Hosting at Collier Memorial State Park

One week now at our June assignment at Collier Memorial State Park.  This park differs some from a typical state park.  Some years ago, a local logging businessman collected and donated logging equipment to preserve the history of this important industry.  The state created a museum, with one of the country's largest collection of such equipment.

On the opposite side of the road is a very nice campground, with forestland all around, as well as confluence of two rivers.  So far, we've seen few campers here, thus an uncrowded and peaceful place to stay.

We work in the gift shop and information center.  For several days, the temperature hovered in the 40s by day and freezing at night.  Which holds more significance when your only source of heat is a wood stove from 1854.  In a building with gaps in the roofing.  It's authentic, after all.

We share duties with three other host couples, all of us in spaces close by.  Quite different from our first hosting experience at Fort Stevens, where the volunteers were spread out throughout a large campground, with little interaction among them.

Tomorrow starts our first two days off.  We plan on touring Klamath Falls, some 30 miles south.  With only 20,000 souls in town, it won't take long.  Nearby Crater Lake National Park reportedly has 12' of snow still on the ground after this wet winter.  Maybe we will get up there next week.

Bruce

Lake of the Woods, OR

Three days now in this charming woodsy campground at 5,000' elevation in the southern Cascade Mountains.

Built in the 1920s in the midst of what is now the Winema National Forest, this resort offers wooden cabins, a rustic lodge with bright red Adirondack chairs, a marina/store, all up the hill from a two mile long lake.

They tell us that the freezing nights and daily snow showers is unusual for this time of year.  So we've spent most of our time indoors, enjoying the velvet green scenery and resting up for our new jobs.

Snow this morning

Looks like we've escaped the summer heat.

Yes, that's right. We're going back to work [Ha ha ha ha!]. On June 1, we start four hour shifts in the gift shop of Collier Memorial State Park.

We've most often heard three things about this park: mosquitoes; good fishing; and mosquitoes.

More to come....

Bruce

Medford Oaks RV Park

We stopped overnight at this RV park principally to visit a couple from our former life.  Bruce's life actually, as he worked at Western State Psychiatric

Hospital with the male portion of this couple.  We shared stories of RVing, [our former] work experiences, and dreams to come.  They want to travel more, but annot sell one of their Seattle homes during this depressed housing market.  Which just reminded us of how lucky we were, and are.

Bruce

Ashland, OR and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

We spent four nights at Emigrant Lake County Park on a beautiful lake.  Since we had stayed at this park before, we reserved the primo site.

Unfortunately we endured rain and wind after this first partly sunny day.

But no matter.  We stopped at Ashland principally to attend live theater again at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  People from around the world attend productions in this four theater complex.  We bought tickets six months in advance, and found half of the productions sold out.

Despite the name, most of the plays are not written by Shakespeare.  We saw the following shows:
The Imaginary Invalid - Moliere's last play.  Rewritten with a 60's flair, it was delightful and unexpected, with satire, music and dance, and clever plot twists.
August: Osage County - a Pulitzer Prize winning tragedy about a dysfunctional family reunited over a death.  The story was somewhat familiar, but the acting and direction were superb.
Julius Caeser - by you-know-who.  Well conceived and unique.  Even to the point that the title character was female.
The Language Archive - the weakest play of the four.  The author couldn't seem to make up his mind if he was writing about love or communication.  And the ending, indeed the final words, referred to a theme unmentioned to that point.

But then, everyone's a critic.

Bruce

Cold Snap - the Sequel

We were enjoying a rare episode of travel without repairs.  Made it almost one thousand miles without incident.

Then the refrigerator door fell to the floor.

Truth to tell, we were not surprised.  The first time the hinge broke, we had used it less than one year.  We received a new door under warranty. 

The new one lasted about one year.  That time I fixed the hinge with epoxy.  Which lasted about another year.  This time requires another replacement, at our expense.

The good news - the local dealer got a new door in just one day.

The bad news - we paid for it.

Oh, and don't ask me about the truck right now.

Onward!

Bruce

The End

Taken on a sidewalk in Grants Pass today, the day the world will end, according to California radio preacher Harold Camping.

So we are actually in the End Time, with five months left till the total destruction of the world.

I'll do my part.  I'm voting for Sarah Palin!

Bruce
Seen the light

Garberville and The Redwood Forest

What's not to like about the Redwoods?  They're red and made of wood.  It's a perfect combination.

We have visited this forest at least three times in the past eleven years.  The first time during a motorcycle trip down from Washington State to Garberville.  The second two years ago on our way north like now.

The Humboldt Redwoods Visitor Center Link to Park page on the Avenue of the Giants road thru the forest contains a fascinating exhibit about Charles Kellog, a naturalist who lived from 1868 to 1949 Wikipedia article.  He traveled the country in vaudeville shows, imitating birds by singing from his throat rather than whistling.  He traveled in an early version of an RV, made of a huge hollowed out redwood log mounted on a truck frame - no slides tho.

Later in life he campaigned for to protect the California redwood forests.

This day, we returned to the Founders Grove.  Our impressions
Light rain descending. 
Looking up into the trees, small drops against the background of the trees, mingled with large drops from the branches.
All heeding the siren call of gravity. 
Rain falling on the clover below, making them quake and dance from the impact. 
And all around, only the sound of the birds.
 
Which is why we return to this forest.

From Woody Guthrie's THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
From the redwood forest,
To the fresh tank waters,
This RV's made for two or three [Clancy].
Bruce