10-31-2020 A Colorful Halloween

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Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine.  It was especially sweet when I lived in Klamath Falls very close to the historic neighborhood on Pacific Terrace.  Every year throngs of people from all over the city would flock to the wide parkway lined with decorated historic homes.  We would get trick or treaters at our house, but the most fun was going with kids and family on “the terrace” to people watch and see all the kids and eat popcorn from the house with the outdoor popcorn machine and watch movies projected on garage walls.  It was a great time for me and for my grandkids who later grew up in that house on The Terrace.

Halloween on Pacific Terrace in Klamath Falls

Here at Sunset House, we live on a somewhat narrow rural road, with very few children around us.  Most folks in our open neighborhood are older, and many are retired.  We also have no sidewalks, and in the three years that we have lived in Sunset House we have never had a single Trick-or-Treater come to our door.  Most years I do a lot of decorating, both indoors and out.  Somehow this year I just couldn’t get in the mood.  I put up some “fall” decorations, lights and pumpkins, but left the Halloween stuff I have collected over the years in the big orange bins that I store in the mezzanine in the RV shed.  Ah, well…what can I say.  This year has been so demanding in so many ways and so mentally exhausting. 

Still, yesterday I felt like Mo and I needed something to add a bit of cheer and variety to our days.  How about a picnic?!  On the previous day and on many others I pass our beautiful Riverside Park on the way to various errands.  I often think, “Why don’t we take Mattie walking in the park more often?”  Even from the car the brilliant colors of all the beautiful mature trees in the lovely park caught my eye.  Time for a picnic and a walk along the river.

We planned to go on Saturday afternoon at 3.  The time was rather specific because from my previous day passing the park I could see that the colors were most brilliant in the late afternoon light.  Before 3 was too flat and after 4 the light would be too low in the sky to illuminate the leaves. I packed an egg salad sandwich picnic (our traditional picnic favorite for the last 18years) and we packed up the dog and drove the 2 miles from our home to the park.

I also wanted Mo to see the brilliant color of all the street trees that line both main streets of downtown Grants Pass. Sixth  and Seventh Streets are one way thoroughfares that link the southern and northern parts of the city and the color right now is gorgeous.  I am more often the errand runner in town, and knew that Mo probably hadn’t had an opportunity to see the town street trees.

As we approached the park, I suggested that we drive the town streets before going to the park.  I had seen on the news that Grants Pass was due for a truck parade, said to begin at 3:30 pm, and I thought it might be smart to drive through town before the hoop-la began.  Oops. 

Turning north past the park on 7th street, we were suddenly right in the midst of the big truck parade.  You all know which ones I mean, but I am not going to talk about that part.  Neither of us would have chosen on purpose to get caught in the middle of this parade, but somehow there we were.

My liberal friends will be aghast and my conservative friends will cheer, but we actually got a big kick out of the whole thing.  It was loud and the trucks did spew a lot of diesel, but in general most drivers were polite, and were simply excited by their cause.  I saw no guns, although many of the trucks did have gun bumper stickers. I was thrilled to see that there was not a single confederate flag anywhere. I would have never chosen to participate in this parade, but simply wanted to see the downtown trees.  I will be glad when all this is over, to say the least.

I thought about how parade deprived we are in this stupid COVID year.  Grants Pass usually has at least half a dozen parades and many amazing events throughout the year that have all been cancelled.  I love parades and I found myself laughing out loud. 

Then the best part came as we approached the main business section where we discovered throngs of kids and families trick-or-treating along the sidewalks.  Business owners (the ones that are still open) were passing out safe treats in safe ways to the kids. 

It was so encouraging to see them having fun in their costumes as they walked along the streets. It was a great alternative to door to door trick-or-treating that has been discouraged in Grants Pass this year.

It was a gorgeous, blue sky day with temperatures around 70 degrees, much warmer than the icy Halloween nights my kids grew up with in Idaho and even on Pacific Terrace.  The street trees in town were amazing.  Many of them much taller than I ever noticed in their summer green cloaks.

When we got to the park, all was quiet, as most of the big flag draped trucks were continuing around the city loop.  We parked and then walked along the river to find a perfect picnic table with a view for our late lunch/early supper. 

Riverside Park is truly a treasure, and the mighty Rogue River was deceptively quiet on this lovely fall day.  We thought once again that someday we might launch at the park and try this quiet part of the river in our kayaks.

Whomever is responsible for this beautiful city park should be commended.  The plantings are wonderful, and among the big giants there are new plantings to take over when needed. 

There were several varieties of oaks, maples, and sweet gums in addition to some beautiful old redwoods, pines, and firs.  The expansive lawns allow for lots of play area and the playground for the kids now has a new spray park that was added this year. The ducks, geese, and pigeons were as happy as ever to hang around the picnic areas hoping for treats.

Mattie was thrilled with the entire day, especially the parade part.  She sat in the middle of the Tracker console watching everything intently.  She never barked, but she was very excited about the whole thing. 

Of course, kids and ducks in the park were exciting to her as well, and she loved every minute. It was a surprisingly lovely afternoon and left both of us in a happy place.

Another Rocky Point Sunday

The air has finally started moving again, and as I look outside the bedroom window I can see the last of the leaves twisting in the breeze.  There is snow on the ground, still, from our foot of snow dropped a week ago, but it is thinning.  Not that bad, really, for mid November. Sometimes during this time of year in our part of the world the air gets still and cold, with fog from the basin around the edges of the lake and smoke from the slash piles and prescribed burns making the air murky. It was like this for a week or so, and then a couple of nights ago the winds started blowing, dropping pine needles into the snow like pick-up sticks, and clearing the air. I love the sound of the wind at night.

Check out that great new stain on the house!  The job is finally finished, with the crew coming to put the last touches on the last day before the snow fell.  They did a great job, but we certainly weren’t very happy with the amount of time they spent doing it.  The job was started in late September and only finished on November 3rd.  Sometimes the crew wouldn’t come out until mid afternoon and only stay a couple of hours before leaving.  We live a long way from town and we could never figure out how the contractor expected to make money doing business like that. Maybe he had too many jobs going on at once and was trying to keep everyone happy.  Whatever.  At least the job is finished and the house looks great and we didn’t have to do it ourselves!

On November 1st, Mo and I traveled west to Brookings for three gorgeous days on the beautiful sunny coast. On Monday, the 31st, Mo turned to me and asked, “Remind me again why we couldn’t leave for Brookings today?”.  Halloween, silly!  I had to be home for Halloween with my kids, actually the kids are only part of it.  The rest of the story is the wonderful tradition of walking on the dark sidewalks filled with happy costumed families on Pacific Terrace, where I used to live in Klamath Falls.  One more time I met my daughter and grandkids to walk through crispy leaves, smell the popcorn that one family hands out every year from their outdoor popcorn machine, and be amazed at all the wonderful decorations that line the street for a mile in each direction.  There is no better place to be at Halloween than Pacific Terrace in Klamath Falls.

When we left Tuesday morning for the coast, the weather was incredible.  Blue skies all the way, without even a hint of fog over the ocean to mar the views. We went immediately to Harris Beach State Park, hoping for one of the ocean view sites, only to discover that those sites were all taken, even on a weekday in November!  Instead, we settled into a roomy spot just across the road from those premium sites, power and cable and water for 22 bucks and still a great ocean view.

Our main purpose for the trip was to get the MoHo settled in to her storage berth, so we immediately went to meet the owner to be sure that the unit was easily accessible.  Turns out that it is just fine, and when we slid the MoHo in on Thursday morning before traveling back to Rocky Point, it was a piece of cake.

In the mean time, we spent a good deal of time looking at possible properties in the Brookings area, but none were just right for what we wanted.  Still, it was fun driving up the Chetco River to look, and then to the north end of town, just hoping for the right combination of view, price, and of course a big RV storage shed to appear. We took some wild rambling roads and were surprised to discover that many roads around Brookings are incredibly narrow and steep.  Saw a spot with a gorgeous view of the ocean, with the words “great for a two story cottage”.  That should have been a clue, since the property was on the side of a mountain with just enough flat ground for a very tiny home, and no space for an RV shed.

We saw another truly beautiful home and giant perfect RV shed with a gorgeous view, and an unbelievable 8 foot deer fence surrounding almost all the property, enclosing 50 roses and some beautiful gardens.  The price was OK, but then there was more than 5 acres that needed subdividing, with some weird garages with no windows and with people actually living in them!  Very strange.  All a bit too complicated, and we laughed and said, “Let’s go find the fish and chips”.  Once more we went to the Chetco Café down in Harbor where the ambience is certainly funky but the fish was as perfect as last time, thin thin very crispy perfect coating on tender, flavorful perfect fish.  Yum.  And a decent white wine at 3 bucks a glass.  Can’t beat it.

We spent the next day relaxing, or I should say Mo relaxed while I went into town to use the coffee shop internet for a work conference. Finally in the afternoon we headed for the gorgeous, sunny beach.  Dinner was a perfect steak brought from home and a great campfire and then a walk that took us to the campsite of some local Rocky Point friends who just happened to be camping there as well.  They invited us in to their fire, offered more wine and conversation, and the evening stretched out to the late hours with fun and laughter. Seems as though Harris Beach is a pretty popular place for most of us.

On Thursday, once the MoHo was settled in to the storage unit, we drove north to take the back road route from Gold Beach through Agness and back to Grants Pass.  The road is called the Bear Camp Coastal Route, and is not maintained after November 5 through the winter and spring.  We made it just in time.  Although on the map the road looks like it should be a short fast way back home, in reality, it is steep and slow and absolutely beautiful.  It follows the Rogue River to Agness then climbs the coast mountains before dropping back down to the Rogue near Hellsgate. Even in the Tracker, the road was a bit daunting, especially on the passenger side. It was beautiful, though, and while we may not have to do it again soon, I am glad I finally got to see the famous route over the mountains. Let me just say, DO NOT ever even think of driving this road in any kind of motorhome!

That morning Brookings was shrouded in clouds with rain coming down and snow predicted for the mountains above 4,000 feet.  Sure enough at the top of the route we ran into some snow, some deer, and even a bear!  I WILL learn to keep my camera in my lap and on, but instead, at the bear moment, Jeremy was snoozing in my lap and the camera was on the floor. By the time we got home, there was fresh snow over the pass on 140 but no snow yet in Rocky Point.  We would have loved to stay longer in Brookings, but too many details awaited us and thank goodness the heaviest snow held off till our Friday errands were run and we were safely back at home. I can’t believe how lucky we were to get in just under the wire with the first really big snowstorm arriving the day we put the MoHo in storage in snowless Brookings.  Perfect.

I spent last weekend cutting and sewing strips for my very first quilt.  It was a perfect day to be playing with brightly colored fabric with the dark skies and falling snow. It is just a simple panel, with borders, and I got all the borders on and am now attempting to learn how to do the machine quilting part. Mo is worried that I will now start collecting fabric the way I collect yarn. Hopefully I will refrain from getting too carried away with all this.

I have been knitting, and quilting, and working soil survey stuff, and somehow the time to write has slipped. Winter is here, life has simplified a bit for now, and I am enjoying that a lot.

October Heaven

As much as I love the delight of Spring, I don’t think there is any time of year in Rocky Point more beautiful than early fall.  Our springs can be wet and cold, and when they warm a bit, the mosquitoes tend to visit.  Mosquitoes bring bats of course, a good thing, except a bit unnerving when they swoop down from the eaves while we are in the hot tub.  As summer progresses, the frogs proliferate like the proverbial rabbits, tiny little green guys lining up on door sills, and sometimes sneaking into the hot tub for one last too warm swim.

When October comes, however, all is still.  The leaves haven’t yet turned, flowers still in bloom, mosquitoes have gone to sleep and frogs are thinning out.  Morning sunlight filters through the trees lighting up the now lush grass. It takes much of a summer for Mo to get that grass as thick and lush as she likes, with careful attention to dry spots, brown spots, moss, and edges.  She is the lawn person, and am mostly the flower person.  It works well.

I wait very impatiently for October 1st, refusing to put up any kind of fall or Halloween decorating before then.  Then down come the bins, out comes all the fun stuff, the fall harvest flags go up, and we start building morning and sometimes evening fires.  I love the smell of the juniper when it catches, and the feel of that warm glow.  Jeremy loves it as well, lounging in front of the flames stretched to his full length to absorb all the warmth.  The knitting comes out, homemade stock for soup on the stove, and the evenings are dark before 7.

Of course before this auspicious day, I had many things to do to fill up the last great week of September.  My grandson, first daughter Deborah’s son Matthew, got married last weekend and I was able to fly to Colorado to share in the wedding.  It was a lovely occasion, held at the only golf course in Sterling, with a sweet ceremony and a sit down supper and dancing afterward. Jessi’s family all live in Colorado, but our family is a bit more scattered and all weren’t able to be there.  As always, weddings are such emotional times, with moments of gaiety and moments of nostalgia all wrapped up together in the tradition.

Deb and I had a day long layover in Denver and decided to spent it with Mo’s sister Edna.  We visited at home with a chance to once again have lunch with dear Lucille, now 103 years old.

Then Edna, Deb and I checked out the Bear Creek Regional Park, a lovely campground not far from Edna’s home where she is planning a big family reunion next summer.  It looks like it will be a perfect spot as long as Colorado doesn’t hit all of us with really hot summer temperatures.  There are miles of biking and hiking trails, some shady escapes from the heat, although not actually in the campground itself.  There is a swimming beach, and three reservoirs for kayaking and dog swimming.  The group site holds 5 rigs with electric hookups and room for tents as well for only $70 per night for all. In addition, for family without RV’s there are two very lovely comfortable yurts, one in beautiful shade. 

After exploring the park, the three of us drove 15 minutes farther east to Morrison and the southern entrance to Red Rocks Amphitheater.  It was Deb’s first time to see the historic venue and she was enthralled. As a lover of music, she really enjoyed all the posters and history of so many great artists who have played there in the past. We enjoyed the gorgeous view of Denver from high above the stage, and especially enjoyed reading about the history of Red Rocks.  Again, this is a place that would not exist without the efforts of FDR and the CCC who built the amphitheater around the existing natural stage of red rock.  In the early teens, musicians would play there and the visitor center has some truly great photos of those old performances. The geology of the place is magnificent, with the great unconformity of the Rocky Mountains in full view here below Dinosaur Ridge. As a lover of the wild red sandstones of Utah, I thrilled at the color and beauty of this place carved from the same stuff.

Our flight back to Portland was uneventful, even though we arrived close to midnight and Deborah had to work the next day.  I drove south on the 5, thinking of Russ and Donna, but they were off somewhere else having a wonderful time in Therapy so I didn’t stop in Eugene.

Then Tuesday morning Mo’s brother Roger and his wife Nancy came down from Lone Pine to share a few days with us at Rocky Point.  They just bought a brand new motorhome, a 2012 Winnebago Aspect, 28 feet, with a full down queen sized bed, something I do envy! They decided to leave it behind and take advantage of our little cabin instead.  The cabin is really comfortable, with cozy furniture, lots of farm and ranch antiques about, a very good little wood stove, hot water showers, and a composting toilet. My favorite part of the cabin is the light, huge windows on the east bringing in morning sunlight in a way I don’t get here in the main house.  It’s lovely, and it’s always nice when folks choose to stay in the cabin.

We spent one day kayaking Recreation Creek, and the next day paddled south into Harriman Creek to the springs and back.  It was perfect weather for being out in the boats and we had a great time. 

After our morning kayak on Thursday, we all decided that a trip to Lava Beds National Monument was in order.  Time for a bit of caving!  I was game, although going down into caves isn’t particularly on my list of important life events.  Even in Carlsbad Caverns I didn’t feel particularly comfortable.  I was awed by the beauty and the formations, but still just didn’t want to be down there.  Caves are a place for unearthly beings.  Spirits and ghosts and who knows what.  Bats and white crawly things and dampness.  Ugh.  Oh, right, I am a scientist, who supposedly doesn’t believe in spirits and ghosts.  Ask me again when I am in a cave sometime, which won’t be in the near future!

Still it was a fun trip.  Lava Beds is a quiet park, in the middle of almost nowhere beyond the Lower Klamath and Tulelake Wildlife Refuges and resting below our favorite Mountain Lake Highlands from which it emerged.  Lava has flowed here for thousands of years, last time was less than 800 years ago, so the area is fresh and hot with jagged a’a lava.  There are many lava caves, some as yet little explored, and only one that has light.  We chose instead to follow the cave loop and see how many caves we could see in the time we had left on this afternoon.

After checking for our possibility of carrying bat disease, the ranger gave us a brochure that listed all the caves, with check marks for “can walk upright” “Must duck walk in some part” “Must crawl in some part” and the length of the cave.  We started with Thunderbolt, and the very scary, very uneven trail descended some steep steps before crawling off into blackness and low hanging rock guaranteed to give you a serious head bump if you stood up too quickly. Deep into the tunnel, we did the thing all cave tours do and turned off our flashlights.  That lasted just a few seconds before we all creeped out and turned our lights back on!

The next few caves that we explored weren’t quite as deep and black, but I still wasn’t exactly having fun and was glad when we emerged from the last cave of the day. Even with my heebie jeebies, it was still fun to go exploring and a great thing to do with company who have never been to Lava Beds.  I guess if I have company again who want to see the park, I will have to go down in the caves once more.  Ugh. We topped off our visit with a trip up to Lake of the Woods for a great dinner before the restaurant closes for the season.

I love having company, and I love when I have no company.  Quiet days with a bit of gardening, some knitting, catching up on the DVR recordings, no deadlines, nowhere to be.  Next week will be full again, I will work another 40 hours and hopefully the guys staining the house will eventually complete the prep and get to the actual staining!  Toward the end of the week, another round of excitement will come to Rocky Point with a visit from Laurie and Odel!  Yippee and Hooray!  We are really hoping for a few more perfect kayak days to take them out on the creek, for what I think will be their first time kayaking. 

10-31-2010 Loading Up for our Trip

Finally! It is Sunday and we are loading up the MoHo.  Tomorrow we will be on the road again, certainly not another long jaunt, but almost two weeks of ambling down the California coast with our new kayaks. The snow melted, and even though it’s raining today, the snow level is above 6500 feet or so, higher even than our pass crossing to Medford tomorrow.  Once over the pass (I can’t believe this pass doesn’t have a real name) we will be out of snow country. Of course, rain and fog are distinct possibilities, but with a cozy home, lots of fleece, and raincoats, that isn’t a problem either.  The ocean is wonderful even in the rain, and fog just makes the redwoods more mysterious.

I guess you can tell who takes the most pictures around here.  It looks like Mo does all the work, but not really.  I am just the one with the camera.  Mo has been raking and burning to hopefully get a head start on the pine needles that will accumulate in drifts by next spring when the snow melts.  I worked all last week, but managed a few work days at home, which gives me a chance to run laundry loads in between uploading data.  I also got the house all spiffy for our return in mid-November. 

Mo is checking the tires and the air shocks while I load up the food and clothes.  She also did a bit of retrofit on the cubbyhole that holds the DVR so it would stay in place.  The little wooden fence will keep the remotes from hitting the driver on the head when the road gets too curvy!

I stood in the MoHo for a minute and couldn’t for the life of me remember just what I needed to pack.  It’s only been a month since we landed, and I cleaned everything out back then to hopefully starve the mice.  Hmmm, what has to go back in? ??  I laugh when I read about everyone packing their computer cords, batteries, computers, cameras, all that techie paraphernalia.  Someday maybe batteries will be implanted in our bodies and run everything wirelessly?  I put in the dry foods, the kayak clothes, too many shoes, and started to get back into the routine of living in the MoHo.  Only took half an hour or so to get back in the groove.

Our new kayaks are coming from Canada.  It’s been a bit worrisome because of the bad weather this week, and the trucker was trapped in Montana for a couple of days.  I have to say that the company has worked extra hard to get them to us in time for our trip.  We are meeting the driver in Medford tomorrow (on our route) mid day to finally pick them up.  It is pretty exciting.  Of course, we could have taken our old trusty boats, but since we paid for these back in September, it sure will be nice to have them with us.

I have been reading the RV blogs  more and more lately, and thanks to some prolific writers who mention mine now and then, I am actually enjoying some readers following Mo and I as well. Welcome to these  new followers.  You inspire me to take better photos and write more often.  Gail Durham looks like she is enjoying Halloween very much and  Kathy talked about how unique each person’s story is, and I so agree with her.  The only problem I am having now is trying to read everything.  The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger!  whew!  Life and work and travel might get in the way now and then, but it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t really appreciate this great group of people. Hi and welcome as well to Randy and Pam who are working on a Habitat for Humanity home, and to Loree, tucked away on beach making gorgeous afghans.  Donna found me, both here and on Facebook, and I had to tell her I had been reading her blog a long time before she and Stu got together.  Pidge and Don,  The Frugal Travelers, go to some really great out of the way places I might never find without her blog.

Happy Halloween everyone!  I am going into Klamath Falls tonight to celebrate with my daughter and her family.  They live in my home in a neighborhood known “the terrace”.  Pacific Terrace is a double boulevard with a grassy median lined on both sides of the street with old unique homes from the 40’s.  There are big beautiful trees, sidewalks for walking, and every year the entire street lights up for Halloween. 

Almost every house is decorated, and there are lights and kettle corn, and one person has outdoor scary movies projected on his garage door.  People bring their kids from all over town to trick-or-treat here. It is like we all stepped back into the 50’s when kids could be out late and there were no scary people doing scary things to the treats.  On Pacific Terrace, Halloween is still fun and fabulous.