Pic-of-the-Week for August 25, 2015, or All About Rocks

Hello Friends,

It has been a busy time the last 3 weeks since our last Pic-of-the-Week, but some of the time would be boring, and I don’t want to bore you.

Before leaving Silver Lake, where we left off last time, we traveled the back streets and found a number of abandoned buildings.  This one was probably my favorite.

Then we returned to Bend, Oregon where we joined the rest of Ben’s brothers and sister for a family get together.  Below is a photo of all his immediate family and their spouses.   

One day we visited the Crooked River Gorge and Smith Rocks near Terrebonne.  The gorge is much deeper than the photo tends to show.

Nearby Smith Rocks is a very popular rock climbing area.

Another day we took a trip with Ben’s oldest brother Ken and his wife Bea,  to Prineville and points NE of there.  The first stop was at the Bowman Museum where there was some interesting items on display from early Prineville.  Prineville gets its name from Barney Prine, an early settler in the area.  One of the displays was of Boot Jacks.  Boot Jacks come in many different shapes.  Here are just a few to make you chuckle.  (Maybe it will even make Lydia smile enough to show me her teeth!  That is an inside joke.)

Then it was on to Brennan Palisades.

And, Stein’s Pillar.

Lastly, Ben talked the rest of the group into going to The Lucky Strike Mine.  This is an area where you can dig, and/or purchase Oregon Thunder Eggs.  The Thunder Egg has been designated as the Oregon State “Rock”.  We did not go to the dig area, but did buy a few to take home.  Ben and Ken are now trying to learn how to polish them.  The two larger ones below Ben bought as an uncut rock (not knowing what would be inside) and then had them cut it in half.  The smaller one was already cut.  All 3 are being prepared for polishing.  They are not fantastic stones, but will give good practice in polishing and will be pretty to look at!  

Ben did attend the 50th graduation reunion of his classmates from Bend where he got caught up with a few of them.  Ben says that he is not as old as the others in his graduating class because he was only 7 when he graduated!  

After the reunion we traveled to the northern Oregon coast where we caught up with our Baja friends Tony and Janet at Rockaway Beach.  The dogs loved their chance to run on the beaches, and we enjoyed visiting with our friends!  

We helped them set up Janet's clothing store tents, and helped her pull in a bit of cash from a few sales.  We also enjoyed watching the steam train make its runs starting at the point where the Art Fair tents (including Janet's) were set up.  Pretty neat!  We didn't take advantage of a ride this time...maybe next time.  When we were trying to turn into our RV park off of Highway 101 with our trailer attached (a very busy road), "toot, toot!!"  here comes the train!  We had to pull off in a wide spot on the right side of the road and wait for the train to go by, then make a "Mexican left turn" from that right shoulder! 

We then returned to Eugene to attend the memorial service for our long-time friend Phyllis Hirons, who succumbed to Pancreatic cancer after a battle of 4 years.  We will miss her joyful spirit!

We're back in Bend again, and wow!  How time flies!  We will be leaving to return to Baja in 6, or 7, weeks and we still have many places to visit!!  More stories for Ben to write!  This happens to be a very dry and smoky summer, due to wildfires throughout Oregon, Idaho and Washington.  A lot of us are praying for some good hard rains for the Pacific Northwest!  I guess we'll have to wait for the El Nino winter that is prediced in most cases.  In the photo below, taken from Ken & Bea's back yard, you should be able to see the Three Sisters mountains, but they are obscured by that bank of smoke.  Can't see the mountains today, either. 

Until more exciting things happen...
Your friends in smoky Oregon (yes, it is smoky EVERYWHERE! Even a bit of smoke at the coast).  


Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

PS.  The truck is running OK, but we did have to replace a tire on our travel trailer.  Fortunately, Ben spotted it before we left Bend for our coast trip, and we had it done lickety split at Goodyear in Bend. 

Pic-of-the-Week for August 3, 2015

This Pic-of-the-Week is a really long one; because not a lot needs to be said, but the scenery is so beautiful in this part of Oregon that it takes a lot of photos to really do it justice.  We're going to say right at the beginning, even more photos from this trip are located in our special SE Oregon Picasa Album.

In our last Pic-of-the-Week, we were stuck in Salem with our truck in the shop.  As it turned out the problems were nothing that money could not fix.  Ben sure hopes that Mexico switches to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel soon like the fuel is in the USA!  Then we could get a truck with a better engine.

Our truck engine did get fixed Saturday morning, July 25th, so we headed out of Salem that afternoon.  It was pretty good timing as it was starting to rain in Salem so we headed South East where we hoped for sunny skies and warm temperatures.

We knew that did not have a lot of time this trip, but wanted to visit a number of places that we have visited in the past.  Since we were not being tour guides, and not meeting friends, we wanted to do and see some different things this trip.  Our first stop was Ana Reservoir RV Park.  This RV Park is at the north end of Summer Lake, and turned out to be a nice place to stay.  It was not fancy, but still nice and comfortable.  Notice too that we did get out of the heavy clouds and rain.

The view out our window towards Summer Lake.

The RV park manager was a friendly guy to talk to, and Ben asked him for suggestions of different things to see in the area and in the Hart Mountain area, our next stop.  He had some suggestions for Hart Mountain that we had not heard of so we added them to our plans.

If you have never been to Summer Lake, or Hart Mountain, you should add that to your travel plans.  They are both beautiful places to visit and explore.  This is a view of the huge ridge line at Hart Mountain known as Poker Jim Ridge.

After arriving at our camp spot at Hart Mountain Hot Springs, we enjoyed a wonderful soak that evening.  We think that this is one of the best hot springs in Oregon, and you can meet the most interesting folks there!  The next day we visited an area with petroglyphs that was suggested to us by the Ana RV Park owner.  This area is off the beaten path and takes about 45 minutes to drive the 6 miles off of the main road to get there.  The petroglyphs are quite well preserved and have some interesting figures.  With a little imagination you can see all kinds of things about the life of the artists.

Did you know that the early Native Americans did not own combs?  Did you know that they invented the modern day salad tongs?  Did you know that young Big Horn Sheep are the most desirable for eating?  Did you know that some of them had a problem with weight just like some of us today?  It is truly amazing what you can learn by studying the art work of these early people!  All these things can be learned from the photos below.  If you need help, just ask!

About 1 mile further on is the Glass House that was suggested to us as well.  I do not know much about this place except that it was built by a private party(s).  Rumor has it that the owner died, and then the property was sold to the US government that wanted the land. 

It was built partially into the ground of steel and glass.

The shower.

The bedroom.

From what we deducted, it was built by an eccentric artist!!!  The top of a stone wall near the entrance.

It was not just built for function, but his artistic touches were everywhere!  These are extensions of the roof supports.

The front side of one art piece.

And, the back side.  (There must be meaning there somewhere!

The next morning, after another fine soak on the hot springs the night before, we headed east toward Frenchglen.  We could not leave Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge without showing you one antelope photo.   Actually these animals are not antelope, but rather their proper name is Pronghorn.  We saw about 40 Pronghorns as we left our camp site and headed for Frenchglen.

Rather than go up to The Steens Mountains, as we usually do, we took a side trip through the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  Some places you can see things, and some places you cannot because the willows are so dense on each side of the road.  We did see lots of birds, and 2 of the largest mule deer that we have seen in a long time.  (Sorry, I was too slow with the camera!)

We will only bore you with just one photo of birds.

And one of a cattle drive.

Actually, that was not a real cattle drive, but rather wooden or probably steel silhouettes which we have seen for a number of years now.

The next morning we headed south toward Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.  On the way there we stopped at Fields Station restaurant, store, liquor store, gas station, and probably other services as well.  Fields, population 12, so they say!

They serve world famous burgers and milk shakes!  Ben just had a bacon cheese burger w/fries, while Harriet had both a burger w/fries and a black berry milk shake!  The burgers are ½ lb. and they even serve the milk shake in the metal container that they use for blending the ice cream and flavoring.  Very frosty, big, and delicious!

After that very filling lunch, which neither of us could finish, it was on to Nevada and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.  A few years ago when we traveled that area, we saw wild burros (donkeys), and wild horses.  This year we saw none.  We camped that night at the Virgin Valley Camp Grounds and hot springs.  This is a photo of those hot springs.

The springs felt good to my hand during the hot day, but it was not real warm later that evening when the temperature had cooled down.  I talked to the camp host and asked about the burros and horses.  He said that the government rounded up all the burros and now have them in a different area of the refuge which is fenced.  Also, they rounded up 1,500 horses, but there are still some around.  We did not see any antelope (pronghorns) either, but there must be some on the reserve somewhere.

After a night there at the hot springs camp ground we proceeded on to Lakeview, Oregon.  One of our favorite RV Parks in Oregon is a few miles west of town.  It is Junipers Reservoir RV Resort that is located off the highway on a cattle ranch.  It was our good fortune that they were moving a group of cattle from one pasture to another as we were arriving.  The cowboys used both ATVs and horses to round up the cattle.

Even Sam and Zoey loved to watch the round up!

Did you know that cowboys come in all ages?  I think this guy is just getting his start!  Maybe we will see him at the Pendleton Round-Up in a few years!

OK, all in their new pasture so we can proceed on to our RV Park, seen on the right.

Here is a link to a video of the cows being moved.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105471094228418480553/201507JulySEOregon#6177430310109246610

Friday morning we left our nice RV Park and went to the metropolis of Silver Lake, (maybe 75 people live there),  where we met our friends from Salem, Thane and Kathy, and their daughter Adrienne and her husband Reuben.  If you don’t know about the Cowboy Dinner Tree Restaurant, just outside of Silver Lake, then you have missed out on one of Oregon’s (No, make that The USA’s) finest restaurants!  This is the store, the restaurant looks similar.

When you make reservations, you need to tell them whether you want steak or chicken.  This is the restaurant’s new BBQ.  It can BBQ 50 steaks at a time.  I am not talking about small steak.  Each steak is 26 – 30 ounces!!  The chicken dinners are a whole chicken! 

They always supply doggy bags!

The next day (Saturday) it was on to Prineville with a stop in Bend for fuel.  Well……… when we stopped for fuel, the shift cable broke to the transmission.  We limped on into the Ford Garage (it was stuck in first gear) and described the problem.  We were told it would be 2 weeks before they could look at the problem.  (I now dislike that Ford Garage.)  So we limped on to an independent shop where the owner looked under the pickup, and diagnosed the problem immediately as a broken shift cable.  It will be fixed Monday or Tuesday!  The end result is that as we end this Pic-of-the-Week, we are once again without our truck waiting on repairs.  Grrrrrr!

The good part is that both times we have had truck problems this summer, we have been close to a good repair shop!  This problem certainly could have happened anywhere on our trip when we were miles and miles from the closest repair shop!  Thank God for big favors!

Until the next adventure....
Your friends in beautiful (smoky right now) Oregon,
Ben & Harriet, Sam & Zoey