Calico and Buckskin

I think we stopped in Calico way back in my Flight School days. That would be the late sixties. Then it really was kind of a ghost town. It’s grown a little since then. And that’s an understatement! It’s definitely a tourist trap but they have done a very nice job of restoration. Between 1881 an 1907 they mined $86 million in silver and $45 million in borax. There were some 500 mines with 22 saloons, a China Town and a red light district. It’s an interesting and entertaining look into the past and they even have an RV park. We spent the night and enjoyed Calico. For our RV’er friends it’s right off I-15 and only a couple of miles from I-40 just east of Bakersfield. Not a bad place to spend a day or two, although the RV park portion could definitely use some TLC.


Buckskin Mountain State Park is one of our favorite places to stay. It’s right on the Colorado River between Parker and Lake Havasu City. But let me qualify my opening statement. We wouldn’t want to be here in the summer. Not for the reason you may be thinking though. It’s not the heat; it’s the boat noise and people. The crowd changes from RV’ers to boaters and that’s just not us. We tend to stay away from places with boat ramps. But in the winter it’s great; quiet, sunny and warm. We do some walking and bike riding and definitely get some sun. The only drawback is a big rock along the way toward Parker that is separating from the cliff and potentially going to fall on the road. So it’s all blocked off denying direct bike access to an area where there is a small market and convenience store. You have to go out to the main highway and we don’t like our chances there on our bikes. It’s not too far to Parker or Havasu City and there is a casino down the road with a senior breakfast buffet for $5.40, and in Havasu City there is one of the best Chinese buffets we’ve been to and that’s less than $7.00 for lunch. How bad is that?

This year it was a good place to spend Christmas. And if you were thinking we were alone, you would be wrong. The park wasn’t full but it was probably half full, maybe 20-30 rigs. So we got out our Christmas lights and set up for nine days. We even got nine days for the price of six. Two free days with a weeks stay and Christmas Day was free. What a deal! And we had a very nice dinner of turkey and stuffing for Christmas. And that’s certainly another one of those things on ‘my list of things I never imagined doing’. Spending Christmas RV/camping in a place like that. It just stays good!

101 to the Golden Gate and Libby's

You may remember that just short of two years ago we traveled this way on our first trip. This time is a little different. Then we were just starting out and taking our time seeing as much as the coast as we could. This time we were mostly interested in getting south to something warmer and dryer. Kat and the motorhome were developing mold and I was beginning to rust. Even with a late start out of ODFW in Clackamas we made it to The Mill Casino in Coos Bay. That’s a pretty good drive for us. We spent a couple of nights on the Oregon Coast and then Ukiah before heading across the Golden Gate. We had deviated away from the Golden Gate Bridge last time to see Toni and it left a hole in our “all the way down the Pacific Coast trip”. I wanted to make it up, the weather cooperated, and we did. I can tell you though, that it’s not an easy trip through San Francisco in an RV with tow car. But we made it fine and it was better than driving through Oakland. No offense, but Oakland sucks! We spent two nights in Garlic USA in Gilroy completing the drying out process before heading on to Fresno and Libby’s.

We met Libby at the Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife in Clackamas last year. She was the ‘volunteer host’ who followed us when we completed our first term at ODFW in Clackamas. Being a ‘volunteer host’ means she’s an Rv’er which means that right away we had two things in common. We worked with her during the ODFW ‘host hook-up’ event and it didn’t take long to become friends. She is another of those courageous individuals who travel solo and I can relate to that. We stay in touch now and she offered her driveway which we appreciatively accepted. We visited and had a nice dinner out and a really nice Libby prepared breakfast complete with fresh squeezed orange juice, from home grown oranges. And I shouldn’t forget two jars of homemade orange marmalade. It was all good!

Just a side note here: We went to dinner at Mimi’s Café in Gilroy and we enjoyed it so much we talked Libby into driving us there for dinner again. This time in Fresno of course. Anyway we had never heard of it and now it’s one of our favorites. They’re located in several states if you’re interested.

The view toward Perry

Well, for all practical purposes our medical stuff is behind us, we’re good to go, and headed down the road. We are released, medically cleared, certified functional. All I need to do is get a blood draw every three months to check my PSA. Kat doesn’t have anymore checks, although we do have more pills to take each day. Just a few months until I qualify for Medicare so I guess that goes with the territory. Anyway, we’re beginning the journey south and east.
The first place we really have to be is Perry, Georgia for the Grand National Rally in March. Hence my title for this segment of the trip journal. We’ll be going south through California into Arizona and Texas, then through the Gulf Coast and Florida and Georgia. On the way we’ll see some family and old friends and surely meet new ones. We have a Corps of Engineers volunteer position at Alatoona Lake, north of Atlanta, in April and May and then we’ll head on north. But that’s a long way off so who knows? In the meantime be attentive to who knocks at your door. It may be us, extension cord in hand.

Spotlighting

I didn’t think I was going to get to do this but as it turned out I did. Spotlighting is another population study done by ODFW. In this case it’s a study of Black Tail deer and it’s accomplished at night just like it sounds, by driving down the road and looking for deer with a spotlight. After my medical procedure I just didn’t think I would be able to do this, so I took myself off the schedule. But then just last week, very late in the schedule Doug asked if I’d like to go with him. I’ve been working for and with Doug during our stay here and he is a very nice guy. So me being a little better than I was, and being very comfortable with Doug, I thought I could make a go of it. The worst part would be bathroom breaks because I still can’t hold my water very well, and getting in and out of the truck. They have some big pick-ups here. The kind I need a ladder to get into and a parachute to get out of. Doug assured me I could do it and anyway we’d be in the woods in the dark where there was no shortage of restrooms. So I bought some junk food and we were off.

We were to work an area out of Willamina and Sheridan west of Salem in the foothills of the coast range. My instructions were to open the window, hold the spotlight out and look for deer. A real tough gig! So after turning the light on inside the pick-up and blinding both myself and Doug, then shining the light through the closed window and blinding us again, I kind of got the hang of it. Only to find out I forgot my gloves. And it is cold with your arm out the window in the rain and wind in the foothills of the coast range in late November. But I did remember the junk food! Got to keep your priorities in order, and Doug had some gloves. So we drove around the country side, up and down some roads I wouldn’t even take during the day, looking for deer. Doug said I couldn’t count the ones with lights and shiny red noses. They were too easy, but there were some of those. There were two other spotlighting rigs out that night and Doug kept in touch via radio. I didn’t ask but assumed it’s kind of a safety thing even though we were a considerable distance apart. So we looked while Doug drove and I recorded the results. I believe that our count at the end of the night, maybe 2 hours of real looking, was 53. That was broken down by fawns, does, and bucks. As with the Bear Baiting study, I suppose these numbers are worked and massaged by the experts wearing white coats in headquarters and decisions are then made as to the health and population of the herds. Based on what I saw they won’t be shutting down any hunts. There are many nice looking deer out there and it was good to take part again.

We lost in the deer count though. And Doug always wins in getting the largest count of deer. This night he was a little handicapped. Me! The count was real close, but I guess we just had to stop a few too many times to pee and climb in and out of that big pick-up. Doug took it in stride and I still had a good time. It was another thing, on my list of things, that I never thought would be on my list of things, that now, I have done. Ain’t it Grand!!!!

All the same, I'd rather be the crow"

Well, we won’t be leaving for Texas in time to make it to the Rio Grande valley. The medics just won’t be done with me soon enough so we had to cancel our reservations. But for now we don’t lose our deposit. We have a years grace before we lose anything. It seemed pretty nice to me. I guess RV parks like where we we’re going understand their clientele? I’m sure there are always people, like us, who have medical changes in plans and they need to make allowances for that. Good for them, good for us.

Other than that, ‘all is well’. The weather has been very nice for the last couple of weeks. It’s supposed to be 62o and sunny today. That makes our extended stay here a little more palatable but this is still not a great place to winter in an RV. We’ll be here into December but head south to California ASAP. South being the operative word. Exactly when and where remains to be seen? We’ll be watching the weather and the passes as our departure nears.

I’ve been up to my knees in leaves for the last couple of weeks. That is my primary job right now. There are lots of trees on the complex and it’s keeping me busy. I’ve been using a blower, tractor, and a big tractor tote to keep them under control. So it’s not a bunch of raking by hand. I’ve even learned to pick up a tote with the fork lift, take it to the compost pile, turn it over to dump the leaves, and pick it back up without getting off the tractor. Kat is busy in the office and Jade is enjoying the birds and squirrels. Once or twice a week we have to drive somewhere. The work is easy, mostly enjoyable, but not always understandable. We drove an injured crow 40 miles to the Audubon Society but then a couple of days ago I was watching turtles being euthanized. Oregon has a season for crows; so you can kill them but if you find an injured one, they’ll save it for you. Turtles on the other hand, are not so lucky. They were non-native and expendable. In this case a Red Eared Racer (the kind we got as kids) and a Snapping turtle. But they did get a sedative before they lost their heads. Go figure! In fairness this doesn’t happen often and the state is kind of between a rock and a hard spot. Either way they choose to react they’ll offend someone. And common sense be damned! Some of you may have heard of the “Snowball incident”. That was a deer the state was taking away from some family because you can’t maintain wild animals without a license. That has caused a stir and cost the state $40,000 in legal fees, and it ain’t over.

My procedure is over! All is apparently OK. Everything still works even if it’s a little uncomfortable at times. And time should take care of that. I must confess I was a little scared after my visit with the doctor before the procedure. This was the visit that I think covers their rear ends and tells you all the things that can go wrong. I was reminded that one in four can’t do this, one in four can’t do that, you’ll be incontinent, you’ll be impotent, one in a hundred will have a perforated what’s’ it and die, and someday we’re just going to get angry and cut somebody’s off. Well, maybe not the last, but you get my point. Then at the end he did say that one in four were kind of ‘poster patients’ and everything went just dandy. Then just before the procedure he stopped by to say he thought everything looked ‘real good’. Well, it did and I think I am one of those ‘poster patients’.

So! I have a couple of more visits and if things look good like I think they will, we ought to be able to be on our way. Maybe around the second week in December. In the meantime I’ll be battling those leaves with a break for Thanksgiving at Rick (Kat’s oldest) and Tina’s.

A CROW FUNERAL

The sound of many crows calling at once filled the air. I peeked out the window, and everywhere I could see, crows, maybe a couple hundred of them. They were on the sidewalk. They were on the power lines. They were on the logs that served as stops for parked cars, and they were in the trees. Almost hidden against one of the logs, I saw a dead crow. There were a few crows standing near the body. The noise continued for about a minute or so, when suddenly, an unseen conductor waved his baton, and the cawing stopped. The silence was equally as loud.
There was a pause.
Then, the invisible conductor again waved his baton, and there was a great and noisy flurry of feathers, as the crows took off and flew in all directions. Soon they were gone, leaving their lifeless kin to the elements. I continued my watch in silent awe, feeling that I had just witnessed something few have seen. In the various articles and books I have read about the corvids and their behavior, the authors cannot agree as to whether the Crow "Funeral" is fact or legend.
What it comes down to is, only the crows know the significance of this behavior. The term "funeral" is for us a convenience, a way to explain what appears to be the obvious. But, until a Crow-Human/Human-Crow dictionary comes out, we may never know the absolute truth. Better to observe and appreciate another highly evolved species and the rituals that keep their "society" together.

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.