April/May 2023
Springtime with the Working Retired
Visiting and working our way through California and Oregon
We left southern Alabama in a bit of a rush in early February. Once we’d purchased our new motorhome during the winter, we knew we wanted to head for the west coast before long, as we were planning several work projects, and our preferred workers for these items were off in that direction. We knew it would be a busy, somewhat messy spring. And yup, it was all of that, but we had a lot of fun, too.
We started by heading for our solar guy in Arizona, and we’ve told you that worked out very well. Afterwards we settled in the desert for a couple of weeks, catching our breath and enjoying the freedom that plenty of solar panels brings. To say nothing of lovely sunsets.
Then it was on to California where we pick up our tale for this time! We crossed into the state through the two Bees, Barstow and Bakersfield, neither of which is any more interesting now than it was a million years ago… but it’s a nice enough road and takes you through some pretty country, especially in the spring. Post Bakersfield, coming west on Hwy 166 was delightful — fields in full-on green, the grapevines bursting into bloom, and lots of cows and sheep, etc. out enjoying the weather. And yes, the baby goats were gamboling.
Arriving on the coast (that’s the Pacific Ocean out there, if you’re lost) and moving north through the state, we were lucky enough to hit the Central Coast at the peak of this splendid display of wildflowers, and spent a day wandering in the Carissa Plains, snapping photos like crazy (the same wildflowers you were seeing all over the news back several weeks ago).
We also had good times with friends and family, enjoyed some of our favorite restaurants, visited old haunts, and definitely renewed our sense of what we like so much about the West Coast. Son Rick lives in Morro Bay and we had a nice visit with him, wandering down by the lovely harbor to enjoy breakfast and see the sea otters resident there. He also helped out by installing a pair of new faucets for us, which was a big help. We spent several days enjoying an RV park in Morro Bay, whose display of local wildflowers was equal to anything out there in the countryside. While we were in San Luis Obispo, we were twice gifted with the loan of a car by two different sets of super friends. It made seeing friends and just plain getting around so much easier. (This led to frequent discussions about the desirability of towing a car behind the coach when we’re traveling on the West Coast. The jury is still out on that one).
One special treat was a couple of days at a friend’s ranch out in the country. The peacocks were on parade (several more than the last time we were there, and far more than she ever desired — what noisy critters!), along with a zillion other animals to enjoy close up. It was so good to be there and to see her again.
Leaving the Central Coast, we now were headed north towards Oregon, with more work scheduled to be done on the coach, starting in Grants Pass. But there were more visits and friends to enjoy along the way.
During the pandemic years we had kept to ourselves more than usual, and we did some catching up this time. We can tell you that the town of Napa is as charming as ever; Santa Cruz friends who have recently purchased a home in a different section of the hills have a new and incredible view; Brentwood still has some of the best places to eat in the greater Bay Area; and Rocklin, near Sacramento, was perfect for hanging out with son Jason and his partner, Celexsy, who very thoughtfully drove down from Reno to see us. We had a great time together. The countryside is full of fields and flowers, and our friends and family are all doing well.
Moving further north, we spent a couple of days in Mount Shasta, enjoying the snow on the mountain peaks everywhere around. We had parked near some of the town’s sports fields, and with the good weather having arrived, all the spring activities were underway.
We sat and watched the afternoon and evening baseball games, featuring kids of all the various ages — some ready for the majors, but for others a bit premature. At one point we heard a strong male voice firmly shouting “You don’t cover shortstop, you cover third” and a cheer going up from the crowd on behalf of the ensuing home run. Baseball is always a joy to watch.
Climbing higher in the mountains we were seeing increasing amounts of remnant snow (late April), but also more trees in bloom; gobs of red bud and flowering pear. It’s a beautiful spring in the west.
Shortly before we crossed into Oregon, we took a couple of days and wandered along a tributary of the Klamath River, back to a small campground along a lake fed by a series of rivers. The water was high everywhere, there were wild horses wandering the area, we saw a grey fox (not in the same place where the horses were), we could have gone swimming (but the water was still muddy and really-really cold!), and it was great to have the time to enjoy it all.
But soon we had to get moving again. We regretted that we hadn’t been able to do all that we had hoped for in California, so, as always, we said goodby and promised ourselves to return again soon. As native Californians, it’s not like we need to be reminded at all, but still, somehow when we come through the state on our west coast swings we are indeed reintroduced to the beauty and variety of our home state.
On I-5, as you cross the state line into Oregon you travel through the Siskiyou Mountains. There still was a lot of snow here, going over the pass at 4310 feet.
We lingered for a couple of days with friends at their new home outside Rogue River, chatting about roads we’d both taken or were preparing to take. They are about to begin a trip into Alaska and northwestern Canada. We shared maps and ideas, and will look forward to hearing from them after they return — we are planning a similar trip for a year from now, and are already getting excited. Eventually we wished them a wonderful summer, and moved on to Grants Pass.
Our “starter” reason for being in southern Oregon was to further fix up our new home. In Grants Pass is a terrific diesel repair shop, and they do motorhomes along with many other kinds of beasties. The owner, a friend by now, has an RV very similar to our recent purchase. He tackled Slim Charles with glee and was happy to be in the midst of several projects for us — we would be here for awhile, we knew!
All in all, we spent the first week of May there, and it worked out fine. We hung out in restaurants parts of several different days, reminding ourselves that Shari’s still makes some of the best pie anywhere — their Key Lime Pie was pretty enticing, to say nothing of the splendid Marionberry pie… oh and Rick couldn’t resist their Chocolate Cream offering, though he tried — on three separate occasions. So we didn’t do too poorly. We like Grants Pass, and are pretty happy when there… even if industrial parking lots aren’t our favorite hangouts.
For those few who might be interested, while we did clean up a couple of oil leaks, the main items on the agenda for Slim were of the improvement variety rather than necessary repairs or service items. This somehow made it all more fun. Slim is now ‘slimmer’ and more agile, and also quicker than he was before. He now sports a much improved suspension: new shock absorbers, new air bags, a new rear sway bar and a larger front sway bar. And quicker as well, having been blessed with a tuning chip to improve the already excellent performance of what we’ve taken to calling the little engine that could — our 5.9 liter Cummins diesel. We also were able to take care of two appearance issues that had proven somewhat resistant to Rick’s best efforts. We got a very nice paint repair done at a reasonable price, and then the following week we had the rest of the coach polished and waxed — Slim finally has a little gleam to him that has been lacking heretofore. We now drive down the highway with smiles due to the ride, handling, performance and appearance enhancements we’ve added to our home.
When we were finished in GP, we moved further north, to Albany and another great family reunion with son Aaron and his wife, Carolyn (and got to meet their new dog, Pep, a real cutie and definitely full of it); and to nearby Junction City, home of the Davis Cabinets folks, who were going to update our kitchen cabinetry.
And this proved serendipitous. Our refrigerator (the 25 year old original unit) had begun to faint on us at various inappropriate moments and needed to be replaced. Given its age this was not a surprise to anyone. We had begun looking at possible places for such an activity, and were happy to be able to combine it with the kitchen cabinet project, which made perfect sense. While the kitchen cabinetry was being updated, we went further up the interstate (almost everything in Oregon can be found along I-5!), in the Davis’s own truck, and brought home a new fridge which they installed for us at the cabinet shop.
Once again, for anyone interested, the improvements we made in the kitchen have added tremendously to the usability of this most important area. We added a pull-out pantry in place of four narrow drawers, a separate regular pantry in the space freed up by the slimmer new fridge, and three new and sleek drawer spaces in the area previously occupied by two very clunky and hard to use drawers. In doing the pull out pantry, we also replaced a tattered end piece of 1/8” paneling with a beautiful new hardwood end panel that really improves the appearance of the room. All very nicely done. And for even more detail, the new fridge is a 12 volt all electric compressor type unit much like we had in the Tiger, ‘though a lot bigger. This means we’ll anticipate cutting our propane usage in half and won’t need to be as concerned about always parking on the level.
We ended up spending 10 days in Junction City, where it was starting to get increasingly warm in the Willamette Valley. We put out awnings, dug out fans, sat outside in the shade when possible, and worked on projects during the cool of the mornings.
One sidelight we enjoyed was that Junction City is a spot where two separate rail systems meet (hence the name), and one of them passes by quite close to where we were parked. We started to identify several frequent passers-by, and developed favorite engines — 2647 and 7509 were mine (as fans of the Denzel Washington movie, “Unstoppable”, we’ve gotten more interested in these things). There were commuter trains early and late, but mostly freight was being moved along: lumber, oil, and tons of containers. Amateur train spotters, that’s us.
And I spent most of an early morning, while checking out the town, watching tree trimmers top and then fell a huge tree that was in the way of pending new construction. Junction City is full of roses right now, and I’d not seen any so lovely for a long, long while. Sadly, I’d forgotten my camera, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
We finally finished the cabinetry and got the refrigerator all settled, and it was time to get moving again to head further north. We’d completed all of our scheduled work for Oregon, a total of over two weeks of spending our nights outside one shop or another and some of our days passing time in restaurants or libraries because the shop had no waiting room.
These are the things that sometimes lead us to think of ourselves as the ‘Working Retired’. As we’ve often commented before, living on the road is not just an extended vacation, though in some ways it shares the attractions of just that. Our life contains all the same things that yours does, with the differences being that our ‘favorite’ workshops, like our favorite restaurants, are scattered over a somewhat larger area. Also that when we need something done to our vehicle we can’t just drop it off at the shop, drive back home, and come back for it whenever they’re finished. When the vehicle is the home too it introduces some wrinkles. Ah well, nothing new here, we still wouldn’t trade places with anyone.
We spent one last night in Albany with Aaron & Carolyn, then the next morning drove north, into Salem, the capital of Oregon. Our route took us through downtown, and it’s still a pretty place, with lots of trees. Looks like it’s maybe losing a little ground to the cities around it (Portland isn’t all that far north, and it seems to be taking over the entire state), but one great treat is that you get to cross the lovely Willamette River right among the office buildings, over pretty bridges and making a lovely spectacle of itself. And then you pop right out back into the countryside. It was quite pleasant.
We were on our way to McMinnville, through vineyards and fruit orchards, all green and pretty, along with plenty of small lakes and parks. It’s a nice ride.
McMinnville is home to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Beginning here and continuing over the next ten days, Rick visited three separate aviation museums here in Oregon, each of which also had some vintage and/or classic automobiles to enjoy. He’ll be working on those photos (about 500 altogether) over the next month or so and will post them on our Motor-Museums.com site when ready. The Evergreen Museum, is best known as the (for now at least) permanent resting place of the largest - by far - wooden airplane ever built, Howard Hughes’ famous Spruce Goose and we’d finally decided to stop and check it out.
The next day we took Highway 18 over to the coast, in search of one of our favorite Oregon restaurants — the Otis Cafe. We’d discovered it years ago, and stop whenever we are near the Oregon Coast. I’d thought to check out the website ahead of time, and (gasp!) had discovered it had accidentally burned down in 2019. Frump. But wait. It had now been rebuilt, at a new location, at the southern end of Lincoln City. So we proceeded on, found our old buddy, and had our usual splendid treat of a breakfast. Disaster averted! Life goes on.
From “the Otis” we were headed for northwestern Oregon for the next couple of days. We wandered slowly up the coast, wanting to kill a couple of days before arriving at our next family visit, with daughter Lauri and her husband, Scott, which was set to be near Nehalem over Memorial Day weekend, a short bit ahead.
No problem, there was lots to take care of. First off we had to do our best to support our two favorite ice cream brands — Umpqua and Tillamook, which are both made locally. Tillamook is better known, much more widely available, and really, really good; but Umpqua? Well it’s even better, if you come across it in a store. In fact, we hung pretty close to “them what had a supply”, making sure they didn’t run out of our favorites. No sacrifice: this is lovely countryside, and the ocean makes a pretty nice backdrop as well.
We had a fun couple of days over the holiday, staying at their farm house with zillions of goats and chickens (outside) and dogs and cats (inside — mostly). With gorgeous green fields and the Coastal Range as a backdrop. What’s not to like.
Finally leaving all the kids, etc. we drove straight through Portland and popped out the eastern side of the city, heading for Hood River. Arriving, we got out of the coach and were knocked over by the wind. It seems that the town of Hood River, which is in a lovely location along the Columbia River, is the windsurfing capital of the world. For real. Yes. They come here from all over the world. To windsurf. Can you imagine? So, wind surfing requires strong wind and there you have it.
For us, we were more interested in a couple of other things. Hood River is the home of our second air museum stop, the WAAAM (great acronym for the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum). And the countryside was lush and gorgeous. If you look to the north, across the river into Washington, Mt Adams looms over everything in sight. And then, if turning south, there sits enormous Mt Hood looming to the west of us. Suddenly we’d arrived at a splendid spot in the Cascade Range. We gawked for a bit, then turned south out of town, heading towards the Bend area.
We did a short detour, just south of Hood River, on the Fruit Loop Rd, which is very nicely marked. This is a real road — as we’ve had occasion to mention before, we don’t make this stuff up, folks. It’s a series of fresh markets with pies and jam and lavender and honey and tons of other lovely things that we needed to sample. The season is just beginning up here, but we found no shortage of nice things to walk away with. Then we joined Highway 35, the Mt Hood Scenic Highway, traveling along past volcanic mountains and lava outflows as we headed downstate again; it made for a lovely day.
We arrived in Sun River, south of Bend, joining friends whom we’d met in Mexico many years back, and spent a lovely couple of days there. They live right on the edge of the Deschutes River, and it would be hard to find a prettier spot. A dock to sit on, lots of birds to enjoy (even the first hummingbird of the season), deer wandering through, and stories of elk not far away. They are on the eastern side of the Cascades, with lakes and Mt Batchelor’s ski resorts close to hand. They’d invited some others over for a nice evening, and we did a lot of talking about our adventures over the years. A pleasure.
Leaving the area, we retraced our steps back north, returning to the Columbia River. Mid-way, we stopped for awhile at the Madras Airport to visit the Erickson Air Museum, which has a nice collection of warbirds - WWII aircraft - nearly all of which are kept air-worthy and quite busy in the summers attending air shows in the region. This was a fun visit, although the museum suffers, as do so many aviation museums, from a lack of space to properly display the aircraft.
And then we continued further north again, this time exploring the upper Deschutes River area. We’ve definitely arrived in central Oregon! The land is drying out quickly, there are only a few pale wildflowers, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Wyoming! We’ve followed one of the river valleys for much of the way, but only saw the occasional bit of water — a whole different part of Oregon, to be sure.
We were headed toward, and have now settled at for a few days, a small Corps of Engineers campground right underneath a cliff on the Columbia River where the John Day River drops down from the north and flows into the Columbia. It’s early June and we’ve come back north to stop for a rest before moving further east. We’re parked right on the water just east of the John Day Dam. It’s getting hot, so we’re glad we have some shade and a fairly reliable breeze. Just read a plaque that says the John Day River, at 280 miles, is the longest free-flowing river in the state of Oregon. How bout that!
We have quite lousy internet connections here, and are relying on our phone for email; everything else will have to wait (as will the mailing out of this message) for a few days. The river is quite full; I’m not sure just how much the Columbia was affected by the winter rains and snowmelt issues. But it’s already summer here, and the hills are dry and brown. There is a multitude of wind turbines on the hills, making good use of the winds that dominate the area. Wish they were moving 24 hours a day!
The river crossing here is a major one for the area; cars and trucks at all hours (but not annoyingly noisy — too far away), and plenty of trains. I cannot see the engine numbers from here, so cannot tell if there are any of the same trains that I enjoyed while we were in Junction City a couple of weeks ago. Probably not, but perhaps?
When we leave here, we’ll be finishing our time in Oregon by traveling through Pendleton and into the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, just before crossing into Idaho and heading further east. We’ve not been in the Wallowas for many years and are looking forward to a return visit. In Idaho we have a couple more planned visits coming up and are hoping to cross paths with some traveling friends. We promise to keep on taking bunches of photos and sharing them with you.
Rick & Kathy with a smiling Slim Charles - perkier than ever and shiny at last.
For more pictures of wildflowers and snow capped peaks,
go to our photo page for this message.