#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

#70 July 2020 - Montana and Idaho

View through the windshield at Ennis RV Village

July 2020 - Montana and Idaho

I picked Ennis, Montana, for no particular reason that I recall, except that it was in roughly the right area and within an easy day’s drive of Salmon. Except it really wasn’t, because Google Maps includes dirt roads in its directions. And, because it had a Montana state road number, MT 324, I didn’t check it on Google Earth. Luckily, I had a premonition as soon as we turned onto it. It was paved, but the first two vehicles that passed us coming the other way gave me a funny look, like “really? Hmm, I hope you know what you’re doing.” For once, I listened to the voices in my head and we turned around at what might have been the last place that we could. Back at the crossroad, I asked a local about route MT 324. She laughed and said it was an unpaved, rock-strewn, pot-holed mess that got worse after it crossed into Montana. Avoiding that shortcut added over a hundred miles to the easy day we had looked forward to. Nonetheless, the country was spectacular and Covid eliminated any hint of traffic.

"Small" gold mining dredge in nearby
Nevada City

Ennis claims to be the trout fly fishing capital of the world, or maybe just the country, I forget. The storied Madison River passes through town and fishing dominates the economy. It’s a lovely small town that exist solely for tourists, fisher people or not. There is also enough shopping and site seeing to keep non-fishers from going nuts for a few days.

As much as we liked the town despite the Covid closures and restrictions,
discovering the Ennis Village RV Park alone made the trip worthwhile. We pulled into our site to discover a panoramic, 180 degree view of more than 30 square miles of the Madison River valley, all backed up by varicolored, snow capped mountains. Herds of fat cows grazed on lush, tall grass. Deer and flocks

The neighbors come to visit

of geese came out into the fields to feed. One evening a pair of moose crossed the valley in full view. We sat in the coach or on chairs at the edge of the ridge for hours every day watching the show below us. This was the best view we have ever had in six years on the road. Oh, yes, the park was terrific in every other way, too. And the dogs loved it. Just a mile away is Deemo’s, the best meat market we have ever seen. The local supermarket, Madison Foods, even has a great wine section. We plan to return as soon as we can.

Lots of great "stuff" and colorful owners

 One more plus: no trains! It seems to be a rule that commercial RV parks must be located on busy train tracks where long freights blow for every driveway, or just to relieve the crew’s boredom. Ennis is miles away from any tracks. I slept better there than I can remember. The only drawback I can think of is the wind. Every afternoon the winds build, usually blowing a steady 20 mph, often gusting over 40. One afternoon gusts hit 60 mph, causing damage to some campers who weren’t prepared.

Picture doesn't due Cliff Lake justice

One of our neighbors (not above) encouraged us to visit Wade and Cliff Lakes, about 40 miles south of town. They were right. These are mountain lakes, absolutely crystal clear, set in lovely heavily wooded settings. There are small campgrounds that are impossible for us to get into and popular day-use areas where folks picnic, kayak and play in the chilly water. (see more lake pix below)

Ennis was a very tough act to follow, and Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, Montana certainly missed the mark. A double-track freight line borders the park and a switching yard is not far away. Every train going in either direction blows their horns for four crossings. That’s 16 bellows per train. I counted six trains in one hour one night. Poor electric power and lots of mosquitoes didn’t help, either. I doubt we’ll be back, despite the lovely setting, including acres of diligently mown grass and great staff folks.

There isn’t a lot to do in this part of Montana, but the Old Montana Prison & Auto Museum in Deer Lodge is just a few miles away. I’ve never seen these two wildly disparate subjects combined in one place, so we went to find out. The prison museum was depressing and disquieting. After ten minutes we were looking for the exit. The car section, though, was pretty neat. If you go through the area, it’s worth a stop for an hour or two. The ice cream stand next door serves Umpqua ice cream, a Northwest specialty. Don't miss it.

We enjoyed our golf foray in American Falls and looked forward to another nice day. Deer Park Golf Course looked like our kind of track: short, flat, wide open and cheap. Even with those advantages, we still stunk up the place and came away dispirited and humbled. We had forgotten that the golf gods are vicious and capricious. Maybe new balls will help.

This was even better than it looks

Garrison is about 45 miles from Helena, and Kayeanne wanted sushi and chocolate for her birthday, so … road trip! The sushi was great and the chocolate was wonderful. The town proved to be interesting, too. For those who nodded off during Social Studies, Helena is the capital of Montana. Many of the things we wanted to see were closed for Covid, but the state capital building was open, so we looked around.

Typical of many state capital buildings, it was built ~120 years ago of granite and brick with domes, gilding, fancy woodwork, granite floors, etc. None of that delivers any real value for the proletariat, but they never get to approve the budget, anyway. After all, the “public’s servants” need quarters befitting their somber duties.  

The murals and statuary are what you’d expect in a late 19^th century municipal edifice in the West. What struck me, though, was the number and scale of items, some heroic in size, depicting Native American peoples and themes. Given how many Indians were slaughtered by the builders of this homage to democracy to drive them off their ancestral lands, it looked to me like collective guilt or monumental cynicism. If I’m feeling generous, probably both. Commissioning the decorations was certainly cheaper than actually buying the land or paying reparations, but maybe I’m too cynical. Ok, rant off.

After a week in Garrison, I think we were both ready to start heading west to Oregon. Kayeanne picked the Blue Anchor RV Park in Osburn, Idaho. She has offered no defense of that choice, but she hit the jackpot: an old mobile home park that was converted to an RV park, artfully situated between a main freight railroad and Interstate 90. I could hit the freeway with a pitching wedge. The park really had nothing to recommend it except its proximity to Wallace and Kellogg.

This part of Idaho was arguably the richest silver mining region of the country, if not the world. The largest of seven mines in the area, the Sunshine Mine, produced 365 million ounces of silver between 1904 and 2001, accounting for roughly 14% of total US silver production. The mines drilled literally thousands of miles of tunnels and reached depths over 5000 feet deep. Lead, zinc and copper were also produced in great quantities. The fumes from the refining processes were so toxic that the valley where Kellogg is located wouldn’t grow trees until the smelters were shut down for several years. Starting in the ‘80’s, Kellogg High School students have replanted literally millions of trees. Thanks to them and others the area is making a comeback.

In 1972, 91 miners died in an underground fire in the Sunshine Mine. The mining museum in Kellogg does a good job explaining what happened. Not long after that, the costs of complying with growing environmental regulations and a worldwide drop in silver prices led to the end of mining in this area. 

The Shoshone Golf Club is a real test. It’s only a 9-hole course, but you WILL want a cart, and you better bring several extra balls (the new ones didn't help). Yikes.

Wallace has been making a successful transition from mining town to tourist destination for many years. We made a couple of trips just to look around. It reminded me a little of Ouray, Colorado, another mountain mining town. Several stores and restaurants were closed due to Covid, but enough weren’t that we had a good time wandering around. Muchacos Tacos was quite good for lunch.  

Watch the first step....

Do I look nervous?

I never knew Kayeanne had a bucket list, but it turns out that zip lining was near the top. Some of you may recall that on our second date almost exactly 40 years ago, we jumped out of airplanes. That was her idea, too. Apparently it was time to scare me silly again. I have to say that it was a gas, and over too fast, but we still turned down the offer of another ride. Tempting fate is not a good idea.  

Our next stop was Hood Park Corp of Engineers Campground in Burbank, Washington, just across the Snake River from Pasco and Kennewick. We just stayed one night, but really enjoyed it. Lots of grass and shade for the dogs, and no freeways or trains! We’d like to come back and spend time exploring the area.

It was an easy drive from Hood Park to Creekside Campground in Sisters, Oregon. Sisters is one of our favorite places to visit. A number of Covid closures and the Governor’s new mask mandate limited what we could do, but we enjoyed walking the town, again. Creekside Campground is a little tight for Ripley, in fact there are only a couple of spaces that we fit and were lucky that one was available. No utilities, but that’s not an issue for two nights. The dogs loved it, too, lots of grass and trees.

On August 1st , we pulled into Thompson’s Mills State Park to volunteer for two months. (Note to self: do not take the coach on Rt 20 between Sisters and Sweet Home again. I don’t shy away from most roads, but this is one. It is way, way too tight and much too long. Take Rt 126 through Eugene, instead.)

I haven’t been doing a lot of reading this month, but Jim Lynch’s Border Songs stood out.

New wines this month include 19 Crimes Pinot Noir and A to Z Oregon Rosé Wine.

More soon,

Bob

More pictures:

Sunset at Ennis

 Landing is an acquired skill....