Blogs from Culver, Oregon, United States, North America

Crooked River Ranch is a development 8 or 10 miles up the Crooked River Canyon from the Cove Palisades Park. It has some beautiful homes overlooking the canyon, but the main attraction for us was the golf course. The course was just average except for the magnificant views. Many of the holes ran along the canyon rim and on one hole you could reach the green from the tee by cutting across an arm of the canyon. Of course if you pulled it a little, you could double the distance of your drive (the last 200 yards being straight down into the river). One of the locals we played with told us that several golfers had been killed trying to retrieve golf balls over the edge of the canyon. Must have been really special balls. This ... read more

In Reno we had to make a decision. We wanted to take US 395, a scenic mountain route, to northern California, but reports of heavy snow and impassable roads forced us southwest on I-80. We crossed the Sierra Nevada at the notorious Donner Pass headed for Sacramento before turning north on I-5 through the farm country of the Sacramento Valley. We overnighted in a pleasant little campground along I-80 in the tiny mountain village of Gold Run, CA. Tuesday we reached Round Mountain, CA, where Ray's daughter Jane lives on a cute little mountain ranch, complete with horses. After a delicious pizza dinner and nice visit with Jane and her friend Claudia, we parked the "condo" next to the barn for the night. Just before hitting the Oregon border on Wednesday we passed right next to ... read more