Trip Northwest
In Oregon we stopped in on Jim Gurley and his
wife Kathy. They have a lovely home in Selma Oregon where Kathy is a doctor
(GP of course) and Jim Fights Fires and works to preserve old growth forest.
Jim with his 3 dog militia
All through southern Oregon, we found beautiful towns and countryside. Opportunity
is there but don't expect to make much.
Grants Pass, Medford and Ashland are a metro complex linked by I-5 which together
can attract a fair amount of culture. The get surprisingly good bands in Grant's
Pass. If you are ready to chuck the rat race, check out Southern Oregon.
Eugene has more opportunity than you find farther south. Yet Eugene still
supports a large Victorian downtown. The Eugene city council lobbies hard
to preserve its Main street area. Their anchor tenant, Semantech, is pulling
out. Hopefully, another will come along soon.
After Eugene, we raced to Klamath Falls. To get their we took a 40 mile dirt
road "shortcut". Using my instinctive sense of direction, I selected
from hundreds of fire roads and got us out in only 48 miles. Joan is the coolest,
best natured driving companion that a guy could ever ask for.
"How many days til we get out?"
If you want to escape, Klamath Falls is the town for you. The only action
we saw was at the Bakery Thrift Store and the high school soccer game. However,
Crater Lake and Mount Shasta are convenient day trips.
About this time we realized we had to hurrry to get back to Durango in 2 days
for Joan's real estate closing. We spent the night in South Lake Tahoe.
Tahoe is beautiful, possibly more so than Durango. However, in Tahoe they
have the same philosophy that you should pay your employer for the right to
live there. Also, traffic is hellish, even in the shoulder season.
The next day we Drove all the way across Nevada which was nearly 12 hours
with stops and congestion in Carson City (nice to retire in). When Joan yawned
for the third time at around ten, we pulled off the road and camped. When
we awoke, we were suprised to find ourselves at the foot of an old ghost town,
Frisco, Utah.
Frisco housed 4,000 people at the turn of the last Century. Now it is well
preserved thanks to no tresspassing signs. Thank goodness for telephoto and
digital zoom ;)
The shaft house and
ore bins of the Frisco mine.
From Frisco we moved on to Beaver for a while and made our way home in one
day. We took a slight diversion to get down to Lake Powell for one last swim.
Take me Home!
