6 July - Happy Birthday Doreen! Trip to Madras

6 July
Today is Doreen's birthday and she was overwhelmed by all the birthday wishes from Facebook friends, text messages and email messages.  We spent her "special day" traveling to Madras OR to visit one of MY relatives!  She reciprocates on my birthday, so all is well LOL!  She was really surprised to receive a birthday card in the mail here at the campground from our special friends Lois and Vernon Conradi who live in Reinbeck IA!

We departed about 0730 hrs and it was about a three hour drive there.  The terrain changed greatly from when we departed Silverton to when we arrived in Madras.  Here we drove into the the mountains and trees around Mount Hood and the further south and east we drove, the trees became sparse and the green ground cover became brown.  The rock formations were abundant and the area near madras was how I remembered it when I visited here in 1969 - "desert-like".

Scenic mountain area

A beautiful drive

The truck overrun areas, in case of brake failure.

The closer we got to Madras, the trees disappeared and the area became barren.  There were some interesting rock formations.  

Desert-like terrain.

When we arrived we were greeted by my cousin Nancy Linch Hindman and also her late brother's wife Beth who was here visiting from Phoenix AZ.  We stayed at Nancy's house and talked for about 1-1/2 hours, catching up on approximately 47 years since we had seen each other.  We had been in contact via email and phone calls since then, such as when my parents passed away and when her parents and husband passed away.  I had never met Beth before and I was interested talking with her about my cousin (her husband) Jesse Jr as he had served in the Navy during Vietnam, on a gunboat in Vietnam and Cambodia.  I was on Air Force active duty in Maine when Jesse Jr was discharged from the Navy so I never got the chance to talk to him.

After leaving Nancy's house we headed northeast from Madras and visited a place I had visited back in 1969 when I was here with my parents. Richardson's Rock Ranch

I remember coming here and digging Thunder Eggs. From their web site: "Thundereggs are agate-filled nodules found in various parts of the Western United States. They range in size from 1/4 inch to as large as 5 feet in diameter. Generally, they are about the size of oranges. All are similar on the exterior, but no two are alike in pattern, design or color on the inside. The most colorful and beautiful of Thunder Eggs comes from a small area in Jefferson County in Central Oregon".  Doreen and I thought the grand kids might be interested in this, so we wanted to pick some up for them.  When I was up here I remember traveling out in the country and digging in the side of a hill to find the.  You can still do that, but they also have some right there at the ranch for purchase.

We drove in the gate and were greeted with peacocks strutting around, and they were not interested at all with yielding to the RAM pickup!  They also were not bashful and stood tall for pictures!

 They also had ostriches and various other critters running about to greet the visitors.

Since I was here in 1969 they built a huge gift shop and had literally tons of various rocks outside for purchase.

A rock hound's heaven!

Rose quartz from Brazil

Rock Candy Geodes from Mexico

Various fossils, turritella, horned corals, slipper corals

Rainbow Obsidian

Lavender Quartz

Mookaite from Australia

 I am omitting the Thunder Egg pictures so as not to spoil the surprise for the grand kids.  Hopefully they will enjoy them.  We bought some that are already sawed in half and polished, and some that have not yet been opened, so those will be a surprise.

We continued south from Madras to catch a road back to Silverton.  In essence, we are driving a big loop.  About 300 miles total.  

On the trip back from Madras to the campground we passed areas where forest fires took their toll.

 We also saw more beautiful snow-capped mountains.  In addition to Mount Hood which we saw yesterday, we also saw several others.

We think this was Mount Jefferson, but we also likely saw Mount Washington also.

Part of the "Three Sisters" mountains

 The road paralleled some more "babbling brooks" and rivers too.  I can only imagine the fish waiting to give anglers a thrill.

We got back to the campground about 1700 hrs so it was a very long day with over six hours in the saddle.  We finished up the day celebrating Doreen's birthday right here toasting with a homemade margarita and relaxing.

Tomorrow we intend to take care of business here including cleaning and laundry before we depart the next morning.