6 19 ON THE WAY TO BEND

Drove to the Fossil Lake, which is an old dried up lake with fossils on it, so they say. We discovered we had no idea how to find a fossil in a sea of sand (which was probably volcanic ash). All we saw was dunes and desert. We had a nice walk, tho. (we do that a lot, walk and not find what we thought we would, well ok, we also do that in the car:) )

So we left and drove toward Crack in the Ground. Along the way we saw several lava flows. These were pretty old ones with much plant growth on them.

We got to Crack in the Ground, which is a "crack in the ground" caused by some huge ground movement that split parts of a huge lava flow. It made cracks in all different directions. Some of the cracks are filled with rock debris but one, about ½ mile long, is passable.


Can you find Arleen in there?

It is very narrow in spots and we had to climb over some rockfall a couple of times, but it was very interesting and beautiful. Some of the walls showed bubble holes from the inside of the lava flow, since that was what we were looking at. How often do you get to go inside a lava flow? Cool.

Bubbles !

We did climb out of the crack. Notice the rocks that have fallen over.

this is what the countryside looked like, other than the crack. Pretty normal, huh? Nature is pretty awsome!

Then we drove on to Derick Cave. We followed a nice gravel road for about 8 or so miles and then the road became a bit more challenging. But that was no problem for us, we had a Ford 500, ATV to ride in. We weren’t worried. We drove on, even tho we hit several rough patches that made us think about reconsidering our decision, but we had come too far to turn back. So we continued on, scraping noises, bouncing and all. But we made it to the lava tube and enjoyed a walk of about ¼ mile, some in light and some by flashlite. Then we had to retrace our ride in, back out. So Duane reorganized the luggage in the trunk into the backseat, to lighten the backend and at the hardest parts Arleen got out to lighten the frontend and direct Duane over some snarley rocks. But, again we made it and it looks like the car made it too.

Here we are, out in the middle of nowhere, and there is a yield sign. Yield to WHO?

Our all-wheel drive ATV

The view from inside the lava tube. We love caves. The longer and darker the better. Actually, there is no such thing as darker.....a real cave, or tube, once you go around a curve, you are in total darkness....the kind where your eyes never can adjust since there is no light at all...so it can not be darker than that. We even make a point of turning out our lights and stand in the darkness. WOW!

Here is Duane climbing some fallen ceiling rocks. Good camera :)

Then after celebratory grapes, instead of wine (we were still driving) we headed toward Bend. On the way we stopped at Fort Rock, a Maar, created when hot magma made its way to the surface, but the surface was a very deep lake. Then the water hit the hot magma a huge explosion occurred, throwing much of the lake bottom up in the air in a circular direction. Then more explosions, and more…and you get the idea. As time passed the circular mud turned to rock. Then the rock got eroded away by the waves of the lake. Fort Rock is what is left of that process.

Closer look

See if you can see the face in the lower right center of the picture....looks like the sad face from "comedy and tragedy"

Here is the closer look.

When we got finally to Bend we found a nice motel and collapsed.

BEND, OREGON

Arleen and her sister, Debbie, have been to Bend before. They remember it as very interesting because it has lots of volcanic "stuff". So we made a point of coming here. Well, they were right !
There are (is?) lots of "stuff" here. We are staying for many nites and will post the pictures and tell you what we have been doing in the next couple of days. We need to organize all the pictures.

Also, If you visited the blog and read the last 3 or 4 posts, please look again, since we put some pictures up.

More later......

6 18 CHRISMAS VALLEY, OREGON

Today we left our motel after having another soak. We drove north toward Christmas Valley. On the way we drove thru Summer Lake Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw lots of water fowl.

We had an incident with an avocet. The bird decided we were in its way and refused to get out of our way.

Since we could not see the little bird in front of the car, Duane had to get out and chase the bird away.

After arriving in Christmas Valley we got a room and then went to see dunes made of ash from an ancient volcano. Actually, I think this ash came from the volcano that is now called Crater Lake.

We made believe our Ford 500 was dune buggy and drove up and down some dunes.

Then we went to see a ponderosa pine forest that exists where it should not exist. It doesn’t get enough water, but there it is.

Tomorrow we go toward some lava flows and an extinct volcano.

6 17 LAKEVIEW, OREGON

Today we did go look for obsidian. And boy did we find some. We went to 3 different places from a map given to us by the very friendly and helpful lady at the visitor’s center. It turns out, the map isn’t that accurate. We missed the first turn into the forest, since the road name was wrong on the map and there were no distance markings. So we entered from the other end of the trip. We went to an area that was to have rainbow obsidian. We had no idea what rainbow obsidian looks like, even tho we do know what obsidian is. There were millions of tons of obsidian all around, but what was rainbow? So we followed the instructions on the map, walk up the steep hill. So we walked all the way up the steep hill. We collected some stones, and then walked all the way down the steep and rocks strewn hill. (later at the rock shop we were told we were only supposed to walk up 10 feet on the steep part and then veer off, and that is where all the beautiful stuff is. Oh well:)

Then we drove on to where there is “iris” obsidian. We still do not know what that is. But we dutifully collected some rocks there.

Then we went on to where we were going to start in the beginning before missing the turn. We were at the Lavender obsidian. Here we found many holes dug by others trying to find purple obsidian. Arleen found a place that had soft enough dirt for our little garden tools, which we bought the day before incase we needed them for sun stones. She dug and dug and found lots of stones, but which ones were purple, how purple should they be and where do you wash all the dirt off them to even find out? Anyway, Duane found a lovely example of what turned out to be rainbow. Then we had some idea of what we were looking for and we found a little more.

When we returned to town we stopped at the local rock shop and we were lucky enough to find it open. The woman there showed Arleen what we were supposed to be looking for and what the obsidian looked like when polished. Absolutely beautiful. Trouble is that we do not have the equipment to make a nice rock into a beautiful one, so we are going to take our booty home and not go into the obsidian-sun rock business. It sounds too much like work.

We are now in a new motel that has a mineral pool. No I did not say a hot pool, because it isn’t very hot, but it sure felt good on our sore muscles. The room smells, tho. Probably from people getting goose and seagull poop on their shoes and walking into the rooms. That what you get for wanting to be around wildlife. The manager could not be more helpful. They even let us use their personal coffee maker. Just like Holiday Inn:)

6 16 LAKEVIEW, OREGON

This is the area we walked and stooped and sat and bent, to pick up sun stones.

So, today we went to Plush and then drove out about 25 miles on dirt roads to a public collection area where we found sun stones. They are feldspar crystals that were created in volcanoes. You walk around the desert and find these lovely stones just lying there on the ground. We spent 5 hours looking and bending and kneeling and sitting in the sand collecting these stones. Most of them are small, but several are lovely larger than small. We were told that these stones are actually precious gems, not semi-precious. That is very nice to hear. We met a guy who has been collecting for 10 days and he is going to sell his stones to help the homeless. He has ridden his bike from Washington to here and is posting blog info for people to follow and find ways to make money that anyone can do.

Anyway we collected about 5 cups of rocks. We washed and sorted them when we got back to our room. Our motel, by the way, does not have a hot tub, and after all the bending and squatting, we need one. So we are moving to another place that has a natural hot springs pool.

Also, on the way to the collection site we came upon a dog on the side of the road. As we approached he ran to the right side of the road and quickly layed down. It seemed very strange, so Duane was very cautious as he approached. Good thing, since as we came near the dog he charged the car. Great game for him. Scared the daylights out of us. That was not our only encounter with animals today. We tried to enter the parking lot of the motel with the hots springs, but we were blocked by geese. They made us drive around them to get into the parking lot. The lot was filled with geese and seagulls and ducks. That was another reason we decided to stay at that motel tomorrow.

Anyway, I am going to take a hot shower and try to get my muscles ready for tomorrow when we are going to try to find lavender obsidian (volcanic glass). I never heard of purple obsidian, so more later.

6 10 - 15 ON TO SUSANVILLE, CA

We had a wonderful time at David and Heather and Autumn and Amber's. So we left Sparks with heavy hearts. We also left without one of our bags. David tried to catch us on the cellphone. We had trouble hearing him, so we tried calling him back while he was trying to call us back. You know how that goes, both of us going directly to voicemail. We turned around while David was following us trying to catch up. Very funny situation. So, with all of our stuff we headed off toward our next destination.

We drove to Susanville, where we could have a nice room for a couple of nites and Arleen could have something to do that would not include Duane, ie gambling. Yes, we stay at casino hotels whenever possible because, usually, the rooms are nice and cheap. So we stopped in Susanville. We really liked it there and spent a couple of extra days there. We played golf and went to "bear dance". A bear dance is the celebration of spring, the emergence of the bear and the beginning of a new year. We got to dance with both tribal and non-tribal members. There we 5 concentric circles with the smallest made up of the smallest children, and older as you went outward. We danced around the circles while the bear walked around and we petted him with our stalks of plants. You do this to make nice to the bear so that during the coming year he will not harm you.

So today, the 15th, more rested, we left Susanville and drove back to Oregon and Lakeview, where we will look for sunstone tomorrow. More about that then.

MORE SPARKS

Looking for crystals on Crystal Peak in California, near Sparks, Nevada. Even Amber looked for and found crystals.

But Arleen did a lot of the work :) When it was time to go, she had a small tantrum, but was convinced it was time to leave, since everyone else had had enough.

Finally the kids got a rest at Autumns class pool party to celebrate the end of school

If the weekend had been ruled by grandkids, the next two days were dictated by David and Heather. First we learned how much the kids got away with. It was a lot. Friday before they had left, we made tie dyed tee shirts. Monday we saw the result of our efforts. Then it was off to Crystal Peak to spend the day digging for crystals. We found quite a few and of course Autumn found the best one. Finally even Arleen, the most ardent of rockhounds had had enough and we headed back to Sparks.

Tuesday was spent mainly at a swim party for Autumn’s third grade class. Back home, we redid our tie dyed shirts hoping for a better result. We saw some improvement but still haven’t perfected the techniques. (maybe we will try it again at home)

SPARKS

This is us celebrating Duane's birthday one week early. The theme was Flag Day, June 14th. The meal was red, white and blue, as was the dessert. (it seems whipped cream is the kids favorite food) Fun was had by all.

Babysitting is hard work !!!!!

Sunday started much the same way that Saturday did, with Bubby and Zeyda being awaken by an avalanche of red-headed granddaughters. Another walk to the park after a breakfast per the request of the grandkids, trips to the supermarket guide by the grandkids, not only in getting to the store and around town (no easy feat as Duane would discover later) but also around the store and in the purchases made. It was only after their parents returned did we learn how much we had been conned into buying things that weren’t normally allowed in the house. “Yes we always have apple juice in the house,” sounded good to us. Bubby wasn’t all that innocent either. Leaving Duane to work on the computer, all 3 females retired to the upstairs bedroom for a little female conspiracy and another trip to the store. It was decided that Zeyda’s birthday should be celebrated a week earlier than its actual date since we would be leaving before the real date. So gifts and cards were made. A red, white, and blue theme decided on in keeping with a Flag Day birthday and all the trimmings, cake, ice cream and whipped cream purchased. Again the kids showed their ability to keep a secret, as Duane had no idea what was going on until they sprung the surprise party on him. He got a beautiful picture of the flag waving on a summer day and a seashell pendant necklace for gifts along with two wonderful home made cards.

They put a lot of thought and energy into the day, because when it was suggested that they go to bed before Mom and Dad got home late that evening, there was no argument. So they went to bed and Zeyda headed out to the airport to pick up Heather and David. All went well until Duane got lost in Downtown Reno and spent half an hour driving around in circles. Finally David called and talked him back to the freeway. From there it was only a short trip to pick them up and let them drive home.

6 3 to SPARKS, NEVADA

We left Redding and had a long drive over Bonner Pass to Nevada. We decided to get ready for our babysitting, here in Sparks. We stayed in Verdi for 2 nites. We need to stop driving every once in a while. Then on to Sparks and our son and daughter-in-law's house.

We got a wonderful greeting from our kids and our grandkids. We came to watch the kids so our son, David, could surprise his wife, Heather, for their 15th anniversary. He had told her he had planned a weekend holiday for her at Lake Tahoe, but would give her no details. So of course she was very excited, but confused. It turns out his plans were really to take her to Chicago for the weekend. She had no idea. Autumn and Amber, almost 9 and almost 6, both knew of the plans and never let on. Heather was totally surprised when she was awakened at 3am on Friday and when Duane got into the car with them. That was her first idea that she was not going to Lake Tahoe. (Duane went to the airport with them to bring back their car)

We are enjoying ourselves very much being grandchildren toys. The kids seem to enjoy having us to play with, too. Tomorrow, Sunday, is when the "parents" are coming home. Our plan is to find the house before they get back.

So to bed.

5 31 WILDLIFE SAFARI, WINSTON, OREGON

We had heard about this park on the way up to Seattle from Tucson but didn't have the time to see it, so we stopped today. It is a drive thru park like they used to have in southern California years ago. Debbie, Arleen's sister, and Arleen went thru the old Lion Country Safari, but Duane never had. So this was great fun for both of us.

I always thought bison were very dangerous. Whenever we had seen them before they we behind strong fences. Here they roam free and come very close to the cars, even with their new babies.


They had other wild animals, too. Like lions, and leopards, and bears, oh my!

He doesn't look very fierce does he? It was rather hot that day and the bears were resting. There was one bear laying in the pond who would occasionally blow bubbles in the water thru his nose. Very fierce looking :)

Camels walked around us (see the car mirror in the picture)

Giraffes

Rhinos

and Elephants, again walking right by the car

They used the elephants to wash cars. Another sign said, "car wash, guaranteed NOT to get your car clean"

A Rhea thought about joining us in the car

We heard about a wedding about to be performed. We were amazed to learn that an elephant was to be the ringbearer. Arleen could not resist the temptation to get pictures. And this one came out great. You can see the elephant handing the best man a basket with the ring in it. That was a highlight.

After leaving the park, we came upon this view. It turns out to be Mt. Shasta, which is over 14,000 feet tall. Beautiful.

We spent that night in Redding.

5 30 SILVER FALLS STATE PARK

It was too bad we arrived at the park late in the afternoon. There are 10 falls there. This is the longest. If you look closely, you can see people walking behind the falls. We became some of the people. We were hoping we could find a lodge that had rooms so we could spend more time at the park, but there were only camping facilities. Too bad, we had no camping gear.

The view from behind the falls

View from the bottom of the falls

SUNSETS AGAIN

Don't ask, but you get to see these beautiful pictures again because of a glitch in blogspot. So enjoy.

5 30 MT ST HELENS OREGON

After leaving Fife, we headed south. We went to the Mt St. Helens and on to Silver Falls State Park. We stopped at the visitor's center for the mountain and saw some pictures and took this picture. Since most of what you can do here is on the mountain, ie camping and hiking, and we didn't have enough time for that, we continued on.

5 27 VICTORIA BC thru 5 30

AMAZING SUNSETS

After leaving Juneau, we set sail across the open sea toward Vancouver Island and Victoria. Open Sea. Not my favorite thing. Actually in all of our sailing, we have not had many bad days. We had 2 this trip, and 4 days on our round the world cruise of 102 days. Not too bad a record. But the 26th wasn't the best nor was it the worst. So, glad it is over.

We arrived in Victoria at about 5pm and were scheduled to leave at midnight. That didn't leave much daylight. So, since we had been there twice before, we just walked around and found an Internet spot to do the Juneau post. Then we were off to Seattle, to disembark the next morning. We had to get up at 5 am so we could be out of the cabin by 7. Then we had some breakfast, done by 8 and then sat around until almost 11am before we could get off the ship. Luckily we did not have a plane to catch. We had our car at the home of our new friends in Seattle. THANK YOU GISELA AND WOLFIE. They were away in Germany but we had no trouble retrieving our car. Then off to a place to rest. We spent 2 nites in Fife (of course, close to a casino) for some RnR. (imagine needing RnR after a cruise, but we did)