RV Adventures

When we last left you , we were in Wisconsin….

Boy, that feels like ages ago!  In reality, it was only a week ago.  Jim had a great time helping his brother out on their new house.  I flew out to Portland and joined Callie (who lives there) and Janelle (who was attending the Ecology Society of America Conference) for some fun.  The highlights of that trip follow….

Portland is a quirky town.  That is the best word I can use to describe the place.  For example, while leaving the airport to catch the TriMet train to Callie’s apartment, I spotted this:

Say what?  The Portland Airport has a Bike Assembly Area!?!

Being curious, I had to go find it. Sure enough, you can put your bike back together at the airport!

And here is the bike assembly area. You put your bike back together on this stand. And they have compressed air to inflate your tires!

On the train ride you pass through the Washington Park Station, which is 200 feet underground. They took core samples when building this station, and preserved them in the granite wall along with a timeline of history. What caught my eye was this shorthand. A little known fact…I took two years of shorthand in high school. My skills are limited, but I think I translated it correctly. My Mom would have had no trouble reading it. But still…why shorthand in a subway station? Quirky!

Shorthand in the subway! “And rain will make the tree green.”

Janelle was in town for the ESA Conference. I tagged along with her one morning. One of the fun people watching activities was noticing the footwear the attendees were wearing. Birkenstocks, Tevas, Chacos, Keens, Crocs. Not a single heel or fashion shoe in sight!

Welcome to the Ecological Society of America’s annual convention.

The rest rooms at the Oregon Convention Center caught my eye. Check out the wall in the ladies room!

The convention center bathroom walls. What kind of art work is this?

A close up of what is on the bathroom walls. These are broken up souvenir plates that were turned into mosaics. Cool!

Once the conference was done, Callie took a day off and joined us on a hike to Multnohma Falls. It’s one of the popular tourist spots in Portland, and this day was no exception. We had to park a bit down the road and hike to the base of the falls trail.

The trail to Multnohma Falls.

Janelle the tree hugger.  She was thoroughly enjoying the non-Texas weather.

Janelle and her fellow ecologist & TAMU student Mikela inspecting rocks along the trail.

The Goeke Girls at Multnohma Falls.

Janelle and I took another day trip and went out to Cannon Beach on the Pacific Ocean. We had made the trek a few years ago and Janelle wanted to visit again. Her knowledge of tidal pools has tripled since our last visit. She was dying to go see them again.

Haystack rock

Haystack Rock

Janelle hunting sea creatures.

The path down the beach enlightened us as to where the Tsunami Evacuation Routes were. No thanks!

Tsunami evacuation routes

The Portland quirkiness extends to the coast too. For example, take your simple trash can in the town of Cannon Beach.

An ordinary trash can, or is it?

Now observe the top of the trash can. Each can had it’s own unique saying, poem, or words of advice welded into the lid!

Even trash cans are quirky.  Too funny!

On my last day in Portland, Callie had to work. So again Janelle and I ventured out. This time our destination was Mount St. Helens volcano up in Washington State. This was VERY interesting. Dave P., you would have really enjoyed this!

Mount St. Helens in the background.  The whole north face of the mountain, which you can see here, was blown off when it erupted in 1980.

This is a Memorial to the 57 people that died in the eruption.  Some victims were loggers, some campers, and some were geologist observing and waiting for the eruption.  Many of the bodies were never found having been buried under the ash.

These are stumps from trees that were blown over in the 500 mph blast.

The area around Mount St. Helens was turned into a National Monument.  It was allowed to recover naturally and scientists to this day are still studying the effects of the volcano eruption.  In this picture, you can see where trees are growing once again.  That is outside the National Monument.  Logging companies came in and replanted all the areas that they could.  The trees that were blown over and accessible were harvested for lumber.

Before I hopped on my red-eye flight to rejoin Jim in Wisconsin, the girls and I were finally able to visit a German restaurant in Portland that has been on my bucket list for a long time. Why? Because they have Maultaschen on their menu! I haven’t had Maultaschen since we lived in Germany in 1987.

The restaurant is called Stammtisch which means “root table.” The Stammtisch is where all the regulars sit every evening.

Maultaschen (translates to Snout Pocket)! It’s been too long since we last met. Yummy. Think of it as German Ravoli.

My Portland adventure was over. It was time to rejoin Jim and head west.  He picked me up at the Green Bay airport.

Our first stop was in Potosi, Wisconsin. It was right on the Mississippi River and we scored a site at a Core of Engineer’s campground for $10 a night (half price due to Jim being a “senior”.) While there, I called a friend of mine from our early Kodak days, Karel Czanderna. Karel and her husband Dan were able to meet us for dinner! Sorry…no pictures. But it was great fun to catch up! (For my fellow RVers…Karel is CEO of Flexsteel. I informed her of what I wanted in an RV couch!)

Two nights on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. That’s Iowa on the other side.

It was time to push on…we needed to get to Nebraska to get in place for the eclipse. So, the next day while scoping out campgrounds, I discovered that the Blue Ox factory was in Nebraska. Blue Ox made the tow bar that enables us to drag our Jeep behind the RV. If you stop and have your tow bar serviced, you can camp for free, WITH full hookups! Score! $30 later, we had a like-new tow bar and a free campsite.

Free camping at Blue Ox!

We made the final push to central Nebraska the next day.

Here are the rolling corn fields of Iowa. Note the metal power poles. Is that so they can survive tornadoes?

Our destination and current location is Stapleton, Nebraska. It lies right in the center of the Path of Totality for the solar eclipse that is happening on Monday.

Welcome to Stapleton, Nebraska.

The town of Stapleton, Nebraska. Don’t blink.

Online I found a number of places in Stapleton that were letting people stay on their land. We connected with Jim and Kristy Opale and are staying in a cow pasture at their ranch. With our solar panels and huge tanks, we are having no problem dry camping here.

Our camping spot on the Bar 11 Ranch in Stapleton, Nebraska.

We are in the Sand Hills area of Nebraska. The ranch is expecting 30 more people to be joining us before Monday. This should be very interesting! We have yet to venture into town to partake in the Eclipse activities. We needed some downtime. But that is on our agenda for the rest of the weekend. And come Monday, it’s eclipse time! Yes, we have our glasses.