Off to Gibsons

Our first 5 days home were filled with all those chores of doctor, dentist, fill prescriptions and income tax filing. Saturday we drove to Horseshoe Bay where this is the beautiful view to Langdale, the landing for Gibsons and off we went to visit Suzanne and James and 3 kids. We had a lovely time including a trip to the beach and a treat of ice cream. Then Opa headed home and Omi stayed. S, J and I went off to a Rotary/Arts fundraising evening at the Mall where there were many stations of wine tasting displays, delicious food and many paintings, glass works, jewelry, all art subjects and silent and bidding auctions items. There are many talented artists in this community. It was so much fun to see Suzanne and James and all their friends. We also had a lovely visit with Helen Hunter and daughter Jen from Kamloops, friends dating back 25 years.

Soroptimist Service Evening

I attended our Soroptimist evening, my first in 6 months. Soroptimist is a coined word meaning best for women and is an International women's service organization I have belonged to for 13 years. It is structured like Rotary with a variety of professions represented. We have done many projects in our area during the past 56 years since the club was chartered. My favourite is ReSTART, standing for Surviving Today and Restarting Tomorrow. This program provides complete kitchen, bedroom and bath items to start a new life when leaving a transition house to begin independent living away from the abuser.
Tonight we provided gardening help to the local Women's Centre and while we were getting the gardens in shape, Adrienne, one of our members was cooking up a great meal for us. Delicious and much appreciated.

Back Home in Canada

Well it turned out that we had an unexpected but delightful holiday in Colburg while we had our motorhome brought up to perfection. We usually stay in Nisqually our final night in the U.S. but, not one space left. Most were filled with what looked like full timers and many were quite older looking. We drove on and stayed overnight at the Tulalip Casino.We stopped at Chuck and Barb's in Blaine and had a nice visit, then arrived back at the Pacific Border R.V. Park, our usual summer home about 1:30 and got settled. Nice to see all our friends from the last 5 years. Here's the Peace Arch which says 'Children of a common Mother' that separates U.S. and Canada and the U.S.

Cottage Grove - 6 Covered Bridges

Cottage Grove was the focal point of local farming, Bohemia mining activities and the wood products industry 100 years ago. Some buildings in the downtown area were built before the turn of the century of local materials and remain intact and in use today. It's a charming historic small town .
It is famous for it's 7 covered bridges, each different. The 'Swinging Bridge' is strung on long cables and was built for foot and bicycle traffic for the kids to cross the river to school in the old days. The local people built a pedestrian 'Centennial Bridge' in 1997, span 84 ft. on the abutments of the old Main Street Bridge which stood until the 1950's. There was an old 'Chambers Railway Bridge', span 78 ft., constructed in 1925 to transport logs to his mill until 1951. We drove over 2 but my favourite was the Currin Bridge, constructed in 1925, span 105 ft. This is one of the oldest bridges in the county and the only one with white portals and red sides as seen here.

Junkyard Dogs

Here's a one and only - a hotdog drivethrough called Junkyard Dogs, out on a rural road.
Eugene is the 2nd largest metropolitan area in Ore. and they call it the 'Worlds Greatest City of Arts and Outdoors', due to the abundance of arts and culture and passion for sports and recreation. There are more ways to cross the Willamette and McKenzie rivers by bike and foot than there are by car. The University of Oregon is here with it's running track at the historic Hayward Field, which will be host to the 2008 Olympic track and Field Trials.
Five of us went down to the Hillside Diner for the Thursday special, Bone and Brew - delicious.

Oregon storms

Boy, Oregon weather has a system all of it's own. It seems to change every half hour - pouring rain until the wind blows the clouds away, sunshine, then clouds and rain again. There were some serious clouds as you can see.
This is a rigorous life for retired folk. We're up at 6:00 again so the coach is into the shop by 7:30. The bedroom slide has had the leak fixed and it's been rain tested and the toilet is being replaced today. Ron is at a class on Allison engines. The ladies decorated flip flops with beads today. There are jigsaw puzzles, movies and books, but the best company is all these travellers telling where they've been and what's next.

Rural mailboxs

Ann with 4 other women had a 2 hour driving class this morning. Vince gave us great tips on braking, turning and backing up. Then we all had an individual 1/2 hour driving lesson in a 2001 Contessa coach down country roads and through the outskirts of Harrisburg, pop 450. Small town, small roads. I was driving in a light rain which fortuanately stopped and I could turn off the windshield wipers. I am feeling more confident driving now. These small towns are noted for their history and charm. Here are 2 mailboxes we passed. This is old farming country with lots of sheep, sod and grass farms. The area is known as the 'Grass seed capital of the world'.
I went into Junction City today, 5 miles away, to use the Internet again. There was a group of Danish settlers that arrived here in the 1920s so you see a Scandinavian influence here.

Covered Bridges

This area, Lane County,was the first Oregon County to build covered bridges on a large scale, west of the Mississippi. Early bridges used a truss and housing design provided by the Highway Department. During and after WW I, steel was in short supply but wood was plentiful, so the County kept on building them as the cost was so much less. There are 20 covered bridges in the area, 14 of them still open to traffic. From Eugene/Springfield we drove 16 miles east on State Highway 126 along the McKenzie River to the small Leaburg Dam near Vida where we drove through the Goodpasture Bridge over the river. What an incredible feeling. It felt like we should be driving with a horse and buggy. This bridge was constructed in 1938 for $13,000.00 (restored in 1987) and has a span of 165ft., the second longest in Oregon. It has the standard Housed Howe truss design with wonderful architectural detail including louvered gothic styled windows you can see along the sides and semi-elliptical portals. An interesting fact is that the country requires all bridges to have steel guardrails, so these are made in a square shape you see here and painted white, looking like the original wooden post type. I just loved being able to experience this covered bridge, a reminder of yester year.

Cinderella's Coach

The McKenzie River flows fast and furious from the Cascade Mountains through old majestic growth forests and winds through the valley. We walked through the Superintendent's House at the old fish hatchery. they had a waterwheel on the bank in the back yard which provided electricity in 1911.
There is endless water fun on this river which is rich in history and scenery. There is even the McKenzie Drift Boat which was invented for this river and is still commonly used as standard transportation for fishing excursions. There are spring Chinook salmon, winter and summer steelhead, rainbow, cutthroat and bull trout. There are fishermen everywhere.
The valley is very peaceful and seems to have many artisans living here. There was a chainsaw wood sculptor and this amazing display of welded steel sculptures, highlighted by Cinderella's coach. It's a pleasure to drive through here with everyone keeping their yards immaculately.

Gastronomical Tour

We're enjoying an Oregon holiday here in this beautiful rural setting. We went to Colburg today, a peaceful village, filed with historic charm reflected in the vintage homes and many antique stores. I love the houses with their big verandas and lovely gardens. Everything is in bloom, lilac's, rhododendrons, dogwood trees, all the old fashioned flowers and shrubs. This little town was based on lumber in the 1850's but building a dam upstream essentially wiped out that industry in the 30's and there was no further growth.
We stopped at the Junction City Cafe to use the Internet and ended up having lunch. Incredible food!!! Ron had a ham and cheese grilled on dark rye with clam chowder while I had a tomato basil bisque soup with melted cream cheese in it. We're staying for free so it seems we're eating our way through the towns with the most delicious food in the most unsophisticated cafes you've ever seen. this cafe is furnished with odd chairs and old dining room tables, all different and charming. It has a library area, a bride ini her wedding gown, gifts, books and antiques for sale and we put a pin in the map to show where we are from. We're the first from White Rock.

Club Monaco, not Club Med

We arrived in Harrisburg ORE at the Monaco ( they bought out Holiday Rambler) Service Center Tuesday and parked in the back where they have 32 hookups. This place is full all the time. It appears that time is not of the essence here. A service rep met with us Wed. at (9:30 a.m. to review our list of what we wanted done. It took until Thur. to give us an estimate and then they ordered parts. We thought we'd arranged all this by phone. So we need to wait until Monday for parts and the start of the work.
In the meantime, we met Ethel and Jerry from Alberta, a woman I used to line dance with for 5 years at Catalina. We joined them for happy hour in their brand new Diplomat and the went down to the Hillside diner for their special Bone and Brew - baby back ribs and a beer for $9.99. Delicious. If you're ever coming down I 5, pull off at exit 199 to Coburg and enjoy the best food first place on the right.

Northern California

This certainly is a big state, the 3rd largest and extremely diverse - from 1264 miles of coastline to desert and snow covered mountains. The high is Mount Whitney at 14,494' to the low of -282' in Death Valley. Went past Lake Shasta with it's red earth and the beatutiful blue water was higher this year. This picture doesn't do it justice. Lots of boats in the marina. Then through the Siskiyou Mountains and down into Oregon. We fueled and stayed overnight at the Peartree in the 'other' Phoenix, not in Arizona.

Through Central California

We went off in lovely sunshine through citrus, nut and fruit tree farms and lots of vegetables too. The irrigated parts are so green and lush and the rest so very brown and dusty. The rows of produce form many geometric patterns as this newly planted area show. At times, we follow the aqueduct supplying the water. Signs read, 'Food grows where water flows.'
As we drove through Sacramento, I read that this city was settled in 1839 on a 50,000 acre land grant from the Mexican government to Capt. John Sutter, a Swiss emigrant. It became the state capital in 1854. Gold was discovered in 1856 and the rush was on. The railroad arrived in 1856 and it became the western terminus of the Pony Express in 1860. It became a great agricultural area. Then above Sacromento, we were surprised to see the the rice paddies had been allowed to dry up and go to seed.
Stayed overnight at the rollings Hills Casino and enjoyed a lovely Easter dinner after we phoned the family.

On the Road Again

First chore this morning was to duct tape the awning together. One wind had made a small tear in the seam, and overnight winds ripped it right off, so a repair with help of a neighbour. Left Cat Spa at 10:30 after hooking up the bikes and car and dirt protector. Had to think hard to remember how it was done. Heading out of Desert Hot Springs we ran into fierce head winds. the windmills are as far as the eye can see and were spinning very fast. They produce a lot of power. We stopped for lunch at Kramers Junction and when we were going through Tehatchapi, the awning arm came down. Quick stop on the shoulder and up the ladder with all the traffic whizzing by, for more duct tape repairs. Stopped at Lost Hills at 6 and still enjoyed the sunshine.

Sad to leave

So sad to leave this fabulous weather - we've been spoiled silly, but will be really happy to get home to hug and see all our family and friends. The park is becoming quite empty as everyone leaves. This sign says what we're enjoyed all the time we've been here. On the road tomorrow.

Life in the Desert

We're getting ready to head home, so it was getting basic food, 5 gallons of drinking water and some distilled water for the batteries. None to be had at K Mart but figure we're OK. Had Van and Edie and Don and Lila over for a 4 p.m. visit after Don had a tooth pulled in Mexico. We've enjoyed good company with these friends during the winter.
We're now enjoying spring in the desert, new bunnies, roadrunners and hummingbirds. Here's a picture of one nesting so we can enjoy them year round.

Good Old Fish and Brew

We took Don and Lila up to Yucca Valley this afternoon where they took us to the Yucca Christ Park. We had never heard of it. Apparently a single man built these many statues of Christ and Bible figures, and temple structures, and installed them on the hillside. The land has now been donated to a private foundation and there are church services on Sundays. We wandered through the Park overlooking the town of Yucca and it was very peaceful.
Then it was on to the Fish and Brew for fish and chips. This restaurant has been here for many years and this indulgence happens about once a year. We used to drive Mom and Dad up here and Dad was delighted to get the Wed. special, a 'nickel' beer - that's right, you get a glass of beer for 5 cents.

Now this is a sunrise

I was up early walking this morning and this is one of the beautiful sunrises we have here in the desert. I borrowed this picture from Susan, my computer tutor, who walks everying morning at 5 a.m. Needless to say I don't join her. We are enjoying temps 85 -90's, just what we need before we head home where they had snow April 1 and it wasn't a joke.
We talked to Julie, then Chris today, to wish him a happy 44th birthday. My goodness, how did that happen? Where did the years go?

Old neighbours

Ed and Maureen joined Ron today for bocci ball while I swam lengths, did a jigsaw puzzle and rode my bike, enjoying the sunshine. I still can't lean forward to pick up the balls without getting dizzy. We enjoyed Jackie and George from Richmond and Ed and Maureen for a visit this afternoon. They used to be our neighbours for 2 years in Pacific Border RV Park.

Blooming cactus

Just loving the weather and don't even want to think about leaving. Because there was no rainfall here this winter ( 2" total?) there aren't very many blossoms. These cactus are blooming by the pickle ball courts. We went up to the hamburger BBQ tonight and the our surprise, they are trying to use up the rest of the food and guess what, we arrived just after the cutoff, so off to Carl's for a Philly Burger. Quite good and very filling.