HOME SWEET HOME...3 MONTHS LATER...

We're home!!!!!!! Yup, we chugged in yesterday about noonish. We were ready to be home. Once we turned east and set our target destination as "HOME", we just wanted to get here. There was not much to be seen in the MN, WI, and IL. We stopped to see friends, but other than that, we had traveled and been tourists in these states before. So, 14, 758 miles later,
we do believe we have seen a lot, but not ALL of Alaska. Going back is a definite wish for me.
We talked about what we thought was the biggest animal that we saw. It was a toss up between the bison and the moose. We figured the bison probably weighed more than the moose.This little critter decided to land on our windshield and was holding on for dear life...so I think he qualifies as the "smallest" critter that we saw. (not counting the mosquitos....didn't take pictures of them, just squashed them.

Our statistics on the rain we experienced: 15 days in June; 18 days in July; 7 in Aug.; Total: 40 days. That's 1/3 of our trip it rained; but if we only count June & July, it rained half of the time!

We had scarey moments, like when a cow moose charged across the road merely feet in front of our truck. We read books in the evenings: Chris is on his second book (but it's a huge book) and I'm on my fifth. The inverter in our camper was not working so we had no lights. No problem in Alaska with 24 hours day light, but once we were back in the lower 48, we used crank flashlights.

We don't miss the "pay as you go" showers or roughing it with NO showers. A flat tire, broken windshield and over-heating going over Wild Bird Pass in Idaho (which was 106 degrees!) were some blips on the radar.

We are very glad to be home and we hope you all enjoyed following us along our epic journey of a lifetime.

CHEESE COUNTRY...YIPEE!

This morning, Chris & I bid farewell after a tasty breakfast, to our friends, Ron & Rosanne in St. Joseph, MN. The evening spent with them was loads of fun. Ron cooked up some killer hallibut from Alaska; Rosanne put wonderful fixin's with the hallibut topped off with home made apple pie. Yummy. It had been funny how we had met these folks in Alaska; it seemed as if our sightseeing spots paralleled each others in an uncanny way.
Then we headed out for Green Bay to visit a friend of mine from college over 40 years ago.
We had a fun evening of dinner and remeniscing with Dianna. Our lives sure have gone in different paths....does she look like a karate black belt????

Tomorrow we hope to do some touring of the cheese areas of Wisconsin. Home is beconning to us. Until we "connect" again...

TODAY IS TUESDAY, SO IT MUST BE MINNESOTA

This is not the best picture of one of Minnesota's lakes, but it is the best one that I have right now. They do have a lot of lakes...
It’s getting difficult to remember what day of the week it is…duh…have we been on the road too long? It’s a good thing I have a calendar on the dash in front of me. The road beckoned us at 8 o’clock this morning. Once again the clear blue sky is in front of us on I 94. We finished listening to the Lewis & Clark book. Too bad it’s done; we enjoyed it.We’re going to stop in St. Cloud, MN today to visit the folks we met in the Copper River area of AK, Ron & Rosanne.
Later: We got here early afternoon and have enjoyed the afternoon with our friends. Once again Ron showed how he is a master of deep frying hallibut (Alaskan, of course). Rosanne put the fixins together for a totally wonderful dinner topped off with home made apple pie. Yummy.
So, until we "connect" again....

August 24; What Day Is This??? It Must Be North Dakota

Since we just went to church and then traveled today, I thought I'd throw in another of the beautiful pictures from the EAST side of Glacier National Park. Isn't this just positively glorious?
Got up at 6 a.m. and went to work out in hotel exercise room. Felt really super. I miss going to exercise at the Y. After church we headed down to the Ft. Peck Dam where Dean is going hunting in a couple of weeks. It’s the second largest dam in the U.S. Huge reservoir and recreational area. Then headed East, once again, on U.S. #2. (oops…made an error in my last blog entry. We are traveling on U.S. #2 and NOT on U.S. #12. Sorry folks.) There’s blue sky for as far as we can see; rolling hills and bluffs in the distance by the Missouri River.
Entering North Dakota today. Traveling is flying by as we continue listening to our audio-book on Lewis & Clark expidetion. It’s extremely interesting. We just traveled the rest of the time. No pictures, because there was nothing to take pictures of...make sense? So, we got about 285 miles under our belt today.
Stopped at another very nice campground and we're just chillin' here.
So, until we "connect" again....

August 23;Big Sky Country

Sunday, August 17
We bid goodbye to our friends, Pat & Wayne Stutzman in Peyette, Idaho, with blue skies and 62 degrees. We went a couple miles down the road to pick up some necessities from WalMart, gas up, and go to Mass. We then headed north, through desert (92 degrees), up into the mountains & evergreen trees, following the Snake River (103 degrees), and began the loooooong climb to the White Bird Hill Summit of 4200 feet. Later learning that that climb was the second longest and highest climb in the U.S., it almost became our undoing. With the outside temperature at 104, and being ¾ of the way to the summit, our engine temperature almost went to “critical”!!! Pulling off the road, we removed the tire from the front grill guard, where it has been for the past 12,000 miles and causing no problems. But we haven’t been in this kind of heat, either! Problem easily solved. It was so hot that our shoes made footprints on the asphalt of the pull-off.
Continuing on toward Elk City, we found a beautiful camp-site beside the Red Horse Creek, dumping into the Clearwater River, across the roads. It was still warm, but lacking the humidity of Indiana, as soon as the sun went behind the trees, it cooled right down. We felt like we were really out of the way, but we were surprised with the amount of traffic that road actually had! There was intermittent but parade of pick-ups, with and without horse trailers, government vehicles, etc. In any event, the country was beautiful. Tommie and I took along walk along the river. She kept sticking her nose under every bush looking for a bunny.
Monday, August 18, 2008Awakening to 50 degrees with blue skies, we traveled the short distance to Elk City, a picturesque former gold mining, then lumbering community (also “former”) nestled in a valley between pine covered mountains.

This town is at the end of a road that is 50 mile from anywhere; one would think that it would be a ghost town. Au la contrer! It’s a hunting destination, recreational pit stop, retirement community, etc. Enjoyed breakfast in the restaurant where all locals have coffee and catch up on news, stopped in a store to shop, and took some pictures around town. Chris had been here twice before with Dean when they came out hunting. I had often heard about Elk City.After enjoying Elk City, we continued north towards Montana. At 2 p.m. it was 99 degrees! Two hours later, while crossing the historic Lolo Pass into Montana, it was 86 degrees. (The pass is historic in that, among other reasons, the Lewis & Clark Expedition passed this way.)

Arriving in Missoula, Montana, we easily found Chris’ cousin, Steve VanderHorst. It was again stiflingly hot (97) and we enjoyed an enjoyable evening of reminiscing and laughs. I had not seen Steve since we left Colorado in 1978, so we had lots of years to cover. He really impressed me for as busy and creative that he is, even though he has huge health issues. A good time was had by all. About noon we headed north to drive through the National Bison Refuge. There were several fires in the forests surrounding Missoula, so the air was quite smoky. While we were driving through the refuge it rained hard, and that cleared the skies and we could see the mountains again. On the drive through the refuge we saw a few bison, many mule deer and antelope.

When we left the Bison Preserve we saw these cows. Had never seen them before. Found out that they were Beulingo c ows. Took this picture for David. they were developed in the U. of S.D. and are raised for beef.

After the Refuge we headed north again to the beautiful Indian Mission of St. Ignatius. The beautiful and inspiring church was built in 1891.Continuing on to Kalispell to see Chris’ brother Mike’s daughter, Cassandra. We had a delightful visit and dinner with Cassy, her husband, Bob, his parents and their two boys. The visit was too brief because we needed to forge ahead for a campground before dark. We found a beautiful place, in Columbia Falls, about 20 miles from the Park. Good night.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Surprise, surprise…we heard raindrops on the camper as we were getting ready. Haven’t heard that sound since July 31st in Hyder, Alaska. But…just like Boy Scouts, “be prepared”…and we are. Hauled out the rain suits and water-proof hiking boots…again. It was 55 degrees when we started; a welcome change from the 99 degrees in Missoula.
We made a quick stop for Espresso and then on to the Glacier National Park. Receiving a call from Cassy, we both remembered that we had not taken family pictures. As they were coming to the Park today, we met at the Visitor Center for pictures and another good-bye. Chris & I continued on along the “Going To The Sun Road” and saw a beautiful falls and took some pictures. Arriving at the “Avalanche Campground” we set up camp and plan on using this as base-camp until Saturday when we continue on over the highest point (9,642 feet). We’re going to wait out the rain for the next couple of days because we want to really see the views of all the tall mountains. We went for a beautiful walk on the “Trail of the Cedars”; absolutely stunning creek, water fall, huge cedars that are hundreds of years old. Totally beautiful. Chris looked at one of the downed cedars and mused that it could make 30,000 cedar shafts (arrows for archery, for those of you non-archer folks).
Rained all evening. We have it figured out how to get lights (since our inverter in the camper hasn’t been working): we plug the battery charger cable of our trusty little Honda generator right onto the battery. That way we get lights without running down the battery. It wasn’t a problem when we were in Alaska, where it is daylight most of the day; but it has become a challenge since we actually get dusk and dark now.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Rained hard all night. Going to stay right where we are and take hikes in these beautiful Cedar & Hemlock woods. It will stop eventually or we may need to begin building an arc!
We took another nice walk on the Trail of the Cedars, only from the other direction…new look to everything. Then we packed a little lunch and went to catch the Shuttle to Logan Pass. These shuttles were added last year in order to decrease the traffic congestion in different areas. We took the most beautiful ride…in the rain…to about 6,000 feet at Logan Pass.
There we ventured out on the hike to Hidden Lake. It was a beautiful hike…but the rain was coming in buckets. I do believe that there was some hail or snow in it. We stopped about ½ to the top because folks on the way down said we couldn’t see anything up there because it was totally socked in by the fog/rain. Today we probably hiked about 3 miles, and now we’re just trying to dry out and warm up. The picture above was taken on that trek to Hidden Lake.

Friday, August 22
Rained HARD all night. Got up about 6:30; cleaned up the camper the best we could with all the rain and things wet, and then decided we weren’t going to stay here any longer waiting for the rain to stop. Packed up and got out of Dodge!
When we got to the road we decided to make a break for it and drive to Logan Pass ourselves. It was very foggy and when we reached the top, the visibility was about 5 feet; couldn’t even see the parking lot.

We had planned on stopping to view the mountains, but we cand into the sunshine! It was breath-taking. We figured we ended up seeing the most beautiful part of the Park. Looking back on the majestic mountains we were leaving, we could see the top still socked in by a dense cloud.Picking up U.S. 12, which we plan on taking across the country to home. We were in the high prairie of Montana; lots of cattle, wheat, railroads through small towns that have sprouted with grain elevators, and blue sky with a few puffy clouds for as far as we could see.

We stopped about 1:30 in Shelby, MN at the Louis & Clark RV Park; not a tree to be seen, other than a few put in for landscaping. We camped right out in the heat of the day. It was wonderful hot sun. We needed it to dry us out! We opened up all the windows welcoming and drying breezes, laid out the rain suits and Chris’ boots across the picnic table, hung the down comforter that has kept us comfy all these weeks over a chair. (Thanks Char & Yvonne J ) It got damp on the edges next to the precipitation on our windows when we were so closed up d/t the heavy down-pours we suffered in Glacier Park.We so enjoyed relaxing and reading our books. Tommie really wanted to chase the many bunnies in the area. The RV Park owner feeds them…so they were plentiful.There was a beautiful sunset last night that brought several campers out to take pictures. Saturday, August 23, 2008 It was wonderful waking up at 7 a.m. to a blue, cloudless sky far as far as we could see. Chris put our souvenir Alaskan license plate on the back of the camper.

We headed out at 9 a.m. with 55 degrees. Following U.S. 12 the plains stretched for as far as we could see. The audio book of “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose, the story of the Lewis & Clark expedition to open the American west, we are listening to on the road. It’s enthralling and tremendously interesting. Much of the roads we’ve been taking are along the Lewis & Clark Trail. It’s fun learning history when we’re not doing it for a test on Friday.

Antelope and deer are the Montana wildlife on this road…along with grasshoppers; road traffic includes huge convoys of combines, their field offices and campers for living accommodations traveling from farm to farm harvesting the wheat.

We stopped for the evening in Glasgow, MN. It's a beautiful little grain-belt town. Love the blue sky and no rain.

Continuing on east tomorrow. So...until we "connect" again...

August 14; ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL

August 14; leaving Mike’s and heading to the mountains. Supposed to be in the 90’s today here; heading on out at grees7:30 am at 66 degrees, and blue sky. Good-bye to the Pacific and cool breezes, and hello high-country.

We drove through the stunning Columbia River Gorge, past the hydro-electric dams along the way and eventually left the lush green rain forest behind to make way for the desert, and (today) 94 degrees. Deserts have their own beauty; maybe I can say that since we lived in the high desert of western Colorado, and the sagebrush reminds me of the years there.

We won’t camp for the evening until we are further into the mountains and the temperature drops. Just while typing this it has dropped to 88 degrees as we climb. Can ya feel it getting cooler????We pulled off the road not far after Pendleton, OR, where the terrain turned once again to beautiful, lush pine forest that is right through where the Oregon Trail crossed this territory.

This campground is called Emigrant Springs because this is the exact place where the emigrants traveling over the Oregon Trail stopped to replenish their water and rest. These pine forests were so thick that they had to cut down pine trees in order to get the wagons through; the trees were so dense that it was dark in the day time. From the looks of some of these pines around our campground, we figure that some of these pines could have been here when the oxen pulled the wagons through.
Isn’t this beautiful??? We stopped, made camp, and by 2 p.m.

we were chillin’ in our reclining chairs. We haven’t had these chairs out a hand full of times because of both the rain and mosquitoes along the way in Canada & Alaska. Even Tommy got to digging a hole so that she could chill out. It’s not hot, but I suppose with her fur coat, it could be a bit uncomfortable. She had to get a wet-wipe down before bed tonight with all that dust.

We had the pleasure of grilling Chris’ salmon outside and enjoying dinner outside. Perfectly fabulous evening.

August 15, 2008

We left the beautiful Emigrant Springs State Campground and headed to the desert. Doesn’t sound like fun; but it was. It was 54 degrees when we left at 7:30, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky. Crossing the 45th parallel (which is ½ way between the equator & the North Pole) we were squarely in the land of the sagebrush and brown grasses. Our first stop of the day was at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was very interesting learning more about these 300,000 stalwart folks who braved the unknown in the mid 19th century. The most enjoyable thing was a presentation by a living historian putting on a show similar to the traveling medicine men of that era. Loads of fun, interactive, and good for many a laugh.

As we left, we observed the actual ruts that the wagons made over the desert/prairie (or whatever they call this dry stuff. There’s only about 300 miles of this trail still visible; look just like a “two track” into the bush. Early cars used them before the onset of real roads. We continued eastward to Hell’s Canyon. We wound up and down hills & mountains, all the while the temperature outside got hotter and hotter. When we finally wound ourselves around and along the Snake River, past the Oxbow Dam and further up the reservoir, the canyon got more and more rugged.

The temperature inched to 106 degrees as we reached the Hell’s Canyon Dam. We now know how this place got its name!
Traveling on, we reached Peyette, Idaho; a beautiful little area in the arid zone of Idaho. There we spent the evening with Chris’ friends, Wayne & Pat. When we set up our camper, we wondered what was all over the side of our camper, by the vicinity of the water-intake hole. It looked like we might have hit something, or something was dead there. Going inside it was easy to diagnose: (ta dah!) a previously unopened bottle of soy sauce, stored under the bed, had EXPLODED! We surmised that it was because of the 106 degrees outside…which was much higher inside the camper. It was everywhere! Could have been a worse smell, I suppose.
So, until we “connect” again…

August 13; Kalama....and beyond.

Yesterday, Chris and his brother, Mike, went out on the ocean for salmon fishing. Chris is the only one who got one....got a bunch of salmon steaks from this baby. They returned pretty tired...lots of hard work, you know. Andrea and I took the opportunity to browse the antique shops in Kalama and had a super time. We went until we found one shop served espresso also. That gave us the excuse to sit, rest the ole' feet and enjoy the surroundings. Had loads of fun.
Today we piled in the gimmy for a day trip to see Mt. St. Helens. Andrea grew up in the shadow of this majestic mountain...and it was a sad day for her when 4,000 foot of this comfortable giant that she had walked all over as a young girl blew up. It is still formidable and majestic.
We drove by many beautiful lakes on the way to Mt. St. Helens. This is Yale Lake. I won't tell you how Mike, the tour guide, drove 60 miles out of the way, missing the turn-off, looking for the over-look to see the back side of Mt. St. Helens; that's the side that blew away.

Tomorrow we leave for Payette, Idaho. Should be a beautiful trip. It's getting warm here....so, time to leave. ...and head toward the higher, cooler country.

Don't know when we'll get access to internet next, so, until we "connect" again...

August 10; The Road to Kalama, Washington

Today we went to the fish hatchery on the Kalama River, near to where Chris' brother, Mike, lives. It was most interesting. They were sorting out the steelhead trout, tagging them and taking DNA samples. The salmon were getting put through a chute back into the river to continue on upstream to spawn. This gentleman above is the fish biologist, Chris, and was most interesting when he explained what he was doing. Incidentally, this is what Chris' cousin, John Bender (whom we visited last week in Coos Bay, Oregon) used to do as a fish biologist.

Here is Mt. Hood which we viewed Sunday, on the way to Chris' brother's home. Note: the everpresent clouds (they follow us). But I'm real happy that I took this picture on the way in because it only got worse. Turns out that there were two lightening strike fires on the mountain. As we were there the smoke was working its way down the slope. There were boat-loads of snow-boarders on these slopes. They ski and snow board year round.
Chris & I were inside the beautiful Timberline Lodge that was built in 1937 by the WPA at Mt. Hood. It was totally beautiful in its rustic decor. They are renovating it, room by room, but keeping the original beauty and theme in mind.
This was the huge Bonneville Dam, located right along I 84 on the way to Portland. It was interesting watching the Salmon going up the "fish ladder" to spawn. (That was built for the salmon to get around the dam.
This was the beautiful lake we stayed at that was about 1/2 hour away from Mt. Hood. It was truly a little gem.
And then we finally got back to Mike & Andrea's home in Kalama, Washington. We dressed for theay ove weather when we left Clear Lake....chilly (about 42 degrees). By the time we got to Kalama we were way over dressed for the climate. Whew!

August 9; Catching up on the pictures

Of course, nothing here is in chronological order....so here goes....
This is one of the views toward the sea from Shore Acres. The rock formations are really unusual to my view. Just imagine, when there was a mansion here, waking up in the morning and beholding this out of your window, and hearing the crash of the waves.

This is us by the side of beautiful Crater Lake; made eons ago by the eruption of a volcano.

Yaquina-Head light house we stopped to view; it had just closed and as you can see, there was loads of mist & fog. We were told that this kind of weather occurs when there is heat in the valleys on the other side of the mountains.


This was one of the beautiful views along the Umpqua River, which we followed for a great distance on the way to Diamond Lake.


This is the Umpqua Lighthouse of which I had a tour. It is leased by the Coast Guard to the historical group. The Coast Guard would love to give or sell it to the historical society because they don’t want to take care of the light; but the historical society doesn’t want to take care of the light either, so they won’t take it. Unusual stand-off. The tour was real interesting.


I already mentioned the beautiful Shore Acres John & Dianne took us to see; manicured with many varieties of flowers & shrubs.

Wearing my hiking boots to climb to the top of this huge volcanic area in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, I look surprisingly like Daisy May.
This is John & Dianne’s home that is so close to the ocean that you can hear it. Beautiful and welcoming home.
John was giving Bart & Tommie treats. He definitely had their full attention. Bart was a nice mello pup but was one up on Tommie because he loves to play…Tommie couldn’t figure it out.
The happy tourists with John & Dianne. We were in front of the Coquille Lighthouse.
Dianne made a wonderful picnic lunch for us to enjoy after our walk through Bandon’s interesting downtown. The picnic area was by “face rock” (which actually looks like a profile of a person coming out of the water) and there were loads of birds on the rocks.

August 5, 2008 Leaving Mike & Andrea’s home and driving the Pacific Coast of Oregon

We started our southern route to Coos Bay Oregon at 9 am, with a blue, cloudless sky and 71 degrees. Andrea made a wonderful breakfast for us of bacon, eggs, and toast from her homemade bread. It was yummy. The day was so beautiful that I got the sun screen out of the cupboard so that I would have it handy when it got hot. I put on shorts because I was optimistic that it was going to be a beautiful day.
We traveled for a while along the Columbia River to the Pacific coast. It started out as a beautiful drive, but the sky was hazing up. When we got to the huge (about 5 mi. long bridge) that crosses from Washington, across the Columbia River, to Oregon (or “OreGUN” as locals pronounce it) it was so hazy and foggy, that I could only see the first little bit of the bridge…the bridge that traveled into the clouds, like in Lornadoon.
We continued on down the coast and stopped at two lighthouses to take pictures. One we couldn’t even get close to because of the traffic and the parking lot was full. There were lots of people out and traveling the coast on holiday; the little towns were full of folks browsing the shops.
When we finally decided to stop for the evening, it was quite difficult to find camping places; they were all full. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to pull off in wide spots beside the road and pop your camper like we were able to do in Canada and Alaska. Too bad. That was very nice. There are signs all over the place here: “Day use only”. We finally got a site at Seal Rocks RV Cove, right across the road from the ocean.
I walked across the road to see what I could see…everything was still overcast and misting. Chris and I are just praying that there will be a beautiful sky tomorrow, because it will be so beautiful out there, and….because we still have more road along the coast. We’re hoping and praying.

August 6; about 8:30 a.m. leaving Seal Rocks RV Cove; 58 degrees, foggy & overcast. Stopped and used the binoculars to see the seals on the rocks across the road, but it was too far for any good pictures.
We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves along the coast in Oregon. These caves are the only known wild Stellar sea lion caves along the North American mainland. (We saw some along the Lynn Canal on the way to Juneau.) A bit later on down the road we stopped at the Umpqua River lighthouse. I went on a tour and it was most interesting. Shortly after that we arrived in Bend, OR at Diane and John Bender’s beautiful home, close to the shore. You can’t see the ocean, but you can hear it! It’s that close.
After a nice lunch we went for a tour of their “little bit of heaven” including the local parks, Simpson Reef and the rocks full of sea lions and seals, and Shore Acres, a positively beautiful park that had a mansion owned by local timber baron 80 years ago. Sadly the mansion had been burned down, but the view of the ocean rocks, shore, cliffs was wonderfully beautiful, and their formal gardens were likewise unique. It was a wonderful walk with loads of photo ops.
August 7; tour by John & Diane of Bandon and further south coastal areas. We saw the Coquille lighthouse, had lunch by the sea, walked the down town touristy area of Bandon, drove up the Coos River and enjoyed the company of Chris’ cousin and his wife.
August 8: We left Coos Bay, John & Dianne, and headed toward Crater Lake. The morning had been a tad chilly and overcast, but John assured us that as soon as we headed down the Umpqua Valley and got to the other side of the mountains it would clear up. Sure enough, it did. The drive was beautiful and the river was a beautiful river in many ways: it’s unusual rocks, rapids, greenery along the shore. We passed several “elk viewing areas”: very nice special areas with benches along a walk facing a pasture land that elk obviously frequented. Nicely done. But no elk could be seen. However….get back on the road, out of view of the special area…and there were the elk, chilled out and munching on their cuds. Down the road further was a whole big herd of them. None were where we could stop along the road
We stopped at the Diamond Lake Campground. Very pretty lake, but a little haze from the California wildfires. It’s good thing we stopped when we did, because it sure is filling up now.

August 9; leaving beautiful Diamond Lake, we drove to Crater Lake. Just as we entered the park, there was a Pumice Desert, where nothing much can grow because of all the deposits from the lava flow. Then on to Crater Lake where Mt. Mazama blew its top a few eons ago and left behind a beautiful jewel in our country. The smog from the California wildfires was creeping across the lake so I did not try to take pictures in that direction. Crater Lake is about 1900 feet deep and is the deepest lake in the U.S.
At Newberry National Volcanic Monument Tommie and I walked to the top of the volcanic lava field. That was lots of fun, and windy. The sky was blue but getting hazy from the “fire fog”.
Heading toward Mt. Hood we stopped at Clear Lake campground, about ½ hour short of the Mount Hood, which is the highest spot in Oregon. Tomorrow we should reach the mountain quite early.

So, until we "connect" again...

Visiting in Coos Bay, Oregon

Hi folks....
This is going to be a picture-less post because I'm working in the land of the dinosaurs. We arrived yesterday at Coos Bay, OR, to visit Chris' cousin John Bender and his delightful wife, Dianne. We have had such a busy 2 days that I don't know where to begin. But, the reason that this post is to be picture-less, is that I can't really get pictures from my computer, card, or travel drive to his computer....err....dinosaur. Therefore, I'll tell you briefly what we've done and then fill in later when the pictures are on the blog.
We left Chris' brother's house to a beautiful cloudless sky and 71 degrees. Andrea had made a wonderful breakfast for us of bacon, eggs, and toast from her homemade bread. It was yummy. The sky was so beautiful that I even got out the sun screen incase it were needed during the day.
We traveled along the coast and the fog moved in. We couldn't see much of the coast and it got cooler by the mile. (no need for the sun screen...couldn't see the sun!)
We stopped by a Sea Lion Cave that had Stellar Seals in it. Beautiful and have some nice pictures. Then we stopped to see some lighthouses and got some very nice pictures and had a tour of one. (Beth, got some good pics for you)
We got to John Bender's home in Coos Bay. They live so close to the coast that you can actually hear the ocean. They have taken us on a grand tour of the area and we have some awesome pictures and stories to post. But that will have to wait till we are on a better connection.
So......until we connect again.....

Visiting at Mike's

Here's Mike, Elizabeth & Chris....all in the same spot at the same time. Chris quipped that it was sad that he had to come all the way across the country to see his sister (who lives in Michigan).


Nice blue sky all day yesterday; pleasingly warm; not hot. Mike’s daughters, Christine and Dawn came to visit. It was a nice, relaxing gathering. Mike made some teriyaki BBQ salmon, Andrea made some nice salmon patties and fresh vegi tray. It was really nice visiting with the girls and Beth.
Beth left for Michigan today after having a nice vacation with Mike and Andrea. We were sleeping so sound that we never even heard Mike and Beth leave for the airport.
Before Beth left I had put loads of my scenery pictures on a disk for her to paint. She does beautiful water colors. This should give her a supply.
We also FINALLY washed the truck and camper….had to wash it 3 times for all the grime to come off from the days of rain and muddy gravel roads. The gravel roads get so dusty that water trucks came and wet down the road….making more mud. Ahhh, the wonder of mud! Should have taken a picture of the event, but didn’t; hands were wet.
Tomorrow we leave for Coos Bay, Oregon, to see Chris’ cousin, Jackie Bender. The drive is to be right along the Pacific coast and is supposed to be awesome. Can’t wait to see it. Look forward to some more beautiful pictures....if the blue sky and sun cooperates. But....we left the clouds in Canada.
So, until we “connect” again….

Back in the Lower 48!

August 1, 2008: 9:30, 50 degrees, and of course, raining. I enjoyed a workout this am in the hotel exercise room. Had a hard time figuring out how to get the elliptical turned on. I was down and around it looking for a plug or switch. Finally, I went to the front desk; they called the maintenance man. He chuckled when he told me that it was “self generating”; in other words, I had to get on and go to get the dials and speeds, etc. to work! Not a bad idea. We had nice hot breakfast (senior menu J) at the attached Denney’s Restaurant. Then we left the cozy, dry Sandman hotel in Queisnel, BC to forge ahead into the rain. Got a bit wet getting into the camper; Tommie was ready to jump into her bed behind Chris. We finally drove out of the rain, but the distance in front of us doesn’t look too hopeful for staying dry. Driving through farm and cattle land. The farmers must not have got the message about the rain, because they are irrigating their crops.
All of a sudden, as we drove through Cache Creek, PEOPLE showed up. The town is not much of a town; it seems to be a crossroads to here or there….but everybody was going through there, pulling trailers, ATV’s, etc., on there way to somewhere! Couldn’t make a left turn through traffic….bumper to bumper people on their way to a holiday. We grabed some lunch at a DQ, some gas and got out of Dodge! Down the road we stopped at a provincial campground to eat and walk Tommie. Found out it’s a provincial holiday on Monday (you know, the kind that just the banks and the post office close for…) and everybody is using it for a four-day weekend. Haven’t seen this many people for a very long time. These first two pictures are some of the beautiful country we were driving through. You can see why it draws lots of folks. BC seems to have loads of big beautiful lakes and rivers.
This picture is from the WalMart Parking lot in Omak, Washington. I thought it was just a beautiful sunset. Found out today that it was actually a forest fire, which turns clouds colors in the sunset. Oh well, was pretty.
The land in BC had turned to an arid type of landscape with sage brush; very much reminds me of where we lived in Colorado; pretty good size hills, too. The man told that it’s semi-arid and they get about 12 inches of rain/year. Guess what! It’s raining. Go figure. Should we stay and help out the population???? And, the wonderful thing about this is that it’s 72 degrees. There were miles and miles of orchards, fruit stands and wineries. We stopped for gas at one point and the asked how far the boarder was; 2 hours. We both got wired and decided to drive to the boarder. We just felt like we wanted to be back in the U.S. That would put us at the border at 9 p.m. That hour was a beautiful drive and we had no problems staying awake.

Mt. Rainer in Washington

At U.S. Customs it took us about 10 minutes. The officer said there was a state park about 5 mi from there, and said “Welcome Home” as we drove away (that felt very nice to hear.) and also told us that there is a WalMart about 1 hour away. I took some photos of the most beautiful sun set on the way to Camp WalMart. When we pulled in, there was already a full parking lot. By the time the last rig pulled in there were 25 campers! And lots of them were from B.C.
We had traveled 12 hours and 480 miles and were pleased and tired as we snuggled down in our own “lower 48”; the weather was warm; about 75 degrees, and the sky was clear. We had left the storm and rain clouds behind in BC.!

August 2: arrived at Mike’s house

Awakening in Camp WalMart, we made a plan: get the oil changed, do a bit of grocery shopping and then head for Mike’s house. The sky was cloudless….you see, we left the clouds in BC…it was 69 degrees and a positively beautiful day. I wore capri’s and sandles; first time since we left Iowa that I wasn’t dressed for cold weather and in hiking boots.
Our travels took us along the Okanogan River; positively beautiful citrus groves on one side along the river. They were irrigated. On the other side was the arid land again. Through Wenatchee we drove into a picturesque National Forest (the Wenatchee Nation Forest, oddly named???), then over the White Pass where we saw beautiful Mt. Rainer. OK, it’s 6,000 feet shorter than Denali….and even then it was an awesome view. Got the picture and then continued on to Chris’ brother, Mike’s house. Too bad we had to get on the freeway (hadn’t been on any in a looooooong time).
Had a nice reunion with Mike, his wife, Andrea, and for an added bonus…ta dah….Chris’ sister, Beth, was visiting. Had a very nice evening. Mike had made a run to California with his semi and had taken Beth along; very exciting for her. His kids are coming today; will enjoy meeting them.
Another note: some of the rest stops out here are being equipped with WiFi hotspots! Isn’t that cool?So, until we “connect” again….