friends – Page 8 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Blogger’s Version of the Christmas Letter

Do you love them or hate them? Personally, I love the Christmas letters that we get from many people in our lives. Sure, I remember previously hearing most of what I read, but not all at once and not always. It is great to open an envelope from a long time friend and get a summary of their year, with photos of their kids and homes and favorite places. Seems as though our little group of RV bloggers has taken to doing something quite similar, with wrap-up posts of their favorite travels, photos and experiences of the past year. I love these posts as much as I love the Christmas letters, and the photos are easier to see! Sure, if I have followed you for a long time, and maybe even met you in person, your year end review will be the same for me, a review. If however, you are someone I read but haven’t interacted with a lot, your year end review reminds me of who you are and where you have been. Either way, it is wonderful to get these little summaries. Besides, it lets me see what you think was the best part of your year, what was important to you, your favorite photos. So, for me, and for you, this is my version of the Christmas Letter, the e-version. I decided to do some collages, and they are actually collages of collages. That is a lot of images, but the idea isn’t to review each image, but to get a feel for what that part of the year brought our way.

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL

We spent much of January in Desert Hot Springs, and in early February we took an amazing trip to Las Vegas to see Elton John and the Valley of Fire. Late February we spent time on the cold but beautiful northern portion of the Oregon and Washington Coasts, enjoying new places we hadn’t visited before. With snow at home in March, we reveled in a trip to sunny California for the Spring Equinox and gorgeous hikes at Pinnacles National Monument. In early April I drove with daughter number 1, Deborah, to her new life in San Antonio, Texas, and then came home to Easter with the local daughter number 3 and family before Mo and I took off on our amazing self guided tour of the covered bridges of Oregon.

MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST

May is full blown springtime on both sides of the Cascades here in Oregon and we enjoyed it to the fullest. We watched our tulips bloom, cleaned up the gardens, and traveled to Woodburn for the annual Tulip Festival. We also started looking for some property in Grants Pass and saw what many months later was to become our “cottage”. June is the perfect kayaking month, and in between garden chores we kayaked new lakes and reservoirs, visited friends in Oroville, and once again I took a photo of wocus lilies on Klamath Lake with the Mountain Lakes Wilderness in the background. In July we kayaked and camped some more, spent time with friends and family here at home, and enjoyed one more home town Fourth of July in Klamath Falls. In late July and August, we traveled several thousand miles for a family reunion in Colorado, adding South Dakota to our list of visited states, and took in some amazing scenery in the Black Hills, at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, Devils Tower, and the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, and magnificent Twin Falls in…where? Twin Falls, Idaho.

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

September was a month for being at home, enjoying the best time of year in our own beautiful Klamath Basin. I harvested goodies from the greenhouse, made jam and froze fruits, enjoyed many visits with friends, quilted and kayaked. By October, I was ready for the long awaited trip to Eastern Europe with youngest daughter Melody. We spent two incredible weeks seeing Budapest, Vienna, and Prague, learning about the history, art, and people and actually after 43 years, learning more about each other. It was precious time. In November Mo and I spent two fabulous weeks on the Star Princess, enjoying the magic of long days at sea interspersed with a few sunny, beautiful days in the Hawaiian Islands. Home in December to check out our Grants Pass “cottage”, the new MoHo shed, Christmas decorating and baking, family time, and beautiful deep snows.

On a more personal note, forcing myself to sit down on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day, and extricate the parts of the year past that meant the most to me is a great exercise in remembering, and in appreciation. I had to go through all the posts, through my personal calendar, through the months and months of photos. In days past I often wrote lengthy journals on New Years Eve. Some of them I can find and some I can’t, but the practice has opened my eyes to the blessings of the year and to just how much my life has evolved and changed over the past decades. Sheesh. Decades. Remember when Y2K was such a big deal? Remember when, back in the 80’s, lots of people were sure the world was going to end in 2012? That whole Mayan thing wasn’t new, it had been around for a long time. Yet here we are, all in one piece, and the world is still turning.

As I reviewed the year of going and doing, places visited, trips taken, I realized something that I knew all along. It is the people in our lives that make it all worthwhile. New friends and old, friends near and far, and Family. Capitalized. Meaning the people in our lives by blood or choice who are our chosen ones that we do life with. Everything in my life is enriched by everyone that comes into my life in one way or another. Blogger friends I have never met are somehow part of this extended world and add to its richness. Facebook, Skype, Google Plus, Blogger, Gmail, Family Tree Builder, Picasa Photos, all these electronic means of keeping closer to the people in our lives may have a bit of a downside, but for me, with my friends and family scattered around the country, the ability to reach out and connect has enriched my life immeasurably. If you are reading this, you are part of that enrichment.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

September – a Chatty Catch-up

Being the month of my birth, I am somewhat partial to September. Here in Rocky Point, and in this part of Oregon in general, September can be the very best time of year in so many ways. The mosquito population has finally decided to disappear to wherever they go, the midges are at least confined to places you don’t want to be anyway, the skies are blue and bright, the days warm, the nights cool. Several bloggers that I read regularly have found out just how delightful this part of Oregon can be, with RV Sue hanging around just over our hill on the Rogue River, and Paul and Nina up at Diamond Lake.

Mo and I have spent some quality camping time in both those places and it’s fun to read about folks finding out just how wonderful this part of Oregon can be. Everyone seems to know the coast part, and lots of folks travel there, but fewer have found the wonders of the Cascades waterfalls, magical lakes, beautiful forests and SUNSHINE. Welcome to my world.

Once again, Mo and I planned to travel a couple of hours south to camp at our favorite Medicine Lake, and once again we were thwarted. In the midst of extra work hours for me, some other business needs for two of us, and the smoky skies from California fires, we put off our planned mid-month camping trip for another time. The month was anything but quiet however, with visiting friends, Rocky Point get-togethers, and of course, my birthday!

It started off with a visit from Jeanne, long time friend I once worked with here in the basin who has returned to her native New England for good. Everyone needs a friend like Jeanne, probably the most amazing athletic woman I have had the pleasure of knowing. Jeanne treks Nepal, climbs the second highest mountain in the word, does back country skiing down the cliffs at Crater Lake, jumps out of helicopters to ski in British Columbia back country, launches her tiny white water kayak over 23 foot waterfalls in Costa Rica. Yeah, I could go on and on. She runs and rides her bikes for hundreds of miles and travels the world. How did I get a friend like Jeanne, you might ask?

I almost didn’t. Anyone from New England knows there is a special New England persona. Anyone from California knows there is also a definite West Coast Persona. Jeanne and I were complete opposites, and on my first day of work in 2002 in Klamath Falls, I met Jeanne, who instantly disliked me. I was all gushy and open and “chattery”, and Jeanne of course, being from New England, was all reserved and “don’t touch me” and would you please just shut up!? I disliked her almost as much as she disliked me! All it took was a long day in the field to discover that even with our different ways of being in the world, we had the makings of something deeper that grew into a great, strong friendship. Of course, I can’t even come close to keeping up with her, but she has a great batch of friends who do that very well.

Jeanne came “home” to Klamath for a long visit with all of us, spending time biking, and hiking, and kayaking, and then came out to Rocky Point for a couple of days. We went kayaking on Recreation Creek, a far cry from the adrenaline pumping kinds of boating she and her friends are used to, but we still had a good time, at least Jeanne and I did. Some of the other friends thought it was great for a one time thing, but too dang boring to do again. Me, I love the slowing down part, I love seeing the birds and the wildlife and the reflections. Adrenaline is not one of my favorite things, and I will avoid it if at all possible!

In between visits and work time, I managed a bit of quilting, working on my queen sized quilt that got started from a single jelly roll of fabric my sister picked up for me because I thought it was pretty. It is kinda scary how a $39.00 jelly roll can morph into a LOT more money by the time all is said and done. I took a break from the big quilt by piecing a bright little table topper that I have yet to actually quilt because I can’t decide just how I want to do it.

Another fun project was completed when Mo and I worked together removing a bazillion staples from my ten year old dining chairs and recovered them with a gorgeous fabric I found after two years of looking for just the right thing.

The greenhouse is a bit later this year, with our tomatoes just barely ripening toward the end of the month, but we have had cute little peppers, lemon cucumbers, lots of green beans and of course lots of good lettuces and greens. I made a trip over the mountain to Medford to buy some gorgeous sweet tree ripened peaches from the local orchards and made peach jam, froze some peach pie filling and experimented with some hot pepper jellies. The Peach Habanero is good but the Pineapple Habanero is fabulous. Some of the Peach Bourbon jam didn’t set up and it is now a quite delicious Peach Bourbon Sauce, ready for waffles or ice cream on a cold winter day.

The very next week I got a call from Maryruth, saying, “Hey, are you and Mo around? I want to come up for a few days for your birthday.” What a treat! She left her husband Gerald at home to take care of everything while she drove the 6 hours north from Oroville for some very much wanted “girl time”. We usually manage this once or twice a year but this one was an unexpected surprise. We filled up three days with lots of laughter, lots of “hand and foot” (a game I can’t get Mo to play with me), and good food. Well almost good food. Sadly the Rocky Point Resort has changed hands since we were there and I would definitely suggest that folks visiting this area avoid the restaurant if at all possible. Or maybe just go in for a drink. The view is gorgeous, the place is historic and charming, it is just the food that is probably the worst I have ever actually paid for.

Maryruth was barely gone when it was time for my ‘real’ birthday. Seems as though I celebrated this one for a very long time and it wasn’t even a biggie. I still have three years to go before I think a birthday is really worth paying attention. Seventy even sounds scary to me, but I have a bit of time yet. On this minor birthday, however, I went off to town to have breakfast with my sister, visited with Melody and the jewelry store where I got a FREE bead for my Pandora bracelet, and came home for a nice bit of quilting time before Mo said, “Let’s go out to dinner at Lake of the Woods”. Whew! Birthday breakfast, and dinner on the same day? Thankfully, our dinner up at the lake was incredible, with the gorgeous view, great service and wonderful food. It may be a 15 minute drive rather than 5, but oh so worth it. Thank you, Mo!!

Then on Sunday, Melody, Kevin and grandson Xavier came out for an afternoon visit bringing even more wondrous presents. I am the lucky beneficiary of a daughter who works in a jewelry store, so I am sure the “giftie bits” she brought to me are something I never would otherwise have. Of course, everyone keeps saying no jewelry when traveling, but this pendant is definitely going on my November cruise even if I can’t wear it to Europe! The diamond hoop earrings however, are small and tasteful, and don’t scream “steal me”! I AM wearing them.

What I didn’t even know yet was that the plant and twist movement I made jumping out of bed that morning had torn my knee cartilage. In the next couple of days the pain got worse and worse until I couldn’t walk at all, even with a walking stick. Sigh. A trip to the doctor, xrays, MRI, another trip to the orthopedist all confirmed my worst fear. Torn meniscus and a long healing time. Actually it was my second worst fear. Surgery was my worst fear, and so far that one has been avoided. I can’t take pain pills or medication, so surgery isn’t a lot of fun. Anyway, I have been hobbling around on crutches, and graduated to the walking stick and even a bit of hobbling without anything this morning, so am encouraged.

Mo is dealing with yard work and house work all alone right now while I gimp around like a useless piece of moving furniture. Sigh. It is not fun feeling completely useless around here. I can’t even quilt since that requires lots of jumping up and down from the machine to the iron, so instead I got back to knitting. I even finished Deanna’s sweater and have it all wrapped up to mail. Yippee, at last!! I started it back in December of last year. Guess you could say I am not a fast knitter.

A week from Thursday my daughter Melody and I will drive to Portland to board our overnight flight to Amsterdam and then on to Budapest. I have been planning this trip and looking forward to it for soo sooo long, and am excited to see this part of Europe, but even more excited to see it through the eyes of my daughter. It will be her first overseas trip, and I remember how incredible I felt on my first such trip with Mo back in 2005. Everything was so new and exciting for me, as I am sure it will be for Melody. She is beside herself excited right now.

I sent an email to a great photographer (Mark) from Mark and Chris’s Phaeton Place, who knows a LOT about techie stuff and traveling and he kindly wrote some very detailed answers and I learned a lot about traveling with technology. Thank you Mark! I bought an iPad, and ordered the global data features for both the iPad and the iPhone, bought the photo transfer doohickey for the iPad and the camera (no usb on an iPad), and hopefully I’ll be able to carry all this stuff along with my walking sticks which will be going on the trip for sure! Once again, the Cotton Carrier I bought for the camera will likely be a lifesaver when I need both hands to manage the sticks. I will never never never measure up to Erin’s photos, but hopefully I’ll get shots that at least won’t embarrass me. I have learned so much from Erin, from Two to Travel and Two to Travel’s Phaeton Journey about blogging and photography. Thank you, Erin!

And on a final note, I just have to really thank all the blogging friends who saw my post on FaceBook about my knee and sent good wishes. It is amazing to me that people take the time to pay attention and care. So many are dealing with really difficult health issues that are about the internal operating system and mine is merely mechanical. Mechanical issues are a pain but it isn’t life threatening, so I consider myself pretty lucky. Does everyone have to get all silly when they first discover Apple’s crazy photo stuff?

The Applegate Wine Trail

The Applegate Wine Trail (link)

applegate wine trail I enjoy a good glass of wine, two buck chuck or a really fine glass of Pinot Noir, it’s all fun. I spent a lot of years in California, and went wine tasting with friends in the Napa Valley when tastings were free. I am certainly not educated about wine, and usually have to read the label to know what I am supposed to be thinking when I taste something. My palate is just barely sophisticated enough to recognize oak-ey, which I love, and a few others now and then. Going wine tasting always seems to be a bit more than I want to tackle on my own, and Mo and I will drop into a tasting room now and then if it isn’t pretentious and looks like fun.

Enter our neighbors and friends, Wes and Gayle. We couldn’t ask for better neighbors, but I am a bit sorry that they are only here in the summertime. The advantage of this is that we can visit their gorgeous Tucson home during the winter months if we get down that way. Having them here in the summer is great for selfish reasons as well, since they are our house sitters when we are gone and Wes does a mean job of taking care of the lawns.

Wes and Gayle know how to travel and how to have fun, and one of the things they do periodically is travel the Applegate Wine Trail between Medford and Grants Pass. We all decided to spend a sunny summer day together enjoying the beautiful vineyards and wineries on the Applegate. It was fun for us since Wes did the driving and they both know the area well, including which wineries we wouldn’t want to miss and which ones might be something to save for the next trip.

beautiful gardens at the Fiasco Winery I spent most of the day in awe of the incredibly gorgeous blue skies, with just enough puffy clouds to make it interesting, breathing in the fresh air and trying to capture the brilliance of the summery moments with my camera. I couldn’t capture the smell of the grape vines, and hard as I tried, I couldn’t capture the feel of the summer breezes filled with the fragrance of rich soil, moist riverbanks, lush flowers, and leaf heavy maples, oaks, sweet gums, and all the other unnamed deciduous trees we can’t grow on our side of the mountain.

Of course, the happy ambience created by a few tastings of vino certainly added to the warm, fuzzy feelings that I carried around with me all afternoon. Spending time with good friends doing happy things was wonderful as well.

We started at the southern end of the valley, near Ruch, Oregon, just a few miles west of Medford and Jacksonville. Valley View Winery was one of the first in the Applegate, and while the website says it was first established in the 1850’s, the attendants mentioned that when they opened their tasting room in the early 70’s they were one of only 4 wineries in the valley. Now there are 20 and more coming every year.

inside the Fiasco Winery is a very nice raked gravel floor I discovered that the websites tell what the tasting room policy is for tasting fees, which might have been nice to know ahead of time. Wes and Gayle thought that almost all the wineries they visited a couple of years ago had no fees, however things have changed as the Applegate catches up to the rest of the wine tasting world. Still, a few had no charge for tasting, and a few refunded the tasting charge with a purchase, and the standard $5. fee was certainly less than the $25 and more fees in Napa or Sonoma.

While searching about for the winery links, I also found this little treasure about Tasting Room Etiquette. Might have been a good idea to read this before we embarked on our day trip!

there is a book, After a lovely flight of whites and reds, and a purchase of a 2006 Anna Maria Cabernet, we ambled on down the road to the Fiasco Winery. I am not quite sure how the name came to be, but with another tasting fee and an attendant who wasn’t quite as personable, we decided that we were happy enough to check out the tasting room and move on to the next winery.

The best part of Fiasco was the winery dog, and in their tasting room shop was a little book called “Every Winery has a Dog”, with some great photos and stories of the companion dogs that many wine makers seem to have. We even met a few more as we continued on our way.

The prettiest winery, a new one called the Red Lily, just opened last fall With a few stops in between, we came to the newer and incredibly lovely Red Lily Vineyards . Only opening their tasting room last fall, they have been making excellent wines for several years from their own vineyards around the valley.

The grounds were gorgeous, and the attendants delightful. We tried a taste of their beautiful and tasty Lily Girl Rose and decided it would be the perfect choice for our picnic wine for the day. I am still wishing that I had purchased a few bottles of that lovely summer wine, but I’ll know where to find it.

Gayle had come prepared with a wonderful spread of cheeses, crackers and flat breads, amazing gourmet pickles, olives and a feta olive oil garlic spread she had made, all with fine little dishes and pretty napkins. The winery has a delightful picnic area by the river with shady tables and a bandstand for music. They even provided us with a bucket of ice and glasses to enjoy our purchase with lunch.

After our relaxing and tasty repast we ambled on up the highway to Gayle and Wes’s favorite winery, the big old barn housing the tasting room for Bridgeview Vineyards and Winery. With no tasting fee here we enjoyed a flight of excellent, very reasonably priced wines, and discovered the great Pinot Gris and Dry Reisling that the valley had made famous. After another purchase of some nice wines, I walked around in the vineyards trying once again to capture the feeling of that air and light. Impossible.

and a winery cat In our happy haze ( the girls, not the driver!) we continued north along the east side of the valley to Wooldridge Creek Vineyards and Winery. We had all decided that perhaps we had tasted enough but that didn’t dampen our enjoyment of the beautiful grounds and tasting room. Again we met a winery dog and even a winery cat.

Passing several more vineyards, we stopped in at Troon Vineyard to check out the digs and appreciate the beautiful gardens and vines. Skipping the tastings for the rest of the afternoon was just fine. After awhile it all starts to run together and I have no idea how you could keep on tasting all day. Must take practice!

We ended the afternoon at the Schmidt Family Vineyards , another of the oldest in the valley and possibly the most beautiful gardens of any of them.

The tasting room was constructed in the old roundhouse for the railroad that once traversed the property and was gorgeous.

The porches were cool and inviting, with views of the gardens and many comfy chairs and tables set about for relaxing with a glass of wine, or just relaxing and enjoying the conversation and the views. Once again I tried to take photos of the breeze. I am sure some great photographer knows just how to do this, but not me. Still, when I look at the photo, I remember that warm breeze even if no one else has a clue.

I took a LOT of photos, and if you want to check them out they are here.

Here is the google map of our little day trip in case you are ever in Oregon and decide to do a little wine tasting in the lovely Applegate Valley.

our map with wes and gayle We are now packing up for our three week jaunt to Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming and by this afternoon the lush green of Oregon will give way to the wide open deserts of northern Nevada as we head east on curvy Highway 140 and then south to Winnemucca. Yay! We are on the road again!!

From the Heart

“It shifted from being written directly to my family and friends to something with more explanation and less from the heart, if you know what I mean. “ “paying too much attention to the reader community and not enough to my own preferences. “

Words this morning from a trusted friend brought me up short. I know the feeling, and I fight it sometimes. Case in point: my last post and this one. There is enough going on around here that I have some things to write about, some life to share, and yet I found myself liking the way the last post looked so much that I didn’t want to upstage it with a new one that wouldn’t have those photos of my pelicans. Now just how silly is THAT?! Mo said, “Well, why don’t you just put the pelicans up on the header photo?” Yeah, ok, I’ll do that, and yet the thoughts behind why I didn’t want to write a new post were still somewhat interesting to me. Sounds like I may be slipping into what this friend described in that last sentence I quoted in the first paragraph!

My Goal: write from the heart. Write about stuff, explain stuff, but keep the heart in it. Write as if I were writing to a trusted friend. Of course, some stuff I wouldn’t even write to a trusted friend so I won’t write that part in here. Those parts are saved for private journals that even my kids will never see. The good thing about this goal is that when I go back and read (and I DO go back and read my own blog), it will be entertaining and fun, and will help me remember not only what I saw and what I did, but how I felt about it. At least that is the goal.

Personal journals, on the other hand, can be incredibly depressing to read later. I journal a lot when I am angry, depressed, or just plain falling apart. Not fun reading. On another note, I don’t seem to have a lot of personal journaling going on now as I did when I was younger. Life is less full of angst and worry and frustration. I guess after 66 years, it is about time, right?

I think especially of this kind of “from the heart” writing when I think of Sherry’s story of David’s journey. I have mentioned them often enough that anyone who reads my blog has probably found theirs. Good news today with 8 million stem cells in his collection! Then, again from the heart, Laurie Brown’s eulogy to her Dad. Semi-True Tales of the Road has been one of those that stands out so far above so many of us that it is hard to see it wind down a bit. The only blog I read for years, I still always watch for a post from Laurie. Many folks mentioned her great campground reviews, but when I think of Laurie, I think of great food stories, seriously funny moments (aka Desert Hot Springs), and the clay oven.

Speaking of bloggers, last week brought us another blogger meet-and-greet treat, with Merikay and Craig visiting our world. They spent a long time hiking the trails of Crater Lake, many that Mo and I who live an hour away have never traveled. Then they camped a couple of nights right here in Rocky Point, giving us the chance to get Merikay and Craig out on Recreation Creek in the kayaks.

I love showing someone how much fun it is to get out on the water in a kayak and this was no exception. We had a perfect day with water smooth as glass for our morning adventure. Getting into a kayak for the first time can be a bit daunting, and once out on the water, it sometimes takes a few moments to get used to that wiggly feeling. Within a short time though, that feeling goes away and your body settles into the balance much like it happens on a bicycle. We had a nice, short paddle for their first run, and I do hope they will try it again. It is such a great way to get up close to the birds and feel a silence on the water that is hard to find any other way.

A little benefit of blog meet-and-greets are the photos! Loree has photos of Jeana on her blog since they met up as Loree traveled east, and we got a great photo of Loree on Jeana’s blog as well. Now isn’t that just fabulous?! Somehow the photos that others take of you are quite a bit different than the ones you might put up on your own blog.

Later that afternoon I invited Merikay and Craig to the house for supper, along with our closest neighbors, Wes and Gayle, our Tucson friends who live here in the summer. We had appetizers on the porch, dinner inside at the dining table, and dessert back on the porch, all accompanied by a few different wines supplied by each of us. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially since hostessing a meal is a favorite thing for me to do. I was having so much fun I forgot to take photos of the table, the food, and my guests. I guess that is a good sign.

Fourth of July was wonderful. I do love the Fourth, not for any particularly patriotic reason, but for its ability to bring up happy childhood memories and to create small town joys. As I spent the morning making potato salad and meltingly perfect chocolate cupcakes, I remembered my foster mother, who loved all holidays and taught me to appreciate them with huge church picnics, decorations for everything, and always always great holiday food.

With Melody and family in town, Mo and I drove in for the celebrations. Klamath Falls once again scheduled the holiday parade for 5 in the evening, ending in Veteran’s Park, where the fireworks were scheduled to go off at ten pm when it is finally dark here. It is much nicer to have a later parade and only have to drive to town once. When the parade was in the morning, it was harder to figure out what to do with ourselves while we waited for the fireworks twelve hours later.

This time, the parade was nice, but I still wish we could get more marching bands to come. There was only one. Parades need music! There were lots of red white and blue decorations, however, and the Shriner guys in their little cars always make a parade seem like the real thing. Of course, seeing my son in law and my grandson representing the Klamath County Sheriff’s department was a treat. Kevin is a reserve deputy, and Elric got a big kick out of being in the cop car in the parade. UhOh. Elric is now Xavier, but I keep forgetting. I have no clue why teenagers think they have to change their names, but I am trying to get with the program. Seems to me that Elric is enough of an interesting name, but n-ooo-ooo. He has to make it more interesting! He is 13. What can I say…

Hillary/Axel (remember that other name change I mentioned in the last post?) spent most of the time between the parade and the fireworks volunteering for the face painting booth. Terrible me, I can’t remember what the booth was promoting, but it was some sort of socially redeemable venture, I am sure. We had fun watching her and as the evening wore on, the line grew exponentially. Word was getting around that she was painting some fairly radical faces, unlike the typical butterflies and such. Well, with a name like Axel, who would expect butterflies anyway?

By the time the fireworks started, we were all starting to get fairly chilled, but the bugs weren’t out this year so that was a blessing. Why don’t I remember that even if it is 90 during the day, the air will require sweats, jackets and even gloves by ten pm. I hate to say it, but when the fireworks began we were pretty disappointed. It may have been because of the high winds that evening, but once again the big booms couldn’t seem to rise above the trees lining the lakeshore at Veteran’s Park.

It made for some interesting photos, especially with the full moon rising right where the big fireworks were exploding, but it also made for a few unhappy folks hanging around all evening waiting. Next year we may just give it up and go check out the fireworks at Lake of the Woods, closer to home for us, but not part of that small town Klamath thing that we love.

I guess the small town Klamath thing means there isn’t enough money for a big town fireworks show.

South to California

Hitch Itch. Full timers get it, folks with an RV parked in the shed get it too. The past couple of weeks have been focused on work and home chores, and we both knew we wanted to get in another local camping trip before we head for Colorado at the end of the month. Medicine Lake comes to mind first, a favorite high mountain destination, but we thought there might still be snow there this early. Then fate stepped in with an invitation to a retirement party in Davis, California for a colleague. We thought about it a bit and finally came up with a plan. Oroville!
There is a big lake there, nice campgrounds, my best friend and her husband are right there, and it is just a two hour drive to Davis so I could go to the party. Calling the State Recreation Area phone number for reservations, we were shocked to find that electric hookup sites (no sewer) at the Bidwell Canyon Campground cost $45.00, plus the reservation fee. Geez. California parks are too dang expensive. So I looked around a bit and came up with the KOA RV Park that is adjacent to the Feather Falls Casino and for $37.00 got a nice site with full hookups, free WiFi, cable TV and a heated swimming pool. Hmmm, not such a bad idea. We figured that we could go to the lake for kayaking without paying that crazy price.
Sunday morning we decided to drive to Grants Pass to check out another possible MoHo property and then travel south on I-5, a route we rarely travel between Medford and Weed. The day was gorgeous and cool, with a bit of cloud cover and the drive was perfect. I always smile when bloggers post the photos of amazing Mt Shasta, and decided that I didn’t need to stop once again to take one more picture of “the mountain”.
The trip was wonderful and as always it feels so freeing to be in the MoHo on the road. I said to Mo, “It isn’t just going somewhere that I love, it is the movement, the feeling of being on the road, the scenery sliding by, the skies ever changing”. I guess I like that hum and vibration somehow. Sounds completely silly to me when I write it, and yet I do know the feeling. Bet others do too.
When we arrived at the KOA we were pleasantly surprised, but not before a moment or two of confusion. You see, there are two casinos in Oroville, and I thought we were somehow going to the one that is on the road to Maryruth’s house. Instead, the GPS kept trying to send me south of town to a completely different area. Turns out we really DID have the reservation south of town and not on Maryruth’s road at the Gold Country Casino.
Once settled in, we discovered what I think is the best KOA we have ever seen. I often avoid these parks because they seem expensive and crowded. This one won a Presidents Award of some kind and I can see why. The sites were absolutely, perfectly level concrete pads, surrounded by large lawns, with a wide parking area along the road in front of your site for the toad. There were picnic tables and plenty of shade under our very own lovely oak tree. There were even two dump outlets on the site, one in front and one in back which we so appreciated. So many parks are set up for just 5th wheels and pickup trucks and the dump is completely out of reach of a motorhome.
The grounds were beautifully manicured, the swimming pool clean and heated, with an adjacent holding pen for your dog, the hot tub fresh and hot, and the clubhouse cool and roomy. The store and office had a great supply of anything you might need. With the KOA club card, which ended up paying for itself after all the freebies, got us 20 bucks in free casino money in addition to the 10 bucks we got with our site. We were also informed that a simple phone call would bring the casino shuttle right to our camp site on demand. Right to the site! Ha! The funniest part of this story is that in the four days we were in Oroville, we never managed to get up to the casino and our coupons went unused.
On Monday, we decided to explore the Thermolito Forebay area, a part of the huge Oroville Dam complex of water management systems. The forebay was a perfect place for kayaking since there are no motorized boats allowed. It’s really nice not to have to compete with jet skiis and bit boat wakes and noise. I really love the MotionX GPS app for my iPhone, mentioned by Rick recently, and have used it now for several kayak paddles. It is fun to see just how fast we have paddled, how many miles we have covered and where we have been on the map. It even links photos to the sites and then I can upload the track to Facebook or send it via email. Just tickles me no end. Of course, another quirk of GPS is the excellence of X and Y and the complete goofiness of the Z factor, elevation. We discovered to our surprise that on our nice little lake the elevation changed by 30 feet while we were out there. Too funny.
I have had a few questions from readers regarding how hard it is to get in and out of the kayak so I made a quick video of the process, just for laughs. I am still trying to figure out how to get the video to embed without any luck, so may just add the YouTube URL in case you want to see it. If I can do it, anyone can!

Maryruth and Gerald came out to our little shady campsite that evening and we all went up to the Feather Falls Brewery where we were able to use the other coupons that gave us a discount on food. After dinner when we thought about playing the slots we all thought better of it and just went back to the campsite instead. Tuesday was our day to visit at their home, to see all the beautiful garden work that Gerald has done, and enjoy some of Maryruth’s legendary cooking.
Often Oroville can be unbearably hot, and just the week before we were there the temperatures were in the triple digits. For us, instead, we had beautiful skies, not a speck of smog or haze, and temperatures in the mid to high 80’s. Couldn’t have been more perfect.
On Wednesday Maryruth took us out to her sister’s houseboat for an afternoon on the water with lots of good food and drink. The shuttle picks up passengers at the marina and takes you right to your boat, and even let us bring the dog. We settled in with sunscreen, comfy chairs, and good conversation with a view of the water all around us. Abby and I both even managed a good swim. Mo was a bit concerned about getting her back on the deck of the houseboat, but in nothing flat, with a little encouragement, Abby learned how to climb that ladder right back up on the boat.
Thursday morning we decided to explore some other areas for kayaking, including the Afterbay and the Diversion Pool. The big lake itself it fine for kayaking as well, but not nearly as interesting. The last time we were there we encountered a lot of wind and boats, and there is a large area of houseboats near the launch that require navigating through before you get to some more open water.
I left Mo in the shade of the oak tree mid morning to go meet my friends in Davis. There are so many people that I know from California, and it was so good to see everyone. Dean Burkett, who had a position in Chico like my position in Oroville had also come to detail and map for me while I was there and we developed a great friendship.
When I had my retirement party two years ago, Dean gave up a 22 year tradition of attending a rendezvous to come to my party instead. You can bet I wasn’t about to miss his retirement send off! I also got to spend quality time with the other two “Sue’s”. We are all a rather interesting phenomenon in California, all GS-12 managers, all in California, and all named Sue. In a career choice that at one time didn’t have many women, this is particularly funny. We called ourselves “the three Sues,” Sierra Sue (me), Coastal Sue in Arcata, and Valley Sue in Davis. Plus we all have kayaks! The three sues kayak trip is still in the works, but we keep talking about it. I still sometimes get emails meant for one of the other sue’s and they get mine. It IS a funny thing.
I stayed much to late and arrived back home to the KOA far too late for Mo and I to attempt to gamble away our coupons as originally planned. Instead we got a few hours sleep before taking off the next morning by 6:30 AM. After all, I had a quilt class in Merrill, at the Tater Patch and couldn’t miss it. It was the final class in a group of three that I have attended. We decided to leave early enough to take the back route home, via Highway 70 along the Feather River, north to Lake Almanor and Susanville, and then on to Merrill. It was a gorgeous drive over a road I haven’t seen for more than 40 years and I loved every minute of it.
We arrived in Merrill just a few minutes before my class started, unhooked the baby car so Mo could go on home, and I managed to finish the series without falling asleep at the machine. Let me tell you I was one tired puppy when I pulled into the driveway in Rocky Point that evening, glad to be home and completely satisfied with what turned out to be a really great week.
Next up: an amazing kayak on Shoalwater Bay and camping at Eagle Ridge just ten miles from home!