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