Max and Uncle Bill

The only thing old about Uncle Bill is his body and even then his movements are quick and sure. He keeps up on the latest of everything and remembers all the old stuff too.

Uncle Bill and Butch

Butch and Uncle Bill look over a cabin in which a gunbattle took place over the State in which Susanville should be associated, California or Nevada.

A former tree of some size

A mural in Susanville CA depicting the history of the town

A mural in Susanville CA depicting the history of the town

A mural in Susanville CA depicting the history of the town

My sis Myrla was telling me about the great art displays they have at the Mayo Clinic. She took her trusty digital camera along on their next visit and snapped some pictures so I felt inclined to share them with all of you.

Art at the Mayo Clinic

Art at the Mayo Clinic

Scott Acklin at Mayo Clinic

Last night we were in Weed California with MT. Shasta for a view. Today we arrived in Susanville CA, settled in and got in touch with Uncle Bill and his daughter Willie and her husband Max. We had an enjoyable meal at The Apple Peddler and talked about all the relatives both living and dead.

A Scenic Byway in Oregon

This is what I thought Oregon would look like before I had been here. Now I know it is only one small part.

Forest Leaves

This is a Swiss couple traveling the USA by bicycle. They hope to retire and travel the USA in a motorhome...See? ...All kinds of folks think it sounds like fun!

These berries were growing out of a lava bed.

The Sisters

Sahalie Falls- A tiny little Oriental girl asked her Daddy if they were going to turn off the pump.

Butch took this shot and he too has a knack for seeing a good shot. It is further downstream from Sahalie Falls.

August 12th and there was still snow on Crater Lake

Crater Lake and more pictures added to Oregon 2 album on webshots.

Butch and I made a day of it and drove to Crater Lake. These falls were one of our last stops for the day. Tokatee Falls. Impressions of Oregon- The most beautiful state I have seen. The tastiest fruits, vegetables and seafood ever. The sizes of fruits and vegetables are impressive. Texas claims to grow things larger but I think Oregon has them beat by a mile. The best tasting sweet corn even in comparison with Iowa!

This is water harnessed for electric generation. It had sprung a leak or two. It is located near Tokatee Falls in the Umpqua National Forest of Oregon.

Butch thought this best captured the color of Crater Lake

Over 8000 ft elevation on Rim Drive

Crater Lake

Crater Lake- Rim Drive opens in early July and closed by snow in September

Crater Lake- one of the most amazing places on earth.

Webshots Oregon 2

Yesterday Joyce, Butch and I went to the Oregon Coast from Florence to Newport. A most beautiful piece of the USA. We ate at Mo's in Newport enjoying the tastiest clam chowder I have ever eaten. You could see the kitchen when you walked in and they had at least 10 large pots of clam chowder on the ready. Butch liked it too.

It was the first time I had seen the Pacific and we had a perfect day for it.

You can see more pictures on the Webshots site.

Sea Lion at Newport OR

A family of Sea Lions

Butch looks as though he is meditating. I doubt it.

Yesterday afternoon we toured the Monaco plant where they were constructing motorhomes. They do not allow cameras so you will just have to imagine it!;-) It was very interesting but I would rather tour the factory where ours was made but will have to go to Indiana for that tour.

Webshots Community - barbie1943's Photo Home Page

More Oregon pictures are at this site.
Webshots Community - barbie1943's Photo Home Page

In addition to their house in Springfield OR, John and Joyce have a beautiful cabin along the MacKenzie River. This view is from the river side. This place is flyfisherman heaven.

A pond along a path at the Belknap Hot Springs Garden

MacKenzie River at Belknap Hot Springs Garden

MacKenzie River at Belknap Hot Springs Garden

Dahlias on the MacKenzie River at Belknap Hot Springs Garden

Don't know this fella but I have titled the picture "Looks like Trouble".

Some have asked how we do our mail and we use Escapee mail service and since they explain it very well I thought I would share this article with you.

Escapees Mail Service – A Virtual Tour


The Escapees Mail Service is actually three separate operations: the operators who answer your calls and process your mail-forwarding instructions; the package desk where packages are received, catalogued, and forwarded; and the mailroom where incoming mail is sorted and filed, then later pulled and packed to be forwarded based on members’ instructions.



There are four mail service operators on duty from 8am-5pm, Central Time. They answer calls from mail service member-subscribers. They record your forwarding instructions, make updates to your mail service profile, or re-direct your call to someone else at National if you require additional help or information.



The package desk is staffed by Pat Emmons and Sandra Snook . They’ve received and forwarded many unusual items, including bus tires, refrigerators, and satellite dishes. Is it okay to receive items like this through the mail service? Yes! The key to a happy ending for your packages is speedy retrieval! When you’ve ordered something unusual or large or fragile that might require special handling, please call in for prompt forwarding. This busy package desk processes an average of 22,000 packages a year.



The highlight of the mailroom tour is Howie! Howie is a state-of-the art mail sorting machine that makes the work of the human sorters and filers much easier. (The machine is named Howie because, when we bought it, we wondered, “How are we going to pay for this?”) Every morning a huge semi-truck full of mail pulls into the parking lot and unloads over 2,500 tubs and trays of mail. Howie sorts this load into PMB and mail box numbers. The filing staff hand-files the sorted mail into the appropriate “boxes” in the main section of the mailroom. Filing begins early in the day and continues until noon. As mail-forwarding requests come in from members, the filed mail is pulled and prepared for forwarding. While many aspects of the mail service operation are computerized, there is a very human touch to the entire process.



The Escapees Mail Service is the largest, and we think the best, of its kind in the US. We have 10,650 member subscribers. In 2004, the Escapees Mail Service handled 7,471,456 pieces of mail! Yes, that’s more than seven MILLION pieces of mail. Something to be proud of!



The Escapees Mail Service number is 1-800-231-9896.

Lance Brooker after a long hot day of painting houses.

Chad 16, Tawny's boyfriend was testing how long he could hold his breath and Tawny 14 was making sure he did not cheat.


Could we say she is leading him around by the nose??

The Willamette River

Yesterday Joyce gave us a tour of the area(Eugene/Springfield OR) so we could more easily find our way around although I must say the GPS has been a big help in that endeavor. We stopped and picked blueberries. I have never been overly fond of blueberries but then I had never eaten them directly from the bushes on which they grew either. There is a tremendous difference. In this picture Butch and Joyce are waiting for me to return so we can start picking. Butch ate 3 of them...I was sooo proud of him!!


Last night we went to Roaring Rapids Pizza Place with our Oregon family. We ate pizza, visited and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Willamette River.

We have been on the road for several days...hmmm...let's see we left Marlene and Bernard's in northern Iowa Wednesday morning and it seems like a long time ago. It is easy to get confused when we are on the move. But now we are in the Eugene Kamping World RV Park and paid for a week. I have WiFi and that tickles me pink.
We have been to the grocery store and took Corkey's advice...she told me every time you have the opportunity to sign up for a discount card from a store to do so. So we signed up for an Albertson's card and saved $4.00+. We keep the cards in the car as Corkey also advised and then they are handy when you need them and when you travel as much as we have you can get quite a stack of cards!
Angel is adjusting nicely to being a traveling cat. She rides underneath my seat and sleeps most of the time. She comes out every time we stop, to see where we are then scoots back under the seat when we take off again.
The ride through the mountains was a breeze compared to the other times we have been in the mountains or on twisty curvy roads. Our new MoHo handled extremely well according to Butch. The aforementioned Corkey and Allen told us they get 10.5 MPG by driving 55 with their Mountain Aire so Butch decided to try it with fuel prices such as they are and we ARE getting 10 MPG too!
I have started a new Swedish Weaving project with sage monk's cloth,Red Heart Lt. raspberry and medium sage yarn. I love those colors together.
I had Internet most of the time with Verizon but rarely with WiFi without paying...and I won't pay! The Wifi is so much better and faster but so far the Verizon has been the one I can count on.

A close up view of the blackberry bushes

Sandy River at Troutdale

At Troutdale in the Sandy River RV Park the Sandy River is the back edge of the park...very close! These bushes were loaded with blackberries.

We are currently in Troutdale Oregon...very near Portland. It is not our final destination but we are getting much closer. We should get there today. Northeastern Oregon looks much different than we expected. It is very much like Eastern Colorado. I-90 follows along the Columbia river and is beautiful. The negatives are that we are too big for our britches and places to pull over are not all that plentiful. The Flying J in Troutdale is so packed with truckers that it was impossible to stay there so we ended up in a wonderful though expensive RV park along the Sandy River. We walked down to the river last night and discovered an abundant supply of blackberries as well as a nice view. I will go back again this morning with my bucket and a camera.

Webshots Photo Home Page

Webshots Community - barbie1943's Photo Home Page
We went to Yellowstone yesterday and it certainly lives up to it's reputation. There were far too many photos to post on the blog so I put them in an album on webshots and I put the album in first place for your convenience.;-)
The animal pictures were taken by me and yes we were that close. They warn about getting too close but not many people pay much attention to that. We were never in any danger...I used my zoom. We saw many,many bison and a few elk but no bears and that is probably a good thing. It is a beautiful place on the earth, although in my opinion, a bit spooky.

Orange Hot Spring- This was one of my favorites. You could hear it percolating.