Moving South

Idaho is a great state with lots of nice people and interesting things to see and do.  We could have spent more time there, but we wanted to move along to Oregon fairly quickly.  As it turned out, the Potato Museum was the highlight of our Idaho visit.  Since departing Pocatello on September 17, we’ve moved ahead 1,000 miles.  We crossed Idaho and eastern Oregon and landed in the dry manzanita and scrub oak foothills of the Sierras near the very small rural community of Oregon House, east of Yuba City.  We lacked good internet service for a while, which explains the long gap since our last blog entry.  But, let’s not jump too far ahead too soon.

Caldwell, Idaho RV Park and pond

The long drive from Pocatello to Boise, mostly on I-84, was comfortable but, frankly, not very interesting.  We passed Boise and stopped for a night in Caldwell before crossing into eastern Oregon.  The Caldwell RV Park was a step back in time.  Many of the old deteriorating travel trailers in the park had obviously been there for years and the park itself was suffering from a lack of maintenance.

On the positive side, the park was on a small private lake and adjacent to the Boise River, with nice walking trails along both.  On the other hand, the park was also adjacent to the freeway and a rail line, which produced an irritating duet of constant noise 24/7.  We stayed one night and were very happy to move on into Oregon.

Eastern Oregon is beautiful in its own unique ways.  It’s hilly with lots of rocks and sage and clearly not designed for human habitation.  Surprisingly, right in the middle of this vast expanse of open space lies Burns (pop. nearly 3,000).   We wonder how Burns manages to survive.  It doesn’t seem to change much from year to year.  Most newer businesses have located along the highway, leaving the old downtown with an abundance of empty storefronts.  Burns serves the basic needs of surrounding ranches and small farms and is a convenient pit stop for people traveling between Boise and Bend.  That’s probably all it needs to keep the town alive and its service businesses healthy.
 

Old Camp Casino RV Park

This year we discovered something new in Burns . . . the Old Camp Casino.  It was listed in one of our campground books as having a reasonably-priced RV park, so we decided to give it a try.  The casino itself is fairly small but had a nice little restaurant as well as complimentary coffee and soft drinks (Ron is highly attracted to freebies).  The casino is housed in a fabric covered tent-looking onion-shaped structure on the edge of town.  It provided a quiet place to park overnight with full hook-ups but it was a bit sparse and short on amenities.  That might explain why we were their only guests.  The casino was badly in need of business, so we had a hearty lunch and Bonnie tested her luck at the penny slot machines.  Luck was with her that day and she managed to walk away a few dollars ahead.

The only other “camper” at the casino was a friendly single guy living in a pick-up.  He tipped us off that that a group of antique motorcycles would be roaring through Burns that afternoon.  So, Ron went down to the Best Western Motel to take a look.  He knows very little about motorcycles, but was very impressed that a group of about 70 antique bikes, all of which were at least 80 years old, were doing a cross-country ride (the Motorcycle Cannonball) from New York to San Francisco.  It was quite a spectacle . . . not something you see every day.

Motorcycle Cannonball - Burns, Oregon

We arrived in Bend, Oregon on Sept. 19 and set up camp at the Thousand Trails park near Sunriver.  The last time we camped here was the first week of May 2010 and it was cold and snowy.  Not this time.  This year it was hot and smoky, thanks to a forest fire west of Bend.  The campground was nice and woodsy and very comfortable.

Gary and Terry stopped by for a visit.

An old friend from Ron’s high school days lives in Bend.  They lost contact and hadn’t seen each other for nearly 50 years, until a high school band reunion got them back together last year.  We got together with Gary and his wife Terry at the Bend Oktoberfest and a couple other times during our week in Bend.  They gave us a tour of the area and invited us to their home for a delicious barbecued lamb chop dinner.  In turn, we hosted their visit to our humble campground and some casual shopping in Sunriver Village.

After a week in Bend, we followed Highway 97 south through Klamath Falls and on to our next stop at the Friendly RV Park in Weed, California, near the base of Mt. Shasta.  While in Southern Oregon, we wanted to visit some friends in Medford but didn’t want to take the motor home through the Rogue Valley, then over 4,000 ft. Siskiyou Pass.  Our solution to this dilemma was to camp in Weed and do a day trip in the Honda back to Medford (about 80 mi.).  It worked out very well.  We had breakfast with Dennis, who Ron worked with for about 15 years.  Then, we spent part of the afternoon with Eric and Lynne . . . friends since 1979.  We don’t see some of our friends very often but we value their friendship and it's well worth going a bit off our route for a quick get-together whenever we’re in their general neighborhood.  Who knows, the next opportunity could be years away.

Mt. Shasta at dusk

The state of California is heavily agricultural, so they are particular about what people bring into the state.  If you've ever driven into California, you're aware of the agricultural inspection stations that are placed near the borders.  They check mainly for fresh fruits, vegetables, plants and even firewood.  We had some firewood, but they didn’t ask . . . so we didn’t tell.  When asked about fruits and veggies, we told them we had some small items in our refrigerator, and a small papaya that we purchased at Harry & David in Medford.  The inspector said he would normally ask us to dump the papaya, but he let it pass this time.  Nice guy . . . excellent papaya!

We were nearing the end of September, but fall was nowhere in sight.  The forecast was for gradually higher temperatures in California’s central valley, with 100 degrees forecast for Redding.  After three nights at the Friendly RV Park in Weed, it was time to hit the road again.  We had five or six hours of travel ahead of us, so we got an early start and headed south on I-5 into the great Central Valley.

I-5 southbound near Lake Shasta

Lake of the Springs

Our destination was Lake of the Springs, another Thousand Trails RV park about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento in the beautiful foothills of the Sierras.

We’ll tell you more about that area in our next blog entry.  Stay tuned.