#8 Taking Care of Business

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Tuesday August 17, 2010: We'd happily stayed an extra day at Rocky Point, Klamath Lake, because the weather predicted for the Medford area on Monday was 100 degrees and we figured our day there would be hard enough without battling heat.

First of all, Phil had to vote. His absentee ballot for the Australian federal election had gotten to Portland after we'd left, so we'd picked a small town in southern Oregon and asked Sky to send it to that post office as a “general delivery” so Phil could pick it up there. The little town was called “White City” and it was on our projected pathway to Medford.

Luck was with us! We found the post office in a commercial center next door to a laundromat, which we also needed, and a food store—and as we were just about at the end of even our emergency supplies of food, we got into multi-tasking in a big way.

We also had to get our van's emissions checked by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in Medford, as these checking stations don't exist east of the Cascade Mountains, but since it was a Portland vehicle, the DEQ certificate was required, and then we had to get the van registration done at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) before we left Oregon, because we wouldn't be back in the state before Sept. 25, when the rego lapsed.

In Portland, waiting for a DEQ test can mean 30 minutes or more baking in the sun while waiting behind a long line of cars, in a plume of toxic exhaust, but in Medford we breezed through both car tasks, with just remarks by cashiers about how much more we were being charged because we lived in Portland! Finally we had to find a US Bank to move some money around.

Then up to Grants Pass and onward to: CALIFORNIA! We followed the very windy road along the Smith River and settled in at the first campsite we found. Back to campsites with bear-proof rubbish bins...

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Photos

Getting the ballot
Phil finally got ahold of his ballot for the Australian federal election in White City, Oregon.
In Australia, voting is not just a privilege, but a responsibility. People who don't vote get fined.

Voting in the laundromat
Never fear, Phil's vote is yet to be counted. Perhaps it won't be a hung Parliament after all!

Above the line or below the line?
Should he vote by party or individually rank the 84 senate candidates preferentially? How long is that drier's cycle?

Afternoon at the Smith River
This is the longest free running river in California--no dams anywhere along it.

Looking up river from the campground beach.
We stayed at Patrick's Creek campground, the first one of many campgrounds found along the Smith River toward the Redwoods.

Handy underpass
A trail from the campground leads under the highway to the restaurant and lodge.

Food Booze Snooze
Maybe you prefer the lodge tonight? We stuck with the campground, but the restaurant did look inviting. However, we'd already bought red snapper for dinner and it wouldn't keep.

Two rivers become one
The Smith River is famous for how clear it is.

Toast making when we don't have electricity
Our new stove is a great improvement over the one we had last year.

Clear, clear water
The greenish cast to the water is due to dissolved serpentine, a green rock in the area. Can you see the pebbles on the bottom all the way across the river?

Another kind of monitor
This is a monitor, a high pressure water blaster used to scour into hillsides in the quest for gold. Large gashes were left in hillsides by miners trying to get beneath the surface looking for more gold. Martha is standing near the box used for ballast by loading it with rocks.

Comments

[Colin Holmes]

Polling
I bet the postal clerk/laundromat attendant had some comments to make about the ballot paper. I once produced my Victorian paper drivers' licence in New York (circa 1967) and provoked a lot of ribaldry.

[Michelle Cavanagh]

Clear and present beauty!
Smiths River looks gorgeous - the Franklin of California by the sound of it!! Glad to see that Phil votes below the line on the Senate paper - best way in my opinion. I spent polling day - from 7.30am to 6.30pm - bumping in, bumping out and handing out HTVs for the Greens...then off to the pub at Hornsby afterwards. I'm quite excited about the hung parliament thing - I don't think it's the terrible situation which the major parties would have us believe. BUT PLEASE...don't let's end up with TA as PM!! M xx