They'd be wearin' their baggies; huarachi sandals, too...

This guy put on our afternoon floor show.

We have been having a great time today in Brookings.  This morning we exercised Pogo on the beach.  We walked as far south as we could, and Pogo did her usual running lickety split up and down the beach. She is a different dog on the beach.

We met two couples during our walk.  The first couple is visiting their daughter in Grants Pass.  They are from Illinois, and they told the daughter, "We are this close; we're going to the ocean.  Meet us there." She is expected to arrive later today.  The other couple is from Shady Cove, Oregon.  We stopped there yesterday for gas.  It is a beautiful area along the Rogue River.  We felt pretty proud that we could tell them we know where Shady Cove is.



We visited the harbor area, which has a lot of places to eat and gift shops.  We did buy one gift, but I'm not going to tell you for whom!  We didn't have anything to eat, because we were too full from the breakfast of cheesy mushroom eggs, cinnamon rolls and fruit that my lovely bride presented to me this morning.

After exploring the harbor area, we took a drive "uptown," which amounts to a few blocks on Hwy 101.  Then we decided to do one of our favorite things in a strange town: exploring the residential areas.  We discovered some really nice areas of beautiful homes.

When we came back from our drive, a surfer boy was busily trying to catch a wave and be sittin' on top of the world.  So, I made a bowl of popcorn and we sat down on our patio to watch. This guy put on a floor show for us for a couple of hours this afternoon.  I felt sorry for him because the beach is so steep here that as soon as the waves stand up enough for surfing to be possible, they break.  He did get a few rides that, perhaps, made all of his efforts worthwhile.

I could grow to like this life!

Over the river and through the woods...

Click photo for slide show. (I just love that '66 Chevy PU.)

Today was another travel day, and travel we did.  This was our longest trek of this trip, but it was a relatively easy day, and the outcome was pretty wonderful.  As you will see in the slide show, we traversed some amazing territory.  

Leaving Prospect, and the Cascade forest, we dropped down into the Rogue River valley at Gold Hill.  Jill got some great pictures along the way.  From Gold Hill, we made our way to Grants Pass on the only 15 miles of interstate highway we have traveled on this trip.  At Grants Pass (or as I like to call it, Grass Pants), we exited the freeway onto U.S. 199, also known as the Redwood Highway.  The scenery was breathtaking, and some of the driving left me a little breathless, too!  

The highway is mainly two-lane, and it winds through the coast range and eventually through the California redwoods.  I had driven this stretch before in a car, going in the opposite direction, and I remember thinking, "This would be pretty exciting in Sadie."  Well, I wasn't wrong.  

Jill got some photos of the redwoods from our moving platform.  Considering the circumstances, I would say they are quite remarkable. 

We arrived at the Beachfront RV park just after 2:00PM and checked into space #82.  The park itself is kind of like a parking lot, but the view makes up for the lack of ambiance in the RV spaces.  As we look out our front window (actually 180 degrees) we can see the ocean.  The beach access is just across a driveway from our space.  It is pretty wonderful to be here.  

So, those of you who have never explored this part of the world, we can heartily recommend to you not only Brookings, but the Redwood Highway and the Beachfront RV Park as well. 

Happy trails, and stay tuned to most of these same stations.

The Rogue, a river with a well-deserved reputation...

Click on photo for slide show.

Today is Saturday.  We had a pretty laid back day.  It was a bit colder last night, and we woke up early because of it.  I threw the electric blanket over the bed and started the furnace; Jill went back to sleep.  I was pretty awake, so I got up and switched on the coffee.  

After a bit more snoozing, Jill got up and made some outstanding bacon pancakes and fried eggs. We debated about what to do today and finally decided to do laundry.  There is a nice little laundromat in Prospect, which we had all to ourselves.  For $2.50 we have clean clothes!  

When we got back to Sadie, it was about lunch time, so we had some tacquitos for lunch, and then we decided to make a trek to visit Mill Creek falls and Barr Creek falls, which are just a couple of miles from our park.  This was, perhaps, the most exciting thing we have seen on this vacation.  The falls are both breathtaking, falling off the cliffs to the south into the Rogue River. I took a couple of movies with our new camera, but my internet connection is too slow to upload them.  There are a few shots of the river and Barr Creek falls in the slide show above.  I only got a movie of Mill Creek falls. Perhaps, I will upload it later, when our wi-fi connection is faster.

Hiking to the falls was fun, and Pogo got her exercise for the day.  It is comical to watch her, when we are hiking.  She tugs at the leash, until we release her from it.  Then she heels as if she had been seeing a dog trainer all her life.  She loves the security of the leash, and when she is off leash she wants to make sure WE  are not going to run away! 

After our hike, Pogo had a long drink of water.  Then we drove along the highway that is the main street of Prospect and then turns into a country road. The scenery was spectacular, as it has been on this whole trip. 

We returned to Sadie in time to see Nebraska polish off Washington (boo hoo...how my heart bleeds for Washington). So, try as I might, I cannot find anything to complain about today...except maybe that we have to move on tomorrow...to our reserved ocean front RV space in Brookings.  Life is hard sometimes.

Crater Lake and huckleberry pie

Click photo for slide show

As promised, we made a trek to Crater Lake today.  The entrance to the National Park is about 34 miles from our RV Park.  After a fuel stop in Prospect, we drove Daisy Mae to the lake.  Par for the course, I left my lifetime senior free pass to all national parks on my dresser in Dallas.  Oh, well! 

The lake roads are all open this time of year, but the area averages about 500 inches of snow every winter, and we did see patches of snow along the side of the road.  We had a wonderful time stopping at the viewpoints.  You will notice that there are not a lot of pictures of the lake itself.  It is tempting to take multiple pictures at every viewpoint, but once you realize that there is no way to actually capture the incredible, deep blue color of the water, it seems pointless to take more photos. Suffice to say, the lake is breathtaking.

What I did take pictures of were flora and fauna. Some examples are below:

Click photo for slide show

I am especially proud to have captured a photo of the rare and beautiful black-hooded chickadee, the last shot in the photo series. 

After we had circumnavigated the lake, we stopped at the inevitable gift shop.  The shop may have been inevitable, but the buying was not.  All of the merchandise looked like the same stuff we have seen in other national parks, only the names were changed to protect the innocent!

From the gift shop, we drove a short distance to Crater Lake Lodge.  The lodge is large and appears to have been updated recently. We were not able to see any of the rooms, but the slide show below will give you a feeling for the flavor of the lodge:

Click the photo for slide show.

On the drive back to the RV park, we stopped in Union Creek at Beckie's, famous for pies.  Jill has been having a hankering for huckleberry pie. (I, of course, was completely neutral on the subject!)  Again, we were not disappointed.  The pie was delicious, the crust was flaky and the ice cream was the perfect accompaniment.  A stop across the highway at the little resort store for salt, however, proved fruitless. 

As we continued on our way, we came across a sign to the Rogue River Natural Bridge.  This rock formation is the result of volcanic eruption creating lava tubes.  The river then routed itself through one of them. The river travels underground in a lava tube for about 200 feet.  Thus, the top of the lava tube became a natural bridge. Although it is difficult to do justice to flowing (nay, gushing) water in photos, I have included a few below.  The series is set up so that each picture is a little further downstream from the previous one. 

Click photo for slide show. 

In the series above you see the water gushing into the lava tube. Next is a shot of the top of the natural bridge, followed by the water gushing out of the tube at 335,000 gallons per minute.  The next photo shows a cave, which is apparently a lava tube with a blind end. And finally there is the tailrace of the whole lava tube/natural bridge/river phenomenon.  God sure must have had fun putting all of this stuff together. 

We returned to Sadie tired but delighted with all that we saw today.  Stay tuned for more.

From pine to fir and back again...

Click photo for a slide show

Wednesday was a travel day.  We packed up and hit the road, heading south from Sisters.  Just south of Bend, OR, we stopped at the High Desert Museum. What a treat.  The museum is privately maintained and is a treasure trove of facts and artifacts of the high desert area, including eastern Oregon, parts of Nevada and Arizona.   

I was not able to get too many pictures, because most of the indoor exhibits are priceless old documents and artifacts kept in low light, and flash photography is prohibited.  Outdoors, our timing was bad for seeing the critters. The otters were asleep and other critters in hiding.  Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would recommend this stop to anyone traveling in central Oregon. 

When we had sated our curiosity at the museum, we hit the road and headed south to LaPine State Park.  It is a lovely park situated on the Deschutes river in the midst of a pine forest.  In Sisters we encountered mostly Ponderosa pine, but the pines in the SP are a different variety, possibly lodgepole or sugar pine.  The river is beautiful, as you will see in the photos.  Our campsite was situated about 50 yards from the river, although the forest blocked the view of the river. 

While we were strolling about the park, we encountered a couple who had just come from Crater Lake.  They encouraged us to hurry there, so as to arrive before it is closed for the winter.  They recommended a campground near the lake, but it sounded like it was too small for Sadie and basically amounted to a dry-camp area. 

Later we spoke with our next door neighbor, who recommended the Crater Lake RV Park, situated on Hwy 62 between Crater Lake and Bend.  We opted for this park, because it sounded like a better fit.  We have not been disappointed.  We left LaPine SP yesterday morning and checked in at Crater Lake RV Park in the early afternoon.

Click photo for a slide show

The camp hosts, Dennis and Judy, are delightful people who made us feel welcome immediately.  There is lots of hiking to do, and the park is clean and well-cared-for.  It is nestled in the woods; many varieties of fir and pine trees. We hiked one of the trails yesterday afternoon and discovered a reservoir created on the Rogue river by a small hydroelectric dam.  The area around the river apparently suffered a forest fire some time back, but is covered with new growth, especially Ponderosa pines.  In the slide show, you will see Jill standing by our next Christmas tree! 

Today, we plan to drive back up to Crater Lake National Park, which neither of us has seen in decades.  It promises to be a fun day.  We are paid up for three nights in the RV park, so there will be more adventures to come.

Smoke and Sisters

 

We left Dallas on Monday afternoon. Initially, I had planned to be on the road by noon, but as we were hooking up Daisy Mae behind Sadie, we encountered a problem with the new towed-vehicle brake monitoring system. After some troubleshooting, I determined that the problem was in the cable that connects the towed-vehicle wiring to the the coach wiring. It seems that one of the plugs on the cable was installed incorrectly and reversed the polarity between the two vehicles. Once I changed the wiring of the plug, the brake monitor light on Sadie's dashboard started working just as it should. I must say it is a comfort to know what Daisy Mae's brake system is doing, while I am towing her.

The other fly in the getting-off-by-noon ointment was that our neighbor, kitty-corner across the street from our home, came by to introduce himself. He is a pleasant chap and chatty. Did I mention that John likes to talk? We had not had the chance to meet him before, and by the time we were done chatting and got the brake monitor wiring figured out, it was closer to 2:00 PM when we hit the road.

There was a good deal of smoke from forest fires in the air as we crossed the cascade mountains on highway 22. Otherwise the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful. (I suppose you could say that even the smoke was “breathtaking,” but that is a different story.) Sadie found some of the steeper climbs a bit challenging in terms of keeping her speed up, but overall, she did just fine. It was a hot day, and I kept my eye on the water and oil temps, but we had no mishaps, and when we crested the pass and started down the other side, the temps dropped right back down to normal.

We arrived in Sisters, OR (named for the nearby Cascade Mountain peaks, Faith, Hope and Charity, which together are known as the Three Sisters) about 4:45PM. Since we hadn't made any plans to stay in any particular RV park, we were a bit nervous when we didn't find many RV parks to choose from. We made a fuel stop and inquired about parks and were directed to the Sisters RV Park and/or the KOA “on the other end of town.”

Before we encountered either of them, however, we stumbled on Sisters City Park, which is not only beautiful, but located within walking distance of the charming commercial district. It is a first come, first served park, with full RV hookups, nestled in a grove of pine trees. Nevertheless, we found a site where we could get a clear shot at the southern sky for our satellite dish. We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

Last evening, we had dinner at the Three Creeks Brewing Company pub, located on the southeast end of town. The atmosphere is family friendly, the food was spectacular pub food, and the ales, which are brewed on the premises, were quite competitive with the better microbrews we have encountered.

Tuesday morning, we had walked the commercial section of town in the morning and found it to be lots of fun. The people are friendly, and the architecture is all done in a fun “old west” theme. Having scoped out the shops yesterday, we had a plan for this morning. We walked into town and made a stop at the Sisters Bakery (not to be missed; get there early for bear claws, which are to die for) and then on to the Sisters Coffee shop. We sat under the pines on the patio to the side of the shop, sipping the hearty brew and munching our bear claw, maple bar and peach scone. All in all a very enjoyable, if not the most healthful, breakfast.

The weather is cooling off. It was near 90 yesterday, but it's only supposed to be near 80 today. We will bid a reluctant farewell to Sisters, but we will be back to visit, without a doubt. Our objective for today is La Pine State Park.

Gearing up...

Hooray! We are planning a getaway in Sadie!  It has been a long summer filled with landscaping and waiting for our granddaughter, Ryanne, to be born.  Now those exciting developments are behind us, and we have an opportunity to hit the road.


Of course, when we hit the road, we have to make sure Sadie is in tip-top condition.   There are a couple of  things that have been on my mind for a while.  Sadie has had a couple of very minor oil leaks that stained the floor of her garage.  I determined that one of them was coming from one of the hoses that go to the oil cooler. The other is a bit enigmatic.  There has been a little oil dripping off of the drain plug for the oil pan.  The confusing thing has been that there is oil in the surrounding area as well.

Today, I decided to change the oil and inspect these problems.  I started by draining the oil and removing the oil filter.  Removing the drain plug revealed that the gasket under the plug was disintegrating.  I made a trip to the auto parts store for oil, filter and a new drain plug gasket.  Having installed the plug with its new gasket and a new filter, I moved on to the leaky hose.

To my delight, I was able easily to remove the leaky oil cooler hose. I had spoken with a counter man at NAPA, who told me that the best way to fix such a hose (rubber hose with steel pipes swaged onto each end) was to remove the rubber hose and replace it with a new hose with hose clamps.  When I took it to NAPA today, the same guy said that they could actually put some fittings onto the steel pipes and swage the rubber hose onto them. I left the pipe with them. It should be ready for installation tomorrow morning.

When I returned home from NAPA, I decided to install the long-overdue dash monitor for the brakes on the towed vehicle.  I have had the parts, but not the gumption to install them.  Since I had already been under Sadie on the creeper for quite a bit of the day, I decided to string the cable from the rear bumper to Sadie's dashboard.  There was a small, red LED on the dash that I have wondered about for some time. When I inspected it today, I found that it was not hooked up to anything!  That was perfect.  I needed to put an LED on the dash to light when the toad brakes are applied by the surge brake system. The LED was already there; I just needed to hook it up!

After stringing the cable and hooking up the LED on Sadie, I proceeded to check out the part of the installation that involves the towed (Daisy Mae).  I discovered that there are two switches that are activated by the brake pedal.  I don't know yet what they do, but they are readily accessible. I just need to determine 1) which switch to tap into and 2) which wire on that switch to tap.  The rest of the project will be simply a matter of stringing the wire...about 5 feet, versus about 35 feet on Sadie.  I will tackle that tomorrow.

The next project will be to move the satellite dish so that it can stand up without fouling on the AC housing.  When I originally installed the dish, I measured the appropriate distance from the base of the AC on the roof.  I didn't notice that the housing extends a bit beyond the base.  Now when I try to erect the dish, it hangs up on the front of the AC unit and stalls the motor.  It requires my climbing on the roof every time I want to set it up. So, it must be moved.  I will tackle that before our trip, so we can enjoy TV if we want to .


In the meantime, Jill has been loading our essentials aboard Sadie: food, clothing and various supplies. I think we will be ready for a great trip, come Monday. Stand by for more Travels with Sadie.