7/1/2017 - Miniature Train

Saturday - Today, we lucked onto a special treat.  When we drove into Chiloquin to the post office, there were signs about a quilt show -- the 12th Annual Chiloquilters Quilt Show -- so we stopped and took that in.  There were some beautiful quilts, banners, and various other quilted treasures on display, some for sale.  Collins and Marilyn both bought raffle tickets, so they may have goodies in their future.  I didn't know if I could take photos of the quilts, so I didn't, but there were sure some beauties there.  And I even won a prize -- a pillow, not a quilt!

Meanwhile, Dave and Mazie opted to drive into Klamath Falls to do a little shopping and exploring on their own.  The building the quilt show was in had the gift shop/art gallery at one end -- the one we stopped in the other day, so I told Collins he needed to check out a couple of things in there.  For such a small town, this gift shop/gallery has some very impressive art work on display.  I did take one picture here, of a barnwood picture frame.  This is more than just a picture frame, with the horses actually mounted on barnwood too.  And since I have some barnwood from Indiana, I thought it might give me some ideas.

Next up was the Klamath and Western Miniature Railroad.  They have free train rides on Saturday so that's why we went today.

This place is a real treasure.  Member volunteers become the engineers and conductors that give the public train rides through the 1.6 miles of scenic forest using club equipment, but they can also bring their own equipment to run on the tracks.  There is also a picnic area, a food booth, and a gift shop.  But the train ride
 was a lot of fun.

 

We waited our turn, and Collins headed straight to the rear.  The caboose is really cute, and the seats are very comfortable -- they are boat seats.  So here we go!!!

What made this train ride special was all the little wildlife set-ups and miniature villages along the way, along with aliens, horse stables, and other buildings -- even a grain elevator.

 Andrew would have enjoyed this ride.

 

There was one whole village set up.  Joe thought this was probably the town of Chilloquin.

Believe it or not, I didn't get all of the little scenes on the camera.  I considered getting on for another train ride to see if I could get the ones I missed, and maybe improve on some of the ones I got, but alas, we had a TRAIN DERAILMENT!  Just before we got back to the station, our second engine jumped the track at a switch.  And we all had to deboard and walk in from there.

 Naturally, the rest of the passengers made an orderly departure back to the station, but our group had to stop,

 and help

There was another short train right in front of us that also derailed, just before us.  I'm thinking maybe because the dog was the engineer on this one.

There was a very cute gnome village along the walkway here.

After we toured the full-size train car on exhibit, and checked out the gift shop, we stopped and watched them still working on our train.  Finally, one of them mentioned a "rerailer" and they went and got that, and got it right back on track.  This was probably an hour after the derailment.

And just like in real life, there was a train waiting on the track behind this one.


This was a neat place.  The actual museum was not open today, and I suspect Collins will try to make a trip back up here before we leave.  When Joe picked out the campground where we are staying, it was based on location (outside Klamath Falls, near Crater Lake) and it had nice reviews.  But we actually really lucked out with what is around us.  Both of these "outings" were within 5 miles, and we really enjoyed them.  We've had some nice scenic drives, and of course, there's the casino right down the road.

We were back about 1:30, and Dave and Mazie pulled in just a few minutes later.  When they talked to Marilyn about our adventures today, they decided to follow in our footsteps, so off they went again, to the post office and the train ride.  They skipped the quilt show (their loss).  Both the quilt show and the train ride were well worth the trip.  

The special on Saturday night at the casino is prime rib, and we have three prime rib lovers (Dave, Mazie and Collins) so that's the dinner plan for tonight.  Some of us will probably stay for a little while and play, while the non-gamblers (Marilyn and David) will probably head home.  And then we will have our nightly card game.

6/29-6/30/2017 - Crater Lake

Thursday - It was a chilly night, and a chilly morning (47 degrees), and the entire day probably stayed in the 70s, it was lovely. We didn't plan much for today, so I took a walk down by the river after breakfast and spotted a few things:  a duck with 3 babies, the osprey(?) and an eagle, and a river otter.  Could not get a picture of the otter.

 This eagle flew right over the top of me but I couldn't find him in my viewfinder until he got further away.

The mountain off the west appears to be losing a lot of its snow cap, although I wondered if it got a little more snow last night since it got so cold here.

Collins and Joe made the short drive up to the logging museum, and spent several hours here.  I drove the girls to the casino so Mazie could spend David's free money, then we stopped at the market in town and came home to get ready for our cookout tonight.  We actually sat outside in our lawn chairs for a while before Marilyn lit the grill, and we ate outside -- real campers!

We reconfigured our kitchen to try to accommodate 6 card players again.  This time, Collins brought over a smaller folding table, and some boards to level it out a little.

 Since Joe was the photographer and didn't get in the photo, he took a selfie to add to the mix.

 Friday - Our plan today was to make the drive to Crater Lake, leaving at 9:00.  We are all using the campground's showers and restrooms as much as we can since we are not hooked up to sewer, so Dave went over early to get his shower.  Unfortunately, the hot water was not working in the shower he used, so he had a really quick shower.  When he reported it, he found out that the other shower had hot water, it was just the handicapped one that he had used that wasn't working.  Mazie opted to shower in their RV rather than risk the cold water.   So we loaded up into 2 cars, Dave drove his, and headed out.  Our first scenic viewpoint was Annie Falls, which we could see in the distance.

Next we stopped at the pretty visitor center and got some more maps.  They still have the eastern rim road closed due to snow, and there is road construction (with up to 30-minute delays) on the western rim road, but off we went.

Here's our first look at beautiful Crater Lake! And I love the mirror image of the snow-capped mountains reflected in the water.  It was hard to see where the water ended and the mountains began.  Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet, is the deepest lake in North America.  Located in the Cascade Mountain Range in South Central Oregon, it's depth give it a shade of blueness that no photo can capture.  It became a National Park in 1902, 49 years after it was discovered. 

 Panoramic shot.

There is still plenty of snow around, some in small patches, and some in snowbanks.

Joe spotted a cross-country skier and I thought I might have seen a snowman but it was pretty far away.
The lake was absolutely breath-taking, so we took lots of pictures.  We stopped at a couple of different viewpoints so we got some different angles.  And we even saw a boat out on the lake.  I first thought it was a duck, it was that far away.

 I think this next photo is my favorite.

And more pictures.

We saw a few unfamiliar birds, and a chipmunk came to see if we had any food.

As we left our last viewpoint, Mazie tried to hit Collins with a snowball (she missed).

We had an expensive sandwich at the village restaurant, then headed home.  Joe and I took a walk down to the river and got a closer look at the boats they use here -- they call them drift boats.  They seem to be able to maneuver them pretty easily in these shallow rivers.

And of course, after dinner we played cards again.  Last night the girls won. Tonight the guys won.

Marilyn left their windows open when we left this morning, and the sprinklers came on and got the back of their sofa wet.  We forgot to open our windows or turn on the A/C, so our RV was pretty hot when we got back, but we were probably lucky that we forgot to open the windows.  This campground has really been a great place to have some downtime.  We don't have any plans for the July 4 holiday, and with all the forests around here I don't know if Klamath Falls will have them or not, but we should probably look into that tomorrow.  I think Joe has another drive in mind, and there's a miniature railroad museum right up the road that is on tomorrow's agenda.

6/28/2017 - The Brundiges Have Arrived

Wednesday - We moved off our premiere campsite with our river view, to the back row this morning.  Dave and Mazie were dumped and moved before we even got out of bed, but we all got resettled pretty quickly.  Joe again worked on Dave's back flush and has finally just given up on it and put things back together.  Then we settled in to await the arrival of our 2 missing travelers.  They pulled in just before 1:00 p.m., a welcome sight.  We spent the afternoon catching up on news, went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant (Dave and Mazie had already started grilling their pork chops for dinner before we got our plan together, so they opted out of that little trip), then we reconfigured our kitchen to set up for 6-handed Hand & Foot.  There is room for improvement, but with Marilyn's folding card table and some leveling boards we were able to make it work.  We played 2 short games (conceded loss before final hand), with a win apiece per team.

The weather is just great, stayed in the 70s today, a welcome relief to our travelers who experienced 119 in Las Vegas last Thursday.  We are going to take it easy tomorrow, let them get rested up, then probably make the drive to Crater Lake on Friday.  Our 6 Ruskateers are finally all together again!

6/27/2017 - Klamath Marsh Loop

Tuesday - Today was a fairly uneventful day.  Walking around outside with David this morning (waiting for Joe to wake up), he (David) spotted a bird cruising the river that he thought was an eagle.  It landed in a tree on the far side of the river, so I grabbed my camera and was able to zoom him in.  I don't think it is an eagle, I thought it was a hawk; Joe thought it might be an osprey.  I think he is right.

After breakfast we piled in the car and headed out.  We stopped off in Chiloquin at a gift store/visitor center to get some information on the roads through the Klamath Marsh.  There were some beautiful pieces of art, various media, in the store, but we didn't buy anything.  There are some murals on some of the buildings in this little town, here is one.

We headed out, armed with another map and took Highway 97 to Silver Lake Road.  We did find the marsh, with a few birds, not nearly as many as we saw the other day. 

After several miles of driving the highway, Joe couldn't stand it anymore and found a dirt road to explore.  It started out ok but got a little worse before we got back to pavement.

This turned out to be a 200+ loop drive, finally getting back to the campground around 3:30.  Chipmunks were the only other wildlife we saw.  We have to move campsites tomorrow, and we are expecting the arrival of our missing two ruskateers, the Brundiges.  The weather is wonderful, and we are enjoying our slowed-down, relaxing time here on the river.  We have been awaiting their arrival to make the drive to Crater Lake, also hoping they will get more of the rim road up there cleared of snow.  And there is a waterfall road we have yet to drive.  But tomorrow we don't plan on doing much, just getting moved to the other campsite and watching for the Brundiges.  By the way, the girls won at cards again tonight.