Silver Falls State Park

  I need to catch ya'll up a bit. I kind of left out some information on my last post. We actually have been in the Portland area since the 22nd. We're in the Silver Spur RV Park in Silverton Oregon, about 15 miles east of Salem and 40 south of Portland. It's a nice park with all the amenities we need. As it turns out we'll be here until the 5th so we can get out washer/dryer fixed. From here we'll head south down the Pacific Coast Highway on our eventual way back to Texas. So, now you're all caught up...sort of.

  Luckily there is plenty to do and see in this area. We've been to downtown Portland twice, once on business once for pleasure.  We've been to the coast (see previous post) and today we went to a state park a few miles away. Although it was a little chilly it was a beautiful drive and once there the scenery was spectacular. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

So THAT'S the Pacific Ocean!

 On the 24th we took the boys for a little drive, we headed for the coast. This would be Penny's first look at the Pacific Ocean, Squeaky's too for that matter, and Wonder, well it would be his first sniff of the Pacific.

  Our first stop was Road's End State Park in Lincoln City. We took Squeaky down on the beach, he loved running across the sand chasing seagulls.

  From there we headed south to Boiler Bay State Wayside near Depoe Bay.

  Further south we stopped in Newport and visited the Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site and Lighthouse.

 As this was Penny's first look at the Pacific, I asked her if the Atlantic coastline offered similar vistas. She said she'd never seen anyting like them and she's been from Virginia to Florida on the east coast.

  All in all a very good day!

Kennewick Washington and the trip here.

  Hello to all my friends, family and readers. Sorry for not posting for so long. We're in Kennewick Washington, part of the Tri Cities area. Somewhere along the way we met a man at one of the RV parks we stayed in, and when he heard we were headed here he informed us that if they wanted to give Washingtonn state an enema, the Tri Cities is where they would stick the hose. I am pleased to announce that he had know idea of what he was talking about...the Jackwagon!

  On the contrary, the area is very pretty. We're only about 450' above sea level where we're at with rolling hills all around that are maybe 1200' feet. The area is east of the Cascades so it doesn't get the rains that Portland and Seattle are known for. It's usually sunny here most days.

  We're here visiting Penny's nephew J.W. She hadn't seen him in several years so the reunion was very heart warming. We also got to meet is lovely girlfriend Litsa and her mother too.

  We had intended to stay in Kennewick just a few days but made a mistake by going to an RV show at the mall. Long story short, we traded in our 2008 Cedar Creek by Forest River for a 2014 Bay Hill by Evergreen, model 365RL if you want to look it up, for whatever reason I don't have pictures of it on my phone yet. So, instead of 5 days we were here 15. But we left much more comfortable.

 Getting here we stopped in a couple places. First was Twin Falls Idaho, we stayed for just two nights, the RV park was ok nothing special, but accommodating. We took a short drive around and saw some pretty falls. The strange thing was that all of these falls come out of the middle of the mountain side.

 The next stop was the Catfish Junction RV Park in Huntington Oregon. This was a small park with water and electric but no sewer. However it was located right on the Snake River.

Casper and Rawlins WY and Ogden Utah.

  Hello dear readers, it's been a few days since I have checked in with you. It's been a busy 6 days. Last time we talked, well I typed, you read, we were about to leave the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. We headed towards Casper Wyoming around noon on Friday. Along the way we experienced our first snow fall. It started as a light mist and soon turned into big white flakes. The roads never were icy or slick. it did make for a pretty drive. At least until we got to the campground. That's when I managed to clip one of those yellow concrete pylons with the camper. The damage is mostly cosmetic, but damaged it is. Bummer! The campground did offer a nice view to the south (little consolation).

  From there we headed to Rawlins Wyoming and except for some hellasious wind there wasn't much there. Sorry no pictures.

  Between Rawlins and Ogden Utah there was plenty to see. Starting with Independence Rock. Independence Rock was a stopover for settlers heading west. The belief was that they needed to be here by July in order to make it through the Rockies before winter.

  As we got closer to Utah the scenery got better.