How I spent My Summer Vacation

Well, its time. I can't put it off any longer. If I'm going to tell the story of my summer vacation, I better do it while its still summer. Otherwise, who really cares? Probably nobody does anyway but here it is.

I did manage a post from Pendleton Oregon on our first night. Pendleton was a really nice place to stay and further down the road away from Utah than we normally travel when we go to the Oregon coast. I wish the pictures had turned out of the 6 foot tall thistle plants that were growing just beyond the grass of the Holiday Inn express where we stayed but the pictures weren't worth sharing. But I had never seen such huge thistle plants. They were amazing to see. Scary even!

On Thursday, we set out down the Columbia River gorge towards the coast. We had a pleasant stop at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery and then continued along the way.

Somewhere along the way, before we reached Portland and all of its myriad off ramps and bridges, we should have stopped for gas, but somehow, I failed to do that. Instead, we kept driving, found the road to the beach and then the road over the Cascade mountains down into Tillamook. As we headed up the road and read the sign- 54 miles to Tillamook, I also read the display in the truck that read, “49 miles until empty.” Yikes! Oh well, there must be somewhere to get fuel along the way, right? Nope. No fuel anywhere along Route XX!

So we drove carefully and slowly and coasted down every downhill portion, all the while watching the numbers count down on the digital display on the roof of the cab. And the numbers remained lower than the numbers on the road signs beside the highway. This was looking really bad for my trip planning!

We did finally coast into Tillamook, having to stop at a traffic light within sight of the Shell station on the corner and luckily, the truck kept running because I really didn’t want it to run out of fuel just ½ block from the fuel stop. Seventy-five bucks didn’t even top up the fuel tank but at least we didn’t have to walk or push and the display said there was 1 mile until empty!

A short drive north from Tillamook and we were checked into the Nehalem Bay State Park campground, surrounded by the BSU’s family. This was the same campground we stayed at a couple years ago and it really is a nice place to spend a weekend. The camper went up without drama and we could finally relax and visit and eat as is typical for our beach trips.

It did rain this trip to the beach, unlike our other trips, beginning Thursday night about bed time. It rained all night but we were snug in the camper. In the morning the first order of business was to break out the multiple blue tarps that regular Oregon campers all seem to have hidden away someplace. We strung tarps from the trees, over the picnic tables an the area for the camp chairs and used the big syrup bottle to hold down the back edge so the water ran off where we wanted it to go.

So that was most of the weekend, sitting around under the tarps, drinking coffee and snacking in between the too-regular meals that sister-in-law Mary had coordinated and prepared. In between I took numerous walks with Sandy dog including a couple trips over the dunes and down to the beach to watch the waves. Saturday afternoon I took the BSU down to the beach at the little town of Manzanita. We got pretty thoroughly drenched during a short walk but that’s what Oregon folks expect when they go to the beach so there wasn’t any disappointment.

The rain did cause some problem with the camper’s awning that I still need to attend to. Overnight on Friday night, the awning material finally got wet enough to stretch and stop draining off so I woke to several gallons of water trapped and weighing down the aluminum crossbar. The weight put a pretty good bend in the crossbar and I’ve got to get busy and find a way to straighten it shortly.

We woke Sunday morning to a real downpour and a promise of a full day of that rain so everybody broke camp early to head back home. I was pretty drenched by the time the camper was folded up and we hit the road. We drove as far as Redmond, Oregon, found another Holiday Inn Express and checked in to spend the night. I had it in mind to stop in at Bandit Motorsports to visit there on Monday but I neglected to notice on their website that they are closed on Mondays! Hooverdamm! After returning to the hotel to recover the spouse and dog, we headed south again, this time to find Crater Lake National Park.

What a beautiful part of the country it is around Crater Lake! We arrived from the north, drove part way around the lake and then traveled down to the campground, seven miles from the lake. The spouse napped after we put up the camper and Sandy Dog and I went sightseeing. The road around Crater Lake is 33 miles around and there are numerous places to get out and see the unique beauty of this natural wonder. The road is probably the most treacherous road I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t help but wonder how many RVs and other vehicles end off the narrow, unguarded road and thousands of feet down the precipitous drop-offs that border the lake. The road really is remarkable and its no place to screw up because there’s no berm on most of it and dropping a wheel off the paved edge could send a vehicle plummeting for a very long time. Caution is definitely a requirement while negotiating this very skinny road.

We had a good dinner in the lodge and later attended the Ranger’s slide show about the lake. Most of his slides were out of order and in spite of several attempts to get them right, the Ranger pretty much had to wing his presentation.

One interesting aspect of Crater Lake is that there is only one access down to the lake itself, a 1.1 mile gravel path that is the equivalent of 65 flights of stairs down and then back again. Needless to say, I did not take that hike! But at the bottom, visitors can take a boat trip, swim or fish for the rainbow trout and salmon that were first planted there back in the 1940s. The fish continue to thrive in spite of the discontinued planting even after 70 years. There’s no limit to how many fish you can catch, no license required but fishermen must keep all they catch because they really don’t belong in the lake. I would have loved to try the fishing it but I wasn’t willing to try that lengthy, dusty, hot hike.

I was also mighty curious how the Park Service had managed to transport boats down to the lake over the years, including a small submarine that was used some years ago to research the bottom of the 2000 foot deep lake. There have been tour boats down there almost since the park’s inception and getting them down the slope to the lake must be a real challenge.

After breakfast on Tuesday, we broke camp and headed home on what must be one of the most scenic roads in the United States, Oregon State Road 140. This road runs from Klamath Falls Oregon, through Lakeview, east and south into Nevada and finally connects to an interstate at Winnemucca, Nevada. Between Lakeview, where we stopped to walk the dog and go to the bathroom and Winnemucca, a trip of 258 miles, there are exactly 2 places to buy fuel, Adel, Oregon, population 78 and Dennio, Nevada. The one service station in Adel is closed on Tuedsays and both these places only accept cash- no credit or debit cards accepted! We bought fuel in Dennio at $3.80 per gallon, enough so we could make the final 100 miles into Winnemucca and the civilization of interstate travel. Highway 140 is a fantastic trip through beautiful countryside, lots of valley floor farms on a laser straight road broken up by trips up, through and over many canyons and small mountains. Where the road is straight, its possible to drive 75 miles per hour, through the curvy, hilly pieces, the road is marked for 30, 35 and 45 miles per hour and you better be paying attention to the posted speeds! You won’t see much traffic going either direction for miles at a time and the beauty of the scenery will really make the trip worthwhile even if you aren’t getting anyplace particularly quickly.

It was a long day’s drive and we got home a little after midnight on Wednesday morning. The truck ran perfectly and the computer claimed we averaged 11.8 miles per gallon, dropping from 11.9 mpg at the beginning of the trip. The entire trip was just 7 miles short of 2100 miles.

So that’s it; a road trip with a relaxing visit with family and a trip through some of the scenery and untraveled roads that makes America a great place. It was really a pleasant week away and going back to work came much too soon.