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

The Great Salt Lake

In trying to capture the memories for ourselves through this blog, the first 156 photos have been time consuming to go through. We aren't the best photographers so it is sorting through some not-so-good shots.

This is dusk after leaving the mountains and valleys of Salt Lake City and moving out into the far west. This the the famous Great Salt Lake. Learn about it at
http://utah.com/stateparks/great_salt_lake_facts.htm

We saw the Morton Salt Factory further west. See the salt logo from the circular box? The next factory had a huge salt pile. Some of us don't use Morton's any longer but I found it interesting to see how and where it all comes from. - Karen

"Lookout" - still more to see - Utah

We never take pictures of ourselves but we tried to remember to capture ourselves as much as the scenery. The horse and owner we saw from afar was so beautiful to see and it reminded us of the horses we miss at home. We decided to say hi. I didn't catch her name but she lives in Idaho and was traveling home from Indiana. She is a traveling nurse. She takes her cat and horse wherever she goes. My sister explained they take jobs where they are needed. She must be provided with housing, in whatever state she ends up in, to house a horse and cat. It sounded like a neat life.

The green hills are on the south side of the highway, opposite the trains and rocky hills from the last post. So enjoyable to see the green of spring and early summer in the desert. - Karen

Utah - entering rest stop and lookout

We saw such beautiful rocks at this lookout. We were so small in all its greatness. Brian snapped a lot of shots of this area for great ideas in creating landscape for his model railroad. The trains looked like models against the huge rocks. We found animals, (horses and cows) amongst the rocks and tracks. barely visible.

On the road

Well we are packed in. I am trying to blog but it wasn't successful for much of the trip due to lack of internet connection. Did we overpack? Yes probably brought twice what we used, except lacking warm enough clothes, it seems. Always surrounded with coolers of foods to snack on - we kept making cocoa, sunflower butter, raw honey fudge. Brian's listening to Harry Potter book on tape and Tracy started a sequel to Peter Pan but went back to check out the original book.

Remember "Where' Waldo" or Highlights magazine finding the items in the picture. I could set that game up for you looking at the picture of Tracy's book. Start by finding the dog - do you see him? He is so used to traveling in the car almost daily and days on end he finds his spot and spreads out until he starts to own the whole seat - per Tracy. Windmills were put up since we were last here. - Karen

Heading out of Wyoming

Coming out of Wyoming, just looking at the magnitude of the rocks reminds us how wonderfully vast and huge our beautiful universe is and we were again wanting to capture the beauty. The tunnels - Gregg loves - are on the way out and into Utah. Alot of this area we have photographed over and over and filled the "my pictures" file on the computer with due to the 10 or more trips driving out to Salt Lake City, Utah for a week trip or a month long with Gregg's job. Wonderful memories and yet the beauty is still breathtaking in person each time. The weather seemed grandeur in the mountains so we captured alot of storm clouds. - Karen

We finally found "The Mine"

Is this The Mine? For many many years, while traveling with Gregg to Utah for work, we searched for this mine. We would head off the highway hoping to get close to it, but not quite finding it or not being able to see much. The antelope always would stop to stare wondering why we were venturing into their area.

Brian loves mines and open pit mines best of all. Well here it was, right on the highway. Is it the one - only our friend Cameron could tell us for sure, since he travels here for Caterpillar to check on the big rigs. We saw the sign and the large (so much larger up close of course) dump trucks as they came around the corner and then disappeared into the earth. The sign had the coolest description. Explosions in Use: Blast warning at 5 minutes before blast. A wail siren will be sounded for 10 seconds. At 2 minutes before detonation a 2 tone siren will be sounded. At 30 seconds before the blast a yelp siren will be sounded. After the blast the area will be cleared by mine personnel to assure the area is safe to reenter. We didn't get to experience all that excitement. Wow, would it have been cool.

If you click on the pictures and enlarge them they aren't as blurry looking. Again the photos don't capture the awe we experienced. The last photo is difficult to see but it is the huge boom to pick up rock (Ursa Major or Ursa Minor) and the one on the right is the drill to place the explosives in the ground - per Gregg. We felt like kids straining our necks to see what all the big people get to see, bummer.... Cool stuff anyway. Brings us back to the movies Brian watched when he was little "I dig dirt" and all the huge rigs. - Karen