7/9/2017 - Smith Rock State Park

Sunday - We didn't exactly take the day off today, but we did scale it down.  I was still a little tired this morning after my 9,118 steps yesterday at the Quilt Show.  Joe and I headed in town first thing this morning for breakfast at McDonalds, then to the laundromat, since our campground does not have one.  We got that taken care of and came back to the RV.  In the meantime, Collins and Marilyn headed out to Madras to Erickson Aircraft Collection (museum) in Madras.  Collins got to check off another bucket list item - a ride in a PT17 Stearman BiPlane.  He seemed to enjoy the ride.













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The other 4 of us took off on a short drive to Smith Rock State Park, recognized worldwide as a cutting edge climbing destination.  We saw hikers on the very steep trail but no rock climbers.  Jim Croxton had suggested we include this park in our travels and Paul's family really liked it (of course, they have some rock climbers in their family, we don't have any of those in our group).

 Unfortunately, I forgot my camera chip today so I took the photos on my Iphone, and they all came out sideways, even though I rotated them.  There are golden eagles in this park, and we got the binoculars out and looked for their nests but never spotted either the birds or their nests.

On the way to the park we spotted some smoke behind the mountains.  On our way back, the smoke had really increased so we drove toward it.  By the time we got close, they had closed the road and we could see planes and helicopters fighting the fire.  The Sheriff who turned us around said it was about a mile away.

 There is a helicopter in this next photo.

We went on back to camp, and played cards for a couple of hours with the Johnsons.  We saw the Brundiges drive by, and then Marilyn was off to take care of her laundry.  By the time they were ready to play cards, Dave and Mazie had gone back to their RV.  Collins and Marilyn had stopped by the Bowman Museum in town, and Dave had checked it out yesterday, but I don't think Joe and I are going to make that stop.

This part of Oregon is really dry, and it has been hot -- about 15 degrees hotter than normal.  There are several wildfires around the state.  We are leaving here tomorrow, heading north.  We are hoping to have cooler weather at our next stop, but we will still be on the east side of the Cascades so we are still on the arid side of Oregon.  We can still see snow on the mountaintops to the west and north, but it has been in the mid-90s almost every day we've been here.  Still, it's not as hot as Arizona so we will just enjoy our good luck.