Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Albuquerque, NM
You're reading it right...we're in New Mexico. We've spent the last 5 of 6 days driving 1400 miles to get past mountain ranges and snow. Don't get us wrong, we love playing in the white stuff just not driving in it - especially in an RV. Here are some of things we saw on our drive: snow, standing water in the desert, flowing muddy water in the desert (all signs of the bad weather here), and a home-made hippie mobile (see pic below).
   

We took one day off from driving and played in the Petrified Forest Nat'l Park. Spent most of the day driving through the park and taking short walks to check out the stone trees and painted desert. It was quite amazing to see the colors that iron and manganese creates in the petrified wood and the clay dunes. I still love the purples and blues the most. Erosion continues to alter the landscape and bring more and more petrified logs to the surface. It's a good thing more wood is being exposed considering a lot of the petrified wood has been stolen over the years.
     
Well, Andy has been asking for "the desert" again (meaning warmth and sunshine) and we're definitely here. Red rock, buttes, canyons, and cactus. We've had sunshine, but not necessarily warm weather (nights are going to the 30's still).

Jim and Chris just pulled out of the campground. We're so sad. They were able to detour slightly on their trip from Santa Fe to Roswell to spend last night with us here in Albuquerque. It was great to see them and incredible that this is the third time since buying our RV that we've crossed paths with them. We had them over our house for dinner last night making them the first dinner guests in our travelling home.
 
Good news! We've talked with a Ford dealer and it looks like we can finally get the recall repairs done here in Albuquerque. We are going to stay another day so we can take the rig in tomorrow for the new parts for the anti-lock braking system.
10:14 am pdt


Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Ashland, OR
Aaacck! We're stuck on the wrong side of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges! Our plan to go southeast via CA89 to Lassen Volcanic NP has been foiled - road closures due to snow (2-4 feet of it). Plan B: head east via OR66 then 140 is no longer possible - chains are required to get through the passes. Plan C (created out of desperation since it doesn't look like the weather is going to change for 10 days): head north then east - not an option because of 15" of snow at Crater Lake, chains are required. Plan D: stay here in Ashland while it rains and hovers at 40 degrees - doesn't sound like fun now that the gang is gone. Plan E: I-5 south. It's our only option. We're heading to Sacramento and will keep our eyes on this winter storm to see if I-80 reopens (chains required to get over the passes) or continue south to I-40. We didn't want to retrace our steps, but we're not always in control of our destination are we? We'll just roll with the changes...as long as we don't "roll" into a snowdrift somewhere! Guess we just didn't start heading home soon enough. But the visit with friends was worth it.
5:54 pm pdt


Monday, October 18, 2004

Ashland, OR
We came to Ashland specifically to see my girlfriends since we figured we weren't going to get down to San Francisco. They meet in Ashland every year for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Some come from Portland, some from San Fran. Surprisingly the drive is about half way for both groups. It was a wonderful weekend. We walked around the shops and saw some plays, went for a run and a bike ride, and played some games. Chicken-foot (a dominoes game) was the one game everyone could play. Considering there were 13 of us (including 2 babies) it was amazing the kitchen table could accomodate everyone.
   
We're kinda sad right now since everyone has left and we're still here in Ashland. We were planning on leaving this morning, but a snow storm in Lassen Volcanic NP (our next stop) is supposed to bring 16" of snow and tomorrow winds are expected to be around 40 mph, with gusts of 70 at higher elevations. We decided to wait and let the storm pass before heading southeast over the mountain range. So, we will have to wait and see when we will leave Ashland and exactly where we are headed next...
5:45 pm pdt


Saturday, October 16, 2004

Brookings, OR to Redwoods Nat'l Park, CA
In Brookings we stayed at Harris Beach State Park, a great little park up on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. We hiked down the path during the day checking out the rocks at low tide and later at high tide to see how the landscape changes. That night we went out to the bluffs and watched stars. Weather was comfortable to walk around at night and without a moon the stars were extra bright in the sky.
 
The Redwoods are actually protected by a combination of State Parks and National Park. Its a long skinny grouping of parks that encompasses the remaining 4% of old-growth redwood forest (of the original 2 million acres as of 1850) and runs along the coast. We stayed in Jedediah State Park which is in the most northern section. One day we travelled throughout the park driving the scenic Coastal Drive and Newton Drury Road, stopped to watch the elk cooling off in a pond near Davison Road, and hiked a trail through Lady Bird Grove. It's rutting season for the elk so we had hoped to hear the males "bugling" and to see some territorial displays but it must've been too hot for them to fight over their women.

     
After putting 130 miles on the car that day-trip we realized that Jedediah offered some of the most beautiful old-growth anyhow, so the rest of the days were spent hiking and biking in the State Park. The redwoods are incredible - the can grow to 367' tall and have bark 12" thick. Andy measured one with a 67' circumfrence. Our necks ached after days of looking straight up. But it was the quiet in the forest that was so powerful. At times when you stopped hiking and just stood still the only sounds you could hear would be the ringing in your ears or an occassional "tweep" from a small bird. And if you met other hikers, there was a tendency to whisper your greetings. It was unnatural to hear voices or sounds of man when standing amongst trees ranging 200 - 1500 years old.
  

Unfortunately we didn't get much sleep our first two nights in Redwoods. The first night our LP alarm kept going off - we never figured out why but the only way we got it to stop was to shut off the propane at the valve. Knock on wood, it hasn't happened again since. The second night we thought we had gotten used to the sounds of thumb-sized redwood cones falling on the roof of our RV (imagine rocks pounding on a fiberglass/plastic roof), but when branches started to fall we started to have visions of what damages could occur. Apparently the wind picked up during the night and knocked some dead branches loose. No damages occurred, but it was a fitful sleep.
 
2:02 pm pdt


Saturday, October 9, 2004

Coos Bay, OR
The first day in Coos Bay was foggy and cloudy. The second day was worse. It poured rain most of the day. Yesterday afternoon we needed a little break from the RV so we walked some shops and saw a matinee...Shark Tales. Our plans were to leave this morning but when we woke up and saw sunshine, we thought we'd stay and check out the beaches here. The waves were some of the largest we've seen. We drove several miles along the coast stopping at different areas to watch the waves. Here's what we saw...
 

 

** Learned later that these aren't kelp, but are called Sea Palms.

One of the viewpoints near Cape Arago was overlooking Simpson Reef. The rocks were covered with a plethora of marine mammals - harbor seals, california sea lions, stellar sea lions, and elephant seals. At first glance we thought the brown was the sand on the beach. A second look through binoculars showed us seals and seal lions galore.

We took a break from wave watching and walked through Shore Acres Botanical Gardens. A beautiful little garden managed by Oregon State Parks system.
 

We're heading south tomorrow. Should be at Redwoods NP Monday and on to Ashland, OR by Friday to meet up with Rene, Stacy, Tatiana, and the gang.
8:12 pm pdt


Thursday, October 7, 2004

Lincoln City, OR to Coos Bay, OR
We had stopped in Lincoln City since it was foggy and we thought we could hit the Factory Shops there. Also, the town puts out "Float Fairies", hand-made glass balls, on the beach as a seek-and-find game. If you find one, it's yours. Sounded like fun since there aren't many shells to look for on these beaches. Unfortunately they don't put them out on the beaches til October 16th - we're a little too early. At the Factory Shops, we stopped in at a camera shop. My Olympus has been driving me nuts because the media card has repeatedly become damaged somehow and I couldn't re-format the card. It happened again, so I was debating between a new card or a new digital camera. I'm not one to make impulse decisions, but I was limited on time. We went to the library so I could research price comparisons so at least I knew the price was reasonable. We went with a Nikon Coolpix 4800. Maybe you'll see a difference in my photos? Nah, the learning curve is starting over again.

Our stays have been so short - just one or two nights - that we're getting confused again as to where we are, where we've been, and we can't remember what we did yesterday. But we gotta keep moving down the coast.

Spent two nights at South Beach State Park in Newport. Toured the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. BLM manages the lighthouse and it was surprising to find that they converted an old quarry into a handicapped-accessible low-tidal zone. It wasn't low tide when we visited, but we did see some lounging seals. The aquarium had Leafy Seadragons and a Weedy Seadragon - the most beautiful and intricate sea horses I've ever seen, especially the Leafy. The tanks filled with pacific fish, sea plumes, sea stars, etc all made us miss scuba diving very much. An outdoor aviary for seabirds finally allowed me to see, and up close, the elusive Tufted Puffins.
 

 
We finally made some distance today. 100 miles to Coos Bay. Along the way we had plans to stop at several viewpoints, but the fog was so thick we were happy to see the cars in front of us. We stopped at one overlook that did allow us to look down and watch "spouting horns". Holes in the rocks would spout sea water when waves would come ashore. You could really sense the power of the ocean standing here and seeing it funnel down narrow rock channels.

7:18 pm pdt


Monday, October 4, 2004

Portland, OR to Lincoln City, OR
Sorry, just lost all my text during the upload...this will be the abbreviated version since I'm frustrated and running out of time :)

We did end up spending one more night in Portland due to our converter dying. It wasn't the fan, but the converter itself and it was a good thing we took the time to make the appointment since it was dead. Kaput. No wonder our batteries weren't recharging to full capacity.

We've been on the coast of Oregon for six days now and have only made it to Lincoln City. It's been beautiful, when the fog has allowed us to see anything. We've hiked several trails on different capes. We've played in the tidepools looking for lil' critters. We've watched incredible sunsets from the pacific beach. And, we even got our kayaks out onto the Nehalam River. The coast is rugged with cliffs, forests, and large monoliths. We've seen lots of birds, mostly pelicans, gulls, and cormorants, and we've seen seals.
 

We're still trying to get used to the constantly changing weather here. The layers are added and removed minute by minute. Heck, even the fog comes and goes depending on whether your inland or on the beach, high on a hill or low in a valley. It's difficult to know how to be prepared for all the variances.
 
We did get our sand-sleds back out yesterday at Pacific City. There is a large, vertical sand dune at Cape Kiwanda that was perfect. The sand was a little soft, but the slope helped accomodate for that. Diane went faster than she preferred, and Andy couldn't go fast enough! When Diane tried to slow herself down she'd put her feet down and sand flew into her face and mouth. We're hoping our grey tanks can handle all the grit that was flushed into it after our showers last night.