Road Trip to Oregon - Heading back home

Eastern Oregon

The road trip back from Oregon was designed to be 5 days (the outbound trip was 6). One less day translated into about 100 more miles more each day. The difference between 5 and 6 days is noticeable. There's also something about going home where you just want to get home 💖 Link to video.

Said goodbye to Jill and Ellie, who was heading off to the first day of school, on September 1. There are only a few routes to cross eastern Oregon and I have taken most (if not all) already so this was familiar territory - long and not much to take in. 

The first day goal was Boise, Idaho. A word to the wise on crossing eastern Oregon - there are NO rest areas, and therefore, no facilities! Once again, I had to make my own "accommodations."

We did not make it into Boise (had stopped at the capitol on a previous road trip) but opted to stay in Meridian, a very suburban town on the Interstate.

Day 2 destination was Bozeman, Montana, which meant driving nearly the full length of Idaho. This day was a no Interstate day. Drove by Craters of the Moon National Monument. I stopped here on a previous road trip. It is an incredible geological area.

Lunch at Idaho Falls falls park.

We stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch. I had driven by Idaho Falls but not stopped before. The falls are really cool - instead of dropping off perpendicular to the flow of the river, the falls cut through the river lengthwise. There was a critical incident occurring at the falls when we arrived with 3 different sheriff's rescue watercraft involved 😰

A long portion of the route to Bozeman through Idaho was primarily along the Madison River. There are some really fancy "cabins" along the river and I saw several people fishing (fancy boats), too.

I'd like to spend more time in Bozeman. It has a funky, cool vibe even though the motel we stayed in was on the skanky side. Motels should not have upholstered LazyBoy recliners!

Day 3 destination was Spearfish, South Dakota with a stop at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This day required Interstate driving but this is a beautiful section along the Yellowstone River (have done this section before).

Devils Tower National Monument did not disappoint. I took way too many photos. I loved the indigenous sacred narrative that I read on one of the viewpoints (a photo is included in the video and shared here).

Day 4 started with a drive through Spearfish Scenic Canyon into the Black Hills. This was probably the most difficult day for Maggie. I'm not sure if the curvy road, the elevation changes, or simply being done with traveling was the cause for a protracted complaint (loud meowing) episode.

The goal on Day 4 was to drive through Badlands National Park. After much struggle with GPS-based driving apps, I got to Badlands National Park South Unit, which is entirely in Tribal Trust land under the Ogala Sioux Tribe. Approaching the Badlands from this direction provides a very, very dramatic view and unfortunately neither the photos nor the video capture it.

To get to the Badlands, required a beautiful tour through the Black Hills including Lead and Deadwood, South Dakota. Interesting coincidence: I stopped briefly at the Sanford Lab Homestake visitor center in Lead, SD and just heard that they may have discovered dark matter.

The goal on Day 4 was Sioux Falls, SD. To get there after the Badlands and NOT go to Interstate 90 required more back-country roads than I had anticipated (yes, gravel roads). But it was also beautiful and very much greener than I thought even with temperatures reaching 102 degrees!

I had been to Sioux Falls before and after a day of endless driving and sightseeing, the goal was mostly rest before heading home on Day 5.

If you made it this far, here is link to the video montage.

Link to Part 1 of this road trip - westbound.

Link to Part 2 of this road trip - Ashland and Illinois River cabin.

Road Trip to Oregon - Oregon

Will hopefully make this a short post. This is Part 2 of road trip to Oregon with Maggie.

The story can be told by the video because this was a short journey of breathtaking vistas and casual down times.

We had a day in Ashland to gather camping supplies and catch up with Steve. Steve, Jill and I were part of the stage management team on The Guthrie's ground-breaking "History Cycle" back in 1990. We had not all seen each other in the interim.

The camping adventure was to a cabin on private property in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The drive was less than two hours from Ashland. The cabin is situated just yards from a bend in the Illinois River that creates a private beach and swimming hole.

I'll let the video tell the rest of the story. Click here.

Link to Part 1 - road trip west to Oregon.

Road Trip to Oregon - Westbound

Road trip to Oregon (Part 1 of 3) to go camping with Jill, Ellie and a friend from a long time ago, Steve. Decided to make the drive a 6-day adventure to provide time to stop and explore along the way. This amount of time meant I did not have to use Interstate highways with the exception of a short section through Montana (because there really isn't any other way over the mountains). Here is link to video montage.

 

Day 1 Wednesday, August 19: Minneapolis, MN to Aberdeen, SD through Montevideo and Ortonville, MN (288.1 miles)

• MN 7 to US 12 into South Dakota
• Prairie
• Big Stone Wildlife Refuge
• Aberdeen has a small Main Street downtown with some redevelopment

Roadtripping with Maggie - California and Oregon

It has taken me a long time to create the video, and subsequently, this blog post. This trip was back in early to mid July. The accompanying video can be found here.

Early on I had told my friends, Julie and her husband, Bob, that I wanted to meet them along their months-long thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. I figured I could meet them anywhere along the trail which runs from the Mexican board in California to the Canadian border in Washington state.

The window that opened was July 3 to July 16. As it turned out, Julie was in need of a rest and recuperation period so it was decided I would meet her in Mammoth Lakes, CA and the two of us would drive to Kennedy Meadows North to meet up with Bob who was continuing the trek.

I delayed the start of my trip to July 4 to time out better with Julie. I had wanted to see the fireworks at Mount Rushmore so this actually would help make that work out but, as it turned out, this year there were no fireworks at Mount Rushmore! They are saving them for a big event next year for the United States' 250th anniversary celebration. I didn't find this out until I had driven 574.5 miles to Rapid City, South Dakota. ☹️

But, as it turned out, the Rapid City fireworks were right outside our hotel window! Fun to watch but not fun for Maggie.

Day 2. We drove through the Black Hills of South Dakota to catch views of Mount Rushmore. I'd been to the monument years ago and figured it hadn't changed so took Monument Road and stopped to take photos now and again. We paid the park fee to drive through Custer State Park hoping to see bison or burros but didn't see either. ☹️

On into Wyoming...endless. Passed an enormous coal mining operation and some oil fields. Nearly ran out of gas 'cause they don't tell you that there is NOTHING along the way. Spent the night in Rock Springs, WY.

Day 3. Drove on into Utah, passsed Salt Lake City, and onto the salt flats (Bonneville Salt Flats) beyond the Great Salt Lake which I only caught glimpses of.

Kept going into Nevada and the Great Basin Desert. At least in Nevada, they warn you that that there isn't gas for...oh, 124 miles, then 167 miles! Our goal destination was McGill, NV but it turned out there wasn't much of anything there anymore, so we drove on to Ely, NV and the Four 7s Motel.

Day 4. Continued on through Nevada. Jill looked up some sites to see. We stopped at Lunar Crater on Bureau of Land Management land. We passed what I'm pretty sure was a missile site. Three police cars made sure we pulled off the highway to allow on oncoming wide load to pass.

The highways in Nevada are amazingly straight...like for a hundred miles. You will notice in the video that there are photos taken from inside the truck. Some are while it is moving thanks to lane keeping and adaptive cruise control. I never put Maggie in danger.

Still in Nevada, we passed a freaky solar energy site with a glowing tower. Into California and a fruit and plant check site. I hadn't had to stop for California's checks since I drove across the country in the 1980's. We drove into the Sierra Mountains to Mammoth Lakes. So very beautiful.

We met Julie at her hotel and got Maggie situated in the room. We went for a late lunch. Julie was getting as much rest as possible so while she napped with Maggie, I took a walk around the town of Mammoth Lakes. The elevation was very noticeable.

Day 5. Got some supplies before heading to Kennedy Meadows North to meet up with Bob. It is a short 110 miles mostly on California Highway 108. Incredible views going up to Sonora Pass, which is where the Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, crosses the highway. We happened to hit the summit when 3 PCT hikers landed at the crossroad/trail. We picked them up and Julie knew 2 of them! They were going to Kennedy Meadows North, too. I got to be a Trail Angel!

We were expecting Bob to arrive the next day. I took Maggie on a hike along a beautiful trout river while Julie rested. Bob had texted Julie while Maggie and I were out and said he would be arriving later that evening. We forgot Maggie's litter box at the hotel in Mammoth Lakes so the manager at Kennedy Meadows helped me figure out a substitute.... though Maggie never used it.

We drove back to the Sonora Pass summit to pick up Bob. We took another hiker who was looking to hitch a ride into another town up to the pass. More Trail Angel action! Bob hiked in just after sunset. He was with another hiker, Bespoke (trail name). We all drove back to the campgrounds and arrived just before the kitchen closed so Bob and Bespoke got a hardy meal before going to bed.

Day 6. Bob decided he didn't need to take a day of rest, so he and Julie went back on the PCT this day. I was already planning on driving to Ashland, Oregon to see Jill and her granddaughter, Ellie. It was a longer drive than I had originally thought but northeastern California is beautiful. I actually had to go back into Nevada for a bit. This is where California makes that angle jog because of Nevada. I picked up a new litter box and litter 😊

I saw two different pairs of sandhill cranes, the tall ones, and drove around Mt. Shasta. As I approached Ashland, there was a wildfire right next to I-5. I was shocked that the interstate was not closed as there were at least two large trees adjacent to the road that were completely engulfed in flames.

Days 7-10. I spent 3 days in glorious Ashland, Oregon, visiting my friend Jill and her grand-daughter. I got to see James Williams in August Wilson's Jitney at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. That was definitely a treat and highlight.

Maggie did pretty good as a house guest...at least better than last time we visited.

I knew it would be a stretch to get home in 3 days and wondered if it was really possible, but it was mostly a route Maggie and I had done before, so we went for it.

Day 11. Left Ashland and made it to Mountain Home, ID... a town we had stayed in before. Driving through eastern Oregon you realize you better have a full tank of gas. There is NO WHERE to get fuel for miles. We had to slow down twice for deer and fawns.

Day 12. We drove over 500 miles to Billings, Montana. We were on sections of I-15 and I-90 that we had previously avoided. There really was no stopping for sightseeing, however, this route goes along the Yellowstone River for tons of miles making for some lovely vistas.

Day 13. Had to decide if we were really going to get all the way home in one more day. We did! Over 830 miles and 10 1/2 hours of pretty much straight driving. There was light rain much of the way. The light rain wasn't difficult to drive in, but it meant we could only stop in specific places for Maggie to stretch her legs. This day was the most difficult for her and there were a few fits of "can we please get out of the truck!!"

But after all the miles, we made it home in advance of an event I had promised to attend. If you made it this far, congratulations and the accompanying video can be found here.

Home at last!

Road Tripping - Heading East

Here is the travelogue our east bound travels. I'll get back to what we did in Oregon in a later post. 

Maggie and I left Jill's in southern Oregon on Monday morning. The plan was to travel the "southern" route through Oregon-Idaho-Wyoming-South Dakota-Minnesota.

The majority of the Oregon population lives in the western 1/3 of the state. The other 2/3rds is nearly empty. Once over the Cascade Mountain Range, there is a lot of nothing. I wrote in my notebook,  "desolate high plateau." There are sage brush and trailers. 

Self-captioned

We zig-zagged our way across the state to Ontario, Oregon. There were no rest areas but right before the interstate there was a picnic area with an outhouse so Maggie could get out of the car and I could take care of business.

Eastern Oregon through the bug-splashed windshield

At Ontario, we hooked up with Interstate 84 crossing the Snake River to Boise, Idaho. Another capitol building, yay! There was still daylight and we successfully made it to Mountain Home, Idaho. The hotel was nice and there was a nice restaurant nearby.

Snake River

Idaho capitol - impressive

Our typical hotel setup and relaxation

Tuesday started off a little rough. I wanted to take local roads across Idaho to Idaho Falls but Google Maps insisted we take the Interstate. After some choice words, we finally got off the interstate onto local roads in search of US20. We zig-zagged north and east and north and east on unmarked roads and eventually made it to US20 east bound. As we drove through flat ranch land, an honest-to-goodness cowboy rode by on his horse out to the cattle herd.

There were also lots of wind turbines that were super close to the road. I'm pretty sure one of turbines had blades that swung over the road! 

On US20 is another very cool national monument, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This is a very large national monument with only a small portion of it is open to visitors.

The visitor center was closed (Mondays and Tuesdays) but the trails and a loop drive were open. The site is not asteroid craters but volcanic geology. There are lava fields and huge cinder cones. The guide signs are very well done and focus on preserving and not destroying what the vistor is seeing. I spent more time here than I thought I would or planned. It was so fascinating.

Witches' fingers along the Devil's Track Trail

The view from the top of Inferno Cone to Broken Top cone

From the top of Inferno Cone looking down to the parking area. My car is the tiny black spec in the center.

The goal for the day was to drive through Yellowstone National Park. From Idaho Falls it is not too far to West Yellowstone and the western entrance to the national park.

Eastern Idaho

We drove the northern section of Yellowstone National Park. I stopped at Norris Geyser field where Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world, is. It has a very irregular schedule for the "big one" and just my luck the "big one" had occurred at 8:45am that morning -- missed it!

We encountered a little snow squall and a lot of snow along the side of the roadway. A section of the park's road system is still closed because of snow. [I am writing this after the big flooding that has closed the park. Our visit was before the flooding.] 

Lots of bison everywhere in the park. Also, steam vents and geysers are spread throughout the park. I had not remembered that when I drove through in the 1980's.

Kept the edge of the road in the photo to see how close the bison are

Steamboat Geyser steaming

Yellowstone Lake is ginormous. It was also still mostly frozen! The drive to the east entrance (or as I preferred to call it, the east exit) was crazy beautiful.

Yellowstone Lake - ice at the shore and in the distance

The drive out of Yellowstone

We made it to Cody, Wyoming by the end Tuesday. I had hoped to make it to Greybull but the mountain driving and my extended visit of Craters of the Moon and the geyser field in Yellowstone meant we were going to be a little short.

The Cody hotel was okay. We passed a supper club on the way to the hotel and planned to treat myself to a steak. Where better than Wyoming to have a steak? Unfortunately, I ran into the "restaurants don't stay open late" conundrum. I ended up having to get pizza to go at Pizza Hut....ugh.

Wednesday's goal was Pierre, South Dakota. Another state capitol! - but I get ahead of myself. Wyoming provided dramatic views with mountains and wide-open pastures. We continued on US20 to Buffalo where we picked up Interstate 90.

There were lots of antelope which seem to like to be on the highway side of the fencing! And everything was green, green, green. We stopped at a nice rest area where Maggie had fun climbing a tree.

A rest area for Maggie

Made it into South Dakota on Interstate 90 at Spearfish. I had been to Mount Rushmore and did not want to stay on the interstate so at Sturgis we picked up State 34 to head more-or-less straight to Pierre. There is NOTHING on State 34 and US14. No rest areas - no trees - no towns. Desperation to relieve myself meant just pull over by the side of the road. Nothing saw me except for a small herd of antelope across the road. Seriously, no cars, no nothing.

Emerald green as far as the eye could see

The capitol in Pierre is pretty. Again, I couldn't go inside because of the late hour. The odd thing about the capitol is that it sits pretty much at the edge of a field. I parked "behind" the building and walked around to the front for the photo. When I walked back to my car, I noticed that there wasn't anything on the north side of the building...just farmland!

South Dakota capitol

Capitol parking lot looking north

Pierre sits on the Missouri River. Another Missouri River encounter. This time I got to take a run along the river. There is a really nice island park that has lots of paths.

Thursday was intended to be a "short" day back to Minnesota and home. Eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota are farm country. The wildlife consisted of pelicans and swans in the over-full lakes along the way.

Not really much to say or show about this part of the trip. I know I was anxious to get home and pretty sure so was Maggie. 

Road Tripping - Heading West

As many of you know, my friend, Jill, lives in Ashland, Oregon. Friends in Minnesota, Amy and Jennifer, wanted to visit Jill and Oregon for the first time. I was invited to join them. I decided I would drive out with Maggie as a practice road tripping run.

The title for this post is "Heading West" but it got off to a rough start. I made it 2 hours out of Minneapolis up I-94. I made it past Saint Cloud, MN which is the farthest I've been on I-94. When I was thinking about where we would stay the first night, I realized I did not have my wallet. Without my wallet, I did not have any credit cards, and more importantly, a driver's license.

I really had no choice but to turn around and drive back to Minneapolis. I considered bagging the trip for the day but really wanted and needed to make some progress on the first day. So I drove back to Minneapolis, left Maggie in the car, dashed in the condo, grabbed the wallet, and got back out on the same road.

We made it as far as Moorhead, Minnesota. To show how much I did not know about this part of the USA, we stayed in a motel in Moorhead but ate supper in Fargo but not knowing I was in Fargo until after eating and walking around. The two cities are so intertwined as to not really have borders...which is actually very geographically prominent - the Red River separates the two cities!

The Red River is infamous in Minnesota for flooding and overflowing which is exactly what it was doing when I passed through. I stayed in a motel called Bison Plains. It looked and smelled like the bison had just passed through the hallways. It was a unique experience. Maggie didn't seem to mind exploring all the smells.

Maggie off the floor and enjoying her first hotel stay

Fargo was a hopping town. Turns out it was graduation weekend at the University of North Dakota. Downtown Fargo is clean and vibrant. A large section of the city had burned during flooding a few years ago but there were still historic buildings along with newer ones.

I had started the journey on Friday. So Saturday was day two and now I had to get across North Dakota - a state I had never been to. If you have heard that North Dakota is flat, you have heard correctly. Crazy flat except there is a hill in the town of Jamestown.

You are going to see a lot of photos shot out of the window of my moving car

Lots of fields along I-94 were flooded. North Dakota had been getting the same rain, rain, rain that Minnesota had. The few lakes I could see were very full. Pelicans migrate through North Dakota and were enjoying all the water.

Told you it was flat

I stopped in Bismark to see the capitol. Yikes and apologies to North Dakotans but the North Dakota capitol is not pretty. I couldn't go in because it was the weekend so I cannot critique the interior. Hopefully it is awe-inspiring.

The nicest part about the North Dakota capital is the beautiful green lawn lined with big trees

Continuing west, Amy suggested a stop at Salem Sue, a giant holstein cow on the top of a very big hill. The wind was incredible. We were driving right into this same wind. The constant uphill which is the geography of heading to the mountains combined with the wind really impacted my gas mileage.

Maggie didn't think much of Salem Sue. She wanted back in the car where it wasn't windy

Another friend and North Dakota native, Kathy, suggested the Enchanted Highway. This is an interesting, off-the-interstate marketing campaign. A series of oversized metal sculptures lead you to the Enchanted Castle which is really just a motel way off the beaten path. It was worth the extra miles. In addition to the sculptures, I saw pheasants and mule deer.

The wind kept up here we are at the start of the Enchanted Highway

One example of the Enchanted Highway art (these are huge)

I really wanted to see Theodore Roosevelt National Monument outside of Dickinson and Medora, North Dakota. This was a fantastic adventure. Using my senior national parks pass, I entered for free and took the loop drive in the southern section of the park.

I like this photo because in addition to the bison you can see how the terrain has changed in the distance

Right at the first pullover there were bison and a herd of wild horses! The park also features prairie dogs and painted canyons. The loop is partially closed due to rain washouts. It was all so beautiful and especially as the sun was starting to set.

Yes, they were this close to the roadway

Maggie was interested in the wild horses

Painted canyons

We made it into Montana the second day. We stayed in a nice motel in Glendive near the Yellowstone River. Side note: the restaurant at the River Inn has fantastic food and desserts.

Sunday's goal was to get across Montana. I also decided to get off I-94. We took State 200 which followed the Lewis & Clark route. Honestly I think there are many Lewis & Clark routes.

This took us through what I called the Montana badlands...ravines and stretches of open pasture. There are no crossroads on 200S. There are only drives to ranches. There are mule deer and cattle.

The terrain changes to pine trees then to mountains. This route has very nice rest areas that are well maintained. From Great Falls to Missoula we ended up in the Blackfoot River Gorge. A beautiful drive down in to Missoula, Montana. We were to drive many river gorges on this trip.

Maggie's first time out on harness and leash and she did great

Finally mountains

We spent the night in Missoula. With the gain in an hour (mountain time) it was still light so I went for a run and found a tap room called The Dram. This name has some history for me as it was the bar in the old Guthrie Theater. Missoula is on the Clark Fork (river). It is also a college town.

Monday morning while packing up the car, Maggie escaped from the hotel room! Our room was right on the parking lot which was right on the street. There were a few minutes of panic but a couple a few doors down helped corral Maggie in their room.

Day four, Monday, is when my lost progress on the first day caught up to us. I also needed to decide which route we would take. A faster route would be to go through Bend, Oregon and down 97. This was a route I had already been on just last summer. It also might mean going through mountains with more snow than I had encountered already.

I decide to go through Portland and down I-5 through nearly the full length of Oregon. But I get ahead of myself. To get through the small section of Idaho we were going to hit, we drove down the Clark Fork Gorge. Dramatic is an understatement. The drive is very amazing and the entrance into Idaho is dramatic to put it mildly. The view of majestic snow-covered mountains though brief and on a very sharp curve is nonetheless worth it. I have no photos of this portion of the trip because all concentration was on driving.

Rest areas in Idaho were not nice. I wrote "yucky" on my notepad. From Idaho there is a long section of Washington state before you cross the Columbia River into Oregon. I haven't mentioned up to now but this time of year - mid-May brings so much color, lots of it green. And southern Washington has fields/pastures of blooming purples, pinks, red and yellows.

My unsuccessful attempt to get the Washington state fields

Next was Oregon and the decision to press all the way through to Ashland. Okay, the Columbia River Gorge is A-MAZ-ING! The other river gorges are narrow, curving, intricate and generally steep slopes with lots of trees. The Columbia River Gorge is wide with a very wide river but with sheer cliffs that block the sun and the Sirius XM satellite!

The south side of the Columbia River Gorge which is the road side

The north side with the Columbia River

Portland, Oregon lived up to its reputation of having awful traffic. This was my first big city and I had the bad fortune of driving through during rush hour. It was stop and go for miles.

Maggie all the while had been a trouper. She would look out the windows, sleep in her carrier, nap in my lap. Eat her treats, drink her water, and use her litter box. She enjoyed the motel rooms by walking from bed to night stand to chair to table to window sill to tv stand and back to bed. But the easy times had a bump in the road.

Typical daily nap in papa's lap

Many if not most restaurants closed by 7 or 9pm so getting a late supper was difficult. Monday's full throttle push to arrive in Ashland meant stopping for a quick meal at a Dairy Queen in Albany, Oregon. The drive-thru was the only option. Maggie was in my lap as we drove through and when I pressed the button to power-down the window, she freaked out. In my effort to not have her jump out the window, I grabbed her. The leap using her back feet clawed at my stomach and grabbing her caused her to bite my finger.

Without knowing all the damage, I ordered an ice-cream and french-fries. I pulled into a parking spot to investigate the damage. My t-shirt was shredded, and my stomach was slightly bleeding. My right hand and bitten finger were profusely bleeding. Fortunately, I had packed a first aid kit. I bandaged myself up and pressed on. Maggie eventually calmed down but could not bring herself to have any ice-cream.

To add to state capitols I stopped in Salem. While under renovation, it was still far better example of state capitols than was North Dakota's.

Oregon state capitol, Salem

We did make it to Ashland on Monday night.

The numbers below are mileage from my cars trip odometer and trip time (the amount of time the car is running so doesn't include when I stopped the car at rest areas, waysides, meals, etc.):

Friday - false start was 298 wasted miles - 4 hours 34 wasted minutes

Friday - productive 231 miles - 3 hours 50 minutes to Moorhead, Minnesota

Saturday - 514 miles - 9 hours 44 minutes to Glendive, Montana

Sunday - 513 miles - 8 hours 9 minutes to Missoula, Montana

Monday - 839 miles - 13 hours 49 minutes to Ashland, Oregon

Total west bound - 2105 miles and 36 hours and 18 minutes. The gas mileage averaged 21.9 mpg

Jill's big birthday bash (lots of photos)

I traveled to Ashland, Oregon for my friend Jill's big birthday event. She is celebrating her 60th birthday this year. I don't think she would mind me telling her age. She looks and feels fabulous. And she has friends and family that were more than willing to share the festivities.

I flew into Medford, Oregon on Saturday. I had a layover in Seattle for a few hours. My niece Gracie picked me up at the airport and we had time to have breakfast away from the airport. That was a special treat.

Jill's dad, Dave, picked me up at the airport and we drove to Jill's beautiful home in Ashland. Ashland is in the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. The climate is fantastic. Jill's yard is colorfully filled with flowers, trees, shrubs and vines. When Jill got home from her matinee, we went to dinner at Caldera, a brew pub.

Saturday evening Jill and I sat in the back of the outdoor theater to watch the first act of The Wiz. It is a cute production with tons of costumes! It was getting cool but felt so nice after the heat and humidity of Minneapolis.

Sunday I went to the matinee of Jill's show, The Yeoman of the Guard. This production of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical uses a country music theme. The actors are on stage all the time and so is part of the audience. Jill got me a regular seat so I did not have to "participate" which is what I prefer. The production is very fast and fun. I enjoyed it very much.

Jill's Aunt Ellen drove down from Salem for the birthday. The weather Sunday was fantastic. I went for a run. I was planning 3 or 4 miles and ended up at almost 8! We drove up to Mt. Ashland and walked the Pacific Crest Trail. Stunning. There was still some snow in places but there were flowers blooming and little streams streaming. The vistas of the Cascade range are just incredible. It was a perfect day to be up in the mountains.

We went to the evening performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was in the indoor space. The director set this production in 1920's Hollywood. It was beautiful and had lots of music. I enjoyed this show, also.

Birthday cake with Jill's bird, James Taylor.

Monday was the big party being thrown by Jill's long time friends Robin and Tony Heald. They have a lovely home in Ashland with a swimming pool. The view out over the pool is incredible. So many of Jill's friends and co-workers were there and Alicia, her daughter, with the two grandkids.

Robin, Tony and Alicia spoke a few words. Alicia had us all tearing up. It was a lovely party.

Ellen took Jill and I to breakfast Tuesday morning. Ellen went to the matinee of Great Expectations and then left for home. Jill and I went to Dave's place in Medford. Jill and Dave call it the fort but it is far from one. It is senior apartments. There is a central courtyard, restaurant, party rooms, library, etc. The staff is so so nice. We spent a long time with Dave and his friends. I help set up his tv so he could get Netflix and other streaming shows. We watched Jerry Seinfield and President Obama on Crackle's Comedians Driving in Cars Getting Coffee.

Tuesday night Jill and I ate in Ashland then once back at her house finally watched The Tony Awards. We were both exhausted, enjoyed the show, but thought it was lackluster. It, of course, was from Sunday - the evening of the tragedy in Orlando.

I flew back home on Wednesday -- a day long series of flights....ugh. Jill and I always have such a good time. I cherish our times together.

Alicia with Talon and Aiyana

Jill with birthday flowers from Jay and Penny

Me in Tony and Robin's pool. Look at that view!

Jill with her dad, Dave, and friends.

Just a sampling of Jill's beautiful flowers.

James Taylor bird aka JamesTayBird