Lithia Park

We stopped in Ashland for a few hours so Mike could take a hike up the creek in his favorite park. Ian went with Mike, Sandy took a slower amble up the creek and Angie went off with the rest of the kids. What a simply perfect creek and park! It alone would make moving to Ashland worthwhile.

When we finished walking, we estimated that it would take four or five hours to home. Even tho’ Mike would rather have stayed in Ashland in Lithia Park, once on the final stretch toward home, he became like an old horse turned toward the barn and sped south, trailing his unhappy mother behind him. Sandy, who is NOT an old horse, would rather have ended the trip with a nice dinner together and a good night sleep in a pretty park somewhere so she could have finished the drive in daylight and dealt with the RV in the morning. But the kids were eager to get home, so home we went.

Wildlife Safari

We backtracked a few miles toward Roseburg to drive thru the Wildlife Safari. It was really great, especially because we could drive our own vehicles and so see things at our own pace. We took hundreds of pics of zebras, lions, tigers, elephants, ostriches, buffalo, brown and black bears and a herd of yaks. Everyone especially liked the black bears (that were actually brown) playing in the pond - - very much like “Ian” lurking on the bank dunking “Tommy” splashing around in the water. The best photo op was of the very tall giraffe that shoved his head right in Mike’s car window! The most ominous animal was the mountain lion, pacing in his enclosed cage - - no wide open spaces for him and it appeared he wasn't happy about it! After lunch we headed south, with our usual late start of 3:00 or so.

7 Feathers

We drove south and east for a while toward Lebanon. In Scio we drove through one of the covered bridges that Mike remembered from a previous trip. While Sandy got her headlight fixed Mike had a close encounter with a river otter. Everyone except Mike and Sandy were eager to be home and were not enthusiastic about any detours. We spent the night between Roseburg and Grants Pass, OR in the 7 Feathers Resort. The RV Park is run by the Cow Creek Branch of the Umpqua Indian Tribe to support the casino and theater. It really did live up to its reputation as one of the best in the country - - nice sites, pretty landscaping and location, great indoor pool and hot tubs, free coffee and wifi. What more could we want!?! And, Mike finally got his steak and did a little gambling.

Evergreen Air and Space Park

Mike called his old friend Bob Krause, who lives in Oregon, and Bob suggested we visit the Evergreen Air and Space Park that is located near where we stayed. It is an amazing place - - an iMax theater, a building full of all sorts of airplanes including the Spruce Goose (HUGE!) and an SR-71, another building full of incredible originals and replicas from the Russian and American Space Programs, and a water park running from the belly of a huge airplane perched on top of a large building. And, up on the hill overlooking the buildings, there are a group of tanks.

The whole thing is very well done with lots of interesting exhibits, movies, and interactive activities that all of the kids loved. Ian was so entranced by the place that he immediately called his “gang” and proposed a road trip. The hi-tech kids playground was a particular hit, especially with Angie; she loved the spring-loaded teeter totter.

Dayton, OR

Sandy suggested that we take a little detour west of Hwy 5 toward McMinnville because she remembered how pretty the countryside had been from a helicopter-company-visiting trip in the 1990s. It was a bust, however, because miles of fast-food restaurants and shopping centers hid the hills and vineyards. We pulled into the Willamette Wine Country RV Park at dusk. It looks fairly new, as the trees are only 20-30’ tall and is very nice and comfortable with warm showers, a big pool and gym. We played banana scrabble again - - Mike joined us this time with his collection of creative words and supportive iPhone dictionary.

Portland, OR

We spent several hours marching up and down a park that ran along the Columbia River. The Taste of Portland was going on, so there were lots of people on the path, as well as a group of Mennonites singing and passing out fliers, a pack of female roller derby skaters and assorted street people.

When we finished our daily constitutional, we went to find Voodoo Donuts. It is in a scruffy section of town with a long line of VERY scruffy patrons, however the donuts were fresh and extremely varied. And, despite the scruffiness factor, there was lots of interesting architecture.

Gas Panic

Although Sandy thought she had plenty of gas as we start north out of Redmond, at 10 miles/gallon it didn't last long and it turns out that there are NO gas stations on Hwy 97 in the down-at-the-heels towns of Wilowdale, Shaniko, or Kent. When we arrived in Grass Valley, the only gas station was closed and Sandy was running on fumes. Brian, the local sheriff offered to follow us north to Moro where there was a AAA tow company who might be able to give us some gas. However, after Sandy had taken off in a cloud of dust, the sheriff saw the woman who worked in the gas station bringing home her groceries and she agreed to fill us up. Mike oh so helpfully suggest that the cop chase Sandy down with lights, siren, loud speaker, and guns blazing if necessary to bring her back. As it turns out, Brian did have to chase her for at least a mile before she saw his lights and stopped. These were such nice people to go to so much trouble to help us out!

The rest of the trip to the Columbia River was kind of stressful because the road was narrow and hilly, it was very windy, and a crazy trucker tried to shove Sandy off the road and then tail-gated Mike all the way to Biggs. We stopped there for dinner (and to escape the truck) and then crossed into Washington.

Redmond, OR

Well....we started north, but only made it a few miles out of town before we took a detour to see the Petersen Rock Garden. Rasmus Petersen, a Danish immigrant began creating the replicas (that include a scaled-down Statue of Liberty, US Capitol, Independence Hall and three Tower Bridges crossing ponds filled with water lilies) in honor of his adopted country using rocks, petrified wood, and glass that he collected from around Redmond. The four-acre, low-key, tourist attraction has survived far longer than its creator.

After another detour to the county fair parking lot (we decided not to go) we really did head north, but it was already after 5:00 and we'd only gone about 20 miles!

Bend, OR

We arrived in Bend as it was getting dark and spent the night at the Scandia RV Park on Business 97. It is a nice place and Sandy got to learn how to use all of her hoses and connections at long last. We had a wonderful dinner at the nearby Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant.

We got a very slow start the next morning after a picnic breakfast, grocery shopping, and a picnic lunch. Before we left town, we went to beautiful Drake Park that runs through the middle of downtown Bend along the Deschutes River. We walked, played frisbee, ate ice cream at Goody's, and bought fruit at the charming famers market on Mirror Pond. There were several houses for sale right on the water and we all had fantasies of buying one and moving to Bend. What a great town! We finally headed north around 3:00.

Crater Lake, OR

After lunch, we drove to the deepest lake in America, Crater Lake; it is more than 2000 ft deep. We walked around the southern rim of the lake to the refurbished Lodge and had a few snowball fights along the way. We tried to have drinks sitting on the veranda in the comfy rocking chairs but the non-English-speaking waitress was not up to the task so we gave up. The Lodge is still lovely and looks like it would be a wonderful place to stay. The weather was perfect and the lake was its trademark gorgeous blue (very different than Sandy's last visit with Chris in the midst of a spectacular storm and Mike and Angie's visit surrounded by smoke from a forest fire).

Lunch in Klamath Falls

We stopped for a picnic lunch in a park on the river as we came into Klamath Falls. It was lovely until a little breeze came up and showered us with thousands of little bugs that looked like (but weren’t) mosquitoes. Clouds of them. Hoardes of them! They won. We left. We were still killing the remains of them in the RV two days later.