West Richand WA, then Home to Emmett ID 9/28/09 - 10/8/09

We left our last campground of our fall camping trip and stopped for a couple of days in West Richland, Washington, where my brother Ron and his wife Kathy and daughter Destiney live.

We ended up taking up their whole driveway because we were too long to fit unless we backed in at a diagonal. They had to park out in the street! There was construction going on right in front of their house so we couldn't park along the road there. They fixed us a great salmon dinner the night we got there. This is a picture of them standing in the little bit of driveway they had left.

Destiney liked to come and keep us company in our "little house" parked in her driveway! She had fun putting together our puzzles.

On our way back to Emmett, we stopped at this rest stop. This rest stop between LaGrande and Baker, Oregon is an ICON in our family. Years ago on one of our family vacations with all six of our kids, we stopped here to change a tire. While Travis was in washing his hands after helping his dad, we just left without him! Down the road aways, we started counting noses and realized he was missing. There were no exits on the freeway, so we pulled over and I ended up walking back to the rest stop and found Travis waiting for us. He said he was about to ask a truck driver if he could call us on the CB radio, which we usually had on. That would have been hilarious (?) to have your son's voice come over the CB and say you had left him at a rest stop!

We were only home a few days and Ron and Kathy followed us there that evening. We had a family get-together at our (Lorrie's) house one day.

When Mom used to come each summer to live with us for a few months, we always got together, usually the night before she left, at the pizza parlor to eat and so everyone could say goodbye. We have kind of kept up the tradition when we leave Emmett to go on our travels. My brother Frank and wife Andy, brother Mike and wife Janet, and sister Lorrie came to say goodbye.

Jesse Donald Phelps Memorial

Forty-four years ago, my cousin, J.D. (Jesse Donald) Phelps' helicopter was shot down when he was flying in Viet Nam. We kept hoping that he would be found as a prisoner of war. They kept looking for the crash and finally found it last year. It took almost a year

before they were 100% sure it was his helicopter. This picture was from the news media when they brought his remains to Boise. Most of the family (his wife, three sons, and a daughter) were there at the airport. It was really a "big deal"--on TV and in all of the newspapers.

It worked out well for us to go to the memorial because we were going through Emmett at that time. There were lots of military and lots of flags flying.

There was also a big procession of motorcycles that followed the casket from the airport and again a few days later at the memorial/funeral.

Hope no one thinks this is too macabre, but we wondered what was in the casket, since they only found a couple of J.D.'s teeth that identified him. I thought it was kind of cool the way they did it, with a uniform and all of his medals.

Throughout the memorial services, they had an armed guard standing at the casket. Every 15 minutes they changed the guard with a really formal ceremony, with the services just continuing while it happened. The new guards would stand and, very slowly, salute the casket and then they would change guards.

Everything was done very "military formal" and was so respectful. Here they are loading the casket into the vehicle to go to the cemetery.

After the ceremony at the cemetery, they folded the flag, put it in a really nice box with J.D.'s name on it and his medals he had won mounted in the lid of the box.

Governor of Idaho, Butch Otter, presented the family with an official seal of Idaho with a special plaque on it thanking J.D. for his service.

J.D. graduated from Nampa High school, so the Mayor of Nampa proclaimed that day, October 1, as "Jesse Donald Phelps Day." J. D. would have been 72 years old on that day.

One of the most impressive parts of the whole ceremony was the Huey Helicopter "missing in action" flyover. Four helicopters flew over, and all of a sudden, one in the middle took off in the opposite direction. It just took your breath away!

J.D. was buried in the Idaho Veteran's Cemetery. I want to thank my sister-in-law Kathy for taking all of these pictures. When I saw her taking pictures, I just put away my camera and got to concentrate on the ceremonies. It was a huge tribute to my cousin and to all other servicemen who lost their lives defending freedom!

Paradise, Silver Creek WA - 9/21/09--9/28/09

Another new park--at least one we haven't been to before. This one is in Washington and is just east of Chehelis. This is the first Thousand Trails Park (aka Leisure Time) that we have been to in Washington.
Leisure Time Parks are all part of the Thousand Trail Park system. Our plan includes Thousand Trail, NACO, and Leisure Time parks. We have over fifteen in Washington and we need to take a summer and go see more of them. They are pretty much summertime parks.

Paradise Park has a lot of trees, but no undergrowth. This is the road leading down into it. They have quite a few rentals. Here is a row of trailers. They also have several of the little cabins.

A lot of our parks are trying to sell some of the trailers. You buy it for a couple of thousand and then lease the site on a 2-3 year contract. You get to stay in it 180 days a year. Or you can let friends and family stay in it some of those days. It would be a pretty good deal if you were tired of traveling around so much.

We had a really good spot at the bottom of a row of sites, right in front of the little cabins. No one parked in front of us because it was kind of a hard one to get out of once you pulled in, so we had lots of room the week we were there. This is Terry standing in front of the Condo.

The little cabins are nice inside. These were pretty small. They have a set of bunkbeds (a double on the bottom and a twin on the top) in the living area, with a little couch and a TV. In the back there is a little kitchenette and a bathroom.

The facilities were really nice. There were two large pools and this "fancy" hot tub. We used the pool and the hot tub a couple of times.

There was quite a bit of open space, which is nice when the park is busy. It was pretty empty when we were there. In fact, the next week they were closing down for the winter to get some big remodeling done. They are going to cut some trees to make larger RV sites and move some sewer and water lines. People can't be camped there when they do that kind of work.

We woke up one morning with some visitors outside. Terry was able to sneak up on them long enough to get some pictures.

The park is close enough to take a day-trip to the volcanic mountain of Mt. St. Helens. What a site that was! This was our first good look at it.

Bob and Lolita went with us and we stopped at the first visitor's center, which was one of three as we got closer to Mt. St. Helens.

This picture was taken from that first visitor's center. When the mountain erupted, most of the run-off came down this canyon, with 17 miles high of ash spewed in the air. It just covered everything in it's way. Now there is a river that runs through it, but not much vegetation has grown back.

This is the closest visitors' center. It is about five miles from the mountain. There were some great displays, movies, and Ranger talks here. The Ranger showed us this rock and said that it was liquid when it came out of the volcano. It has a flat side where it landed and as it cooled, the rock split in sections. There are still pockets of gas inside and that is why it is so light and I am able to lift it.

This is the north side of the mountain that exploded. It is now 1,000 feet shorter than it was before it erupted, and it is building a new lava dome inside. There is still steam rising from it because it is so hot. Sometimes, it even turns red. They figure it will erupt again, but who knows when! The first time it erupted, it took only 45 seconds for the flow to reach the area I was standing, which is about five miles away!

This is a "zoomed-in" picture of the very top of Mt. St. Helens. It shows the lava dome being formed and you can see the steam rising.

This is Spirit Lake which is at the base of Mt. St. Helens. It was totally filled in during the eruption of the volcano, but the water eventually came back and the bottom of the lake is now 30 feet higher than it was. There was one man who had a boating business and he refused to leave Spirit Lake. He is now buried under all of the lava flow. I think about 16 people in all were killed during the eruption.

We encountered some friendly critters that have come back to the mountain. They say that the little creatures and wild animals have helped the area come back to life because of the way they burrow into the grown and the way they help to scatter seeds.

I had to make a run back to the parking lot for something and there was a van parked there. I heard some "wolf whistles" and although I knew they must be for me, I thought there were some kids in the van who were just being smart. When we all went back to the parking lot, here was a man at the van with this parrot sitting on his arm. We stopped to visit with both of them. I still think the parrot has good taste when he whistled at me!

On our way to Church on Sunday, we passed this flower farm. The flowers were just beautiful!

We even got visitors while we were at Paradise. Our friends Jim and Sue who we connect up with ever so often, and their grandson, came to visit for the afternoon. Sue had just gotten back from a cruise to Alaska with her sisters and Jim was just getting over knee surgery. It is always good to see them.

One of our favorite pastimes is playing pinochle. We all fit around our table pretty well because it has a little pull-out on it.

I think the girls beat the boys pretty badly this time (if my memory serves me correctly--Terry may disagree but I am the one telling the story!).

We had a great time in our first Washington park and look forward to seeming more of them. We are headed back towards home, with Bob and Lolita going straight there, Ron and Alice going to up north for a few days to see friends, and us stopping along the was for a few days to visit my brother Ron and his family. Happy trails to everyone.

Mt. Hood Village, Welches WA 9/14/09 - 9/21/09

Mt. Hood Village is an ELS park. ELS bought Thousand Trails a year or so ago, and they let TT members use some of their parks, for a nominal fee. This is one of them. It is supposed to be rated as one of the top ten RV parks in the nation.

It is nice, but it didn't have the "feel" of our TT parks. It was not as personable and didn't have any of the activities that we are use to at the TT parks. Their main focus is to rent or sell their little cabin models.

The RV sites for the TT members are all in very wooded areas, which was okay with us because we like being in the trees. It was a little cool, though, without too much sunshine showing through the trees.

We did get to set outside some, though, and ate a few meals together with Ron & Alice and Bob and Lolita. If you look closely at this picture you can see Ron relaxing in his chair under his awning. His site was the central gathering place because, as usual, he got the "best spot."

Mt. Hood is a beautiful part of Oregon and there are a lot of State parks. There was a trail from our park that joined with trails into a State Park called Wildwood Recreation Site, right next to us. Terry and I took off on it one day.

It ended up being about a 6-mile walk by the time we were through, but it was a great hike.

It was so pretty--lots of tall trees with ferns growing under them, and from the bottom of their roots if they happened to be tipped over!

There were lots of "resting benches," which is really good for old people like us!

This is the restrooms at the State park. Almost all of the benches had carvings on them. They were really cool.

The State Park is right on the Salmon River, a river that has a lot of salmon that come back to lay their eggs.

There was this really nice sculpture of the Chinook salmon that was near the restrooms.

I kind of got carried away with taking pictures of the benches. Each one was different and there were a lot of them along the trails. Terry said I could only put one on the BLOG, so I chose this one with him in it!

There was an underwater viewing window where we saw fingerling and juvenile salmon swimming around. Later on in the fall, sometimes adult salmon can be seen in it. We had a great time looking at everything and hiking.

One day, the six of us went to see Mount Hood. It is world famous because it is the only mountain in the U.S. that retains its snow and has operating ski lifts year-round. The ski lifts to to 8,540 feet and training camps come from all over the world to work on their skills throughout the summer months.

There is a national historic landmark, Timberline Lodge, built on the south slope of Mt. Hood at an elevation of about 6,000. It is still being used as a retreat. it was built in 1937, mostly by non-professionals, using materials that they had on hand, since it was built during the Depression.

Allice and I are standing in front of one of the mosaic wall plaques that was put together from left-over tiles from the ones used on the floor and other places in the lodge. It was quite a place to visit.

We only stayed at Mt. Hood for a week, but it was fun to be someplace we hadn't been before.