Saturday Evening And.....................

it's COLD out there!! Day started off pretty darn good but the wind begin to pick up and campers were freezing their tushes off. Pity the poor people camping in tents. We whipped up a bunch of hamburgers and stuff for the troops when they arrived Friday evening and then enjoyed a nice campfire. Earlier Friday Becky and I went back to the Bodega Bay area to try out some clam chowder and look for a cheap sweatshirt. Found a little hole in the wall restaurant that advertised that it had been voted as having the best clam chowder the last three years. Becky had a crab sandwich, clam chowder and then followed that up with some crab cakes. I stuck with the clam chowder.......unfortunately they would never receive my vote for the "best clam chowder in Bodega Bay". We couldn't find a "cheap" sweatshirt; but, did try some more clam chowder at another restaurant. The second place had better chowder in my opinion; but, "B" said she would give her vote to the first restaurant. Neither was as good as the Oregon coast chowder!




We stopped here and there on hi way 101 and took pictures. A rock with a hole in it called Rock Arch, or something like that was kinda neat, especially when a large wave hit it. I liked the way the constant wind bends the coast side trees inland. The gang hiked down to the beach later today before the wind kicked up and they enjoyed the water..........it was a nice hike over the sand dunes to the beach so I didn't make the trip...........had a nice little nap instead so here it is after midnight and I'm still awake.

Like I said, the wind and cold set in and Rhonda was feeding hot chocolate to the kids in "tent city" who were camped next to us. She had some left over spaghetti and warmed it up and offered the remains to the kids next door. Guess they scoffed it up like it was T-bone steak! Had I been in a tent I would have packed up and left a long time ago. Guess I've become a tenderfoot in my advancing age!

Tomorrow Becky and I are packing up and heading back to Corning. Gotta pack up our suitcases and be back in Woodland on Monday evening. We'll probably stay over with Rhonda and Steve and then get one of them to take us to the airport Tuesday morning for our flight to Honolulu. No more "cold" beaches for awhile!

Next post should be from Hawaii. Aloha! B&W

Thursday.....And We Made It To.....

the beach at Lawson's Landing, Dillon Beach, CA. Got our spot staked out, dishes set up so we hoped in the Suzuki to go exploring. Pictures kinda out of order.....we drove up on top of the hill at Dillon Beach, took a few pictures of the campsite, also there were a million deer running around the housing area on the hill. We had some caches entered in the old GPSr so we started off looking for some.......had some problems with only the location and no other cache info. Only found two today. Our travels took us to Bodega Bay, where the old Hitchcock movie The Birds was filmed. Picture 1 is Bodega Bay from the area of a virtual cache called "Hole In The Head"......here's Becky looking at the marker for Hole in the Head and the next pic is the "Hole". The hole is 90 feet across and 120 feet deep. It was a hole dug back in the time when nuclear power plants were being built. They only got a far as digging the hole on this one as public opinion and close proximity to the San Andres Fault created its demise before it was ever built. The hole remains as it is constantly being filled with runoff water. Last picture is of the school house in the film, it was located in Bodega.......a little town about six miles from Bodega Bay. The house was purchased by a family, they restored it and are now living in the restored school house. They operate a little gift shop but it was closed when we were eyeballing the former school.

We found some evidence left from the film The Birds..........one bird sitting on a post and some sea gulls were protecting our roped off area when we returned to camp.

The jackrabbit picture was taken at the RV Family Camp on Travis Airforce Base where we stayed Wednesday. There were 3 or 4 jackrabbits running around the RV park.

Rest of the group arrives tomorrow sometime, probably kinda late. Apparently there are only two more rigs coming so we'll have lots of room.

Later, W&B

Made It To Monday Afternoon...................

with nothing worth reporting the last two days. Been rearranged the M/H for our little weekend excusion starting on Wednesday. We'll leave here in the morning and drive down to Travis AFB and hope we can find an overnight RV site. I called them and was told that there would be "no problem" since it was the middle of the week. Yeah, right???? Seems I've heard that before; but, we'll leave anyway and hopefully spend the night about an hour's drive from Dillion Beach. We're the advance party who has to stake out a claim for about 5 rigs who will arrive on Friday; and, it will give us a chance to visit the commissary and load up on some cheap groceries. Went over to a friend's house and rummaged around in the alley and stole some old boards that I converted to stakes.........Steve gave us a roll of "caution" tape to claim our spot. "Crime Scene" tape would have been more colorful. Guess we're about all set to leave, will have to haul the internet dish down late tomorrow so will post this today. We gotta get another means of connecting the computers with the internet; but, we both have about 10 months left on our current telephone contracts so that'll have to wait.

Everyone stay "cool" out there............it'll probably be downright "cold" at the beach compared to the mid 90s we've been having. Gotta remember to take a jacket.

Later, if we win the lottery or something else happens. W&B

Saturday Afternoon...........

and Becky and I just got back to Corning from Woodland. Stopped at the Colusa Casino on the way down and contributed to them. Still early yesterday afternoon so we took another side trip to the Cache Creek Casino. Did a little better here and managed to recover the money we left at Colusa and arrived in Woodland just as Rhonda was getting off work. Bryce had football practice from 6 to 8 so we went to the field to watch practice.



This standing around and pushing a sled gets kinda boring but still tires you out. Finally, the boys found a soft grassy spot and ran plays.............offense against defense. "Brutus" is a defensive lineman and that offense has a couple of good sized kids who are hard to bring down. I thought Bryce had him stopped; but, "no cigar" as the kid slipped away. I liked the way Bryce got up and kept after the runner...........but the kid was long gone. Then the coach switched a bunch of kids around from defense to offense..............kinda confusing for them I think.



There was a round robin game set up this afternoon in Sacramento with a number of team involved. I guess each team was only going to be on the field for a quarter, or maybe less, so we opted to return to Corning instead of motoring to Sacramento for a scrimmage. We'll catch Bryce's games when we can.

Later, W&B

Tuesday......And Things Returning..............

to normal........whatever that is. Motorhome about ready to roll again for the long weekend before September arrives. We'll be going to Dillon Beach on the coast near Bodega Bay. I think Bodega Bay is where the film "Birds" was shot way back when. Today is Old Folks Day at the casino so we may drive out for dinner. We stopped by briefly yesterday and I managed to leave with some of their money this time.......enough for dinner and some left over to reinvest.

Becky at hair dresser for "shaping" or something so I've been browsing the pictures we took at Crater Lake. This is a collage of some we took..............wonder if something else might happen if you took a header off the cliff..........like maybe breaking a fingernail? We had an argument over this piece of "driftwood" (I call it driftwood), Becky said it looks like a "cute bunny" and I think it resembles a Komodo Dragon. What do you think? The 4th picture we snapped on the way to CL at the Rogue Gorge. According to the info sign this was a partially blocked tunnel that was caused by laval flow when the mountain top erupted a few years ago. The third pic is the cliff that signs warned about.

Think we're going to Woodland this Saturday as Brutus (Bryce) is kicking off the football season with a football jamboree. Will be interesting to see how much difference a year makes in the kid's performance.

All for now, just thought I'd post these photos. Wayne

Friday...We Drove Into Grants Pass..............

to do some geocaching. Becky need about 14 to reach the 1400 mark so off we went. I think we picked the hottest day to do this. One cache was stuck in a light pole and across the street there were Palm trees growing. Thought it was kinda interesting that Palm trees could make it through the winters they have here. We visited a real nice pioneer cemetary.........you don't often see too many people having their lunch in a cemetary; but, there were 5 or 6 people sitting at a table chowing down when we were there. They have a bunch of these miserable nano caches here too! Becky found one inside an old safe in front of a locksmith place of business. We got Becky's numbers past 1400 so called it a day.

We arrived in Corning Saturday afternoon and now we gotta start getting the M/H ready for our next trip to the California coast at the end of this month.

Later, W&b

Stopped at The House of Mystery, Gold Hill, OR.......

to check it out. The guide told us to ask any questions that we might have.........and then she stated that many of her answers would be "we don't know". So with that in mind we started our tour with a very small group of people as they were getting ready to close for the day. The House of Mystery was an old shack built on the side of a hill and it had collapsed creating all kinds of optical illusions. The guide tried to tell us that what we were seeing was created by the fact that we were standing inside a small area called the Oregon Vortex. Things just didn't appear to be as they really were. Inside the house itself she had various demonstrations that appear to have no explanation. I thought it was kinda neat when she stood a broom up in the middle of the floor..........it just stayed in place until it finally fell over from weight shifting and movement of us gullibles who paid good money to see this magnificant Wonder of the World.............or at least Oregon (actually the broom was no BFD----had Becky brought her own broom she could have buzzed around the room with it). Outside one of the windows they had a ramp that appears to be slanted away from the window. You could push a golfball "down" the ramp and it would roll back toward you giving the illusion of traveling uphill. ????? Yep, the pictures were shoot in rapid sequence when the golfball reached the "bottom" of the ramp.


One of the interesting illusions required two people to stand on a level platform facing each other. They would then switch places and it would appear that an individual was always taller on one end of the platform. Here are pictures I took of Becky and the Guide. I never moved from my position as they changed places. See any difference in the height of the two subjects??



Whoops...........must have downloaded this collage twice. Oh well, you can look at it again.

Last Thursday Trip To Crater Lake...........

We entered through the west entrance and our first stop showed that a virtual cache was a short distance from the information center. We trudged down the trail and found The Lady of the Woods. Interesting sculpture carved from a large rock. No other information regarding who, how, when, where, etc. etc. it got there. I checked it out and we ambled down the road so Becky could get her first view of Crater Lake.


At our first stop Becky was getting pictures of her Travel Bug Walking Stick, Frankinbear, while I was inside the hotel looking for information we needed to log another geocache as found. I found the needed info and finally found Becky chatting with a family who was thrilled with her walking stick. We got a snack at snack bar..........WOW........$7.50 for a wilted, crushed turkey sandwich. Oh well, neither of us had the foresight to pack a lunch. After lunch we continued looked for more caches and proceeded around the rim.


We stopped to view Wizard Island and I placed my three geocoins on a sign and took a picture so I can add it to the log entries of places where the coins have been. A UFO flew overhead when I took one of the pictures.........it hovered for a few seconds and then it sped away at the speed of light........or maybe even faster as no one else saw it but me. Fortunately I have photo evidence of its existence.


We made a little side trip from the rim to log another cache and to take in the Pumice Desert. It looks real neat as you view the desert from the rim............just a great big, barren spot with little vegetation growning. Apparently was caused from an eruption of the volcano and this area was saturated with soil that have very few nutrients so plant life just doesn't grow there. Apparently the local varmits haven't deposited enough fertilizer to offset the sparse nutrients. Further around the rim we spotted another virtual cache called Pumice Castle. This was an unusually colored rock formation sticking out from the side of the cliff.

Friday Afternoon..............

and we sitting in the Valley of the Rogue State Park near Grants Pass, Oregon. Left Vancouver on Wednesday and stopped here Wednesday afternoon. We found a site that was available until Saturday so here we be. Yesterday we drove over to Crater Lake National Park, found a few virtual/earth caches, drove around the rim and took a ton of pictures. Stopped by the "famous" House of Mystery near Gold Hill on the way home. Just about didn't go in when I found it was going to cost $18.00 for us........whined about an "old folks" discount so the lady let us in for $16.00. It was interesting..........and that's about all I can say about it. Got some pictures there too. Today we drove into Grants Pass since Becky needed about 14 or so caches to reach 1400. I think we ended up finding 15 or 16.

Leaving here tomorrow morning and should be in Corning tomorrow afternoon. It was HOT today.........temperatures exceeded the norm of 72 degrees; but, only by a wee bit..........I think it may have gotten as high as 78 today in Grants Pass.

Would post some pictures; but, that will have to wait until we get home. I didn't set up the satellite dish since WiFi was available in the park for $7.99 for a week. Boy, that was a joke.......the first evening it took me about 4 hours just to get on line to check email. Yesterday and today the service has gotten a little better; but, it's too frustrating to try and upload photos. If you ever get to this area...........beware of "Road Connect", a commercial outfit that has wifi at several Oregon state parks and various rest areas. Maybe it OK in other areas; but, where I'm parked it absolutely sucks!

Nuff for now. Later. Becky and Wayne

Tuesday Afternoon And..........................

we're getting ready to leave Paradise Point early tomorrow morning. Well, maybe not "early", whenever we get up, and that could be any time before noon. Think we got all our little chores done today, had dinner with the troops last night so guess I'll pack up the satellite dish this evening and then all we have to do in the morning is hitch up the Suzuki, gas up and go. Of course I'll leave my TV dish up until tomorrow............all it takes if 5 minutes to pack it up. Becky doesn't "need" her internet so will probably be off line until we get home on Friday or Saturday sometime.

Going to drive down to Valley of the Rogue State Park near Grants Pass, Oregon and will probably stay there for at least two nights. Thursday our plans are to drive the Suzuki over to Crater Lake for a day trip.............I think it's about 85 miles, and we can capture some virtual caches and photo ops at Crater Lake. Might stay over on Friday night if the campground has an opening. No other stops planned.

Later...............Becky and Wayne

Yeah, Yeah........We Weren't Going Back.............

to the fair until we found out that today was the day that all 4-H Awards were to be given out this afternoon. Monster Trucks were scheduled at two o'clock and, due to the noise, the awards were scheduled after the trucks. Trace and I watched the trucks, Trace left and was replaced by Becky so we stuck it out until the end. We then found out that Trace had shown one of the cows in the show ring while we were watching trucks..........Bummer. Guess we'll have to catch him next year when he's old enough to join 4-H. Anyway.....the trucks put on a pretty good show, one was driven by a cute 22 year old from Canada and she immediately became the crowd favorite. They managed to turn a couple of trucks over and break a few parts. Looks like an expensive sport to me.

The awards started and Cassidy managed to claim a few awards.............she received the Junior Champion Showmanship award which included a perpetual plaque. I think she keeps it until next year, all previous winners have had their name inscribed on the plaque and Cassidy's Aunt April was awarded the plaque twice in previous years. She also collected a check for $25.00 and three $30 Gift Cards for some of the other awards. She received Top Junior Showman with a Holstein and her heifer, Bailey, was Top Type Junior Champion...........Bailey did all the work and Cassidy received a Gift Card.......go figure! She also received a number of blue ribbons, as did all the participants.

All in all it was a pretty good day................Becky and I left before any of the clean up work started. The kids should get out of there by the time the fair closes at 2200. They only spend 5 days there and some of the others have a 10 day event..............all in the name of "fun".

"B" and I had Chinese for dinner and finally got home about an hour ago............gotta get ready to leave here on Wednesday and point ourselves toward California.

Later, W&B

Friday...........And Another Day At The..............

Fair. This will probably be our last trip, we've had enough of the fair food, dairy cow showing is over and all the kids are beginning to look like they've had enough of it too. They still have to stay through Sunday and keep their animals cleaned up, stalls clear of all droppings and feed, water and groom their cows and take care of whatever comes up. Back in my work days one of my co-workers was a lady who lives on a dairy farm...............talked to her a few times and the first words out of her mouth were "it's half over"..........that was on Wednesday. She's been doing the fair scene for more years then she'd care to remember..........with probably many more trips to come.

We visited just about every display and booth, took in the free shows, picked up tons of free junk, ate more junk food then we should and took in the demolition derby today................twice........we watched crazies tear up their cars; but, didn't last through the entire show this evening and finally left around 2100. Enough is enough.

That's about it. W&B

County Fair Day And Cassidy Was.......................

showing her cow, Angel, from last year and a new heifer, Bailey. It's not all fun and games as you gotta work too, Trace and Cassidy on "Poop Patrol". Getting last minute instructions from everyone before entering the ring. How do you keep all this info straight??? Cass showed Bailey first and received the Junior Champion ribbon for showmanship and Baily received the ribbon for Junior Champion, plus a couple of blue ribbons.

After showing Baily it was "corn on the cob" time again then some exercise on a rubber band thingy. Trace bounced around too, as did Mira, Doug's co-worker.









No Pig Races this year, they were replaced by the "Duck Races" These ducks were imported all the way from New Mexico and the duck's Trainer/Owner was named "Duck".......and that was No Bull! On the way back to the dairy barn Becky and I stopped to observe some goat competition. Apparently this is what happens when you prep your goat with Viagra! The others goats must have used a different dosage as you can see the various results. Bouncing on a rubber band thingy, hauling poop, and wrestling with a cow kinda takes its toll on the competitors. Cassidy took a short rest before she showed Angel.

Here's a close-up of the Junior Champion, Bailey. Poor old Angel was initially placed in the first spot for her class but the judge thought things over when he had them lined up and changed his mind so Angel ended up in third place. Last year Angel was the Junior Champion..........see what a year does when you don't take care of yourself...............also Angel was pregnant at this showing. Baily ended up in third place for the overall grand champion ribbon. The cow in picture six was named the overall champion.

Here's a couple of pictures of Cassidy and Bailey's ribbons and the Blue Ribbon captured by Angel.

It was starting to be a rather long day so Becky and I headed home.

We may go back later this evening to pig out again on the fair food and take in the motorcycle races which will be held about 1930 tonight. They are always pretty good and the weather has been great...............original forecast was near 90 but clouds rolled in and has kept the temps down to the upper 70s.

All for now.................W&B

Monday...................And

we made it back to Paradise Point Sunday afternoon. Got my MTV hooked up and Becky's internet working so we're ready for the next 8 or so days. Cassidy will be showing her cow and calf starting on Wednesday so we figured this would be the best day to take the Twerps to the fair for carnival rides and food. The "Kids", all three of them, got their wristbands and then we browsed a few exhibits before the rides started at noon. They started off on a ride that proved to be their favorite.........a giant arm with 20 seats on the end of it propelled them up, down and around. They tried the ferris wheel (they are in there someplace.....the smaller Twerps weren't visible......then the ocotopus and finally a big swing. I don't know who this kid was; but, I liked his haircut!!

We took time out for corn on the cob, pastrami sandwich and I pigged out on an Irish Sundae (baked potato). Cassidy had to stop for "face painting" and Becky had a peach milk shake while Trace and I waited for Cass. Bumper cars, swings again and then they headed back to their favorite ride.

Round and round several times on it and we took another corncob, sandwich and potato break. As we were leaving we stopped and watched some doggies try to set broad jump records into a big pool of water. One of the mutts made it to a little over 23 feet and I managed to get his picture as he hit the water. According to the announcer they actually have a "Pro Class" for the mutts???? Interesting...........I guess, as some of the mutts came down to compete from British Columbia.

End of day and guess all the "kids" had fun..................Becky hit the hay about 2100 and I haven't heard a peep from her since.

Tomorrow is laundry day......ugh..........not my favorite way to spend a day but you can turn your shorts, socks and t-shirts inside out for just so many days. Bad thing about socks and shorts is that you can only get two days out of them, inside and outside................but t-shirts work great for four days..........inside, outside, forward and backward!

More later................... Becky and Wayne

P.S.............it was another great 72 degree day!!!!