On the Road with Benny & Sparky: 100 Days and Counting!

Here we are again - traveling through California and back up into Oregon. I am trying to catch up on this blog so this is quite a long post. It covers February 14 through March 9. We have had many more adventures and have seen family and friends along the way. February 22nd marked our 100th day living in our motorhome and we are still enjoying the experience.

We started in Lodi, California with a couple of nights in an RV park followed by one night at the winery, “Jessie’s Grove.” From there we drove to Kelly and Kyle’s home in Pleasant Hill to spend President’s weekend with Kelly and the boys. It is always sweet being with family and we shared some fun times with all of them.

We made our way back into Oregon with the main goal of narrowing in on the area where we would like to buy our next home and live out our golden years. We explored many places including Eugene with cousins, Rich and Joy. We checked out Salem and Keizer a little to the north. We drove up into Vancouver, Washington and into some of the surrounding communities. We revisited the city of Happy Valley just southeast of Portland and we received a grand tour of the city of Bend hosted by our dear friend, Charlene Hasha. Every place we visited had something different and special to offer.

We have both decided that we want to focus on Happy Valley and will be returning the end of April to look more seriously at buying our next home. It is very exciting! Happy Valley seems to offer everything we are looking for including a close proximity to Portland Airport and a good medical facility. We love the city itself and the lovely communities we have driven through. Fingers crossed!

Of course we had a lot of fun along the way. Please enjoy our journey…

Valentine’s Day lunch at “Sugar Mediterranean Bistro” in Lodi

We spent two nights at a nice RV park in Lodi. As usual, we looked up things to do in the area and we found the Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve in Lodi.We drove to the reserve to watch the cranes come in for the night.

I love photographing pretty flowers.

Mark, looking for the Sandhill Cranes

A beautiful view

We arrived just before sunset as that’s the best time to see the cranes.

They are majestic in flight!

We almost left too early as it was so cold and we were just seeing a few cranes at a time. As we were walking back to the car we heard the cranes and when we looked toward the water we saw thousands coming in for the night. It was nearly impossible to capture the experience with a camera.

Another sunset scene

Driving through the orchards

On Tuesday, 2/15 we left the RV park and drove to one of our favorite Harvest Host locations, “Jessie’s Grove Winery” also in Lodi.

Wine tasting and lunch in the tent

We met “Ditto,” one of the winery cats.

Ditto was interested in Mark’s sandwich.

She was extremely interested in mine!

This was the view from our RV spot in the field.

Such a lovely place to spend a night

Taking advantage of the early evening light

Looking across the field at Jessie’s Grove. I continue to be amazed at the photos my iPhone takes!

On February 16th we drove from Lodi to Pleasant Hill to spend Presidents’ Weekend with Kelly and the boys.

The almond trees were in bloom along the road.

Mark brought the boys suckers from Apache Junction, AZ. Each sucker had a real scorpion inside. Only Wesley was courageous enough to eat the entire thing, scorpion and all! He the scorpion tasted fine.

Sweet grandpuppy, “Rawley”

On Thursday we picked the boys up from school and drove to Folsom to spend two nights in a hotel while we explored gold country.

The boys took every opportunity to swim in the indoor pool.

Owenn & Wess chilling before we head out to visit Sutter’s Mill

Papa and his boys, Andrew, Wess & Owenn

We spent Friday at The Marshall Gold Discovery Center in Coloma. This is on the site of Sutter’s Mill.

Wess

Mark

We took a docent lead tour of the mill grounds.

Grinding rocks used by the indigenous people of the area

Learning about the way people lived before the gold was discovered

Owenn, Wess and Andrew in front of the mill

This is really the only original thing left from the mill - part of a wall that was unearthed.

Interesting spelling

The boys again - Andrew, Wess & Owenn

We learned about making barrels from a cooper.

Wess put this one together…

…and then decided to wear it!

We visited a blacksmith’s shop and watched iron pieces being formed.

And then it was time to pan for gold!

Everyone found a little something from gold to garnets and pyrite.

Owenn is very proud of the little fleck of gold he found in the trough.

Even Kelly and Papa got in on the act.

We visited the museum with its many wonderful displays.

Wess, Kelly, Andrew and Mark standing in front of a stage coach

On Saturday we drove into Sacramento and visited Sutter’s Fort.

Papa, Wess, Owenn, Birdie and Andrew

Kelly and her boys

This interesting volunteer was telling us about a doll that traveled with the Donner party.

Wow! The gate of the fort were tall.

What a harrowing trip it must have been to cross the country in a covered wagon. I didn’t realize until this trip that the wagon was just for provisions. The people had to walk the entire way.

Wess, Mark, Owenn, Kelly, Andrew & Robin

And now for the silly picture!

We drove to the state capitol.

Andrew

We ate our lunches on the steps of the capitol.

Andrew, Owenn, Wess & Mark

We took a walk through the grounds of the capitol.

After leaving the state capitol we decided to drive to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield.

The hills along the way were so green!

Here we are taking the tour at the factory.

Daughter and Mother

There were so many pictures made using only Jelly Belly jellybeans.

Owenn, Wesley, Andrew, Robin & Kelly

Jelly Bellies!!!

Kelly

Me and my boys

“American Gothic” in Jelly Bellies

Yes, this is made with jelly beans, too.

On Saturday we arrived home to the always sweet “Rawley.”

On Sunday Mark and I visited Sue Hodges at her wonderful home in Pt. Richmond.

Sue and her granddaughter, Sadie creating a yummy charcuterie tray

We had a delicious dinner featuring Chicken Marsala. Mark took this photo of the women he was surrounded by… Sue, Annie, Robin, Kathryn, Betsy and Sadie.

We left Kelly’s on Tuesday, 2/22 and drove to Hendy Woods State Park in the Redwoods near the town of Philo, CA.

Mark getting Benny and Sparky ready to leave the next morning

A view from our campsite

Beautiful, lush campsite

The redwoods make me happy!

We left Hendy Woods and drove north to Corning, the Olive Capitol.

Sites along the drive

We like to stop at historic markers. This one was another disturbing reminder of our history.

As members of Harvest Host we opted to stay in the “Olive Pit” store’s parking lot for the night. There were no frills but it was a good place to spend a night and we bought lots of yummy goodies in the store.

From Corning we travelled further north into Grants Pass for one night. We drove Highway 5 and enjoyed lovely views of Mount Shasta. There was plenty of snow along the road but the skies were blue for us.

Driving through Ashland, OR

On February 25th we finally made it to Salem. We had reservations for 7 nights at the Premier RV Resort just west of Salem. Our plan was to scope out Salem and the surrounding areas to see if we could find a place to call home in the future.

Crossing the Willamette River in Salem

We were saddened to see all of the homeless encampments in California and Oregon. This one was in Salem just across the street from the Salem Police station.

Back at the RV park I saw these pretty daffodils - one of my favorite flowers. Spring is near!

We took a drive in “Sparky” up to Washington state on March 1 to see if there might be a community that interested us there as a future home. Our conclusion… we have removed the state of Washington from our list. Southern Washington is beautiful in many ways but just not what we are looking for,

The Canada Geese are migrating north and they are everywhere up here!

We ventured out on March 3 to see the charming town of Silverton. The drive to and past Silverton was spectacular - one of my all time favorite drives! I was too busy enjoying the scenery to take many photos. There were sod and grass seed farms everywhere making for gloriously green fields with amazing backdrops. I can hardly wait to take that drive again!

The clouds were wonderful, too.

One of the top attractions in Silverton is Oregon Gardens. We visited and will definitely return when the gardens are in full bloom.

Just outside of the gardens is a Frank Lloyd Wright home. This is the only FLW home built in Oregon. It was built in Wilsonville in the late 50s and later moved to its present site in Silverton. There were no tours at the time we were there but we were free to walk around the grounds and take photos.

There was an interesting rock garden near the home. It serves as a place to honor the lives of children who have died.

Once inside the garden we did see some lovely early bloomers and the promise of more to come…

Crocus

Yellow crocus

Hellebore

White birch

I am fascinated by moss! If we are going to move to Oregon, I guess I should get used to it!

Me and a dragonfly

Such drama!

Another hellebore

Fun with the iPhone camera

There is a tree (?) that is very weepy and fascinates both of us. Here they made it into an arch.

Selfie time!

We took the gorgeous drive from Silverton to Silver Falls State Park. What an enchanted place! We have already made reservations to come back here and camp next fall.

Mark at the overlook near the entrance to Silver Falls State Park

We only had time to walk to South Falls but it did not disappoint.

The buildings in this state park were built by the CCC in the 1930s - this is the gift shop.

South Falls - spectacular!

We would love to take the “Trail of Ten Falls.” I wonder if we have an 8 mile hike in us?

The view from the top of South Falls

More moss on a tree

We had plans to meet friends in Keizer, north of Salem, for dinner on Thursday evening.

We saw this rainbow as we were exiting our car to go into Hops n Drops to meet our friends.

What a wonderful evening with Tish (Garrison) and Steve Saddoris. Tish went to Temple City High School with me and Mark - we all graduated the same year, 1974! Steve and Tish have been married even longer than us - they were married in 1976. Steve went to Arcadia High School. We had so much to talk about and I can hardly wait to get back to Oregon and spend more time with both of them.

On Friday, March 4th we drove from Salem to Sunriver, Oregon to camp with cousins Rich and Joy Shonfeld. What a beautiful drive past waterfalls, rivers, dams and lakes!

Waterfalls right on the highway

I am loving all of the trees and the green everywhere!

Detroit Dam and the Detroit Lake

Snow started falling on us as we got closer to Sunriver.

We were greeted at our campsite by this cute bunny who followed Mark around as he hooked up the RV. He was so tame that he ate lettuce right out of my hand.

Rich and Joy hosted their first dinner in their new RV!

On Saturday the four of us took a little drive in “Sparky” to see a few sites in Sunriver. The Oregon Observatory was our first stop.

Cousins, Rich and Mark

Rich and Joy Shonfeld

Mark and Robin

There were so many telescopes! The roof retracts for viewing. On this particular day they had two telescopes focused on the sun.

Taken through the telescope with my iPhone

Mark and Rich checking out the displays

Astronaut wannabe, Mark

Inside the museum we saw bees!

We took a walk around the museum grounds. It was COLD but beautiful.

There were several rescued raptors at the museum.

This guy was too cute!

We saw these felled trees and thought hmmmm… what happened here? It looked like it was done by beavers and when we asked the museum staff they confirmed our guess. I have never seen this before - so interesting!

We drove over to Sunriver Resort for lunch. Afterward, we walked around and captured some lovely views of Mount Bachelor.

Mark and I stayed three nights in Sunriver and woke to very chilly temperatures!

That’s us on the left and Rich and Joy’s rig on the right.

Did I mention it was cold?!?

Cousins… Rich, Joy, Robin & Mark

Notice the Canada goose flying in this photo taken at the campground in Sunriver.

Guilty pleasures!

Every morning will find Mark working on Wordle. He takes it very seriously!

On Monday, March 7 we drove to the lovely welcoming home of our dear friends, Charlene and Rod Hasha in Bend where we spent two nights. Charlene and Rod were our neighbors over 34 years ago in Santa Ynez. Whenever we get together it’s like no time has passed, It is always great to spend time with them and their sweet, brilliant dog, Millie Jean.

Millie’s selfie!

More Millie - she is such a character!

Charlene and me in downtown Bend.

Mark and Robin

Charlene made a wonderful dinner and delicious breakfasts for all of us. On Tuesday we all went out to dinner at Bend Brewing Company. Our memories will always include just how loud it was in the restaurant!