Montezuma's Castle

Today we visited Montezuma's Castle (a national monument) which, like Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, is not a castle and was never lived in by the person it was named for. The early modern day settlers who first saw it mistakenly assumed it was an Aztec structure which is how it came to carry Montezuma's name. Somehow the name stuck.

Montezuma's Castle was built by the Sinagua people in the early 1100's in the Verde Valley. They started with natural caves found high up on a sheer rock wall near some fertile land along a creek and then built walls to close off the face and form individual rooms. It is five stories and has 20 rooms and they say it is still about 90% intact. It was reached by a series of ladders which could be pulled up if there was a threat.

The Sinagua lived in the area for about 300 years but sometime in the 1400's they just seemed to disappear and no one knows if they died out or moved on.

Sedona Scenery

Yesterday we took the short drive up to Sedona. I'd really been looking forward to spending a bit of time exploring their "downtown" area which is supposed to have a lot of unigue art galleries, shops and restaurants. But when we got there, the entire area is in complete chaos due to some major road construction going on. So we decided not to try to stop but just drove on through and got out of the way as quickly as possible. Still, it was not a wasted trip. The scenery in and around Sedona is beautiful. Everywhere you look there is an interesting rock formation or canyon or something unigue to look at.

Williams, Arizona

We stopped in Williams, Arizona on our way down to Camp Verde, Arizona with the idea that we would go up to see the Grand Canyon today. It's about an hour north of here. But somehow when we woke up this morning, neither of us could muster up any enthusiasm to make the trip. So it seems we'll just have a lazy day at home before we continue on to Camp Verde tomorrow. Maybe later today we'll have enough energy to do a little exploring around the historic downtown of Williams which was a center for the railroad, ranching and lumber industries in the late 1800's. It was also one of the towns along the historic Route 66.

Lake Havasu

Yesterday we took an hour drive south to Lake Havasu to see "The London Bridge". It was originally built in 1831 over the Thames River in London, England. It was bought by Lake Havasu City in the early 1960's when it was going to be torn down in London. Each brick was dismantled, cleaned and numbered, then shipped to Lake Havasu, Arizona and rebuilt on a man made canal off of the side of Lake Havasu. It is guite amazing what a community will do to attract tourism! Hey, it got us there didn't it? It was a fun day and we even took the dogs and had a picnic in the park beside the lake.

Tomorrow we will leave Bullhead City and drive about 150 miles East to Williams, AZ which is close to the Grand Canyon.


The London Bridge















Lake Havasu

Bullhead City, Arizona

From the dog show we drove about an hour and a half south to Bullhead City, Arizona. Bullhead City is just on the Arizona side of the Colorado River at the southern tip of Nevada. We're staying at another of the parks in our campground membership network. So another park where we only have to pay $1.00 a day. We're feeling pretty good about our decion to buy into the park membership networks. The RV park is only about one half mile away from the river and thus the state line and our site gives a great view of Lauglin, NV. Here's a day and night view.

Dog show in Boulder City

We had another show this past weekend in Boulder City, NV, just outside of Las Vegas. We showed Gracie in the classes (for dogs who are not yet champions) and Dash in Breed (for dogs who are already champions). There was only one other class girl entered. Both girls acted like little bunny rabbits the first day, hopping around the ring instead of a proper trot. The judge was good natured about it. She gave winner's (which is what a dog needs to earn points toward its championship) to Gracie. Hooray! Dash took best of breed but did nothing in the terrier group. On the second day, Gracie behaved a little better and again she took winners. Dash took breed again but it was cold and windy and we were the last group so we decided just to leave early and not show in group.

This weekend gave Gracie two more points so now she has a total of 6. It takes 15 points to become a champion, so she's almost half way there.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam

During our stay in Las Vegas we decided to do the tourist thing again and visit the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Hoover Dam is about 30 minutes east of Las Vegas as is Boulder City. Boulder City grew because it was the area that all of the workers who built the dam lived in during the time of construction.

We took a tour of the hydroelectric power plant at the dam. This brought Tom back to his power-planting days in the not (at all) distant memory. The plant is a heck of a lot quieter than the oil fired turbine plant that he was in.

We were able to walk across the dam and back from the Nevada side to the Arizona side. To see the dam up close and personal was a truly awsome sight and made you think of the major undertaking that the men of our country performed. It is an absolutely amazing feat of engineering.

The waters of Lake Mead flow into the intake towers and then cascade down to the water turbines of the power plant which turn the generators and then exit to the other side of the dam to the Colorado River. There are two banks of hydroelectric generators, one bank per side of the river.

Death Valley and Scotty's Castle

Before leaving Pahrump, we took a drive west back into California and Death Valley National Park. The terrain is vast, varied and forbidding, but strangely beautiful too. This picture is from an overlook near the south east edge of the valley, still at the upper elevations, around 3000 feet. You can see the valley floor, which drops down to about 200 feet below sea level, in the distance behind Tom.

From here we drove down into and through the middle of the valley to the north end, a drive of close to 60 miles.

At the north end of the valley sits "Scotty's Castle" which is not really a castle and was never lived in by Scotty. "Death Valley Scotty" was a rather colorful character. He claimed to have found a gold mine in Death Valley and convinced several rich businessmen to invest in it, all the while living large off their money and never actually doing any mining. Most investors just dropped out after not seeing any profits, but one, Albert Johnson from Chicago, made a trip out to Death Valley demanding Scotty show him the gold mine. Instead of exposing Scotty for the fraud he was, Johnson fell in love with the area and somehow he and Scotty became fast friends. Johnson and his wife built the mansion in the 1930's as a vacation home and Scotty began telling everyone he was building it with the profits from his gold mine, a claim Johnson never disputed publicly. So, the house became known as Scotty's Castle. We were able to tour the house which still contains all the original furnishings.

There is a picnic area on the grounds with a sign saying "Don't Feed the Coyotes". Which we thought was rather odd until we saw a coyote resting in the shade of a tree on the lawn.

Red Rock Canyon

Yesterday, we took a drive into Las Vegas, which is about an hour east of Pahrump. Our route took us through the beautiful Red Rock Canyon. Here is a slide show of some of the 60+ pictures we took along the way.

In Pahrump, NV

We are now in Pahrump, NV which is a town of about 40,000 an hour west of Las Vegas. We're staying at a park that is part of our campground network so it's only costing us $14 for two weeks. We like those kind of prices!

This is a very nice RV park attached to what I think is Nevada's only winery. While the wines are made here in Nevada, they get the majority of their grapes from California. We visited the winery yesterday and tasted about a dozen wines. One was a delicious sherry that we had to taste twice, just to be sure we liked it. It was great to just be able to walk home afterward.

Today we went golfing at an eighteen hole par 60 course. Most holes were par 3, with six par 4's which made it easy enough to be fun but hard enough to still be a challenge. We had a great time. This was the first time I golfed since we left Deer Park and I was thrilled that I wasn't awful. In fact it was one of my best rounds ever.

Another Dog Show

We are now in Vallejo, CA to visit friends in the area and for the Sir Francis Drake dog show in San Rafael, CA. We were able to visit Gracie's breeders, Rich and Dana, before the show for some last minute grooming tips and after I incorporated their suggestions, Gracie looked fabulous.

There was a match (which is basically a practice show) on Friday before the real show and given Gracie's wild ways in the ring, we thought it would be a good idea to enter her in the match. We hoped it would help her to be more settled on Saturday for the real show. Bill McFadden (a rather famous professional handler) was the terrier judge. Gracie was the only Norwich and she behaved beautifully. I figured when we went back in for group with all the other dogs, she'd be her usual crazy self. But she completely surprised me and trotted around like a seasoned show dog. I was so pleased that she was behaving, and then I was thrilled when Bill gave Gracie first place in the terrier group!

That meant Gracie would compete for Best in Match with the other group winners. The judge was Mike Stone (another well known professional handler.) Again, Gracie surprised me by acting like a champion and went around the ring in a lovely trot, posed like a star and behaved beautifully. I didn't even care what the outcome was at that point, I was just happy that Gracie was showing so well. So I was ecstatic when Mike gave her Best in Match!

And yes, that is a ribbon made out of one dollar bills. A nice little bonus. I don't know if it will ever get spent though. Right now it's hanging on a wall in the motorhome.

Saturday was the real show. There was a large Norwich entry, a total of 21 Norwich with 8 of them in Gracie's class alone! I guess a light bulb has gone off in her little head because she again showed wonderfully. Unfortunately there were several other very nice girls in her class and Gracie took 3rd. But I don't even care that she didn't win. We are just too happy to see her finally behaving like a proper show dog. Hopefully this wasn't just some fluke and she'll do as well at her next shows.

Balloon Races

On Sunday, we went to the Great Reno Balloon Races. Wow! What an experience. We got there around 5:00 in the morning so we could see the Dawn Patrol, a group of 5 balloon pilots who are qualified to fly in the dark. They take off just before dawn and it is an amazing sight. Here's a short video of them "glowing" when they fire off their propane torches to heat the air in the balloons before taking off.

After the sun comes up is the mass ascension. It is such an awesome sight to see the 100+ balloons inflating and rising up all around you from what seemed moments before like a flat field. We took a zillion pictures. It will probably take a while for us to sort through them and get them posted online.

Ostrich and Camel Races

Tom and I took a drive up to Virginia City today to watch the first day of the annual camel and ostrich races. It was hilarious. The camels, and especially the ostriches, did not always want to run in the right direction. The ostrich races are complete chaos.

This video shows the first race where one bird gets loose from his chariot harness almost immediately, one runs the first half of the course quickly but doesn't want to make the turn, and the other requires a great deal of coaxing just to get going.



This video is of one of the camel races.

15 Year Anniversary

Today was our 15 year wedding anniversary. We have been so blessed to have had fifteen wonderful years together. We thank God every day for each other.

As many of you readers know, I lived in Reno for about 10 years before moving to Alaska. It has changed a lot in the years that I've been gone and there are several new big casinos that were not here when I lived here.

We visited one of those new casinos, the Atlantis, this afternoon. We signed up for their rewards program and got $8 in free play which took us an hour or so on the penny slots to use up. We also donated an additional $10 before heading home again.

This evening we celebrated with what has become our traditional anniversary dinner of Lobster Thermador that we cook in the RV. YUM!

Tomorrow is the start of the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races. We are only a little over a mile away from the field where the balloons take off so we'll be able to watch them from our RV each morning. We do plan to go down to the staging area on Sunday though to be in the thick of things as the over 100 participating balloons make their mass ascension.

Tomorrow is also the first day of the Camel Races (yes, with real camels) in nearby Virginia City and we're going to drive up there to see what that's all about. So come back in a few days and we should have some fun pictures to share.

More on the Dog Show

We have friends who live in Southern CA and we generally only see them at dog shows. Tish and I had recently been exchanging emails about which dog shows we were going to be going to when we got further south, trying to figure out where we might meet up with them next. But somehow the Grass Valley shows never came up.

Friday night we had the dogs out for their last walk before bed when a large Tiffin Phaeton motorhome passed us on it's way to the check in area. We both remarked how it reminded us of Tish and Orville's motorhome. Then I got a look at the personalized license plate and realized it was Tish and Orville!

We love these little surprise meetings we keep having with friends all over in our travels.

Now on to the dog show results. The first day Gracie - who has a tendency to be a bit of a wild indian in the ring - behaved quite well by her standards and I thought that she was competitive with the other girls there. But still we only took 3rd in our class. On the second day, Gracie again behaved herself in the class competition and moved up a spot to take second place in her class. Which meant she was then eligible for the "Reserve Winners" award - sort of like runner up in Miss America. But when I took her back in for the reserve competition, she was back to her wild indian ways. She went in trying to run way ahead of me and put her head down at the same time - she probably looked like a bucking bronco or something. I think the judge wanted to give her reserve, because he let us go a long way around the ring before he finally gave it to another girl. I think he was waiting for Gracie to move correctly but gave up. Wouldn't you know it was just about then I got her into a good gait and she trotted out of the ring pretty as you please.

Oh well, there's always another dog show around the corner.

After we were done showing on Sunday, we left for Reno. It took us just under two hours of easy driving to get here. We're at an RV park on a hill at the north end of town and we have a view of the valley below. It will be a nice place to spend the next week.

Grass Valley dog show

We're now in Grass Valley, CA at the Nevada County Fairgrounds for a dog show this weekend. Gracie is the only one we have entered. The fairgrounds has a great RV park on the grounds and that's where we opted to park. This is the first time we've ever been to a dog show where we've had 50 amp power, water and sewer hookups. Usually you're lucky if you even get 20 amp power.

It's been hot, hot, hot here so we've really appreciated the 50 amp electricity. It means we can run our air conditioners in the motorhome without having to run the generator. The dogs are thankful for that too.

We show tomorrow at around noon. This is the first time Gracie has competed as an adult, rather than a puppy or junior. There are 8 female Norwich entered in the classes so that means there are 2 points up for grabs each day. I'm hoping Gracie will take them at least one day.

Olive Pit & Rolling Hills Casino

We're spending a couple nights at the RV park attached to the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, CA. It was a good stopping point to break up the drive down to Grass Valley for the dog show this weekend. There is a golf course attached to the casino as well which offers a 2 for 1 special for golf and the casino buffet on Wednesdays. We planned to take advantage of that, but with temps in the 90's by 10:00 am, we changed our minds. Risking heat stroke for a round of golf didn't seem like such a good idea. Tom did manage to get out to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls this morning though.





We decided to take the short drive to visit the Olive Pit store in Corning instead. Corning is a huge olive producing area and the Olive Pit is a huge gift store featuring just about any kind of stuffed or marinated olive you could imagine.



Jo is not an olive fan but Tom was in olive heaven. He chose habanero/garlic stuffed olives, almond stuffed olives, and smoke flavored olives to buy. If we had a bigger budget, he would have bought several other varieties as well.



We got our first close up look at olives still on the tree on the trees outside the store. We were surprised that they grow in clusters similar to grapes.



We learned that just about all olives everywhere are still harvested by hand because they are so easily damaged.


Once we left the Olive Pit, we stopped in at the casino to make a donation. It wasn't that bad, we played the slots for a couple of hours on our $20. We were up to about $30 for a little while, but big surprise, we gave it all back. It was entertaining anyway.

Now we're back in the motorhome relaxing with cocktails and thankful for air conditioning. It is 104 degrees outside! The dogs will just have to wait a few hours for it to cool down before they get their after dinner walk.

Diesel Price Surprise

We'd been dreading the time we'd have to buy diesel fuel in California. It had been our prior experience that California prices were significantly higher than just about anywhere else. So it was a pleasant surprise when we pulled into the Flying J in Corning, CA and topped off the tank for $4.21/gallon. That's the least we've paid in almost a year. I know prices are dropping again - thank God - so that accounts for some of it, but we had just paid $4.30 in Oregon a few days before and we thought that was great! Kind of sad that we can think anything over $4/gallon is a good price, isn't it?

Are We Done Yet?

YES! We are. Finally. All the issues on our list have been addressed and repairs completed. Yahoo! As much as we like the Eugene area, we are looking forward to being on the move again. We'll leave tomorrow morning and go to Rogue River, OR for a few days to visit with Jo's mom and stepdad.

Then Gracie is entered in a dog show in Northern California and after that we plan to go Reno for the annual balloon races.

And so the adventures continue.

Secret House Vineyards

While trying to figure out ways to spend our days while the motorhome was in the shop, someone suggested we make a trip out to a local winery, Secret House Vineyards. We did a search in our GPS and it was one of the pre-programed points of interest so we poked the "go to" button and started following the directions - which took us to some dead end back country road. Hmmm, didn't look much like a winery to us. Luckily the phone number was also pre-programmed so we gave them a call and found out this was a common problem among GPS users. The street address of the winery does not quite translate properly on a map. We were given the correct directions and off we went. Once we got there, we realized the GPS had originally taken us to the very back of the vineyard property. If the road had just gone through another couple hundred yards, we would have come out right at the tasting room.

Ultimately it was worth the effort. We tasted 5 varieties of wine, including their own special concoction "Vinotaboo." They start with pinot noir wine and add a small amount of lingonberry juice, chocolate (right there you know it has to be good) and cinnamon. They make a limited amount so it's only available at the winery.

Another good reason to come back to this area in the future.

How Cheese is Made

When we were visiting with Tom's brother Jim and his family, my niece Katie asked me how cheese was made. I had to admit, I didn't really know. So when we had the chance to stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory we figured we'd better do it.

So this blog entry is for Katie.

They start by cooking the milk in huge vats to kill some bacteria, but use a low enough heat to preserve its beneficial enzymes and certain types of bacteria which affect the flavor, body and texture of the cheese. Starter culture is added to produce lactic acid, critical to the cheesemaking process. Natural colorings may also be added at this point.

Next another additive is mixed in to coagulate the milk which begins the process of forming curd made up of a naturally occurring milk protein. When it's sort of like a thick pudding, large knives are used to cut the soft curd into small pieces. The temperature is then raised to help firm the curd and release it from the remaining liquid, known as whey.

When the curd reaches the correct texture, the curds and whey are pumped into the “cheddarmaster” which drains the whey from the curd. The curd particles begin to adhere to each other and become stringy, forming large slabs. The large slabs are cut up again into small pieces which are then passed through a salting chamber where they are dusted with salt.

The salt is absorbed by the curd and the curds are then put into pressing towers where the excess moisture is removed. From there, huge blocks are cut from the base of the towers and sealed into airtight plastic bags. The sealed blocks are then aged in cooling rooms for at least two months.

When the aging process is complete, the blocks are cut and packaged and sent to market.

Warranty work in Junction City, Oregon

Well, we're done with our warranty work at the Guaranty Service Center in Coburg.... now we're 13 miles away at the Guaranty Paint and Body shop in Junction City. I think that's progress.

We originally thought we'd be done here by Friday, but now it looks like we're not going to be done until at least the end of next week and even then I can't be entirely sure we'll be done. There are several areas on the motorhome where they didn't really do a good job with the paint at the factory and now that Tom has found out we can have all that fixed under warranty, he's been going over the RV with a fine tooth comb finding all sorts of other little anomalies he wants fixed which of course adds to the amount of time it will take.

Thankfully, Guaranty provides free overnight parking right next door to the body shop. They have electricity at each spot and a sewer dump station on site, so it's convenient. Each morning the "coach jockey" comes and gets the motorhome to take it to the shop, then each evening we pick it up and take it back to the overnight parking area. But the challenge is what to do with ourselves (and the dogs) in between. It's been hot here so we can't just go to a movie or golf or something like that where we'd have to leave the dogs in the car for a couple of hours. We've been hanging around the service center's waiting room with the dogs next to us in their crates a lot. We try to keep ourselves occupied with the computer, or reading or playing cards, but mostly it makes for long boring days. I guess I shouldn't complain. It could be worse - we could be working.

Warranty work in Coburg, Oregon

After the Safari Rally in Newport, OR and a brief stay at a "Thousand Trails" rv resort on the Oregon coast we traveled east to Coburg, Oregon to keep a long standing appointment with Guaranty RV Service Center to complete our list of warranty issues. We originally bought our Safari Cheetah from them in Coburg last year. Throughout the year we've kept a list that kept growing longer with "bugs" in the rv that you can't find until you live in it for awhile. This is our fourth visit and this should finally take care of it all.

When we're done here we will go about twelve miles down the road to Junction City, Oregon to have some paint anomalies taken care of at Guaranty's other service center. That should last through next week.

Since we're full-timing it in the motorhome we stay in it at night and then turn it over to the service guys during the day. The only drawback to this is that we have to wake up early like we did when we had jobs. EEEK!!!!

Today while we were wandering around to kill time while the motorhome was in the shop we paid a visit to Junction City. As it turns out they are holding their annual "Scandinavian Festival" for four days. We walked their streets looking at the local's wares and tasted some delicious Scandinavian dishes. Uhhh....no, it was not dietary food.

While staying around Coburg and visiting the Monaco service center (maker of our motorhome)we ran into two couples who we met at the Safari Rally in Newport. But the big surprise was running into Phil, a retired electrician from Tom's old job. The world is getting smaller everyday.

We don't quite know what we'll be doing tomorrow but life always seems to throw a little spice along our paths.

Newport Beaches

After the Safari Rally, we spent a few extra days in Newport, Oregon exploring some of the many beaches in that area. These are photos from Lost Creek Beach & Seal Beach.

The Party's Over

Friday was the final day of the Safari Rally and we were sorry to see it end. We had a great time and met many new friends.

The closing ceremonies were held after Friday night's dinner, starting with a drawing for a 50/50 cash raffle. They actually had one of these every night. We bought tickets every night and came away empty handed every night. I didn't expect the final night to be any different. So imagine my surprise when they called one of our ticket numbers for a $50 prize!! The night was looking up.

After the usual acknowledgements and thank yous to sponsors and volunteers, it was time to announce the winners of the golf events. For the main tournament, Tom's team came in second place, earning each person on the team a $10 prize. Then the mini scramble results. And Tom's team was tied for first! Earning him another $4.

What a night. We walked out with an extra $64 which paid for our 50/50 raffle tickets for previous evenings as well as Tom's golf tournament fees. Tom says he's ready now for the PGA tour.

Mini Golf

Pacific Shores Outdoor Resorts, where the Safari Rally was held, has a small, six hole, chip and putt course. The longest hole is only about 40 yards. This is true mini golf. In addition to the rally's regular golf scramble tournament at a "real" golf course, they also had a mini scramble tournment on the resort's course. You can see the whole course standing in one place and it was hilarious watching all the particpants swarming all over the course like ants. Tom played on a team in this tournament as well, and just like before, we had to wait until Friday night to hear the final results. But Tom was the best chipper on his team so I guess that means his short game is really coming around.

Safari Motorhome Murals

Most older Safari motorhomes have murals painted on the back of them. They stopped that practice a few years ago with the newer models which is too bad because most of the murals are really beautiful. While here at the rally, we went on a Safari Mural safari to take pictures of as many of them as we could. And we want to share them here with you.

Safari Rally

Yesterday we traveled from Ilwaco (such a fun word to say) to Newport for the Safari Rally.

We did manage to find time to stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory along the way, but more on that in another blog entry.

We're now in day two of the rally and having a great time. This rally has a completely different feel from the other two rallies we've been to. This one is basically just a chance to socialize with other Safari owners. It's been great fun so far. Today Tom participated in a golf tournament. It was a scramble format (all players hit from the spot of the best ball on the team) and Tom hit one spectacular 285 yard drive on a par 4 hole to land just short of the green. His play earned the team a birdie (one under par) on that hole and the team finished 3 under par. We have to wait until tomorrow to hear the final results.

Ilwaco, WA

Today we traveled from Silver Creek to Ilwaco, WA which took us across the Columbia River twice. The route we chose dipped us down into Oregon, then along the Columbia River for about 40 miles, then back into Washington. This is a picture of our bridge crossing from Astoria, OR back up to Washington.

The bridge, which is very close to the mouth of the Columbia where it empties into the Pacific Ocean, is raised on both sides of the shore to allow ships to pass beneath, but through the middle, it's fairly close to the water.

We are staying at another Sunrise Resort property in Ilwaco for the night. It's a lovely wooded campground with glimpses of the ocean from the clubhouse building.

But between this park and the one we stayed at last night, both of which have dirt/gravel roads, our motorhome is d-i-r-t-y! We are afraid we'll look like the poor relation when we get to the ritzy Outdoor Resort park where the Safari Rally is being held. Weather forecast is for showers tomorrow morning so if we're lucky it will be a strong enough downpour to rinse off the worst of the dust.

Tomorrow we will follow Hwy 101 down the Oregon Coast to Newport. We'll pass through Tillamook and I'm trying to talk Tom into stopping there for the cheese factory tour. Should be a lot of gorgeous scenery along the way.

Silver Creek, WA

This was day two of our four day trip to get to the Safari rally in Newport. We took Hwy 12 which goes through a mountain pass just south of Mt. Rainier. For thirty or so miles it followed alongside a beautiful river with clear blue waters that had Tom itching to pull over and get out his fishing rod. All the scenery was just gorgeous. I tried to get pictures, but this was a twisting mountain road with very few places to pull over, so I was taking the pictures out the front windshield of the motorhome with less than wonderful results. Still, here are a few of the better ones.

We are stopped for the night at another membership network park in Silver Creek, WA, which is just off Hwy 12, about 10 miles before the junction with I-5. We checked in at the front gate and the "ranger" told us the spaces were first come first served, so just to find an empty space we liked. She gave Tom a map and sort of explained where we should go, but somehow we ended up in RV storage area without knowing it. We were thoroughly unimpressed with the campground until we realized we were in the wrong area and found a real campsite.

Moses Lake, WA

Today we completed the first leg of our 4 day trip to get from Deer Park near Spokane, WA to Newport Oregon. We traveled about 150 miles to Moses Lake, which is more or less in the middle of Washington. We decided to take some of the smaller highways instead of staying on the interstate. We figured it would be more interesting. And we sure did see something interesting. We saw 3 Dromedary camels along the side of the road. And no, we hadn't been drinking. We have no idea what they were doing there or how they got there. We're guessing they belonged to one of the farms or ranches in the area, but why you would want/need a camel on a farm is beyond me. I wish I'd gotten pictures, but by the time I thought to grab the camera, we were well past them.

We didn't see any purple majestic mountains or fruited plains, but we did see acres and acres of amber waves of grain. For several miles the fields spread as far as we could see in all directions. Quite beautiful.

We are spending the night at the Pier 4 RV resort, which is part of the Sunrise Resorts campground network we bought a membership in last month. This is the first time since buying into the network that we've stayed at one of their parks. The spaces are a little closer together than we would generally prefer, but it's on a lake, has all the basic amenities we need/want, and it's only $1 per night, so we can't complain.

We're now relaxing under the awning outside our motorhome sipping wine and snacking on fruit, cheese and crackers. Life is rough.

Tomorrow we'll hit the road again. We plan to travel another 200 miles to Silver Creek, WA where we'll stay at another membership network park.

Scenic Drive

Yesterday we took a scenic drive through some of the surrounding countryside. There was a lot of farm and ranch land as well as a couple of beautiful lakes along the way. We saw one farm with the Alaska flag painted on the side of one of the outbuildings. We have really enjoyed our stay here in the Spokane area and look forward to returning at some point in the future.



Today we visited Townshend Cellars again to stock up on a couple more bottles of our favorites from there, along with another package of some of the best chocolates I've ever had. This time Brenda's brother, Don, was there so we got to meet him and visit with him for a few minutes before he had to run off.

Tomorrow we leave to go to Newport, Oregon for a Safari Owners rally. It's a little over 500 miles but we plan to take a few days to get there.

Golfing at Deer Park

We went golfing again today to see if any of our lessons have improved our game. Weeeelllll, with the help of a few mulligans Tom's score is improving and is staying under 120. Jo is still learning her swing as is Tom with his driver. Jo could kick Tom's butt if she can take a few strokes off of the fairway. She's great on the green and Tom learns new words not listed in the dictionary.

Hey, but the view is nice and we got to see many types of birds that hang close the ponds around the course. Jo got a closer look at the pond today than Tom did. We both lost a few balls today which didn't hurt too bad because we found most of those balls at Suntides Golf Course in Yakima. Tom's not going to buy any expensive balls until he can break 100. The ball budget catagory is definitely going to be in the "black" for awhile.

We have one more lesson this coming Thursday and hopefully we can remember all of the things we learn on the next golfcourse we play at. We are going to be leaving this neat place on Saturday.

Golf Lesson

Yesterday Tom and I had a golf lesson with the Deer Park course golf pro, Kathy Jensen. It was supposed to be about an hour session for the two of us combined, but she spent well over an hour with each of us individually.

How great to have a lesson with a woman! She really helped me a lot. There are certain, ahem, anatomy issues affecting a woman's golf swing that only another woman can understand. It's amazing how well I can do when there's an instructor right there telling me the little adjustments I need to make. Wish I could keep it all in my head when the instructor's not around.

Killdeer Chicks

Today we got a visit from mama Killdeer and her chicks. They were hatched just a few days after our arrival here so they are probably only about 10 days old. The babies fledge from the nest within the first couple of days after hatching so they've been up and about for over a week now. They are soooo cute! There were four little Deerlings but we couldn't get them all in one photo, they are way to busy.

Townshend Cellars

Tom was on the phone with some friends back in Fairbanks the other day and when he told them we were currently in the Spokane area, Brenda told him her brother owns a winery - Townshend Cellars - nearby. So of course we had to visit. We stopped by last Friday. Don, Brenda's brother, wasn't there at the time, but we spent a great couple of hours with the winery's manager, Jill, in the tasting room, working our way through the over one dozen wines the winery produces. They were all delicious but I found a new favorite. It's their 2005 Lemberger. I'd never tasted that particular varietal before. I love it. It has a nice spicey flavor to it I thought was very unique. They also make one of the best Rieslings I've ever had. Jill described it as a fruit salad and that's pretty accurate.

We ended up buying several bottles of each. We're looking forward to spending future evenings on our patio overlooking the golf course sipping these fabulous wines.

4th of July Spokane Dog Show

Last Friday, (the 4th of July), we pulled up stakes from Deer Park Golf and RV Resort to go to the "Inland Empire Kennel Assn.'s" dog show at the Spokane, WA. fairgrounds.


Friday, "set-up day" we grilled some steaks and corn on the cob. The big steaks were for us and the small ones were for "Dash" our Norwich Terrier who we were showing that weekend. Dash's' steaks are also known as "bait" to encourage him to do as we please and not as HE pleases in the show ring.


That night we were treated with a fireworks show that were set off in a baseball park also in the fairgrounds. We were entertained but the dogs there for the show were NOT impressed.










At the show, we met a man named Don who shows Labrador Retrievers. He knows Sherry Walsh in Fairbanks. If you don't know Sherry Walsh in Fairbanks then you probably haven't been to a dog show in Alaska. Sherry is a well known breeder/handler of Labrador Retrievers.


We also made a new Norwich Terrior owner handler friend, Rusty. She showed her two lovely little female Norwich. And we met Phil and Cindy who show a PBGV puppy, a breed that we used to breed and show. They got a few helpful hints from us.


The first day of the show, Jo showed Dash who took Best of Breed and competed in the "Group" ring later that day. Unfortunately he wasn't one of the chosen four for a placement ribbon. The next day Tom went into the ring with Dash. Dash took "Best of Breed" again and went on to the Terrier Group ring again later on that day. Well... nope, no Terrier Group placement ribbons for him either. I guess it doesn't matter how much hairspray Tom put in his own hair for primping, it still didn't help the dog out with the judge's opinion. The dogs that beat out Dash were all very good specimens of their breed so we couldn't really complain too much.

We packed up the motorhome and moved it back to Deer Park and re-unpacked and setup housekeeping once again. Tomorrow, it's the driving range for Tom.

Rainbow

Tom caught this rainbow on camera between the rain showers this evening. We've been having rain with some thunder and lightening off and on since we got home from our trip to town. We don't mind though, it's cooling things off from the 90+ degree heat we had today and feels very refreshing.

A Trip To Town

We've been at Deer Park for 5 days now and hadn't even left the grounds of the RV Park & Golf Course. Today though we needed to replenish the larder so we took a trip into Spokane. Spokane is about 15 miles south of us - well, about 15 miles to get to the outskirts. We realized Spokane is huge.

Luckily most of the places we wanted to go were close together because at $4.01/gal, it cost us just over $50 for 13 gallons of gas today. Will this madness never end? Rhetorical question. We all know the answer.

The good news is we found a Great Harvest Bread Company. YUM!