OREGON TRIP 3 – DAY 3

After the long tiring previous day I slept in a bit on this Friday the 25^th of June. I was on the road about 7:30 and I stopped back by the cache on Deadly Street to drop off a Travel Bug since I had picked one up there the day before. The day dawned clear and sunny and I was gloating over what I was going to say to my cousin Den when I got to his place in Salem. When I had discussed my trip with him he had said, “If you’re going to do the Oregon you WILL get wet”.

My first stop was in Bandon where I picked up a cache I had skipped the day before. It was right on the highway in front of a church. As the Sea Crest didn’t serve any breakfast, I stopped at a convenience store where I gassed up and had a big banana muffin. It was just north of Bandon where I took Highway 42 east toward Roseburg. It had begun to cloud up a bit in Bandon and it was about here that I started getting into rain. Soon it was raining hard enough that I stopped and put on the rain gear. So much for gloating to Den. However, it lasted only about 10 miles or so and then it was sunny again.

My first cache was “Tim’s Timber” which was just off the highway and required a hike up a hill over an old clear cut. You can see in the picture the Poison Ivy. I came back with a little on my hand but it didn’t amount to much. This was Douglas County and I picked up another one in a little park just south of Roseburg.

Now on to Lane County and “Carrie’s Cobalt Cache” located just south of Eugene. This was one weird cache. A lady had placed the cache in memory of a departed friend who had introduced her to geocaching and whose favorite color was cobalt blue. You were supposed to trade something blue, preferably cobalt blue, of course. When I first saw the cache which was out in the woods a ways I thought someone had just thrown out some garbage. But I couldn’t find a cache. I reread the cache description and saw that it said it was wrapped in a plastic bag to protect the container so I opened the garbage bag and found this little plastic suit cache you see in the picture.

The next cache was in the same area and near a gas station where I gassed up and ate a snack. The cache was suspended from the cap of a chain link fence down inside the post. The hint was “Post” and I found it quickly.

I got off the Interstate and on to Highway 99w which paralleled the Interstate to the west and would put me in the eastern part of Benton County. This cache was in the residential section of Benton in someone’s front yard. The coordinates took me to a wood fence bordering the side of the yard where a birdhouse was attached. I opened the birdhouse and found a note that said, “Not here Dodo bird”. Next I looked under a wooden mailbox a few feet away and found another note that said, “Not here either”. On the inside of the fence was a garden bed but I couldn’t find a thing there either. There was some kind of box on the other side of the driveway so I went over to check it out but only found another “Not here either” note. About that time a girl with a Boston Terrier came out of the house and we struck up a conversation. She suggested I go back on the other side of the driveway where I had already been. Finally I found a rock (one of three) beneath the birdhouse that when you picked it up part of the ground came up with it which was attached to a sprinkler box top. I really got a kick out of this one. It was perfectly camouflaged.

The last Benton County cache was north near Bellfountain Junction. It was in the crotch of a huge double tree and easy to find.

I was soon in Eugene which is in Lane County. I ate lunch in some shade at a convenience store and then turned east to get back on the Interstate. Just before hitting the Interstate there was a cache called “Count de Monet”. You were supposed to exchange some type of play money. It was located at the edge of a parking lot and I got so close that I didn’t even take the GPS off my motorcycle.

What happened next may not be the very worst that could happen to a Geocacher on a long road trip but it ranks right up there. I got on the Interstate and very quickly hit 70 mph when I heard a kind of sickening little crash. My GPS had popped out of its cradle and hit the pavement. It took me a moment or two to decide what to do. I figured if I continued on to the next exit I would never be able to find the spot where I lost it so I pulled over. Of course, by that time I had gone close to a mile. I jogged back and found my totally destroyed Garmin GPS MAP 60CSx which had all my data consisting of caches found and those yet to be found. I don’t remember doing it, but I suspect that I popped the GPSr loose from the cradle at the last stop and then when I decided I wouldn’t need to take it off the bike I forgot that I had loosened it when I got back on the bike. I still had two counties to go plus I wanted to get one more in Linn County to have a backup. While I was stopped a fellow motorcyclist going in the opposite direction had seen me, crossed the median with his dual sport bike and came back to see I if needed help.

It was mid afternoon and my next stop was at my cousin Den’s place in Salem. I didn’t want to get another expensive GPSr without doing some research so Den took me downtown to a Best Buy where I bought a Garmin etrex H which is a base model for $80. Fortunately I had backup copies of the caches with me so I was able to enter manually the ones remaining to do. Slow, but better than nothing. I’m glad I made that decision because I eventually ordered a just released Garmin GPS MAP62st which will allow me to do paperless caching among other things. I can still use the etrex for hunting.

Cousin Den and wife Jan live on an acreage on the east side of Salem. One of his sons and my namesake lives on the adjoining acreage. I actually stayed at Mike and his wife Teresa’s place in their new camp trailer. It was kind of like old times as I have spent many nights in my Aunt and Uncle’s trailer in the same place where Mike and Teresa now live.

I introduced Mike and Teresa to geocaching and we initiated the new etrex with a couple of finds that afternoon to take care of Marion County. We had pizza that evening at Den and Jan’s and I had a nice visit with my Aunt Alice who lives with them and is 92. Den and Jan added a little apartment on to their house which is absolutely perfect for Aunt Alice.

Den is not much of a computer guy but he had a laptop in his shop that allowed me to catch up on posting my finds for the day. What a day! Plenty of fun and stress combined.

To be continued: M/W

PAMMY -- READY FOR LIFE

Here's Pammy -- ready to go to her little mistress, Emmy, who has just turned two.

If I may provide a pattern review, I was a little disappointed in the outcome. I suppose I overstuffed Pammy. I think she was meant to be little more than a two-dimensional doll. And now her clothes fit snuggly when they should be loose. I even cut the sleeper a little beyond the cutting lines, and it's still snug. But -- especially when dressed in her minky sleeper, she's very soft and cuddly.

Pammy is still with me. We have learned that Emmy's big brother, Jack, is coming for a week's stay next Friday, July 16. I'm sure Pammy can slip into a corner of Jack's bag for the trip back to Denver. Who knows? Maybe I'll make another diaper set. I really think I could improve on some of the stitching methods suggested in that pattern. I may be out of practice, but I remember a thing or two about making little articles of clothing.

OREGON TRIP 3 – DAY 2

This was to be my longest day and I was concerned about getting it all done. I had nine counties to cover and some remote territory along with some coast with lots of slow traffic. The plan was to angle southeast from Astoria to get some inland counties and then turn back out westward to hit Lincoln City and travel the coast south down to Port Orford. The motel breakfast wasn’t until 7:00 and I planned to be on the road long before then so I had taken a packet of instant oat meal and a banana from the motel office the evening before. Unfortunately, that morning I discovered it was plain unsweetened oat meal but slicing the banana into it made it edible.

I was on the road at 6:00 and again was thankful for no rain in Astoria. I knew leaving that early in that country I would have to keep alert for deer. And sure enough, those little black tailed deer were all over. I would blow my horn as soon as I saw one and that worked pretty well. However, just as I was coming out of a curve a couple went right into my path at the same time the sun hit me in the eyes. That was the only close encounter I had.

My first cache was in Washington County. It was called “Fuzzy Wuzzy” and was at the base of the moss covered tree you see in the picture. I was traveling in deep shady woods. As I went further into Washington, Tillamook and Yamhill Counties it became more and more remote. The narrow, twisty and bumpy tree covered roads not only had no speed limit or curve speed warning signs but eventually they didn’t even have lines. A time or two I was sure I could hear a couple of dueling banjos.

The first cache in Tillamook County was called “Bridge Creek Falls” which was an absolutely beautiful falls about a hundred yards or so up a trail from the road. The next one was at the top of an old boat slide that in the old days had been used to slide boats down to the creek. It was difficult to access as I had to bushwhack through some thick bushes to get to another access road.

My favorite cache in Yamhill County was called “Have Some Grass” because you had to go through some really tall grass to access it. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared and it was located in the crotch of a vine covered tree which was kind of neat.

As you probably know, in Oregon there is no self serve gas. Consequently you don’t find gas stations in every little community. In fact, some fairly well populated areas don’t have gas stations at all. In Polk County I was counting on getting gas in Willamenia which I felt certain would have a station. No such luck, and I was getting low on fuel. After inquiring about the nearest station I was told it was down the road at Spirit Mountain which is a big Indian casino. I skipped the first cache on my list because of my low fuel situation. The casino was in a big complex which was really nice so in addition to gassing up I ate my lunch there in the shade. Now I turned west toward the coast. The next cache was supposed to be on the way but it wasn’t there. I was getting a bit concerned because that left only one for Polk County. Fortunately, it was easily located in a hole bored in a post on the side of the highway.

Lincoln City was very busy with high traffic. The first cache was supposed to be at the Chamber of Commerce office with the hint being “at the corner”. I could not locate that cache at the corner where my GPS took me. Then the “Chamber Maid” came out and pointed me in the direction of the corner of a boardwalk outside the building where I did find the cache. The next one was at a beautiful little park that had a shady tennis court (reminding me of the old LCSC courts) and a covered picnic table and rest room. I needed to use the rest room but had to wait for a long line of kids who were there on some sort of outing. Meanwhile I found the cache which was in a water control box under some bushes.

Now onward south to Lane County. Traffic was slow and passing was interesting. The next cache was in Florence called “No Dogs Allowed” and was placed by a lady in honor of her departed geobuddy, a one eyed Lab. In my log I mentioned that I knew how meaningful a dog could be in one’s life and it was a shame they didn’t live longer. I got a reply from her in response to my log stating she knew I must be a dog owner. The other cache in Lane County was near the water in a big old leaning vine covered tree.

In Coos County the first cache was “Stopin' & Shopin' in Hauser”. It was at an old country store just off the highway. You know those old canisters with sand in the top that were used to extinguish cigarettes? Well, you had to lift the top part off that held the sand and the cache was down in the cylinder. The only way I found it was the hint, It’s not IN the sand. I stopped at the Gateway to the Bandon dunes for the next cache. The Bandon Dunes is a recreation area on the beach.

On to Curry County which is the southernmost one on the coast. Just north of Port Orford there was a little picnic type restaurant that specializes in hot dogs where this cache was located. There are grounds with picnic tables to eat your hot dogs and a sign that says “Bikers Welcome – Free Water”. They are open only through lunch time so I was far too late for a dog.

I arrived at the Sea Crest Motel in Port Orford, the most westward point in the U.S., about 7:00 pm

The Sea Crest is an old motel on a hill facing the ocean. Although old it appeared to be well kept. Every room has a beautiful view of the ocean. After getting settled I picked up a cache at the top of Deadly Street on the way to eat. I have never seen a street this long this steep. Slippery conditions or faulty brakes could have given this street its name. I had a pasta dinner at a café that was more than I could eat – and that’s a lot. After dinner I was in the motel lobby posting my caches on their computer until 10:00. When I hit the sack I was one tired puppy.

To be continued. M/W

"AMERICANA FOR SUMMER"

Around Memorial Day, Chris over at the Last Resort mentioned that she always decorates her house with Americana for the summer, taking in those patriotic holidays -- Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. "I don't do that," I said to myself. Whereby the little inner voice replied, "Well, you might try!"

I don't have patriotic quilts and wallhangings, but I went to my cupboard to pull out some things that seemed to fit the bill. Then I made a trip to the Dollar Tree for artificial red, white, and blue flowers and to Jo-Ann where I purchased the little birdhouse and the flag-shaped heart in the bouquet -- also the "liberty" plaque for the wall. (You can't quite see it.) At Wal-Mart I bought bright red seat cushions and summer placemats.

The teapot, cream and sugar on the top shelf are souvenirs of Boston's Freedom Trail. My dad bought me the teapot from Paul Revere's shop when he and Mother visited me in 1973. The "bicycle shop" is Department 56 and just says "summer" to me. On the next shelf down, the red glass pitcher, or vase, is also a souvenir from Boston days. The other two were Grandma Ina's and were just the right color for my display. The two little silver bowls on the next shelf say "Paul Revere" on them. I bought them at a department store in Marshfield, MA, when I lived on Boston's south shore. The tray, very well worn, was my mother's -- has the initial "D" on it. Today it holds peppermint taffy -- red and white -- but often the tray serves to hold embroidery thread for an upcoming project. KW

CHIM-CHIMINEE, CHIM-CHIMINEE, CHIM-CHIM-CHEREE

"A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be."













"Or blow me a kiss -- and that's lucky, too."

OREGON TRIP 3 – DAY 1

Wednesday, June 23^rd I left on the last leg of my journey to log a geocache in each Oregon county by motorcycle. I was on the road a little after 6:00 but it wasn’t as cold as my previous trips. As the western part of the state was my target there were no Oregon caches to do for a long ways.

The first cache attempt was in Multnomah County. It was supposed to be near two waterfalls with a trail leading up to them. As I was on the Interstate I had to exit and reverse my direction to access the falls area. However, even though I got with .15 miles of the cache which was just off the Interstate I could find no trail. To get to the cache I would have to climb 200 feet in elevation through thick brush and blackberry bushes which was totally impractical given my time constraints.

I got back on the Interstate, reversed my direction again and shortly stopped at a small pullout where a cache was supposed to be located down by the Columbia river. To get to the cache you had to walk through about 100 yards of woods and then across some marshy flats for about 430 feet. Unfortunately, with all the wet weather, the flats were in about 6” of water. I didn’t want that cache bad enough to endure wet feet for the rest of the day and maybe longer depending how long it would take for my boots to dry.

As with most counties, I had 3 caches lined out for Multnomah County. I had received prior warning that the next one might be in a construction area so I wasn’t surprised to find that was the case. I exited the freeway and turned south to find myself immediately in the construction area where they were stopping traffic. When it was my turn to go through I found that access to the cache was right in the middle of the construction so I pulled over to the shoulder of the road and parked in the construction area. Access to the cache was also fenced off by construction fencing. The cache was located in the woods so I had to work my way around the construction fencing and find a trail over to the cache area. Eventually I found the cache in the thick woods. All this area has lots of blackberry bushes which can make hiking brutal. I can tell you it was a load off my mind to finally get a cache in Multnomah County. That was easy, I said to myself.

Portland is in Multnomah County so my plan was to find caches for that county east of Portland and thereby being able to bypass all the traffic and congestion and then crossing the Columbia into Washington in the Longview area. As I hope to complete the Washington counties next year I had lined up three caches in Cowlitz County, WA. I was in Longview now just after midday and there was quite a bit of traffic. The first cache was in a little area near a creek. The coordinates took me to a rather unlikely spot in the open at the base of a hill where there was a beautifully ornate but broken container. I thought someone had robbed the cache but it was such an unlikely spot for one that I decided to look around a bit more. I saw a tree up the hill which was covered in tall grass so I climbed up to it and, sure enough, there was the actual cache.

The next cache was still in town so I found a parking spot in a fast food lot. It had gotten really warm so I took off my heavy shirt and overpants and packed them away. I had to walk a couple of blocks to find the cache which was cleverly hid. It was a benchmark but the top of the bench could be lifted off its base and the cache was down inside.

As my goal has always been two per county I skipped the third one I had lined up and crossed the river back into Columbia County, Oregon. The first cache was supposed to be a Travelbug hotel where Travelbugs are exchanged. It was located on a very busy highway 30 which is four lanes separated by a median barrier. I had found that as I got into these woods and steep hills my GPS reading would jump all over the place and caches had to be located more by where you think they might be (geosense) than by GPS readings. I must have searched for this cache for close to half an hour even crossing the four lanes to the other side of the highway. I didn’t stay over there very long because it seemed a very unlikely placement. Just as I had decided to give up I thought I would forget about the GPS and try one more search up the hill into the woods just looking for likely spots especially as it was supposed to be a rather large container. Just as I was about to give up again I found the container lodged in the crotch of a small tree or bush close to the ground. There weren’t any Travelbugs in it, however.

The next cache was a little beyond the really heavy traffic at a public boat launch and small picnic park. It was a small inlet and quite pleasant. Again I had to rely on my geosense rather than the GPS and eventually found the cache located in the end of a log. I took a pop break here on the boat dock.

Now on to Clatsop County and the 1880 Westport Tunnel. To access this cache I had to travel about a ¼ mile on an old unpaved dead end road through deep woods. I didn’t actually get to see the tunnel because the road was getting so bad I was afraid to go any further on my motorcycle. Again I found the cache by geosense and using the hint given in the listing. It was located in the middle of 5 trees almost grown together a little ways into the woods.

The last cache (Fallout III) I got for Clatsop County was near Astoria and was so named because the cache owner thought the neighborhood looked as if it had survived a nuclear explosion. It was in dense woods also and the cache was in a tree just within reach but not hard to find for a change.

I arrived at my motel in Astoria around 5:30 and after unpacking had a bowl of split pea soup courtesy of the motel. After eating I walked around Astoria a while which is an interesting place. Fortunately I was there on one of the few days it isn’t raining. There was no computer in the motel lobby so I had no way of logging my caches for the day. After lubing my motorcycle chain I turned in for the night. It had been a successful but somewhat frustrating day. M/W

JULY 1 AND BUSY BUSY BUSY

Here we are at our farm in the hills of north central Idaho and trying to make up for time lost to trips and cool weather. I checked out my collection of seeds and planted my raised bed in carrots, lettuce, beans and a couple of lemon cucumbers.

Speaking of cool weather, it's back again. The overnight low here was 48; the high today was 78. I wore a sweatshirt until late afternoon when I took Nellie for her walk. And I have yet to put away my winter pajamas. But, you know what they say about northern Idaho: you can't depend on summer until after the Fourth of July.



Mike did a lot of yard work and was otherwise industrious. Here he is fixing the closer on the back door. And below he's painting a window facing on the south of the house. He works under two mottos: "It's always something" and "Nothing is ever easy."










Three cherries on the little sour cherry tree look as though they might mature. I actually swathed the fencing in netting until I realized there's really no reason to try to protect three cherries from the birds.


The raspberry patch is more sincere than it has ever been -- loaded with potential berries and also producing canes. Life is good . . .




Farmer Kyle was here yesterday fertilizing with his huge equipment. Mike and I had to chuckle because a previous farmer did the same thing with a 4-wheeler. Sorry I don't have a picture of that for comparison.



The wheat looks so good right now. Rumor has it that an old-time farmer here says he has never seen it looking so good at this time of year.





Lastly -- take a look at this toadstool that I found under a pine tree in the grove. I think this is the spot to build my fairy village. KW