West Columbia River Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge and the Historic Columbia River Highway is breathtakingly beautiful. More so than I ever imagined it would be.  Here in Corbett, we're staying in a cozy little campground of just 20 campsites. Crown Point RV Park is situated right on the Historic Columbia River Highway.  This afternoon we took a ride to see a few of the local sights.








The nearest town is Troutdale and it serves as the starting point for our Gorge day drive but on the way into town we'll travel along the Oregon Trail and the Sandy River. This river was first seen by white men in October 1792. They named it "Barings" River.  In 1805, Lewis and Clark renamed the river "Quicksand" but common use of the name "Sandy" soon caught on.

We've begun to notice that many towns in the west display their names on signs like this one.

From Troutdale, we drove east on I-84 to the Bonneville Lock and Dam.  The nearby locks were processing a double grain barge being pushed along by a tug.  We were fortunate enough to see a huge osprey fly away from the water with a fish in his talons!  Too quick for a picture!   The Visitors Center has underwater viewing windows where you can watch salmon swim upstream. 

That's a lot of electricity!

Super-sized dam doors!

Wayne standing in the rose garden. Downriver water from the dam in the background.

The old dam turbines were replaced by new ones. This is one of the old ones.

Everything grows profusely in Oregon -- including roses.
That's the river below the dam behind Lexie and me.

Nearby, at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery and Sturgeon Center, we did not see, but heard about Herman the Sturgeon, an 11 foot, 500 pound, 70 year old FISH!

The fish swim upstream through several hundred feet of  this "maze" -

The property around Bonneville Dam, Locks and Fish Hatcheries and a wondrous amount of beautiful plants.  I couldn't resist exercising my photographic skill on the blooms -- I'm not great at it.

A nearby area posted an Oregon Trail Historic Marker noting the location of Beacon Rock across the Columbia River, in Washington. It was named Beacon Rock by Lewis and Clark.

We moved along after lunch to get a glimpse of Cascade Locks, a scenic town in the heart of the Gorge.  This is the location of the Sternwheeler, Columbia Gorge, the only narrated day cruise on the Columbia River. We didn't get to see the vessel, as I suppose it was out on it's daily cruise.

Another tunnel.  There are plenty of them in this part of the country.

There is a bridge here at Cascade Locks that caused some debate between Wayne and me. I say it's the "Bridge of the Gods" but Wayne says it's not -- that the "Bridge of the Gods" is a natural bridge as shown in the mural (not easily seen, but it's in the second photo).  But we never saw the actual natural bridge depicted in the mural or heard anything more about it.  Oh well..... 

Later I read we were both right. The natural geological span bridge "was" but no longer "is" -- the man-made bridge is now known as Bridge of the Gods...  Anyway, this bridge connects Oregon and Washington across the Columbia River.

The mural can be seen on the bridge support here.
It says, "Welcome to Cascade Locks"
and "Bridge of the Gods"

Off the interstate now, we returned westward on the Historic Columbia River Highway and snapped a photo of Multnomah Falls, the second highest year-round falls in the country. The dual-tiered falls plummets a total of 620 feet from it's origin on Larch Mountain.  We also got a quick view of Bridal Veil but the rain was coming pretty hard so we decided not to stop. It was impressive. Because of the rain, we moved along pretty quickly, but plan a return later in the week.

Multnomah Falls

Moving along the Historic Columbia Highway toward Corbett, we were awe-struck by the beautiful green deep woods, heavy moss and the thick fern growth.   Suddenly we found ourselves coming onto some of the most spectacular views of the great Columbia River and rounded a curve to find the Vista House Interpretive Center at Crown Point.  This is the crown jewel of the Gorge; it was built 1916-1919 and is perched 733' above the Columbia River. It offers several tiers of viewpoints.  Here's proof:

This part of Historic Columbia River Highway overlooks a meadow.
Notice the rust colored moss growing along the old concrete roadside barrier.
Moss colors here range from bright pale green to deep rust.  Some of the moss is 3" thick!
And moss doesn't JUST grow on the north side.  It grows EVERYWHERE!

Looking upriver (east) from the viewpoint.

Looking to the west.

The sun broke through the clouds for a few minutes around 4 p.m.

Looking directly across the river (northward) into Washington.

Farmland across the river.

Silverton and Salem Oregon in the Willamette Valley

The population of Silverton, Oregon is less than 10,000 people.

Salem is the capitol of Oregon.

How easy those state capitols are forgotten at my age.  I wouldn't have remembered -- Wayne reminded me.  We toured both cities today in beautiful, warm 80+ degree sunshine.

Our first stop was to see Oregon Garden, a botanical garden display. Seeing the size of the gardens and knowing the content, Wayne wasn't really excited at the prospect of paying $10 to see flowers so we didn't go in.  He did walk Lexie while I amused myself for a few minutes in the gift shop.

Wayne and Lexie enjoy a stroll around Oregon Gardens

Lexie like it!

The only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in the Pacific Northwest, open to the public, is on the Oregon Garden property.  It didn't exactly "move" me as I'm not a big fan of FLW, but here it is.

The Gordon House.
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Silverton is a really nice community. It is a city of murals with some 17 of them within the downtown area alone. Two are outside the downtown area. 

This is a picture of the artist working on this mural.
It's title is "Four Freedoms" and it is a replica of  Norman Rockwell works from 1943 Saturday Evening Post Magazines.  The mural represents four core values of Silverton residents:
Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom From Fear. 
That's paint all over the seat of the artist's pants.

This is Lexie and me.  Nothing special... just taking a pee pee break in the nice soft grass.  Lexie, not me.

The Adventures of Bobbie
This statue represents a Scotch Collie named Bobbie who was traveling with his Silverton family in Wolcott, Indiana in August 1923 when he became separated from them. Bobbie the Scotch Collie walked all the way home to Silverton,
arriving in February 1924 -- six months after he was lost.

Looking at the murals in Silverton and reading about them convinces me that the city remembers every special event and person and has each memorialized in a mural.  I think this is terrific!

8,000 acre Silver Falls is nearby with ten waterfalls within the state park but we didn't make the 20 minute drive to see it.  Instead, we drove into Salem to see the Capitol.  It was unremarkable but we saw it and now you can too!

Oregon's Capitol in Salem.

We returned to Silverton and stopped by to see the Gallon House Bridge. It was built in 1916 and is the only covered bridge in the county that can still be drive through.  The Gallon Bridge was given it's name during Prohibition, when it became the place to buy a gallon of moonshine.

Gallon House Bridge

The Willamette Valley is a really beautiful place. Everything grows here.  Berries, nuts, grapes, shrubs, flowers... it's a lovely sight. Some of the farms look like patchwork quilts when we get a glimpse from a good distance.  

Here's something else we saw but didn't recognize.  Do you know what this is? It appears to be a vine-like plant that grows along the wires that criss-cross 15-20 foot over it.

This is hops. An ingredient in beer making.  It's almost ready to harvest.

This is the guy who told us about the hops.
Yes, we asked...

I don't know if this is an alpaca or llama but he sure liked having his picture taken.

That's us in the middle front facing the right.

The Silver Spur Campground in Silverton, Oregon has gravel roads.
Lexie does not walk well on gravel so we'll move along tomorrow.

Final Comfort Modification

The fabric sofa removed from the drivers side of Mona left a bare space behind Wayne's new chair so we looked into having a cabinet and desk built for it. 

The new Ekornes Stressless chair has proved to be a great investment and Wayne's back is much better because of it.

We were referred to Davis Cabinet for some ideas about how to remedy the "bare wall" syndrome. Davis Cabinets is just a few blocks from Innovative Coachworks in Junction City. 

It took almost two weeks to build the unit over the long July 4th holiday. We spent the time at River Bend RV Resort in Harrisburg again.  The weather has much improved and we're having less rain and more sunshine and warm temperatures.

Our July 4th visitor was this large rodent. We think it's a muskrat.
He is NOT afraid of us. Lexie barked at him.

Turns out the old saying "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then" was true.  We didn't know until after installation but Davis Cabinets is arguably the finest custom cabinet maker in the country.  The elder Davis, now retired, was involved in establishing the woodworking shop in the old Monaco factory in nearby Coburg, Oregon.  These days, their custom products are in great demand and shipped around the country. 

Shaun and Amy Davis own and operate the business now and their staff does beautiful work.  The proof is in the photos below.

The corner desk before the removable smooth surface top is in place.

Josh installed the cabinet. 
It is complete with pull-out drawers for the laptop and the printer, locking file drawers and electrical outlets.

Lexie's photo is added here because she caused a little problem.
She scratched the bathroom door and that damaged would be repaired at Davis Cabinets too.

Sammy sanded Lexie's scratch damage.
Wayne looks on.

Sammy also prepared the smooth surface countertops for the new cabinet.

Installation nearly complete here.

The arrangement allows the chair to be moved close to the wall with space to recline.

Shaun Davis

Once the cabinet was in place, we returned to Innovative Coachworks to have Mona's dashboard camera monitor replaced.  It didn't completely remedy the camera operation problem but it did help. Dave installed the monitor, but the left camera operates intermittently.  The issue we face now has to do with the tiny new camera lenses today replacing the larger ones used just five years ago, when Mona was built. A good bit of customizing around the cameras would be required and we don't use the side cameras enough to justify the expense -- not to mention we're real ready to leave the area.

The old Weldex monitor didn't have a very clear display.

Work in process

Finished with the monitor.  Clearer picture.

Celebrating Our First Year Full-Timing

July 1st Marks The Beginning of the Second Year!
This is the life of our dreams. It's simply delightful. We love it even more than we imagined we would.  We're blessed and fortunate and we never forget it. Good health, financial security, similar interests and temperaments, likes and dislikes.  God has been good to us.

Seeing America with my best friend can't be beat. Never knowing, or caring, what day it is -- much less the time of day is pretty good too. An early mutual decision was to go where we wanted -- when we wanted. We like that decision and stick with it -- No exceptions.

Moments of frustration? Sure. We've had some in this first year. Getting the coach stuck up to the axle was frustrating. The car rolling backward down a hill into a fish pond was somewhat distressing too.  Looking for the leak source in a cold, hard rainstorm wasn't much fun.  Sink drains do come loose and the sound of dishwater pouring onto the floor at 9 pm isn't music to our ears either. A hundred gallons of diesel at $5 a gallon ranks right up there with getting a root canal. But we managed...

Oh, but the good times do outweigh the bad! 

Technically, this is a wonderful time to be a full-time RV'er.  It's hard to imagine living on the road without the conveniences we enjoy.  These are things to which most people don't give much thought.  We knew we'd need to take advantage to all the technology available to us to keep life simple and mobile. 

Nearly all our personal business is handled via computer. Bank statements, investments, credit card accounts, even drivers license and vehicle registrations are renewed online.  Insurance forms and income tax are transmitted via the internet. We have two bank accounts and two credit card accounts. With a little research we found two banks that, combined, give us access to bank branches in every state. Satellite tv -- in high definition no less, keeps us watching television almost anywhere. Cell phone service keeps us in touch with family now that towers dot the nation and signals are hardly ever lost. The tiny amount of U.S. snail mail we get is managed by an agent and sent to us on demand.  My old, heavy scrapbooks have been replaced with the blog you're reading.  My digital photographs (love 'em so much) are all safely tucked away online too.  No film to process and unlimited numbers of pictures can be snapped. It's surprising how well photos look having been taken through the windshield.

And our dog... Lexie. What a joy she is to both of us. It's hard now to imagine why we waited so long to adopt and how we'd manage without her.  We call ourselves her "parents" --  It's great.

We meet so many wonderful people who share our interest in RV travel and we enjoy hearing and telling stories of RV adventures. Recommendation from others are considered for making decisions in our travel destinations.  Travel is the subject of choice for most RV'ers and we're right in there with the best of them now. 

Mona, the motorhome, has proven to be a wonderful coach choice and she provides all the space we really need. We continue to give her good care, an occasional washing and she keeps on rolling.  

Where do we go from here?  As usual, we're not sure and any answer we give today might change tomorrow.  One way to know is to check the weather:  if it's sunny and warm, we might be there. If it's rainy, snowy or cold, we're probably not there.

See ya down the road!

Aspen Dental Clinic: The Clinic That Isn't

It's been a year since our last dental exam so while in the coastal region of Oregon we made appointments in Eugene to have our teeth cleaned and get a look at changes in the condition of our old folks teeth.  

Having learned the hard way (of course) to walk the straight-and-narrow of the insurance guidelines, I was careful to choose a dentist within the program network, confirm treatment eligibility and take note of anything that was excluded in our policy. 

Spending almost an hour on the preliminary telephone inquiries, the day and time came for our back-to-back appointments. 

We arrived early -- appointments were running late.  Did I hear an alarm here?  I asked again about the procedure line-up and reiterated our desire to have our teeth cleaned and get an exam.  We did not want any x-rays beyond the bite-wings that were covered by insurance.

"Aspen Dental Clinic requires an in depth initial visit", I was told and a panorama digital x-ray would be made.  "I won't pay for it" was met with, "there'll be no charge".  Alarms should have sounded and perhaps they did but I still didn't hear them.

More than 30 hi-definition digital x-rays were made, of my individual teeth, I'm told.  A panorama hi-def digital x-ray was made. It's 30 minutes into my appointment time. I reminded them we would not pay for all these x-rays.  I wonder if they're hearing me.  Aspen Dental Clinic's office manager assured me that even our $19.99 office visit fee would be waived. Too good to be true? -- probably.  An alarm sound was buzzing around in my head by now.

Along with my portfolio of computerized, hi-def, digital, supersonic x-rays, I was escorted to the dental chair.  Waited for the hygienist to come in.  I had absolutely no interest in the crystal clear picture on the personal television clamped onto the medical equipment in front of me.  No, I didn't like to watch cooking channels.  I did flip over and stop on "Dog Whisperer" though.

A smiling young Oriental woman came up behind me, introduced herself as Dr. So-and-so, the dentist.  She complimented my beautiful teeth.  Now, I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night: my teeth are not beautiful.  Who does she think she's talking to?  Maybe it's the southern drawl syndrome again.  Everybody thinks southern people are hillbillies with second grade educations.  I think my eyes rolled but I'm not sure.

Now in my recent years of dental experience, I always get the cleaning first -- dental exam second.  Dr. So-in-so proceeded to flip the small screen from tv to computer mode where I saw the icky black and white images of my mouth and teeth. Doc began to pick and probe around my teeth and gum line and exclaims that the gap on the left lower side must have been an "extra" tooth as I have the correct number of teeth and, yet, she sees that a tooth had been removed from that space.  No other dentist ever told me that. She preceded to give code language to the assistant sitting behind me.  The codes kept coming and I heard words like "leaking, cracking, decay" before she gave me a basketful of bad dental news.  Seems Doc So-in-so feels all the silver fillings I had replaced last year were done wrong. She found had decay and cracks in my teeth and a lower right jaw tooth was on the verge of failing altogether. She sees a huge amount of decay under an existing (and new) filling. Naturally, I was devastated.  Gee, what's that bell I'm hearing so loud in my head?

By now, I'm being led around by the office manager who seems sympathetic.  Dr. So-in-so disappears and I can hear her introducing herself to Wayne, who's in for his own bad news.  Duh.

Office Manager sits me in front of her business-looking desk and asks about my current toothbrush after which she begins a sales pitch for the electronic toothbrush displayed beside her. "Not interested," I exclaim, anxious to get on with the dental cleaning and needing to escape to think over all the bad news I've just gotten.

After what seemed like an eternity of "dental fluff" talk, Office Manager presented me with a package of paper entitled "Treatment Acceptance and Payment Arrangement Form" with an "Accepted Treatment Plant Estimate" total of $8,698.  "What does all this money buy?" I wondered.  It would pay for the exam, x-rays, two-part hygiene treatment with prescription medications, take home products, 5 build-up and crowns and 7 composite fillings. 

Now let me be clear here:  Eighteen months ago, I had an extensive dental exam, had all my old silver fillings replaced with the new, nice, white composite ones.  I was really getting angry and those bells were alarming full bore. 

"I'll think about it" I barked and asked where I should go for my cleaning.  "You're all finished for today" says Office Manager.  I specifically made this appointment for an exam and a cleaning and I told her so.  Office Manager retorted that she knew I wanted my teeth clean but the hygienist was not in the office today.  She offered an appointment card for Friday to get my teeth cleaned.

Wayne went through nearly the same routine but it was abbreviated somewhat.  His Treatment Acceptance and Payment Arrangement Form totaled $3,545.  

We left Aspen Dental Clinic with dirty teeth and a really bad taste in our mouths.
There was some good news -- we paid nothing monetarily -- a half-day in our time.
We won't be going back. What a waste of time.