Going In Circles
So instead we’re parked in Denver in cool, windy, rainy weather. It’s an unusual pattern for this time of year here. Usually it warms into the mid-90’s on summer days, cooling to the upper 60’s at night, with occasional thundershowers. Instead, it’s currently 61º and foggy/drizzly, with a forecast high of 77º this afternoon. But I’m not complaining; I’m sure we’ll soon be wishing for cooler weather.
When I closed the last post, we were parked just east of Portland. We spent a great week there exploring the area. We spent a day in downtown Portland, one of my favorite cities. We drove up Mount Hood and watched people ski. We met our friends the Duncans in Hood River. We attended a Scottish Festival. Oh, and we visited several brew pubs. Our favorite was the McMenamins Edgefield location. McMenamins is an Oregon tradition, a brewing company with pubs in a number of Oregon locations. Their Edgefield location a 74 acre site, heavily wooded, with a hotel, several pubs and restaurants, and outdoor entertainment venues. If you get a chance, be sure and visit them.
We left Portland last Sunday and spent one night in Pendleton, OR. Pendleton is a cool little town, home to the Pendleton Woolen Mills. It’s also home to the Prodigal Son Brewing Company. I’ve overnighted in Pendleton before and always enjoy a return visit.
Next morning we followed I-84 southeast over the Blue Mountains to Boise, ID. I’ve been to Boise several times, including a couple of extended stays while in the Air National Guard. The Guard base at the Boise Airport is a very nice little base with seven RV parking spots.
We arrived in Boise and stopped at a Les Schwab tire store to have the front tires balanced. Of course, it’s never that simple. Turns out that the front end was badly out of alignment and the tires were badly worn and cupped, causing the vibration. Two new tires and an alignment, and about $900 dollars poorer, we had the problem solved. Lesson learned: Pay attention to the front tires and have the alignment checked at the very first sign of wear!
The rest of our three-day stay in Boise was enjoyable. We took the pup to Ann Morrison Park, a beautiful park in the middle of town. We discovered the park in 2008 on our first stop in Boise. It’s a real treasure for the people of the city. We also, of course, explored the very active Boise brewing scene. Our favorite pub was Sockeye Brewing. Their beer and food were both great, and their wait staff was the friendliest we’ve seen for a while. If you hit Boise, give them a visit.
On Thursday we continued southeast on I-84 and stopped at HIll Air Force Base in Ogden, UT for the night. We only ventured off base for a couple of hours for dinner and beers at Rooster’s Brewing. Then it was up early the next morning, hoping to beat the inevitable Wyoming heat and wind as we made our way eastward on I-80 to Rawlins. We just made it in time, as a thunderstorm hit the park shortly after we arrived. We considered a trip into town to a restaurant but decided that since (a) the weather was still acting up and (b) there aren’t any interesting restaurants in Rawlins, we’d just cook dinner and stay in for the evening. Traveling in your home has its advantages.
We again rose early on Saturday and drove to Frederick, CO to the Transwest Truck, Trailer and RV shop for some motorhome service. We were supposed to have a new tailpipe extension installed, but the part they’d ordered was the wrong one. So we just had an oil and filter change and then headed south to some friend’s house for the evening.
Rob and Heather have been two of our closest friends for a number of years. They live in a beautiful home on an acreage near Elizabeth, with plenty of space to park our rig for the night. Another friend, Katy, dropped in and we enjoyed a nice dinner and evening with them. It’s great to see old friends and catch up on what’s been happening. Thanks for the hospitality, our friends!
On Sunday we traveled a short distance north to Cherry Creek State Park and settled into a nice RV spot in the Coyote loop. One of the cool things was watching Muffin as she recognized where she was. Shortly after arriving, she decided we were going to the lake. She took the lead and pulled me all the way there. The lake is low and a little grungy, but she enjoyed playing in the water anyway. She’s a happy pup when water is near.
We’re here for a week while we catch up with friends, visit doctors and dentists, and prepare for the rest of our journey. Next week we’ll travel to my son Mark’s house in Missouri, the first leg of a trip that will land us in Asheville, NC in a couple of weeks. But for now, we’ll just enjoy one of our favorite places on earth, Denver.
(Sorry for the photos—few and of poor quality. My camera somehow erased its SD card so I picked a few from our iPhones instead. Time for a new camera?)
Alan
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Cannon Beach, Astoria and Portland
We left Newport on Sunday the 7th and traveled up-coast to Cannon Beach, checking in to the Cannon Beach RV Resort, where we met our good friends Bobb and Jackie Duncan. Bobb and I flew F-4’s and F-16’s together in the Air National Guard in Fort Smith, AR, for several years. We consider the “Dunkers” some of our closest friends. We spent the next week together in Cannon Beach and Astoria. We ate and drank too much, told tall tales, and laughed a lot. It’s good to be with trusted friends again.
Cannon Beach is a great little coastal town. The main drag through town is only a few blocks long, but has many great little shops and restaurants and pubs tucked away in side streets and alleys. If you happen to be in the area, I recommend a visit. The area around town has some beautiful beaches and lighthouses. As usual, we spent a lot of time on the beach. One of the best in the area is in Ecola State Park at the end of a long road that winds up and down hills in the forest. It’s a beautiful area.
Unfortunately, the coast is experiencing a major problem. Debris from the Japanese tsunami is coming ashore every day. Much of it is covered with plant and animal life not normally found on the U.S. coast, putting them in the “invasive species” category. Scientists fear that some of these species will prove devastating to local plant and animal life, and will likely upset the ecology along the coast for years to some. During our stay on the coast, we’ve found numerous items from the tsunami, many covered with suspicious looking animal life. Whenever possible, we put the items in special trash containers that have been placed on beaches throughout the area.
Now back to our travels. After three days in Cannon Beach, we moved to a small park just outside Astoria. Ann and I spent time in Astoria during our earlier fulltiming stint, but its such a nice city that we decided to make another visit. We stayed mostly in town except for a one-afternoon visit to Cape Disappointment. Astoria lies at the mouth of the Columbia River, home to some of the most fearsome seas in the world. The Maritime Museum there does a great job of documenting the bravery of the men and women who brave the seas in the area. Astoria and the surrounding area remains one of our favorite places on the west coast.
We left Astoria last Sunday, parting company with our friends. They returned to their home on the Columbia River east of Portland, while we moved to a nice RV park on the eastern edge of the city. We spent the week touring the area, cleaning the salt off the motorhome and car, and catching up on all the things that had been neglected while we were having so much fun. Today, Saturday, we visited a Scottish festival in the community of Gresham, just east of Portland. All in all, it’s been a good week.
But with that, our time on the coast comes to an end. It’s been fun, but tomorrow we head east seeking new adventures. Maybe we’ll return some day, but if not we have enough great memories to last a lifetime. I hate to say goodbye to such a special place, but we must.
Alan
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Newport
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month since my last post. We’ve been busy!
We arrived at Newport, OR, on the 10th and settled into a site at the Port of Newport Marina & RV Park. Newport is, in my opinion, the jewel of the Oregon coast. The main part of town is on the north side of the bay, with the marina and a few other things on the south side. The bridge across the bay is one of twenty-one majestic bridges designed by Conde McCullough in the 1920’s and 30’s. It’s a beautiful bridge in a beautiful setting.
As luck would have it, we arrived the day before the third annual Newport Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Clan Morrison wasn’t to be represented at the festival, so we unloaded our box of clan goodies and volunteered. We are “conveners” for Clan Morrison of America, which allows us to officially represent the clan at events such as this. We spent two very windy days at the fairgrounds wearing kilts, listening to bagpipes, sampling Scotch whisky (yes, the spelling is correct—no “e” in whisky if you’re referring to a Scottish variety), and meeting a lot of fine folks. Very tiring, but very enjoyable.
A few days later, the first of two sets of friends arrived. Doug Kirschke and I were Marine pilots who served together aboard the USS Independence many years ago. Doug and his wife Sue recently retired and are on the go non-stop, putting many thousands of miles on their airplane. They flew in to the Newport airport and I hauled them to the Newport Belle, a bed-and-breakfast boat anchored in the marina a few hundred feet from where our motorhome was parked. Very convenient.
Then, a few days later, Mike and Louana Green drove down from their home in Washington and moved in to the Belle with Doug and Sue. We spent several wonderful days catching up on the present and remembering our shared pasts. We also ate a lot of food and drank a lot of wine and visited many of the beautiful places up and down the coast. It was great to see them, and a great break for Ann and me to have someone other than one another to talk to! Thank you for the visit, our friends.
Shortly after our friends left, the RV park began to fill up with Fourth of July vacationers. Soon there wasn’t a single spot left in either of the sections of the park or in the overflow area. Among the arrivals was a couple, Gene and Vera, who we met at Humbug State Park when we were there in May/June. Small world.
The Fourth was as you’d expect: lots of families and friends partying, kids popping fireworks, and, after dark, a great fireworks display put on by the town of Newport. Ann and I ate hotdogs and drank beer and enjoyed the day. Happy Birthday, USA!
Now for the good part. You’ve probably figured out by now that I like craft beer. Among my favorite breweries is the Rogue Brewing Company, which happened to be within crawling distance of where we were parked. Could it get any better?!! Needless to say, I’ve had a few of their beers, along with way too much of their great spent-grain cheese bread, while here. My single tip is, if you like IPA, try Rogue’s Brutal. It’s wonderful.
But Rogue wasn’t the only brewery we visited. In the nearby tiny town of Toledo, we found the Twisted Snout Brewing Company, next door to Pigfeathers BBQ, home of the best BBQ in Oregon. “Beer, blues, and BBQ” is the southern boy’s dream. Unfortunately, they didn’t play the blues, but their beer and BBQ made up for it. If you ever pass through here, stop in for ribs and an “Oops!” Golden Ale.
We also visited Corvallis twice while here. It’s a nice little town with three (I think) breweries. I had visited all of them a couple of years ago when I passed through on a motorcycle trip, so we focused on Flat Tail Brewing, my favorite. Their Rough Cut IPA is one of the best, IMO.
We also drove up to Lincoln City and visited the Rusty Truck Brewing Company and the Lighthouse Pub, one of the McMenamin’s chain of brew pubs. We enjoyed good food and good beer at both places.
We’ve had a great time here but it ends tomorrow, when we head north to Cannon Beach. We love Newport and, were it not for the four months of constant wind and rain during the winter, might consider settling here. Unfortunately, having lived in Denver for so long and enjoying over 300 days of sunshine per year, we’d go stir-crazy here, so we’ll keep looking.
No post would be complete without a photo of Muffin the Wonder Dog (we call her that because we wonder what kind of dog she is). She’s once again proven herself to be a beach dog, enjoying it even in the rain. What a joyous creature.
Alan
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