Well. seeing as how we had an extra night to plan for due to our cancellations at Coos Bay and Crater Lake, we decided to continue heading East today on Oregon's Scenic byway called Hell's Canyon. The plan was to traverse the entire 42 mile road and then proceed to LaGande, OR for the night. There is still smoke in the air out here, but is much better than previous days. We were able to enjoy the scenery a whole lot better today. We headed out on Rte 86, and passed through a few small towns. The area is completely covered in huge cattle ranches, with grazing land that stretch as far as the eye can see. The land here goes from rolling hills and prairies to mountainous along the whole route. It is very beautiful, ... read more

Well, it's 6:30 am our time, and we've come up with a plan B. Ray has been checking the DOT road closure line, looking at the Oregon fire maps, and googling potential scenic routes. The fires are all in the Western part of the state, right where we have been, or were going. We were actually lucky that we were able to get from the coast to Sisters yesterday, as most of those roads are closed. There's a tremendously large fire burning southeast of Portland, with many towns being evacuated. We've decided to head East along Rt 26, toward Baker City. There are no fires out there, and it appears to be very scenic and mountainous. We're going to wing it on RV parks for tonight, as we don't know where we'll end up. This is ... read more

We decided to have a leisurely start today, as we didn't have as long a drive ahead of us. It was the first day we've had that the sun wasn't shining. In fact, there were sprinkles here and there, and it was decidedly cooler. This leg of our trip was bringing us along the ocean through many small towns, and lots of forests. We crossed over the 2 mile bridge that connects Washington and Oregon at about 11:30 am. This was an incredible bridge, and I'm sure the scenery around it was wonderful. We, however, couldn't see a thing. Turns out, what we thought was fog this whole time is actually smoke from the many fires raging throughout the area. It gives a yellow tint to the surroundings, and in some areas is quite thick and ... read more

Well, we got up early to a gorgeous morning. Love this campground, as it is very beautiful and peaceful. Of course, being we're the only two parties in the place, it would be peaceful anywhere I guess. After a great breakfast, we got off to an early start at 7:30. Pretty amazing getting John and Diane going this early. This is going to be the longest leg of our trip, taking in two significant areas, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier. We started off going East on the Spirit Lake Highway. This takes you to a place called Johnston Ridge, which overlooks the Lava Dome of the Mountain, Spirit Lake, and the wasteland below the mountain caused by the eruption. What was fascinating is that there is still considerable volcanic action going on, with vents spewing ... read more

Our Trip began at 4:45am. We were pretty much packed up the night before, so just needed to get ready, have some coffee, and leave for John and Diane's house. The limo was there promptly at 7:00, and the drive to Logan Airport was pretty quick. No traffic due to the holiday. Check in went without a hitch, with John getting his perfunctory pat down by TSA. I'm starting to think he puts metal on his body just so they'll do it. They told us at the ticket counter that there would be no food served on the flight, and we should get something to go before we left. Well, either the restaurants/kiosks were closed, or they had no more food left. Sandy managed to find one place that had one chicken wrap. Gonna be a ... read more