Emerson, near Monmouth, Oregon, not far from Salem in the Wilmette Valley. They are on the Harvest Home program, and we were offered a parking place with spectacular views of their 25 acres of grapes and beautiful mature oak forest. We were also treated to a tasting like I remember from so many years ago, attentive and informative with no pressure to buy.
The Longsword Winery in the Applegate Valley of Southern Oregon, was the first winery that hosted us for a night under the Harvest Hosts program. For a $20 membership you receive access to a growing number of wineries and farms who will allow you to park your RV overnight without a fee.
The Wal*Mart parking spot is in the top ten at least. We heard lots of bird calls and not much else. There was little traffic in the parking lot, and we were not disturbed either of the two nights we boonocked there. We shopped at two businesses in town. We felt welcomed.
Android ap for uploading directly from the phone to WordPress, had a glitch and the media (photo) wouldn’t load. They put in a fix and it works as of today. For you semi-geeks out there, it means I can take a photo, or hopefully a video, add the text and upload directly to newbohemians.net without having to have the computer on the Internet. Anywhere there is a cell signal, we can post. So if you see a photo of a huge set of grizzly teeth about to chomp my head, you’ll know what happened in real time, almost.
we had a nasty note about overnight parking the next morning. That usually means the local RV parks have pushed through an ordinance aimed directly at RVs and Wal*Mart. We were careful not to spend any money in Chico. Too bad, otherwise it’s a nice town. Using the law to promote specific businesses, and target other businesses (Wal*Mart) is not good business in the long run.
He didn’t specify which branch of service he was in, but we guessed it was the one that tends to be secretive. After several, appropriately vague, stories about his ventures there, we shared our experiences being lost in Laos on the spiders web of the Hoh Chi Minh Trail, and we could tell he knew all about the anti-personnel “bobmbies” we were worried about.
We didn’t get stalled and have to eat our stuffed pandas, but it was close; it could have been the other way around, after all they are bears! Donner Pass was not supposed to be snowed in this time of …
The biota of the lake appears tgo be somewhat like the Great Salt Lake, brine shrimp and fly larvae the only critters able to survive in the toxic (natural) soup of water. However the birds find it the perfect place to stop by on their way north to breeding grounds; they can put on lots of weight, gain strength in a short time.
The lake is receding but not beyond historic levels. Los Angeles intercepts water before it reaches the lake, and it seems a no brainer that this is speeding up the process. There is considerable controversy over theextraction, and has been for years. It’s pretty hard to win, pitting our love of green lawns and swimming pools, against a few thousand tons of brine shrimp, and some birds.
Tomorrow we begin six months of travel in our motorhome, Turtle. We begin again another volume of the Turtle Chronicles; motorhome travel and the discoveries it brings. This is not the full on adventure our bicycle tour In Search of Shangri-la, but a mellow exploration from Tucson to Alaska and back, the crooked long slow way, with lots side trips by bicycle, hikes to discover new sights, and as always, making new friends. Join us, and look for my essay in Escapees Magazine. I’ll give you a heads up and a link.