Good afternoon!!!! 66F @ 3:00PM. Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 72F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
Maybe get a shower or two of rain overnight, but not much accumulation.
Lots to catch up on, but I'm giving it a go. It's been nice being semi out of touch, not watching any TV or even listening to radio while traveling. Just lots of good conversation.
Always tried to be there first to open a door for a lady, walk between her and the curb, and pull out her chair to help her get seated. I see very little of that going on these days.
Sorry to hear about the busted rod, Kyle. I'd stay away from 4140 if I was going to weld it. 4130 is what you want.
I saw one of those electric VW busses a couple years ago at the Vanagon meeting, Drew. It's smaller than my Vanagon, and I couldn't imagine anyone using it as a camper. Less is NOT more.
The last report had us in College Grove, OR headed out for dinner. Of the three BBQ joints in town, all were closed. We ended up in a tiny one-man-show Italian restaurant, enjoying delicious food. Nice walk back to the motel, too. Woke up to rain the next morning, but broke through to partly cloudy skies at Florence on the coast. Had a snack of clam chowder and salad, then ended up in Reedsport, still on the coast. Stopped for take out Chinese, very bland but filling, but not before an evening stroll. A small shower caught up with us just as we made it back to the motel, putting on a pretty nice rainbow show as the sun set.
Uneventful return to home on Thursday. Bought Diesel for $4.77 Wednesday morning, by Thursday afternoon at the Oregon border with California, it was $5.45, and I noticed it was close to $6.00 in town as we passed through.
Impressions of the Eugene area were mixed. We both liked the flat valleys and surrounding rolling hills, but not the cloudy weather or the rain. Turns out they get less than 150 days a year of any kind of sun, and hardly any at all between October and March. Having grown up on Ohio winters, that's a deal breaker, unless better data shows up. I was impressed at how easy it was to get into and out of the Eugene metro area, with light traffic even on the shoulders of rush hour. We didn't have any parking problems, either, even with the big F250. The added variety in the big box stores was nice, but their added size made for more walking in the parking lots and more searching inside the stores. Living outside a smaller town like Cottage Grove made a lot more sense, then just hitting the big city every few weeks for bigger purchases. So that's something to look for in other areas.
Went for what was to be a five mile hike yesterday to see some wildflowers, and that turned out closer to seven with only a scattering of flowers. Beautiful weather, though, especially compared to what we found in Oregon.
Table Mountain is renowned not only for the spring wildflowers, but for the waterfalls as well. We weren't expecting much due to the drought, and we weren't disappointed. There was barely a trickle when it is usually roaring this time of year.
This old body felt every mile, especially my feet. My walking shoes were no match for the rocks and roots, so I spent a few hours trying to find some decent hiking boots today. Found some helpful reviews, but nothing at Amazon in my size. Not gonna buy boots via mail order unless there's a free return shipping policy in place.
Finished the evening with a campfire and a little music from some snow geese overhead. Very different call from the honking Canadas.
Got the forester's report back, and he doesn't recommend cutting a firebreak. Says the clearing I've done is enough to prevent a fire from escaping my property, or a wildfire from burning the house down. I hope he's right. He also said that there wasn't much value in the trees out away from the driveway, and recommended not replacing the burned trees on the rest of the property so as not to increase the fuel load. Based on his recommendations, I accepted the latest offer from the Fire Victim's Trust. It will be nice to put that behind me.
I'll still get a dozer on site to clear the dead wood, and to reduce the incline of the driveway, but those are manageable jobs that don't involve the really steep ground along much of the property line.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!
