Portland, OR to Reno, NV 9/24 - 10/13/2017

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THE BASICS

In Portland, we visited Powell's Books, The International Rose Test Gardens, Japanese Gardens, and had an informative walking tour of downtown, as well as a very enjoyable visit from Monika and Dick Parker's son Peter. We spent a few lazy days in the "boonies" then on to Astoria, at the head of the Columbia River, one of our favorite locales. With bright sunny weather, the view from the Astoria Column was spectacular. On down the Oregon coast, with drives through a few of the beachy resorts, some touristy, some artsy. Coast is stunning, with cliffs, huge driftwood piles. We camped in Tillamook and then in Newport, both times in places we had stayed previously. Decided to head inland, and spent some time in the attractive college town of Corvallis before moving on to Eugene. Then to a site that's new to us, Crater Lake. And we have been mostly in "volcanic legacy" terrain ever since. We drove to Medford, planning to flip a coin on whether to head back inland or to the CA coast next. The coin flipped itself, i.e. horrible wildfires exploded from Mendocino down through Napa, Sonoma, etc. So inland we proceeded, to Lassen Volcanic NP. And then to Reno, where we will stay awhile and hope to enjoy a day trip to Lake Tahoe. We stay in Sacramento beginning 10/17 and fly home on 10/24.

THE FLUFF

I have looked forward for years to visiting Powell's, and it surely is enormous. But I found many more new books than used, and the prices of the used ones were quite high. However, at least I have been there. It was well past prime time for the roses, but there were still plenty of gorgeous blooms for us to gawk at. The Japanese Gardens are extensive, and would be a grand place to spend quiet hours reading, meditating, breathing. The guide on our walking tour was loquacious indeed, and we now know much more about the Portlandia statue than perhaps many Portlanders do. Our hour or so with Peter Parker was delightful; he is the epitome of these Oregonian outdoor enthusiasts.

Our years-ago visit to Astoria had met a series of rainy days. This time we had bright sun. We are charmed by the town either way. It is one of many of these western towns that have outrageously steep hillsides lined with houses. That gives wonderful views of the Columbia River to each tier, but we always worry about icy roads. We had an elegant meal of salmon and crab tapas and "true cod" fish and chips at a fine restaurant. We found a cruise ship docked on a Saturday morning, and watching all the cruisers reminded us of the nice cruises we have enjoyed, with stops in towns to explore. That cruise visited Seattle, Astoria, and San Francisco, so I guess Astoria is a well-known gem. We enjoyed coffee on a deck at Coffee Girl, watching seals and commercial ships docked in the river. At the Astoria Column, I lazed in the sun while John climbed the column; it was a perfect time in the sun and blue sky.

The Oregon coast is splendid. We enjoyed visiting a portion of it again. The wildness of the cliffs, rocks, huge pieces of driftwood is somewhat tamed by the charming little resort settlements. Heading inland, we hadn't been to Corvallis before, and found it a charming place. Also, I have been relieved by the wonderful roads over the mountain ranges. The mountains of course aren't as high as the Rockies; the main roads we have met all seem to be recently paved and lined; there are frequent pulloffs and passing lanes. The road from Corvallis to Eugene, however, is straight and flat, in the wide Willamette Valley, with huge fields on either side which have labels for whatever crop they are growing - some were types of grasses I have never even heard of before. We think Eugene is also a wonderful college town and enjoyed our stay in that area.

(Irrelevant notes:

1. Deborah reported that Kai had recently performed in a band that played when Dave Chapelle came to his school to give the Emmy he recently won to his alma mater (Duke Ellington High School of Arts in D.C.) Isn't that neat?

2. Reports that the Las Vegas shooter had also considered attacking Lollapalooza gave us chills, since we were in Chicago during that festival. )

We realized that we had plenty of time to get to Sacramento to prepare the car and rv before our October 24 plane flight home, so we decided to go to Crater Lake. We headed east, through fog and drizzle on the west side of the Cascades, and when we reached the top, it was suddenly sunny and bright to the east. We spent a night in Crescent, and enjoyed huge hamburgers and $4 craft beer drafts at the Bigfoot Restaurant. It was a friendly local place, where folks were watching an Oregon football game. Somebody even offered us raffle tickets - for a rifle. (The gun culture out here is different from NH.)

Next day we drove south to Klamath Falls past Upper Klamath Lake, the biggest freshwater lake west of the Continental Divide. And the next day, we drove up to Crater Lake. It was a lovely sunny drive through fields and forests. We drove first to the Crater Lake Lodge, planning to have a coffee and then go for a couple of little hikes. But when we got out of the car, we were nearly blown over by a strong cold wind which we had not noticed on the way up. So we viewed the lake from the lodge porch. It was a good stretch of the imagination to picture that there had been a very tall mountain which collapsed when a volcano erupted, and water had eventually filled in the collapsed area. Our coffee break expanded to include two extravagant desserts, a marionberry crumble and a flan. We usually split our sweets, and we were both stuffed by those two treats.

We hadn't decided on our route to Sacramento. I was expressing interest in touring Lake Tahoe by car, but we were also interested in enjoying part of the northernmost California coast. So we drove west from Klamath Falls to Medford. The next morning we were struck by the news of the dreadful wildfires that had broken out the midnight before. That insured that we would head east, not coastward. John wanted to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park, so we drove down to Yreka CA and then to Old Station, just north of the NP. By the way, when we had our coffee break in Yreka, it was at Zephyr's Books and Coffee, which had an outstanding supply of used books with very reasonable prices. I could have spent several hours there. Our route to Old Station was sparsely populated, but we did find an RV park there. I was terribly nervous about the Lassen visit, because on the map the route is very twisty and turny, so I chose to drive the car. And it wasn't so bad after all, especially after the car warmed up from the 23 degrees when we set out. For one thing, it was a bright sunny day. For another, it was a Thursday, so not much traffic on the roads. And finally, the roads were excellent. We enjoyed learning about the relatively recent eruptions (1915) and seeing huge lava rocks that had traveled several miles from the mountain. I think John and I have had our fill of volcano education on this trip, at least for awhile.

Yesterday's drive brought us to Reno. It was quite traumatic for us to encounter a large city with lots of highways and traffic after our recent days in mostly rural areas. We pulled in to an RV park and spent last night there. But John found a much nicer place, and we moved this morning. We plan to go into town today, and hope it will warm up enough for some pleasant walking. And maybe tomorrow we will head for Tahoe. We are trying to finish up food that's left in the rv, start setting aside the things we need to pack to take home, get reoriented to picking up acorns and leaves in our yard. And we are very sad about the terrible wildfires and all of the other things that aren't going well for people. But life goes on. Cheers, Linda and John

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