Jumpin' Joe!

After the Mystic Garden Party, we set out to find a place to stay (with electricity!) for a few days. We headed a bit north to Grant's Pass, Oregon where we found a great RV park that has a creek running through it complete with swimming holes and waterfalls. It's surrounded by mountains, and has a general store chock full of food and antiques and movies.
We're just relaxing here for a few days while we collect ourselves and decide on our next destination!

Our campsite at Jumpin' Joe's. Nice and shady, but in 110 degree heat it doesn't help much.

Sunset over the RV park. If you squint you can see the crescent moon above those trees.

The general store at the RV park has, apart from tons of delicious food, all sorts of antiques from the area and quirky crafts, like this birdhouse made out of a cowboy boot. It just screams THE WEST!

A sunset over the mountains nearby. That morning there was a fire up north, so the sunset was particularly red and hazy. But beautiful! The smoke made me think of Jack Kerouac in "Dharma Bums" and how he was a fire lookout in Washington for the summer. I'd love to do that one day.

And finally, the view outside our van at the campsite here. A little bit beyond those trees is the creek which is full of fish and crayfish. We managed to catch a fish, but those crayfish are wily!

Ashland and Mystic Garden Party

Our first destination on the West Coast was Ashland, Oregon for a festival called "Mystic Garden Party" One of our favorite artists, Alex Grey, as well as dozens of bands and thousands of hippies were to be there. We got to Ashland a day early so we spent the day walking around town, which was one of the first hippie meccas.

There is art all over town in the streets, including this Totem Pole.

Ashland has a huge park called "Lithia Park", which has a creek running through it. Of course I couldn't resist jumping right in.

At a thrift store in Ashland, Jim went back to his pirate roots. I'd forgotten how good he looks with his long hair ;)

On the 23rd, we arrived at the Mystic Garden Party. The crowd was very eccentric and eclectic. There was a great vibe the whole time and we can't wait to go back next year. Here is Alex Grey on stage.

At the Mystic Dome, where lots of talks and workshops were held, there was a swing. Again, I couldn't resist.

My favorite, Lavender. And a pretty Butterfly! You can see the spa in the background. The spa which is clothing optional after dark!

The Mystic Garden Party was a great experience. I think we both learned more about ourselves and how great people could be. Hippies call people they don't know "Brother" or "Sister" so there was a vibe of togetherness and family and sharing the whole time. The grounds were beautiful, the music was great, and the talks were fascinating. Maybe we'll go to the one in Maui next spring too..!

What's Outside our Back Door?

I present to you the first installment of our new series: "What's Outside our Back Door?", which will showcase the view outside of our van when we wake up in the morning.

This was the view outside of our van at the campsite in Lakeview, Oregon. It was the first stop for us in Oregon and we were excited to have reached our destination. The desert became forest filled with Ponderosa Pine.

This is the view from our van at the Mystic Garden Party. I've never seen so many VW vans (or hippies) in my life!

Cross Country

Driving across the country, we found some absolutely beautiful scenery. Everytime we got to a new state, we said "Now this is the best state yet!" We are in Oregon now, and of course it's our favorite so far.

We also got to reconnect with some more family in Minnesota/Wisconsin. That's my mom's cousins and their husbands, and pets. I have always loved lakes but unfortunately there was some unseasonably cold weather so we didn't get to jump in!

Driving through Nevada, we came across this car. We stopped to give him a jump, but the car was empty, and there was a ticket on the window, dated 2 days before. It makes you wonder where a disabled person went off to in the middle of a desert.

We found a sand dune on the way through Nevada. Of course we stopped to roll down it!

I have always loved the image of the road stretching off into the distance. Nevada was great for scenery like this.

Our van in front of the mountian scenery of Nevada. We climbed up a hill to check out an abandoned cement building and to get a better look around us.

We just couldn't get enough of Nevada. After so much farmland, we welcomed the desert and the mountains. Needless to say, we got out of the van dozens of times to take pictures and take in the view. Once at nighttime, we even stopped the van and climbed on top to look at the amazing stars.

We finally made it to Oregon last night, just in time to see the sunset. The terrain changed from desert with low-lying brush to desert with tall pine trees, and then farmland with mountains all around. So far we love the Northwest!

Later this week, we are going to find the place where my dad and his friends had a commune. It turns out that it is located in Ashland, where we will be, and that Ashland was one of his favorite places. How serendipitous!

A Quick Correction

Penn and Teller ARE the best comedian/magicians out there. And we're going to see them again next time we're in Vegas.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin was the first state we went to without any backup from friends or family, and it was a completely unknown state to both of us. We crossed the border from Illinois to Wisconsin filled with excitement and anticipation. Our first destination was House on the Rock, but we didn't end up getting there until a couple days later.

House on the Rock was built by an eccentric rich person and is a series of rooms filled with different collections, from dolls to guns to huge music machines.

A room that extended to infinity. Aptly named the infinity room. The point extends out from the house, unsupported, 400 feet from the ground.

Multi-barrelled guns in the gun collection. I wonder if they were ever useful.

Spectacles in the Apothecary, on the Streets of Yesterday. Maybe I should get some like this. It will be very Benjamin Franklin of me.

The apothecary was filled with hundreds of bottles touting ridiculous cures...

...such as tapeworms making you thin. Although I guess technically it would work.

The Highlight was the Carousel. It has 269 animals and animal-human hybrids, and none of them are horses. (But some of them are centaurs.)

The next day, we unexpectedly came upon the Rock in the House. So named because 15 years ago, a boulder fell on the house. The owners decided to leave it there and make it into a small attraction. No one else was there, and everything was left as it had been. It was a very 70s style house. Perhaps where the kids from that 70s show lived?

In the Wisconsin Dells, which was once a beautiful natural place, and is now a cheesy tourist trap, we went to see the comedian Gallagher. If you don't know, he's famous for smashing watermelons at his shows. Turns out he also smashes cottage cheese, pumpkin, soda, corn, lettuce, and jello. We were in the splash zone, so we were covered in bits of food at the end. If Penn and Teller had this act, they would truly be the best comedian/magicians out there!

Technical Difficulties

Internet access has been spotty so we've had a few issues in uploading the photos. We sorted all this out so the pictures from the last post all appear. In addition, clicking them will bring you to my flickr page where you can view them in various sizes.

It may be a while before we can post the next chapter, but here is a sneak peek:

Our Wisconson Woyage: Wherein we get eaten by a whale!??!? Stay tuned!

Here We Go!

A week ago today, we left Ohio and started our adventure. We had a photo session and said goodbye to everyone, but mostly the dogs.

A group shot of Me and Jim, with his dad and his dad's wife, and their two dogs, Kuzya and Ricky.

Jim got to reconnect with his dad during the 3 weeks or so we were in Ohio.



Jim and I loved this dog!



Jim has sadder puppy dog eyes than Kuzya


The Three best dogs in the world: Kuzya, Ricky, and Snowy





We fixed up the interior of the van so it's ready for travelling. We got two sets of drawers for storage, a cooler, and a storage bin for our generator and stove. We also added a door for the middle storage area on the ceiling, where you can see the picture Jim drew of our future adventures.



A side view of our storage setup. It's all bungied for traveling.



After we left Ohio, we went to Canada for a couple days to visit my mom and sister. We had a graduation barbecue for my sister, and then we had a really fun jam session in the van.
We left Canada with Celeste and headed to Chicago to pick up our friend David. Along the way, we hit 60,000 miles. When we got the van it had about 58,500 miles on it.








After about an hour in Chicago (well, New Lenox, IL), we turned around and went back to Ohio to go to Cedar Point. Along the way, there was a huge traffic jam. We heard from a truck driver that a semi had run over a small car and if someone had died, traffic would be stopped for at least a few hours.

Traffic was backed up for miles, and it was mostly trucks. Instead of waiting for hours, we decided to drive over the grass divider and head to Ohio via the back roads of Indiana.



Some people used the traffic jam as an opportunity to do some maintainence and cleaning. It was really nice out, and it was pretty countryside, so everyone got out of their rigs or cars and chatted.



Cedar Point had its own RV park, so we got 2 day passes and stayed there for two nights. Everyone had their laptop except me, since mine was still in the shop then, and they all hooked up to the internet through our G1 phone. Ah the joys of primitive camping.



Back in New Lenox, we decided to go to a Hippie Shop. I got a nice skirt and dress, Jim got a tie-dye shirt, and we got a blacklight poster and a covering for the couch.



Our blacklight poster, hanging on the ceiling. Trippy, no? We also bought a blacklight to really make it pop, and it just so happened that they only had 12V blacklights in stock. How serendipitous! Now that we're imbued with the hippy vibe, we can boldly blaze a trail to our next big destination.

We left Chicago today around 2. In fact, I am posting from the Van as we are driving north to Wisconsin. We told the GPS to avoid highways, so we could see America instead of the same old highway across the whole country. Right now we are driving through Elmhurst, IL. Today feels like the first day of our real adventure. We are heading out for an unknown state, and it will be the first time we aren't hooked up to someone's power in someone's driveway. For the first time, we will meet new people and test our van's ability to boondock. Our first destination is "House on the Rock" in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which is a huge house, on a rock, with dozens of rooms with different themes and an indoor merry-go-round. We read about it in Neil Gaimain's book, "American Gods". We've used the website "Roadsideamerica.com" to plan our route out west, following weird roadside attractions across the country. However, our goal is Oregon, where in 10 days there will be a concert/gathering of hippies, artists, and musicians, including Alex Grey, of whom we are big fans. There will be yoga, dance, and music workshops It is called "The Mystic Garden Party". It is in Ashland, Oregon, and there is a hot spring on the premesis. Ashland is supposed to be a haven for hippies, old and young, and we look forward to that experience. After Oregon, we have no plans, so we will see where the road takes us!