Airstreaming with Sally & Betty

After dropping off Betty at the Airstream dealer in Portland (her 3rd visit), Jeff and I took a red-eye to Jacksonville, FL where Jeff's parents Elaine and Jim picked us up and drove us to St. Augustine. We were all visiting to attend Jeff's brother Scott's wedding to Judy deGrandpre on August 26th. Since I didn't take pictures during the wedding, miraculously, I have no pictures of the bride and groom together! Evan, Ben and Grandma Elaine It was so nice to get a good portion of the Clark family together for the wedding.  Second to Judy, Elaine was the happiest woman around, surrounded by all of her family.  "The boys" including Scott, Jay, Jeff, Jim, Evan and Ben enjoyed a trip to the old fort as well as swimming at the beach and even shopping with Grandma Elaine.  Who knew Hawaiian shirts were a thing with college guys? Elaine & Jim On Friday night we had dinner and drinks to introduce members of the families who had not yet met. Afte...

photo by Kris Hill Seeing the total eclipse was way beyond our expectations, which says a lot given that we drove from Las Vegas to Corvallis over 2.5 weeks for 1 minute and 40 seconds of darkness.  We decided on Corvallis because it was in the path and home to our good friend Katie's sister Liza.  Jeff booked us very early to be sure to get a spot in their public sports fields turned Eclipse Campground.  It was well done with beer and food trucks, live music, eclipse glasses and plenty of friendly volunteers. Our neighbor Kris Hill, his wife Merry and daughter Angela were very friendly and as it turns out, had a much better camera (and probably skills) in order to take the great photo above.  They are now friends in Salt Lake City, so we will look them up when we are there for the winter ski season. Here we are watching the early stages of the eclipse, so still wearing what looked like extremely cheap 3D glasses.  In fact, they worked like a charm, ...

In Eugene, OR We left the Airstream Caravan in Sisters, OR.  Although we have no pictures and our stay was somewhat obstructed by smoke from the adjacent fire, we really liked this small tourist town.  Lisa had sent me an article that recommended Sisters Coffee Company.  Although they no longer serve the Earl Grey shortbread, we still enjoyed two breakfasts there and the shopping in town was terrific. Jeff and I both bought gifts (Isabelle and Paula) and I scored an amazing cocktail shaker in the shape of a silver coffee server.  The antique store owner believes it is 1930s or 1940s and will certainly fit in nicely with my art deco barware back at home. We stayed at a super awesome RV resort in Eugene which came furnished with an outdoor fire pit, a gas grill and potted flowers.  We were thrilled when they delivered the paper in the morning and we were able to catch up on the latest capers of our President....Eugene was a great spot for us because Jeff's...

Jeff kicking back at Crater Lake Lodge Diamond Lake was the closest reservation that we could get to Crater Lake.  Unfortunately, our first day was cloudy and a bit smoky so we decided to read and do laundry.  We would be rewarded later with an amazing dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge.  I had been in a little bit of a funk, so curling my hair for the first time since France felt like pampering. The lodge is beautiful and like the one at the Grand Canyon – and probably others that I don’t remember. The interior walls are either stone or paneled with pine bark.  As always there is a beautiful view deck with rocking chairs which we enjoyed as well. One the bike path Bike path around the lake On our second day, we had better weather and planned for a bike ride around Diamond Lake.  The path was a bike trail and not my favorite.  I ended up riding through the campground instead of completing  the loop of 11 miles with Jeff.  My bike c...

Our Caravan From Lakeview we traveled a short way west through Oregon and then 4 miles south into CA arriving at Tulelake.  This is a 4 night stay in a fairground and our first time to park on grass (we wondered if we would sink in during the rains).  While in Oregon, we had several nights of rain, which were very nice.  Of course we don't get much rain in SoCal, so this was a welcome change. Our first adventure was a visit to the Tule Lake Segregation Center and Camp Tulelake. Tule Lake has the dubious honor of being the largest of the WWII relocation centers in the US with 13,789 residents at its peak.  In the west coast exclusion area, all US citizens of 1/16th Japanese heritage or more were required to leave their homes with only the personal items that they could carry and move to one of the centers.  The centers were purposefully located in the middle of nowhere.  Families lived in 20X20 foot barracks and shared bathrooms and mess halls. ...

We decided to join our first caravan in Oregon on the way to viewing the Total Solar Eclipse.  The Northern California Airstream Unit had a caravan published and we quickly tried to take a spot.  We were second on the waiting list with little hope of making the group, but got very lucky with a last minute drop out.  So, about 10 days before the start, we were registered. We had attended a San Diego Airstream unit rally earlier and knew what a welcoming group these people would be.  A caravan is different because instead of staying in one location for a couple of nights, you travel around (in our case southern Oregon) with a group of Airstreams for almost 2 weeks.  We are a group of 22 rigs, with ours being the newest.  So far, we are most impressed with Dennis and Karen Richardson's rig.  Dennis bought his 1968 Chevrolet pickup truck new and has babied it ever since.  Their 1972 Airstream was gifted to them from his parents and he has rebuil...

Probably because I had used about 9 nights of points with Hilton lately, I got a random call wondering if I wouldn't like to listen to a timeshare presentation in Las Vegas.  Since Jeff's birthday was right around the corner and he had not found a destination that really excited him, I decided to take the bait.  Dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant was a memorable event! We didn't gamble, but I thought that not buying the timeshare deal meant that we were many thousands of dollars "up" and considered it a successful trip! We then spent two days of long hard driving to meet up with the Northern California Airstream Unit in southern Oregon.  Day one was a harrowing experience!  We drove from the Airstream dealer in Vegas (Jeff may or may not write an entry on our mechanical issues) to the Desert Rose RV Park in Fernly, OR.  This was the absolutely hardest day of backseat driving that I have ever endured!  As Jeff was driving along with the wind...

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