Month: August 2023

A Visit with Gage and a New Travel Companion

~ Wandering Cindi ~ Leave a comment

We headed north to the Oregon/Washington border to spend one more week in Boardman, OR before heading up to Wenatchee, WA and our oldest son, Gage. The week was uneventful in Boardman. The Columbia River was beautiful as always and we took a bike ride down their really nice bike path. Then, it was time to head north to Wenatchee.

Aaron and Gage spent the week working together, and I spent the week trying my best to ignore our very rude neighbors. The camp sites were small and narrow. Our neighbors did not care about our space and infringed on it whenever they so desired.

Saturday rolled around, and Aaron and I were leaving Sunday, so we decided to meet up with Gage in Leavenworth, WA for a fun little side trip. Leavenworth is a Bavarian style town nestled in the mountains. It is VERY dog friendly. We saw people with their dogs everywhere. Gage and I knew that Aaron had been missing having a dog. Gage and I, being the people that we are, pointed out every cute dog and relentlessly teased Aaron about not having one, and continuously asked him how much he missed having a pup. In two weeks, I was to fly to Iowa to spend some time with my family and Aaron was going to be left alone, or so we thought….

As we were enjoying lunch, Gage and I had figured out that Aaron was most likely planning on getting a dog as soon as he dropped me off at the airport. Aaron finally fessed up that he had been looking at dogs at an animal shelter in Sacramento (where I was to fly out). Gage thought that was a bad idea and that I should be involved in choosing our new travel companion. After lunch, it was time to head back to Gage’s truck. We had met him at a park and ride and then rode into Leavenworth together.

Gage asked Aaron where he would like to go; Aaron was very vague in his answer. He would only say “to Wenatchee.” Gage then took it upon himself to drive right past our truck and on to the Wenatchee Humane Society. He had seen his dad looking at their website when we had gotten into Gage’s truck. Long story short, we now have Murphy the camper dog. It was love at first sight for Aaron and Murphy. He is a sweet and smart puppy. He is about a year old and still VERY puppy. Luckily, he was already house trained and knew a few commands.

After an eventful trip to the pet store, we said goodbye to Gage and headed back to the camper to get ready to move south the next day and introduce Murphy to the nomadic life. We had one more stop in Oregon for a few days before heading to Crescent City, CA to meet up with Aaron’s cousin, Ethan and his wife, Lara to spend a week on the northern California coast and have even more family time.

The pup settled into the camper life immediately. We stayed a few day at McKay Falls campground and then back on the road south.

It was time to get to the coast and have some fun with more family!

Crater Lake National Park, Prairie Campground and Newberry Volcanic National Monument in Oregon

~ Wandering Cindi ~ 1 Comment

Our route north was going to take us around Crater Lake National Park. Aaron and I looked at the map, decided we were not in a rush, and we should drive through the national park instead of around it. Why would we waste an opportunity to see something beautiful? Detour time!

This lake was once the peak of Mount Mazma Volcano which collapsed and became the deepest lake in the United States and the 7th deepest lake in the world. According to the National Park service it is the cleanest and clearest body of water in the world. It was beautiful! And in July there was still snow! To Aaron and I (southern as we are) snow existing in July is crazy. We both knew that snow exists, especially in high altitudes, but seeing snow in July was a novelty to both of us.

We drove the western half of Crater Lake NP and then we kept heading north to our next destination, Prairie Campground near the Newberry Volcanic National Monument. The campsite was so dusty and dry! Down a hill, behind our site was a creek. It was a nice distrqaction from the dry, dusty site we had chosen. In the evenings, with the windows open we would fall asleep hearing the distant babbling of the creek.

We decided to head on up to the volcanic monument. We saw lava flows that had turned into obsidian, and a beautiful waterfall. We took some dirt roads and learned that there are a lot more volcanos in the US than we had ever imagined. This was an educational and beautiful excursion.

All of those black rocks were lava that turned into obsidian glass rocks. They are shiny and sharp and beautiful. The lava field was so impressive in size.

We really enjoyed exploring the national park, our campsite and the Newberry Volcano, but it was time to head north again for one more stop in Oregon. Our truck needed another wash. We were headed back to Boardman for a bit (Amazon packages, our mail from Florida and full hookups) before finally going into Washington and getting to see our oldest son, Gage.

Out of California and Into Oregon (again)

~ Wandering Cindi ~ Leave a comment

We had spent a lot of time in the Central California Valley. It was dry and hot and dusty everywhere we had been for most of June and it seemed to be staying that way for July. Our truck was dirty, our camper was dirty, and it was driving us crazy. While we were at Hidden View Aaron decided to hand wash the truck and Airstream with the campground water. That was a mistake. The water was very hard, it was very hot and the truck and camper became covered in hard water spots. The water at Lake of the Springs was no better and made the spots worse. And now, we were at a campground that had no hookups, so washing them again was not an option.

Christie Campground was to be our last California campground for about a month. It had a great paved bike trail around Eagle Lake. We were there for about 5 days dry camping (no hookups). It was a peaceful and quiet campground in the Lassen Volcanic National Forest. We really enjoyed our stay. One thing I regret not getting pictures of is the wildfire damage that we saw as we were leaving the national forest. California wildfires are on the news quite often, especially in the summer. It is sad to see the aftermath of burnt trees, blackened hills and and the remains of what now can only be imagined as once beautiful.

Our next stop was in Grant’s Pass, Oregon on the Rogue River. We were staying at a county park with full hookups again. While we were at the grocery store we picked up some vinegar. We had researched and learned that a vinegar/water mixture would remove all the hard water spots. We also picked up some car wax to apply to the Airstream and the truck. We set to work again and hand washed the camper and the truck each morning. We did small sections at a time so we could wash, dry and wax before the sun would dry it and leave spots everywhere again.

The Airstream and truck were shiny again. The Rogue River was beautiful. We really enjoyed the campground. The sites were a bit close together for our liking, but had trees and shrubbery which made our site feel private. One night, we sat outside and listened to our neighbor sing and play his guitar. We watched small kids riding their bikes. We were close to town, so we did some shopping and treated ourselves to Dairy Queen. It was a good week. And then, it was time to head further north and closer to Wenatchee (again).

Lions, Tires and Trees, OH MY!

~ Wandering Cindi ~ Leave a comment

The 4th of July was approaching and we had 2 reservations at Hidden View Campground. The first site we had for 5 days and this site had electricity and water. The site we would have to move to after those days had no hookups at all. It was hot! Our AC was struggling to keep up and the upcoming weekend was forecast to get even hotter. We decided to see if we could find somewhere else to stay that had hookups available and was, hopefully, a bit cooler.

Hidden View really is a great place, but even the ranger we spoke with agreed that the 4th of July holiday was going to be hot and miserable.

We searched and searched. The holiday was almost here, and we didn’t think we would find anything. We decided to check Thousand Trails and see if there was anything available. Why not give it a second chance? We weren’t impressed with the first campground we stayed at but, maybe there were others that are better. We found availability at their Lake of the Springs over the holiday week and decided to give it a try.

We packed it up and hit the road again. As we were cruising up the interstate we heard a loud BOOM! Of course, this BOOM happened right around Stockton, CA. Not the ideal area to be stranded or stuck.

Again, I think someone was looking out for us. It happened just before an exit, and there was a paint store with a large parking lot just off of the exit ramp. Since the camper has duel axels, we were able to limp into the parking lot and get the spare put on the trailer. Then, we were back on our way. Our anniversary was coming up in 9 days, and we decided that new tires for the Airstream would be our gift to each other. The gift for a 24th anniversary is supposed to be opals, but we decided rubber would do the trick.

We made it to Lake of the Springs and set out to pick a campsite. Of course it was a holiday weekend/week and all the best spots were taken. We finally found a pretty secluded spot, parked the camper and strategized how we were going to go about getting the tires replaced without having to haul the camper and hour each way into town. We decided to take in two at a time. We could use the other two tires and the spare to keep the camper stabilized. We did the first 2 on a Saturday and the last two on the following Monday.

Lake of the Springs had no lake! Well, it had a lake that had been drained due to dam repair. There was a severe fire danger, so NO campfires and NO fireworks allowed. Happy 4th of July…there was an onsite laundromat.

These trees mesmerized me…very cool and unique looking.

A few of the campgrounds we have stayed at had cats that would roam around, and as a running joke we called them mountain lions. Well, the ones that visited us at this site were not campground kitties pretending to be mountain lions…they were real mountain lions! I haven’t uploaded a video before, so hopefully this one plays!

If you look, there are 3 that walk behind our camper! The last one seems like it was scoping it out, or just couldn’t figure out the sound of our snoring. Aaron and I slept through this and didn’t know it had happened until we saw the video the next morning. I am so glad we have the cameras because that is the only way I want to view that type of wildlife.

We saw a few deer and a few baby deer, and I will always wonder how many of the babies mafe it to adulthood and how many became a meal for the mountain lions. After our stay at the no lake, Lake of the Springs, it was time to start slowly heading north. We had about 3 weeks or so to get back to Wenatchee, WA for Aaron’s job. We packed it up on the 5th of July and started heading north again.

Yosemite Valley at Yosemite National Park

~ Wandering Cindi ~ 1 Comment

I’m keeping my words short and sweet with this post. We got up REALLY early and headed to Yosemite, FINALLY! We loaded up the bikes and hit the road. We were both grateful we had the bikes. We would not have seen nearly the amount of things we did if we had just parked and walked. We got there about 7-7:30 a.m. and the parking in Yosemite Valley was already getting crowded. We found a spot, jumped on the bikes, and started taking in the beauty of Yosemite Valley. We got back to the truck about 11:30 and the parking lots were overflowing, cars were parked in places they shouldn’t have been, and the crowds were thick. It was time for us to head out. I can’t wait to go back and explore other parts of the park. This was just a tiny portion, and an incredible portion it was!

This first set of photos I took with the camera.

This second set I took with my phone.

This third set is from Aaron’s phone

The 4th of July was coming up and we were revisiting Hidden View and giving A Thousand Trails a second try. We had our fingers crossed that we would like this campground better than the last (they are free).