Score!

We're in a small community campground near Scappoose, OR, same place we stayed 2 summers back.  It's got full hookups for a good price and we reserved well in advance so we have the premier site, with no other rigs beyond us on one side.  You step out the front door and you've got privacy, trees and grass.

Vintage 1928 with wooden prop and bike wheels.

This is a 1957 Chevy.  Trish knows the model years of many of the 50s era classics.

I do well to pick the correct decade.

I thought that this cute little thing was either a Crosley or a Henry J.

Trish says it's a Nash Metropolitan.  She's right; I'm wrong.

An event we were unaware of until arriving took place at the regional airport adjacent to us over the weekend: an antique airplane fly-in/classic car show/model railroad show with a few military and fire/police rigs thrown in for good measure.  It wasn't a humongously large collection of goodies but there was some really neat stuff, as the pictures indicate.

This is a lightweight but well-armed military rig.  It would be great for some urban applications and maybe chasing terrorists in the dessert.  Wouldn't want to get into a pissing match with a tank, though.  It's wide open and unarmored.

This had no sign that provided the age.  Sleek little puppy.

This pair isn't very old, built in the 80s and 90s.  They have identical paint jobs, are likely one of the pairs we saw flying in formation, lead and wing man.

FBs

A few posts back I said I'd find out why Farewell Bend Campground was thusly named.  I researched the matter, and here's what I found: nothing.

I did stumble on something interesting, though.  Bend, OR used to be called Farewell Bend, named after a nearby ranch with the same handle.  Bend is on the Deschutes River, while Farewell Bend Campground is on the Rogue and about 100 miles away.  And, guess what: there's a city park in Bend called Farewell Bend Park. 

Let's not forget Farewell Bend State Park near Baker, OR.  It's quite a ways north and east of the other FBs, on the OR/ID border, and the Snake River.

There you have it: 1 ranch, 1 town, 1 campground and 2 parks - FBs all, on 3 separate rivers many miles apart and all in the same state.  Oregon apparently has exclusive rights to the name, didn't find any FBs in other states in my brief google search.

Now you know.  Go forth and impress your family and friends with your new found knowledge.  They'll probably think you're a half bubble off center for expounding on FBs, but odds are, they've been thinking that for some time anyway.

Today, we leave McMinnville and head to Scappoose for a few days. 

Buttpains 5 & 6

Why report these ho-hum events?  Who cares?  Nobody, I reckon.  It's like this: I feel like writing but the place (McMinnville, OR) was covered in prior posts.  Besides, I don't want readers to think our summer travels are all rainbows and unicorns. 

Number 5
The RV Microwave went belly up.  It's a small one, only 1.0 CF, but plenty big enough for 2 people and a real convenience since our rig doesn't have a conventional oven.  I'm guessing all the bouncing around shortened its life.  And, we've bounced around a fair bit, especially on the Alaska trip a couple years back.  The old one was Brand X (High Pointe), never heard of it.

The microwave lives in an enclosed cabinet, is front-vented (a rare thing in smaller units) and has a frame which is screwed to the machine and the cabinet face.  The frame is what keeps the appliance in place so it doesn't bounce right out of the cabinet and fall on the floor, and it provides a built-in appearance. 

Good luck finding a front vented 1 CF microwave online.  Tried all the usual suspects: Lowes, Home Depot, Nextag, Walmart, Amazon - nada.  Finally bought a 0.9 CF unit for $58 at Home Depot; it's not front vented but the size and appearance are nearly identical to the old one.  To address the venting concern, I cut a hole in the top of the cabinet directly above the vent holes in the top of the appliance.  Hopefully, that will prevent overheating and other issues.  If not, I'll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

Number 6
Most RVs have outdoor showers.  They're rarely used for showering but are handy for mud room applications and dog washing.  Whilst Ranger was 'enjoying' a bath recently, the nozzle head broke off.  Called Camping World: they don't carry replacement hoses, just the entire assembly: knobs, base, valve, the whole enchilada.  In your dreams, CW, you suck as usual.  I'll be going to ACE to get the replacement hose, thank you very much.

On the bright side, given our considerably less ambitious itinerary this summer, dealing with these little challenges hasn't been all that bad.

What the .....?

It’s 8:10 PM and we’re sitting around the campfire.  Trish just spitted up her last marshmallow of the evening, has it poised to place over the coals in just the right spot.  We notice an older pickup approaching on the single lane, one way road.  We see the head of a large dog of indeterminate breed sticking out of the half open, passenger side window and hear music coming from the truck’s radio.
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The pickup slows down and stops in the middle of the road, right beside our trailer.  I’m thinking great place to park, you idiot, assuming that he came to visit the campers across the road from us.  A 50ish guy emerges, opens the tailgate, grabs something from inside the pickup bed and strides toward us.  Ranger barks and runs over to the man, who responds with a cheerful, “Hi poodle!”
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He tosses a double handful of wood scraps by our campfire, with this comment: “Kiln dried cypress!  Lots better than those ponderosa pine branches you’re burning.  No smoke.  A friend of mine has a cabinet shop, has all kinds of scrap wood.”  He then returns to his truck and drives away.  Trish and I look at each other and burst out laughing.  We’re both flabbergasted.  We stop laughing after a bit but resume again shortly.  

Kiln Dried Cypress! (lower right)

The guy didn’t stop to bestow wood scraps on any other campers, at least not on our side of the campground, and he's not a resident of this campground.  What inspired this little gift?  Was it just a random act of kindness?  We’ll never know - unless the guy returns tonight for a repeat performance.  Anyway, the visitation of The Kiln Dried Cypress Phantom certainly livened up our evening and provided us with a great little story to pass along.  Trish thinks the guy had been hitting the sauce pretty heavy.  Could be.

PS: 2 days later.  As we were breaking camp this AM, the Phantom drove by again but didn't stop or drop off any more wood.  Maybe this guy has some duties as non-resident camp host or something.

Sisters, OR

We’re 4 miles from Sisters in Cold Springs FS Campground.  The flora is primarily 2^nd growth ponderosa pine with some grass here and there, interspersed with sage brush.  It’s naturally park-like, ½ dappled shade, ½ sunny, very pleasant setting.   It’s really inexpensive with our Old Fart Card, $7 a night.  This is high desert country, very low humidity, hot days, chilly nights.  The terrain around Sisters is flat but to the west the view is magnificent: numerous snow-tipped peaks are visible, including Bachelor, The Sisters, 3 Fingered Jack, Jefferson and Washington. 

The view looking southwest from the west end of Sisters.

I bought a new smartphone at Costco a week ago, an LG Lucid.  It was a frustrating piece of junk so I returned it and got a Motorola Razr Maxx, which is top-rated by Consumers Reports.  It was well worth the bucks, had everything switched over and downloaded within a couple days.  Meanwhile, Trish scored big time at the quilt fabric sale at Joann’s; she’s been salivating over this sale ever since she first heard about it several days ago. 
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The above-mentioned stores are in Bend which has a population of 80K; Sisters is much smaller, 3K or so - but pretty darn cute.  Most businesses have old west names, a restaurant called Bronco Billy’s for instance.  False front buildings abound.  It’s what one might call cowboy chic.  We've been here 3 nights, heading out tomorrow.

Crater Lake

Note the Pumice Castle rock formation in upper right.

It’s been about 27 years since I was last here with niece Mary Kay and her brother Steve.  We did a loop, leaving from my home in Beaverton, going down the OR coast and then cutting over to Crater Lake.  We were tent camping and one of my favorite memories is the night we set up camp in the dark near Klamath Falls.  We weren’t aware that our tent was virtually under a train trestle.  A train barreled over the trestle in the wee hours of the morning and scared the crap out of us.  Mary Kay sat straight up, rudely awakened from a sound sleep, and hollered, “What’s that?!”  Makes me chuckle every time I think about it.

Crater Lake was created 7000 years ago when 12,000’ Mt Mazama collapsed from its own weight.  Numerous eruptions over 400,000 years built up the mountain and as the lava flowed out, it created a honeycomb of vertical and horizontal tubes and vents.  The collapse must have made one hell of noise; imagine millions of tons of rock falling 1.5 miles - that’s the distance between the pre-collapse summit and the deepest point in the lake.

The lake is 6 miles across at its widest point and contains 4.9 trillion gallons of water.  We’re gonna need a lot more guys and a lot more buckets to empty it out and confirm that the above figure is accurate.  The guys have to be agile to carry the buckets over the rim to empty them out.  You see, the rim ranges from 507’ to 1978’ above the lake surface and the slope is 45 degrees plus.  I’m not gonna volunteer to be one of the bucket guys but I’ll gladly supervise.  Just get me a comfortable chair, find a nice shady spot and a cold 6-pack of IPA and I’ll be all over it.  On 2^nd thought, make it a case of IPA.  And some chips.  This is gonna take awhile.

PS: For many years I was a member of a Portland-based mountaineering club that was named after this mountain.  To become a member you had to take a course that included rappelling, bare rock climbing, belaying, etc, and summit a glaciated mountain.  The Mazamas had over 2000 members, was started about a 100 years ago.  They have a big lodge near Timberline on Mt Hood, great outfit.

Farewell Bend Campground

Watson Falls

Top of Watson Falls at 10X zoom.

This falls is on the North Umpqua, a ½ mile from hiway 138, which we traversed from Roseburg eastward.  It’s 273’ high.

Farewell Bend

This is a USFS campground in the Rogue Nat’l Forest, bordering the upper Rogue at 3400’ elevation, 10 miles west of Crater Lake NP.  Our campsite is right beside a mini-gorge where the river channels down from 40’ wide to 3’ at the narrowest point.  The rock faces in the gorge are sculpted and polished by the roaring, boiling water.

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Down the road 4 miles is a much larger and deeper gorge, with a flow rate of 410,000 gallons per minute.  How did they determine that?  Let’s see:

            A.  Build 2 coffer dams ¼ mile apart, with a large lift gate in the upstream dam.  Open the lift gate for 1 minute.  Have 10,000 guys line up between the coffer dams, each with a 5 gallon pail.  They bail out all the water, each guy keeping a careful tally on his bucket count.  When the bailing is all done you add up the tally and there you have it.  Piece of cake.

            B.  Use the coffer dams but replace the 10,000 guys with a couple generators and pumps.

            C.  Measure average depth, width and flow rate, do the math.  Least expensive method but not nearly as much fun to contemplate.

Nearby is Natural Bridge where the river disappears underground and travels through a lava tube.  It’s a beautiful area with towering Douglas Firs and the weather is perfect.  Many thanks to Doug and Jan for steering us to this area, and to Trish for cancelling our Crater Lake campground in favor of this one.  Not only is this campground more appealing, it costs 1/3 as much.  The private concessionaire at Crater Lake doesn’t accept the Golden Passport card (fondly known as the Old Fart Card) which provides with ½ priced camping in most federal campgrounds and free entry into national parks.

There’s another park named Farewell Bend; it’s on the Snake River on the OR/ID border.  At that point, the Oregon Trail pioneers split up, some continuing westward to the Willamette Valley, while others hung a left and headed south to CA.  I don't know why this park has the same name; I'll get back to you on the name origin.