Springfield, Oregon

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the 95 miles from Wilsonville to Springfield, Oregon.

My day started with an aggravation. Some jerk parked directly in my planned exit route and his truck was still there when I wanted to leave yesterday morning. Since he was the only vehicle in the Moose parking lot, it sure looks like he did it on purpose. Since a motorhome cannot backup with a towed vehicle, I was forced to unhook the Bronco, back it and the motorhome and re-hookup. Thanks Pal!

I thought strongly about letting all the air out of his tires to thank him. Instead I left a note on his windshield. I was going to tell him in graphic language what I thought of him, but after talking to Mary she got me to tone down my planned language. WOMAN SOOTHES THE SAVAGE BEAST!  :)…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

With another cold night in yesterday’s forecast I needed to find another place where I knew I could get an electrical hookup to run my electric heater. The Moose Lodge at Springfield is the last place I know of heading south on Interstate Highway 5 in Oregon.

I departed at 8:40 AM driving in fog which became denser as I drove further south and stayed with me to Springfield…

By time I arrived in Springfield a little after 11:00 AM, it was a cold 46 degrees with heavy fog…

Arriving at Moose Lodge #1726, the only way to plug into electricity was to once again unhook the Bronco and back in to the narrow space. Fortunately there are not a lot of RV’s here…

Here’s the usual dinette window photo…

I spent the afternoon reading, taking a nap, doing some computer work and visiting with the local Moose members. I’ll continue my southerly journey later this morning. Google Earth is telling me I’ve got 557 miles to go until I arrive at Mary’s home at Murphys, California.

The sun finally broke through the fog by mid-afternoon.Yesterday’s high temperature was 65 degrees with partly cloudy/sunny skies. At 5:00 AM when I arose thus morning it was 41 degrees! Brrr! Time to continue putting on some miles heading south!

Last night I watched another old movie from the 1930’s. This time it was 1931 – The Public Enemy starring James Cagney. Another classic!

Enjoying friendly Moose clubs is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Oregon. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

SIX MILLION RV’S ON THE ROAD.

Memorial Day is tomorrow. We read where there are an estimated six million rv’s  on the road for this three-day holiday. Jim has a philosophy, and that is to hunker down somewhere for popular holidays and stay off the road. We spent Thursday night at an American Legion in Dillsburg,  PA. We saw bunches of vets with motorcycles headed for various parades and festivities honoring vets. Friday morning, he drove through another rain storm to bring us to a Thousand Trails in Hershey, PA.

I took a couple of barn pictures between raindrops.

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I compared the beauty of the land to this painting from the Shenandoah Valley Museum. The same general area.

And this painting. An unusual boat for American waters. I’ve never seen any thing like it.

It was beastly cold and we stayed in and read  and did computer chores most of the day. A short walk away, ducks were so cold we thought at first they were decoys; their heads tucked under wings.

Then, yesterday, we did our laundry and walked to the visitors center for a look around. The pool opened for the season, but I wasn’t up to braving the cold. We looked through the library and traded books we’ve read for some we haven’t.  I’m walking slowly, so Jim took an evening walk by himself.

I’m reading an excellent book entitled My Dream Of You by Nuala O’Faolain.  O’Faolain returns to her native Ireland to dig up a story of an aristocratic family during the potato famine. I’m French/Irish and it reminds me that there was genocide in Ireland during that horrific period. Living on the road for months at a time, gives me the luxury of reading good books as well as my trash novels, and I love it.

Corpus Christi, Texas – Day 4

The motorhome is parked at the Eagles Club #2249. We expect to depart here later this morning.

Yesterday was a laundry, do repairs and odds and ends day. The cold windy weather we’ve been experiencing for the last several days is finally starting to break. We actually saw the sun for a while yesterday and the long-range forecast is for sun and moderate temperatures. At Last!

Since I knew I wouldn’t have any photos for today, I saved three photos of the USS Lexington that I took from Ocean Drive the day before yesterday. In these photos, I think she resembles her nickname…The Blue Ghost. She got that nickname because the Japanese referred to Lexington as a “ghost” ship for her tendency to reappear after reportedly being sunk. This, coupled with the ship’s dark blue camouflage scheme, led the crew to refer to her as “The Blue Ghost”.

What do you think???

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Enjoying old naval warships is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…(look closely on the Texas coast…)

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

An Unusual Four-Day Weather Event Is Coming To An End…

I’d say roughly 90% of the time I manage to stay in delightful sunny 65-75 degree weather all year-long. Pretty nice! Not so the last four days.

Here’s the current setting…

The motorhome is parked on the slope of the Little Florida Mountains in Rockhound State Park about 15 miles southeast of Deming, New Mexico at about 4,550 feet elevation…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

I have a magnificent south-southwest unencumbered view of 20+ miles…

As part of my daily activities I monitor local weather at accuweather.com…looking for any potential negative weather systems. About one week ago I found one warning of a four-day high-wind, cold-temperatures system heading my way. Being on the road with a high-profile vehicle during high winds is not a good idea. Here’s a past Blog entry where three 18-wheelers were on their sides with one-half mile in 75 mile per hour winds…
http://wp.me/pDCku-1hV

I was ready to move along at that time, but being safe and secure in my current location, plus heading for a new location to which I’ve not been before at about 1,000 feet higher in elevation…I decided to stay put and wait until the storm passed through. In my full-time RVing lifestyle, I’ve learned to always err on the side of safety.

So here’s what happened.

Saturday started  as a beautiful sunny day with temps forecasted in the low 80’s. Winds started to come up about 10:00 AM. During the day they were 35-45 miles per hour sustained with gusts of 50+ miles per hour increasing in strength as the night came upon us. When I went to bed, the temperature was 82 degrees.

Sunday started as another sunny day.  During the day the winds increased to 40-50 miles per hour sustained with lots of 75+ mile per hour gusts raising sand and dust and obscuring my beautiful view…

In this unique sunset photo you can see the two distinct weather fronts…the warmth departing on the lower level and the cold front on the upper level. When I went to bed Sunday evening the temperature was 57 degrees a drop of 25 degrees in 24 hours…

It was a real rock and roll night with lots of disturbed sleep.

Monday morning it was still huffing and puffing. Several various weather fronts came through during the day…

including a ferocious five-minute sleet-storm…

According to accuweather.com the afternoon high temperature was only 38 degrees with a wind-chill factor of 25 degrees. It was so cold I kept my ceramic heater running all day long…something I’ve rarely ever done. As the night came on it started to get colder…fortunately the winds started decreasing.

During the evening I watched the movie Rio Bravo starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan which was filmed entirely at the Old Tucson Film Studio which we visited in January of 2010. Here’s the link to that Blog entry…
http://wp.me/pDCku-8D

When I went to bed the interior temperature was 52 degrees…I like it cooler when I sleep. The ceramic heater was on high setting.

When I woke at midnight to pee….it was now 42 degrees…I don’t like it that cold! Since I normally sleep in my birthday suit…sorry, this is a G-rated Blog…you do not get to see that photo  :)… I put on my sweats and slippers, turned on the gas furnace set to its minimum temperature setting 55 degrees, opened the interior under-cabinet doors so that the water lines wouldn’t freeze and went back to bed. That’s something I’ve never done before in all years of RVing,

When I awoke it was 42 degrees inside the motorhome despite the gas furnace. Accuweather.com stated the outside temperature was 25 degrees with a wind-chill factor of 21 degrees. Modern-day RV walls are made of a pressed laminate on an aluminum frame with a little foam insulation. Wall thickness is only somewhere between 1-2 inches thick.

As I finish up this Blog entry at about 7:30 Tuesday morning…it’s still very cold. The Bronco has a very distinct coating of frost on it this morning…

The forecast for today is partly sunny, windy and 53 degrees. Tonight is supposed to be cold once again…but not quite as cold as last night.

Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and 60 degrees. By Saturday it’s supposed to be sunny and 81 degrees. If the forecast holds true…tomorrow I’ll start rolling along once again. Brrrr!!!!

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

AFTER THE CABALGATA

After the Cabalgata, we followed the locals to the park where the smell of cooking food attracted hungry celebrants like us. The family walking in front of us are obviously from El Paso, Texas. We expect they have a father who rides in the Cabalgata.

Food booths surrounded the  park.  We passed on the chili burgers and found something delicious, without a name.

There was no sign, but the woman was filling some type of dough pocket with a filling of potatoes, onion, meat and peppers. Then adding fresh tomatoes, lettuce and red pepper sauce. They were delcious, but we only sampled. Later we bought a chili relleno burrito for me and a rojo  burrito for Jim. We went back for seconds. Lunch for the two of us, without drinks, $8.00, all home made. Can’t be beat.

The band set up and began to play music.

Young folklorico dancers giggled while they waited their turn.

While they dance, the younger girls watch and wait for their turn.

The faces are worried. For some of them their first time “on stage”, perhaps.

Light weight costumes barely protect them from the wind.

Then they realize how much fun it is. Click the short video below to watch them dance:

http://youtu.be/cuKO4uHE5MQ

Now that it is over, they are relaxed and smiling and have coats to keep them warm.

Next on the program a youthful mariachi band.

For a short video of the mariachi players, click the link below:
MVI_3433.MOVMariachi

We especially enjoyed the cute kids like this future cabalgata rider.

And, a budding cabalgata queen.

It was bitterly cold the day of the ride. Locals said the weather was unusual for the time of year.  Jim is bundled up and talking to Dr. Linda McCoy,  a fellow engineer and Viet Nam Vet. She hails from Las Cruces, NM and came for the Cabalgata. I took this picture because I’ve never seen Jim this bundled up against the cold. And, Linda was an interesting woman.

Yesterday, we arrived at Rock Hound State Park. And, I leave New Mexico for home tomorrow. It has been an interesting two months.

COLD, GOLD DAY

Weather, these last weeks, has been shirt-sleeve summer.  Every day, we see  beautiful winter sunrises and sunsets at odds with warm days. Sqaw winter makes you crave the natural order of things; to do right by the trees, and grasses, and critters. Bears hanging low, refusing to hibernate. Birds haven’t a proper signal to  migrate. It’s all wrong.

Weather so dry I’ve had to water the yard lightly, so I decided its time to go gold hunting. It never takes much convincing to get Jan and Brian out looking for gold.  We arrived at what was a dry creek in the fall of  2010. Brian commented that we hadn’t considered the snow melt with this warm weather.

Not to be deterred, I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants, crossed over to a  promising area of gravel and loaded the bucket. The gravel was so wet and heavy, and I expect the bucket a bit weak,  the bottom fell out. I ended up washing the spill on the riffles of a rock. Not a smidge of color.

Jan spotted some old tailings. We checked the topography and found a spot where water had once gushed down this hill and filled a crevice with gravel. I went in with my trowel and reached for the gravel. Water invisibly clean and clear I didn’t even see until I touched it.  Beautiful gravel and good muck.

We brought three buckets. This time, I made sure I didn’t fill the bucket.

We drove around for several hours, stopping at various spots. At this place someone had placed a board to sit on and left a crevice tool and a linoleum slide. It was wet and tough to work.

We went to a popular panning spot under a bridge. The property owner had built a rock dam to catch  the gold before it ever got to the bridge. He built a dam, but it takes a tri-dam to be effective. Then he fenced it and posted no trespassing signs. What the owner probably knows is that no one owns a river. As long as you don’t walk above the high water mark, you aren’t trespassing. The signs discourage rubes, which we aren’t.

By this time, I was wet and cold. The gold eluded us but we got a taste of winter. On the way home we reflected on how the early miners slogged through creeks and winter melts and cursed their lot but never gave it up. They survived on the fever. We’re pikers.