Hannah does a gumby move

September 21, 2015

My humans are outside.  They are sitting by a box that flickers yellow and sparks.  I want to be with them so I am putting my claws through the screen door.  Come get me!  Oh!  Here the maternal human comes!  What?  She closed the big door so I can't see at all!  How could she do that?  I am so cute!

We are staying at River Bend county park, just a tad west of Cascadia.  It is a beautiful woodsy park that is a great hybrid between tent camping and RV'ing.  Our site has electricity and water (no sewer).  There is a concrete pad for the picnic table and fire pit.  Then there are woodsy trees surrounding the site.  Each site is very private and they are all quite large.  There is a hiking trail that goes through the woods near the Santiam River.  The river is low, as they too are in a drought here.  So many of the trees are covered in moss from trunk to every limb.  I can hear the frogs chirping.  Supposedly, there are some very rare frogs here.

We continue east on hwy 20 on the 'over the rivers and thru the woods' scenic byway.  We are crossing over the Cascades again.  It is an easy mountain road, no hairpin turns or steep drop offs.  The granite mountains are lined with fir trees, and again, the undergrowth is screaming with the fall colors.  We are following the Santiam River.  We see little campgrounds and decide to check one out. 

Note to self:  when towing Hannah, make sure there is room to turn around...  We turn down the road toward the campground.  It is a dirt road, kind of bumpy.  It is narrow.  We cross over a bridge.  We were barely able to make the turn with Hannah, clearing the bridge posts by about an inch or two.  What are we thinking?  There is a sign that says the upper campground is not for large RVs, so let's not go that way.  The only problem is that the lower campground is not for large RVs either!  But we are here now, and we have no choice.  There is a tiny loop we follow.  Spouse had to move the truck up on the side of a hill to navigate the turn, and I am sure Hannah did some Gumby moves to get around the trees.  No way should we be able to make this turn, but somehow we did.  We made it back over the bridge, holding our breath the entire way, then back up to the highway.  Let's not do that again!

Continuing over the Cascades, we come upon a huge swath of mountains decimated by a wildfire.  Miles and miles of burnt sticks cover the mountains.  The Deschutes River is now in full view.  We pass through the town of Sisters, and head on to Bend for lunch.  When we stop, we put Rudy in Hannah.  I couldn't believe that Spouse had left his water bowl on the counter and with all the bumps and turns, the water was still on the counter!  Yet in the cabinet with the dishes, every cup was on end, and they were strapped in place!  Go figure!

We headed south on 97 toward Klamath Falls, settling in at Collier State park.  It is another woodsy campground where we can use the rest of the firewood we have been schlepping around since we were in Stanley about 4 weeks ago!  Rudy loves it here.  He has his eyes on the chipmunks and squirrels.  The blue jay looks appealing too...