilt show.  Kathy and I just happened to be here for this annual event, which took place today.  More than 1300 quilts, ranging from hand-quilted heirlooms to contemporary art quilts lined the buildings, fences and railings.  The quilts were made by quilters from all over the country, and even  outside the country. There were thousands of people there for the show.  I have never seen anything like it.

I had fully intended to follow Kathy around for a bit, then dodge off for some geocaching, only to pick her up later in the day.  No way.  This was amazing. We strolled the streets of Sisters together for over four hours, and still didn't see everything.  It was like a town art festival, really.  These quilts have so much creativity, thought, and effort in the design and construction, I just walked around with my mouth open.  It was very cool.  Some pictures follow.

After the show, we went back to regain our composure at the camper, then, later in the day, we drove south a few miles to Bend, Oregon, where we had the pleasure of having a great dinner out with our friends Jeanne and Roger H.  They showed us a little of the downtown area, and then we ate at the Deschutes Brewery, the makers of Mirror Pond IPA and other Mirror beers.  (This is a make of beer we often buy back home in Arizona).  Roger led us down to show us the actual "Mirror Pond" that the beer is named for.  It is a dammed section of the Deschutes river, now a popular swimming and rafting area in Bend.  It was a fun time, and great to see our friends.  We look forward to their annual return to our community in Tucson later in the year.

A quiet day

I understand that King George III wrote in his personal diary one day, "Nothing of importance happened today", or words to that effect.  The date was July 4, 1776. (you can tell he forgot to read the headlines on the web version of the Wall Street Journal that day)  Actually, we Americans love this story, but the truth is that old George could never have known what happened across the ocean on the same day.  Times were different.

This morning,  we sadly left our friends in Eugene, and traveled to our next RV park just south of Sisters, OR.  We restocked, set up camp, did laundry, and rested a bit.  Nothing of importance happened today...  to quote the phrase.  This statement, of course, only applies to us, and we were happy about the situation actually, and enjoyed the rest.  Tomorrow will be a different story.

A Day of Touring

Our Eugene friends, Jim and Darlene K toured us around the Willamette Valley of central Oregon today, and we visited several beautiful and interesting spots.

Our first stop was the very beautiful Silver Falls State Park, located east of Salem.  This park has a number of spectacular waterfalls and nice trails.  We hiked to a couple of the many falls, and were all spellbound at their splendor and setting.  After our hike, we had a delightful picnic lunch in the shade of fir trees right near the park's lodge.

Our next stop was the little town of Albany, where we visited the efforts of the community to create a carousel, (if you can believe that), in the historic style for their town.  Beginning in 2003, community members, led by artists and craftsmen, began carving and painting the 52 animals and 2 chariots needed for the carousel.  In addition, they are working to restore a 1909 Dentzel carousel mechanism that will hold the newly carved figures.  It is a labor of love for the many volunteers working on the effort.  Each animal can take as much as 2,000 hours to carve, with another 400 hours to paint.  You have to see the pictures below to get an idea of what is going on there.  The whole scene was amazing.  What a great project.  :-)  They hope to have it up and running in another 5 years.

On the way back to our friend's home, we drove through the town of Corvallis, and some beautiful farmland.  After a short rest, we had a nice dinner out at a restaurant in Eugene, housed in a grouping of old train cars.  The day was lots of fun.  Here are some pictures.

Tomorrow we are on the road again, heading toward Sisters, Oregon, but we will long remember our visit with our friends in Eugene.  It could not have been nicer stay.  We look forward to their winter return to our community in Tucson.