A Quick catch up

We actually did leave Portland Or. We followed the Columbia River gorge eastward, into Idaho. Then we crossed Idaho and stopped at West Yellowstone Montana. From there we took day trips into Yellowstone. It is beautiful . It was much better than the last time we saw it ( 19 years ago, the year after the big fire. Everything was black THEN ). From there we headed south into The Grand Tetons. Even more beautiful than Yellowstone. We spent a couple of days at Gros Vantre campground, so we could spend some time in Jackson Hole Wy. We saw the arches made of Elk horns. We also ate Elk and Buffalo in the million dollar cowboy bar. Not bad ,actually good.We headed south from there just to clip the corner of Utah. We changed directions and headed East hitting Colorado and then into Nebraska . Nebraska has beautiful FLAT land, and plenty of corn. You can't get enough of FLAT land. Pretty farms with neat out barns and silos. We turned north from Nebraska through South Dakota into North Dakota. We had to see Mount Rushmore. Nothing beats faces on a mountain.We also went to Custer state park. One of the best state parks we have seen .There were wild buffalo, and wild mules that stuck their heads right in the car window, looking for food. On the move again, through Fargo ND, and into Minnesota. They do talk funny there. Of course, we don't have an accent. Down to Iowa for more Flat land and more corn.
I'm breaking off here because we spent more time in Wisconsin. I promise to be back very very shortly.

Some real green & Big Mountains

We left California and entered Oregon. What a complete change. Every thing was green. Nothing was burning. And there was no smoke. Oregon is a pretty state. Myrtle Creek, a campground on route 5 was so nice, one of our favorites,so far. But we only stayed one night, because we wanted to get to the Oregon coast.

Our first stop on the coast was between Port Orford and Bandon.We were there for Vera's birthday. We went to "The boat works" a restaurant in the old town section of Bandon. It was a nice restaurant overlooking the Bandon lighthouse. We had a good time.

Our second stop was for two days at Turtle Rock RV Park, in Gold Beach. At the mouth of the Rogue river the section was famous for gold and agates. Of course we only found agates. We took Jerry's Rogue river boat trip. It was a 32 mile trip up the Rogue River in a jet boat. We had lunch at Cougar Lane. We saw a lot of beautiful eagles, and ospreys. An enjoyable trip is an understatement. Oh yes I forgot to say Cougar Lane is in Agnes Oregon. They didn't have a road there until 1964.

After Gold Beach we moved north up the coast to South Beach. We stayed there for a week. We were there for the fourth of July. We enjoyed the aquarium ,the beaches and the antique shops. On the beach we saw hundreds of star fish, some of them were purple. Never saw purple star fish before.

Next we spent a week in Portland. That's where we hooked up with Chris and Toby. They are some of our best friends from the Keys. They actually live in Lancaster Pa. They're almost next door neighbors to us. We had dinner on the eighth with Chris and Toby their daughter, Tellina, and her friend,Adrian. We had a great time. Toby had a great buzz. We toured the Columbia River gorge Crown Point, Mulnomah Falls. A fantastic and gorgeous day. The next day we went to the Rose garden and we tried to go to the Japanese garden.(It was closed for the day). We went to China town and VOODOO Donuts. What a different place.

The next day Chris and Toby got a call letting them know that his mother had just passed away. We took them to the airport. They got a flight that afternoon. We miss exploring with them.

Yesterday we went to the Saturday market. It is a flee and art market,under a bridge in Portland. Today we finally made it to the Japanese gardens(beautiful). Then we went the zoo,on a little train from the garden. Great garden, poor zoo. We couldn't find the animals.

Moving North from San Diego

We started north from San Diego,through Los Angeles and all that traffic. Our next stop was Santa Barbara ,Ca. Rancho Oso Campground. What the list of campgrounds doesn't list is what the roads to the campgrounds are like. This one even had Vera nervous. One lane, not one each direction, but only one lane on the side of a mountain. They had mirrors set at the turns so you could see oncoming traffic around the bend. Not that I could do anything about if someone was coming the other way.You can't back up when you are towing a car. The campground was nice. I needed a couple of days to get up the nerve to drive out. Really it was nice and had two pools and a hot tub.

Further north we stopped at Morgan Hill Campground. We were back to the center of the state. We had a winery at the entrance of the campground. We had a little tour and bought a bottle. We saw the first of many forest fires. There was a lot of smoke coming over the mountain. We got a chance to wash our jeep. Five thousand miles can get a car and motor home pretty dirty.
Finally, we made it to San Francisco. We stayed in Redwood city, about 20 miles south of downtown San Francisco. We have a niece who lives in Burlingame,a suburb of San Francisco. She was out of town for the first few days we were there. We went to China town and found a fortune cookie factory we visited 19 years ago. The next day we toured fisherman's wharf area. We got pictures of Vera with Forrest Gump (look alike) outside Bubba Gump Restaurant. It was cold there. They make a fortune selling jackets to tourists. We saw and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. We toured some old ships and ferries(In San Francisco we have to clarify, this is a kind of boat). When Trish,Vera's niece, got home she drove us to Muir Wood where the giant red woods are. They are awesome. We were guided by Trish all through the city. We went down the most crooked street, and the cable cars.
Lake Minden, just north of Sacramento was our next stop. The center of California was real hot. 100 degrees, or more. We tried kayaking again on the lake there. The smoke was getting a lot closer.
Further up the road we stayed at Redding Ca. We needed to visit one of Vera's nephews,Andrew. Vera hasn't seen him since 1977. I never meet him before. He has a restaurant,bar in Fall River Mills. Population 600 and surrounded with miles of trees. Oh by the way once again, or should I say still with the forest fires. They closed the highway, because the fire jumped the road.( A thirty six mile detour). We finally got back to the Bear Mountain RV Resort where we left the motor home while visiting Andrew.
There were eighty forest fires between central California and the coast ,where we were headed. Change of plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fast Forward

I need to fast forward in order to bring this up to date. I'll just skim over some of the places we went. From Carlsbad we went to Albuquerque New Mexico. Our friend, Sister Dolores, lives there. She showed us all the points of interest in Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. We went to "Old Town" in Albuquerque and Loretto Convent in Santa Fe We saw the magic spiral staircase there. All in all we had a great time visiting with her.
From there we headed into Arizona. we toured the petrified forest and the painted desert. Great time and a place for Vera to buy turquoise necklace and earrings.
Moving west we stopped in Winslow Az. Like in the song "Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, such a sad sight to see". We saw the giant crater created by a meteorite, millions of years ago. A big hole in the ground.
We headed west to Williams Az. The campground there had a combination deal. We stayed at the campground and took a steam locomotive to The Grand Canyon. About a hundred miles round trip. We had a chance to meet real nice people and relax during the trip. The Grand Canyon isn't really high. It's really low. Which makes it really high!!! But impressive and beautiful.
From Arizona we traveled to Las Vegas Nevada. We spent a couple of days there. We strolled the strip, and saw the sights. We lost about forty dollars. I guess that's not too bad,(Not as good as winning forty, but not bad).
We entered California, and stopped near Calico Ca. There is a ghost town there. It was a Silver rush town back in 18 hundred something. Really interesting.
Our next stop in California was Oceanside ( Paradise by the sea campground) The water was cold and the sand was black. But that wasn't the reason for our stop there. Vera's sister,Jean lives near there. We surprised her at her house. Had lunch at the Elephant Bar, Jean's favorite place for lunch.
Enough for today.

Traveling through Texas

We left Austin,and headed to San Antonio. Once again a great "Care Free " campground. We found a special on the internet.$99 a week. So we stayed a week. We went to the river walk several times. We tryed different restaurants and different food. This time it was Mexican!! We took the boat tour of the river walk. We really did enjoy the river walk. Real pretty and lit up at night.
We visited the Alamo.Remember the Alamo??? It was interesting, but smaller than Disney made me believe.
Also we went to one of the many missions. They date back to the Spanish missionaries. It was very interesting.
We spent several hours in the pool and spa. Cool, clean and relaxing. A good week.
From San Antonio we traveled west to Fort Stockton Texas. It was just a one night stop. I don't remember ever seeing that much dust in air. One of the campers told me that since the first of January until the middle of May they only had 6 tenths of an inch of rain. Talk about dry and windy.
Moving north into New Mexico was a real improvement. Carlsbad Caverns are ENORMOUS!! The city of Carlsbad has a nice park on the Pecos river. We went there and tryed our Kayak, which we dragged around on the top of the jeep for several thousand miles. Then we took the park boat tour. It went up to the springs where the pecos river comes from.
The campground had an ice cream social and movie(Mad Money). We had to make our own ice cream. Ice, salt,cream, vanilla extract,and sugar. It was fun and tasted good. Another night they had a hot dog cook out. Free dinner and we got to meet some nice people.

Playing catch up

Boy do we have a lot of catching up to do. Our next to last night at Branson we were supposed to go to a dinner show followed by an outside show. The outside show was cancelled due to a tornado warning. When we got back to the campground the campground the sirens went of, telling us to take shelter. They had an underground shelter. It was scary and so many thoughts go through ones head. The tornado missed us and things turned fine. The same storm headed east and messed up our home in Jersey(lost some siding and roof shingles). But life goes on. Our last night at Branson we went to the Broadway show. It was excerpts from different shows.

Next we went to Weatherford Texas. Weatherford is outside of Fort Worth Texas.We visited Laurie and Lou there. We had lunch and dinner with them. They are our nephew and neice. Lou is pastor of a new church. It is an old church building that is being refurbished. It will be a lot of work, but it should be worth it.

While we were there we stayed at West end campground. What a campground!! The owner had six dogs that ran as a pack. Friendly during the day, but you didn't want to go out at night. There were chickens running all over and roosters crowing at three in the moring. While we were there we went to the Fort Worth zoo it was nice, but we had enough animals at the campground. Visiting the zoo brought back memories for Vera. There was a lot of school kids ther on field trips. Vera has been there and done that many times.

Our next stop was Austin Texas. To bad it was just onr night. It was a great campground. Care Free Campground of Austin. Care Free is a new chain of Campgrounds. We recomend them.