a perfect day ~ posted by Melissa

 

Stretch.

 

 

 The early morning crisp air steals my breathe.  I yawn deeply to replenish my lungs. 

It's dawn on Pass Lake and so quiet I imagine I hear the fish waking after the stormy night.

We travelled far and back to bring this new boat here.  Here we call home.

 

 

Here that brings bliss to my boy and his faithful companion.  There is no place else they would rather be, the two of them.

 

 

Today, my heart sings to be invited along.  To know, firsthand, why they disappear in early morning darkness, not to return til waning moments of daylight.  To see the rituals that begin even before the boat is gently lowered into the icy water.

 

 

 To hear the slap, glide...slap, glide...of the oars as we skim smoothly across the surface.

 

To witness the skill of a fly fisherman ~ casting, hooking, quickly releasing his catch in one deft, choreographed movement.

 

 

I close my eyes and I can still see it's beauty ~ this sixteen inch brown trout, with it's brilliant coppery gold skin and reddish brown dappled back.

 

For a moment it feels like the lake is ours, but the awakening day brings others to our private world.

 

 

Camaraderie replaces the peaceful silence, with calls of greeting and fish small talk passing between us and other anglers as we carefully navigate around each other.

 

The world is waking up.

 

 We notice everything around us...and everything around us notices us.

 

The wind picks up and ripples on the lake are now broken up with the patter of mid-spring rain showers.  The fish have decided on an afternoon nap.  We'll let them sleep.

 

 

We head back in and leave the lake to other boys and their faithful companions.

 

 

I set my feet on shore and stretch.  The dog and I watch our boy do his rituals in reverse, a secret smile on his face, pleased with his day.

 

 

He worries aloud that I have been bored.  I assure him otherwise.

 

I am happy to be here.

 

I am happy to be.



scenes from a passenger window ~ posted by Melissa

I had idyllic notions of how our 3-day, 4-state, spur of the minute road trip was going to be.  When we left midday Friday, I was imagining a blog post when we returned worthy of loritimesfive's travel/knitting blog.  It wasn't to be.  Although I did get these few stunning photos, our trip was, let's just say, an epic adventure.

scenic lookout I-84 in Oregon

Pendleton Oregon at dawn

These pictures were some of the few that were actually taken from outside the car.  We had thrown gear and sleeping bags in the truck thinking we were going to camp both nights of our 1700 mile journey  (reasonable assumption ~ we do have a month of spring under our belts!) but, oh, were we wrong!  The drive across Washington on Friday was done in torrential rain while towing a boat (more on that later), which we luckily dropped off a little after 8:00pm in Spokane Valley.  And since we were running behind schedule (we had a destination ~ more on that later also), we decided to keep driving.  Did I mention that we 'luckily dropped off the boat' we were towing?  Just want to make sure...

 

We crossed over into Idaho and as we approached Coeur d'Alene, the driving rain turned to snow.  Alot of snow.  And I should probably stop here and mention a few things:

1. I'm a nervous passenger
2. I don't like driving in the snow
3. we were beginning to cross Lookout Pass (elevation 4725 ft)
4. Lookout Pass is part of the Bitterroot Mountains, which you are in the midst of when you cross the state line into Montana
5. our trip took us into Montana...nuff said?

 

A little before midnight my husband decided that I needed to get off the road (bless him!) and we pulled into a rest stop about an hour outside Missoula and slept in the truck (I guess I should say 'he slept' ~ I was too frazzled).  Then back on the road before dawn (we do have a destination, you know!) and on to the happiest place on earth:

 

Missoula Montana Starbucks at dawn



Never was a girl so happy (or tired!).  It was the best cup of coffee ever!   Then it was back on the road towards our destination of Idaho Falls (yup, the quickest way to get there is to leave the state of Idaho and then come back in through the back door).  We knew when we left on Friday that the time crunch was on the front end of our journey so we drove straight through to Idaho Falls (unbelievably it snowed almost the entire way), and other than a few pitstops to let Dozer out of the truck:

 

no, the rest stop was not here but the exit took us past this gorgeous gateway

we reached the purpose of our trip:

 

 

Thanks to Jim at Hyde Drift Boats and all his advance help leading up to this weekend, we were back on the road within an hour, with my husband's dream boat following behind.  Luckily, we purchased a boat cover since the weather gods were still messing with us.  Just as we had arrived in Idaho Falls, a severe wind storm kicked in and for the next 286 miles to Boise we drove in 60 mile an hour crosswinds that blew hundreds and hundreds of tumbleweeds across the interstate, as well as causing an enormous dust storm the entire way:

 

 

 We're 24 hours into our trip and we've seen rain, snow, wind and a dust storm.  Camping?  Did somebody mention putting up a tent and sleeping under the stars?? Ha.

 

The weather finally got better when we reached Boise (don't get too excited just yet) but the trip was not going as planned so we decided to drive until we were tired and sleep in another rest stop before heading home this morning.  We made it to La Grande, Oregon (hooray ~ state #4!) a little after 9:00pm last night hoping to find an open coffee shop (no luck) and decided to grab something to eat before hitting the road again.  And then it started to snow.  Again.  After not sleeping much (at all) the night before, we decided to stay put til the morning and pulled in with the campers at Walmart (I slept in the truck at Walmart...does this sound like a loritimesfive blog post...I think not!).

 

This morning we were up at 5:00am and on the road home.  But not quickly since snow in La Grande overnight meant snow in the Blue Mountains and we crossed Deadman's Pass before dawn this morning in these conditions:

 

 

If you don't know what you're looking at, it's compact ice.  And unlike the first night's snowy mountain ride, this time we're towing a boat.  Needless to say, but it shall be said...we were not driving 65mph...not even close.  And while my husband is slowly making his way up...and then down...this icy slipslide of a highway, I was frantically looking online to see what the next mountain pass held in store for us.  Bad idea.  Snoqualmie Pass in Washington, which had been completely closed the night before was reopen with chains required, but was about to be closed for avalanche control and it was still snowing hard.  We were still about 4 hours away, which is a long time to stress about conditions (which I did) that can change in a matter of hours (which they did).  By the time we reached the Cascade Mountains the sun was shining and the ice on the roads had melted.  But not before we made a quick pitstop for a heartmelting moment:

 

 

Please excuse the way I look ~ take into account the 3 days I've had and that I haven't had a shower ~ but I so want to share that I officially got to meet our goddaughter for the first time (I saw her when she was 8 hours old but she was sleeping).  Neoma is sporting a darn cute crocheted cap her grandma made her and a sweater I knit for her , remember?  She's almost 7 months old now and I'm pretty sure I left a little piece of my heart there with her when we drove away.  And with a request for this 'cool cowl bear hood' thing her mama saw (I was excited to tell her I can make that!!)


So, although our trip didn't go as I had imagined, it was sure an adventure and I enjoyed the time I spent with my husband and Dozer, who is a great traveller.  The goal of the trip was met (I hope Jeff enjoys the boat as much as JR and then Jason both did):

we'll miss you, Morning Wood

and my husband was only boatless for about 15 hours:

 

tentative names: Jas thinks 'little blue pill' ~ I love 'sea alice'...think about it :)

Sorry for the long post ~ alot happened in 3 days ~ and I doubt we'll forget this epic adventure for a long time to come.  I know Dozer won't ~ he was so ready to come home that the last time Jason got out of the truck, he jumped over the jockey box (not allowed) and was ready to finish the drive on his own...can't you tell from the look on his face?!

 

dog is my pilot

Hope everyone had a less eventful weekend than I did and here's hoping that the next journey we take is just as much fun but a little (lot) less stressful!   ~ Melissa

 

 

 

 

 

Deschutes Canyon ~ posted by Melissa

I waited to post photos from our vacation for a few days so I wouldn't bury Kelli's cute hat post right away.  Jas and I did a camping test run with the dog last week and we ended up in Maupin, Oregon.  The scenery was amazing, the early autumn weather was better than we could have hoped for with a tent (80 degrees every day and the nights were chilly but mild enough that we didn't mind the burn ban and no campfires), and Dozer, after figuring out that we weren't going to leave him in the middle of nowhere, settled right in and was fun to have around.

hazy wildfire sunrise at Snoqualmie Summit

We headed out before dawn and got a text message when we reached Snoqualmie Summit that Jas' coworker and his wife had their baby about 8 hours earlier and wouldn't you know it, we were going to be passing through Ellensburg about an hour later, so we offered to bring the new pappa a latte and stopped at the hospital and were priveleged to meet 10 hour old Neoma Jane on her birthday.  Remember all these baby things I made a few months ago?  I've been promised photos of Neoma in her knitted things as soon as they fit her.  She is adorable!!



We dropped off the main drag after leaving the hospital and took the Canyon Road along the Yakima River to scope out good spots for future trips.  We stopped at Umtanum Recreation Site to give Dozer a break from being in the truck:

Umtanum Suspension Bridge



I did not like being on a suspension bridge...over a river...which I could see through the slats moving under my feet...blech

Yakima River, Washington State

and then once again at the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge where I went exploring for a bit and was tracked overhead by this Northern Harrier:

We crossed the Columbia River, headed south and ended up in Maupin, Oregon in time to get our campsite picked out and all our gear set up before dinner.  There were so many places to choose from this late in the season that we felt like we had the whole canyon to ourselves!

our own waterfront property on the Deschutes River



We stayed 4 days and quickly settled into a nice routine ~ Jas getting up first every morning and bringing me French Press coffee in bed (well, sleeping bag!), hours spent by Jas fly fishing, lots of knitting and relaxing by me and watching him fish (I could do that for days and days and days), watching for and waving at the whitewater rafters as they went by,

lots of walks and scratches and cuddles in the tent for Dozer, who was a patient pooch while he waited for his boy, who was never farther than just around the corner:

ever faithful Dozer

We saw lots of wildlife ~ wild rabbits, strange birds,



crickets and grasshoppers, bats and the dreaded snakes I was warned about (no pictures of those ~ I froze when I saw them and didn't think to grab the camera) and signs that those snakes had been where I was:

do you think this was once home to a rattler?

I was in charge of dinner our last night at camp, which I thought was delicious (bbq'd flatiron steak, steamed broccoli and grilled white cheddar peppercorn cheese bread) but aftwards Jason teased me that he doesn't usually eat vegetables when he camps with the guys (stinker!).  We didn't head for home on our last day until late afternoon, and while we were breaking down camp, some whitewater kayakers put in the river at our site so we got to watch them as they goofed around before heading downriver for the rapids:

 

All in all, the trip was a success and we've been talking about where we might go next.  I can't imagine ending up in a more beautiful place than Maupin is.

Mount Hood, Oregon