Four Hours in Florence with Rudy

On Friday, Cliff and I got out of work early so we decided to load up the car and head west to the beach.  Rudy did such a great job on our outing last weekend that we didn't even think twice about the trip and a night of camping.  Well, maybe we should have.  

The road to Florence is a little bit windey.  It didn't take long for Rudy to start whining as he wasn't feeling the car.  I slowed down and took it easy and in 75 minutes we arrived on highway 101.  We headed to Honeyman State Park as we heard really great things about it from Cliff's Mema and Grandaddy (as I think they took their honeymoon there???).  We pulled up and quickly realized that the park is no joke.  The had a few spots left and we were quickly assigned to space 122.  There were so many cars, RVs, ATVs, and everything else under the moon parked in each of the site spots.  The campground was huge with 417 spots!!!  

Rudy continued to whine and bark the whole time.  When we pulled up to our spot Cliff and I didn't know if we should feel relieved or more stressed.  We got out, put up the tent, and started to cook dinner.  Rudy was so stressed out.  The car ride wasn't pleasant but now he didn't know what to do with all of the kids, bikes, squirrels, cars, etc.  It was not good.  So, Cliff and I made the un-fun decision to pack it all up and go home.  It reminded me of stories of parents who threaten kids on a car ride about "if you don't quite we will turn this car around and go straight back home!".  Well that was us.  But with a dog.  Not a kid.  In 15 minutes we were back at the ranger station putting in for our refund.  The line was pretty long and it was taking the ranger a while to process the refund.  I apologized to the lady behind me and she sweetly remarked "No problem.  I had little ones once too".  I smiled and didn't mention that we were leaving due to our dog not a child being fussy.  

We decided to not throw in the whole towel and instead we continued west until we hit sand.  Rudy had never been to the beach and I was really excited to see what he would do.  Well, was pretty excited to run like a mad man.  I mean, he loved it.  We brought the tennis ball chucker and he was happy.  

As we moved closer to the water, he was a little confused.  He tried to walk into the ocean and quickly remembered that he hates water.  From there on he stopped retrieving the tennis ball either because of the salt water or because of the sand. Either way we figured we should packet it up and head back home.  

So our four hours in Florence was actually more like an hour and a half in Florence and two and a half in the car.  

With this said, I think I should mention that Friday kicked off what is going to be a whole week of really hot weather.  High 80s and 90s.  With this said, with the heat inland this is what the beach looked like...on a Friday afternoon.  As you can see it was hopping.  There were three people in their bathing suites actually playing in the water (I've never seen that before!).  They are the three little dots to the left.  There were also a few sunbathers in bathing suits hanging out on towels.  They are the little dots to the right.  And there was an older guy with his dog walking on the beach.  They are the little dots in the middle.  Oh how I enjoy you Oregon coast. 

First Weekend of Summer

Cliff and I did a good job of making the first weekend of summer count.

On Friday work had an event to kick off the start of summer, Summer Solstice Dash & Bash.  It is a two part event: 5K to benefit Umpqua Bank's Snack Pack Program and a free concert with food and beer vendors and community booths.  To help drum up excitement, I did two live promo spots on our local news stations. I got to be on at 6:45am on KEZI and just a few short hours later I was on KVAL.  I kinda really like doing these types of things.  It scratches a performing itch that hasn't been tended to in a long while.   The event turned out really well.  More attendees than our first time around last summer.  The weather was beautiful.  Our sponsors were happy.  What more could we ask for?   

Yesterday, we got up bright and early as I went with a friend/co-worker, Jana, down to Roseburg to pick up her new dog from their humane society!  I really enjoy driving south as the landscape changes and you feel like you are going out on an adventure.  And we were.  She has been looking for a dog for quite a while and this week found a blood-hound that was a winner.  We picked up Sheldon (Chip's new name) and drove back.  It was really a different experience from picking Rudy up from the shelter a few years ago.  Sheldon didn't eat his own poop, he didn't take 30 minutes to get into the car, and he didn't seem terrified of the new people who were driving away with him.  Also Sheldon's teeth are in so much better condition that Rudy's were when we adopted him (both dogs adopted around 7 months).  All of this is really making me realize that Rudy didn't have it so great before we found him.  Perhaps his first few months set us up for some challenges that we are still dealing with to this day.  Hum.  Oh well.  Rudy is fantastic and we wouldn't have it any other way (although better leash skills by now would be pretty great).  No matter.  Sheldon and Rudy got to play in the yard.  Rudy is far, far faster that the 65 lb. pup but it didn't matter as Sheldon seemed to be having fun running behind and using his chasing bark.  It was great.  Rudy has a new friend. In fact, he seems to get a long better with Sheldon than any other dog.  It must be a hound thing. 


After the puppy excitement, we packed up the car to go camping with another friend/co-worker and her family*.   Kerry's family got a pop-up camper and wanted to do a test run.  Cliff and I have recently completed our backpacking supplies so we wanted to do a dry run too.  Well, in the end we decided to use our car camping supplies instead of the backpacking stuff as we wanted Rudy to come with us.  He has been doing really well recently about chilling out with us (not on leash) and being less crazy around kids.  So camping was the next challenge to tackle (we aren't going to count the cross-country move camping).  So we all drove up the McKenzie River to Delta Campground.  On the way up, we realized that Rudy gets car sick.  He whines, barks, and pants a whole lot in the car.  To be honest it can be really unpleasant, loud, and stressful.  Well this trip we finally put it together that he freaks out when there are windy roads, speed bumps, and sharp turns (that is why he starts to get upset as soon as he hears the turn signal go on).   I feel bad saying this but we always thought he was just being a jerk and getting overly excited about everything.  Nope.  He wasn't feeling well.  Thankfully, it was a pretty smooth trip as we could just cruse once we got out of town. 

We mocked Kerry and Todd before we left when they mentioned bug spray.  Cliff and I insisted that we have never been bothered by bugs here as we were use to Virginia mosquitos and in comparison Oregon has nothing to complain about.  Well, that is apparently a lie.  Our campground was on an arm of the McKenzie and there were so many mosquitoes   We started a fire at 5:00pm in the hopes of smoking them out.  I almost immediatly changed out of my tank top and shorts and into long pants and multiple layers of long sleved tops in order to keep them from attacking me.  But it was too late.  They got me.  They got us all.  Todd later told us that the highlands are bad for mosquitos due to all of the snow melt.  Apparently things are better in southern Oregon.  Note to self for the next camping expedition.

Last night was a whole lot of fun.  We hung out.  We ate a really great meal of salmon, salad, and potatoes.  We made smores and sipped Fireball by the fire.  What to know the best part?  Our dog was AMAZING! Honestly, we lived our dog owner dream last night.  He happily played at the site with the girls (he didn't bowl anyone over or get someone right in the face).  We didn't freak out and bark at every kid, bird, bug, motorcycle he heard.  He was so good that we trusted him off leash.  He stayed right by us and enjoyed hanging out under the picnic table.  Plus since he is an avid fire-loving dog, we didn't have to worry about him being stupid around the campfire.  It was great.  Once it got dark he got a bit stressed out as he is kind of a weanie and doesn't like the dark.  Also, he has a pretty strict internal clock that makes him want to sleep at 9:00pm.  He was already on the downslide when our camping neighbors rolled up around 10:00pm to set up camp.  As long as he sat with his back turned towards them, between Cliff and I he was ok.  As soon as he turned around to see them he would howl.  To keep it together he sat touching both of us with one of us always petting him.  Todd and Kerry commented that it was like we were dealing with a toddler past its bed time.  On top of this, around 11:00pm it started to sprinkle.  Rudy hates being wet.  He beelined towards the tent so we called it a night.  When we let him in he was incredibly happy to lay on his bed at the foot of our super luxe Coleman air mattress.  We knew with the rain that he was going to break the seal so we broke one of our rules: we let Rudy sleep on the bed between us.  Rudy was shocked.  That dog didn't move all night as he was warm, safe, comfortable, and cuddling with us.  He was awesome.

Good thing we didn't let him sleep at the foot of the bed and it rained all night long.  Cliff got a really bad allergy headache sometime around 1:00am and after taking painkillers left our toiletry bag too close to the tent lining.  He broke the seal.  When we woke in the morning all of our clothes were soaked but we were happily floating above the water on our air mattress.  Rudy was less than excited about the rain and looked very weary about having to go outside to go to the bathroom and start the day.  Can you sense the internal grumbling?

After eating breakfast in the new pop-up (which was super sweet), we loaded up the car and headed home.  I stopped at the general store to get jojo's (or taters for all of us east coasters) with ranch as they are a must when we travel up river. We spend the rest of the day napping, unpacking, and doing laundry.  We even made it to Olive Garden.

Overall I think we did a pretty great job kicking off the summer.  I have my fingers crossed that we can keep this up for a little while.

*Side note: Kerry was my original office soul mate.  A few months ago Kerry got a new job in one of our different departments and that is when Jana moved in.  So far, I've really lucked out with co-workers. 

Lazy Sunday

This weekend Cliff and I decided to go to RVapalooza at the Lane County Fair Grounds.  With not a whole lot going on otherwise we figured spending a few hours at a free RV show sounded like fun. Plus they advertised free snacks.  Who could resist such an event?

They weren't kidding when they said that there would be hundreds of RVs.  There honestly must have been almost 1,000 of all shapes, sizes, and price points.  Cliff and I strolled around with our free sodas and popcorn (at least until I spilled the popcorn) looking at different models.  Cliff and I like the idea of one day getting a camper.  We love road trips and camping (well I love the idea of tent camping maybe a little bit more than the actual experience) which means that a camper would be an awesome addition to the family.  Plus, to be a good Oregonian we need to have one parked out front of our house.  We could treat it as a guest house!  While we are a long way off from purchasing our dream on wheels it was a great way to spend an hour and a half on a Sunday.  Plus did I mention they had free sodas and popcorn?

The Trip Part III: The Upper Midwest and North Dakota

Hello!

At this point we were already almost halfway through the trip.  We traveled north through Michigan over the Mackinac Bridge.  Jeremy and Kim (the wonderful folks that we would house/dog sit for) recommended that we go north up Michigan so that we wouldn't end up stuck in traffic around Chicago.  Michigan is rural but really nice.  Matt had warned us about the condition of the roads but thankfully they were only bad in patches.  It looks us a whole day of driving to get to the U.P.  (we got a late start) so we decided to camp at Brevort Lake State Park which was over the bridge and about 20 minutes west.


The Mackinac Bridge is a really nice looking suspension bridge with green railings.  Fun facts: it is five miles long (the third longest suspension bridge in the world), the roadway is about 200 ft. above the water and apparently it can sway up to 35 feet back and forth in severe wind.  Michigan is super smart and has several rest stops right past the bridge so that people can stop and see the scenic view. 

The State Park where we camped had really nice tent spots.  Fortunately for us there were not a ton of other crazies out camping in a tent during late September (however there were multiple campers right by our little tent) so we got a prime spot right next to the lake.  Cliff and I heated our canned soup, fed the dog, and went to bed.  Hunting is big in the U.P. so we heard shots first thing in the morning as there were already folks on the water looking for ducks.  Rudy is very gun shy so he freaked out.  He honestly sat between Cliff and I shaking for like a half an hour.  He could never be a hunting dog.  Oh- I failed to mention earlier that his barking in the car had almost stopped by this point.  Ignoring works!

The next morning when we got out onto the road we kept seeing roadside stands selling Pastys and gas stations that sold smoked fish and fresh jerky.  Obviously we stopped.  While Cliff cleaned the bugs off our windshield I got to go into an awesome gas station with fresh meat sticks (regular and spicy), smoked whole fish (along with some very large smoked chunks), and pelts on the walls.  I'm not saying pelts for decoration. These pets were for sale and by the dozen.  Squirrels, foxes, racoons, pretty much any small/medium sized animal you could imagine was for sale.  I got to overhear a conversation between a customer and the cashier about about their kids honing their hunting skills.  I bought two meat sticks (one of each kind) and a few post cards.  The meat sticks were super good.  Cliff said they were the best meat sticks he ever had (I think they might have been maybe my second or third meat sticks ever).  Sadly, I started to have some sort of allergic reaction after eating them so Cliff got to finish them all.

In pure road trip fashion, once I decided that we were going to eat Pastys in Michigan we couldn't find a roadside stand to save our lives.  It very much reminded me of driving through Arizona with the Andrea, Stephen, and Nicole looking for fresh buffalo jerky after we had already unknowingly passed the last stand.  I pretty much had given up hope when we saw Colonel K's Pasty Shop in the last town before we crossed over into Wisconsin.  Colonel K's tag line is "the friendly food shaped like a smile".  Amazing.  Cliff got the traditional beef and rutabaga and I got a chicken and broccoli.  They were pretty wonderful little meat pockets.  For dessert we got a custard cookie (see the photo over Cliff's shoulder below) which was blueberry custard between two thin waffle circles that sat in the deep freeze overnight.  Another solid, hearty meal.  

After lunch we finished our tour of the U.P. and crossed into Wisconsin.  We pretty much just drove for the rest of the day.  Cliff started to get a headache so we set up camp at Lake Wissota State Park and went to bed early.  Fun fact: Lake Wissota is crawling with mosquitoes.  It was awful.  It has just rained so there was standing water all around us (I'm not just talking about the lake either) and they were everywhere.  They were relentless.  They even followed you into the bathroom.  As soon as the sun got up I was ready to hightail it out of there as I was done with Lake Wissota. 

Cliff still wasn't feeling well so we skipped a potential brewery tour at Leinenkugel's (recommended by our friend Allen) and instead went to Walmart to get Cliff some of the Midwest's finest Subway coffee.  It was only $.52 and it did the trick as Cliff started feeling better when we got to Minnesota. Also, they totally sell cheese head hats in  the Chippewa Falls Walmart.

Once we were well into Minnesota we could not find a rest stop anywhere that had food.  We finally lucked out as we found a little town with an A&W/Subway at their gas station.  We split a sub, fried cheese curds (amazing!), and a homemade dairy treat.  Food is a wonderful thing on a road trip. 

The upper Midwest is really flat with a ton of lakes.  We both thought that the upper part of Minnesota and Wisconsin were prettier than the southern parts.  We didn't really take any side trips so we only got to see what was to the side of I-94 but it was nice to drive through..

We crossed into North Dakota and I was so excited.  The first trip across the country I had a minor panic attack in South Dakota because the landscape was so different from anything that I had ever seen before (especially after you cross the Missouri River and get into the black hills).  I wanted to see if I had the same reaction five years later in the northern sister state.  I did not.  I loved North Dakota!  It was so relaxing to drive through the prairie.  I got homemade honey roasted soybeans at their welcome center, good postcards at their gas stations, and Cliff and I stopped at this really fun winery right off of I-94.  The Maple River Winery is in the tiny town of Casselton, ND.  Wikipedia reports that the town is 1.4 square miles.  The winery only makes fruit wines.  Honestly every type of local fruit wine imaginable.  They had chokecherry, crabapple, apple and jalapeno, dandelion, lilac, pumpkin, two kinds of rhubarb, plus a ton more.  Very fun.  Also, they apparently now ship to Maryland (can we say Christmas presents anyone?).  We saw their advertisement in the welcome center and got intrigued as we had never had rhubarb wine.   We met Adam, the salesman, and he told us all about the town, the wine, and were to eat dinner that night.  He also told us to camp before we got to Bismark as their was an oil boom in the western part of the state and all of the hotels and camp grounds filled up two days earlier (good tip!).  We followed Adam's advice and ate at Corner Pizza in Valley City, ND.  Valley City is a big college town in North Dakota (pop. of 6.585) and Corner Pizza is apparently so popular that they freeze their pizzas for distribution all around the state.  Per Adam's recommendation, Cliff and I got a taco pizza.  Good choice.  Plus we lucked out as we got two free pops because it was a Monday and two free ice cream treats for dessert as we ate in the dining area.  It was awesome.  They might have been a little heavy handed on the dorrito chip topping, but who I am to say. 

Driving through North Dakota at sunset was so wonderful.  I felt really content.  We had Fleetwood Mac's Rumors on the radio and I was happy.  The first two trips across I felt a lot of anxiety as we were always kinda rushed.   With this trip we allowed ourselves to just take our time and soak it in.   We are two lucky people.

That night we camped at a nice camp ground east of Bismark in Jamestowne, ND (we passed two white buffalo on the way) and once again we were the only tent set up in a field of campers.  Lucky, we got the best spot an the site as we had an awesome view of the prairie sunset.

Rudy was now a traveling dog.  No barking.  He was sitting quietly and nicely in the back seat as we ate quickly at restaurants. Just generally being an awesome dog.  Cliff and I decided to ease the reigns a bit as he seemed to have the hang of the whole traveling and camping thing.

I know that I have typed a ton so I am going to close with a pretty classic Kim and Cliff photo.  I took it (as you can see by the reflection in Cliff's sunglasses) and like always I forgot to zoom back out after the last picture. 

Good night!