Silver City, Idaho 8-8-07

Today was a field trip day. We drove over 200 miles scoping out the southwest corner of Idaho.

We fueled up here in Marsing and then headed south to the old mining town of Silver City. Over 20 miles was dirt and rock and Larry hated it, he had his fill of dirt roads with his radio business, but hey, had to be done. The structures that are left in this old mining town are privately owned and used as summer residences. They have propane and solar panels, some use generators, there was one little gift store and the Hotel is still operating. It was neat to see what was left of the town pretty much unchanged, but as the buildings are all privately owned all you could do was walk around and look at the outsides of the buildings. The dirt streets are rough and primitive and I would hate to be the propane truck driver that had to drive out to and around this little old town! Hard enough to imagine it a bustling town in its heyday, harder still to imagine anyone wanting to live out there all summer long. It was odd with the old buildings looking like they did back in the 1800’s with modern vehicles parked alongside, Weber Grills and plastic chairs on the porches and many had hummingbird feeders hanging from the eaves…not the usual ghost town.

After we hit the pavement again we headed south again and then swooped over to Mountain Home and then north to Boise on to Nampa. All this area is just high desert and reminded us of other places we have been in Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California. Really ugly and as we got closer to Mountain Home it was a lot of farmland, just not our cup of tea.

We drove through Nampa and had dinner at the Red Robin and we split a chocolate milk shake…yum. Then we hit the Super Walmart for groceries and stuff and headed home. After we got home I put away groceries and Larry washed the truck and the front of the trailer.

So most all of these pictures are to and from Silver City and the surrounding areas. This coyote stopped and watched us for awhile and the handsome boy with the eyelashes was our picnic companion.

Marsing, Idaho 8-7-07

Today we hit the road at nine. We awoke to a beautiful still sunny morning. The lake was like glass. We skipped our morning yoga/walk. Larry dumped the tanks at the dump station on the way out and we were on our way east again along highway 26.

Just before Unity the terrain became more what we had been expecting of the eastern Oregon terrain, miles and miles of nothing but hills and brush. After about 16 miles we lost an hour by crossing into the mountain time zone…hate losing that much time so quickly! We found a place to pull out and had our morning toast, it was so quiet it almost hurt our ears, not even wind blowing through the brush. As we got nearer Ontario there was ranches and irrigation again, lots of cattle and horses and fields of Spanish Onions.

We got on highway 84 just before going into Idaho and at the rest/visitor info area in Idaho stopped for info and maps. Then we headed south on 95 and then east on 78 and we are at Riverhaven RV Park in Marsing, ID. It is on the Snake River which is a wide, deep green river and it is a Passport America Park and we are here with full hookups for $9.00 a night. The park is nothing exciting, the sites are close together and it is all gravel, but there is a large grassy park area and trees along the river, but no river access. We traveled 136 miles and got in at 1:30. It was creeping into the low to mid 90’s, but there were thunder clouds building up screening the sun. We are planning on staying here for 5 nights and exploring the Boise basin. We have phone service again.

Unity Lake State Park, OR 8-6-07

We woke to a lovely day in the forest. It was very quiet and very dark last night! This first picture makes me laugh. Yes it is just a satellite dish in the forest, but it is still odd to me how we can now stay connected to the “outside world” and be out in the middle of nowhere. Thirty years ago when Larry and I started camping together you had to find a pay phone somewhere if you needed to get a message to someone and of course there was mail. Now we have cell phones, but they still don’t work in a lot of places, but as long as we can see the sky we are connected through the magic of the computer, satellites and the internet, oh and solar panels to charge the batteries and the inverter to power up the computer and receiver.

We were on the road around ten. Heading east on highway 26 we almost immediately left the forest and spent the rest of the drive in varying high desert terrains. We also went through another forest. There are more trees and it is greener then we expected, lots of creeks and rivers and lots of ranches doing a lot of irrigating along the way. We stopped and had our toast about an hour after we got on the road in a lovely canyon with a lot of willow trees.

The town of John Day was small but clean. None of the towns we have gone through on this route have looked run down. Most have lots of pretty flower baskets which always catch my eye.

We reached our target today at two. We traveled 138 miles today and we are at Unity Lake State Park in Oregon just a little north and west of Unity. There are thunderstorms moving through so the wind comes and goes and the rain comes and goes and we had a little thunder. The lake is murky and rough. We have hookups today so I had to get caught up on the vacuuming. This place isn’t giving us the feeling that we want to stay and explore so we’ll be on the road again tomorrow and probably in Idaho somewhere. We are expecting we’ll find a few places that we’ll want to stay a week or so and explore around.

Ochoco National Forest, OR 8-5-07

We were at Michelle’s new place in Corvallis the last two nights and we had no satellite so I couldn’t blog. They moved to a 2 bedroom/2 bath 4 plex in north Corvallis. It is a really nice place with a fenced yard to keep the boy in! It is out in the middle of a wetlands. It looks like the development started and then someone stopped it because there are sidewalks and streets, but the cottonwood trees have buckled the sidewalks up so it has been like this for awhile. We parked across the street so we could open the slides and they wouldn’t be poking out into the street. It is a really quiet place except they are really close to the train tracks, maybe 300 or 400 yards but the train goes really slow so at least the ground doesn’t shake and rumble as it goes by.

Larry, Seth and I drove up to Monmouth on Saturday morning to the only place I have been able to find the hair products I use. I found this place when we stayed in Independence 3 years ago. It was a little over 20 miles from Michelle’s. We cruised through Independence to check on the progress of a building project they had started in the old district. It has a long ways to go before it is finished, but since we were last there a beautiful new cinema has popped up. Independence has a housing/airport development. The houses have hangers instead of garages, cool if you’re a pilot and own a plane. Independence also had a housing development that built the houses all looking Victorian, the garages are all in the back so the houses stand out and some are huge. It’s an old town that is staying current and retaining its small town character. It is right on the Willamette River.

The rest of Saturday we played with Seth while Michelle and Darel spent the day at their old place cleaning. Seth slept in our trailer both nights. He always thinks that is pretty cool.

Today we left Corvallis at ten. (Seth got to ride the slide-outs in and ride in the trailer as Larry pulled across the street in front of Michelle’s place so he could air up the tires with their compressor.) We took 34 east to 20 at Lebanon (bigger and prettier than we expected). We meandered over the Cascades and at Sisters (which is a crazy tourist town) picked up 126 and then in Prineville we picked up 26. We went through Redmond and it was pretty too with lots of hanging flower baskets. Most of these scenic pictures were along our route. The gardens that most of the Dutch Brothers Coffee places put in are stunning! The last of the scenic pics is of Prineville…half of the valley was a golf course!

We decided to check out this National Forest campground, Larry had read in the book that it was paved and had sites big enough for us, so here we are at Ochoco Divide National Forest Campground. Dry camping, which means no hook-ups of any kind, but with the solar panels and the inverter I am connected to the real world via satellite…Cool! We at first thought that we wouldn’t get a shot at the satellite, but as always Larry manages to find a teeny shot through the branches! No cell phone, but no surprise there!

Last day in Sutherlin 8-2-07

This entry is to tie up some loose ends from here in the Sutherlin area.

These first two pictures are of the Umpqua River that we pass over on the way to Aunt Millie's house way out in the country.

This third picture is of Larry's Auntie Bonnie and Uncle Gene real estate shopping on our computer yesterday.

These last pictures may seem strange but we loved what my Uncle Harley and Aunt Connie have put on their headstone in the family plot out in Kellogg. We have wandered through quite a few cemetaries and I know everyone that passes by this headstone in the future will smile! We always wonder about the peoples' stories and those two simple lines will give people a tiny insight into who these people were. I might add that both of them are still alive and kicking in Citrus Heights, California.

More reunion pics 7-28

These pictures are an assortment taken by me and my sister and Larry.
1.Seth, 2. Lindsay & Jaclyn, 3. Lindsay & Michelle, 4. Andrea and Lindsay, 5. Lori and Will, 6. Ian asleep at our place, 7. Lindsay and Jaclyn, 8. in back Michelle, Lindsay and Jaclyn, in front Andrea, Aunt Millie and Lori, 9. Mike and Linda (not his sister Linda)

10. Ian and Tana, 11. Lindsay and Ian, 12. Mike & Pat Corral, 13. Marty (Cindy on the side), 14. Mike Corral and Larry