Oregon Coast in the Sun!

We finally have the site and the weather that all the other travelers talk about. Sunny and cool, a gorgeous view, and a beautiful beach. We'll sit by the fire and watch the sunset tonight with a glass of wine in our hands. Yes!

Judy and Frank

Crater Lake in the Snow

We are at Joseph Stewart State Park on the road to Crater Lake. The weather down here is beautiful, the grass is green and the wildflowers are out. A few thousand feet up, the weather is still warm, and the snow is higher than an elephant's eye. The lake is so different in the winter, and very beautiful. We are finally enjoying the camping life. Long evening fires, cooking with the Dutch oven and the fireplace. and hiking in shirtsleeves. We were going to just sit and relax up here, but we don't do that very well. We have hiked most of the trails that are free of snow, and done the bike rides that are fit for regular bikes. Must be time to head on. Weather's changing in a couple of days, too.

Frank and Judy

Southern Oregon, still hunting for warm weather

We hiked to a couple of the beautiful falls in the Multnomah country outside Portland, and then let the rain blow us south. The best weather in 500 miles was in the Rogue Valley near Medford, Oregon, and not until Wednesday, ---or Thursday. So we are here dodging the showers, and finding out about things to do here. Judy's Grandmother and Grandfather lived in Ashland and I spent memorable summer vacations here. Then it was a sleepy little town with a small Shakespeare Festival in the summer and a superb park. Now, the festival is huge with three stages and goes from February to November, with lots more than Shakespeare, and the town is almost painfully sanitized and ready for tourists. We walked and drove around the area and talked with people about things to do. Tomorrow when the weather has improved ,we are armed with bicycle rides, hikes and two tickets to a play. Should keep us happy for a while. We'll head for the coast next. To all of you in Seattle, hope your weather is taking a turn for the better too.

Judy and Frank

What's for lunch?

We're at Maryhill Museum on the Gorge. It's a fascinating place housed in a mansion built by Sam Hill (really. Is that where we get "What in the Sam Hill?") who was a flamboyant businessman around the turn of the century. He knew the Queen of Romania, and a famous dancer, and they convinced him to turn this place into a museum , and then got a lot of donations from all over. Marie, the queen of Romania, brought truck fulls of stuff from her country, he has some Rudin's and it is altogether delightful.--a little like the Frye, excepet in a better setting, and not free.--some of the best Indian basketry I've seen. One of the residents invited himself to lunch and startled Missy enough that she decided to retire under the bed. We're nearer Portland right now in whath has been promised as beautiful country. If it stops hailing, we'll find out.

Judy

Help! Where's the warm weather?

We've just about finished at Brian's and we're looking for the next place to go. So much for spring. Everywhere we look within a thousand miles is cold or cold and rainy. Anybody know of a nice spot to land? Please email us at fhpickering@gmail.com, or judithhrhodes@gmail.com

Judy and Frank

camping out, urban style

We looked dubiously at Brians' driveway. It had seemed much longer when we were here with our car last year. (We're in Pullman, with Brian, Frank's son. ) When we arrived, toward dusk, with a hint of sleet in the air, we measured. Yep. 27 feet. The Cruiser is 30 feet. Hmm, and cars were parked right across the street. Brian hastily looked up a city RV park, and we refugeed in there for a night while the snow fell. The next day we went back and took another look. We could camp on the street without the slides like those homeless guys in Ballard, (but with much better equipment), or we could try the driveway and hang out over the sidewalk. I had visions of a jogger running along , blissed out on his iPod , and running full tilt into the front of the RV, but I was told I was being ridiculously City. No one uses the sidewalk here. So here we are, hooked into power, on Brian's fast network. Hey, it works. We're slowly learning to live in the Cruiser. We still have organizing to do, but we're getting there.
Judy

We Did It !! We're Off !!

Calendars are deceiving, so organized, so clean and crisp, each day a square waiting to be filled.. We pulled out our calendar and looked at the first week of April. “We can do this”, we thought. “Look, hardly any problem at all.” We wrote “Outdoor Work” in the Thursday square, and “Move Furniture” in Friday’s, followed by “Clean and Wax floors” on Saturday. –a little longer, but still fitting nicely into the square on the calendar. Elegant, simple, each day clearly delineated. Surely we could finish the tasks with time to spare. But reality is messy and full of little surprises and thousands of details. The bamboo had escaped and was making a break underground for the house. A 1000sq. foot house looks infinitely larger when seen from hands and knees with a wax pad in hand. Who knew the kitchen had so many drawers and cupboards, all needing to be loaded into boxes and scrubbed. But here we are on the last square we filled in, “Load truck and drive to Pullman.” It’s not perfect, there are still boxes and bins waiting to be sorted. Frank worked amazing feats of packing to get everything into the truck for the drive to the RV, and we made it with nothing blowing off, the cat screaming the whole way. When we got to the RV she found a hole under the bed and crawled in to be safe, and then couldn’t get out and had to be rescued by taking the base of the bed apart. But she is now asleep, blessedly quiet, the bed is made, the site along the Columbia is gorgeous and we are about to begin.