We Arrive in Kanab, UT

We left Hart's Ranch on Sunday for the long drive to Southern UT. On the first day we made as far as Rawlins, WY. It was a stressful day, because we had 30-40 MPH winds mostly from the side, but some head on. We didn't make as much progress as we wanted to because of the winds. We overnighted at a Flying J truck stop, a first for us, but we didn't have many choices in WY.

The next morning was cold, and as we drove west on I-80 it got colder. In Rock Springs it started to snow, which broke one of John's rules about never having snow on the roof of the motorhome! It didn't stick to the freeway, but it stuck to the windshield. It continued to snow on and off until we reach the UT border when it stopped. It's a long down grade into Salt Lake City, where we merged onto I-15 south. We overnighted in a Wal-Mart in Cedar City UT where it was sunny, but cold enough overnight to put a coat of ice on the motorhome and pilot. When we tried to start the pilot, the battery was dead. Luckily, since we were at Wal-Mart it was easy to purchase a new one and we were on our way. By mid day we found our campground in Kanab, parked the rig, and headed on to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for a visitor tour. Linda's going to volunteer for a week at the sanctuary while John going to explore the area and catch up on some chores.

More on Best Friends in our next post. Stay tuned, it'll be interesting.

Last Days in SD

We're winding up our stay at Hart's Ranch. It's been a fun week, even with the interesting weather. Thurs. night we had 60 MPH winds, yesterday was breezy with a high in the high 60s, and today it hit 92. If you don't like the weather, just wait a couple hours and it'll change.

Rapid City is called the City of Presidents, not only for it's close proximity to Mt. Rushmore, but because they have placed bronze statues of the Presidents on street corners in the downtown area. We enjoyed doing a virtual geocaching, identifying each President based on the coordinates we downloaded. Here's a picture of John with Thomas Jefferson.

As you can see, they're very well done. They cost $50,000 each, and 4 new ones are placed each year. They are there 24/7, but there's been no vandalism.

After we visited with the Presidents, we found some other geocaches, including one at an actual section of the Berlin Wall, and one near Dinosaur Park. Geocaching is a lot of fun and a great way to get some much needed exercise.

On Friday we drove West to Spearfish, and a scenic drive through Spearfish Canyon. The trees were just starting to turn on the creek that had created the canyon. It was very beautiful, and we found another Bridal Vail Falls. There must be one in each state. At the end of the canyon the road wound through Lead and Deadwood, both historic gold rush towns. Lead has a producing gold mine called the Homestake. It's currently at the 8000 foot deep level and is stilled being mined. Deadwood's claim to fame is the location of where "Wild Bill"Hickok was killed. He was sitting in a poker game, holding a pair of aces & eights, forever after known as the dead man's hand. He was shot from behind. He's buried in the Moriah Cemetery next to Calamity Jane, who he couldn't stand. Today Deadwood has many small casinos that keep the town in business. We were disappointed in the commercialism of the town, but we had a nice lunch at Kevin Cosner's casino which contained a lot his memorabilia.

We ended the day back at the Mt. Rushmore Monument for the evening program. They had a nice dining room, so we shared a nice chicken dinner, then went to the outdoor program. It started with a talk from the ranger, then a stirring movie about the carving and the history it represents. At the end they played the Star Spanked Banner and the mountain slowly lit up. It was very moving. At the end, the ranger invited all veterans up on the stage to lower the flag. It was a great way to end the day.

On Saturday, we cleaned the motorhome, did some shopping, and got ready to leave our home state. We're heading back through Wyoming towards Utah. Hopefully we'll get good traveling weather with little wind.

If you would like to view all of our photos of the greater Rapid City area please click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/RapidCitySD

Thank you for sharing our adventure with us.

Custer State Park, SD

On Wednesday we decided we needed a wildlife fix, so we went to Custer State Park. This is one of the largest state parks in the US. In fact, we only saw about half of it before we ran out of time.

It has 3 lodges, campgrounds, 3 lakes, forest, prairie, and a lot of acres. The main reason we came here is to see the Bison herd.

On the way to the park we almost ran over some wild turkeys in the road. There was about 15 turkeys in the group, and one did actually fly to get out of the way of the car. Pictures are in the Picasa Album. You can click on the link at the bottom of this post.

Once we were in the park, John insisted we stop at visitor center. He never gets his fill of visitor center! We got a map from a volunteer, who just happened to be a fulltime RVer. It seems the park has a large need for staff during the summer, and some rvers will work 20 hours a week for a full hookup site in a beautiful place. We also visited the general store and the game park lodge. It was pretty quiet, most of the visitors leave after Labor Day, which makes it nicer for us.

From the lodge, we followed the Wildlife Trail, a road that meandered through the park past meadows and forest where the local animals hang our. The main herd in the park is Bison, or Buffalo, and that's what everyone comes to see.



Here's a picture of a mother & her calf walking along the creek. Up on the hill was a large herd, just hanging out. The park has about 2000 Bison. Every year they do a roundup, This year on the first weekend of October. All of the Bison are moved into corrals, where they're evaluated, given a medical checkup, tagged, branded, and sorted into different groups. Because the park can only sustain about 2000 Bison, some of the herd is seaparated and auctioned off in November.

Bison aren't the only inhabitants of the park. Years ago some burros were released into the park, and they multiplied. Today, they are the popular begging burros. As you can see, they like people, or at least people food. Check the online album for pictures of Linda & John embracing the wild.

Other wildlife we saw on our journey include white tail deer, prong horn antelope, and more turkeys. We saw some birds, but the park has over 65 different varieties that we couldn't identify.

Finally, we saw a Prairie Dog Town. We almost missed it because John expected a lot of mound close together, but these were very spread out. There was no road sign, so many visitors just drove past without seeing them. Linda thought they were very cute. In fact she thought she heard one of them bark! It sounded like a dogwood tree, Bob.

If you would like to see more pictures, click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/CusterStateParkSD

and it will take you to our Custer Park web album. As always, any comments or emails are appreciated.

It's Officical

We're completed our move to South Dakota! Today we went to the DMV and exchanged our CA licenses for SD. It took about 15 minutes total. Quite a difference from CA where you have to make an appointment.

We just gave the clerk our old licenses, filled out a form, had our pictures taken (UGH), and then we were issued our new licenses. Oh, and we registered to vote at the same time.

SO LONG CALIFORNIA, HELLO SOUTH DAKOTA! And we don't have to renew them for 5 years.

Mt. Rushmore

On our first full day here in SD we wanted to see Mt. Rushmore. It was as spectacular as we thought it would be!

It started out as an overcast day, but later in the afternoon the sun came out. And, lucky us, it cooled off into the 70s. This retirement life is great. This is called the avenue of flags, where each state flag is flown with a plaque explaining when the state came into the union. There's a visitor center at the end of the avenue with a large deck for viewing the mountain. There's also a large amphitheater that is used for a lighting show at night.

Inside the visitor center is a theater showing a film on the other parts of the monument, including wildlife and geology. We were at first disappointed because we wanted to learn more on the carving of the mountain. Well, under the theater is a large exhibit hall showing all phases of the carvings, information on the artist and his family and all of the laborers who worked on the monument from 1927 to 1941. One fact that really surprised John was that no one was killed or seriously injured during the entire project! Some of the pictures of the workers using dynamite and hanging in mid air with air drills were scary.

We're planning on going back to the monument to see the night light show while we're here in SD.

We Travel to South Dakota

We left the Glacier area on Friday morning for a long two day drive to Rapid City, SD. We didn't realize that the trip would involve so many up and down hills. In a 35,000 lb. motorhome you learn not to like up and down very much. We cut over to I-15 thinking that the interstate would be easier-wrong! One of the worst hills was when I-15 dead ended into I-90. I-15 is a long downhill road, meets with I-90 in a 25MPH corkscrew entrance. We think we could smell our brakes!

We overnighted in a very nice rest area outside of Billings, MT. Montana is a big state, it was about 530 miles to this rest area. Normally we stop at Wal-Marts when we overnight, but this rest stop was right on the freeway and it had an area where we could open our slides. After a good nights sleep, we pushed on through Wyoming to Rapid City, SD. It's 92 degrees and hot, especially after leaving Canada and Montana where the highs were in the 60s.

We arrived about 4:00pm at one of the nicest campgrounds we have stayed at so far. It's called Hart's Ranch, and it have concrete pads with lots of grass and space between the spots. Pearl really likes it. We're going to stay here a week in the Black Hills and explore the area. If you would like to see what Hart Ranch is like, please click here:

http://hartranchresort.com/welcome.html

Glacier National Park

We stayed two nights at Glacier Meadows RV Resort near East Glacier, and on Friday we drove into Glacier National Park. It was a beautiful day, and we drove up the "Going to the Sun" road that goes up to Logan Pass. It's a very twisty road that climbs the side of the mountain through a series of switchbacks. It's very narrow at times, and they're working on it this summer to repair parts of the road that washed away last winter. But we were not in a hurry, we wanted to enjoy the views!



There's a visitor center at Logan Pass and you could really tell that the glaciers are receding due to the warmer climate. Instead of continuing on the loop road that would of taken us back over roads we had driven the day before, we turned around and started back down. It's amazing how different the views are when you're driving the opposite direction. It's like an entirely different road. There was some smoke in the air from 3 different fires that were currently burning around the park. Some of the hillsides were damaged from the major fire in the park in 2006.

When we got down off the mountain, we stopped at the Lake McDonald Lodge for lunch and to enjoy the views of the lake.



The dining room was closed, so we ate in the lounge. John even had a sample of the local brew and the view from the deck was fantastic! We walked down to the lake, but John couldn't see any fish from the docks.

On the way back to the car we saw one of the famous tour trucks that was built by White Truck in the 1930s. Back in the 1990s they were falling apart, but the visitors loved them so much that Ford Motor Co. rebuilt them all with all new components. They're beautiful and they run on propane instead of gasoline.



If you would like to see all of our pictures from Glacier National Park, please click on this link to see our Picasa Album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/GlacierNationalPark

Thanks for sharing this adventure with us!

A Change in Plans

We had planned to journey with the motorhome to Banff National Park, then on to Calgary, before going back to the United States. But, since we visited Banff and Lake Louise while we were parked at Radium Hot Springs, we decided to head back south and visit Glacier National Park before we go to SD to get our drivers licenses.

Looking on the map it showed we could start back south on Hwy. 95, and then connect with Hwy. 93/3 before Cranbrook and wind up on the west side of Glacier with many choices of RV parks to choose from.

Well, John started driving the motorhome and he somehow missed where Hwy. 93 split from Hwy. 3. Before we knew it, we were in Alberta, scratching our heads as to what to do. We looked at the map and saw that Hwy.6 would connect with Hwy. 98 in the US and get us to the east side of Glacier and then we could take Hwy.2 into the main entrance area.

Hwy. 6 was up and down hills, then up and down mountains. We made it to the US border with no problems, John even got into the right lane and didn't have any sirens going off. The real problems started on Hwy. 98. It went curvy up and curvy down, the road got worst and worst. There were frost heaves, pot holes, and the whole motorhome shook and bounced. And it went on & on.

We finally made it to Hwy. 2, exhausted and shook up. We turned right towards Glacier and drove about 25 miles to a great park, Glacier Meadows. It's still 35 miles to West Glacier and the entrance to the park, but we're in an open meadow with nice grass and a lot of space between sites. It's super quiet, and we even took Pearl out without a leash! The joys of the off season.

PS: It got down to 31 degrees last night, but it got up to 75 degrees during the day. The leaves are just starting to turn! Got to love the Fall.

Radium Hot Springs Pools

We couldn't visit the Radium Hot Springs area with visiting the original Hot Springs!

The pools are located inside the Kootenay National Park, and run by Canada Parks. There's also a spa offering massages, facials and assorted other stuff spas offer (you women know).

There are 2 different pools. The Hot Springs Pool, which is about 3-4 feet deep and huge, and a 50 meter cool pool with a diving board and swimming lanes. The hot pool is between 100-103 degrees and the cool pool is about 82 degrees. People don't swim in the hot pool, they just walk from place to place. One end of the pool is slightly hotter than the other. There's a shelf all around the perimeter of the pool that people can sit on, or lay back on.

The pedestal in the middle allows you to sit and look up at the cliffs. We sat there for awhile and looked up on the cliff hoping to see some wildlife like Mountain Goats, or Rocky Mountain Sheep, but they never appeared. We didn't even see any birds flying in the air. We did see some chipmunks!

We went back and forth between the two pools and it was really enjoyable. We didn't know if it cured anything, but we were both very relaxed and slept really well that night.

Moose, Meese, Mooses, Whatever

We've seen a lot of signs of moose since we've been in Idaho & Canada, but no real Moose...

We've seen a bear cross the highway right in front of us and almost cause a traffic accident! Cars swerved every which way to avoid the bear, and he just ambled across the road as if he owned it, walked along side of the road and then disappeared into the brush.

We also saw Mountain Sheep along side of the road as we were going downhill off the pass. They wandered back and forth without any though to the large semi trucks barreling down the road.

We saw lots of moose signs, shops, tee shirts, plaques, mugs, plates, clothing...

And even a fly fishing moose...but not a real one. I guess we'll just have to continue in our quest for a wild moose!

To see pictures of all of the real and fake animals we've seen so far, click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/Animals

We'll be adding to it, and I hope someday a picture of a live moose!

Kootenay National Park

Today we decided to explore Kootenay National Park. We drove through the park yesterday to get to Lake Louise & Banff, but we didn't make any stops. So today we went back to look at what we missed and to do a little hiking.

Our first stop was Olive Lake, which was at the top of Kootenay Pass. It got it's name from the green color of the water. As you see from the picture it was a beautiful day with little wind so we got a good reflection. We walked around the lake and saw some very small brook trout which populate the lake. This lake is formed by springs in the lake and as you look at the bottom, you can see bubbles rising from where the springs are letting water into the lake.

We drove further into the park and stopped to hike along the Kootenay River. It's a blue-green color from the glacier flour in the water. The bottom is very stony. We never saw any fish in all of our stops along the rivers in the park, nor much plant life in the river. The water was very cold.

We stopped for lunch at the Kootenay Lodge, which consisted of a few cabins and a gift shop. The restaurant was only open for breakfast & dinner. Go figure. So we got some snacks and headed on to the paint pots.

The native americans (indians) used the dye from the paint pots as make up and to decorate their homes. It's an orange red color, and the natives would mix it with grease from animals, then bake it, then pound it into a powder. Then it was mixed with oil and used for decorations. It was an interesting walk with a lot of good historical information.

Our last stop was at Vermillion Falls. The stone here is black and very soft. Over the years the river has carved a canyon creating this falls. You can see where the water has carved away at the side walls making bowl shaped impressions. It was very pretty and sound of the water rushing over the falls was musical.

If you like to see all of the pictures from this day, just click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/KootenayNationalPark

Thanks for joining us on this trip.

Lake Louise & Banff

Today we left the motorhome in Radium Hot Springs and drove through Kooteny National Park to Banff National Park. It was a beautiful drive except for the area that had a major forest fire in 2003. When we hit the junction of Hwy 93 and Transcanada 1, we turned left towards Lake Louise. We had very fond memories of a summer trip here with Jeni & Matt in our travel trailer. We camped at Lake Louise and always remembered as breathtaking. It hasn't changed, it's still a fantastic site. The blue-green water that starts at a glacier at the end of the lake has a milky quality from what is called glacier flour. It's very fine rock, so fine it stays suspended in the water causing the beautiful color. The end of the lake is occupied by the Chateau Lake Louise hotel which was built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a destination for vacationers to ride the train. It's a glorious old hotel managed by the Fairmont group of hotels-very high end and 5 diamonds on the AAA list. We enjoyed walking around the public rooms and listening to a lady play the harp at lunch. We then walked around part of the lake shore just drinking in the beauty.


We then left there and went to Morine Lake, another high lake fed by glaciers, but smaller with much less touristy attractions. It is reached by a narrow twisting road that seems to climb straight up. It is a deeper blue and the glacier seems closer and larger. You can rent canoes and paddle around the lake, but we were afraid John would tip a canoe over!

After a deli lunch we went back to the car and drove about 45 miles to Banff. It is more of a small village with a lot of shops and restaurants. It also has a famous CPR hotel built on some natural hot springs.We enjoyed the sites and parks. We found this beautiful falls just outside of town.


Then it was back to the motorhome to feed our dog and ourselves. It was a fun day of reliving great memories and making new ones.

If you wish to see all of the photos from our trip, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/LakeLouiseBanff

and it will take to our web album.

Welcome to Canada

On Friday we spent the day cleaning the motorhome top to bottom. John got ambitious and washed to exterior of the motorhome by hand. It looked great. Of course, now we're expecting rain. Linda cleaned the interior and caught up on the laundry. Just like a stick, we need to keep everything neat & tidy.

On Saturday morning, bright & early for a change, we pull up hoses, dumped and packed everything including Pearl, and headed north. Naturally we had to stop just before the border because we forgot to get our passports out of the safe. Continuing on, we reached the border. Now this was a very small two lane road crossing from Idaho to British Columbia on Hwy. 95. US border agents just waved us through, and then we pull up to a very narrow window in Canada. There was no one in the guard window, so we waited. Then the light turned green, and John proceeded to leave the border, and all kinds of sirens when off! They ran after us with guns drawn and wearing body armor after we stopped, and had us do a u-turn back to the guard window. Stupid John thought that he could pull into the bus lane to avoid the narrow pathway, but they came out again and had us do another u-turn. This time John got the motorhome into the narrow lane, without hitting any of the barriers. We handed them our passports, they walked away to check them in the computer, then we were waved through without any other problems. We heaved a huge sigh of relief, and started to our final destination of Radium Hot Springs.

The campground is very nice and we'll be here for 5 nights. Of course, in Canada our cell phones don't work except for 76 cents a minute roaming charges. Don't expect to hear from us until we get back in the U.S.A. We thought we could keep in touch by email using their wifi service. When we went to the clubhouse on Sunday night to try it, it was broken. We had to settle for a few laps in the pool and time in the hot tub.

We did look around the aria on Sunday to get the lay of the land. It's located in a valley, mostly a tourist area with many hotels, restaurants, and golf courses. There's some beautiful lakes and rivers.

John insisted we stop at the visitor center like he always does, but Linda made the real find behind the visitor center was a group of deer. Up close and personal!

Tomorrow we're going to explore the National Parks near here. We'll let you know what we find.

If you want to see the rest of the photos of this day click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/RadiumHotSprings

Coeur D'Alene

On Thursday, 9-6, we drove over to visit the city & lake Coeur D'Alene. It's the largest city in Northern Idaho, with a population of about 40,000. It has a neat downtown right on the NW side of the lake, with a nice resort, park, marina, and the world's largest floating boardwalk.

It was such a pretty day and the lake was so beautiful we decided to take a 2 hour boat tour of the lake. It's a natural lake, extending 23 miles to the south, with 109 miles of shoreline. Coeur D'Alene had two major industries before the tourists took over, timber & mining. Both of these industries created much wealth and some of that money was spent on lake front homes. In fact some of the homes are only accessible by boat, and all of the materials to build the houses had to be delivered by barge. To this day, these homes receive US Mail by boat to a mailbox on their dock. The boat tour took us by many beautiful homes, some resort developments, and the Coeur D'Alene Golf Course with it's famous floating green in the lake. There is a special boat, named "Putter" that takes golfers from the tee to the green. Each golfer gets two shots on making the green, or if it lands in the lake they have to take a drop on the green. That way everyone gets to putt out, but it doesn't hold up play very long. They stated that each year 24,000 golf balls drop in the lake, to be recovered by divers and resold at the pro shop. Sounds like a profit making hole.

After the boat tour, we went to lunch in the downtown area. John spotted a small hamburger shop that had been in business since 1907 so we thought we would try it. The menu consisted of a hamburger, a double hamburger, a cheeseburger, a double cheeseburger. No fries, chips or salads. We were asked if we wanted pickles and onions. We said no onions. That's what we got. A bun, a patty, and pickles-no lettuce or tomato. As condiments they offered hot sauce, hot mustard or ketchup. And the only other items on the menu were drinks or pie. Talk about a limited menu! The restaurant consisted of a counter with about 24 stools. We ate about 2:30, and there were people waiting for a stool. The hamburgers were OK, but we couldn't see the appeal.

We wandered around downtown enjoying the unique shops and art galleries. Then as we were leaving, John noticed a small museum that had a train display so he had to stop. It was interesting to see the history of the lake region, what part trains played and how things had changed over the years. These small museums can be very interesting and it shows how some area develop and change.

After the museum we decided to visit the Coeur D'Alene Casino, which was about 20 miles away to compare it to Matt's establishment. The hotel was smaller, and casino was for slot machines only with no table games, and it was smoky. The big difference was the golf club, a very nice course that was 3 years old and seemed to be a very nice design. We took some pictures for Matt as his hotel will be opening their golf club next year.

It was a long drive back to the RV resort as John took the wrong direction which led us through Spokane during rush hour. Pearl was very happy to see us as we were late with her dinner.

Sandpoint, ID and Lake Pend Oreille

Today we visited Sandpoint, ID, which is about 45 miles east of the RV Resort. The drive was beautiful along the Pend Oreille lake. It is the largest & deepest lake in ID. It's 43 miles long, and has 111 miles of shoreline. The deepest part of the lake is 1358 feet, deep enough that the Navy tests submarines here.

Sandpoint is an interesting city that has a lot of art and cultural charm to the downtown. Unknown to us, it is the headquarters for one of Linda's favorite stores, Coldwater Creek. The flagship store was nice, but nothing was on sale. John really appreciated that, and also the wine bar upstairs. He had a good California Voigner while Linda shopped.

We didn't buy much, but we did buy something for little Iris, our niece. She'll have to wait to find out what we found for her.

John's in heaven as there's a lot of Moose stuff, including the cafe called The Mangy Moose. Luckily for Linda, there's not a lot of room in the motorhome for Moose stuff.

On the way back we were on the south side of the lake and though we could make it back to the campground that way on backroads. Well, the backroads started getting narrower, and then we saw a sign that stated "Pavement Ends". Rather than going back, we trusted our car GPS and finally made it back to blacktop and a bridge to get us over to the other side of the lake and home. It was a fun end to the day. Pearl was glad to see, as she though we got lost.

We Move-And Have a Bad Day

We wrapped up our stay at Tall Chief RV Resort in Fall City, WA on Tuesday, 9-4. We extended our stay here through Labor Day to avoid the holiday crowds. We also liked our private space, good TV reception, and the adult craft classes they offered that Linda enjoyed.

On Tuesday the weather was supposed to be chance of rain, but late Monday night (Midnight)we had a terrible thunderstorm that dropped a ton of rain and scared our dog Pearl. She jumped in bed shaking like a leaf in the wind, and panting hard. When we got up the next morning, our awning was full of water and the arm that supported the canvas was broken. You'd think by now John would know enough to get the awning in when rain is expected!

John called Girard, the awning manufacturer, and they walked him through bringing the awning in and securing it so that we could move to our next park. We won't be able to use the awning until we get it fixed when we get back to L.A.

So off we go over the mountain to Newport, WA, which is just 40 miles north of Spokane. We got there without any further problems, but after setting everything up, John turned on the TV and nothing happened! The front TV stopped working and it blinks a red light 2 times every 10 seconds. And we're in the middle of nowhere and can't get it fixed. The TV in the bedroom works, so we're not totally out of entertainment. We're just wondering what's going to go wrong next. It's almost like owning a home.

We're going to stay here in Newport until Saturday, 9-8, and then we're going to move onto our adventure in Canada. Our first stop will be in Radium Hot Springs, BC. So if we're glowing when we see you next you'll know why.

Ken & Donna in the Columbia Gorge

The Columbia Gorge was created by the Columbia river (surprise) over thousands of years. The first Americans to explore it were the Lewis & Clark expedition. It very different then before all of the dams tamed the rapids and waterfalls. Now the Columbia is used to ship cargo as far away as Idaho. Because of the steep cliffs there are many waterfalls to view. I-84 follows the gorge, but the best way to see the gorge is to get on the old Columbia Highway which was built in the 1920's for those new cars that were replacing horses. We climbed our way up to plateau for a terrific view up the river.

Ken was so excited he had to climb up a beautiful old oak tree for a better view. The next stop was the Vista House, a unique viewpoint that served as a rest area during the 30's & 40's. It had interesting museum in the basement and beautiful views from the deck. While we were on the upper deck, we spotted a hawk and I was able to capture with a faint Mt. Adams in the background.

We continued on the old Gorge Road, stopping at all of the waterfalls on the way. Some were close to the road, and others we had to hike to. We finished up at the most photographed falls in Oregon, and the second highest waterfall in the U.S., Multnomah Falls. We hiked up to the bridge to enjoy the view of the falls above us and below us.

We jumped back on I-84 heading East. We were hungry, so we stopped at a deli in Cascade Locks for a quick sandwich, and then we headed to the Bonneville Dam.

There's an interesting visitor center that describes how the dam was built and how the electric power is produced. As part of the visitor center there's a view of the locks that allow boats and barges to proceed up the Columbia River to inland ports. There's also an underwater viewing window which allows you to view the salmon, steelhead, and other fish that are migrating up river to spawn. It was interesting to see all of the fish swimming hard up the river. There was a fish counter that would push buttons on a computer to identify the fish as they swam past the window, and count them.

Adjacent to the dam is a historic fish hatchery that produces steelhead and salmon to be planted in the river. There was also a strugeon pond that had a 8 foot long "Herman the Strugeon" that swam with other rainbow trout and was the star of the hatchery. They even had a gift shop with special souvenirs of the strugeon.

After our visit at Bonneville, we again headed east to the city of Hood River. The wind constantly blows on the river here and it's famous for the wind surfing. Inland from the river is farm land that supports a diverse apple crop, and wine grapes. It's a beautiful area with Mt. Hood in the background. Of course we had to stop and taste some wine. A nice way to end a fun day with Ken & Donna.

Ken & Donna Visit Portland

We spent the first day, Wednesday, driving around the city of Portland. Ken's firm had designed this unique retail & living building near the Pearl district. It was exciting to see some of his work and have him explain some of the processes to create this interesting building. These are balconies extending from the living spaces.

There's a park behind it that was part of the development and the kids were having a ball playing in the fountain. Naturally, Linda couldn't resist wading in and enjoying the beautiful day.
We visited Powell's City of Books where new and used books are shelved together and the building is 4 stories tall and takes up a complete city block. We also checked out the new Whole Foods market, and some interesting furniture stores in the area. We then drove down to the Keller fountain which is a landmark in Portland.

We drove along the riverfront park, and then we went by our old house in Tigard. The wall that Matt & I built was still standing, but some cleanup and painting needed to be done. It's still a great neighborhood though. Since we were on the westside, we decided to visit a few wineries in the area to finish up the day
.
It was a fun day exploring the greater Portland area. If you would like to see more photos of the day, please click on the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jchuber1/KenDonnaVisitTheCityOfPortland
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Our Cousins Visit Us

Our cousins, Donna & Ken Kalla drove all the way up to Oregon from San Diego to visit us, and allow us to show them some of our favorite areas of the Pacific Northwest. Our plans are to start with the city of Portland, then visit the Columbia Gorge, and then the Mt. Hood area. Then we'll move the motorhome as close as we can to Seattle and visit that area. We'll throw in a few winery visits and good dinners and it will be quite a fun time.

Geocaching and More Fun

One of the new adventures we tried with Bob & Kathy is a game call geocaching. The way you play it involves the Internet and a handheld GPS unit. You start by going to geocaching.com and entering in the zipcode where you're located. It brings up the caches that are close to you. There's currently about 300,000 caches around the US, so there's always something close to you no matter where you are. Now you're probably wondering, what's a cache? A lot of people compare it to a treasure hunt, but there really isn't much treasure. People will hide a small container, anywhere from a 35mm film canister to an ammo box, with a log and assorted trinkets. Then they will record the longitude and latitude and log it on geocaching.com. You download the coordinates and load them into your GPS unit and go looking for the treasure. Believe or not, it's a lot of fun!

When we were with Bob & Kathy we looked for about 6 caches and found 5 of them. One we couldn't find. One of the trinkets we picked up was called a "travel bug". This is a special item that is tracked when it's picked up and where it's dropped off. We had picked up one called Tony the Tiger in Bellingham, WA, the mascot of frosted flakes. When we were in Florence we dropped him off. By recording it on geocaching.com we get emails when he moves. The last we heard he was in Louisville, KY.

We also went into Eugene one day, stopping at a few wineries, visiting a hazelnut farm, and having a great lunch in downtown. Eugene is still a smallish town with a lot of the back to earth type of population. On the evening of July 4, we went into the town of Florence to watch the fireworks over the river. We didn't get a very good spot to watch from. but we saw most of a good small town firework show.

We also went swimming in the nice pool, which had special adult only hours. After our hard days of hiking and sightseeing, we would go into the hot tub and relax. We also tried a new sport, pickleball. It's played on a smaller version of a tennis court, only you use wooden rackets and a wiffle ball. It's geared more to us older folks who don't like to chase missed balls. It's a lot of fun and I recommend everyone to try it. Every night we played games and talked about the sights we had seen that day. We barbecued, and cooked delicious healthy meals with Kathy's help.

While Bob & Kathy were at the campground they stayed in a Yurt. This is a canvas walled unit with a wood floor and a full kitchen and bathroom. And it's round. If you're interested in learning more about Yurts, click here: http://yurts.com/default.aspx

It's great inexpensive way of getting a second or seasonal house that pretty efficient.

All to soon their visit came to an end and they left to go visit Bob's brother. We really had a great time and hope that we can do this again in the near future.

Another Day at the Oregon Coast

Does it get any better than lunch at the beach with fresh seafood and good friends!


We had lunch at the Sandpiper Inn, which is one of the few properties right on the beach in Oregon. The state of Oregon years ago did a very smart thing by declaring all of the coastline in Oregon is public, so there are many great state parks right on the beach instead of commerical development. That let's everyone have access, not just the rich and famous.

After lunch we went for a walk on the cliffs over the ocean. It was very beautiful. with many tidepools, and we walked off all of the food we ate.


As you can tell from this pictures the weather was fantastic! There's nothing better the Oregon coast on a clear day.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

We decided to head north next, to explore the area between Florence and Newport. The highlight of this area is the most photographed lighthouse in Oregon, Heceta Head. This lighthouse and the keepers house date back to 1894.

The lighthouse stands 205 above the ocean and the frensel lens sends it light out 21 miles at sea. It's the brightest light on the Oregon coast and it's still working. There's a path up from the beach to lighthouse where tours are given.

Since we're so fit we had no trouble walking up the path to the base of the lighthouse. Luckily we had to wait for the tour of the lighthouse itself so we could catch our breath. The lighthouse itself is 54' tall, and we climbed the circular staircase with ease. The view from the top was breathtaking. And the closeup view of the lens and light was interesting.

After we came down, and rested for an hour, someone was nice to take a picture of us.

We then went back down to the beach and explored the cove. We found some sea caves, saw some sea lions swimming in the cove close to the beach, and enjoyed to birds on the sea stacks. It was a great day.

Oregon Dunes

The first trip we did with Bob & Kathy was a dune buggy ride over the Oregon Dunes. The dune buggy was a converted school bus that held about 18 people. It didn't go flying over the dunes, but that was fine with us. As you can tell, it was a cool day and overcast, which Bob & Kathy appreciated after leaving 100 degree weather in Turlock.

The Oregon Dunes stretch along the coast from Florence in the north to Coos Bay in the south, about 40 miles. It's the largest area of coastal dunes in the North America. It provides great opportunities for off road vehicles to explore a large area without running over each other. Some of the dunes are 500' above sea level.

Here's some of the 4-wheelers having a great time on the dunes. Since it was the week of July 4, a lot of people were at the coast and you could hear the dune buggies from morning till night. Some of the people actually pulled their trailers out on the sand for camping. We would be afraid that our wheels would sink into the sand and we would have to be pulled out.

Our dune buggy trip took us along the beautiful ocean beach also. The driver narrated the drive and gave us some history of the area. It was a very enjoyable trip.