The Midnight Summons, and Stunning

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Into bed early last evening, we were set for a great night of sleeping. At midnight Fred’s alarm went off! It’s really easy to push the wrong button when you pick up the little clock, so we were startled awake with the alarm. When Wilma crawled back into bed after using the facility, she noticed a light on in the cab and looked to see that the Garmin had been left on. Not wanting to have dead batteries in the morning, Fred was “encouraged”  to go take care of it! He was more than willing – NOT!  Then they finished a good night of rest.  Turned out Barney could have taken care of it since he read until midnight!

We really lazed around this morning in camp. It was chilly and the warmth of the campers felt good.  We had a leisurely breakfast that Wilma put together of scones, eggs, turkey sausage and hash browns.There was a slight mishap and one item “fell” from the breakfast menu, however, Wilma will have to explain the juggling act.-- I mixed up a batch of scones, but when taking them out of the oven my hand got a little close to the pan! The instant sting of a burn startled me and I dropped the pan. Scones splattered all over the floor, and no scone was left uncrumbled! Luckily most was contained on a throw rug and readily scooped up and the broom took care of the rest. By the time Betty and Barney came in, they didn’t know the difference except that breakfast was kind of meager! Oh well.

Finally getting around and leaving the campground, Wilma worked on getting the blog edited with input from Barney and pictures from Betty. It was posted just as we were coming into Prineville, OR, for a fuel stop. Upon leaving Prineville, the whole eastern side of the Oregon Cascades opened up bright and clear. It was stunning!  The sky was clear, no haze, and all the mountains stood out so pretty. The only problem we had with the scenery was trying to take pictures of it as we drove along. Every time we got ready to snap a pix, power lines, poles, traffic or a not so good looking fence would be right in front of our target. And no place to pull off!  It was a gorgeous morning.

We continued on to Redmond and then Bend, OR where we turned south on route 97 looking for the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and, of course, a stamp for our passport books. We stopped at the Lava Lands VC and would you believe, it’s closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. We milled about in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed back to Bend where Betty had spied out a Trader Joe’s food store. After a short stop there we were back on the route 97 south and again we stopped at the Lava Lands VC where we ate lunch in the parking lot.

From the VC we headed south again and in about 15 miles we came to the turn off for Pauline Lake and East Lake which are still in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We found a couple of sites in the Pauline Lake Campground, which is a national forest campground, and we decided to spend the night.  After trying several different camp sites, we finally settled in and relaxed for a while. We had wanted to camp in a couple of spots that had a lake view, but after walking around a bit could see why others were camped back away from the lake. The mosquito population at the lake was enormous, and we haven’t found them around the back woods sites.

Barney and Betty sponsored a tour up the road to see the other lake, campgrounds, and the Big Obsidian Flow. The flow and trails were still covered with snow, so we could only get a glimpse. This area is probably very popular a little later in the year. Lots of camping, fishing, and very pretty. I’m sure the mosquito population flourishes until late in the summer!  The lakes in the caldera are gorgeous, and according to Barney’s findings contain a couple of kinds of trout, kokanee, and East Lake has Atlantic salmon. Lots of boats around.

We have traveled a total of something like 70 miles of our planned trip today, even though our total mileage for the day was about 120 miles. Isn’t it strange that we manage to do that on a fairly regular basis?

We are back in the mobile caves for the night, and will chisel out more tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us, The Bedrock Bunch.