From Fungi to the Golden State

I've searched to find the name of this Mushroom/Fungus and didn't find a thing. So I took more pictures. It is beautiful.


..and photogenic - Yep that's the Musemobile in the background.

Still another view


and another

Okay this is the last one not fully open.


I love the ferns pre-opening they look like a herd of seahorses.

I also got one last picture of the Trillium before we left Seven Feathers in Canyonville, Oregon


We stopped in Grants' Pass, Oregon for a supply run at Walmart. While Scrabble Queen went in I got gas at sub $3 and then called and talked to Ed. When we were ready to leave a woman drove past with her work truck - cool name for a construction company.


We took US 99 out of Grants Pass and just after entering stopped for lunch at the Randolph Collier Tunnel Wayside.

On this memorial its' noted "Father of the California Freeways" - If only he could see them now, or better yet be stuck in traffic on the 405 near LAX

Tunnel 01-049, near the Oregon State Line in Del Norte county, is named the "Randolph Collier Tunnel". It was built in 1963, and named by Senate Concurrent Resolution 74, Chapter 246, in 1961. Senator Randolph Collier was elected to the State Legislature from 1938-1976 to represent Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake, Trinity, Del Norte and Siskiyou counties. Although he was recognized as a leader in many fields of legislation, Collier gained statewide and national fame in the planning and financing of highways. He was the principal author of the Collier-Burns Act of 1947 which brought about the California Highway Plan. The state's highway system served as a model throughout the nation in that the state assumed responsibility for state highways in cities.

There was the inevitable "one lane road" complete with cones and a flag person so familiar to travelers these days.

A little further we came across this cool waterfall. I suspect it's not a year round water fall because it wasn't named and had no rest area associated with it.


We finally arrived at our place to stay for a couple of days called the Hiouchi RV Resort. Hiouchi, according to the Resorts' brochure, was the Tolowa tribe's phrase for "Clear Blue Water."

"When explorer Jedediah Smith first traversed California's North Coast in 1828, he met members of the Tolowa tribe near present-day Crescent City. It was a peaceful encounter, although subsequent encounters between white settlers and the Tolowa went nowhere near as well -- and the tribe was almost wiped out."

I found this 1 foot high waterfall 50 yards from our campsite and yes the water was clear.

Finally I found this Iris happily resting next to the creek and grabbed a quick shot. It's very similar to the ones in front of my house.

Scrabble score ~ Scrabble Queen 371 - the contender a measly 345 (she beat me and I had a 2 bingo night (50 points bonus per bingo for using all my letter tiles)"

Quote of the Day

A politician will do anything to keep his job, even become a patriot." - William Randolph Hearst
I found a little know fact/rumor about Hearst:

"In 1897 Frederick Remington, a newspaper cartoonist who had been sent to Cuba by William Randolph Hearst, Sr. to find a war, had cabled back to his boss in New York that he could find no war.

Unperturbed, Hearst nevertheless ordered him to stay in Cuba and assured him that he would be duly furnished with a war. The U.S. battleship Maine was forthwith blown up (Feb. 18, 1898) and, "By Jingo!" Remington had his war. Dewey took Manila and Theodore Roosevelt took Cuba. And meanwhile the pictures kept on coming."

7 Feathers - On The Road Again ♫

The World Famous Musemobile

Yahoo!! We are on the road again and back at one of our favorite places. Seven Feathers RV park and Casino. No Casino this time just good old fashioned relaxation. We barely drove 86 miles but we love this place mostly for the landscaping and setting.


The Rhododendrons are just blooming and beautiful. It's hard to describe the color on these and even the picture doesn't capture the rich cream color on these.


So I took a picture closer up....


..and even closer up - they are breathtaking.


The red Rhodies are such a deep red they also can take your breath away.


Now those were landscaped but this poppy was hiding on the hill across the street from the RV so I went over to get it also.


Above the poppy I saw these thisles and just had to go get those as well.


Even higher was this beautiful Trillium Symmetry at it's finest.

Trillium and the Trillium Family (Trilliaceae)

This genus is a very interesting one. Under great simplicity and conformity of habit, 3 leaves at the summit of a stem, supporting one solitary terminal flower, it contains and conceals many species." Stephen Elliott, A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia



Then there were the fungi in cream color


...and in bright orange

13

... and some bracken in white


.. but my favorite was the black mushrooms


These mushroom open from the top like an umbrella blown up by the wind. The ones on the left are fully open (notice the snail) notice the one on the right black underside and not fully open. The top is shaped like a bowl.


This is the same kind of mushroom fully open and it looks like a grey daisy, pretty special


On the back side of the Musemobile runs Cow Creek. A pretty little creek that runs the length of this huge RV park. The Cow Creek Indians who run the RV park and Casino were a band of the Umqua Tribe.

History Lesson Time - Chief Miwaleta, who negotiated the Cow Creek Umpqua Treaty for the Indians, had been opposed to joining the Indian Wars. He wanted his people to live in peace with the non-Indians. However, he died shortly after the treaty was negotiated.

Cow Creek Treaty "For and in consideration of the cession and relinquishment contained in article first, the United States agree to pay to the aforesaid band of Indians [Cow Creek Umpquas], the sum of twelve thousand dollars, in manner to wit: one thousand dollars to be expended in the purchase of twenty blankets, eighteen pairs of pants, eighteen pairs of shoes, eighteen hickory shirts, eighteen hats or caps, three coats, three vests, three socks, three neckerhandchiefs, forty cotton flags, one hundred twenty yards prints, one hundred yards domestic, one gross buttons, two lbs. thread, ten paper needles." - Cow Creek Umpqua Treaty, September 13, 1853


His successor led the Cow Creek Umpquas into the Rogue Indian Wars.

Chief Miwaleta, who negotiated the Cow Creek Umpqua Treaty for the Indians, had been opposed to joining the Indian Wars. He wanted his people to live in peace with the non-Indians. However, he died shortly after the treaty was negotiated. His successor led the Cow Creek Umpquas into the Rogue Indian Wars.

In September, 1855, hostilities broke out again as Volunteers moved to exterminate or remove all Cow Creek Umpqua and Rogue Indians. Hard fighting ensued and many Rogues took refuge along the Umpqua River where they and the Cow Creek Umpquas were rounded up and held against their will.

In 1856, these Indians were removed from the area and marched some 150 miles northwest to the Grand Ronde Reservation on the Yamhill River. This became the Umpqua Trail of Tears.

We took a walk and stopped to shoot several places along the creek. This on is taken from a small bridge that crosses from one side of the park to another.


I thought this was a rather creative waterfall idea.


Finally it started to rain so we hustled back to the Musemobile after one last shot of Cow Creek complete with boulders.

Scrabble Score Scrabble Queen 302 - the Contender 332 wo wo

Quote for the day ~ I think this is appropriate on our way to California, the Golden State

"But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?" ~ - Jack Kerouac, Beat Generation

A little golf and two new blooms

I got to play a little golf with Superputter today. It was a glorious day to play with a few clouds and in the mid 60's. The trees are blooming and the grass is green from the early Spring rains.



The greens are perfect and even the sand traps look nice aslong as you are not in them.


Superputter was on his game with low straight shots and close to or at par on every hole.


Our curly, yellow-red tulips are now blooming.


The Grape Hyacinth with it's little bells remind me of the Texas Blue Bonnets a wonderful sight and one of the very best things about my home state.


Quote of the Day (Today it's a poem)

Gulfcoast Highway
(written by Nanci Griffith, James Hooker and Danny Flowers)

"Gulf Coast Highway he worked the rails
He worked the rice fields with their cool dark wells
He worked the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico;
The only thing we've ever owned is this old house here by the road
And when he dies he says he'll catch some blackbird's wing
Then he will fly away to Heaven come some sweet bluebonnet spring

She walked through springtime when I was home
The days were sweet, the nights were warm
The seasons change, the jobs would come, the flowers fade
And this old house felt so alone when the work took me away
And when she dies she says, she'll catch some blackbird's wing
Then she will fly away to Heaven come some sweet bluebonnet spring

Highway Ninety, the jobs are gone
We tend our garden; we set the sun
This is the only place on earth blue bonnets grow;
And once a year they come and go at this old house here by the road
And when we die we say, we'll catch some blackbird's wing
And we will fly away to Heaven come some sweet bluebonnet spring

And when we die we say, we'll catch some blackbird's wing
We will fly away together come some sweet bluebonnet spring"

Tillamook Air Museum

Spring is flowering and one of our first is the Clematis on our back patio.

Since spring is here we had to get out in the RV so we drove north and then west to Tillamook and the Air Museum.


It's just past the 4th cow pasture then a hard right.


Out front is a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (Mini-Guppy) titled the Erickson Air Crane.


Superputter and Scrabble Queen posed in front of the entrance of the museum for me.


The huge hanger doors ride on train tracks to open.


It's hard to describe just how large this hanger really is. It was built as part of the coastal defense system. It's the largest wooden structure in the world. It was built in one year with the start in 1941 and finish date in 1942. I was born the following year. The plane you see inside is not a small plane but a large twin engine plane.


Inside they had one of the machines (Graphotype) used to make dogtags. We had them make a dogtag for Superputter with his name serial number and branch of service.


Here is a view of the hanger door from inside.


This picture, if you click on it shows the wooden planks used to construct the roof.


This is an F4u-7 Corsair.

With its inverted gull wing, and set back cockpit, military commanders felt the pilots would have a hard time landing on aircraft carriers. Eventually a new landing technique was developed in which the pilot made a wide, sweeping approach in order to keep an eye on the landing deck at all times until the last seconds when he would roll the wings level and pounce on the deck

The Air Museum also has it's own soda shop. We found out it was still cold in the hanger with the doors open so popping back in to warm up was a treat.


I know I should have gotten the names of all these aircraft but heck I just like the looks of them and I would forget them in a few days. We all liked this flying boat.


I like this sleek air force vintage fighter.


This is Billy Mitchell's Tangerine twin engine fighter. Billy is regarded as the father of the U.S. Air Force.

During and after WW1 he held a number of command and staff posts in the Air Service, both in France (1917-19), and in the US (Director of Military Aeronautics, 1919; Chief of Training and Operations, 1920). As Assistant to the Chief of Air Service (1921-26), he advocated the creation of an independent Air Service. He arranged demonstrations illustrating the utility of air power through the historic bomber vs. battleship trials (1921), the group flight to Alaska from the continental US (1923), and the Army's Around-the-World Flight of 1924.

Mitchell's public criticism of government policies, in defiance of Army regulations, resulted in his court martial for "conduct prejudicial of good order and military discipline" and insubordination in Oct-Dec 1925. Found guilty and suspended for five years, Mitchell resigned his commission in Jan 1926. He continued to promote aviation and decry government inefficiencies until his death.

I had to do a little censorship on this picture but it really is indicative of the times and the brave boys who did what they could to make the best of their dangerous service.


Fast and sleek the North American P-51 Mustang was an American long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. The P-51 became one of the conflict's most successful and recognizable aircraft.


We finally got to the Tillamook Cheese country where we saw a vintage London Omnibus.


Continued tomorrow

Quote of the Day -

In the development of air power, one has to look ahead and not backward and figure out what is going to happen, not too much what has happened. ~ Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, USAS.

Where is Our Blooming Spring

It's March so where is the blooming spring. We are in our third winter, I even played golf a week or so ago then it rained, got colder, again I might add, and the clouds are not aware they should be harassing North Dakota or Upstate New York. I'm getting my photography business slowly off the ground and sold three pictures (will deliver and get paid Monday) so it's a start.

I have a program on my PC that produces a cool fade in fade out slide show. I was testing some new batteries to see how long they last and in shooting the PC screen I got this image of a Morning Glory in the process of being replaced by a California Poppy. The result was a patriotic (red, white, and blue) image.

So now everyone knows what weird thing go on in my mind when I'm bored. It is a pretty cool image though created by chance. Perhaps I can sell it on E-Bay like the grilled cheese with Marys' image burned in or the screen with an image of Jesus. Well that's just my skeptic speaking. We are on the road near Portland just getting out to to get out again.

I even got so bored I entered one of my poems in a contest Blue Mountain Cards is having. Fat Chance but as I said I was bored but here is the poem

since i met you

my world is wider and deeper
the sky is bluer and higher
my rivers flow faster
oceans are deeper
waves higher
songs have notes sweeter by far
rainbows are brighter
soothing rain falls warmer
everyone is more beautiful
rock music rings true
flowers bloom earlier
nothing and everything has changed
since i met you

It isn't a rhyming poem but heck, at least it's mine.

Scrabble Score Scrabbled Queen 359 the contender 298 (or something like that)

Quote of the Day Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday

Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was a famous American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books have become staples for many children and their parents. Seuss' trademark was his rhyming text and outlandish creatures. He also wrote under the pseudonym Theo. LeSieg. He wrote and illustrated 48 children's books.
Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted's father was a parks commissioner in charge of a huge park that included within its borders a zoo and was located three blocks from the library