LAKE OF THE SPRINGS TO RUSSIAN RIVER 10/19-20/2011

We completely enjoyed our stay at Lake of the Springs Thousand Trails Preserve near Yuba City, CA these last 2 weeks.  While here, we have entertained special guests like those pictured below and a skunk and a few feral cats.

 We also went to church with and spent most of the sabbath with Helen and her family at their house about an hour's drive from our place.  Helen is one of the daughters of some of our dear friends from Medford from our own child rearing years.  Now Helen and her great husband, Tyler, are raising their own crew.  Thanks Helen for a wonderful day and the introduction to some great cowboy chili and cowboy caviar!!

 We also spent most days walking, exercising, internetting,and reading.  Ann paid bills and Wayne got half of the trailer waxed, after first using rubbing compound to remove the road grime and oxidized paint from this last couple years of traveling.  The other half will have to wait until another place where we have good weather and a little time not visiting people and places.

 We hated to leave our little sanctuary on top of the hill (see the picture below) on October 19th, but we were anxious to get on our horse to head to Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve near Cloverdale, CA.  There we will be able to spend some time with our #2 son's family.  Good times comin'!

 October 19th, we stopped in Marysville, CA to resupply on food and fuel, then drove on to Clear Lake, CA where we spent the night in Camp Wal-Mart.  While there we parked next to and visited with a couple that now live in Anaheim, but were from Argentina.  They are a married couple that competes in Tango competitions.  They were fascinating to visit with and swap "On The Road" stories.
That evening we were also approached by a young man asking for assistance in getting something to eat.  He obviously wanted money, but we gave him food.  We were severely disappointed when we watched him walk away and throw the food on the ground about 25 yards from our trailer.  I guess he must not have been very hungry, eh?  Frustrating, but the food we gave him was his to do with as he decided best for his situation.
The next morning as we were driving towards Cloverdale, we noticed huge English Walnut orchards along the road.  We came to a place where the trees were discharging their load of fruit onto the roadside side of the fence.  We spent an hour or so harvesting that which was going to waste.  We did not go into the orchard, but harvested that which was between the fence and the road.

 Our bounteous was two buckets of walnuts ready to preserve for the winter.  We remembered that about this time last year, a little south of here, we were blessed with the same type of opportunity that provided walnuts for us for the next couple months.  We felt blessed!

 Since our #3 son has begun preparing to shoot a film about a shale pit where he will be using a tractor and since we have been helping him find one, we have seen more tractors than we ever thought existed.  You know the drill...... you don't notice any black Chevy trucks on the road until you buy one...then you see them everywhere!
The tractor he will use in the film, he has nic-named, "BIG BERTHA". Well today as we drove we saw Big Birtha's MAMA!!  This beautiful work of man was parked along the side the road and it made us think of Bertha, so we had to stop and take a picture!!

 Finally, after a leisurely, stopping a lot, drive, we arrived at Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve about 2:00 PM.  We found a spot, set up camp and sat out our chairs. We read and watched the passers by for a couple hours before we even unhitched and set up the trailer.  You can see our walnuts by the chairs.  We spread them out on the picnic table and two TV trays to dry some in the fading afternoon sun.

 So, here we are and here we will stay, in space A-14, for the next two weeks.  During this time we will spend a lot of time with our nearby residing  #2 son's family and their four children, attend a couple soccer games, do Halloween with them, celebrate Ann's 75th birthday and play with grand kids.  Maybe we might even get the rest of the trailer waxed?????  Here through Nov. 3 or so.

A QUICK TRIP TO UTAH 10/7-10/2011

While parked in Lake of the Springs, we left our trailer and drove our truck to Provo, Utah to spend the weekend with Kevin and Megan for the blessing of Pineapple.  We had some rain in the preserve the two days previous to our departure and found that it fell as snow in the Cascades we went through on our way east.

 It made for a beautiful drive through the mountains for the first 80 miles of our trip.

 We drove part way there and spent the night in Wells, Nevada and then arrived Saturday at Lehi, Utah where we spent the evening at Megan's parent's beautiful new home with lots of her family that came in from all over the country to be there for the blessing of Pineapple.
Naturally, there were ample arms to hold Pineapple, mainly the two grandmothers and one great grandmother, as you see in the next three pictures.

  And of course Batman, being two, had to do all he could to change the focus from little sister to himself.  He was quite good at it......

 ...much to the amusement of us all.  Grandpa McGhie always finds joy in his family!

 We were well fed by Megan's brother and sister-in-law, Derek and Hannah.  They were in charge of dinner that night.  We were fed original Korean dishes.  Yummy!!!  Hannah is from Korea and is quite the good cook!!

 It seems as though every family gathering has its traditions.  With the McGhies, it is back massages.

 With the Cowleys, it is Kevin wanting to wrestle his mother.  He is much more gentle than he used to be!!

We stayed the night in dive of a motel because it was homecoming night for BYU and every room in town was taken.  We had to drive south and find the first place that had a room.  Oh well, it was just for one night.  The next morning we were witnesses to a hit and run accident in the parking lot. 
But, we later had a good time at church and Pineapple's blessing.  Afterwards, the family all gathered for pictures to document the event.

Us and them.

After church, we went back to Megan's folks house for lunch and more time together.  We then left about 4:30 PM and drove west to Wells, where we spent the night again.  We slept 10 hours!  Then Monday, we drove the rest of the way home to our trailer, spent the night and the next morning, moved the trailer to a better site, on the hill with a better view and better cell phone service.
This is the view out our front door.

Out the front door and to the rear.

Out the front door and to the front of the trailer.  There was a severe forest fire here 15 years ago and the brush is just starting to grow back and a few trees are beginning to take hold.  It is so quiet here that the noisiest time is in the evening when the crickets start to chirp.  We love it in this spot.

We will be here until Oct 19.  Then we will head west to Santa Rosa area to visit more family!

MEDFORD, OR 9/22-10/4 2011

We spent almost 2 weeks with our rig parked in the spacious driveway and field of the C & L Ranch in Central Point, Oregon as the guests of its proprietors.   While there, seeing as how it is a working ranch, we rode tractors mowing fields and lawns, trimmed hedgerows and got wet irrigating.
We also spent ample time with their new grandson and watched Cliff and Linda as they developed their grand-parenting skills.  They have mastered one.  What about #2?

We were blessed with the opportunity to visit with Grant and Kristen and Sarah and spent almost  every evening.....

 ...playing canasta or dominoes.  Though Linda managed to stay out of all the photos, she did manage to come up as the winner once during our stay there.  Too bad that Wayne's master canasta skills dominated hers.  maybe next time Linda!!!!!  Ha!

 While in town we were blessed to have our son, Jed, there at the same time.  He was there scouting sites, auditioning actors and trying to find a skip loader to use in his soon to be shot Masters Thesis Film, "Shale" that he will be shooting here in December.  We spent many hours over several days going with him on various responsibilities he had while here.  It is going to be a great film.  It has already won an award and grant from HBO and a grant from Panavision just based on Jed's screen play.  Check out his web site for the film at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/25712774/shale-a-short-film

 It was hard to send him off on 9/29, back to New York, but it was good to spend the time with him that we did.

 Also while in Medford, we spent a day with our good friends, Mark and Dawn Gosson.  Ann and Dawn went shopping and worked on a quilt together while Wayne and Mark walked a 13.1 mile walk from Talent to Central Point.  It was great to spend some time together and catch up on our lives!  We also went to tons of annual check-ups at many doctors and dentists to update our contributions to their vacation funds and have them tell us we are in good health.  We also did several errands in regards to our house, banking and such.  Then we were blessed to be able to spend several days at the J & K Dude Ranch, where we got to help out with house painting, visiting and eating.  Master painters, Jessica and John led the way as to how.

 Wayne, with his head stuck in the rafters, followed their lead, while Ann mowed all the lawns.

Go get'um Farmer Ann!!

While we slaved outside, Karen kept the vittles comin' and the home fires burnin'!

We were blessed with tons of opportunity to work on projects with family, visit friends, visit family, visit doctors and financial advisers and catch up on our house stuff.  We had a blast, were well fed and canasta'ed out.  A great time.  Oh, I almost forgot.  We also got to hook up with one of our favorite outlaws, Bob Noble, for lunch one day!  Thanks Bob!
When we left town on Oct 4, we headed south, spent the night in one of our favorite campgrounds, Sims Flat National Forest Campground, about 10 miles south of Dunsmuir, CA and then stopped in Redding, CA to have a quick lunch and visit with a long time friend, then stopped at The Olive Pit in Corning, CA to resupply on olives and pickled garlic before stopping at Lake of the Springs Thousand Trails Preserve in the mountains east of Yuba City.

Here we will stay for a couple weeks before moving on to Russian Rive Thousand Trails Preserve near Santa Rosa.  While here we will also spend a weekend in Provo, Utah for our 11th grandchild's blessing.

BACK ON THE ROGUE 9/20-21/2011

So many years of our life has been spent in the valley carved out by the Rogue River.  Here we met, married, worked a career, raised 5 boys, hiked and/or rafted almost the complete length of the Rogue Rover from its source to its mouth.  It is hard to realize it has been a year since we were here.

It was natural and refreshing to travel the very familiar route from Redmond, OR to Medford, OR.  We spent 2 days traveling the route that would normally be driven in 4 hours.  We stopped at several of our favorite, memory filled spots to sit and hike next to "our" river.  We could have spent a week doing so.  But even retired, full time RV'ers sometimes have a schedule to keep!

 It was wonderful to be hiking along side a real river with real trees.  We felt like we were home.

 What a gorgeous river and forest!

 Ahhh, the sweet joys of life! The peace that comes from wandering the trails of previous experiences, recalling special memories and savoring precious time spent together as husband and wife, as friends with many years of memories shared together.  Life is good!

BRINGING OUR REDMOND FAMILY VISIT TO A CLOSE 9/16-18/2011

As our assistance for Sean and Amanda was approaching a close, we took Captain America and Peaches on a weekend camping trip to Sun River/Bend Thousand Trails Preserve.  Our first evening was a little chilly, so the heaters came in handy!

  But, the next day was bright, sunny and almost hot, which warranted some bike riding.....

  ...by both Captain America and Peaches.  Grandpa went on a few of the bike rides too.  We explored the preserve quite a lot.  Grandpa had borrowed Sean's bike and has decided he wants one too!!  Maybe someday we can get one for Grandma and Grandpa!!

 We are so blessed to have such good looking Oregon Grandkids.  In fact we have good looking Maryland Grandkids, good looking California Grandkids and good looking Utah Grandkids too!!!  And the fuel companies of America are totally tickled that we enjoy going to see those good looking Grandkids all around the country!!

 Grandpa loves to tell stories and loves to tease, but as you can see by the looks on these faces, he is not always believed!!  Grandpa hears a lot of, "Grandma, is Grandpa telling the truth??"

  Seeing as how the pool was a toasty 84 degrees, Camden and Grandpa decided to try a swim.  Camden thought it was perfect.  Grandpa, after awhile, opted for the hot tub!!!

 Amazing what swimming does to little boys!!

Peaches is going to be an architect when she grows up! 

 Pretty good city designs, don't you think?

 Just hanging around with Grandma!!

 Sunday morning pancakes,ala Grandma and Peaches!

Sunday afternoon, after dropping captain America and Peaches off at their parents, we spent a couple hours visiting with our nephew and his family.  It was good to see them again and spend some time with them.

 Then, we headed back to our trailer and exhaustedly relaxed and went to bed early.  Been a very busy couple weeks.  We will stay here at Sun River/Bend Thousand Trails Preserve until Wednesday, September 21, when we will leave and take 2 days to drive to Medford, OR where we will spend a week or so with family there and do doctor visits.