6-26-18

A short, slightly boring blog entry for today.  We procrastinated most of the morning and then left our RV park in Redmond for lunch and a little exploration.  We ate at the Original Pancake House and then hit the road for Prineville.  Our goal was Bill and Patti's vacation home, even though they aren't here.  We haven't seen it before but couldn't seem to schedule coordinated visits.  Anyway, they built the house with their own hands and it is amazing.

We spotted a deer in their yard and got a photo before it disappeared.

This is a trestle of the City of Prineville Railroad.

After visiting a grocery store we went back to the TrailBayser for a little nap and some computer work for the job I do for Andy, the man who bought our dry cleaning delivery business.  Such a tough life.

We ate dinner at The View Restaurant at Juniper Golf Club.  They have a Tuesday night Prime Rib Special and lots of people turned out for it.

Bunny on the golf course.

Gary will play this course again tomorrow since he wasn't satisfied with his score from last Friday.  On Thursday we will hit the road for home.

6-25-18

Yesterday I forgot to post a picture of Gary I took at the Air Museum, so here it is.

After yesterday's trip to Bend we went to Prineville to have lunch and to check out a golf course where he is playing right now.  Meadow Lakes Golf Course has a history.  In 1988 the Environmental Protection Agency was ready to levy a $25,000 a day fine on the city of Prineville because of the dumping of waste water directly into the Crooked River.  One of the solutions for the problem was to build a golf course that included many small lakes which doubled as holding ponds and to also use
some of the water for irrigation.  The course is just beautiful and I assume the water is safe but I don't like to think about it.

I have learned things I never thought about before on this trip.  One topic is hay for cows versus hay for horses.  This came up when I saw a sign on the road advertising both.  I looked it up and there are huge differences.  Horses can be finicky and need their hay to have very specific nutrients.  Cows, not so much.  Who knew?

We passed an alpaca farm and saw a field full of recently sheared alpacas.  They were very cute, kind of looked like large poodles.  You could stop there and feed them if you wanted.

We had dinner at Baldy's BBQ last night and it was very good.  Gary had brisket and I had a Cuban sandwich.

Here is a picture of the world's happiest campers.

6-24-18

Here is my best picture from today's adventures.  Obviously, this Exit is Not An Exit.  We saw this in the Erickson Aircraft Collection facility in Bend, OR.  Gary's father, Bernard, was a navigator in the Royal Air Force in WWII.  This collection is vintage WWII aircraft.  Gary was in the U.S. Air Force during the Viet Nam war so this was very interesting for him.

A German plane.  Swastika on the tail.

Pontoon plane

Japanese plane.

Motorcycle with sidecar

Toy planes

6-23-18

Madaline's Grill where we had dinner tonight.

June weather is glorious in Redmond, OR.  We arrived the evening of the 21st and parked the TrailBayser at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds RV Park.  We have stayed here before, so we knew to expect a clean park with level concrete pads, with full hook-ups.

On Friday Gary played golf at Juniper Golf Course, which is walking distance from the RV Park.  It was very windy but he enjoyed it anyway.  I stayed at the park with Jazzy and Baby and we had a lovely, quiet day.

Today we drove a half hour to Bend.  Our first goal was the Saturday Market.  After a little struggle with the parking, we walked half of the market and then went to Starbucks for a drink and snack.  After that we saw the other half of the market booths.

Bend has some interesting street art including a long road through modern residences which has lots of roundabouts.  On each one is a statue or a work of art. 

In the old downtown area people were having fun but we saw the most Beer Bikes we had ever seen in one place, at least four, and it was only noon.  The people were having a GREAT time!!

There is a large fire about twenty miles from our campground but we have only seen a little smoky haze from it so far.  Don't worry, we are keeping our eyes and ears open and our phones both receive alarms if danger is near.

The fire didn't stop the hundreds of people having fun on the Deschutes River.  Below is a sculpture made entirely of kayaks at the entrance to the public beach.

There is a statue of an otter in the same park.  People were having fun.

6-7-18

Above is one example of art found in the many roundabouts in Kennewick, WA.  This one appealed to me because of the musical notes around the top.  Public art and beautiful, modern public schools are found everywhere in the Tri-Cities.   It is unusual to find any area that is run-down or unkempt.

Today we visited The Reach Museum.  It relays the story of the Hanford Nuclear Site, its geological history and its modern significance. 

Located in Richland, WA, this was where plutonium was processed for nuclear warheads in World War II.  When the site was chosen, the population exploded with government workers and their families.  The need for housing was immediate, so ABC houses were quickly erected.  They were called this because the plans for the homes each had a designated letter.  You can still see them everywhere.  Also, the high school teams are known as the Bombs and their insignia is a mushroom cloud.  Many homes and businesses are on Bombing Range Road.

Some people were housed in campers like the old Airstream above.  These were set up in trailer camps with wash facilities built for every 30 trailers, as the trailers did not include bathrooms.  Three or four people lived in each camper, pretty tight quarters.

There were lots of warning signs to protect the workers and also signs warning against talking about the projects.  We saw a suit that was supposed to defend against radiation but it was entirely made of cotton, so I doubt it would have helped.

I hope the workers didn't look like this last sculpture after they were exposed.  (Just pants, no top.  Actually looks like a piece I have by my front door at home.)

6-5-18

Today we got up a little earlier than usual so we could get to Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site by 10:00 when it opened.  It is only open for an hour a day and we didn't want to miss it. 

In November 1999 mammoth bones were found near Kennewick, WA and they have been slowly unearthed since then.  The website said there are tours of the dig site every month but they are fully booked through 2018.  The little museum at the Dig House is supposed to be available, according to the website.  However, no one was inside.  We knocked on the door and walked around to a side entrance.  A sketchy looking man came out of the building with a rifle in his hand.  He quickly put it back inside when he saw our panicked faces and explained that a rattlesnake was loose inside and he had been looking for it.  I replied, "Well, Goodbye."

Anyway, this gentleman said that the Dig House was run by two retired schoolteachers who rarely showed up.  That was all he knew.  We left.

We explored Richland and checked out a couple of golf courses for Gary for tomorrow.  

We saw a sign advertising a Reading and Spelling Camp.  How much fun do you think that would be?

We also saw two signs before highway bridges which said "Dismount and lead horses.".  We haven't seen anyone riding a horse since we arrived here, so that was a bit unexpected.

 

 6-4-18
This is the Cable Bridge over the Columbia River.  The water level is high because of an unusually voluminous snow melt this year.   In Portland this means that the bridges have to be raised for ship traffic much more often than usual.

The Tri-Cities area is surprisingly urban for its location.  There are about 240,000 people here and the shopping and business areas look just like anywhere in America.  There is a lot of new development and the desert terrain is being covered with new homes and recreation areas.  The weather is beautiful much of the time. 

Gary golfed at Canyon Lakes Golf course.  In the yard of one of the homes he found these metal golfers.  Love them. 

We visited a memorial to the 9-11 disaster which was built of twisted girders from the World Trade Center.  Who would expect to see this in the middle of Washington state?

 Here is an unusual light fixture from the breakfast restaurant we visited yesterday.