Vancouver to Central Point, Oregon – 1 November 2022
After an unusually late but long Summer the weather abruptly changed to constant rain and cold temperatures. We hastily dug up our winter clothes which we had vacuum sealed and stored under our bed. My tooth still ached up and I seriously debated going back to Victoria to have it seen to, and then flying out to meet Derek in the States. Tough decision, but I decided to take a chance and ride it out. There were no waits at the border and we passed through with no problem.
The States were so much more familiar this time around but once again I couldn’t help but notice the extreme homelessness problem as we travelled from State to State. Very disturbing and sad.
Our first stop was at the Riverbend RV park in Olympia, Washington, which was positioned on Native land alongside the Nisqually river. It was a very large campground filled with trees which looked beautiful in all their Fall splendour. We enjoyed a lovely walk along the river and watched trains running along a busy train track up the embankment. Unfortunately because of the trees we couldn’t get a good signal with our Starlink dish and cellular was also poor so no TV and limited ability to do work. The following day we took advantage of a break in the weather to explore Percival landing and the Capitol building in downtown Olympia. The view at the Percival marina was spectacular with glass like water reflecting the boats and bridges. Positioned around the walkway were a number of interesting art exhibits. Across from the marina was the Capitol building majestically rising out of the hillside. We were able to walk around the man made lake at the bottom of the hill and climb up a flowered pathway to get to the main buildings. It was very deserted which was unusual considering it was the middle of the week. Walking back we stopped at a quaint little coffee shop for some lattes to warm up a bit. Back at the RV we struggled to sleep with the constant sound of trains running all night long.
From Olympia we made our way to Portland, Oregon. When we arrived, Derek realized that the tow bar holding the bicycles on the back of the truck was completely bent and ready to snap off, as well we were having intermittent problems with our RV door opening every so often while we were travelling which was a little unnerving to say the least. Fortunately we managed to find a good replacement for the rack and get the door fixed albeit in pouring rain. After all the driving around Derek was not keen on venturing too far, so we settled for a bite to eat at Hawthorne Asylum – a popular area to sit and try different food cart specialties. Derek opted for a lamb shawarma and I tried a Lebanese vegetarian Fatta bowl. It was an odd combination of burned eggplant pieces over crunchy tortilla like chips, sprinkled with cranberries, fried almonds, garlic, yoghurt and parsley. Needless to say – not very appetizing at all! I also ordered Pork Belly Fries – another disappointment as I thought it would be just bits of crispy meat, but it was normal fries with a few pieces of very fatty pork on top. Dessert saved the day – crispy Churros! Back at the RV, Internet poor again so no TV so we spent the evening working on our trip planning. That night I accidentally dropped the head of the toilet brush down the toilet. It simply popped off. We are hoping that it will flush through the pipe when we empty the tank – here’s hoping we don’t have issues later. Our evening was filled with the sounds of planes taking off and landing at the nearby airport.
Rain subsided a little as we started on the next leg of the journey to Eugene, Oregon. In Eugene we checked into Armitage County Park. This was our first experience trying out a BLM land site. It was a lovely park with lots of treed areas, sports areas and 2 very large dog parks. The sites were well marked and situated in forested areas. The park is used quite extensively for day use as well, with places to launch boats into the large river that runs at the bottom of the park. Lots of wide open spaces. I would imagine it being very beautiful in the summer time. We set up the RV and took Jax for a good run in the park. At least he got to meet a few dogs and was surprisingly well behaved even when one very small scotty dog chased him around the field yapping at his heels. The one day, one day trips are getting a little tiring now and we didn’t feel up to doing any further exploring in the area.
The next day we set off for Central Point, Oregon. The Southern Oregon RV Park was situated next to a very large expo center. Large, pretty and very clean RV park. Across from us was a large patch of grass and beyond that a variety of scrub in front of a river. We would watch several cats playing with each other on the grass every day. I thought at first they belonged to someone in the campsite as they looked fairly well fed and were lovely looking cats, but realized as time wore on that they were all strays. I would put out food for them and they seemed very hungry and I also saw some of the other visitors feeding them. They were very scared of people and lived in the scrub by the river. I wondered if Oregon had kill shelters and if this life was better for them. Very sad as I counted over 20 cats and wouldn’t have been surprised if there were more.
There wasn’t a huge amount of things to do in Central Point but we did check out the recommended Rogue Creamery and Lille Farm chocolate shops. Rogue creamery owns their own dairy and have been producing award winning cheeses for many years. They had the most amazing blue cheeses so we stocked up on a variety of those as well as some stronger yellow cheeses and lavender cheese. We especially liked the Caveman and the Oregonzola blue cheeses. We also had a delicious toasted cheese sandwich for lunch. Next door, we visited the chocolate shop and chose a great selection of white and dark chocolates including a smoked cheese stuffed chocolate which incorporated cheese from Rogue. We did see a mountain with a flat table top in the distance and were hoping we would be able to go for a hike there the next day. However we ended up going to Costco instead and stocking up on red and white wines. I guess we were more in the mood for eating than exercising.
On the last day in Central Point. I woke up with a terrible sore left eye. I could hardly open it and it was tearing all the time and extremely sensitive to light. It felt like something was in it but I couldn’t get it out. All I could do was wear my big sunglasses and then I was as blind as a bat as they weren’t prescription glasses. I used lots of drops but nothing helped and even when I did wear my glasses my vision was completely blurry out of the sore eye.
