Hola Amigos!
Ben, I and the dogs are back home in Baja, safe and sound after our busy summer and another 2000+ mile road trip from Oregon back to Mexico! We're sorry if you missed reading about our adventures. We really didn't do much of anything "new" or "different", so you didn't miss much! We are all very happy to be back in our spacious house (after living in a small travel trailer for 3 months!) and things are in pretty good shape here.
After we posted our last update, we visited friends in Salem, went camping with friends, visited doctors, went to the Pendleton Roundup, visited doctors, I had a colonoscopy(!) (results were good), visited friends, ate out a lot, tried to get a flu shot (they were out of the good stuff!), and went camping with friends! There! Is that enough detail? Oh, you probably want a picture or two. (None of the doctor visits, though!)
We saw this Osprey while camping on the Crooked River with Katie & Mel. Short time, but nice and relaxing.
The next camping trip was with Gary and Debbie at some of our favorite camping spots in Oregon. They hadn't been there, so we were their guides.
This picture is of the little old school house by Summer Lake on Hwy 31 on our way to our camping spots.
We stayed the first night at Juniper Reservoir RV park in Lakeview, one of our favorite summer resting spots. They were setting up "glamping" tents for the weekend (the county fair was going on in town). I think the cost for staying in one was $250 per night! I'll stick with our trailer for $40 for the night at the park!!
From there, we went east to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge. Big open spaces, but not too many antelope were spotted this year. I'm sure Gary and Debbie's dog would have loved to try to herd some of them!
After a few days at Hart Mountain (and enjoying the hot springs there), we packed up and headed to the east to the Steens Mountains. Unfortunately for Gary and Debbie, it was a gravel road, and they found their trailer completely full of dust when we got to our campsite near Frenchglen. Ugh! Fortunately, we had electricity and water, so they were able to clean up. Seems the bottom of their newer trailer wasn't sealed as well as it could have been, and they left a few vents open (oops!) We enjoyed doing the tour of the rim. It was sad that a hunter had fallen to his death at one gorge the day before we got there. We came across many search and rescue and police vehicles.
We had some time back in Bend after that trip to give Shirley a ride in the Model A Roadster. We had bought it from her two summers ago. She was duly impressed and enjoyed the ride!
(It does look quite a bit nicer now than when we bought it!)
We missed going to the Pendleton Roundup last year, so were happy to get over there again for this year's show. I have a whole album of the Pendleton Roundup here. Most photos are captioned. Needless to say, we had a grand time and will be back next year. It's nice that my niece has a nice place for us to park our trailer and a fenced yard to keep our dogs while we're gone. Thanks again, Anne!
We left Pendleton and the Roundup excitement for our last gasp camping trip with George and Carolyn from Salem. We met them in Burns, after waiting out a few very rainy days in Eastern Oregon. Yes, it does rain over there! We did some touring of Burns, including the local museum, ate at some good restaurants, and filled the time. After they joined us, and the rains slowed down, we went out to The Narrows, toward Frenchglen. There's a pretty nice RV park there, and Ben and Carolyn were ready to look for rocks. We also spent one drive looking for the Kiger Mustang horses. Never saw any, but it was a neat drive in a part of the Steens we've never been before.
Since more rocks was on Ben and Carolyn's agenda, we headed for Glass Butte near Hampton, Oregon. We found a neat camping spot in the midst of the area and they found lots of obsidian. They're talking about going back next year now that they know where to camp and what to look for! I ask the question "what are you going to do with these pretty rocks", and he says "I'll figure something out!" We had no room to bring them home with us, so they'll be waiting for him at his brother's house in Bend!!
We packed our truck between rainstorms (we can't believe how much it rained in Central Oregon this summer), and got the trailer put away again at our friends' place in Tygh Valley (bless you Chris & Ed!). We again managed to get all packed up a day early, so left Oregon on September 30, leaving behind several inches of snow in Bend! We decided to go through Klamath Falls this time, and stopped for breakfast at the Mohawk restaurant in Gilchrist, Oregon. If you get a chance, stop there. The food was good, but the decor was amazing! It was full of commemorative liquor bottles lining most of the walls, plus a bunch of stuffed wild animals and birds. Wow.
We hurried on down through California and Nevada and California again (Hwy 395 meanders a bit!) but managed to stop and visit Mike and Mary in Reno, who had more baggage for us to carry down, and to have breakfast with old friends Michele and Don in Minden. We've known them since the 70's when they were poor students at University of Oregon. Now they're retired! How time flies!
Crossing the border at Tecate was a piece of cake. They wanted Ben to start the engine on the Model A we were towing and show them the registration. After that was done we were free to go! We had a truck load of "STUFF", so were very happy to be on our way. Plus, we managed to avoid the corrupt police that like to stop tourists as they go through town to and from the border. Good all the way around! We decided to take our time driving through Baja and took 4 days, (remember, we did leave a day early!) Ben wanted to be at the Oasis Hotel in Loreto for their Saturday Night Clam feed, so we had a few short driving days, which is just fine with us at our advanced age, and siestas are a good thing! We were able to get to Catavina early enough in the day to get reservations, since there was a road rally that ended there that day (motorcycles). That happened when we went through last year, and their was no room at the Inn! Phew. If you're in Catavina, there are not many choices of places to stay, and you'll have to travel at least 3 more hours to get to the next city large enough to have a hotel. Plus, there is no cell service, nor internet (unless you pay big pesos for it).
We had no trouble getting through San Ignacio this time; their construction around the plaza was done. The clam feed at Oasis was as good as we expected, and he's already planning his next trip back!!
The roads were in pretty good shape, as they've repaved many long stretches that had more potholes than was decent. They are also working hard on the Santo Thomas grade, which will be beautiful when they're done. Now, it's generally a 1/2 hour wait while construction goes on, then one lane of traffic at a time through the construction areas. They are moving rocks the size of houses here!
Now that we are home, we've unpacked everything and most things have found their "place". The dogs are happy to be back to their normal haunts, and we're waiting for some of the local restaurants to open back up. We have had very hard rain showers for the last several days, but today is sunny and beautiful, with a southerly breeze to dry things out a bit. We are almost ready for company, when our summer house sitter moves out, so get ready to buy your tickets!
For more pictures, I've created a September / October album.
Not sure when the next issue will be ... we're going to be getting busy with our Fashion Show organization. If you want to hear from us, just send us an email. We WILL answer you!
Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey
Ben, I and the dogs are back home in Baja, safe and sound after our busy summer and another 2000+ mile road trip from Oregon back to Mexico! We're sorry if you missed reading about our adventures. We really didn't do much of anything "new" or "different", so you didn't miss much! We are all very happy to be back in our spacious house (after living in a small travel trailer for 3 months!) and things are in pretty good shape here.
After we posted our last update, we visited friends in Salem, went camping with friends, visited doctors, went to the Pendleton Roundup, visited doctors, I had a colonoscopy(!) (results were good), visited friends, ate out a lot, tried to get a flu shot (they were out of the good stuff!), and went camping with friends! There! Is that enough detail? Oh, you probably want a picture or two. (None of the doctor visits, though!)
We saw this Osprey while camping on the Crooked River with Katie & Mel. Short time, but nice and relaxing. This picture is of the little old school house by Summer Lake on Hwy 31 on our way to our camping spots.
From there, we went east to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge. Big open spaces, but not too many antelope were spotted this year. I'm sure Gary and Debbie's dog would have loved to try to herd some of them! 
We had some time back in Bend after that trip to give Shirley a ride in the Model A Roadster. We had bought it from her two summers ago. She was duly impressed and enjoyed the ride!
(It does look quite a bit nicer now than when we bought it!)
We missed going to the Pendleton Roundup last year, so were happy to get over there again for this year's show. I have a whole album of the Pendleton Roundup here. Most photos are captioned. Needless to say, we had a grand time and will be back next year. It's nice that my niece has a nice place for us to park our trailer and a fenced yard to keep our dogs while we're gone. Thanks again, Anne!
We left Pendleton and the Roundup excitement for our last gasp camping trip with George and Carolyn from Salem. We met them in Burns, after waiting out a few very rainy days in Eastern Oregon. Yes, it does rain over there! We did some touring of Burns, including the local museum, ate at some good restaurants, and filled the time. After they joined us, and the rains slowed down, we went out to The Narrows, toward Frenchglen. There's a pretty nice RV park there, and Ben and Carolyn were ready to look for rocks. We also spent one drive looking for the Kiger Mustang horses. Never saw any, but it was a neat drive in a part of the Steens we've never been before.
Since more rocks was on Ben and Carolyn's agenda, we headed for Glass Butte near Hampton, Oregon. We found a neat camping spot in the midst of the area and they found lots of obsidian. They're talking about going back next year now that they know where to camp and what to look for! I ask the question "what are you going to do with these pretty rocks", and he says "I'll figure something out!" We had no room to bring them home with us, so they'll be waiting for him at his brother's house in Bend!!
We packed our truck between rainstorms (we can't believe how much it rained in Central Oregon this summer), and got the trailer put away again at our friends' place in Tygh Valley (bless you Chris & Ed!). We again managed to get all packed up a day early, so left Oregon on September 30, leaving behind several inches of snow in Bend! We decided to go through Klamath Falls this time, and stopped for breakfast at the Mohawk restaurant in Gilchrist, Oregon. If you get a chance, stop there. The food was good, but the decor was amazing! It was full of commemorative liquor bottles lining most of the walls, plus a bunch of stuffed wild animals and birds. Wow.
We hurried on down through California and Nevada and California again (Hwy 395 meanders a bit!) but managed to stop and visit Mike and Mary in Reno, who had more baggage for us to carry down, and to have breakfast with old friends Michele and Don in Minden. We've known them since the 70's when they were poor students at University of Oregon. Now they're retired! How time flies!
Crossing the border at Tecate was a piece of cake. They wanted Ben to start the engine on the Model A we were towing and show them the registration. After that was done we were free to go! We had a truck load of "STUFF", so were very happy to be on our way. Plus, we managed to avoid the corrupt police that like to stop tourists as they go through town to and from the border. Good all the way around! We decided to take our time driving through Baja and took 4 days, (remember, we did leave a day early!) Ben wanted to be at the Oasis Hotel in Loreto for their Saturday Night Clam feed, so we had a few short driving days, which is just fine with us at our advanced age, and siestas are a good thing! We were able to get to Catavina early enough in the day to get reservations, since there was a road rally that ended there that day (motorcycles). That happened when we went through last year, and their was no room at the Inn! Phew. If you're in Catavina, there are not many choices of places to stay, and you'll have to travel at least 3 more hours to get to the next city large enough to have a hotel. Plus, there is no cell service, nor internet (unless you pay big pesos for it).
We had no trouble getting through San Ignacio this time; their construction around the plaza was done. The clam feed at Oasis was as good as we expected, and he's already planning his next trip back!!
The roads were in pretty good shape, as they've repaved many long stretches that had more potholes than was decent. They are also working hard on the Santo Thomas grade, which will be beautiful when they're done. Now, it's generally a 1/2 hour wait while construction goes on, then one lane of traffic at a time through the construction areas. They are moving rocks the size of houses here!
Now that we are home, we've unpacked everything and most things have found their "place". The dogs are happy to be back to their normal haunts, and we're waiting for some of the local restaurants to open back up. We have had very hard rain showers for the last several days, but today is sunny and beautiful, with a southerly breeze to dry things out a bit. We are almost ready for company, when our summer house sitter moves out, so get ready to buy your tickets!
For more pictures, I've created a September / October album.
Not sure when the next issue will be ... we're going to be getting busy with our Fashion Show organization. If you want to hear from us, just send us an email. We WILL answer you!
Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey
