Oregon! Corvallis, Cascade Locks, Columbia River Gorge, Portland!

Sunday, we drove to Corvallis, OR to the KOA here.  After we got set up we went in to explore Corvallis, which we found is home to Oregon State University.  Earl was immediately thinking about the Ducks, and then we realized that must be U of OR, as here, the Beavers are all the rage.  What is strange is the two campuses are only about 40 miles apart! Can you imagine if Gainesville and Tallahassee were only 40 miles apart.  Hmmmm not sure that would be a good thing.  Haha  Corvallis is a lovely town as most university towns are.  Well kept, absolutely gorgeous flowers everywhere. We ate at a cute little Irish Pub where we could sit outside in the absolutely gorgeous weather.  Oregon is on the verge of fall - we're seeing color changes all over.

 Monday, we had to go into the Wells Fargo there, to have documents notarized for our closing, and then we drove all over the area on the hunt for covered bridges.  I did not know Oregon is known for its historical covered bridges! Here are a few. 

While we were on the hunt for these covered bridges, we followed the directions to one, and when we pulled in, we thought surely this couldn't be the place!  We were on private property! As we turned around prepared to leave, this guy in a truck pulled up and we told him why we were there and he said yes, he owned the property, had been in his family for years, and he'd be happy to show us around!

 While there, we enjoyed eating yummy wild blackberries~

Leaving the farm, we met these guys....

We enjoyed brunch at a lovely little restaurant in town before coming home to relax and read.  We Facetimed with our kiddos to hear about their first day of school!  Hannah is in pre-school, Justin in 1^st grade, and Connor going into 3^rd grade.  How the years fly by.  I miss seeing our TN grandkids…. Grace is 15 now! Sarah is 11 and Benjamin is 9! Where do the years go?

Tuesday we explored the Oregon coast!  WOW, every bit of the disappointment I felt the other day when it was so cloudy, foggy and overcast, was dispelled today with the gorgeous sunny clear day – a very chilly 58 degrees, but the beauty!  The sights and sounds of the ocean just do something that satisfies the soul! I tell you what, though, for sheer beauty, the Pacific may well rival the Atlantic, but if I could live right on the beach, I'll take FL anyday because at least you get to really enjoy the water.  Here in the middle of August, the temps were in the high 60's at the highest point of the day, and while people were walking on the beach, there was NO one in the water.  We talked to someone there and they said the only way to go in is with a wet suit.  Nope, I'll take Florida. But isn't it beautiful here?

This is where we ate lunch..... right out on a point.  Lovely views!

Wednesday – Aug 26^th – TRAVEL day! What a beautiful drive over to Cascade Locks, OR!  There is great beauty to be found in the Pacific Northwest!  We like it here a LOT – at least their summer weather!  Haha  We arrived here at the Cascade Locks/Portland KOA about 2:00 and the weather was just perfect for sitting outside so after we got set up we enjoyed sitting outside reading and grilling outside for dinner.  

Thursday – Aug 27^th – Exquisite beauty today!  Oh my, our hearts and souls were filled with the glory of God’s creation! We drove all along the Oregon Scenic Byway and stopped at all the waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge.  With 68-75 degree temps, a slight breeze, it was the perfect weather for hiking up to these scenic points.  Here are photos for you to catch just a glimpse of the majesty and beauty we experienced today.

Our last stop on this Scenic Byway was called The Crown Point and what amazing views we enjoyed there....

We saw a lot of these signs all over Oregon! So many dangerous wildfires around. We've been fortunate in avoiding the fires, but have experienced a couple of closed roads and lots of smoke. I hope the worst is over for them.

On our way to Hood River, to meet friends, we were driving through Corbett and out of the blue, a young girl just pulled right out in front of us!!  She was parked on the side of the road at a general store, checked for oncoming traffic, but didn’t look behind her to see if anyone was coming and just pulled across to make a u-turn right in front of us!  There was no way to avoid hitting her!  Earl swerved over and if she had stopped we might have missed her, but she just kept right on coming, so we slammed right into her!  She was only 17 and it scared her half to death!  She was crying and almost hysterical.  I just hugged her and told her it would all be ok – just thankful none of us were hurt.  I thought how different her story would have been had we been driving the RV!  Yikes! But we were only going about 30 as it was a very congested area.  We waited for the police to arrive and take our statements, etc.  He said fortunately she HAD insurance!  Apparently a LOT of people in Oregon don’t!!  (what??) I kept consoling her until her mom got there, but I don’t think she ever really stopped crying, poor girl.  I hope it’s a wake up call for her to be more careful.  Thankful our car is still drivable, but pretty messed up.  Earl immediately was concerned about the towing apparatus as we’re supposed to leave Saturday morning and if we couldn’t tow, we’d really be in a pickle!  Fortunately that was ok and he tied up the bumper with zip ties, which looks really hokey but oh well….. at least we can drive it!  We called our insurance company and filed the claim and we’ll get it straightened out at some point.  Hopefully we can get it repaired while we’re in Idaho.

We continued on our merry way up to the Timberline Lodge and Mount Hood!  AMAZING!  Over 11,000 ft. elevation!  There’s still snow up there, and while we were at the lodge, we talked with a guy who runs a ski camp and he said they just shut down the camp TWO weeks ago!!  Isn’t that crazy!  They had enough snow to continue right into late August!

 And if there was anything to make the day better, we met friends we got to know in Florida – Jared and McKae Booth, who moved up to this area a year or so ago.  Jared is the brilliant man who set up our company website for us.  Ever since, he’s been on my “favorite list” – ha. We met in Hood River, an awesome town with the most wonderful family park we’ve ever seen! What fun! We enjoyed watching their son Felix play, although made me miss our own kiddos!   We enjoyed eating with them at pFriem and walking around chatting for awhile, then enjoyed gelato at a nearby stand.  I got fresh peach – yummy….

 This is a sport that's very popular here.....kiteboarding!  Fascinating to watch! Jared was telling us people come from all over the nation to the Columbia Gorge area because the wind is so consistent here.

Lovely drive home.....

After we got home, we noticed the air wasn’t on and some of the light switches weren’t working.  What on earth?  Earl worked and worked, thinking a couple of times he had it fixed.  I don’t even know how to explain what was wrong, but bottom line, we transferred the refrigerator to LP and we had no a/c or lights for the night except for using the house batteries.  Thank God we’re up here where it’s cool at night so that’s a positive.  What is not so positive is this park is right by a railroad track – a very busy railroad track, and several times during the night  I was awakened by the loud noise not to mention their insanely loud whistle, and early in the morning some nearby dog was barking like crazy – we’re just not used to having our windows open. Oh well, hopefully we can get it fixed soon!

Friday – Another fabulous day.  First thing, Earl called a mobile RV Service and told them what was going on, so they said they’d try to get to us today, but were slammed, it might be tomorrow.  Oh dear….  

We set out to enjoy the 50 minute drive into Portland, and met old friends, Ron and Joyce Benfield.  Ron was CFO for years at Florida Hospital, so Earl got to know him during his time there as well.  I got to know them better as clients,  and while they moved away from Florida 8-9 years ago, we’ve kept in touch through Facebook!  So what a delight to get to see them today.  We met and Ron treated us to lunch at Hoda’s Middle Eastern Restaurant where we had lots of the traditional food while we chatted and caught up with each other again.  They have not changed a bit! 

 After lunch, we went to the Pittock Mansion that several of our friends told us not to miss, (especially Janet Stevens)….what a treat to see this magnificent home, and for me, especially, I enjoyed the gardens as much as the house!

And THEN on to downtown Portland to find Powell’s – the World’s Largest Bookstore!  WOW!  You have to see this place to believe it!  3 stories high and covers an entire city block!

Some of Portland's famous food trucks.... would love to have tried them, but we were full from lunch.

 I bet I could have just camped out in there and spent a week!  Only time we’ve ever gone into a store and been given a map to get around!  Unfortunately our time was pretty limited.  We had to get back home to meet the RV service that was coming out to make repairs.  Thank goodness they were able to come today!  They were here till after 7:00!  So I fixed us a late dinner and we relaxed – seems like a long day….and tomorrow we head on out again!

This is the Bridge of the Gods....leading to Washington state....