For the second year in a row, we hit Southern Oregon on the hottest-week-from-hell time of the year. This needs to change! And on top of the heat (110° F +) there was the smoke.
Smoke does make for pretty sunsets.
Seriously, it couldn't be helped. I needed to spend a couple of weeks with my mom as she had knee surgery.
The first two pictures were at Southern Oregon RV Park at the Jackson County Expo after which we moved to Valley of the Rogue State Park. As the state park has a 14-day limit, we often have to move from one to the other.
While I was at Mom's, Tom supplied me with pictures of cool water.
The southern Oregon stay was contingent on being released to head north for the total solar eclipse on August 21st. We stayed at Barton Park and drove down to Jamie and Catherine's the morning of the eclipse for a breakfast party in their front yard.
Catherine made us French toast.
Phones don't take the greatest eclipse pictures. If you didn't see it in person you'll just have to believe me how cool it was.
Fortunately this was just before smoke from the fires in the Columbia Gorge darkened the skies in the north.
Nora visiting us at Barton with her bee backpack and leash.
A return visit to Bent Shovel, where we found . . .
A relative! The owners were surprised that I knew what a Cardigan was. For those interested, he's a Polar son from Kim Shira.
Our intent was to spend some time in Eastern/Central Oregon but the gorge fires closed Interstate 84, making travel impractical. Instead we stayed on the west side of the Cascades, dividing our time between Barton Park and Silver Spur RV park in Silverton. Like the state parks, Barton has a stay-limit plus you are limited to two stays per season. So we were at Barton, then at Silver Spur, then at Barton, then at Silver Spur. We would have stayed at Silver Spur but it was fully booked during the Mount Angel Oktoberfest.
Some early autumn pictures from Barton.
Back at Silver Spur in September Grandma and Grandpa had a baby-sitting day . . .
followed by a visit to Seven Brides Brewing in Silverton. It's a family-friendly brewpub with crayons, etc for the little ones.
I especially liked the Fresh Hop Citra Mosaic and the Shandy.
We visited on a Saturday night and there was live music. Nora especially enjoyed the singer, bouncing along to the music and clapping appropriately after each song.
