Great Day In Bend. Or

Wednesday.
Well this has been the end of another lovely day in Bend, which highlighted why we came to see America and why we enjoy what we do.
Nothing dramatic, just lovely sunny weather, which we were able to enjoy. Had a run along the riverside this morning, Sally was well enough for us to go buy some stuff and drop into Macy's for her to buy sexy, 'spangly jeans'. Had a ride out with friends Roy and Anne to Pilot View Butte, and what a view. 360 deg. for miles, but more tomorrow as the viewing was restricted by haze, tomorrow we will attempt to go up there really early. Saw some nice wild life - birds, butterflies, chipmunks and a cat (well it wasn't really wild, but it did come out of the woods as though it was a bobcat).
This evening we all had a really nice meal together, sat at the picnic table. Simple salads, fried
jumbo shrimp. Warm air and a cold beer. Relaxing conversation and real people, no posh standards to keep (can't do that anyway). Thanks for today.

Bobcat?

Bend, Oregon

Sunday
We left collier SP to drive north to Bend, which is just to the East of the Cascade Mountains. We planned to camp at Tamula State Park, which is close to the centre of Bend. Roy intended to get some work done on his pickup, so we wanted to stay for a few days. After some negotiation with the very nice ranger we were able to book to stay until Friday.
Monday
By now the weather was improving, but all the activity of the last few days has taken its toll on Sally, who has crashed for a couple of days to try and recover.
Tuesday
The weather is now warm and sunny. Sally is still resting so I took Roy and Anne and we attempted to drive up one of the local volcano features - Mount Pauline, which has two lakes at the top. However 6 miles from the summit the road is closed for the winter - we think it opens on Thursday. So we had to turn round and come back down, however the day was not wasted as we found a lovely mountain stream where we had our picnic lunch and took a walk in the sunshine. we saw some pretty birds, one of which is a nuthatch. my photos were poor as focusing is difficult when the birds are in trees and the auto focus chooses the closest object (usually a twig) to focus on, still the pics give the general idea.

Bend is surrounded by evidence of vulcanicity and many volcanoes can be seen around the place. To the West is the skyline of the Cascade mountains, with its volcanic peaks: Bachelor, Sisters, Washington, Three Finger Jack, Jefferson and away to the north Mighty Mount Hood, beyond that I can just make out Mt Adams. They are all snow covered and look very impressive. Above the campground is a bend in the road which gives a good view of these mountains. I have been able to to get some pics during the day and this evening took some sunset photos.

Sights around Collier Memorial State Park

Collier is a very pretty park with a lot of wild life there, we see lots of chipmunks and some stellar jays, as well as lots of water birds As well as a going for a jog I took a walk along the river, where I found the waterside nest of the Stellar Jays and evidence of beavers at work. I also found some bright yellow lichen, which I found interesting.

Into Oregon and Crater Lake revisited

Thursday.After a quiet night at Etna we mounted up and have arrived at Collier Memorial SP. This is a SP we have stayed in before  (Oct 2011) and is very pretty. We are still with Roy and Anne. To get there we had to pass the amazing Mount Shasta. We entered Oregon on route 97 through a town called Dorris - what a great name, I could write a book called 'A Town Like Dorris'

We are located only about 30 miles from Crater Lake, which we also visited last time we were here.
We had changed our planned route because of the wet weather on the coast, now we were worried about being in the cold and snow. Night time temperatures were getting down to 22 deg.
Crater Lake is 3000 ft higher and most of it is closed until June! However one road is kept open, so we decided that on Saturday if the weather was good enough we would all drive up and have a look.
Saturday dawned bright and crisp, so we all bundled into the the Chevy and drove up to Crater Lake. No jawdropping view as we drove into the Rim Are - there was too much snow. This time we had to park and climb through the snow to get to the view. This was a very different view to the last time as it was now covered in deep snow, though the lake was not frozen. It looked just as beautiful. We had a good play in the snow, then a cup of hot soup in the cafe, then drove back down to Collier SP. A gret day out.

To Etna

Wednesday:
We have successfully arrived in Etna, a V.Sm town tucked into Northern California. A 'straight forward' drive from Lewiston, apart from the 4000 foot climb over Scott Mountain! We drove 60 miles up the road before reaching this wild mountain pass, which mentioned at the base of it that it was not accessible for vehicles with trailers! Choice 6 miles of mountain pass, or 120 miles of backtracking and rerouting? No choice really - onward and upward

Thanks for the advice.

Photo's cannot describe these mountain roads 

Which come courtesy of Street View

But I will say it was one of the hairier rides over the mountains

Tuesday: Wiggle with the Weather

When Roy and Anne arrived they brought with them news of a change in the weather. So far we have been in the Great Central Valley, which is basically a desert. Rain arrives usually in sprinkles. Cold is when you need to put long trousers on, in fact one never bothered listening to weather forecasts unless exceptional weather was expected. Now we have driven up to the Weaverville Area, into the Northern section of the Coastal Range of mountains and are remembering that there is something called WEATHER. That weather may well affect our plans to explore the North West. We had sort of taken that into account by leaving this trip so late in the Spring, however Roy and Anne now brought the news that North of us there was weather coming along! For the next week it would be wet  and cold. If bad weather does come along then it will influence decisions about destinations. The closer one is to the coast the wetter it is, but also warmer. Rain falls by inches, but rarely gets below freezing. Inland the mountain range is called the Cascade Mountains. The further East you travel the drier it gets,. But also it also colder, because you are higher, travel is often restricted by road closure due to snow, even in May or June. By the time you are 150 miles inland and over the Cascade Range you are back into High Desert.
Our plan had been to travel the coast for a while then traverse the mountains and explore the Cascades from the High Desert side of the Mountains. However, rainfall predictions suggested that the coast would be very wet and cold. We may also find that snow would prevent us moving across Oregon. So we decided on a game change. We will now move immediately East, round the bottom of the Cascade Mountains, near Mount Shasta,staying in California. Then move North up Route 97 staying to the East of The Cascades until we hit the Columbia River, then move back West to the coast and up into Washington. So tomorrow we drive, with Anne and Roy, about 80 miles North through the mountains to Etna.

View Oregon Plan A in a larger map

Great Night Out

Roy and Anne duly turned up on Tuesday afternoon, so we made a day of it by going to the neighbouring town of Weaverville for a meal. We ate at La Grange. We chose it because we could see other people eating there as well. It proved to be a good choice as the meal was excellent and it had a very Small Town America feel about it. Sally had Fillet Steak, I had a venison and a wild pork sausage. I even had a dessert - Creme Brulee no less. We spent a fair amount of time talking as well, before driving back to the trailers. Great evening.

Lewiston, Ca

Today we are starting our North West Pacific Coast Adventure, as we will be moving West out of the Central Valley into the Pacific Coat Mountain Range, territory we have not been to before. Driving north to Redding we then turned West for  the short (30 mile) drive up into the mountains to Lewiston, where the mountain valley widens to enable a town to be built alongside Trinity Lake.

We are camped at the Old Lewiston Bridge Campground, where we will await the arrival today our friends Anne and Roy, who we first met in the Painted Desert, AZ, in May 2011, when we camped next to them. We were going West, they were going East, so we parted the next day. They come from York, about 50 miles from our home, and apart from one lunch together in Thirsk, we have not met since, although we have kept in touch via Facebook and Blogs. As they say over here, we hope to have a Large Old Time.

Red Bluff Round Up

‘Early’ Saturday morning, with sad, but grateful hearts for them storing our rig for 10 months, we said our farewells to Ed and Cindy,  packed up and moved on to Red Bluff. We pulled onto the Sycamore Grove USDA campground, which is a very pretty little campground just to the south of Red Bluff. We were here because it is ‘Round Up Week’ and we wanted to catch another rodeo. We had been to one in Lake City Florida in 2009 with our friends Jim and Kath Mobley, but here was a good opportunity to see another one. We decided that we would rest up Saturday and get into it for the final day. We started by going to the Cowboy Church, held in the rodeo grandstand, as it was Easter Sunday. This was very interesting as a large number of the rodeo riders came along and many gave a testimony. We had not expected such enthusiastic support from the rough and hard world of rodeo. We returned to the fairground in the afternoon and took our seats, right at the front,  for the main event and from start to finish it was a high energy afternoon. We started with a parachute drop into the arena, carrying a giant US flag.

We were immersed in the sight, sound, smell (and feel of the dirt clods kicked up by the wild horses) of the rodeo events, wild horses, wild bull riding, bringing down bulls and roping bulls. At the same time horse races were happening, so you didn’t know where to look, all accompanied by various sound bite music anthems, like Queen, the Lone Ranger, etc. As soon as there was a break in the action girls would gallop round the arena waving big flags. For a break from the action we were given a demonstration of wagon pulling by the Budweiser Clydesdale heavy horses and wagon, which was very impressive. After sitting in the sunshine for three hours we returned to the trailer, via Applebees, quite exhausted by the event. This was a fun afternoon, well worth the visit.

Magalia Reprise

Yesterday, Friday, we drove up into the foothills of the Sierras and visited with our old friends Steve and Mary. We first met them at a CBA Fall Camp Out at Calusa in 2011, when Steve kindly gave Sally some Intro Tuition for the Dobro and Mary showed us some of her quilts. We met them at a restaurant called The Depot, which is the old railroad station in Megalia. We had an excellent lunch (steak sandwich and burger for Sally) and talked and talked and talked, then we went on up to their lovely house and having admired their new garden, all laid out with a variety of pebbles, which do not need mowing, we st and  talked some more. I don't know where the time went, but after a very pleasant day we drove back to our trailer.
We are now ready to move on, today we are travelling a good twenty miles up the road to Red Bluff to see what there is to see at the Annual Red Bluff Round Up Week, mostly cowboy and rodeo stuff.
We are going to camp on Sycamore Grove Forest Service Campground, which is just off I5 and very convenient for Red Bluff. We are also hoping to to get to the Cowboy Church for Easter Sunday, which may be interesting.

Corning is a Central Valley Community

We have been happily camped in Ed and Cindy's yard for a couple of days now and are starting to get the feel of this small community. On Wednesday we returned the rental car to the'big town' of Chico. While we have been here I have been for a couple of runs, only to find that the driver of every car that passes gives me a wave, as do the people working in the fields.
Corning is Olive City, according to the display board at the town limits, so yesterday we stopped by Luceros, one of the olive farms, to taste their olive oil.  According to their bill boards they had just won the gold award for California olive oil. It was interesting and we found that the different types of olive oil do taste differently. We were looking for an oil to use in a salad dressing, we found one with a reasonably strong flavour that we hope will taste good in our salad. The proof will be be when we try it.
Last night Ed put on a concert in the Corning Vets. Memorial Hall. It was great fun, there were three local bands all very different and we we had a very pleasant evening listening to them. We enjoyed the Skillman Family as the three girls had a lovely close harmony sound. Ed has a great voice and sings some good country songs and the headliners, Rock Slide, were all round good musicians, with a lead singer who is very reminiscent of Rhonda Vincent. We also got to eat Ham and mash and salad. So a good night.
The weather here is generally sunny and warm, though one feature is the strong winds that blow at times. last night the trailer was a rockin' and a rollin' and even now at 8.30 in the morning the wind is blowing hard. There is a blue jay trying to balance on a fence post outside the window, but keeps being blown off!

Reunited with our Trailer

Once again it was time for sad goodbyes as after five days of great fellowship we bid farewell to Debra and Rich. We drove North to Corning, not knowing the condition our truck and trailer would be in. When we arrived we were very relieved to find tht first of all everything looked fine. Then as we opened up the trailer and truck everything still looked good, no infestations, no wet patches. Then I disconnected the small solar panel from the truck battery, reconnected the battery leads and ..... first turn on the ignition key, vrooom! Started first time, great feeling. In fact when we looked around everything was in excellent order, there was even hardly any dust in the trailer. It was so good that we were able to make up the bed and sleep in the trailer, rather than going to a motel as planned. It was such a great feeling to be back in our own little home on wheels. The weather here is now comfortably warm and dry. We have busied ourselves (not too much) in sorting bits and clothes.
Back last May we sorted our clothes and gave two black bin liners full of clothes that were too big for us to Cindy for the Salvation Army. Well  guess what, we sorted our clothes again and filled another two black bin liners with clothes that were too big for us! Dieting can be an expensive business as we have now replaced our wardrobe.
Ed and Cindy have been very helpful and we are really pleased that all has been well while we have been away.

Church and a Diner

Palm Sunday. Today is Palm Sunday and we had been invited by Debra, Rich and Kyle to go with them to their church - Redwood Church for the morning service. Well we had a lovely time,simple worship and good teaching. We then spent most of the rest of the day relaxing, Rich and I even managed to pick some bluegrass on the front porch. Kyle's mum came and collected him and we went out for supper. Before coming to the States we had watched some of the Diners Drive ins and Dives programmes and were kken to try out some of the places mentioned, so to night we ventured into the one of the less popular areas of Oakland to a diner called 'Rudi's Can't Fail Cafe' where we had a very agreeable meal, which everyone said was top class. Me a chilli burger (as cooked on the programme), Sally a bunless burger with bacon and salad, Debra a burger and Rich a BLAT, which is a bacon lettuce and Tomato with avocado on it. After we had eaten Debra and Rich drove us across the new Oakland Bay Bridge and on to Treasure Island, we returned home via the Lake in the centre of Oakland. a great night out.

Rich Feels Unwell.

Rich and Debra went off early to weigh in for  weightwatchers, they have done so well, each having lost more that forty pounds in the last year. Then we rolled up our sleeves and went to work on breakfast. We met them at Country Waffles in Dublin. Sally managed a fried breakfast while I had a short stack of pancakes with strawberries, whipped cream, butter, maple syrup and bacon. Because it is a well know waffle house I figured I had better try the waffles, so I had a half waffle as well.
That kind of finished me for the morning. Rich and Debra were expecting their Grandson, Kyle, for the weekend, so we all had a bit of a play with him and then went for a walk to the local parkm down on the Bay shore. This park has a jogging path, complete with a trim track. It was a very pleasant walk. Saw a family flying one of the kites I had seen in the chinese kite shop the day before, looked very nice. On returning home rich began to feel unwell and disappeared off to bed. Amid our sympathy was the always present, but unspoken, thought. Is it something he ate or a bug.? If it's something he ate, did I eat it too? If it's something he caught, did I catch it too? Is he just the vanguard for sentry duty in the bathroom? Well after sleeping for half a day Rich seems to be improving, thank goodness and no one else is feeling bad, so tomorrow may be a better day. Palm Sunday!
We had planned to eat out at one of the diners shown on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, but with Rich feeling unwell we stayed home and ordered in a pizza, which was great fun alongside the ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Sally is working hard on recovering from our flight and managed a bit of a sing with me this evening, which was wonderful.

My day out in San Francisco

Today would be our only chance to return to San Francisco to see the sights, however Sally was feeling very tired, so I decided to go alone. I would take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to the Embarcadaro station (centre of SF) and walk to the places I wanted to see.
The BART whisked me into the city in about 15 minutes, which was very good. The main event was to be a visit to Coit Tower, a famous tower in SF, made even more famous as in the film Dirty Harry, as the location where the Baddy meets his end. So my route was Embarcadaro, up Market to Union Sq, where I joined the pavement culture and had a cup of coffee and a Danish in the square, well half a danish, as the birds descended and had a go at it while I went for a coffee refi[ll. From there along Stockton, through Chinatown. then down Filbert, up Telegraph Hill to the tower, only to find that the Tower was closed for renovation until Spring 2014, and that was not yet apparently. However there were excellent views of the city from the park around the Tower. From there I walked down to the Fisherman's Wharfe and walked along the piers, eventually ending up at a clam chowder bar, where I had a calm chowder in a sourdough loaf. very nice. I continued along the waterfront to Hyde, to ave my cable car ride, only to find long lines of people also waiting to have a cable car ride. So I continued walking, thinking it time for a comfort break I stopped in to a mall type area only to find that it was an outlet shop for Chirardelli, so after a few milliseconds of inner debate I enjoyed a lovely chocolate ice cream Sundae. Still not wanting to wait for an hour for the cable car I walked back towards the BART. going from Hyde to Taylor, then walking along Columbus, then along Grant, back through Chinatown, where I bought Sally a pretty fan. On reaching California I should have turned left back to Embarcadaro, but instead turned right and walked up to the top of Nob Hill to catch the Trolley back down. This is because the trolley cost $6 no matter hoe far you ride it,so walking back up the route meant that I got mor for my money. Finally reaching the BART I joined the throng of rush hour commuters and made my way back to San Leandro. A very enjoyable day out. Walked a total of 6.3 miles.


View Walking tour of San Francisco in a larger mapll>

News in the Mail

Well today was a first. All our mail has been forwarded to us - by all I mean all the mail we have had in the last year, which is not a lot, since we have to pay a mail forwarding company by the letter. So it included our car tax, insurannce and road recovery docs, two $10 gift vouchers for Rolling Hills Casino - Oh and a traffic violation notice from Tucson, dated 23rd March 2013 - OOPsbig time! After the first shock of getting the letter it became apparent that I had not stopped at a red light, actually it was when I had turned right at a red light. I don't remember doing it, so cannot deny it. It just seems strange to have got the letter over a year ago and not follow up, threatening me with jail for ignoring it. The letter was actually asking for the owner of the vehicle to own up to who was driving at the time, as it was based on photo and video evidence. It tells me in the letter that I do not have to tell them who it is (fifth amendment I suppose), but being honest I guess I will write back and tell them it was being driven by a visitor from abroad, with an English driving licence and an English address, then see if they follow up with a citation (and an extradition order).

San Francisco

Although not actually in San Francisco it seems a good generic place name to use. We arrived yesterday at SFO airport after a very smooth flight, . It  was very nice to emerge into the warm spring air, even though we were held up for an hour at immigration. We picked up our rental car and found ourselves upgraded from a compact car to a minivan (MPV), very nice, but will eat the juice.
We arrived at our good friends Rich and Debra to a great welcome. Then a  good nights sleep was appreciated.
Today we relaxed and did a bit of organizing. I have pressed my old Samsung into service and subscribed to Lycamobil ove here. I was hoping that it would provide us with mobile broadband , but no. So I set that up with another company, Millenicom.
This afternoon Sally and I ventured out into the warm sun to look in Walmart for clothes, which we found. After a lovely beef brisket meal we sat and watched 'The Princess Bride', which is apparently very popular in The USA, but unheard of in UK.

It's the last night at home, and we are as ready as we can be. Luggage packed with just the last few things to go in in the morning and an early night on the cards as we leave the house at 4.30 am to go to our local airport to fly to Amsterdam, then on to San Francisco -14 hours flying time.

It's about this time, we wonder what we have forgotten to do. The check list seems to get bigger each trip.

We went and had a meal with our daughter, Helen, Stu and baby Joshua tonight to say goodbye. We really miss all of our family while we are away, but you can't have things both ways.

We are going to stay a few days in San Leandro, with our friends Deb and Rich who are so good to open their house to us. We will have a few days to recover from jet lag, before we head north to pick up our rig, which has very kindly been stored for us by some lovely friends, Ed and Cindy for the last 10 months - very generous of them. We hope we find the rig in good shape - you never know what's crawled in and made itself at home. Fingers crossed all will be well. Cindy has said it's very dusty on the outside, which is to be expected. Terry will have to get it all washed and cleaned  before we set off on our wanders.

So, off we go again. California here we come.

Looking Forward

Sally and I are now eagerly anticipating our next expedition in the USA. It really does have the feel of exploration about it. We are going to the Great North West Pacific Region, which is still the wildest part of the USA. We know very little about it, apart from it seems to be very, very, big. So we are not even sure how far we will get in our 90 days away.
We are taking a new route across the Atlantic. We are flying KLM. This means that next Wednesday morning we will get a taxi to our small local airport and fly in a small aircraft direct to Amsterdam and then get straight on to a jumbo jet to fly on to San Francisco.
The upside to this is that I will not have to trundle our baggage around the place, once it is handed in at our local airport. It is also only 14 hours from start to finish.
The bad news is that the local flight is at 6.10 in the morning - so that means we get up at about 3.30 a.m.!!! I don't know how well I will cope with Sally coping with that.
So far everything is going smoothly, so we hope it stays that way.