Labor Day Week End near Walton Lake, Oregon

Saturday the 3rd of September 2011 found us headed to the Ochoco National Forest again, only this time we went through Prineville and headed to Mitchel on highway 26, branching off on the Ochoco Forest Ranger Station road (highway 22) then we turned and went on toward Walton Lake.  We didn't go all the way up there as there was a small city in that area. :)  What wonderful weather we had, sunshine during the day and cold at night so sleeping was good!  We joined Faye and Jack Groves, Jim and Beverly English (cousins) our son Greg and Jack's sister Patsy and her husband Steve.

I am standing by the creek looking back at the camp.  Arlo is sitting with his coat on and Jim English is standing.

Looking at the camp from the direction of the highway.  Love the forest, with all the really large trees.

Another angle from the highway.

another look from a different angle, our trailer and Faye and Jack's RV.

The creek, don't know the name of it but it was nice.

Across the creek looking South up the hill.  Greg put a box up there to do some target practice.

Sunday afternoon, we roasted hotdogs, how good they tasted then we, Beverly and myself  toasted a couple of those really big marshmellows and they were good but boy were they messy!  Sitting on the left is myself, then Arlo and Beverly.  Jim is taking the picture.

Greg and his dad Arlo Henderson

Games were the name of the game in the evening.

Facing the camera, Jack, his sister Patsy, then Greg and Beverly and with his back to us is Steve. 

Faye at this end of the table.  They are playing a card game called Hand & Foot.

Jim and myself

Jim and Jack cleaning up the bbq getting ready to leave on Monday.

Greg getting himself and his Harley ready to leave and then him leaving....sure enjoyed him coming and spending the weekend with us.

Steve after taking the dogs for a hike up the hill across the highway.

the dogs after their hike, Gus and Buddy

One by one they left, first Steve and Patsy as they had work in the afternoon, then Faye and Jack left after lunch.  We spent the morning playing "Train" dominos then roasted those really good "Hill" wienors and tried to clean out the fridge's, seems like we did a lot of eating . :)  We didn't even bother to cook dinner as we were all full!   Hope to go again as really like that area!  Next time will take more pictures of those really nice trees.

So long until the next time....Rodeo is coming up and Cynthia and her family will be here as will Greg.

July Camping in the Ochocos, Oregon

2nd of July found us hurrying around getting ready to go camping with cousins, Jim and Beverly English and Faye and Jack Groves.  We drove down I 84 to Biggs Junction where we turned South on to highway 97 to Madras then after Madras we turned on highway 26 going toward Prinevill.  Before arriving at Prineville we turned East on NE Gerke road to intersect with McKay road going more North East.  We ended up camping on the McKay Creek.  (picture).

My Chair, you can see where I sat listening to the song of the creek and soaked up the vitamin D of the sun.

Our Camp was tranquil even though we not to far off the road, but traffic was lite.

Our camper and pickup, didn't have the awning up yet but with it out we were very comfortable from the afternoon sun.  Had a outdoor rug out that helped keep the inside free from the dirt and grass we might have packed in.

Another view of the forest around us.

Another view of McKay creek.

Cousin Jim and Beverly's RV.

Cousin Jack and Faye Groves RV.  Jack is putting out the awning and Jim is starting the grill, he is the unofficial grill chef. :)  He fixed stakes for dinner to go with the rest of the fixens we had for dinner.

Jim also cooked pancakes and bacon for breakfast on Friday morning. :)

Arlo and Jack taking it easy.  You see Zena, Jim and Beverly's great dane, such a really nice dog.  Never heard her bark all the time she was there.  Never jumped up on a person, but really liked to lean into you for attention. :)  No pictures of myself, Beverly or her sister in law Sandra, who was visiting from Minnesota.  will have to do better next time out.

Faye and Arlo in this picture, you can see we have plenty of chairs for relaxing and a table for our food.

Tried to get a picture of the wild Iris flowers but they didn't show up to good.

More wild flowers and grasses.

All in all we had a great camping experience.  One bit of information was that pulling down into the camping area it was almost V shaped and hung up so that Jim had to hook onto our pickup and help pull us on up into the camping area.  After that happened the three of us, Jim, Arlo and myself, put rock and dirt into the dip so it would be easier for Faye and Jack to come in with the motor home.  It did help.  Arlo said he didn't sleep much the first night wondering if we would be able to pull out when the time came to leave. :)

We were able to pull out but did hang up some and Alro had to really pore it on to get up and out of there.

Now where will we go next....somewhere closer but just as nice.  See you next time. :)

Thanksgiving 2010

November took the wind out of our sails as the saying goes.  We had some really bad weather so made traveling pretty iffy.  Our numbers were fewer then other years but maybe that is a sign of the times.
Sandra and Mark were to come over on Monday but it was Wednesday when they finally made it.  Cynthia, Dumenico, Monique, Tyler and Lola didn't come as the roads were not good and they would have come on Wednesday and left again on Thursday.   Melissa, Michael and Isaac came on Wednesday as did Greg.
Wednesday was Arlo's 79th birthday so we celebrated with a chicken enchilada  dinner that was sure good, even if I do say so myself. :)
I didn't take to many pictures this year but will post the ones that I did take.

The guest of honor after he was cooked, was so good, we took this picture before carving.

 Sandra was the master carver this year, I am just standing there watching :)

Judy is watching Sandra do her thing too. :)

Arlo and Greg very interested in the football game on the new 42" TV

Things had to be rearranged and blocks put up to keep the one little person that was visiting away from things that would really draw his attention.  Smaller TV sitting there waiting to be put somewhere else.

Greg, Judy and Michael at the table

Arlo and Michael

Melissa  beside of Michael

Hot dishes; dressing, baked beans(made by Michael), mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole.

Turkey and Ham, green salad, pea and beet salad, rolls and Pies

Forgot to take a picture of the pies, we had Apple, Lemon, Chocolate and Pumpkin.  Such good eating.

Melissa made special cookies and truffles that were really yummy.

In all the picture taking didn't get Mark's picture nor Isaac.  Isaac was napping so had to wait to get his picture, think Mark was napping in the RV at the time I took pictures, he did make it in for dinner.

Isaac with grandma Sandra he is eating from a plate she fixed.  He loves to feed himself and doesn't like anything that doesn't have texture to it and that he can't use his fingers to eat  with.  No baby food for him.  He will be 14 months old in a few days.

Isaac loves to climb and seems to know just where the TV remote or the computer mouse is and figures out how to get to them. :)  He doesn't walk he runs and seems to have a good time being here. :)

Will have to see if Sandra or Mark have pictures they can send me and if so will add more.

It was a good Thanksgiving but we sure missed Cynthia and her family.  Heather and Ryan had bad roads so didn't come down from Spokane.  Jacob being a banker had to work Friday and Saturday.  Jessie didn't come because of work.  Everett, Jennifer and Delmer didn't come because of the weather and time involved. Marco Jr., Zdenka and Marco Sr. are in Peru so couldn't be here either.  Kind of a long hop! :)

Next year will be Arlo's 80th birthday so we will have our Thanksgiving and celebrate his birthday in September, am thinking on Labor Day Weekend.  Sounds good to me. :)

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and hope you have a great rest of 2010.

Camping near Prineville ORegon on Crooked River

We did it again, on the spur of the minute we decided to go camping with my cousins Jim and Beverly English and Faye and Jack Groves.  We drove to Prineville, about a 5 hour drive from our home in Irrigon Oregon.  The weather was wonderful, we had really warm almost hot days and very cool but not cold nights.  We had lots of good food and played "Train" dominoes and just enjoyed the outdoors and good company.  Here are some pictures of the country in that area of Oregon and the river and camp area.  The area is kept up by BLM (Bureau or Land Management) and the cost is very afforable.

We drove about 5 miles from our camp site to see the earth dam that was constructed to make a large resavore that the Crooked Rived flows from.  The BLM have taken over the many camping areas along this river giving a lot of people a great place to spend time.  We seen lots of fishermen on the river too.

Beautiful lake behind the dam.  It affords lots of boating, swimming and fishing for the public.

In this picture you see the Crooked River and high on the hill you see a rock they call Chemeny Rock and the camp area we are in takes it name from this rock.  Beautiful isn't it.....

Looking down the river from our camp area, look at the clifts, the road goes around that hill. and the road is above us.

In this picture you see Jack and Jim; Jim is securing my table cloth with bungy cords, worked very good. It is morning so we still have our coats on.

A view of our modern camping "rigs", I can remember when Arlo and I would go camping and we didn't have a tent or sleeping bag.  We put the kids to sleep in the car (Cynthia in the front seat, Sandra in the back seat and Greg in the trunk, Arlo and I slept on the ground with quilts and had a great time doing it. :)) Now we have every comfort.

You can see the smoke from our camp fire.

Lots of tables and we would use one until the sun was on it then take our game of dominoes to another table in the shade...

Here you can see Beverly, Faye, Jack and Arlo just resting and enjoying the wonderful day.

I surprised Faye in her RV kitchen starting part of Breakfast.

Beverly coming our of their RV getting ready to enjoy breakfast.

Arlo and Faye, noticed Arlo has been able to take his coat off. :)

Jack, Arlo and Jim in camp.

Dinner is on the gril and Jim let me take a picture before he closed the gril, the steaks turned out really good!

We took a little ride when we went up to see the Resivore (lake) and this road runs to the West toward Bend and in the far distance you can see the Three Sister mountains and also Mt Bachelor to the far left.  Will put up another picture that lets you see the mountains better.

This is sure a long straight road and looks like there isn't a person anyway around but going down this road for a ways we see lots of homes and mail boxes indicating families living where you coundn't see the actural homes.

A duck floating down the river, we seen many but didn't know just what kind this bird is.

Just a picture of our camper, it isn't new but it works for us and is very comfortable.

A picture of a field and the hills, there is an interesting rock about the middle of the picture .

In the top of the tree on the left side you will see a large crane (bird) and it was the first time I had seen one roost in a tall tree, always before had only seen them standing in water.

In this picture we were happy to see a deer watching us and in the picture you can see there is more than one deer.  They didn't stick around long.  Deer season is open but only for the male or Buck.

Arlo is sitting there but wanted you to see the nice fire pit that is provided.  Jack had a bucket of water sitting handy incase it was needed.  We did not leare a fire unattended.

Breakfast the last day we were there, Jim cooked pancakes and bacon and sausage on the grill I fixed scrambled eggs, we had orange juice and milk, what a breakfast.  We usually had a hugh breakfast then didn't eat again until  after  3 in the evening.

Another picture of our breakfast table. :)

Here we are back in Prineville at Jack and Faye's place we all  parked and spent the night then we left around 9 Sunday morning.  Had a great drive home, we went the back way and had a lot of up and downs and went up over 4500 feet twice amd drove along the John Day River part of the way.  Seen several head of Deet and even seen a couple Antelope.  Seen lots of hunters and their camps along the way too. Rifle hunting season for Bucks opened on Saturday.
We were glad to get home and only one thing marred our end of trip and that was we couldn't get the ball to release from the trailer os had to work hard to get a bolt out and we did get the pickup relesed from the trailer but the ball is still with the trailer. :)  We got every thing from the trailer and emptied the tanks, except need to take the water out of the fresh water tank and hot water tank, but it will wait until tomorrow.  Must say good night as tomorrow is my morning at Day Surger and think 4 am will come all to soon.
So thankful we have been able to enjoy Heavenly Father's wonderful outdoors and our family members.

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