Cave Junction, OR 9/24/06

After breakfast and checking the trailer load (see previous entry) we drove South to Cave Junction. It was a beautiful fall day and a nice, easy drive. We stopped at a county park along I-5 and made sandwiches for lunch. I love travelling in the RV.

We decided not to make reservations this trip. It's nice to see the park and surroundings before committing to spending the night. Plus we never know when we might want to move along. We'd done a little research online and we had our handy dandy Woodalls directory.

Anyway, we drove by one park (too empty, no trees) and then ended up at the Mountain Man RV Park a couple miles south of Cave Junction. It's a small, clean park with a mix of seasonal and overnight guests. There were no pull-throughs available so we got a back-in site. No problem with the trailer. There was a river behind our site and I found a couple of small rocks. We met several friendly and helpful people. Even got to play fetch with one of the dogs. We would definitely stay here again.
Dave spent time playing with his new cell phone and his new portable iPod speakers. Then we played a game of cribbage and 3 games of Trouble. Next on the entertainment agenda was watching 'The Doors'. We watched it on the laptop with the iPod speakers. It worked great. The laptop screen is bigger than our TV; plus we're able to sit close to it in the dinette. And the speakers meant we didn't need the volume up very high. Big improvement over the TV.

Camping in the Driveway, Parents leave town, etc...

I like driveway camping. It reminds me of camping in the backyard when we were kids. That was always so much fun. Especially when we played flashlight tag, late at night, when we were supposed to be sleeping. Sorry, Mom!

This first night, bonus night, of our vacation was supposed to be spent at home getting ready. Then we found out that Dave's parents were leaving for the winter during our vacation. So we decided to leave Friday night and stay at the bro-in-laws so we could say our goodbyes. It worked out great. We would have been driving through Vancouver on our way south anyway. It actually made our Saturday drive a lot shorter.

We arrived in Vancouver around 9:00. Had time to visit for awhile before retreating to the motorhome to sleep. We weren't exactly level... so we opted to sleep on the couch. We have several fleece lap blankets on the motorhome. Also a couple of stadium blankets. We used those instead of unmaking the cabover bed (too much work). Woke up cold Saturday morning. Turned on the furnace but no heat. Checked the fridge - it wasn't working. Duh! The propane was off. Oops. At least the food seemed OK.

Dave backed us out of the driveway. After several attempts the trailer went in the direction he wanted and we were off to meet the parents at Ihops. Then one of the bicycles decided to ride along the trailer instead of inside of it. Wow... can't believe we made the 2.5 hour freeway drive with the load intact. After resecuring the bike on the trailer we continued on to the restaurant. This time I rode in back of the RV so I could keep checking the trailer.

We had a good breakfast and great visit in a very crowded restaurant. Then we said our "See ya laters". It's tough when the parents leave for the winter... mine had left earlier in the week. Hard not to worry but I know they really enjoy the warm AZ weather, the fresh grapefruits and lemons, and the relaxed retirement lifestyle. Oh well. We are on vacation!

Dave spent some time checking and readjusting the trailer before we hit the highway. It's a beautiful fall day and we on our way to Cave Junction, OR.

Oregon Fall Vacation

That's right. We recently got back from our fall vacation. Spent a week camping in Oregon. Still love our RV. It's so nice to travel around with our own little 'cabin'. Anyway, I'll start posting on this trip soon. In the meantime... following are the locations and activities you can look forward to reading about.

Camping in the Bro-in-laws driveway.
Cave Junction; National Cave Monument, 90 minute Cave Tour, Mountain Lions.
Prospect; Avenue of the Boulders and waterfall hikes
Crater Lake, Bears
John Day Painted Hills
Digging Fossils in Fossil
John Day Fossil Beds
Root Beer Float in the best, funnest, Ice Cream Shop ever.
Boardman, bike ride, flat tires.

This was one of my favorite types of vacations. In addition to gorgeous scenery, we had time to read, play games, ride bikes, ride the motorcycle, and explore new areas and hobbies. We met lots of friendly Oregonians. Details to follow.

Mossyrock Park

We camped at Mossyrock Park on Labor Day Weekend. It was pretty crowded, of course. But what a beautiful park.

Somehow we had accidently reserved a non-power site. Boy, did we regret that. It was a hot weekend. Sure would have been nice to have the AC. We did have a great view of the lake. Another of our site's amenities was the 'BMX' track right behind our site. It was very entertaining watching little kids go round and round. Our site was plenty big enough for a large tent (the pup tent looked lonely).

Part of the 'BMX' Track.

Max showed us tricks.

We rode our bikes over to the Mossyrock Dam. It was a nice ride with very little traffic. We took the road on the way over and found a trail on the way back.

The swimming beach.

Another great weekend visiting with family, enjoying amazing views, and exploring new areas on our bikes. We are so lucky!