Thursday, August 15, 2024
We left Silver Falls State Park on the morning of August 1st and moved to our home for two months, Bonneville Fish Hatchery. As many of you faithful followers are aware we have volunteered at this hatchery many times. The drive for today is only 84 miles, some of it mountain driving on shoulderless state roads winding through forest and farmland, some on flatter urban stop and go traffic through more populous areas, then about 30 miles of interstate.
So it’s time to fess up. The Subaru has not been towed by the Allegro Red since we left Sisters. While unhitching the Subaru at Collier SP the Subaru slowly rollded forward and touched the disconnected tow bar. I can usually feel resistance pulling the tow pins from the Subaru but felt nothing, like the car was perfectly balanced but it wasn’t. A Blue Ox tow bar has telescoping arms that make hitching and unhitching much easier. When the Subaru crept forward it damaged the locking mechanism on one arm. I didn’t even notice something was amiss until we were almost to Sisters. I then felt the Subie shifting around behind us. When working properly no movement is felt between the Subie and the motorhome. I’ve ordered a new one.
So Jil has driven the Subie from Sisters to Idanha, to Salem Premiere RV Resort, Silver Falls State Park always following her smarty pants phone’s GPS and not following the Big Dog RV at all. She usually arrives a little before the Big Dog and mostly follows the same route. We leave Silver Falls her leaving ahead of me. I give her the directions of which I will follow- drive to Silverton and pick up Oregon Hwy 213 (Oak Street) there. She snears at me and says “Ill follow my GPS, thank you very much”. Okie Dokie! I stop in town and top off the diesel tank, diesel in Silverton being 70 cents more a gallon than in Salem- gads- and they are only 12 miles apart! I then head north on OR 213 as planned. Hwy 213 leads through scenic rolling hills and farm country, then into a portion of Oregon City where I pick up I-205, then I-84 east to the hatchery.
Our Beautiful Site #2. The Bridge In The Background Is A Railroad Bridge
Well, this time I beat her to our destination after giving her a 20 minute head start. I asked what route she took when she came cruising in a little later. Well, my little sweetie and her smarty pants phone’s GPS got lost! They zigged when they should have zagged and wound up way off the beaten track. They corrected in Corbett (way outta the way!)and came on into the hatchery. We set up and then say howdie to our co-hosts Mike and Sue. Apparently the hosts that just left didn’t help out too much saddling Mike and Sue with more work so we got to start work on August 2. That’s fine because that’s why we came here…………
Host site #2 is our preferred site. Both host sites have full hookups as one is required to have self contained campers to host here. Site #1 is like being downtown and close to visitors compared to site #2 which is more like being in the country away from folks. Our mutzos have lots of room to roam off leash. Even employees don’t come down here much except to take required water samples discharging from the hatchery into Tanner Creek. And yes, we are parked right next to Tanner Creek with birch and other tall trees for shade. We have full hookups, a turf lawn, a nice picnic bench. We can walk the dogs quite a ways before reaching civilization. But best of all, we are in the country! Ahhhhh………..
Some Of The Beautiful Grounds We Help Maintain
For the past two weeks we’ve had enough wildfire smoke in the Gorge to give us pause about traveling to some of our favorite scenic spots. No sense going if ya can’t see nothin’! So we’ve stayed in the Gorge on our days off except to go to church and grocery shopping.
Our big splurge was to visit the Skamania County Fair over in Stevenson WA, which is less than 10 miles away. Could NOT believe the cost of things- a corn dog $7, one dart for a dart game-$4. Sheesh! We enjoyed the farm animals, beautiful quilts, art drawings by young local kids and great photographs and graphics that had 1st and 2nd place ribbons hanging next to them.
I’ll write more on our duties at the hatchery and the small towns around here in later posts. But for now, Adios until next time.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it through faith.”
Travel With Jil and Mike 