These are my reasons for trekking across Oregon and into HOT Idaho in the middle of July. Natalie, Chelise and Alika—and Chad off to the left. Would you believe I had such fun with them that I forgot to take photos? Well, it is true!
We stayed at the Boise-Meridian KOA for three nights. I don’t normally patronize K.O.A.s, (Keep on Adding) but wanted a park close to Chad and Natalie’s house and with a pool for the Grands. We received a 15% discount for being Escapees members. The nightly fee was about $27.50—well within my budget for seeing my Grands!
The park was one of the cleanest parks staffed with the friendliest folks we have encountered in a while! Our site was small, but the staff brought us a table to our site by that afternoon. They didn’t charge extra for the Grands using the pool. (The “visitor charge” is standard at most parks, so I was pleasantly pleased to find we didn’t have to pay extra.) We were impressed with the park.
The heat was the only negative aspect. We enjoyed visiting with Chad, Natalie, Chelsie and Alika, but we were ready to head west to cooler weather again on Sunday.
We had brought a slight medical issue with us. Our delicious W-M chicken dinner back in Hermiston, OR, had too much sodium. Larry’s weight jumped up 3 lbs. in one night from water retention. By the the weekend, it had not dropped back down and his legs were swollen by bed time, so we were unable to eat with the kids. We were restricting his sodium intake dramatically. The hot weather did not help!
We planned visiting lots of tourist attractions in Eastern Oregon, but decided to head to cooler weather. We stopped at Emigrant Springs State Park, a gem hidden next to I-84, about 26 miles east of Pendleton, OR. It is on the Oregon Trail route and we welcomed the cooler temperatures at 4,000 feet among the trees. That evening two “visitors from the Oregon Trail” presented a sing-along for us campers. They combined a bit of history with the songs we belted out—loudly, but not necessarily in tune!
If I had been on the wagon train, I would have stopped for good when I reached Emigrant Springs! Notice the beautiful trees, a treat to see after crossing the dry plains!
We headed on to the Columbia River Gorge, but ran into a slight problem after we passed Pendleton, OR. We ran into strong head winds. Another 20 minutes later, we drove into dirt storms stirred up by the 30-plus mph winds. When we stopped for fuel in Hermiston, OR, we decided to head back to the same RV park and sit out the horrible headwinds that were throwing the truck and camper from lane edge to land edge and whipping up thick dust storms. We spent the day rocking and rolling in the RV site!
Up early the next morning to beat the wind, we headed west! We had enough hot weather and wind to last a while, so ended back in Salem, OR at the Elk’s Club by about 2 pm. It was good timing as this weekend was the Salem Artist’s Festival at the Bush Pasture Park. Larry took me down early Saturday morning for my “creative fix.” We were there at 9:30, a half hour early, which allowed me to wander and drool without a huge crowd!
Isn’t that a peaceful and inviting scene?
Oh, if I only had more room in the camper, some of these fellas might be headed for Texas!
I naturally head for the potters’ booths first, but I was disappointed in the glazes. Several booths had glazed their pottery in primary Fiesta colors which didn’t appeal to my creative side.
Blown glass arts were very popular. I saw at least 10 different booths, plus artists working with blown glass. Glass blowing is taught in both the community college and at the Salem Arts Center. The art is like pottery, give different people the same materials and the finished products are so different!
I was good. While I enjoyed wandering around, I didn’t buy anything.
However, I have to share some information I learned this week. Do you have water spots on your windows?
We parked in the wrong spot about 4 years ago, near a sprinkler that spotted the truck’s windows. I have been unable to remove the water spots on the tinted windows. I read about the same problem in the Escapees Forum’s posting and someone found a solution:
I used this product on my dad’s glass-top stove last winter and never thought about using it on the truck windows. It works!!! The forum poster said he paid $1.98 at Wal-Mart, but Salem’s W-M priced the cleaner at $3.58 and the scrubby pads that won’t scratch at $1.98. It was worth the price as it finally, with the cleaner, pad and lot of elbow grease, cleaned most of the water spots off the window! I am a happy camper today!
We are nestled into the Elk’s Club campground again for about 2 more weeks. Once Larry has his blood tests and buys his monthly dose of Procrit, we are heading up into Washington for August.
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