#77 – February 2021 – Benson AZ

February 2021 – Benson AZ

Sunset from the coach

February 15^th marked a turning point for us: we got our first shots! I had been trying to get appointments for several weeks, but the best I could do was mid- March, over a month away. I was tired of following the rules, so that morning I decided to call every vaccination site in the county. The third call was to a pharmacy in Wilcox, about 35 miles away. The guy that answered the phone made my day. He said, “How soon can you get here? We just had a cancellation.” Forty-five minutes later we were rolling up our sleeves.

I was surprised at how emotional it was to me. We had been living in fear for a year, doing everything we could to avoid becoming infected. We had made and scrapped multiple plans. We had postponed seeing very close friends, not sure if we would all survive this scourge to finally see each other again. We hadn’t eaten in a restaurant since June, or gotten together with people around a campfire in a year. We were even worried about seeing Liesa and Cory, who were just as scared of giving Covid to us. To begin to see an end to that life was pretty special.

Security guard at Zarpara Vineyard

After staying close to home for a couple of months, we were both getting a little stir-crazy. Our outings had become trips to Tucson for medical appointments and trips to Sierra Vista to shop for flooring. We’d had enough! We decided to see if we could safely visit a couple of local wineries, fully prepared to walk away if we felt uncomfortable. Well, safety wasn’t an issue because we were the only visitors at the two we picked. It must be lean times for wine tasting because the owners of both vineyards served us. Zarpara Vineyard delivered a lovely, deep rich blend called Odisea, and Birds and Barrels Vineyard served a very nice Petite Sirah.

Turns out she really can bleed brakes

Some of my jobs start out, "well, that looks odd..." The disk brake rotors on the dolly will show surface rust after a couple of days off the road, but the pads quickly buff off the rust the first time we apply the brakes. So, it peaked my curiosity when I noticed that the rotors were still rusty when we pulled into Benson in December. That would mean that the brakes weren't working at all. Yup, that was the case. To make a long story short, I had to replace the master cylinder and both caliper assemblies. Kayeanne helped too, she quickly learned how to bleed brakes.

The week of Feb 15^th was notable for another accomplishment, albeit nothing like as momentous as getting shots: I finally finished the casita floors. That job has been hanging over my head like a suspended sword for two years. The breakthrough finally came when we got the quotes for carpet and realized that there was no way that we were going to spend $1,700 on a place we only used 3 or 4 months a year! That epiphany freed us up to revisit laminate flooring for the living room, and I found a solution for the shop/storage in an unlikely place. The money we saved on the shop floor let us spend a little more on the living room area. Excellent!

With help and guidance from one of our neighbors, John Hahn, the vinyl plank flooring went down in a few hours with no errors or drama. If I’d known it was that easy to do, I’d have done it last year. John’s experience certainly paid off; we didn’t ruin a single plank. Trimming it out required adding shoe molding because I was adamant that I wasn’t going to remove the new baseboards I installed last year, but that took a couple of hours, at most.

The shop floor solution was pure serendipity. I was cruising Amazon one night looking for something unrelated to flooring and interlocking foam floor tile popped up. These are commonly used in home gyms, as yoga mats and as playroom padding, but one of the pictures showed a whole room done in tiles printed with a marble pattern. Hmmm… At $1 per square foot, delivered, the price was right, too. Kayeanne gave her approval and I ordered enough to do the shop. Four days later the floor was down, and I have to say it looks great. That stuff was easy to work with and it took me just a few hours to finish the whole room.

We decided to hang a couple of bird feeders on the big tree in front of the casita and have been treated to quite a show every day. Quail, doves, several different kinds of finches, cardinals and just plain birds mow through three cups of seed a day. Even today, with a steady 20 mph wind and frequent gusts over 45 mph, the birds came to the feeders

The platform feeder I knocked together is the most popular. I’ve seen as many as 10 birds at a time scoffing down seed as fast as they can. A lot of the seed gets kicked out and the ground under the feeder sometimes has twenty or thirty birds culling seeds from the gravel. I’ve always liked birds in a somewhat abstract way, but my interest is more personal, now. Great fun.

Kathryn Homel picked up John Sanford’s Bloody Genius after I mentioned it and really liked it.  Jay Homel sent me a copy of Matt Goldman’s first novel Gone to Dust which I really enjoyed; I just got the second volume of the series. I’m always looking for new protagonists, and Goldman’s Nils Shapiro is a good one.

We’ve enjoyed several new wines this month, in particular Denada Cellars 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile that we discovered at Trader Joe’s, and Zarpara Vineyards 2017 Graciano that we bought at the vineyard in Wilcox, AZ. Zarpara will ship, and I think Total Wines carries it, too.

We plan to leave Benson early next month and wind our way to New England where we’ll spend much of the summer.

More soon,

Bob

 

Done!

Desperate for fun

#76 - January 2021 - Benson AZ

 #76 - January 2021 - Benson AZ

I think life during Covid finally caught up with us. The Co-op is very quiet, especially compared to "normal" times. No bingo, dances, concerts, bake sales, polar bear parties, fund raisers, happy hours or dinners, and that's just January's typical schedule. We have lost three members, and 16 more have tested positive. Luckily they have recovered from varying degrees of illness. Most people, including us, are being very cautious about getting together. No one wants to catch it, especially now that vaccines are beginning to arrive. Folks have figured out how to have conversations across the street, and the Co-op's business meetings are done on Zoom. There must be a hundred dogs here, so we walkers get to see each other several times a week from a discrete distance.

Yup, it's snowing

Covid notwithstanding, this is still a beautiful place. When the wind stops we can get out and enjoy it! I have started hiking in the desert again, and working on the landscaping crew twice a week pulling weeds, trimming trees and digging up cactus. Kayeanne has worked hard on the yard, clearing the last of the leaves, bringing in more rocks and planting some flowers. 

We (finally!) have a plan for the floors in the casita and are about to order materials. Carpet turned out to be way too expensive because the floor plan might have been intentionally designed to maximize waste. More on the results next month.

In Albuquerque, I noticed that the dolly brake master cylinder was leaking and the pads looked pretty worn. I refilled the fluid reservoir and added it to the list of jobs in Benson. When I really dug into it I discovered that not only was the master cylinder shot, but one of the calipers had actually lost a pad. I wouldn't have believed that could happen if I hadn't actually seen it. A simple cylinder rebuild got much more complicated and expensive. A long story short, I had to replace the master cylinder and both calipers. It wasn't hard once I got the right parts, but it sure was messy. Kayeanne turned out to have a knack for brake bleeding, making that final step much easier.

Schroeder watches
the bird channel

What with shopping for flooring, getting caught up on our annual medical visits and, of course Covid, we only made one fun drive. Last year we discovered the Gathering Grounds cafe in Patagonia and liked it a lot. Patagonia, Sonoita and Elgin are home to several vineyards and in normal times are popular destinations, especially on weekends. Mid-week in January 2021, not so much. Gathering Grounds, though, was busy and the food was just as good as last year. The park across the street has lots of picnic tables and paths to walk which we and Schroeder appreciated. Some tasting rooms were open but we weren't comfortable being inside, and it was too windy to sit outside. We'll come back after we get our shots. 

Aside from the medical visits, we look forward to coming to Tucson for ready access to wine. Three Trader Joe's, Costco and Total Wines makes shopping for wine a pleasure. Trader Joe's released another of their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, this one from the  Alexander Valley (Sonoma) 2017 that we really enjoyed. Kayeanne liked another TJ's wine, this one from France: Les Portes de Bordeau 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. 

I  stashed a number of books in the casita and have been rereading several of those, so nothing new this month. 

More soon,

Bob

#75 Coveys Great Adventure - December 2020 - Albuquerque and Las Cruses NM, and Benson AZ

 

#75 - December 2020 - Albuquerque and Las Cruses NM, and Benson AZ

Ripley, the Xmas shrub and the family elf

We aren’t ready to park Ripley yet, but we have been thinking about where we might eventually settle down. Life on the road requires physical stamina and the strength and coordination to deal with the issues that come up. Age is catching up with us in different ways, so it is time to start looking at options. After some research, we felt that New Mexico might offer an acceptable combination of cost, climate and ambiance. We decided to take a longish route to Benson via Albuquerque and Las Cruses and look around.

Moab to Albuquerque is a two day drive. We had finally escaped the worst of the cold weather, so we spent the first night at a nice Walmart in Farmington, NM, and pulled into a KOA camp ground in Albuquerque the following afternoon. The RV park was immaculate and the staff was very attentive, but it was quite expensive and the I40 freeway along one side of the park made it very noisy.

We spent three days driving all over greater Albuquerque looking for houses listed on Realtor.com and trying to get a feeling for the different neighborhoods. Albuquerque and the surrounding towns like Rio Rancho, Placitas, Bernalillo and Los Lunas have seen a tremendous building boom. Literally thousands of homes and the associated infrastructure have been built in the past ten years or so, and that level of construction continues today. New developments are springing up everywhere.

By the evening of the second day we decided that Albuquerque was just too much city. It reminded both of us of SoCal, with a frantic pace of traffic, hustle and bustle and too many people. Even having a Trader Joe’s wasn’t enough to sway us to consider it.

On a much smaller scale, Las Cruces is going through the same growth. Because it is much smaller, LC is much easier to get around. The park we chose, Hacienda RV Resort, was ideally situated for our purposes, but it was also expensive, and being right beside the I25 freeway it was really noisy, too.

LC has a lot of appeal. I think we visited every area in and around the city. We didn’t tour any houses, but judging from the outsides and the listings, there are many homes within our budget to chose from. I think we may stop again on our way east next spring.

We pulled into our winter digs at the SKP Saguaro Co-op on Dec 11. Lot 19 was covered in dead leaves and all the pretty flowering weeds in the planting beds were also dead. The Co-op sprays herbicide on the common areas every summer and I guess it was windy that day, so our "flowers" all died. Aside from that it was just like we left it nine months ago. After getting rid of the worst of the leaves I picked up work on the casita right where I left it in April: painting the interior. I think I have four coats on now, but it might only be three. We finally have furniture, too, a couch and a lamp that we got from the park’s recycling center. Carpet is next, then some more trim and I’m done for this year, I hope.

The park is really, really quiet. The Covid restrictions are even tighter than when we left in April, and with good reason: two of our members had died and fifteen were in isolation when we arrived. Now even most outdoor gatherings are banned. Masks are mandatory. Unfortunately many of the local businesses post signs requiring masks but don’t enforce it. It is quite scary to go shopping when 25% of the people aren’t taking even minimal precautions.

I am very sorry to say that Lucy passed away peacefully on the 22nd, just over 10 years from the day she joined our family. It was coming for some time, but it was/is still really hard. We miss her so much. Only after she left did we realize how much she was involved in our lives. Schroeder truly misses her, too. They were together all day, every day for almost 60 dog years. He’s never been an only-dog, so we’ll see how he takes to that.

Xmas with just the two of us was a little low key, especially without Lucy, but Kayeanne decorated the coach and it looked good. She insisted on a tree but we were too late to buy a small one, so I chopped the top off of a five footer and turned it into an Xmas shrub. Disregarding the cost, it worked out fine and looked great. We splurged on Moet Chandon Imperial Champagne (and caviar!) for Xmas eve, and the wine was just as good as we remembered it from our wedding in 1985 (good grief); some of you were there! We’d drink it every day if we won the lottery.

Like everyone else, we really looked forward to 2021! More Moet, and Kayeanne outdid herself with delicious seared salmon for dinner on New Years eve. We actually made it to midnight this year, but the champagne gave out much earlier, so a good Cab sufficed to toast the new year.

Speaking of wine, we liked these:

    Canoe Ridge “The Expedition” Pinot Gris – Horse Head Hills 2018
    Kirkland Napa Red Blend 2018

I got several books for Xmas and immediately read John Sanford’s latest Virgil Flowers novel, Bloody Genius. His books are always a treat. I also read Ted Kooser’s short but so, so good memoir Lights on a Ground of Darkness, twice. It’s only 60 pages long, and every page is a delight. 

Our current plans (ha!) call for leaving here in early April to meander our way to Casa Kendrick in New Hampshire by late May. That is, of course, somewhat predicated on getting our shots, but we are optimistic. Or trusting fools; we’ll see which, soon.

Cheers,

Bob

 

 

#74 – Covey Great Adventure – November 2020 – Oregon and Utah

 

#74 – November 2020 – Oregon and Utah

Arches National Park

We had two weeks between leaving Nehalem and arriving in Salt Lake City, so we decided to dally in Eugene and Ashland for a bit.  

We’ve stayed at Armitage Park Campground just north of Eugene a few times and have always enjoyed it. The rabid Oregon State football fans usually make it impossible to book space in the Fall, but due to Covid the campground was less than half full. Our site was a spacious pull through with no one behind us. Armitage is only a few miles from Trader Joe’s, Costco, WinCo and the best carwash we have ever found. We took immediate advantage of all four to replenish our larder and wine cellar, and to restore the car to a semblance of respectability.

The impact that Covid has had in Eugene was easy to see in large and small ways. Shops were closed, inside dining was restricted, which is certainly hard on the people who own and work at those places. But, on the flip side traffic was always light and parking was readily available, two issues to deal with in normal times in Eugene. The maintenance at Armitage was clearly suffering from reduced budgets. The lawns were heavily weed-choked and gopher infested. Windrows of leaves were everywhere. Camp host sites were vacant, and had been for quite awhile. Laundry and shower facilities were closed, too. I’m sure Lane County is having to make painful decisions in the face of stark revenue reductions.

I think both of us needed a break. We just wanted to unwind a bit. Unlike years past, we didn’t schedule a visit to Kaiser for work on Ripley. AFAIK, nothing needed attention, so I decided to wait for Spring to do the annual service. Eugene is one of our favorite cities and despite Covid closures and restrictions we got to visit a few places. New Zone Gallery hadn’t officially opened when we wandered in, but the folks working on the place were happy to let us see what was already set up. An artist’s cooperative, New Zone offers an eclectic collection of works in traditional and contemporary mediums by local artists. We will certainly return the next time we are in Eugene to see the full range of exhibitions.

No water in the lake, but still great views

Freshly resupplied and rested up we headed south to Emigrant Lake County Park in Ashland for a few nights. We thought the lake water level was low when we were here a couple of years ago, but this year it was just pond sized. The picture on the park website was taken several years ago. I would guess the lake is 100’ lower now. That notwithstanding, the campground is great and the views are still beautiful. It sure was cold, though. While we didn’t have the park to ourselves, one night there were just three campers.

Ashland has a neat downtown area that is fun to walk around. Most of the shops were open and we did some browsing and Xmas shopping. We have become quite leery of inside dining, so reluctantly passed up several promising-looking sushi bars.

For years we have been passing thru Medford on our way to and from the coast, but aside from a brief visit a couple of years ago hadn’t really looked around. It is close to Ashland, so we decided to drive around and do takeout lunch. Medford isn’t a dump, but it didn’t have much appeal for us. Significantly, it doesn’t have a college or university of any note, and we’ve consistently found that those institutions make a very positive impact to the cities and towns where they are located. Absent Covid we would have visited a local winery or two, so we may have missed something important, but nothing we saw in town inspired us to return.

The fires in September swept through several small towns to the east and south of Medford. One of the hardest hit was Talent, where over 1,000 homes were lost in one day, leaving more than 25% of the town homeless and wiping out many, many small businesses. I don’t know how people recover from that. It was appalling and heartbreaking to drive by, much less have to live through it. I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures.

Then, it was time to head to Salt Lake City to see Liesa and spend Thanksgiving with her and Cory. We have made the trip from the Oregon coast to Utah for several years. The weather this year was colder than any I can recall, and the forecast for central and eastern Oregon was not encouraging, with night time temps dipping into the low teens. That prompted me to take the longer “southern” route down I5 to Reno and then east on I80 across Nevada to Salt Lake seeking warmer temps. We spent the first night at a Walmart in Fernley, NV. The site was fine, but the temperature fell below 20 degrees. The Aquahot system has to run nonstop to keep up with that, so we ran the generator all night to also use the electric space heaters. That worked great but used about eight gallons of fuel, which prompted me to find an RV park with electric hookups for the next night. Valley View RV Park in Elko, NV was a real bargain at just $15 for a 50 amp connection allowing us to run both electric heaters for less than the cost of the fuel we would have used.

We planned to leave early (for us) the next morning, but had to wait for the sun to warm the slide covers to melt the ice that formed overnight. The slides won’t come in right and may break something expensive if you don’t wait for them to thaw. We know that by painful experience. Then, when I started the engine most of the dash gauges, cruise control and several other things were dead. I’ve seen that before and was smart enough to carry a spare solenoid after the last failure. Replacing it took over an hour in a cold mist. I’m chilly again just thinking about it, but when I restarted everything worked. I immediately ordered another spare solenoid. 

It was great to see Liesa. She manages a local market and we worry constantly that she will catch Covid despite being meticulous about taking all precautions, including tossing non-maskers out of the store. So far so good. Cory works from home and is equally cautious, so we were reassured. We got together several times, including a visit to the University of Utah Natural History Museum that Kayeanne and I both enjoyed. 

We discovered catered Thanksgiving dinners last year and it was so good and so easy that we opted for it again. The local WinCo market provided a whole cooked turkey with all the sides for $49! Everything was good and the price was certainly right. Lots of leftovers, too.

Covid certainly tore up our plans this spring and the rapidly worsening situation in California did it again. For six years we have returned to Simi Valley, Perris and Hemet in December to visit friends and spend Xmas with Kayeanne’s family. As we followed the news it became clear that keeping that same routine would be subjecting us and everyone we contacted to increased risk. In early November Salt Lake was reporting worse numbers than southern California, but CA was ramping up quickly. As many of you know, we ultimately decided to cancel all of our plans and head to our site at the co-op in Benson AZ to ride it out.

Kayeanne and I had decided to begin looking for an area to settle in when this odyssey winds down. Rather than make a beeline from Salt Lake to Benson we decided to take a somewhat circuitous route through Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM, just to look around. Those areas seemed to offer an appealing combination of climate, services and affordability. The clincher was that Moab lay right on the best route south. And, there were camp sites available in Dead Horse Point State Park, one of the top 5 places we have ever seen. Clearly we were fated to go, or so we rationalized.

Almost 2,000 feet down to the Colorado River

Dead Horse Point was just as  spectacular as we  remembered.  We also  revisited Arches National Park  to be sure that the rocks hadn’t  fallen down. If you haven’t been to this area, put it right at the top of your bucket list. Pictures simply can’t do it justice, the scale is just too great. And, we didn’t even try to go to Canyon Land National Park!

We like Moab, this was our third visit. Unfortunately, many of the shops we visited  previously had closed for the winter, or had closed permanently due to the pandemic. A number of restaurants had also closed, so we were glad to see that Giliberto’s Mexican restaurant was still open and we had good tacos for lunch.

As we were packing up to leave Dead Horse on December 1st, a ranger stopped by to tell us that we were the last campers on the last day of the season. They would close the park until April when we left. I thought the place was quiet. A few minutes later we pulled out, headed south.

Costco and Trader Joe’s in Eugene yielded several good wines. From Costco we got Pundit Columbia Valley Syrah and Chronic’s Purple Paradise Paso Robles Red Blend. Trader Joe’s delivered Emma Reichart Dry Riesling from Germany and Trader Joe’s Reserve Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley.

As I write this we are in Benson and plan to stay into April.

Best wishes to you and yours for the Holidays.

Please stay safe. More soon,

Bob

More pics:

Liesa's mask says Vote

 

#73 Coveys Great Adventure – October 2020 – Nehalem OR

October 2020 – Nehalem OR

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach 

If Benson AZ is our home base, Nehalem Bay State Park is a close second. This
was our sixth year camp hosting at our favorite campground. On October 1, we shoehorned our way into site A2 and had our first camper interaction before we got completely set up. The whole Park was open for camping and it was full every weekend despite some pretty wet weather. Oregonians are tough.

 I think I mentioned last year that many trees were being killed by moss. The moss essentially strangles the the tree. The shore pines that dominate the Park's tree coverage are especially vulnerable and the change from last year was striking. Apparently this is a naturally occurring cycle, not an invasive attack, so OPRD has no choice bu to let it run its course. When we first visited the Park in 2014, the trees grew so thickly that it was almost impossible to walk off the trails. Now you can see for dozens of yards as you walk and the trail sides are littered with fallen  trees. After every storm the rangers have to clear dead trees off the trails. 

Covid hit OPRD quite hard because it is completely dependent on the revenues it generates. It doesn’t get any tax support, so when the virus forced the closure of all of Oregon's state parks for several months the revenue simply stopped. Between the layoffs and deferred seasonal hiring campground maintenance really suffered.

One of the big jobs at Nehalem is keeping all the trees trimmed back so that large rigs like ours are able to get into the sites, even to get down the roads in many cases without scraping tree branches. Site A2 is always a challenge for us to get into, but this year the staffing shortage made it especially so. I didn’t time it, but I’ll bet it took us 15 minutes of backing and filling to get in unscathed. I do know we held up traffic for quite awhile, but everyone was patient. Kayeanne is a very good guide; there’s no way to do that kind of maneuvering alone.

A few days later, during a heavy rain, one of the large overhanging trees split and started to fall onto the coach. I got onto the roof and cut away enough of it with a small bow saw that we carry to get Ripley out of the site undamaged. The rangers brought out chainsaws and removed that tree and one next to it. There’s a third one that will need to go soon, too.

The beach at Manzanita was pure joy

As much as we like Nehalem, I think the dogs truly love it. As soon as we pulled into the Park they both stood up and start sniffing. Schroeder immediately went on deer, squirrel and rabbit alert. They both seemed to experience real joy when they hit the beach and the leashes come off. Lucy is now so lame that we didn’t try to make it over the dunes to get to the beach from the Park, we took them to Manzanita where the beach access is much easier.

Covid hadn’t hit the Park quite as hard as it did the Mill, but it certainly made an impact. All of the yurts were closed, which did make our job easier, but that was offset by fewer hosts. There are usually eight host couples in the park, but this year just five. It wasn’t bad during the week, but the Park was sold out every weekend and the work load got pretty heavy. One change that really helped was that the rangers delivered pallets of firewood right to our site. We no longer had to ferry it from the wood barn a few bundles at a time in a golf cart. Now we can sell it right off the pallet. The bathrooms were open, but the showers weren’t, something the campers, and I, really missed.

My first shot at Nan bread

Despite being shorthanded, we still had time for special projects. Kayeanne joined with another host to make new curtains for the yurts. They set up a production line in the meeting hall (closed for Covid) and knocked out several sets. I tried a couple of new recipes.

We became friends with Sharon and Gary Sams last year when we both hosted here. We got together in Park City in June, and they included Manzanita on their Oregon coast road trip. We had a great time with them around a fire one evening drinking quite good wine at The Winery at Manzanita, and then eating great fish tacos at Riverside Fish & Chips beside the Nehalem River. I hope we can see them again when we are in Salt Lake over Thanksgiving.

Voting while on the road certainly wasn’t easy. We applied for Texas absentee ballots in August, as soon as the application was posted. I had them sent to General Delivery at the post office in Manzanita, the closest one to the Park. Kayeanne’s arrived on October 8, but mine didn’t. I waited a few days and then called Polk County. I discovered that they had sent my ballot to our co-op mailbox in Benson, the address we used for the primary election ballots. The person I talked to acknowledged the error, but said Texas state law prohibited sending out another ballot. I called the Benson post office to see what could be done. While they were sympathetic, none of the suggestions were workable given that we had the only key to the mailbox and the time left to election day. I resigned myself to not voting.

Then, on October 27 I got a text message from the Texas Democratic Party reminding me to send in my ballot. For some reason, I replied. 15 minutes later I got a call from a woman who took immediate issue with the clerk’s interpretation of the voting law. An hour later I was on a conference call with her, lawyers for the Party, and Schelana Hock, the Polk County Clerk. The upshot of the call was that Ms. Hock agreed to send another ballot, and even volunteered to drop it off on her way home. That’s when I made a mistake.

It never occurred to me that the she would spend the money to use FedEx to send it. I assumed she would use Priority Mail and gave her the Manzanita post office address. As soon as I saw the tracking number the next morning I realized that I had screwed up. FedEx won’t deliver to post offices because the post offices don’t get paid to handle FedEx deliveries.

I spent the next two days battling with FedEx’s really terrible automated system trying to get the package rerouted. Trying to deal with that system raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels and sent the dogs into hiding. I had given up when I got a call from a real person at the FedEx distribution center in Portland where the package surfaced for the second time. She finally figured out how to get it delivered on Saturday, October 31, to a FedEx drop off location 15 miles away in Rockaway. An hour after it arrived there I had my ballot! Now, all I had to do was fill it out and give it back to FedEx. Except, that this location was just a pickup and drop off point. They could not originate shipments. The closest FedEx location that could on Saturday was in, wait for it, … Portland, a hundred miles away. It was now 2 PM and I was supposed to be working. I’m thinking I’m done, when Kayeanne pointed out that UPS offers overnight service. too. The UPS Store in Warrenton 45 miles away was open. Victory was in sight! Sure enough, they can guarantee delivery by 10 AM on November 3. for just $85.10. Yikes! But too many people had worked too hard for me to quit now. I now know the cost of virtue, but I VOTED!

Just a word about Schelana Hock: To me, she personifies the meaning of “public servant”. She could have shrugged this off, but instead she took it upon herself to fix it. I am grateful to her for her service. I’ll bet every one of the thousands of county clerks and ballot handlers in this country hold themselves to the same standard. 

October seemed to fly by; suddenly it was Nov, 1. We turned in our keys and headed to Eugene to begin to work our way to Salt Lake City to spend Thanksgiving with Liesa and Cory. 

For some reason I don’t seem to be doing much reading lately, but wine drinking hasn’t tailed off. This month we enjoyed Trader Joe’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa 2017, and a very nice Spanish white wine Raimat Saira Albarino, also from Trader Joe’s.

More soon,

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

#72 September 2020 - Thompson’s Mills – Shedd, OR

About noon on September 8, 2020

I will always remember the smoke. The size and speed of the fires this year took Oregon by surprise. Unlike California, Santa Ana – type winds are uncommon up here. Strong northeast winds combined with unusually dry conditions and a large dry lightning storm ignited over 230 fires. The east-west passes though the Cascade mountains funneled the winds, concentrating and accelerating the fires to levels that Oregonians hadn’t imagined possible. In three days over 1 million acres, twice the state’s annual fire acreage, burned. Several towns that we have driven through recently were heavily damaged or destroyed. 

The ducks never missed their daily bath

At the Mill, we were directly downwind of one of the largest fires. It rained ash. The smoke was more dense than from the Simi, Camarillo or Westlake fires that we rode out in Thousand Oaks. For over a week we didn’t see the sun. Although we weren’t in any danger, we certainly were nervous and checked the web several times a day to monitor the fires' progress. OPRD suspended all non-essential outdoor and indoor activities, eliminating our already-easy duties completely. Visits went from a few a day to none, literally. We had nine cars enter the park in seven days, most to use the restroom and then leave. It was weally, weally quiet. 

Tomato pie? Delicious!

Throughout it all, however, the family farmer tended her garden. Weeds were expunged, tomatoes were staked, and the pumpkins and squash harvested. After the fire risk abated, no visitor was allowed to leave without produce. She also turned out delicious zucchini and squash breads, tomato pie (really) and fried green tomatoes in an effort to use the overwhelming abundance of fresh food. The chickens and ducks got so many veggies that they started to get picky. 

We didn’t do much last month except work at the Mill and go shopping, so as soon as the fires abated we decided that we needed a break. There are dozens of wineries within an hour’s drive of Shedd. Kayeanne picked Cardwell Hill Winery in Philomath, and she hit a winner. Philomath is just west of Corvallis, set in rolling hills. It is home to several wineries, and Cardwell Hill is certainly one of the best. We picked up lunch (excellent) at Eats & Treats on the way through town and got to the winery shortly after noon. We had the place to ourselves and had a delightful time tasting great wines and talking wines and wine making with the owner and founder, Dan Chapel. He has been winning awards with his Pinot Noir for many years and we tasted several, all very good. His 2015 Monet Blocks Reserve is the best Pinot Noir I’ve tasted, and we broke our wine price buying rule. I’m glad we don’t have much space in the coach or it might have gotten seriously expensive. We had a great time and hope to return, soon. 

Then, on the way home we decide to run through a car wash to remove the ash and grime. One of the revolving brushes ripped the rear bumper cover right off the car. I started to look for someone to kill, but the manager took immediate responsibility. He made a call and sent us down the street to a body shop who had us in and out in 15 minutes. Luckily, the cover wasn't damaged, but our Mexican paint job got scuffed up a little. The cover actually fits better than it did, a welcome surprise. They replaced all the fastenings that had failed over the years and from 10 feet away it looks like new. 

Last year we hosted several events at the Mill. In normal times it is a popular destination for school class trips, car club meetings, motorcycle club rallies and bicycle group lunches. This season most group activities have been cancelled or outright banned in Oregon, so we were happy to open the grounds after hours to a paddling club from Corvallis. On our last evening at the Mill about 15 people spent an hour or two paddling their kayaks and canoes in the millrace. The weather couldn’t have been better for it, and everyone had a great time. I’m sure that Ratty and Mole would agree: it was a perfect evening for just messing about in boats. 

That was a nice way to end our stay at the Mill. The next morning we packed up and headed northwest, back to Nehalem Bay State Park to camp host for our sixth year. 

We found several good wines this month:
Fallen Bridge Petite Syrah 2017
Trader Joe's Reserve Syrah - Paso 2018
Pomelo Sauv Blanc 2018

I enjoyed reading Steven Brust's Good Guys, too.

More soon, 

Bob

Roadside art. Look closely

Picking her own at Cardwell Hill

Taco Vino in Corvallis is excellent

Schroeder watched the Chicken Channel for hours

#71 August 2020 – Thompson’s Mills, Shedd Oregon

Faithful readers will remember how much we liked being at Thompson’s Mills last year. We spent two months giving tours of this fascinating 19^th century industrial site, the last surviving water powered mill in the  Willamette Valley. We must have given tours to several hundred people, ranging from single individuals to school classes. In our “spare” time we worked on maintenance projects (me) and took care of the ducks and chickens (she). I had the run of a good shop and got whatever supplies I needed for the projects I worked on.

This year, Covid changed everything. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is self-funding, deriving almost all of its revenue from camping fees. When camping was banned, OPRD was in the same boat as many businesses: no customers means no income. The state heritage sites like the Mill don’t generate income, anyway, so when the camping revenue dried up, all discretionary spending was stopped. If we didn’t have what we needed for a project on hand we simply couldn’t buy it, period. Even most equipment repairs were disapproved. I sorted through buckets of used screws to find usable hardware for a couple of jobs.

And, the Mill closed to tours. Last year we were often so busy that we weren’t able to talk to everyone. This year we have had days when literally no one showed up. It has been a real challenge to fill our time. Kayeanne has rediscovered her farming roots. Like her grandparents, she has been spending hours pulling weeds, running sprinklers, foisting off surplus squash on anyone she can find and pampering the chickens and ducks. She also turned out great blackberry cobbler and zucchini bread. 

I was happy to see anyone; I’m sure I’ve bored a few people silly. I changed a bearing on the tractor flail mower, and helped move a number of large beams from outdoors into the basement of the Mill to keep them from weather checking. The project they were ordered for was  postponed, indefinitely. I also fixed a broken irrigation pipe and a few other minor things, but that’s about it.

And then it was gone

Wines we enjoyed this month include Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris – 2018,  Broadside Cab - Paso 2017 and Sho Chiku Bai Nigori Sake. 

We have enjoyed not traveling, and revisiting places that we discovered last year, so there isn’t much new to report this month. I’ve added a couple of extra pictures below to pad the text a little.

More soon,

Bob

Twice a day the ducks march
to the millrace to bathe

Early one morning visitors
dropped in

Kayeanne found her milieu