Author: Mike Pekrul

4am. It’s dark. It’s quiet. It’s still kinda cool but it’ll be hot later. There’s almost no cars on the highway. Susy and I tore ourselves from the bed and headed out, we had to be there by 5:30 or we might be left behind. We drove to the airport and there was no one…

Yesterday we went for another bike ride on the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. That’s the old Highway 30, which was the first paved road in Oregon, built in the early 1900’s. It follows the Columbia River all the way along the gorge for mile after mile. Some of it was overtaken when Interstate…

I’ve never been to England or anywhere in the UK for that matter. France and Belgium are the closest I’ve been. And now the state of Washington. At least it was kinda like England today. Near the town of Maryhill Washington, a man named Samuel Hill, a hundred years ago, built a full scale replica…

We moved to the Columbia Gorge, east of Portland OR, on Sunday. Not so much what I’d call a “gorge”, it’s a huge broad valley and expanse of river flowing slowly to the west, though there are tall sharp cliffs on both sides. Sunday night we had the first rain we’ve seen in months. The…

We booked a whale watching tour for this morning out of Depoe Bay OR. When we arrived, we found crowds of people standing and waiting for word whether the tours were even happening today or not. Apparently the sea conditions were not so great, and getting out of the harbor across the bar was kinda…

On Tuesday, we got up early (8:30 am!!) and had breakfast out and then went into Newport OR, the “Dungeness Crab Capital of the World”. Evidence of crab fishing is everywhere here! Stacks of traps, giant crab signs, places advertising crabs for sale, steamed or boiled, crab sandwiches, crab cakes, just plain containers of crab…

Week before last, back in Reedsport OR where I flipped the dune buggy, it was quite chilly most of the week. 40’s at night, up to 60 in the day. Then we moved about 50 miles inland to Lebanon OR for a week and the temps were in the 90’s. Not so horribly hot as…

Started the morning by hiking to a few waterfalls. Pretty easy, a couple miles and only a couple hundred feet of elevation. McDowell Creek Falls, Royal Terrace Falls, and Majestic Falls. Only pics of the second two, McDowell falls wasn’t so impressive. In the evening, we finally had another night out on the town. Susy…

Back in school, I hated history class. It was required, so I had to take it, but I always refused to be engaged by it. Somebody did something to someone, so long ago that it was all Who Cares. Somewhen during my life, I started to get interested. I’ve read more history books for fun…

The holiday started with a call from Lindy, a friend back home, to let me know our gang was booking campsites for July next year and to remind me to jump fast. Done deal, our first campsite for 2026 is booked and waiting. That got me thinking of all our friends and family back home.…