Friday the 13th!

Since I had internet last night, and now it is gone, I realize I should have written something for yesterday. However, by the time that I got the previous ones loaded, and added pics, I was tired and decided to quit. Here I am writing my blog without internet, so that I can copy and paste it to Blogger when we get more service. Hopefully that will be tomorrow, but I'm not confident!

                                          

Today, we went through John Day and Prairie City. John Day was a fairly large town for this area. A little over 2,000 residents! But, it had a McDonalds AND a Dairy Queen! And a grocery store, so I could stock up on stuff for the next couple of days. I think the large towns will be scarce. John Day is the town that I did laundry in yesterday. I had to drive to the second town to find a laundry that wasn't "closed due to lack of use".... funny, though, the laundry in the next town was so busy I had to wait for dryers. I also found good dog food for Pinkie there, and a new remote phone charger for Jeff. His phone won't last very long while he is using GPS out there, so he was carrying a USB charger. It stopped working.

I finally looked up John Day, since he has a river in this area, and two towns, named after him. He was a trapper in the 1800's that came from Virginia. His river is very pretty! And the towns are quaint. But not as quaint as Prairie City!

We stopped in Prairie City at a little coffee shop called Roan Coffee. The owner, I think her name was Judy, was very nice! We sat there and chatted for quite a while. She and her husband are cattle ranchers out here. The other lady, her neighbor Helen, was also a rancher. We talked a bit about the economy here and living here. Although I can't really imagine living this far remote, and in such a harsh environment. But then, some folks think that the Texas heat is a harsh environment! Both ladies were excited about our trek across the country, and the owner gave us a donation.

That reminds me, while I was doing laundry yesterday, a guy was also there doing his. He and his wife were in town for a motorcycle thing, a BMW motorcycle rally or something. Anyway, he and I talked for some time about what we were doing and Support For Firefighters. He asked if we were taking donations. He pulled out a $50 bill and gave it to me! I think that is our biggest cash donation on the road. A number of folks have given us $10's and $20's, though. People are happy to help! Maybe this endeavor will be successful after all!

Back to Prairie City. It is a truly picturesque town! They have a small downtown with buildings that are wooden, and then a couple multi-story masonry buildings. Interestingly, the 2 most striking buildings are noted on the front, one a Masonic Lodge, and the other, the International Order of Oddfellows. That building was built in 1908. The order is no longer active in this area, but I found it interesting, as I had never heard of them prior to Jeff's high school reunion last year in Saratoga. A couple of the alumni are Order members, and the reunion was held partially at the lodge location.

We have stayed in Oregon State park camping grounds for two nights now. They are really awesome, with hot showers, and full hook ups. This one is a couple miles off the main highway, but it is by a lake. It is also cold and windy, and quite damp out there! It has rained on Jeff most of the day. He got a yellow trash bag from one of the litter crews to keep warmer and somewhat dry with.

I know I have mentioned this before, but Oregon is truly a beautiful state! Apparently the environmentalists have really hampered the economy here by putting a halt to the lumber industry, which employed a great many around here. The locals have tried to get permission to just cut half of the sustainable lumber, which would bring some money back into the area. But, no luck. It is very sad. We have noticed for sale signs on the highway, pretty much since we left the coast.

And you would think that the wildlife is everywhere! However, today is the first day I have even seen a deer! At the campground we stayed at last night, there was a sign indicating a Cougar sighting on May 24. We didn't see it. Nor have we seen any bears or elk. Well, ok, there were quite a few little chipmunks around, and I suppose you could count those as "wild life". I have been watching for bald eagles, too, but have not seen one yet.

The dogs have settled into a routine. They pretty much sleep all day in their crate, then we let them out in the coach while we are parked at night. They are also sleeping with us now. Zada would wake us up whining and making such a fuss! They are all pretty good about sleeping through the night now. We really were worried about that, as they are so used to just popping out the doggie door in the night if they needed to go. But, there has only been one "accident" in the coach, and it was the first couple of days. They now understand that they need to hold it until they go outside. They really get excited when they get to burrow under the blankets in our room! In fact, they will stay there a good long time even after we have gotten up.