End of the Road

Good morning, my friends. If you read yesterday's post, then you already know our yesterday was spent sight-seeing in the nearby towns of Zillah and Toppenish. We left the RV early to head down the road a mile to have a breakfast of our beloved Egg McMuffins, and then we made our trek to both towns. We were back at the camper before noon. We were staying in one of the less desirable private RV parks. I can't complain too much. The place was nothing fancy. The worst part is that the surrounding area is populated by feedlots and the accompanying flies. Just when we thought we'd swatted the last fly, another one would zoom by. It was beyond annoying. And...ewwww. With feedlots nearby, you just know where those flies have been spending their time.

So all of that to say we were just four hours from home. We decided to hitch up and head for the hills, in particular...our hill. And now we're home. We cut our trip short by two days and one destination. The final destination was to be the observatory in Goldendale, Washington, but it was closed for the winter. We could have walked around the outside, but home sounded better. And Smitty agrees with that assessment.

He's a happy guy purrched on his kitty pole where he can keep an eye on his propurrty.

The question I had upon arriving home was to check the garden for any corn that might still be there. (None.) Also, I wanted to see if the Firefighter dahlia had bloomed. And, yes. It has a couple of flowers on it. Perusing old blog posts, I've realized this one is an October bloomer. Don't expect anything sooner than that.

All right, so let's back up to yesterday morning, and I'll tell you about the final hours of our trip. After breakfast, our first stop was to see the Teapot Dome gas station in Zillah, Washington. 

Is this the cutest thing you've ever seen? Well...maybe not the "cutest," but it was cute nonetheless.

Here's the accompanying plaque designating its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

So, what's this all about? Government scandal was behind the construction of the 15-foot handled-and-spouted gas station.  The Teapot Dome oil reserve debacle began during the administration of President Warren Harding. In 1922 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to oil operator Harry F. Sinclair. When the leases became public knowledge, Congress directed President Harding to cancel them. The Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and ruled Harding’s transfer of authority to Secretary Fall illegal. 

Although the President himself was not implicated in the transaction that had followed the transfer, the revelations of his associate's misconduct took a severe toll on his health, and he died before the full extent of the wrongdoing had been determined.  The transactions quickly became the subject of widely publicized Senate investigation. Secretary Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes.  Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate.  The oil fields were restored to the U.S. Government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927. 

There was a small gift shop, but it was closed. I took this picture peering through the window.

The Teapot Dome Service Station was originally located on Hwy. 410 between Zillah and Granger.  It was handcrafted by Jack Ainsworth in 1922. In 1928 Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Thomas purchased the Teapot.  They operated the gas station along with a store fountain built on the same site. This was an era when gasoline dealers gave people something to look at and tell their friends about when they got home.

In 1978 the construction of I-82 forced the removal of the building from its original location. Five days before the scheduled move it was hit by a car and caved in. It had to be reconstructed which was no easy job because it was all hand-crafted. Fortunately, the building was reconstructed and then moved with the help of the State Dept. of Transportation some 1.2 miles to its’ current site. It has become an icon for Zillah because of its historical roots and longevity. In 2007, the Teapot was listed on the "Most Endangered List," but in 2012 the Teapot was moved to its current location in Zillah.

These are the two pumps outside.

When was the last time you saw gasoline this cheap? I'm old enough to remember when it was even cheaper.

Here's how it looks from the other side.

In the background of the image above is this pump. I'm old enough to have seen this kind of pump when it was actually pumping gas.

Here's the accompanying plaque.

On an adjacent site, I noticed this mural. It was a good introduction to our next stop in Toppenish.

So...on we went to Toppenish to see the City of Murals.

There are 79 murals in all. Each is numbered. Some are old and peeling. Some of the accompanying descriptive signs were unreadable. Of course, we didn't see all of them, and I didn't take pictures of all that we saw. Some were in shadow and hard to see in a photograph. Some had cars or other obstacles blocking a view of the whole thing. However, you can see all of them at this link. For now, you can whet your appetite with the ones I'm showing here. I've included the explanatory sign after the image of the mural.

The sign for the next two follows.

The left side of the sign for the next one was cut off by its own frame.

All of the murals were huge, but these next two were positively enormous.

This next one was on the side of a three-story building. Of the ones we saw, this one was the largest.

My dad used to talk about this Halloween prank. I have a feeling he might have participated a time or two.

There wasn't much blooming in our walk around town, but these roses were very fragrant.

Okay, and then we headed back to the RV. This was my only barn photo from yesterday.

Here's a picture of Washington's Stonehenge. We didn't stop because we've visited before. You can read my post about it right here.

And there it is...the Columbia River where it serves as the Washington/Oregon state line. We were just about to cross that bridge, and then home, sweet home!

We know we're in Oregon when Mt. Hood comes into view.

We still had about two hours to go, but now we're here. Today I'll be spending most of my time unpacking. I believe I can get it done in a single day, and then I can get back to my sewing. The coming week will be busy. I have an appointment with my dentist on Tuesday, and then Thursday we'll take Smitty to the vet. The old boy seems to have a case of "distress on the lower tract." I won't say any more than that. We think he's fine...probably he needs worming...but at his age, anything can happen. We're keeping our fingers crossed it's nothing serious. Also, the kids will be here for dinner on Friday. We're celebrating Erik's birthday a couple of weeks late.

So with all that going on, I might take a few days off from blogging. As I often say, I'll blog if there's anything of interest to tell you..."interest" being a relative term. Stay out of trouble for the next few days, and we'll chat again sometime next week.

Fern Creek Loop

Good morning, my friends. We'll be heading down the dusty trail again in a little while. Our next stop will be Winthrop, Washington, just up the road, and on the other side of the national park. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's talk about yesterday's activities. 

We're nearly out of ice cream, but since we still have enough vanilla, I was motivated to bake a Skillet Cherry Cobbler for Two. These are cherries from our own trees, and my adaptation of my mother's recipe to make it a skillet cobbler for two (four, actually).

When that was finished, we headed our for the day’s hike. Below, I tried once more to get a picture of the shed with the quilt block. Still a crappy picture, but maybe better than the one in yesterday’s post.

We were headed to this Washington State Park.

Here’s what I know about the park: The first settlers in the area were the Skagit tribes. They lived in a village of longhouses at the confluence of the Sauk and Skagit river. They prospered from the abundance of salmon and the evergreen forests. Then, in 1885, Leonard Graves homesteaded the land around the town that is now known as “Rockport.” Eventually, he sold the land, and the town grew from there. The property where the state park is located was owned by Sound Tember Company. Eventually, it was sold to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for $1 (1935). It was acquired by Washington State Parks in 1961. It is comprised of an old growth forest that is estimated to be 400-600 years old.

Up until 2007, there was a campground here. It’s closed to camping now out of concern over the stability of old growth trees and the potential hazard they pose to campers. Indeed, on our hike, we saw many fallen trees. This road once led to a campground. We simply walked up to find the trailhead.

The trees still standing were nothing short of awe-inspiring for their height and their girth. 

We hadn’t reached the trailhead yet when we spotted this big boy. (Again…when I say “big boy” I mean the tree, not Mike.)

Eventually, we came to a posted map telling us that we’d reached the trailhead and showing us its route. We were on the Fern Creek Trail.

It was a day for looking up.

There were many fallen logs fully encased in these ferny-mossy ecosystems.

It’s a little late in the year for wildflowers, but I spotted this little violet.

The trail was dirt and narrow.

At one point, we crossed this bridge.

Fern Creek is barely a trickle at this time of year.

In the shaded areas, we saw plenty of fungus.

This weird stuff was on the cut-off end of a log. If you look closely, you can see droplets of something…water? Is it sticky like sap? We’ll never know because I didn’t touch it.

If I didn’t know better (and I don’t), I might think these are psychedelic mushrooms. Honestly, I have no idea. There’s another mushroom that grows in the Pacific Northwest known as the “death cap mushroom.” More than once in the time we’ve lived here, folks have mistaken one for the other and ended up poisoning themselves. No messing around. I don’t even want to touch them. The one below was about the size of a quarter.

To its left were these little ones, about the size of dimes.

The woodpeckers were after the tree below, although we didn’t see any woodpeckers on this hike.

Here’s a closer shot of that. 

Also this Douglas squirrel was willing to stand still for a photograph. We’ve seen a lot of these little guys, but this one was the first that would allow me to take his picture.

Below, a huge tree had fallen across the path. We had to bend at the waist to get under it.

Below is another example of trees growing in a straight line, as if they were planted that way. And, as we now know, it’s because they all grew from a single rotting nurse log.

The Douglas firs in this forest were among the biggest trees I’ve ever seen anywhere. And the big leaf maple trees were no slouches either. Most have dropped their leaves by now, but you can see why they’re called “big leaf” maples.

The Douglas firs were named for David Douglas. He was a Scotsman and naturalist who, between 1825 and 1833, collected and catalogued the trees and plants in this area for the Royal Horticultural Society of London. He journeyed through the region by canoe, horse, and foot, often alone. He ventured up the Columbia and Willamette rivers and briefly visited Puget Sound.  He was pictured on one of the informational signs.

The Douglas fir is the predominent coniferous evergreen of Western Washington. Old growth trees can approach 300 feet in height and are wrapped in bark that is 8-10 inches thick. They can live hundreds of years. 

Below his picture was this polished cut off stump. I’m hoping you can read the little placards there.

The tree got its start in 1571 and fell in 2021, when it was 450 years old. Amazing. 

Okay, and we’d finished the hike by that time. Our next stop was the town of Concrete, Washington. It was such an unusual name for a town, and so I wanted to learn more about it. 

Wikipedia tells us that:

The town of Concrete began as a settlement at the northwestern junction of the Baker and Skagit Rivers, known as "Minnehaha." Amasa "Peg-Leg" Everett was one of the earliest settlers. In 1890, the townsite was platted by another settler, Magnus Miller. Shortly thereafter, a post office was established and the town name changed to "Baker." In 1905, a settlement across the Baker River came into being due to the building of the Washington Portland Cement Company and was named "Cement City." After the Superior Portland Cement Company plant was built in Baker in 1908, it was decided to merge the two towns. Inhabitants of the new community settled on the name "Concrete" and the town was so christened and officially incorporated on May 8, 1909.

And this is one of those places where it seems untouched by time. Driving through the main street, it looked like this.

We drove to the end of that street, and then made a U-turn. It appeared to be a thrift store, but I really wanted you to see the expansive mural of the surrounding rivers and mountains.

Heading back the other direction, it looked like this:

We drove beyond the business district into a more residential area. We happened upon this bakery. We were hungry, so why not?

Just look at all these goodies.

We were looking for something relatively healthy to have as a breakfast snack.

We also chose that Foccacia BBQ Chicken Pizza in the middle row on the right below, and we shared it for lunch.

For breakfast we selected these pumpkin cranberry muffins. If you pretend they don’t have any sugar, they’re downright healthy!

They heated up our pizza, and so we sat at a table. Right away, I noticed the coloring tools on the table. Do you think they knew we were coming?

It took about 10 minutes, and it was really good.

And then we were curious about some other parts of the town we’d seen.

The concrete activity seems to be a thing of the past, although I can’t find anything about that. This structure was a part of it, and it is clearly abandoned. In fact, on the left side of the stairs is a little green sign offering the building up for “adoption.”

To its right was this small monument. They had a perfect safety record for the first time in 1933. The last one was in 1961, and there were many years in between.

Behind were these large silo looking things. I know nothing about the manufacture of concrete, and so I can only point my camera at them and tell you what I saw.

With so much land seemingly abandoned of any particular purpose, they’ve built a skate park and bike paths. There was also a frisbee golf course. 

Driving in and out of the town, we crossed this bridge twice.

To the north was this. It’s a bridge and a man-made waterfall.

Well, this we had to see. And so we drove up the hill to have a look.

This seems to be a plant dedicated to the protection of fish.

The informational signs tell us that juvenile fish are captured in traps in Baker Lake and Lake Shannon. From there, they are transported in trucks and released into the Baker River (on the other side of the bridge above) where it drains into the Skagit River. Each spring more than 200,000 juvenile salmon are transported around the dams in this way. Wow. I had no idea. After they are released, they continue their journey down the Skagit River to the Pacific Ocean. From there, they will return to the Baker River as adults. Amazing.

And that was the end of our day. We were back at the RV around 2:00 and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. This morning will be a little weird timing-wise. We have to check out of this park by 11:00 a.m. Then we have just an 88 mile drive to the next place, but we can’t check in there until 2:30. We’re going to have an hour in there that will probably need to be filled somehow. There’s a grocery store in Winthrop, and so we might end up getting some groceries and then just unloading them when we can get checked into the park. Also, I’m still on the hunt for a refrigerator magnet and shot glass from the national park. Maybe I’ll find something along the way.

All-righty then. Time’s a-wasting, and I need to start buttoning things up. Also, I’m gonna have one of those muffins. Have a good day, everyone. Our next hike won’t be until tomorrow, so rest up and get a good night’s sleep tonight.