We'll be off again on Thursday

I told Roy about April that we were going east in June and to make no plans, I even marked out the calander with a big red X to remind him, and so far so good. We leave on Thursday and should be back about the 1st of July.

This is the plan (right now) We're spending this weekend near CleElem WA at a campground called Teanaway. It is completely dry and while there is a vault toilet, its noting I plan on using. We're going to be with friends from the Nomads, a like minded group of RVers. Just for the occasion I bought a Dutch Oven and hope that I can learn to cook in it.

Anyway, I don't think we are going to have a lot of internet access, so if you don't hear from us, just know we will post when we can and take lots of pictures.

Last Day

This WAS a mini vacation....

WOW We toured the Evergreen Aviation Education Institute in McMinnville Oregon and it you are ever in the area (west of Salem, south of Portland) check this place out. It is awesome.
It is an Aviation museum that rivals the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum with dozens of displays including replicas of the Wright Bothers plane, up to the 1990ies. The piece de resistanceis the Hughes Flying Boat aka the Spruce Goose. OMG it absolutely fills up the hanger. There are Helicopters and commercial and military planes like the famous Flying Fortress and Spitfire and even the Gooney Bird. Around each corner there are videos that tell the stories of these wonderful planes and also great volunteers who will answer any question, give you a tour or tell of their experiences.
And if thats not enough, there are more displays of antique cars, helicopters and tanks. (In summer they give the kids rides in the tanks)
I am hardly an aviation buff, but I did enjoy this place. The admission was $13.00 for seniors but absolutely worth it. It takes about 2 hours to see and do it all, and thats not sitting thru all the videos.
http://www.sprucegoose.org/

Second Day NW Oregon

WIND STORM DAMAGE ALONG THE OREGON COAST
Wednesday was overcast, windy and darn cold, but we had places to see and things to do, and so armed with an umbrella we got an early start and our first stop was Ft Clatsop, home of Lewis and Clark during the winter of 1806. The Corp of Discovery built this temporary stucture and then just left it. The Clapsop tribe used it and eventually it disappeared. The site where it stands now it pretty close but they are unsure where it really is.
A few years ago the first "replica" burnt down, and this one was just recently rebuilt. With all the fallen trees in the area due to last winters storms it is amazing that the fort is still standing.


We drove out to Ft Stevens, an old military base, now reduced to 'sites' and concrete foundations. The museum was interesting and the camping sites look great so we plan to return. Ft Stevens was bombed by the Japanese during WWII and the big mystery is why the base never fired back. Some say it was because the officers were drunk and other theory is that by the time they were ready the Japanses sub was long gone. Wonder now if it was the Japanses at all, could have been friendly fire....

A little further on was the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale, a British ship which wrecked in 1906. It was a bad year for shipwrecks as a total of 6 were lost that year.

Northwestern Oregon Trip

Looking through my pictures, decided that few were really 'blog' worthy and when it came right down to it, the first couple of days of our mini spring vacation was pretty much a-wash. Monday we drove to Beaverton to pick up George, hiked the Tualatin Hills Nature Park after a pretty decent Mexican Dinner at Azteca.

Tuesday we took Hwy 26 out of Beaverton but then cut across to Astoria on a little used road that milage wise was probably a shortcut, but time wise probably doubled. We hit road construction a couple places. After passing the little town of Jewell, we came to the Jewell Wildlife Area and amazingly we saw a herd of Elk grazing right along side the road. Watching Roy try to get their pictures was more amusing than the elk as they were having none of it..He would move forward and they would move away.

The bridge over the Columbia looked so inviting and since George hadn't been to Cape Disappointment, we took another side trip.