A walk along the Deschutes River

I had a very enjoyable walk along the Deschutes River from the Slough Recreation site almost to the Aspen Recreation site. I walked along Dillon Falls which is breathtaking. The Deschutes River is forced between lava flows in this area and descends fast, tumbling through the rocks. 

It ended up being a 6.36 mile hike with an ascent of 1397 feet. 

Visited with a friend along the way.

Notice the lava flows across the river. 

Then the river flows peacefully again. 

Time for a break along the walk back. 

Thank you God for Oregon.  It refreshes the soul. 

Life is good. 

Return to Bend and snow

Friday I went to my son's place in Portland to pick up the stuff they have been storing for me and to see their new house. I stayed overnight with Chris and his wife and we all drove to Bend on Saturday. Stephanie checked in to the cottage they will be staying at then we all went to my campsite and set up my huge tent to store the stuff I brought from their place. 

Max was not allowed in their cottage so he stayed with me while Chris and Stephanie went back to the cottage to make their dinner. I was to join them but it was raining steadily so Max and I stayed snuggled up in the Born Free. 

This morning I woke up to a light dusting of snow!

The huge tent we put up yesterday. 

The path Max and I walked this morning. 

The snow is already melting so it will soon be gone and it should be getting warmer this week getting up in the high 70's. 

Life is good. 

Washing and hiking

Went into Bend again today to pick up an item I had delivered to the Bend REI store and check out a few other stores. Got back in the early afternoon and took advantage of the warm, sunny day to wash the dirty back and one side of the Born Free. 

It was still light out after finishing the RV so I went for a hike in the trails around the outside of the campground. 

I managed to get this many steps in today!

Life is good. 

Neighbors

I no longer have this road to myself. Today a truck and travel trailer showed up and took the site across the road from me. I was hoping to have my peace a quiet for a little longer. Oh well. 

I washed my windows this morning but I should have waited until later as I almost froze my hands off. After my hands warmed up again, I scrubbed my floor and sat down to work on getting Quicken up to date. I had to enter all the gas receipts from my trip up here. Ouch.

An addition to my site. 

Life is good. 

Busy day

I managed to finish cleaning the front of the Born Free today as well as getting my washing done. I also put out the mat, rearranged my solar lights, and deployed my solar panel for the engine battery. But wait, there's more!  A small, dead tree had fallen down at the back of my site and the maintenance guy said I could use it for firewood if I wanted so I broke or chopped off all the branches to be burned and drug the remaining log over to mark the border of my site. The log was a little large to chop up with my little hatchet. 

All in all a very busy and satisfying day.  Oh, I also filled my water tank.

My site all set up.

Lots of small sticks for the fire 

Chris and Stephanie will be coming here for the weekend and staying in a cottage. All the units that allow dogs were already reserved so Max gets to stay with me in the Born Free.

Life is good. 

Shopping

Bend had rain showers off and on today so I let the rain soak the bugs while I headed into town to do some shopping. I took a different road into town which turned out to be a gravel forest road. It was a very well maintained road and was a very pretty drive. I saw several trail heads along the way that I will need to check out later. 

Using my GPS, I went to several stores and had a quick tour of Bend. First, of course, I headed to REI where my dividend for this year paid for my Merrill shoes that I replace every year. I also found an awesome book called Bend, Overall by Scott Cook. It is primarily about hiking trails, but also touches on museums, lakes, caves and other things to see in the area. There is so much to do here that it may take me several years to see it all. 

After spending a lot of time at REI, I picked up some organic veggies at Whole Foods so I would have something to eat. My GPS really let me down at Whole Foods. It guided me there just fine and said I had arrived at my destination. WHERE!  I was on a major road with two lanes going in each direction and it couldn't tell me which side of the road it was on!  I couldn't see a Whole Foods looking building anywhere so I turned off into a parking lot and took a look around. Nothing. There was a mall on the other side of the road with lots of big stores so I thought that might be a good place to look. After a bit of maneuvering I got over there and started wandering around and eventually I found Whole Foods. Stupid GPS!

One thing I have noticed about Bend is that except for a few major roads, everything meanders around and they have lots of roundabouts. Makes me dizzy.  They also have lots of parks and trails though so overall, it looks like a neat place to hang out. 

Tomorrow I really should get at those bugs.

Life is good. 

My home for the summer

I arrived today at the campsite that I leased for the summer. It's awesome. I had picked it out last fall when I came through the area on my way to Arizona. I thought I might like to lease a site this summer to use as a base for exploring eastern Oregon. I can leave the motor home on the site while I take the car on day trips and longer camping trips. I have never spent much time on this side of the mountains and there is so much to see and do that I am sure I will not be able to go everywhere I want to. 

Here are pictures of the site:

Lots of room for a tent.

My site is down this dead end road with only one other site on my side of the road and 3 or 4 on the other side. 

It was nice settling in here after 4 long days of driving. Tomorrow I will spend getting the bugs off the Born Free then I will start exploring. 

I took this picture from highway 95 today. The snow covered hills looked closer than in this picture. 

Life is good. 

Walmart

The Walmart camping experience happens once or twice a year for me and it always leaves something to be desired. It is convenient when I need groceries while traveling and the price is right. It's noisy though. 

I appreciate that Walmart allows us to use their parking lot at night if we wish. 

I have been driving through nothing most of the day and I am still there.....

I will be in Oregon soon. I can't wait. 

Life is good. 

In California

Second night of my trip north and I find myself in the great state of California on highway 395. Decided to go in style tonight and checked in to an RV resort so I could have air conditioning. It was a long, hot day today. There are trees AND grass here. Truly a paradise resort. I haven't seen so much vegetation in one place for a long time. 

Here is where I landed.

My dog is watching me take a picture. 

Life is good.

Overnight in Quartzsite

Headed out today from Arizona for the trip north today. Getting too hot here and I was getting restless for a road trip. Stopped for the night near Quartzsite, Arizona a little after noon. Very windy for the last couple of hours before I stopped. The Born Free handled good but I needed to be very alert for strong gusts. Made for a tiring day even though I stopped early. I left Ken's place at 6:45 and drove almost non stop. 

Here is my campsite. Not too many people here. 

My Born Free looks rather bare. I removed the large grey stripes because they looked very dirty like there was mold or something under the surface. 

This is what they looked like after cleaning. 

So I took them off. It was pretty easy, I just let the hot Arizona sun cook them a bit and peeled them off. So long ugly stripes. The other stripes are glossy and don't have the dirty look. 

Life is good. 

Living dangerously

Sitting in my chair near a cholla cactus. 

KOFA

I am currently at KOFA wildlife refuge camping in my car. I have found a campsite off the beaten path that has been very quiet and solitary. 

I just barely have internet using my Sleek with my Verizon Jetpack so will keep this brief. 

Life is good. 

Car camping

I left Ken's place this morning to take a trip to Albuquerque and retrieve some stuff I left there after the last trip. I plan on car camping along the way and stopped at Percha Dam State Park for the night. Percha Dam is just south of Truth or Consequences, NM. 

My campsite for the night.  No hookups, $10. 

Life is good. 

Washing, knitting and sunsets

Today was such a beautiful day I decided to do my washing.  I love to hang clothes outside to dry and today was a perfect day for it with little to no wind and the sun was shining bright with temps in the 70's.

While the wash was drying, I did some knitting.

Got a couple of packages today, one contained a 55-250mm lens for my new camera so I just had to play with it.  Used my tripod with the new lens and spent a lot of time figuring out how everything works.  Love the Slik tripod, it makes taking distance and low light pictures much easier.

My first bird picture and I didn't even know it was there until I looked at the picture on my computer!

The moon today.  Had to look straight up to get this picture.

Of course I had to get the sunset.

My solar lights.  The three in the lower left were a Christmas present from Bob and Jo.

Life is good.

Sharp, pointy things

I am back home after a wonderful time with Bob and Jo.  It is much warmer here in Sahuarita than it was in Albuquerque and I am enjoying the sun when it comes out. 

I have been busy playing with my new camera and trying to learn how best to use it.  I have a lot to learn yet so bear with me.  Here are some pictures I took today in the area around my RV.

 An ocotillo cactus looks like a dead plant but comes alive in the spring I hear.

A close-up of the ocotillo. 

A teddy bear cholla cactus.  Looks nice and soft doesn't it.

In reality it is a nasty plant that loves to jump out and stick to you.

Help!  It's going to get me!  All those arms are scary.

When I was in Albuquerque I took the following picture along the Rio Grande River.  It looks like there is an angry man inside.

That's all the pictures for now.  Hope everyone is keeping warm.

Life is good.

Happy Holidays

I have been spending the holidays with two of my brothers and my sister-in-law and having a great time. Ken and I came from Arizona before Christmas to stay with Bob and Jo until after New Years. Jo has been feeding us well. 

Snacks

Breakfasts are a wide varity of choices. 

Bob and Jo live in a beautiful house with lots of room for all of us. They have been such wonderful hosts that I will be sad to leave on Friday. I have taken this opportunity to pick Bob's brain about photography since that is one of his hobbies. I have been frustrated with using just my iPhone for my pictures so I decided to go for it and get a Canon Rebel T3i camera. The camera came yesterday and I have been learning how to use it since then. The pictures in this post were taken with the iPhone not the new camera. I will not be able to get the new camera's pictures in my posts until I get back home to my computer. 

Life is good.