Bandon, Oregon

 Drove home from Bandon to Vancouver.  Heavy traffic!  Seven hours of driving.

Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Reguge

 Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge

Bandon, Oregon

Coos Bay, Oregon - Images

Coos Bay - Information  

Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon

Bandon - Images

Bandon - Information  

Four Days in Grayland

Cottonwood Canyon State Park, Oregon

Cottonwood Canyon State Park, Oregon  Day 1

From the Biggs Junction on Interstate 84, drive about 15 miles south on Oregon 97 to the town of Wasco, then drive on Oregon Road 206 for about 20 miles to the entrance to Cottonwood Canyon State Park along the John Day River.

Eastern High Rolling Hills, wheat growing area, hundreds of wind turbines, south of the Columbia River.

Michael Delmer (my son) and I took a 3 day trip to Cottonwood Canyon.

On our first day we drove from Vancouver to Hood River. We ate a Scandinavian style breakfast at an old hotel in Hood River.  Then we toured an abandoned water power electrical plant in Hood River area. Then headed southwest to the White River Falls. Then we camped at the Bighorn Cabin today at Cottonwood Canyon.

Here are some Cottonwood Canyon photographs available on the Internet:

Mayfield Lake, Washington

 Karen and I enjoyed a trip from Vancouver, WA, to Lake Mayfield, WA.  It is about a 100 mile drive one way: north on Interstate 5 and east on Highway 12.  The drive from Mary's Corner to Morton, Randall, or Packwood is easy on Highway 12 which goes over White Mountain Pass and then to Yakima.  

Mick and April were camping at Ike Kinswa State Park near Mossyrock.  We joined them in the morning.  We both went on boat rides with Mick as the boatman driver.  We crossed Mayfield Lake from the dock near the bridge at the State Park.  Then we went up the Cowlitz River to below Mossyrock Dam.  A wonderful sightseeing excursion.  The weather was very overcast and threatening rain.  

What Runs But Never Gets Tired?

 The annual average rainfall (AAR) in the different places I have lived is of note for me:

1946-1967  Unincorporated East Los Angeles, Bandini Neighborhood/Varrio,
                  City of Commerce, Southern California   AAR = 15”
1948-1958  Karen grew up in Alexandria, Central Indiana   AAR = 42"
1969-1973  Biloxi, Mississippi   AAR = 65”
1973-1983  Bell Gardens, Southern California   AAR =  15”
1983-1998  Hacienda Heights, California   AAR = 15”
1998-2017  Red Bluff, Northern California   AAR = 25”
2017–         Vancouver, Southwestern Washington, Northwest USA  AAR = 42”


Vancouver, Washington, is rated as USDA Agricultural Zone 8B.

Zone 8b means that the average minimum winter temperature is 15 to 20 °F. 


"Ancient traditions have long associated holy wells and springs as very special places of the Goddess or anima mundi: symbolic of the Great Mother and associated with birth, the feminine principle, the universal womb, the prima materia, the waters of fertility and refreshment and the fountain of life. The dreaming sites, as they are called, have also been associated with visions, healing, and other paranormal experiences. In ancient Greece, for example, there were more than three-hundred medical centers placed at water sources, where patients experienced healing."
- Christopher and Tricia McDowell, The Sanctuary Garden, 1998, p. 62

"Day after day we looked for rain, and day after day we saw nothing but the sun. Lavender that we had planted in the spring died. The patch of grass in front of the house abandoned its ambitions to become a lawn and turned into the dirty yellow of poor straw. The earth shrank, revealing its knuckles and bones, rocks and roots that had been invisible before."
-  Peter Mayle

Water and Rain: Quotations, Sayings, Thoughts

What runs but never gets tired?
Water

"Water is the driver of Nature."
- Leonardo da Vinci

Interstate 5 Highway Bridge from Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon.  

This bridge crosses the Columbia River.  

Columbia River Valley

Mt. Hood and Hood River Valley, Oregon
The Hood River flows into the Columbia River.

Astoria, Oregon, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

Chehalis, Washington

 

Centralia  Population 18,183  Images

On Interstate 5 between Portland and Olympia    WA6 Junction   Timber industry, farming, city, businesses, tourism. 

Centralia is 84 miles south of Seattle.  

Centralia Outlets Shopping     Business Directory

Centralia: Weyerhaeuser Timber Company   The company owns most of the Willapa Hills forests to the west of Centralia.  

Chehalis  Population  7,259   Images   Chehalis is 88 miles north of Portland, and 28 miles south of Olympia. 

On Interstate 5 between Portland and Olympia.  About 12 miles north of the I5/WA12 Junction near Mary's Corner. 

Timber industry, farming, city, businesses, tourism. 

Grand Mond   Great Wolf Lodge and Waterpark

Lucky Eagle Rochester Indian Hotel and Casino 

Chehalis River    Images   Newaukum River

Chehalis Reservation Confederated Tribes  NS  SS  WB

Four Days in Grayland
By Michael P. Garofalo

Today, I drove home from my Yurt campsite at Grayland Beach.  I drove WA105 to Raymond, then on WA 6 to Pe Ell and Chehalis.  Then south on I5 for 78 miles to Vancouver.  A few sprinkles, and mostly cloudy with low clouds.  I stopped at Rainbow Falls State Park.  

Packwood, Washington

Packwood was getting ready for the huge Labor Day Flea Market event.  Hundreds of arts and crafts vendors were setting up their tent stores. 

Thankfully, I was in Packwood well before the Labor Day crowds and event.  It was relatively quiet.  I would not attend the event because of COVID concerns.  

Today, Friday, 9/1, I leave La Wis Wis Campground, and stop for gasoline and coffee in Packwood.  I will to drive up to Windy Ridge at Mt. Saint Helens. 

I stopped at the Iron Horse Campground.  It is 7 miles south from Randle on FR25.  Impressive old growth forest in the campground by the Crispus River.