The Grounds

We started to walk the grounds and saw the most beautiful blooming cactus. Not something we would see in the Midwest. The greenhouses throughout grow the raw foods the Angel's Health Institute uses for medicinal healing and workshops they give to teach others. There is a neat video that was recorded talking to the owners about why they created this amazing place. The use of music at a specific vibrational level played for the wheatgrass and other plants does amazing things to the growth and nutritional value. Walking into the greenhouses and hearing it affected us as well - we are energy too!!! Enjoy the video:

Raw Union Festival - Central Point, OR

We are sorry for the long delay in posting. Life got in the way when we returned home. We gathered all the hundreds of photos and we can now share with you the destination, Raw Union.

We arrived at the farm and were able to set up our tent before dark. We took pictures of the tent area although none of those are ours. Our tent was next to a stage where many guest speakers talked and music was performed each night. We were given clear instructions upon arrival to watch for rattlesnakes, scorpions, skunks and poison oak. The grounds covered acres of rolling hills and was so peaceful. Always remember enlarge the photos for a better view.

Ashland, Oregon

We made it through the national park to a main road and gas station which was desperately needed. Imagine back in the day, back to the time when all gas stations had "full service". Do you remember that time? Full Service meant someone pumped that gas for you. Well they do that at every station in the whole state. We stumbled across a pump attendant who grew up in the Chicago suburbs. We had a great talk about the difference in the areas and environment and lifestyle. It was such a neat things to meet someone who knew where we came from and we told him about our journey to this raw vegan food fest. He said it is a wonderful place to live and I would agree in just the short time we were in the state. Another benefit besides the beauty, healthy lifestyle, easy access to local fresh organic food and clean water is no sales tax or state tax. Wow. The kids and I started to re-evaluate our future home destination.

Entering Oregon

We are in southeast Oregon working our way (not on a main freeway) to Central Point, Oregon. I learned on this trip that a route to somewhere can be on a map and it can look like a good straight route but the elevation is something to consider as well. Do I regret all the mountainous driving - absolutely not. That main freeway, yes, you see the land too but not like this. Well Oregon was not a straight flat path either. Imagine constant driving up and down mountains through unending forest and national parks. You know the roads where the heavy forest trees are on both sides of you hugging the road and it meanders right left sharp turns back and forth for hours. I don't think I have ever been in national parks so long and for so many miles. Every now and then we would see through trees at the beautiful mountains and cliffs and water and more mountains. We were on a huge time crunch with all the stops and elevation driving that took more time so photo shooting didn't take place. It was hard to tell when we were getting close to Ashland Oregon which was 30 miles south of our destination and we thought the exit back to a main freeway.

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Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge

When we got to a more straight route heading north through Nevada we spent most of our time driving through Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. It is a 1/2 million acres of high desert habitat for large wintering herds of pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and other wildlife. We didn't see the wildlife they described. We saw horses and donkeys but not much that looked wild. The precipitation per year is about 12 inches total which is quite harsh environment. Many old homesteads and ranches are along the road. Had we had time to stop and detour, which we do often, we would have stopped at the fire opal mines that rock collectors love. Brian's other love is mining and fine gems. There were amazing waterfalls and gorges and springs that would be around each turn. There was no safe place to stop and admire the falls, so we shot pictures whenever we could catch them before the next turn. In the driving mode and not really being able to check the clarity of the photo on the computer in the mountains some came out a bit blurry and not near as vibrant as we saw. Hopefully our memories hold the beauty inside. These were views where we would have loved to stop by the rushing meandering rivers and enjoy the sound of the rushing water and relax in watching the water move over the land.

Nevada to Southern Oregon

We took the route we thought most direct to southern Oregon from Nevada. It was direct but it was mountainous and rugged land. Huge cliffs and beauty that we had to stop and admire. The drops off the road were far steeper then any we saw in the Rocky Mountains. If you stepped out of the car and looked down it was straight down with no guard rails. It was mostly rock so the trees didn't block the road we took down and we could look back to see where we came from and it was a super neat drive and drop in elevation. The rock was like lava and black. We collect rocks on all our journeys and place them outside at home as memories. I was asking Gregg how he could fit a huge bolder in the car to place as a large stone in the yard. He laughed. The cliffs had clouds and rain drop down making a wonderful sight. Temperatures dropped as well.

Heading out of Winnemucca, Nevada

We came upon one of Gregg and Brian's favorite things, war planes, tanks and cannons. The war memorial on the outskirts of town had all those things, to stop and admire. Couldn't climb on them, like Cantigny Park in Chicago suburbs, but still a treasure. A wonderful spontaneous stop for them to enjoy. The photo of the homes and hills down from the memorial, was the kids' surprise, to see a house with solar panels in this small town.

Winnemucca, Nevada

We drove for many many hours into the night making our way from Utah to Nevada. As we entered Nevada before sundown we passed gas stations we could not photograph quick enough upon passing in the car, that all had signs that looked like the strip in Vegas. Signs resembling marques with flashing lights. We knew we were in Nevada then.

We stayed in Winnemucca (pronounced Winn-ah-muhcc-ah) Two hours north of Reno in the middle of the desert. We arrived at the campsite in the wee hours of the morning once again. We are never certain what each campsite will look like since we have never camped before. It is always a surprise to see and figure out how we will set up camp, whether it will be gravel, rock, dirt or weeds, in which to place the tent on and stake it down. We got the tent up in the dark hopefully without waking everyone else with the headlights and rustling. We suspected since we were the only tenters the rv's were more sound proof. We slept a short time and got up to shower, eat our fruit, prepare salads for lunch and wash clothes. That is the extra hours of the day I did not figure in to this journey of ours along with all the sightseeing we were squeezing into a 24 hour day. The sun came up and it was still cool for the first hour but then the desert heat kicked in and we changed clothes quick. We stayed at Hi-Desert RV park. The facilities were nice yet we had so many more hours to go to reach Oregon with a evening deadline to have our tent on site, we didn't get to enjoy it as long as we would have liked. The town of Winnemucca was hard to maneuver with the street layout but the grocery stores carried amazing (and I mean amazing for the location) organic and whole foods and some of the prepackaged snacks we eat occasionally. We bought more fruit and moved on.

The desert wildflowers were abundant and Tracy took pictures of many and placed them on her blog http://fancyfelina.blogspot.com