Blogging My Way Across The USA

The Wheels On The Bus Are Heading Home

Yesterday, we bid a fond farewell to our travelling companions Mark and Sandra and the girls, and pointed the bus east. Tonight, we are in Deer Lodge, Montana, having only made it about 350 miles today. We needed to stop and do some laundry. Jim was down to his last pair of whitey tighteys - LOL!! The kids are anxious to get home. Jim and I, on the other hand, are in no kind of hurry to head back.

Anyhoooooo, haven't posted in a couple of days, so I owe you some scenery photos. First up, the Rogue/Umpqua Scenic Byway in Oregon. A nice little stretch of scenery with some wonderful waterfalls. This one is Clearwater Falls:

 

 

 

Watson Falls:

 

 

We stopped at the Umpqua River and got out of The Turd for a walk. After telling the kids to NOT get wet, they accidentally/on purpose "fell in" the river and had some fun!

 

 

Even the big kid got wet:

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed down the Columbia River Gorge on the old Scenic Highway for some more waterfalls.

 

Latourell Falls:

 

The Turd at the base of Bridal Veil Falls, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch before hiking up to the falls:

 

Bridal Veil Falls:

 

 

Multnomah Falls. This is a two-tiered falls separated by the bridge. The top falls is a 600 foot drop, the bottom falls is a 50 foot drop. As you can see, we climbed up to the bridge, and I got photos from up there of just the upper falls as well.

 

 

We rolled on to Mount Rainier:

 

So tonight we are here in Deer Lodge, Montana on a pretty little river

 

watching the storms roll in

 

and the rainbows come out.

 

Signing off now as there is another storm rolling in and its time to go hide in the camper.

HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Head To Crater Lake

Today we headed out of Shasta Lake and motored on to Crater Lake. From an elevation at sea level to an elevation of over 7000 feet. Our first view was this lovely canyon with the stream running through it.

 

We went for a one mile hike down a mountain trail. This is Danielle, Shelby and Brian showing you the snow. Yep, snow in July on the mountains!

After the snowball fight that ensued, we motored on up to Crater Lake itself. Stunning doesn't even begin to describe it!

 

Brian at the lake

 

A few images of Crater Lake:

 

 

 

 

Tonight we are in camp in Crescent Lake, Oregon, elevation 4505 feet. Last night it was 32 degrees! Tonight's expected low is 41. After a steak dinner and a brief rain, we had the perfect ending to a perfect day:

 

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Hope You Had a Happy 4th of July!

I'm a couple days behind on posts due to a less-than-adequate internet connection at our last campsite - as in non-existent.

Here we are on the 4th of July, and as is tradition on the 4th, we made ribs! This is Danielle and I making the super secret bbq sauce, which isn't so secret anymore, as Danielle wrote down the recipe.

 

while the people enjoy partying on Shasta Lake:

 

And we all are enjoying the ribs. YUM!

 

Sunday, my niece, who lives about an hour and a half away in Chico, CA came to visit us. I don't see Denise very often so it was great to be able to spend the afternoon together.

 

We took Denise on a tour of a cave nearby. The cave was discovered on the side of a mountain above Shasta Lake about 150 years ago. To get there, first we had to ride a boat across Lake Shasta.

 

 

Then we had to ride the bus up the mountain and around the really curvy road to the cave entrance.

 

A couple of photos inside the cave:

 

 

And a photo of the whole group inside the cave.

The Wheels On The Bus Have Rolled Through TEN States!

Its official. The wheels on the bus have rolled through ten states! That's 1/5 of our Nifty Fifty United States. Pretty neat huh? We've rolled through Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. Here we are rolling into California - our 10th:

 

Actually, the last 2 days we've rolled back and forth between Oregon and California a couple of times. This foggy beach was in Oregon:

 

Then it was back in to California, where we found some sea lions hanging out on this dock:

 

 

Across the harbor was a lovely lighthouse:

 

And across the parking was a little beach, where I actually got all the kids in the photo at the same time!

 

After leaving the beach we drove inland to see the Redwood forests. These are some BIG trees!

 

Wow!

 

We rode the Sky Trail tram to the top of the mountain:

 

where the view was just spectacular!

 

After another blown tire, a great dinner cooked in the Rogue River rest area while waiting for the tire guy to show up with a new tire, we made it to camp for the night. In the morning, we were off to our next destination - the majestic Mount Shasta:

 

Camp tonight is about 35 miles away from Mount Shasta, situated on Shasta Lake. This is the view from in front of The Turd, parked at our campsite. We will be here for four days:

 

The BEST view of all - the kids doing the dishes after a great meal. We informed them that it was their turn to do the dishes. When Danielle asked what we would be doing while they were doing the dishes, I replied that we would be clapping for them! So we did! They were awesome and did a great job, and we really appreciated the break! Thanks kids!!!

 

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Go Ridin' On The River

Today was our jet boat ride down the Rogue River, and it was spectacular! We went 40 miles upriver and 40 back - sometimes through nice calm waters, and sometimes shooting rapids in the jet boat. Our crazy boat driver was Kevin, and he got us SOAKED! It was a blast, combined with some absolutely spectacular scenery and wildlife! Here's Kevine and our boat:

 

Off we go up the river to see what kind of wildlife we could find. We found wood ducks:

 

As we passed under the bridge, we saw Swallow's nesting under the bridge:

 

A Seagull with something tasty in his mouth:

 

A Great Blue Heron hanging out on shore...

  

until our boat spooked him and he flew away:

 

A couple of black-tail deer:

 

Canada geese:

 

One of the coolest things we saw - an Eagle:

 

Wild Turkey:

 

Scenes from the river. This place was the stuff they make calendars out of, it was that gorgeous:

 

A river otter playing in the water:

 

This is a spring fed creek that runs into the river:

 

And on a completely unrelated note, this is Dann, posted just for my friend Shelley to prove that he's actually on this trip with us. This is the best photo we can get of him:

 

Cuz he always does this:

 

And every once in a while, when he thinks we're done chasing him with the camera, he does this:

 

HUGS!

The People On The Bus Need Sunglasses

Man, the sun is bright here! We've been lucky that it hasn't rained AT ALL since we got to the coast. Today we cruised on down the coast another 120 miles to our next stop in Gold Beach, Oregon. Along the way, we spotted this lighthouse:

 

I've got lots of photos of the coastline today. The best word I can come up with to describe my surroundings is majestic. Its where the ocean meets the mountains. Amazing.

 

 

 

Just look at these pristine beaches:

 

Once we got to our campground, we took the kids for a walk down the Rogue River, where we are parked for the night. The river feeds directly into the ocean, so by walking down the shore about 1/2 mile, we connected up with the beach at the ocean. Here is Brian and Shelby digging for quartz on the shore of the river:

 

The name of the campground we're at is Turtle Rock Campground. Aptly named, I would say. This is Jim and Danielle in front of Turtle Rock. He's kinda cute - the rock I mean.

 

Brian up on one of the rocks on the beach. The kids were having a blast climbing them.

 

 

Sand and mountains

 

 

Good night all! Tomorrow we go 80 miles up the Rogue River on a jet boat tour! Should be lots of cool photos from that! Stay tuned!!!

HUGS!!!

The people on the bus have a day of rest...

It feels good to stop. Every two days at this point, we move on to a different campground in a new area of this beautiful coast. In a few days, we'll park at Lake Shasta for 4 days. But for now, we're still being gypsies, and roaming this great land.

Our first stop of the day yesterday was the Tillamook cheese factory. We got to tour the factory itself and see how cheese is made. It was pretty cool.

 1

Hey Lisa, I picked you up a nice 2 pound brick of sharp cheddar. YUM!

After leaving the cheese factory with our arms full of cheese, we got to run over a curb and blow out the back tire on The Turd. The guys aren't letting him live this one down for a long time.

 

The pit crew was on the case:

 

The beautiful Pacific coast of southern Oregon:

 

 

 

Sea Lions sunbathing on the coast:

 

We're parked for two nights on Lake Silcoos Lake in Florence, OR. After a LONGGGGGG, twisty trip down the coast, its nice to rest our tires beside a warm fire.

 

We're parked right next to the lake, from left to right: Mark & Sandra & Danielle & Shelby, Me & Jim and the boys, and Dan & Val.

 

Dan and Danielle out fishing.

 

 

That's all folks! HUGS!

The Wheels On The Bus Go Stop Stop Stop

Yeah, I know, I've missed a day or two of posting. It was time to park this pig for a couple of days and camp, and I was enjoying not doing anything for a while.

So, we were welcomed to Oregon:

 

And crossed the Columbia River again:

 

Stopped at an overlook at Cannon Beach. This is Haystack Rock. This area of the coast has many of these rocks right up near the shore of the Pacific. To say the views are amazing doesn't even begin to describe the scenery.

 

 

 

After seeing all the beautiful sites we pulled into camp at Nehalem State Park in Oregon. See the beach in the photo above? That was our beach, where we hung out for two days.

 

Our beach. If not for the high winds and chilly temperatures, it would be perfect.

The Awning On The Bus Goes Bounce Bounce Bounce

After leaving Moses Lake, WA and heading back through the desert of northwest Washington, we ran into a little trouble with the awning on The Turd. The winds were whipping down the edge of the mountains at 100 mph, and as we passed another large vehicle, it sucked our awning in and unrolled it. So now, our awning is a giant kite on the side of The Turd. To Jim's credit, he kept it together very well! He pulled over and we hooked it back up and went underway again, thinking all was well. Unfortunately, it was not, as the awning blew off again! This time it completely broke the metal side rails, and it was toast. My awning is now sitting on the side of the highway somewhere in northwest Washington. I'm gonna miss it.

So after the awning debacle, we got to climb some more hills. But first we had to cross the Columbia River:

 

 

The Cascades, covered in clouds. These were some HUGE, amazing, awe-inspiring mountains. I've never seen such beauty:

 

 

Very cool view from my windshield:

 

After several hours of up and down through the mountains, we arrived in Tacoma, WA. Finally, we made it! The Pacific Ocean:

 

Brian at the Pacific Ocean. He informed me that he needs to take his swim goggles from home (they are in the RV), when we go swimming in the Pacific. That way they will have been to the Pacific as well as the Atlantic oceans!

 

We hooked up with a photographer friend of mine - Audra, and her husband Ron for dinner at The Ram in Tacoma, which is located right on the oceanfront. Audra has been an online and phone friend for a number of years, and this is the first time we've ever met. It was great to meet you Audra! Funny, she was waving at me from across the parking lot like we've known each other forever. After staring at each other's photography forum picture icons for years, and talking on the phone for years, I feel we've known each other forever. I hope we can get together again on our way back through the area in a couple of weeks.

 

 

And now I leave you with this lovely piece of art, donated to The Rolling Turd Foundation by Jim "Click" Knudson up in Minnesota. He sent along this photo on www.camaros.net for us. Thanks Click!

 

HUGS!

The Ears On The Bus Go Pop Pop Pop

We got up really early, at 6:00, ready to hit the road at the crack of dawn out of our camp at Bozeman, MT. Somehow, after showering, breaking camp, feeding The Turd and ourselves it was almost 10:00 by the time we pointed The Turd west again:

 

We were in some serious mountains now with a really wicked climb between Bozeman and Butte, this included a hard second gear 4000 plus RPM pull up the mountain. We all breathed a sigh of relief as The Turd topped the crest at a mere 40 miles per hour.

Rocks

 

One of the mountains we had to climb. It was really tall:

 

This photo of Brian and the mountain was taken half way up the climb. We needed to stop and give The Turd a rest, not to mention Jim's nerves.

 

Once out of the mountains and back into the valley, we stopped for a while in beautiful Missoula, MT to stretch our legs and find some lunch. We had lunch at a cute little cafe downtown. It was totally chick food. I loved it, Dann and Brian did not. Oh well, they ate anyways. We walked around the riverwalk, watched some kayakers surfing in the swirl of whitewater in the river and walked back to The Turd. Once on the road again, we were shortly welcomed to Idaho:

 

Northern Idaho gave us a couple more long hard climbs, along with beautiful views of mountain valleys and fast running streams. Thankfully the Montana road construction was left in the rearview mirror. Idaho is really short up north, so it only took about 1-1/2 hours before we were greeted by Lake Cour D'Alene on the other side.

 

Finally! We are in our destination state!

 

After leaving Spokane in the rearview mirror, we entered the wasteland of eastern Washington. Mile after mile after mile of desert looking terrain, endlessly flat. The highway as straight as it was in South Dakota. No houses, no farms - nothing as far as the eye can see, for mile upon mile.

As we approached our destination, Moses Lake, we saw more civilization including farms, houses, irrigated fields, crops of potatos. After a 15 mile drive off the highway, we reached our destination for the night - Moses Lake.

 

I'm off to bed. Its 10:20 local time, which means its after midnight where I come from.

HUGS!