Heading For Oregon

Arizona to Oregon to Montana to Oregon and back to Montana!

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As I sit here in Cathryn's lovely home in beautiful Kalispell, Montana I find myself trying to think of how to write about my (our) travels the past few months.  As nice as it feels to be in a real home for a change, I find myself getting itchy to get back out there on the road again.  We plan to head east across Canada on July 27th which will come soon enough.  For now I will need to go back a few months to bring this posting up to date on what has been going on. Here we go.

North To Oregon

In my last post I was headed from Williams, Arizona and the Grand Canyon to Hurricane, Utah to see my brother Mac and his wife, Susan.  I did that and, as always, enjoyed spending a week hanging out with them.  From Hurricane I headed directly to Oregon because I had to go to some VA appointments in the Salem area that were important.  I decided to take the most direct route which was to head through Nevada and Northern California into Oregon.  I am well qualified after driving it to confirm that the Terrestrial Highway going through Nevada was named the "loneliest highway in America" for a reason!  

I finally got past Reno and things started looking like home as I drove toward Susanville, California.  It felt good to see some forests and valleys and green after the long lonely stretch of brown desert that makes up most of Nevada.   It felt even better to enter my beautiful state of Oregon and continue north to Salem. I lived in Oregon so long that I consider it my home state and it is always a welcome sight each year when I return. 

Canola fields near Silverton, Oregon

Silver Falls State Park.  One of seven waterfalls in the park.

Multonomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge

On To Montana and Back To Portland

I will now jump forward to leaving Oregon.  I made all my appointments in Salem and drove to Portland and had a short visit with my sons, Josh and Jason, before heading east to Kalispell to pick up Cathryn. You may recall from my last blog that I intended to drive to Kalispell where Cathryn lives to pick her up and then drive back to Portland to attend my oldest son, Josh's, graduation from the University of Portland with a degree in nursing.

Cathryn, Annie (big beautiful Golden Retriever), Dexter (my best little buddy) and I headed out from Kalispell to Portland with a short stop in Prineville, Oregon on the way.  Our friend that introduced us, Margie, lives in Prineville and volunteered to doggie sit Annie and Dexter while we attended Josh's graduation in Portland.  We certainly appreciated that offer and took her up on it. Margie and Cathryn are childhood friends so it was special for them to spend a little time together.

Margie!

This is how we go down the road.

Annie loves the water!

Graduation Day!

Attending Josh's graduation was a real treat for both of us.  I was very proud to see him receive his nursing pin and his BS diploma, two separate ceremonies.. He worked very hard for that degree and this is a turning point in his life for many reasons, some tragic and some sad.  We also enjoyed a nice lunch with him after the graduation at a funky little North Portland eatery called the Grain and Grissel.  Here are some pictures of that special day.

The beginning................

Receiving his Nursing Pin from the Dean.

Proud Dad....right after pinning ceremony.  Sure wish I was that tall....and I had my hair back!

My favorite picture!  Do you see Josh?  

This is really happening!

One more minute.....then it is over and you did it!

They can't take that one back!....congratulations Josh!

Faking the pinning.....he earned it.

Josh and Cathryn at lunch.

I would say he is a pretty happy kid!

We stayed an extra day and had lunch with Jason, youngest son, and his wife Anna and my little grandkids, Kaitlen and Shawn. We ate pizza at another funky little place on Mississippi Street in North Portland which was very good.  It was very nice to see the kids and Jason and Anna again before we left Portland.  When I see little Shawn I have vivid memories of Jason as a child.  They look very much alike.

Me, Cathryn, Jason, Anna, Shawn and Kaitlen at lunch

Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon

We returned to Prineville to visit with our good friends Margie and Don for a day and pick up our dogs.  It was very nice to spend a few days with them again at their country home with the best view in Prineville. We both wish Don a speedy recovery from some health issues he is and has been dealing with for awhile.  

From Prineville, we drove east to Dayville, Oregon, a small town just before John Day, Oregon near the John Day Fossil Beds.  Our little RV park in Dayville (only six spaces but some cabins too) was beautiful and inviting so we stayed for four nights and took the opportunity to view the beautiful fossil beds and painted hills and the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site in John Day.

Our very pretty campsite in Dayville, Oregon

Cathryn and Annie like this RV traveling.

Picture Canyon going into the John Day Fossil Bed area

Painted Hills.....John Day, Oregon

Painted Hills 

Look closely....a Shoe Tree!

When we left the John Day area we worked our way across Eastern Oregon to Baker and the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  Along the way we stopped at the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage.  The nation's oldest surviving gold-digging dredge used to extract over $4.5 million dollars in gold from the ground.  It quit operating in 1954 and sits where it stopped. 

Oregon history is well depicted at the interpretive center in Baker.  One can actually still see the wagon tracks made a very long time ago when the immigrants came west in covered wagons.

The Dredge

Fun covered wagon....me and Annie

Real covered wagon....Cathryn and Annie

Potty break on the way to Joseph

Best Buddies!

Beautiful Joseph, Oregon

We made plans and reservations to go to Joseph, Oregon, located in the extreme northeast corner of the state where Oregon joins with Idaho and Washington. We stayed at the Wallowa State Park which is beautiful. This area is surrounded by the Wallowa Mountains, referred to as the Alps of Oregon, and they had plenty of snow left on them.  

Joseph is the birthplace of Old Chief Joseph and the former winter campgrounds of the Nez Perce Indian tribe before they were forced to live on a reservation. If you have the opportunity, I suggest you Google the Nez Perce tribe and Young Chief Joseph to learn about this great Native American leader and the tragic events surrounding his people when the US Calvary was ordered to capture him and place his people on a reservation.  It is a sad tale and one part of American history we should not be proud of.

The area surrounding Joseph is very green and beautiful and can best be appreciated by pictures so I will display more than I usually do here.  I am including pictures of the Hell's Canyon Snake River Recreational Area also. Hell's Canyon is the deepest gorge in America at over 8000 feet from rim to river. Driving to the rim was a white knuckle experience for sure!

Area surrounding Joseph

Wallowa Lake

This was my first attempt to take the previous picture!

A cowgirl and her mule.

We ran into a cattle drive on the way to Hell's Canyon

Looking 8000 feet down into Hell's Canyon

Hell's Canyon

Storms can be pretty but scary in the mountains

What's Next You Ask?!

As I said when I began this post, I am spending this summer at Cathryn's home in Kalispell.  We will take this summer to organize Cathryn's affairs so we can leave in my 5th wheel around the first part of August for Ontario and further to Quebec City and then into Maine and all the surrounding eastern states. We plan to stay through the fall foliage season before heading south for the winter and return next June. Since we will be traveling and staying in many states over the next year, I will share our travels and experiences in more frequent posts as we go.

Happy Trails...........until we meet again.

Joseph, Oregon

Westward Ho!!

Westward Ho!!

Just a reminder to click on the blog title to view the pictures and text on the web.  They show up much better than in the email version.

After another long and cold winter in my beloved Texas I have come to the conclusion, after 40 years of living on the West coast, that I am a real mountain man. Not that I am a big brute in buckskins.....I just love the mountains and I have missed them.  So, I am heading back west where I feel most comfortable. After driving west in the rain for two days from the San Antonio area I finally hit sunshine and dry and warm weather. It does feel good.

For now I am working my way through Arizona slowly towards Hurricane, Utah to visit with my brother Mac and his wife, Susan.  Along the way I am enjoying the desert spring weather.  I have about six weeks to just meander and enjoy being warm before I have to be in Kalispell, Montana to pick up Cathryn and Annie. You may recall I introduced Cathryn in my last post.  Annie is her 80 pound Golden Retreiver.  I will save telling more about that portion of the trip for when it happens but to let you know a little bit of what is to come, we are going to Portland to attend my son's (Josh) graduation from the University of Portland with a degree in nursing. He has worked very hard to get this degree and start a new career and I am very proud of him for staying the course under some very difficult circumstances.

Apache Gold Casino

I am a spontaneous (maybe a bit wishy-washy) type person that seldom makes plans beyond a direction of travel.  As I was heading west on I-10 approaching Tucson I realized how much I hate driving on a freeway and going into big cities.  I saw a sign that pointed NW towards a town called Safford that I had never been to before so I took a quick exit and followed Hwy 70 to check it out.

After continuing north on Hwy 70 past Safford I noticed a big Indian casino with an RV park.  I decided to take a break and spend a few days so I could get a decent meal, wash my truck and the 5th wheel (very dirty!) and do some other chores that must be done, including giving Dexter a bath and a trim since we are in a warmer area.

Theodore Roosevelt Lake - Arizona

Cholla Cactus.....very dangerous!

I left the casino after a three day R & R and continued north looking for a Forest Service campground called Cholla on Theodore Roosevelt Lake.  I found it and it was very clean with no hook ups but very decent camping spots with shaded tables and only $3 a night with my senior America The Beautiful pass.  I decided to hang out for a week and explore the area. 

The main attraction in the area, other than trophy fishing, if one had a boat, was a Native American cliff dwelling with no real name other than The Lower Cliff Dwelling.  I hiked up to the dwelling and it, as always with these amazing 700 plus year old homes, was well worth the effort to get there.

Nice clean camp sites at Cholla Campground on Theodore Roosevelt Lake

This is the trail leading up to the ruins I visited.

Cholla Cactus.....very dangerous!  

Approaching the ruins.

Standing in the ruins.

Sedona

After some serious mountain roads I came into the Verde Valley and found my homestead on a plateau overlooking Cottonwood, Arizona.  A large area of Forest Service land is available for “dispersed camping” for free for a maximum of 14 days.  I found a really beautiful spot with a great view and parked myself for the maximum fourteen days or whenever I ran out of water or could not keep my batteries charged with the generator.  I am going to install solar panel soon so I can enjoy this type of camping more.

I had plans to take some hikes in the beautiful red rock canyons of Sedona but that didn’t happen because it was Spring break and everyone in the world seemed to come to the area for the same reason.  I had a very hard time finding a parking place at trail heads just to get some photos of the Sedona area, the most scenic.
The following pictures are of the Sedona area.

This is more a work of art than a chapel but a very spiritual place

Cottonwood and Camp Verde

I did visit some other amazing Native American ruins called Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle, home to the Southern Sinagua culture.  These ancient people were mainly farmers.  We (Dexter and me) took some great drives and saw the area enough to appreciate it.  We had some really quiet and peaceful nights out on our hilltop so I can’t complain too much that there was a fatal shoot out a few miles down the road between some bad guys and the police at the local Walmart.  Fortunately the fatality was one of the bad guys but an officer did get wounded in the leg but will recover.  

Montezuma Castle

Notice the homes built into the side of the cliff

Tuzigoot ruins inside.

Tuzigoot ruins.  Homes built above ground.

Here are some pictures of the camping area we just left this morning.

Free camping on Forest Service land.....nice!

My every morning visitors.

Another visitor looking out my back window.

My guard dog!

Unfortunately just today, March 22^nd, my water pump told me I was very low on water.  My idiot lights are very unreliable but once the water pump starts "knocking" I know I am running real low on water.  I can’t be out there without water so I hooked up and drove a short distance to Prescott Valley, where I presently am staying for three days before heading north to Williams for five days.  Prescott is an interesting city with a rich western history.  I will share more about it in my next posting.  

I am now settled at Williams.  I really like this little mountain town.  It is at located about fifty miles west of Flagstaff off I-40 and is at over 7000 feet elevation so the air is thin and cool but the sun is hot.  It reminds me of the Pacific Northwest with all the pine trees and mountains. It is on Route 66 and small but quaint and really plays up the 50's theme when Route 66 was the big deal.  I will probably gain back a few pounds because I intend to eat in a few of those "joints". It was the last town by-passed by Interstate 40 and is only about fifty miles from the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  I may drive up for a day trip.  

I will tell you more about this town and what happens after I leave here in my next posting. 
That's it for now.  

Happy Trails........

Texas and Beyond Plus Some Really Good News

Writers Block

I have been in a writer’s slump for awhile….actually for about four months!  I came down to Texas for the winter as I usually do.  Some of my time was spent with my siblings in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area during the holiday season. 

I was lucky enough that my son, Jason and his family, wife Anna and children, Kaitlen and Shawn came by my cousin’s home to visit for a few hours while they were in Dallas visiting some friends of theirs.  It was great to see them and introduce them to their cousins and see their Aunt Hazel.  And it was great to see my beautiful little grandchildren again.

Shawn, Jason and Grandpa

Nephew Kevin and Cousin Edna

Jason, Anna, Shawn, Kaitlen and me

Edna and Hazel

Rockport, Texas

After that visit I went to Rockport on the Gulf Coast of Texas to stay for a few months because it is warmer there normally. That stay was pretty routine and boring for me and the weather was not very nice.  However a new turn in the road of life happened while I was there.  Here are some Rockport photos and then I will tell you my story.

Rockport Bay

Rockport looking at the Gulf

Daylight After Darkness

My story began two years ago while I was in Rockport for the winter where I met some folks at the RV park we were all staying in that are still my friends.  One couple, Don and Margie, became close friends and actually moved to Oregon and bought a home after many years full time in their RV on the road.  They originally were from Georgia but love it in Prineville, Oregon now.  Anyway, that winter of 2012 was a very low time in my life as I had just lost my beautiful and wonderful wife of 46 years, Pati, the summer before to inoperable brain tumors. All I could think about was just trying to get through each day one day at a time, not knowing where or what I was going to do without her….thus the reason for my blog’s name.  It was a very difficult time for me then and for a long time after.

Margie kind of took me under her wings and hung out with me and helped me through the tough times while we were there.  She told me about a friend she had known all her life that lived in Kalispell, Montana that she thought I should meet.  Margie felt we were meant to meet each other because of our similarities.  I had just secured a summer job in East Glacier Park and she thought we could have some dinners etc together while I was up there.  I told her I would think about it but probably not going to happen. I did not contact her friend. 

The story jumps to this past summer of 2014 when I was leaving their house in Oregon after a visit for my annual jaunt to Texas.  Margie asked me when I was going to call her friend, Cathryn.  It had been a few years since she first asked and I told her that if Cathryn wanted to call or email me now that I would respond as one could never have enough friends.  I just did not have the guts to make the first move.  I did not even know what this lady looked like.  Margie told me she is a retired educator, high school principal, to be exact, after forty years.  She was close to my age and had been single for about twenty years.

I did get an email from Cathryn introducing herself. Cathryn told me Margie has been after her for two years to contact me and she also hesitated but it felt right this time she asked so she took the first step.  I wrote back and we have been corresponding daily via email and phone calls since that first contact in October. After grieving so long from losing Pati this was like a lifeline thrown to me that I was not looking for since I was kind of drowning in my own self pity. We have very similar interests and wants and concerns and visions so it has been a joy to talk with her every day like a pen pal and get to know her.

After about three months, we decided that she should fly down to Rockport and we could meet each other in person so we planned that trip for a week the first part of February. We met, we liked each other in person more that we did on email and phone, and we could not shut up for the whole week.  We cooked together and laughed together and really bonded.  It was a wonderful week and we both agreed that we will continue our relationship going forward.

So, without more details, I have a special lady in my life now and I am trying very hard to move forward with my life, which is getting easier each day with Cathryn’s help.  We plan to meet in Las Vegas the first part of May and she is going to spend some more time with me, actually living and traveling with me, in my 5^th wheel as we travel back up to her home in Kalispel, Montana.  From there we will see where the days and the roads take us as we continue to build on this new relationship.

Cathryn Louise McDevitt

Now, for those that are lucky enough to read my blogs, I would like to introduce you to my new best friend, Cathryn McDevitt.  I have a feeling you be hearing a lot more about her in the future.

Cathryn

Cathryn during our visit in Rockport.  Shrimp before the grilled oysters!

Moving On

Back to the present time.  I am staying at a corp. of engineer’s campground on Canyon Lake, just north of San Antonio, Texas.  After visiting with old friends around here, I am heading west next week to Silver City, NM and Casa Grande, AZ then to Prescott Valley, AZ before getting to Las Vegas and on to Hurricane, Utah where my brother, Mac, lives and then back to Montana and the west coast. We are actually planning a trip to NY and New England next fall and plan to spend next winter together on the road.

Looking out from my camp spot

Right outside my window.  Fourteen deer!

Canyon Lake.  Very low.

I hope to share many adventures with you more often that I will also be sharing first hand with a gal from Montana named Cathryn and her beautiful Golden Retriever, Annie.  As my sister in law Susan always says, and until now I cringed every time she said it, but no longer…..LIFE IS GOOD!

Happy Trails to you.............until we meet again.