18.08.08-13. Car camping with Terri

I have a girlfriend, Terri, who I met at church in Stockton when we were both having baby boys.  We kept in touch fairly well for a few years after my family moved to Auburn - we had one car camping outing together with the boys and we each visited the other’s house once so we could talk while the boys swam, skate boarded and did what boys do. There was a long spell during which we did not communicate while we were busy with life.  When Mike and I started on this adventure we reconnected when we were overnighting in the Motorhome at the coast near where she lives. It was one of those “we picked up right where we left off” experiences, and we’ve been doing better since then. We talked about meeting up in Oregon during the eclipse last year, but that didn’t happen. This year, Terri has been texting me with inquires about where I’ll be and when during August, and I gave her my location and dates. 

So I was pleasantly surprised when, on Aug 1, she texted to say she was on her way from her home in California to Oregon.  She was on a road trip, I was invited to join her, and for once I did not need to be the logistics planner - she made the campsite arrangements for two nights at Detroit Lake State Park - a possible hosting spot that has been on my list to visit.  I figured I’d do a day trip up to see it some time while I’m at Silver Falls because it is only 50 miles away.  Instead, I learned I get to camp there with a friend after only eight days in the neighborhood. 

Terri had all the camping gear, which is a good thing because all Mike and my car camping gear got distributed to Eric and Curt or simply left behind when we moved into our first Motorhome five and a half years ago. 

Before I left home, I cooked up all the perishables at my house  so I had some food to contribute and I stopped for fruit at the store on the way up. We ate really well, after toasting our reunion with a bottle of champagne.

Another chore I had before leaving was related to sleeping arrangements.  Terri encouraged me to clear the decks in my Jeep so I could sleep in it rather than pitch one of her tents - too much work, she said.  I was a little dismayed at first because my Jeep is basically a storage room so it was a bit of work getting everything moved out into MT.  

I am SO glad I did it. 

The Jeep got a good sweep and airing out which it needed badly.  I used lots of blankets for a cushy pad.  The only real camping gear I own is my sleeping bag which I carry in the Jeep so I can lay it out on any bed I sleep on when I’m visiting friends. The sleeping bag was a beautiful comforter on top up my sleeping cushions. 

I loved sleeping in the Jeep. I opened the back hatch a little way and settled in to watch the mini parade of people walk by after dark - a much different experience than sleeping in MT! I decided I will orchestrate my own car camping trip again before I leave - there are lots of options for a mid-week overnight along a local river in a National Forest campground.

In the morning of our only full day at the State Park, we drove a short distance to Breitenbush Host Springs - a place Terri found in her hot springs reference book.  We had a day pass, although the place is set up for overnight stays and I'm sure that would be a good experience, too.

In additions to enjoying all seven hot and one cold pool locations, we also jumped in the very very cold river.  This is a picture of us in the front lawn of the lodge eating some kale dipped in hummus - simple to carry and more enjoyable and less expensive than buying and eating on the kitchen's time frame.  

I don't have any pool pictures to show since this is a "clothing optional" hot springs. You’ll just have to use your imagination. 

The next day we enjoyed our campsite until the 1:00 checkout time and then headed east back toward Silver Falls while looking for more swimming holes.  Here is Terri swimming in the lake just below the dam that creates Detroit Lake

and here is me enjoying the Santiam River further downstream

 

When we got back to Silver Falls, the eating fest continued and the plan for Terri to stay in her car on my site for the weekend turned in to a four night eating, planning and visiting layover.  

I went back to Camp Host duties, and we took a nice hike together on the first afternoon after work.

The next day Terri hiked the Trail of Ten Waterfalls by herself while I did my own things, then we took a short trip toward Salem for a couple supplies and to visit the Farm Fresh Egg stand of a gal we met at the hot springs three days earlier.  We bought a dozen eggs, 

and scavenged apples from the ground under the apple tree in the yard 

and turned them in to two jars of applesauce.  

 

The Farm Fresh Egg gal was happy to hear we enjoyed the fruits of her yard.  I bet I'll be going back there for more before I’m finished here in Silver Falls. 

Meanwhile, it is time for Terri to move on and me to go back to normal life, refreshed and rejuvenated with ideas to put in to action from a our life planning discussions.  Until we meet again, Terri!

18.08.04-7 The Cabins

There are 14 rustic cabins for rent to the public who want to stay overnight in the park but are not bringing camping gear.  Cabins rent for $43 per night.

Rustic means a solid four walls, floor, roof, electricity, heat, one 30” square table, four chairs and mattress sleeping for five on a futon couch and a bunk bed, but no plumbing, refrigeration or bedding. 

I am assigned to cabin cleaning, with two other hosts, but only two of us are scheduled each day since we all get regular days off (mine are Thursday and Friday) 

The process of cleaning the cabins here in Silver Falls State Park is very similar to the process Mike and I used for cleaning yurts in three different parks during our first year of hosting along the Oregon coast.  But here it is easier because the tools of the trade have changed - no more wet mopping the floors. 

Step one is to walk about 100 yards to the office and get clean floor mop pads and cleaning rags from the room where the host mailboxes and computer are also located. 

Step two is to walk over to the golf cart garage in the maintenance yard and pick out an available golf cart.

Step three is to drive the golf cart back to the where I started in the host camp circle and collect the remaining tools of the trade from one of the three supply coffins….duster pole, broom, mop pole, rake, blower, and cleaning supply bucket.

Now I’m ready to learn how many cabins are needing to be cleaned after the guests check out today - could be any time between 9:30 when the list is available from the office until 1PM checkout time. 

Next, I drive over to the key drop box near the park exit to see if any cabins have been vacated.  If there are no keys in the box yet, I can return home for breakfast or whatever, or do something else in the park until there is a key available.

The actual cleaning process takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes depending on how many cabins are on the list today ( and therefore how much energy I want to expend on each one).  While there is no time clock to punch, and no one is auditing our hours, the job description for all hosts says four hours per day. So if there are only 4 cabins to clean, 30 minutes per cabin is only two hours, and our job description suggests four hours per day. 

Cobwebs, windows and glass, sweep, disinfect all touch surfaces, disinfect sleeping surfaces, disinfect the floors, litter pick outside, blow the patio area. There is a fire ban due to dry conditions, so there is not much activity outside around the fire pit right now. 

You may be wondering “Why would she do that?”  I won’t deny this particular task is more physically demanding than other camp host assignments we’ve had. But I do it because I think it is a fair trade for the benefits received.  Benefits too numerous to discuss here - stay tuned for another post. 

18.08.02-3 McMinnville

The drive to McMinnville from Silver Falls is about 50 miles. I took my time, enjoying the new scenery and arrived at Eric and Claudia’s apartment about 3:00. Eric was at work.  Clau and I took their dog, Jamie for a walk to the local park and through an orchard at the edge of the neighborhood. 

After Eric got home and we all had an after work break, we took Clau to her yoga class in town and went to the Thursday night Farmers Market before going to the large sports complex park so Jamie could have another run and Eric and I could pick “at the peak of the season” wild blackberries from the bushes surrounding the park. 

We had good conversation and delicious chicken tortilla soup for dinner. 

Friday was a work day for Eric and an errand day for Clau and me. She is researching baby crib alternatives among other things for the nursery, so we did some looking, but not any buying today. We took a break for lunch out which was fun,

and a cruise through the local crafts-persons consignment store. Beautiful and creative things inside, made by local people. We both have ideas for items to sell in that store (or one like it in another town). 

Tonight we went out for a brewpub pizza and more conversation.

 I’m still off-loading my Mexico adventure stories, and since they can specifically relate to the places I’ve been, I got to go in to more detail than I could with a lot of my listeners.   

I brought some household items from my storage unit in Auburn to share - rugs, wall hangings, towels, etc that are doing no one any good sitting in my storage unit, and I got a better understanding of the space and needs of a young couple in their first home.  Food for thought for my next trip in a couple weeks. 

18.08.01. Silver Falls SP orientation

I received orientation and training today from the seasonal ranger, Tiffany who was on duty and was assigned to show me around this morning.  She gave me a tour of the maintenance facilities and the ranger office areas before we went off to train on my 

primary host duty - cabin cleaning.  

There are 13 host sites in this park and each site has a different job description.  Tiffany was following the training instructions provided to her by her boss.  Theoretically, the cabin cleaning process should take 20 minutes or so to do a thorough job. There are 14 cabins and two hosts assigned to cabins, so on a full day with complete turnover, I could be responsible for 7 cabins. Today there were 8 to clean and after the first one I worked on with Tiffany, it was time for her lunch to break, so  I trained/worked the rest of the day with Bob, a fellow cabin cleaner host. I rode in his golf cart while he gave me the host version of the cabin cleaning process.  We worked together and I asked lots of questions about living in the park…..

Can we get mail delivery?  Yes

Where do you go for groceries? Silverton and Sublimity are about 12 miles in different directions and Salem is 30 miles

Where are the laundry facilities? In a small out building very close to my RV parking. 

When the cabins were finished, he gave me a golf cart tour of the day use area which was very full today, 

and we spent some time helping two youngish gals with their dead car battery.

Back at my rig after work, I still have my Mexico suitcase and loot bag from shopping in their original conditions, so I’m in transition between two worlds and I worked on getting organized inside until early evening.  

For a bit of exercise and to expand my orientation to this big park, I took another bike ride on an interior park road which was more like a bike path since I did not pass one single car.

Through beautiful old growth forest up to the ranches and the YMCA camp.

Next morning was an official off-duty day ( Thursday and Friday are my off -duty days each week) but I wanted to get off the roads into the trail system so I hooked up with Bob for his early morning litter picking hike

on a trail system that wanders seven mile through the forest past ten waterfalls. We saw two this morning.
There is lots more ground to cover and discover, but this morning’s hike was a good start!

18.07.31 Sutherlin to Silver Falls State Park

I had a quiet night’s sleep last night in the SKP park - no diesel trucks passing by in the middle of the night like in the rest area the night before. It was still warm, but I was able to push out the slides and leave the door open, so there was much better air flow and I slept straight through until 8:30 or so. 

Checkout time was 11:00, so I decided to make good use of my time here in Sutherlin this morning - I only had 140 miles to drive today, so I had time to kill, might as well do it here before I start driving.  A trip in to town would be quick and easy - Sutherlin is a small community with one business street running through the center of town less than two miles away from the park entrance. 

On the way out of the park, I dropped off my Timber Valley Co-Op Membership application at the office - 

I’m officially on the waiting list for a spot here!  

So my first stop in town was at the local branch of  Umpqua Bank where I went in to cover the application deposit check I had just delivered.

Since I was out, and in an unfamiliar town, I searched for the bakery a had a breakfast goodie. Unnecessary, I know, but it satisfied today’s episode of my “enjoy the journey” mantra:)

My final stop was at the town’s largest (but still only a Holiday Market sized) grocery store to  fill my drinking water bottles.  I know my next stop, Silver Falls State Park,  is about 20 miles out of town, and I want to be able to stay put for up several days without making the trip in for supplies. I really need to move toward an external water filter for the hose between the campsite water supply and MT. I see these filters on other campers’ set-ups but have been satisfied with carting in my water for so long it is a natural and constant habit - I rarely run out. 

Today, however,  I was low because I need water for my main chore back home after the trip to the grocery store. 

I brewed my first batch of Kombucha with the starter liquid and Scoby’s I received from Wendy before I left Auburn.  

Six black tea bags, a cup of sugar and a gallon of water will turn into eight 16 oz bottles of drinkable Kombucha in 10-14 days. 

What will I drink for an afternoon treat in the meantime, I wonder?

The trip north on I-5 was uneventful. I stopped in Albany at a Fred Meyers because I’m happy to be back in Oregon where Fred Meyers is the go-to big box store for groceries and everything else you can think of.  Today I did my second “enjoy the journey” splurge of the day and got a caffeine filled coffee drink from Peet’s inside Fred Meyers because I was sleepy on the road. The irony is that by the time I was parked ( finding a parking spot which leaves an escape route for a 32 foot Motorhome pulling a Jeep is no easy task) and worked my way in (passing all the household things I do not need to buy) to find Peet’s,  I was no longer tired, but by then my mind was set and I bought it anyway!

Back on the road, I had less than an hour to drive.  I immediately saw a huge plume of smoke off in the direction I needed to go, and sure enough, Google Maps told me a needed to drive right in to the smoke.

When I was very close to the plume but before I turned even closer, I stopped at a stop sign, put on my flashers and flagged the car behind me around to pass so I could ask them if I was safe. It was a mom with her child who told me it was OK - a controlled field burn - so I plowed on through, but I was definitely not happy about it!

I pulled in to the park and immediately flagged down the first ranger vehicle I saw which turned out to be Carlie, the ranger I’ve been communicating with.  She directed me to my spot and I took my time getting settled for a couple hours 

and then took an evening bike ride around to get a quick overview of the park. I can tell from the map that there is way more acerage to see in this park than I can see in one night, 

but I did ride through the campground to scratch my curiosity itch. I talked to several other hosts and everyone seems happy to be here. Another adventure begins tomorrow!!!