Hells Canyon Dam Visitors Center. 

Hells Canyon Dam on the Snake River. 

Rafters getting ready for a two or three day trip down the Snake River Canyon starting just downriver from the Hell's Canyon Dam. 

Just one of thousands of damaged trees destroyed when a tornado passed through the area north of Bear Creek Idaho a couple months ago. Tornados in Idaho? Fortunately, only the high mountain forest suffered extreme damages. 

My cousin Bobby's early school house. 

Still sweethearts after almost 48 years! My dear cousins, Johnny and Bobby in the school yard where she went to 2nd and 3rd grade. It is used now as a community hall in the tiny village of Bear Idaho. 

Baby kitten in a bucket! This is "Turkey", a cute little girl about three months old. She gave Phil and me a giant kitten fix. 

This is Johnny showing Phil his new tractor. All automatic ... he loves it! 

Two of my cousin's five Black Angus cows they have raised for beef this year. I named them "t-bone" and "rib-eye". 

This is Smokey. Bobby and Johnny's lovable Australian Shepherd cross. He has beautiful blue eyes! 

11:15 AM Sunday October 8, 2006

Our last day in Oregon is starting out on the chilly side. Only 52 degrees so far and it is after 10 AM MST. The sun is casting shadows and the sky is blue with high clouds but interestingly, it isn’t warming up very fast. Guess it really is October after all!

The time spent in Oregon has been very enjoyable. Tomorrow we will move east to Twin Falls, Idaho for another week. My cousin, Bobby and her husband, Johnny who live in Weiser, ID (about 12 miles from where we’re camped on the Oregon side of the Snake River) are walking encyclopedias about the Hell’s Canyon area of Idaho as both were raised and have lived all their lives in that part of Idaho. They have taken us up into the hills to see some spectacular rugged country above the canyon and I will tell you about that a little later.

For now, I’ll post some miscellaneous pictures we’ve taken along the way as we did some exploring around the area.

PS: It is now up to 56 degrees! Wow … heat wave!

Early morning view from our "picture window" AKA a windshield. 

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Malheur Butte. 

Thousands of acres of field corn ready for harvest all around us. 

We are here in the middle of onion harvesting time. The air is rich with the smell of one of our favorite vegetables and the roads are littered with discards that bounced off the truck. 

They bale 'em big in this area. Phil estimates these alfalfa bales weigh about 600 pounds each!  

Ashgrove West Cement Plant near Durkee Oregon where Johnny toiled for 30 years as a welder. He worked mostly 2nd shift for all those years so he could look after his little farm in his off time.  

2:13 PM Tuesday October 3, 2006

I’m looking out the front and side windows of Penny the Pace at the broad and serene Snake River just outside our door. It is picture perfect as it winds through these barren hills that have a peaceful beauty of their own!

Our RV park for the next few days is in Huntington Oregon and we are on Mountain Time now … Phil has gone fishing. I am taking some time to write a few words in the blog while I wait for a call back from my cousin, Bobby who lives about 12 miles from our RV park in a tiny town called Weiser in Idaho. I’m hoping to be able to stop by and say hello although if that isn’t possible, I have only myself to blame, as I didn’t call her ahead of time. I guess my mind has been too preoccupied with getting back on the road and then the computer crash really upset me. Fortunately, I had everything backed up through July so my losses were minimal. The hard part has been reloading all the programs I need and use everyday.

The first hour after we left Albany a week ago, Penny had some trouble with her overdrive thing-a-mabob (I'd be more specific except Phil isn't here to explain it to me) but Phil cleaned some connections when we took a rest stop break and she has been fine since then. Thank goodness! I had visions of another week at McKay’s Trucking. The weather has been perfect. We spent six nights in a tiny town called Irrigon on the Columbia River and enjoyed the beautiful river scenery and took a couple day trips in the area. Other than that, we did our laundry and I worked on installing programs in my new computer.

Here are some pictures from one of our day trips while we were in Albany.

One of our daytrips from Albany included a stop at the Tillamook Air Museum. 

Many of the aircraft on display are in flying condition and pilots routinely take them out. 

Biplane taking off as we arrived. 

Hanger "B". From the Tillamook Air Museum info handout: "In 1942, the U.S. Navy began construction of 17 wooden hangars around the U.S. coastlines to house the K-class blimps being used for anti-submarine coast patrol and convoy excort. Two were built at Naval Air Station Tillamook. Hangar "A" was destroyed in a 1992 fire. Length: 1,072, Height: 192 feet (over 15 stories), Width: 296 feet, Area: Over 7 acres (enough to play six football games), Doors: 120 feet high, 6 sections each weighing 30 tons (180 tons total), 220 feet wide openings. The sections roll on railroad tracks. Catwalks: two catwalks, each 137 feet above the hanger deck."

Phil squeezed his 6 ft., 180 lb. body inside this tiny, cramped jet trainer! Pilots in the past must have been a lot smaller. 

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Phil reading about this interesting design. A plane that can land on terra firma or on water. 

A little cheesecake for your enjoyment! For some interesting background on this practice click on--or copy and paste this link: http://www.acepilots.com/planes/nose_art.html into your browser.