Serene Wandering

We have been blessed the past two weeks with visiting friends, some “old” and some “new”. Thank you Darrell, Cindy and Beth for including us in your travels.

“Old” friends from Boise (duration- not age!), Darrell and Cindy, made reservations right away when they heard we were going to host at Farragut. (That gave us 9 months to look forward to it!) As long time RVing partners, we spent a week in Farragut 9 years ago and had a great time. This time they stayed for almost two weeks, their longest vacation ever.  It is so comfortable to hang with friends who know you to your core.

We revisited some places and things we had done before – like playing disc golf.  Darrell and Randy took turns playing my purple disc as I walked with Elko,  and  I have never played so well!

Part way through, they decided to play it as a golf “scramble” meaning everyone throws and the group picks the best shot, then everyone throws from there and on and on.  (I don’t know why that format is called a scramble and not best ball.) That was such a fun way to play that a couple days later we went back and played one of the harder courses.

When we volunteered in Oregon, we were asked to uproot these noxious weeds, so we continue to do so here around the park.  The disc golf course had some doozies!

Randy won this battle!

This belongs here, doesn’t it?

We also saw a lot of cigarette butts on the disc golf course, in the grass, in the drought, in the Stage II Fire Alert.  It drove us crazy so we went back through the course on a trash run the next day.

Another day we drove into Wallace, Idaho – the mayor proclaimed “Center of the Universe.”    Supposedly no one has bothered to dispute his claim.

We enjoyed the Sierra Silver Mine Tour which begins with a trolley ride and brief history of Wallace.  Wallace was very nearly destroyed in the Big Burn of 1910 and some miners survived the devastation only because they stayed within a mine. Also, due to the mining operations, there were more millionaires in Wallace, Idaho in the 1920s than anywhere else in our country.

Twenty percent of the world’s silver was mined from the Silver Valley in Northern Idaho yet the Sierra Silver Mine was never profitable. It was too shallow for the silver vein and other groups “under-mined” it – mine tour humor. While silver mining throughout the region remained profitable, the local high school utilized the Sierra Mine for an elective class to help train future miners.   When silver mining became less profitable, the town of Wallace supported the idea of using the same Sierra Mine as a tour location.

One of the worst mining disasters in the US occurred at the Sunshine Mine between Wallace and Kellogg, Idaho.  In 1972, 91 miners were killed when a fire broke out within the mine.  The tour guide told us about changes in equipment and procedures in mining as a result of that tragedy, including this simple “in and out” board so people know who is within – something that was problematic during the Sunshine Mine rescue efforts.

Who is in the mine?

In the middle of enjoying our “old” friends from Boise, our “new” friend, Beth, came to visit for a couple days on her drive towards Michigan.  We met her in Tucson in February and connected again on the Oregon Coast in June.  It was so nice to see her once more.

Friendships need to be very intentional on the road and we appreciate that she came through this way. The three of us enjoyed catching up and eating dinner at a local Thai Restaurant.

The five of us enjoyed a cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho’s second largest lake. This activity marked a first for Randy and me – the first time we have ever been able to take advantage of a senior discount.  We are not sure that is a good thing!

We saw BIG houses and the famous Floating Green at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. The length of the 14th hole changes from 75 – 175 yards depending on where the green is located. A golfer gets two tries and then travels to the green on a boat called The Putter.

In keeping with the “Something Old, Something New” theme….we still have our old fire, and, unfortunately, we now have a new one. The Cape Horn fire, burning since July 5th is considered “contained” but will likely smolder and burn until the snows come. Our new fire, The Three Sister’s Fire, began August 4th and burned about 300 acres but is now diminishing.   Utilizing about 300 fire fighters, it is considered 60 percent contained.

Darrell, Cindy, Randy, Elko and I took nightly walks to places where we could observe the smoke and flames. Unlike the old fire, the new one has not threatened the park. Except for the fire restrictions, fire camp and heli-base, life here at Farragut goes on as normal.  All is well.

This summer we are celebrating Farragut State Park’s 50th anniversary. Farragut is a beautiful park in the Idaho panhandle near the southern end of Lake Pend Orielle. The lake is 43 miles long and the fifth deepest in the country.

Farragut has four campground areas with varying levels of service, several group campgrounds and day use areas. It has hiking/biking trails, a flier’s field, an equestrian area, a swim beach, a boat launch and disc golf course.

Throughout the park there are remnants of its past as a Naval Training Station.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, and feeling like the San Diego site might be vulnerable, the Navy Commanders felt they needed a temporary inland training facility.   They chose this site on Lake Pend Orielle over a site on Lake Tahoe.

The Station was named after the First Admiral of the United States Navy,  David Farragut.  He is famous for the phrase “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead” when battling the Confederacy at Mobile Bay.  

Built in just over six months,  six camps (oval areas on the map above) of 5000 “boots” and support areas were maintained at the station.  Named for deceased navy heroes, five were for officers and one for a seaman who perished while saving his shipmates.   Almost 300,000 recruits came through Farragut for 5-13 weeks of basic training from 1942 to 1946.

Profiles of some of the men are engraved within the sculpting of this large statue near the Brig.

The Brig, the largest of just a few remaining buildings from the Naval Station, is a National Historic Site and houses the Museum at the Brig.  The museum has a variety of exhibits about the naval training station and the men and women (WAVES) who served here.

It also has an exhibit about the German prison camp just outside the station.   By report, the Germans felt they were treated very well here – perhaps better than the “boots” themselves.  In return, the navy personnel appreciated the improved food options when the German prisoners began serving as cooks.

Towards the end of the World War II, the need for new recruits was diminished. At that time the station’s hospital was expanded and became the largest and best equipped hospital in the northwest serving those with war injuries.

The Farragut Naval Station was decommissioned in 1946.  Reunions for those who came through Farragut for service training have been held,  most recently  in 2008.   At the museum, there is a place for those navy personnel  to sign in on their camps rolls.  A quick look at the rolls today revealed that each camp has had a past serviceman sign in during July, 2015.

The facility was utilized by the Farragut College and Technical Institute from 1946 – 1948.

Taken over by the state of Idaho, it then became the Farragut Wildlife Management  Area.   The Idaho Department of Parks came into being in 1965 and the area became Farragut State Park.

The footprint of the Naval Station is still visible in aerial shots of Farragut State Park.  Several areas, and two of the campgrounds, Gilmore and Waldron, maintain the names of men honored in the original navy station.

Being hosts at the Waldron campground, we were interested in Lieutenant Commander John Charles Waldron.   Despite their grim prospects, Commander Waldron led his 15 plane squadron into the Battle of Midway.  All 15 were shot down and only one flier survived.  He remained loyal to Commander Waldron and his leadership.

As the park was designated in 1965,  The Girl Scouts held a Jamboree and tens of thousands of girls attended. They are planning a 50th anniversary jamboree this fall.

Several Boy Scout Jamboree’s have been held here as well, again involving tens of thousands of scouts.   The Scouting connection continues.

Due to the budget cuts of the 2008 recession, Idaho State Parks were required to become self supporting. Farragut State Park is the top revenue producing park in the state and sends almost half of its income to support other parks. The recent fire will, unfortunately, put a dent in the monies raised.

The fire is still burning but is considered 100% contained. It will likely smolder until the snow comes. The helicopters and the fire camp are gone and the campers are adjusted to the fire ban.   Things are going well now.

Our dog Toby enjoying Farragut in 2005

We have camped at Farragut a few times over the years and in June 2005, we stayed in site 156.

Today we cleaned that same site, 156. The trees are larger and the landscape is more natural. The ranger position responsible for the grounds was cut in the lean budget years and has never been restored.

We remember the stay here well because our dog, Toby, was so enamored with the chipmunks, squirrels and whistle pigs that he didn’t want to leave. Toby has left us, but the rodents are still around!  As will we be until the end of August.

We have had a busy week around Farragut State Park.   The best part was our family being here and the worst of it was having people (not our family) behaving badly in our campground.

My parents came from Vancouver and Seth, Natasha and Archer flew up from Boise and we enjoyed most of a week together. We even had a surprise visit from cousins Venita from Spokane and Guerin from Ashland.

On Sunday, Aunt Bonnie and cousins Kylee and Ashley came from the Tri-Cities. We spent Monday at Silverwood Theme Park north of Coeur d’Alene.

Archer was too short to be able to ride many rides. He only tolerated riding the yellow elephant and the carousel but seemed to enjoy the train and hanging out with grandpa (who doesn’t ride rides).

The rest of us enjoyed rides in the amusement and water parks.

We also spent an afternoon on a Lake Pend Oreille cruise on the Shawnodese.

We were able to spend lots of time visiting and playing with Archer. That was so fun for us!

While we were enjoying our visitors, Randy and I were also doing our camp hosting thing. I can’t even remember how many times this week we have commented on people behaving badly.

We finally got the fire ban on July 12 so that has made the fire issue more black and white. Camp fires are not allowed. Charcoal briquettes are not allowed. Propane campfires are not allowed. Of course, there are still a few who think the ban doesn’t apply to them.  Sometimes they are “caught” and sometimes we don’t know they’ve been burning until they are gone and we clean the fire pit.

On separate occasions this week Randy and I have each cleaned a restroom. Cleaning restrooms is not part of our volunteer assignment, but when people behave badly (and in Randy’s case – VERY badly) it is hard to just leave them for other campers to work around until the next day’s cleaning.

Last night we witnessed our first camper eviction. The campers ignored the rules that allow only two tents and that they must be placed on campsite pads. They had three tents on the grass and were flippant with our partner host when he informed them of the rule. When they chose to leave the tents on the grass, a day ranger issued a citation. When they got mouthy with the night ranger, he evicted them. People behaving badly….

Even today I spoke with some young teens who were behaving badly in the showers. I told the boys they were lucky that I was the one speaking with them because there were other campers who were none too happy with them. At least they were apologetic.

We have tried to figure why there are more people behaving badly here than at our previous volunteer gig at Cove Palisades. Is it Idaho clientele versus Oregon clientele? Is it July versus May? Is it family trips versus mostly couples? Is it the fire restrictions versus fires allowed? Is it something else?

We have identified one factor that we are sure impacts the situation. The ability of Idaho rangers to patrol and be a presence in the campgrounds (presumably impacted by funding) is much less than in Oregon State Parks.

Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, we see a difference. We are curious about how we will feel about camp hosting by the end of August.  Will we move on to museum, lighthouse or visitor center volunteer gigs?

On the bright side, most of the campers at the park are fine and are appreciative of our efforts to make their campsites and campground nice. Our fellow hosts are great to work with and we have a terrific campsite to park in. And, we are in a location where family and friends can visit. Even as we look back on our week with our family, we look forward to next week when we will host friends Darrell, Cindy and Beth!

We have had an eventful first week as camp hosts in Farragut State Park!

We arrived a week ago today and found another trailer in our host camp site at Waldron campground. The people who went with the trailer were suppose to be incoming hosts at another campground in the park but felt their trailer wouldn’t fit into that host site. A ranger compounded the problem by giving them our spot and hoping we would fit into theirs. After a night in a regular campsite, we were eventually able to move into our site and get set up. (There is a whole melodrama with the other people but we have been able to stay out of it and do our planned assignment.)

In preparation for the packed Fourth of July Weekend we helped to make sure all sites were ready and were instructed about the Stage 1 Fire Alert – meaning no fireworks, only low profile campfires in provided fire circles and smoking only on established campsite pads.

We also received water pumper training in case we needed to put out a small grass fire, or an overblown campfire. (Little did we know that about 30 hours later Randy and the two other camp host husbands in our loop would be guarding the park with the water pumper.)

The Fourth of July was actually fairly uneventful – just a few people who thought they were special enough that the fire alert didn’t apply to them. In the evening many campers went the three miles to the nearby town of Bayview to view fireworks over Lake Pend Oreille. Many used their boats to get a good view and when the fireworks were over, some people decided to beach their boats or tie them up to retrieve them the next day.

Overnight the wind really picked up and some boats were swamped, sunk or broke away and ended up in places around the lake. While we were cleaning sites the next morning we started to hear on the park radios about people trapped around the lake and the dicey retrieval and recovery.

Then we heard the first mention of smoke. Over the next hour the smoke turned into a full fledged fire, later named the Cape Horn Fire. The town of Bayview was threatened and people were asked to evacuate. That is when Randy and the two other guys took the pumper truck out and stayed for most of the day into evening.

Just the beginning….

Due to falling ash, our park manager called for the evacuation of two of the four campgrounds in the park and closed day use areas. When I came back to the trailer, I prepared as much as possible for potential evacuation. I had a few bags of things to take if we had to leave in a hurry and then prepped the trailer for a less hasty retreat if needed. Those things stayed packed and the trailer remained in readiness for several days.

This park is bisected by a state highway and there are several access points into the park. Over night the highway was closed to all but emergency personnel and we were asked to help man “round the clock” road blocks so that only those with confirmed reservations into the two remaining campgrounds could enter. I shared the 10 PM – 1:00 AM duty with one of our partner wives and Randy pulled the 1:00 -4:00 AM shift. It was an interesting, and very sad assignment to see the many area fire trucks and support vehicles coming through the park towards Bayview and the fire. It was stunning to see the Cape Horn mountain on fire at night, beautiful and very sad – especially since this was a man made fire, details to be determined.

For those of you with feminine pride, Farragut’s only female full time ranger, Errin, was the ranger on duty when the fire started and remained the park incident commander for the first two days. We are so glad that Idaho Parks allow us to have radios so that we had an idea of what was going on. We could hear she was doing a great job dealing with a million things at once.

For the next three days we had many people opt to leave the campground and just a few people came in. All day use areas of the park were closed to keep visitors to a minimum in case we too were evacuated. There were crews in helicopters, planes, boats and on the ground fighting the fire and we were always glad to hear and see them. One of the evacuated campgrounds was home to firefighters for a few nights and some operations continue to be based in the park.

As of about 48 hours ago, the federal agencies took responsibility for the fire. We have US Forest Service, National Interagency Fire Center, and FEMA folks and probably others. There are Air Force and Navy facilities on the lake so surely they are involved. We heard this morning that the fire has turned away from Bayview and the park and is 35% contained with most of that containment being along the lake.

The park manager is unable to ban campfires in the park altogether. There are campers who are dumbstruck at those who still want to have campfires, given the situation, and others who are verbally abusive when we suggest they not have a campfire. Currently the camp hosts in the two open campgrounds are banding together and refusing to sell firewood. We can’t stop those who bring in their own wood from burning, but we aren’t going to sell them more.

Our little corner of the world is slowly returning to normal. We still have pending road block duty tonight and tomorrow but the park is scheduled to return to normal operations on Friday. I unpacked our emergency bags and set the trailer into living mode again. I’m not sure we are officially off evacuation alert, but it feels like it.

Keep those campfires low, folks. All the best from Waldron Campground at Farragut State Park.

When my parents owned property near the Washington Coast, we had deemed their meadow as The Best RV Park Ever. It had a nice view, great company, no leash rules, was free, and came with good food. After they moved to the city, we had to consider options for the next “Best RV Park Ever” and we found a great one!

My Aunt Bonnie and Cousin Lisa’s family live in the Tri-Cities of eastern Washington. It is a dry, barren land except for the orchards, wineries – and their backyard!!

Their yard was lush and green – and we appreciate grass ever so much now!    I liked that I just had to open the door to let Elko out in the mornings – although it took him until the second day to understand that he could go without me.  They even had an apricot tree giving us as many tasty apricots as we wanted each day.

We had great company, no leash rules, no charge and good food.  My cousin and her husband, Chris, are the chili cook-off people, and they also smoke meats and cheeses.  Yum!

They even allowed vehicle washing – something that is very rare in RV parks! Even though Randy didn’t love it, he did agree that the time was right to wash the truck and trailer.

Cousin Kylee is very busy with her activities. During the mornings she went to volleyball camp at her future school, Richland High.

Both of my parents and my uncle graduated from Richland High. The school mascot is The Bombers – connecting with the extensive Hanford nuclear site which employed so many members of my extended family.

Tours are available of the Hanford site and I tried to sign us up but several weeks prior wasn’t soon enough! I’ll have to plan better next time!

One evening, Kylee had a softball double-header.  It was fun to go watch her play.

After our visit with family, we came to Ponderosa Falls RV Park in Cheney, Washington.  We lived in Cheney when I was a little girl and my parents attended, what is now, Eastern Washington State University.

Our visit to Cheney has corresponded with area Extreme Heat Advisories so mostly we have just hunkered down and been glad we have 50 AMP service so we could run both air conditioners.  One evening the entire area lost power for an hour or so.  It got hot quickly and confirmed why we are uncomfortable leaving Elko alone in the trailer in hot weather.    (Another day we lost water, but that was because someone backed into one of he utility pedestals in the campground and they had to turn everything off to repair it.)

We have read, listened to podcasts, played Yahtzee, watched TV and completed some inside projects. We have also done future planning, getting reservations for the winter in Arizona and then some others as far out as March 2016. Of course,  RVers’ plans are set in jello, but I am so excited that the working plan includes the Mountain West Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas!  Go Broncos!

From here we will head to Farragut State Park and start our new volunteer gig.  We are excited about the family and friends that we will see while we are there!

“See you in a month.” That is what I said to my mom last night as we were leaving their house in Vancouver. We were just here two weeks ago for a couple nights and then back again for most of this past week. Being able to see family and friends more often is a great perk of this lifestyle.

This week we enjoyed a car show and drag races. The old cars were cool, but we wished owners would utilize signs to show the model and year. Although not the information we sought, we did find a couple interesting signs.

Mostly we just had to admire appearance and guess at a general time frame unless it was one my dad or Randy knew. My mom found a model that had been her parents one and only brand new car (no picture – bummer!).

A station wagon?

The drag races were interesting. The variety of cars was huge, from the type you think of with drag racing to old station wagons and everything in between. We learned only the very basics about the layers of competition and different times that are posted after each run. It was once again a reminder of “worlds” we know nothing about and what a great opportunity we have to learn a little about things along the way.

Randy and my dad worked on a  roofing project for dad’s new lean-to to protect the golf cart. This turned into a multi-day project because they kept deciding on modifications.

Mom and I went on a Vancouver Historical walk sponsored by the local Historical Museum. This walk was about the original Vancouver business district. The Evergreen Hotel was opened in 1928 as a First Class Hotel between Portland and Olympia. Its opening corresponded to the very night the city of Vancouver first lit their electric street lights. The hotel is currently an assisted living facility run by the Kensington-Evergreen company. Kensington-Evergreen has six properties around the country, several of which are on historic registers, that were restored and re-purposed as assisted living centers.

We had some fun with this chart about cousins and their different categories- which I pulled from Facebook (thanks Amy). I’ve always thought I had lots of second and third cousins but instead, those people are first cousins once removed and twice removed etc. It would be hard to even know someone who was a second or third cousin. But in the discussion, I found out that, on my dad’s side,  I am distantly related to Lawrence Welk and to the folks that began the Gallup Poll. Cool.

In the vein of very quirky “family,” last night we watched the last episode of the 1990’s series Northern Exposure.  Mom bought the series DVDs for Randy years ago and we have been watching them in order for the last few months. The writers knew the sixth season was the last so they had an opportunity to wrap up storylines.  We thought the very end was perfect.  We even watched the very end twice.

Today we are traveling to stay a couple nights with my aunt Bonnie, cousin Lisa (and husband Chris) and first cousin once removed, Kylee. At least that was an easy one!

And how will we see my parents again in a month? They, and Natasha, Seth and Archer, are coming to join us for a week near our next volunteer gig in northern Idaho. We will look forward to them coming, and also for friends Darrell and Cindy to join us, north of Couer d’Alene. We will be at Farragut State Park for July and August in the Waldron loop. Reservations at the park are tight, as our friend Beth is finding, but if you are in the vicinity – we’d love for you to get in touch!

We are at the beach at Ocean City, Washington  – and we have done fun things  – but this trip will be remembered as the one we had mice INSIDE the trailer. After our first meal,  Randy opened the cupboard under the sink and saw that unwelcome mouse.   That started a two day frenzy in which the man was “the man” and the woman was reduced to a pitiful former rendition of herself – one  who wouldn’t get out of bed in the mornings until the man checked the traps.  (Given the pack rats, the snakes and the mice – I’m not sure what I’m doing out here!  Growing?  Maybe?)

This was round one at the hardware store.  We eventually went four times in two days!

I’ll spare you all the details ( I don’t really want to re-live them) but the man ended up trapping two mice and tightened up our potential access points such that, if there is still a mouse in here, we don’t know how it would get out.    We also have purchased deterrents for almost all senses – Fresh Cab packets that they supposedly don’t want to smell, an electronic attachment to our wiring giving magnetic pulses that they supposedly don’t want to feel,  ultrasonic sound emitters that they supposedly don’t want to hear and of course, the traps for their sense of taste.  The good news is that we’ve now gone 5 days and nights with no evidence of any additional stowaways – but the man is still looking and the woman is still  sleeping with the light on!

While we were still blissfully unaware of our intruders, we enjoyed a couple days with my parents in Vancouver and then went to Seattle to see a Mariner’s game.  It was Kyle Seager Bobblehead night so getting there early was a priority!

Bobbleheads for grandson Archer and cousin Kylee.

Archer’s T-shirt!

It was an eventful game.   Seahawk Richard Sherman threw out the first pitch, the manager and catcher both got thrown out of the game, A-Rod was thoroughly booed each time he came up to bat,  the closer blew the save so the game went to extra innings, and the Mariner’s lost.

As for the fun things we’ve done  ….  the best was reconnecting with friends John and Julie, who live in the area.  We met them in Mazatlan last December, (a conversation started because of John’s Seahawks hat) and spent time with them at the pool and dinners out.  It was a very pleasant and comfortable evening being with them again!

We enjoyed 2-3 walks on the beach each day, either at nearby state parks or down the short path from our campground, through the dune grass, to the ocean.

Elko loves going to the beach!

One day it was so foggy that we could hear the ocean but could not see it until we were very close.

Because we couldn’t see the ocean, we did notice the cool patterns that the surf made in the sand.  There were several within a short distance of each other.

We went to the Ocean Shores Kite Festival and learned a little about the world of kite competitions. Competitors were flying kite routines to music and getting scored on a rubric we did not understand.  We also watched a foursome practicing their synchronized routine where the kites moved very closely together, wove in and out  and, somehow, did not tangle lines.

Mostly we just enjoyed looking at all the different shapes and sizes of kites!

The day we were there the wind was blowing 2-3 mph.  The day before was 11 mph and we would have seen a completely different collection of kites.

We enjoyed talking with this couple, veterans of decades of kite festivals and competitions.  They always make their own kites, including the butterfly kite below, and told us of their transitions from using bamboo to graphite to fiberglass.    They also use fishing reels to manage their kite lines.  It was interesting stuff!

Today we leave the Washington coast for the Oregon coast.  We are headed for Seaside.  Hopefully there aren’t any mice there….just fun times.

This being our first time to volunteer in a state park, we were wondering what to expect but told ourselves  “we can do anything for a month.”   We are delighted to say that this experience has exceeded our expectations and been very enjoyable.

Carl, Ruth, Lisa, Serene and Randy

One of the reasons we wanted to volunteer was to be in a place long enough to be part of a community.  We have been very happy to work with our ranger friends, Lisa,  Chris, Kathy, Blu, Sheryl and George!

Lisa

Randy and Chris

Serene and Kathy

Blu

Sheryl

Very cool George

And also were most happy to share the Crooked River Camp host duties with our partners and new friends, Carl and Ruth.  We enjoyed all of the people we worked with, and would be happy if these relationships can continue outside the park.

We spent one afternoon with Carl and Ruth (and Elko) on a pontoon boat we rented at the marina.

We were able to explore Lake Billy Chinook and view the steep walls and palisades from the lake level.  Namesake for the park, palisades are columns which formed in the basalt after volcanic lava flows.

There are a variety of interesting formations along the lake.

There are also a variety of wildlife, especially birds, that live along the lake.   Although it is a prime area for viewing Golden Eagles, we seemed to mostly see the ever present vultures.   One day I was driving my golf cart out to the ash dump area and saw a group of vultures circling the area.  I was nervous about what I was going to find out there given the circling vultures in old westerns.  I didn’t look too hard, but I didn’t see anything dead or dying.

Very unfortunately, we did end up seeing quite a few snakes,  including this guy who thought our campsite was an okay place to be!  Not!  Randy was gone when I saw it so thanks to Carl for moving it away!

Fortunately we never saw or heard a rattlesnake.  When one of those is sighted near a path or campground, they are moved  to a different part of the park.  That is a ranger’s job – not for us volunteers!  Not that I would do it even if it was in my job description…

There is an interesting type of lizard in the park.  The Whiptail Lizard is native to the southwest, but somehow made it to central Oregon.  They are all female and reproduce without the need of a male partner.

We finally had some nice weather to venture out on our days off.  We spent time at the Peter Skene Ogden State Park.  He was a fur trapper who roamed the west in the early 1800s and was the first in this area.  Additionally, he rescued the survivors of the Whitman massacre near Walla Walla, Washington and the city of Ogden, Utah is named for him.

Elko stayed in the truck!

The Ogden park is adjacent to the steep Crooked River gorge and there are three bridges within walking distance crossing the expanse.

The first is the Oregon Railroad Trunk Bridge, built in 1911.   This bridge was significant in the railroad wars between the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and the Union Pacific.   The SP&S won in court but outside the court, the battle involved “night raids, dynamite, gunfire and fistfights.”

The second bridge, 464 feet long and built in 1926, was for vehicles on Highway 97.  When constructed,  it was the highest (295 feet), single span bridge in the country.   It served vehicles until 2000 and is now open for foot traffic.

It was replaced by the Rex T. Barber Veterans Memorial Bridge.    Rex Barber was a fighter pilot in World War II from the nearby town of Culver.   He and his crew were credited with shooting down Yamamoto Isoroku’s plane in 1943.  Yamamoto was  the mastermind of Japan’s  attack on Pearl Harbor.

We also went to Pelton Park which is one of the parks run by Portland General Electric.  They operate three dams in the area and the fish ladders are quite extensive.

The path on the right is the fish ladder.

At a wildlife overlook we heard a huge amount of loud squawking across the river!

The visible brown sections are nests and inside were many, many huge birds!

They were flapping around making noise and we assume they were juvenile great blue heron thinking about jumping ship.

On a personal note, we celebrated our 35th anniversary on May 23rd.

During our honeymoon in Mazatlan, Mexico we ate at a 5 star CHINESE restaurant.  Strange, we know.  So, in keeping with that idea, we went to Madras Oregon’s highest rated Chinese restaurant on Trip Advisor.

The Ding Ho Family Restaurant doesn’t look like much, but the food really was great!     Even the left overs were great.

This week we were finally rewarded with a very clear view of Mt. Jefferson.  It has been a treat to be able to see Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood and the Three Sisters from the campground and while on our local travels.

We are preparing to leave here in a few days.  We will play tourist again for the month of June and spend time with my parents in Vancouver and my cousin’s family in eastern Washington.

In July, we become volunteers once again. We can only hope the experience will be as good as this one has been at Oregon’s Cove Palisades State Park.

We are in the middle of our volunteer gig at The Cove Palisades State Park in central Oregon and it is going very well and very quickly.  We are camp hosts in the Crooked River Campground and some days we work long enough and hard enough to actually be stiff!

For our free site, our commitment is 4 hours per person, 5 days a week –  and that is about what I work.  Randy is a happy, over-achiever in this job and frequently works about 7 hours.  (We figure that I am “making” almost double his hourly “wage” as I am working only half the time that he is for my share of our free site.)

Randy  is doing a lot of seasonal prep for the campground and enjoys “playing” with all their power toys like the Z Track mower.  

He has also used one of his own toys, his metal detector, to find irrigation couplers which have been overgrown by the grass over the years.

In the mornings, Elko helps me change camp site signs to reserved or available.

I enjoy running around in our golf cart and specialize in cleaning fire pits.

Super clean fire pit!

We have a nice camp site with very good satellite access, acceptable Verizon data service and  really poor voice cell service.   It is nice to have lots of green grass – even if it is part of our job to keep it watered and mowed.

From our site we see almost everyone who comes in and out.   We have seen some interesting rigs, including this custom “trailer” made from parts of 10 different cars.

We have enjoyed meeting many of the  “guests” in the campground.  The weekends are busy, but during the week we have plenty of time to chat.  We have met lots of interesting people including two separate couples from Germany.   One couple rented an RV to tour the US  and the other had their own German motorhome shipped here, via Argentina (after spending time there last year).

We have had days off during the last couple weeks.  The weather has been hit and miss, but one nice day we went on a hike up onto the peninsula bluff, a 7 mile loop trail called Tam-a-Lau.

After not seeing the dreaded snake in all of Arizona, it took no time at all to see one in Oregon.   It was slithering across the trail during one of the brief times I was leading our trio, but  I survived.

Elko wasn’t impressed by the view.

From this side of the bluff,  we had a good view of an extension of the peninsula called The Island.

The Island

The Island has steep vertical cliffs on three sides, rising 700 feet above the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers.  It is about 200 acres on top. Due to the steep cliffs, the Island was only grazed for one season, by sheep, in 1921. It has not had any sizable wildfires in the last century. As a result, the Island has one of the United States’ last remaining undisturbed areas. It is a Nation’s Natural Heritage Site and was designated a Research Natural Area by the Bureau of Land Management. It was closed to the public in 1997.

We have a few more days off before we leave at the end of the month.   We hope to have some good weather to explore more of central Oregon’s high desert, but if not, we are still having a blast being working stiffs again.