Sunday the 29 th of July sort of BBQ

Well i have to continue after my lap top story. So Sunday Sharon & Richard came for a visit, they are camped at Thousand Trail down by LaPine. Also Sharon and Don from La Pine came as well. No one really knew what was going to go on here, as Don B had been sick a few days before, but we had planned on a BBQ which we didn't do. Altho i had fixed a pototoe salad. As things were so much in the air I just had Sharon B pick up some weiners and i heated them on the stove, and some baked beans.here is Don on the left, Nevada in the middle and Richard at the right, yup the photo is a bit dark, couldn't fix it, sorry.
Here is miss Princess wanting them other dogs to play, but they wouldn't have a thing to do with her, accept snarl at her, hmmmm she was a bit put out.
One is called Zuni, and the other is called Hopi, nopw i don't know the differanceThis is Sharon B and the top were the guys are her hubby Don is the one on the left .This is Richard & wife Sharon and those are there two dogs. Anyway it has been since last Sept since we seen them so we had a good visit.They sold there Newmar motor home after they decided that they didn't want to be fulltimers anymore. So then ended up buying a small travel trailer. Which they seem to be happy with.

Laptop great review

Well i thought i would report some great news,As you may remember i mentioned that my lap top screen went black, My second lap top, one from Toshiba and now from Dell, both within just a few weeks of the warranty gone. Well when i took it in the Click & Fix here in Bend the guy said it was my screen and it was going to be cheaper for me to buy a new computer than to get a new screen. Well he had called back the same day and said great news, Dell was replacing the screen. Hurray for once a good company to deal with.

I got the call today and my lap top is all fixed and ready to use. which i am doing now..

So for any of you in the Bend area or coming to Bend just letting you know that Click n Fix @ 541-280-4058 is a great place, great fast service, which he also said most things can be fixed within a day or two, is a place to have your computers worked on. There address is 416 NE Greenwood Ave. Most makes and models.

The Rv Rally 7-21-07 & visit from Brother in law

Went to the Rv Rally on Sat 7-21-07 way too much walking, here is one the million dollar coaches, THE PROVOST way too many people waiting in line to see it so we didn't stick around, besides my feet were alreay killing me. I did wonder tho with all those people waiting in line if they all had that kind of money to actually buy one or were they just dreaming of buying one. Personally i can't see having something that big.
On Wed which was also Nevada's 69th birthday , his brother Hap and his wife Donna came for a visit on there way home, they had been on a 2 month long journey in there 5th wheele back East. Donna had finally retired from the Dr's office not sure how many yrs there but she had turned 65 and finally decided it was time to give it up. Anyway it was nice to see them and glad that they enjoyed themselves, nope full timeing is not there thing but they love to go.

Closure of a friend

Good bye dear friend you will be missed.
His Geneology
Click on there

Ray's son Gene came to visit.

We had a good visit. Some things he told about his dad that we didn't know and some we did. He told us stories of when he was a kid.It was good to hear those stories.
We had talked about were he wanted his dad's ashes to go, and since Ray really had not said much about it, other than Gene said that dad loved it around Bend, so i brought up the folks that go to the slabs in Niland California, were Ray spent his winters. I told him about the nice folks there that Ray loved and enjoyed spending time with, after showing him photos of the folks there and the place, and that they had asked if he would consider sharing some of those ashes so they can be spread there, Gene decided that is were he should be. So for closure for himself he asked me if his dad spent time smoking in the yard, asked if it would be ok to spread some of the ashes there. And then send the rest of the ashes to the slabs, Mary and Rich offered to pick them up on there way to the slabs in Sept/ Oct.when they will be coming thru.

So as i was fixing dinner i happend to see him in the yard, so I watched him out the kitchen window for awhile, he had his dad's ashes, spreading them under the tree, my tree, that i have nurtured since 9 x-mas's ago, when it was just a wee little tree. I felt so good that Gene chose to have Ray's ashes spread there. As i watched him he would stop and look up in the sky, i guess he and Ray were having words, I shed my own tears, relizing now that it was all true for sure. No more Ray on line, no more, "hope to see ya later this summer", no more tater salad,nope that tator salad is never going to be something i am really not going to enjoy making anymore, I guess that was something special between him and i, he loved my salad and said noone made it as good as me, silly as that sounds to you all, but i guess we all have something that tied us to him, in some special way.

I got this on a site and thought it was so appropriate,

Special People

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you want to
pick them from your dreams and hug them. Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only
one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do. May you
have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you
strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.
Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it
probably hurts the other person, too. The happiest of people don't
necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way. Happiness lives for those who
cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who tried, for
only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their
lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't
go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and
everyone around you is crying

Offer on property

I forgot to mention it, but on the 5th of July we got an offer on the property, never seen such a mess before. Realtor that brought the offer to our realtor is a total idiot. Have no faith in her whats so ever. Never had any realestate dealings with her, but other things. Anyway supposedly she has been gone back East so nothing ever really came of this offer till yesterday, as we made a counter offer.... There offer was that we
were to do a soil test of the tune of $3500 nope don't think so. We had a test done 2 yrs ago, not as extensive as they wanted, we said no we are not paying for that, our property has not been anything accept a motel, and since the station was next door and came out fine, we figured that there was nothing on this land that was harmful.
Also they offered a low price, which we figured they would, so we raised the price. Well now that the offer went back to them, now they want us to wait longer because the realtor said she heard that they were going to widen our road which would take part of our property , meaning if that is the case and we didn't sell we would have to move our wall, so she is saying that the if that happens the price of the property would be less, so hence not as much land, oh yes and then they want to check to see how much its going to cost to tear the building down, hence less money. Now i guess i am really stupid, but why should i have to pay to have the building tore down?That is there fault they don't want the building.
So needless to say they were suppose to come back with a yeh or ney on tues, but now with all this they want to wait till the end of the week. Just another tacktic to hold you up. Oh well, my realtor said that they still were going to advertise it, i am not going to hold my breath on this offer. Its the first one so they have till Sept, and then we are done.As we don't want to deal with moving in the winter.

Death of a friend

Left is Nevada in the red, next to him is Ray Burgess, Diane & Bill, other rv friends that came to meet Ray while he was staying here.

Today we lost a friend, it is a sad day for all that new him, For the folks that are in the Rving world new him as Rayhound his message at the end of a email read

Because I live in a Bus and am called a BusNut, some people think I am nuts, but the bus is only part of the reason. Residentially Challenged - "On the Road Again" in the RAYHOUND, A 1975 35' MC 5B Coach #7227, under construction "On the Road" "Out of this world" Internet wherever the RayHound may roam SKP# 85642 "Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways in the RayHound, totally worn out, shouting..."Some Beach...what a ride!" This was taken in Aug 2005, when he stayed here after he sold Jerkey on the reservation in Madras. He stayed out there on the road for weeks at a time and did very well selling his Jerky. Truckers would stop in and say, oh i seen your friend Rayhound, or they would say they stopped and bought some Jerkey. Boy he loved to sell that stuff. He would come off the reservation and stay here at that spot in the photo for a while, do his laundry, and just relax and get some stuff done that needed to be taken care of. He loved my potatoe salad, so i always tried to make sure that i made him a extra big bowl when he would leave out of here.
He also had a satalite yahoo group that he was very proud of. If you ever wanted to know about satalite dishes and being connected to the internet that is the place to go as they have a lot of information on how too and what not too.
He will be missed by all. He loved the life of roaming in that bus, The slabs in Niland California is were he would hang out for the winter months. Being that he was self contained with gosh i don't know how many batteries he had on that bus, but it ran his elec along with all the solar panals on the roof of his bus.
Well there is much about him that i can share but it would be boring for most to read. So i will say Goodbye to a good friend, who somewhere down the road i know we will meet again.

1989 Jeep Cherokee

Tonights sunset:
What a great one again, I need to start getting up early so i can get a sunrise, as they are beautiful as well. But i sure can't get myself up that early anymore. It also is sprinkling out, there was also a beautiful huge rainbow, not much color to it, It was a thin line, couldn't get a photo of it as it was too far away.

It has been a busy week as the quilters show was this past weekend, havn't heard how many people came for it, but there wasn't a motel room to get, so i heard. We were full all week, and my feet sure are paying the price for it. Wonder if i am ever going to find a decent pair of shoes that isn't going to hurt my feet.

I forgot to add that last week we ended up buying a 1989 Jeep Cherokee,The paint job isn't that great, has bubbles on the hood, so far the project has been to fix the electric window, He had to order a new motor and then had a heck of a time getting it back, what job that is, don't ever do it, pay for someone to do it. I think he has it fixed, but doesn't remember now if the door ever locked before he put the new motor in. As now that isn't working, oh well i guess the key works so thats good. By the way we paid $800 for it. We got it so that we can tow it behind the motor home, as it weighs much less then the Envoy and our tow package says we can only tow up to 3500# The inside doesn't look that bad, will need some cleaning but since we just want to use it for the tow and running around so we don't have to rent a car when on vacation. So not sure what else we are going to find that needs fixing, the motor cost $115 after we took the old one back. Still have to call the insurance company so that we can drive it to get a oil change, and clean out the motor, he did some of it but i think it needs more cleaning. I did notice that the A/C was not all that cold, so may have to add some more Freon in there. At least i hope that is all it needs.

Continued from Bachelor Trip

We continued on to the Historic Elk Lake Guard Station
In the early days of the NF System, the forest guards who were sometimes posted at guard stations were the forest rangers’ right-hand men in the field. Guard stations were satellites of ranger stations. When, in 1920, a wagon road connected Bend and Elk Lake, recreation boomed in the area. NF campgrounds were built, summer home sites were leased, and Elk Lake Lodge was opened. By 1924 there was an Elk Lake post office. The forest ranger in Bend soon needed a forest guard in the area to serve visitors, maintain facilities, and protect resources. This forest guard needed a base, and in 1929 the Elk Lake Guard Station log cabin was built. At first, because funds were scarce during the Great Depression, this station was not staffed. From the later 1930s through the 1990s, however, forest guards and other Forest Service employees and volunteers served the public from this small station. Their job grew as the population grew, access improved, leisure time increased, and more forest visitors came. In 1997, the Forest Service decided to retain this old guard station—along the popular Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway—as a visitor information center and historic site. During the next few years, Forest Service employees and volunteers restored the cabin and rehabilitated its grounds. Now, as you visit Historic Elk Lake Guard Station, you get a feel for how the forest guard lived and worked during the middle decades of the 20th century—in a very different time not too long ago.

We left there and ran across this neat place called Little Fawn Campground and Day use
It has a boat launch, and a nice beachy area, what a great find this was. The campground is just next to the beach area.I didn't get a very good shot of the campsites but there big enoug for a 30 ft motor home price per day is $8.00 not bad.
I think there must of been a fire there once as the trees didn't look all that good in the distant.Our last stop was Lava Lake Resort
Lava Lake was formed as a result of lava flows creating a dam along its east shoreline. Lava Lake is relatively old as evidenced by the extrusive vegetation occurring in the shallow areas. Rushes, waterlilies and other emergent plants are especially evident on the west and northern perimeter. Another indication of the lake’s aging is the 4 to 5 feet deep layer of muck located on the lake bottom as reported by divers.

Subsurface springs provide the primary inflow to Lava Lake. The springs are located in the northeast corner of the lake at a depth of 20 to 30 feet. Water temperatures from the inflow vary between 45° to 60° F. There are no permanent surface streams entering the lake, however, intermittent seeps do enter the lake from Wire Meadow. Lava Lake connects with Little Lava Lake only occasionally during periods of spring high water. The outlet channel is located in the southeast corner of the lake. Water level fluctuates an average of approximately 2.5 feet annually with maximum pool occurring in late summer. Timing of the peak pool level is consistent with flow levels typical of springs in the area.

Fish species indigenous to Lava Lake were bull trout, redband trout and whitefish. The current fish population is composed of introduced brook and rainbow trout, whitefish, and illegally introduced tui chub.

Lava Lake Campground
$10 a night up too 30 ft vehicle
Onward Home,

Sunday's Drive to Mt Bachelor

7-8-07
Our Sunday drive took us to the Mt Bachelor area. It is always a nice drive up there whether it be in the winter or the summer, but i do prefer the summer time as there is much more places to go. Not much snow left up there. Skiing ended early this yr, i remember the days when they didn't close the lifts till the 4th of July, but the last few yrs snow level has been way down. They do have the lifts that go up to the very top and altho i have never been up there they say the view is amazing.They have Sunset Dinners that is suppose to be great, check the site out.Here is Nevada and Princess, this was just a small amount of snow that was left in the parking lot, she was having a good time running in it.
Our next destination was Soda campground also Soda Creek runs thru there. This is a free campground, this is a nice place to spend some time in, the scenery is superb.
South Sister's Mountain range in the back ground.
South Sister is the youngest and highest of a trio of closely grouped mountains called the Three Sisters. It is a very young volcano, and is characterized by a well-preserved summit cone with a circular crater at the top. In late summer of most years there is enough snowmelt in the crater to form a small lake, the highest body of water in the state of Oregon.What more could you ask for, then this beauty to look at.
We then continued on to Devils Lake

Devils Lake is a beautiful 23 acre shallow lake located adjacent toCentury Drive about 30 miles southwest of Bend. The waters exquisite turquoise color and scenic views makes this lake a delightful place to visit for travelers on the cascade lakes highway. The easy access, fishable shoreline and stocking of catchable rainbows make Devils Lake an excellent place to take children fishing. In addition to the stocked rainbows there is a natural reproducing population of brook trout.

Devils Lake was formed by a lava flow that lies as a mass of jumbled volcanic rock at the lake’s east end. It is a shallow lake with an average depth of just over three feet and a maximum depth of 10 feet.

Well it is late so will close this down for now and do the rest of the trip tomorrow.

Woodpecker & the baby

Well Patience got the photo YEH! This isn't the best one but it was the first one, i snuck in between the limbs of the tree. I heard them making all sorts of noise, my they are a noisy bunch.Here is a better shot, which only gets better, I couldn't believe my camera was being so co-operative.Now she is almost out the whole way, I can't believe she is being so daring. Princess was laying in the grass just watching and wondering what the heck i was doing, but she never made a sound.And there they are, both of them peeping there heads out, how amazing is that, I am not sure if there is more than one, there was another one but it fell and died sometime as it was laying under the tree, Nevada found it and buried it. Tonight they were really making a lot of noise, i am thinking that the baby will be taking flight before too long. Will hate to see them go but all good things have to end when the time is right.We just keep watching just to make sure that the little one doesn't fall out of the tree and hurts himself.

Much cooler today

Tonights sunset isnt' it Pretty?
Well nothing new going on today, but sure was much cooler than yesterday I think it only got to 90 today. But it was definitely Muggy, the clouds came in and it looked like it was going to do a big downpour, thunder was in the distance, poor Princess just barked and barked. She was so good for the fireworks, it surprised me that she did that much barking..... She is getting to be quiet the barker, am now wondering how to stop her from doing that. She is still barking at Nevada when he comes thru the doors
Makes you wonder if she is saying hi or what. Altho her bark doesn't sound like hi.
Now i suppose your wondering what this is? Well its part of a tree, we have this wonderful woodpecker that made her home in it. Not being tall enough and not wanting to scare her off, i did however want to try and take a picture of her baby, who keeps popping his head out on occasion, But so far i have not been able to get a shot of him, i don't know how many she has, but we did find one under the tree dead, evidently he fell out and by the time we saw him he had already died. I was listening to them today, momma was having a fit flying around in the leaves of the tree, and then you could here the little one sort of grinding not really a bird sound. I think mom was hopeing that we would get out so she could feed her youngin. She finally did get to the nest and must of fed him, or at least comfort him, Anyway we finally took Miss P in the house and left her to take care of the wee one.
Well i am tired so off to bed i am going till next time.

HOT today

Boy was it hot today, 103 said that it hasn't been this hot in 5 yrs. Well i don't do heat well, so this is just awful for me. We had the air conditioner on and the swamp cooler and it still wasn't doing much to keep things cool in here. Doesn't help either when the A/C is not big enough to handle the size of the house.

So did everyone have a good 4th of July? We stayed home, was planing on going to the pet parade, but fellow in room didn't tell me he was staying till check out time and that was too late to go to the parade. Oh well it was too hot anyways.Guess they had some stuff going on in town, but who wants to fight the crowd in this heat, NOT ME.

We did watch the fireworks from here tho, last yr we happened to discover that now that the trees are gone, we can see most of the fireworks from here, at Pilot Butte. So that was neat, we had some folks come out and watch them with us. They had some pretty good ones this yr. Of course some other folks around the area also had some that was going up. I don't think they were legal ones either. But it was fun to watch.
No photos tho. tried it last yr and they never turned out so didn't bother,
Princess was out with us as well as i wanted to see how she would react to them. But she had no problem with them.

Realtor had called Tues, and said that another broker would be bringing in a offer on Thursday, so of course we sat here wondering what kind of offer and would we take it, if it was a low one or not. You know, all the hopes of a done deal for a sale.
Well it didn't happen, no call today from him, i hate to be put on like that, would have been better if he had said nothing at all. I am thinking however that he wants us to keep the listing after it is done in Sept. you know keep hanging on. Well i think he knows that we probably won't be re listing it after it expires. This is too unsettling....

Well i think i am off to bed, its finally cool enough now that i can go to sleep, will keep the A/C on and the swamp cooler for a while. Nice to have the air on a timer so that it will shut off automatically when you set the time.
Anyway later.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone,
Going to be a hot one today, they say 94 degrees. Not going to be doing anything today.

drive to China Hat

Yesterday we took another drive to China Hat, we have never been to the end of China Hat, so thought we would drive it all the way, Wow what a mistake that was, the roads were bumpy all the way, 20 mph. is about all we could do.A couple hour trip we thought, ended up being 6 hrs. Nice view tho. We ran across a Firemans Ranger station that looked like it hasn't been used in yrs.Its too bad that they don't use it for something instead of just letting the buildings sitting there empty. Also there seems to be places that you can camp, with Rv's or tenting.

The place doesn't look that bad either, it was all fenced in so couldn't get up close to them to see if there was anything in there.Found this tree along the road, sure lookes weird with those lines all the way around it, not sure what causes that. Do you ?

We kept driving and wondering were we might be ending up, there are many side roads as well that one could go on, but since we didn't have a forest map, we decided not to take any side roads. Then we saw the sign to Cabin Lake campground. Well we had seen that sign when we went to Silver Marsh. So decided to go and see what it had, we thought it was a lake, NOT SO! maybe many yrs ago, but i couldn't find anything on the internet to say there was either.
Now if your really into the boondocking this is a place to go, it has no water or toilets, but the campground is large, and out of the way, there was only one camper there, Cabin Lake
so don't think it gets used much.There is also some pits that look like some vandalism took place some time back. The website on the Cabin lake tells a little about the area,
also this is a great bird watching area, but again it don't look like it has been used that much. Another forest service houseing not used again for some time.
From the campground you can drive down this dirt road and get to the back side of the forest rangers station, which is no longer in use, and then you come to this area for the bird watching.

Not sure what this was suppose to be but it was behind the fence, so maybe someone lived there.Not much information on this.
Well anyway now we know what is and isn't at Cabin Lake, if one wants a boondocking place this is it.
You can also get there from Hwy 31