Airstream camping in John Day, Oregon

 

We spent last weekend with our Airstream friends in John Day Oregon at Clyde Holliday State Recreation Area. There was a super nice campground there, right on the John Day River. I picked it because I heard it was nice, and I’d never been out there before, but it turned out to be a 6 hour drive! Pretty long for just a weekend. But the scenery along the way was incredible, so that made it tolerable.

We started out heading down 84 to The Dalles, and cut over at Biggs, and for the first time got to see the wind power generators. There hadn’t been any of these the last time we headed up to Yakima, which was probably ten years ago. Some people hate them because they are a blight on the landscape, but I thought they were pretty amazing.

 

 

 

 

Dave found a mountain!

 

 

The farther we got into central Oregon, the crazier the scenery got. If you think of evergreens and rain when you think of Oregon, this would change your mind.

 

 

 

We got to the park and got setup. Some early arrivals had saved spots for us, which annoyed the ranger, but they wouldn’t have had to do that if they allowed reservations. Luckily all but one of our group arrived before the Ranger noticed! Then another camper went and paid for the late arrival’s spot and parked their truck in it so it would be saved.

The spots were HUGE – the biggest camping spots I’ve ever seen! Here you can see the distance between our trailer and our neighbor – tons of room!

 

We set up the ‘dog yard’ so the pooches could relax in the grass.

 

   

 

After a late night of music around the bonfire, the next morning we headed out to visit the Fossil Beds National Monument.

 

They had a fabulous museum showing many of the amazing fossils they had unearthed in the area. Not dinosaurs, but early mammals – camels and hippos, and tiny horses – it was really interesting! Also plants and seeds and bugs. After the museum we drove up the road to a ‘Blue’ canyon where many fossils were found. It’s hard to see the color in the photos, but it was indeed a light blue color. The rock was very soft and heavily eroded, and that is how the fossilized animals get revealed.

 

It was an interesting walk, but the dogs didn’t like walking over these bridges, which had bumpy metal grating, and there were a lot of them, so we eventually turned back.

Dogs refused to face the camera!

We drove around a bit more to enjoy the scenery.

 

Then headed back to the park for an afternoon nap, potluck, and music around the campfire late into the night.

 

 

I love these gatherings, but the next morning it was time to go home. We didn’t even wait for breakfast, knowing we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We took a different route to get some new scenery. It was amazing with gentle rolling hills that stretched to the horizon. We also saw many abandoned hoses and barns.

Back into Windmill country

 

Navi doesn’t enjoy the ride much, but Barclay is a real traveller. He just relaxes and enjoys the ride.

 

Before long we were back to familiar territory, seeing barges on the Columbia River, and headed home. It was a great weekend, and I loved seeing some scenery I had never seen before.

 

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Happy Anniversary, Airstream

Ten years ago (I actually missed it by a couple days, it was April 20th, 2003) I brought home a camping trailer. After months of researching online, and hunting through ads, and never getting to actually see an Airstream in person, I placed a wanted ad in the paper, and got a call from a gentleman in Oregon who had one to sell. It wasn't the Argosy with the big front windows I was looking for, but it did the trick just fine. It was beautiful and everything in it (sort of) worked.

We took it camping regularly, replaced the axle, replaced part of the floor, replaced most of the appliances over the years, and never missed a single camping trip. It's been the catalyst for making many friendships all over the country and especially here in the NW with friends we regularly camp with. We've been through many ups and downs, and it is still our favorite toy, and the best money we ever spent on anything that rolls. It's not just a vehicle, it's like family.




Posts about the Airstream

Happy 10th Anniversary to our 1968 Caravel, which also turns 45 years old this year! I hope we'll be traveling in it for many years to come! I guess I could also say happy Anniversary to the mighty van, which was purchased immediately after the Airstream to tow it, and has set a record for us as the longest we've ever owned a vehicle.

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Wall shelves for the living room

 

We have a big empty wall in the living room, and not much to put on it, except this cool vintage clock Dave's Dad Gave us. I decided to build a shelf around it, so we could have a place to put a few knick-knacks. I sketched up a design.

 

Then, I hung the clock, and laid out the design using painter’s tape

 

 

I went out and took advantage of my newly organized garage and built the shelves (and simplified them by leaving off a couple short shelves I felt weren’t necessary), then laid on a couple coats of stain, but it came out ugly and drippy. So I sanded it clean and got a gel stain, applied that, and it again came out looking terrible. Finally Dave suggested I paint it, and knowing that it would look terrible if just painted brown, I suggested green, to match the carpet.

 

 

Dave helped me put in some screws to hang it from the studs so it would be secure.

 

Tah dah – just as I envisioned it!

 

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Art around The Rancho

 

We have been having so much fun picking up art for our new home, decorating it with little fun things that make us happy. Really, to me even the furniture seems like art, since it’s all old and unique – it’s unlikely to find similar pieces to the ones we’ve found.

 

Let’s start with the centerpiece of the bedroom – the geese painting. We found this at an antique store in Portland, but I went home and thought about it for a day before going back to buy it. It wasn’t expensive, I just wasn’t sure about it. I’m glad we got it though, the colors are great for the bedroom, and it started giving us a nature theme to decorate around.

I like the style of it – it feels 70s to me. The way the clouds are just shapes with no definition but the geese look more realistic. The trees and brown grass and reflections in the water, well, that all reminded me of our home in the country and our visits to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge.

 

It appears to be an actual painting, not just a print. That’s kind of cool to know we have something which someone actually created with their own hands. Good job, ‘Jane’, whoever you are!

Now we have a goose/nature theme going on in the bedroom. We were buying our couches at another antique store when I spotted these wall plaques, and had to have them:

 

A closer look:

These were probably part of a triptych, with the center piece being a clock, but the clock is gone. I saw a very similar set with flowers instead of geese on them. But I’m happy to have these, they look great on the wall behind the TV.

There are more bedroom geese coming, but I have one more wall to paint before I show those off. Maybe this weekend.

In the front room we have the Japanese silk paintings, which I’ve shown off before, and the picture of Barclay, and I just added a matching picture of Navi, so these two make a cute set on the wall.

 

 

And then there’s the Matador…

Every 70s home needs a Matador! Dave grew up with a Matador painting over the fireplace in his parent’s house. We saw this one on CL for $40, but it was about an hour away. Eventually we saw it in an antique store for $100 and we thought, well, they must have bought it and marked it up and now it was way out of our price range, which was too bad because it was pretty impressive in person. It’s a print with painted highlights. Then we saw it on CL again the next week! There were two of them in town! So we ran out to the folks selling it for $40 and bought it. As the lady handed it to us she gave us a funny look and said ‘Are you sure this fits into your décor?’, in a way that indicated she didn’t think it could possibly fit into ANYONE’S décor! Oh yes, we assured her. And it fits very nicely into the living room, particularly with the yellow couches. We LOVE the Matador!

 

My latest acquisition was a Goodwill find. This afternoon after volunteering at the barn, I went back up to Battle Ground to order food at our favorite Thai place and bring it home. I had a little time to kill so I went to Goodwill to look for frames I could buy and put my own photography in, and spotted this:

Hmmm, I thought, that’s pretty groovy. It says John Eastman, 1973 on it. I couldn’t decide if I should buy it or not though - fully framed and behind glass, it was a whole $4. Maybe I am a little cheap!

So I called Dave after I picked up our food and asked him what he thought, and he was like ‘duh, for $4? GO GET IT!’ So I went back, and poking around found another one! (the lines down the middle are reflections)

 

 

And yeah, they are pretty groovy. I hung them in the kitchen, which is the only place we still have some bare walls!

 

So that’s it for now. We’re having so much fun decorating our vintage house. Just wait until you see what I have planned to finish off the bedroom!

 

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Hiking to Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge

 

Sunday I headed out with a few friends to walk on the Washougal Dike Trail. It starts at Steamboat Landing (note: there are no steamboats anymore!) and goes to Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It was a bright sunny morning, and the Columbia River looked pretty and blue. I’m glad it gave us a little taste of that before returning to March’s standard—issue grey.

As we walked along the Dike we enjoyed the cottonwood trees that lined the river.

 

Steigerwald looks a lot like Ridgefield, and it’s probably closer to our new home, so I guess we should get used to coming out here.

 

This shot of the ducks with Mt Hood in the background was my favorite shot of the day.

 

I was a little partial to these leaning cottonwoods too.

 

 

We saw evidence of wildlife other than just the feathered kind.

 

Soon we came to the end of the road…

Time to head back.

 

 

On the way back we stopped at Cottonwood Beach for lunch before continuing towards town. We saw (though I did not get pictures of) several people horseback riding on the beach.

 

The sky was overcast and grey as we trudged back to the car. It was six miles all together, not a bad distance for a first hike of spring. It was nice and flat, just to get us in the mood for hiking again! It was very windy the whole way! But a nice walk with friends all the same.

 

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