Still the Same Place…

Saturday - Two test sessions today, including an early morning one. There was a small farmers market at the RV park, and they had the normal stuff. Overpriced veggies and artsy items. We picked up a couple of squash. We then had lunch at the little deli/restaurant next to the office. The Italian sub was good, though I would’ve expected some sort of salami or spicy deli meat. 

This place got a lot more crowded on the weekend. I’m not even going to bother checking out the hot tub today. 

Sunday - This afternoon, we drove about 12 miles east as Bridget wanted to see proof that Mt. Hood still existed. Being Sunday, there were a lot of cars on the road. There are a lot fewer RVs in the campground compared to yesterday. 

Monday - Yesterday, we saw smoke, which prompted a search for fires. There are quite a few, with the closest one being Hood Meadows. 

StarLink is still useful here even with all of the trees. Here are the obstructions as seen by the antenna. It is looking through a hole in the canopy. It still works fine for streaming due to buffering within the app. But I’m not offering to lead as real-time apps such as Zoom or voice would have random outages. 

We drove back to the town of Sandy to pick up some groceries. We had to be a little careful as we will be heading into Canada in about a week. So no raw poultry, eggs, citrus fruit, or some vegetables. I'll look up more specifics later on in the week. Unfortunately, the restricted items seem to change depending on who is asking.

Welches, OR -TT

Thursday - I set up the clam for the first time on this trip. It’s not windy but there is some in the forecast. I still need to add guy lines. I also set up the JPC-12 and checked my radio email. Propagation is pretty poor but I could still reach the RMS in northeastern Oregon. An indication of the poor propagation is the speed of 18bps. 

Quite the temperature change from yesterday but no complaints from me. 

Not quite the same as the Blackstone but a whole lot lighter. The results are similar. I still prefer the Blackstone. This is sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, and green beans. With some balsamic vinegar. It came out decent, though the sweet potatoes could have been cooked longer.

Friday - A morning test session followed by warmer daytime temperatures. The A/C got turned on mid-afternoon while watching the Starship launch on YouTube. It’s still an hour away but it’s  entertaining enough. 

Welches, OR - TT

Wednesday - We are back on the road again. The class C had the oil changed this morning and now has a full tank of propane. We still had 3/8 of a tank but the gas station had propane. So it was convenient. 

We are at a newly listed TT park near Mt. Hood. The elevation is only 1100’ so it’s still hot and it is kind of smoky from all of the fires around Oregon. The site is large Ang backs up to the woods. It’s pretty nice.

And, the hot tub and pool are open! Not that you needed it with todays 90° (°F) temperatures. But I felt a need to try it out anyway. 

Last Day in Corvallis, OR

Tuesday - Today may be a prep day. We had unloaded a lot of stuff at my sister’s home sine we made use of the kitchen, laundry, showers, etc. while we were here. It’s already 91°F and still before noon. I have the A/C running at 50% to keep it from getting too hot during the afternoon. 

I checked my Winlink email on 40m this morning and will be sending my weekly check-in just after 9 PM PDT which meets the criteria of after midnight EDT. Then I can pack up the radio, computer, and antenna into the RV. 

Tomorrow is a modest travel day around 120 miles. I plan to stop at an oil change place here in Corvallis. I stopped by a couple of days ago to make sure they were willing. Last summer, I had a heck of a time finding a place willing to work on an RV even though it’s basically a Ford Econoline. The Circle K on the way out of town sells propane. 

We had lunch with my mom and then stopped at a couple of stores including the Asian grocery store. I picked up a few items including some odd things that a new favorite cabbage dish called for. Salted kelp and dashi powder. And I picked up a small squeeze bottle of okinomiyaki sauce. The last time I found some, the bottle was huge. 

Almost triple digits around here! Time to move on.