More Friends and of a surprise

Well, we are finnaly in Seattle... We stopped in Portland and saw the kids, unfortunately I met the streets of Gresham... The kid moved... nevermind, let's just say I'm getting too old to screw around... so just enjoy the pictures you can make up whatever story you want... in fact let me know how this happened...

So, I can't wait for your comments...

Next, some more of our friends... This is Rob & Tina, they have known us for a long time... They were around for our poorer days when we lived in the Rogue Valley... Truely a friendship that stood the test of time and will be going on for a long, long time to come..

This couple is very special too, the only reason we know them is because Bob is as crazy as I am... after meeting them, Bob starting introducing me as his cellmate in prison (I got him for pack of cigs)... Trufully they are two of the nicest people you ever want to meet... Cheryl puts up with Bob and I getting slooshed and talking about our war time... Hang on tight to her Bob there are a few guys that look at this blog who might want to take her away from you....

Travels through Lassen National Forest and to Medford

Now that we've made it this far, here's some pics we took along the way through snow and all!

These two are as we were going from Susanville, CA to Mt Shasta, CA via SR 44 and SR 89 through Lassen National Forest. Temps were in the low 30's and it snowed on and off through the 3 hours it took to go this way.

What a beautiful site it was especially since the snow wasn't sticking on the roads!!!

We arrived in Medford at Valley of the Rogue State Park around 5 p.m., settled in and had a couple of martinis, it was a pretty tense day!

We did the doctor appointments we had stopped for on Thursday morning, visited with some old friends at their State Farm office in Gold Hill, then went up to some other friends for dinner and socializing!!!

We've known Rob and Tina (holding Leroy, one of about 8 farm/house cats) Lindner for over 29 years and always have great food and great conversations when we go up to their 10 acre farm outside of Medford, up in the mountains.

Had great veggie lasagna, salad and lots of good wine, Pam went out with Tina to feed the critters and got to ohh and ahh over less than 24 hr baby goats, plus meet the new Anatolian Shepherd that now guards the homestead!!!

Friday morning we hit the road again heading north to Portland for the weekend with our son Ken and family, and guess what???

Snow AGAIN!!! this time as we passed just north of Grants Pass OR!!

But at least that is all the snow for today!!!!! The rest of the trip has been nice, some rain, but mainly partly sunny.

Everything is greening up so nicely, the daffodils are blooming, the forsythia is golden yellow, and the whites and pinks are all over the trees. Ah sping time in the Pacific NW!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!

We made it to Medford, saw lots of snow coming from Susanville, Ca to Mount Shasta, Ca. Took pictures of the snow as we came through it, will post pics later today or tomorrow. Roads were clear, no problems, and the truck pulled like a champ (of course it had better!!!).

On the road again, FINALLY

Here we go, heading to Medford today, hoping to make it by tonight, will be a very very long day!! Picked up the truck this morning, loaded everything up and got ready to hit the road, when what happens, we see old friends in the park!!! Barb and Lou, our asst mgrs at Moss Landing RV Park were out walking their dogs! They had been in the park for the last week also, we had just not seen each other!! So we stood and talked to them for a while, then had to get moving. But it was so nice doing some catchup with them, they both looked wonderful and are on their way to Eagle Lake to work for the summer. They will be in Fallon until next Monday, visiting with family that live nearby!!

We are dealing with high winds, possible snow on the mountains, and lots of mileage today, so check back to see if we made it!!!

Stupid, Stupid Tourists

Well, I followed Pammy once again and you should see what happened!!! Actually I was in the lead for a bit too so it's not ALL her fault. What was supposed to be a short mile hike turned into a long 2 to 3 mile mountain climb. Eat your heart out Jerry, I can climb mountains at altitude! We are at 4000 ft. here in Fallon. Being bored with not a lot to do around here, we decided to go out on an adventure. We first went to the Stillwater National Refuge, not much there. Saw a few White Pelicans in the very, very far away, distance; some Canada Geese and a bunch of Coots. Then, since we were already east of town, we decided to go to Grimes Point. Petroglyphs and other acient things at there. Oh, by the way, we were looking at items from up to 8000 years ago and watching F18's do touch and goes out at the Naval training center. Very cool when you think about it. Were is the ocean, you might say, well the whole valley was one of the largest lakes known in prehistoric times. We walked around the archaeological site where the majority of the petroglyphs were and learned a few things, here is just a sample:

Then we decided to go visit some of the caves that the indians of the past used in prehistoric times. This is where the stupid tourists come in. Since you are walking in areas that are "natural", trails are not well marked or real obvious, soooooo....

Pam and I started off on our adventure expecting a 1 mile hike to see several caves and other things from the past. In doing so, we got to station 1 and then wandered off thinking that we were on the trail and wondering why we hadn't come to the next station. Of course our tour guide was trying his best to show us the right way.

We climbed up a saddle that a mountain goat might question it's sanity, and then on up the mountain only to find that we were WAY off the beaten path. However, there had been a lot of fools in the past because we were following a trail of sorts, one that had been used a lot. Anyway, stupid us finally found the right trail after about an hour and a half of playing goat. Here are some shots to show just were we went, enjoy...

The one of us, is just to show that we really were the idiots up on top... That is the valley behind us and what was the lake 7000 years ago, that they estimate got to be 700 ft. deep when it was at it's fullest.

It was really amazing up there to see for miles and imagine what it was like all those years ago.

Way down there was our truck and two Ranger vehicles. We thought they were there to rescue us but no, alas they just wanted to go for a "short" hike.

The most amazing thing about it was that I never hurt other than I couldn't breathe real well for a bit there. The other thing was, it was REALLY worth the climb!

On another note we are pretty sure that our parts are going to be here on Monday, and that means that they will probably be done by Wednesday or Thursday... Later

Broken Down...

Broken in Fallon is the first image and Broken in Tonopah is the second.

Here we are broken hearted, tried to climb a hill and only sputtered... I know, I know, it doesn't ryhmn... Life's a beach, just deal with it! We are currently in Fallon, Nv the oasis of Nevada. If you don't know about it, Fallon is part of a farm area outside of Reno. We left Pahrump, early on Tuesday after a 5 day stay that was extended by one day due to high winds. On the way into Pahrump on the freeway interchange in the middle of Las Vegas, we had a problem with the truck when it stalled on the freeway. I managed to get it on in to Pahrump carefully, we weren't too concerned since this type of thing had happened before and was simple matter of changing the fuel filter. So, I had the oil changed, the fuel filter changed and everything checked. Unfortunately, I did not go to the Chevy dealer and have it scoped because this had happened before and was solved with the fuel filter. We left Pahrump fat dumb and happy, got about 200 miles out into the middle of nowhere and started climbing hills. We started having the problem again... We had to stop in Tonopah to get it checked out. Believe me when I say, there is nothing worth stopping in Tonopah for... At Bumper Towing, the only mechanic shop around, we had to wait an hour for the guys to come back from lunch then, the fellow who put the computer on the truck didn't do it right! He could not find any codes and we had to continue with our trip with fear in our hearts.

Fortunately, I discovered that the only time we had the problem was when we were pulling a hill and shifting down. The traffic was light so I was able to get past the problem fairly easily and we headed on into Reno. We decided that the first Chevy dealer who had a diesel machanic was our destination. Thus Fallon, had it checked yesterday and it turns out to be our fuel injectors. So now we wait in Fallon for the fuel injectors to shipped from back east and then they will be putting them in hopefully on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's a 10 hour job. Oh well, life goes on. We will be heading north as soon as we can, making up our appointments as we can and heading up to Portland and Seattle. We will miss Easter with Ken and family and visiting with friends in Medford. The plan is to be in Seattle (Fall City) around the 1st of April. Wish us luck!

More Friends along the way and some other stuff

Well I finally have decent internet service so here I am again. I tried to post once already and it got lost, I did something stupid I'm sure.

Anyway, here are some more friends along the way...
The first one is a couple we have known the longest, at least of our RV'ing friends. Pam and Ralph and now Cookie, have been around the country with us several times, including having spent a winter in Florida with us. Cookie is a new member of their RV'ing family, good luck...

The next couple are Gene and Joey, they used to stalk Pam, just kidding... When we first met them they had two doggies that refused to groomed by anyone other than Pam, so Gene and Joey arranged to be at the same places we were every 6 weeks. Their puppies have since gone over the rainbow bridge but are still remembered.

Enjoy these photos and as we run into more friends they too will be posted.

Next, I have added some links for everyone, hope you go visit others and see what you can see...

Friends along the way

For those who don't know them here are a few of our friends that we have met along the way. First let me introduce Jerry and Laura from Michigan, they have been traveling with us for the last several weeks and worked with us one summer at Lake Siskiyou. They are proudly showing off a scroll art piece that I made for them. Great friends and we are going to miss them for the rest of this year. Hopefully we can hook up this next winter.

Next, I would like to introduce Don and Jo, they will be meeting up with us in Dawson Creek in another couple of weeks and then heading up to Alaska with us to work at the Denali Park Hotel in Healy, Alaska. We are all looking forward to our trip to Alaska this spring and summer. Lots going on while we are there. Anyway, Don worked with us in Lake Siskiyou the first summer we were there. He and I worked security from 6pm to 2am and had a great time. The images below are from Tombstone (Don and I with the Sheriff) and from the Desert Museum (the four of us).

More about us going to Alaska for those who are interested. We are headed up there to work at the Denali Park Hotel in Healy, as desk clerks (they are calling us asst. mgr's. but I call it just being a desk clerk). We get to go on several tours for free since we are responsible for selling the tours to our guests. Tours like, horseback riding into Denali, river rafting, fly in to the glaciers and I think there is even a fishing trip in there but not sure about that one. We will be working 3 to 4 days a week which leaves us a bunch of time to enjoy some adventures of our own. Pam and I are looking forward to doing a little gold panning, exploring, and fly fishing. I'll keep you posted on what is going on as I can.

Enjoy this post, I'll try to keep up with comments and more postings as I can.

First Post

This is the first post for our new blog, I'll try to figure out what I can do on this thing as quickly as possible. This is for our friends and family to find out what we are doing and where we are with the most up to date information and pictures.

The first picture for you to see is me almost 60 years ago... (that's me on the right)