Across Oregon

Eastern Oregon is pretty bland until you reach the Columbia River.  Then WoW!

 

 

 

One of our favorite spots in all our travels is the replica of Stonehenge on the north side of the Columbia River.  We made sure to pay attention and snapped a shot of it as we drove by.  It looks so small from this distance – yet it’s quite impressive when you’re standing within it’s stones.  I can’t imagine how large those windmills are if you’re standing right under them.

 

We didn’t do much sightseeing or spend any time.  We were just on our way to Tillamook.

You can see lots more photos on our monthly web album.  Geeks’ Google+ Photos July 2013

Harvest Hosts and Cold Springs Winery

We met the folks from Harvest Hosts a couple years ago, and thought they had a great concept.  They contact wineries, farms and other unique locations that are ready, willing, and able to host RVs parking on their property.  Then they promote these places to RVers and ask that they become members of Harvest Hosts in order to find out about all the great places to stop.  It’s a small yearly fee, currently $40.  The RVers get a cool place to stay for a night at no charge, and the Host gets some exposure to their facility and/or product.  As lovers of wine, we felt this would be a perfect thing for us, but we just now got around to signing up for a membership.  We spoke with Don and Kim, from Harvest Hosts at the Escapade and told them our upcoming route.  We looked at the options and figured that Cold Springs Winery, in Idaho might just work out as a perfect night stop.

When we got close, we started looking around.  I said, “I’ll bet that’s it up on the hill.”  It looked like a little piece of Italy with the tall poplar trees.  The description said there would be about a mile of dirt road, but it was well-marked and wide.  Not a problem at all.

 

As we got closer, we passed by lots of vineyards – covering the hill.  When we got up the hill, the first building was the tasting room.  We found Bill, the owner and he directed us where to park then said to come back to the tasting room to … taste!

 

Here’s our parking spot!

 

And, here’s the view of the valley below.

 

We had a delightful time with Bill chatting, and tasting his wine. 

 

Here’s the thing about wine … we had an even better time as the afternoon went on!  It was quite hot – around 100 – but we didn’t care!  After our tasting, we had to run the generator in the RV so we could have air conditioning.  There are no hookups here.  The heat was even too much for our A/C and we basically just napped the rest of the afternoon.  It did cool down into the 60s come dark, so sleeping was fine.

 

I’d say our first stop with Harvest Host was a roaring success!  We knew we would enjoy staying at a winery, we figured it would be picturesque, we knew we would enjoy a tasting and probably buy a bottle of wine to keep.  But, we didn’t count on liking every wine we tasted so much that we had to buy a whole case!

Mountains, Canyons, and Sunsets in Wyoming and Idaho

WOW!  I just kept saying that all day as Jim drove the motorhome thru the Wind River Canyon, then over the Continental Divide to where we got a glimpse of the Grand Tetons.  The weather was pretty dark and cloudy so we didn’t get the vistas I would have liked, but we still saw plenty.  Every time we turned a corner, we both said, “Wow!”



And then came the most scenic mountains of all … the Grand Tetons.  It was the sight of these mountains in our first year of travels that literally brought tears to my eyes.  They are exquisite.  They are the charm school graduates of mountain ranges.  This is why we travel – you just don’t see sights like this in normal city life!  The cloudy skies made for less than brilliant pictures, but being in the presence of the Grand Tetons was still a humbling experience.

WE even caught a glimpse of some Buffalo … err, Bison.

We managed to spare a few minutes to stop and the National Park Visitor Center and get our Nat’l Park Passport book stamped.  The visitor center building was quite an experience in itself.  Huge windows to fit the view!

The sun even peaked out for a few minutes.

And, we weren’t done yet!  After leaving the Tetons, we took the road that followed the Snake river – it was a beautiful canyon itself.

I was starting to get tired by this point … and I wasn’t even driving!  We didn’t have any reservations for the night since we had no idea how far we would make it.  It looked like we could get into Idaho Falls before dark, so I looked at our Allstays app on my smartphone and saw that there was an Elks Lodge in Idaho Falls.  Unfortunately, when I called them, I was told that they already had 2 RVs parked there, and that’s all they had room for.  So, we just found a rest area and pulled over.  OMG … I can’t imagine a better spot to rest!  It was overlooking the Snake river, and we happened to be there right at sunset time.


As if that wasn’t enough!  Would you believe that we had 5 bars of 4G on our smartphones?!  So we were able to zip along on the work we had to do before bedtime.
Here’s the picture we took of our parking spot the next morning.

Recipe for Relaxation

First of all, we were exhausted … exhilarated, but exhausted … after 5 rallies in a row, 20+ seminars and one 2-day hands on class.  We left Gillette mid-day on July 4.  July 4 is our anniversary and we wanted to repeat our first anniversary during our full-time RVing life.  In 2004 we discovered a fabulous hot springs in Thermopolis, WY and that’s where we spent our anniversary.  What a gorgeous drive it was over the Powder River Pass thru the Bighorn mountains and south to Thermopolis.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the Fountain of Youth RV park about 5 o’clock, already feeling relaxed and renewed.  Filled with the beauty of the Wyoming mountains.  After we got parked, we quickly changed into bathing suits and went straight to the hot springs.

 

 

They’ve added a new barrier in the pool since we were here last.  Now you have the choice to stay in the north third of the pool which is about 100 degrees, or climb into the middle section at 102-104.  The third, southernmost section is too hot for people … sane people anyway.  The little volcano at the southern end is where the hot springs is coming into the pool at about 128 degrees.

 

 

After our first soak, we went back to the RV and made a home cooked meal for what seems like the first time in weeks.  We even set the dining room table and ate like civilized folks rather than at our computers!  There’s little or no Verizon signal here, and the free Wi-Fi is in and out.  There’s also no TV.  OMG, we were forced to look at each other and talk!  All we could talk about is how lucky we are and what a wonderful life we have.  What a great thing we did 15 years ago by getting married!   Then we went back at night to soak some more, wait for the fireworks, and listen to live music by the park owner.  Here’s a little video:

 

The next day we started with another soak.

Then we went into town and had breakfast at the Thermopolis Café, then visited the Dinosaur Museum.

Once we were in the tourist mode, we just kept on going.  We had seen a sign back up the road a ways for tours at the Wyoming Whiskey distillery.  Umm … OK!  Hey!  It said Stop … so we did.

By the time we got back home, it was NAP time!    No phone, no Internet.  Started the day with a hot springs soak, then played tourist, tasted Wyoming Whiskey, had lunch at a great hamburger place.  Now THAT’s a recipe for relaxation.  We napped for the rest of the afternoon, then repeated the night before of soaking, swimming, and listening to music. 

Escapee’s Rally–The Escapade

Another great rally!  We went back to Gillette, WY for this one.  And here’s the schedule of seminars we gave:

 

The Windows 8 seminar was a first for us, and the Movie Maker seminar is one we’ve only given once and the computer didn’t work so well.  This time we used a different computer for the Movie Maker and we made sure to practice the Windows 8 seminar – so they both went well.  If you attended a seminar when we ran out of handouts, or you weren’t able to attend, all of our seminar handouts can be downloaded from our website. 

We LOVE doing this!  So many people came up to us to say thank you!  Some said they felt SO smart now because they learned so much from our seminars.  Others told us they needed some down time because their brains were overflowing with all the information we presented.

The most popular class was the smartphone overview.  WoW.  The only picture I snapped was this panorama with my Droid phone.  I apparently didn’t hold the camera well cuz it’s a bit blurry, but you get the idea – it was a packed house!  Teaching smartphones is just sooo much fun, the main comment we hear as people leave is, “I had no idea they could do so much!”  We especially like showing Google Translate.  As long as you have your phone, and an internet connection, you will be able to speak the language of whatever country you’re visiting – or your phone will at least.  And, it’s free!  Just unbelievable. We also show a video clip from NBCNews that explains the amazing medical uses of smartphones.

Our Windows 8 seminar had a respectable turnout also:

And Jim got to show off his Windows 8 Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet/computer.  We met a couple other people at the rally who had the Surface Pro and they loved theirs just as much!

When we weren’t teaching a seminar we were at our booth in the exhibit hall.  It was great getting to see our friend Phil May, of TechnoRV – our booths were right next to each other so we took down the barriers to make a TechnoGeek booth!

 

The Verizon booth was nearby and I think I recognized most of the people buying phones because they attended our smartphone class – then had to buy one!  Too bad we don’t make any commission eh?  Just kidding, we don’t want any commission.  That’s why people trust our information so much – we don’t make anything from it.  Our sole source of income is from our members who learn from us.

It was a busy, busy week, but we still found time for some fun as well.  Here’s our parking space, and we were right next to Nick and Terry Russell of Gypsy Journal fame.  We spent a couple of evenings just swapping tales – it was nice to catch up with them, although my sides did hurt afterwards from laughing at Nick’s stories!

On Tuesday night, Jim was told his presence was requested at the evening entertainment.  ???? Uh-Oh, we were also told it involved him wearing a wig!  It was a hoot, here’s a little video that I put together using Movie Maker:

We also found time to get together for dinner with new friends, Don and Kim from HarvestHosts.com.  They have this cool business where they find Wineries, Farms, and other unique places where the owners agree to let RVs park overnight, then they promote those locations to people who pay a small fee to become members of Harvest Hosts.  There is no fee for the stay, just buy some wine!  We can do that .  We joined their membership recently and look forward to staying at a couple of wineries as we travel thru Idaho and Oregon.  But, we really enjoyed spending some time with them.  I thought we were well-traveled, but they put us to shame!  They’ve RVd thru Europe, Africa, Central and South America, and I think New Zealand and Australia too.  Talking to them added way too many things to my own bucket list!

We look forward to meeting up with you again Don and Kim!

 

There’s still one more day of the rally – they’ve planned a banquet, birthday party, and fireworks display.  We’d love to attend, but today is a very special day for us – our 15th Anniversary – and we are so close to Thermopolis, which is a wonderful hot springs where we spent our first anniversary on the road!  We gotta go!

Have a great Birthday bash Escapade!

 

Thank You to Bob and Molly Pinner – the directors of the Escapade, and Cathie Carr – the President of Escapees.  We had a great time!