Walmart Boondock, Summer Lake Hot Springs, and La Pine State Park

We are now at La Pine State Park, 15 miles south of Bend Oregon. Before writing about “now”, I need to go back a few days.

Craig and I rarely boondock, but if we do it is most likely to be at a well-lit parking lot, such as at a Walmart. I don’t like to travel more than 300 miles per day, and our next planned destination, Summer Lake, was almost 500. As it turned out, after a week on the road, there were a few items that are best found at a Walmart, that we needed to buy. Thus it was a logical decision to overnight at the Walmart in Susanville, California. 

We arrived mid-day and there was only one other RV in sight. We circled the lot and parked near the Garden Shop, as recommended online. All seemed good. We checked in with a manager and did our small shop. As evening approached, a number of other RVs also pulled in. We could hear the expected traffic noises, but the night was warm and we left the windows open to enjoy the air.

Just before midnight I was woke by a loud, high pitched, throbbing noise. I looked out and saw a large, refrigerated “semi” had parked near us. It went on and on, and I realized he would be running his generator all night long! We closed the windows, but this only muffled the sound somewhat. I did manage to get back to sleep however.  Then a little while late I woke again and noticed the noise, while still there, had diminished considerably.  A large Walmart semi had pull in between us.  The rest of the night was peaceful.  I guess when the spot is free, you get what you pay for.

Our destination for Wednesday was Summer Lake Hot Springs.

Like many of the hot spring sites, it is privately owned and operated. But one feels it is in a transitional period between being run-down and being rejuvenated.  

The open RV area was a bit rough, but had 50 A full hook ups. Only a few other rigs were there. 

Unfortunately this one was right along the entrance road. It was a bit of an anomaly. Usually when you see a junk site, like this the RV is also a piece of junk, old and neglected. But if you look closely you can see that it is a newer trailer in good condition, hitched to a newer truck. I wondered what the story was.

[From Craig] At first we thought this site was unoccupied, but come evening the resident appeared. First he built a good-sized campfire, and when that burned down he turned on one of those rotating blue-light “sprayers”. So he has resources for fun, just not for neatness. I bet he is recently split from a significant other who made him keep things orderly.  

There was a lot of construction going on. There were several new cottages that have been stuccoed recently, and were awaiting painting. In another area several wood units were available for overnighters, and one could see new wood and repairs on the older barn and storage buildings.

The metal building that housed the 20’ X 30’ hot pool is the oldest such structure in Oregon and designated a Historic Site. Much of the interior wood was old, but the overhead supporting beams were newer.

It was difficult to take a picture of the pool because there were so many reflections on the water from the windows and skylights. The pool was cement bottomed, with a constant flow of hot mineral water and a depth of 3’ - 5’. The mineral water temperature was about 100°, and no chlorine or sulfur smell. I enjoyed two long soaks on the day we were there. One when we arrived, and a second after dinner. Craig joined me for the first.

There were also three small outdoor pools. I could imagine a dark night soak looking up at the stars, but for a day visit preferred the deep water of the main pool.

I’m not sure we would stop here again, but it was interesting for a one-day visit. It would be great for someone coming home from a ski trip!

And I understand it is a favorite “after Burning Man” party place. 

We will be at La Pine for a week. As I’m writing this on Saturday, and I see that the full hook up sites are all full. When I made our reservation several months ago, I looked on Google Earth to see if I could find a satellite-friendly spot. I did, however, our Verizon reception is weak, and since it is our hot spot, so is the internet. I’m wrote this in Word and posted it down at the library in town.

On Friday we visited the High Desert Museum, just south of Bend. 

      One of several life size bronze sculptures outside the entrance.

In addition to some very good displays of things belonging Oregon Trail pioneers and the Indians, they had some very healthy live animals on exhibit. We were told than they are rescues that cannot be returned to the wild. It didn’t feel like a “zoo” , and the critters looked peaceful.

My favorite were the Porcupines.  

They look so soft and cuddly, which is of course deceiving.

This is the fattest Bobcat I have ever seen. He seemed happy, and in his enclosure he had toys and a big cardboard box to explore. What cat doesn’t love a cardboard box!

Can you do this?

It was a treat to see this Red Tailed Hawk up close at the "Raptor Encounter talk.

We see so many flying and perched on fence posts as we drive country roads. 

This bird was a rescue and is just getting used to being in front of a crowd. 

In the next few days we will be taking some walks in the park and enjoying some cool, quiet forest nights.

I’ll post when I can.

A Nice Week on South Padre Island

Our week at Isla Blanca on South Padre Island slipped by very quickly and restfully. The weather was sweet, except for one night when we had some pretty strong wind and choose to sleep with the slides pulled in.  (I get the short end of this, as the bedroom slide closes onto my side of the bed.)

One of the days we drove over to Brownsville and visited the Sabal Palm Sanctuary. It is reputed to be a wonderful place to see lots of kinds of birds.  We saw a Great Horned Owl that was nesting in the large palm tree next to the plantation house.  They had a scope set up so people could get a look at her. The restored rooms of the house were also quite elegant and a pleasure to walk through.

There are some lovely trails that wind around the palm forest and have a variety of benches and bird viewing blinds that the birders use.

In many ways it reminded me of some of the lovely places we visited in Florida a couple of years ago. There was even some Spanish Moss in the trees. We kept our walk short to favor my foot, but we recommend it as a nice day trip from the island area.

On another day we drove all the way up the beach to the shipping channel. About 30 miles. And once again enjoyed the sea air and beautiful surf.

Going north we spotted this guy sitting high on a dune, and when we drove back we saw him (or another?) gliding over the waves. There were also a lot of pelicans and other sea birds about. 

Saturday we took a two hour dolphin watch boat ride. (No pictures worth sharing!) And on Sunday we went out for a wonderful brunch at the Beach Side Cafe. 

Life is good!

I think of the many cold Februraries we spent in Wisconsin and am so glad we are not there now. Nor, for that mater, do I wish we were back in our California house. If we were, we would probably be discussing the next fix-up project instead of making plans for a visit to the National Seashore in Corpus Christi.

I am writing this post as we cruise along in the Alfa. I wonder what our spot in Mission TX will look like, and what new experiences we will have.  Good I hope.

Special Shapes "Glowdeo" at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Basically the days of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta can be broken into three parts. 
Early morning: dawn patrol at 6 AM, mass ascension at 7 AM,
evening: glows, musical performances, and AfterGlow fireworks,
daytime: flying competitions and non-balloon events.

Because of the weather, some of the evening glows have been cancelled. On Friday it was perfect, so we decided to go down to the launch field for the Special Shapes Glowdeo.

As the sky began filling with soft pink clouds the tethered balloons were inflated one by one all around us. They do not fly in the dark, but the propane flames illuminate them beautifully from within.
  

We saw some balloons that we had not seen before.  Mr. Owl was quite a delight!

We did see the owl glowing, but as with some other images here, the pictures of him unlit were better than the glowing ones.

Humpty Dumpty was a surprise since all other characters were upright.

As darkness fell the night was filled with the whoosh of propane flames. They do not run the burners continuously. They give it just enough to keep the balloons from tipping over, but not enough for them to lift off. Some of the time, it is very hard for the crew to hold the baskets down.

We had not seen this big guy before. He looked so happy, and so much like he wanted to play with the big balloon balls all around.

This Fiesta is one of the few that allow the public to be down on the launch field. When all of the huge characters are fully inflated, things become quite crowded. They are so big.

Who could not be happy under this enormous smile?

Finally, one by one they went dark and were deflated. The zebra was one of the last to go. 

We have so many happy memories from this week. If I ever find myself doubting what we are doing living in an RV instead of being proper "retired people in a house", I will come back to these posts and say "that's why!"

After the nightly fireworks show,  it was time to make our way back to the bus stop and get in line for a ride back to our RV. Some people complain about huge crowds, but I have found everyone in this one to be in a great mood. No pushing, no grumpy words or rudeness. All of the lines for food, buses and potties were long, but everyone was very patient! 

How could you not be after a show like that? 

Amicalola Falls

♫ Amicalola, Pensacola, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo ♫

[From Craig]  Monday night we were sitting with our hosts/neighbors Karen and Al talking about things to do in Georgia.  We said we might want to go see Amicalola Falls, which someone told us was the tallest waterfall in Georgia.  Karen warned us that it involved many stairs.  That sat in our minds overnight, and Merikay and I both woke up in an adventurous mood Tuesday and decided we wanted to go there.

It was almost 50 miles from our camp south of Blairsville, and we got to the Amicalola Falls state park in the middle of the morning.  The Georgia Parks year pass that we bought a week ago got us in for free, and we stopped at the Visitor Center.  The ranger lady told Merikay that the trail along the falls included 604 stair-steps.  Karen had prepared us for this, and we decided to go for it.

They told us about the stairs, but didn't mention the rather steep 0.3 mile path leading to them.  Merikay didn't like the slope at all, and I didn't care for it much either.

We were about to return to the VC and ask for our money back, but remembered that we hadn't paid any.  Just about this time we got to the first of the stairs.

The nice part was that all the stairs were identical and all were the standard height (7 inches).  So there was nothing to do but start climbing.  We stopped at each conveniently-spaced lookout platform and went on only when we were both good and ready.

About waterfall comparisons and claims: Amicalola literature says it's the "highest waterfall east of the Mississippi".  Sites like Wikipedia and Infoplease use "highest" and "tallest" interchangeably, so we don't have to consider small waterfalls near the top of Mount Everest.  The facts about Amicalola are "729 feet in seven cascades".  That would be just high enough to make the Infoplease list, but Amicalola doesn't appear.  Probably they only count height in a single cascade...

Anyway, the cascading waterfall is off to the left as you ascend this first stair complex.  (Don't forget you can click on images to see them larger.)

At the end of the first 175 steps is a crossover bridge to the other side of the stream.  This offers the best view of the falls anywhere along the trail.

On the crossover bridge, a young lady asked if I would take a picture of her and her friend using her phone.  Of course I said yes, and then she insisted on returning the favor.  So here we are in front of the falls.

After crossing to the left side of the falls/stream, we came upon this friendly little sign.  Of course we expected it, but still...

I knew Merikay was concerned about getting up this stair, and I tried to say nothing but positive things.  Again, there were frequent rest platforms.  

The view of the falls was not as good in this upper portion as it had been in the lower.


















Finally, we made it up the last flight of stairs.  Merikay was so happy, and I was so proud of her.  604 x 7 inches = 4228 inches = 352 feet = 35 floors!

Pat on the head

This is the view looking down from the top of the falls.  It's harder to see than the views from below, but it's still a nice bunch of bouncing water!  Someone tossed a red flower on the left side.  If they wanted it to go down, they didn't succeed.

We wandered around at the top for a while.  People who don't want to climb 35 floors of stairs can drive up to the top and then walk down.  We met several such folks.

Then came the climb down.

In this direction we offered advice and encouragement to travelers in both directions.  Success was so good for our spirit!

We made it down to the bottom and fetched our lunch from the Jeep.  After lunch we revisited the Visitor Center.  Merikay almost bought this but realized that the shirt would long outlast her feeling of achievement.

I may sneak back to this VC before we leave North Georgia and buy her this owl.  Feels pretty appropriate for a retired wildlife artist...

From Merikay: I asked Craig to write the post for this hike because I was a bit tired. I feel I am getting back into shape however. About the shirt and owl, I love looking at the things in the park gift shops, but exercise restraint. Otherwise our coach would be full of stuffed toys.  "Take nothing except pictures", just like the forest. Also it helps the budget numbers.

Due to operator error, this post was published about an hour after the previous one.  So please read on below...