The Think Tank

Debbie and Sandy invited us down to Sweet Home to take part in the town’s Independence Day celebrations, culminating in a big fireworks display at the reservoir.  As is usual for us, we left late so we missed most of the festivities, but we did get to see the fireworks show.  Apparently it was scaled down from years past, victim of the poor economy, but it still seemed pretty good to us!

On the way out of town we got a Google Alert about a new chair for our den that was too good of a deal to pass up, so we detoured to go check it out and wound up purchasing it.  Since we had the fancy new chair with us, I hauled it out of the van and set it up on the roadside and turned it into the best camp chair ever!  We got a lot of comments from the passers-by, let me tell you!

Sorry for the delay in getting these up.  Seems like it has been a busy week, mainly because we have been doing extra, last minute training for STP (which is next weekend).

Any way, the photos we took over the Fourth of July weekend are up on the gallery site.  As always you can get there by clicking on the image or by clicking on the “Think Tank Gallery” link above.  Most of the shots are from the fireworks display in Pacific City that Mo, Mom, Debbie and I went to.  There are also some shots from our very own fireworks display as well.

Debbie got some good shots of both, in addition to some shots of our annual barbecue, but I haven’t gotten those from her yet.  I’ll add them when I can.

Last weekend Mom, myself, Joel and Maure set out for what we intended to be a biking weekend in Eastern Oregon.  Our original plan had been to visit Crater Lake, but due the abnormally cool and wet spring, a large portion of the Rim Drive was inaccessible under a late snowfall.  In fact, the forecast the weekend was for lows in the 20’s and snow Saturday night, which did not sound like good biking weather to us.

We made up a new plan pretty much on the spot Friday morning, deciding on the John Day Fossil Beds because they were supposed to be beautiful, there was ample camping available, and the weather was supposed to be warm with only a slim chance of rain on Saturday night.  Maybe even an isolated thunder storm, which is always cool and might make for some neat photos.

In the event, we definitely got the thunderstorms but that was about all that went according to plan.

(continue reading…)

Sammy lived where my Aunt works, and sadly he passed away a couple of weeks ago after a long and comfortable life.  I’d taken a few shots of him over the years and his friends at Gateway asked that I put a few of them up on the website.

I have been remiss in my duties until now.

These are all of the shots that I have found of Sammy so far.  If I come across any additional pics, I will post them as well.

I hope all of Sammy’s friends can find some happiness and comfort in these photos.

Gettin’ ready to ride

Joel and I decided to ride in the Pioneer Century in Canby last Saturday.  We figured it would be good training for Seattle To Portland.

This ride is an annual event put on by the Portland Wheelmen Touring Club.  Without a doubt this was the best value of any organized ride we’ve been on yet.  There was cold and hot cereal in the morning for all of the riders, along with coffee, hot cocoa, and coffeecake.  Each rider also received a couple small tubes of sun screen, a mini flat-repair kit, granola bars and some other swag that I can’t remember.  On the trail we were met with fully stocked rest stops every 20 miles or so, each with Gatorade, granola bars, oranges, bananas, fresh strawberries and blue berries, pineapples, cookies, crackers, juices, trail mix…  And if that weren’t enough, our registration also bought us lunch at the halfway point.  There was even a masseuse at the fairgrounds, which was also included in our whopping $25 dollar entry fee.

(continue reading…)