July 22, 2022 – Wallowa, Oregon
Hello again everyone! So happy to be sitting at my dining table in the RV sharing our latest adventures with you! Do you believe it is mid-summer already? The weather here in northeast Oregon has been absolutely perfect – days of sunny warmth, cool evenings and mornings. Blue skies all around.
We’ve really enjoyed exploring this northeastern corner of Oregon. The Wallowa Mountains, the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area, nice little towns of Wallowa, Enterprise and Joseph. It’s been a good home base for us the last 8 or 9 days. Lots of hiking, farmer’s market, farm stands – you know us – we are eating ourselves silly on the abundant fruit and produce available here. Combine that with beautiful hikes and we’re happy campers!
This area is full of water – rivers, streams, creeks, lakes – everywhere we look there is water. All of our hikes have had lots of stream crossings, which we love. Gerry loves splashing in the streams. We’ve hiked through several river canyons – the sound of the water flowing through the canyon is always beautiful. And, on our hike yesterday – we met up with a big black bear! It was early on our hike, only about .25 miles from the trailhead, and this bear came out of the woods right onto the trail, about 20 feet ahead of us. Gerry was in front of us and started to run after the bear. The bear turned around and looked at us and ran up the trail and off into the woods on the other side. Meanwhile, I’m yelling (well, more like screaming!) at Gerry to stop. My wild screaming got Gerry’s attention and he stopped to turn around and look at me, which was a good thing. It was great seeing the bear, especially since he ran away from us and not towards us! It’s about the closest we’ve been to a bear. We’ve seen several throughout the last few years, but not usually this close up.
More good news to share – there has been a lot of “house and home” activity recently – Samantha and Sam just bought their first home in Denver! They moved in a few days ago and are loving having a home of their own. And today, we are closing on the 4th house for Aspire Sober Living in St. Paul with Guy. This will add another 9 beds to the Aspire Sober Living offering. It is truly amazing to watch the success Guy is having with providing quality sober living for the St. Paul recovery community. And, we have finalized our house plans with our architect for a home in southwest Colorado! We purchased 3 acres last fall and plan to build next year. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to share about that when the time comes. In the meantime, we’re thrilled to watch our flock feather their nests.
We’re moving tomorrow to Clarkston, Washington. It’s about 3 hours to the north, along the Snake River. I’ll be flying out to St. Paul to help get the new sober house ready for occupancy, and Steve and Gerry will be hanging out in the RV.
Our house on wheels, or the “house truck” as the grandkids like to call it – continues to bring us so much happiness. We feel connected to nature when we’re in the RV. I think partly because we literally have such beautiful views out our windows that are always changing and interesting, and, partly because it takes us to so many beautiful places where we get to go hiking and really immerse ourselves in the beauty of nature. We meet so many friendly people on the trails and in the campgrounds. People just seem happy when they’re out doing this. Combine that with our roaming around looking for the best local produce and food we can find and you have a winning combo!
Here are some recent pictures to share – enjoy!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nBXkS7eFm4ZUEn489
Here’s a video of one of the rivers on a hike: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SsHPB6ce3F2MqFjm7