…as in socked in in Lincoln City. It was sunny when we first arrived but within about 30 minutes the fog rolled in and blanketed us in a cooling mist. After the long hot summer in Eugene, we are loving it!
Our first stop this morning, after leaving home at the unheard of hour (for us) of 7:30, was the Santiam Rest Area. About 50 miles north of us on I-5, this always makes a good stop to check the tires, walk around the toad, and just make sure everything is behaving as it should. I also check Russ and make sure he is also behaving as he should! Usually he is not.
This rest area is more like a park so it’s a good place to stop and stretch. That’s the Santiam River you can see through the trees.
We encountered this little guy and don’t know if there is something wrong with him or if he is molting, or if it is a species we are not aware of. Hope someone can help.
The reason we left so early was TRAFFIC. Both of our universities had home football openers today, the Ducks in Eugene and the Beavers in Corvallis. The cars southbound (many flying either Duck or Beaver flags) were actually stopped at some places, but northbound moved right along…until we got to Lincoln City.
As expected traffic was at a standstill there but it wasn’t backed up too far. We made it to Logan Road RV Park with no trouble.
This park is located right across from Chinook Winds Casino, and as expected, they pack ‘em in as tight as they can. It’s not too bad for a night or two, but not a destination park (in my opinion).
This is the best row…the other rows are much tighter and have little to no grass. These sites back onto a grassy knoll (yes I know about grassy knolls!) and a woods beyond that. There is room to park your toad in front of the yellow bumper.
The Grassy Knoll! A nice place to walk.
Here’s a look at our site from atop the knoll, which is also the doggy area (no fence).
Not too bad at $30 for FHUs. That’s with a 15% military discount.
While we were walking up here, atop the Grassy Knoll and next to the deep and dark woods, Russ said he felt something staring at him.
Turns out it was only something STAIRing at him…abandoned at the edge of the woods.
Okay, I’ll quit now! Gonna hunker down and get some good sleep where it is cool and quiet.
We have passed the Portland IKEA store many times through the years but have never been inside. We decided to change that today. Went online and signed up for their free membership program and scored a free cup of coffee at the restaurant.
We thought the store was interesting, with enough furniture and doo-dads to make anyone happy, but I didn’t like being trapped in the maze. Their aisles are laid out in a one-way configuration, designed to make you walk the entire perimeter of the floor, thereby increasing the chance that you might see something you just can't live without. We found ourselves swimming upstream as we tried to find our way out of the maze…
We had heard good things about the restaurant so decided to give that a try. It is cafeteria style and it was VERY busy today. We saw this offering while we waited in line but opted for the bacon cheeseburger instead.
It was a tasty burger and the fries were nice and crisp but I don’t think I would go back. IKEA seems very focused on the younger crowd and that is certainly what we found there today. Nothing wrong with that…just not our cup of tea. If you have a screaming toddler or a fussy infant, then you probably don’t notice all the OTHER screaming toddlers and fussy infants…however when you don’t have said baggage in tow, the noise is deafening. OOOPS, my inner curmudgeon is showing LOL!! Did parents always allow their toddlers to scream (you know that high pitched, piercing shriek) at the top of their lungs or am I just getting old? (don’t answer that!!)
Before our trip to IKEA we drove along Marine Drive which follows the Columbia River. Oregon on one side, Washington on the other side of the river. It’s a fun drive and we came upon a park we had not seen before. It looks like it is new or newly renovated and is a great spot for boat launching or just hanging out on the beach. Lots of parking for cars and boats, and a new restroom facility.
There is a wheel chair ramp down to the beach so those that may not be able to walk can at least get close to the water. The beach is wide and sandy and we saw lots of evidence of beach fires.
There was a big tractor thingy that had apparently been doing some beach grooming. Lotta sand here!!
The website for this boat ramp calls this wall “a wave and debris deflection system that allows for efficient fish passage.” Not sure how it helps the fish but it seems to help break the waves for the boat ramps and it looks nice too.
It was a beautiful day on the Columbia and quite a few folks were out enjoying the water, everything from kayaks to big fishing boats.
Across the road from this spot is the
Portland airport, so if you get bored with the beach, you can watch the planes come and go. Yeah, they’re loud, but I like to see them take off and land. We saw some military jets doing maneuvers today – they can sure fly in tight formation. That’s just a passenger jet in the picture.
We had a fun day and are headed home tomorrow. We had planned to stay in the area longer but need to go home and check on the sprinkler repair and a few other items. We’ll head back out later in the week for Fort Stevens.
What with sidewalk construction out front and tree removal out back, it has been one NOISY summer. Makes the noise of the kids playing Let’s Dance on the Wii seem quiet by comparison.
One last look at the sweet gum tree before it comes down. The backyard is going to seem empty and we sure will miss the shade.
That is one TALL tree! See the branch hanging down on the right side of the tree? That branch cracked a couple of days ago but had not yet fallen.
I gotta say, I have a whole new appreciation for the men who do this type of work. Only one guy is the climber and he has to rig the ropes and tie them to the branches before he makes the cut with the chain saw that dangles from his belt. He has to figure out which limbs to through the ropes over so that he can safely lower the cut ones to the ground. He has to be able to know which ones to cut so that he still has enough limbs left to climb on and to attach the rigging ropes to. He has to watch out for rot, and not climb where he’s going to go down with the branch.
Russ took most of the pictures and I love this one. Looks like he’s about to cut off the limb he’s kneeling on!! He was just cutting off some of the smaller branches.
The yellow arrow shows the climber high in the tree. Kinda gives a perspective as to how tall that tree is. One big tree doesn’t stand a chance against one small man!!
Here business owner Ben and his son, Jacob, carry a heavy chunk of limb. It was strange – when I saw Ben I thought he looked familiar. In talking with him, we found out his wife (at the time) Mary, used to work for me as a teller when I was in Operations at the bank. Jacob and his sister Mariah were just little bitty kids. Now Jacob has two kids of his own and Mariah is getting married this weekend. Small world!
For us, and especially for Russ, it was another case of not wanting to let go. He really didn’t want to cut down the tree but looking at the pile of wood and seeing some of the rot, makes us know we made the right decision. It wasn’t all rotten but there was enough rot that I wouldn’t want to see that tree stay with us for another winter – just too scary.
This fella did a great job on wrangling that tree – a real branch buster!
It took two almost full days to get the tree down and almost an entire day to get the wood hauled off and the stump ground down and cleaned up. I was a little shocked at the price tag at first but after seeing how hard they worked and what a great job they did, I don’t see how they did all this for under two grand. They also took out a couple of small volunteer madrones that were getting out of hand in the front yard.
So the tree is gone, the mess is cleaned up, and all we need to do is get the yard back into shape. Here’s a before and after look.
Here’s a video – three days condensed into 1M 47 Sec!! I didn’t try to make it fancy, just some clips of the work in progress.
We’re glad it’s over and done with…even the garden gnome is relieved!
Gotta go finish packing up Therapy…leaving early tomorrow morning. Wish us luck – we’re out of practice!!
Just as a follow up to yesterday’s post, I wanted to post this You Tube promo clip from The Long, Long Trailer. Many of you are familiar with this 1953 movie, but I was surprised that some were not. This is a must see for every RVer. Some of it was filmed in Yosemite so you might recognize parts of the scenery. If you can watch this movie without at least one big old out-loud guffaw, you have more control than I do. So, check this out…the movie is available on Amazon for $4.99 on DVD. Would be cheap at twice the price. (nobody paid me to say this lol!!)
Yesterday we drove to Salem for lunch with Russ’s sister and brother and their spouses. We don’t see them nearly as much as we’d like to as none of them live very close. Seated at the table, clockwise, Russ’s sister. Alice, Russ, SIL Bonnie, Brother Fred, their granddaughter Meredith, yours truly and BIL Elmer. Great folks. Elmer is a real card – always a lot of fun. Alice is as dear as my own sister. Fred and Bonnie spend winters in Palm Springs where they have a condo, and Fred makes hand crafted golf clubs in his spare time. We had a great lunch at Red Lobster and had fun catching up.
That’s all for now – carpet cleaners are here so maybe I’ll have a clean carpet for the first time in a couple of years!! Poppy had developed the habit of bringing bits of food into the living/dining room and eating them on the carpet. Of course Russ didn’t help matters by feeding her from the table constantly. I finally gave up and put a place mat on the floor by our chairs so she could eat with us. It was a case of too little, too late I’m afraid. But I really don’t care…it made Poppy happy to eat with us and it made Russ happy to “sneak” food to her from his plate. So it’s all good – and I'm glad we did everything we did to make our old gal happy. But it will sure be nice to have clean carpets again!
Time for a little exploring in our own backyard again so we loaded up the old folks (my sister, Laila and her husband, Brian) and headed to Odell Lake. Okay, They’re not THAT old, but they are older than we are!!
Odell lake sits at the top of the Willamette
Pass on Hwy. 58, about 65 miles east of Eugene. We were looking forward to some cool mountain air (elevation about 5000 feet) and lunch by the lake. We hadn’t gone too far into the mountain when we discovered that it was NOT going to be clear mountain air. Apparently, the smoke from the fires burning in southern Oregon are creating a smoke blanket across a large part of the state. I thought we would be far enough away to avoid the worst of the smoke but it got worse the higher we went.
The fires are shown on the map and our approximate location is indicated by the yellow “X”.
There is a nice restaurant at the east end of Odell and that is where we headed for our lunch stop. The deck was cool and shady and afforded a great view of the lake. The problem was, you couldn’t see very far across the lake. Usually the air up at Odell is clear and the skies are blue, but not today.
We didn’t let that deter us and we sat on the patio for some time, enjoying a burger and watching the activities on the lake.
The mountains are nearly obscured by the smoke.
Heading home we stopped at the west end of the lake at Shelter Cove Resort. This is my favorite end of the lake but their food offerings are from the little store and consist of microwave pizza and corn dogs. No restaurant at this end. They do have lots of cabins and boat rentals as well as a nice campground.
Normally the view of the ski area across the road is crystal clear…not so much today. The bare spots on the mountain are winter ski runs.
We did see folks bringing in some good catches of fish. Guess the kokanee don’t care about the smoke – or maybe it helps hide the hook from their sharp eyes!
Even with the smoke we had a good day. It’s a beautiful drive up the pass and it was good to get out and see the lake (or what we could of it!!). We stopped at a sno-park area and let Laila gather a few rocks for her garden. I wish I had a picture of her carrying those rocks but I was helping and didn’t get the camera out. The back of the van reminded me of Lucy in the movie, “The Long, Long Trailer.” If you have never watched that old movie, please do. It’s one every RVer should see at least once!!
It’s good to enjoy every moment, regardless of the condition of the sky.
That, my friends, is a very good, very
bad-for-you treat that was first produced by Dottie Chase right here in Eugene 53 years ago. Dottie and her Fri-Jos are a staple at Lane County events such as the fair and the Scandinavian Festival. She even took her recipe to the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, where her tasty treat sold for 20 cents! The price now is $5.75! Her recipe remains unchanged over the years and is basically just a deep-fried piece of yeast dough covered with cinnamon and sugar and served hot. Dottie keeps her age a secret but we saw her at the Festival over the weekend – riding a mobility scooter now but still going strong.
I wrote about the Festival and shared some of its history last year, as well as sharing a picture of Russ in his Scandinavian Outfit! Click on the link if you want more info.
Vikings are always around during the Festival.
My favorite treat is not the Fri-jos but the Swedish Meat Pies. Ground beef, cheddar cheese, potatoes, onions and celery in a flaky crust…what’s not to like. Yum!!
One treat I thought Judy might like is a big favorite of the crowds. These are basically little balls of pancake batter baked on a special round grill and served with jam or powdered sugar.
I couldn’t get close enough for a picture of the process so borrowed this one from the festival site. This is how ableskievers are made. They pour the batter in and as it cooks it puffs up. They have little picks they use to turn the ableskiever until it is nice and round and brown on all sides.
Oh one more thing I found for Judy in a display of refrigerator magnets.
Don’t think I want to try that anytime soon!
We had a great couple of hours wandering the streets, eating fair food, and just doing a little people watching. And when we left, we walked over the tracks just as a train was getting close. So we stopped behind the gates and watched the train go by. Simple pleasures.
Another summer is in the books at Grandma Central. The last of the grandkids left yesterday. Of course we still have the locals to visit with from time to time but the overnights and group activities are at an end for the season. If you haven’t been around teenagers for a while, let me tell you – they have a TON of energy!! Here’s an example: (Cailin has a bit of advice at the end!)
I’m glad they are moving and getting exercise but it does tend to wear on a body after a while!! In self defense I finally took the TV out of our bedroom into the craft room and set the Wii up in there. Worked much better.
We weren’t in the frame of mind to do a lot of fun activities this year, but the 5 teenagers had fun gathering at our house and just being together. The energy level was high and matched the food consumption!! Good Lord, can those kids eat. We did take a day trip to the farm and they all shucked corn for dinner. Had fun doing it too!
For the first time in our married life, we are totally alone as a couple. We started married life with four kids between us, and for forty years we have had kids, nieces, nephews, and other assorted relatives living with us most of the time. Don’t’ get me wrong – I wouldn’t change a thing in having had our kids here at home. And since we have been blessed with a big home, it was only natural to help out various family members from time to time with accommodations, some long term, some shorter. And in the times when perhaps we had no other people living here, we always had a pet or two or three to occupy our time and attention.
Again, I wouldn’t change a thing in the past and I miss Poppy and Rusty so much – more than I ever thought possible. But as Nick Russell recently said on his blog, you cannot go on with the next chapter in your life until you quit going back and re-reading the last one. Our lives have changed and we are beginning a new chapter. Although we will always treasure the memories of our last years with Poppy and Rusty (and little Punkin Kitty), we are prepared to move forward. For the first time, we have only ourselves to consider when making plans. It is a totally different feeling and one we will have to get used to.
It is hard to imagine the time and physical and emotional energy we invested in Poppy over the last 8 months, and in Rusty before her. I would do it over again in a heartbeat and, if I could have her back as a healthy, happy dog, I would do that too. But we have accepted that we did the best we could for both our dogs and made the right decision when we could see there was no other option. They lived good, long, and happy lives.
But now it is time to refresh ourselves and our relationship. It’s time to focus on us as a couple and enjoy some things we have put on the back burner. We’re not even going to let sidewalk construction and downed trees stand in our way. Don’t like the estimates we got today for taking care of that tree but that’s life. Bad things sometimes happen and you just take care of them as best you can and move forward.
And moving forward is what we plan to do. We are going to a grandson’s wedding later this month and then on to the coast at Astoria, OR. We hope to do the coast from north to south. So many beautiful places to see and so many campgrounds to visit. It will be after labor day when we hit the coast so hopefully the crowds will be somewhat dissipated by then. I hope I'm not jinxing our plans by mentioning this ahead of time but I’m excited and pleased with the new direction our lives will be taking. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you on the road!!
