He has a pretty serious injury…compound fracture of the bone, damage to the nail bed and a slice around his finger that left less than 1/8 of an inch of flesh on the pad of his fingertip. He is on antibiotics and pain meds and is being a good sport, but we are playing the rest of this trip by ear…or by finger, if you please.
Eddie and John spent most of the week putting a new window into an old wall at John's house. Although Eddie brought some of his toughest power tools with him, it took much longer and was much more difficult than they had anticipated. I did a little work from the RV, but Jan and I managed to golf twice at the Myrtle Creek Golf Course.I wouldn't go so far as to call it a goat track, because it's in pretty good shape...but I WOULD call it a mountain goat track, with more side hill lies than I've seen since France.
Jan hadn’t played in more than 30 years, but by the second day she was smacking the fairway woods and having a good time. The course winds through a soft mountainous setting with spectacular elevation changes and fantastic views. The layout is rather sinuous, though, and the first day we missed two holes entirely, by failing to find a sharp dog leg left across a cart path on the 5th hole. Instead we found another fairway and played what seemed like an extraordinarily long par 5 all the way to the 7th green. We felt like morons, but the pro told us we weren’t the first ones to make that mistake.
This morning Jan’s cousin George Dawson and his wife Sherry invited us to breakfast of bacon, eggs and George’s famous sourdough hotcakes, served with their home-grown wild blackberry sauce. They both grew up within miles of their 80-acre ranch and are walking repositories of local history and knowledge. Sherry works for the local Indian casino and gave us a little background on the seven families that formed the Seven Feathers Band of Cow Creek Indians.
George’s sourdough starter is over 100 years old and he sent us away with a crock full of it, and explicit instructions on how to use it and keep it alive. He gave us a recipe collection that ranges from sourdough pancakes to sourdough bread, croissants, carrot cake, bagels and pizza! I’m looking forward to sharing the recipes and some starter with many of you. He also told me I could dehydrate and mail it to friends afar. If you’re interested, just let me know and I’ll send you some next month.
On Sunday night we dropped the girls off at John and Jan’s house to spend a couple of days with them while we went to Eugene for some coach repairs. Our dogs know John and Jan and their two small dogs – Mucha and Oso – and their home is very pet-friendly. However, their pet doors are made for little dogs, not 60-pound hounds. Nevertheless, our girls managed to squeeze in and out … a rather comical sight.
We arrived in Eugene early Monday morning, expecting to unhitch the tow car and stay in a hotel while the service was done. However, like most repair centers, Carrier and Sons provides hookups for water and electrical so you can stay in your rig overnight. We did that on Monday night, after spending the day doing some shopping and visiting the Country Coach factory where “La Casita” was built.
High fuel prices and uncertain economic times have softened the RV market considerably. The fact that several of the largest motor home manufacturers are based in Oregon and that all of them have laid off a lot of workers this year, has undoubtedly affected the state's economy. We haven't seen as many RVers on the road this year, and its small wonder ... with fuel prices being what they are. Here's a recent news item on the subject.
We had to be back at the repair center before they closed at 4:30, so we picked up some supper snacks at a cute little Junction City deli that sells a lot of food imported from Great Britain, including real English toffee and Spotted Dick ... remember the movie King Ralph? Back at the rig, we watched another thought-provoking movie on satellite. Fast Food Nation is a tough story, well acted, and I recommend it … though I’ll never eat a Big Mac again!
The repair center is located in an industrial area of Eugene and our “vista” was of a corrugated pipe factory, so we stayed inside the rig all evening. The only other folks who were spending the night there were five Japanese couples who are on a month-long golf odyssey throughout the West, and had also stopped for coach service. In the evening they went outside and did stretching exercises followed by golf movements.
The next morning we chatted with the men and traded course recommendations. I rather regret that I didn’t follow my first inclination and ask if I could join them the night before. I'm sure that they would have welcomed me, and it would have been such a lovely experience to practice golf swings at sunset in such an unlikely setting.
Yesterday morning Mari and Jeremy came to the RV park for coffee and goodbyes. It is such a beautiful thing to see them grow into the fabulous parents we know they will be...grow being the operative word!
Then it was time to pack up, unhook, walk the girls and get on the road. Seeing the smoke from the raging wildfires, as well as a few caravans of firefighting trucks, made the journey through northern California less light-hearted than usual. We also saw a line of out-of-state fire trucks and thanked those folks for lending a hand.
We are particularly grateful to the Canadians who are helping fight the Shasta Motion Fire with an amazing water tanker. Here's a video of the Shasta fires and the flying tanker in operation. Its a big download and will take a few minutes, but its well worth the wait!
The view of Lake Shasta is pretty grim...now at 92 feet below its high point (photos in new album). In August the lake is usually only 40 to 50 feet below its high water mark. We still saw lots of houseboats and activity, but as the water goes down, features normally underwater are surfacing, and you can see snags, rock outcroppings and entire islands literally popping out of the lake.
Climbing and descending the Ashland grade was exciting and a little hair-raising. I prefer going uphill, whereas Eddie loves going downhill. The 6 degree descent and several runaway truck ramps...not to mention the fact that I feel like I'm HURTLING down the grade...makes me clutch the armrests and plant my feet against the dash.
The gold of northern California changes to green just past the Oregon border and the temperature drops almost as suddenly. We arrived in Canyonville at the Seven Feathers RV Park in the late afternoon, and our friends John and Jan met us and helped us set up. After coachside cocktails and then feeding, walking and bedding down the dogs (leaving Animal Planet on the TV for them) we headed to Riddle and dinner at John and Jan's house. We ate too much of Jan's excellent spaghetti and she sent us home with killer home made fudge. YUM!
We will be here for about a week. We're having some work done on the motorhome in Eugene, Eddie is going to help John do some work on his house, and Jan and I plan to see some sights and play a little golf.
I've started a photo album, which you can see at the top of the album list at right. For largest photos chose the Slideshow option.
A little over a month after our wedding, we’ve embarked on our honeymoon trip to the Pacific Northwest for the month of July. Accompanied by Las Tres Chifladas, we have a few destinations and scheduled visits ... but for the most part, on this trip we will be free to stop and go or stay as we please.
We’re spending our first weekend in Chico with daughter Mari and son-in-law Jeremy, celebrating the 4th and Mari’s birthday. She’s a bicentennial baby and now she’ll be annoyed, because I just told you her age!
Anyway, we arrived Thursday afternoon, set up the rig, and then settled the dogs in before we went to one of our favorite Chico restaurants for a delightful birthday dinner with some of Mari’s dear friends…and ours by association and longevity!
This morning, Eddie set up the grill, chairs and tables (complete with patriotic table cloth) while Mari and I picked up the birthday cake and the fixin’s for burgers and dogs. Shortly after noon Jeremy’s parents, Jan and Craig, arrived with homemade vanilla ice cream and potato salad, and Christy and Rudy brought Anniversary Ale from Chico’s famed Sierra Nevada brewery.
We had a fabulous time chatting, cooking, and chowing down. Before Mari and Jeremy headed home to feed their doggie girls and take them for a run, we went swimming in the RV park pool. As the kids were leaving I headed out on a “nuisance run” with our girls and Mari stopped to take a picture of us with her cell phone. That’s when I realized I hadn’t taken a single picture of our beautiful day!
So here I am, feeling like a bad blogger ... and all I have to post is a picture of the girls bedded down next to me in the mobile office after their last run of the day. I promise to keep my camera on my hip for the rest of the trip!
Although I write for a living, my wordsmithing is generally confined to widgets, gadgets and corporate flak, so this kind of expression doesn’t come easily to me. Forgive me if I ramble on.
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