Sunset

Seriously, The picture on the left I went back to Hammel Beach at 8:45 or so and spent 20 minutes fooling around. On the right, a quick shot at 9:20 of our campsite. Even thought there was such a gorgeous sunset, look at all the light that still lingers. Amazing.

Dessert Time

We get tired of smores really quickly so we try new things. Tonight is tortillas with chocolate chips and marshmellows heated over the fire. Last night was brownies and maybe tomorrow will be a cake. Who knows.

Hammel Beach

Hammel Beach on Padilla Bay

We are here and it is GREAT!

Even though we were in the car the same amount of time as the first day it felt so much longer. I think we left at an awkard time and werent quiet as ready as we should have been.

We arrived at Bay View State Park overlooking (kinda barely) Padilla Bay. Like our last site, this one overlooks a huge grassy area. The biggest plus is the amount of 8 and 9 year old kids and a 6 year old in the site right next to ours. There is a circle of blacktop around the grass and we are in sites outside that circle. Kids are riding bikes and scooters and going round and round.

After 8 hours in the car you know what that means for little arms and legs.

Its 9:30 and there is still enough natural light to read a book by.

Naturally I am updating my blog rather than my mind.

Love you.

Bored in the Car

After our big storm last night we had fog this morning. It was interesting.

The one on the left is the foggy Rogue River and makes me wish I had spent a little more time getting some good pictures.

The one on the right is the sun at 7-7:30 am.

Are We There Yet?

Almost to Seattle and get caught in a traffic jam that suddenly opened up to what?? We wont get into the campsite until well after 7. Not so bad considering this next stop is another 4 days of fun.

On the Road Pic

Only 500 miles to go.

Bye Bye Kitties

We left Grants Pass and I am full of tears. We had to leave the kittens behind because we couldnt get anyone to pick them up before the weekend. The campground Hosts promise that they will call and find someone, but it was still sad to see their sweet trusting faces as we pulled out of the site.

Love You Truly Dear

Well, I am not so sure I love Oregon so much. We sweltered the day on the river, did our daily chores because we are leaving tomorrow and then headed out for laundry, dinner and some restocking.

Out of the resturant at 7:30 and what do we see? A HUGE black cloud and a tremendous wind that should have been here earlier. The temp dropped about 10 degrees and we knew to head straight home, no shopping. (I know...bummer).

We packed as much as we could without taking down the tentbeds and tried our best to coax the cats out of the bushes and then the lightening storm arrived. Lightening, thunder and rivers of rain. Maverick was so upset because he already is a bit concerned about lightening/thunder and then you add his precious kittens. Its 8:22 and he has been asleep for about 5 minutes. He actually stressed out tears over them.

I personally cannot believe those cats prefer the bushes to my cozy homemade shelter. Hmptf! Ingrates!

This is our second time with rain in the pop up. The first time we had to put everything up in the dark and the rain so we didn't level it correctly and guess what? Rain dripping in from the box lid. After that we are extra careful to level front to back and side to side. We even purchased a BAL leveler to make things easier.

Well, the rain is leveling off to a moderate drizzle and I am being pulled into a rousing game of go fish so I will say good night.


Love to all for your crazy thoughts on my blog.

Still Here

What the..!!!! When I checked the weather for Grant's Pass it said high of 85! 85! Not the 102 degrees at 7pm that we suffered through. It was 96 at 9pm. Awful. We camp to escape the Fresno heat, which at least cools down in the evening.

Yesterday we went grocery shopping in town and ate a cool dinner at "Abby's Legendary Pizza" Legendary? Yes, legendary for being awful. For some reason they find a pizza tasty with mozzarella, provolone and too much cheddar. I think there was something bad with the cheese. You could pick it off in chunks like wet paper. Ewwww!

Aw well, they have a Fabulous Dairy Queen. The resturant was cool inside, service was friendly and quick and the kids enjoyed their ice cream.

I have to say, I love Oregon. The people here are very friendly and their towns/cities all look clean. I'd move here for sure.

If you want a postcard while we are traveling you have to email me your address.

Hugs to All.

Just Sharing

Maverick brought me flowers.

UPDATE: Kittens

Good News! Someone called me back and will be here Saturday to pick up the kittens. They have moved from over by the river to a bush next to our trailer. Everyone is anxiously waiting for them to wake up and come out and play.

We bought kitten food and put out water for them.

Repeat after me..."we cannot take kittens home.......we cannot take kittens home"

In the Evening

Last night we had a lovely dinner of salmon, carrots and rice. A nice bottle of wine and I was ready to stare at the fire for a few hours.

However, every mother's bad dream came true when Mackenzie discovered three small kittens who were obviously dumped off by some loser. You can tell the difference between the feral cats that disappear if they think you are looking at them and these super playful, chubby and friendly kittens.

Naturally we couldnt call the ASPCA until this morning, which I did. The shelter can't take more cats. The Animal Control won't take them on Fridays and we are waiting for the SPCA to call back. I feel sick because I am afraid we are not going to have options. We can't take them with us and we can't leave them here.

People suck sometimes.

Finally Relaxing

After weeks and months of preparation (first reservations were made in November) and days of packing and shopping I finally felt fully relaxed and enjoyed the day.

We headed out for a hike along the Rogue River and the kids finally "got" skipping rocks. Remington has the record with 7-8 skips.

We are very luck because just outside our campsite is a HUGE grassy area the kids can run, skip and play without feeling like they are bugging or in someones way. We set up the badminton net and played badminton. We also played Soccer, wiffleball, football and used R's metal detector to discover that there are thousands of bottlecaps in that field.

Good Morning-Official Day 1

After a seriously great snuggly night sleep we are up and about. Here are the munchkins in various stages of waking and getting dressed. R just woke up. M is dressed for a ladies lunch and Mav is in jammies, hikers and begging Daddy to play football.

It was nice to see Fresno State take the CWS last night.

We have arrived.

Whew! We arrived at 5 o'clock to a very pretty campground on the Rouge River. The campground is almost empty and very quiet. So quiet we can hear the running of the river.

Please explain how kids can be in the car for 8 hours and then all pile on the same bed in the camper????

Tomorrow we head down to the "beach" for some toe dipping. It looks pretty fast and chilly so I am not sure how much swimming is going to go on.

Tonight though.......s'mores.

Good Nite Friends.

Passing Mt. Shasta

OK, obviously I am enamored with this new blog thingie so here is another as I wile away the hours in the car.

We just passed Mt. Shasta and here is a terrific pic out the car window driving by at 65 miles an hour. It took me 4 trys because I kept getting pics of trees right in front of the mt.

Halfway There

We just stopped for lunch at a rest stop. Gosh its been years since I've been to one of those. We made lunch and then kicked the soccer ball around. Accordingto the GPS its only 244 miles until our next turn.

Here are the kids in the backseat.

And We're Off!!

We were up at 5:30 this morning to get a head start before waking the kids and who do we find bright eyed? Remington! sitting on his bed wide awake and ready to go. So I let him pick his own cartoonies and I grabbed a quick cup of coffee and started finishing our "go" list.

The Bridgemans were out the door and on the road by 7:30am.

One of our new toys this year is a GPS Navigator and we have discovered we LOVE it. No more getting crabby and rereading directions a million times.