April 2023 Part 2

Tiptoe through the tulips (and fossils)

Mid-April found us leaving eastern Oregon and traveling West on our way to the coast. We drove through the Mather National Forest to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center at the Sheep Ranch Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. At a fuel stop in John Day (the town), the fuel attendant noticed our Florida license plate and she was from a small town very close to where Larry and I both grew up—it is a small world! The John Day Fossil beds are actually named after a man who was ambushed long ago and all his belongings were stolen, including his clothes, which made his rescue so noteworthy that the area was named after him 😂. Oregon actually has a very large layer of fossil deposits and thankfully this particular area has been preserved for study and future enjoyment. At the Paleontology Center we learned that these fossils were about the age of mammals (no dinosaurs here) and they are still learning so much about who was here and where they went. Evidently rhinos and camels originated in North America and migrated across the Asia land bridge where they thrived while their counterparts here went extinct. The pronghorn antelope originated here alongside the cheetah, who left for Asia and its ancestors here disappeared while the pronghorn stayed and multiplied. This explains why the pronghorn is 25mph faster than the timberwolf who is the fastest carnivore in North America. Fascinating!

We also visited the Gant ranch where the original family homestead and ranch is still available for tours.

This was the road up to the forest campground we’d planned to stay at….um, no.

Instead, we boondocked at a BLM site in a small meadow alongside a creek near the Painted Hills section of the National Monument where Larry used the evening to run the wire so we can use the Starlink once it is installed on the roof and replaced the digital Ute door lock that wasn’t unlocking. He never stops working! That’s our Starlink deployed on the ground, where none of the free range cattle came by to inspect it overnight.

Although this little calf, his mama and the rest of the herd were in the road just around the corner from our campsite!

The next morning we had the hills to ourselves to explore before bad weather moved in and we landed at a campground in Bend, Oregon. We had planned to stay at Tumalo State Park, but with our (lifetime) Passport America discount the resort was actually less expensive and more appealing in bad weather. We parked our little truck camper on the brick paver sites nestled between the half million dollar Dutch Stars, Entegras and Newmars, and enjoyed the extra amenities like a sauna, hot tub, exercise room, lounge with free coffee and popcorn—yeah, we bougie. It snowed and rained, was cloudy and miserable but we used the time to relax and work. Larry installed the See Level tank monitors on the fresh and grey tanks, hung new towel rods and refitted the LP attachments, among other things.

The pass through the mountains never got less snowy, so when we left we drove the 6 hour route through the Columbia River Gorge to Silver Falls State Park. The drive was pretty and we stopped to make lunch at The Hook, a spit of land on the Columbia River where folks often wind and kite surf. It was so much fun to just stop, pop up the camper and enjoy the view!

Larry had asked about Spring festivals in Oregon so I found the very popular Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn near Silver Falls State Park. This spring has been wetter and colder than normal so the tulips are a little late in blooming. For once the weather worked to our advantage as we got to see them just before peak bloom. Very slick clay-like soil made up the fields and roads, so we almost got the camper stuck while parking—thank you four wheel drive! We enjoyed taking pictures and being around all the people celebrating spring. Below are some of our Tulip Festival photos and my philosophical musings.

Enjoy!