Pendleton, OR 9/16/2020

 We arrived yesterday and set up, walked the dogs, had dinner and took it easy.

Today we went out to breakfast and then went to the Pendleton Underground Tour.  It was about 2 hours long and our tour guide, Matt, was great.  The Underground Tour was truly a surprise, looking into the history of Pendleton.  We learned about how the Chinese co-existed with the people of Pendleton, many times suffering discrimination while providing necessary services to the community.  The tour discussed the shady side of life in the 1800's and early 1900's; such as, brothels, speak easys and opium dens.

Bob and Sharon

Saddle up to the bar

Poker anyone

Chinese working area

Speak easy during prohibition.  Customers were told to speak easy to avoid detection by the police.

Private bedroom of prostitutes. The local madam took care of her girls by providing them with private bedrooms and separate working rooms. She also hired a traveling preacher for Sunday services and tried to help the girls get out of the business if she could.

Brothel kitchen

Boarder's room, to make the brothel legit

Chinese underground quarters

Lunch after at the Prodigal Son Brewery.

Portland 2020

 We had a great visit with Mom and Rory and Kerry.

South Beach & the Dalles

 We stayed a few days at South Beach State Park so that we could visit with our good friends Kit and Joni Brainard.  We met Kit and Joni and Bob and Sharon at the House of Scotland in Balboa Park and were members together for many years.  While visiting with Kit and Joni, we were able to take a walk along the beach. It was Sadie's first time and she loved it.  She ran and ran.  Kit and Joni also have a new puppy Berniedoodle who was delightful to meet.  Abby has been to the beach many times and she loves it as well.

Graham, Bob,and Sharon

Kit & Joni

Abby and Martha

The next night Kit and Joni treated us to dinner at Georgie's, a waterfront restaurant.  We had such a good time, can't wait till next year when we can see them again.

Next stop, Portland to visit with family.  But first, we took a Saturday drive down to the Dalles via the Old Historic Columbia River Highway.  We found the Vista House, built in 1917 on one of the most beautiful scenic points on the Columbia River Highway. It was constructed to provide travelers with a place to rest as they made their way down the Columbia River Gorge.

The Columbia Gorge so smokey from the fires, you can't see it.

Further down the road, we saw Horsetail falls.  Because of all of the smoke and I'm sure the COVID-19 scare, all of the points of interest along the historic highway were closed.  When we stopped there was a Forest Service ranger guarding the parking lot to direct sightseers away.  While Graham spoke to the Ranger I was able to quickly get some shots of the falls.  

We finally found the Dalles Dam. Unfortunately, the visitors center was closed and once again due to the fires, we could not see anything very well.

What we saw

What we should have seen

We looked on line to see what else was in Dalles and found St. Pete'rs Landmark built in 1897 and dedicated in 1898.  Church services are still held here on occasion, however it is used more for weddings and events.  They were supposed to demolition this church in the early 1970's but kept it open as a landmark.

Myrtle Creek, OR

 After setting up camp, we drove into the small town of Myrtle Creek.  Sharon was hoping to do some shopping and find things made of myrtle wood.  No such luck.  We found one shop with a few myrtle wood items on display in the wood, but it was closed due to Labor day.  Driving around the town we did find two covered bridges and a building with interesting historical factoids painted on it.  Have no idea what the building was.  Cherie did a little research and found that covered bridges were mostly built in the late 1800's and were to used to keep snow and ice off of the bridges.  Most uncovered wooden bridges only had a lifespan of about 20 years but a covered bridge could last about 100 years.

Beautiful amphitheater in Millsite park.

Driving to South Beach State Park in Oregon, the fires seem like they are everywhere.  Driving was eerie due to the skies being dark and very orange.

Weed, CA 9/5 - 9/7/2020

 We pulled into Weed and found our camping site only had 30 amp 😞.  Of course, with our McGruer luck, we are traveling during a heat wave.  We have managed by turning on the generator to cool off the RV and then keep 1 - 2 air conditioners running. On Sunday, we started our day with breakfast.

Then we took a drive into Dunsmuir to see the Castle Crag mountains. The pictures didn't turn out as well as we would have liked due to the Northern California and Southern Oregon fires.

While driving around we found the Railroad Resort Park, pretty cool place.  Both Bob's grandfather and father worked on the Erie railroad in Indiana.  We found this car (where people rent as lodging) with the Erie symbol on it.  

Bob says the Erie cars were white and blue, not yellow, but the sign is accurate.

Map of train cars for rent

Then we drove to downtown Dunsmuir and took a drink of the best water on earth.

A nice cool drink on a hot day.

We continued our Sunday drive into Mt. Shasta city and then back to Weed.  

Tomorrow we leave for Myrtle Creek.

September 4, 2020

Well it took almost 6 months to get the electrical harness for our RV, due to the factory in Mexico closing due to COVID19 and then there were distribution problems.  The RV was finally repaired in July.  We picked up the RV and went on to Flagstaff to help Dani move into her new condo.  We enjoyed her company even though most of the time we were scraping popcorn off the ceiling and stripping wallpaper and then painting.  

We came back to Vista for about 4 days and then drove up to Fernley, Nevada, for Graham's grandson's wedding.  Graham was invited to officiate the wedding.  We had a nice visit with his daughter, Jodie.  The wedding was small but very nice.

After the wedding we returned to Vista for a week and then spent 9 days at Pio Pico in Jamul.

We are now on our first real adventure.  We are traveling with Bob and Sharon Maxton and their dog Sadie.

Our first stop was in Lost Hills, CA, as we make our way up the coast to Oregon.

Bob and Sharon relaxing in the RV.

Day 2 of travel found us in Lodi.  The drive took us longer than planned because of all of the holiday traffic.  However, we still found time to drive into town and spot some of their historic murals and walk past the historic Lodi arch and train station.

Train station clock tower.

Historic train station.

Lodi Arch, one of few remaining mission revival ceremonial arches left within California.

Since Bob loves his nightly glass of wine, we couldn't resist taking his picture with the Harvest statue.

Tomorrow we will be traveling to Weed, CA, and will stay there for a couple of days to take a break from driving.