Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Bend Oregon



Onwards and upwards as they say, and we drove North first to Weed CA and the area around Mount Shasta then on to Klamath Falls and Crater Lake which has been on our “Bucket List” for a long long time.

Why Weed California? Well it was about as far as we wanted to drive from Reno and there was a CG associated with the Elks Lodge in the town of Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta has a part to play in my shipbuilding career.
Mount Shasta across the lake
I worked for 49 years in design and engineering. Mainly the design of ships. My last 25 years I spent doing upgrades for Military Sealift Command vessels that were converted for civilian manning. We converted 2 classes of vessels early on. The AFS class of supply ships and the AE class of ammunition carriers.

All classes of ships in the Navy generally are named in a pattern. Some classes named after rivers, some after mountains. The AE class were mainly named after mountains and one was the Mount Shasta. The mountain itself is volcanic and part of the Pacific Rim of Fire that stretches from California up through Oregon, Washington, Canada , Alaska and around the Pacific to Japan.
My watercolor painting of Shasta
I worked on the redesign of the Mount Shasta for several months and visited the ship several times.

The Trailer Lane RV Park was a cozy and comfortable place with wide pull thru full hookup sites. The owners were extremely welcoming. Unfortunately the Elks Lodge in Nearby Mount Shasta was closed due to roof leak so we didn't get a pin for our collection.

We took a day trip up to Lake Sisikyou and I spent the morning painting Mount Shasta and it's reflection in the lake. A very nice park with RV facilities. On the way back we naturally stopped at the Weed Brewery to sample their wares!

After our incident in Reno an the fuel issues we filled up before heading out with the intent of stopping somewhere near Crater Lake. After some phone calls we picked the Motel 8 and RV Park just north of Klamath Falls which was convenient but hardly picturesque. An old and narrow CG which in theory were “Pull Thru” meaning you could drive in one side and out the other. Unfortunately there was a camper on the far side from us who had his pickup truck parked next to the rig which cut down our turning room. A low slung tree was close to the right side of our rig which threatened to drag down the side if we cut it too fine so instead we chickened out and backed out when we left.
Crater Lake
Our “Rough Plan” was to drive the remaining 60 miles to the Crater Lake National Park and get there early so we could get one of the campsites in the park which are “First Come, First Served”.
Half the park closed due to snow
Unfortunately 2/3rds of the CG is closed for construction and even though we were there at 11am and the desk for camping didn't open until 12, there was already a long line. We decided to leave the rig in the parking lot and see the park in the Miata. By the time we'd driven around the ½ of the park that was open (The Eastern half closed due to snow) and got back to the parking there was still a line at the camp desk. We hooked up the car again and drove to a random park picked because we were close. Casey's Riverside RV Park in Westfir was a perfect place.
Casey's Riverside CG
Right along the river with fly fishermen casting from the bank, Wide long spaces and full hookups. Good Sam Club discounts and soft serve ice cream for $1. Hard to beat that,and a nice friendly place. We would definitely return to for a longer stay if we are back this way.
Pretty river
This was a stark contrast to the next place we stayed at, the Thousand Trails South Jetty Park in Florence Oregon.

For those not familiar with Thousand Trails they are a Membership organization with the buy in up to $10,000 depending on what “Level” you buy in at. If I had paid that and still had to pay $700 a year for annual dues I would be IRATE at the poor condition of this place. Dark and gloomy, untrimmed trees and undergrowth, rough gravel roads, uneven sites with partial hookups, the dump station out of commission. They should hang their heads in shame.
Od Town Florence.
We moved on to the Florence Elks Lodge where you can either camp outside the lodge downtown or in their campground 6 miles north of town. We chose the campground and it was GREAT!
Fishing boats
July 4th we spent at the Elks who had a great Pot Luck BBQ going and the rest of the week we spent exploring lighthouses. sea lion caves and a Wings and Wheels event at the local airport. (We also managed to try some craft beer in old town Florence of course!)

Oregon Lighthouses
The traffic on 101 was horrible being the 4th of July and we bailed out of our plan to drive North to Pacific City. We were due to stay at another Thousand Trails park there but when we read the reviews of the park they horrified us, and we canceled that and drove to Bend via Eugene, which was a very nice drive thru the Cascade Mountains.
The Sea Lion Caves

THE KEY INCIDENT

The key fob and "Valet Key" are both programmed to the car.

We arrived at the Elks Lodge and unhooked the Miata which promptly refused to start. For some reason the immobilizer system wasn't recognizing the key! We called the Mazda dealer but they told us:
  1. It would be up to 3 weeks before they could look at it and
  2. The system could only be diagnosed by Mazda's specific analyzer!!

We had it towed in and rented a car for a week as they said they would try and get it done between other jobs. The very next morning they called and said it was done! We returned the rental car and picked up the Miata.

Conclusion:
The “electronic” key fob was bad but the “Valet Key” that is part of it worked after reprogramming. They couldn't tell how it had gone bad but apparently this isn't an uncommon occurrence. Just more electronic gadgets to go wrong in my opinion.

When I asked how much a new electronic key fob would cost I nearly fell thru the floor!! $850!!!! Thanks but we'll use the key from now on!
Wings and Wheels 
We got back to exploring the Bend area. For us the biggest attraction was the Craft Breweries that abound here! The scenery was nice too.
Rush hour for Quail!
Then our friends Bruce and Sue posted on Facebook that they were in La Pine Oregon which is just 30 or so miles south of Bend and before we knew it they arrived at the Elks Lodge and camped almost next to us! Lots of catching up was done over dinner at the Cracker Barrel just down the road

Barbara and Sue

Bruce