The Ray Adventures: On our way to Rockport for winter-Oct. 28,2018

After 7 days on the road we are in Nevada - sort of - our park literally straddles the state line between Oregon and Nevada.

Leg 1, Sept. 28 - Oct. 1. A beautiful drive through the mountains, gorgeous fall foliage, it's been 5 years since we have been anywhere to see the red, yellow and orange leaves. We left Friday, Sept. 28 for Detroit Lake State Park, about 50 miles up the mountain from Salem. It's 90 degrees today but the forecast is for weekend rain. Chris and Micah arrived about 7, bringing us a Thanksgiving dinner with them. We had turkey, potatoes, dressing, gravy and cranberries. Yum yum. Saturday we picked up 17 geo cache in the Detroit area. Detroit Dam construction for flood control between 1949 to 1953 by the Army Corps of Engineers, the town of Detroit had to be moved up river to make room for the reservoir. In the early 50's I remember Dad bringing me to the stump covered area that was to become the reservoir it was probably a 2-3 hour drive from the coast. I cooked rib eye steaks from Costco for dinner Saturday night, we all agreed they were the best steaks we've had for a long time. Sunday after breakfast we cached again, we picked up our 3,300th find. Chris and Micah left for home about 2, it's sure quiet. We had dinner at the Cedars in Detroit, food is so-so but I didn't have to plan or cook!

Leg 2, Oct. 1-3 We left Detroit Lake State Park for Bend, about 120 miles. Bend is located in the High Dessert Region of Oregon, elevation of 3,623 with a population of 77,000 and growing. Our drive through the Cascade Mountains we saw more beautiful foliage. We stayed at the Bend Elks for 2 nights. Talena and Kurt invited us for dinner Monday night, delish! We had a lot to talk about, our trip to Alaska and their trip to Europe. Tuesday we planned our itinerary as far as Las Vegas then went to lunch with Talena at 10 Barrel Brewery.

Leg 3 Oct. 3-5 We traveled to Burns about 150 miles, elevation 4,148 population 2,800. I am amazed what a nice little town Burns is, located in the High Dessert, sort of in the middle of nowhere, I've never been here before, people have said there's not much there. The downtown area of both Burns and Hines (a couple miles west) seem to be thriving, very few empty storefronts and very clean. We spent two days here, the first afternoon we picked up 13 geo caches, the second we went to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, starts about 30 miles south of Burns. Our first stop after taking in a few scenic overlooks was Frenchglen about 60 miles down the road, home of the historic Frenchglen Hotel, built in 1916, with an addition in the 30's by the CCC's. It still remains an active hotel 102 years later. We had a nice lunch talking with the locals. The ladies at the Visitor Center in Burns recommended the Steens Mountain Scenic drive, I'm sure it's a beautiful drive but with low cloud cover in the lower elevations and snow on top of the 9,500 foot summit we didn't see much beyond the road The temperature dipped to 27 with freezing snow. Brrrrr.

Tomorrow off to McDermitt.

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam