Our Travel Blog
I have been complaining, I know, a rare occurrance, about typing on my tablet (we left laptops at home). The old hunt and peck method can’t keep up with my flurry of thoughts. So, my wonderful guy found me a bluetooth keyboard that works with my tablet and phone and convinced me, over the course of a month, that it would be worth the $30. It is amazing how much easier it is to get blogs and such done. My fingers can now keep up with my brain. The simple things in life! Oh, and he was right:)
A visit to the Eugene, Oregon Pioneer Cemetery takes one back to an era of individuals who had more moxie than most of us could ever imagine. These people left everything known to them, their homes, families and friends, to travel across prairies and over mountains, and through Native American and Mormon territories to find a new home. They braved the cold and heat, the wild animals and rushing rivers to create a new life in an unknown place. They didn’t have cell phones or Instagram or even good old snail mail. Most of the time these individuals are forgotten in the dusty corners of history, replaced by movie stars or the latest singing idol. But, today, these individuals stole the show for me. I am humbled by their fortitude and courage.
Tidbit: Visiting a town’s graveyard can be a treasure trove of information about a town’s past. I should wander through those in my own town back home.
So, the other day we decided to go for a drive and explore a new area south of Grants Pass. We headed down Route 99 following the Rogue River through an older section of motels and small fishing cabins, an area that spoke of a former time and lifestyle. Today, the motels and cabins are being replaced by RV parks, they are everywhere, I mean everywhere, and amazingly most of them look full. The temperate climate makes it a great place to overwinter, I guess. But, I wander. We are driving and admiring the landscape and architecture when Darrin sees a sign that says Table Rock and says, “Isn’t that where Nancy went hiking? Lets go check it out!” (Nancy being our Grants Pass Airbnb hostest with the mostest.) So I said, “Sure, lets go give it a gander.” Silly me, several hours later we had hiked 5.5 miles round trip to the top of Lower Table Rock. Normally, that would have been a normal hike for us, but a winter in the flatlands of Florida did nothing for my hiking muscles. Never the less, we hiked, it was beautiful and we have a blog to show for it!
Tidbit: The Lower Table Rock is taller and north of Upper Table Rock which makes absolutely no sense until you learn one is up river and one is down (lower on) the river, the Rogue River, that is. The all important river that brought life sustaining salmon to the native Takelma tribe.
“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders
Where are you going? What’s your plan? These were questions many people asked before we started out, almost a year ago. My standard answer was that we had no plan, we were tired of trying to plan. We were going to see where the road took us, live from day to day, in the moment. Quite enlightened and new age’ish of me, don’t you think? I thought so, but there was also the reality that we were leaving everything we knew for 2 years, jumping into the unknown, which was exciting, and a bit terrifying, ok a lot terrifying. We did want to let the road lead us, but also the thought of planning the trip as a whole was overwhelming. It was easier to think about driving out of the driveway, getting to Pennsylvania, then to the auto train to Florida, etc. But, if I am honest, there was always a tiny map in the back of my brain. A picture of where the road should take us. The inner workings of the human brain….oye!
Okay, I know get to the point, where are you going with all this rambling? (Lol, the human brain again. You want to know where this is going). The point…we followed the road and it took us to the Yukon and the Arctic Ocean, to Alaska and Denali…all amazing and life changing. We saw glaciers and bears and musk ox, and met interesting people. Not having a plan and following the road was the greatest thing ever! And then the road took us to Oregon for a new engine and Florida to be with Darrin’s mom and now to Eugene, Oregon for transmission work. And the little image in the back of my brain speaks up, “Hey, wait a minute, these weren’t in the plan!” Plan? What plan? We didn’t have a plan…where did that come from? What happened to going with the flow, letting the road show us where to go?
Okay, breathe. After a few hits over the head, we realized that the road is leading us. Where we are is okay. We were able to really be with Darrin’s mom and spend time visiting my parents. We have walked and hiked, and met interesting people. We have seen some cool landscapes and watched a bit of TV. Lately, we have taken naps and slept late, realizing we needed to recupperate from our months of hospitals and hospice in Florida. The bottom line is the road is still there and it is still an unplanned amazing adventure. We are grateful where it has taken us and look forward to where it will take us in the upcoming year, (even if it doesn’t match that little map in the back of my brain:)
Tidbit: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit or There and Back Again
So far we haven’t seen any dragons, but we will keep our ears to the ground and our eyes to the sky. Toodles!
In New England we say ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute and it will change’. We can have days where the temperature can swing as much as 40 or even 50 degrees. Oregon doesn’t have that extreme a swing in temperature during a single day, but they do have little changes in temperature that can change the constant precipitation from one form to another.
The last 2 days, the temperature here in the valley has been just warm enough for the precipitation to be in the form of rain, lots of rain. (Make sure you turn the sound up so you can hear Darrin on this little video.)
Now today, the temperature dropped just a few degrees and…
Tidbit: The weather in Oregon swings wildly from season to season. The winters are cool and wet, and the summers are quite hot and dry (a perfect combo for their recent wildfires).
The image below is our new diesel heater. It is spliced into the Rovers heating system and is set up to produce nice toe toasty warmth without running the motor. In short, we can pull in, pop up the tent, fire up the heater, and be cozy, warm, and dry! No power required, only a bit of diesel. Sweeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!
Tidbit: Happy wife! Toasty toes!
Today was a rainy day here in Grants Pass, Oregon, I know very surprising this time of year.
So, we set to organizing our gear to go back in the Wee Rover.
And we went for a bimble to put more miles on the motor for the next oil change.
So, all in all a very quiet, rainy day here in Grants Pass, Oregon. I think it is time to watch a little MASH and make some ravioli.
Tidbit: Grants Pass, orginally Grant’s Pass, was named after General Ulysses S. Grant and his 1863 victory at Vicksburg. A small stagecoach stop back then, the apostrophe was later dropped as the small town became a bustling railroad community.
Yesterday, we spent a chilly day at ReInvent the Wheel working out a few bugs, changing out the break-in oil and hooking up my new diesel heater (no more chilly toes no matter what the season! Thanks to Richard from the Alaskan Ferry who suggested the heater!)
So, today we were back to putting down some more break-in miles for the next oil change. Since the sun was shining, a rare occurance in Oregon this time of year, we decided to head down Rt. 199 to Crescent City, CA, a round trip of 160 miles. We chose this route because it had a nice elevation change and a variety of speed changes. We started in Grants pass at 960ft, went up to the Collier Tunnel through, you guessed it, Collier Mountain at 2,000ft, down the other side to the ocean at 15ft and back to Grants Pass. The Wee Rover and her new motor hummed right along. We only belched out a bit of smoke on the way up to the pass doing 55 in overdrive.
Tidbit: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park also know as Forest Moon of Endor (home of the Ewoks) is where Return of the Jedi was filmed, well the Ewok portion anyway.
Today, we spent some time driving around the Grants Pass/Merlin area in the Wee Rover trying to reach the 200 mile mark for our first oil change tomorrow. Since we had to be out and about in the rain, it rains a lot here just in case you didn’t know, except during the summer when it is hot and dry has forest fires, we decided to get wet and do a bit of sight seeing and reconnoitering for future camping places, just in case we end up back here sometime.
Our first stop was Griffin Park, a county park here in Grants Pass, OR. Oregon does a great job providing nice, affordable camping and day parks. Griffin Park is right on the Rogue River and seemed like a great place to camp, sometime when it isn’t raining and 40 degrees!
Our next venture was Indian Mary, another county campground. Again, it is right on the Rogue River and looks like a great place to camp. Bonus, it is just west of Hellgate Canyon, a beautiful gorge and playground for rafting, salmon fishing and jet boating.
Tidbit: Hellgate Canyon is where such movies as Rooster Cogburn, starring John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn, and The River Wild, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, were filmed. A bit of stardom for you movie buffs! Corn dodgers anyone?
Wow! Just Wow!
I didn’t realize just how conditioned I had become to dreading, scoping, planning, and grabbing momentum for every uphill.
The Wee Rover now just wants to pull and pull. Granted we still haven’t put her back together into traveling form so she was very svelte, but Wow! I found myself jabbing the throttle on the hills just to feel her jump forward.
More to follow as we settle in with the new motor.
Next up, 200 miles of breaking in, and her first oil change.
Tidbit: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!