Fossils and Eggs

We have come to the conclusion that God was demonstrating his great sense of humor when he created eastern Oregon. After leaving Cascade Locks last week, we traveled up the Columbia River Gorge to Arlington. Not very far but we stopped there so we could go either of two directions -- we ended up going both. We have friends who live in Umatilla and, as it turned out she was in California but he was at home and would love to have company. So we left the 5th wheel at a campground in Arlington and soloed up to visit Ken. They have a wonderful place at the end of a dead end road overlooking the Columbia River at McNary Dam with deer walking through their yard and beautiful sunsets to the west. I could learn to live like that!!!

The next day we turned south and pulled up out of the gorge onto the high plateau of eastern Oregon (or maybe it is still central Oregon). Rolling hills. Up and down. Wheat country. Joyce and I had always heard about this part of the state but had never seen it. We stopped in Condon for some ice cream (don't tell my doctor). To give you an idea of how sparsely populated this area is... Condon is a wide spot in the road with a population of 770 but is the county seat of Gilliam County. Fossil has a population of 460 and is the seat of Wheeler County. Fossil is where we camped for two nights. What a fun place! Our campground was on a bit of grass behind the Fossil Motel and RV Park. With deer -- lots of deer -- walking through the town and the fields behind us. We used Fossil as our base to go see the three units that make up the John Day Fossil Beds. One down by Dayville, one over by Mitchell, and one up by -- well, not by anything, but between Fossil and Antelope. If you want, you can find all this on an Oregon map south of Arlington. The scenery is so fascinating and so changing. We actually have painted hills in Oregon. They are gorgeous in the afternoon sun. We have funny shaped hills and lots of odd rock formations. I think God was really feeling good when he got to Oregon... "Hey, I think I'll make these rocks look strange and see if I can get these to stand on top of each other." Well, maybe. He might have!













The intrepid hikers looking at some of the strange formations











One of the painted hills -- one with white in it.
Our campground in fossil.

From there we traveled west and ended up at Richardson Ranch just north of Madras. That is a well known place where you can dig for opals and agates and thunder eggs. They also stock lots... no, make that LOTS of beautiful rocks from all over the world. I've never seen so many different rocks in one place. We parked the RV in their yard and drove about 7 miles back up into the hills to dig for thunder eggs. We found the spot, got some instruction from another digger, and went to work. It was easy to find them. In fact, too easy because it only took us about 30 minutes to get all we wanted -- which was only about 18 or so. According to our new-found friend there is a way of telling (kind of) which ones will be interesting and beautiful when cut open so we didn't keep all we dug. We had two cut and they are "ok" -- not really great, but not too bad. All this costs money so we went a little conservative. Now to find someone with a rock saw to cut the rest of these.

We have come to the conclusion that campgrounds are supposed to be noisy. The "really nice" one in Cascade Locks was 100 yards from a train track -- with a crossing nearby which meant the engineer had the privilege of blowing his horn at all hours of the night. Same at Arlington. Fossil was quiet but then at Richardson Ranch... No train for miles. Just cows. A hundred feet away, right across the fence. Apparently they had just taken the calves away from the moms so they mooed all night. Cows are weird. They would be really quiet, then one would start in and all the rest would join like a gospel choir. And they would move from one end of the pasture to the other -- just following each other to... they didn't know where, just follow. Some of that time was right by our RV. But other than that is was quiet.

From the rock hounding we went to Aldersgate Conference Center near Salem, left the 5th wheel and soloed to Newport for the weekend. We stayed with friends, visited with Willy and Angel plus some other friends and returned to Aldersgate today. I have a board meeting tomorrow and a Pastor's prayer event tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday. Then we head for Grants Pass. All that sounds exhausting when I read it but it was really a lot of fun. Now its back to work.

And so, that is what is happening in my world. What's in yours? Love to hear from you.