Georgia 2010 Day 6 and 7

May 6

Ethan, Anne and I drove to Minnehaha Falls. Very nice set of falls. We went to them last year also. This year there was much more water flowing over them.

May 7

Left around 10AM, followed Ethan and Adam up to the Nantahala. Rented duckies (one man rafts) and went for about 2 hours down the river. Stopped short of the end at a little place called Pizza By the River. Good stuff! Went down the Nantahala Falls 3 times just for a little extra excitement since there were no other big rapids on the river.

Georgia 2010 - Day 5 and 6

Day 5

Met with Aunt Lil, Uncle Ronnie, Gen, Yuri, Colum, Wren along with our group at Charlies Creek crossing at Tallulah River. Had hamburgers and BBQ chicken. A few of us then headed up to Tate City to Nanny's grandmothers old homeplace at Denton Creek.

Day 6

Steven left this morning. A few hours later Katie, Anne, Adam, Deddy and I hiked up the App. Trail to Bly Gap. 6.2 miles round trip. We picked ramps. Earlier today we tossed around ideas for making the house and property vacation rental idea. The planning has begun.

Georgia 2010 Day 3 and 4

Day 3

Sunday.

Went to church. Left from there with Katie, Steven, Anne and met Ethan in town. All headed up to the Ocoee River for some whitewater rafting. Adam was an excellent guide. No photos from the trip because we have no water proof camera. The rapids were a lot of treacherous and thrilling.

Drove back to Murphy. Ate KFC buffet. Went to visit Maw Maw and Paw Paw after that. Stopped by the Butternut Creek ice cream parlor for a late night snack.

Day 4

Monday.

Rainy morning. Katie, Steven and Anne went to Dawsonville to the outlet mall. Deddy and I went to Tate City to Denton Branch. The water was really high and moving fast. Deddy brought the metal detector and scanned the old Shook homesite. I was pretty focused on taking photos

Later on that evening we met with Adam, Ethan, Uncle Marty, Aunt Jane, Aunt Melanie, Jonthan, Katie, Steven, Mama and Deddy at Granddeddy and Nanny's to celebrate Anne's birthday and have a meal together. Nanny made broccoli casserole, ham, chicken, cornbread, mexican boiled cabbage, peas and carrots, potato salad, brownies and ice cream, and million dollar cake. Of course the food was good as usual.

Ethan came over to the house afterward. He showed us a copperhead that he ran over earlier that day.

Georgia 2010 Day 2

Got up at 6:30AM. Misty, foggy. Sat on the porch drinking coffee, talking with deddy. Left for High Shoals Falls about 11:30.

Came back ate BBQ chicken, green peas and mashed potatoes. Stayed rainy all day. Warmed up later in the evening.

Then headed to Clayton a few hours later. Went to Wal Mart and then La Cabana. Got back around 10 PM. Frogs are out, so are the crickets. Sounds very nice. I love all the sounds you hear at night down here. Ethan has been around. Saw Uncle Marty. That is it so far. Looking forward to seeing everyone else in the next few days.

Georgia 2010 Day 1

Got into ATL about 5:30 PM. Made it to Hiawassee by about 8:00. Felt like a dream. Sunny and warm. Got to see all of our immediate family.

Day 1 (Aug. 1, 2009)

Leaving Katie and Steven's 8:30 PM. Evening Sun, clear skys, 61 F.

When we return it will be snowy & cold. : )

Stopped by Kyle & Lindsey's to drop off Shawns Smallville DVD we borrowed.

Lindsey made me a latte. Yumm! (Anne) Left there at 9:00 PM.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 2 (Aug. 2, 2009)

Still the 1st day technically, it's 12:30 AM.

We are in Glenallen, at the hub.

Anne bought a $3.50 canned Mocha.

It was kinda gross...we threw it away.

Slept at Mile 30 on Richardson Hwy., right before Christochina (on the side of the road).

Woke up and was on the road again at 6:30.

Landscape consists of tall spirling spruce trees, and low marshy floor.

Captured by majestic distant vistas. It's also 31 F.

We were cold last night with our one blanket in the back of the Jeep.

We did not feel like pulling out our sleeping bags.

We pulled off at Clearwater Creek Campground 15 miles before Tok and slept for a few min.

Stopped by Three Bears in Tok and bought coffee grinds, gum and contact solution.

Contacted both parents. Got gas. (Jeep)

93 miles to the border.

First meal on the road was Mexican Chicken and Rice Campbells soup.

We heated it up and also made some melita style coffee at Deadman's Lake Campground.

Very peaceful and quiet here. Not many mosquitos.

Passed through border quickly. The man was polite and welcoming. We were not searched.

From outside of Tok to Canadian border visibility has been only about 1.5 miles because of forest fire smoke. We later found out that there were over 800 fires in northern Cananda.

Got gas at Border City Lodge.

White River was similar to Mat-Su River but seemed more broad. Not white, but very muddy color. Would've taken pics but visibility is still limited. Getting better though.

Stopped at Lake Creek campground (Pictured Above).

Ate Ramin noodles and made coffee.

Walked up creek and took photos. Very quiet.

Made it to Kluane Lake.

Bedded down Cottonwood Creek Campground for the night. Very nice campground. Mac and Cheese with Ravioli for dinner.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 3 (Aug. 3, 2009)

Woke up @ 5:00 AM.

Washed clothes, took showers, uploaded photos to Facebook (hardly sounds like camping).

Tried to dry out our wet tent. Forgot to bring the tent stakes for the tent fly.

Cottonwood Creek Campground at Kluane Lake.

A view of the putt-putt course and mountains.

Left Cottonwood Creek @ 8:30 AM.

This is supposed to have the highest concentration of grizzly bears in North Amerca (how John McCain says America). We haven't seen any bears though. : (

Oatmeal and Coffee for breakfast. Was down around freezing again last night.

Made it to Haines Junction. Pretty scenic area. Green rolling hills surrounded by jagged mountains. Expensive gas.

Had to climb a rock bank, run across the bridge in

time for this shot. I need a remote.

Stopped next to a creek we thought had water falls.

Had an old and cool log bridge stretching over the wide creek.

Ran into a older gentleman from South LA. That would be Louisiana.

He had ridden solo throughout Texas, Calif., onto the Yukon with the notion to go as far as Alaska. He talked to us for about 30 min. of his world travels. Very interesting man, but must have been lonely, he had a lot to say and was hesitant to let us go.

The first time on the trip we saw buffalo, I was elated!

Anne preferred her view from the Jeep.

Saw wild buffalo next to a pond. Cecil scared them away while taking photos.

Stopped at the Real Canadian Superstore. Got some groceries (Whitehorse). Drove throughout Whitehorse. Very smokey. Appeared to be a really nice town if we could have seen it better. Now we will head out of town toward Watson Lake.

Pitstop at Wolf Creek Campground for Peanut Butter rolls with honey. Checking the map for a possible route away from smoke. Next stop will be Teslin Lake. It is 162 km away. Still not sure how many miles that is... maybe 115 miles?

Teslin Lake. Fires very close by.

We stopped by Rancheria Falls. Mosquito infested water hole.

Well groomed path with long board walk that leads to the falls.

Probably would stop at Rancheria again.

The mosquitos were miserable, and falls small.

We've gone in and out between BC and YT about 7 times now.

The road weaves around the border like stitching.

The smoke finally cleared about 75 miles ago. It's been gorgeous!

Watson Lake gas. Signpost forests is a fun place to look around and take a break.

The white and orange Georgia sign.

We saw two license plates from Towns County, Georgia. (Where Cecil is from, and where we are going.) Not sure if one of them is ours (Cecil's family) from our trip up in '98.

Slept at Allen Lookout. Good spot to stop. Had beef and rice ramen noodles.

Allen Lookout at twilight.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 4 (Aug. 4, 2009)

This morning was another cold one.

On the road by 6:50 AM. 39 F & really foggy.

Full moon the night before at our little pull-off camping spot.

Cecil tried to set a forest fire last night.

He had fire all over the table from the white gas stove.

Spread across picnic table into the grass.

There are already 800 fires, what's one more?

I think he has finally figured out which way to turn the gas off for the stove. : )

Listening to Alan Jackson gospel songs.

Feels like a Louis L'Amore story in this far away western land.

Coffee & Blackberry Nutri Grain bars for breakfast.

Whirlpool Canyon's collection of trees.

Stopped at Whirlpool Canyon. This is a must see! Fast moving water.

Had to walk over rocks with trees scattered all over from being pushed by the river.

Rocks made shelves to step over and come up to the point.

The backside of the trail looking toward the other bank.

There was a trail that went around the point to another rock beach where you could see different channels of the river converging.

There were places that would have decent to camp at.

After the water converged it spanned about 100 yards across to the opposite bank.

Whirlpool Canyon early in the morning.

Starting to pass through the thickest smoke yet. There was a sign earlier that read "Active Fire, Do Not Pull Over For the Next 60 km.

There are firefighters on the sides of the road, and in the brush.

The sky is orange and we can see the source of the fire.

There are spots in the woods where smoke is billowing from the ground.

Bison being smoked out of the woods.

Liard Hot Springs, Yukon Territory

Beautiful sulfur pools leaves you smelling like a boiled egg everytime.

The view walking to the hot springs.

A must stop. Great place to warm up after sleeping in a cold car.

Northern style oasis. We took two trips to the springs, ate lunch and took several walks.

Ate Italian Style Wedding soup and peanut butter and honey rolls for lunch.

We really liked the campground, but its early so we're going to drive on to Ft. Nelson.

We've also decided to try and save our money for campgrounds with showers.

The trail heading past the 1st pools but was closed because of bears. : (

Definitely going to stop there on the way back.

A quick break at Boulder Canyon to make coffee.

Patchy blue skies and the surrounding tall mountain peaks

make for incredible scenery on all sides.

Muncho Lake - Blue-Emerald-Translucent water, surrounded by tall

pines thickly placed upon high mountains with jaggedy cliffs.

One of the most scenic places yet!

Enjoying Muncho Lake.

The whole Muncho Lake Provincial Park had incredible scenery.

Miles past the lake we were passing through sheer cliffs hanging

over top of the road.

Had ice cream cones at the quaint community of Toad River.

A few small buildings including post office, gas station, cafe, gift

shop all in one store backed by green and rocky vistas.

The ceiling of the Toad River Roadhouse.

Finally made it to Fort Nelson.

Went to an IGA to get some groceries.

It's a decent sized place, but the town seems kinda dead.

Everyone at the IGA looked at us kind of weird. Tourists!

Must be small enough where "Everyone knows your name."

Beautiful ranches surround the area.

Left Fort Nelson heading for Sikanni Chief where there is

supposed to be a campground with showers.

We decided to just pass up Sikanni and keep driving to Fort St. John

Later turned to be a real long night! No places to stay!

Fort Nelson to Sikanni Chief was 200 km, then Sikanni Chief to

Fort St. John was another 200 km.

Cecil drove must of the way. We weren't too tired at the time.

We rolled into Fort St. John at about 1:30 AM.

At that time in the morning we were getting pretty tired.

Anne was behind the wheel and I was a dozing off.

The whole trip I had been wanting to get a photo of a fox, bear, bison, deer and goat.

I got the deer and goat. Anne suddenly woke me up with "A Fox is in the Road."

I didn't know my left from my right, halfway sleeping, looked up and we were parked in the middle of a 5 lane highway at 1:30 AM and there was a fox running circles in the road chasing a mouse. It was such a peculiar site. No photo though. I was too frustrated with being in the middle of a 5 lane at 1:30 AM.

We went to a Super 8 hotel, no vacancy.

Tired from driving, we stopped at a McD's and bought several coffee's

then headed on towards Dawson's Creek 70 miles away.

We reached Dawson Creek at 2:30 AM and all campgrounds were closed.

We inquired at a Days Inn but it was booked. Frustrated and tired

we kept driving...had no place to go to. We drove 15 miles further to

Pounce Coupe, found a pull off and aired up the mattress.

Day 5 (Aug. 5, 2009)

Woke up around 8:30 AM. It was the 1st time we've woken up

and it wasn't practically freezing. Packed up the Jeep pretty quick.

A few miles down the road there was nice Fas Gas w/convenience

store where we got gas and Cecil bought me some fruit gummy snacks.

Made it to Grand Prairie, which is where we'll turn on Hwy. 40 to Jasper.

Stopped at a Starbucks for coffee, wifi and charge camera batteries.

Fields of yellow roses as you enter into Grand Prairie.

Grand Prairie was pleasant town. Probably the size of two Wasillas.

The town was compact with many new stores.

Entering from the Dawson Creek Hwy. we were met w/ many

large field plots of yellow roses.

I would imagine agriculture is their main industry.

In my opinion, this would be an ideal place to live.

Ate a bite of lunch outside Grand Prairie at O'Brien Provincial Park.

Decent, shady. Drove through the pretty farming communities of

Hythe and others...to Grand Cache.

This was a fairly large community, lots of houses.

We stopped at the visitors center where there was wifi.

Reminded me of Aspen, Colorado.

Drove around the community looking for town center,

but ended up at a large prison.

We decided to move on down the road.

Annes picture of this 9-point Muledeer.

Headed from Grand Cache onto Hinton/Jasper KOA.

On the way we saw a really nice 9 point Mule deer.

Anne took an awesome photo of it.

Cecil took a video too of it hopping.

We arrived to the campground at 8 PM, took showers immediately.

Showers have been awhile since Kluane Lake.

Still had the sulphur of Liard on us also.

Somehow we didn't smell, I don't think.

We're able to do some laundry and cook dinner.

Chicken noodle soup with rice and peanut butter/honey bread.

Found out there was real bad accident on the road to Jasper.

The road was closed about 12 hours.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 6 (Aug, 6, 2009)

This morning we packed up and went to the Grind, a coffee shop in Hinton.

We both ordered Americanos.

At this particular place Americanos were referred to as just American's.

The Grind is a nice coffee shop.

Leather chairs, fireplace, tasteful design, rock wall at counter.

Punchbowl Falls inside Jasper Provincial Park.

Went on to Punchbowl Falls in Jasper Park.

Took about a 3-mile hike.

When we returned to the car the driver door was open.

Our GPS, laptop, wallets, cash, passports, and cell phones were

free for the taking for more than an hour. : )

Anne in Lake Jasper Lake.

Jasper is gorgeous. So many mountains, trails, lakes and

things to see and do.

Reflections of lake and mountains.

Fireweed covering a the ground.

Stopped by Jasper Lake which is a must go destination.

You park along the road, walk a few feet through warm soft sand

to the water. The water was perfectly clear and about 3-16 inches

for hundreds of yards. It was cold too. That factor kept us from

seeing really how far we could go.

Made it to the city of Jasper. We ate pizza at a local spot.

It had brick pizza oven and lots of room. Seems to be a real busy place

during the afternoon.

Went along the road to Overlander Falls. Rocky (different types of rock)

cool and shady. Not a high water drop but a lot of water ran through the falls.

Anne photographing Cecil at Overlander.

Overland received its name from a group of prospectors who

decided to take a land route from northern Alberta to

southwestern B.C. looking for minerals.

The over land route was considered very dangerous

as opposed to the usual route taken by sea, and then up rivers.

Drove all the way to Clearwater then north from there to the Helmcken

Falls Lodge. Another long day on the road. Arrived 11pm-12-pm.

Anne finished off box of Milk Duds for dinner, Cecil had chewy bars

and sunflower seeds.

Day 7 (Aug. 7, 2009)

Woke up at "Helmcken Falls Lodge Campground".

Took showers, went to the bathroom, cooked on picnic table.

Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast.

Since we got in so late the people at "Helmcken Lodge" said to

just pay in the morning.

Meant to stay here.

Ended up staying here. Right next door.

When we went to pay we found out that we had stayed in the

wrong campground last night.

The lady had given Cecil bad directions that led us down a hill,

across a golf course to an R.V. park with tent sites. Oops!

Well we kinda wondered last night why the place had two offices. : )

So we went back to the place we stayed and told that office our

situation, they laughed, asked "Well, was it comfortable?" and

took our money for our nights stay at their R.V. park called

"Wells Gray Golf Resort and R.V. Park."

Dawson Falls had tons of water dropping across the elevations.

Headed up to Dawson Falls. Biggest falls we have seen yet, not the tallest though.

Heard a tour guide say the falls spanned about 90 meters.

Helmcken Falls falls further than Niagra.

Next we went to Helmcken Falls which was narrow but extremely tall.

Heard several people say it is taller than Niagra. Fell into a big bowl,

with the walls covered by moss.

Saphata Falls is very scenic.

Went to another falls called Saphata Falls. Very cool! Worth the stop.

Headed on to Kamloops. From Kamloops we took 5A.

Scenic Highway taking us to Merritt. We've been going through the Nicola Valley.

Very beautiful country. High rolling hills with sparse patches of pine trees.

Mostly yellow grassy farming country separated with homemade barb-wire fences.

The landscape from Kamloops to Merritt.

Occasionally there will be a lake surrounded by tall green grass along the perimeter

with ducks and birds. Reminds you of oasis's in a dessert of yellow grass.

Cecil and I both think it is gorgeous here. Peaceful ranch homes and many

barns and corrals for horses and cattle.

More scenery between Kamloops and Merritt.

Must go along this highway again.

Along the way to Merritt we travelled through a place called Monch.

Very scenic. Larger green fields and yellow rolling hills with the sparse pines.

Merritt is a very nice sized town. Well populated. About the size of Wasilla.

Spending money has become easier and more frequent.

We would drive miles through Alaska, Yukon, and B.C. without any place to stop.

The only thing we spent was hours enjoying the vast beautifulness of the landscape.

Should be at Wildcat Lake tomorrow evening.

Just ate fast food at Tim Hortons in Merritt.

We just drove down the longest hill ever.

From Merritt there was a long hill that the Jeep seemed to be struggling with.

Then, even downhill it wouldn't coast properly. RPM's too high for coasting.

We stopped at a rest stop near Brighton Creek.

Jeep seemed to work itself out of the funk.

Drove through Hope, Chiliwack at night with intentions to stay at Harrison Hot Springs.

Harrison Hot Springs was busy!

Many young people in a partying type of atmosphere.

Tried to stay at a campground / R.V. park.

The lady got too pushy saying "we must stay there, it's too late to go down towards

the border."

Maybe we should had taken her advice, it would

prove to be a long miserable night!

-Cecil and Anne

Day 8 (Aug. 8, 2009)

...Not only did we drive to the border, but all the way to Edmunds, Wa.

Back to the border though. We were stopped and asked the usual questions:

-Where are you going?

-Where have you been?

-How long are you going were you in Canada?

-Why are you going to your destination?

-How much cash do you have on you?

After all the questions Mr. Border Guard wanted to see what was in the Jeep.

Driving for a week straight, living in it, it wasn't a pretty sight.

He tried to open our back door, but of course it doesn't work.

He was pulling, and pulling making noise while we were trying to explain to the other Border Guard that the handle doesn't work.

Mr. Border Guard (who is about to break the handle) is getting irritated and keeps telling us to unlock it, it's not locked, it's broke.

He wouldn't stop to listen. Finally we got him to open the window on the back door instead.

He was irritated, we were tired and sleepy, bloodshot eyes.

Maybe we were suspicious pot runners.

Finally, he gave up, grumbled his displeasure about not getting to see our dirty clothes and food.

Anyways we drove on to Edmunds, Wa and arrived at 1:30 AM. Stayed in the parking lot of a Best Western for a couple of hours.

First in line for the ferry at 4:45 AM.

Arrived at Bill and Judy's house at about 7 AM. Slept a few hours.

Toured Seabeck. Ate Mexican Nachos. First good meal since pizza in Jasper.

Later visited Annes great grandmother.

No photos today. Too tired.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 9 (Aug. 9, 2009)

My new show will air on Fox, Tues. at 7 pm.

Bill and Judy left to pick up Japanese friend Naoko in Seattle. She will be staying a few days here at Wildcat Lake with us.

Anne and I got in the hot tub this morning. Clear skies now while I am creating this blog you are reading.

While goofing around in the lake, the underwater camera fell in. We had it strapped on the side of the tube and the strap broke. The heavy camera arrived quickly to its sub-surface home 20 foot below. The poor camera may just not be "meant to be". There is another story behind the camera too. But that's for another day.

I've been repacking the Jeep (Anne). Things got a little jumbled and we've discovered all the things we brought that weren't really needed. Four Nalgene bottles, only keeping two, a trash can ("don't ask me why"-Anne), headphones ("don't ask me why"-Cecil), a water jug that spilt throughout the back of the Jeep, and many clothes. Going to leave our Milepost here also, so we have to come back here for sure to pick it up. The Milepost was extremely helpful! Thanks Mom and Dad.

Hand and Foot. Anne, Judy, Bill and Cecil.

Went for a swim, then beat Grandpa and Cecil at Hand and Foot. Dinner consisted of Asparagas and Shrimp in Linguine noodles with sauce. Yummy! Sure beats camping food.

We taught Naoko how to play Farkel. That was fun! Grandma won with exactly 10,000.

Talked for the rest of the evening. I'm going to get the sign in the bathroom that reads "kindly flush toilet after each use, except when train is standing in station." That was a for real sign back in the day when grandpa and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 10 (Aug. 10, 2009)

Spent the day relaxing. Set in the hot tub, swam in the lake, visited great grandmother Kinsman, had PaPa Murphy's.

Overall a very enjoyable day.

We (Anne, Bill and Cecil) are planning how to get the camera back. Trying to rig a mechanism to bring it up out of the water.

Played Farkel several times and watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" for the nightcap.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 11 (Aug. 11, 2009)

Judy, Naoko and Anne.

Naoko left this morning on the airporter.

Cecil and Grandpa swam out to the spot we thought the camera fell in. I rowed the boat for moral support. They dived down and were not able to see the bottom at all. They had on wetsuits. Cecil would try to dive down but would come shooting back up feet first because the wet suits float. Back to the drawing board for Cecil and Grandpa.

Grandpa got some PVC pipe that was 20 foot long and tried to look through it to see the bottom from the surface. He didn't get much of a chance, because Grandpa dropped that in the lake (12 ft. deep).

Day 12 (Aug. 12, 2009)

Played Hand and Foot. Grandma and Cecil totally dominated for the fourth straight game.

All four went swimming in the lake. Cecil retrieved the lost PVC pipe. We stacked floaties 3 high and jumped off, flipped, wrestled.

The four of us posing at Point No Point.

Light House at Point No Point.

Drove out to Port Gamble, Point No Point and Indianola. Then went to Tony's Pizza. Had lasagna and ravioli. Returned to House played Hand and Foot, and watched "New in Town". Pretty good movie I guess. We all are practicing to speak Minnesotian.

Day 13 (Aug. 13, '09)

Saw grandma Kinsman today. She was participating in a reading activity when we got there. While we were there Grandpa and Cecil went to Lowes and got a 20' tube so someone can breathe through it when they dive for our camera. Gr. Bill seems determined to find it. :)

Gr. Judy and Gr. Bill went to town again, so Cecil and I went swimming. We had to get out because we heard thunder and a dark cloud was heading in. Went into the hot tub, but got out of there when we heard it thunder again.

Finished the night with "Gran Torino". The 1st Clint Eastwood movie that I can remember watching. Not too bad!

-Cecil and Anne

Day 14 (Aug. 14, '09)

Got a slow start this morning. Gr. Bill and I finally won another game of H & F. The final record is Gr. Judy and Cecil with 5 wins, Gr. Bill and I with 2 wins.

Cecil and I packed up the Jeep but didn't end up leaving until 3:30 PM. We'll see them again in Georgia when they drive down. :)

Gr. Bill's famous pancakes.

Grandma set us up with a tray of brownies, cherries, rolls, peppermint patties and "The Host". What a nice grandma, for she hadn't even read the book yet.

Drove towards Mt. Rainier. Had to go through Tacoma during rush hour.

We stopped at Enumclaw for their McD's, which was probably one of the nicest McD's I have even seen. All the lady employees wore skirts. We continued through the Chinook Pass on Hwy. 410. Very beautiful area. I saw the biggest trees I've ever seen in a campground named "The Dalles". The trees were Douglas Fir trees. One was 9 feet in diameter. The campground was very spacious with huge trees in each spot. Loved the area, would have liked to camp there. It was full and we were wanting to go further.

Mt. Rainier Nat. Park. Foggy!

We continued onto Mt. Rainier National Park. It was weird, because everyplace to hike required a pass, but you couldn't get a pass there. I guess we were supposed to acquire the pass somewhere before we went into the park.

Anne spotted this elk in the park.

Almost at the southern border of the park we stopped at a campground, but it was full. It's dark already, now we don't know where to go. Seems like we put ourselves in this same situation too often.

We decided to follow the road towards Longmire and Paradise Inn to see if they had room there. The route from where we are is going to be about 30 miles over extremely curvy roads and did I mention you can cut the fog with a knife its so thick? We finally reached the lodge. So much bigger than what we expected! People were everywhere, and no parking spots. Rooms without a bath is $110. Forget it. Sure would like to see what this famous area looked like in the daylight though. We were too overwhelmed to stay in the area.

Continued on down the road but every place has been closed. Eventually made it out of the park. It's about 11:30 PM now. Drove about 12 miles or more to a town called Morton. You can tell even in the dark that it is a real logging town. No places to stay. Onward to next town called Mossy Rock. We found a state park campground there.

I went out of the car to check it out if we could pay by sticking money in an envelope. Right then a cop car (park security cop) pulled up. He was nice and accommodating. Showed us to the very last camping spot available in the park. Slept in the Jeep. $21 for parking in this spot for 9 hours then leaving. In Canada or Alaska we would have pulled off onto the side of the road, just didn't feel comfortable doing that here. Oh well!

Day 15 (Aug. 15, '09)

Got up around 7:30 onto I5 by 9:30. Headed south to Portland. Going to reach the OR/WA border and follow it along the Columbia River Gorge.

Kinda disappointed we didn't drive through the Mt. Rainier Park during the day, but this morning it was cloudy again so we wouldn't have seen much anyway. It was really foggy last night.

Made our way through Vancouver pretty easily with the help of the GPS. The Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular sight to see. We were able to see several falls along the historic road. Some falls are inaccessible. They seem to be along the side of the road according to the GPS, but we never see them.

The Oneonta Gorge was the best adventure yet!

Taking a break during one of our waterfall excursions.

Oneonta Falls was an awesome adventure. We hiked through a narrow gorge over grown with moss and ferns along the rocky sides of the cliffs, through crystal clear and cold water, reaching higher than our waistlines, across logs stacked upon logs by once rushing floods through the canyon. Oneonta is a must stop!

Upper Latourell Falls was a fun little hike.

While experiencing way too many late night miles, we decided to stop early. The town Cascade Locks sits there within the Gorge boundaries. We arrived in the late afternoon with the sun warmly glowing upon the town business. We we were thinking of dishing out big bucks for a hotel, but luckily ran upon a KOA.

No spots left at the KOA except for R.V.'s. We took one of them. It put us right next to the bathrooms and general store. Great location. The KOA employees even said it was a great location because we weren't next to the train tracks several hundred yards away. I don't think it mattered because our Jeep still shuttered and shaked when the train came through every few hours.

We had a nice little shaded pic-nic table underneath a large pine tree. For dinner we mixed some Mac and Cheese with Campbell's Tuscan soup. Next to our site KOA had a large flat screen set up and showing "The Rookie". They gave us pop corn too. Very nice people at KOA's. They really make you feel welcome.

-Cecil and Anne

Day 16 (Aug. 16, '09)

Left the KOA around 9:30 AM. Headed out to see more waterfalls. We went hiking looking for Grayson Creek Falls. We ended up following a little stream bed, because we couldn't find a trail. It was slow making our way up, because there were a lot of loose rocks and slippery logs. We never found the falls but we probably spent around 5 hours altogether looking for it on the mountainside. Kept going up and up the creek bed thinking the falls would be above every ledge and around the next corner. We made up to the very top of the gorge/mountainside, but got to a ledge where it was too steep and impassable.

Anne headed back down the Gorge.

It was crazy for us to go as far as we did. Quiet an adventure. But on the other hand, quiet dumb. We got ourselves in some very tricky/dangerous situations where we were trying to scale wet boulders that didn't seem to be very stable. We won't be doing something like that again. We were silently praying that neither of us would fall or slip, not to mention get snake bit. That's a whole different aspect that we became numb to because of the immediate danger of falling.

During this little adventure we were wearing our Crocs. Not the best shoe for scaling the mountainside. They did grip wet rock great though. Maybe they were a blessing in disguise.

By the time we made it back to the Jeep we were starving. Cecil was quiet hungry before the 5-6 hour trip. So when we got to the town of Hood River we found a Mexican restaurant. Pretty good food! Cecil had his usual of Carne Asada Burrito. Anne had a Chipolite Chicken Quesadilla.

Hood River. There is a snake on closest rock to the left.

Both of us were resolved that we had had enough of the majestic Columbia River Gorge. The whole Grayson Creek episode made us look forward to the dryer flat land that central Oregon has. We drove out Hood River on Hwy. 35 towards Mt. Hood. This drive was beautiful. Many large fields of grapes and fruit, and fruit stands. We stopped at several and bought peaches, apples, cherries and grapes. It was interesting to see large fields labeled with the names of different wines. So of course I am assuming that a Chardonnay wine is given it's name from a type of grape called Chardonnay. Anyway, this countryside is a great place to see.

We thought about camping in the Mt. Hood Park, but for the most part it was all deserted. We wanted to put miles from us and the Columbia River Gorge. From the looks of all the Sno-Park signs, this place must be very popular for winter sports. We continued on past Mt. Hood into the Warm Springs Indian Res. to Madras, where we found a campsite at Simtustus Lake. Pretty area, like a mini Grand Canyon.

Lake Simtustus, Idaho close to where we camped.

Cecil had to wait a while for his shower though because there were 3 very strange guys in the bathroom who were wild and noisy with foul mouths in the bathroom. One walked out of the bathroom naked (except for his cowboy hat of course) to his big extended cab, long bed truck. They starred at us a lot. Not sure which one of us they took a liking to. Really creeped us out because we were the only people on the top pad camping next to the restrooms. All the other campers were located down below at the lake.