Thanksgiving dinner with my brother Mike's family. What a great looking family!

Front row: Carter, Gabe, Luke, Ben, & Margo (all the kids)
Second row: Virginia, Crystal, Erica, Barbara
Third row: Britany, Virginia, Mike, Al, Travis, Trent

Although it is now late November and we're camped in east Tennessee, I wanted to post some photos taken in September while traveling back to the east. We stopped over in one of our favorite western towns, Saratoga, Wyoming for a few days. It was quickly turning cooler with fall weather taking hold in the mountains. This is such a beautiful place.

Libby Flats, high up (over 10,000 ft) in the Medicine Bow Nat. Forest

 

Snowy Mtn. Range

 

Aspen Alley in the Sierra Madre Range

 

 

Since our last post we've been visiting family, first in the Kansas City area for the month of October and second, more family visits in upper East Tennessee. In Kansas City we spent the month visiting our two sons and grandson. Being grandparents is the greatest. Brody is nearly two now and is such great fun.

In Nov. we headed to Tennessee to visit Mom & Dad. Mom had some health problems but is doing better now. We did our fall cleanup around Mom's house, raking leaves, trimming trees & shrubs. We'll soon be heading out once again, this time to Savannah to visit my sister and enjoy warmer weather.
Dad has a new project...a 1989 Jaguar XJS12. Looks pretty good for an older car. He's always got something going on; pretty good for 78 year old guy.

I want to wish all friends and family Happy Thanksgiving!

We arrived in Troutdale, Oregon on Wednesday for a 3 day stay at Sandy Riverfront RV Resort. Troutdale is a small town just east of Portland. Barbara's never been to Portland so I thought I'd show her some of the sights downtown.
The Portland area has a robust public transit system called TriMet, a combination of bus and train service. We left Friday morning at the bus stop across from the RV park. We got off the bus in Gresham where we caught the train. An hour later, we got off in the middle of downtown for a day of exploring. I definitely recommend using public transportation if visiting here. We bought 1 day passes for only $5 each. Just to park downtown would have set us back over $20 bucks, not to mention fuel cost and the aggravation of driving.
Portland is a wonderful place to explore on foot. If you like to walk, it's entirely possible to walk all over the city center. We started out by visiting the largest bookstore in the world, Powell's Books. This place takes up 3 stories of an entire city block. They have over 3.5 million new & used books. They will also buy your used books. We spent over 2 hours and only covered a tiny fraction of the store. The geography & travel section alone was larger than most bookstores I've ever visited, and they had over 30 different sections.

 

 

We had lunch at Jake's Famous Crayfish...great place to eat (and rest). I had the Crayfish Penne and Barbara had Pecan Crusted Catfish....mumm good! Both dishes for less than $20...not bad.

 

 



 

 

Most of the major retail chains are located downtown. They are interspersed with unique small shops cafes, and coffee bars.

 

 

 

 

 

Portland has some nice old neighborhoods with many homes built during the Victorian era. It's been a good day! We leave tomorrow on our way back to KC. We plan to drive to Baker City, Oregon for a one night stay.

If you like our blog, why don't you let me know by posting a comment...I'd like to know there are folks out there looking at it. If you have any suggestions as to how to make improvements, let me know those as well.

 

 

 



 



Our month in Crescent City comes to an end today. We're heading over to Roseburg, Oregon for the night, on our way to Portland for a three day stay. After Portland we will slowly make our way back to Kansas City to visit with our boys for a month or so. We've had a great time here, visiting the dramatic coastal scenery and walking among the Redwoods. Crescent City is a neat little city with ample shopping options and restaurants.

 

 

The weather for our stay has been pleasant with cool temperatures and a mixture of fog, clouds, and sunshine. It rarely rains during the summer months and we didn't see any rain during our stay although during some days it sure looked as though we were going to be in for it.

 

 

 

One side trip I wanted to let you know about was our journey to Oregon Caves National Monument. On the way we passed through the small town of Cave Junction, Oregon. It's a delightful little town nestled in the Lincoln Valley, surrounded by the Siskew mountains. We stopped for lunch at at Taylor Country Store, a wonderful combination meat market/eatery. If you call yourself a carnivor, you'll love this place.

 

 

Oregon Caves was a real surprise. I thought there would be a simple structure in front of the cave where you get information and pay for the cave tour. Instead, there was a full blown lodge, built in the 1930's that was quite substantial. It reminded me of Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, Oregon, both built during the depression, beautiful in their rustic charm, built with local materials and old world craftsmanship. It had many rooms for rent, an elegant restaurant, and gift shop.

 

 

 

So, it's off to Portland, a place Barbara's never been. I'm looking forward to showing her some of the many waterfalls in the area as well as strolling around the city, taking in some of the sights. Stay tuned...



 



The weather this time of year for the Northern California and Oregon coasts is usually pleasantly sunny with highs in the 60s and lows in the 50s. The past week has been mostly cloudy with persistent fog hugging the coast. According to the RV park owner, this summer has been unusual in that the regular sunny skies have instead given way to the gray skies and fog but if you drive a couple of miles inland, its like the skies magically clear with bright warm sunshine. You really get a sense of how much the cold ocean currents affect the coastal Pacific Northwest.
We took a drive one day to a rather unique tourist attraction that you can't miss while driving up CA 199 toward Oregon. "Trees of Mystery" is your all in one destination in the middle of a redwood forest with a motel, resturant, gift shop, gondala ride, and hiking trails. They have two giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox that no doubt have the kids screeming at parents to make a stop. We just stopped for a stroll through the gift shop before moving on up the highway. The last few days however have been spectacular. Just maybe, the sun is making a comeback for the last days of summer. Our last few days have been spent between walks on the beach and drives into the forest for quiet walks among the giant trees. We have a week left before making our way back to the Kansas City area. We've had a great three weeks thus far but I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends again.          
                                         Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Redwood Nat. Pk.

                                         Cape Ferello, OR

One of the most plesant experiencies we have as RV'ers is meeting and talking with other folks. The same question is always asked, "where are you from"? I'm still trying to sort out a consistent response. I've given several different answers ranging from: 1) we're not from anywhere since we full time RV'ers. 2) we're from the southeastern US, wife-Florida, myself-Tennessee. 3) the last 16 years we had a home in the Kansas City area. I guess the best response would be to say we're RV'ers and let the conversation go from there.
People in the Pacific Northwest don't see many folks like us from the Southeastern US so one of the first coments we get is about our accents. Now I've not lived in Tennessee for 36 years however my accent is just as pronounced as it was the day I left. You would think that an accent would modify over time if you move to a different region but I don't guess that really happens. I get a kick out of some people who try to guess where we come from. I'm not amused when they guess Georgia or Florida. I've only had one person correctly guess where I was from. He was an old Paiute Indian we met in central Oregon and he just came right out and asked me if I were from Tennessee after I spoke a few sentences. He had never even been to Tennessee but he had been around other Indians from the south during inter-tribal gatherings. I enjoyed so much talking with him.
I had to take a photo of our cat this morning. He looks so comfortable, napping in the morning sun.

Another photo at an overlook just within Redwood Nat. Pk.

 

Just up from the RV is an area of many neat tidal pools.



The headquarters for Redwood National Park is in Crescent City. Yesterday morning I went by and obtained a pass for the Tall Trees Grove. Only a certain number of vehicles are allowed down a rough winding road to the trailhead. After locking the gate behind us and driving the 7 miles to the trailhead we walked 1 1/2 miles, descending 800 feet to the grove. It is an amazing place with reportedly the tallest tree on earth. It's not identified however due to the potential damage over time with people walking around the tree, compacting the earth around it. Many of the trees are in the 350' range, some taller. See if you can find Barbara in the first photo.

I can't think of another location in the country that has summertime weather as nice as the Pacific Northwest, especially along the coast. Today is a perfect example with sunny skies and a high temperature in the mid-60's. Last night's low was 53 degrees, perfect sleeping weather.

I spent a couple of hours early this morning at the pier again, fishing for crab. After another successful outing, I returned to the RV and prepared about 2 lbs. of crab meat. I've decided to freeze my catches for the next few days and enjoy them after heading back to Kansas City in late September.

Later in the day I drove into Redwood Nat. Park along the coast and found a beautiful overlook.

It was cool and foggy for most of the day...I mean really foggy. According to the weather guy, today was supposed to be sunny. We had planned to go on a couple of hikes in Redwood Nat. Park. Oh well, a good excuse to head to the pier for some more crab fishing. I caught 6 nice sized ones in about an hour and a half. A lot of people came by the pier despite the fog. Almost everyone wanted to know how I was doing and how you catch crab. One guy who had a very nice camera came by to talk for a while. I found out he was a professional photographer. He was very interested in the full time RV lifestyle. Before he left he gave me a business card and said he had an RV space at his home and that we'd be welcome anytime. One of the best things so far about RV travel is all the nice people you meet.

I love crab cakes.These were excellent!

 

The fog burned off around 3:00pm so we decided to take a walk on the jetty. It was a very long walk with some interesting shapes.

 

 

 

After walking on the jetty we decided to take a short drive up coast within the city. There were several pullouts along the way that overlooked the ocean. There were many developing tide pools below as the tide was going out.

 

 

The end of a good day!



We walked to Battery Point and took a photo looking back toward the harbor. While on a trip to Walmart for groceries I found a crab trap for 10 bucks. I've never crab fished in my life but after watching too many episodes of "The Deadliest Catch" I though I'd give it a go. This morning I went to the pier and...SUCESS! Within a couple of hours I caught 8 large crab.

We arrived in Crescent City, CA in the 18th after a short drive down from Port Orford, OR. We're going to settle down here for a month to relax and enjoy the scenery. Redwood Nat. Park, one of my favorites is right next door as well. I plan on taking a number of hikes on some neat trails. We're staying at Shoreline RV Park, 900 Sunset Circle in Crescent City. We were able to reserve one of their ocean front spaces for the month. I took some photos from on top of the RV to give you a sense of our view for the month. Not bad for $440 including all utilities is it?

Hwy. 101 running through downtown Port Orford. Population...around 1600. It was cloudy and cool (59 degrees) today.

We did a short drive this afternoon and took a few photos of the sea. Look closely for the seals sleeping on the rock below.

Part of the 8lbs of blueberries picked today

After picking blueberries in the morning we went by the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the westernmost point in Oregon. The lighthouse was built in 1870 with a Fresnel (non-rotating) lens. The single thousand watt bulb can be seen 26 miles out to sea.

8 lbs. of blueberries picked in the morning = fresh blueberry muffins in the afternoon....mmm...good!

We spent a week at Diamond Lake RV Park, Oregon beginning on 8/8. The first photo is of the Diamond Lake Resort, a really cool place.

 Early morning on Diamond Lake.

I spent part of one day hiking up Mt. Bailey

At Crystal Crane Hot Springs Oregon. They had several RV spots, elect & water only. We spent two days here and had a great time. The water is around 100 degrees. They have bathrooms with showers and a small camp store/gift shop. It's about a 30 minute drive southeast of Burns.