Mrs. Phred wants to see the Hell's Canyon scenic loop here in eastern Oregon. We checked into the Eagle Hot Lake RV Park and will take the Toyota on the 200 mile loop in the morning.
The drive here along the north bank of the Columbia River was very scenic. We've struck out with booking raft trips so far. It's hot, hot hot and all the rivers and lakes are full of Oregonians looking for relief from the record temperatures. It kind of reminds me of the summer we visited London. Our hotel didn't have air-conditioning although it was very hot. Up here most of the homes are also not air conditioned.
We are warned to run the water here for several minutes to blow out the earwigs. I saw an earwig when I disconnected the water at the last place. My ear feels itchy. Maybe an earwig crawled in last night. They lay eggs in your ear that burrow into your brain to lay eggs..then the larvae eat their way out again...
The drive here was beautiful. We stopped in a lush forest and picked ripe red raspberries to put in our morning cereal. The road runs right along the banks of the Columbia River.
We're about 200 miles east of the Oregon Coast. The weather was about 50 degrees with very wet fog this morning. We're on the north bank of the Columbia River and the Toyota said it was 107 degrees Fahrenheit when we parked and made a quick run to buy cold white wine and replenish our cash.
This is a creek in Oregon where Lewis and Clark and their 31 men and Sacajawea and Lewis' dog are thought to have spent the winter of 1805-06.
The GPS is set for Mountain Home, Arkansas. We want to see our friends, Paul and Diane, and maybe play some doubles sets with the Mountain Home grandmothers league. Those grandmothers are looking better all the time. It might be an eyesight issue. We can also use Paul's pontoon boat on the big lake if Paul and Diane are too busy to join us some days. On our last visit I spayed three coats of good quality yellow paint on their self-constructed mansion-in-the-woods.
We visited Fort Clatsop in Astoria to see a reproduction of the building that Lewis and Clark built near the mouth of the Columbia to over-winter in their 1805-06 stay. It's surprisingly sophisticated. I checked the reproduction against the sketch in Merriwether Lewis' journal and they have it about right. I bought a book about their journey.
This is a picture of Captain Merriwether Lewis, putting on a new deerskin shoe. The Captain was shot in the butt on the return trip by a hunter with poor eyesight who took him for an elk.
Merriwether seem quite scientific for his time. He measures water temperature and air temperature to calculate the difference needed to fill the "hollows" with fog. He only lost one man out of forty on this incredible journey, from appendicitis.
We drove up to Oysterville on a peninsula in Southern Washington. It is a little historical town where most of the homes were built 40 to 60 years after Lewis and Clark came and went. There are huge piles of oyster shells everywhere.
In my childhood, the Tampa Road Department came along our street and dumped fresh shells on the road about twice a year. The shells were sharp and hard to walk on barefoot. The mosquito control trucks came by almost every night spaying a thick fog of insecticide and motor oil. We loved to chase the slow-moving trucks and cavort in the poisonous billowing smog. Eventually, they ran out of shells and paved the street. They paved paradise and made it a parking lot.
Astoria is the oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi River.
First we visited the Astoria Tower. It was built on a hilltop overlooking the little port of Astoria. The story that celebrates the Lewis and Clark expedition that arrived at the mouth of the wild Columbia River in 1805 is wrapped on the tower in word and mural. You would have to walk rapidly around the tower about 15 times to get the whole story. Our legs feel very rubbery after walking up the 160 stairs to the top of the tower.
We spent time in the Astoria Maritime Museum. The Columbia River is an unforgiving place to sail into. "Crossing the Bar" where the massive output of the Columbia meets the wild Pacific has done in thousands of ships and small boats. We watch a movie about the specialized river pilots and "bar" pilots that help the ships navigate in and out of the Columbia.
The early settlers here pretty much wiped out the fur-bearing creatures in a few years and turned to salmon fishing. The apparently inexhaustible supply of salmon led to the establishment of dozens of canneries. There are pictures in the museum of horses drawing in nets with 60,000 pounds of Chinook salmon in each net. Fat, healthy fish, averaging 50 pounds each.
The wild Columbia has been tamed into a series of placid lakes by 13 great hydro-electric dams. A few confused salmon and sturgeon make their way up specially constructed salmon runs around the dams. Sea Lions have discovered these runs and gorge themselves on the spawning salmon, often staring directly into video cameras.
We are near a factory that hunted whales for mink feed and fertilizer until the 1972 ban on whale killing was established. They used to make ladies corsets out of the baleen that whales use to filter plankton and pretty much hunted that species to extinction.
Back down in Trinidad, California the second growth redwoods are only about 100 years old and five feet in diameter. Everywhere you look you see 18 foot diameter stumps that were logged out as if we had a license to cut down or kill anything with commercial value.
I think I have just talked Mrs. Phred into a three-day raft trip on the Snake River though Hell's Canyon. We're waiting for a call back on availability from this outfitter . Just driving up the coast and looking at beautiful beaches and overlooks is beginning to pall. Some Class IV rapids and sleeping in tents at night might on the Snake river might liven things up. The trip begins about an hour west of Portland. We're waiting to hear if they can work us in.
This is the Columbia River. It's so big here that it has waves that break on the shore and sandy beaches.
We did a tour of Fort Stevens today. It was established to thwart the British in the event that they decided to enter the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. On the night of June 21, 1942, Fort Stevens saw its only action when a Japanese submarine (the I-25) fired 5.5 inch shells in the vicinity of the fort. The shelling caused no damage. The Fort Commander refused to allow return fire. The incident made Fort Stevens the only installation (in the Continental US) to be attacked by an enemy since the War of 1812. You could argue that the 9/11 incident was another attack on the continental US, if you feel that a handful of ignorant and mis-guided criminals deserve to be elevated to the serious category of "enemy".
Tomorrow we tour Astoria. They have a number of interesting looking museums and a 14 block river walk thatwe want to do. Just down the road is a portion of the Lewis and Clark trail that one can hike and imagine exploring an unknown continent.
It was sad when the great ship went down. It was 1976 and the Betty M. was fully laden with a cargo of 900 tons of fresh tuna. She capsized in the mouth of the Columbia River. Local residents still talk about the stench that lasted for months. The diving here involves 50 degree water temperatures and 10 to 30 foot visibility. I think I'll leave the SCUBA gear in the basement until we get back to Florida.
This is a picture of the Tillamook Naval Air Station back in 1943. The Navy dirigibles photographed her are only slightly shorter than the 800-foot Hindenburg.
One of Mrs. Phred's online friends came to visit. Her name is Laura. Mrs. Phred and Laura go to "Garibaldi days" and have excellent fried oysters for lunch. I stay home and do paperwork. I'm pleased to be able to load Laura up with fresh fish. She drove a long way to meet Mrs. Phred. Laura works in the Oregon mental hospital where "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed starring Jack Nicolson. The book was written by Ken Kesey who got his big start from having his brains jarred loose by the CIA during the MKULTRA project, which involved slipping LSD to unwitting citizens. Kesey's fourth child, conceived with another Merry Prankster, was appropriately named "Sunshine"... Today we took a three-cape scenic drive along the coast. We both had that dejavu feeling that we'd been here before...perhaps we had. The Tillamook Air Museum is not bad. They had some very nice WWII airplanes and airplane engines on display. My own C-124 engine was there. It was the largest airborne piston engine ever deployed. It was used on the B-36 as well....a radial seven with four rows...28 cylinders...what a hog. 4,500 cubic inches...four engines...no wonder we burned 10,000 gallons of high octane on a ten hour flight....about five gallons a mile...
The most lovely plane in the museum is a P-38 called the Tangerine. I don't recognize it at first...light, flighty, lovely and bristling with 50-calibers. The engines rotate in opposite directions to cancel the effects of torque. Lt. Ethell who flew one this made some kills. The people next to us gave us a plate of freshly boiled crab. It was good but it ruined our appetite for the sockeye salmon I had cooked so I made a sandwich spread from it with eggs, onions, mayonnaise and chipottle sauce. It made about seven healthy sandwiches.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the air museum was the building housing it. They claim it is the largest wooden building in the world. It's easy to believe. They built it to house Akron Class Navy rigid dirigibles during WWII. They built two, but one burned to the ground about 20 years ago. It had been filled with hundreds of tons of hay. The building that is left houses a bunch of stored boats and RVs in addition to the air museum. Tomorrow we move on to the mouth of the Columbia where Lewis and Clark wintered in 1805. I think the WWII dirigibles were very useful for convoy duty.
Rotting tuna, Ken Kesey, P-38s, the Merry Pranksters, Chipottle sauce, Project MKULTRA, the CIA, WWII dirigibles, the Oregon coast capes, fresh fish....it all comes together right here in Tillamook. It's interesting that Lt Ethell's son, Jeff Ethell, wrote a book called "Warbirds of WWII" and crashed a restored P-38 and died in Tillamook in 1997. Apparently he lost an engine, failed to maintain a sufficient airspeed and destroyed himself and one of the last of these lovely airplanes in a flat spin.
We ran a little too far past the Tillamook Cheese factory, but we have a nice water view from our front window. Another 60 miles and we'll be into Washington State.
Last night, after dinner, some nice people brought us a raspberry cobbler. Sometimes Mrs. Phred's social nature pays off. I would have given them some sockeye salmon, but they were not up and about before we had to move on this morning.
We picked up our mail in Tillamook and drove another 18 miles north to the marina. Then we drove a little north to some coastal overlooks and met Rocky. Rocky is from the western Australia. I asked him if his home was near Alice Springs and he laughed. He bought a 1991 Dodge van with a bed in the back and is spending three months touring the US before he flys out of New York.
Rocky is going to cut back down to see the big sites in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. His van cost him $1,500. It has a bed in the back like our Ford camper van back in Tampa. We were a little envious of his lightweight camping plans.
When we got back to the marina I locked both sets of keys in the Toyota. I boosted Mrs. Phred up seven feet into the RV using the clasped hand technique to break into an open window in the RV because I had to pee. Fortunately she is very light and lithe. An AAA guy named "Rick" showed up in 30 minutes with a cool tool to open the Toyota. He really likes how easy it is to break into new cars.
Home from the sea and the hunter is home from the hills
Who wrote that anyway? What does it mean?
The boat is extremely clean, well organized and well maintained. They have a plaque with the captain's name and another with the name of his son, as deckhand. As we travel though Depoe Bay, we see jars everywhere soliciting funds for the care of the son. It's a small town, they try to take care of their own.
Tyler is a handsome young man in the pictures. He appears to be about 20. He was going to the post office for his father on his motorcycle when a van pulled out in front of him. He is paralyzed from the neck down now.
Life can change in an instant. I think I will take a check down to the grocery store before we leave in the morning. We've been so lucky, so long. I've got hundreds of thousands of motorcycle miles without an accident and I was young and reckless once.
In case you were wondering, a columbarium is A vault with niches for urns containing ashes of the dead.
Coyote Rock RV Park The fishing trip from Depoe Bay was outstanding. I caught a 24 inch ling cod, two "cabs" and five black rockfish. The RV freezer is about full of fish right now, including the sockeye salmon from last week.
This is a picture of the Siletz River, where we are camped tonight. Tomorrow we'll run north about 50 miles to Tillamook.
I'm making Tuscan Cabs tonight. Cabs are weird looking fish with a big flared collar. Each one makes four meals for two people. They are reputed to be excellent. I usually use this recipe on halibut.
TUSCAN CABS 2 sheets (12 x 18" each) Reynolds Wrap® heavy-duty aluminum foil 1 can (15 oz. each) Great Northern or cannellini beans, rinsed & drained 1 medium tomatoes, chopped 2 tbsp. prepared pesto, divided 2 (4 to 6 oz. each) CAB steaks 2 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. lemon pepper 1 lemon slices Preheat oven to 450°F and combine beans, tomatoes, and 1 tablespoons pesto; mix well. Center 1/2 of bean mixture on each foil sheet. Top with one Alaska Halibut steak; drizzle with lemon juice. Sprinkle CABs with lemon pepper. Top with lemon slices. Bring up sides of foil and double fold. Double fold ends to form four packets, leaving room for heat circulation inside packets. Bake 16 to 20 minutes on a cookie sheet in oven. Serve with remaining pesto. Makes 2 servings
This is the bridge coming into Depoe Bay. The town claims it's the world's smallest harbor. I think we saw a much smaller one in Alaska, but whatever floats their boats. The harbor seals hang out by the fish cleaning place. They slap their flippers in the water, hoping for scraps of fish.
Just outside the mouth of the harbor we saw a whale about thirty feet from the boat. I didn't have my camera, so take my word for it. They like to browse close to shore and eat the shrimp in the kelp beds. This one came up about five times to spout and catch its breath.
Yesterday, Mrs. Phred and I had some clam chowder in Depoe Bay and drove north past Lincoln City. Today the fog cleared and the blue sky came out. A lovely day to be out on the water.
Depoe Bay is fairly touristy in the summer, but nothing like Key West or Martha's Vineyard. They do give the suckers an even break here with good clam chowder, whale watching and great fishing trips.
We've been off the net the last couple of days, camping in the Cape Perpetua State Park. I like to get up at 4 am and play with the computer until Mrs. Phred wakes up around eight.
The days are cold and foggy near the coast. Inland they are having a serious heatwave.
So this morning I drank some coffee, read a SF book called "Redshift" for about an hour, then went back to bed at five. I couldn't sleep so I spent the next three hours remembering my life.
This is a geological formation on the Oregon Coast called "The Devil's Punchbowl".
The only thing I would change is the party I went to when I was 16. It was sponsored by the grocery store where I worked as a "bag boy". I drank too much beer and decided to go swimming nude. I couldn't find where I had left my clothing so I had to ride my motorcycle home 20 miles without any covering. It was kind of like one of those dreams where you appear naked in public, but it was real life. In retrospect, I wouldn't do that again. My father was disappointed with me, but had the wisdom to wait until the next morning to offer his fatherly advice...aside from that one incident, I wouldn't change a thing.
We stopped briefly in Newport, Oregon. They have a world class aquarium there, but we've seen it twice and we just went to the New Orleans aquarium...so we skipped it. They do have a nice bridge.
The fog cleared long enough yesterday to get this shot of Cape Perpetua yesterday.
Cape Foulweather was named by Captain Cook in March 1787. He had a bright young navigator on board by the name of William Bligh. Captain Bligh, G. Gordon Liddy and Chuck Yeager are my three personal all-time heroes. I wrote an article about William Bligh which was published by the BBC. It's always a thrill to find a place where the great navigator and Captain visited. He brought breadfruit to the Indies. His family loved him.
As I review my pictures of the last three days, I see a lot of tide pools and exploding waves. Maybe I need to vary my focus.
We're parked south of Lincoln City on the Siletz River about two miles from the coast. You can catch King Salmon here, rent boats or charter a serious fishing trip. Coho Salmon for dinner again tonight. The RV park has a nice feel. We have a river view, cable TV, electricity and water. Life is good.
Just north of here, near Tillamook, is the "Terrible Tilly" lighthouse, which has been turned into a columbarium. For a time, you could have your remains placed her for a fee of $1,000 (in the derrick room) or $5,000 (in the lantern room). However the "Eternity at Sea" license was revoked for poor record keeping in 2005. My plan to have Mrs. Phred pack my remains in salt, wrap me in a tarp and haul me here by a mule drawn wagon are on hold, pending the legal wrangling... I may have to go to a Plan B.
When you see the beautiful Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, your first thought is, "Damn, I wish I had one of those". Apparently, a 22 year-old lady Wienermobile driver put one of these lovely machines in forward instead of reverse and crashed it though the garage of a Mt. Pleasant home, cracking the foundation of the house.
The first Wienermobile rolled out in 1936. One was pulled over in Colorado for a stolen license plate several years ago. Eventually it was determined that the plate should be considered stolen only when not attached to a Wienermobile. After 15 years of attempts, I finally beat Mrs. Phred in a tennis set. The score was 6-3. My life has included many triumphs, but none was so sweet as this victory. We wandered the coast of Oregon today. The sand dunes dominate this area for almost 50 miles. In the morning we'll move north maybe 80 or 100 miles. The dunes attract a number of OHVs (off road vehicles). These are full sized vehicles like dune buggies that are not licenced to drive on highways. There are also ATVs (all terrain vehicles). These are little four wheel motorcycles by Honda and Kawasaki that are designed for off-road use. We watch a dirt bike do an amazing wheelie up a 700 foot sand dune with a 45 degree slope. I don't really approve of any of this. It seems like shameful conspicuous consumption of gasoline and a crazy mistreatment of lovely high-performance engines in blowing sand. You have to wonder how many of these machines and the trailers to haul them were financed by easy credit. Oregon has a 12% unemployment rate.
Some of the off-roaders seem relatively young. They like to start them early.
The dunes extend up to 20 miles inland and rise to heights of 800 feet.. Sand washes up on the beach and is dried and blown inland by the sea breeze. It's the middle of July and the temperature near the beach hovers near 50 degrees F. As you move inland 20 miles it raises to near 100 degrees.
The alarm went off at 4:30 AM. Captain Patrick Sullivan told me to bring "full rain gear" because it was an open boat. We left the harbor a little before 6 AM and ran through the dense fog and cold air at high speed for about an hour. My raincoat was dripping with fog. I kept expecting the Exxon Valdez to appear 30 feet off our port bow. Finally the Captain found an area of the Pacific that was about six degrees warmer where he though that there might be salmon.
He was right. My first fish was a 25 pound Chinook (King) salmon. We had to release it because this year there is no season at all for Chinook in California or Oregon. The Chinook salmon spawning runs in the Sacramento River have declined precipitously. Big agriculture is thought to be the cause as the river water is taken into fields and then returned to the river at a higher temperature and with a variety of pollutants.
We began to land Coho (Sockeye) salmon about eight to ten pounds in weight. The ones raised in hatcheries have their adipose fin clipped off. You can keep those, but the "wild fish" must be released. I caught three of each before "limiting out" with three hatchery salmon about 10:30 AM.We went back in to pull some crab pots. Crabs with soft legs are not very meaty so Captain Patrick threw back about half the crabs because of soft legs. My fellow passenger, George, explained to me the cooking process for crab.
Our three oldest grandchildren are completing a 2-week drama class with a play tonight. Afterwords, the family will be driving thru the night to Indian Rocks Beach on the west coast of Florida for their yearly "beach week".
I got home and froze about 15 pounds of Sockeye fillet. I kept out this one chunk and we grilled it along with grilled potatoes, onions and green peppers. We also cooked some sweet green peas for lunch. The grass here is thick and soft. It was nice to warm our toes in the sunshine
Winchester bay is a small fishing village on the north end of the Oregon Sand Dunes National Recreation area. People come here to run exotic dune buggies, ATVs and motorcycles up steep 600 foot sand dunes. Others like to fish for salmon and catch crabs.
The fog hung around all day today. Here on the coast the high was 55 degrees F. I went for a walk on the beach at 6 AM and found it difficult to find the path back to the RV park. The visibility has been about 50 feet all day. This is a picture of the halibut I cooked for Mrs. Phred yesterday.
We went to the Cape Arago State Park in the morning. At an overlook, we could hear herds of seals and Steller's sea lions arfing up a storm, but the fog obscured the rock that they like to rest on.
The cove at Cape Arago was free of fog. There were tide pools but the animals were not as colorful as the ones we saw yesterday. The sea anemones mostly looked like little mud donuts.
We did see one starfish. We also found a chocolate muffin and some birthday candles for our Skype session with grandchild # 4. Today is his birthday. He is six. We talked him and his little brother into blowing out the candles and they both blew so hard that little globules of spit appeared on the camera lens.
The Gold and Silver Falls State Park was a 40 mile drive into the interior. The temperature went up 20 degrees as we left the coast and hit the one-lane winding roads into the park.
Both falls were about a 1/2 mile hike.
Yesterday I got a haircut by a Vietnamese woman about my age. She told me about her recent five-country, five-week vacation to Asia. She booked the whole thing herself and took her husband. It was strange how many of the same places we had been...Da Nang...Saigon...Qui Nhon...she was a good barber. She didn't like L.A. so she moved to Oregon and met her American husband.
The Gold and Silver Falls State Park would have been hard to find without a GPS...the two falls each require a 1/2 mile hike. Mrs. Phred was ready to strip down to her panties and frolic in the waterfall...
I think our next stop, going North, is Winchester Bay.
This place had frozen halibut. I had to buy paprika, scallions, sour cream and dry white wine to make the recipe.
1 cup dry white wine 2 tsp. salt 1 lb. Alaska Halibut steaks ¼ cup fine dry bread crumbs ½ cup each sour cream & mayonnaise ¼ cup minced green onions paprika
Combine wine and salt; pour over halibut. Marinate in refrigerator at least 1 hour. Drain halibut on paper towels; dip both sides in breadcrumbs. Place halibut in shallow buttered baking dish. Combine sour cream, mayonnaise and green onions; spread over halibut. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, measured at the thickest part, or until halibut flakes when tested with a fork.
The Beatles song, "Come Together" came over the FM today. "One and One and One make Three" and "Come together over me". This seemed at the time to be proof that Paul was dead. We remember the "Paul is dead" sensation. We tried to play "Number nine" backwards to prove it but didn't know how.
He blew his mind out in a car He didn't notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared They'd seen his face before
Oregon is known for spectacular tide pools. We saw some today on a long fin of sandstone that extended 400 yards out into the Pacific.
The fin has tide pools at low tide, but the "sneaker waves" will wash you away if you wait for the tide to come in. I was standing on the beach taking pictures when a rogue sneaker wave came in and got my sneakers wet.
The temperature here rarely rises above 70 degrees F. It's a great place to spend summers if you don't like being hot..
Last night I woke at 2:30 AM with a wet sensation in my ear.
The rocks here have been carved into very strange shapes by the waves.
It's a wonderful place to wander and take pictures.
These black seabirds were clinging to a cliff. I think at first thatthey might be black oystercatchers, but then Colm, over in Ireland, tells me they are comorants...he's right.
Today is out last day in Charleston before heading north to look for more tide pools. There are several State Parks nearby that we want to explore before we leave. One has some 200 foot waterfalls. Another has tide pools. This morning fog limited visibility to 50 feet at the water's edge. Maybe it will disperse later.
We've moved about 50 miles north on the Oregon Coast to Charleston, a big fishing community. There is a fish store here that sells oysters and lovely fillets of halibut, chinook and coho salmon. We're right on the beach.
We've been here before. The last time I got pictures of four dead bodies being dragged from the surf by one of those little red Coast Guard helicopters. Even if you're a great swimmer, like me, it's probably a good idea to wear your life jacket in cold weather with very cold water. It's hard to swim with boots and winter coats when your boat capsizes. I watched the life jackets and boat bob up on the beach. The helicopter kept looking for bodies for a long time because no one was left to tell them how many people were in the boat to start with. Every morning you live though is a good morning.
The last campground on Cape Blanco was also a repeat visit. The campsites are big and private, surrounded by lush rain forest vegetation.
We went for a drive along the Elk River into the interior. We came to a recently abandoned US Forest Service campsite with a smouldering fire and lots of firewood so we filled our trunk. There was almost no traffic on the remote road, but five pickup truck stopped as we ate our lunch and ten men walked over to talk to us. They all wore hats that said "Trash Dog". They were Oregon volunteers making a day of picking up trash along the road and at campsites to keep the forest and river beautiful.
We took another long walk on the beach and saw some evidence that the cliffs along the beach are in an active phase of swift erosion with mudslides and other collapses.
There are some odd rocks on the beach.
My sister-in-law in Venice, Italy wondered if this was a Bluebird, based a a previous very poor picture. I would have thought that it was a species of blue jay, but ornithology is not one of my areas of expertise. A reader informs us that this is a Steller's Jay. Steller’s Jays were first discovered on an Alaskan island in 1741 by Georg Steller, a naturalist on a Russian explorer’s ship. When a scientist officially described the species, in 1788, they named it after him – along with other discoveries including the Steller’s sea lion and Steller’s Sea-Eagle. These Jays can interbreed with the more common American Blue Jay, producing a hybrid, like the Japanese Prius.
The squirrels here have orange belly fur. I'll go out on a limb here and identify this as a red Fox Squirrel.
In Gold Beach we dropped off three shopping bags of books for the annual book sale. In Port Orford we hit the library book sale on Saturday. Talk about deju vu all over again...the last time we were here we also hit the annual book sale. We scored 14 books for $11 in a 30 minute raid. They had free cookies and brownies provided by the Port Orford library ladies as a bonus.
Blue Jays aren't really blue. The molecular structure of their feathers reflects light in the blue spectrum, like the blue icebergs that float in Alaska lakes. You can prove this by crushing a jay feather. The blue goes away.
Michael Jackson...Michael Jackson...are they all crazy?
My brother-in-law was badly wounded in Viet Nam. He's tired of seeing the face of a dead, horrific zombie freak on the news every night. Here's was a man (?) who may have done very shameful things and who certainly never did anything worthwhile other than invent the Moonwalk. Among a population of six billion, his death scarcely matters in any way that I can imagine.
In contrast, Ed Freeman at six feet, four inches was "too tall" to be a pilot until they changed the rules. He died last year of Parkinson's complications and his death went entirely unreported by the news media.
The military has a way of screwing up a good story with their Medal of Honor citations. Freeman's helicopter unit dropped off a battalion in the Ia Drang Valley. The Battalion came under heavy attack by greatly superior forces and the Medevac helicopters were ordered not to fly into the area because of intense enemy fire. Freeman volunteered to fly in water and ammunition and fly out wounded soldiers. He made 14 trips in an unarmed and unarmored Huey, under heavy fire, and evacuated 30 wounded kids, most of whom would have died without his heroism.. In fact, the entire battalion might have been lost without him.
I have to agree with my brother-in-law. The "News Media" is crazy. They should honor and report on the best humanity has to offer, not persevarate endlessly about the worst.
Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers -- some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinaryperseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
We ended the day in Ray's Grocery store in Port Ormond (population 1,049). Ray's gave us a ten cent credit for bringing our own paper bags for the groceries. Oregon is really green and has many strange, advanced policies like this for recycling.
Ray's had a two pound salmon for less than six dollars. It was a nice fish. I talked to the butcher and he told me he thought it was a silver. It still had the skin on. Basically only the head and entrails had been removed.
I cut it into two pieces and froze half. The other half will be lunch tomorrow.
We're at the Cape Blanco State Park on the Oregon coast. The campground is lovely and sits on a high bluff. You have to walk down a steep trail to get to the beach. The temperature is still in the 60 degree Fahrenheit range with the wind off the cold Pacific.
As we walk the beach, we see many strange, twisted driftwood shapes. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way in. He is searching for gold in the beach sand.
We walk the beach for miles, worried a little that the tide will come in and cut off our retreat. In the end we find a path to climb up off the beach. The Killer Whales (Orcas) and Great White Sharks feed nearby on salmon and seals. We see a sad dead seal on the beach.
If you look very closely. you can see me standing by this beach rock. I'm the little blur of blue. In the morning we'll come back to swimin the chilly Pacific. The lighthouse is part of the park. The last time we were here, there were whales spouting just offshore. We like this place. We might stay several days.
The rockfish recipe with parsley and almonds was good. I need to find more rockfish recipes.
As Social Director, I suggested a drive up the Rogue River to see one of the raft trip outfitters 76 miles inland.
We found a lodge for lunch and that was a nice break, but the GPS took us up forest service roads that became increasingly curvy, narrow and unpaved. After three hours of driving we had only covered 56 miles at an average speed, while moving of 28 MPH.
We turned back, short of our planned destination. I probably should have planned a coastal hike.
We got back to Gold Beach in time to score a couple of used books and get the propane tank for the gas grill refilled...altogether nothing to write home about. We'll head north tomorrow...up in the direction of Coos Bay.
An online friend is planning a 15 day trip to the US. I've constucted this plan as one suggested for tourists with two weeks to see everything possible. To see more about places like Monument Valley or Sedona, you can search this blog (or the internet, for that matter)
Day 1. Get a roundtrip ticket to Las Vegas and rent a car.
Day 2. Drive to Sedona, just south of Flagstaff...see Hoover Dam
Gold Beach, Oregon - Population 2,016 The Rogue river empties into the Pacific Ocean here. We're camped near the river and the ocean. You can hear the waves at night on the beach and smell the ocean. The beach is littered with driftwood and agates.
We made a trip in the Toyota back to the South to visit some of the State Parks and ocean overlooks that were inaccessible in the RV.
A couple of outfitters, miles inland, run raft trips (or rent inflatable kayaks) for trips down the Rogue. We daydream about it for Thursday before we move on to Coos Bay.
This flower is in the thick woods and ferns on the high hills overlooking the coast.
Our book shelves are full again. In the afternoon we go to the Gold Beach public library. Mrs Phred tells me that book donations are being accepted in the old library on Corvin street. A lady hears her talking to me and says that the book sale is on Saturday. She is here to pick up donations for the sale. I promise to bring my books. A verbal promise must be kept. It is the glue that holds the fabric of society together, so we fill three big shopping bags with books and drop them off. It's a mixed bag, some excellent and very current. Some not so good...the way of all books.
These flowers are growing on a large rock, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean.
Almonds and parsley are always a good bet with delicate white fish.
2 rockfish fillets 1/4 c. slivered almonds 1/8 c. minced parsley 1/8 c. melted butter 1 tbsp. lime juice 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. pepper
Place fish fillets in shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with almonds and parsley. Combine butter and lime juice; pour over fish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven 10 minutes, uncovered, until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 10 minutes. Serves 2.
We make a trip to the store in the afternoon for slivered almonds, parsley, limes and Australian shiraz. I repair the tow wires once again. The generator oil is at the "add oil" point. I top it off. We'll probably change it back in Florida in November.
"I see you're looking at my feet," he said to her when the car was in motion.
"I beg your pardon?" said the woman.
"I said I see you're looking at my feet."
"I beg your pardon. I happened to be looking at the floor," said the woman, and faced the doors of the car.
"If you want to look at my feet, say so," said the young man. "But don't be a God-damned sneak about it."
"Let me out here, please," the woman said quickly to the girl operating the car.
The car doors opened and the woman got out without looking back.
"I have two normal feet and I can't see the slightest God-damned reason why anybody should stare at them," said the young man. "Five, please." He took his room key out of his robe pocket.
Somewhere along the visit to the Redwoods, high over the California Beach, we meet a retired American Army tanker. He's traveling light and camping out of his car. He reminds me of the Beatles song," all the lonely people...where do they all come from?" We talk about the Bonus Marchers from WWI, Patton, Killer Whales...ships and shoes and sealing wax, walruses and kings...
He tells us that the pink flowers on the trees on the redwood groves are rhododendrons. He's been camping here for weeks. Someone broke into his car and stole his clothes and tools. As we drive away, I feel grateful for Mrs Phred and very lucky not to be alone.
The first place we stopped for a hike was the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, She was an interesting Lady. She limited billboards on the interstate highways, made the auto junkyards put up fences and beautified the Austin Riverbank. I always thought that she owned the Wake Island Facilities Management Corporation and made millions feeding aircrews who had to stop on Wake Island on the way to Viet Nam.
Robert McNamara died today. He was 92. He was the architect of the Viet Nam war. A bright man, a Berkley graduate, CEO of Ford, Secretary of Defense for both Kennedy and Johnson. His book in the 1990s admitting the his own stupidity in pursuing that war kicked off yet another firestorm of controversy
I wrote a paper in 1965. My conclusion, after watching the British in the 1950s in Malaysia was that we would need 5,000,000 American ground forces to prevail in that war. That was based on the British experience. It's a shame that a stupid 2nd Lt could figure this out and a whiz kid like Bob McNamara was apparently clueless. Of course, the British victory in Malaysia, based on a 10:1 superiority of of conventional forces to insurgents was on an island with no resupply routes. Viet Nam had the long Laos border.
The tanker guy said that this is a foxglove.
The redwood forests grow along the coast as well as slightly inland. The beaches here were rich with a very fine "flour gold" , which was difficult to recover.
We watched the shadows lengthen on the Wimbledon courts in the early California morning. Good playing on both sides. Mrs. Phred hides in the bedroom on critical points. She is afraid she will bring Roddick bad luck if she watches. Most of the time this works.
After the game, I went by myself to see the Trinidad State Beach. Mrs. Phred wanted a stay at home day to wash clothes and clean up the RV. I need to fix the tow wires again and check the tire pressures and generator oil before we leave tomorrow.
They are not allowed to fish for salmon in California again this year. The returning salmon population has fallen off a cliff during the last six years. The problem is thought to be declining water volume and quality in the rivers. As agriculture draws more water into canals and then returns it to the rivers, the water temperature rises and the water quality and volume diminishes with the addition of insecticides, fertilizers and other pollutants.
The Shenandoah leaves on an afternoon fishing trip at 1 PM. We catch our limit of black rockfish in about three hours. I end up with about ten pounds of rockfish fillets. We cook some in bread crumbs and olive oil for dinner and freeze the rest in portions for two. I make some brown rice and vegetables to go with the fish.
After we limit out, the crew asks if we want to watch them pull crab traps. They have a hydraulic device on one side of the boat (I've forgotten whether it's called the port or starboard side) to pull in the traps.
None of the passengers actually want any of the crabs, so the crew returns them all to the sea.
A great day for fishing. Today we'll visit some of the redwood parks and maybe play some tennis before heading up the Oregon coat on highway 101. I have always wanted a black leather jacket with a chicken on the back.
He wore black denim trousers and motorcycle boots And a black leather jacket with an eagle on the back He had a hopped-up 'cicle that took off like a gun That fool was the terror of Highway 101
Here's a picture of our RV park. The redwoods are tall and thick.
We went to the Trinidad beach in the morning. The temperature never got much above 55 degrees F., but the fog finally cleared a little in the afternoon.
We drove to a kind of junky place in Eureka in the California. It was called King Salmon Avenue. We were struck by the work of a roadside artist. His (or her) website was rust.lust.com.
These were strange, large iron sculptures...covered with rust. The artist took off for the 4th of July.
In the afternoon we visited Patrick's Point State Park. We bought a little rock cod at a local fish market to cook for dinner. I'm rubbing it with sea salt and pepper and serving it with lemon and butter.
Patrick's Point had some nice views of the Pacific.
We saw this seal sleeping on a rock at Patrick's Point State Park.
The viewpoints require you to climb down steep paths. I stepped in a hole and fell again, but this time I didn't damage the camera. Mrs. Phred gave me an odd look as I climbed back to my feet. I begin to wonder if she has doubts about my competence.
At another point we saw sixty or eighty sleeping seals. A bald eagle was floating motionless on the strong updrafts at about 600 feet. Suddenly it folded its wings and dive bombed down to retrieve a fish.
Mrs. Phred wants to watch the Wimbledon finals in the morning. Personally, I've booked a fishing trip. This seal was in the marina where the boats go out.
President Obama took the time out to send me a personal E-mail today. Considering all he has on his plate, I'm impressed with his energy. I get more E-mail from him and the First Lady than anybody else. The last guy never talked to me. Here's what he said:
Robert --
This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.
Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.
Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.
As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.
So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.
With very best wishes,
President Barack Obama
July 4th, 2009
(I added the fireworks...They're from Tropea, Italy in May, 2007...I forget what they were celebrating)
It took five hours to drive though the California Mountains from the Lassen National Park to the Pacific coast. The RVs V-10 was constantly wound up to about 4,000 RPM either braking or climbing though the mountains, generally following the Trinity River.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi. -Woody Guthrie
The Emerald Forest RV park is on the Pacific Coast. The temperature dropped forty degrees as we approached the coast. It's deliciously cool. The RV park is thick with redwoods. One stump, about eight feet in diameter, is sprouting a new tree. Redwoods are very hard to kill. Apparently the area was logged in the past. The new trees are very thick and tall. There are 650 of them in the twelve acre park.
Mrs. Phred was hoping that Andy Roddick was going to win the semi-finals against the Scottish player, Andy Murray, at Wimbledon today. I'm sure that the Queen of England was disappointed with the outcome, but that's the way the ball bounces. Princess Firecloud is happy, anyway. We're watching the reruns at 6PM Pacific time.
We're about 250 miles north of San Francisco on the coast in the middle of the Redwood forests. We want to visit San Francisco again...it's been 44 years. Maybe it's changed a little.
You can hear the seals bellow in some of the RV parks nearer to the ocean.
I read Hunter S. Thompson's first book, "Hell's Angels" in San Francisco. I sort of remember his diatribe about white trash with English origins rolling up to the Pacific beach in the 1930's with a feeling of being cheated and and sense of unsatisfied restlessness.
They still operate strict immigration stations here in California. It's very much like Europe before they became the European Union. They pull all the cars and RVs over and inspect your refrigerator before they let you in.
The Lassen Peak Smelowskia grows only one place in the world. We only have time for one hike and it comes down to a choice between looking for this Polish sounding flower on a hike though the meadows between three high mountain lakes and a hike called "Bumpass Hell".
"Bumpass Hell" has a lot of fumaroles and other volcanic features. There's a third hike though a desolate area that includes an impressive cinder cone that also looks interesting. Unfortunately, the Bumpass trail is still covered with snow and fallen boulders on July 2nd.
We do see a flock of Canadian geese and Mrs. Phred takes a two-mile hike around a pretty lake while I sit in the shade and read my book.
The road though the park is about 40 miles. It climbs to 8,511 feet. The major hike is to the top of Mt. Lassen. The parking lot indicates that many young Californians are up for the 3,000 foot climb to the top.
This log is about six feet in diameter. It's in an advanced state of decay, and, for all I know, it's been laying here 100 years. I count about 20 rings an inch and estimate its age as 700-800 years when it was toppled.
The device above is an extremely accurate GPS used to measure the drift of the continental plates.
Wildflowers and vista.
Another Lassen viewpoint.
So Mrs. Phred asked me today if my "bucket list" included visiting all the American National Parks. I was a little offended and told her that my National Park List included visiting all the American National Parks. They can't all be Glacier or Yellowstone, but they are all unique places of natural beauty.
We rolled though Reno, Nevada, today and then headed up US 395 to the Lassen Volcanic National Park entrance in the middle of California . My little portable GPS took us twenty miles out of the way to the wrong Hat Creek RV Park. This is a shot from the back of the RV.
This is my bathroom. It's really nice to have my own so I don't get kicked out in the morning by Mrs. Phred.
We could see the housing bubble deflation coming so we sold our old historic home in downtown Tampa and started driving around. We carry our Weber grill in the Toyota trunk. I'm cooking a Porterhouse tonight. My apologies to my vegetarian friends. (Frisbeetarians believe that when you die, your soul gets stuck on the roof).
Changing your home location every two days or so means that you need to reconnect sewer, fresh water, cable and electricity. It takes about five minutes. Mrs. Phred is learning to do it in case I become incapacitated or totally inoperative.
To tow the Toyota you connect these arms and padlock the chains. There is a set of wires that make the Toyota lights blink in sync...We also have a gadget called a "Brake Buddy" that applies the Toyota brakes and sends radio signals to the RV. Mrs. Phred is learning to hook all this stuff up, just in case.
My favorite gadget is the self-leveling jacks. Push a button and whirr...you're level. We used to spend a long time driving up on yellow blocks with the last RV. Now we have a computer to do it.
The living room slide adds a lot of space to our home when we're parked.
I love the automatic satellite dish. The last RV was a pain in the keister . I had to spend a long time trying to point the dish to the right place when we moved. This one just whirrs and locks on. . The Italian washer/dryer is a nice touch. We no longer save our quarters for the laundromat.
Mrs Phred is using the computer on the dinette.
Our bedroom. We make the bed every morning together. When you stop making the bed, it's a very bad sign.
I love this double door refrig. The door on our old RV had plastic hinges and the door kept falling off. This one has steel hinges and an icemaker.
We've struck out with booking raft trips so far. It's hot, hot hot and all the rivers and lakes are full of Oregonians looking for relief from the record temperatures. It kind of reminds me of the summer we visited London. Our hotel didn't have air-conditioning although it was very hot. Up here most of the homes are also not air conditioned.
We are warned to run the water here for several minutes to blow out the earwigs. I saw an earwig when I disconnected the water at the last place. My ear feels itchy. Maybe an earwig crawled in last night. They lay eggs in your ear that burrow into your brain to lay eggs..then the larvae eat their way out again...
