Janet Brien's photos

(+8 insets) (this pano is terrific at full size!) Trip Talk: The Problems of Structured Travel Have you ever been on a really, really long trip before? The longest I’d ever been away was a 28-day whirlwind tour of Europe when I was a mere 21 years old. Steve had been on a three-week trip before we met but this trip to Vancouver Island was to be six whole weeks when all was said and done. Even though we’d planned our accommodations and made possible itineraries for each destination, we hoped there would be ample time to relax and just absorb the surroundings wherever we went. We’d learned from our past trips that the acceptable minimum stay at each destination was four days, with five days being better. However, as it turned out, the very fact of having a finite amount of time took away our desire for carefree spontaneity. As well, we felt an obligation to do and see as much as we could at each place because in the backs of our minds we couldn’t help thinking that we may never see this place again. We didn’t want to “miss anything”. But isn’t that the opposite of what a vacation is supposed to be? What’s the point of rabidly running around an area to the point of exhaustion? Granted, Steve and I didn’t actually do that. We did our best to be reasonable and not put too much into each day. However, both of us still felt a level of disappointment whenever we moved on to the next leg of our journey. It was rare that we felt that we’d had enough time to experience a place as we’d wanted to. One day while we were on a gorgeous hike to a place called Marble Falls, we spent some time chatting about the trip so far. We both felt stifled and pushed along just when we were getting to know a place. We felt frustrated that we couldn’t just have a day to do nothing at all if we liked. Steve wanted to be able to just go out fishing for the whole day if he wanted. Or maybe just stay in the rig and take a day off by playing a computer game. Or whatever he felt like that wasn’t necessarily the best choice for the day. I was upset because taking any time at all to write about the trip felt too selfish so I just didn’t. As well, macro photography was something I did only a few times during the entire six weeks. I need to be creatively free without pressure so I can creep around and be “in the moment”. Because we had limited time at each spot, I couldn’t just relax and enjoy my creative pursuits. That made me very unhappy— I felt like I wasn’t allowed to express myself creatively and that’s not what I’d signed up for. We needed a different approach to allow us to feel satisfied by our experience of each place. In other words, we really need to go “Full-Time”. Instead of spending 4-5 days at a place, we need to spend an undefined amount of time that allows us to stay as long as we want until we’re ready to move on. That means we’ll need to sell our house. No surprise but we have all the more reason to work towards that goal. Ugh. Not a chapter I want to be part of but the end result will be freedom and enough coin to afford a bigger, better RV. Something for us to look forward to! ———— Today’s Pictures One of our campsite destinations was near a place called Port Alberni, located fairly close to the center of Vancouver Island. With so many fun activities available to us, we decided to try fishing at nearby Sproat Lake. Tempted by reports of excellent fishing, we soon made our way out to the large, four-armed lake by way of a relatively short hike. The hike turned out to be a lot longer than we anticipated and our fishing gear got heavier and heavier as we trekked along. However, we didn’t know how beautiful the trail would be and soon felt the misjudged time was well worth it to find this gem. We were surprised by a super cool suspension bridge, a little waterfall, and lush beautiful forest along the way. Eventually the trail spilled out onto the shore of Sproat Lake and the sight simply took our breaths away! Main Image: the view of Sproat Lake when we got to the end of Fossili Trail. Inset 1: Steve catches a branch! Fishing turned out to be a bust for us, but we loved being out there in such a pretty place. Steve did catch a small Sculpin, but they’re not good for eating unless you’re ocean fishing and get a really big one. Inset 2: Vertical panorama of the trail we walked on. What a lovely forest it was! Inset 3: Panorama of verdant Fossili Trail. So lush and green! Inset 4: Another vertical panorama of the trail, I just love the way these pictures look! Inset 5: The wonderful suspension bridge along the trail, we were so happy because we love these bridges so much. What’s funny is that I’m afraid of heights and suspension bridges bounce, sway, and move freely as you walk on them. Terrifying much? Um, yeah. But my love for the construction and appearance of these marvels supersedes my fears and I am able to force myself to cross them without freaking out! :) Inset 6: Where we parked the truck, I noticed a possible view if I scrambled over some boulders and fallen trees. With Steve urging me on, I approached the opening in the forest and I saw a huge meadow lined with timber. I really liked the way this row of tall, slender trees looks, standing guard over the vista. Inset 7: This is a panorama of the timber-lined meadow when I moved past the trees. Inset 8: On the way home I asked Steve to pull over so I could take this picture, which shows how beautiful the area around Port Alberni is! :) Pam, I think you would have loved this hike and the lovely time we spent out at the lake. Most of the forests we visited on Vancouver Island glowed vibrantly. They felt so welcoming and left us content and happy. Forests at home feel almost desperate from the heat and lack of water. What a difference. I expect that’s the same where you live too. Well, I do hope that you are having a good day! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 9/10/19; highest placement #6.

(+4 insets) (bigger is better!) I've done some thinking about how I should approach my trip pictures and posts here on ipernity. I have so many things to talk about and countless pictures to go through that I'm going to have two parts of each post: Trip Talk and Today's Pictures . This way, if you only want to know about the pictures, you can scroll down to that part. And this way it won't matter if the main subject has absolutely nothing to do with the pictures…such as today! Now is the time to go get a cup of coffee or perhaps a bottle of wine? Let's get this party started!! :) Trip Talk Traveling to Vancouver Island and spending five weeks there was an amazing experience. Neither of us had been on such a long trip before and even the planning took many weeks. We had our share of problems, as can be expected. Pumpkin Couldn’t Go On Our Trip!!! One of the worst surprises was when—just a few days before we were set to leave—we discovered that we wouldn’t be able to bring our parrot with us. We were so upset that our first thought was to cancel the entire trip. However, at that point we couldn't afford NOT to go, as so many of our accommodations had been paid for already. The good news was that the vet where we board her would be able to accommodate her while we were gone. Also, the fact is that Pumpkin has such a good time staying there that we refer to her boarding place as “Camp Chicken”. We worried if she’d be able to forgive us for leaving her for six weeks but we had nothing to fear. As we hoped, our weekly calls revealed that Pumpkin was having a blast and was loved by the staff as well. Steve and I had the hard part, which was managing our feelings. Pumpkin is like our child—can you imagine being separated from your little one with basically no warning—and for six WEEKS? It was really, really hard to deal with that, but what else could we do? Both of us missed her so deeply that we had to just shut down those thoughts. We purposely didn’t talk about her, though she was so often on our minds. The only thing that made our painful longing bearable was knowing that she was doing great and having full days of fun entertainment with lots of attention. To tell you how much we wanted to see her, we TRIED to change our plans so we could get back sooner, but nothing was possible. The last five days of our trip revolved around Labor Day weekend and the non-existence of camping spots anywhere except for totally overpriced spots we couldn’t—wouldn’t—afford. As it was, Steve made reservations for those last five days months ago and even then, finding anything was next to impossible. We were good and truly stuck with our full itinerary, so we did our best to not think about her.Wretched. We DID make one alteration to our plans though. Since the trailer is so big, we planned to drive home, drop off the trailer and then return to pick up Pumpkin. This would surely threaten to kill us as we’d be literally driving right past the town where she was staying…and the added time would be nearly two hours. UGH!! However, before we started driving that morning, I showed Steve how we could drive the truck and trailer around the block where there would be room for our rig while we picked up Biscuit (Pumpkin). At first he didn’t think it would be wise, but when we were nearly there, Steve changed his mind and we pulled off the freeway to pick up Pumpkin! It turned out to be an easy situation and there was even a place for us to parallel park just out front! PERFECT!! When we stepped inside the office, not a minute had passed before we heard Pumpkin’s sweet whistling melodies from where she was housed. It was all we could do to keep from running into the back to get her! “CHICKEN!!!” I squealed in anticipation, bouncing up and down and beaming back at Steve. A few minutes later her cage was carried out to us and Steve and I were just coo-coo at the sight of her. She not only remembered us, the sight of us made her equally excited and as Steve took her out of her cage and held her up to his face for a kiss, Pumpkin’s dear vocalizations were so sweet and full of undeniable joy and longing too. What an amazing reunion for all three of us. Stepping onto my offered finger, I held Pumpkin up to my face for a kiss and cooed at her while she made wonderful purring chirps and whistles that were so full of love…all three of us were just so happy to be a family again. All was well. Our family was once again complete. And, I’m so pleased to report that Pumpkin never punished us with bad behavior to let us know how angry she’d been that we were gone for so long. You may be aware that companion animals will sometimes act up to let you know they were upset at a long parting. I certainly wouldn’t have blamed Pumpkin for lashing out at us but she never did. How blessed we are to have this angel of a bird in our lives! Today's Pictures My main picture is a pair of islands that Steve and I saw while on the ferry ride from Anacortes, Washington to Sidney, Vancouver Island. The ferry was HUGE! I mean…REALLY HUGE!!! There were many RVs and trucks loaded on as well as dozens of cars. Everyone drove onto the ferry in designated aisles demarcated by lines and workers directed each vehicle into position. It was just amazing to me that we drove our rig--nearly 60 feet long--onto a BOAT, which would carry us to an island in Canada! CRAZY! The ride took over an hour and we were free to stay in our truck or walk around the ferry if we liked. We met a man with an adorable Boxer and spent time chatting with him while we showered the dog with affection…we sure do miss our Boxer, Zoey, and the lovely fawn-colored beauty was fun to see! Inset 1 : This was a view from Anacortes while we were waiting for the ferry. Inset 2 : After two days of driving, pulling into the ferry terminal was incredibly exciting for us! Inset 3 : Here's a view from the truck on the ferry! Inset 4 : I am including a picture of what the ferries look like as well as a map showing our route from Anacortes to Sidney. We were both really worried about going through customs because we had so much food with us. However, I'd done my homework and even though many websites written by travelers to Canada have said you can't bring ANY food, I figured out that you merely have to let the agent know what you have when they ask. I did forget to toss the apples--fruit is a no-no--so Steve popped into the RV to retrieve them. Another agent peeked inside our trailer, using a stick to push the bedroom curtain aside, just to see that everything was normal looking. Steve offered to let him come in but the man declined and soon we were off and starting our adventure on Vancouver Island!! Pam, would you agree that going through Customs is one of the worst hells on the planet?! Heh…it gets worse every time I go through, although our experience with land-based customs was nothing at all! I hope all is well with you, I'm sending my *BIG HUGS* your way!! Explored on September 7, 2019. Highest placement, #3.

(+8 insets with larger versions below) (please view this main image large for more cool details!) WE ARE BACK!!! :D Steve and I are finally home from our epic adventure to Vancouver Island, Canada! How strange it is to be back in a place that doesn't move. And after living in our comparatively tiny RV ( Recreational Vehicle if you don't know), the house is GIGANTIC! We keep wondering why we ever chose such a big home for just two people. (It has a master bedroom and two smaller ones plus a large den/game room, three bathrooms, a kitchen, dinette, laundry room, large living room and a sizable one-car garage.) Downsizing is definitely in our future! :D Our Canada trip was six weeks in total, longer than any trip either of us has ever been on, and included countless amazing experiences that were mostly wonderful but also a number of bummers along the way. What a crazy, life-changing ride!! Today I'm sharing a series of pictures from one of our very last stops, which happened to be in the United States. This incredible place is called Deception Pass and is located on the northern border of Washington. It was named by the famous explorer, George Vancouver, when he mistakenly thought Whidbey Island was a peninsula. There is a lovely pair of bridges that cross from Whidbey, over the small Canoe Pass and Deception Pass just next to it, connecting Whidby to Fidalgo Island which lies just north. Returning to the United States, we took the enormous Washington-BC ferry from the charming southwestern Vancouver Island town of Sidney to the busy Washington island port town of Anacortes, Washington, situated on Fidalgo Island. We drove south over the Deception Pass Bridge and then to our 3-night stay at an RV campground on Whidby Island. On our first of two full days we decided to incorporate a walk across the fabulous bridges we'd driven over to get to our campsite. We simply could not believe the jaw-dropping views we saw and knew the bridges would make a fine adventure out of this day. Along with a picture-laden walk over the bridges, we also went on the gorgeous Goose Rock perimeter hike along Cornet Bay, including a climb to the top of Goose Rock Summit. There we sat and enjoyed a yummy picnic as we looked out over the bay with a view of the pretty little uninhabited marine sanctuary, Strawberry Island. My main picture is a panorama of the view westward out to the Pacific Ocean with Deception Island off in the distance. Inset 1: Next are a couple of boats passing by. There was a fairly constant stream of boats buzzing under the bridge, really fun to watch! Inset 2: The third inset is a vertical panorama! Steve was taking one of his million panorama pictures with his phone one day and decided to try doing a vertical version. The results are so cool that he turned both of us into panorama junkies! This picture shows the view looking eastward toward the northern side of Puget Sound and you can see Strawberry Island in the distance. Inset 3: look at the water going under the bridge! A huge volume is squished into this tiny space and the power and speed are incredible. I am afraid of heights but push past it when I must…looking down at this churning, roiling water was shocking when you understand what exactly is going on! Inset 4: a view of the bridge from below, we just loved the construction of this masterpiece! Inset 5: a map to show the area called Dire Straits (the band didn't name it for this place, btw) and shows the fascinating jumble of islands and waterways in the area. I've put a large version of this image at the end so you can look more closely. Inset 6: a vertical panorama showing part of the Goose Rock Perimeter Trail that we hiked. We just love the way these pictures turn out and think a series of super cool bookmarks is in order! :) Inset 7: another panorama, though it's not obvious, which shows a very long, fallen tree which lay just next to the trail. The lush vegetation here was just captivating. (By the way, I will upload a video at one point, which shows me walking down this log…it's pretty silly!) Inset 8: This is our Goose Rock Summit picnic lunch view! You can see little Strawberry Island at near-center-stage! I have many other pictures of our bridge walk and hike but I think eight pictures is more than enough for now! :D Pam, we thought of you so often along our long trip--as you know--and hope that our pictures will be fun for you to experience as I roll them out! Would have been so nice to have you with us, even though logistically it just couldn't have happened…still it was fun to think about, if only something like that were a possibility! I sure do hope that you have a wonderful day--I'm sending *BIG HUGS* your way! Thank you so much for coming by while I've been away, it's been wonderful to see your comments and support! Explored on September 5, 2019. Highest placement, #1.

Hi everyone! We're having a wonderful time on Vancouver Island! We've seen so many breathtaking sights and lots of "firsts" too. One of my dreams has always been to see a real-live bald eagle and since we've been here, Steve and I have seen at least five of them! In fact, we know what they sound like, isn't that something?! We have been staying at a number of places along the eastern coast of the island (only the lower half on the west shore has been developed) and the last place we visited was the furthest north, just south of Port Hardy at a First Nation campground called Cluxewe Resort. While we were there, we learned that a clutch of Bald Eagle chicks are raised in a nest visible from the campground, but unfortunately the chicks had already grown and flown away. However, I was still in luck! There is a specific tree that is a favorite watching spot for one of the eagles. It happens to be a two-minute walk from our trailer, and as luck would have it, I had my Sony zoom camera with me when the eagle was there! HOORAY!!! This picture is a total "bucket list" shot for me. On this trip we have seen a bald eagle here and there, flying overhead and landing on posts that are too far to photograph ("See that little dot? IT'S A BALD EAGLE, HONEST!!!"). I really would have been fine without a nice picture because we've seen them many times now, but having this picture has totally made my day!! I hope that all of you are doing well! It's a shame that I have no internet most of the time, and in fact, just getting this picture posted took FOREVER. I tried to post it three times last night without success, but finally today I have been able to post it. Pam, I hoped to upload that video I told you about…whatever was I thinking?! HAHAHAHAH…it will just have to wait until we have a better connection. You guys are all on my mind--I wish I could teleport everyone here to enjoy this spectacular place. It really is incredible and gives me a glimpse of what unspoiled splendor of nature actually looks like! Explored on August 17. Highest placement, #1.

(please veiw large for best impact!) Steve and I are off on our RV trip to Vancouver Island! We've been here for a few days and having an amazing time! So many things to see and do, pictures to take, adventures to experience. We have also discovered that so far, our connectivity to the internet is the worst ever at this point. So if you're wondering where I went to, I'm off the grid. I'll be checking in when I can but I'm not going to worry about it. The universe is telling us to focus on the here and now and not both with our computers. So be it! This sunset image was taken on our second night away from home...what a lovely place! There have been so many amazing sights since then, sometime I will be able to share some of the cool things we've been seeing. :) Take care everyone, you're in in my thoughts! Explored on August 2, 2019. Highest placement, #7.

(+7 insets!) (this update is another doorstop...coffee will be necessary to make it through to the end! :D) Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well, I miss everyone a lot. I really miss my "normal" routine of cruising around everyone's streams and dropping off comments for all of your latest pictures. However, I have had to change my priorities from my usual photography/ipernity/chores/etc. to trip preparation in all regards. I'm the sort of person that can't have the distraction of a favorite pastime interfering with important tasks. If I try to spend a small amount of time with something like photography or ipernity, I end up becoming totally absorbed and procrastinating away hours of time. I just can't seem to balance that one so the best option is just to stay away from these activities until I have my priorities under control. Trip Planning So, I'm still working on our Vancouver Island trip itinerary and also doing zillions of prep tasks, etc…six weeks is a lot for planning and coordination, let me tell you! We were able to find a person in the area who's an expert with snakes and frogs and he will be caring for Snakey McSnakerton and our two ancient, 18-year old frogs while we are away. We've arranged for a house-sitter. Pumpkin is microchipped and paperwork is in order. Steve's got all of our trip reservations--including our ferry crossings--finalized. I now know that we can bring most of our food across the border both ways--but no eggs or fruit! Oh, and by the way, did you know that a sing freshwater fishing license is just $37 for a Canadian and a whopping $84 for a non-native? In other words, we'll be spending $168 just for the chance to fish! Sound the general alarm, that's CRAZY!! And yet, we'll pay the price because we're going to be on the island for five weeks. Did you notice the part where I mentioned "fresh water"? We WON'T be fishing in the ocean/shore/bay pier. That would be another $125 EACH to try that. (And, just for funzies I looked into boat charters of any sort…AHHHH!!! It's a minimum of $600-$700 to go out on a boat for two people…as much as I would dearly LOVE to have a guided trip for fishing, we just can't afford such extravagances.) RV/Truck Maintenance… When we were at our last RV destination, Diamond Lake, we noticed that one of the trailer wheels wasn't behaving quite right--it didn't turn freely when we backed the trailer up, pushing into the gravel instead of rolling over it (but seemed ok going forward). This was strange because we'd had the bearings repacked and the whole rig checked out by a local shop. But when we got home, Steve checked each of the wheels and discovered that three of the four wheel's hubs were cool to the touch as they should be, but the one we were concerned about was very hot--a bad sign that the bearings aren't moving easily. So, right away Steve got the trailer into the shop. Turned out to be such a strange situation that the shop admitted never seeing it before in the 20 years they've been servicing RVs! In fact, parts of the bearings assembly disintegrated into the wheel and it was a total mess--it was lucky we got home, actually. Because of Steve's diligence to check for problems, he discovered this blow-out accident waiting to happen. Happily, the repair didn't cost us a cent because it was the shop's error--although to be fair, it was a manufacturer's error--not theirs--because they'd done everything right except for putting in a bearing assembly that was defective. Steve also took the truck in for an inspection by our local mechanic. We really should have done this before we began our RV adventures but the timing didn't work out until now. As it turned out, we learned that to get our truck up to snuff, we needed to sink nearly $5k into engine repairs. That's on top of the transmission we had rebuilt. Holy money pit Batman, at that point you really need to stop and think about cost vs. value. Steve and Huck, our mechanic, talked about the truck for a while and if these costs were worth it. But, just like our transmission mechanic, Huck didn't hesitate with the same opinion: these trucks will last forever with routine care, and this truck is unquestionably worth more than we paid for it, despite the transmission and maintenance costs. And, with these repairs out of the way, we won't need any work done on the truck for 100k miles or more. Ah well, it's just money and more importantly, we have peace of mind. The truck did make odd sounds sometimes which made us wonder. Now Steve knows what they meant. It's all good. RV Upgrades, also known as, "STEVE IS AMAZING!!!" Meanwhile, Steve has been working on making our RV better and better! His most important project when we got home was to fix the wonky, defective kitchen drawers and then to BUILD four new drawers--a pair that would go under the dinette seats and two under the master bed. First he fixed the kitchen drawers. The idiot things didn't open/close properly and the slides were partially broken…what a nightmare! He replaced the cheap-crappy slide mechanisms with new ones that have a soft-close feature which pulls the drawer shut at the last inch. While he was fixing the drawer, he also added 6" to the length/depth of the drawer! MORE ROOM IS MORE!!! YAYYYYY!!! What a difference!! When he was done we stood there like silly little kids taking turns opening and closing the drawers! HOORAY!!! *happy dance* The thing is--we use those drawers dozens of times every day and every time we had to fight with the drawers to some degree. By the time we got home from our last trip, we were both raving lunatics, and that's why he had those drawers fixed the day after we got back! HUZZAH! After the kitchen drawers he attacked the dinette! The seats have cushions that can be removed, exposing a crappy piece of plywood that covers storage space below. Potentially useful? ABSOLUTELY! Realistically useful? NOT! So Steve set to work building a pair of drawers that should have been there to begin with. It was a challenge to figure out the drawer faces but his solution of using stained wood faces in a black frame works just super. We are beside ourselves with happiness at how amazing these drawers turned out. (Did I mention the fact that Steve's never built drawers like this before from scratch?) Now we'll have a proper place for our pots and pans and plenty of other stuff. All easily accessible by opening a drawer! Steve's AMAZING!!! Finally, he's in the last stages of building drawers into the bed frame so we have proper places to put our clothes. We've been making due with the pair of closets at either side of the bed but the spaces are too small and require us to pile our clothes up and squish them into place. Trying to pull out an item of clothing at the bottom of a pile is a guaranteed disaster with clothes falling onto the floor, tipping over, and making a huge mess. Neither of us made a peep about it on our last trip because there was nothing we could do about the situation but we totally hit the wall. It would be a big project but the effort would really pay off. As he expected, the horrendous lack of building skill in the trailer's construction made it very challenging in regards to dealing with so many lopsided angles but he's been able to come up with clever solutions for every problem. He's almost done now and we are so excited to put these new spaces into use! YAY FOR MY CLEVER MAN!!! :) Today's Pictures Today's main picture and inset are a pair of the many lovely wild Columbine blossoms that Steve and I saw when we were staying at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park. Using a flash really make them explode in fiery color, especially against a dark background. I also have an inset which shows a Columbine in natural lighting. Incredible flowers, aren't they? I was so happy I got to see them in bloom, as I'd missed their bloom time here at home. I'm also including insets that show the drawer work that Steve's done! What fun it is to show off Steve's handiwork! :) Pam, I'm hoping that you've been doing as well as can be expected! Miss you mucho my dear! *MANY HUGS* and thank you so much for the comments on my picture! :) Explored on 7/19/19; highest placement, #7.

(+3 insets!) I'd like to apologize for not being around ipernity for the past couple of days. I have been totally distracted by an all-encompassing project that's seems like idle fun and entertainment but it's actually very important. Steve and I will soon be going on our longest trip yet--6 weeks--and we'll be traveling all over Vancouver Island! Our campsites are all reserved now, thanks to Steve's diligent hunting, internet surfing and hours of phone calls. Planning worked out much better this time because we made sure there was a lot more time before our trip began. We still had to contend with a couple of holidays but it all worked out in the end and our itinerary is all set now! My job is Activity Director and it's been my task to discover awesome stuff for us to do…hikes, mountain bike and paved paths to ride, places to go fishing, lovely drives, cool towns to visit, festivals and events not to miss…it's a dizzying amount of stuff to look up and organize. Directions are needed, pdfs need to be downloaded, dates must match the times we'll be in the area, and I also have to make sure it doesn't take too long to get to various places that look like fun. Some of the highlights will include hikes to lovely waterfalls and one that will take us to a crashed airplane from 1945. Another adventure will take us on a quick ferry ride to Newcastle Island for a grand afternoon of bike riding with amazing views. We'll go to the world-famous Butchart Gardens in Victoria and the nearby butterfly gardens--this is where Steve will have to drag me and my camera away or we'll never leave! :D We'll go fishing for trout, salmon and bass in lakes and streams--maybe even some ocean beach fishing too! One day we'll float lazily down part of the Cowichan River in a pair of innertubes. We'll go on a long drive to see many areas we'll not be able to stay, and one place we'll drive to is the Pacific Rim National Park and many, many provincial (state) parks too. There will be trips to mountain bike riding parks and strolls along quaint harbors. Though we'll be eating our own food most of the time, we'll certainly make room for world-class sushi at least a few times! :) With so many days for us to explore this beautiful island, we're hoping to get a really nice experience of all that Vancouver Island has to offer! All that being said, I still have a lot of work to do finding cool stuff for us to see and do! So I wanted to let you know that my time is short and I hope you understand! There's just not enough time in the day for all of the things I'd like to do! Today's pictures are my last few that I've processed from Diamond Lake, though I have piles yet to do. My main picture is not going to be a favorite of arachnophobes but it's pretty darn special and I just had to feature it for my leading image. The day that I went on a macro stroll, I wandered down to the creek that leads out to Diamond Lake. The water in the creek was moving very slow and it was a lot more like a log-jammed pond than a proper creek. The mosquitoes there were absolutely ecstatic by my arrival and they seemed to think they were very clever with their joke, "Have you arrived for lunch?" Hardy har har…but the joke was certainly on me because they dined heartily while I was forced to ignore them. Why would I let myself become lunch!? Honestly, I just couldn't help myself. I found so many incredible flowers and grasses to photograph, and as you saw the other day, damselflies too! As I rounded the edge of the stream to go on the other side, I looked down when I saw a round, light-colored something moving very quickly right at my feet. It could only be one thing--a mother spider carrying her egg sac behind her! It was something I'd never seen before and wow was I excited! The spider stopped stock-still just below, partially hidden by some blades of grass. By shifting very slowly, I was able to get a pretty clear view of her and with virtual fingers crossed, I clicked away, gradually leaning in closer and closer until I felt it would be too alarming if I got any closer. Stepping away to give her space, I was satisfied by my series and hoped I'd have something I could use. As you can see, I *WAS* successful! I am over the moon with joy to get this picture of a hunting spider (not sure of the exact species) with her lovely egg sac. WOOT! :D I also have three insets to share. One of them is another picture of the creek from the other side that I got with my Sony later that day…it's just such a cool looking creek with all of the logs in it! The second inset really pulls at my heart. On my way back to our RV I encountered this majestic old beauty of a dog. It wanted to very BADLY to come up to me for some attention but I needed to get away from the feasting mosquitoes so I only paused long enough for this picture. What a dear, dear doggy! And finally, a picture of our truck and trailer at our campsite! I've been taking a picture at each campsite and some day it will be fun to put them all together into a massive campsite show! :) Pam, I had to shake my head in horror to read that there are mosquitoes that make your joints swell…that's horrendous! I have read from others--Ruth especially--that some folks are badly allergic to mosquito bites…what a terrible situation. :( I do know that insect bites vary from bug to bug and person to person…who knew that mosquitoes could be so toxic? I mean, of course MALARIA but in the US…I'd just not thought they can be so bad! *SENDING BIG HUGS YOUR WAY!* Explored on 7/13/19; highest placement, #3.

(+5 insets) (please view large to see extra beauty of this trail!) (sorry for the blown out bits on some pictures!) (oh, and get a cup of coffee...it's STORY TIME! :D) Even before Steve and I made reservations to stay at Diamond Lake, we were told that there was one serious problem with it: This place is absolutely notorious for MOSQUITOES. In fact, we met a State Park camp host earlier on our trip who mentioned that the mosquitoes were so bad that when she stopped for a visit a couple of weeks previously, she and her friend were swarmed by blood-suckers before they even got out of the car. They actually had to abort their visit because they couldn't get away from them. Steve and I couldn't believe this lady wasn't exaggerating, and even though we read a lot of comments from other visitors who stated the same thing, we didn't want to believe them. Confound it all, we wanted to go to Diamond Lake! A few mosquitoes were nothing to be scared away from, right? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! <--- That's a maniacal laugh, one followed by many more…oh, so many more! It turns out that this camp host was 100% accurate. When we pulled into the campground, we stopped at the registration booth to check in. Steve was greeted by mosquitoes before he even entered the building. When we got to our site, we were soon surrounded by bunches of 1"+ blood-thirsty monsters which quickly drove us into the trailer. We couldn't stop repeating, "OH MY GAWD!! THE MOSQUITOES!!!" We sprayed ourselves with mosquito repellant and to our relief, that kept them at bay. Sort of. Did you know that mosquitoes are perfectly happy to push their sharp proboscis' through your SHIRTS and into your skin? Wherever we didn't have repellent, they'd land and attempt this sneaky method to separate us from our life's liquid. If they couldn't land on us, they would fly around us in boisterous clouds. We noticed to our disgust that they would land on us anyway staying as long as they could before being repelled by the noxious fumes, ever-seeking a tasty meal. Somehow they knew to swarm around the door to our trailer so we'd have to dive in and out as fast as possible to keep them outside. We were unsuccessful. At least they were large enough that we could see them easily. They were also slow-moving, which helped too. Still, we began to accumulate bug bites, especially Steve. For some reason he attracts mosquitoes much more than I do and he was extremely unhappy about his popularity and the resulting bites. One morning he woke up to feel lots of itchy spots on his back. I counted them. TWELVE BITES in one small area, the poor guy!! Thank goodness for our method of treating itchy bites: all it takes is a wet paper towel that's been heated up in the microwave, and then pressed on the bite. This burns out the histamines that cause the itching and stops it completely for several hours or more. If only we'd known this simple trick as kids! For multiple bites, a hot shower does the trick. Steve had plenty of those during our stay--I mostly got bites on my hands so could just run them under the hot water for relief. I am usually very tolerant of mosquitoes. "WHATEVER" is my usual response, but these guys were relentless! They follow you all over the place! When I went down to the creek to take pictures, it was just incredible and I was finally driven back to the RV to get away from them. Insanity!! On our last day before heading home, we decided to go on a hike. The day before we'd ridden our bikes around the lake and it was MARVELOUS! What a glorious ride! It's true that the mosquitoes would begin to swarm if we stopped for too long but once we got going we quickly left them behind. We figured a hike would be the same situation. We forgot some extremely important logic: our bike ride was just an hour and change, along with the fact that riding our bikes quickly left the mosquitoes behind. But hiking…not the same thing. Not at all. There was a lovely hike we discovered that led from a trailhead just a few miles from our campground and meandered up onto the side of Mt. Thielson for an out and back of about 10 miles. The pictures were wonderful and we were really excited as we set out that morning, our backpacks readied with bottles of water and a wonderful lunch. I even brought my Sony so I could take pictures on the way back. Little did I know I'd never take it out… Have you ever participated in a relay race? Run with a baton, pass it to the next person, they take off and so it continues. Now, picture a pack of mosquitoes. Imagine Steve and me, walking along a trail with a cloud of mosquitos following along behind us. As we walk along the path, the first mosquitoes eventually get tired and slow down. BUT WAIT! What's that I see? Why, there are NEW mosquitoes standing by to take up the chase! HOORAY!!! *glower* The hike started off well enough--what a BEAUTIFUL TRAIL!!! Dappled shadows captivated me, flowers were here and there to delight me, and there was even a beautiful creek to enjoy. We stopped to drink some water. Within seconds we were surrounded by a cloud of mosquitoes, so we took off again as soon as we'd had a few sips. I stopped to look at the creek below and…omg…THE MOSQUITOES!! "KEEP WALKING!!" Steve cried, and off we went. Anytime we stopped walking, we were soon surrounded. What's more, where sweat had washed away repellent, the mosquitoes landed in droves. Frantic slaps would often resemble blood baths. I usually keep calm about bugs flying around but they were landing on my face and hands, my arms and everywhere else that didn't have a lot of repellent. I simply couldn't believe this assault! Steve got the extra strong lotion and I slathered it on everywhere. STILL THEY SWARMED! We took off at a fast walk and finally left them behind. We were not quite to the half-way point, which was where we would stop and have our lunch. We were both very hungry after several hours of hiking and we needed a break--we hadn't paused for more than 30 seconds since we began this walk. But just as we were about to sit and enjoy a much-needed rest and break, the mosquitoes caught up to us again. Suddenly we realized our biggest mistake: The mosquitoes would not let us rest. They would not let us eat our lunch. They would not stop. Ever…until we were lifeless, dried husks. All kidding aside, we were hungry and tired and never planned on a non-stop hike without a break. And yet, that was exactly what was forced on us. No way would we get to the turn-around spot--we turned around right then and began heading back. Each of us had a bag of mixed nuts to eat as we walked, and we drank water on the move as well. I was in front and Steve told me that there were dozens of mosquitoes following along behind me, and undoubtedly they were behind him too. Neither one of us had ever encountered such a situation in our lives. Nor had we walked so long without a break. In the end we would walk about 5 hours without stopping. We were so exhausted that we had to be very careful about where we placed our feet. It's times when you're tired that you are most likely to hurt yourself and we both knew it. We stumbled plenty but did our best to keep our heads on straight. Thankfully we got back to the truck without a problem but both of us were dead in the water when we got back to the RV. It's funny--we would have been able to hike for many more hours, many more miles, had we only been able to stop for even a moment. It's too bad about the mosquitoes because the hike was just lovely…the pictures I'm sharing today aren't the best because they're from my phone and suffer from overexposure. But you get the idea. Bottom line: if someone warns you about mosquitoes, LISTEN TO THEM!! :D We've since learned that the mosquitoes leave in late August and don't come back until spring, and that's why we didn't notice them the last time we'd visited--it had been the end of September! We'd love to come back to this beautiful place but we'll never return during mosquito season!! Pam, have you ever had to deal with a mosquito invasion like this? I pity anyone who had had to deal with relentless clouds of these blood-sucking monsters!! *tosses a mosquito net your way along with a hug* Explored on 7/10/19; highest placement, #10.

(+4 insets!) Since I've been posting about Diamond Lake for the past two days, I thought I'd continue the trend with another adventure we had when we were there! We'd done some reading and learned that Diamond Lake was supposedly an absolutely fantastic place for fishing! If reports were to be believed, the fish nearly jumped into the boats, so eager were they to become our dinner. We couldn't wait to try our luck! First we tried shore fishing. A few hours of nary a single nibble, we retreated to our RV feeling a bit disappointed but understanding that you can't always get lucky! And besides, we were looking forward to the next day, as we'd signed up for an all-day boat rental! Visions of a boat full of fish swam around in our heads as we fell asleep that night. We PLANNED to get up at about 7am…but when the thermometer read 30 degrees we quickly decided a nice long snuggle was a much better idea. The fish could wait, thank you very much! The sun was shining brightly when we arrived at the marina. It was a much warmer and more reasonable hour of 9am, and we were soon on our way with Steve happily motoring us along. We'd gotten advice on where we should try our luck and soon we were anchored, baited up and casting our lines into the cobalt waters of Diamond Lake. Cutting to the chase: we are now convinced that Diamond Lake has no fish! :D We spent about 12 hours between us with not a single bite. We tried fishing all over the lake with no avail. We did catch some weeds and an old, rusty lure but I don't think that counts. We saw a few fish jump so there ARE fish in the lake. As highly touted as one of the best lakes to fish in Oregon, they certainly didn't bite while we were fishing. We tried everything from real and fake worms to flashy spinners and all kinds of interesting baits which included floating and non-floating marshmallows in a variety of colors and scents, we tried using bobbers to get distance, down and up presentations (bait sinking down from a bobber or floating to a specific depth, using weights to sink the bait or bring the bait down to a certain depth as it floats from the bottom) reeling in slow and fast, and just letting the bait sit. Not a single nibble. Even though it would have been fantastic to catch even one fish--or get a single nibble for that matter, we didn't mind. It was fun to get the opportunity to try. We got to use lots of different methods. We both got better with our casting and rigging our lines. Our conversations were very nice and it was so peaceful just sitting out there on that beautiful lake, gazing up at the lovely mountains that peered down at us with their snowy caps. One of the things I mentioned was the bliss of having all of this time to just SIT and soak in the atmosphere and setting. Steve agreed completely. In between our attempts to catch fish, we had a fabulous day on the lake. The weather was wonderful. Puffy-white clouds kept the heat down when the sun caused us to take off our sweaters. Later on the storm clouds raised a bit of concern but it never rained. Steve was happy as a clam motoring up and down the lake, across from one side to the other, maneuvering in to dock up for bathroom breaks, and even keeping us from harm! When we began the day's adventure on the lake, the water was mirror-smooth, but as the hours passed, a breeze formed and in the afternoon it began to get windy enough that being out in the middle of the lake was quite choppy indeed. After returning to the boat after a lunch break at the RV, we decided to motor the long distance to the southern shores. We'd read that bait fishing was said to be fruitful and since we saw no boats so far from the marina, we thought maybe we'd have a chance at a nibble. However, the closer we got, the choppier the water became. Upon arriving at a likely fishing spot, our boat bobbed up and down like a cork with waves that we large enough to be disturbing. We realized that fishing would be stressful and perhaps even dangerous because of the unpredictability of the white-caps and wind. Looking at the ominous storm clouds above, we agreed it was time to head back. Carefully moving through the choppy water, Steve hugged the shoreline and I held on tight. We likened the trip to an "E-Ticket-Ride" with the constant slap-slap of the boat bouncing over the waves and steering to aim into the swells. Both of us laughed with the excitement of the ride, what a thrill! Once we returned to the marina, we climbed out of the boat, exhausted but very happy with our day. We squared up with the harbor master and as we drove the three miles back to the RV, both of us enjoyed talking about the nice day we'd had. Yes, it would have been nice to have caught some fish we still had a great time! I am including four other pictures as insets which show the lovely setting, including Mt. Thielson (pointy cap) and Mt. Bailey (round cap), the beautiful forest edging the lake, and a pair of fun pictures of Steve fishing and motoring us along! Pam, I'm hoping this day has treated you well--I'm sorry to hear that you have a similar problem with pesky rodents. Moles are absolutely horrible as well. We get them too but not as much as the ground squirrels. UGH! Oh well, live and let live…but we don't have to like it! :D *BIG HUGS TO YOU!*

(+2 insets!) Diamond Lake was the last place we stayed on our epic 25-day RV adventure and that's where we got to see these hopelessly adorable ground squirrels! In fact, there was also a group of bitty little chippers (chipmunks) that lived in a hole almost directly under our RV! All of these little guys were such fun for us to see and interact with. One morning I needed to cut up some new bread squares for Pumpkin and just before I tossed the pile of crumbs in the garbage, a fine thought entered my mind…"Ooooooh, let's have some fun!" I popped out of the trailer and carefully poured the crumbs into the entrance of the little chipper's hole. I went back inside and realized that Pumpkin's nut and seed-treat container also needed refilling. "Oh my, look at all of these bits and pieces…whatever shall I do with them?!!" Out I went and I had to laugh because in the few minutes I was away, the pile of bread crumbs had diminished! "Busy little chippers, have some more!" Adding the pile of nut bits and seeds on top of the bread crumbs, I climbed back into the coach and peeked out the window. A little face was poking out of the hole, hard at work! I laughed and carried on with Pumpkin's food. A few minutes later Steve stepped inside, "HEY! There's a chipmunk out there eating a pile of stuff, it's so cute!" I told him what I'd done and we both looked out to see the cutie pie stuffing its cheeks with goodies! So adorable. The little ground squirrels which I'm featuring today were really cool because we'd never seen them before. In fact, I couldn't be positive exactly WHAT they were. I figured they were some sort of ground squirrel but they were smaller than the ones that live on our property and actually, they looked totally different. Short tails, non-spotted coats, I wondered what they were. Only, I couldn't tell. And I had no way to know. Why? No internet. Zip, nada, zilch. And that simply drove me batty! If there's one thing that I must have, it's the ability to do research on all of the things I'm curious about! And let me tell you, I'm a very curious little monkey indeed! I always have been and I always will be…the world is such a fascinating place with endless things to learn and discover! When I was a kid I learned about the amazing place called the library. I would become so enchanted with this fantastic portal to knowledge that I started working at my school library in 4th grade and this continued through my senior year in high school. When the internet came to be, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! To think…a research library the size of the world, available from the comfort of my home. What a sweet deal. The internet immediately became my favorite resource for investigation and I have always called upon it ravenously. But now…to find that I cannot have it whenever I want…well, let's just say it's been extremely frustrating. The fact is that I just can't stand not knowing something and having to just deal with it. ARGH! I will say that within an hour of having an internet connection again, I made a beeline for "ground squirrels of Oregon" and just like a hopeless junkie finally getting a fix...ohhhhhhh the RELIEF of finally discovering what this little guy was: a Belding's Ground Squirrel !! LOL, you probably think I'm a little off the deep end but I can't help it…I just GOTTA KNOW! :D I am also including two insets with a couple of other views. These are all youngsters and totally adorable (in case you didn't figure that out yet!) :D. And the reason we've never seen them before is because they don't live in our county and are found in a fairly small area in comparison to the very common California Ground Squirrel, found all over the western U.S. Pam, do you guys have ground squirrels where you live? Monstrous little fellows, they are always trying to dig under our foundation, the stinkers! Yes they are cute but my opinion of them is not the best because they are so destructive and eat all of my flowers! Well, they were here first so I can't complain too much! I hope all is well with you today my dear! :) *BIG HUGS*

(+2 insets!) (please view large for even more detail!) We had originally planned to visit two other places on our Central Oregon Trip, including a two-day side trip out to the coast at Tillamook and a four-night stay at Detroit Lake State Park. Because of our transmission snafu, we ended up turning our four nights at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park to 11 nights and cancelling our other destinations. However, we did end up adding a different destination for our last five nights: Diamond Lake! We'd discovered this place on the way home from my birthday trip last year. We'd headed up to Sun River for a few glorious days of hiking and biking at the end of September and on the way back to Medford we had enough time to stop off at a spot along the way that we'd only driven past before. There was a 10-mile paved path around this beautiful lake which seemed like the perfect distance for a brief stop. That trail turned out to be one of the most delightful we'd ever had the pleasure of riding on and we wanted to return and repeat the experience. I'm happy to report that going around Diamond Lake again was equally fantastic on our second time around! During our stay we also went on another bike ride and a long hike, along with two days of fishing! The RV campground we stayed at was super too, with a wonderful forest setting and lots of birds and other animals to enjoy. I went out with my macro lens one morning and got hundreds of neat images as I strolled along. Part of my wandering took me down to a small, lazy creek clogged with logs which emptied into Diamond Lake. There I found all kind of cool subjects by the water, including damselflies! My main picture today shows my lucky close-up portrait! I have an inset which shows the whole damselfly. Unfortunately the light was low enough that I couldn't get a proper full-dof image but I'm still very happy that I got such a nice, crisp image of its face. This guy was so brave…I just kept creeping closer and closer until I stopped because I didn't want to scare it away. I managed to get a dozen pictures that were crisp, hooray! :) And what luck…today's Saturday Self-Challenge is all about things that fly or float! :D (I'm also sharing an inset that shows the creek so you can see how filled with logs it was! The creek really seemed more like a pond but there was a culvert which led under the main road there and emptied into Diamond Lake) Pam, it's wonderful to be in communication with you again--I've really missed our little back and forth conversations! Best of all, I'm so happy that you are so understanding that I won't be able to post pictures every day when I'm away. It would have been nice but you know how it is! :D *SENDING BIG HUGS YOUR WAY!* Explored on 7/8/19; highest placement, #1.

Hi everyone! We are finally home from our 3-week RV trip to four of Central Oregon's lovely state parks: LaPine, The Cove Palisades, L.L. Stub Stewart and Diamond Lake.What an amazing trip it was! There were so many beautiful places, so many wonderful adventures, and so many "firsts" too! It was also a trip which taught me a few things, but most of all I had to wave goodbye to an internet connection and just forget about it. I also realized that it was just impossible to keep up with a proper journal. It's always a struggle: do you LIVE the adventure or do you DOCUMENT it? It's all a balancing act and part of that balance is just throwing your hands in the air and enjoying the show without taking a single picture or writing a word about it. We were blessed to lose our truck's transmission in a place where we were safe. If asked, "Where would you like to be stuck if you were stranded in your RV for a week while your truck was being repaired?", we'd both say "L.L. Stubb State Park!" Honestly, there were many wonderful parks we would happily hole up in but we sure loved staying at L.L. Stubb with its endless hiking and mountain bike trails, comfortable weather, and gorgeous local. Deep, rich, beautiful forests are not the worst surroundings and in the end we got our truck back in premier condition and ready for years of adventures in the future! I've missed everyone here so very much. Even when there was an internet connection, I rarely had the time to visit which was too bad but what are you going to do, right?! :) I sure do hope that everyone has been doing ok and I look forward to visiting between the ebb and flow of chores around here! Today's picture is a one of a favorite subject: a fern frond! You may know how much I adore them--In fact, I'm infatuated by these lovely plants! When we were in L.L. Stubb State Park, we stayed at two sites. The first five days we stayed at their upper campground, the next five days we stayed at their lower campground. Next to our site was a steep hillside which of course I was soon crawling around on with my camera and macro lens. Why? Well, remember the Foxgloves I shared last? The white ones were waving at me and I couldn't resist. Once I was down there I found bunches of other lovely subjects to photograph. I saw some ferns too but they weren't in great condition. In fact, many fronds were in the process of yellowing and dying back. Then I noticed how colorful they were and took a closer look. HOLY COW, THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL!!! I was totally enchanted, and so today I wanted to share this picture with you so you can see how incredible a dying fern frond can be! :) Pam, you've been on my mind every day too. I hope you are well. I've been thinking a lot about Marie-Claire too and wishing for positive news--if anyone reading this knows how she is doing, I sure would like to know! Sending my biggest *HUGGZ* to everyone this evening!! Explored on 7/6/19; highest placement, #1.

(+ 6 insets!) (please view large) This post is another War & Peace door stop…read at your peril! Or get a cup of coffee, kick back, and get caught up on part of our RV adventures ! Adventures with Groceries and Bikes! Oh dear…we are stranded in L.L. Stub Stewart State Park without a car while our truck is getting its transmission totally rebuilt. This park is a glorious slice of heaven…whatever shall we do?! :D I think we'll have a fabulous time, that's what! L.L. Stub Stewart is known for its massive web of hiking, biking and equestrian trails, and if we were interested, they also have a challenging disc-golf course too. The photography opportunities are endless and Steve has a reasonable internet connection as well. Stranded indeed. Heh. However, as wonderful as it is here, we had a problem. Namely, groceries. When we left for Tillamook the other day, the first stops were to be Costco and a large grocery store. Our provisions were planned to last for increments along the way and resupplied at predetermined destinations. It's true that we could probably survive without more food but it was far from ideal if we could come up with a better solution. Steve realized that the nearby towns of Banks and Vernonia--22 miles apart in opposite directions--both had grocery stores. And they were easily accessed via a very popular, paved rails-to-trails path which led right through L.L. Stub Stewart State Park at the midway point. This easily-accessible trail was one of the reasons our campground was so popular and we knew this first-hand. Just the day before we left for Tillamook we'd ridden our bikes 11 miles down the gradual descent to Banks and then back again. It was a wonderful and beautiful ride through healthy, vibrant green forest dotted with countless flowers along the way. The 22-mile trip, with its combination of distance and 500-foot elevation gain, was enough to totally wipe us out by the time we'd returned to L.L. Stub Stewart. Remembering our original plan to do all 44-miles in one day made us laugh weakly as we panted and pedaled in our lowest gears slowly up the last hills to our RV. Still, we were bummed that we didn't get to enjoy the entire trail. We made a promise to come back in the future, so we'd just do the other half of that marvelous rails-to-trails ride. Now, with an actual need, we had a real challenge to ride from L.L. Stub Stewart to Vernonia and back! Raise your fists in the air and join us in yelling, "HUZZAH for the BRIEN GROCERY CHALLENGE!" There were plenty of things we needed. For one thing, we were beginning to run low on creamer for our life-blood espressos.*GASP!!!* But more than that, we needed an entire henhouse full of eggies! Prepare to be amazed! We eat four eggs for our brunch every day, which means a normal dozen eggs only lasts us three days. We were out of our egg-sausage muffins and the recipe calls for ten eggs. We need to make another batch of "fauxtato" salad and those require six. Pancakes, which are a once every two-week treat--require four eggs. If we were staying for another full week we would need a total of--SERIOUSLY???!!--48 eggs!! Heh. (By the way, did you know that cholesterol has nothing to do with risk of heart disease? Don't believe me? Here's just one article (click link) In other words, eggs can be eaten at will!) Our next problem was figuring out how we'd get our groceries back to our RV intact. Steve and I stared at our little ice chest which returned our stare, laughing. "I am a huge, heavy, rectangular box and you won't be able to carry me to the store and back." Apparently the ice chest didn't know Steve very well. He is an ingenious jerry-rigger with a great mind for working out amazing solutions to crazy problems. Just like this one. I knew he'd come up with something perfect and he did. He started off by placing the box on the narrow pannier rack behind his seat and staring at it quietly. "Hmm…what I need is something wide under the box to support it." After a moment of thought he put the box down and said, "I've got it! One of the boards I use for the leveling jacks under the trailer would be perfect! I've even got screws to mount it to my bike." (Steve adds, "The thickness of the wood wasn't ideal but it was literally the only wood we had!) With a grin and bounce in his step, Steve was soon building a sturdy platform on the pannier. A few minutes later he had the box attached, rock-solid, to the platform with the use of several strong bungees. I beamed in appreciation. "Honey, you're amazing! That's awesome!!" The Ride to Vernonia I packed a few snacks, we put on our backpacks, stashed our water bottles and off we went. Like the trip from L.L. Stub Stewart to Banks, the trail to Vernonia led through thick, beautiful deciduous forest accented by conifers here and there. Let's not forget the never-ending wildflower show along the way! Large daisies, zillions of blossoms in the dandelion family of all types and sizes, elegant tiger lilies, wild berry flowers and so many others. A first for me was the foxgloves (Digitalis purpura) that were simply everywhere. Mostly in shades of magenta, lavender and purple, I would sometimes see an occasional spike of pure white ones with purple-spotted throats. I was curious enough to look this flower up online and discovered that it's not a native flower (its home is in Europe, Asia and Africa) but has naturalized to the point of being a noxious weed in some places. All I can say is "HOORAY!!" because I love these stunning flowers, native or not. We were ready for a well-deserved break when we finally pulled into Vernonia, locked our bikes up at the grocery store and picked up our supplies. We found just about everything we needed and better yet, almost all of it fit into the ice chest affixed to Steve's bike! How cool is that? I handled the bag of apples and a couple of other items but it was a surprise that we had so much room to spare. I hoped the load wouldn't be too much for Steve to handle but his first comment was just what I wanted to hear: I can barely tell there's anything back there! YAY! Before we left for our return trip, we stopped at a nearby park to eat our snacks and have a short rest. While munching, we enjoyed watching a group of horses nearby that were relaxing outside their trailers after a trail ride. We also chatted with an older couple who strolled by with their German shepherds and, of all things, a blue and gold macaw! The Ride Back to L.L. Stub Stewart Before we hopped on our bikes to leave, Steve noticed that his back tire was nearly flat. Again. He's been having a continual problem with his rear "tubeless" tire. He filled it before our ride but now it was nearly flat again. Talk about annoying! That darn tire has plagued him since he got it a couple of months ago and he's had enough. He couldn't help announcing, "That's IT! When we get back to the RV I'm going to put a tube in this tire!" Once he got the pressure back up we rode our bikes back the way we came on the Banks-Vernonia Trail, enjoying the lovely scenery. For about 10 minutes. He crackled over the walkie-talkie, "It's flat again…" We pulled over and he refilled it, grumbling about his stupid tire. This time when we continued our ride, he let me know that he'd be riding as fast as he could to get a far along the trail before needing to refill the tire. I didn't mind being left in the dust and his logic was sound. I was far enough behind him that sometimes I didn't see his bike but eventually I'd catch up when he had to stop and refill his tire. We did have a fun time with a pair of ladies riding along the trail with us. They were a lot slower than Steve and a bit slower than us so Steve whizzed by them with an amusing comment for them. He let me know via walkie-talkie that they would be happy to move to the side when I got to them. When I arrived, I said, "Hey guys, I'm going to come through the middle!" They said ok with happy laughter and away I went. A bit later I arrived at Steve's side where he was busily pumping up his back tire. After a few minutes, along came the ladies and Steve said he was sure he'd seen them before. They laughed and one turned with a challenge, "TAG…YOU"RE IT!" Hoots and hollers of gleeful mirth filled the air! Once his tire was full, Steve took off again, eventually reaching the pair of ladies again. As they moved to the side to let him pass, Steve told them, "If anyone ever suggests tubeless tires to you, Just Say No!" I shared the laughter over the walkie-talkie and after a few minutes I caught up to them as well. They'd been keeping an eye on where I was and slid to the side so I could pass. As I did, I couldn't help crooning, "I have arrived to return the favor…"TAG! YOU'RE IT!" The air filled with a fit of giggles from all of us and I pulled ahead. We didn't see them again but won't forget this fun-loving pair. Happily (and with a bit of sarcasm) Steve only had to do that three (yes, THREE) more times before we finally chugged our way up the last few hills into L.L. Stub Stewart and pulled to a stop at our RV. Can you spell T-I-R-E-D?! That would be us! Steve was totally done for, the poor guy. Not only had he dealt with a back tire that went flat every 15 minutes, he was also carrying about 10 extra pounds of groceries in his backpack and at least 40 pounds from the heavy old ice cooler box, the heavy wood plank platform and the groceries which included a half-gallon of creamer and bunches of other stuff. Ridiculous, and yet he did it! My hero! :) Needless to say, we didn't do much more other than take showers, drink our afternoon espressos, eat dinner and relax until 9 sharp when we watched our show with Pumpkin and then fell into bed face-first. It had been a wonderful day. We were so proud that we rose to the challenge to get groceries. We also got to complete the 22-mile Banks to Vernonia Rails-to-Trails ride. With a day between rides we rode 44 miles in total with 500-feet elevation gain both days. That may not seem like much but trust me, the combination of distance and elevation was quite the accomplishment! We will always remember this adventure, hooray! Pictures I'm including today are a pair of droplet-covered daisies after a late-night shower with insets of Foxgloves in purple and white! I also have a picture of Steve on his bike (with a flat back tire) and the attached ice chest!) And finally, the lady who drove the tow truck kindly sent us the picture she took of the unbelievable sight which she drove so competently! THANK YOU LAURA! Thinking of you, Pam, and you too, Marie-Claire!! ALL MY BEST! Explored on 6/25/19; highest placement, #7.

(+1 inset) Holy cow, what an adventure we are having! Steve and I are now at a lovely state park called L.L. Stub Stewart and will be here until at least Wednesday we think. We were supposed to be in Tillamook today but an enormous wrench was thrown into the works… Our truck's transmission decided it no longer had the will to live and left us on a long and winding gravel road as we were heading out from L.L. Stub Stewart towards the coastal community of Tillamook, Oregon. Long story short, all is well and we are happy and safe with a wonderful site arranged for as long as we need it! I'm sharing a view from the rim of the 600-foot canyon of The Cove Palisades which looks down into the beautiful Lake Billy Chinook . We went on a hike from our campsite up to the top and around a loop trail which took us many enjoyable--though very hot--hours to complete. Incredible, breathtaking views the whole way, with countless flowers and interesting plants and trees to appreciate. I'm also including an inset…WE CAUGHT FISHIES!!! Hooray!!! After some bumpy failures on previous days, Steve caught his first fish one morning while fishing from the shore of Lake Billy Chinook. We learned that a small and adorably cute fishing boat was only $70 for 4 hours! The next day we got up early and soon found ourselves in a spot that was well-known to be a prime fishing spot. It WAS! Steve caught 2 7" Small-mouth Bass, a 12" California Squawfish (invasive junk fish which eats trout and salmon eggs and fry) and a gorgeous 16" Rainbow Trout! I caught a small but lovely silvery shimmering 8" land-locked salmon called a Kokanee! Both of us were beside ourselves with excitement and pride. We'd actually caught our DINNER which would give us two night's meals, hooray! I would love to spend more time chatting but I'm out of time! We will be hopping on our bikes after brunch and heading down the "rails to trails" path that leads between the town of Banks past L.L. Stub Stewart all the way out to Vernonia. It's a 22-mile paved path in total length and today we'll be doing the length between L.L. Stub Stewart and Vernonia. Two days ago we went to Banks and back and it thoroughly kicked our er…behinds with its slow but steady climb from Banks back to our campground. Today's ride will be a lot less strenuous. A good thing as we need groceries today and will be loaded down with full backpacks on the way back! Much love to you, Pam, to you, Marie-Claire, and to all of you who have visited in the past days! Explored on 6/23/19; highest placement, #1.