A Summer in Eastern Oregon

Time seems to slip by so fast some times and definitely did get away from me.  So since I’ve been lax in my writing, I will have to back up a few months (to last spring) to fill in the gaps of our adventures.

We left White Tank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, Arizona in late March and traveled up the road to Kingman, Arizona.   

For those of you who haven’t been to Kingman, Arizona it is not a place that we would make a second stop at but it does have its interesting features – like the ‘running rabbit holding a rose’ statue.  No explanation, no marker, just a statue on the corner. 

It’s an old Route 66 town and still has businesses capitalizing on that fact with all the tourist souvenirs you could possibly want to buy. As well as a few museums and interesting diners with the Route 66 theme.

One of the more interesting things in Kingman, to me anyway, was the electric car museum. They had displays that included the current electric land speed holder, electric street rods, a 1909 Ellwell-Parker baggage tug, and an electric drag motorcycle called the “Kawashockie”.

As we worked our way over to Pahrump, Nevada, we did a drive by of the little town of Nothing, Arizona.  Now we can say, “We saw Nothing.”  I wouldn’t go out of your way for this one – there’s nothing there!  (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

We took a drive one day to the little town of Shoshone, California, a little old ghost  mining town near the base of Death Valley National Park.  In the early 1900’s some of the miners actually lived in these homes carved out of the soft rock that made up the surrounding hills.

This sign just hit me as a bit odd.  Promoting health in Death Valley?  I guess they couldn’t get a job anywhere else. I think I might be a bit hesitant about going there.

After a quick stop in Pahrump we worked our way back north with stops in Beaver, Arizona, Nephi, Utah, and Caldwell, Idaho.  We didn’t do much in any of these towns as the weather wasn’t exactly nice as we made our way to our volunteer position at Irrigon Fish Hatchery near Umatilla, Oregon.

Irrigon Fish Hatchery, our home for six months – the longest we have stayed anywhere in our years on the road.  We arrived the first of April and found the Hatchery Host site.  First things first, we had to move the deck over so that we could back in and open the slides.  That done, (with a little pain on the side) we were able to set up in a more permanent fashion.  After assessing the area, we knew there was going to be plenty to keep us busy around the site and we found out later that it had been a few years since volunteer hosts had inhabited the site and “worked” at the hatchery.  That being said, we met the staff and sat down with Diane, our supervisor and the manager of Irrigon Hatchery as well as the neighboring Umatilla Hatchery – considered a complex of joint partnerships of state, federal and tribal fisheries.  Diane had prepared a list of projects, with the help of her staff, that we could tackle  – that list was ever changing and grew over our time there.  It was a fantastic arrangement for us though and we got to work.  Finished many of the projects – wood shop renovation, painting, tinting the hatch house windows, building picnic tables, etc., etc., etc.  We enjoyed the staff and learned so much from them and the way these two hatcheries operated.  Don’t think all hatcheries are the same, they are not – different species of fish, different equipment, and different methods.  We were also included in the spawning of fish, the movement of fish, and the cleaning of fish – lots of fish called Jacks (salmon that do not stay out long enough in the ocean – they are immature).  So all in all, we kept busy and the time flew by.  On a personal note, we cleaned up the site and had a beautiful flower garden and ‘green zone’ around the RV – and we had a fabulous vegetable garden that just kept on giving and giving.  And the highlight for Lee was the fishing – we have Walleye in our freezer!  It was very difficult to leave this time – we were close to family to visit (both sides for us), made new friends, loved our little ‘home site’ and garden plot, the nearby venues such as McNary Dam and towns like WallaWalla and Pendelton – and did we say we enjoyed the summer.  Anyway, back on the road now.  New stops and adventures blended with visits with family, doctor appointments and on to a new volunteer position at the park mentioned above – White Tank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix.

We spent one of our “weekends” out in western Oregon, playing around on the beach at  the little tourist town of Seaside and visiting with friends Debbie & Duane at their volunteer gig near Astoria, Oregon - and Bill & Rena (sorry, did not get a pic of them – this time!) who was also volunteering near by.

Another aspect of the volunteer position was giving tours and being involved with the ‘Kids Fishing Days’.  That as well as fishing myself when the opportunity arose - thanks to Keenan and Mike!  The cute little guy in the center bottom of the above photo is a Wolf Eel that we encountered at the Seaside Aquarium. (I didn’t catch one of those)

One of the bonus items that came with our volunteer position was the availability of a garden spot.  It produced beyond our expectations - tomatoes, corn, cucumbers for pickling, five different types of peppers, lettuce, dill and carrots.  By the end of the season we were giving away buckets of veggies to whomever wanted them.

One of Linda’s goals while we were in the area was to attend a day at the Pendleton Roundup – one of the premier rodeos in the country.  This rodeo has been going on for 107 consecutive years and draws all the top competitive riders from all over the country and world. It is considered as the “primer” for the world championship held in Las Vegas each year.

Included in the roundup are all the local native American tribes who participate every day of the week long roundup.

The native American tribes performed their dances and showed off their dress during a portion of the rodeo.  One of the highlights of the day was their bareback relay race – now those guys are a bit on the crazy side! A number of the riders ended up taking serious tumbles as they tried to change horses during the race.

This has got to be one of the best run and orchestrated rodeos we have seen.  It seems like every possibility or things that could go wrong had been thought out and fixed. That aspect showed itself a couple of times as the animals either went a bit on the wild side or broke equipment during the rodeo.

We were seated right across from the chutes so we got some pretty good pictures.

No bunny rabbits or chickens here – this was a real rodeo!

As the slogan for the Pendleton Roundup says

“Let’er Buck!”

The RV site that the hatchery supplied to us was quite nice as you can see.  It needed a little work when we first got there but it made for a very pleasant setting all summer long.  There are (hoped for) planned improvements for the site in the coming year, such as a laundry facility, WiFi, an additional RV site, as well as an improved windbreak.  If these improvements do happen this will be quite the place for any volunteer.

The morning we were getting ready to leave we heard a vehicle pull up - The Tracy Mobile - and then a chanting started up “Host lives matter! Host lives matter! Host lives matter!”  I was just coming out of the shower when I heard this and then Linda went out the door and started laughing.  I had no idea what was going on, so I got dressed as quickly as I could and went out to see what was happening.  It was great – Keenan and Tracy had decided to give us one last unique going away present.  We can’t say ‘thank you’ enough to the staff at Irrigon and Umatilla Hatcheries for the outstanding summer we have had.

The world according to Snickers & Meggs

 

Wow!  Meggs and I liked the place called Oregon – so many birdies!  I really liked the looks of the ones called Quail, just little fat walking dinners for me.  I just wasn’t able to convince my pets to let me catch one.  Meggs and I did catch a couple of mice while we were there though and our pets were really happy about that.  One we killed, but I really think it died of a heart attack trying to run from us rather than us biting it.  The other one we had cornered and our male pet went after it with a shoe and smacked it – we were so proud of him!  Our pets were really good to us while we were in that place called Oregon.  They gave us a view out the back window that had all kinds of birds and stuff running around, kind of like a big screen TV with wildlife shows 24/7 – we liked it as we laid down on our recliners and just watched.

They also gave us an addition out the back side of our home that let us run in and out whenever we wanted to, we called it our “Kitty Kondo”.  It was fenced in on the outside so the Coyotes wouldn’t get us (or so they told us).  But I think it was really so they could keep an eye on us and they wouldn’t get lost looking for us.

This thing came around every once in a while to scare us.  We think it was a big dog, but it looked kinda funny for a dog and it never barked at us. 

 

That's about it from Meggs and I for now.  We are headed down to Arizona for the winter - I hear there's some more fat little Quail down there. Yes Siree Buddie – lunch time!

               Bye for now,

             Snickers & Meggs

So with one last look at a sunrise over the Columbia River from the Irrigon Fish Hatchery, we say so long for now and if possible see you in Arizona.

Home is where we park it!

Lee & Linda