The Road Goes Ever On

Friday, June 26, 2020

Baker City, Oregon

Later on down the trail we stopped in Baker City to see the historic district and its buildings and also the dozens of metal sculptures that adorn the town. There's a foundry or two of note locally. Baker City was prominent back in the late 19th century, a mining town that is said to have been the largest city between Portland and Denver. Sic transit, Gloria.

Not a ghost sign, but there were plenty to see

Most interesting...the art deco Baker City Tower

The animal sculptures were everywhere, most life-sized

Informative signage everywhere

So on the basis of having seen hundreds of Mints in hundreds of western towns
over the years, I have concluded it was a franchise, like Dairy Queen

A bit of main street

Only one other place in the world I have seen where there was an attempt to
either hide or decorate the dumpsters: the Cote d'Azur

Imagine arriving in town, being unfamiliar with the place, maybe a little
buzzed, and trying to parallel park...

The Geiser Grand, 1890s hotel; nice turret

"I can't give you anything but love, baby..."; see Susanville post

Court House

Camping At Phillips Lake, Oregon

We finally departed route 395, taking 26 and then 7, June 22nd, through beautiful Silva Valley, finally landing at another forest service campsite, in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, at the South West Shore campground of Phillips Lake. It was a dry campground, so the charge was only $5. Such a deal. We stayed two nights, enjoying some milder weather, a few hikes, and some time off the road

View from our campsite

Mountains to the east; Elkhorn Peak (?)

A bit of six mile long Lake Phillips; we were looking for a Tawanaville, but
had to settle for Phillips

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Lake Abert and Abert Rim: On To Oregon

From Susanville, our route took us into higher and drier country, routes 139 and then mostly 395, sparser vegetation and water features, but still great scenery if you have a taste for desert landscapes, as the fella* says. The most stunning aspect of all this, as we entered Oregon, was Lake Abert (the former ancient Lake Chewaucan; said to have been the size of San Francisco Bay at one time), and, towering above it, the Abert Rim or escarpment, one of the largest in North America. Our days of driving, so far, have been typical Western basin and range, many of the basins featuring dry or drying lakes like Abert. But Abert is hanging in there, too salty for anything but brine shrimp, good eating for a variety of birds, not least migrating Canada geese. We stopped for some pix and then carried on to a nice, brand new rest area on route 20, a few miles east of Riley. Camping savage, as the French say. As usual, we were not alone.

The road going ever on, by lake and rim

Abert Lake

The opportunity for one of those reflection in the lake pix was irresistible

A bit of the 30 mile long Abert Rim; and terrain; ranges from 1,000 to 2,500
feet above the lake; so the sign said; seen bigger ones in Namibia

And the road went ever on

*Willard van Orman Quine

Susanville, CA

We thought we'd been every which way between Montana and California over the years. Fellow world-wide travelers Rick and Kathy gave us a suggestion--they are experts in finding the roads less traveled--up through the eastern bits of northern California and then Oregon, then across Idaho...and that's how we came to Susanville. We might have passed it up, but I was insistent: because of life-long friend Susan B, Vicki's room-mate in Tallahassee and later bridesmaid, and because visiting Susanville would afford me an opportunity to display my vast knowledge of cinematic history, or at least mention my currently favorite old movie. The fact that Susanville has an accommodating Walmart parking lot, and it was time to stop driving, settled the matter.

Someone else's picture of Susanville, looking, um, east, I
think; it's a medium-sized small town, sort of a regional hub,
with a Walmart, a Safeway, a Les Schwab, and numerous
other necessities and amenities; it is also home to three
penitentiaries, two state, one federal, the town's major
employers; only 8 cases of Covid-19 so far; but all in all,
Susan, I think you're way better off in Tallahassee with Ken

The aforementioned Walmart: one of the quietest ever; I guess they're all pretty
quiet now with the limited hours...

Just as Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam," Cary Grant
never said "Judy, Judy, Judy"; but he did say "Susan!
Susan! Susan! Susan" in Howard Hawks' 1938 Bringing
Up Baby, the greatest of all the "screwball" comedies;
that's Hepburn's derriere he's shielding; but don't trust
me: take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ
DbDIz1Y0E; and at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
y2NZcPNaLeE for context

Let's see: in other news, it was Father's Day, and the plant
light Rebecca and Rachel gave me (a couple weeks back)
is doing fine here in the RV

And, for a special treat, Vicki baked a plum tort, one of my favorites, from
fresh plums off a Menlo Park neighbor's invading plum tree

Monday, June 22, 2020

Lassen Peak, 2020

After Thunder Valley, we drove on toward Nevada, hoping to stop for a day or so at the Boca forest service campground where we had over-nighted once before. The dam was being repaired (!), the reservoir was way down, and the campground mostly deserted except for a compound of presumably well-armed "patriots." We headed back I-80 to route 89, which would take us, through beautiful northern California country, to Lassen Peak Volcanic National Park. By way of such places as Sierraville and Quincy, the Cottonwood Creek forest service campground, Greenville, and more. Beautiful creeks, gorges, forests of tall conifer, occasional lakes, great green valleys, all in higher country, 4,000-5,000 feet mostly. We visited Lassen on a family road trip in 1990, and I even climbed the "peak," a big hill with a well-defined summit trail (https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/02/lassen-peak-1990.html). Traffic en route to, and in Lassen, was unexpectedly light. The campgrounds nonetheless were full, all reserved far in advance, so after doing the park road and dumping and filling, we headed back east to Susanville. All this on June 18-20.

At the Cottonwood Creek campground; the only open forest service campground
we encountered; all reserved commencing June 19th; we parked next to the
wood pile and had a whopper of a fire

Next night, we found a spot at the (mostly) closed Greenville FS campground

Lassen Peak; but for the ice, would have made one of those really great
"reflection in the lake" pix

Other travel blogs don't bring you the insight and the detail you see here: draining
pit toilets at a trail-head parking lot

High country

Great natural beauty in northern CA

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Pandemic Update #3: Breakout! Sort Of...Or, On The Road Again

Well, a slow-motion, peaceful breakout, in increments. First we did a drive with Rebecca and Penelope over to Half Moon Bay and a walk there. Then a four day camping trip with Penelope to old friend Pinnacles National Park, our go-to national park in Middle California. And now we are on the road again, having bidden farewell to our hosts for three months, Rebecca, Jeremy, and Penelope, topped off with diesel, propane, and water, and a month's worth of meals accumulated over the last several weeks. As I write, we are "camped" in the relatively deserted overflow parking lot of the Thunder Valley Casino and Resort, near Sacramento, waiting for cold weather in the Sierras to pass. We're making our way, slowly and deliberately, and still in isolation, toward our old home town, Missoula, Montana. We'll spend a few weeks in Missoula, going through our possessions in storage there and seeing friends, at a distance. And whither then? Well, back to California for a time, hoping things will clarify somewhat. Travel planning is difficult just now, as everyone knows, and my best bet is that we'll be traveling in our North American RV in the warmer bits of the US this fall. Of course we'd rather be in Europe in our camper there, and we're still hoping for winter in New Zealand. But we're on the road again.