Day 11 - Coast Ho with a kinky cable!

Miles Driven - 146
Total Miles - 975
Silver Falls Sate Park to Nehalem Bay State Park on Oregon Coast

The adventure continues.  Did you know that, in California, we used to get our Christmas trees from this area in Oregon.  We drove through miles and miles of farms like this en route to Silverton, Oregon.
We had just left 8 months of being in dry, desert like conditions, to now feeling the soft, moist, soothing air caressing our skin.  mmmmmmm.

Christmas Tree Farms

Upon arriving at David Gortner's home yesterday, in Silverton, we noticed our Jeep brakes were smoking hot.  What is happening here.  We were parked on a downgrade so could not disconnect.  Had been noticing the brake lights remain on the jeep when we stopped earlier and have been doing this for a while. Something is not quite right.

We had our coffee and visit.  Was fun to catch up with David, but the brake issue was in the back of my mind. Just to let you know that we were able to disconnect down on the bottom of his street before driving onto public roads.  Sraddha set up to follow me in Mr. Toad.

The culprit- a kinky cable.  Please excuse the desert dust.  

We then headed to South Salem to shop at Trader Joe's and refuel at a Safeway gas station.  I got on my cell phone, did some research, ended up speaking with the tech support guy for the braking system installed in our rig and did some troubleshooting.  Turns out not an electronic problem. Whew. However, the cable that runs from under the drivers seat to the brake peddle appears to have a little kink in it, so consequently it is sticking a little bit when the actuator initiates during braking of RV and doesn't allow the cable to completely release.  We hope our brake drums are not destroyed.  Will take in for check in Portland.

Sraddha drove the jeep independently without issue all the way to the coast and will drive it back to Laurelwood next week where we will take it into a brake specialist to examine the brake system and fix as needed.

Short Coastal Pine trees lined the drive into the park

I have an appointment in two weeks down in Salem with a dealer who will install a new cable which, hopefully will fix the issue.

our campsite for the weekend.

We will be in Laurelwood for next 5 weeks before heading inland and wanted to be on the beach for a few days so we headed to the coast. By the end of the day, when we arrived, we were ready to be done with the daily adventure.

I did manage to capture the last sun of the day on the beach with iPhone.

May not blog too much over the weekend.  We will see.  Stay tuned!

Day 9 - Mountains, Rain, the DMV and my first Geocache.

Miles Driven - 176
Total Miles - 829
Ochoco Pass to Silver Falls Sate Park, Oregon

The DMV.  I wish this word didn't send shivers down my spine. Would prefer sending good energy up my spine. That said we have had an interesting saga in our move up to Oregon.

We just discovered two weeks ago that the registration for our Subaru which was left in Oregon, still does not have the license plates.  We had submitted the registration paperwork over 3 months ago, when Sraddha visited Laurelwood.  Come to find out the bank info was left off the form and another co-owner, not named Sraddha or Kent is on the registration.

What the heck is happening here? They also misplaced the file and another name is on the registration in process.  A phone call to DMV and now a visit to Prineville DMV has moved along the process. We now have temporary (60 day) permit to drive the Subaru when we return next week, however not the registration which could take another 4-6 weeks.  Not good since we want to sell the Subaru.  Arghh.

This also makes us gun-shy to transfer the RV registration now which we need to initiate upon return next week.

Rainforest outside our back door here in Silver Falls State Park

Anyway we continued west from Prineville over the Cascades through a driving rainstorm.  The mountains were socked in so no good photos.

North falls from overlook

Overnight we move from camping in deserts for past 8 months to camping in a rain forest. What a difference a day makes!

Trees to the left of North Falls overlook.

We settled into Silver Falls State Park east of Salem, unhooking in pouring rain. Can you say "wet in 30 seconds"?  Later in day we drove to Silverton to see the Gordon House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built after his death.  It was recently moved, yes torn down and moved to its present location.

Gordon House in Silverton, OR

Kent finding his first geocache

Amazing design and color fit so well with greenery around it. While walking around through the tall grass to get a good photo (the one above). I stumbled onto my first Geocache. "What is this?"  It was an old ammo box just like I had read about.  Like a little kid at Christmas, I opened it up to see what was inside.  Having just read about geocaching in  fun book about maps, I was curious about the whole phenomenon.

 Apparently someone hides a, hopefully, watertight container, often a tupperware type, somewhere which contains a small notebook or log and sometimes trinkets or various things.  They then record and publish its GPS location, then others look for it.  Seems a bit strange but I already can see the allure.  So I recorded my "handle" which I made up on the spot, in the log, then downloaded the app and created my account to then record the "find".  Actually fun and Sraddha was laughing the whole time.

Sraddha twisted her knee yesterday on the hike in Blue Basin so we didn't hike the falls trail this afternoon.

Day 8 - Travel through Time in the John Day Fossil Beds

Miles  Driven - 101
Total Miles -     653
Clyde Holliday State park to Ochoco Pass NF Campground

We began the day driving west down the John Day River valley.  Being May, it is still green.  Never having driven this section of Oregon before, it was pretty neat.  My main impression of central Oregon had been over by Bend, and also along the basalt bluffs of Columbia River where it is dry desert sage brush.  Amazed at the ranches, pine forests, and beauty.

In eastern Oregon lies one of the most complete natural history of the past 60 million years.  The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument occupies 3 main units in eastern Oregon.  We visited 2 units.  Driving west from John Day, Oregon we follow the river through the narrow Picture Gorge where we see 17 different volcanic layers each representing over 8,000 years of time.

Picture Gorge.  17 volcanic layers averaging 8,000 yrs each.

This is an amazing place.  Essentially, there are layers of volcanic ash dating back 40 + million years ago in which fossils the whole Mammal Age can be found.

The monument was inaugurated in 1975 with 3 distinct units.  We first visited the Visitor Center on the John Day River, spending 3 hours touring one of the best educational displays we have ever seen, which covers each era of which there about 8-10.

Amazing displays at Visitor Center

We then drove further north to the first unit, the Blue Basin and pulled into the parking lot trusting there would be room to turn around.

John Day River Valley near Blue Basin

 We were assured by the ranger that we could turn around in the parking lots so we headed in.  There was room.  Whew.  Ya never know.

Backside of blue Basin Overlook Trail looking north

Two hikes were recommended. We set off on the Overlook trail first  which took us around the backside then steep switchbacks up about 800 feet to the overlook.

Overlook of the Blue Basin

We hiked about a mile along the rim before descending via switchbacks to the center of the canyon.

Most of our photos were shot with the iPhone, however I did manage to shoot a couple with the big Canon.  They will be on my Flickr page.

Is it really that blue down there?

 The second hike took us down into the center of the canyon.

Blue and Green Volcanic Tuff with many layers on top

The blues and greens are volcanic Tuff layed down 30+million years ago. Over time, many layers heaped on top caused compression and metamorphosis of the tuff turning it these fascinating colors

Yep, it's blue all right

 All during the hike, CharLi and Mr. Toad waited faithfully in the parking lot.  Just barely fitting in.

Charli and Mr. Toad waited in the parking lot, waaaayyy down there.

Our second visit was to the Painted hills unit about an hours drive west.  It was after 5 PM when we departed back to the main highway, over a mountain pass, down into another river valley, north 6 miles just hoping we arrive in time before the sun pops behind clouds for rest of night.

Painted hills.  Also Volcanic Tuff like blue basin.  Just different color

We were not disappointed.  In fact the clouds accommodated us quite nicely, darkening the distant hills and accentuating the painted hills.  Photos do not really depict how incredible the beauty really is.

Love the 10 second delay on the big camera.

We didn't want to leave but had to head out at almost 8 PM because we didn't know where we would camp this night and still had, maybe an hour of useable light left to park.  After all, there are no Walmarts around here.

Shooting the Painted hills.  I only had about 20 minutes of good light.

We drove back out to the main road.  Along the way we did see one possible BLM dry site, however, with the fading light, was not sure we could make it in there and didn't know about rain overnight leaving the road muddy and stranding us.  Such wusses we are.  Plus we did know of a Forest Service campground up on Ochoco Pass (4723' elevation) which we thought would have space for us.  

Turns out we found a sweet pull through and cost us only $6 to camp in the tamarack and pine forest.  We pulled in around 8:45, dropped the levelers and out go the slides.  Sraddha had started some Posole early in the morning which just needed to be reheated and seasoned.  We ate, listening to the wind rustling in the trees and slept soundly, quite satisfied of a full day or hiking, learning, and being in some incredible natural beauty we had not even imagined a few days before.

Day 6 - Change in Plans, Trip through Mountains

Miles Traveled - 108
Total Miles - 552
Departed - Narrows at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
Arrived - Clyde Holliday State Park, east of John Day, Oregon

Due to a really good deal we actually had save $20 by booking the Narrows RV park for 4 nights. We spent another fun morning birding at Park HQ with Turtle and Hawk at Headquarters we saw numerous small birds and a few in flight.  We had met Bob and Bettina down in Patagonia Lake last winter.  Good birders!

3 great birders and one clueless shooter

We returned to the RV late morning for a nice salad brunch (not normal eating around here, let me tell you). As we were finishing up, I asked the question:

Me - So what do you want to do for the rest of the day.

Her - Oh, I am trying to figure out what birding to do..Do I want to go look for those burrowing owls?

Me - I have an idea. (uh oh)  It's still early in the day and the day is long.  Let's head out of here up north, refuel in Burns and check out that pesky Jeep tire with slow leak, then see if we want to spend the night at Idlywild campground up in the mountain forest?  If not then keep going.  Whaddya think?

Her - Hmm.  Yeah, I am ready to move on.

And just like that we began to pack up.  I still had the blog post to finish with XXX rated bird photos

so she began packing up.  When I finished, we then completed the packing (about 20 minutes), dumped waste, hooked up and off we go.

We stopped at Idlewild campground about 17 miles north of Burns around 2:30.  Nice forest service campground with 3 pull throughs in which we would have fit.  We walked around for about an hour looking for the Black Backed Wooedpecker whom our friends, Turtle and Hawk, had seen last week. Would have been a new bird sighting for Sraddha, however we just weren't' feeling it.

This is the great thing about not having a fixed schedule we really like.  We looked at each other and agreed that is was, again, time to move on.  I love flexibility and spontaneity.  Very different from even 6 months ago.

Long story short, we drove another 70 miles to John Day, then west 8 miles to Clyde Holliday State Park.  Now this park is on the John Day river and absolutely beautiful.  Yet right near highway.  AND they don't take reservations.  We gambled that, since it was the end of Memorial Day weekend, there might just be a couple sites open, which there were.  Not the prime sites, but we managed to select a decent site, unhooked, drove down the reverse direction so we could back in easily and settled in for the night.

Instead of departing Malheur Refuge with 140 miles to drive to the John Day Fossil Beds, we are not less than 30 miles to go this morning.  Good decision.

our campsite at Clyde Holliday State Park

Day 2 - Back in Oregon. Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Todays Miles - 135

Total Miles - 360

Departed - Likely, CA

Arrived - Hot Springs Campground, Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge

Note we are already days behind in posts as we had no internet at Hart Mountain. We dumped waste, filled water tanks and prepared for next phase.  

Out the campsite early, we headed north to Lakeview, Oregon. 

 Hurray, back in Oregon. Feels good.

Looking out north onto Lakeview area

We stopped in Lakeview for refuel (regular was $3.95, $0.25 cheaper than Alturas).  We also made some phone calls (yeah cell service) and ate brunch.

East on highway to Plush, Oregon

 The Oregon high desert is really pretty amazing.  4,000-7,000 ft with mountains over 8,000 feet they pale in comparison to the Rockies and Sierras.  

However, the vista's are amazingly beautiful.  Simply your basic wide open spaces. We look out on the Hart mountains in the distance.  Geologically it is a fault block where one edge, in this case the western edge, raises up and the other side is very gradual.  We have seen quite a few in the west.

 Lots of sagebrush and open road.  No antelopes yet though

 We drive past ranches and farms, admiring the space and quiet it represents.

 Home, Home on the Range!  Where the deer and the antelope play.

 We stop to check out an old Civilian Conservation Corps campground.  Nice shape but find a map and discover there is a hot springs campground up on the top of the mountain north of the Park HQ.

 Up we go on the gravel road which just has been paved.  Later we hear there are some big horn sheep in area which we missed seeing. Next time.

 We get to the top at HQ, stop to get our bearings and disconnec Mr. Toad.  Seems best idea to first dust off the jeep before we disconnect. Another visitor remarks that it seems a lost cause due to the remaing 50 miles of gravel road but we mainly do it to keep it off ourselves.

 No rangers around to ask questions so we consult the map and drive 4 miles south from HQ over a hill into a lovely little valley lined with Aspens.  Sraddha, in the jeep, scouts out possible campsites amongst all available.  Very primitive, yet beautiful.  We find a camp host site with no camp host and I drive over the little creek through Aspen forest.

 We set up camp at the host site.  No water or electrical in campground.  Just pit toilets but my, oh my, what a lovely spot, except for one thing.

 The one thing turns out to be mosquitoes.  We had hoped to sit ouside in the evening but decided not to.  Nevertheless we had a wonderful time.

Hot Springs Campsite.

One great benefit, other than stunning beauty, was the hot springs.  After setting up camp we drove over and jumped in.  Visited with some fun young people who told us about the meteor shower Friday night.

 It was refreshing but not too hot.  I tried the nearby stream to cool off. 

Looking out from our campsite.

 We were tempted to stay another night and watch the meteor shower, then get to Malheur late but we had made a date with our friends, Turtle and Hawk for Saturday morning birding, so we headed out Friday morning.  Glad we did.  Turned out the rain and clouds prevented the viewing of the shower.  But that is another story......

Day One - Circumnavigation of the USA in 51 Weeks

Today's Route

Todays Miles - 225
Total Miles - 225
Departed - Ananda Village, California
Arrived - Likely, California

First off, thank you to everyone with whom we connected at Ananda Village this past week for mentioning you follow our blog and travels.  We are blessed with your friendship.  And to all of you whom we have met along the way over the past year of our full time RV travels, we hope to meet you again on the road!

We have finished our first day in our journey to circumnavigate the USA during the next 51 weeks, returning to Ananda Village for the Swami Kriyananda Memorial Mandir dedication weekend of May 15, 16, 17, 2015.  In fact we made appointments for teeth cleaning on May 14, 2015 in Nevada City at our long time dental office.

I will report each day we stop at a new campsite, on the miles driven, total miles, etc for the trip. Occasionally I will report on some additional metrics. Hope you will read along.

Heading east on Hwy 49 through the forests of Sierra Foothills 

We elected to head east on Highway 49 through Downieville, and over Yuba Pass to Sierra Valley where we picked up Hwy 70. Right now we are driving north along highway 395 east of the Sierra's en route to eastern Oregon for a few days before heading to Ananda Laurelwood.  We have 4 fixed dates (see bold type below) the rest of this year.   We will fill in the blanks. We hope to stay off the freeways as much as possible yet still make good time in certain areas.

Essentially a One Lane Bridge in Downieville

After the 4th of July weekend we will head up to northern Idaho for a family reunion and also to Puget Sound for a visit and a wedding of two wonderful friends.  End of July will see us begin the eastern migration across the U.S. heading towards the Canadian Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Sierra Valley

We will then head  down the Maine Coast late September so I can attend a Fall Color Photo Workshop with Vincent Versace in Rockport, Maine.  Along the way we hope to visit Sraddha's sister in New Hampshire and my "niece" in Lowell Mass, then head to Washington DC to visit Smithsonian, National Gallery, Gettysburg, etc.

Clouds are gathering up Hwy 395

The weather will dictate a lot of our travel times and directions. Our last fixed date of 2014 will find us in Orlando over the Christmas Holiday near Disneyworld.  Mickey already told me he will be happy to see us again!

Kent and Mickey January 2011

Deep winter exploring Florida should be interesting before we begin our westward migration and birding along the gulf coast all the way to Corpus Christi near the Mexico border in south Texas.  Might even go clear down.  The best birding down along the gulf coast is March-April-May so we will see how it goes.  Again need to be back in Nevada City by May 15.  Whew.

Storm clouds grow even more northbound on Hwy 395

Oh yes, let's finish our drive today.  We encountered a fun thunderstorm with winds.  Initially we thought they weren't as strong as many encountered in New Mexico, then we caught a huge gust broadsides which woke us up.  Woah!

our campsite at Likely Golf and RV resort

As we approached Likely Golf and RV resort  the sun broke out to reveal snow capped peaks to the east.  We pulled in and made camp then took a walk around the lake.  The golf course looked inviting especially after i had my best round in 3 years, yesterday in Nevada City.  Alas, I don't have my clubs yet.  Next year....

one of the little lakes around the Likely Golf and RV Resort