Westfir, OR - Jul. 10 - 16, 2008

On Thursday we left Sutherlin, Oregon heading northeast to
 Casey's Riverside RV the banks of the Middle Fork of Willamette River in Westfir, OR.  We had a fabulous site overlooking the rushing river about 20 yards from our site.  Casey's is a very well maintained RV park with a perfect location for hiking, biking, kayaking and fishing enthusiasts.

Nearly every evening Bill happily honed his flyfishing skills on the beautiful Willamette.  During our stay we hiked a couple of trails, visited the fish hatchery, and biked along Salmon Creek just east of Oakridge, a nearby village. 

We took a scenic drive through the forest along the Willamette north to the McKenzie River and another along Highway 58 over the Cascade Mountains, stopping at Salt Creek Falls and Odell Lake. 

Our primary reason for driving up Highway 58 was to check out the route over the mountains.  We changed our plans to enable us to meet up with friends Sheri and Allen at Wickiup Reservoir and wanted to make sure the access roads were adequate for the Beast.  Sheri and Allen are the folks that got us into RVing.  We bought our first RV so we could spend a month with them parked on Santispac Beach south of Mulege in Baja Sur.  We had no idea it would lead to our full-time RVing lifestyle.  Sheri and Allen winter in Los Barilles, Baja Sur and summer in the Sacramento Delta.  Since we avoid Sacramento's summer heat we had seen very little of them over the past four years.  So we happily postponed our Portland stay to share quality time with our friends.

During our recent stay in Sutherlin we had a 'small world' experience when we met George and Claudia from our old Sacramento neighborhood.  In Westfir the world got even smaller.  Parked two sites away were Janice and Jeff Marschner also from our Sacramento neighborhood.  During our evening chats we discovered we knew several of the same people and that they attended the same church as Bill's sister and her family.  Not only did they know Ginger, but their daughter Julie performed in church pageants with David, Bill's nephew.  We really enjoyed spending time with Jan and Jeff and hope to cross paths with them again.

As much as we enjoyed our stay at Casey's, it was time for a few home improvements.  So on July 17th we headed for AM Solar in Springfield to get the Beast solarized, and then to Junction City for some cabinet work.