Portland - Oregon - July 2015

7-25-15

I got up at 6:00 AM and Doris surprised me and got up too. We left Grants Pass at 7:30 AM and arrived at the Clackemette RV Park in Oregon City, near Portland, at 12:30 PM.

It started to rain when we came through Eugene and lasted the rest of the afternoon.

Gayle, Doris’s daughter had signed us in since it is first come, first served and no reservations are accepted. It is a County Park.

Doris called Gayle when we were almost at the park and she helped us find our site. There was also a welcoming committee, which made a lot of noise.

Gayle, her daughter and we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.

In the evening the three of us went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Doris’s two other grandchildren, the children of Linda, her other daughter, joint us. The two older grandchildren were not there.

7-26-15.
We had breakfast at Gayle’s house. The whole family, plus friends were there.

There were Gayle’s two children and her ex husband, and Linda and her husband and their three children, and the boy friend of Linda’s daughter, and his friend. It was a house full.

After breakfast Doris played cards with one of her granddaughters.

From Gayle’s house we went to the Pittock Mansion which is located in the hills above Portland. Pittock came to Portland in 1853 when he was sixteen years old and it was only a small town.

He worked as a type setter at a weekly newspaper and after saving some money bought the paper and started a daily newspaper.

The family moved into the mansion in 1914. It is surrounded by a 64 acre park, with a gate keeper’s house and a three car garage. Pittock had electricity installed, a central vacuum system, intercoms, an elevator, and indirect lighting.

From the mansion one has a fantastic view over the city.

We stayed almost three hours on the property. I had to drag Doris away because we had dinner at Linda’s house. Part of the family was there.

After dinner the women played cards.

At 9:30 PM Doris and I rushed back to the motorhome. We are staying in a county park and they close the gate at 10:00 PM.

7-27-15.

In the morning one of Doris’s granddaughter picked her up and they went for pedicures and then went shopping.

I walked to McDonalds and did my E mail. Then I walked in the park. The geese have made a mess in the grass area. Children cannot play in the grass. The Canadian geese stay here. I think they are sick of migrating every year. There are hundreds of them in the park.

In the evening we went with Linda and her youngest son and Gayle to a waterfront restaurant. 

Gayle had to leave early to pick up her new car. She actually picked up a new car a few weeks ago. The dealers accounting office noted that she had the wrong car. The VIN number does not match. She drove the car two thousand miles before they noticed it. Now she has a new car with 33 miles on the odometer.

 

7-28-15.

We left Oregon City at 8:45 AM and arrived in Grants Pass at 1:45 PM. We left the motorhome at Henderson’s Line Up and drove to the library. It is hot in Grants Pass. At 5:00 PM when the shop closed we moved the motorhome to the work bays and plugged in the electric cord. We need the electricity to run the air conditioner. In the mean time we enjoyed the cool library and worked on our computers. 

7-29-15.

We woke up at the same time the mechanics and technician started making noise. At 8:00 AM one of the technician and Doris and I went for a test run in the motorhome.

When we came back he put the motorhome in one of the bays and they weight it and checked the brakes and the steering mechanism.

My motorhome runs good and I did not expect any problems. I had talked to the person who stayed the night in his motorhome because the wheels were off. The mechanic was still working on replacing the brakes.

Henderson had suggested $ 8,000 worth of improvements. He had only the important work done.

When my paperwork was done it was also about $ 8,000.

I had them adjust the parking brake and told them that I will think about the improvements.

We left Grants Pass at 10:00 AM and stopped for lunch at the Chart Room Restaurant in Crescent City.

Since it is a very popular restaurant we had to wait a while.

We arrived at the front of the house at 4:00 PM. Mr. Big greeted us. Our guests are all gone. The Golden Rule is on its way to San Diego.
This was a wonderful little vacation.

Grants Pass - Oregon - JULY - 2015

7-21-15

We arrived at Schroeder County Park in Grants Pass at 11:00 AM.

After setting up the motorhome I made a broccoli salad for the Shanty Shaker pot luck at the Miller’s house. Thirty eight members of the Shanty Shakers, the Southern California chapter of the Escapee Camping Club, have come here for an outing.

We met at 5:00 PM At the Miller's house, and there was, as always, a lot of food.

I had not seen some of the people for over a year, and it will be wonderful to spend some time with them the next few days.

We socialized for a while.

And then we started the eating process.

7-22-15.

In the morning we signed up for the Thursday dinner cruise on the Hellgate Jet Boat. We were lucky and got tickets. The group had made arrangements a long time ago. Since both of us had done the boat ride we did not want to go. When Doris found out that it was a dinner cruise she changed her mind.

At 1:00 PM we attended with the group a safety seminar at Henderson’s Line-Up. We made arrangements to have the motorhome checked out at Henderson’s when we are coming back from Portland.

The seminar ended with a large portion of ice cream with strawberries.

In the evening we all had dinner at the Taprock restaurant which is located next to the Rogue River. It was voted the best restaurant in Grants Pass.

We had our own room and it was a pleasant affair.

We are finally getting rid of our uninvited motorhome guests. In Ashland we picked up ants. They were all over the motorhome. We killed some with bleach wipes and the rest ate the bait we located in the bathroom and kitchen.

7-23-15.

We visited my friends Emmi and Bert in the morning. They live in Wilderville. We knew each other in Chicago and later in San Diego.

At 4:15 we boarded a Hellgate Jet Boat and cruised on the Rogue River.

The boats are getting ready.

The boarding is done next to the Taprock restaurant.

We are on our way.

At that point it was still smooth sailing. As soon as we came out of the residential area the captain raised the engine and we flew over the water. Doris and I were sitting in the first row, behind the windshield. The last time I went on a jet boat I was able to get off the boat dry. The people behind me got wet.

This time I was not so lucky. I was sitting near the outside and when the captain spun the boat around I got hit with a solid wall of water, not spray.

We saw two bald eagles.

At one point we had to wait until rafters came by.

After going through the canyon we turned around and stopped at the restaurant. The eight boats unloaded their 380 passengers.

We got served family style. First they brought bowls of salad and bread and then the scalloped potatoes and spare ribs and chicken. One could eat as much as one wanted. There were pitchers with wine, beer, water, and lemonade on the table.

It was a really good meal. The Shanty Shakers sat on three tables.

We were in boat number two. On the way home we were racing with the first boat.

Doris and I got wet again. Back home at the motorhome we had to empty our bill folds and dry out the money and other stuff.

We took a warm shower and went to bed. It was fun though, especially being with a group.

7-24-15.

In the morning we visited the Wildlife Images Animal Rehabilitation Center. We had a pretty and knowledgeable guide.

The center has camps for school children.

The bear was begging for apples.

At the bird center they have all kind of birds, including several bald eagles.

Because of the tight fences I did not take many pictures.

The wire was in the way.

On the way home we stopped at the place where the old cars are getting ready for the evening parade.  

When I arrived in Canada the 57 Chevy was very popular and now it is a classic.

Some of the cars are refurbished to its original design and other cars are equipped with modern engines.

My first car was a 1957 Pontiac Star Chief, similar as this one. 

  

Here I am in Indiana Dunes State Park in 1961 on my first date with Hanna.

  

We saw this car in the evening when we went down town. The city had closed one street and cars from the fifties and older were lined up on both sides of the street.

After we walked around for a while Doris wanted to go to the Josephine County Historical Society where they had an ice cream social.

We just made it. The band in the gazebo played one more song and they stopped serving ice cream.

  

We are leaving tomorrow morning and will miss the parade of all the old cars.

This was a wonderful rally. Carol and Jerry Miller did an outstanding job hosting it.