Aug 27, 2009
     
Arizona and New Mexico have some very interesting rock formations as you travel along but also alot of desolate places that I don't bother taking pictures of.  I chose a few of the best to share with you.
     
Erosion leaves behind some interesting formations.  Punkinhead in his normal position while traveling!  He sleeps most of the time unless we slow down where he can look out without getting dizzy!
  
Cloud formations always intrigue me as you have seen by my other blogs.  We stopped for dinner at this Route 66 Casino and walked out the door without pulling a handle, I'm so proud of us!  This Casino is just to the west of Albuquerque New Mexico.  It is a nice one with a really good buffet.  We stayed at High Desert RV Park on the outskirts of Albuquerque.  Nice park and reasonable prices.  They were very nice there too.  We parked for the night and settled up in the morning.  We traveled on across New Mexico and across the Panhandle of Texas on Interstate 40 taking highway 287 just east of Amarillo down to Decatur then west on 380 to our Thousand Trails RV park at Bay Landing near Bridgeport.  Spent 1 night there in a very quiet spot that was where the maintenance workers park in the old section.  Went to the clubhouse for breakfast the next morning for a very reasonably priced breakfast and enjoyed a very nice visit with some other RVers.  After leaving there we went through Dallas Ft Worth area and got on Interstate 20 on across Texas into Louisiana.  We made it to Monroe and found a place called Shiloh RV park that was an RPI park for us. Cost us $9 to stay there is all and again we parked for the night and settled up in the morning.  We didn't want to arrive in Mississippi late as we had tree limbs to trim to get into our place so we spent the night in Monroe.  The next day ,Aug 29, we got to our place at 12:30 in the afternoon and got settled after a lunch (dinner according to Mississippi folks).  We will be here for an undetermined length of time.  Have some work to do on our place and also on Billy's Mother's place, sowe will be here awhile. 

Once we start to travel again I will be back on here to share with you again.  May find some interesting things to share from here as well.  We went and picked Okra last night from someone who didn't need any more from their garden.  Made 5 gallons to put in the freezer.  I didn't take any pictures though.   I will be taking time here to go back and re-enter my deleted pictures from the first half of my blogs so each time I do one and repost it those who have subscribed will be getting a notice of an updated entry.  So you may ignore it if you wish or just re-read them and go back to Alaska with us again.  Until next time.  Happy travels to you.

       
Talk about big trees in Oregon take a look at those logs!  In Eastern Oregon we stayed at Junipers Reservoir RV Resort, our first night out, that we just happened upon as we drove.  It turned out to be very quiet, off the road a couple of miles with its own little lake.  Beautiful sunflowers and a nice bathroom and club house. Punkin head had a great time there!
   
Gravel for the parking areas but a beautiful large lawn in the middle.  Another barn to show you we are in farming country.  Hey we even ran into a cattle drive right down the highway.  We were going up hill so were traveling pretty slow anyway.  They were strung out for several miles.  Evan had real live cowboys hearding them.
   
Eventually we get into Nevada and visit a friend in Battle Mountain.  Here is the sign, Billy and the 5th wheel parked quite a ways away.
That is copper in that stone and some mining equipment.  We walked across the road to have lunch before leaving town, at the Owl Club, and we didn't even stay to gamble.   
Nevada stretches for miles with not much to look at.  I read Barb Rees's book "RV Canada With Boo the Menopausal Van" out loud to Billy so he could enjoy it too.  What a nice book, you feel like you are on the trip with them!  We had traveled across Canada once before so have been to some of the places she mentions.  She also wrote "RV Canada On A Dime And A Dream" a few years before.  If you have been reading our blog you will remember we met her and her husband in British Columbia at Williams Lake at the visitors center and again on the way to Stewart BC and Hyder AK.  We get her blog and stay up with their travels and she reads mine to keep up with us, I hope.  We do emails once in a while anyway as well.  They are from Powell River BC.  Anyway I got off track there for a minute.  We get into Utah and go through Cedar City and through the mountains to Kanab.  We had been through there before only it was dark so we certainly enjoyed seeing the sights this time.  It was so beautiful the different colors of rock and the different formations and types of rock cliffs too.  My camera ran out of battery power about midways through so I didn't get pictures of all of it.  So I will share a little of what I do have.  If you ever get the opportunity to go that route take it as it is very scenic.  We stayed in Kanab for the night and said we want to come back and spend a week there sometime.  It is close to Zion Nat'l Park and Brice Canyon as well.
       
More of our trip in the next blog as I'm way late getting to bed as it is!!!

Aug 19-23
       While in Salem we stayed at our friends Ron and Sally's place since they were not there.  You can see Punkin head made himself at home!  He slept in the truck at night and was outside most of the day staked out in the back yard but at this moment he's loving this chair.  Thank goodness we had time to go to dinner with my cousin Clayton and his wife Lan.  We went to our favorite Chinese Buffet.  Flowers are in our friends, Loretta and John's, yard they were so pretty they just begged me to come take their picture.
      
On our way out of town we stopped by their house to say goodbye.  They were kind to us and fed us scrumptous bacon and tomato sandwiches, what a treat.  The tomatos were home grown and so delicious, they even sent some with us.  Yum!  Billy woke me up from a sound nap to see this cute car as we were driving down the freeway, it was cute and worth it.  A long shot at a favorite house in Drain that I have taken pictures before of.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
       
A cute church in Scottsburg and the Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge near Coos Bay.  The yellow house is just a neat house in North Bend, guess I like that little porch upstairs.  The next house has a very interesting roof on it the way they did the shingles is different, it also is in North Bend.

     
And this house might sell for more money if it had a nice paint job!  The Paridise Cafe is our favorite place to eat in Port Orford and these little baby birds were just about to leave the nest.  There were 4 of them.  They were under the eave and we could see them from our table in the cafe.  We had to make a trip down to Gold Beach about 27miles away so I snapped a few pictures on the way.  I just love the ocean and enjoy the coastline.


       
These 4 are all as we were coming into Gold Beach, looks like the fishing was good or there was a turnament that day.  The last was taken upstream from the bridge.
       That is Port Orford in the distance.  We just had to go over to the beach and take Punkin head with us.  He was so daring he walked right along the edge and peared over and would jumped right over had I not pulled him back!
      He acts like he ready to go somewhere or something.  Saying our goodbyes to Jeff, owner of the Camp Blanco RV park, and his daughter and to our friend Susan who is a writer and painter.  We will miss her and someday we will go back to that park in our travels and perhaps she will still be there.  And lastly Billy is pulling our 5th wheel out and we left that day the 24th headed for Mississippi.  More on that trip later.

Aug 17th
     
The beautiful Columbia River that separates Washington and Oregon.  We love to stop in these little old towns along the way. Moro, Grass Valley and Kent.   This one is Kent I believe.  Didn't see much life in it!  First is grain elevators looks like both old style and new.  Then what looks like an old store with a red door no longer in use and another store no longer in use.  More and more towns are having this problem where some businesses open last year when we came through and this year they are closed and for sale.  Click on the Moro link and look at the picture, the red building just past where it says "CAFE" was another cafe, with the Pepsi sign next to  the cafe sign,  we have stopped in several times but now is closed.  We were sorry to see that had happened.
       
Couldn't resist this old abandoned farm near Kent with the windmill we saw from afar.  Just had to turn down that road to get a closer look.  The General Store is in Shaniko.  Now this little town is old but is still partly in working order and some places are open for business.  Don't let the people at the General Store set the tone for the rest of the town as the owner was pretty rude and down in the mouth toward us, she  lightened up a bit once we bought something.  I suspect she is that way about life in general.  Others in town don't much like her and don't shop there either.   Next is an old mower I believe.  The white building is not in use and I'm not sure what it was.  Do click on the link as I found a site more informative than I am.  Also this link for Shaniko for a story about the town.
     
This is the Shaniko Bank or was?  The blue building on the left used to be the Gold Nugget Saloon but now  appears to be a dress shop.  Next door I don't know what is in there.  Ahh behind the motorcycle is the ICE CREAM SHOP!      
Inside brings you back  in time to the good old days.  Welcomed by Goldie Roberts, also the Mayor of the town, this is where the locals hang out and the tourists stop to get the local flavor of the place and the ice cream.  Yummy!  This Ole House was closed maybe permanantly?
   
This is the Hotel don't know if it was open or closed but doesn't look busy.  Another little store look at the old cars alongside of it!  Then you see what looks like a long barn at the edge of town to the east. 
    
The old Jail Wagon sits in an open lot across from the hotel.  And a really old fire truck!  A little church completes the town.  This is a neat place to stop and drink in the history of the area and to see the town that is a museum in itself.
     
Further along the way to Terrebonne we see a nice barn and some horses in the field happily eating.  Finally we arrive at Crooked River Ranch where our friends Randy and Pat live. 
           
Along the way I snap this picture of a favorite house I see is rented out for people who want to vacation there.  It has a spactacular view of the 3 Sisters mountains.  I borrowed from another time of the year to show you their view which was taken outside the subdivision on the way to Sisters.  The deer is a common sight throughout the subdivision as they have no fear there and walk through everyones yards unless they have fenced them out.  This is high desert country. Smith rocks is nearby where climbers love to go and try out their expertise of climbing clifts.              

Aug 16th and 17th
   
We took the river scenic route to Selah Wa.  This is the Yakima River that the road follows for several miles.  It was a treat to see along the dry grass along the hill sides.  We would have liked to stop in Ellensburg to see friends on the way but too many things to do and not enough time to do them so will catch them on the next time through when we have time for a descent visit.  Second picture is my nephew Robert, myself and niece Theresa.  Next we have Austin, Vickie's son, Billy, Brendon, Vickie and Roberts son,and Kristin, Vickie's daughter.  Great kids.  Brendon had just had his 6th birthday the day before.
       
Theresa and their mother Judy then Vickie and Robert.  The kids wanted to take punkin head to the park across the street and then wanted to have their picture taken with him so we went and had some fun.  Of course punkin head took the opportunity to climb a tree!
     
Couldn't resist the beautiful sunflowers in their front yard.  Robert in front of their swimming pool that sits in front of their garage.
     
Kids playing with their games on the floor, Theresa feeding her Mom as she is invalid.  Punkin head getting acquainted with their kitty, never did get too close.
 
Yours truly for a together shot, poor Billy's lap!  We stayed until afternoon then had to get on to Richland where we got a motel room and met up with our friend Sally and her daughter Honey to visit for the evening as they were on their way to Alberta Canada and we were there to visit Billys cousin, didn't get their picture this time. We would have missed seeing them in Salem if we hadn't met there in Richland.   Next morning we all had breakfast together then they went on their way and we went to visit Billys' cousin Ondean and her husband Dale.  After a nice visit and some watermelon and cantaloupe we headed out for Terrebonne Oregon and a visit with our friends Randy and Pat.  Spent the night there and then went on to Salem where we had some things to do before going on to Port Orford to pick up our 5th wheel.  More later about the rest of the trip.







     

Aug 15th 2009
     
We got into heavy traffic in Seattle so what is new?  Visited Dan and Rebecca at the Studio/Store where I took a picture of some of her pictures.  They have started something new in printing on canvas and stretching it over a frame.  They turned out beautiful.  These are
just a few that they had made larger and put on the walls.  She does sell them in the store if you are ever in Georgetown at 6012 12th Ave So.  We hung out mostly at where they were to have the reception as we got there in the late afternoon.
     
Here is the happy couple Rebecca and Dan at the reception.  It was held in their landlord's place where he hold's different functions.  It has a lot of antique things like the jukeboxes and some of the furniture and kitchen appliances etc. there.  This is the cake made by a friend pictured below.  Turned out real pretty I would say and tasted oh so good!  This is Skip Rebecca's Uncle and wife Julie from California.
        This is Rebecca's cousin Erin, his son, Skip and Erin's wife they live not too awfully far from them near Seattle.  Next is their little girl, in the old car ride, and someone else's little child.  The young man with the camera is Jordon their photographer who loved to take pictures.  Seated is another of the nice couples they know that I don't recall their names.  A lot of their friends showed up after we had to leave so we didn't meet them all.  We wanted to meet Rebecca's Mom from St. Louis Mo but she didn't get there until after we left so we will have to wait until another time.  Perhaps we can go see her if we ever get up where she lives. 
        First is the couple who made the cake then Dan and a friend of his.  The beautiful old Jukeboxes and one of their cats that reminds me of the kitty I had as a child that was the same color.  They had bought 15 Pizza's 7 of which were left over.  I think most had eaten before coming there.  They were Vegan and very good.  So there you have it a little fun along the way and you got to meet friends and family of the Bride and Groom.

Aug 14th and 15th
      Seen just after we crossed the Canadian/American border in Sumas, Washington.  There are a lot of farms in Washington many of which we passed as we drove through.  Hadn't seen a windmill for a long time either.  This looks like a house but is really a barn.
      Some kind of farm equipment, I'd say it was a truck but there is no seat in it so I think it was adapted for another purpose.  I love to see churches in little, or big for that matter, towns this was a nice well kept one that caught my eye.  This white barn had an advertisement for the Blue Mountain Grill on it no doubt a way to make a little extra money renting that space.  The barn, silo and other buildings just caught my eye as having been and probably still is a nice farm.
      This one is too funny, this is punkin heads toy hairy animal we call it his baby.  It appears that he thought he needed a drink of water!  We have found it at his food dish before as well.  Do you think he is taking care of his baby?  Guess what city we were passing through in the next 3 pictures?  Yes you are right, Seattle!  Hated to pass through and not stop to see our son and his new wife but we were to be back the next evening for their reception party so we went on down to Ashford and Mt Rainier National Park to spend the day and night.
      We stopped at the Tall Timber Restaurant in Eatonville on our way for breakfast.  This is one of our favorite places as they serve really good food and are friendly.  Oh no another barn! Shaped a little different and found just outside of Eatonville.  Another lake as well this one is Alder Lake between Alder and Elbe on hwy 7.  We passed it a lot when we worked at Mt. Rainier for 3 seasons on our way to Puyallup or Eatonville.  Upon arrival in Elbe you will see train cars that have been made into businesses, here you have Hobo Inn.


        Just past there is the Side Track Room which is a bar and eating place.  We have never stopped to eat there so I'm not sure how good it is.  And past there at the train station is this little chapel, I don't know if they actually use it or not. Elbe is a cute little town, they also have train rides to Mineral during the summer or at least they used to, don't know about now.  Between Elbe and Ashford is a place where the guy makes these large animals and machinery etc out of scrap metal.  It is really neat how they have them sitting all around their place and yes they are for sale. We got a room at the Rainier Overland Restaurant Lodge for that night and went on up to Guest Services offices to see our friends.  One of them, Don Haye Billy's boss when we worked there, had just passed away suddenly a few days before that.  He had worked there a long time so everyone knew him.  The lady , Sandy, that owns the Overland had worked at Guest Services a few years ago so we knew her and her son Jeff. 
       
These are some pictures of buildings at the Overland we stayed in the cabin with the truck in front of it.  The first one is over 100 years old and was moved there by the owners of the Overland some years ago.  The 3 middle cabins are used for storage right now but may be fixed up to be rented some day.  We enjoyed the friendliness of this family and enjoyed our dinner and breakfast there.  Our friends Bob and April had dinner with us Fri night so that was nice.  The next picture is of National Park Inn at Longmier in Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park where I used to work as a waitress.  We enjoyed stopping and seeing a few people we still knew from last summer having worked there then.
    We stopped in Eatonville at the grocery store and saw this old car across the street and the owner was sitting at the table eating his lunch and he looked equally as old.  Next is a beautiful blossom from a weed in the area.  And the last is a shot behind us as we entered Graham which is just before getting to Puyallup.  There was construction in this area when we had left last year and it is all finished and looks great now.  Enough for now I don't know when I'll get back to the blogs.  I need to catch up to the present some time as it is now the 23rd of Aug and we leave for Mississippi tomorrow.  So I have about 9 days in between that I need to write on.

Aug 13, 2009
     
Here is one of the log homes probably built from the local log house builders from the area.  This is the beautiful Lac Des Roches on the road to Little Fort.  The trees are riddled with the spruce beetle or I should say were as they are dead now and the beetle has left them already.
     
This was a cute house with the white picket fence around it in Little Fort close to the Hwy 5 and 24 Jct.  Nice barn in the same area and a beautiful farm complete with lake and horses, my childhood dream!  An old barn but not too old to still use, perhaps I should say it is an old style and not so old in age.
         
Behold a sawmill! We didn't see many of those. This is North Thompson River, three minutes down the road is another shot of the river through the burnt trees.  A sign nearby said "Overlanders of 1962  It had been an epic struggle against the wilderness for the gold seekers of Eastern Canada.  They had crossed the Rockies, trekked through pathless forests, and won the swift rapids of the North Thompson River.  The open country now offered hope and safe passage.  Ragged and starved, they reached Kamloops where many became pioneer farmers."
     
This was a beautiful home between Little Fort and Kamloops, close to what my dream home would look like!  I wonder if it can be moved to somewhere in the lower 48? Lol  Next we have the city of Kamloops and beyond is the camp where they housed the firefighters when the forests in the area were burning.  And then the rugged rock clifts on the way to Hope.  We didn't stop in Hope and passed on by Minter Gardens on our way to Sumas, where we were anxious to cross the border into the USA.
      This was a cute barn and house in Sumas, BC. Last stop before entering the good ol' USA.









 

Aug 11th-12th       
Little Punkin Head sleeping like a baby, I cover him after he goes to sleep and he likes it if it is cool in the truck.  We stopped at this place called Tetsa River Services and had the best Cinnamon roll there.  We split it and it was yummy, we try not to do that very often but this one was irresistible!  The wildlife displays were in the dining room area which wasn't very big.  We were glad to see this place still open as a lot of them are not any more.  They have an RV park and cabins there as well as fuel.  Read more about it and see more pictures by clicking the link.
       Pretty yellow wild flowers.  Punkin Head loves to climb up in the window and lay down there.  When we get to moving he gets down.  Today we saw a Cariboo the only one the whole trip!  He was pretty but I couldn't reset my camera fast enough to get a good picture.
We spent the night at the Blue Belle Motel in Fort St. John.  It was a nice room with a small fridge and microwave.   The owners were very hospitable and helpful as well.  These 2 bucks were actually 3 of them but this was the best picture so you get to see 2.  Sure were pretty and healthy looking.  They were seen soon after we got on the Hudson's Hope Loop road.  We had to go back north of Fort St. John to catch Hwy 29 to Hudson's Hope.
      While at Hudson's Hope we visited their Museum which was the Hudson's Bay Store of 1942 and operated as such until 1954. We started at the outside exhibits then went inside. The link to this is an excellant one to read more about the area's history.   This is St. Peters Church which you can also view but we didn't.
     
This is a Trapper's Cabin alongside the Peace River.  They have found actual dinosaur tracks and bones in the area.This is what the sign in the museum says "In the summer of 2000, two Tumbler Ridge boys, Mark Turner and Daniel Helms, made a chance discovery of dinosaur tracks while tubing on the creek.  Community adults immediately contacted Phil Currie at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta.  He referred them to his PHD student Rich McCrea at the University of Alberta.  The prints were authenticated by Rich and field work began in the summer of 2001.  The trackway was produced by anckylosaurs and is the first in situ trackway from the Dunvegan Formation.  An even more momentous Tumbler Ridge Discovery was made by Chetwynd resident Wayne Sawchuck.  The site contains British Columbias first dinosaur bone beds with upwards of twenty bones exposed.  Identification of the 95 - 97 million year old bones has determined that they represent a species of Ornithopod, which would match the tracks found on the site.  Scientific work with researcher Rich McCrea continues on the site."       
This is a great collection of Indian arrowheads and things from the "Peck House" giving you an idea of the kind of utensils and machines that were in use in that time period.
        
When we traveled on to Chetwynd we found all these chainsaw carvings that are on display near the visitors center that are part of a contest in the area.
      Of course I share the pretty wildflowers and weeds that I find on the way.  If they are something we see all along the way I like to show them here.  Then we come to a must see falls called Bijoux Falls. The word Bijoux is French for "jewel". The provincial Park is home to British Columbia's provincial bird the Steller's Jay. 
      Not too far from McLeod Lake we happened to see this mother and baby moose.  They were hiding behind the trees and we had to back up to get this shot of them.  Again the sky was loaded with these beautiful clouds that would drop rain in various places.  We buzzed right through Prince George and didn't take any pictures this time.  Quesnel was the next town to go through with any interesting things to photograph.
     
By now we are back in farming country and old homes.  This is Williams Lake again and further south is the log home manufacturers place,  we saw several of these in our travels usually in the bigger tree country.
.  I love these little lakes south of Williams Lake they were calm on this day and made a perfect reflection of the surrounding trees.  We decided to take a small detour via Kamloops just past 100 Mile House on Hwy 24 to Little Fort then south on Canada 5 through Kamloops and Merritt to Hope.  I will continue with that trip next blog.


 






 


 

Aug 11th, what a day for wildlife!
       
Interesting rock mountain with the Liard River flowing nearby, view from Allen's Lookout at Historical Mile 570.  Here is the heard of Buffalo they kept telling us to watch out for we finally came upon them. 
      This was a beautiful view of the river coming through Whirlpool Canyon or Mountain Portage Rapids or Liard River Rapids according to whoever you ask.  It is a real pretty spot so I took the pictures to share it with you.     
This is as close to Liard Hot Springs as we got as they now charge to go in there.  Too many people tell too many people and it gets too busy and there is too much upkeep I'm sure so they need to charge.  It just put a damper on us wanting to go there is all.  We were so fortunate to get to see the Stone Sheep, Punkin Head thought so too!  They were so healthy looking and are licking the salt alongthe road that was put there in the winter time to melt the ice.     
Beautiful Muncho Lake, it is so green.  The sign says:"The striking color of Muncho Lake is created by tiny rock fragments scraped from the valley walls by glaciers and carried by meltwater downstream to the lake.  This silt flows into the icy water where most of it sinks to the bottom.  Fine particles ground to the texture of flour remain suspended in the lake water giving it a milky appearance.  The "milk flour"reflects and scatters sunlight, returning mainly the bluegreen part of the spectrum to our eyes."  Another moose I'll include as it was such a  nice healthy looking one and I got a good shot, with my camera, at it.The rocky cliff is just interesting the way the rock has a wavy effect.I believe this is called Folded Mountain.  The next is of new snow on the mountains reminding us we are glad to be coming home!
         
Two more stone sheep I included seen at a different spot and included because of the baby.  They kept running back over the cliff and back to the roadside.  I just prayed she wouldn't take the baby into the road. The third picture is of erosion pillers, or hoodoo's, seen amidst the rock and gravel filled gorge.The last picture is of Summit Lake located in Summit Pass which is the highest summit on the Alaska Highway at 4,250 ft.
     It is getting late and my eyes are about to shut so will close this and get it posted.