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The blog never caught up on our homeward trek, so here’s a few lines to cover that.

Thursday, March 21, found us just enjoying the day by running a couple of errands and soaking up some beach time. We have seen all kinds of weather on this trip, and today we got the hail and soft snow splats.

Friday morning we cleaned up the campers, stowed things away, and headed out, headed for Fort Vancouver to pick up a few stamps that were missing from our books.

As we headed out of the campground and across the Astoria bridge, we were picking up a few snow flakes. As we headed into the hills of Washington, it became flurries, and accumulating on the ground. The trees had a fresh coating, and it was very pretty. When we got back down to the Columbia River, we stopped at a little county park to check it out for future trips. It is very small, but right on the banks of the river. We talked with the host and she mentioned the pictures posted on a large board. She said all of the fish pictured had been caught last fall right from the banks there on the river. Barney and Fred were drooling – there were some pretty good size fish! We will make plans!

Continuing on, we turned off of I5 right before crossing into Oregon, and found the Visitor Center at Fort Vancouver. The host there was very helpful in finding the stamps we needed, and pointed out the officer homes we wanted to visit for more stamps. The first one was the General Marshall House, and definitely showed that rank has privilege. Beautiful. There are quite a number of huge homes along the row, and we found it interesting that much of the space has been rented out to political official offices.

We picked up the stamps for both the Marshall and the Grant house at the Marshall House. The General Grant house is now a restaurant, so we didn’t go in, and continued on to find the last one that had a stamp, the General Howard House. It too was pretty much all political offices.  At least by renting out the office space the houses can be kept up and preserved.

It was getting hungry out, so we headed east on Mill Plain to find the Old Spaghetti Factory. As we suspected, the restaurant was closed between lunch and dinner hours, so we fixed sandwiches before heading on out.

We stopped to check out the camping area at Beacon Rock State Park, and the two standard spots were empty, but we didn’t feel like we wanted to pay $22 for a parking spot. No other amenities except a restroom building. We had kind of planned on going on to John Day Dam, and that we did, finding free parking spots there for overnight. The fish must have been running there because there were a lot of fisher people around.

Almost glassy smooth water in the river, and hundreds of completely still windmills were quite an unusual sight for us as we left the Columbia Gorge behind and made the trek over the Blues headed for home the next morning.

We will be back on the road before too long, but don’t know yet where we will be headed. Until then the rock pad will be put away!

Oregon Coast

Sunday, March 17

Not much was happening today. We went in to Freddy’s so Fred and Barney could get their fishing licenses and then went out to Fort Clatsop (a reproduction of where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter.) We have been out there several times, so this was just a quick stop for a stamp cancellation we did not have.

Barney went out to the river to wet his line a little, but no action.  The weather has been very good most of the time. We’ll get a shower once in a while, then sun and blue skies, and very little wind.

Once again we spent the evening playing dominoes and listening to 60s music. A great day.

Monday was another great day. While the guys went out to do a little fishing, Betty and Wilma found a web site talking about the river traffic.  There was a podcast, and we enjoyed listening to it. Learned some new stuff, and it was fun to hear about what ships were on the river today, and what they are carrying. It also included a weather forecast, and that was kind of ominous. By Tuesday afternoon we are to get a fast moving system come through with gale force winds, rain, and high seas. The campground is tucked down in behind some low hills and some trees, so we may not feel it too much.

Later we walked out to the fishing spot and hung around. There was still no fishing action, but it’s nice to be out there enjoying the view.

Tuesday morning there was still no sign of the weather system except for a few showers. We took off for Seaside and the outlet mall. Picked up a few things and hopped back in the Rubblemobile. Barney had a mission in mind, and we wound up at the Tillamook Cheese factory where we enjoyed watching the production line in action, sampled their wares, and had lunch in their café. It was late afternoon before heading back, and the rain had arrived, so we tucked in and read and relaxed when we got back. Sometime during the night the winds kicked in, and it rained and rained. Was quite a blustery night!

Wednesday was our day scheduled to find fish and chips in Astoria. We spent a little time at the ocean and river overlooks, but it was still quite blustery. Wilma walked down to the trash/recycle center and didn’t get wet, but just about as soon as she got back it came down again.  Then when we did get into Astoria, we had barely gotten back in the truck when it came down again, and was really black skies over Astoria, but across the bay it wasn’t near that bad. We stopped at a little park overlooking the river and watched a small girl throwing pieces of bread to the seagulls. She was in a pickup and leaning out the window. Several of the gulls were getting close to getting inside with her. It was fun to watch.

Twas another great day, and we hope you had one too.

First 2013 trip

Saturday, March 16, 2013
Happy Birthday Link. Hope you had a nice day.
Our trip over was uneventful but nice. We were able to get away even a few minutes before we had planned, then stopped for lunch in LaGrande. Also stopped at the Grocery Outlet there. There were a few things we couldn’t pass up since our local store had been out of several items the last time through. It’s not like our cupboards or frig were empty!

Pebbles - check out all the telephone transmission lines

lots of wind power along the gorge

We chugged on through the Blue Mountains into less than beautiful terrain until we met up with the Columbia River

where the scenery at least becomes more interesting.

Mt Hood

Viewing the fish ladder - only a few steelhead

Driving on the dam

Our first major stop of the day was at the Bonneville Dam Visitor Center. We had been there many years ago, and maybe all the kids remember visiting the sturgeon pond. I think the granddad (Herman?) is 70 some years old. We didn’t take the time to visit the pond this trip – we had stamps to get! The VC rendered up two of them, and if we hurried we might get across the river on time to get two more before the Ranger Station closed at Beacon Rock, Washington.


So back up the road to the Bridge of the Gods, pay toll, and on across to the Washington side. If we could have just driven across the rest of the dam it would have saved us quite a bit of time! Oh well. We eventually found the Ranger Station about 10 minutes after 5, and the ranger was just locking up. But he was very gracious and let us get parked and hustle in for the stamps. The station actually closes at 4:30, but he had been delayed time after time, and we were happy about that even if he wasn’t!
We went on another couple of hours and stopped in the Walmart lot in Longview, Washington for overnight.

Fog rolling along the mighty Columbia

Approaching the Astoria Bridge

Starting up the highest part

Friday morning we had an enjoyable drive along the Columbia River and on out to the Astoria/Meglar bridge, crossing back into Oregon.

Walking out to the North Head lighthouse

Fresnel lens in the Lewis and Clark center

Breakfast was bountiful at Stefanie’s Cabin in Astoria, then we went on to Fort Stevens State Park and obtained campsites. After trying, and trying, and trying campsites, the problem child was finally satisfied with our sites. The check in lady was still smiling after we went back in for the third or fourth time to finally settle on a site, but I bet she grumbled about us later. Even after that we had to go back in and get a stamp that we didn’t know was located there!  Then it was off to enjoy the ocean, the river, and the Military museum at Fort Stevens where we obtained three more stamps.

Okay, even a sidewalk can be historic?

Former lighthouse keeper quarters, now vacation rentals

Sneak Peak of the lighthouse?

Saturday morning we went back to the Washington side of the river to visit the North Head Lighthouse and the the Lewis and Clark center. We got eight stamps there and really enjoyed the center. Came back to camp for a very late lunch, (but breakfast was very late too) then went back out to the ocean overlook and the river to enjoy the blustery weather and the river traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended our day playing dominoes at the Flintstones cavemobile. We are having a most enjoyable trip. It has actually been fairly nice weather when we want to be out, and there is sunlight shining through the trees in the campground, and blue skies as I’m posting this on Sunday morning. We’re heading over to the Rubble mobile for breakfast in a few, then I’ll add pictures and get this posted.

Not able to get the home page up with the phone hot spot, but MiFi had no problem. Think about that Link. Maybe we’re doing something wrong.

Five Minutes Too Late

Thursday, November 8, 2012

On the road by 7 am and expecting a fairly long travel day, we made it even longer.

Our overnight at the rest area midway through Wyoming on I 80 was just what you would expect with quite a lot of traffic noise. We hit the road for a couple of hours before stopping for breakfast at Denny’s, and fuel for the trucks.

  There are not a lot of scenic wonders to enjoy along the way, so audio books keep the boredom down. About 220 miles down the road, we entered Utah, and a few miles later stopped at the Echo Canyon Information Center and rest area. The attendant there was a very nice little older lady who was happy to help us with stamps for our books. First the date had to be changed, and she fiddled with one while Fred changed another. When the one she was working on was ready, she gave it a trial stamp and found it was November 80. Try again. Now it should be correct, and the trial stamp revealed it was November 9. Okay, next time she did get it right. But like I said, she was very nice to talk with.

At this point we decided to just keep driving and get home today, saving the stamps at City of Rocks for another day. We could be home by 9 pm.

Another stretch at a rest area and we’re still tossing around the idea of going to City of Rocks, spend the night at the campground, and get on home Friday morning. Yep, we turned off I 84 towards Malta. It was 37 miles, not 60 mph road conditions, and a few minutes to 4. The VC closes at 4:30. Oh well, we’ll spend the night and get our stamps in the morning.

At 4:35 we arrive at the closed VC. One car is just leaving, and a young couple is searching the outside of the building for a water faucet to fill their bottles. City of Rocks is a very popular rock climbing area that we have previously visited – before starting our stamp collections!

Barney went to check, but it really was closed. He was talking to the young couple searching for water when the door opened and the ranger allowed them to get water and us to get our stamps! It was so nice of him. We mentioned we were going to the campground, and he said there would be several inches of snow in the area before morning, and since the campground is a little higher, maybe a little more there.

Another conference and we high tailed it out of the area before the snow could hit. Back on I 84, we trekked on home, still arriving about 9 pm, glad to be out of the weather!  (And by Friday morning we were hearing it was still snowing there, and travel hazardous, and in fact, Boise was also getting snow flurries – so thankful we came on home.)

The rock pads will be put away now awaiting our next journey. Thanks for travelling along.