I know it has been twelve days since I last wrote.  Most of our days since setting up camp in Deming have been taken up with the chores of establishing ourselves here as residents.  We had to rent a site in an RV Park for six months to qualify for a New Mexico driver's license.
 Now I would like to go back and catch up on our travels. 
Our route from Death Valley, CA ( Oct. 2)  to Deming, NM. 
(Oct. 13) took us through some beautiful country.

Here's a little info on the new (completed 2010) Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, on US-93.   The 1900 foot long bridge is the western hemisphere's longest single-span concrete arch bridge.
We went to visit the dam in 2008 with my sisters and saw the construction which was amazing.  Seeing the finished bridge was something we really wanted to do, though we were a little disappointed that we couldn't see any of the dam from the new bridge.  To see the dam you had to exit the bypass and we didn't want to do that pulling the travel trailer.

Our next stop was in Wickenburg, Arizona which I will share with you next time.
                  Good night to all,  miss you too.    B&D

                         Death Valley on motorcycles!

This is the last blog from our stay at Tuttle Creek.  The base of Mount Whitney is right at our campground.  The summit is at 14,495 feet elevation, highest in the U.S. outside of Alaska.
If you follow the road past our camp it takes you to the trailhead.
Doing the summit is only allowed with passes won in a lottery.
The drive to the trailhead of course is gorgeous and there are lesser hikes from there and picnic areas.  For those doing the summit there are overnight camping facilities.
​

From Tuttle Creek we head for Wickenburg, Arizona.  Our first time here also and we find a great boon docking camp on Vulture Peak Road.  So far we have been here for eight days and plan to stay another four days.  
We love this desert boon docking!!!

​Good night all,      Love, B&D

While at Tuttle Creek we took a day trip to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine National Wilderness Area.  The sign, off of
Hwy 395, said 25 miles.  Whoa; twisty, turny, up and up.  An hour and a half to get to the visiter center and the closest hiking trail.  So worth it, though.  Bristlecone Pines grow above 9500 feet elevation and live to be thousands of years old.

                          This is the view from the hiking trail.  

This is the third time in the last year and a half that we have had the chance to see Bristlecones and we will always take every opportunity to see these magnificent creations.

This is a very small sample of the rock formations.  You can spend days driving and hiking in the Hills   At the Interpretive  Center on Hwy 395, you can get a brochure showing the locations of some of the famous western movies shot here.

Lone Pine was the next destination for the last week in September and was less than 200 miles south of Lake Tahoe on CA Hwy 395.
​ Outside of Lone Pine is Tuttle Creek BLM Campground; $5.00 per night/ $2.50 with Golden Pass.
This is now in our top five favorite campgrounds.
It is located at the base of Mount Whitney ( highest mountain in the lower 48 states ).  In the other direction the view is the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range with a pass east to Death Valley.
Driving through the Alabama Hills to reach the camp should be on everyones bucket list.  
The Alabama Hills are famous for being the location of many Hollywood movies since the 1920's.
​We will let the pictures speak for themselves...

Check the next blog for more of the Alabama Hills....

Night all, have a great week.             Love,  B&D

Going back to the middle of September, when we left the gorge, we stayed two nights near Astoria, Oregon at Bud's RV Park near the northern most point of the Oregon coast.  High cliffs, beautiful bays, great museums and lots of seafood restaurants .  Our first day there, after setting up camp, we went to a nearby scenic overlook and saw a school of porpoises, whales feeding and surfers. All on my first day at the pacific ocean.  The pictures are not very clear since we were so high up but I want to put them in anyway because they mean so much to me.

Good night all,   Love,  B&D

From Astoria, we moved about 200 miles down the coast to Florence and set up camp for three nights at a National Forest Campground.  There were huge Sitka Spruce there and a great hiking trail that was like being in a magical forest.  As you drive south along the coast from Florence there is 50 miles of dunes preserved as a National Wilderness Area.  All along this area are designated trail heads and parking for day use only.

We know it's been awhile and a lot of miles since the last blog.
I would still like to share some pictures of the many waterfalls along the old Columbia River Highway.
(  In the next blogs we will cover our week at the Oregon Coast and then the last couple weeks traveling from the coast to the southwest desert. )

.This is a very amazing area that we would love to see again.
                       Miss you all!       Love,  B&D
​                                 Congrats on a great book sale.  😀

P.S.   Thank you Diane for all your art.  I have been enjoying these two pieces for almost fifty years.  Wow!

( Writing this from Wallowa, Oregon on September 13. )

Yesterday, September 12, we moved down from the Imnaha River to the town of Wallowa.  We are enjoying two days at Mule Days in Enterprise before heading for the Columbia River Gorge and west to Portland.  During the last days, we drove around the area exploring little roads we hadn't seen yet.  Of course there are many more for us to explore next year when we come back to camp host again.

 On the west side of Enterprise is the town of Lostine.  There is a corridor of campgrounds there off Hwy-82. they are rustic and primitive sites like our camps on Hwy-39 east of Enterprise.
Last week we went to check them out, and of course found them to be not nearly as wonderful as ours.  Ha! Ha!

I have afew pictures of the smoke that fills the air around Enterprise from the nearby forest fires that started in the middle of August in Wallowa County from lightening strikes.  They are mostly contained now after nearly 60,000 acres of burn, the loss of homes and buildings and the hard work of up to 800 firefighters.

Have a wonderful night.    XOXO,   B&D

The summer and our camp hosting job are coming to an end.  September 7, Labor Day, is our last day of work.  We plan on staying until the end of that week for the Enterprise Mules Days at the county fairgrounds.  We want to see the Dutch Oven Cook-Off and the mule and horse shows.  Weather permitting!
When we leave here we are going to follow the Columbia River Gorge Highway to Portland and then head to Astoria, Oregon on the Coast. The colors here started changing in the middle of August, so the coast should be gorgious in September.  

Good night and love to all,  B&D

This is the bottom of the road leading to Hat Point Lookout.

McDove climbed the lookout tower with us.  The tower is 37 feet tall and was so windy that McDove could not sit on the rail.

Last week we were in a variety of places around the Ollokot Campground, so I put together a hogpog  of pictures for our enjoyment. 

Happy Birthday ,  Leib !!!!
Thanks for the comments, Sue and Jean.  Love to know you like our pictures.
Love to all,  B&D

Today, in town for business, so this is short and sweet.  Hope you enjoy these pictures I've taken around the Enterprise area.

Love to all,   B&D
                                        p.s.  Happy Birthday, Shannon!!!

Later in the week, after cleaning the south camps, we took a drive with Carla to the McGraw Lookout , not to far from Ollokot. Then a few days after that, we drove to the valley to look up at the Hell's Canyon Rim Road where we walked at the lookout and ate lunch at the PO Saddle Campground.

At the lookout, Furby McDove tries to get in on the action.

All our love to y'all and a big  welcome to the world to baby,  
Korra. 

Four of the seven campgrounds that Carla is respondsable for are located north of Enterprise.   Last Tuesday, we went with her to see some that area and help her clean.

Last weekend we were lucky enough to attend the 25th Annual Tamkaliks Celebration ( powwow) and Friendship Feast.  Everything was free and the Feast was really a feast with salmon, buffalo and elk, as well as many delicious potluck dishes.  The dancing was so beautiful and it is very hard to pick only a few pictures to share.  That means this blog will be very long.  Enjoy!

Wonderful times in Oregon and Michigan!!!!

Boy is the summer passing by quickly.  Campground attendance is low because of the road construction.  Still, we meet many, very nice people on our walks around the campground.

This is our day, yesterday- July 6.    Carla got to our camp at 8:00am.  We worked around Ollokot Camp, then left to ckeck on Twin Lakes Campground that she only has to do once a month.  It's about 25 miles from us but half the road is under construction with up to an hour wait and the rest is a one lane, dirt and rock mountain road.  

What a great day, but we miss everyone very much!
    
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,  XAVIER,  JUDY  AND  DYLAN!   LOVE YOU!  HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY!!!!

Love,  B&D 

On the way to (Forest Service Road) FS 39, outside of Joseph, Oregon, we are greeted with some rancher humor.

In the area around Ollokot, the six campgrounds on FS 39 and 
FS 3960 are the camps we help maintain with Carla.  She is responsible for an additional four more camps.   The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has hundreds of campgrounds in three states, but is mostly in Oregon.

Our Aliner is set up next to this wonderful 16' X 32' Host cabin.  We sleep in our Aliner and cook and eat, and shower in the cabin.  It has a real stove and refrigerator run on propane. And a stand-up shower , flushing toilet and propane hot water heater. We also have a cold water spigot and propane hook-up next to our Aliner.   With the temperatures at 100 degrees this week, we have no trouble getting enough solar power to run our lights in the camper. 

Last weekend a bunch of us helped Carla put up her Tipi.  It's about 100 feet from the cabin.  She stays here on holidays and some weekends, and we share the cabin's kitchen and bath when she's here.  We have a lot of fun together and have a lot in common.

Hell's Canyon Lookout...

About ten miles from our campground is the 
Hell's Canyon Lookout.  It's  at  5240 ft. elevation and
we can get a phone signal there, but not internet.   
As you can see it's a real burden to have to drive there
 to make a call.

At the end of the day, we like to sit down by the Imnaha River and watch the deer and the ravens.  There are so many wildflowers, it's fun to see which ones have opened that day and, of course, take a few pictures.

Miss you and love you all!

Betty, you will be missed.  
Our thoughts are with you, Kim and all your family. 

This is Site #2 in Ollokot on the Imnaha River.  We arrived a few days early and picked a site by the river. Our first day of duties as hosts starts on Tuesday, June 23.  The rest of the summer our Aliner will be camped next to the host's cabin, a short distance from the water and the 13 camp sites available to the public.

One short word about our absence from writing.
It has been four months since we recorded a blog.  So many things came up in our life that changed the path we were on and it was to hard to write about our travels.  Now our business is settled and we are back to following the life that has called to us for so long.  
It is so strange that the last thing I wrote about was a memorial 
to my sister, Marie.  Now I will say a goodbye to my other sister, Janet.  She sadly passed unexpectedly on April 29 of a heart attack.  Janet, we miss you.  Be at peace. 

Yes, the hail storm hit us from the north west as we went thru Indiana at the base of Lake Michigan.

After getting around the Chicago area, we turned north to pick up US 20 out of Rockford, IL.   We then took US 20 all the way to Oregon.  Through  Iowa and Nebraska, we never tired of the beautiful farms and the Big Sky views.

Rolling hills led to mountain passes in Wyoming.  On the west side of US 20 in Wyoming, the road passes right through  Yellowstone National Park.  We spent two nights outside of Yellowstone in Montana and explored the park. This was David's second  and my first visit to Yellowstone.  
I am not ready to revile how many pictures I took in one day at the Park.

On through Idaho' s mountains and into Oregon; eight states in ten days.

David and I with Carla, the Ollokot park manager.

Sitting in front of the host's cabin at Ollokot Campground.
David, Barb, Shorty and Hazie.
        Jean in front row,  with dogs Muffy, Clara B and Blue.

     Happy 20th Birthday 
    to our oldest grandson,
                Garrett !!!
               ✰✰✰✰✰

We pulled out of our Michigan driveway on May 15, 2014.   In the last nine months we have traveled 28,000 miles.  
There are not enough words to describe how exciting it has been for us.
First camping through Canada and Alaska;  then Montana, Idaho and Nevada state and national parks.  Exploring the fantastic national parks in Utah; then finding the variety of campgrounds available in New Mexico; and now experiencing the beautiful winter weather of Arizona and California.  
And along the way, we have met so many wonderful people, both locals and fellow travelers from every walk of life.   
The best part for us has been the chance to be together without  those pesky things called jobs that take up so much time.  

Enough of the mushy stuff,  February 17 was David's birthday and we celebrated it by having lunch in Yuma. 
Of course, we also did some errands in town since it's a 25 mile drive from our campsite.

Driving south into Yuma, one of the things we see is the radar blimp in the sky.

Us again at the Golden Corral
restaurant on the 17th.

 

I started this post with our beautiful grandson,
then with the beauty of  'living our dream' ,
and then the unexpected beauty of parking lots.

Now I would like to share the beauty that is my sister, Marie.

This month marked one year since she lost the battle with cancer.  Her daughter received a letter from the Science Cares Organization, which Marie had made arrangements with before her death to donate her body to science.  I would like to share this letter  with everyone in remembrance of her lifelong  way of always caring for others.  ( Her nick name at work was "mother Marie" )

From February 9th through the 16th, we stayed around camp; reading, walking, cooking and watching sunsets.  It is so quiet here.  A couple of 4-wheelers go past in the morning and then before dark a couple of  4-wheelers come back out.
Of course I have no trouble finding things to photograph. 

One of the walks on a nice sunny day took us by some very nice cactus.

We will  finish this post with another night of sunset pictures.