Java in the Northwest

Something we've only seen in Oregon and Washington --- little drive-up or drive-through coffee "kiosks" on many a street corner. The attached picture is of a fairly busy and prosperous one, but we've seen them in the most unlikely places as well.

By the way, true to form, now that we're in Seattle, we're seeing the first rain we've seen since Nashville on May 14.

Volcanoes

Mount Saint Helens
The Cascade mountain range, as some of you may know (we didn't), is made up of a bunch of volcanoes - some extinct, some just dormant. It turns out that Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood are just dormant, just like Mount St. Helen's was for some 123 years prior to May 18, 1980 (see http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/). We got our first glimpse of M.S.H. while still in Portland, Oregon this morning. We decided to take the northern route to the mountain from Route 12 in Washington and drove 15 miles along a circuitous mountain road before we saw the "Road Closed" sign.

We were able to find a scenic overlook of the mountain after we drove back down; unfortunately, the cloudy skies seem to make the mountain blend into the clouds.

This picture of M.S.H. was taken from the ladder on the back of the RV.

P.S. Some Connecticut related M.S.H. trivia: M.S.H. is part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Gifford Pinchot was the founder of f the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. He was born in Simsbury, Connecticut on August 11, 1865 and graduated from Yale University and also served two terms as governor of Pennsylvania. His autobiography is titled Breaking New Ground.












Mount Rainier
We continued on to Mount Rainier National Park; although also enshrouded in clouds, the views were impressive.

Darn, we forgot to pack our SKIS!!!!

Our intention this morning was to drive by Mount Hood (elevation 11,239) on our way from Bend to Portland. Instead, we drove up the access road to find that they are still skiing up there! Actually, they conduct U.S. Ski Team racing camps at Mount Hood all through the summer.

Observations

Since the school year is not quite over for most of the country, it seems to us that we're younger than most of the RV park population that we've run into so far. Not only that, but Gracie is bigger than most of the RV park canine population that we've seen - lots of little lap dogs escorted by 70 somethings.

By the way, Oregon is about the friendliest state we've encountered thus far.

(Portland, Oregon 5/30/06)

Darn, we forgot to pack our snowshoes!

Today we set out for Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. By checking their website ahead of time (http://www.nps.gov/crla/home.htm), we learned that some of the park roads were still closed from the winter snows, but that the visitor center at the rim was open. We certainly did NOT expect what we found as we gained altitude to get to the visitor center! The above picture was taken at the visitor center parking lot (elevation approximately 7,000 feet).

It turns out that the Crater Lake area averages about 44 FEET of snow per year - one of the snowiest areas in the U.S. The skies were clear, the temp's in the 45-50 range but warm in the sun, so walking around was quite comfortable.

On our way north to Bend, Oregon, we caught glimpses of Mt. Thielsen, elevation 9,182....

....and further north stopped in Lava Lands Visitor Center (part of Newberry National Volcanic Monument) to see the remnants of an ancient volcano's eruptions:

The variety of terrain in this country is incredible!

California to Oregon

After a drive up the coast through Redwood Forest National Park, we crossed the line into Oregon this afternoon. Tonight we're near Medford, tomorrow onto Crater Lake.

Some observations:
- Gas prices dropped as soon as we got into Oregon -- California by far had the highest rates, up to 3.50 per gallon for 87 octane.
- As we pulled into a gas station here in Medford (3.11 for 87), John got out as usual but was intercepted by the attendant - Oregon gas stations are full service by law!
- Weather and terrain here at present are very much like Vermont.

Oh - and, with the elevational ups and downs of the last few days, we're doing about 8-9 mpg.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

Mendocino

Does Mendocino look familiar? It was the setting for “Murder She Wrote” back in the 80’s --- the fictitious Cabot Cove, Maine.

Speaking of Mendocino, does anyone remember the song by the same title by the Sir Douglas Quintet from the late 60's? It's been going through my head all day and got me thinking about all of the other "location" songs that managed to surface from the depths of my brain as we've travelled cross-country. To name the more obscure ones:
- "Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas" (Harry Chapin) came to mind as we made the descent to Scranton PA on I-84
- "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" followed us through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and California
- "Is this the Way to Amarillo?" haunted me all through Texas
There are more obvious ones and I'm sure more will come to mind as we continue our journey.

The Pacific!

We finally reached the Pacific Ocean at around 1:30 Pacific Time on Saturday. We found a nice picnic spot along Route 1 but opted to eat inside as the temp was only about 58 with a very strong wind.

Dogs & Wineries

No matter where we go, we’ve found Gracie to be a real people magnet. The standard comment we get from most is “Can I pet your dog? We left ours at home and miss him/her so much!”

We were happy to find that the Charles Krug vineyard is dog-friendly:

Yosemite

We were lucky enough to get to Yosemite National Park on Friday, May 26, just prior to the busy Memorial Day weekend. The weather was a refreshing change from Mojave’s 100+ heat --- sunny and only in the 60’s. We drove to Glacier Point which overlooks the Yosemite Valley and still saw snow along the road in the woods. As with Sequoia National Park, the pictures of Yosemite speak for themselves.








After touring Yosemite, we drove westward to Vallejo for the night. Since it was the beginning of a holiday weekend, we witnessed lines of traffic heading in the opposite direction on Friday afternoon --- more traffic than we ever remember seeing on the east coast. As crowded as I-91 northbound out of Connecticut ever seemed on Columbus Day weekend, it can’t compare to the 2-3 hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic heading out of the San Francisco area towards the national parks.

Sequoia National Park

Today we visited Sequoia National Park, possibly the most beautiful part of the U.S. that I can remember ever seeing.

At the park entrance, we were given the attached map which, if you can read it from the photo, states "Vehicles longer than 22 feet....not advised..." --- note all of the switchbacks. Undaunted, we (ie, John) drove our 30 footer up over 6,000 feet in elevation and back down the other side, adding even more gray hairs to both my head and Gracie's.

Although these don't do the park justice, I'll try to let the pictures speak for themselves, especially the pictures of the magnificent sequoia trees that the park is named after.

View of Mount Whitney (elev. 14, 491)

Leaving Arizona

In the interest of time (and due to general lack of interest on both our parts), we made the decision to pass up Las Vegas as well as Los Angeles in favor of heading directly west to Bakersfield California as an overnight stop on the way to Sequoia National Park and points north. We didn't want to bypass Nevada completely, so we drove to Bullhead City AZ and crossed the Colorado River into Laughlin -- a mini Las Vegas. We gave ourselves a half hour and $7 to gamble away; I turned my $2 investment into $8 worth of quarters using the slot machines (enough to cover several laundry loads!); John turned $5 into $5.10 on some other video game. We spend 54 cents in postcards, leaving us with a net gain of $5.56!

The temperature in Laughlin as well as the subsequent trip through the Mojave registered at about 104 degrees. Ironically, as we got closer to Bakersfield, we could see some snow-capped peaks to our South, possibly Big Bear Ski area.




One last note as we left I-40 for the last time (having travelled most of it since Knoxville over a week earlier): the highway parallels some major railroad freight lines; we saw numerous trains with 70, 80, or even 90 cars carrying shipping containers eastward, probably originating from China and carrying tons of items to Walmarts and Christmas Tree Shops across the U.S.

Fair Weather Thoughts

On my way down to the campground office in Kingman Arizona the other morning, I ran into a few elderly men on the front porch and we exchanged the usual “nice day, isn’t it” pleasantries. It dawned on me that Kingman, with its sunny dry weather, rarely has a day that isn’t what we call “nice”; in fact, the weather there during our visit was what we would call one of those rare “10”’s in New England --- sunny, dry, no clouds and temps in the low 70’s. With that in mind, I started to wonder: what do the locals in these sunny warm climates use for small talk? In New England, we can always count on an excuse to say “is it cold enough for you?” or “well, we really did need the rain” if we want to generate some idle conversation. What do they use to generate small talk in southern climates where the weather is always “perfect”?

More of Arizona

After spending Saturday night at the Holbrook Arizona KOA, we again set out on I-40 west Sunday morning. Our first stop, only about 35 miles into our day, was Winslow – yes, it really exists and it even has a “Standin’ on the Corner” park and tavern.


We continued to Flagstaff, which at elevation 6,905 is nestled beneath the ponderosa pine-covered peaks of the San Francisco mountains (10,000’ plus). Turning south onto highway 89A, we drove through Oak Creek Canyon and stopped in Sedona for some shopping and lunch. I had always heard about the beauty of this area and was not disappointed. Because of the elevation, the temperatures were very comfortable and, typical of the area, sunny and very dry (so dry, in fact, that my hair has been unusually straight out here – do people born and raised here go all their lives thinking they have straight hair only to learn differently when they finally visit New England or Seattle?)





Next stop was Jerome Arizona, a tourist stop full of art shops and bars which boasted a population of 15,000 in its heyday as a copper mining town. The AAA guide lists its current population as just over 300 but we saw atleast 10 or 20 times that in tourists – most notably bikers (the motor type). To say Jerome is “nestled” on a hillside is misleading; more accurately, I’d say it’s hung precariously off of the hillside, with a series of switchbacks to get you there out of the valley floor. My hair is probably grayer now, but John deftly managed to get our 30 footer up and down those switchbacks safely. I can’t say that I saw any other RV’s in town, and probably with good reason.





We arrived in Peoria Arizona, just outside of the northern city limits of Phoenix, late Sunday afternoon. Dinner was with John’s nephew Craig and his wife Krista who live in the area. The RV park was particularly nice and associated with a marina (yes, in the desert!), so we decided to stay 2 nights with a round trip to Saguaro National Park near Tucson on Monday.

Leaving New Mexico, Arriving in Arizona

Dateline Holbrook, Arizona. We left Santa Fe this morning (with regrets!), heading for Holbrook, Arizona. Several miles before Albuquerque, we noticed a mountain range to our east - part of the Cibola National Forest. As we got closer, we decided to pull off of U.S. 25 to get a closer look and found another little gem - Sandia Peak (http://www.sandiapeak.com/) which has the "the world's longest aerial tramway". We did not have the time to take the tram ride, but did walk around the base and were impressed with the area and the view of and proximity to downtown Albuquerque.


We reached the Arizona stateline at around 3 PM only to find that it was only 2 PM locally, thus gaining an hour. Our next stop was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (http://www.nps.gov/pefo/)- absolutely stunning!






A note for those of you over 62: you can get a lifetime pass to all National Parks for just $10 - a so called "Golden Eagle" pass - compared to spending $65 for an annual pass with the same benefits if you're under 62. The pass can be obtained at any national park.