Our Camp Host Job Begins

Monday - Bend  The window repair company came and replaced our foggy window.  We had a conference call at noon and then packed up and hit the road.  Today we drove Hwy 97 north out of Bend and then northwest on Hwy 26.   We unhooked the car outside of Warm Springs and headed up the grade toward Mt. Hood.  Gary could tell he was not getting full power - we have had trouble before with spark plug wires.  But, we kept going and praying.  The roads were dry and there was not quite as much traffic as the day before.  As we got to the top of the pass, there was snow alongside the road, but not as much as the day before, the road was dry and the day was warmer.  The scenery was beautiful as we climbed higher to the mountains where the tall pines covered the mountainsides.
We arrived at Wildwood about 4:30 and went to the office to find out where we should park.  Mark, the park ranger, was there and directed us to the Group Picnic Area host site, we backed in and got set up.  The weather was nice, so we went for a short walk around the park.  The park has many paved hiking trails and also unimproved trails here and in the area. This park has part of the Oregon trail going through it, so we will be hiking it to find the wagon ruts and markers.  We are here now for three months of fun and exploring!

Mt. Hood ahead

Marker at Wildwood - wagon ruts are down this trail

Tuesday - our boss, Brian, stopped by and took us on a short tour of the park.  He drove us in his golf cart around many of the trails, showing us where things were and exploring the area.  He wants us to really get out and walk all the trails and know what is here for any questions we may get from the visitors.  He took us to the office and shop area, told us we can use any of the equipment they have and use the office and shop.  The office building has a laundry room and lounge area with cable TV, computer and good Wi-Fi signal.  We took a rake and big broom back to our site to clean up the paved area, moving the pine needles off so we have more space.  It will be damp here, so it is nice to have the pavement instead of rocks or dirt.  Gary washed the motorhome and we finished setting up.
Late afternoon we drove in to Sandy, the closest bigger town, about 15 miles away. We went to the Goodwill store there and I found another rug to use, to help protect my good rugs from all the pine needles as we come inside with our shoes.  We stopped for an early supper at the Bunsen Brewery, found it opened about 3 months ago.  They had great sandwiches and we found more good beer there.  Gary had their Stout and I had one called Fahrenheit, a red amber with jalapeno pepper in it.  It was really good and not hot spicy like you would think.  Afterward we went to the Fred Meyer store and got the groceries we needed. Home, put things away and organized for the stay here.

The path from our campsite

Wednesday - today we had orientation for hosting.  One of the other couples had arrived late Tuesday and joined us.  Anne and Dick from Florida.  They will be hosting for four months, staying longer because they traveled farther to be here.  Dick is originally from Oregon, but they have lived in Florida for many years.  They are older than us, but ready to enjoy the area and are hard workers.  They have good friends in Portland they will spend time with.  We finished the paperwork we needed to do and then went out to get golf cart training and our golf cart assigned to us.  We start some of our duties today - we have been assigned to lock the park gate for the next four nights at 8:00 PM and Anne and Dick will open every morning at 8:00 AM.  Not too tough. In the afternoon, we outfitted our cart with supplies for cleaning the restrooms and explored the park further.  After supper we had our first campfire- we have a huge supply of wood available to use at the park.

Thursday - May begins!  Yesterday was warm, but today it is supposed to be 85 degrees here!  We worked a little in the morning and then decided to drive up to Mt. Hood to see it and the area.  We honeymooned at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in 1986, so it was fun to go back and see the lodge where we stayed.  It was 82 as we left the park and when we reached the lodge, as we gained elevation, had cooled down to 60 degrees.  But still a very warm day for there.  We walked around and reminisced, maybe we will go back and stay one night.  The lodge was built by CCC workers back in the 30's, it is all wood with huge timbers supporting the walls and roof.  Very impressive to be built back then.  We watched the skiers and snowboarders, many of them in shirt sleeves.  www.timberlinelodge.com  We left there and drove back down the mountain, temps getting warmer every mile.  We had a late lunch at the Zigzag Inn, another historic building built by an early resident/pioneer.

Timberline Lodge - the canopy covers the large staircase

Snow piled against the lodge windows

The timbers and fireplace

Friday - We are working for the park today.  Another nice day, we went in and watched a HazMat film and then Gary got certified on the big John Deere mower.  The group area at the park with ball field and large picnic shelters really needed to be mowed and he was itching to run big equipment and make it all look better.  I went around with the golf cart and policed the grass area, picking up all the good sized branches that he should not mow over.  Then I went with our boss, Brian, to do the SepTech readings, four stations in the park where we read meters monthly for the sewer system.  Had a great visit with Brian.  The mower finally was low on gas about 4:30, so Gary quit for the day - there was still a patch in the middle he did not get finished.  We had supper and a fire and then closed the gate at 8:00.

The ball field areas at Wildwood

Captain Mower - it really is this green here

Saturday - We woke up to the first rainy day.  We had slept in, then did laundry and a sweep through the park in our cart.  In the afternoon, we drove in to Sandy. We picked up groceries and had our growlers refilled.  We also looked for the church and decided since we were in town, to just go to the 5:00 mass that day, instead of driving back 20 minutes in the morning.  Our co-hosts at the park were there, as well.  When that was done, we drove back home, picked up some supper and headed to the office.  Tonight we were able to listen to the live audio stream of Ben's opera opening in Denver,  Carmen.   We heard our boy and he had sent us a picture of his costumed character.  The artist doing Carmen was very impressive, as was Ben.  They have unlimited wi-fi at the office, so we will be there for the times we need to use band width.

Ben in Carmen

Sunday - slept in and then made cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We went out for a walk and ended up hiking some of the unimproved trails in the park.  It is very green here, a lot of moss on the trees and ferns are the underbrush in this forest.  They told us they have only seen green garter snakes, nothing poisonous in the area.  We have only seen deer, chipmunks and small gray squirrels.  The hike was a good workout and a lot of beauty.   Later we drove in the cart and did garbage pickup.  There must be 40+ cans in this place, not counting the seven bathrooms!  Only one of them was full, but we accumulated four bags as we emptied all the cans.  It had started raining mid-day, so we got a little wet. When that was done, we cleaned up and drove up to Rhododendron to Mountain High Coffee Roasters for a good cup of coffee.  We stopped at the store in Welches for a couple supplies and to refill our growlers.  Home again.

On our hike

The root system of a fallen tree - Huge!

The top of the tree

Monday - woke up to rain.  The thing we had never really noticed before was how loud the rain could be as we sit in our motorhome.  We get bigger drops here, because the tall pine trees are dripping down the rain, instead of the direct light showers that are really happening.  I have ended up putting in my earplugs at night to sleep, because we have listened to the rain music so much during the evening.  We opened the gate in the morning and went and worked in the office for a while - not much to do today in the rain.  At 5:00 we headed to "Wraptitude", a local place that has a special 'Taco Night" on Mondays.  Three tacos for $3, not too bad.  We got there just in time, the place filled up.  Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we had a margarita.  We visited with a local who shared his info on places to eat, then we drove back and decided to check out one of the pizza places while we were out and about.  Ivy Bear Pizza, between Wildwood and Sandy - not known for great pizza some say, but we tried their garlic knots, fresh bread knots drenched in garlic butter.  Yuum!  Back home to watch a movie and listen to more rain. After Gary went to bed, I was reading and heard several good thumps on our roof.  Small branches falling from the trees.  I went to bed a little later, praying that a tree would not fall on us during the night.  (Trees are falling in the park all the time, because their root systems are so shallow in the moist ground)  Guardian angels watch over us!