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.