More of Mt. Rainier

On the left is

Madcap Falls.

To the right is the forest we hiked through to the falls.

We are now in Ashland for a week.

Mt. Rainier National Park Waterfalls

Narada Falls is on the

left - a small hike down to the bottom of the falls.

On the right is Carter Falls which was a 2.2 hike straight up.

Mt. Rainier is a spectacular park with such a spiritual quality to it. Wish we could have been there in July for the wildflowers.

The campground had no electricity - no TV for Earl but he managed!

Case of the Missing Basket

Earl hung his latest pine needle basket with a scroll sawed middle piece

(with a scroll sawed butterfly on top of that) above our slide on the wall in the living room. Lo and behold, when we arrived at Ike Kinswa State Park, it was gone!

First thought, someone stole it - impossible.

The mystery was solved when Earl climbed the ladder, looked at the top of the living room slide, and there it was! A bit wet, a bit out of shape!

What happened? When we were traveling and the slide was in, the basket must have dropped on the top of the slide. When we arrived, we pushed the button and the slide goes out (with the basket on top!) Hence, the pouring rain attacked it.

It is salvageable. Earl will "paint" the basket with wax and reshape it and almost as good as new!

Lake Mayfield at Ike Kinswa State Park, WA

Earl took these photos as we camp on the western side of the Cascade Range of WA.

Eight NOMADS working at Ocean Park

Here are the infamous 10 picnic tables we women cut, assembled and built! We all also built the patio cover, built a garbage storage shed to keep away the "resident" bear, painted 10 other tables, painted ten other tables, etc. We said goodbye to Ocean Park Methodist Retreat Center...on to Mt. Rainier tomorrow.

Earl Ziplining

Not since Costa Rican jungles has Earl ziplined. His chance came at our camp where there awaited a pole to climb and a zipline to scurry across. No macahs, no jungle canopy, just the scream as he took off! Instead of going to another wooden landing to be caught by a native, he swung to the other end, came back on the zipline, to be caught by an employee on a ladder!

Just to let you know that Earl was the only brave one of the eight of us working here this week!
In Costa Rica, you hike to the top zipline. Chris and Shahela were happy eating termites on the way and looking at poison frogs! Then you "fly" to seven or eight landings. Earl was proud he could climb the pole AND do the dangerous feat!

One more day and we are on to another beach site by ourselves with the final destination being Mt. Rainier. I attend another "Death and Dying" conference at Rogue Valley Medical Center on September 26,27 and then "home" to Klamath Falls and KOA for our doctor appointments. Then heading south to Tucson where we will work at a homeless shelter from November 2-19 and then another month in Tucson for Christmas.

We send love to all...you might consider being a "Follower" because then you will know when we have posted another blog!

Barband Earl

Never Heard of Ocean Park, Washington????

Northward, southward, then eastward ho! We are traveling in our 31' Arctic Fox fifth wheel and Chevrolet diesel pickup. First stop, the Methodist Retreat Center in Ocean Park, WA, above Astoria. We labored 3 days this week assembling and painting tables, building a storage shed for garbage to fool the resident bear, and two of us are building a roof under which hamburgers can be barbecued without getting sopped in the rain! They feed us lunch and dinner! The ocean here has six rows of waves and no swimming is allowed. Bikes took us to the Hot Rodders convention in town; tomorrow we'll borrow kayaks for Loomis Lake. Yesterday was 85 degrees. The town of Oysterville is quaint and the buildings were built early in the century by those who owned the oyster farming businesses. Remember the Ocean Spray cranberry ads on T.V. Well, the cranberries are grown here!!! There is even a Cranberry Museum. (9/12/09)