Saturday, August 20, 2011

Visitors

Sarah's parents are in town. We are keeping it pretty low key. Hanging out at the house, letting them soak up some grandkid time. We did make it out to the Peregrine Fund Birds of Prey center Just South of Boise. Birds of prey know they're cool.

The noisy fair is going on next door. Because of the fair, the RV park is full. We can hear the rides and the concerts from our bedroom. The tornado fans we bought in Poplar Bluff to white out the road noise continue to earn their keep. Might have to turn them off when Kool and the Gang or Cheap Trick plays though. Woohooo!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Crater Lake





Here we go.

WE left Cave Junction and headed back the way we came. Sarah is excellent at planning our trips and we rarely backtrack, but sometimes it is inevitable. About 30 miles of backtracking an we got again to new road. We climbed. This was also the last day we would have Interstate for a while. The Interstate is not usually as interesting, but interesting isn't always fun when you are near 60 feet long and almost 13 feet tall.

We wound our way through mountains for a few hours and drove to the campground like we lived there. It only took 30 minutes or so to set up, by this time we were pretty good at it. Then we went driving around to explore the town Prospect, OR. Less than five miles away and we found waterfalls and a gorge on the Rogue River.



Afterward we went up to Flounce Rock, a viewpoint that was mapped out on the back of a flyer the campground gave us. Great views. Hondo (That is what Michael named the Honda Civic.) lived up to his adventure car billing and carried us up 10% pot hole filled gravel road grades. We reached the top and explored for a while. At the official Flounce Rock viewpoint someone placed a memorial for a loved one lost in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam war. Pretty cool.







We made our way back to the campground, cooked some food and got some rest, the next day was Crater Lake. We had a drive of an hour or so up to the Lake. When we got there it became apparent that despite being July, many of the roads were closed due to snow. Less than half of the rim drive was open. We did get to drive around and look for a few hours and we sat and had a picnic lunch on a wall overlooking a 1000 foot drop to the lake. Beautiful spot. Then we drove home. It was a bit of a letdown that we couldn't see as much as we wanted, but that is life sometimes. It just gives us a good excuse to go back.

Boise and bicycles

I haven't been updating lately. We have settled into life here. Being this close to the Boise Green Belt, Sarah and I bought a couple of cheap mountain bikes off of Craigslist and now try to ride every day. It feels good to get out and get active.

I have been working a day on, day off schedule lately. Cramps the adventure style as the one day off seems too short to plan much. I sleep late because I get home late and I have to work the next day.

The real reason I haven't been updating much lately though is because I got started reading a new series of books. It is hard to pull away from a good book to write a blurb about what you did today when what I did today wasn't very interesting and that book sure is.

Oh well.

I will get back and finish the trip report. Still have to write about Crater Lake and the John Day fossil beds. And we may soon be doing things here worth writing about again.

The fun news is that Sarah's parents are coming up to visit for a few days. They started their drive this morning and will be here in a couple of days. We will try to avoid running them ragged while they are here. It will be good to see them again. I know they miss the boys.

Back to the book.