A walk on the wild side

Click the photo for a slide show

The weather was beautiful this morning, while we had our breakfast, but we could see that it was deteriorating. When the dishes were done, we donned our fleece and hit the trail. By contrast with the developed part of the park, which we explored yesterday, the area we saw today is almost totally wild. I say almost, simply because there are some obviously maintained trails.

In fact, there is a labyrinth of trails in this part of the park. We followed some of them and eventually wound up in someone's backyard! Well, not really, but we came upon a housing development and a beautiful new school. We headed back toward the park, investigating many of the trails we found. We saw more homes, an abandoned mill of some kind, an abandoned "ghost train" comprising a diesel locomotive stripped of almost everything, including the metal skin that once covered its framework.

As we arrived back at the park we began to notice some moisture in the air. We relaxed for a while in the coach. After lunch, we took Daisy Mae for a drive. We found some beautiful homes, which we could have coveted, had we let ourselves go. Several had RV garages and shop buildings...just what I would want in another home, if I ever get the chance to have another one.

After the tour of the "street of dreams," we headed north on the highway that runs by our RV park. It led us eventually to Scio, a town I have always wanted to visit, simply because I have passed the sign on I-5 for the Scio exit a million times. Scio is a LITTLE town, about six blocks long. There are some beautiful homes there, and there are some shacks there. We saw a number of churches, including a huge Baptist church. Judging by the size, the Baptists must have Scio wrapped up!

On the way back to Lebanon we took a little detour...of about 17 miles! We had seen an ad on the internet for the Mallard Creek RV Park and golf resort, so when we saw the sign, we had to see what it was all about. The RV park is quite lovely, with lots of level concrete pads. The golf course is very nice for a rural course, but is not by any means a world class course. That judgment, however, is the result of driving by a couple of the fairways and greens. It may be better than it appeared to me.

The thought that kept going through my mind was that someone had gone way out on a limb to build this wonderful facility in such a remote area. There were four or five RVs in the park, and we did see some golfers, but there is absolutely nothing else to do here but play golf. I wonder if there are enough golfing RVers to make this place pay. This is March. Perhaps, the place fills up in the summer. I hope so.

Pastoral beauty and stark reality

Click the photo for a slide show.

We are in Lebanon, OR at Gill's Landing RV Park. The park itself is quite lovely, nestled on the shore of the South Santiam River. There are 21 RV sites, with full hookups, level concrete pads, 50 Amp electric service and restrooms that are cleaned three times a day. Currently there is one other RV in the park, not counting the park hosts, who have been serving here for over a year!

A railroad bridge and an auto bridge span the river at the north end of the park. It is very quiet here, although this morning I heard a distant train whistle. Nevertheless, we have seen only one train, consisting of locomotive and one flat car cross the railroad bridge. Later a truck on railroad running gear came across the river and slowly worked its way along the track. Otherwise, there has been no rail traffic.

We drove into Lebanon proper in Daisy Mae this morning. After a stop at Wally World (WalMart to those of you who are not RVers), we toured the city's residential areas, found the airport, and strolled downtown proper. This is a lovely little town, which has obviously fallen on very hard times. I would say that at least 1/3 of the store fronts on Main Street are vacant. There are several thrift shops still in business. The movie theater still operates, too, but given that the median income of Lebanon is considerably below the median for the state of Oregon, one wonders how long it will remain open.

I don't know what the primary industries are here, but it is obvious that the residents could use more industry to support the population. Gill's Landing is quite a beautiful park and is operated by the city, so some things are flourishing, but it made me a little heartsick to see the downtown businesses struggling so much.

The weather has been quite nice. It got up to 63 degrees today, and the sun has been shining through a high, very thin overcast. Tomorrow we intend to investigate the other side of the river and the rest of the city park, which is on the other side of the railroad and the highway. There is a path that runs under them from the RV park to the day use park. We are told there are a number of nice trails for hiking. Pogo will like that.

Lebanon or Bust!

It was just after 9:00 AM when we parked in front of the Portland RV Storage warehouse, where Sadie lives, when we are not aboard. Lucien had her all ready to go. I hopped in and brought the old girl home so we can prepare for a jaunt down the Willamette (say "Will Am Ette") Valley to Lebanon.

Jill went shopping for a few last minute items. Apparently, the shopping was good today. She was gone for a good, long time. She did well, though, and we have added some new accessories, including a wall mounted paper towel dispenser, an over-the-door hook on which to hang a dish towel, a combination salt/pepper shaker, a double 12V outlet (so we can run the GPS and the Tire Pressure Monitor System simultaneously), and a clear plastic angle extension for the sewer hose, so we can monitor the progress of flushing the holding tanks.

But the most exciting new addition is our brand new, berry-colored Travasak. This amounts to a fancy sleeping bag. It is the size of a queen bed and has high thread-count sheets that are attached inside with Velcro. One side (top) has double the insulation of the other, so by turning the "bag" over, you can change from winter to summer configuration. I assembled ours with a standard double electric blanket between the upper (winter) side and the upper sheet. We usually don't leave the furnace on at night, so having an electric blanket in winter keeps us oh-so-toasty.

The reason for getting the Travasak is that Sadie, while she has a queen bed that is supposedly a "walk around," leaves us very little room for getting around the bed for purposes of making it up. With the Travasak, we will be able simply to zip up the sides and smooth out the bed. We can't wait to sleep in it tomorrow night in Lebanon.

Small town America and a world class air museum.

Main Street U.S.A. Well, actually it is 3rd Street, McMinville, OR.

We are unexpectedly living aboard Sadie again for a couple of days. Patrick's varsity boys' basketball team (Perrydale H.S.) is in the league playoffs. They had a game last night, but it was in McMinnville, OR, about 50 miles from home. Yesterday morning, I said to Jill, "Here's a crazy idea. Let's repack the coach and go to McMinnville for Pat's game." After hesitating for a little while, she said, "OK. Let's go!"

So,we left home about 2:00 PM and arrived in McMinnville at the Olde Stone Village RV park a little before 4:00. If that seems a little slow to you for a trip of 50 miles, I hasten to point out that it was Friday afternoon on a sunny weekend in February, and the road to McMinnville is also the road to the beach! On top of that, you may not know about Dundee.

Dundee is a small town along highway U.S. 99. It isn't big, but it has a stop light and the highway is a narrow two lanes. A few years ago, wine making became a big new industry in the Willamette Valley. Consequently, Dundee has grown in popularity. There are a number of wine tasting rooms in the vicinity. Bottom line: traffic is always stop and go in Dundee, and when it goes, it goes at the speed of a teenager sent out to mow the lawn.

Olde Stone Village RV park is very nice, and the price is very reasonable. We got all set up and drove on in to McMinville H.S. in time for the game. Things went pretty well for about a quarter and a half, but then St. Paul's Buckeroos, who average about a head taller than the Perrydale Pirates, pulled away. At halftime, they led by nine. Perrydale made a run at the end of the third quarter and got back within seven points, after dropping behind by as many as 16. They made another run late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. Pat was proud of his team. They played hard and their sportsmanship made St. Paul look a little shabby by comparison.

Today got off to a sunny start and actually got to be quite warm by midday. We decided to visit the Evergreen Air Museum, which is right next door to the Olde Stone Village. What an amazing collection of aviation history. The central attraction is Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose. This wooden, amphibious, cargo plane is enormous, boasting the longest wingspread of any aircraft in history. It is truly spectacular with its 8 (count 'em) 8 3,000 horsepower engines. It only flew once, and that for about 30 seconds. By that time, technology had passed it by, WWII ended and the old bird was relegated to the ranks of an aviation curiosity. Still it is a marvelous achievement.

Photo courtesy of Google Photos
Here is a photo of the Spruce Goose
And another. Note the size of the other planes in comparison!
Here is the tail section.
This is a Lockheed F80 shooting star from immediately
post WWII, which was used for a trainer for a couple of decades.
And what appears to be a WWII era Navy bird.
The museum has lots of military hardware, including some tanks.

Of course, the museum contains much more than the Spruce Goose. It is, in fact, the best air museum I have seen (I have not been to the Smithsonian). There are planes spanning the history of flight from a model of the Wright Flier to jet fighters used in Iraq and everything in between. I was thrilled by the number of WWII warbirds on display, and today there were several WWII veteran pilots available to answer questions. We spoke to one gentleman who flew the same model torpedoe plane as George H. W. Bush. He was about as modest as anyone I have ever met. He said, "We were just a bunch of kids. We thought it was fun!" In my estimation, this is a world class air museum (and we didn't even go in the space museum section!) and would make a good vacation destination, especially when they have added the planned water park, complete with a water tube that will pass through the fuselage of a Boeing 747!

Following our visit to the museum, we returned to Sadie and took Pogo out to take care of her business. Then we decided to go out to lunch, something we rarely do when we are RVing. We chose the Golden Valley Brewery and Restaurant. The restaurant section is quite reminiscent of the kellers I visited in Bavaria a couple of decades back. The food, was not, although it was quite good. I don't remember seeing quesadillas on the menu in Munich! Jill had a bock lager with her lunch, and I chose a porter. Both were quite respectable.

After lunch we had a nice stroll along the main drag and looked in shop windows. We had an encounter with a street magician, and finally found ourselves in an ice cream shop, where we succumbed to temptation.

Jill had an encounter with Ben Franklin!

I texted Patrick and we agreed to meet for the next game in the playoffs this evening. Jill and I met Pat and Katie at the gym and were treated to a very exciting contest between St. Paul and the undefeated league leader, Country Christian H.S. St. Paul came out on top, which was a mixed blessing for Pat. On the one hand, he would have liked to see St. Paul go down after they beat him last evening, and on the other he is glad to know that Country Christian H.S. is NOT invincible.

A glorious Pacific Northwest day.

It was with great sadness that we departed Potlatch today. The weather was perfect again today. Well, there was a bit of a breeze, but the sky was cloudless and the sun was warm.

We had a relaxed morning, lounging over breakfast and coffee. Watching a little of the Winter Olympic Games and enjoying the view out of Sadie's picture windows.

At last it was time to get ready to go. Thanks to my Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), checking tire pressures is a matter of turning on the monitor and reading the reports. I did add some air to one of the suspension airbags. Otherwise, air was not an issue. I checked the oil and coolant levels, too.

Jill has become the master of preparing the inside of the coach for travel. She stows everything that is loose, checks the cabinet doors and drawers, turns off the furnace, water heater and ice maker, locks the refrigerator door and usually has a cold soda stationed by my driver seat.

I finished up my duties by draining the holding tanks and stowing the hoses and electrical cords. After a final walk around to make sure nothing was unlocked or still deployed on the exterior of the coach, I declared Sadie road-ready. Jill fetched Daisy Mae, and we hitched her up to Sadie's tow bar. Then, off we went.

We stopped on the Indian Reservation for gas, which is cheaper there than on the economy. It turns out that we got the best mileage we have ever achieved while towing Daisy Mae! I won't mention the actual MPG, lest I offend some "greenie" who might happen to be reading this post. Suffice it to say that MPG is going in the right direction.

We had a lovely drive home in brilliant sunshine. There were two stops, other than the fuel stop. First we stopped at the Toutle River Rest Area, where we used the facilities. We watered Pogo and then had a little lunch. Back on the road again, things went well most of the way home. We both heard a noise along the way, and wondered what it was. We stopped at another rest area, and I inspected the tires, towbar, Daisy Mae and the underside of Sadie. Nothing seemed to be awry. Later, I heard the plastic wine glasses that hang over the dinette table clink together and thought, "That is a familiar sound...kind of like what I heard before we stopped."

The end of the story is that we arrived home safely and in one piece. We unloaded Sadie. Jill began doing laundry and baked an apple cake for our Bible study group, which is due to arrive at 7:00 PM. I tidied up the things we had brought in from the coach, and now we are ready to entertain.

It was a wonderful trip, and although we hated to leave Potlatch, we have a pretty wonderful life at home, too. So, being home is also a great blessing!

Lazy daze

No photos today. The weather was beautiful, with a cloudless sky, after the morning fog on the Canal burned off. On the other hand, it was a bit breezy, which made it a little uncomfortable to be outside just sitting.

I spent a good part of the morning working on my lesson for our Bible study group tomorrow evening. We are studying the book of Galatians, and I drew chapter one, so I will be laying the groundwork for the rest of the study.

We talked about going out for an adventure, but the view from Sadie's picture windows was so enchanting, that we decided to just relax indoors. We watched "Singin' in the Rain" on DVD, one of our collection of movies that now numbers about 115. That is just the collection we carry on board. At home, we have a few more. We do enjoy movies, but most of those in our collection are from the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

I went out to grill a couple of steaks for dinner, and found the sky filled with stars. Just outside our door is Orion. Off our starboard bow is mars, and the sky is even dark enough that I was able to see the Pleiades off the starboard quarter.

Jill has remarked several times today that she doesn't want to go home tomorrow, and if we had a clear choice in the matter, I would stay. The weather has been beautiful, and the canal view is spectacular from our front windows. Nevertheless, duty calls. We will head home tomorrow and entertain our Bible study group tomorrow evening. This will give Jill a chance to play a hymn for the group to sing.

So, tomorrow we will head for home, but the bottom line is that the RVing season has begun. As soon as we get our SOWER membership taken care of, we will be able to plan our outings for the year. We are so excited about doing an RV mission trip. In the meantime, we can always take Sadie out for a little exercise now and then!

A day in Port Ludlow

Click on the photo for a slide show of today's adventure. We had lunch at the Port Ludlow Inn. While we were eating, the Kenmore Air seaplane in the final photo arrived with a couple as passengers. They were the only other guests in the restaurant, and apparently they were celebrating the woman's birthday.


Today, we were expecting the poorest weather of our trip. So, rather than be confined to Sadie's interior, as much as we love her, we decided to make a drive to Port Ludlow, some 60 miles further up Highway 101. The further north we went, the worse the weather became. At times, we were driving in a deluge. Nevertheless, we pressed on.

We were rewarded for our efforts by finding Port Ludlow to be a very inviting, upscale community. I had been there in 1981 by boat, but what I saw today was anything but the dilapidated, light industrial community I remembered. The whole area appears to be a resort town built between my previous visit and our experience today.

In the slide show, you will see the Port Ludlow Inn, whose architect has successfully evoked the 1930s with the design of the inn. I pictured myself chatting with Scott and Zelda in the card room overlooking the bay.

The food was delightful. We both ordered the seafood sandwich du jour, which was a grilled shrimp panini with Gruyere cheese, served with real french fries and a wonderful mixed green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. I had a Black Butte Porter and Jill had the house Pinot Gris to complete a wonderful repast.

Our trip home was unremarkable, except for the fact that we moved from heavy rain showers in the Port Ludlow area to clear skies and sunshine in Potlatch. It was a lovely visit, but we are happy to be back "home" enjoying our Sadie.