Since we arrived at  Lake Cascade State Park in mid May we have had two anniversaries.  On May 19th we forgot to celebrate four years of living full time in our fifth-wheel.   We did remember to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary on May 23rd.   We went to a local pizza joint with Jack, our first friend to visit us here at the park.

Jack camped two spots down for a few days – that was fun!

We spent a little time with the neighbors who came into the site between us.   En-route from Florida to Alaska, these fans were trying to watch Tampa Bay’s hockey playoff game on their cell-phones.    We were able to get the game on our satellite and invited them in to watch.  That was probably the first hockey game Randy and I have ever watched.   Jack got us to watch, and care a little bit, about the NBA playoffs too.   It’s good for friends to expand our horizons!

We have had several other visitors too!   Rodger and Donna came through for a visit on their way to McCall.   Rodger and Randy are planning to play golf in a Monday night league this summer.

We were delighted to reconnect with Judy and Steve when they came to the park for an overnight stay.  Judy even brought us yummy banana bread.

We met Sharon and Stu last May when we were volunteering at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.  They have taken to volunteering at the actual Umpqua Lighthouse.  We were glad to see them when they came by for a visit.  We will be glad to spend more time with Sharon and Stu when they move their RV onto their Lake Cascade property later in the summer.

And since friends Kent and Pam have a cabin in the area we’ve seen them several times already.  We have been playing a card game called Golf and having a ball.  We look forward to spending lots of time with Kent and Pam this summer!

Randy and camp-host Richard repairing some fencing.

We are delighted with all of our visitors, yet Randy is here to be the maintenance host.  His obligation is 20 – 25 hours per week but he’s working a lot more than that.    I  have helped with projects for the park office  and am the substitute camp-host when Richard is off.   It has been really busy!   

Randy especially will need to find a better balance by working shorter days or fewer days.

We have had quite a few thunderstorms in the last two weeks.  There was an especially bad one over Memorial Day Weekend.   The winds were raging and the lake was rolling white-caps.

These campers waited too long to decide to get their boat out of the water and back onto the trailer.   It was pretty scary to watch them try repeatedly to push the boat out far enough to start the engine and get moving before the waves pushed them back again.  Then we watched them almost capsize as they worked their way across the waves.  We had anxiety that their adventure was going to end in significant peril for them (no lifejackets) or the boat, but it all worked out.

Due to the rain and snow melt, the lake is very high.  The water cascades abundantly through the dam.

That didn’t stop this dad and his kids from fishing 50 feet from the intake.  I wish I could say the dad was being careful with his sons in this danger zone, but I can’t.  I had to go away.

Even with the occasional aggravation, we are glad to be here.   We are enjoying our fellow volunteers, the park staff and the work.  Elko doesn’t like it because he has to be on his chain when he is outside.   That is a rule almost everywhere we go, but one we usually ignore.   Unfortunately for him,  we can’t ignore it when we are camp volunteers. We try to make it up to Elko with many walks and a couple wades in the lake each day.

Thanks so much to our visitors and please know, we are selfishly hoping for more of you.  We used to laugh at people who volunteered so close to home and now we are loving being close enough to connect with so many people from our old home town of Boise.

Site 197, Ridgeview Campground, Lake Cascade State Park.