Pic-of-the-Week for September 29, 2014

Hello Amigos.... and goodbye to most of you!

We have decided to head south (and gradually east) starting tomorrow, September 30th.  Our plans are to make it all the way to Lakeview, because we haven't spent much time there this summer, and we haven't eaten at Mario's In Lakeview yet!  Can't miss that opportunity!!  Then we'll go on to Reno from there the next day. 

We were able to spend some more time with Rebecca and Tim and their family.  It's always hard to say goodbye, when you know you probably won't see each other in person for another year.  Those kids are growing up so fast!  We got lots of pictures, but pictures aren't as cuddly as these kids.  

They will be going back to Chicago on October 2, and then to Tim's new teaching assignment in the Middle East in late October.  Being a teacher, he gets time off in the summers, so we hope to see them then.

The news from Baja is that our community finally has electricity 2 full weeks after Hurricane Odile took it out.  The CFE crews have been working long and hard to get it restored, and all the locals are very grateful.  Many (probably 100's) of the tall metal high-tension towers were down, and they used helicopter to help set them back up.  The telephones (cell and land line) worked pretty well throughout.  We are sure we'll run into some "questionable" road conditions.  And we will be cautious, since we are hauling the 1928 Woody back to Baja on a car trailer.  (No off-road adventures this time!)   We expect the journey to be 6 1/2 days.  We thought some friends would ride with us after all the airlines cancelled their flights into San Jose del Cabo airport, but they've decided they need to spend a bit more time here in Oregon before they go south. The airport will be open by October 8 for limited flights, which is pretty amazing, considering how ugly it looked after the hurricane.  Instead, we plan on car pooling with another Baja friend who will be driving by herself (and her puppy).  We'll meet up with her near San Diego.  

I'll leave you with some pretty scenes we've enjoyed in the last several weeks here in central Oregon.  It's a nice place to spend the summer!

 Cloud capped South Sister.  The Mountains have got a bit of fresh snow with all the storms passing by.

 Some interesting sun rays in front of the Middle and North Sister.

 Mt. Hood, Oregon's highest mountain, was bright a clear today as we headed back to Bend from putting our trailer away near Tygh Valley.

 And Mount Jefferson was looking very good, too. 

And a little closer to the ground, and a bit under it, our dogs had a blast digging for a mole at our friend's house today.  (They both got baths when we got back to Bend!!  I hope I can keep them out of the vole holes here at Ken & Bea's place until we leave tomorrow.  They have been mice / vole catching machines this summer!)  

Next week from Baja, but maybe not on Tuesday!  

Your Snow Bird friends who are anxious to head south...
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

PS.  I have added some more photos to the 2014 September album, and I will add a few more.  I'm learning how to access the photos off of my new phone (several of these photos are from that phone) so you never know what you might see next!  



 

Pic-of-the-Week for September 18, 2014

Hi Friends,

Time for another update, due to some interesting things going on down in Baja!  We are still in Oregon, by the way.  Hurricane Odile came through our area of Baja on Sunday, September 14, and it was a nasty one.  Cabo San Lucas and San Jose were hit extremely hard, and the airport terminals sustained major damage.  The airport is closed for a couple more weeks.  Ryan, our son, has been house-sittting for three summers now, just for this reason: to put the shutters on before the storm gets there.  He, and our house, are fine.  Some water came in through the closed windows and doors, but he was there to mop it up.  He was able to call us on Monday to report on the results, then on Tuesday, there was no phone service in Baja.  Phones were back up on Wednesday, but they probably won't have electricity for a good long while yet.  Poles are down everywhere!  And another storm, Polo, is on the way.  Forecasts says it won't be near as severe as Odile, thank you God!

Our current plans are to start our return trip about October 1, but we might delay a bit if the situation is still poor down there.  It doesn't help to go down and use more water and resources that others need.  

Here are a few pictures that Ryan sent us today.  

 This is the bridge over the Buenos Aires arroyo.  It didn't exist when we first moved there in 2000, so hurricanes used to keep Los Barriles pretty isolated!  

 This was our indicator that there would be a major hurricane this year.  They finally fixed the road in the two arroyos north of Los Barriles after a major hurricane about 6 years ago destroyed the road.  This one didn't do too bad!  The white things on the left are probably the water pipes running out to the north of town. 

This is Highway 1 just north of Los Barriles.  I'm always a bit nervous when we drive by here with those big rocks teetering up there on that cut, but I guess they only come down in severe wind and rain storms!  Yikes!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, Ben and I have been enjoying our summer.  He never did finish our vacation tale, but we got as far north as Whitefish, Montana, where we visited good friends, and convinced my sister and brother-in-law to come over from Libby to visit for the day!  We also enjoyed visiting with friends in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Walla Walla (our "official" home), Washington. 

Ben and I hiked up a hill to a quarry with our friend Jim near his cabin on the Clark Fork River.

Me and my sister Shelley in Whitefish.

We hurried back to western Oregon and met up with our daughter and her family  They stayed again with my cousins on the farm, and we parked our trailer in their driveway.  Now, this isn't just a Grandma boasting; it's the truth, I tell you!  My granddaughter is about the happiest baby I've ever encountered.  There is not much that ruffles her feathers, and she smiles and smiles and smiles!  And she will give a big hug, and pat you on your back!  What a sweetie!  

 

This is a photo I took with my new phone...once she figured out I was taking photos, she just started smiling bigger!   She and her Grandpa Purkey got along pretty well, too!  

Cousin Tom harvesting tons of corn.

 Of course we enjoyed visiting with the boys, too.  They liked being on the farm and playing in the big yard with the toys in the dirt.  And they really liked getting to ride on the big old corn picker with "uncle" Tom (actually my cousin).  And they LOVED eating the corn on the cob!  

 It is really good to spend time with them, and we'll see them again next week when they come over to Bend to spend several days with us.  In the meantime, they're visiting with other family (lots of Purkeys and Malpasses to see!) and friends in the area). 

Last week, we joined my brother Rich at the Pendleton Roundup.  "Let 'er buck!!"  We had a great time as usual, and enjoyed visiting with my niece Anne and her husband Mike.  Mike does a wicked good job at barbecue, and we had some pretty fantastic ribs for dinner one night.  Almost worth the whole trip!!   They are gracious enough to allow us to park our trailer beside their house in Athena (20 miles from Pendleton).   

 Oops.  Missed him!  That's gotta hurt! 

 Now, we are back in the Bend area where we started this summer.  We are trying to be helpful to Ben's brother's family, since our sister-in-law had knee replacement surgery on the 4th.  She just had her stitches out.  (Staples, actually!  Ouch!!)  We'll be cleaning out our trailer and doing our final shopping, and then the magic comes....fitting everything we've collected over the summer into our truck!!  

So, we'll try to keep you posted on our departure schedule.  Oh, yeah.  The reason Ben didn't write this one is because he got a brand new computer, and hasn't finished setting it up yet.  That's his excuse this time, and he's sticking with it! 

I must confess that our 2014 September Picasa album is way behind.  Too many kids to hug and rodeos to watch...and barbecue and corn on the cob to eat.  Maybe I'll work on it tomorrow.  Maybe not! Have patience with me. 

Your friends still hanging out in Oregon,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey