Our friends, Jeanne and Jacqueline, invited us to visit them for the 4th of July at their place, which they have named Raven Star . Their property is in a rural area up on a hill overlooking the small town of Prineville in central Oregon. Their balcony was the perfect place to enjoy the town’s fireworks show. While I wasn’t able to capture any pictures of the fireworks, try to imagine them going offf against the backdrop of the mountain in the middle of this picture:
Both Jeanne and Jacqueline are artists. Jeanne began designing and making jewelry when she retired a few years ago, and Jacqueline paints and teaches art at a college in Portland, OR. When they bought this property they talked about making it a retreat for artists to visit and find inspiration.
Jacqueline’s parents live nearby and we were able to stop by to visit them again. We met them a few years ago when we first came up to visit. It is always nice to see old friends, especially after seeing almost no one for over a year in 2020.
After a few days in Prineville we headed toward Washington. As I’ve said before, RV travel time is very different from our old days of traveling in a car. We have made the trip from Prineville to Spokane Valley in one day (about eight hours) in our car…in the RV it took us two days.
We headed north from central Oregon and crossed the Columbia River, which is beautiful!
Shortly after heading east along the river we noticed a sign for Stonehenge. We were a bit confused because we thought Stonehenge was in England, but we stopped to check it out. It turned out to be a replica of Stonehenge created to be a monument to military personnel who gave their lives in World War I.
A bit west of Walla Walla, WA is an Army Corp of Engineers park called Plymouth Park Campground. It was a very nice park with great pull through sites and plenty of shade from the heat that was building up.
After just one night here we woke up to discover that spiders had been busy covering our jeep and RV in webs. It has taken us over a week (and 3 states) to finally feel like the spiders are gone. We liked the park but can’t recommend it because of the spiders.
We arrived in Spokane Valley the next day to see our friend Pat. She and another friend, Nancy, had planned for us to take a walk around Manito Park the next day. ” A park commission was formed in 1907 with annual funding, and in 1913 the famed Olmsted Brothers firm completed their landscaping plans for Spokane parks, including Manito Park. The Park was at one time a zoo until 1932 when the zoo closed down because of the lack of funding during the Great Depression. Today some remnants of the zoo can still be seen, such as an iron bar sticking out of a rock that was once part of the bear cages.” – Wikipedia
After touring the grounds with an expert who walks there often (thank you Nancy), we toured the nearby neighborhoods. Our first stop – Rockwood Bakery, because we needed sustenance, of course.
Just outside of the bakery was a beautiful smoke bush. We had never seen one and this one seemed to be in full bloom.
Pat and I worked together in the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, but we are not librarians. Nancy, however, is a librarian. And, when you take a walk with a librarian you almost always end up at a library (hehe).
We took a drive out to the nearby town of Rockford, WA, because Pat wanted to take us to the Hurd Mercantile & Company store. It was the kind of place where you spend way too much time because everywhere you look there is something to see.
Pat also wanted to try a restaurant in town that she had seen but never been to. We tried it and it was cute, the food wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure it is something to go out of our way to try again.
While in town we noticed a small Pioneer Museum. Pat hadn’t been so we all decided to check it out. It was cute and there were some interesting artifacts from Rockford’s past.
Pat noticed a set of “Cyclopedias” when we were in the museum, which got us all wondering what is the difference between and encyclopedia and a cyclopedia. In case you were also wondering, here is the answer:
“the difference between encyclopedia and cyclopedia
is that encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with in-depth articles (usually arranged in alphabetical order, or sometimes arranged by category) on a range of subjects, sometimes general, sometimes limited to a particular field while cyclopaedia is (archaic) the circle or compass of the arts and sciences (originally, of the seven so-called liberal arts and sciences); circle of human knowledge.” – Wikidiff.com
Within this little museum was an area about schools in the pioneer days. We found the rules for teachers and the punishments interesting. Definitely couldn’t get away with that nowadays.
We enjoyed our time with Pat, partly because we got to hang out with her cats. Phantom is such a character, and so playful, it was fun to be around him. Missy (who never sat for her portrait) was sweet and such a lover. Having left our cats at home this time it was nice to get some cuddle and play time in with these two.
After a few days with Pat we continued north to do something we’ve been talking about for a long time – drive along Highway 2. “U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning 2,571 miles (4,138 km) across the northern continental United States.” – Wikipedia
Thanks for sharing the great photos and stories! I would not have dealt well with the spiders. Glad you’re finally escaping the heat; we now have heat and humidity. 🥵
Wishing you continued safe travels!
Bonny Koffler
As always, the photos were full of information.
Thank you.
The rules for teachers caught my attention…..they were like nuns living in a convent ! The punishments were quite barbaric. I would have never thought they existed !
Yes, all these huge fires in many places of the country…..glad you were able to get away from those areas especially from the smoke and heat!
Take care,
Rod and Sasha