Mar 16 - 18 Corvallis Wine Walk & more fun with the Hamilton's.

Mar 16
We woke to another beautiful day here in Valley of the Rogue Park. After our morning routine we packed up for the short haul to Corvallis, Oregon. We get to enjoy a quick visit with Char, Leslie's pal from her Grey Nuns hospital days. Leslie has been messaging her and there is a "wine walk" event in downtown Corvallis so we are going to tag along with Char and a couple of her friends. The weather is supposed to be nice right through the week and all the way back to Canada on the route we planned so we will be back with Randy & Shelley on Sunday afternoon for  couple days too. Nice! 
We got packed up and out to I-5 north on a beauty morning.

Look at the angle that track hoe is working on!!

Cut out the steps along the highway.

The drive went smoothly and we turned off of I-5 to Corvallis and our spot for tonight at Benton Oaks RV and Fairgrounds. We stayed there on the way down too and it is nothing fancy but it's a perfect location for visiting Char. I booked online for a spot in the overflow area with 30 amp and water, sani dump is on the way out of the park. We pulled in and with one look at our site I knew we are too long for what the system gave us. I walked over to chat with the onsite host, John. He's a great guy and he immediately agreed I would be too long for the site they gave us. Online it says the site is 45 feet but they can't see the trees that have grown way into the space. John didn't have an available pull thru so he told me to park a little sideways and take 2 sites because nobody will be in the one beside us. There that's the easy way to solve it.

Now we fit ! 2 sites for the price of one.

We got set up and Leslie messaged Char who was out for a run at the time and she will stop by in a few. It wasn't long and we were saying hello with big hugs. We agreed to meet downtown after showers to start the wine walk. I finally get to use my Uber app! We took an Uber downtown and met up with Char and her friend Tamara. We had to walk a little bit to buy our glasses and get our tickets for the walk. The deal is that you buy a wine glass and they give you 5 tickets for $15.00. We bought 5 extra tickets for another $5.00 of course. You get a map of the businesses that are participating and you walk the downtown area with your glass and do wine tastings of local wineries with some free appies to enjoy as well. It was a fantastic way to see downtown and enjoy some great wines and some spirits as well.

The original Corvallis Hotel. Love these older buildings.

One of the streets we walked.

Along the way we met up with Char's friends Collin and Kate at the Westin Hotel. They didn't buy wine glasses because the walk was almost done when we met them but they joined us for the final couple of places. We chose a brewery for supper for all of us at Sky High Brewing Company downtown. Great place that was super busy but the service was super fast and the food was great.

Nice smile Char!  Me, Kate, Tamara & Collin.

Yes, Les and I are definitely the oldest in this group lol.

L to R: Kate, Leslie, me, Collin, Char, Tamara.

Good choice by Char and her friends. Tomorrow is St. Patricks Day so I ordered a round of Irish Whiskeys for everyone except Leslie as she doesn't like it?? Again it seems when I think Irish Whiskey is a good idea it isn't necessarily a good idea lol.

Happy St. Patties Day!!

Great times with some great people but it's time for the retired folks to retire. We said good bye with big hugs until next time we are in the area. Wisely we had a couple big glasses of water before bed and soon called it a day. A great day!
Mar 17
Happy St. Patricks Day and a Happy Birthday to our grand daughter Drew!!! Have a great birthday Drew.
We got packed up and ready to roll by 10 am and headed back out to I-5 north through Portland and up to Longview/Kelso where Randy & Shelley are staying at Brook Hollow RV. They reserved a site for us for a couple days right beside them. Thanks guys.
I was aware that the Portland area would be busy but hoped that being Sunday morning it would be slower than usual. Haha! Boy was I wrong! This may have been a lighter volume of traffic than thru the week but holy man is this a metro area! I had no idea Portland is the bustling hub that it is and the bridges and overpasses were incredible to see and crazy to drive through. It was exciting and really cool to see but a little stressful while towing. The construction along the way didn't help much either with other vehicles cutting us off to get that extra 30 feet further ahead before merging and then hammering on their brakes. Love those people!
We made it safe and sound to the exit to Brook Hollow where Randy was waiting to guide us into the RV Park. Thanks buddy! What a nice looking park this is. There are nice paved roads and cement sites that are pull thru and level! Yayy. We said hello to Randy & Shelley with big hugs and handshakes and got busy setting up.

Nice RV Park in a beautiful area.

A nice pic from the berm above the Park. The berm is a walking path.

Longview/Kelso is where Randy & Shelley have lived for many years and raised their family here. They sold their property here to explore the RV lifestyle full time. They are lucky to have a nice spot to stay in Tri-Cities, Washington with their daughter in her family's yard when they are not on the road. Originally we planned on going to Tri-Cities but there is still snow there so here we are. Tonight we have been invited to Randy & Shelley's friends house for supper and some drinks. Ron & Joanne have been their friends for a long time and their daughters are long time friends also. We drove up a mountain road to their beautiful property above the city. Amazing views all around! They have a large acreage with a nice view from a huge deck out the back along with a couple of horses. It's a beautiful property that they have done a fabulous job developing.

Beautiful wrap around deck out the back.

The horses and a beauty yard. 

We also got to meet Ron & Joanne's daughter, Meaghan. An interesting twist that we had talked about before coming up here is that Joanne's maiden name is Roche, same spelling as mine. How cool would it be to find a connection on the family tree? We talked about it but our families settled in North America on different paths so maybe we are related a long way back but that would take some digging. Cool though.
We sat outside enjoying the sun and when it got lower in the sky Ron lit the propane patio heater adding enough heat to keep it comfortable outside. Meaghan had driven into town and picked up some delicious pizza for all of us and we washed it down with Ron's home brewed beer. Delicious all around thank you very much guys!
The other little treat we got was being introduced to "Tug" Meaghan's new chocolate Lab puppy. Leslie is a puppy magnet and rarely lets their feet touch the ground lol. She loves puppy cuddles but this little fella is going to be a big dog in a year or so. Hope he doesn't want to cuddle as a 2 year old!

He's only 2 months old! Look at those feet! OMG.

We had a really nice time and very much enjoyed meeting Ron, Joanne, Meaghan and Tug but it was time to head back to our rigs and relax before bed. Super nice folks that I hope we get to see again sometime.

L to R: Meaghan, Ron, Joanne, Shelley & Randy.

Mar 18

Leslie started her morning with a nice walk on the berm with Margaret. The whole path is about 4 miles/ 7 km's but she just did a big loop back to the rig.

The berm and the river it holds back. Margaret frolicking :)

We had some breakfast and then got together with Randy & Shelley for " A day in the previous life of The Hamilton's!" We're doing a driving tour in Randy's truck to see some of their old haunts and get a feel for Longview and area. 

Our tour starts with a stop at their bank so they can load up with cash. They're touring thirsty "Canucks" around so they better go big lol! Our first stop was a look at the house where they used to live and Shelley's dad's place right behind their house.

Randy & Shelly's previous house, nice place on a nice 

quiet street that's close to a beauty park.

We snooped at the work the new owner is doing and Randy was happy they didn't tear off the covered patio that he built. They tore up some other deck blocks but not where Randy had built a nice covered area. Shelley checked at her Dad's place but he was out already so we don't get to meet him this time. This tour is great, I don't have to drive and we get the history of the area by locals. Like a Hollywood tour but with cheaper real estate lol. Next up I think(??) is Toutle Lake area and a quick stop at Randy's brothers house on a beauty acreage. Randy didn't think his brother was home but he came outside when we knocked so we met him and his wife too. After a brief chat we left with handshakes and jumped back in the truck and off to the Mt St. Helens Visitors Center.

A must see if you are in the area.

I added this from the web:

On May 18, 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, in the U.S. state of Washington. The eruption (a VEI 5 event) was the most significant volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.^[1] It has often been declared as the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a large bulge and a fracture system on the mountain's north slope.

An earthquake at 8:32:17 a.m. PDT (UTC−7) on Sunday, May 18, 1980, caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, creating the largest landslide ever recorded. This allowed the partly molten, high-pressure gas- and steam-rich rock in the volcano to suddenly explode northwards toward Spirit Lake in a hot mix of lava and pulverized older rock, overtaking the avalanching face.

An eruption column rose 80,000 feet (24 km; 15 mi) into the atmosphere and deposited ash in 11 U.S. states.^[2] At the same time, snow, ice and several entire glaciers on the volcano melted, forming a series of large lahars (volcanic mudslides) that reached as far as the Columbia River, nearly 50 miles (80 km) to the southwest. Less severe outbursts continued into the next day, only to be followed by other large, but not as destructive, eruptions later that year. Thermal energy released during the eruption was equal to 26 megatons.^[3]

Approximately 57 people were killed directly, including innkeeper Harry R. Truman, photographers Reid Blackburn and Robert Landsburg, and geologist David A. Johnston.^[4] Hundreds of square miles were reduced to wasteland, causing over $1 billion in damage (equivalent to $3.3 billion today), thousands of animals were killed, and Mount St. Helens was left with a crater on its north side. At the time of the eruption, the summit of the volcano was owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad, but afterward the land passed to the United States Forest Service.^[5] The area was later preserved, as it was, in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

We all remember what we were doing when Mt. St. Helens volcano blew. It was in 1980 and I was living in Penticton, Leslie was in Edmonton and had small amounts of ash on her vehicle even way up there. In Penticton there was a small tremor that you could feel in the house and then our vehicles had at least a couple centimeters/ 1/2 inch or so of dust by late in the day and the next day. A very memorable moment. Shelley was in Kelso/Longview and she told us that they all cleaned up several inches of ash with brooms on the streets and she watched as an entire river through town was choked with mud and trees that were blown down and washed to the Columbia River. The magnitude of the blast was incredible! I'll share some pics to help describe it, chilling stuff.

Mt St. Helens before the blast, beautiful.

Morning of the blast, can you see the bulge on the face?

The entire northwest face blew out!

The adjacent forest laid down like sticks from the blast.

Searching for survivors after the blast.

Scary what the force of nature can be like.

Mt St. Helens long after the blast, now a huge crater 

where the peak used to be.

There was a short video that we watched in the visitor centre which also was incredible to see. The video showed many of the people who were killed in the blast and it was really sobering to watch, if that's the right word? We walked back to the truck discussing what we were all doing that day and kind of reliving it. Gives you goosebumps really.

Our next stop was a State Park that held tons of happy memories for our guides ;)

Seaquest Park.

Randy drove through the loops in the park and told us about where they were camped and how they could play ball on the grass back in the day. The trees are huge now and there's not enough room for playing ball anymore. It's not a big rig friendly park so they don't take the Bighorn in there but you could tell from the stories that it was a happy place for them. It's a really beautiful place and would be awesome in the summer with all the huge trees for shade. Reminded Leslie and I of being somewhere on Vancouver Island.

We continued up a really nice winding mountain road with spectacular views to the mountains and the valley below. Pacific Northwest is a crazy beautiful place to see. We pulled into a trailhead parking area and took a short stroll to a viewing platform of the Sediment Basin. The Basin was built after the eruption to catch the silt, dirt and debris that washed off the mountain with the rain and the snow. It is massive! Unfortunately the engineer that designed it should have added a couple more decimal points to the right. It's really full on the upstream side already.

Hopefully gives a better visual.

Upstream side is almost full of mud.

Downstream still has plenty of room.

We had to walk through a trail from the viewing platform to the actual pond itself which was 1.18 mile loop while listening to Randy whine and moan about how far it is and how steep it is!! Suck it up Cowboy haha. Actually he only mentioned it once but it's our blog and we can kick him while he's down. Sorry buddy. At least I took the lead and held a stick out to catch the spider webs that were across the trail! Anyway, the "kewl" thing was that Randy brought his binoculars because there are usually elk wandering around up here. Sure enough with a little sweep of the hill he spotted one loan female feeding across the Basin. Always nice to see animals out in the bush. Good work Randy! See I'm being fair again.

We continued the drive up the road with views that never ceased to amaze. We're into the snow line and St Helens is across the valley from us covered in snow. You could see a wisp of steam off the top and also where the snow below the crater was greyish from ash or whatever is falling from the steam cloud. There's still action in there.

The river valley heading down to the retention pond.

Taken on the way up the road, we get closer.

Dang tree, I couldn't get around it.

Hard to see the steam wisp at the top and grey to the left.

There is a viewpoint pullout under that snowbank.

A Mt. St. Helens selfie! We walked across the snow. 

Randy found the edge of that wall behind us and took a nasty fall :(

Randy was okay after his mis step off the wall, Cowboys just wipe off their jeans and keep walkin'.

What a fabulous trip up to this viewpoint! We had a great day but it's time to head back down and let the dogs out of the trailers for a bit. Happy hour is also looming and we can't miss that now, can we? The ride down was almost as spectacular, seeing the other side of things as you come down. The temperature change was absolutely noticeable and after not too long we were back at Brook Hollow for happy hour and grilling some burgers. What a great day we had checking out "A day in the life of the Hamilton's!" Thanks guys that was a fun day.

Of course Randy is grilling, my bbq stays clean! Peace out Leslie.

Chillin' while grillin' haha. Jake looks pretty happy with Shelley.

As much fun as we have had with these great people we unfortunately have to move on back to Canada tomorrow. We are going over White Pass, on Randy's suggestion, which is supposed to be spectacular. The weather looks perfect for doing a high mountain run and we are getting homesick for high beer prices and colder temperatures. At least we can buy Shreddies cereal again and Black Jack Cherry frozen yogurt. Any of our USA friends that come to Canada should buy these 2 products. We miss them. 

Cheers everybody!