8/9/2017 - Drive back to Columbia River

Wednesday - My morning started with my daily walk down to check on the river, through the mist, and of course I had to see if last night's deer had returned.  Yeah, 3 of them had returned, one doe and her two babies, so I got to watch them for a while.

There was an interesting tent down by the river, I wondered if it was a yurt, but I don't know.

During yesterday's excursions, Marilyn had found a Walmart in Aberdeen, so I enticed Joe out of bed with the promise of a trip to town (which meant breakfast at McDonalds).  We made that run, did a little shopping and got back to camp around 10:30, Marilyn was just finishing up her laundry, so we were ready to hit the road about 11:25.  Yesterday while we took our loop drive, Collins and Marilyn had spent the day in Aberdeen, Marilyn got a hair cut (so did I, later when we came back through town), they shopped an antique store and a fabric store, and Walmart.  The other important thing I forgot about yesterday is that Joe bought Marilyn (and himself) a present -- buckets to pick blackberries in!  Which they put to good use later today.

Anyhow, we are underway, with 104 miles to go today to Cathlamet, Washington, to a fishing camp right on the banks of the Columbia River.  As we drove back through Raymond, I got a picture from the bridge of the lumber company we saw yesterday.

I also got pictures of more of those metal sculptures, which are literally scattered all over town.  I don't know the history of those, but they must have some local artists.  Here's what I found out.

"Raymond Wildlife Heritage Sculptures Corridor" is a display of dozens of rusty metal cutouts -- a mixture of area wildlife and logging industry scenes. In some places, bear and fox frollick next to loads of logs pulled by teams of oxen or horses. The Corridor was created with the work of local artists starting in 1993. It is eye-catching mostly due to the quantity and density of pieces. For the weirder statues, stop in town."

The "Town of Metal People" are metal, 3-dimensional figures sprinkled through town. The subject matter seems to result more from the whimsy of the artists than any historical figures from the region's history. One shows a photographer with a camera and telephoto snapping some wildlife. Another depicts a girl feeding an ice cream cone to a large dog/wolf."

 Here's some of the shots I captured.

As we continued along Hwy U.S. 101, then Washington 4,  through forests and sometimes along the bay, we spotted some logging equipment at work way up on top of a hill or mountain.  Would have been interesting to watch this from a closer viewpoint.

We stopped at the edge of one little town and had lunch in our RVs, then arrived at our campground about 2:35.  It was close quarters, hardly room enough to put out the slides.  In fact, the one on the other side of us is actually touching its neighbor -- the awning and the slide.  But we got set up, and are thrilled to be right here on the magnificent Columbia River!

Our view.

No sooner had we got settled than we saw the first two barges coming upriver -- the second one was some kind of fuel barge.  Collins spotted an eagle's nest, and an eagle but I didn't see the bird -- I did see the nest.

We ate dinner out on our picnic table, watching the river and a few small boats going by.  Several of our neighbors had fishing poles in the water, but we never did see any action there.

No sooner did we get dinner cleaned up when Marilyn announced she was going to go pick blackberries, and this time Joe got to go with her (as cameraman, I opted out), so they went across the road to fill up their new berry buckets!  Finally, they got to hit the patch together.

I filmed the picking crew, then took the scenic route back to our campsite, taking photos of the little deck just down from our row of campers (painted in Seattle Seahawk colors).

They came back after only about 30 minutes with 2 full buckets!


But Joe had wounds on both arms.

I was getting ready to go get them because another ship was heading our way, also going upriver.  This was a big one, I didn't want them to miss it, but they walked around the corner just then.  Collins read the back of the ship and said this ship was from Spain.

We got those berries all washed up, and Joe circled back over to the bushes to get the rod he had taken with him (and not used) to push the briars out of the way.  He walked on down the road a little and told Marilyn they had picked the best batch around.  Shortly thereafter, Marilyn dragged Collins with her back to the berries to pick another half-bucket!

While they were gone, Joe and I enjoyed the scenery.  In scanning with his binoculars, he spotted a doe and fawn across the lake.  Then we saw a river cruise ship coming downriver, Collins thought it was probably going to Astoria.  It didn't look like too many people were on it.  It was a pretty sight on the river, and it would be neat to see it all lit up in the dark.

We sat out until it started to get cool, then went in to play cards.  As I was sitting facing the front of the RV, I suddenly looked up and saw a huge ship in the windshield!  That stopped the card game!  It was the biggest one we had seen yet!  You can see the blue of the windshield in the top of the first photo, so I stepped outside to get a better picture.  On the back it said "Majuro" which I looked up. 

"Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometres and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometres. As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses." 

 I don't know where those islands are from where we are, but it had a ship go past us!

The boys' winning streak at Hand and Foot is over, Marilyn and I squeezed out a win tonight (by a whopping 55 points).  We feel so fortunate to have found this campground, with river view spots available.  This is something we will remember for a long time.

It was in the 50s again this morning, with the sea mist.  But here at Cathlamet, it was quite warm, in the 80s, with just a little breeze.  Portland has been having some hot weather, so I am afraid our break from the heat is just about over, but we are sure enjoying it while it lasts.