Return Trip to Texas (with some errands along the way)

     Well, we had to leave sometime and unfortunately, now was the time. This year we have to renew/update both our Military ID cards and our Drivers Licenses. So we packed up and bid a temporary farewell to our friends in Depoe Bay at Sea and Sand RV Park. We have agreed to return next summer to the same park for another round of touring the Oregon coast and enjoying all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

     We headed south as we had to make a quick stop in San Diego. We took four days but made it safe and sound. We then headed East, back to Casa Grande, AZ. We had some work that needed to be done on the coach and the dealer in Tucson could take care of it for us. We also had some sun shades custom made for the front and side windows (drivers side pictured above). These shades are great as they block the heat and sun BEFORE it gets into the coach. This keeps things cooler and eases the load on our AC units (which haven't been used since we got to Oregon last June!). They are easy to put on and take off and they roll up for convenient storage.

     We stayed at a fantastic RV Resort in Casa Grande called Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. This is a massive development with paved streets, gravel RV sites with concrete patio and full hook-ups, park models of all varieties, and some custom built homesites. Several swimming pools are scattered around the property. There is a huge clubhouse with side meeting rooms, woodworking shop, jewelry making shop, quilting and sewing rooms, a large library, tennis and pickle ball courts just to name a few. As the name implies, there is an 18 hole golf course that meanders through the property. Since temperatures are still touching the low 100's, there are not many residents, but I can assure you, this is a hopping place over the winter! The management found us a site between two park models that was great. The one park model blocked the morning sun until about 11:00, then the other park model blocked the afternoon sun from about 3:00 on. Really helped to keep the coach cool and comfortable even in the heat of the day. It was from here that Barb packed up and we flew her back to Kansas in order to help take care of the grandkids. Misty and I stayed in southern Arizona until we got the repairs completed. Then we packed up and headed towards Texas.

     Since it was just Misty and I, and we were in a bit of a rush, we travelled across I-10 staying in Flying J truck stop parking lots at night. The night before arriving in Houston, we decided to stay at a Texas roadside Rest Stop. I have to say, Texas does a fine job on their Rest Areas. They are spacious, clean, and quite comfortable for staying overnight. Above was the view out of our front window as the sun came up that morning. We drove through San Antonio and Houston and finally arrived early in the afternoon at our place at The Preserve in Cleveland.

     We parked the coach and spent a couple of days getting things unpacked and picking up things that Barb needed to have brought to her in Kansas. So, Misty and I left the coach buttoned up in Texas and hopped in the car and drove up to Kansas to get our errands done and to visit with friends and family.

     We met with our good friends and former neighbors and had a bonfire/hot dog roast and caught up with all of the things that had happened to us and them since we last got together. The girls and I did some fishing in their pond and both girls caught a couple of catfish. A good time was had by all!!

     Leading up to the girls' combined birthday party, I had a project assignment to engineer and build a table for them to play with their multitude of Lego playsets. Their mom had seen something like this on Pinterest, so I planned it out, bought the materials, and built it just in time for their party. They love it and I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that they are having such great fun using it.

     Coming up next week we take a quick drive up to South Dakota to update the drivers licenses, back through Kansas City to visit with friends and family there, then back to Derby. The youngest granddaughter will take the road trip with us so it should be fun!

Crater Lake

     We took a long weekend and played tourist. We drove out to Crater Lake National Park. It was amazing to see. When we arrived it was overcast and a little chilly. The lake was dull blue and not very impressive. We wandered around then headed to our hotel for the night. Next day dawned clear and beautiful. What a difference in the lake color!! The water is a vivid blue with shades of green around the shoreline. If you have never been there, here's a little background. The lake rests inside a caldera formed about 7,700 years ago when a 12,000 foot volcano collapsed during a major eruption. Later eruptions formed Wizard Island (which is the smaller landmass on the right in the photo above). It is the deepest lake in the United States and is fed by rain and snow but no rivers or streams. The lake level remains steady because the loss by evaporation and seepage is offset by tons of snow over the winter and rains. The lake is considered to be the cleanest large body of water in the world and is noted for its clarity and brilliant blue color.

     The road around the crater forms a ring and you can normally drive all around it stopping in various turnouts and photo spots. But this time there was a part of the road closed due to rockslides. In order to remove the threat of further blockages, a construction crew dangled off of the cliffs along the road and using pry bars, broke off chucks of loose rock and boulders. We had to wait some while as they did their work before we were allowed to go on through. In the meantime, we watched them and saw some pretty impressive man-made rockslides.

     After our delay, we headed towards what are called The Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are called fossil fumaroles. They are left from where volcanic gases rose up through a layer of volcanic ash. These gases were so hot that they fused to rock around them into a kind of "concrete" composed of ash and rock. As the softer ground surrounding them eroded away, these formations are exposed. It is really a fascinating geological formation.

A closer view of some of the Pinnacles

     On the way back, we took a short 1 mile hike to Plaikni Falls. The trail was fabulous. It was wide and level and it wandered through old growth forests. Once at the falls, it was surrounded by late season wildflowers and ferns. Very peaceful and relaxing.

     One of Crater Lake's "other islands" is small and sometimes overlooked. It is called the Phantom Ship since, from a distance, it looks like a tall masted ship that is sitting on the lake near the shore. While it looks small from the vantage point overlook, it is actually as tall as a 16 story building! It is 400,000 years old and is the oldest exposed rock within the caldera.

     From Crater Lake, we headed towards Bend, OR. Here we stopped at Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We were a little tight on the schedule, so we didn't stay long nor did we see nearly all of the park. We mostly toured the Lava Lands Visitor Center and Lava Butte. Who knew there was such volcanic activity in this part of the country?

Oregon Garden

     Today we took a day trip inland to the valley and visited the Oregon Garden (link to their homepage). The complex is near the town of Silverton which is near Salem. This is an 80 acre botanical garden that boasts several unique themed gardens that visitors can stroll through. Just a few of the gardens are the Pet Friendly garden where you can see plants showcased that are friendly to pets and shows which ones can be toxic. The Children's Garden has a pit where you can dig for dinosaur bones, a Hobbit house and a miniature train garden along with displays of several weird plants. The Conifer Garden sports the largest collection of miniature conifers in the country. There is a Medicinal Garden where all of the featured plants are used in some form in medicine.

     Everywhere we travel, we see things that the States do really unique and some things they do really weird. This place falls into the really unique and smart category. In 1995, the site formed an agreement with the City of Silverton and developed a Wetlands garden designed to recycle the city's treated wastewater! They found that re-introducing the cleaned wastewater directly into the Silverton river system raised the water temperature such that it impacted the environment. Now the water is fed to the gardens and collected into a series of wetland pools. It is also used for irrigation of the plants and vegetation. As the water flows naturally through the gardens, it is cooled and joins the local river system such that the environment is not impacted. Neat idea and we humans get to enjoy the beauty and serenity of the gardens.

     Above are just a few of the sights that met you around every corner.

     There were many sculpted evergreens in the Children's Garden. Here you are met at the entrance by a teddy bear.

     Something interesting about a tree in the shape of a flower!

     Here is the Hobbit hole for all of you Lord of the Rings fans.

      Colors were everywhere. The last picture shows a patch of ornamental peppers. They were orange and purple but they had several others too. They used it as colorful ground cover. Neat idea!

     The Signature Oak tree is a throwback to a time of Oregon as it used to be. It is estimated to be over 400 years old and stands almost 100 feet tall. One of the gardens consists of acres of Oak trees and is quite relaxing to stroll through.

Scenery Around Every Corner

     The weather here on the coast is both varied and steady.  We have beautiful days of sun, then the fog rolls in from the ocean and obscures the beach. Temps stay constant, however, at a cool 60-something degrees, and cool nights in the 50's.  We headed inland for some sightseeing (where there was no fog but much warmer temperatures). We took a driving tour to see the covered bridges around Albany. They are old but well maintained. Created in the same style and still in use, we found families swimming in the river beneath each one of them.

Hoffman Bridge

Inside Hoffman Bridge showing the design and architecture

Shimanek Bridge

     The next week we took a trip to Silver Falls near Salem. This is the largest state park in Oregon. 10 different waterfalls are tucked away on 9,000 acres and 25 miles of hiking trails. We didn't take the Trail of 10 Falls but we did go in at a couple of trailheads and hiked to see the scenery. The trickle of a hidden stream and the sunlight filtering in through the fir trees made for a great, relaxing adventure.

     Misty even got to tag along on this trip. She likes to take the opportunity to go with us in the outdoors and what dog could resist trees of this size?

One of the falls on the Trail of 10 Falls

Misty and I take a break and enjoy the cool waters

     Our next day trip was a short drive south to Cape Perpetua Scenic Area. South of the little town of Yachats (the "c" is silent so it is pronounced "YAH hauts") in the Siuslaw National Forest, it is "Where the Forest Meets the Sea." Some of the most dramatic views of the Oregon coast can be found here. Hiking trails abound and surprises are around every corner. Tidepools, churns, and spouting horns can be found on the beach.

     Here at Devil's Churn, the ocean rushes in and is funneled into a narrow crevice. The deep bass booms of the surf crashing against the rocks can be heard long before you see it.

     Along the shoreline and the beach, the waves splash up, and at times spout up high into the air.  Beyond the visitors center, you can take a hike or driving trail up to the high ground and get a breathtaking vista of the Oregon coastline.

View from the outlook

     We are rapidly nearing the end of our summer stay here in Oregon and still have a few sites we want to visit. Time seems to be slipping away quickly. Guess we're having too much fun!

Pilgrimage to Tillamook

     Today we took a day and drove to the city of Tillamook. Here is where the famous cheese (and other fine dairy products) are made. Along the way the road leaves the coast and turns inland. You see less and less of the ocean and more and more of huge dairy farms. On the outskirts of Tillamook is the Tillamook Air museum.

     Who knew that during WWII, this was the location for two huge wooded hangars that housed 8 blimps each. These airships provided security patrols of the west coast to protect against enemy invasion or assaults. Because of the need for steel by the war effort, the hangars were made out of locally available wood and built in a very short time. In fact the first hangar was started in December of 1942 and finished in August of 1943. The second hangar took only 27 days to complete!!! They were over 1,000 feet long and about 300 feet wide and over 15 stories high. Each of the blimps stationed here were 245 feet long and filled with over 425,000 cubic feet of helium. They served in a variety of commercial capacities since being de-commissioned at the end of the war. In 1992, Hangar A was used to store hay and it caught fire. The only thing left was the concrete supports for the doors. Luckily, Hangar B still exists and serves as the site for the Air Museum.

     Looking inside the hangar you can't help but be amazed at the craftsmanship and the sheer size of the building. 

     One of the displays shows the relative sizes of blimps of the era. The Goodyear blimp is shown near the bottom at 190 feet in length. The K-Class blimps were the ones that served here.

     A neat photo of how 8 blimps were stored and moored within the hangar.

     The mini-Guppy aircraft outside the huge doors of Hangar B.

     For size perspective, here I am in the cargo bay of the mini-Guppy and it is a huge cavern. Ok--enough about the Air Museum. I could go on for quite some more but then the readers would all fall asleep, etc...

     Driving into the Tillamook area you see a number of patchwork billboards on the sides of barns and businesses. All are unique.

     Local folks with a quilting background thought that it would be nifty to merge the dairies and businesses with a quilt square of their own, similar to that practice in the east. They got together and came up with these and they are proudly displayed throughout town. There is a complete tour that takes you to see all of them.

     Once at the Tillamook factory, you can take a self guided tour. Here you watch these huge 40 pound blocks of aged cheddar cheese roll in and, through a series of cuts and slices they become small one pound blocks called a Baby Loaf and packaged for sale. Later in the tour, you pass through the sample area where you can sample a staggering variety of cheeses (Barb's favorite part). This leads you into the company gift shop where you can purchase larger blocks of the aforementioned samples for your later enjoyment. 

     They are also known for their ice cream which can also be purchased by the hungry tourist. Here I contribute to the local economy and refuel my body for the trip home. 

     On the trip home we stopped by several spots. Above is a picture of the Octopus tree. This is a Sitka Spruce tree that was used as a burial site for local native Americans. It is unique in that it has no  large vertical central trunk, only branches that form the tree, but it is huge and obviously hundreds of years old.

Cape Meares

     This is the Cape Meares lighthouse. Got to be the shortest lighthouse in the world. 

     Not too far from Cape Meares, there is a huge mass of sand dunes near Sand Lake. This is big enough that there were a string of dune buggies that roared in and around the area.