Clouds

"Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feather canyons everywhere"... As Joni Mitchell starts her epic description of struggle with her view of life. Since last Friday after work at Oregon State University, I spent over 2200 miles of road time along (more on that in another post to come) Although I enjoyed the scenery at 75 mph, I have to say that I did have moments when I was looking for something to help pass the miles.. Then I discovered right there in front of me an everchanging canvas of beauty. Seeing sunrises and sunsets, with temperature variations from 47 Saturday morning in Bend to 105 Sunday afternoon in western Kansas, and elevations from 500 to over 5000 feet and back again, there was lots of variety provided. Since I was driving, some of the pictures may be "motiony", but if I had stopped every time I saw another gorgeous sight, I would still be in Oregon, rather than Indiana today. Hopefully the order will be near that of the trip, but I'm not promising anything. We start going over McKenzie Pass southwest of Sisters Oregon. If you've forgotten, Sisters in named as such because you can view the "3 Sisters" mountains from there. I went over McKenzie Pass near sundown, so got things like Mount Washington in sunset, and middle and south sister from a different viewpoint. I'll give more details about the trip later. The last picture was Monday morning driving from home to Indiana. Here we go. Hope you enjoy! Remember; if you click on the images, they get big, then you hit the back button to return here.

Actually this is the last picture in Indiana.

Wow that went fast

I write this during the last week of this stint. Last weekend, we went to one of our favorite places, the Lodge at Suttle Lake, where we have been a few times before, but again the first time during summer. As we approach the lake we are reminded by the massive forest fire that occured here in 2003, burning whole mountains full of trees, including the former lodge. The dead, burned out trees are much more obvious during the summer with the contrasting greenery which is missing during the winter. Thesc charred giants, slowly discintigrate while their little seedlings strive to replace them in covering this glorious scenery with evergreen. Our former pictures of Suttle Lake were made with ice on the lake. These early morning pics give us that "clear as glass" reflection image. The water that runs in the creek away from the lake is crystal clear. Check out this "petunia wagon" near Leavitt's Western Wear in Sisters.  After browsing a little in Sisters and snapping a few more pics of the 3 Sisters (mountains) we asked our new Garmin to guide us to Portland so Georgia could catch the plane to Indy Monday morning before I went back to the last week of work. (Feeling much better, but a bit lonely). We were a little surprised when Garmin took us, not up I-5, but through berry country via Oregon City, a delightful "side" trip. The only bummer was that we didn't have any way to handle berrys so we didn't stop, though we were really tempted. Somewhere on the trip, we hit something and I noticed the car shimmied a bit around 60 while driving back to Corvallis. Think I found a trustworthy auto shop. They have our car and have diagnosed a blown strut. I'll let you know later how that works out. One of the "summer" things we didn't get to do was visit "Mary's Peak", a nearby mountain in the coastal range that is the highest point on the coastal range. I decided that since I was going home alone anyway, and the sky was clear, I should trek up there Monday nite. Including filling up with gas, it only took me about an hour to reach the peak after work.  Wow. Although it was fantastic, by the time I got up there there were clouds forming over some of the things I wanted to see. Supposedly you can actually see the coast (about 40 miles away), several of the cascade peaks (100 miles) and Mount Hood east of Portland and even Mount Adams and some other peaks in the state of Washington. The most recognizable peak I saw was Mout Jefferson, near Sisters. However the clouds covered it before I coud get a picture. I tried to capture the grandure, but don't think I came close. As I was leaving, people were gathering to watch the sunset... I wasn't up to driving down the twisty-turney in the dark, so came on down. Hard to believe that majestic view is so close to Corvallis.

First week for this trip

Our 5th trip to Corvallis and our first one in July. I was only here about 2 days when I started with upper respiratory signs. Actually it lasted for about 2 weeks with 3 sleepless nights due to coughing. Since this county boasts as being the "Grass Seed Capitol of the World" and we have seen mountains of grass seed in piles, fields of gold in various stages from standing crops replete with seeds to fresh cut, to windrows to fields full of bails of various shapes and sizes, I had assumed that I had succumbed to the scourge of the northwest; allergy...  As I look back, I think I picked up someone's summer bug on the way out. That aside, when we came here last June, we got a glimpse of Oregon in bloom. Here in July we see more of the glory. Roadsides filled with Foxgloves and Sweet Peas and all kinds of yellow and white daisy types. I have seen more nasturtiums on the coast than I've ever seen.  And we have seen beautiful flowers that are completely foreign to us.. but the crowning glory, I think are the butterfly bushes that are 15 to 20 feet tall and blue hydrangias that are nearly azure, rather than the pale blue we sometimes see in the midwest. Our first weekend was spent on the coast. We returned to the Ocean House B&B in Newport for the overnight. Got to walk a bit at Lost Creek Beach where people were playing and walking and building sandcastles. Georgia found some black rocks.... lots of black rocks. We ate at "Nana's Irish Pub" in Newport, run by an Irish mother and daughter.... cool place, good food. http://nanasirishpub.com/ 

Sunday we headed north to Depoe Bay, Boiler Bay, and Lincoln City. (Whale sighting country).. Georgia who loves mistery stories, found an article in a local rag about this local author (Ronald P. Lovell ) a retired Oregon State University faculty member who was signing books in Lincoln City. To make a long story shorter, we found a recommended Bob's Beach Books and bought a couple of Lovell's books then made our way to Captain Dan's Pirate Pastry shop in Lincoln City where we found Mr. Lovell and a friend sitting at a table with several copies of his new book... Georgia got her books signed and her picture taken with the author. On the way back, she got some pictures of people flying kites along the ocean beach.. After stopping at Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay for a late lunch, we made it back before dark, ready for the second week.

July 2010 Wyoming to Corvallis

This post picks up were we left you in Gothenberg, Nebraska. We did make it to Rock Springs. Got a good night's sleep, then decided we had time to take the "Pilot Butte Wild Horse Loop". http://www.wyomingtourism.org/overview/Wild-Horses-Loop-Tour-/30913

Although the locals, all the pubs, etc. promised exciting experiences with "the most likely place in America to see wild horses".... the further we went, the more we got, "if you don't encounter wild horses, you still can take in the natural beauty"... It is worth the trip, just to see the terrain from that viewpoint, looking down across the valley onto Rock Springs and Green River, WY... and so much more. We saw lots of "road apples", some rather fresh. Antelope, mucho sagebrush, lots of really nice wild flowers, but the horses must have been elsewhere this day. There were a few other folks on the same hunt, including a family from Michigan who even called the agency number and got no help. You can see their vehicle in one of the pictures traveling the gravel roads that spider-web out from Sweetwater County road 53. Some of the places require 4-wheel drive, and some required more than we felt we had, but we did make it up the trail about halfway up Pilot Butte which is an impressive landmark that guided early travelers (thus Pilot). You can see from some of the pictures on the markers along the road that we are where horses have been... hence the poop piles. We could have gone back to Rock Springs to see some that they have penned up so you can really see a wild horse if you miss the free running ones.... as Georgia says,"I can see penned up horses anytime I want." As we made our way into Utah we were taken with the green mountains. It reminded us of pictures we have seen of Ireland.. We spent the next night in Twin Falls, Idaho where we had stopped in January 08, but this time there was a new Hilton Garden Inn... Nice place! From there our destination was Oregon. We had planned to go to Burns, Oregon which would have divided our remaining driving time in half, but there was some kind of festival there and no rooms. So we tried Bend, another 2 hours west... Two large festivals there including a music festival.... no rooms. We discussed it and decided to try for Sisters.. If you have read our past posts, you should see Sisters, Oregon several times. One of our "favs".. We called Five Pine Lodge to find out that there was a Quilt Festival for that day. http://www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org/  but she suggested that the Best Western Ponderosa might have a room.  Oh oh... We have been staying in places where we felt safe from surprises... But in our experience, with Best Western, you don't really know what you will get... We didn't want to go down the west side of the Cascades in the dark.... been there, done that... Called the Best Western and got a really nice suite for the night.. upper level and all. So we wondered and worried about what we would run into. When we left Interstate 84 in Ontario, Oregon and headed across the "Central Oregon Highway" (which by the way goes from Ontario to Newport (on the coast)), we knew we were facing lots of "nothing".. When we came across in January 08, it was snowy and bleak, and getting dark fast. This time much of it was green since they do a lot of irrigation on the east and west sides of the expanse. We saw our first fields of potatoes (yes in Oregon, not Idaho).. Lavender, Onions, and lots of alfalfa. It was 120 miles of "nothing" to Burns, then 90 miles more of the same to Bend.. Then all of a sudden, we were in the Cascades. Got into Sisters and stopped to eat at the Three Creek Brewery... See previous posts... we'd been there before.. I got a fantastic sausage sandwich and the best cup of gazpacho soup I had ever had... If Chess Adams reads this.... his was good, but this was just fantastic. After eating, we got to the Ponderosa Lodge and it was just great. http://www.bestwesternsisters.com/tour.htm Since the lodge borders a national forest, on the way to breakfast this morning, I saw some birds I had never seen before that make a really strange sound. The staff identified them as "Pinyon Jays".. http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/80/_/Pinyon_Jay.aspx   Today, we finished the trip and set up housekeeping at 800 SW Washington in Corvallis. I get to see what the OSU vet students assigned to Radiology remember from my teaching in winter quarter of 09.. and feel like a contributor to education again for a short time. Next weekend, we hopt to hit the coast and say hello to the Pacific Ocean.... Whales???? who knows. Hopefully they haven't heard from the White Mountain Wild Horse heard that we are coming!