Land Crusing 2011 Draws to a Close

Our 2011 "Land Cruise" is now drawing to a close.  Our route, after bidding goodbye to Ryan, Chelsey, Jayden and Ethan in McCall, took us west into the Columbia Gorge and on to Salem, Oregon, before heading north through Portland, Vancouver and the Olympic Peninsula. 

The Columbia Gorge is where wind generators are now abundant!!  This is why wind and kite surfing is so big here!!

Mt. Hood from the Gorge highway

 Our first stop was Boardman, OR to visit the old Potlatch hybrid poplar plantations John started in the early 90's (now owned by Greenwood Resources).  These plantations now cover some 30,000 acres and are being harvested every 12 years, primarily for non-structural lumber/boards (moldings, pencils (that's right pencils....China purchases a significant amount for that use), pallet stock etc...).  Greenwood Resources (GWR) is also involved in new short-rotation and energy operations in China, Poland, Chile and the US.  Check them out at http://www.greenwoodresources.com/

Boardman, OR Marina and RV Park

 Don Rice, who we have known for many years, manages US operations for GWR and gave John a great tour of the farm, sawmill and a chance to visit with the farm management team, most of whom John had hired when the project began.   John is still obviously very energized by this technology.....Great Day!!! 

Don Rice standing in a 1-year old polar plantation

The Boardman's chip and lumber mill is located in the center of the farm... very efficient!!

Some of the 1,000's of acres of poplar....much can be seen from I-84 near Boardman. 

Great evening with Don and Fran!!

 From Boardman we continued west and then south to Aumsville, OR (near Salem) to visit Bill and Mary Atkinson.  Bill was John's graduate school committee chairman when he was at the UofW. We have stayed in-touch with him since the early 70's.....

Bill and Mary's tree farm....right out their back door

Demonstrating their new wood splitter...they heat solely with wood.

Mary's solar cooker preparing potatoes for dinner....it worked great!!

 Moving north to Portland we had a chance to pay a visit to other long-time friends, Jake Eaton and Jeff Nuss.  Jake worked with John at Potlatch for many years (including the Boardman poplar farm start-up).  Jake now heads up international project development for GWR.  Jeff was with CH2MHILL when the Potlatch farm started in the late 1980's and was one of the engineers who worked with John on the development of the farms drip irrigation system (yes, all that poplar at Boardman is drip irrigated!!).  Jeff was also energized by the prospects of short-rotation farming and ultimately started GWR.  Jeff, CEO, has been very successful developing the short-rotation/energy plantation concepts and attracting investment capital.   

Jake (left) and Jeff...

 We then  jumped across the Columbia River to Vancouver, Wa to catch up with our cruising friends, Chris and Sandy (s/v Faith).  They are also spending hurricane season in an RV.  We have crossed paths several times during our 3 years cruising Mexico.

Chris and Sandy...great evening

 Continuing north to the Olympic Peninsula we made a stop at Poulsbo, WA., a truly Scandinavian atmosphere in a small town on Puget Sound. 

Main Street Poulsbo

One of several murals in town...

Refreshments overlooking the Marina

 The stop in Poulsbo also offered us chance to join Scott and Karen Norton for dinner.  They have a great location on Manzanita Bay, Bainbridge Island.  Scott and John were high school buddies...good time and a great meal of fresh Dungeness crab!!!

 Just north of Poulsbo is Port Townsend and Fort Worden State Park and a chance to visit Gary and Lana Wiles....builders of Eager Dreamer, our Bingham Ketch sailboat that we sailed to Mexico in 2008.  We became very good friends during our tenure with Eager Dreamer...and remain so.  
Fort Worden is 1 of 3 Forts (Forts Casey, Worden and Flagler called the "triangle of fire") built between 1897 and 1911 as the first line of defense guard Puget Sound cities and more importantly the naval shipyards in Bremerton.   The development of airplanes and submarines made these forts obsolete and the Army vacated these forts in the early 50's.

Fort Worden State Park...near Port Townsend.  Also the location for filming of "An Officer and a Gentleman"

Touring the hilltop gun emplacements...one of the three such forts that guarded the entrance to Puget Sound.

  

Downtown Port Townsend waterfront

Dinner with Gary and Lana and family

Gary's restored 40 Ford....He had just won 1st place at the Port Townsend Classic Car Show the day we arrived....

Lana's Fresh Blackberry Pie

Gary's son Sean and wife Joy hosted us for a great dinner...steak/shrimp and fresh blackberry pie!!

One of the few cloudy days we had in the 3-months RV'n...

 From Port Townsend we ferried over to Whidby Island and then back up to Bellingham to babysit Shamus for Lindsay for a couple days.... Rough duty we know, but someone has to do it!!

John and Shamus testing their "fit" on Ryan's new Harley

Bedtime story.....

Day at Birch Bay with Shamus

Shamus just couldn't keep up with our schedule of FUN....

Saying Goodbye to Lindsay and Shamus....we hope to have them join us on Serena Ray next year.

 Well....as they say, all good things must come to and end....as is the case for our "2011 Land Cruise". It was time to return the RV to John's brother (who will being RV'n this fall) and begin preparing for our return to Panama. 

Just a few more visits though for Rosie.  First, with Rosie's sister Margie in Bellevue, WA.  This visit also afforded a chance to see the her nephew's kids Caitlyn and Cameron.

Sister Margie and Katlin

Rosie also had a chance to have lunch with several of her Ballard high school friends.... 

Ballard High Grads...1966

Sunset in Bellingham, WA

Well, it's time for us to get back to Panama and Serena Ray.  During this year's land cruise we covered over 3,000 miles in 77 days, through 5 states and most importantly gave us an opportunity for great visits with family and many friends.   We were amazed how great the weather has been....we only recall a few cloudy days and no rain to speak of the entire trip. 

We will board our plane for Panama City on Thursday morning and will be back aboard Serena Ray on Friday.  We are looking forward to getting home!!

We want to thank our family and all our our friends for their generous hospitality during our visits...we really had a fantastic time!!  We still chuckle a bit when we pull into someones driveway for a visit (we stayed in friends driveways 25 nights this trip) because we always think about Chevy Chase and the movie Christmas Vacation, when his brother-in-law shows up with the RV.

Best wishes to you all...we'll update the blog somewhere from Panama....