July 19th by Emma

 

Today we are heading towards Portland.  I think that this will be fun because there is lots of shopping in Portland.  I really like to shop because I love new stuff.  I think that we are also going to go to a fish hatchery to see fish climb up ladders.  This will be very interesting.

 

 

 

 

July19th by Barb

 

Today, we visited Bonneville Dam in Cascade Locks, Oregon.  We saw the fish ladders - built to help the fish - slamon, lamprey and strugeon - get around the Dam to spawn.  We also visited the hatchery where there is a 450 pound, 6 foot sturgeon named Herman.  Herman is huge and I wouldn't want to meet him while swimming in a river or lake.

 

In the afternoon, we drove up to Mt Hood and found a campsite on a pretty lake named Trillium.  Mt. Hood looms over the lake, and at night you can see the ski snow groomer going up and down the Mountian preparing the snow for the next day's skiing.  It is hot here so it is hard to imagine that there is skiing going on so close by.

 

 

 

 

July 19th by Emma

Lake Tillium, Oregon

Sam and I saw 18 ducks.  We visited the resting and feeding area of the 8 females, Betty, Philana, Jenny, Tibathia, Beatrice, Benocia, Crissy and June.  These females were not afraid of Sam, me or our bikes.  The other duck "group" was a mother and her 7 babies.  The mother was Mary and her babies were Andy, Dale, Jo/Joe, Blair, Kit, Kay and Sameoy.  These babies were too yourg to tell their ages and it became too dark to see if there were other ducks around.  See you tommorrow.

 

 

 

 

July 20th  by Emma

Today we are at Lake Trillium again.  Sam and I are building sand sculptures that look pretty cool.  We are having chicken noodle soup for lunch, I am getting hungry so I will stop.

 

 

 

July 20th by Barb

 

Today, we are headed for the Oregon Coast.  We spent the last two days/nights at Trillium Lake near Mt. Hood.  Very beautiful.  I swam/floated in/on the lake in the shadow of Mt. Hood for awhile yesterday, which was just perfect because it was darn hot outside.  The kids loved the lake because there was a bit of a beach where they spent some time building sand sculptures that one passer-by thought looked "just like an African village".

 

After Mt. Hood we drove into Portland to explore.  We went into a great bookstore named Powells and bought lots more books.  Then, just after leaving the bookstore Emma felt very sick ( and was an sickly shade of gray) so we went back to the RV, found some lunch, and headed out of town for the Coast.  It had to be over 100 degrees in Portland so I don't blame Emma for feeling faint.  I am guessing that it will be cooler at the ocean.

 

 

 

 

July 20th by Emma

 

A List Of Things I Saw/Heard/smelled When I Was Dusting Off MY Feet:

Saw: Trailers, fog, my feet, sand, trees, wood patio, gravel

Heard:birds, wind people

Smelled: salt,fog, sand

 

Ugg!  I have twisty roads that lead nowhere!  They make me carsick and they make me write very sloppy!  The roads are very hilly also.  I have decided to write a hiaku about thise hilly, bumpy, twisty roads.

 

The Road.

This raid leads nowhere.

hilly, bumpy, twisty road

My stomach is sick.

by Emma Smoot

 

My stomach isn't really sick anymore because the road is straighter now.  Today, Dad wants to head to California so the roads are straighter.  Oh well, all roads are curvey in my book.  I am feeling carsick again so I will rest.

 

 

 

July 24th by Eli

 

Yesterday we were at the Oregon sand Dunes.  It was really fun.  There was a small crater in the middle we would run and jump to see who could go the farthest.  I almost jumped to the bottom.

 

A few days ago we were at a place called Trillium Lake.  We made lots of sand villages there.  Today, we are a Lake Siskiyou campground.  I am signing off to make a fire.

 

 

July 24th by Sam and Tian Tian

 

Sam:  We were playing cards (go fish and rummy)

TainTain:  I liked rummy because you can draw and throw away cards.  I won every time. (hee-hee)

Sam: TainTain always had someone help him work.

TainTain: My poetry:  A fly and a flea in a flue, were caught so what could they do?  Let us fly said the flea, Let us flea said the fly.  So they flew through a flaw in the flue.  (6th grade poetry)

Sam: At Lake Trillium I made a big village made out of sand.  There were huts on islands and huts on land.  There also were "radish" huts on islands.  Thee were three castles that looked like the white house.  We counted ducks also.   We saw seven fuzzy little ducklings and one mother.  We had one fire in the fire pit.  We are now in California.  I didn't like the Oregon Cost.  At the sand Dunes in Oregon I tried to use a cardboard sandboard but it only worked on some hills.  Thats all.

TianTian:  When Sam made his village I slept.  When he was at the sand dunes I was sleeping some more.  Good Bye.

 

 

July 25th by Barb

 

Our last campground was Beal Point on Folsom Lake.  It was brutally hot there.  It must have been 100 degrees when we arrived.  We quickly jumped onto our bikes and took a swim in Folsom Lake, which was somewhere in the 80's.  So, the swim cooled us off a little bit, but not so refreshing as a cold swim in a mountian lake.

Well, I just read the paper and the temperature when we arrived was 107 degrees.  Whew.  Good thing Emma stayed conscious this time.

 

We took the RV back this morning and spent a lot of time unpacking and cleaning it, in the sweltering heat.  I must have lost 5 pounds of sweat scrubbing dead bugs off that RV.  It sure was nice to drive into the cool, cool fog of San Francisco this afternoon.  Overall an enjoyable ride through 4000 miles of the American West.

 

 

July 25th by Phil

 

Fog never felt so food.  Eli and I drove back from Sacramento  without the air conditioner.  There is a difference between 106, 96, 86, and 76.  We cheered as the temp started dropping in degrees as we neared the coast.  Last night, our last night in the motorhome, was a long one.  Probably 100 degrees plus.  Sam and I probably slept two hours.  Barb and Emma were not fazed and slept soundly.  Eli drempt in delerium..."deal me in" with complaining that it was too hot...as he slept.  Sam and I just chatted in the darkness.

 

Prior to the last hot pull down the Sacramento Valley we were up on the Oregon Coast.  We spent a night at the Oregon Dunes State Park.  The kids and I slid and jumped from dune to dune.  Massive 100 footers.  Ringo didn't much like the wind and the sand.  Before that we worked our way down the coast stopping at cheese factories and other beaches.  Many times we came across young Russian vacationers partying on the beaches.

 

Other things we saw on the Oregon Coast...Tsunami Areas and warnings along the highway.  I read "if an earthquake we're to be felt, we had a couple of minutes to react."  Not a ton of time...probably enough to climb in top of the motor home and hope it floats.

 

We whipped through Portland...too hot to really stop.  Our stay under Mt. Hood was great.  Another Cascade Volcano peak that was still relativel y active.  (over last 1000 years)

 

 

All in all I'm glad to be home.  Driving the big RV can wear you out after awhile.  It is best to get to a place and hand out for a couple of days like we did in Yellowsotone and Glacier and Mt. Hood.

I'll miss the late night Gin Rummy games that became part of our nightly ritual.  The kids all learned how to hold thier cards close to thier faces. 

 

The final Rummy score:

Mom 899

Dad 837

Ringo 727

Emma 610

Eli 368

 

Things I'm glad I brought:

-50 foot nylon rope - clothesline, ringo harness

-sunglasses

-smokey joe b-bque  (most meals cooked this way)

-headlamp

-backpack with assorted random gear

-frisbee

-banjo

Things I didn't need - nothing

Things I needed but didn't bring - an axe

 

 

 

Eli – July 14

 

Today we are staying at a RV Park in Bozeman.  There is a water park (but it is small).  They also have a swimming pool and a miniature golf course.  The last 3 days we were in Yellowstone National Park (more to come).

 

Emma – July 14

 

Today, we went to the Museum of the Rockies.  I think that the museum was pretty cool because there were many exciting and interesting exhibits.  My favorite exhibit was the Dinosaur exhibit because there was a real T-REX skull!  There were also a lot of other real bones!  I also liked the NASA exhibit which was a RV trailer that showed us lots of cool space things, facts and a movie about Mars and the Earth.  They let us touch a moonstone from the moon.  There was a movie about technology and what they (NASA) plan to do in the future.  I thought that it was very interesting.  Another exhibit that I liked was the Pioneer and Early Settlers exhibit.  There were some very practical houses.  They had just what they needed and nothing else.  They didn’t have “junk” scattered around.  They had a use for everything.  They also had a lot less technology than us today.  In general, the museum was very interesting. 

 

Phil – July 14

 

Trip Odometer 2258.2 miles

Gas – 39.32 gal ($114) @ $2.89/gal

 

Barb – July 16

 

We made it to the Glacier National Park after a long drive from Bozeman, MT where we stayed overnight at a KOA.  The kids loved the KOA because they had a mini waterpark with sports of shooting water and buckets of water that filled up and topped over on your head – I just watched the fun from the dry area.  In Bozeman, we stopped at the Museum of the Rockies – a great place.  We saw a real T-Rex skull and assorted other dinosaur bones and were able to touch them!  It also has a nice exhibit on the geology of this part of the world and how it came to look like it does today.  There was a Lewis and Clark 200 year event going on where people were dressed in clothes of the time and they showed different aspects of life at the time Lewis and Clark cam through Montana in 1806.  Eli assisted a gentleman that was demonstrating how to shoot a flint-rock rifle – it was very loud.  We all tried to out run the gizzly bear game – where someone dropped a marble through a maze and the chasee tried to run around a fence before the marble hit the bell – if the bell rang before you made it back to the start, you loose.  Well, we all were eaten by the bear.  Elis was eaten several times.  Before we left Bozeman we stopped for lunch in down town Bozeman where Phil somehow caught a street sign between the RV rear and bumper.  It was really wedged in there until some kindly Bozeman guy vandalized the street sign for by bending the sign side-ways so we could drive away.  What a nice guy.

 

Phil July 17

 

Running Gin Rummy Score

Mom – 135

Eli – 149

Emma – 133

Dad – 331

Sam – watching

 

Emma July 17

 

Today we stopped at another water park.  I thought that the other water park that we went to had more rides but longer lines, so they were pretty much the same ratings – 5 stars.  I am getting car-sick so I will rest.

 

Emma July 18

 

Today we are on the road and we have 8 more days.  I think his trip has been fun.  We are in Washington right now and we will be in Oregon soon.  I think that the best part of our trip was probably Crater Lake because there was lots of snow and it was beautiful.  I also like Yellowstone because it had cool monuments.  My favorite part of Yellowstone was probably Old Faithful and all of the buffalos. 

 

Eli July 18

 

Today we are staying in a RV park that I don’t know the name of.  It has a swimming pool, an arcade, a general store, a laundry mat, hook-ups and a noisy train that keeps coming by our site.  A few days ago we were at Glacier National Park.  We went on a 3-mile hike that felt like 100,000 miles!!! We saw lots of glacier goats and Bighorn sheep.  My favorite part about the hike was throwing snowballs at my Dad and my brother and my sister.  Of coarse I got hit back.  Awhile ago we were at Yellowstone National Park.  I haven’t had a chance to write about it so this is what we did.  The day we got there we started a contest to see who could see the most animals.  We say Bison, Deer, Elk and lots, lots more.  My favorite animal was the Bison.  They were so big and looked really happy.  Also, on the first day we say Old Faithful.  It was kind of lame.  We went for a walk and we saw a lot of hot springs and geysers.  I fell and bruised my knee.  I’m glad I didn’t fall into a hot spring.  The temperature can be about 202 degree’s F.  On the second day we went for a hike in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  One the last day we went to Norris Geyser Basin and to Mammoth Hot Springs.  See ya later.

 

Sam July 18

 

I am in Idaho.  I went to Yellowstone National Park.  I didn’t really like it because it smelled because of the sulfur  - it smelled like rotten eggs.  And I also didn’t like it because we didn’t make it to Canada.  When we went to Glacier National Park.  There was a lot of snow and I threw a lot of snowballs at Eli and Dad and Tian Tian, Dan Dan, and Yian Yian  (stuffed bears).  When we were in Montana there was a little water park and a swimming pool.  After you go in the water park you can jump in the swimming pool and it feels like a hot tub.  There was a hot tub but it was for 18 and over.  Now we are at a RV park.  There’s a swimming pool here and an arcade and a general store and a playground.  It is hot here.  After I finish writing this I get 5 quarters.

 

Emma July 18

 

Today I am in Oregon.  The pool here is boring because it is mall with no fun features in it.  There was a weird movie playing in the game room at the KOA that we are staying at.  It was a low-budget horror movie about bugs coming out of your body.  This weird-o girl was getting ready for bed and bugs started coming out of her.  She went crazy and eventually killer herself.  (I won’t say how – it’s really gory).  The blood was super fake and dumb.  Overall I think the movie was dumb and funny because the producers must have been pretty desperate for a movie!

 

My favorite part of our trip was probably Yellowstone because it was very interesting in the way that there were a lot of geysers and hot springs that were very majestic and unfortunately very smelly.  Half of the time we were in Yellowstone it smelled like sulfur – which is rotten-egg smell.  Even the showers smelled bad. 

 

I also like Glacier National Park because there was soft snow.  We threw lots of snowballs at each other and my hands froze.  We saw this tiny little goat baby!  It looked like a little lamb in its white fur and angelic eyes!  The water parks we visited were very fun because the slides were curvy and swirly.  They had a cool white ride that you went down in a tube.  You would hit a sharp turn and fly around.  On our first water park, I like the waves and black tube because the waves were very high and the black tube was pitch black (when you were inside).  I have really enjoyed this fun trip.

 

Barb July 18

 

Glacier National Park is awesome.  We rented a car so that we could drive across the “Going to the Sun” road which doesn’t allow big, fat RVs to traverse – and a good thing because that road was scary enough in a little 4 door Buick.  At the top of the road, Logan Pass, we stopped and took a hike to Hidden Lake.  Wow.  It was really gorgeous.  As we hiked you could spin around 360 degrees and everywhere around us there were these very tall jagged peaks and canyons that had been carved out by glaciers long ago.  It was hot out,  but there were still sections of the trail covered in snow.  And me in my Teva sandals.  The snowballs were flying, but luckily I stayed out of the fray. 

 

Last night we stayed in a state park in Northern Idaho.  We ate pizza in Sandpoint, Idaho and found the Natural Foods Store in town -  after getting directions from a women at the Pizza place whose sister lives right near us in Glen Park.  Small world.

 

Phil July 18

 

I spent the afternoon in the back of the RV resting on the bed with Ringo while Barb drove.  I reckon after I nearly wrapped the motor-home around a pole in Bozeman,  Barb had nothing to loose.  Resting with Ringo, I see he hates traveling in the RV.  He can’t sit still or bend his front legs when the vehicle is moving.  Sitting on top of me isn’t helping my ride.  When we re-board the RV after a break, Ringo literally digs in his front legs not wanting to get back on- board.   Luckily he’s only 6 pounds (even after my beef up Ringo with Alpo program).   He’s quite happy now with a solid earth under his belly at the KOA campground in Oregon. 

 

We tried our second patch of instant potatoes tonight for dinner.  The claim was the “best mashed potatoes or your money back”.  A bit starchy and thick though Eli ate them all (and he’s a tough sell).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday July 9^th  (by Barb)

Altitude 8,701  Galena Peak in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area on our way to Sun Valley/Ketchum

 

We stayed at a campground at Pettit Lake for the past two nights.  It was a beautiful little (well not so little) lake nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains.  Yesterday, we took a 5 mile hike into the wilderness area – it was a pretty walk through a wooded area that followed the lake and hugged the bottom of some very large granite peaks.  The kids complained a bit about having to hike, but the scenery was awesome and the wildflowers were plentiful, but the dive-bombing flies that followed us along the trail I could have done without.  We turned around at the point were the trail crossed a swift moving stream.

Pettit Lake was nice for swimming and there were dirt roads that the kids could ride around on their bikes.  We saw all sorts of dead animals and birds on the roads.  Everyone enjoyed the campfires because we roasted marshmallows and ate smores.

We ate brunch in Ketchum and did a little shopping – mostly for books for the kids as they have read everything that we brought with us.  Eli told me that he was forced to read “girl” books that Emma brought along because he didn’t have anything left to read. ( I think that he secretly enjoyed the “girl” books.)  Emma thinks so too.

 

 

Eli July 10

 

Yesterday Italy won the Soccer World Cup.  They won on penalty kicks.  Yesterday we did mostly drving.  Today I am mad because ai have to drink orange juice with pulp in it.  I don’t like the RV park we are staying at.

 

Emma July 10

 

Yesterday we went to “Craters of the Moon” which is this really cool place where ther is petrified lava.  It is cool because one of the volcanos that we hiked up to had snow in it!  We saw lots of AA and Parehoe (sp) lava.  We also stayed at Petite lake which was pretty cool.  We took a hike with some VERY ANNOYING FLIES!  The very annoying flies buzzed around our sweaty heads.  It was a cool hike though.

 

Sam July 10

 

At Pettit Lake we went on a hike I didn’t like because there were flys everywhere and they buzzed around my head.  And the bees and big flys kept landing on me.  We had Oreo cookies.  I like the campfire because we made smores and we got to burn the ends of our sticks.  At “Craters of the Moon” I got a piece of lava rock stuck in my shoe.

 

July 11 Barb

 

We spent the night at a quiet, pretty campsite in the Teton National Park caledl Lizard Creek.  The kids were able to swim and skip rocks in in Jackson Lake and we heard the Ranger talk about Porcupines.  He showed some of the quill work that the native people did with the porcupine quills that was pretty cool. 

 

The Teton Mountains are spectacular.  They rise very quickly from the plains and are craggly and beautiful.  A storm passed through and the sun came shining through the backside of the peaks and it was incredibly beautiful. 

 

Today we are heading into Yellowstone Park with thousands of other people to view the geysers.

 

July 11 Emma

 

Today we saw Old Faithful.  I think that this Monument isn’t as exciting as it sounds.  I have strep throat and it is no fun at all!  I need to improve my handwriting it is very sloppy!  Well anyways, good night.

 

July 12 Barb

 

Yesterday we walked through the Old Faithful geyser area and the Mudpot Fountain Paint Pot area.  Bother were full of hissing, steaming, bubbling, spouting geysers.  Old Faithful spouted up about 100 feet in the air and a large crowd of people went “ohh” and “ahh”.  After watching that we took a 3 mile hike around the other geysers in the Old Faithful area.  The pools of hot water have beautiful blue-green and orange colors from the bacteria that thrive in the hot water.  The water in the pools is very clear and you can see deep into the pools.  In the Fountain Paint pot area there were  pools of bubbling mud that gurgled and popped as the mud boiled and spouted into the air.

 

Today we hiked along the Yellowstone river to the Upper and Lower falls in the are called the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".  The waterfalls were spectacularly powerful as they fell over the precipeice with a huge amount of force.  We hike down (and up) 315 steps to the bottom of the Lower Falls and with the chocolate bars Phil brought to fuel the kids (and me), everyone made the hike in record time.

 

July 10 Phil

 

Today I try to fatten Ringo up with a little soft Alpo food.

 

 

July 14 by Phil

 

We are at the KOA outside of Bozeman Montana.  I’ve come to appreciate the KOA.  Cramped quarters of motorhomes and trailers parked side by side with 12 feet of grass on either side of the vehicle.  Off the left side are the hook-ups which allow us to re-charge all of our batteries (phones, cameras, laptop, cd player etc).  Off the right side is our picnic bench and fire pit.  While we re-charge our hardware we re-charge ourselves with showers, laundry, general store supplies, pool swimming etc.  Tonight we will eat pizza which will be delivered to our slot – B6.

 

We spent the last 3 days in Yellowstone which was awesome.  We stayed inside the 45x60 mile caldera which is central to the park.  3 days of sitting inside a volcano on 3 miles of crust resting on top of a molten hot spot.  Gas burping out of geysers, mud holes and springs.  The smell of sulpher.  Valleys run over by backed up waters from old glaciers.  Buffalo’s walking down the highway in the evening each as big as the cab of the RV.  Elk and deer and yellow bellied marmots spotted along the route.  We saw the huge waterfalls (lower and upper of 100-200 feet with 38,000 gallons flowing per second).  Why a water fall here?  I has something to do with the water not eroding hard rock at the same rate as soft rock.  It rained yesterday and last night.  Nice to have a RV in those times.  A tent on wheels already pitched.  Still my wood got wet prior to us returning to camp.  No amount of newspaper could dry the kindling.  Our nice neighbor across the way saw my stuggle and brought over some newly carved wood shavings.  I gave him a Sierra Nevada.  He told me to get an axe.  He was a very nice guy from Oregon with his 2 kids and his wife (who he kept addressing as “the wife” --- example “the wife said….” )  One of his hobbies was bow hunting.  His bow can kill at 60 yards (goes through the animal at 30 yards).  I told him I didn’t like deer and that it tasted gamey.  He said it depended on what it ate and that the best deer ate alpha on ranchers property (which was also where he liked to hunt).  He had the same feeling as me about Yellowstone… that we were sitting on a volcano and that the first feel of a earthquake and we were heading out the nearest exit. 

 

Yellowstone blew its top 640,000 years ago and was 1000x more powerful than Mt St Helens.  I’m in awe of nature and fell so small when faced with it.  I had the same feeling yesterday as we watched the water rush over the falls yesterday.  Big forces working over a long period of time.

 

Before Yellowstone we ran through the Grand Tetons and stayed at a nice campground, Lizard Creek.  We heard a good 30 minute talk on porcupines and porcupine needle work of native people.

 

Before that we were in the Idaho Falls KOA.  Before that we crossed the Snake River Plain (some Energy Engineering work going on here I’d like to check out some time…)

Before that we we’re in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area.  The drive over hwy 21 from Lowman to Stanley to Ketchum was incredibly beautiful.  In Ketchum, we got breakfast at Perry’s and met the “Dog Woman”.  She sat outside with us with 3 of her 7 dogs telling us stories about each dog.  “Max”,  a bearded collie, now begging bacon from Eli was found in a field tied up to a rope and stake left to die.  She bought a rare poodle at a bar for $100 thinking it had been stolen and tried to return it.  Max was smarter than the poodle. 

 

 

I drive the Yak.  400 miles today across Oregon.  Not a ton of stuff between bend and Burn to see.  Mile after mile of olive green chaperal mixed in with tall yellow grass, a few short pine trees all between fingers and buttes of old lava flows.  In the rear view mirror the 3 Sisters, 3 10,000 foot peaks, breatheren of Mt Lassen, Shasta, Hood, Ranier and the rest of the Cascade volcanoes.  Sitting around the camp fire last night with the kids (Barb snoozing) we decided these were "pissed off" mountains.  Passive-aggressive, building layer over layer of mud over the years and then blowing their tops.  Still pretty to look at... big old triangles that can be seen mile after mile as you drive through these 4000 foot plateaus.  Lots of driving... lots of time to wonder how did these peaks get here?  Passed through Crater Lake yesterday,  another surley bretheren of the Cascade bunch.  This one imploded to creat a masive hole with an eruption 100x greater than Mt St Helens.  How does one figure that out?  I'm guessing volcanic evolutional material was found at lower elevations around the cone than would normally be found.  Ah, to do it all over again, I'd be a geologist.

 

Tonights campground is a slab of asphalt next to a freeway near Boise 2 blocks fro the Water Worlds Slides Park.  Slight smell of sewage.  Neighbors 3 feet away.  Pulled over to the water park after a long day of driving.  Felt good in the 98 degree heat.  Sunset set late (9:30 ish).  Its 11:00pm and I can still see traces of the setting sun.  (i.e. its not pitch dark).

 

Last night we stayed at Theilman Park outside of Crater Lake.  I give it 5 stars.  National Forest Campground with well seperated spaces, no hook-ups, a lake beach to our own, a 11 mile bike path around the lake... $12/night.  We never saw a neighbor.  Only downside is some mesquito's the size of small dogs.  (my thumbnail at least).  The last 2 nights were at Rocky Pt Resort off of Klamath in Oregon.  Lots of birds (200 species claimed in the marsh).   Lots of birds singing in the mornings and evenings.  The site was still a bit cramped... but beautiful.  This seemed to be Emma's favorite as there were "things to do" (versus hiking) like fishing and horseshoes.  The night before we stayed at Rancheria RV park in Hat Creek outside of Lassen National Park.  Sam gave it 5 stars as its General store was well stocked in candy.  I found it initally repulsive with its closely quatered motorhomes and trailers huddle around Lake Catherine (a pond)... but soon came to admire the artistry people display in their temporary housing.  The trailers are modern shrines with Christmas lights, barbaques, comfortable lazy boy chairs, portable dog houses and bird houses and the like.  One guy brought his cat. 

 

We did get out to Lava National Monument with all its caves 2 days ago.  Very cool and I'd love to have many days to explore the lava tubes.  My flashilight failed and it became very apparent very quickly how one could bet lost for days in one of these caves.  Sherpa Sam guided me through with his lamp.

 

3 days ago was Lassen.  We had a nice hike up to about 6500 feet (peak is 10,000 feet).  One day it would be fun to sumit this peak (its safe and easy according to the book). 

 

Sam is complaining... time to go put the right wheels on the white shoulder line.  I'd hate to be a biker.  The big trucks on coming make this all a bit exciting.

 

 

Yesterday, we saw Crater Lake, a big beautiful, very blue lake, created when Mt. Mazama erupted and collapsed into itself oer 7,700 years ago.  'The cliffs above the lake are nearly 2000 feet high and very steep, and Eli was sure that he could throw a snowball into the lake, but he didn't try because the Ranger was hanging around and he didn't want any trouble from her.  We camped at Diamond Lake, nearby Crater Lake, at a spot that was very scenic and spacious.  The kids had fun building sand sculptures at the beach and Phil got to ride his bike along the 11 mile bike trail.

Today, we are doing a long drive across Eastern Oregon to Boise, Idaho.  There are vast streches of land with nothing man-made on it for as far as the eye can see.  I imagie that on some of this land, no man/woman has ever even set a foot.  And then, in the middle of nowhere, we pass a lone tree with about 50 pairs of shoes hanging in it.  Very funny.

Today we are leaving Rocky Point Resort.  I like this place because it is fun to play and fish here.  The place we are going to today is called "Crater Lake".  I don't know what it looks like so I will reserve all o f my judgement until I see what the camp we are goin to looks like.  I wonder what would happen if I thrwe a plactic guy wiaht a parachute off the Grand Canyon?  Would he float down! Would he rocket down!  I don't know!  I wish I did though because that would be pretty cool!

4th of July

 

crackle Boom Pop Bang!

The fourth of July is here!

Lots of big noises

 

Today is the fourth of July.  It is a cool day!.  Lots of noises and fireworks and smells of food cooking by street vendors along the road.  LOTS OF tastes!  onions- fishcrunch - lemons and potatoes are good.

 

Today was a fun day.  We made a kingdom and melted it.  We fished and threw rocks.  We at food and read books.  We had fun!

Today is the forth fo July.  We were at the RV park for the whole day.  We fished and played horseshoes.  After dinner we made a fire and had smores.  At 8:30 we watched a movie called Hom Alone.  Now I'm going to bed.

Yesterdaty we visited the Lava Beds National Monument.  We explored several of the lava tube caves formed by the molten lava as the out layer cools and hardens and the hot lava constinues to flow through.  These tube caves were formed over 30,000 years agao and are barely visible from the surface.  We climbed down ladder/steps with our flashlights and bicycle helments (to protect our head from bumping th elow ceilings) and walked deep into the caves.  When we turned off our flashlights ... it was pitch black.  The footing was uneven and I could easily imagine getting lost within the cave.  The Ranger told me a gorup of middleschoolers were lost once for 27 hours!

 

Last night and tonight we are staying at Rocky Point RV resort near Klamath Falls, Oregon.  There are a lot of beautiful birds singing here and Phil and the kids have the trying hard to catch some fish, without luck.

Today we went to the rock caves.  They were cool.  The rest of the day was just drive, drive, drive.  Today we also left California and entered Oregon.  At night we played scrabble until 11:30pm.  I tied for second place.  I am done.

The scrabble game we played was fun because 1) it was fun 2) I won!

 

Eli and Dad said that I cheated BUT I DIDN'T!  I swear!  Whatever, this is my second writing today.

 

Emma won 272 to 176. 

 

New words

 

Ziydup - a dinosaur who like to run

Whealioao - a run-away wheel

Ziydupwhealioao - a diinosaur chasing a wheel

irvieoust - a car

ifibonc - an ifi bonking its head

zadntain - a map

ifibonczadntain - an ifif bonking tis head on a map

I like the Rancheria that we stayed at but the bathrooms were sor of hard to get into (lol Mom).  Now I'm sitting in the RV waiting  to soee our new campsite to see what it looks like.

no no no no no no no no no I don't wan to go I like this place I like the general store no no no no no no no  no  no you can win money in the gumball machine and I got butterfineger BB's.  no no no no no no I wonder when I can eat the (butterfingers) no no no no no no no no!

Yesterday, we hiked through Lassen Park to Paradise Meadow.  It was beautiful hiking through wooded areas to the meadow which was half covered in snow.  Ringo (our dog) was a tropper, as were the kids and everyone enjoyed playing in the snow.  The drive through the park was really fasinating with the landscape in the recovery form the volcanis eruption of Mt. lassen 80 or so years ago.  We couldn't take the road that winds throughout the park because it is still closed (due to snow) for another 2 weeks.  I want to come back here and do some backpacking through the hot suphur works Lassen Peak and the boiling spring areas. 

 

We are staying at the Rancheria RV park in Hat Creek.  Loads of big and really big RVs and clean bathrooms and plug in electricity.  A quieter crowd than at Black Butte campground.  We were the last to go to sleep and the first to wake up.  Emaa was right about the cars going by with a load VROOM!

The highway is so annoying.  The cars go VROOM and they are gight behind the RV. 

 

Earlier today, when Mom and I were going to the shower place, it was "locked".  Later we foundd out ath you needed the key to get into the bathroom.  The catch is that Mom ad the key in her hand!  PS.  This is revenge to Mom for dropping my Aptos Physical Education Tee Shirt -  we're even now Mom.

 

Once upon a time, there was a little bug named Bob.  Bob's real name was thingamobby lobbydiggydongybob but he preferred Bob.  One day Boby ran into a tree and he had a concussion and he forgot who he was.  Bob wandered anround until his memory came back.  Then he lived happily ever after.

Today I went hiking to a meadow full of snow.  It was filled with snow and water.  Me and Emma kept falling into the water when the ice broke.  I didn't really like the hike because it was too much uphill.  When we got to a lake called Hat Lake, we saw a humongous beaver dam. 

  On the way to the new campground we all fell asleep except for the two people in the front seats.

  The new campsite is right next to the highway.  I am now done writing in this dumb thing.

 

We hiked through 2 caves at the Lava Beds National Monument.  We hiked through "Mushpot" cave and "Golden Dome" cave.  "Mushpot" was an old lava tunnel that was extinct (what a relief!)  The tubes also showed different features of a tube inside a volcano!  (with out the lava!)  "Golden Dome" wa a loop-de-loop cave that was low, (we had to crawl) rocky, and easy to get lost in.  Overall though, it was fun.

Hiked 3 miles up to Paradise Meadow.  There was a lot of snow and coldness.  Even so it was fun.  4 people loved the hike.  4 people loved the snow.  3 people loved everything.  3 people like the museum.

Orland Buttes - 9:48am 90 degrees.

Our meighbors have backed up their sedan to their campsite, opened its doors and out comes a gentle salsa for all to hear.  This site is a rolling parking lot of asphalt with patches of oak trees and golden weedy grass.  Pop-up trailers, motorhomes and tents straddle the asphalt dirt divides.  I heard a kestrel, morning dove, chickadee and some other birds this am.   Also spotted a pair of lizards.  They'd run a couple of steps, dow what looked like push-ups, and a couple more steps... repeat.  I think I got about 2 hours of sleep last night.  It was so hot.