Stuck in PDX

“Speed bump!” We sure ain’t where we wanted to be anyway. Not by a long shot! I’m not knocking Portland you understand? It’s just the circumstances that keep us here.

Back in June sometime I had my check-up at Kaiser which included the ever delightful prostate exam. Unfortunately my doctor found a firm spot she thought should be checked a little further. I went to a urologist and he confirmed the firm spot. So then it was a biopsy in August which confirmed that my doctor was correct in being suspicious. The biopsy was positive for cancer. Now I have had a couple of consultations and wait for treatment. I’ve opted for brachytherapy which is insertion of radioactive seeds into the prostate. It looked to be the least invasive to me and besides several people I know have had that procedure quite successfully. One in particular, but I won’t go into it. I go in for an Ultrasound in a couple of days and have my prostate measured and mapped to determine seed number and location. Then I have the procedure and get out of here hopefully by the middle of November. So! Not to worry! Everything is under control. Just a little ‘speed bump’. I have good doctors and this seems to be a joint effort of three of the major hospitals here in Portland.

Obviously this has changed our itinerary. We were going to head across the top of the country through WA, ID, MT, ND, MN, and around or by the Great Lakes and then go through Columbus to Texas. We do have reservations to winter once again in Texas. It looks like we’ll be OK with that. At worst we should be on our way by Thanksgiving and our reservations are in Dec/Jan.

We’ve been staying at a park in PDX. Not the greatest but it’s close to shopping, The Mall, and Wal-Mart. There is a bike trail that is nice and we try to ride our bikes when we can. That hasn’t been easy because of back and knee problems but were working it out. Kat has been going to therapy for her back and I just got cortisone shot in my knee. Things are looking up. We did get all of our medical things taken care of except of course for the big ‘C’. That’s next.

In October and for the remainder of our stay here we are moving to Clackamas Fish and Wildlife. We talked to the volunteer coordinator Jennell and she has room at the inn. We worked there in May and June and it’s a good fit again. It’s much nicer than where we are and only a couple of miles away so still close to everything.

So we’ll get this little “speed bump” taken care of and be on our way soon.

Scenic Beach

Here’s what the brochure says;

Scenic Beach State Park is a 88-acre camping park with 1,500 feet of saltwater beachfront on Hood Canal. The park is known for its wild, native rhododendrons and stunning, clear-day views of Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains. ADA-compliant paths lead visitors to a country garden, gazebo, rustic bridge and huge trees. A wide variety of birds and wildlife call the area home. The park is ideal for those who appreciate outstanding natural venues for outdoor activities.

I guess that’s fair as far as it goes. When you play Camping Host there for a month you develop a little more perspective. We spent August there working for and with Rangers Mike and Shawn. Mike has been there forever and will retire soon. Maybe you could tell he was a short timer with a little bit of a KMA attitude. We worked mostly with Shawn and the ranger aids. Shawn was very nice and loved to stop by and pass time talking and laughing. We saw lots of her and her dog Bo. Our job was to make our presence known, answer questions and to do some site cleanup. Not bad or difficult really, all things being equal. But then, when are all things equal? We’re use to dealing with RV’ers who might be a little more mature and understandable to us. But this is a park for tenters, and tenters are a lot less of that. Mostly they whine a lot and have kids who have skateboards and attitudes. Neither parents nor kids can read or tell time and they pretty much live in their own little worlds believing someone will guide them along, help them find firewood or turn on the shower, be the sheriff and most definitely clean up after them. We had knocks on the door at night for children crying, generators running, too much fun being had by somebody else, and one knife incident. Three State Troopers showed up for that one. Not as bad as it sounds. Some old veteran took offense to a woman who had had much too much to drink stumbling through his campsite trying to find the restroom. He had a knife and called her a “drunken slut”. Probably accurate according to the Troopers! So they let it go. I should tell you that it wasn’t dangerous, just annoying. And it’s not totally fair to say it was that way all the time and with everybody. Nevertheless we probably are more in tune to volunteering at Fish and Wildlife and where campgrounds are closed for the season and such. Definitely where there are RV’ers, not tenters!

The trees were huge like it said in the brochure. That and the climate made it a little difficult. It seemed we missed half of summer. Instead of getting a nice tan I think I mostly just developed a good case of ‘rust’. But there was wildlife. There were lots of little Douglas squirrels and two deer that seemed to hang pretty close. We saw several Pileated Woodpeckers. They’re the big ones that look like Woody Woodpecker. Shawn was telling us about one of her “walk and talks” with a kids group and she said that and got no reaction. One of the chaperons leaned over and whispered to her, “these kids don’t know who Woody Woodpecker is”. So for those in that category consult your field guide or go online. Or look at the picture I provided.

I got to play a couple of rounds of golf with Mike and his buddies. Mike is very competitive and enjoyed beating me the first round. In my defense I had never seen the course before and played like crap. I was glad to get another chance and redeem myself. I shot an even 80 the second time and nobody was close. Mike paid for my golf and lunch and was a great host. Well I paid for lunch the second round. I haven’t learned when to lose gracefully I guess. But if you read this Mike(?) don’t get angry. I’ll give you another shot if we’re back around.

We took a ferry trip to Seattle one day and did Pike Place market. That’s where they throw the fish to buyers. Another day we went to Port Townsend and met Bob and Dee who we know from Texas. They were volunteering at Deception Pass about 50 miles north of us so we met in the middle. We had lunch and walked around Port Townsend a bit. Lots of neat little shops but mostly we enjoyed seeing them again. After Bob and Dee went back on the ferry we went to Ft Worden. That’s where “An Officer and a Gentleman” was filmed. It’s a well preserved installation that once guarded the approach to Seattle. On another day off we took a ferry trip to Edmonds to meet Troy and Brie, Kat’s son and his girlfriend. And then I ran out of words and we left.

Rick and Tina's

We stopped in Eatonville for a few days to see Kat’s son Rick and his family. Tina and the grandkids Tyler and Cheyenne are all well, as is Rick. We didn’t get to see much of Rick. He left the evening we got there to attend ‘labor relation’ classes or some such in the big city. One of the big cities, maybe Spokane? We did have a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesdays in Puyallup with most of the Washington side of the family. Troy and Mike were there along with Kat’s half sister Kim. We all got there separately and embarrassingly enough Kat didn’t even recognize Courtney (Mike’s daughter) when she came in. In Kat’s defense Courtney came in by herself and kids do grow up and change. I don’t remember the head count but there must have been a dozen or so. It was good to see them all!

We got a look at Rick’s new trailer. New used anyway. And very nice! We were hoping to have them come over to our next stop at Scenic Beach but they were not able to make it! Maybe next time.

Speaking of Puyallup. There’s a one word tongue twister! Say that real fast 7 or 8 times. Sometimes I get it right once. There are probably lots of words I would mispronounce but they are words I don’t know or haven’t heard and don’t see often or at all. I cannot say Puyallup out load without first saying it to myself a couple of times. Just one of those things? (Pu yallup- pu yallup- pu-allup- pew allup-pewallup) There I got it! Until next time anyway. But I can read Sequim. It’s a town in Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. Kat always reads seequim. I always correct her. Squim! It’s pronounced squim!!! She can say it she just can’t read it. I’m reminded of a phone conversation with my cousin Nancy who lives near Chicago. She gave me a hard time about some of our names here in the Northwest. I replied, “ and this is coming from a person who lives in ellanoise? Illinois!

Host Hook-Up

For the past 17 years Oregon Fish and Wildlife has held an annual get together for all current and prospective hosts and volunteers. I guess in the strict sense of the phrase it’s not really a rally because lots of ODFW volunteers don’t have an RV. But for us it kind of feels like a rally. ODFW staff hatchery managers and crew spend a few days recognizing current volunteers and recruiting new folks.

Because of our circumstance and proximity we helped some this year putting it on. Mostly just some grunt work and driving. Kat spent the better part of a day pedaling her bicycle all over the campground getting people in the right RV site and letting them know what was up.

Mostly we met some friends and made some new ones. There was one potluck and the rest of the meals were catered. There were several interesting speakers talking about ODFW related subjects and prize drawings for ODFW gear and such. You can’t volunteer without the T-shirt and the coffee mug. I’m developing quite a wardrobe of volunteer shirts. I entered the Pro-Division casting contest and (drum roll here) finished in second place. Pro-Division in this case meant that you had held a fishing pole at some point in your life. I think Tom won, but I got another coffee mug. After Tom it was just a case of who was luckiest. That turned out to be me.

There was a tour of the hatchery which didn’t seem like it would be a big deal, because we had worked at one, but it turned out to be very interesting. They happened to be harvesting salmon and collecting markers that had been implanted in the fish for tracking and study. They were knocking fish in the head and cutting off the snout if they were tagged and then put on ice to be sold to a fish buyer. Just a baseball bat and something like a paper cutter for cutting off the nose. Kat didn’t like that part much. Understand though that the life of these fish was over anyway. These were spawning salmon and after spawning they die. This way ODFW gets some return on raising all these fish. Seems fair to me!

The "Rally"

I’ve written about Rally’s before. Kind of like a big fair for RV’ers. Vendors, seminars, RV’s for sale, food, and entertainment. But this was the Grand National and it was huge! We walked through RV’s until my knees didn’t work anymore. Maybe even saw a couple (RV’s I mean) we liked. But then we’d need to win the lottery. I guess even before that we would have to start playing the lottery. I’ve learned you can’t be guaranteed a win if you play, but you can be guaranteed not to win if you don’t play! We went to some good and not so good seminars. Seminars on safety, cooking, maintenance, exercise, even one on romance. And even if we didn’t need that seminar I had fun. I probably embarrassed Kat a little though. I played in the golf tournament and had a great time. I played with a couple and their friend from Montana. They were very nice but a load to carry for 18 holes (golfers will understand) so we didn’t finish in the money.

Another important aspect of Rally’s is that it’s a huge opportunity to spend money. “It’s Like pouring sand down a rat hole.” Our big expenditures were two “Fantastic” exhaust fans and a supplemental brake system. The brake systems are for the ‘toad’ (see previous entry). Because of insurance liabilities they have become mandatory. Most states are requiring it now. Ironically Oregon does not. Police are being trained to investigate at accidents. So if you don’t have an aux braking system and you are involved in an accident you can pretty much bend over and grab your ankles. So we got one! And even if it was expensive we did save some on the deals at the “Rally”.

We enjoyed the whole experience.

Who wants to join us in Perry, Georgia, next year for “The Rally”?

This was the write up in the Good Sam Magazine.

Many Good Sam Club members were among those in the 3,852 rigs that gathered in the high-desert town of Redmond, Oregon for The Rally, July 19 through 22, 2007, joining what has grown to become the definitive annual gathering for RVers.

Organized by the Good Sam Club's parent company, Affinity Group, The Rally put almost every facet of the RV experience at attendees' fingertips on the 132-acre grounds of the Deschutes County Expo Center. Participants could choose from a broad range of seminars, RV displays, parts and accessory exhibits, fun activities, tours and live entertainment from some of the hottest performers in the country. TV game show emcee Bob Eubanks even joined the fun to host the Good Sam Club's Almost Newlywed Game on The Rally's final day.

The Rally had something for everybody. Like kicking tires? You could have spent days touring the hundreds of 2008 RVs from more than 15 manufacturers. Just about every RVer could find the rig of his or her dreams, from lightweight trailers that sold for around $15,000 to diesel-pusher motorhomes with million-dollar price tags. One of the most popular rigs was Country Coach's 2008 Rhapsody, which featured four slide-outs, one-and-a-half bathrooms and a host of high-tech features. The price: a cool $1.3 million. Visitors could also browse the aisles of RV accessories - everything from cookware to trailer hitches to handcrafted art - in three large indoor-exhibit areas.

The RV hardware on display was rivaled only by the lineup of more than 150 seminars on topics that ranged from personal safety in an RV to how to set up a satellite dish and tips on planning a trip to Alaska. The impressive roster of instructors included Highways columnists Joe and Vicki Kieva and Bob Livingston.

Beyond the seminar halls and exhibits, Good Sam members found plenty of ways to have fun. Pet lovers got a chance to trot out their four-legged traveling companions during Friday's Rally Dog Show, which featured a swimsuit competition, a singing contest and - we're not kidding - a competition to see which pet owners bore the closest resemblance to their pooches. The event was hosted by Robin Dickson, CEO of Dogs for the Deaf.

On Sunday, the Good Sam Club sponsored the Almost Newlywed Game, hosted by longtime television host Bob Eubanks. Scores of Good Sam Club members watched as four couples chosen at random squirmed under the hilarious questions and double entendres posed by Eubanks.

It's a good bet that the awesome surrounding scenery inspired a sense of wanderlust, and The Rally's tours proved to be the perfect tonic. Throughout the day, buses took Rally guests to such destinations as the Deschutes Brewery in nearby Bend, the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and Crater, and Mount Bachelor, where tour guests enjoyed a high-altitude lunch at Pine Marten Lodge.

You didn't even have to have a driver's license to have a good time. The Rally's Youth Program offered a full slate of activities for young people ages 6 to 17. Participants kept busy with an Oreo cookie stacking contest, face painting and trips to some of the area's surrounding attractions.

The fun didn't stop as the sun dropped. Evening entertainment at the Hooker Creek Event Center included performances from Suzanne Somers, Gary Puckett, BJ Thomas, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Beatles tribute band, Ticket to Ride.

Of course, a special thanks needs to go out to the 291 RVers who volunteered for activities, parking, registration, seminars, transportation, security and attendance duties during The Rally. As Marty Hayes said, "I like to help out, but I also made sure that I took some time to have fun."

Before the Rally

As I have said, July was "Rally" month for us. But we had to hang around for a while before they started.

Because it is summer and about a 'zillion' RV's are headed this way for the "Grand National Rally" in Redmond Or. we made some advance reservations where we could. That started in Milo McIver state park. It's just down the road from Clackamas and Oregon City. We did some relaxing, got some sun, did a little walking and some reading. All that retired RV'ing stuff we're supposed to be doing. McIver is on the Clackamas river which is home to a substantial population of Ospreys. I sat on the river bank for a time one afternoon and watched an Ospery dive for fish. They fly into the wind along the river at maybe 50' and look for fish. At times they will come to almost a hover and when they see something they fold their wings and dive straight down into the water. Most of the time as I watched they were coming up with what I assumed was a trout. Hard to tell exactly? Then they would fly off to eat. Fun to watch!

Woodburn was next. Woodburn is near the heart of the Willamette valley and as a result very much an agricultural center. It's also home to a decent RV park with a pool that happens to be right next to the Woodburn Factory Stores. Guess who went to the pool and who went shopping. Need I say more?

Then it was LaPine State Park. When we pulled into the park we realized our reservations were for the same site we had stayed at coming through here from Goose Lake. Jade liked it! She knew where to hide and watch the chipmunks. We did some bike riding and walking. But this is where Kat started to suffer from sciatica.

We went to the lava cave and didn’t make it all the way in. Maybe it’s really called a lava tube. They’re tubes (go figure) that lava flowed through and then receded to leave a long tunnel (Of course that was a couple bazillion years ago). I think in this case it may be a quarter to a half mile long? I did the whole distance a long time ago but can’t remember for sure. Anyway we couldn’t do the cave so we went to Bend and did dinner and a movie. We saw the latest Bourne movie. Pretty good but of course nothing like the book. The books are great! Just a side note there.

We also drove up to Newbury Crater and National Volcanic Monument (or something like that). Newbury crater is home to East and Paulina lakes and a couple of campgrounds. In the last few years, since it became Federal, they have made several improvements to the area. There’s a huge obsidian flow in the area. Just lot’s of things to do and look at if you’re into the outdoors.

Another day, and on the advice of the Park Ranger, we drove a couple miles up a dirt road to see some waterfalls. The trip and the falls were good but not something to write home about. The dust however was memorable. We got back to pavement with enough dust on the bumper to grow potatoes. That was after getting up to speed and trying blow some of it off. Of course “up to speed” in our little “toad” maybe not be enough to blow much dust off. For those of you not in the know a “toad” is a car towed behind a motorhome.

Our last stop before the big event was Sun Rocks, a private park south of Prineville not too far from the reservoir and state park. And only about 45 minutes from Redmond and the site of the “Rally”. This was just a few days in a 3rd rate RV park. This close to the Grand National Rally in time and space we couldn’t be picky about where to stay. We were seeing motorhomes from all over the country. But Sun Rocks did have a first rate pool and we both got lots of pool and sun time. Kat was even getting into it. We have already started to make reservations for next years Rally in Perry, Georgia. But before that, IT’S ON TO THE “RALLY”.

Bear Baiting

One of the highlights of our Hosting stay at Clackamas Fish and Wildlife was the experience of Bear Baiting.

The State of Oregon has identified a need to better determine the number, currently estimated at 25,000, of Black bears in the state. As a side note there is no other variety of bear in Oregon. Just the Black bear; Ursus americanus, "American black bear". They are the most common and smallest bears in the country. They are sometimes honey-colored, blond, brown or black. They may have a tan muzzle or white spot on their chest. In Oregon they are mostly just black. No more than 20% are shades of brown. Black bears weigh between 125 and 450 pounds. The male is usually larger and weighs an average of 275lbs and the female averages 175lbs. They are about 3' tall at the shoulder and may be 5'tall standing. They are agile and can run as fast as 35 mph, even up and down hills. As I read sometime ago in the book "Night of the Grizzlies"' that means if you see a bear standing on a ridge line 200 yards away, they can be standing next to you in about 20 seconds. Impressive! And Black bears swim and climb trees reasonably well.

Our introduction to Bear Baiting started with the "Bear Bait Wrapping Party". We were told to wear old clothes so it started rather ominously. That plus the fact that we covered all the tables in the conference room with butcher paper in preparation for the event. We showed up with a dozen or so other volunteers. I should point out that ODFW has many volunteers for different projects. Some of the things that come quickly to mind are habitat restoration of river and field, youth fishing, hunting checkpoints, fishing creel checks, bird banding, bird box making, and monitoring projects of all variety of critters and creatures. In this case there was a mixture of men and women and one child. She may have been 10 or 12(?) and did a very good job. The party started with an explanation of purpose and instructions. As I mentioned this is to determine bear population. That is done by the introduction of tetracycline into the bears system which stains the teeth. The teeth of harvested bears (that's state biologist talk for shot and kilt bears) are turned in by hunters. Then through some mysterious and magical algorithm bear population can be guessed at. We were told we wouldn't understand and I wasn't that interested anyway. It all kind of sounded like throwing darts or a just a plane old WAG (wild ass guess) to me. Definitely ODFW job security. I'm kidding! So! Let the party begin. Our job was to make Bear Bait sandwiches. That is done be wrapping/rolling tetracycline tablets in a strip of bacon; placing nine of these vertically on a slice of bread; topping it with another slice of bread; and then placing that in a mesh bag and closing it with a knot. "Viola!!" A Bear Bait sandwich. Why nine tablets? Another part of that mysterious formula? Or maybe because nine fit and ten wouldn't, or eight is just not enough to attract any self respecting glutton of a bear? Nine it was! As I recall, and Kat confirms it, we (the party) made some 400 sandwiches in three or four hours. We had refreshments if you didn't mind a little pork fat mixed in. Not a job I'd want but it was fun for the experience and, I'd bet lots of money on the fact, I'm the only family member who can say they've done it. And probably ever will do it!

Next came putting out the baits. They are placed all over the state in locals where there are or have been bears. I really have no clue how that is determined. But we put them on private timber and state land. I don't know about federal land , but I'm guessing they are placed there also. It wouldn't be a very accurate count without that. Kat and I went with Doug, the same Doug I mostly worked with. He is a fun and easy going guy and popular with the volunteers, especially for bear baiting. And he is quite knowledgeable about how it goes. So we're off in Doug's great big state pick-up truck to put out some bear bait. Baits are placed in selected areas by use of a Global positioning system, in what I think is a three square mile pattern with the baits being equidistant from each other, nine baits in a pattern. Pretty sure about that. I recall looking at the placement on the exploded GPS view. Nine baits is about all you could do in a day. Getting there is the fun part. We used local maps and GPS but the roads out there in bear country are not that good or reliably mapped. We encountered many gates which most of the time Doug had keys for, sometimes not. There were fallen trees, windblown trees with roots exposed leaving huge holes, boulders, and sometimes roads that ended abruptly in space. That happened once in some heavy fog and it was kind of scary. We determined many times that "you can't get there from here!" We traveled lots of logging roads, in a couple of cases Doug used the CB radio to warn log truckers of our position to avoid being run over. Some roads were nothing more than a pair of ruts, and some just really weren't there anymore. We were always running through lots of vegetation and taking lots of it with us. It was a rough ride, particularly for Kat who was in the back jump seat. But she was short person out, or back, in this case. This was one of those pick-ups where people like me and especially Kat needed a parachute to exit and a ladder to get in. Doug had added a little step stool with a string for pulling it in so that helped Kat some. Still it was difficult sometimes in the rough terrain. Baits are placed in Alder trees when available, about eight feet off the ground. Alders are picked because the claw marks are left making identifying "hit" baits easier. I think? Something like that. But we did have to use other types of trees a couple of times. A 2' long 2" by 4" is nailed to the tree with the mesh bag and bait attached. The idea is that the bait is out of reach of smaller critters and bears have to climb some into the tree making it easy to determine that it was a bear that took the bait and not something else. The baits are left out a week or so and then recovered. We did both but in different areas. Unfortunately, we saw no "hits" in the area that we recovered in. We did see lots of wildlife and beautiful country. At one location where we were placing a bait I thought I saw a bear as we were approaching. It was some distance but it was black and squat and to big for anything else I thought. When we got to the point Doug took a short walk to look around and came back rather sheepishly in a hurry. He said he had heard some 'rustling' in the brush. Based on what I thought I saw he said he was "just being cautious". As it turned out that bait was "hit" by a bear. So I feel justified in thinking that I did see one. And it's kind of neat thinking you saw a bear in the wild. Not something everybody gets to do. All in all it was a very rewarding and fun experience. One of those things you never in your wildest thoughts imagined you would do. And thanks to ODFW, the old "Hook and Bullet", and especially Doug, for allowing it to happen.