We had to say goodbye to Oregon today. We will miss it - the beautiful scenery, the cool weather, friendly people, the bugs (ok, maybe not the bugs), the full-service pumps. It has been a nice visit, and we are looking forward to going back.

Crater Lake

Yesterday we buzzed out to see Crater Lake. We were suppose to go on Sunday, but we woke to rain, so we decided to postpone until Monday. Work has been a bit slow, so I worked in the morning, and we hit the road around 1 for a trip to the big blue hole on top of the mountains.

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Last time I was at Crater Lake was a very long time ago. We did a family trip way back in the olden days. This time, I had the cognition to fully get it. It was amazing. There were many "Wow"s emitted.

We made the hour drive from Klamath Falls and stopped at the entrance to the park for a quick lunch. To our surprise, the buffet was very good, and reasonably priced. Two things we did not expect at a national park. Once done, we high-tailed it up the road to the lake.

The first glimpse of the lake came at a large viewing area where we pulled in. It was very cold - windy and 50 degrees - so we quickly did our business. Took a few pictures, did our "wow"s, walked quickly back to the Jeep.

The rim road was great, as it supplied plenty of turnouts for a quick view and some pictures. Going on a Monday seemed to work out well, as there were not very many people on the road, which made it nice.

I suppose I never really thought about how the lake was formed. I guess I had more important things to think about for the past 44 years. Meteor strike? Dinosaur stomping grounds? Swimming pool built for The Pod People?

Misinformed theories aside, I found it very interesting to learn the real cause of the big hole in the mountain top. Possibly the most amazing thing to me is that the whole event happened only 7700 years ago. Pretty young in the big picture of the earth doing big things like this. Catch the whole story at the Crater Lake Nat Park web site.

So, here we are in a cute little RV park in Standish, California. After a couple of hours of work tomorrow, we will take off for a couple hour trip to Reno. Because I am boycotting the Ticky Tacky RV Park in Sparks, we are staying at a casino campground. Unfortunately, after booking the stay, I have only read bad things about this place. I am sure you will hear me whine about it soon

--kev