November 8, 2012
Hello, one and all!
Here we sit in Champoeg (pronounced Sham POO’ ee) State Park in Oregon,
cold, yet surrounded by the most beautiful fall colors of gold, rust, red,
green, orange – ridiculously comforting and pretty as our world is known to
be. I feel safe and comfortable. Tony too, as he went back to bed because it’s
too cold for him!
We didn’t hit the road last Sunday as expected, as we had a
lot of details to attend to that we just didn’t get to the week prior. Because of that we met the extremely nice and
knowledgeable Mr. Jordan of the Poulsbo public utilities group who agreed to wait
a day to turn off our water. We got
underway on Tuesday – election day! – the only hold up being getting
Blackie-girl in Blue. She proved to be a
wily creature, not a willing participant in our adventure at all! Finally!
Everything and –one is loaded and off we go. Here’s the view over the Narrows Bridge where
we said goodbye to the Kitsap Peninsula – love that view of the sound.
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| Tacoma Narrows Bridge |
We ended our day, as usual, in Wilsonville, OR at the
Pheasant Ridge RV park – greatest showers in the world. Roku, after hiding under his usual chair
during the ride, lost no time jumping out onto the grass and spending some time
‘’flopping’’ on the cement in his new one day home. He immediately got back into travel mode,
quite happily. Blackie we couldn’t
find. After several hours of searching
in odd places – where could a cat hide in a 34’ motor home?! – TC found her
under the dash, amidst the wires and radio.
She came out yesterday but stayed under a chair until I went to bed,
then she came back and laid on the floor at the end of the bed, underneath
where Roku was lying ON the foot of the bed with me.
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| Kitty Boy Stressed! |
I got up at 7:00 AM this morning, refreshed. Blackie came and wound around my legs, let me pet her back a bit and hold onto her tail. She then disappeared somewhere in the bedroom – probably looking to shit on our pillows as revenge. As far as we know she doesn’t know how to use a litter box so that may be a challenge. She will remain an indoor cat until we can have a petting, lap-cat kind of relationship with her. We’ll see if she becomes a Roku kind of outdoor cat, or if she needs to find a permanent home.
Decided to get the brakes bled – hard to say fast – while in
Wilsonville, but alas, no one could handle the Blue. TC found a place in Canby that took us in,
bled those brakes and sent us on our way.
Instead of staying at the RV park up the road that looked to be one of
our least favorite kinds, cheek to jowel and no roaming room for Kitty Boy. I found instead good old Champoeg which was
delightful.
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| Champoeg Fall Trees |
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| Champoeg 7 AM Coffee and Fire |
Well I’m sure we’re all relieved
that the big election is over. We had to
check results via computer, as we had no TV channels. Tony updated me on electoral votes as the
evening wore on. We, of course, are
happy that the Obama family stays in the White House, that in this rich country
all Americans can have health care, that marriage is for ALL citizens of
Washington State, that the state government will make a butt load of money on
cannabis. We will wait patiently for all
the kinks to be worked out but believe this is the right direction, as our
citizens have voted so.
This is how we ended our evening:
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| Mauna Loa Macadamia nuts covered with chocolate, from Alex and Jack |
November 9, 2012
Spent yesterday driving through the beautiful Willamette
Valley where the colors were better than any we saw last year in Maine. We drove way too long with no stop for lunch,
which is a recipe for disaster with us.
After five long hours we ended up at Valley of the Rogue SP outside of
Grants Pass, which is another gorgeous park with more friendly people. These parks are surprisingly full, but I guess
others are moving south too. Roku,
again, happy with his outside adventure.
This morning it snowed on our way to the showers which, I
have to say, is lovely. The several
mountain passes we went up and over were dry and safe on the roads, but the
trees and road shoulders were covered
with snow. Looked like a Christmas card
all around us, for many miles. Smartly
stopped in Weed for fuel and lunch at Silva’s BBQ and Family Restaurant. We would recommend this café to anyone –
excellent food, friendly service from servers and patrons, great parking for
Blue. We were a little concerned about
the fuel again – remember last year when we were in Sedona, trying to go over
the mountains of Jerome, at 25 miles an hour in the snow due to algae in the
fuel tank. But, going through Mt Shasta
elevations we lumbered along wonderfully.
Tonight we arrived in Redding around 3:30 with plenty of
time for Roku to roam and we to catch up on tv and wifi stuff.
