Salt Lake City, Utah

This has been a week of travel, staying only one or two nights at three different RV parks (Burns, OR, Weiser, ID and Wendell, ID).  Most of the time we didn't even put out all of the slides.  

Parked at the Intermountain RV Park in Wendell, Idaho

We traveled about 700 miles this week.  This is pretty much what we saw along the way.

We arrived in Salt Lake City on Friday night, staying at the Salt Lake City KOA.  We had high winds on Friday and Saturday.  So glad that we were parked and not on the road.  Hate wind!!

Then, today we went back to Temple Square here in Salt Lake City primarily to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir again. (We saw them on Mother's Day a year ago.)  It is worth attending if you are ever in Salt Lake City.  There are 360 voices in the choir and 110 people in the orchestra.  Every Sunday, the choir broadcasts live and has done so for the last 82 years.  It is the longest running radio show ever.  Today was their 4,224 broadcast. The public is allowed to watch them rehearse and then to watch the live presentation which is very uplifting.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir 2010

The Conference Center where the Choir performs in the summer can seat 21,000 people and it has no pillars holding up the balconies and ceiling.  In two weeks, they will move back to the Tabernacle.

Then, afterwards, we went with a guide on a garden tour.  Temple Square comprises 35 square acres and is the 16th most visited site in the United States (Times Square in NY being number one).  The gardens contain more than 165,000 bedded plants, 250 flower beds, and 700 varieties of plants from all over the world.  Most interestingly, much of the garden is considered a roof-top garden as there is a parking garage directly underneath.

We leave here tomorrow, going just up the road to Park City, Utah for a couple of weeks.

La Pine, Oregon - Cascade Meadows RV Resort (Second Time)

After the FMCA Rally, we drove across the street to the Caterpillar Service Center where we spent three nights.  Of course, we would rather have been someplace else, but some things can't be put off.
We finally got the engine overheating issue fixed.  Turns out, the main problem was that the radiator was nearly 40% blocked by dried mud, small stones and leaves.  (But the trip over the Top of the World Highway in Alaska last year was worth it!)  We are now good to go!

This is why we couldn't make the hills without the engine overheating!  (For those of you who think "now why couldn't they have seen this," the radiator is located directly behind the air cooler, thus making it impossible to see.)

Came back to the same place we were at just prior to the Rally.  In fact, we have now made the Cascade Meadows RV Resort our "home park" for Coast-to-Coast purposes.

Having sat in the Caterpillar customer service waiting room for three days at the beginning of this week, we made up for it by biking 15 miles round-trip into La Pine to get a Subway yesterday. Not only that, Jerry ran for nearly an hour in the morning and I went back to my water aerobics in the morning for the third time since we arrived here again.

Water Aerobics (Hey Jan, I heard through the grapevine that you are also doing water aerobics.  Maybe I can go with you when we get to Cold Spring in October.)

Sunset seen from the RV park.

Jerry and Chanti as the sun is setting. (We like to bike around the park after dinner each day.)

We leave here tomorrow heading towards Utah. 

Redmond, Oregon - FMCA Rally

We've spend a great week at the 2010 Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Rally here in Redmond, Oregon.  Weather was absolutely perfect: high 80s to low 90s during the day, and 60s during the night.  There are 2,282 RVs at this Rally and the whole Rally is spread out over acres of the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center.  Our bikes really came in handy as we rode from one seminar or event to another.

See the snow capped mountains in the background.

Jerry stood on top of our RV to get this picture.

Attendees relaxing during lunchtime.

On Tuesday night, Debbie Reynolds spoke to the attendees, giving all an insight into her life, together with pictures and filmclips from some of her movies.  She was inspiring, being able to look back at some of the incidents in her life with humor.  She still looks great at 78 and even sang "Tammy" which brought back memories. 

Debbie Reynolds talks to the FMCA attendees.

On another night, we were entertained by the "Texas Tenors" who came in fourth in the 2009 "America's Got Talent" show.  What great voices and range of songs they sang -- everything from classical to country.  We loved the show, as did the audience. 

Tonight, we will attend the "Forever Motown" performance that we feel will also be great.

We were able to bike into town (a 10-mile round trip that day) and around the countryside.

Area around the Expo Center in Redmond, Oregon

The Traveling Vietnam Memorial was in Redmond and we made it a point to bike to it.  Even though I have seen the original Memorial in Washington, D.C., seeing this Memorial is always an emotional experience -- especially since the Vietnam War was at the forefront of what many of us encountered in one way or another during our early years.  And for all those who fought in the war or gave their lives during that period, we owe a hugh debt of gratitude. 

Since we forgot our cameras, we took these pictures with our cell phones.

The Traveling Vietnam Memorial in Redmond, Oregon.

Jerry finds the name of a high school classmate (Larry Stevens) who is an MIA (missing in action).

A remembrance of other conflicts and the names of those US participants who died in those conflicts.

We leave here tomorrow, but plan to stay in the area as we have an appointment first thing Monday morning to get the engine checked out once again.

La Pine, Oregon - Cascade Meadows RV Resort

We have been mainly on hold this week while staying at the Cascade Meadows RV Resort. 

The weather this week has been perfect -- 80s during the day and 40s at night.   

Many of the people staying here are doing so as they make their way to Redmond, Oregon this coming week for the annual Family Motor Coach Association Rally, as we are doing.  Redmond is only 45 miles from La Pine, and our check-in time on Monday is from 8-12 p.m.  So, we have to leave here early tomorrow morning so that we can first get some grocery shopping done before we spend a week dry-camping at the Rally.

This week, Jerry worked on his book and I got introduced to water aerobics.  Did it five days in a row, and Jerry joined me on Saturday, too.  It sure is the old people's way of exercising -- no impact, continuous joint movements and FUN!  Also, we biked around the place everyday.  Quite a relaxing week!

Crater Lake, Oregon

So I got confused in the last blog.  August 2 is on Monday, not Tuesday.  Thus, we leave this beautiful Crater Lake area tomorrow.  But, first, here is how our week went.

We are the Diamond Lake RV Park.  This RV park is located about 9 miles from Crater Lake.  We came just to see Crater Lake.

I first learned about Crater Lake when I was 10 years old, when for some unexplained reason, there was a picture of the lake and a brief discussion of how it was formed on the back cover of one of my music sheets.  For 60 years I had wanted to see this lake.   So, on Tuesday (July 29), we drove to Crater Lake.

The drive was up the mountain with absolutely no shoulder along side of the road.  There was still

snow around.

Crater Lake was formed when Mount Mazama erupted some 7,700 years ago, sending a minimum of 6 inches of ash over 5,000 miles, and sending 10 feet of ash closer to the volcano.

The remaining upper portion of the mountain collapsed, creating a 6-mile wide caldera that now holds Crater Lake.  The lake is 2,000 feet deep and is extremely pristine with visibility up to 144 feet.  It's deep blue color is unusual.

Here are a few more of the many pictures we took.

The rest of the week, we relaxed and biked quite a bit, including a nearly 12-mile ride around Diamond Lake.   

Not sure if you can see this, but this is a picture of the Google map on my Droid that tracked our trip around the lake.

Then in the evenings, we walked to the lake and sat on the dock that rocks like we are on a boat. 

We loved this place and hope to come back again someday.