As 2018 started, our new house on Howard Drive was awaiting permits to continue its remodeling, so we were just chilling in our RV most of the winter. We finally moved into the house in mid-February, but we were far from done at that point.
After the remodeling was complete, in April 2018, we opted for two small trips that summer, just to break things up. We wanted to get away, sort of. (That is, I wanted to get away and Jack didn’t. LOL so we compromised.) I will split 2018 into two pages.
Trip 1 — Oregon Coast :::::::::::: Trip 2 — Colorado Adventures
Our first trip was 40 days to the Oregon Coast. Of course, we saw much splendor on the way up and back!
Trip 1 — Oregon Coast
We left on this trip in early June of 2018. It was really hot in Phoenix, so we headed pretty directly over to … Death Valley. Yeah.
We stayed in Beatty, NV, just over the line from one of the entrances to Death Valley National Park, and it turned out to be a great place for us to stay.
On 6/5, the same day we arrived in Beatty, we drove the short hop to the ghost town of Rhyolite.
Furnace Creek was appropriately named.
We did a bit longer hike in Death Valley, visiting the Natural Bridge.
We also took some pictures of the Artist’s Palette. It was very pretty, and, if we’d been there during the Golden Hour (it’s a photographers’ thing), I’d have likely gotten some heavily saturated images like you see if you search “Death Valley Artist.” I actually toned down the saturation a bit here, so that it would look real.
This was just a short stopover in Death Valley. We left on 6/7, driving up to close to Reno. From there, we drove down to Carson City, the capital of Nevada! (That is a link to my Capitol page.)
From there, we headed up to one of my old stomping grounds, Burns, Oregon. My grandparents settled there, and my Uncle and Aunt did too. They are all quite gone now, but we drove around and I enjoyed some memories.
We stopped at the Burns Museum on a lark, There, I saw a table covered with big old scrapbooks. I thumbed through one, and there was a newspaper article about my Uncle! I was amazed and happy to have found this.
Then on 6/13, we drove to Steen’s Mountain in Harney County, Oregon. We couldn’t do the whole drive and see all of the wonderful things that Uncle Jack showed us as kids, because it was still closed from the winter snow road damage, but Jack and I did have a picnic by a beautiful stream.
Then we stopped by at the Pete French Round Barn State Heritage Site and shot a few pictures.
Bend was our next stop, and we were there just a few days. I shot these on 6/15 in a pretty park we walked through on our way to the Mill.
And then, by 6/19, we were in Portland. Here are some pics I took at the Rose Garden.
On 6/20, we went on a day trip out of our camp in east Portland. This trip took us to the Brigittine Monks Monastery, where they make fabulous fudge. Yes, we did! Fudge AND truffles!
We ended up the day at McMenamans in Troutdale, just east of Portland. There are several of these, and we visited two on our trip. This one is Edgefield, and is located in the historic county poor farm and has beautiful gardens out back.
The art is whimsical and eccentric and the food was great!
On June 21, we went to visit Cheryl and George and their family just south of Portland. Their son manages a you-pick farm there and it was just lovely. Lots of flowers!
For the next few days, we were in my happy place: the Oregon Coast. Here are some pics from there. We started in Tillamook and worked our way southward.
Depoe Bay, Coos Bay, both wonderful fun places. We love them both.
By now, it was July 2, and we were in California. We stayed in Redding and enjoyed a visit (with ice cream) to the Sundial Bridge.
Afterward, we drove our little car up to the little town of Shasta, where we found a barbeque joint for dinner. Our waiter asked if we’d been to the Shasta Dam yet. Well, no!
So off we went! It was yet another example of something that we just wouldn’t have done, had we not had our little tow car with us!
From there, we headed inland, and one of our several-day camps was in Kanab, Utah. This is a great place for a wagon-wheel type of stop, if you have a tow vehicle. You can hook up your RV and leave it in camp while you go off and adventure.
This was our hub for Bryce, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Best Friends in Kanab. My next pics are from Bryce Canyon National Park.
The following day, on 7/7/18, we made the trek to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Many people think that they’ve “done” the Grand Canyon, because they visited the South Rim. The North Rim is a completely different experience.
Our third day in Kanab, we stayed close to home, doing a bit of walking in the town and we visited the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We did the tour and visited many animals who are in their competent care.
Then we were headed back toward home, so we could rest up for 6 weeks before our next RV adventure!
Trip 1 — Oregon Coast :::::::::: Trip 2 — Colorado Adventures