California to Oregon

Well, who would have thought that I would like California!!  At least the northern half of the state!!  We stopped for some olives, and I almost couldn't leave the store there were so many good ones.  Of course we made a martini when we got home.  Bought the vodka at the Indian Casino we stopped at.  Tried all their spirits, beer and gambled a bit.

 

the name of the town and the tribe on the glass below. I had no idea there were so many tribes until we started traveling.

Stopped for some disc golf on the way home and there were some funky twisted trees that I just loved.

The tree below also looked to funky to not take a picture of

Busy beading still!  I made a head band for my sun hat.  I simply love it!  You know how you get a new hobby and you just can't stop.  Well family.....be prepared to bejewel yourself with my stash of stuff the next time I see you.

Red Bluff, like many other warm climate places has its share of homeless, and as Dick was walking to the barber this is what he saw.  We woke in the middle of the night to her cart rolling through the campground and this is where she landed for the night. Crazy.  So many homeless camps we have seen in our travels. Sad!

Not sure why thick thighs save lives.  I don't think I need to advertise my thunder thighs by wearing this hat!

This thermometer doesn't go past 99 but believe me...It was HOTTER!

In the town where we went to the rodeo they have a park and a bridge they call the sundial bridge.  It was pretty cool and pretty accurate at telling time.  The park was awesome with lots of walking trails and a kid of kid zoo that we didn't go to.  They were setting up for brew fest but we were leaving the state of California before it was happening. Bummer.

More stuff to give away!

Well, we arrived in Oregon an were greeted by our friends Charlie and Bev and a few little deer that just wandered all over.

This is Charlie!  He is quite the character, and we love every minute we are spending with him and his wife Bev.  We met them when we stayed in Yuma and said if we were ever in their neck of the woods we should stop by.  A trip we will never forget.  So many adventures these folks have had in life and are still having.  FUNNY stories a plenty!!

You will probably see many a mountain with snow on them in our pictures.  Such beautiful drives in Oregon.  So many mountains, so many views, so much beauty!

Stopped at Mount Shasta brewery as we headed North out of California so this is a little out of order.  Great little brewery and they had the towns farmers market going on which is always a plus and live music.  A few good beers for me and we moved on.  Oh yea, we bought pesto which we later shared with Charlie and Bev on some homemade pizza.  YUM!

More burned forest!  Man this just boggles my mind!  It is so crazy and devastating.  We saw burned up houses and businesses too.  So sad!

This is our parking spot at Charlie and Bev's house.  In case you want to stay there the address is

View from our door.  We say lots of eagles and bunches of deer while we stayed here.  Beautiful views everywhere you drive.  So quiet here that I could hear myself blink!!

We headed to the Lava Beds National Park for a visit one day and were amazed at the amount of Lava tube you could go walking in.  Very much like going into a cave only not a cave.   Hot lave ran through these things many moons ago forming these spaces just to us to walk around in.  Well probably not but someone discovered these, and the rest is history like every other natural wonder of the world. So cool! The next picture is a lava field.  All that brown is hardened lava.  We walked a trail around the park that was an Indian Stronghold which was also very interesting.  Dang white men trying to take away their land.  Shame on them.

This was somewhere along the trail and from a distance we thought it to be some sort of Indian thing.  NOT!  Just junk on a pole and all around it.  People leave stuff and we are not sure why, but it was interesting just the same.

More dried lava.  Doesn't it look like dirt???  Just huge amounts of this stuff.  I can not even imagine the scene when it was rolling hot frying everything in its path.

Here we go into the lava tubes!  Super scary and dark.  The park lets you borrow lights to walk around with.  We only went in the ones that you didn't have to crawl in or duck walk.  I feared I would wack my head and rattle the few brains I have left.  Besides that, I don't think I can fit in a 12" space.

This is a skull that was found in Skull Cave.  I didn't go down the millions of stairs to see this and I am glad I didn't.  Looks pretty uneventful to me.  There is water at the base of some of these tubes that freezes and people use to go down there to ice skate.

Some of the entrances to the caves are really nice so some not so adventurous people can still enjoy the views inside without having to go into the depths with the bats and rocky paths.                   

We walked through one cave that had two entrances and this path lead us back over what we just walked through below. 

This is me just looking totally cool in the tube!

The first tube we went in was paved nicely with lights.  I love that they had this so everyone can see the coolness of this place.  We only had to duck once or twice in this cave.  

We went on a weekday and there were so very few people that we had the tubes to ourselves.  We screamed and tried to find an echo, but it didn't happen.  Maybe our voices were captured in the hardened lava to scare future guests into believing in lava ghosts!!

Charlie and Bev took us to this Marina restaurant & we had a most wonderful time chit chatting.  They were amazing tour guides a couple of times during our stay and also took us out for our very 1st 

Thai food.  I grabbed a to go menu on my way out the door to check it out for future Thai excursions.  There will definitely be some of those.

Another view of our spot at their house.  We almost never wanted to leave.  Bev would come a knocking with Monkey Bread one day & Cookies another.  We ate dinner with they almost every day.  We volunteered to come back!

Off to Crater Lake Nation Park.  We rented a cabin room and stayed one night in the park.  The rim around the lake was not open because there was a ton of snow still on the roadways, but some was cleared and we were able to drive until the roadblocks and park.  You could walk beyond the barriers, which we did and hike the rim trail or stay on the road.  We chose the trial which also was not clear but we walked over the snow and didn't sink which is amazing for my weight.  They got 50 feet of snow this year at the lake.  Thats not inches folks and yes that takes a while to melt.  There were so many beautiful pictures we took from various views so enjoy and just skip over the ones of us if you don't want to see us!!

Yes, it is that blue!!  Nothing feeds this lake and nothing flows from it.  The water levels are kept up by the snow melt, the evaporation and the seepage through the lava rock.  This is really a giant crater left by a massive volcanic explosion some 7000 years ago. Or so they say.  It was amazing!

We couldn't take the stair to the little visitor center unless we wanted to shovel.

Drank a beer at the lodge before we had dinner and sat on the rockers looking at the lake.

Another blocked path!

Our little cottage for the night!

View from our window eating dinner at the lodge.

Dick earned his Junior Park Ranger Badge.  OK really, they were just handing them out like candy on Halloween

There were thousands of these brush piles all through the park!  I am sure they have a fire truck us there when they burn.  Crazy amount of brush!

We saw this almost volcanic eruption and were pretty certain it was time to leave.  Hot lava could have spewed out at any moment and killed me.   Hope you enjoyed all the blue beauty.  I know it was a bit over kill for you all but hey, you may never get here.

Look who we found in Klamath Falls!  Sister Kim and Husband Randy!!!  What an unexpected fun little visit we had with they around their campfire.  You just never know who you will run into out on your adventures.

The end of our stay at Charlie and Bevs we all got to try out Charlies new 3 wheel off roading scooter.  At least it looked like it could off road.  What fun it was!!

As always, ignore the spelling, bad grammar, and hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Adventures in Northern Oregon with Charley the daughter and Ana the Granddaughter in the next episode then moving on to ..........