I’ve been traveling for 9 months and I haven’t had a single mishap - until now.   The last park I stayed at in Oregon didn’t have pull through sites, only back in ones.   I’m very good at driving forward, but backing up is another matter.   I can back myself into most sites, but it’s not always quick or pretty.   My friend Angela came along with me this time because we were going for lunch after I parked.   I got myself lined up (poorly) and started backing up.   The road was a bit narrow, so I had to go back and forth to get my truck lined up correctly.   At one point Angela said, you’re really close to the water faucet.   I clearly heard her but looked at the electric box which was farther back.   I thought, OK I’m watching the water (electric box).   I moved forward and backed up once more.   At which point Angela said, well, you just took out the water faucet and there is water gushing up out of the ground.   I can’t really...

It’s been a busy few weeks! My friend Mike is a volunteer Deputy Sheriff for the Hood River County Marine Patrol.   He invited me to assist with the Roy Webster Cross Channel Swim.   It’s a 1.1 mile swim across the Columbia River.   There were over 400 swimmers, 12 people couldn’t make it and had to be pulled out of the water.   We got two of them.   It was interesting being a rescue boat, I’ve done some open water swims and it’s much harder than it looks.   I was really impressed when I heard that over half the swimmers were novice swimmers and only 12 quit.   I had to take a nap after, he made me get up at 330 in the morning to meet him by 530.   Who in   their right mind gets up at that hour?   That’s one big reason I don’t work anymore… The state park I’m staying in has a trail head that leads to a network of hiking trails.   I headed out one day aiming for Multnomah Falls, a very busy tourist attraction.   I plan...

I spent a few days at the William M. Tugman state park on the Oregon Coast.   It was a really nice park and the weather was very cool.   It was a nice change from the heat of Redding CA.   I decided to take it easy and just drove up and down the coast taking in the sights.   I planned on trying out my kayak in the lake, but a cold front moved it so I spent the day cleaning out cabinets and rearranging things.   I got to Portland and hit the ground running.   I’m having such a great time, I don’t want to leave!   In the first week alone, I hung out with my favorite cousins Joyce and Lisa several times.     I took all the ‘valuable stuff’ I cleaned out a few days before and added it to a giant yard sale.   Although I made $70 and got rid of a bunch of stuff, the best part of the day was just hanging out.   I had dinner with a friend Mike and his wife Michelle a few times, they’re great to hang out with.     Mike ...

It was sad to leave my little clearing in the forest and the friends I made, but it was time to hit the road.   I’ve been pretty busy since I left and I just realized I haven’t posted a thing in weeks.    Now that I’m on the road again, I’ll try to go back to weekly updates.    From Sonora I headed north to Redding for a week.   Man was it hot!!   I took a drive out to Lassen Volcanic National Park and hiked a trail called Bumpass Hell.   It went past some mud spots, or roaring fumaroles (steam and volcanic-gas vents), thumping mud pots, boiling pools, and steaming ground.   That’s something you don’t see every day!   The road that goes through the park was closed due to active fires in the area, so I didn’t get to see the whole thing, but I did see some interesting sights.   There was no guard rail, a narrow road and steep drop offs.   That morning I saw a video of two guys racing on Pikes Peak and they went over the ed...

What a harrowing week I’ve had!   I’m leaving the forest in about 2 weeks, so I thought I better get to all the hikes I’ve been putting off.   This week I decided to go all the way up to Sonora Pass and hike the Pacific Crest Trail. The elevation is about 9600 feet so I asked around to see which direction was more level and was told to take the North route.   The first open parking space was next to the trail head, so off I went.   It was a gradual but steady uphill climb and I could see forever, including parts of the trail above me.   I saw this huge rock formation ahead but I thought the trail must pass by it and go up another way.   Not so much I was soon to discover.   After about a mile of trudging uphill, I got to the formation and was surprised to see my path kept going up.   It seemed pretty dangerous, so I turned around and went back down.   I got about a quarter mile away, and turned around to look at the trail again.   It rea...

I’ve spent the last two weeks doing manual labor and it sure is hard!   We found a meadow that someone on an ATV tore up doing donuts.   It’s so stupid that with the thousands of miles of trails, people feel the need to go off the trails and tear up meadows and campgrounds.   Last week we had to build a wooden fence to protect Long Barn meadow.   That involved using an auger that had a mind of its own.   It’s easy enough to use the auger, until you hit rocks.   Rocks make the drill stop turning and the top, which you are holding, begin to spin.   In other words, the drill stops and the auger handles are ripped out of your hands.   There is a rubber safety bar that is supposed to stop everything from spinning.   In theory it sounds great, but in practice, if the handles don’t rip your arms out of your sockets, the bar will break your legs.   OK, that may a bit dramatic, but I do have bruises on my legs where the rubber bar beat me up. ...

I decided to come down out of the forest and spend a few days in Monterey. I brought my bathing suit, sun tan lotion and beach towels. Too bad I didn’t check the weather forecast, it’s cold and overcast. No worries, there's still plenty to do. I went to the Monterey Aquarium where they had really cool jellyfish and seahorse exhibits. I posted some pictures, I’m surprised at how good they came out using my cell phone. The next day I went to Fisherman’s Warf and took a whale watching cruise. It was pretty cold, but I had a great view sitting in front of the boat. We saw both blue whales and humpback whales. They were huge, but we only saw a tiny portion of them as they came up for air. We didn’t get the spectacular views of them breaching because they didn’t do any acrobatics. The most we saw were a few tail flips, but it was still pretty cool. The ride out and back were fine, but just sitting in the swaying boat brought on some queasiness, so I spent most of the time laying back aga...