Sutherlin, OR - Jun. 10 - Jul. 9, 2008


On Monday evening, after having a steering device installed on our home, we continued north to Sutherlin, Oregon, about 13-miles north of Roseburg.  We had selected the Umpqua Golf and RV Resort to serve as our home for a month.  We hesitate to announce how much we enjoyed this RV Park for fear of future space competition.  Lonnie and Linda, Umpqua's camp hosts, are friendly and accommodating, the facilities are sparkling clean, the WIFI has a reliable, strong signal and the price is right.   The RV Park is adjacent to a lovely 18-hole golf course that provides beautiful views from many of the RV sites.  Although it is close to I-5, the freeway noise is not intrusive.

We planned to spend our time flyfishing on the Umpqua and Row Rivers.  We never even got our waders wet.  We golfed.  Well Bill golfed.  Calling what Susan was doing 'golf' would be a grievous insult to the game.  Fortunately, our neighbors George and Claudia are avid golfers so Bill was able to get out on the course with folks that knew how to play the game. 

The following comes under the heading of 'Small World'.  George and Claudia lived in our neighborhood in Sacramento and left about a year before us.  We probably rubbed elbows in the produce aisle of our local market.  And to make this small world tale even more amazing, Claudia knew the folks that lived a couple of houses down from Susan's childhood home in Napa. 

One Saturday Susan hopped on her bike for a ride on the local country roads.  Claudia suggested she stop to make dinner reservations for four at the Umpqua General Store.  Umpqua is an intersection of two county roads.  It consists of a volunteer fire department, a post office and a white clapboard General Store with a squeaky screen door.  Susan dutifully went in thinking, "You've got to be kidding.  This couldn't possibly be good, I don't care what those wonderful breakfast smells are telling me."  Oh, she was so wrong.  Dinner was great, the service amusing and the company enjoyable.  We really enjoyed George and Claudia's company and hope to catch up with them again in Sequim, Washington or next winter in Arizona.

Between golf games we trekked up to Eugene to pick up an inflatable kayak we'd ordered from REI.  After three outings on local reservoirs we are somewhat coordinated and can maneuver the kayak in calm waters without whacking each other with the paddles.  We hope to add this activity to our traveling repertoire.

We also hiked a portion of the very beautiful and poison oak infested, 80+ mile North Umpqua Trail east of Roseburg.  Amazingly, we encountered no other hikers on our 10-mile trek. We took a day to bicycle the 16-mile Row River Trail and explore the town of Cottage Grove and it's many murals.  The bicycle path runs from Cottage Grove, along the Row River, past covered bridges and through the woods along Dorena Lake. 

During the summer Roseburg sponsors "Music on the Half Shell", an outdoors concert series in Stewart Park on the Umpqua River, every Tuesday evening.  The line-up includes such names as Kathy Mattea, Marc Cohn and Phoebe Snow.  We attended the concert twice for some very interesting people watching and some pretty darn good music.  

There is so much to do in this region and many things we just didn't get to - including the flyfishing.  We have every intention of returning to the area and the Umpqua Golf and RV Resort, but tomorrow we are off to Westfir, Oregon on the Willamette River.