All packed up and departed at a good time, as we have a little farther to go today. Although I've had a strange feeling about going to Hyatt Lake, mostly because it took us further west, and we had recently changed our plans and decided to head straight for Nevada to get it done (it will make # 50 for horseback riding, and #48 for the horses!), and even suggested to Hubby that maybe we should skip it at head straight for Pepperdine in California, we decided it was too far and headed for Hyatt Lake anyway. Rather than taking a direct though backwoods route, we headed for Klamath Falls, as we had several stops to make. Thanks to GasBuddy.com, I found a place with cheap gas before we go to the city, then we went to a country store to pick up some horse feed and to get propane. It was kind of strange, you had to find a card for what you wanted, then take it to the cashier, then drive through a barn where they loaded you up. That's when the trouble started. They had a very strange parking lot, and when Hubby pulled out of the barn, there was someone blocking his exit to the left, so he turned right, thinking it would swing around back to the main road, but it didn't. It dead-ended, and on a single lane so narrow, he couldn't find anyplace to turn around. In truth, Hubby is not the best at backing and turning with a trailer, so he tried to turn around using a driveway, and then got close to some trees that he though would bend a bit, but then he apparently brushed up again a stiff branch that had been cut back and was hidden in the fir tree, and suddenly the branch popped through the window in the side door of the van. Not the passenger window, but the side door that opens into the side of the van. When he tried to get out, he evidently got caught again somehow, and broke the window of the other side door, so that both windows of both swing out side doors were shattered. Poor Billy leaped into Hubby's lap, and Marina was covered in glass when he finally made it back to the store. Meanwhile, I was getting propane, and was getting a bit annoyed because the guy filling my tanks started asking me about their certification (the tanks are only two years old!), and then, without asking, stuck a warning label on the side of one of my tanks! I told him it wasn't necessary, that I was fully aware that propane was flammable, but he said it wasn't for me, but for anyone else that might be near my RV! I guess it escaped him that we had a cover over the tanks anyway, so his silly label wouldn't be seen, and frankly, anyone who doesn't know that propane is hazardous shouldn't bring their stupidity anywhere near me or my RV. Anyway, I remarked that I would just take it off anyway, so he refrained from putting one on the second tank. Right around then, Hubby showed up and brought me around the van to show me the damage he had done. I OMG'd for a few minutes before facing the reality, then we pulled out of the way and spent a few minutes uncovering Marina from the glass (thank goodness she's too infirmed to move very much, or she might have hurt herself) and soon were on our way. Lots of fresh air in the van! After our final stop at Walmart, we headed east to Hyatt Lake, through some twisty roads, though not too bad, that were paved all the way to the entrance to the "horse camp," which turned out to be not much. We had stopped at the dump to fill up with fresh water for the RV, but the lake was so low from the years of drought the area has been suffering, that we couldn't get anywhere near it. None of the sites were even close to level, and the only place we could park with any hope of a satellite signal was almost to the old waterline, which put us a LONG way from the horse corrals, and all uphill. After struggling for a while trying to get the satellite set up, Hubby gave up, saying there were too many trees in the way. We decided to use water from the trailer for the horses, since we didn't really want to go all the way back to the dump with a rain barrel after this long hard day, though the ranger that came by said we could come by the administration building, but that was almost as far. During the evening, we discussed out options, because this place was just going to be too hard to live in, what with running back a couple miles for water, then having to lug it uphill, not have TV and so on, so we made the decision to head straight to Pepperdine in the Warner Mountain Wilderness on the California border with Nevada. Although that made it pretty much a complete waste of time coming here, at least we saw it, and gave ourselves the time we needed to regroup before heading off into the mountains.

As I mentioned the other day, my purpose for coming to Collier Memorial was to visit Crater Lake National Park, which is only about 25 miles from here, so after a late breakfast and a few chores, Hubby and I packed into the van, invited little Billy to come with us, and headed out for our side trip. Passing through a long stretch of a flat, farm-filled valley, it didn't take long to reach the edge of the forest, and then the national park. We stopped at the visitor center, which was really just a gift shop, and since it didn't have any kind of extensive exhibits other than one diorama of the lake, we jumped back in the van and proceed to make our way around the Rim Road. We made a brief stop at the main village area and got a cup of coffee, and took a walk to our first great view of Crater Lake. For some reason, I had always believed Crater Lake had been formed by an asteroid, but in fact it had been a volcano that blew it's top off about 7700 years ago, then settled into a caldera and filled with snow melt and rainwater, making it the deepest lake in North America, and one of the purest in the world. We took some great pictures, especially when we first arrived, because it was so calm on the lake it reflected the surrounding walls like a perfect mirror, so gorgeous! From there we drove the entire perimeter road around the lake, taking a few side spurs for even more fascinating terrain. At one spot there was a trail, so I took Billy and we walked the half mile loop to see a little island outcropping, oddly similar to the one we saw in Alaska, that also looked like a ship under full sail. It was a lovely day, and the views were so stunning! We have really seen some stuff over the years, and it's amazing there's always something more around every turn! Very glad we came, weather was perfect, crowds were down considerably from what it must be like during the summer, and really had a great day! Got back to camp, did a little preparation for tomorrow's departure, and relaxed for the evening.

Surprisingly, the cell phone signal here is pretty poor, considering we're just a little ways off a major highway, so I went into town to get a little computer work done, and to pick up a few things at the local market in Colquin. Finally tracked down a ranger to pay them for our stay through Monday, at $19 a night for so little facilities, it's a bit high, but my intent is to visit Crater Lake, and this was the nearest conveniently located horse camp, so there you go. After I got back from town, Hubby and I drove down to the logging museum just around the corner, and spent some time wandering through the yard, looking at all the old equipment and the pioneer village, comprised of a variety of small cabins which had originally been in logging camps and homestead areas and moved to this spot. Very interesting history, and some huge cross-cuts from some of the early growth trees. According to them, early loggers consumed 8000 calories a day just to keep up with the hard work they had to do. It was fascinating to learn of the clever advances in technology that made that hard job easier, and also the decline of the industry because of labor and environmental conflicts. Such a shame, too, I hate having so many things made out of pressboard and plastic, when wood would be so much more attractive. Anyway, it was a delightful journey through history, not to mention a lovely walk on a beautiful afternoon.

After a couple of uneventful and restful days, we prepared for our trek southward, as once again packed up and headed out of camp, this time to a horse camp just 70 miles away, in the Collier Memorial State Park, behind the Logging Museum. The horse camp turned out to be parking lot with four log corrals and a picnic table, but it did have a spigot with running, potable water, yeah!! We hooked up and filled our tanks, then ran a hose to one of our portable water barrels, which I put on a picnic table so that gravity would work better, and filled that up, too. We had some challenges with the satellite dish again, as there were a lot of tall trees surrounding us, but Hubby finally managed it again, after a struggle. We parked along a barb wire fence, so the back yard view isn't very interesting, but there's room for the ramp for Marina to come up and down okay. She seems to be doing significantly better since we started her on Cosequin chews a few months ago. She still struggles, of course, but she does seem to be getting around better than before. Later, a couple of ranger types came out to look at a tree that had fallen down nearby, partly over the road, and did a little clean up. One was the State Park Ranger, a new guy that also happened to be a horse guy, and he was happy to see someone using the "camp." We got the impression it was a rarity, especially when a couple of the kids riding bikes in the neighborhood stared at us like we had just landed from Mars. Anyway, we settled down for the night, happy to be a little bit further south!

Got out early this morning, as I wanted to get to Whitefish fairly early in the day, but, of course, the best laid plans... Our first stop was at the Salem Post Office, where supposedly I had a contract waiting for me at the General Delivery there, but no one could find it, even though it had been sent a week ago. One clerk there was kind enough to take my phone number and call me if they get it, and I gave her the address of the next post office to where we would be going, Crescent, OR. That killed an hour. Since that was just up the road from a Walmart, we decided to get our shopping done now rather than later, that killed almost another hour. Then we stopped at Camping World north of Eugene to dump and ask about parts, that was another 30 minutes gone. One final stop at a 76 station, where my credit card stopped working after it's second run-through (because of the station's system, not my CC), and then it wouldn't take my bank debit card for some unknown reason, and despite phone calls to both, it was all centered on the station's system, not my cards. We ended up having to pay cash for the final tank of generator gas (thank goodness it was only 5 gallons), before we hit the road, having wasted almost another hour, swearing I'd never stop at a 76 station again (which I hadn't done for decades anyway, but this clinched it, again). So by the time we finally got to Whitefish, it was after 3:00, almost two hours behind my estimated schedule. We found our spot, which was large enough, but not exactly level, so we had to put some boards under the back truck tires to get some semblance of being level. Hubby wasn't able to get the satellite dish set up because of the trees, so he was a less than happy camper, he gets pretty frustrated when he can't figure these things out. We also spent a lot of time transferring water, because the spigots here are the kind with a spring handle and no threads, so we had to get out the bungies, the sump pump, and the rain barrels, and spent another hour plus to fill those up, as well as the RV, so that we would be good with water for at least 4-5 days (unless I do laundry, which I'll probably wait until later in the week to do). In any event, we were finally ready to settle down, had a cocktail and watched some things we had previously recorded, with the horses all settled into a couple of pipe corrals side by side.

Got up just after 8:00 and on the road by 10:00, going downhill very slowly on the twisty steep gravel grade to insure no untoward occurrences, and headed south, finding an Indian Truck Stop where diesel was only 3.84, compared to 4.19 at the Pilot!! Thanks Gas Buddy!! Stopped for lunch and shopping at a Walmart with a Subway, then got stuck in lots of traffic in Portland (where the drivers really make me mad!) If you leave ANY space for a safe stopping distance, some idiot jumps in front of you. After several incidents like that, I had enough, and the next little white Kia that dared to do that got my front bumper as close to his back bumper as I could get. He looked a little worried, but by that time I didn't care, the red Ford in front of HIM was my safety margin, and his little pipsqueak of a car would barely slow me down between me and the Ford, so there! Eventually we cleared the accident that was the cause of all the fuss, and finally arrived at Willamette Mission after 4:30. By the time we found the horse camp (poor signage) it was just after 5:00, so when I called reservations to see if the site we wanted was available for the time we wanted it, they, of course, had left (it was 5:01, after all). So we took a chance on Site 5, and before long a female ranger came by to get money from us, but in the end, decided to wait until tomorrow, so we could find out how long the site was available. Unfortunately, when Hubby was getting the horses out of the trailer, Apollo stepped squarely on his foot, and Hubby went down in agony. Just as he was recovering from his other broken bones, now his foot! Not sure if it was actually broken, but it is definitely going to be heavily bruised, and will hurt him for some time, darn it! Finally got the horses settled in to a couple of nice log corrals, introduced ourselves to our only neighbor, a girl in here 20's named Rachel, who ended up coming over and hanging out with us most of the evening, very interested in hearing about our adventures. I emailed her some Google Earth information about the horse camps in the three-state region, and we chatted until after 10:00. Watched a one-hour recording, then off to bed with us!