DuEtte - Pebble Beach & Beyond

Delayed post (sometimes, the Internet connection is the biggest challenge of camping)… We visited Whiskeytown National Recreation Area today. Unfortunately, we are also back into extreme smoke areas. Today’s smoke was from the Del Norte fire near the Oregon border. We’re sure that we went through some beautiful areas, but we just couldn’t see them. There is rain in the forecast, so, hopefully that will address the fires and the smoke. But, being back in California also means - Library Card time! I had a bit of a bonanza today with Shasta, Trinity, and Humboldt counties. Being back in Humboldt Country means we had a chance to really visit my old stomping grounds - Cal Poly Humboldt. A lot looked the same, but a lot looked different as well. Now, we are camped at the edge of the bay watching the weather dance on the horizon…

Delayed post… Well, we are back in California again! That seems to be progress on our way back home!! Today we discovered a new National Monument that we didn’t even know about - Tule Lake National Monument. This is another place whose claim to fame is as a Japanese Internment Camp, the largest as it turns out. On a brighter note, we also visited the Lava Beds National Monument. This has the largest collection (over 1,000) of lava tube caves (created by flows of lava underground that cooled and formed tube caves!). We are settled in for the night at another Harvest Host golf course location. It is a beautiful setting with only one other RVer here for the night…

Start of the road home! First stop was to the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. A beautiful Art Deco building that is, unfortunately, undergoing extensive seismic retrofitting. So, the dome (with a pioneer wielding an ax as its figurehead) and chambers are not accessible, but still nice to see the grounds and the building from the outside. Afterwards, we meandered down the Oregon Covered Bridge Trail which is also known as the Over the Rivers and Through the Woods Byway. Very scenic with multiple lakes and streams to follow. We are staying in Sisters, OR which is a very cute town known for its skiing and folk festival.

Today was definitely a rest and recover day! The weather is starting to turn a little cooler. Mostly overcast today and only up to the high 70’s. We are starting to think about our route home. It is time to think about the real world again and the chores we need to address. But, it is not likely that our route will be the quickest or the most direct…

Delayed post - due to exhaustion! The last day of the Championship turned out to be a beauty! The day was picture perfect and not nearly as hot as prior days. N was on the Leaderboard from noon until closing. J was just an alternate, but ended up as walking scorer with an assigned pairing - Helen Alfredsson and Martha Leach (who lives in Santa Maria!). J also had a pre-teen standard barer with her so there were lots of math lessons and positive encouragement skills that needed to be dusted off. All in all a good day.

Today, J was jobless at the Championship and N’s shift didn’t start until noon. But, we decided to go early in case J could find a purpose. As it turned out, the Standard Barer team needed an extra hand. Unfortunately, J didn’t realize how heavy and awkward those standards really are. But, she persevered and got through the whole (hot!) round…

We had big thunderstorms overnight! Consequently, we had a 30 minute weather delay for golf today. Of course, we didn’t learn about the delay until we were on the shuttle bus headed to the course - oh well. It turned out to be a beautiful morning, not as cold and windy as yesterday. But, this afternoon was hotter than yesterday. J’s group for walking scorer duties today was Leta Lindley, Michelle Redman, and Silvia Cavalleri. They will all make the cut, unlike my group from yesterday where no one will make the cut. N saw a hole-in-one when she got off of her leaderboard shift. That was exciting! 

A big day for the start of this Championship! N worked the Leaderboard in the (cold - still 69 at 11am) morning and J worked as a walking scorer in the (hot - saw 91 at some point) afternoon. It was all good fun and we saw some great golf! J scored for Jane Geddes, Donna Andrews, and Cheryl Anderson today. It will be a whole new group tomorrow, but otherwise it will be a rinse and repeat day tomorrow…

J got up at 0’dark 30 this morning in order to drive the rental to the park & ride in order to catch the shuttle in order to get to the course and have time for coffee and something to eat before her shift started at 7am. Today was all about practicing what I learned at the training last night. Many of the volunteers practiced for nine or so holes and then called it a day. Since this was my first time with this assignment, I wanted to get as many holes under my belt as possible before it really counts. So, I ended up walking all 18. But, that also gave me a sense of the course and how things might go throughout the rounds. The day started off brisk, but then quickly warmed up. This is already so different from the Pebble Beach experience. First off the weather, then no Championship swag (besides our volunteer gear), and only cold muffins for breakfast! Tonight we are heading out for dinner to catch up with an old friend who lives in the area. Then, another early day for both of us

We went adventuring today on some very good recommendations from a couple of friends. First, we went to breakfast at a hip little place in Portland called Jam on Hawthorne. I had some of the best Pulled Pork Huevos Rancheros ever! Then we ventured back into Washington for a site that was closed when we went by earlier - the Fort Vancouver National National Historic Site. This was the headquarters for the Hudson Bays Company last westward expansion on the Americas. They tried to stake a presence for Britain, but the inevitable American migration West overwhelmed them in the end. Britain and the United States ended up settling with the Canadian border on the 49th parallel and the US laying claim to the remaining Western coast. Although, we all know they left some question in the San Juan Islands that needed to be cleared up at a future point…Anyway, after the Fort, we headed to Washington Park which is home to many things, but in particular, the International Rose Test Garden. It was pre

We had stayed at another Sun Outdoors on the coast of Oregon and thought it was nice. We remembered that there was a Sun Outdoors near Portland when we were looking for places to stay. This one is actually on the South side of Portland - the same as the golf tournament. So, instead of our original campsite on the North side of Portland, we decided to switch to this one. As a result, we needed to change our rental car pickup as well. It turned out that our new rental location was walkable from our new campsite. So, one of our activities today was to walk to pick up our rental car. It was a nice way to get a bit of exercise since we’ve been spending way too much time sitting on this trip. After that excursion, we came back and did our laundry and cleaning chores and enjoyed some nice weather at around 80!

Not much to report today. We traveled a couple of hours today to our new campsite through a consistent haze of smoke. I’m sure the drive along the Columbia River would have been beautiful if we could have seen it. It is just amazing to me how long this smoke has been lingering and how thick it is. Hopefully, it will dissipate soon so we can see some blue skies again…

Down day! And, last day before we head to Portland for the start of our golf volunteering stint.  We explored around the Park (named after Private LePage who was part of the Lewis & Clark expedition and was instrumental in trading with the local native Americans to acquire precious wood to make some campfires for heat and cooking) and generally relaxed. The weather was pleasantly warm with minimal wind. The smoke in the air seemed to come back with a vengeance today. It made for an eerie sunset…

Each day of driving seems to bring its own beauty and wonder. Today, for much of our drive, we were treated with three snow-capped mountain peaks (and sometimes four). We’re not exactly sure which mountains they were. We are thinking Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainier pretty definitely, but we’re not sure what the third and fourth might be. We’ll have to Google that when we have better internet. But, we also came upon the might Columbia River today in all her glory. She is huge! And, let me tell you, she attracts a mighty wind!! There are thousands of wind turbines in this area because of it. And, our ‘crosswind assist’ came on multiple times - Nan can attest to it because I think she screamed each time!?!? Another oddity that we came across today was Stonehenge of the West. It is actually a war memorial for the fallen of WWI. Interestingly perched over the Columbia River with a view of Mt. Hood?…

Technically, they are calling themselves an ‘RV Park’, but we are actually staying at a Harvest Host - we are their first customers! The town (incorporated!) of Antelope has 37 people and one of the families purchased the old Market and adjoining property. They plan to make it into a formal RV park and have cabins and do dinner events - it sounds really cool, but they are at the very beginning of this journey… We, on the other hand, traveled through time today - through the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The area takes up a significant portion of Eastern Oregon. The terrain is very striking with visible layers, canyons and valleys, vertical rock formations that looked like forts, and multi colors of greens and reds. It was all very fascinating and so much better than either of us anticipated…

We were affected by the smoke again today. We were driving one of Oregon’s scenic byways, but the landscape was almost surreal because of the haze from the smoke. There were times when we could just make out the outline of a nearby mountain range and other times when we could not even see the lake we were driving along side of. Nonetheless, it was still a pleasant drive and we saw a whole different aspect of the state… Fun fact: since wood is scarce in this part of Oregon, they use rocks wrapped in wire as fence posts to properly tension the wire fences…

Delayed post… Correction from yesterday’s post - high in Shady Cove was actually 109!! Yikes! So, we moved on and headed towards Crater Lake National Park. On our way, we stopped at the Rogue River Gorge - it is just amazing to watch the awesome power of water! When we were almost to the Crater Lake booth to enter the Park, we were amazed to see a line of cars to enter. It took us nearly an hour to get to the booth - how crazy is that? I guess it is good that people are visiting our National Parks, but really now. It turned out that there was just one person at the booth and she liked to talk. Also, there was quite a bit of smoke in the Park from fires (still in Canada?) so they had to explain about the limited visibility. We enjoyed the Park even much more than we anticipated. It is a beautiful setting and an impressive concept to think that the islands in the crater are really the result of volcanoes within a volcano…

Back into Oregon today! Another beautiful drive through redwoods along rivers and through the mountains. After a stop at the Oregon Caves National Monument, we headed to our campsite on the Rogue River (some of you may be intimately familiar with this river…). 97 degrees, but the water feels grand!!

 Delayed post… California? - What? Yes, we dipped back into CA after wrapping up the Oregon Coast in order to see the Redwood National Park - near my old stomping grounds of Cal Poly Humboldt (f.k.a., Humboldt State). The Oregon Coast was beautiful and the Redwoods are beautiful - how do you compare the two? I guess it’s just nice to have both to experience. Surprisingly, it was 93 when we set up camp tonight about 4pm. We are nestled into the woods with the Smith River a stone’s throw away…

Down day sometimes means chore day. Today was focused on laundry and we added some more air to DuEtte’s tires. They were just on the edge of being low and I wanted to top them up while we had some time. It’s a good thing, because I actually forgot how our air compressor works! I hooked everything up and hit the poser button and it roared to life only to stop and be completely silent. I thought something was wrong, so I googled it, with no luck. Then, I thought maybe the silence was a good thing and it was just waiting for me to do something. So, I tried again and actually tried to put some air in one of the tires - and, lo and behold, the compressor roared to life again!! This is why we do things on down days when we can take some time to figure it out. We also caught up on some email with the house remodel and managed to carve out some time to relax at the beach! It was lovely in the sun with just a hint of coolness in the breeze. Then, the breeze took over and it was time to head bac

Well, it was time for us to find a spot with some laundry and a chance to put our feet up - Coos Bay it is (although, we are actually camped a stones throw from the beach on the Pacific! Another beautiful drive to here along the Oregon Coast Highway (OCH). Not a lot on the itinerary today, so we lingered at Beverly Beach by making breakfast burritos and enjoying the crisp, fresh coastal morning air before hitting the road. Now that we are here, we are listening to the light house fog horn, smelling the sea air, and watching the fog roll in - not a bad way to spend an evening…  A nest of baby (nearly grown?) swallows to welcome us to our campsite:

We’ve finally made it to Oregon! We had a lovely drive down the last of the Washington coast and along the northern Oregon coast today. The views were just as beautiful as driving along PCH in CA. Our main stop today was at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in Astoria. This was where Lewis and Clark spent their last winter before turning back east. While we’ve been to many Lewis and Clark sites, they each centered on the importance of their particular site. This Park did a wonderful job of summarizing and highlighting the importance of the entire expedition. What a daunting task they undertook and successfully completed after four years! Our campsite tonight is across the highway from the beach. There is an underpass for access. The beach was much more crowded than the last couple we’ve been to, but still nothing like Southern CA…  

 Delayed post… Serenaded again by a light rain overnight which led to an overcast driving day. But, we passed by some beautiful scenery along a bay and the ocean that included cranberry bogs and oyster beds before we made our way to the World Kite Museum - who knew there was so much to learn about kites. Without kites, there are no airplanes. Kites provide a glimpse into science, nature, and beauty. And, luckily, right around the corner from our campsite for the night at a Washington State Park. This one is much closer to the ocean than the one last night. And still, the beaches are massive with very few people - probably because the ocean is cooold! No burn ban here, so we had a wonderful little campfire to roast sausages and marshmallows - a very peaceful evening…

Had a relatively easy travel day today. Headed south along the coast to Ocean City. While we thought this campsite was right on the ocean, there is a bit of a trek to get there. Plus, the beach is huge! So, even when you get to the beach, it is still a ways to be able to put your toes into the cooold water. But, very enjoyable and just a couple more people than the beaches at home. This state park is nice because the sites have a lot of space and there is a lot of room between each site. It feels private, but safe.  We’ve heard a lot about how wonderful the Oregon coast is. So, we spent some time today researching and looking for places with availability, especially over the weekend. Our options were much more limited than we had anticipated. But, we managed to secure spots until next Monday. We’ll figure out our plans after that, probably on Sunday night…

Well, today was a bit of a wild day. We started off just fine. We were tempted to stay another day at our campsite by the bay, but after the traffic noise through the night, we decided to move on. So, as we were packing up this morning, we were greeting by jumping fish, giant blue jays, birds with red/orange feet, and a couple of seals to send us off. Then, we were cruising along just fine, when a police car raced by us. After about three minutes, we could see why. Someone had just had a run in with a login truck. Logs were everywhere, and there was a car in the woods on the side of the rode. We were only about six cars back. Thankfully, without being anyhow involved. But, needless to say, this set us back a while. I would say almost 2 hours while we waited for everything to clear up. We did have another visual with Washington’s helicopter support squad as someone needed to be airlifted out. Not the best experience, but rather interesting to watch it all unfold. Anyway, we went on our

After being serenaded by a gentle rain all evening, we packed up camp and headed down the road again. We stopped in Olympia at the State Capital - one of my favorites. This one also features a lot of marble, but with a grand, yet understated approach. One of the highlights is the largest Tiffany chandelier in the world! When we got back to DuEtte, we noticed we had a chip in the windshield ☹️. But, we were told to carry Gorilla Tape for just such an occurrence. So, I was able to whip out my tape and, hopefully, secure the chip so it doesn’t get any bigger and we can get it repaired. MacGivEtte to the rescue!! Then, on towards camp. We are headed back North along the Western edge of Puget Sound. Our approach to finding a campsite has worked out pretty well for us, so far, on this trip. When we get settled somewhere for the night, we pull out the road atlas and most of our electronic toys and look to see where we would like to go the next day. Our ballpark range for driving is about 3 ho

After breakfast at Shawn O’Donnell’s, we hit the road for downtown Seattle and the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. It is small, but very well done and it has an annex for the Bainbridge Internment Camp which is a sister camp to the Minidoka Internment Camp. Since we’ve been to Seattle before, there wasn’t anything else we wanted to see there, so we hit the road again for the Mt. Rainier National Park. Unfortunately, this was was one of our few drizzly days. So, we didn’t get much of a view of Mt Rainier. The park itself is nice to see, but the roads are pretty bad and it was very crowded in the very small visitor’s center. We decided to just move on down the road. We came across this campsite which is huge, but not full. We found a nice spot in a meadow with no one very close to us…

Took the ferry to the San Juan Islands today - what a beautiful ride! Vehicle reservations were full, so we needed to leave DuEtte in the parking lot and walk on to the ferry. But, probably for the best. The roads on the island were very narrow and curvey. We ended up taking a hop on and off trolley that gave us a history of the island and let us explore as well. Our main stop was at English Camp for our National Parks stamp. It was a well built camp with many of the original buildings still standing. Part of the tour went by a local lavender farm. When we got back to the ferry terminal at Friday Harbor, we had some local lavender ice cream in honor of its heritage. After we rode the ferry back, we stopped at another Harvest Host. This one is an Irish Pub, so we had to partake of some comfort food and drink - Poutine and Mac & Cheese for me and Fish & Chips for Nan. Now we are settled in for another lovely evening in the Pacific Northwest… View from the ferry - apparently, this

We are camping on an island with a view of the bay - how good is that?!? Although, Whidbey Island is much bigger than I expected. We are staying at the North end of the island. We drove for about 45 minutes to about 2/3 of the way down the island to visit Ebey’s Landing earlier today. It is where the first settler, Ebey, of Whidbey Island made his home. Now it is the very first National Historical Reserve and they are trying to maintain the pasture quality of the original island. View from Ebey’s Landing - is that Mt Rainier?

OK, ‘Concrete’ Washington doesn’t seem like it would have much appeal, but don’t rush to judgement. We arrived here after driving through one of the most picturesque areas on our whole trip - the North Cascades National Park. The water throughout the area, rivers and lakes, are colored by the minerals of glacier runoff, so a unique aqua color. And, today, sadly, we were able to witness a fire in the mountains and the efforts of helicopter firefighters as they scooped water out of the lake and dumped it on the fire in the mountains - two helicopters in an ongoing loop to try and douse the flames. Even after we were at our campsite, hours afterwards, we still saw helicopters flying over us towards the fire…But, our campsite is very idyllic. We are at another Harvest Host. This one is a working cattle ranch with a few cabins for quests and a few spots for RVs. It is along a river and Mt Baker is a snow-capped backdrop across the wide open fields…

Well, we had to move on at some point. Today, we had a leisurely drive through the Lake Roosevelt Recreation Area some more and then on toward the North Cascades. Full hookups at this campsite so a good chance for laundry and other mundane chores… A last view from our window this morning before leaving Kettle River: