Home of Pic-of-the-Week: Pic--of-the-Month for June 2024

Hello Friends,

Ben and I are in Central Oregon, after leaving our home in Baja June 14th. We had a fairly quick trip back, and even skipped a few of our favorite places, and planned stops. All went well, in spite of the long sections of potholes in many areas in Baja. The scenery, as always was beautiful. I even got Ben to stop to let me take a picture of this view.

Camping beach on Bahia Concepcion

They usually take better care of the roads, but it was a major election year in Mexico (they elected their first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, of Jewish heritage!) When it is an election year, the party in power stops spending money on things like road improvements, etc., and waits to see what the newly elected officials will do. (Not sure what happens to the money they should have been spending on maintenance!!).

Blue Flax, Fort Rock in the distance.

Anyhow, we got to Fort Rock (pictured above) on June 19, with plans to stop at Lakeview Oregon DMV to renew our driver's licenses. Of course, it was the first time in history that DMV was closed for Juneteenth! Oh well, we got it done the next day in La Pine, the only day of the week they were open. Got there early and waited outside an hour, but it was good as we were #7 and 8. All legal, now! (No, I didn't drive in the US while my license was expired, but I did drive in our little town in Baja, very carefully!)

We were happy to spend time with Katie and Mel, and Mel's son Guy in their home at Fort Rock. We store our trailer there for the winter, and we took our time getting everything organized, and Ben fixed a few things on it. I did a few morning walks in the area, where the roads are straight, and the views are endless! There is lots of sage brush and some very pretty wild flowers blooming right now, and the first alfalfa cutting is happening now.

Our first priority now is to get the truck repaired. In spite of traveling 100's of miles on Baja's pot holey roads, we experienced the "death wobble" with it 3 times on rough sections of Hwy 31 here in Oregon between Fort Rock and La Pine. That is a scary experience, let me tell you! Shake, rattle and roll. Fortunately, Ben was able to control the truck and traffic was minimal, and we got it into the Sister's Les Schwab tire store yesterday for them to check over completely. They found a few parts that needed replacing, so they're ordering parts and it will be repaired on Monday.

We don't have too many plans yet, other than some doctor appointments and visiting friends, and a reservation at Cowboy Dinner Tree near Silver Lake for Ben's birthday on July 12! The medical appointments seem to be spaced out over several weeks, so we'll be here in the Bend/Sisters area for a while during that time. We hope to get over to the west side of the state next week after the truck is fixed and back again later in the summer. We'll see! We will not be making our annual trip to Eagle Point to visit our friend Pat Curry, because we sadly learned that she died of complications of Leukemia on June 17. Her 85th birthday would have been yesterday, June 26. We met her and her husband Ken when we moved to Baja in 2000, and have been friends since.

Our first forest fire of the season happened the other day, and is still ongoing. It's just to the east of La Pine, right on the edge of the town. Today it is up to over 3600 acres. We saw the smoke from Fort Rock on Tuesday evening after it started (supposedly in or near a homeless camp), and the strong winds spread it quickly.