Archive for ‘May, 2009’

WA to OR Photos plus

Yesterday’s drive was absolutely beautiful. The interstate hugs the shore of the Columbia gorge with wonderful views of the rushing water, barges, boaters and some lush looking vineyards. There are nice RV parks, state parks and camping areas (motels also) along the way and this area would be on my list to spend more time. It was the perfect temperature at 68. Occasionally a bit of wind but nothing too bad.

Bob and Karl shared a moment as I got situated at a rest stop. Karl rides on the couch behind the driver seat, Bob on the recliner across from him. On occasion they have shared the couch while underway, but typically, they like their own space!

No espresso, but a “safety” coffee trailer manned by husband and wife. I had coffee, was kind of hoping for donuts but cookies were the order of the day. I neglected to ask for names but had a nice chat and got some great info for returning. One thing we had passed was groves of cedar trees – I finally saw a sign that said cedar wood trees. They were fairly obviously planted “forests” – come to find out, they are for pulp and the locals call them toilet paper trees :)!

And a couple of blasts from the past – I was so surprised to see a phone booth that I had to take a photo – apparently it is currently an oft photographed item. Less photographed and coffee couple laughed with me, are the glass insulators – still apparently in working order!

I am not having a lot of luck with my windshield photos this trip. But, I had to try for Mt. Hood. I was completely surprised to round a corner and there he was. Mt. Hood is over 11,000 and standing there all by his self. Looks a bit small and lost in this photo, but trust me, it was spectacular to see!

The gorge…too tired to disappear the bugs…

You can see more of the gorge in my mirror, but I confess I was mostly shooting the GPS display. This is my first trip with the new version of Delorme Street Atlas and this is the best. All the good info is large and easy to read – on the left is miles until the next turn, miles to go and ETA. On the bottom is detail about the next turn including things like “stay in the left lane on the ramp”. This is the tool that makes it easy to do this on my own. Between the text and voice guidance, it is almost like having a co-pilot…neither Bob nor Karl like to look at a map… Anyway, am loving this latest version. San Fran will NOT beat us!

We all enjoyed a bit of relaxing outside before dinner. Another great day!

WA to OR

We passed a low key evening with a few walks and a late evening cup of tea (me) and roll in the grass (Karl and Bob). A restful night, a morning walk for all of us and we are about 30 minutes from departure – planned for 6:30 a.m. … I’m still on Mtn time even though we are officially Pac time – works for early leave-taking.

Route today is 395 to 84 along the Columbia Gorge to Portland where we pick up I-5 and head south. Shooting for Roseburg, OR for tonight.

8:10 a.m. First break – rest stop about 80 miles east of The Dalles on I-84. Hazy day promising heat in the valley but hopefully cooler by the river and the coast. We passed some WA vineyards this morning and then in OR, Cedar wood farms – incredible groves of cedars that looked like enchanted forests – beautiful!

No espresso stand here :)! – so made my own mocha. Karl and I will have a quick walk here and then get on down the road. ***there was a coffee stand, though – more later!

Noon – VERY quick stop for a break and a bite and a step out the door for a gorge photo – 20 miles east of Portland. An earlier fuel stop should take me to my end point today. Hope to stop longer after Salem. All is well, traffic is getting heavier and I expect will stay that way until after Salem.

2:20 p.m. – Had a nice walk at the best rest stop so far – nice green grass and shade in the dog area! We have a reservation in Roseburg, OR and should be there by 4:30-5:00 – sitting 120 miles away and ready to roll after a safety check.

5:00 p.m. nearly on the dot we arrived – beautiful!!! park – Rising River RV Park in Roseburg with such wonderful folks. And we have a tree and shade out our front door. I’m pooped – lots of photos to review – later or tomorrow on the blog.

Off we go, then

If this is your first “ride-a-long” on From the Front Porch, here’s the drill: I post my planned route and departure time, just before I leave for the day. I usually post some log items through the day and then my arrival.

Later, I delete the route info and any boring bits and change the post to the story of the day, hopefully with photos.

The route and log is a safety thing – family knows where I am.

7:42 a.m. We are all aboard, the Jeep is hooked up, engine is running and we are ready to roll so…off we go, then!

I stopped in Plains MT for a walk and a break. There is an espresso stand and they had fresh bagels so I decided I was hungry enough for a mini-meal: 1/2 bagel with sliced tenderloin I roasted yesterday to go with my latte. Beautiful morning and the drive along the lake and then the Clark Fork River Valley was beautiful. The River was high, fast and a churned up brown from run-off which is a departure from its usual clear green-blue.

No prize winning photos today…

Out the window, between a few bugs…I-90 approaching Coeur d’Alene, ID. Lake Pend Oreille as well as Coeur d’Alene Lake were beautiful – sparkling water, a few boats and the surrounding mountains. But no turn outs and a winding interstate with too much traffic to try for a shot.

Spokane traffic was busy but there is just I-90 so no complicated interchanges or spaghetti junctions.
Past Spokane, WA flattens out and is desert open range. But this time of year there IS a bit of green.

This rest stop was about 70 miles from Connell, WA. Karl and I had a good walk and called Coyote Run RV Park to see if they had a spot for us, which they did and we pulled in about 4:15 Mountain Time, 3:15 Pacific Time. We are on Pacific time now.

It was 82 when we parked. I run the generator and house a/c down the road so we were relatively cool when we arrived and soon on park power.

A good first day although tiring. We are only 317 miles down the road in 8 1/2 hours – 120 miles of 2 lane, a bit of construction, a bit of traffic making for slower progress. It is supposed to cool into the 40’s tonight so we’ll shoot for an early start in the morning and hopefully get our miles in a bit earlier tomorrow.

Getting ready to roll

After a weekend that felt more like mid-July, than mid-May, we are now feeling like mid-April …wonderfully cool 50 degree temperatures and lovely, gentle, “turn everything green” rain. The stuff that should be green mostly is, but things dry out so fast and the mountain snow pack is a bit light and everyone hopes for a good fire season as in no fires so the spring rains are good. We typically get very little rain in July and August.

As I’ve written previously, probably ad nauseum, Memorial Day weekend is most often cold and rainy, no matter how far away from the real Memorial Day we celebrate it. And it usually snows, if not flurries, at least snow in the mountains.

Ho….this year looks to be a bit different. The forecast is for warm (70’s) and sunny with just the slightest chance of a shower.

And below, my route to California – it looks really good all the way excepting the heat in CA where the A/C will get a workout.

The above for any interested, is courtesy of Weather.com Gold subscription. I pay $19.95 per year for this screen as well as the ability to completely customize all screens and remove all ads and extraneous stuff I don’t want to see. But it is the ability to look at weather for 10 cities that makes it worth it to me. I travel by rv any time of the year and have used this to see my route forecast. It has worked very well for me and is more efficient than manually looking at several cities as I move along. As a one woman show, I am all about efficiency :) !

The plan is to leave Friday morning and pedal to the metal on interstates after St. Regis. I hope to arrive Vacaville, CA (southwest of Sacramento) on Sunday afternoon and will park there 2 nights at what looks to be a lovely and hopefully shady, vineyard RV park. It will be a rest up and prepare for the last 100 miles of urban jungle driving. I have reservations in Pacifica, south of San Francisco, for a week. The rv park there is basically a parking lot for rvs – very narrow spots. It is on the ocean and across from a BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit) AND there is a woman who does dog walking and checking in the park so Karl and Bob will be checked on and hopefully Karl will agree to a midday walk-about…Mama’s boy will not always go with just anyone… I hope we’ll have a chance to meet the woman and have her take Karl for a spin with my encouragement which usually works.

The details of getting house and yard ready to leave have come along nicely. I managed to purchase the same water timer that neighbors Mike and Nancy did so they will be able to adjust mine easily if needed.

A last service appointment to check a few rv items has been completed and all is loaded except for the usual last minute things like me, pets, computers and frig food.

The only somewhat sad thing is that the lilacs and lilies of the valley are close but not close enough. I’ll miss them blooming. Maybe next year. I might pick a few sprigs to take with and see if they’ll bloom along the way.

We’re getting ready to roll.

8 years ago

Eight years ago today, Karl came home to be my dog. He was 7 weeks and a few days old, 14 pounds, a white strip down the middle of his forehead, one ear up and one down.

I lost my previous dog, Zack, a part-Karelian Bear Dog, to lymphoma when he was 6 years old. I was heartbroken and spent those first days looking at pictures of Karelians and of Zack and trying to ease the pain of the loss. I found a litter of Karelian pups in Choteau, MT. They were 5 weeks old. I called the owner and explained that I thought it was too soon to get another dog, but that I just wanted to see the pups. They were so nice and understood and I went – with photos of Zack and my beloved tuxedo cat Gus – to Choteau.

The owners patiently looked at my photos and listened to my Zack stories and then took me to see the pups. We sat on the ground outside the chicken coop where the pups were housed. Karelians, even the pups, are not gregarious and will take their time and decide about people. One, by one, the pups came to investigate me. The largest of the pups, a nearly totally black male crawled in my lap. I looked in his eyes and asked if he wanted to come live with me and be my dog. He fell asleep in my arms. I left a deposit and Gus and I returned in 2 weeks to get our new boy.

I had a Suburban at the time and it had a front bench seat that accomodated a large dog kennel sideways. I had soft towells and the teddy bear that Gus and I had slept with and then sent to be with Karl for the two weeks with the idea that he would know us from our scent. I don’t know if that helped, but he loved that bear! I put the towells and bear in the kennel with Karl. As we pulled away, he put his nose in the air and howled. Gus looked at me with a look that said: “What have you done?”.

I kept up a conversation, we stopped several times to walk outside and then in West Glacier, I stopped for a burger and crawled in the back of the Suburban, let Karl out and we bonded over beef.

As puppies do, he was either going full speed or dead asleep. He liked his crate or under a table or bed for sleeping – he has always been a “den” dog. It is the closet in this house.

He was the typical little brother, working hard to be a bud with his cat brother.

His other ear stood up…

His sense of humor grew…

Karl’s paper name is Kharlampii which is Russian for “Joy Shines”. Karelian Bear Dogs were bred in Finland from the Russian Laika so I looked for a Russian or Finnish name that fit that big, black pup. Kharlampii – Joy Shines, shortened to Karl, was perfect. Karl has lived up to his name. His joy shines every day.

Eight years ago today, Karl brought joy back to my house.