expedition56

California – Wednesday, August 28

After I got the campsite packed up, I found a little bakery and got a couple homemade huckleberry/white chocolate scones and then I enjoyed a couple more hours of driving right along the Oregon coast. It’s just beautiful, and I made a few stops along the way to enjoy the scenery. Tula played in the water in one stop, and I was captivated by all the big boulders strewn around. There were some clear jellyfish on the sand – they’re so odd-looking. I was glad I didn’t make this drive last night and miss all the views!

So it was after noon by the time I crossed into California – State #46! California is such a big state that I had been telling people all along that I was just going to concentrate on the northern half of the state – I wanted to avoid the crowds and congestion of southern California and the whole Los Angeles area. But plans and intentions do have a way of sometimes changing….

I crossed into California at its very northwest corner, and the first town I came to was Crescent City, which calls itself the Easter Lily capital of the world. Since it was already after noon, I was hoping to find a donation place in Crescent City, because that part of California is a big wilderness area, and there weren’t many other towns around. Nothing really jumped out for a donation – I drove past one place, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind. I decided to just continue on through town. And then I happened to see a big semi-truck in a parking lot, with the name California Emergency Foodlink on it, and there was a long line of people, and that caught my attention. I turned the van around to get a better look. I ended up driving into the parking lot, which appeared to be at the local fairgrounds, and I found someone to ask about making a donation – there was clearly a lot of food distribution going on here. The volunteer found one of the directors, and he told me that once a month from May to October, local farmers and stores gather up excess produce, and bring it to the fairgrounds for a “tailgate” sort of give-away event. Everyone is encouraged to donate their excess food instead of dumping it. He estimates they help at least 200 people in need during the monthly produce giveaway, and unlike some of the food programs, this one has no requirements – anyone at all can stop by. Even if someone drove up in a Mercedes, there would be no questions asked. There were huge cardboard bins of plums, peppers, corn, strawberries and other things. And it looked like Walmart provided a lot of blue shopping bags. This program is only one of many offered by the local Rural Human Services, and the director told me where the offices were, because it would be better to go make my donation there instead of handing him a check in the middle of the produce giveaway. He sent me on my way with a couple boxes of strawberries, and I found the office and made the donation.

Then it was time for some walking. I headed down to the ocean, since that always seems to be a good place to start. There were some parks, and walking paths, and a long breakwater to walk out onto, and from there I could see a pretty little lighthouse out on the end of a strip of land. We walked a little over 2 miles. Then I found the visitor center for the Redwoods National and State Parks – it seems to be a combined effort. I was really looking forward to doing some walking in amongst some big redwood trees. There were several national/state park areas scattered throughout a 60 mile area, and the ranger told me where some good trails were – I just had to drive south a bit. On my way, I saw a touristy sign advertising one of the “drive-thru” trees. And I couldn’t resist the possibility of driving through a tree. There’s 3 or 4 of them in different locations, and the “holes” in these huge trees were clearly cut out long ago before thoughts of preservation ever kicked in. I had to pay $5 for the privilege of driving through the tree, but I must say it was pretty cool. It was a very, very tight fit for the van, and I had to fold the mirrors in, but I made it through – just barely.

Then I got to the part of the national park I was looking for, and dogs weren’t allowed on the trails, so Tula just stayed in the van. I walked 5 miles altogether through the forests of giant trees, and loved every step. The trees are so tall that it made me feel very tiny. Even the ferns that grew on the forest floor were about as tall as me. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see a dinosaur poke its head out from behind a tree – it just seemed to be that sort of habitat! Apparently, once in a while a tree falls down, which blocks the trail because it’s so big, so the rangers just cut a “tunnel” through the tree – even though it was on its side, it was still too big to climb over. After I walked nearly 3 miles on trails on one side of the road, I crossed the street to walk on one of the trails over there. That’s when I came to the granddaddy of redwoods – a huge, wonderful old tree, named simply Big Tree. There was a sign with its statistics – 304′ tall; 21′ in diameter; 68′ in circumference, and it’s estimated to be 1500 years old – 1500 years!!! Amazing. America isn’t even 250 years old. One of the informational signs said that back in the 1930s or so, someone wanted to cut the tree down to use the stump for a raised dance floor – luckily that didn’t happen. There didn’t seem to be many people out, and the forest with its giant trees was wonderfully quiet and peaceful – I’m so glad I was able to stop for a long walk.

It was beginning to get dark, and I still had one more mile to walk. I found a beach area that had a bike trail a little closer to the road. There was a sign saying to beware of “sneaker waves” down by the water – I don’t know what those are, but the sign said 4 people have been killed by them since 2004. So I wasn’t planning on walking down by the water. There were 3-4 surfers out on the water though, so they apparently weren’t concerned about the sneaker waves.

With the sun going down, and the walking done for the day, it was time to give my California route some serious thought. I had talked with my brother near San Diego yesterday to let him know I would probably be staying in northern California for the week, then after I finished the state of Nevada, I would take a little 2 day “family break” to go over to visit him and his wife and daughter down in southern California. But then he told me this was the last week of the Del Mar horse-racing season, and they had a handful of horses at the track, and would actually have their horses racing both on Thursday and Friday. It had been a long time since I’d been to the races, and it’s always super-exciting to watch one of their horses run; so between Friday night races, and my birthday on Saturday, I changed my whole California plan, and decided to make the push to get all the way down to southern California by Friday evening. And so far I hadn’t made a lot of progress. I called ahead to make a motel reservation, then did kind of a long drive into the late hours of the night, just to get a start on some of the south-bound driving. I didn’t want to drive across any mountain ranges at night, so I mostly drove south and made some good progress and ended up in the small town of Ukiah.

Oregon – Tuesday, August 27

It was very foggy out this morning, and I could hear a fog horn in the distance. I did some computer work and took my time packing up while I waited for the fog to lift. Then I went back to the waterfront in Newport – I wanted to walk through the old town in daylight. The fish processing places were busy – the workers wear rubber overalls, knee high rubber boots and big rubber gloves. They must just get used to the smell! There were a couple dumpsters of fish carcasses in one area, and lots of shrimp were being hosed down a big conveyor belt into the back of what appeared to be a dump truck lined with a huge garbage bag. The sea lions were being very vocal – I’m thinking there’s a reason they like to hang out near the fish processing factory! The boardwalk had signs identifying the different fishing boats – whether they’re used for shrimp, or bottom-feeders, or tuna, or salmon, and other things under the sea, but they all kind of look the same to me. Tula hadn’t seen the sea lions last night, and was quite intrigued with them this morning! She and I walked about a mile and a half around town, and then I wanted to walk across the big beautiful bridge over the harbor. I had seen bicyclists and other pedestrians heading up there, so I figured there must be a sidewalk. And that was a very long, enjoyable walk. It was fun to look at the harbor from the vantage point high on the bridge, and the other side had the view of the channel leading from the ocean into the harbor, with both fishing boats and pleasure craft heading back and forth. I even saw another sea lion swimming in to the harbor – a little late to the party, but it was fun to watch him swim in. Newport is also a big Coast Guard base. The height of this bridge didn’t bother me – it was an old historic one, and seemed very substantial. I also watched a fishing boat come in from sea and saw it pass literally right under my feet. My bridge walk covered nearly 2 1/2 more miles. By this time I was ready for some lunch, and after seeing all the fishing boats, I figured fish and chips would be an appropriate meal to grab on the go before I left town. I stopped by one of the crowded little fish and chip shops and chose the rockfish. It was in a very light batter and was very tasty.

I drove south along the coast, stopping now and then to admire the views, and to walk along the beach. There are big boulders all over the place – on the sand, in shallow water and out in deeper water. It’s like some giant picked up a handful of “stones” and just flung them all around. I had passed a turn-off which was so full of cars that I couldn’t fit in, and I wondered if people had seen something out in the ocean. I stopped at the next place, which happened to be a state park area, and one of the rangers was standing on a little deck, and all of a sudden she pointed out a whale to me and about 4 other people. I’ve never seen a whale from shore, and it didn’t even look like it was all that far out in the water. It surfaced 5-6 times while we were watching – we would see the waterspout first, and then it’s back as it went under again – it was a humpback whale. The ranger was excited to see it, and went down to the next level of the deck to tell the people down there about it too. An older couple was watching the whale with me, and the man said he’s been stopping by this area for years just for the other pretty views, and he’s never seen a whale there before – they were pretty excited about it too. It is pretty amazing to see a whale from the shore! It doesn’t seem like it would be deep enough, but clearly it is!

I continued south to Florence, where I was going to make my donation-of-the-day to the Florence Food Share program. They’ve been helping to feed the hungry people in the area since about 1980, when the pantry was started by people from different churches working together out of garages and was originally called Manna Ministries. With the help of grants and volunteers and donations, they built their own permanent building in 1994, and they’ve been operating out of that building ever since. So, like many food pantries and soup kitchens, it had very humble beginnings, but with community support and lots of volunteers, bigger things can happen! Florence Food Share is open every morning, and also a couple afternoons during the week. Tuesday afternoons are not one of those days, so no one was around. But I saw the building and one of their trucks, and then just had to mail in my donation.

Then I needed to scurry down to Coos Bay – with my birthday coming up, my van registration was about to expire, and although I could renew the registration online, they wouldn’t have an address to mail the new license plate sticker to. So I had worked it out with my neighbor who deals with my mail to pay for the registration (which I reimbursed her for of course), and then she had my new sticker for the license plate, and since she works for State Farm, I tried to plan ahead to a town I would be passing through, so I contacted the State Farm people in Coos Bay and explained my predicament, and they would be happy to get my piece of mail from the Chelsea State Farm office, and everything worked out just fine! Whew! I made it to the Coos Bay office before they closed, and they had my sticker and new registration card, and it won’t be this complicated again next year!

Then Tula and I did some walking on the Coos Bay boardwalk, which turned into a bike trail at one end that went by some old train cars and industrial area. Despite the old train cars, I didn’t really like walking in that area, so I returned to the boardwalk, and then we drove to the north end of town, where there was another boardwalk and another historic old bridge to walk across. (Tula doesn’t come with me on the bridge walks.) Coos Bay is one of the world’s busiest ports for shipping lumber and wood chips and other wood products. There were a couple mountains of wood chips and stacks and stacks of lumber down by one of the harbors. A ship from Hong Kong was in port, getting a load of lumber. And I saw stevedore offices – it’s a whole different world down by the harbor. I did look up the definition of stevedore – I knew it had something to do with waterfronts, and stevedores are dockworkers and longshoremen – workers to load and unload ships. But there weren’t many people around during that time of day. I walked about 2 1/2 miles in Coos Bay.

I headed just a bit more south to Bandon, another waterfront town and finished off my last mile and a half of walking. A tuna boat had just come in, and people were bringing coolers by the docks to get fresh fish – it doesn’t get any fresher than buying it right off the boat! The fishermen seem to hang out signs on their boats saying what their current catch is, and the locals must know when to come down to the dock.

The sun had gone down while I was in Bandon, and just a little south of town, I came to a nice little KOA campground that had an available campsite, so I stopped there for the night. It had been a very full day! There’s only about 50 miles left of driving along the Oregon coast before crossing into California, so my time in Oregon is nearly done. I walked all 56 miles, and made all 7 donations – Trail Tenders (Oregon Trail) and the Salvation Army School Drive in Baker City, Doggie Dash in La Grande, the wildfire base camp and Oregon Veteran’s Home in The Dalles, The Lavender Girls with Children’s Cancer Association near Portland, and Florence Food Share in Florence. I’m happy to have a few more miles to poke along the Oregon coast some more tomorrow morning!

Oregon – Sunday, August 25

I stayed in Albany last night, and woke up to a foggy, soggy day. I was really glad I had stopped by the fair last night instead of waiting for today. My plans had been to work my way over to the coast, but with a wet forecast, I decided to stay put – especially since I had doubled up on donations for a couple days. I was ahead of the game, so I didn’t make a donation today.

Tula and I ventured out when there was a break in the rain, and started off with a walk in a local park that had paths around a pond, and that connected to another trail, and that trail led to more trails around a water garden natural preserve. The water looked kind of thick and green, but it was actually just a light green layer of some kind of little aquatic plant, and there were lots of ducks and geese swimming around in it. We covered nearly 3 miles on those paths. As I was driving into the town of Albany, I passed a shopping area, and I needed to find something to wear to my niece’s wedding – I didn’t want to take the time to shop, but figured a rainy day was a good time to do so. Then I drove downtown and parked. Tula and I got out to walk along the river trail, and then I covered a couple more miles walking up and down the streets in town. My Triple A book said Albany is known for a big variety of architectural styles, and although there were interesting buildings to walk past, I certainly don’t know one style from another! There was nothing obvious to me about the different styles. It started raining again, but I didn’t get too wet.

I stopped for a bite to eat, and then Tula and I walked our last mile and an half in a light sprinkle. It was good to have a dry place waiting, and I did some more work on the blog. These posts usually take quite a bit of time to write, because I kind of re-live the day as I’m writing and going through photos, and I think that helps all the details sink into my memory. I’m lucky this isn’t becoming a big blur – details easily pop back into my brain!

Oregon – Saturday, August 24

I already knew what my donation was going to be today, but I had to drive to Oregon City first, on the outskirts of Portland. On Thursday night, I was listening to the news on TV when I heard a segment about The Lavender Girls. They’re a group of young girls who make and sell lavender products so that they can give the proceeds to the Children’s Cancer Association. They were on the news this year because this was their 5th annual event, and this year they were expanding from a 1-day event to a 2-day event, with pony rides also being offered on Saturday. It’s become a bigger every year, and they’ve raised more and more money. There seems to be a lot of lavender grown in Oregon, and the kids gather up as much as they can and make dried flower bouquets, lavender sachets, lavender wands, candles, and bath products. They have also sold baked goods, homemade dog trats and lavender lemonade. The money goes directly to the Children’s Cancer Association (and their official color happens to be purple) to help grant wishes to seriously or terminally ill children. There’s a group of about 15 girls who seem to be in the 10-12 year old age range, and I really admire them for thinking of others at such a young age, and doing something creative to really make a difference. I definitely wanted to support this event! When I got there, I made my donation, and they were all very gracious and interested in my journey. The girls were all wearing lavender t-shirts, and one of the ponies they were using for the pony rides was white, and it had lavender ribbons in its mane and some lavender designs painted on it. It was fun to see all the different lavender products on the table and I got a few lavender sachets to take home. We took some photos too – it was a fun donation to make!

As I was driving back out toward the main roads, I came across a Saturday flea market/craft show/yard sale/food event in a church parking lot. Tula and I got out to wander by all the booths but the only thing I bought was a hotdog heaped with grilled onions and an ear of corn. One of the vendors wanted to see Tula and asked if she could give her part of a turkey sandwich. I said yes, and she got an entire half of a big turkey sandwich – the lady had 4 of them and said she couldn’t possibly eat them all. Needless to say, Tula thought that was a very special treat – she probably would have stayed with that lady for the rest of the afternoon!

Oregon City also had an End of the Oregon Trail historic site, so I went through that and looked at the exhibits and watched a video, and walked on the paths outside the center – it’s fun to see some of the “end of the road” displays after seeing so many other parts of the trail. I continued south a bit, and stopped in the town of Silverton to walk a bit more – there was a historic downtown area, and Silverton is proud to be the home of a former astronaut.

I drove on to Salem, the location for the Oregon State Fair, and I was happy to have a chance to get to another fair. There was a huge grassy parking lot, so I took Tula for a long walk around that before heading in to the fairgrounds. I started with some of the animal barns, and happened to catch the advanced senior sheep showmanship class (seniors as in high school students, not old folks!). I don’t know the first thing about showing sheep, and was quite fascinated to watch how the kids handled the sheep and moved around them as the judge looked at the sheep – there seems to be a very precise stance and their movements were very crisp. My eyes were drawn to one young lady in particular who seemed to just snap into her stance with precision, and she ultimately won the class, and the judge was very complimentary about her showmanship quality. And when I walked out of that barn, there was a senior cattle showmanship class going on that was mostly high school age guys. The cows positively glistened with cleanliness – earlier I had seen a lot of people using something that looked like a combination hair dryer/vacuum on the cows. Then I watched a team of draft horses get harnessed up – the people had to use step ladders to get parts of the harnesses on! I went back out to the parking lot to walk Tula again, and went back in to the fair to go through the merchants building and the barns with all the other exhibits and entries. I walked through the midway and all the food booths and into a couple other animal barns. With a couple trips back and forth to the parking lot, and walking Tula, and walking all through the fairgrounds a couple times, I walked nearly 5 miles – it was a big fair! I was more than ready to call it a day, and I ended up driving about 20 miles south of Salem, where we stopped for the night.

Oregon – Friday, August 23

The winds were blowing away from town today, so there was no wildfire smoke like there had been yesterday (and there hadn’t been any smoke when I got to town in the late evening). I had been looking into donation opportunities, and I discovered that the Oregon Veterans Home was right here in The Dalles, so that was going to be my donation-of-the-day. As I set off to find the home on the other side of town, I passed a Red Cross sign that said “Disaster Relief”. I figured it was for the people who had to evacuate from their homes, and I stopped in to see if that could possibly be a wildfire sort of donation. The people there told me they were actually pretty well stocked and set up to help evacuees if necessary, but suggested I visit the firefighter base camp because they knew that some donations up there would be helpful. They gave me directions to the local high school, which was where the US Forestry Service had set up base camp, and it was quite a sight to see. It looked like a tent city – dozens and dozens of tents set up next to the football field, a mess tent and a kitchen trailer, other trailers, dozens of cases of water and soda stacked up, fire trucks and equipment, and people. I talked with someone by one of the big trailers in the center of the area, and asked what kinds of things were needed. There was plenty of food and water for the firefighters of course, but they seemed to be short on things like shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and socks. So I decided to go to the dollar store and got lots of bottles of shampoo and bars of soap, some liquid hand soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and individual packages of hand wipes that I thought maybe they could stick in their pockets. I took the bags back to the base camp, and there was a table for donations from the public, which currently didn’t have anything on it. One of the firefighters helped me carry all the bags over to the table, and then he took a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo. At first I just set the bags on the table and spread them out a bit, and was walking away, and all of a sudden quite a few other firefighters came over to the table to start looking through the bags. Most were walking away with shampoo and bar soap. I walked back to the table and took the rest of the items out of the bags so they could see what was there, and more firefighters came over. I asked them how things were going, but they didn’t know yet because they were just getting up. Since the fire is battled around the clock, the night crew has to try to sleep during the day, and it was hot, and all I could think of was trying to sleep in a stuffy hot tent under a blazing sun. I imagine they’re so exhausted when they get down from the fire that they sleep anyway. There were a few people bustling around the mess tent and kitchen getting ready for another meal. By the time I headed back to the van, the only thing left on the table was a couple bottles of liquid soap, and I wished I had just bought bar soap instead. The stuff vanished so quickly that it made me want to go back for more, but I was pretty sure other people bring things too. And during a later walk in town, I actually saw flyers on store windows asking people to help the firefighters with toiletry items. I’m glad I didn’t see those lists first, or I would have just put my donations in their collection boxes instead of visiting the base itself! It was really interesting to get a little taste of all the activity going on at a wildfire base camp. There were also several corners in town that had fire updates and maps, about who should be out of their homes now, who should be packing up and getting ready to leave, and who should be on alert.

And then I finally resumed my interrupted quest to find the Veteran’s Home. It was located outside of town, up high on the side of a mountain where they had a good view of the river and the dam, and the surrounding mountains. This was the first time I could see the smoke from the wildfire a few ridges over. I went in and made my donation, and they told me I could specify where the donation went, so it will help with a recreational outing. I took Tula our for a walk to look at all the smoke in the distance. Even though the fire was only 10-12 miles away from town, people were very matter-of-fact about it – I would have thought it would be really scary to be so close to one – and although the fires consume a lot of land, it’s not like they rage along at 100 miles an hour, and maybe that’s why the people aren’t as nervous about it as I would have expected. If someone had told me at the start of my journey that I would spend time in a town that close to a major wildfire, I wouldn’t have thought that would be possible, because I imagined the whole town would have been evacuated. It makes me curious how close the fires get before people are ordered to evacuate. Then I drove back down the mountain, and we found the river walk, and covered a couple miles along that. I noticed several helicopters flying back and forth with something that looked like a big orange ball dangling from a cable, and it would hover out of sight by the river (filling the “ball” with water??) and then fly back toward the fire. I put Tula back in the van and walked a couple more miles throughout the town and a couple neighborhoods. There were numerous signs around town thanking the firefighters for their hard work. Somewhere along the ay I passed a little park that had a sign over the entrance that said “End of the Oregon Trail.” I went in the park but the only thing I saw was a large boulder commemorating the spot. I imagine at this point, settlers started peeling off in different areas of Oregon to settle into their new lives.

I was going to stay in The Dalles again tonight because I already knew what I was going to do for my donation in the morning, so I went back into town where Tula and I did our final mile and a half of walking, then I got some Chinese take-out food and headed back to the motel for an evening of computer work and other trip details.

Oregon – Thursday, August 22

I wasn’t able to find any good donation opportunities online in this area, so I just decided to set out for a walk to see what I would see. Tula and I walked all over La Grande and into a couple neighborhoods. We walked past an old-style gas station (last gas price on the pump is 69 cents/gallon) that had been converted into a little museum, and a bunch of old historic buildings and a theatre. I’ve been seeing several light green US Forest Service firefighting vehicles over the past few days, and I’m getting closer to another big wildfire near the town of The Dalles on the Columbia River.

While we were out walking, I noticed several flyers in store windows about a Doggie Dash coming up that would benefit the local humane society. I decided to stop by the Blue Mountain Humane Society and make a donation to them even though Tula and I wouldn’t be around to participate in the Doggie Dash. It sounds like it’s a very popular event, and they work hard to adopt out as many animals as they can.

From there I continued northwest and stopped at another Oregon Trail Center. I walked 2 1/2 miles on all the paths and saw some more ruts. But the most interesting thing I saw was a pine tree that had been growing back in the pioneer days, and was still alive, with roots visibly scarred from the passing wagon wheels and their hubs. To be able to touch a root scarred by a covered wagon, and know the tree was alive then, and now, seems almost magical – a true connection to the past. I could also see how rocks were ground to small pieces by all the wagon wheels, and in one place there were some old cast-off trunks. The Oregon Trail followed paths originally used by Indians, then fur trappers. Then came the pioneers in their covered wagons, followed by stage coaches, trains and autos. And people are still following the route. There was a book in a waterproof box asking people to add their own travel story along the trail. I read some of the entries and then added mine – and wondered what the next mode of transportation will be.

From there I headed to the town of Pendleton. Rain clouds were beginnning to move in, but Tula and I set off for about 2 1/2 miles of walking on the river trail. Despite being next to river, it wasn’t the most scenic of walks – this used to be a railway, and the tracks ran between the river and the backyards of some well-worn houses, showing me yet another dimension of American life. Plus some police cars came along, and I saw the police questioning a couple of teenage boys, and by the time I was walking back, the mother of one of them had arrived, and she was not very happy with her son. It was time to finish up that part of my walk, and then I headed into the historic part of town to finish the last of my walking in a sprinkling of rain. Then I drove past the Pendleton Woolen Mill, but it had closed for the day – it would have been interesting to go on one of their tours, but that will have to wait for another time.

Then I drove in the rain for a while along the Columbia River, and stopped at The Dalles for the night. I knew the wildfire was only 10-12 miles to the southwest, but there was no visible smoke or anything, and I was assured the town itself was not under any threat from the fire. People seem very matter-of-fact about the proximity of a large fire, and once again I was reminded it’s a way of life for people who live in these areas.

Oregon – Wednesday, August 21

I had stayed in Ontario last night, just over the border from Idaho. It was dark when I arrived, so Tula and I did a little walking around town first thing in the morning to stretch our legs. This part of Oregon is very dry and sagebrushy. Then I wanted to start heading north toward the Columbia River, and along the way we stopped in Baker City. Baker City was another one of the gold rush towns in the area, and its valley also became home to some of the pioneers from the Oregon Trail, who were finally able to see what Oregon had to offer. Tula and I walked all through town, and one of the shops had a big Salvation Army “Back to School” supply drive collection bin in its front window, which caught my eye. Even though I’ve recently done several school supply donations, this is the time of year for it, and I’ve always liked shopping for school supplies! I went inside the store and asked what sorts of things they night need, and they gave me a list. I found the local dollar store and stocked up on pens, pencils, crayons, rulers, glue, scissors, erasers, pencil cases, felt-tip markers, and Kleenex. Then I took the bags back to the shop and put them in the bin. I’ve also walked by a number of old Sears and JCPenney department stores in these smaller towns- I’ve become so used to seeing them in malls that it’s easy to forget they were very popular stand-alone department stores before the days of malls. Lot of them are still in interesting old buildings.

My next stop for the day was a little outside of town at the Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center – I’ve seen so much of the Oregon Trail route that I need to learn a little bit about the end of the line. There was a wonderful visitor center with displays, exhibits and dioramas, and then I set off for a 5+ mile walk in the heat down to some wagon trail ruts, which were some of the best trail remnants I’ve seen yet. Over time the remaining trails have turned into little ravines – after thousands of iron rimmed wheels cut their paths in the land, Mother Nature has further deepened the ruts over time, making them seem deeper than they were originally. For me, it was amazing to walk down the side of the dry mountainside, and watch the flat, fertile, green valley open up, knowing I was seeing the same things pioneers were seeing 150 years ago. What a sight it must have been to the exhausted travelers! Some stayed right in the valley – and some continued a little farther into Oregon, but they had to deal either with another mountain range or the Columbia River before they could finally call a place home. I loved my visit there, and I wanted to make a donation – I’ve learned so much Oregon Trail history on my journey. I became a “Trail Tender” – the donation goes toward helping to take care of the remaining trails and education about the pioneers. I was really happy I stopped there. I got Tula out for a walk around the covered wagon area, and then we moved on.

We made our way up to the town of La Grande, and arrived just as a Wednesday evening farmer’s market was closing up, but I was able to buy a bag of kettle corn at a reduced price – I love fresh kettle corn! Then Tula and I walked another mile and a half in town, along a river and in a neighborhood and park. While we were walking through a neighborhood, I watched 2 deer (although they kind of looked like reindeer with the big velvety antlers) jump a fence right into someone’s back yards and lay down on the grass like some kind of pet! We walked until dusk and then called it a day.

So far I’ve discovered a couple things that are different about Oregon than most other states – they have no self-service gas stations (New Jersey is the only other state like that), and there is no sales tax on anything, which was kind of a nice surprise!

Idaho – Tuesday, August 20

Last night I stayed in one of the little “mom and pop” motels and the green bathroom told me it probably hadn’t been updated since the 50s! But it was clean. A couple of the bigger chains of motels in town were full of firefighting personnel. When I got up this morning, it was a little hard to tell if there was just a general heat haze in the air (it has been hot in Idaho – probably the hottest state so far) or if some of what I was seeing was a bit of a smoke haze. I had tried to find some Red Cross information online, but the only thing that popped up was a temporary shelter at a high school in Hailey, but people were being allowed to go home. And since Hailey was about 100 miles away, I couldn’t go that far on a wild goose chase.

So I stuck with my original plan for today, which was to make a donation to the Ronald McDonald House in Boise. Their website had a wish list of items they needed, and it said that individual snack size items were most needed at the moment. So I found a grocery store and got granola bars, fruit snacks, nutrigrain bars, peanut butter and crackers, and applesauce cups. They also really needed laundry detergent and dryer sheets so I got some of that too. Then I finished driving to Boise, and found the Ronald McDonald House. There I met Ingrid and a couple other volunteers, and they were very appreciative of the donation, and Ingrid gave me a tour through the whole house. The house was built somewhere around the turn of the century, and was a private residence (a big one!) for a long time, and then was given to the Ronald McDonald House. Although the house has been updated, and they were able to add on to it for more bedrooms, it still retains its elegant old-style charm. There are hot springs south of town a ways, and the original hot water radiators still work so they’re able to save some money on heating bills. It’s very welcoming and cozy, and the unoccupied bedrooms we were able to look at are furnished with cribs if needed, and private bathrooms and there are lots of little home-like details to try to make it as comfortable as possible for the families who are dealing with some critically ill children. The kitchen has 2 stoves and refrigerators, and washers and dryers, and the second floor also has a small kitchen and another washer and dryer. People are free to help themselves to any available food, and there’s usually homemade cookies and/or brownies on hand, which even visitors like me get 🙂 The length of time that people stay varies – it can be a couple of months while their kids are in treatment, and one family even stayed for nearly a year as their child battled leukemia. Although I’ve made donations to a couple other Ronald McDonald Houses, this was the first time I got to take a little tour through the whole house. And Ingrid suggested a couple good walking places – I knew about the greenway, and she suggested a street that had a lot of the old mansions from back when the town was first built.

So after we took some pictures, I drove over to one of the old residential areas, and Tula and I walked a couple miles and admired all the different homes. Then I went downtown to the state capital area, and covered another mile and a half there while Tula waited in the car with the air conditioning. This part of the state is also along the old Oregon Trail, and there was a monument dedicated to the pioneers. Then we found the greenway, and it was a wonderful, shady path along the river that stretches for miles, and Tula and I walked another 3 miles. We crossed a bridge at one point, and went down by the water’s edge, where Tula waded in to the river for a quick dip. She dried off on our way back to the van. Then I headed out for another 2 1/2 miles in a slightly different area, and at one point I walked around a bend, and saw some people looking up in the trees (I thought) and wondered what was up there – it turned out they were looking at giraffes! I certainly didn’t expect to see a couple giraffes while out walking in a city in Idaho, but there was a zoo in town and the bike trail happened to go by the giraffe habitat. They’re one of my all-time favorite animals, and it was fun to just stand there and watch them for a while.

By this time I had walked over 8 1/2 miles, and my Idaho week was almost wrapped up, but I had enough time to drive out to the Western Idaho Fair for a couple hours. I was missing the Chelsea Community Fair back home for the first time in about 30 years, so I was looking forward to walking around a different fair. I found all the exhibits and enjoyed looking at all the entries – baked goods, needlework, photos, artwork, and I found the clock that Julie had entered (1st place!) and the mosaic horse head her son entered (2nd place!). Then I walked through the hustle-bustle of the midway, and found the animal barns, although I missed the horses. I even found a few fun Christmas presents in the merchant barn. I ended my visit by enjoying a really good corn dog – fair food at its best!

And then Idaho was complete. I didn’t see everything I had hoped to because of the wildfires, but I visited other places I wouldn’t have otherwise, so it all works out in the end. I walked more than 56 miles, and made all 7 donations – the Backpack Program in Post Falls, the Bonner Community Food Bank and School Backpacks in Sandpoint, the Wall that Heals, the YWCA School Supply Drive in Lewiston, McPaws in McCall, and the Ronald McDonald House in Boise. I left Idaho in the dark, and stayed just on the other side of the state line in Oregon, ready to begin a new week of adventure.

Idaho – Monday, August 19

Tula and I set off on a morning walk through the state park even before we got packed up. Walking on the trails through all the pretty ponderosas and by the lake was a great was to start the day – we covered a little over 3 miles. And then I enjoyed the huckleberries that my new friends gave me yesterday. Once we were packed up, I drove the few miles back into McCall to walk in town a bit more. I wanted to walk by the lake again, and there were a couple streets we hadn’t walked on last night. I was thinking about my donation for today – yesterday I had asked Mary if she had any favorite local charities, and she immediately said the McPaws Animal Shelter. And when I was talking with Kathy later about local opportunities, she mentioned a couple others, but also mentioned McPaws. So I had looked them up on the computer, only to discover they were closed on Mondays! But as I was walking through town, I walked right by the local thrift store, and all of its proceeds go to McPaws, so I figured when I was done walking, I would go back there, and give them the donation to pass on to the animal shelter. I had a late breakfast outside at a cute little cafe, finished my walk, and returned to the thrift store. The lady working there recommended I just mail it in because she wasn’t sure when someone from McPaws would stop in next. They keep a count on the side of their wall about how many “forever homes” they’ve found for their animals, and already 120+ happy pets have found new homes this year.

When I was finished in McCall, I began to head south to Boise. There are 2 ways to go, and last night Kathy and Julie told me which one was most scenic, although it was a bit longer, and there would be a risk that the views could be obscured by wildfire smoke. And in the end, I didn’t see any smoke anywhere – the winds were blowing toward the east. It was indeed a pretty drive – along white water rivers, in canyons and up steep mountains. I thought of all the firefighters working in that sort of terrain, and how that makes a tough job even more difficult.

I stopped and did a little walking in the town of Cascade, and then farther south, Tula and I walked about a mile and a half in Idaho City, famous back in the day for gold mining. And the town still has the look of an old frontier town, with wooden buildings and sidewalks. At its peak in the 1860s, 15,000-20,000 gold miners were in town, and a quarter of them were Chinese. It was one of the largest gold strikes ever discovered. The US Forest Service had put a big sign in town with fire details – with both written information, and a map with fire areas shaded. I actually saw this in several towns over these next couple of days – they do seem to try hard to keep everyone updated about the fires, and who is under evacuation (they list specific streets and addresses) and who needs to think about gathering their things together, etc. They seem to update it at least once a day. So if people don’t watch the news, or have a computer to check on the status of a fire, there is at least a prominent place in town with detailed information. I didn’t see any smoke, or smell anything, and aside from people occasionally checking the boards and talking about it, I wouldn’t have known anything was going on – although I think I was still 80-100 miles away. I heard from several people that wildfires are simply a way of life in the west – if the smoke gets bad, you close your windows, and hope the fires won’t actually destroy your home.

I continued south and I still needed to walk another couple miles, and then I came to Lucky Peak State Park, and walked around a small lake, and the saw the dam. This lake has a rack of donor life jackets for kids to borrow, and I’ve also seen that around quite a bit – another good idea to keep kids safe. After I finished my walking, I headed just a little farther east to the town of Mountain Home, where I stopped for the night. The Beaver Creek fire near Sun Valley is one of the biggest active fires, and I was curious if I would see any smoke in the morning, or if I could find a donation opportunity to help either firefighters or evacuees.