In Search of Warm Weather

We found it!  It's almost too warm here in Redmond, Oregon.  And now it's warm at home, too.  We had a week to go on a short RV trip.  We thought about going to Port Angeles, WA and Olympic National Park but when we were making reservations, it looked cool and rainy there, so instead we decided to go to Bend/Redmond.  Now at 5:10 pm, the temperature is 90 degrees and we can't complain about no sunshine!  The humidity here in Redmond is 13% right now, so we this is a "dry heat"!  The temperature at our home in Vancouver, WA is 80 degrees right now, with humidity 43%--not bad at all.   Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest!

We never get tired of this view of Mount Hood from east-bound Highway 26, west of Government Camp.

The small village of Government Camp.

No decision needed here--we're continuing to head east on Highway 26!  east on Highway 26!

We saw Mount Jefferson

and an interesting rock formation in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation area.

Entering Madras.

The Three Sisters Mountains and the sagebrush terrain of the high desert.

We are staying at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center RV Park.  It's a good park, all paved, full-hookups including 50 amps, good free wifi, satellite reception, and a price of $35 per night.  A deluxe RV Park in Bend, Crown Villa, charges up to $80/ night.  No, thanks!  The Deschutes County Fair starts on Wednesday, but we were still able to get a reservation for seven nights.

We love seeing the blue sky above us in site #B7.  Fairgrounds buildings are in the background.

The RV park registration building contains a laundromat, rest rooms, and a meeting room.

In my next blog post, I'll write about our day trip to Prineville, Oregon,  and the Prineville Reservoir.

Crossing and Re-Crossing the Columbia River

We left the lovely golf course at Deer Park bright and early this morning.  After finally finding our way to US Highway 395 South, we made our way through Spokane and onto I-90 West.  At the rest area near Ritzville, we saw this curious sign:

Sure enough, there were the seagulls, feasting at the rest area, only 300 miles from the ocean.

We saw amber waves of grain...

...and places to store the grain.

We saw dust devils.  It was indeed windy as the day went on.

The first time we crossed the Columbia River was in the Tri-Cities at Kennewick.

The second time we crossed the river was at Umatilla, where we entered into Oregon.

It was still very windy as we made our way to I-84.  See why this area is called the Columbia River Gorge?

John Day Dam

And the dam's patriotic U.S. flag

Biggs Junction Bridge near Maryhill, where we will cross the Columbia River back into Washington.

Maryhill State Park, where we hoped to spend the night, was full, so we went next door to Peach Beach Campark.  We were lucky to find a pull-thru site for the evening.  We have no sewer hookups, but we have free wifi, cell service, satellite signal, 50 amp power, and water--all for $30.  They can get those kind of rates because the park is right on the river and enjoyed by both campers and wind surfers. 

Site#69, our home for the night

Little peach trees and big peach trees at Peach Beach Park.

Tomorrow, after we cross the Columbia River back into Oregon, we'll drive for two more hours and then cross the river again near the Portland Airport to get back to Washington.  This summer's vacation trip to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks will be nothing more than memories and pictures...

...and a rock chip in the motorhome's windshield that looks amazingly like a larger version of all the smashed bugs!

Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, OR

We are staying at Olde Stone Village RV Park in McMinnville, Oregon for the last few days.  The RV park is reasonably priced at less than $30/ day with a Good Sam discount.  The park has nice paved sites with full hookups including 50 amp and good free Wifi and cable TV.  There's a playground, a sports court where we played pickleball, and a pool.  For garbage, the park has a trash compactor, which we've never seen at an RV park. 

The best part about this RV park, however, is its proximity to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.  There's a path leading from the park to the museum, which we took this morning when we went on an all-day visit to the museum. 

The museum admission price is a bit steep at $27 per adult, which includes admission to the aviation museum, the space museum, and one IMAX movie.  With our AAA discount, though, we only paid $20 per person for the two of us.  

This museum houses the Howard Hughes' infamous Spruce Goose seaplane  which flew only once.  Sometime in the early 1980s, Dave and I visited the Spruce Goose at its old home in Long Beach, California, next to the Queen Mary luxury liner.

We moved from California to Washington in January, 1993, and during 1993 the Spruce Goose made its way by barge from Long Beach, CA to Astoria, OR, then up the Columbia River, and up the Willamette River until it finally arrived by truck in McMinnville.  The Spruce Goose was reassembled, painted, and installed at its new home at the newly-built Evergreen Aviation Museum. 

This was our first visit to this fine museum.  We chose to watch the noon showing of the 3-D IMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope.  Dave and I always enjoy IMAX movies, and this one was definitely worth seeing!

The newest addition to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum is an indoor waterpark called Wings and Waves.  The waterpark opened yesterday and looks to be a hit with anyone liking water slides and wave pools.  The difference between this and any other waterpark, is that the slides in this park originate in a 747 jet on top of the roof of the waterpark.  The waterpark admission charge is $30 per adult and $25 per child. 

  The water slides come out of the 747.

An actual piece of the Berlin Wall

 

Rhododendrons outside the museum

Wenatchee, Washington

Thank you very much to all who commented on both sets of my Sophie pictures.  As much as we would like to see our new granddaughter every single day, we thought we had better let the new parents settle into an at-home routine.  We decided to go on a ten-day trip with our motorhome.  Our destination was Wenatchee, the apple capital of Washington state.  Wenatchee is a good six hour drive from our home in Vancouver, WA, a bit further than we prefer to drive in a day, but definitely do-able.

We took Highway 97 north from I-90 to Highway 2, then east to Wenatchee.

The scenery was spectacular while traveling on US Highway 97.  Those are the Cascade Mountains in the distance.

  

One of the highlights of a trip to Wenatchee is staying at Wenatchee Confluence State Park--a confluence where the Wenatchee River meets the Columbia River.  When we arrived yesterday, the sun was out, the temperature was fairly warm, but it was windy as it often is in this area. 

We are taking advantage of the final three days of using our senior resident off-season state park camping pass.  We are camping for $6 per night, but not on weekends in April, and not after April 30--until October, that is, when we'll buy another pass for $50 and start the process again.   As Dave mentioned in his blog, this park is fully booked for this weekend because of Wenatchee's Apple Blossom Festival which starts tomorrow.  When we come back here next week, we will have to pay the regular rate of $28 per day. 

Pull-thru site #13

Our view of the Columbia River

We Made it to Pismo Beach!

Yes, that's a palm tree!

Excuse the sun peeking over our motorhome, but we didn't get to Pismo Beach until 3:40, so the sun was already getting low.  I'm not complaining about the sun, because it was great to see the sun.  Pismo Beach has been having some very nice weather and I'm glad we got here before it eventually starts raining again.

We made pretty good time getting here from Grass Valley.  After settling up with DeMartini RV, we left there at 8:40 am.  Again, there was NO CHARGE for any of the things we had repaired during the past two days.  They worked with Fleetwood to see that everything was covered under warranty, even though our warranty technically expired in mid-October, 2010.  We can't recommend DeMartini RV Sales and Service high enough.  Be advised, though, they sell and service motorhomes only.  No trailers or fifth-wheels were in sight. 

We're staying at Pismo Coast Village in site #161 which has our requested amenities of full hookups, 50 amp, free wifi, and satellite signal.  We reserved 28 days in this park, which is the longest that we've stayed anywhere, except at home.  We're going to to try the snowbird life for a month!

After our 5-day visit to Pismo Coast Village RV Park in December, Dave and I decided to become shareholders in the park.  We bought one share a few days before Christmas.  Until Margie and Bruce explained in her blog about being shareholders in this park, we thought this was just a normal RV park.  Margie gave an excellent explanation of how it works, so click here to read what she wrote in September, just a few weeks before she and Bruce were tragically killed.  Of course it's bittersweet to be here, but I think Margie and Bruce would approve of our purchase and our month-long stay.

Margie and Bruce during our visit in Astoria, June, 2010

We bought one share, which entitles us to stay up to 45 days each year.  In addition, some of the prime-time dates can be traded for 2 non-prime time dates.  That's a good deal for us, because we plan to rarely be here during the prime time season, which is all summer and some fall and spring weekends, along with some holidays. 

The best part for us is that this is NOT a timeshare.  It's an ownership share, which is like a share of stock.  We can sell it any time and the shares generally hold their value pretty well.  There are no maintenance fees, no monthly fees, no fees at all.  The upkeep of the park is paid for by the non-shareholder public who stay in half the sites, with the other half of the 500 sites being reserved for shareholders.  It's a popular park right on the beach, and has been here for 35 years.