Another Fun Family Day

Dinner with Alan and Karen was great last night. This morning we met them at the Pig 'n Pan in Newport for what has become our traditional departing meal. Love that restaurant and we caught up on more family info (gossip?). It was a fun visit.
















Then we made the short trek to Camp Kiwanda near Pacific City. Haystack Rock is the huge land formation out in the ocean. We have beautiful weather and a wonderful clean beach to enjoy.

















We bought kites for the boys and we all enjoyed watching Josh and Alex fly them. In the photos we have Gary helping Alex


















and Monte helping Josh.















And the dogs didn't get any attention at all--uh huh. They are loving being with their extended family, too. Brenda is snuggling them in this photo.




















Alex


















Josh










After a nice pizza dinner we enjoyed toasting marshmallows around a cozy campfire while the dogs checked out the bunnies that live at this camp.

Peterson Family Day

Oregon roads are so much smoother than CA roads. Today has been a much nicer driving day. Elsie has not been happy this trip--kind of an upset stomach, so she is mostly happy when we stop. Tule is happy no matter what.

I sure do like my iPhone--I can use it as wifi for the computer, as well as for taking photos. I remembered my good camera and the new tripod Britta gave me for my birthday, but forgot the cord to connect it to the computer. Too much going on all week for everything to stay in my memory. All the photos on this blog were taken with my iPhone 4G! And many were taken at about 64 mph, since Gary doesn't stop for photos.

This is the view from the front of our RV at our Medford RV spot. It is the Bear River--rushing fast so we could listen to the song of the water.






















The cute car was in the next site--loved the bumper sticker on it.
































We had lunch in Eugene with Gary's cousin, Lynn. She looked great and we had a fun time catching up on what is going on in her life.


Tonight will be dinner at the RV with Gary's brother and his wife. Another fun family day.

We're Outa Here

It was a relief to leave this time. Nice to get out of the mess that is our house, even though we have cleaned up a lot, there are still papers to go thru.

Gary experimented today--at 64 mph we only use 7 mpg--at 70 mph we use 6.4 mpg. So we drove a bit more slowly today.










It was much drier outside Redding than we expected.

















But Lake Shasta is full! First time in many, many years we have seen so much water there.

















And Mt. Shasta is more covered in snow than we have ever seen.


We are now in Medford right next to the river--it is absolutely beautiful.

Uffda

We had a great weekend at the Vagabundos del Mar Crab Feed last weekend. Then we came home to a nasty surprise. Someone had broken into our house and really trashed the place. The photo is the office--couldn't walk thru there. The master bedroom was worse, clothes everywhere.



The police came to take a report and decided CSI was needed. The CSI was there 3 hours doing his thing. Then we got to dig thru the mess to figure out what was missing. Some was obvious right away--the silverware was gone--silverplate and sterling sets. All my earrings were gone except Easter bunnies, snowflakes and Norsk flags. They left my Solje pin, but took the matching earrings. Didn't find my necklaces. Took Gary's jewelry box. The worst two were my wedding ring and the heart necklace Gary gave me for a wedding gift.

The good part is that we now have very clean clothes, a large bag to donate and nice, neat drawers and cupboards. The hardest part is that we needed to leave Thursday (we discovered this on Sunday) so we have hit the ground running every day to get the house in some kind of order and do all the research we needed to do for the police and insurance company. Now we are on the road to Seattle.

Home Sweet Home

Home has never looked so good as after last night's RV park. The dogs have been in the pool and the RV is unloaded.


I got a call from a knitter friend as Gary shopped at Cabela's Boomtown. She warned us about the bumpy road between Boomtown and Weimar. But Gary decided to brave it. We soon found out it was a scary thing to do. There were signs warning nothing over 108" could drive on i-80. We are 102" wide so Gary figured no problem. Then we ended up squeezed into this tiny section of roadway for several miles--going 20 mph because the truck way in front was nervous, as he should have been. After that the pavement alternated between brand new smooth patches and extremely bumpy spots. The dogs kept glaring at Gary like he needed to stop this silliness and drive smoothly. Gary counted 9 Hiway Patrol cars between Donner Pass and Baxter--and another 9 just before Auburn for a new record of 18 in one day!




There must have been a bit of rain in the mountains while we were gone. We were amazed at how much green we saw all the way down the hill.







We had a nice harvest from our garden to greet us.









And my knitting accomplishment for the trip was to start and finish this gorgeous scarf.

We'll sleep good in our own bed tonight and so will our girls. It was a wonderful trip, fun times with good friends, fantastic scenery, terrific weather. Life doesn't get better than this.

As we headed out of Homedale, ID we noticed a LOT of corn. There was corn everywhere in every field.





After such a beautiful drive the last few days, we arrived in the high desert. There were many plateaus as we left Idaho and entered Oregon, and lots more corn.








Then it was more of the same view over and over. Lots of dryness and not much else. It got to the point that a sign like the wild looking cow and hyper deer were exciting new things to see.





















We ended up on a very long straight stretch in Oregon, similar to the Loneliest Road (Hwy 50) in Nevada.







The Blue Mountain Pass (5293 feet of elevation) was barely noticeable as the view rarely varied.




We loved the name Idaho gave the washboard areas installed on the sides of the freeways--rumble bumps. These are the areas that upset Elsie so she trembles so much she vibrates. It is the perfect name for them.

Norm, we thought of you every time we saw a sign that said "6% grade". Today we saw 7% grade and really thought of you!

Today Gary got a bee in his bonnet that we should skip the nice place at Winnemucca and head to Lovelock. Well, we're here--it is a scary place--about like the one in Oregon that had the sign that said police wouldn't answer calls there. An older couple pulled in next to us and said they decided to stay here because they saw our rig--and the lady at the desk told them we stayed here all the time. This creepy place is costing $28 a night and if you want to use the shower it is another $5. We will use the shower in our rig and save the $5. I suspect we'll be gone earlier tomorrow than any day so far

Our favorite moment of the day occurred while we were walking the dogs around the block near our RV park. Two little girls were having a difficult gime holding back a little Jack Russell terrier as we wandered past. At a critical moment when they seemed to be losing control, one smiled at us and said, "Sorry, my dog likes to eat dogs that are bigger than him." At that point a young boy on a bike rushed in to save them and got control of the dog. We laughed all the way home.

Tomorrow night we hope to be home.

More Amazing Scenery

We drove from Grangeville to Homedale, ID today. It was another gorgeous route filled with rustic views.



We followed the Salmon River thru Hell's Canyon (couldn't figure out where Evel Kneivel attempted his jump.)






This huge boulder in the river caused us to really think about Nature's power. We saw a sign that said we were on the Oregon Trail--more thoughts of those who endured this wilderness without the benefit of a car or RV.




There was an abundance of forest land, then we came upon lots of farms with nostalgic barns. There were more horses on this route than any other place we've stayed.





We could tell it is Autumn by the splashes of yellow in the trees and orange in the bushes along the way.








As we headed south we discovered we were driving along the Snake River. Then we found this RV park in Homedale that has given us another fantastic view out our front window of the Snake River.


As I wrote this blog we discovered the first insects of the trip--a zillion of them came in when I took the dogs out. We have been swatting them ever since.

Tomorrow we head into Nevada, one more day closer to home.