The ABC's of Trip Planning, Pt 1- K is for Keeping Things Kooky- Drinks V-Z; pg. 197 + New Link

[KathyM2]

"She's on my side."

OMG there's nothing that drives me more nuts in the car than the back seat bickering!! My kids are experts at it.

This was taken at 10:00 PM. 104*.

Wow. That's just crazy.

capture the "Essence of Oldtime Cowboy"

That was a really cool shot. The scenery was very pretty ....despite being so sweltering I'm sure! Looks lovely though.

 

[Steppesister]

Well, here we are again... each dusk it was finally almost cool enough to take a little drive up the "hill" to see what we could find. Trust me, this area is a photogs paradise, and there was absolutely no lack of pretty pictures to be had.

Again, in no particular order, I give you Wallowa County:







I have no idea why I'm so attracted to bird shots....? Sorry, for the overload.

Here is Orvis' brother Lowell; I don't know too many octogenarians who can still log. By himself. From cutting to boards. Somehow I feel like we've lost something in our country when I see things like this.





BAMBI!!

A crappy shot of another Bambi and Mom.





Where old saddles go to die: (This is one of my top 5 faves I took away.)





Where old International Harvesters go to die. For the song that will now follow you to bed, you are welcome.



Two of the many hundreds of elk we saw:



A few more:



Snake in the water. He came up pretty close to say hi. He was gorgeous. Later in the week, after I took this, some scumbag picked it up and tossed it across the river, killing it. I was beyond pissed.





Heidi and I did our due diligence in studying. It paid off....


BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I PASSED MY BOARDS!!


Mind you, those are unofficial results, but I've not heard of a case where the online results were different. You may now unofficially call me, "Good Nurse Liesa".



I hate how that last one looks grainy all blown up; it really was a good crisp catch (no pun intended) on the lens.

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.



Here's a shot of it in the distance:





The lovely Grande Ronde:



***********************

Continued in Next Post....

 

[Steppesister]

Moving on....




I have some research to do on the origin of round barns and how they came to America. Anyone want to chime in? @glennbo123- do they have any in your neck of the farms?





I couldn't decide which was my favorite, so I harassed you with them all.



Some of the very little of what's left of a ghost town called Flora. Just a few structures left- boy did I have fun there!!



Flora's Old Schoolhouse.



We also spent a day in Joseph, named after the regal Chief Joseph:



Overlooking Chief Joseph Canyon on our way there:



Just for fun:







This next one has quite a story as well...

Who is familiar with John Fogerty? Well, there is his former hangout. Apparently, he fell in love with this place in the 80's, bought up a ton of land, came to this very spot to fish and give music jams all the time. I heard that the drugs flowed freely and the kegs never ran dry. He's long gone, but the old cabin is still there.





I was kind and cropped out the gigantic, bloated dead beaver floating on it's back. Your welcome.



All good picture presentations should end with one of these:



Thank you for indulging me on this little mini-TR! I will add the rest of my commentary in another post shortly, but I"ve been incredibly busy with the goat project. Please bear with me.

 

[pkondz]

Hang in there with me, and just enjoy the photos. If you don't especially like them, skip to the last few paragraphs

Not likely! And I'm glad I didn't skip!


(I don't skip... I sashay.)

the place where Hell's Heat came to park for the week.

Uh, oh.

You know, the usual long car trip punctuated with the all-too-frequent, "Are we there yet?", "She's on my side." and "I'm hungry!"

Oh, I'm all too familiar with those!
But usually, after a while, either the kids or DW tells me to shut up.

It had no shade.

Perfect. Lots of sun! Isn't that wonderful?



No?




Hello?

Some of you scoffed in unbelief at my news on FB that it was 113 in the shade when we arrived to our little space of Hades. Here is your pictorial proof.

You forgot the pictorial proof.
I see the 104 one, though.

This was taken at 10:00 PM. 104*.

104 at 10:00.
I actually don't mind that.
Because that's when I tell the family, "Pack up! We're going to an air conditioned hotel!"

This was about 100 feet down the "Main Drag":

Main drag....

The official population is 8. No, that's no a typo.

Whoa.
And I thought I lived in some small towns (800).

(My daughter Mikki at the 4th of July Celebration)

Is she smiling because she's happy or because she's delirious from the heat?

Each year, he comes down the mountain to the 4th of July celebration and bids on his neighbor's (she lives 2 miles away) donated huckleberry pie. This year he bought it for $260. It must be one hell of a good pie. Just sayin'.

I love that story!
I want to bid against him... and then share the pie with him.

I got a little artsy farsty with this one to see if I could capture the "Essence of Oldtime Cowboy". I adore how it turned out!!

Nice. If you really want the cup gone, send me the file. Should take less than a minute.

More artsy fartsy, but this one is hilarious because it was actually a total accident! I think I was fiddling with settings and found it after I got home.

Yeah... I meant to do that... sure...

I KNOW you want to see another snake! Admit it, you do!

Yes. Yes I do.

This for example, was THE grader that made the 4 mile road up the steeeeeeep mountainside up to his place in probably 1900 or so. I will do some research, as I did take some photos of the serial numbers and manufacturing plates still just barely readable.

I first read that as "the grader that made the 4 mile road trip up the mountain"....
And then.... Oh!

I have no idea why I'm so attracted to bird shots....? Sorry, for the overload.

'Cause it's like hunting. Only better.

Here is Orvis' brother Lowell; I don't know too many octogenarians who can still log. By himself. From cutting to boards. Somehow I feel like we've lost something in our country when I see things like this.

And yes. You're right.
Water? That's just what comes out of the tap, right?

A crappy shot of another Bambi and Mom.

Those guys are possessed.

Where old saddles go to die: (This is one of my top 5 faves I took away.)

Love that one. I think that's my fave... although it's tough to pick just one.

Snake in the water. He came up pretty close to say hi. He was gorgeous. Later in the week, after I took this, some scumbag picked it up and tossed it across the river, killing it. I was beyond pissed.

People.

Have you ever seen the Clint Eastwood movie "In the Line of Fire"?

If you haven't (or if you have, here's a reminder) John Malkovich plays a man who wants to assassinate the president and Clint Eastwood plays a Secret Service agent who has to protect him.
Anyway. Malkovich's character makes a gun out of plastic or ceramic and tests it.
Two hunters run up to see what's going on.
They ask to see the gun and ask to try it.
He says yes.
So the hunter shoots and kills a duck.
Malkovich takes the gun back and loads it.
One hunter says "Why'd you make a gun like that?"
He says to kill the president.
A hunter says. "Why'd you want to do that? Mister?"
Malkovich says. "Why'd you have to kill that duck?"
And then shoots them both.

He was a bad guy.
But I was kind of on his side there a little bit.

BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I PASSED MY BOARDS!!

Hey!!!!!! Way to go! Congrats!!!

"Good Nurse Liesa".

Atta girl Good Nurse Liesa!

I hate how that last one looks grainy all blown up; it really was a good crisp catch (no pun intended) on the lens.

Yeah, always a problem when you zoom in/crop.
I get so tired of people giving me small, blurry, grainy, low res photos and asking me to turn them into amazing 8x10 photos.

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

No idea. At first I just thought it was a way of transporting mail, or other small items across the river.

I have some research to do on the origin of round barns and how they came to America. Anyone want to chime in? @glennbo123- do they have any in your neck of the farms?

I can say that round metal silos are all over the place... but I've never seen a round barn up on the Canadian prairies.

I couldn't decide which was my favorite, so I harassed you with them all.

And for that I say thank you.

Who is familiar with John Fogerty? Well, there is his former hangout. Apparently, he fell in love with this place in the 80's, bought up a ton of land, came to this very spot to fish and give music jams all the time. I heard that the drugs flowed freely and the kegs never ran dry. He's long gone, but the old cabin is still there.

That's really interesting.

I was kind and cropped out the gigantic, bloated dead beaver floating on it's back. Your welcome.

Well thanks for that!
Reminds me of a cartoon I saw once (Far Side I think) where an artist is painting seagulls... which are swarming over a dump.

All good picture presentations should end with one of these:

I"ve been incredibly busy with the goat project. Please bear with me.

Wait... is it goats or bears???


Thanks for the update!

 

[Poolrat]

BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I PASSED MY BOARDS!!


Mind you, those are unofficial results, but I've not heard of a case where the online results were different. You may now unofficially call me, "Good Nurse Liesa".

Awesome Job !!!! Good Nurse Liesa...

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

No clue - but maybe transport over the river....

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Hi. I followed your original ABC trip, so excited you've started a new one. I read through the entire PTR to this point because I haven't been on the DIS in awhile and it took me forever to find this PTR (I just got back on facebook and you friended me and I saw you had a PTR going, but you changed your sn on here) and I'm having a hard time navigating all the changes on the DIS- I need to try and change my signature next probably.
If we go on our trip fall 2016, we are just going to miss you. My boys and I are hoping to go for the ultimate field trip the end of September to beginning of October with other homeschoolers . We had fun on it three years ago, they are hoping to have even more fun next year.
Looking forward to reading more. Congrats on all your nursing exams and job.

 

[glennbo123]

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

Dang. I know I've seen these before but I can't remember what they're for. I'll have to puzzle on it.

I have some research to do on the origin of round barns and how they came to America. Anyone want to chime in? @glennbo123- do they have any in your neck of the farms?

Nope, can't say that I've seen any here in PA.

Beautiful pictures Liesa. And congratulations on passing your boards!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

It would be a long 12 hour road trip to....




the place where Hell's Heat came to park for the week.

Sounds like fun! Vacationing in Hell!!!!!

Imagine stepping out of your car (which, if you recall from my last rantings, had an emergency day-before-departure AC fix, THANK GOD!!!!!) and having the hot wind nearly singe your nose hairs and light your eyebrows on fire. It was a lot like that. Only worse. Because we had to set up a tent and campsite.

Wait a minute... you slept in a tent in that heat??????

It was hard to control my twitchy fingers behind my lens

Did your camera actually work in that heat?

The next one is quite a story. This gentlemen is the cousin of the folks who took us with them. His grandfather homesteaded a farm on the plateau just about town and is one of Oregon's "Century Farms" as it was established in 1897. Orvis has only left Wallowa County twice in his life, and still traps a bear every year for his year's supply of lard and some meat. Each year, he comes down the mountain to the 4th of July celebration and bids on his neighbor's (she lives 2 miles away) donated huckleberry pie. This year he bought it for $260. It must be one hell of a good pie. Just sayin'.

Oh cool! I guess if you never leave the mountain, you really don't have much need for money anyway. No pie is too expensive!

I KNOW you want to see another snake! Admit it, you do!

Um... no, I'm good.

A couple of evenings we did drive up the canyon to Orvis' property up on the plateau to see what we could find. It was a veritible treasure trove of a mixture of crap and some of the coolest antiques I have EVER seen. I kid you not, the place was a horders dreamland of stuff from 100 years ago on to today. NOTHING was ever taken off the mountain. How would they? There must be literally 20 tons of scrap- some far too precious, and probably valuable to do such a thing. Some truly belongs in a museum.

Oh, I'd be fascinated by seeing all of that stuff!

Where old International Harvesters go to die.

As they should...

BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I PASSED MY BOARDS!!

Congratulations!!!!!

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

I have no idea...

I have some research to do on the origin of round barns and how they came to America. Anyone want to chime in? @glennbo123- do they have any in your neck of the farms?

Ok, there are a few old ones here in Indiana. My understanding was that some of the more progressive farmers started building them thinking it a more efficient use of space. An open round design allowed them to use less materials to build it and they didn't have to have as much framing and support posts and trusses throughout the inside of the barn. So it allowed a more open area inside than you have with a square or rectangle framed barn. They were a neat concept, but they just never really caught on. Now the ones that were built and survived are just kind of a cool artifact.

 

[glennbo123]

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

I'm thinking that they used that the cross the river. You'd lay/sit in it and kinda shimmy yourself along the cable. Is that correct? Isn't there also a rope or something to pull it to yourself if it was on the wrong side from where you were (or left mid-way, like in your case)?

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Love the pictures. They are amazing.

I remember seeing a round barn on the drive to Triangle Lake, Oregon. First and only one I had ever seen.

Congratulations on passing the Boards! A friend of mine got some goats loaned to her to help mow her yard. She said it worked great, although cleaning up after them was not as fun.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It would be a long 12 hour road trip to....

the place where Hell's Heat came to park for the week.

Well, this seems like a nice place to pitch our tent for the week. No, not in that field, let's set it up next to this open sewer.

I don't know too many octogenarians who can still log. By himself. From cutting to boards. Somehow I feel like we've lost something in our country when I see things like this.

Wow! That is mighty impressive! But don't sell our generation too short. I can finish a pint of Ben 'n Jerry's in one sitting.

BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I PASSED MY BOARDS!!

You may now unofficially call me, "Good Nurse Liesa".

What about Evil Nurse Liesa? I seem to remember a discussion several pages back about which side of the nurse patients get to see.

We spied this dangling above the river during one of our floats. Online bragging rights to the title "Smarty Pants" to whoever can guess what it was. Hint, it was directly midstream about 20 feet above the water line.

I'm guessing that was used to send packages back and forth across the river? Or maybe small livestock?

Thank you for indulging me on this little mini-TR!

Thank you for the amazing photos! There were too many good ones to quote individually.

 

[Steppesister]

That's one thing I've never gotten into. The whole "hidden Mickey" thing.
There's so much competing for my eyes that hidden stuff doesn't have a chance!

But my youngest DD was always spotting them and pointing them out.

I long for the day when I can take my Hidden Mickey book and pick out 10 from each park or place we're going and make my lists. That doesn't seem to be happening these days.

I am not familiar enough with the parks that I can spend time looking for 'hidden mickeys'. I feel like it would take away from me appreciating everything that was so meticulously put into the whole of the 'story' at the parks.

There is definitely that to look for too. I love the Imagineers books that I have and knowing the backstory makes the whole experience come alive. But I can say, if I'm standing in a line, or sitting in a restaurant I'll spend a minute or two seeing if I can find them.

Try to enjoy your vacation... although you make it sound like you're looking forward to it about as much as you'd look forward to a root canal.

You are way more organized than I'll ever be. I like your notebooks, but my trip planning amounts to printing out reservation confirmations and cramming them into a pocket in our park bag. And then my trip notes will be chicken scratches on the back side of one of those printouts that I will hopefully not throw away by accident until I'm done with it.

It was rather like one. But worse.

As for the books, part of the fun of my trips is the planning. That way they "last" a whole year longer. So making the books helps me anticipate even more. Well, and give me a tool to organize all the drivel once I get home for you.

Thanks for the welcome back! Have a great trip and try not to melt! I try to keep notebooks on trips but I never seem to be able to do it consistently the whole trip which now annoys me since my trips blend together in my head. We had APs the past year and made four trips so let me know if you have any questions on some of the newer stuff as you plan.

I will definitely shoot questions your way as I can think of them! As the trip gets closer I will have oodles more I'm sure.

The trip was.

 

[Steppesister]

Wow, I love your little notebooks - such an organized way to have a lot of info handy. I think it's a great idea because there is so much good info and ideas that are impossible to remember when you are actually there. Love it. Have a great vacation even though it isn't Disney..it sounds fabulous even though there might be a bit of roughin' it!! But I've never been to that area...or Oregon at all so...anything different and new sounds amazing. I do look forward to the pictures.

Thanks, Kathy! I had hoped to get some progress on them done, but I'm in the middle of my internship and then added a goat project on top of it. Hoping next week let's up some.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures; it was one of the more enjoyable parts of that vacation.

I hope you have a wonderful time camping, although the news was stating record breaking heat wave. Drink lots of water.

I love the notebooks. Many of the spreadsheets look like mine, but I had it in a big binder, so I couldn't take it with me to the parks. I like the notebooks much better. The restaurant pages where you can write in the server and other little information is great.

Hopefully I remember about them when I have a trip planned.

We drank water. And cooled off with margs.

Glad you liked the books! I'll get started on mine sometime soon this summer.

I hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing vacation.

It's really quite fun to look back at your planning books from 2010. Love them! I will never be that organized, so I am envious.

Well.... it was.

I am not organized. Which is a good reason to keep little books. I'd never remember jack diddley if I didn't have them.

 

[Steppesister]

A super hot camping trip. So sorry for you. McDonalds has Air conditioning and ice cream. Just sayin'
It was either that or a hotel for the night. That got me over the worst of it.

It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot. And the nearest McDonalds is in La Grande. 2 hours away. A hotel would have been nice. Say... in Florida.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh....

Nope. Can't help it.

It was probably a belly laugh.

Hang in there! Almost done!
Air conditioning isn't that far off!

Oh, Liesa what a sad story! But how great that the two of you were able to at least try to help these people!

It was nice to have been trained and able to do what we could. I will never know how it all turned out for at least one.

Wow!
Thank goodness you were there to help out.
I'm sure you never imagined that you'd be doing that on your trip!

But... I'm very proud of you for doing that.

No, I had not! But unexpected things seem to happen pretty regularly.

Sure sounds like it. Ya done good, girl.

Thanks!

 

[Steppesister]

Oh how I remember camping,hard ground stuffy tents and rain !!! What in the world induces us to think this is fun!!

We prayed for rain on this particular trip. I"m actually going again this weekend for some "fun". Hopefully, it'll be less hot.

There you go- So glad you could help. Hope they pull through. Sounds scary.

I do too, but I"ll never really know on the most critical one.

Wow. Thankfully you and your friend were there.

For sure!! It was an intense situation, but one I was happy to help with.

 

[Steppesister]

More replies tomorrow. I need to hit the sack in order to be up by 5:00 again tomorrow. 3 of 5 Internship Days are done as of today; tomorrow I be will be on the Psych Unit, then only one more after that.

 

[jenb1023]

Congrats on passing!!!!! Sorry about the pets. Loved the mini-TR minus the heat. Looks like a great place to take photos and learn about interesting things and people.

 

[jedijill]

Your photos are stunning. I love the story of Orvis. It is a dying way of life.

Congrats again on passing your boards! What a huge accomplishment!

Jill in CO

 

[MEK]

So - you passed your LPN boards? But you're still going back to school in the fall, right? Just want to make sure I know what's going on. This was your first year right? Are you still going to try to get a job for the remainder of the summer?

Congrats! Like there was any doubt!!!!!

Gorgeous pictures from your recent summer vacation. I enjoyed each and every one. I can tell you that we do NOT have round barns in this area. If we do, I have never seen one.

I really enjoy the pictures of the old cars. I think they make such great subject matter.

 

[Steppesister]

How scary; glad you and your friend were there to help.

Camping...nope, never going to happen for me again.

Awww, camping can be fun when the weather is nice. Too hot sucks. Too rainy sucks even more. But we do have fun just relaxing and playing games. And talking. We don't seem to do that as much when we're at home.

Hi Liesa! I'm back from vacation and working on getting caught up with everyone. I hope you had a great time in--



Uh oh. Well, maybe it will get better as you--



Well, you have the photos. So there's that. And a Disney trip to plan.



Wow. I'm so glad you and your friend were there. I hope and pray they are ok.

Yes. There was that. I was kind of comparing the heat that wouldn't go away on our vacation to your baby who just couldn't sleep through the night. It was that kind of vacation.

I wish I had time to plan my trip. I will make some comments when I have 10 minutes to spare to write. Not likely to happen before next week. See below...

Wow that's crazy. Sad story but it is good you were there to help. I hope they are ok. And also sounds like it was a bit of a confidence boost for you which is always good. Way to go!!

I will never know.... that is one very hard thing about nursing.