Thursday, May 29, 2008

Day 20 Another rainy day, or was it?

Today started off rainy, as has every day since we have been here in Oregon. Actually, I'm not complaining because it is really pretty to see the clouds steaming up off the mountains.

We went to the Medford Grower's Market at the National Guard Armory this morning. Then we stopped at SOS Pear Station. All the talk about pears yesterday as we toured the Harry & David plant made me want one. So we bought a couple to have for dessert tonight.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and housework...fun, fun. Of course the sun peeked out this afternoon, which was a nice change. So we did go for a walk before dinner.


Since we arrived in Medford, these little kiosk type buildings/coffee shops have caught my attention. Easy to do since they are everywhere! The one above is Dutch Bros. Coffee and the one below is The Human Bean. There is another one about town but I haven't snapped a picture of it...yet.

Great business idea for those of us who aspire to own a coffee shop. Speaking of coffee: I think Glenn has banned me from drinking the Moose Munch coffee after lunch, I kept him up most of the night jabbering away, then I got the giggles. I think the Moose Munch chocolate could have had something to do with it too you know. Oh here's a funny anecdote for those of you who know what a chocoholic I am: We were given 2 small boxes of samples each, so I stuffed them into my purse during the tour yesterday. When we got in the car Glenn said he wanted to taste one of the chocolate treats, so I opened one box which contained two cookies and one small piece of chocolate. I handed him the chocolate and opened the cookies.

He bit the chocolate in half and handed me the other half. I plopped it in my mouth and melted it was so tasty!


He was upset that I ate it all! Go figure, hand me chocolate and it disappears. Was I supposed to bite a small piece and hand it back to him? I think not!

Day 19: Rainy Days & Moose Munch

Well, we had to change our plans to indoor plans today since it was raining all day long with no end in sight, but we made the best of it. Our printer has been having problems lately and of course Kodak is no help. They sent us parts and we switched them out but it still doesn't print from the laptop. It will copy and scan but not print. So we bought a cheap (Ha ha) HP printer today. We ate lunch at the HomeTown Buffet. They had really good food but the place was packed! We sat at a booth in the back behind a HUGE family. Glenn said they were speaking Hawaiian, and they looked Polynesian, so okay. They had some really tiny babies that were absolutely gorgeous! From there we went to Harry & David's to take the 1:30 pm plant tour. It began to pour rain once we were inside the country store buying our tickets.

Our tour guide and shuttle driver. She told us that Harry & David's was the largest employers in the Medford area. It is a very impressive company.

Above is the administrative offices of Harry & David's that we drove by in the shuttle bus. The tour guide said that in order to make this plant more attractive to those driving from San Francisco to Portland the brothers (Harry & David) made the building more aesthetically pleasing by adding the twin towers. It is an impressive looking building, as is the factories/plants we toured today.

We are standing in the foyer of the candy factory. Little did we know the large box behind us opened up to a refrigerator full of samples for us. YUMMY! The entire foyer smelled like chocolate when we walked in...I was in heaven!

This lady is dusting powdered cocoa on white chocolate covered coffee truffles...are you drooling yet?
Then we went upstairs to watch them make a batch of Moose Munch...
Then on to the packaging department...

From here we traveled to another building where they package the fruit and gift baskets. Evidently Harry & David's is world renowned for their pears. We passed one of their orchards, but with the rain and they evergreens they use to block the pollutants from vehicles, I did not get a good picture.At this station they are packing gift baskets of fruit and stuff then sending it through a machine that shrink wraps it for shipping.

Harry & David's is also known for their tower of treat boxes, which these workers are putting together.Impressively this company is a "green company," here is a sign they had posted.

Not only do they recycle, but they also support local soup kitchens and the community in general. We saw a shift change during our tour of the packaging plant. Out guide told us that each employee is required to do stretching exercises before stepping onto the floor before work and after each break. They also rotate jobs when they return from a break so it won't become tedious. Id you ever get to Medford, this is well worth it, even in the rain!

At some point during the tour our guide said something about Moose Munch coffee. Harry and David's makes a Moose Munch Coffee...well, you know I had to try that, right? Low and behold, when we got back to the store, they had just brewed a fresh pot for sampling.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Days 15-18


With the gray skies like these, I've been "working at home" the past couple of days. I began researching publishing agents for my novel. I need to get past the fear of rejection and just get it out there. After talking with the lady here at the park last week I really need to do this. So between that and my classes on-line I've kept busy most of the week while Glenn was working.

He loves this job. He claims it is so different from the Campgound we worked at last summer. This place is so much calmer. I'm surprised that there are so many full-time people who stay here.

We ordered pizza from the Gold Hill Pizza place and it was delicious! Sorry, no picture.

KOA Kamp Worker


Glenn began work on Friday (day 14 of our journey.) He looks great in the bright yellow shirt, doesn't he?
I puttered around the house (RV) and absolutely loved it!


Thursday, May 22, 2008

Day 13 Groceries, Mall & "Idol"

We found the grocery store and the Rogue Valley Mall today. Actually we have passed the mall several other times but today we went in to walk around. Very nice 2 story mall. We are excited about the grocery store too. It is much like the Harris Teeters we shopped at in Wilmington, NC.
Glenn was drooling at the 2 inch thick ribeye steaks at 50% off. But with out small freezer we opted not to get them. We did purchase some salsa from the refrigerated section that is excellent!!! I like to use pico as salsa because I like the chopped veggies more than the pureed peppery or garlicky taste of traditionally mild salsa. I also like very little cilantro and this new salsa has very little cilantro. It is YUMMY!
We've been walking the past 2 nights here at the park and tonight it was really breezy and cold. I think the temperature is suppose to drop to 40 degrees tonight. The daytime temps will steadily rise from now to a high of 80 by next Thursday. That will be nice. It is lightly raining now...great sleeping rhythm.
We met our summer boss yesterday. She is a very nice lady in her mid-forties. I think this will be fun and not as crazy as the Jellystone we worked at last summer. For me that is great but for Glenn who has to stay busy all the time it may be tough. We'll see.
Oh, how about American Idol last night for those of you who are fans??? My favorite won...I was so excited. Glenn was rooting for David A (aka Archie) who was also good but in that Disney teenie- bopper sort of way. But David Cook, he was rockin'. Of course we saw it 3 hours after the east coast and the 2 people I spoke to last night were not or had not watched it, so could not tell me who won.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

May 21, 2008


Happy 20th birthday, Scott!

Love you,

Mom & Dad
We posted this pic because Scott is becoming a volunteer fireman tomorrow night, the day after his birthday. Miss you, my birthday boy!

Day 11 Wine & Cheese, Anyone?

We'd spent the morning cleaning the RV. Me on the inside, Glenn the outside. It was a grey, cloudy, sometimes drizzly morning.
By the afternoon we were ready to venture out and explore our surroundings a little. We started with the Weisinger's Vineyard in Ashland, OR. Great place, very nice people, but none of the wines were sweet enough for us. You can take the Carolinian out of the south but not the south from the Carolinian, or something like that.
They had a display case of bees in their beehives. Jill, the wine club manager, who was telling us about the winery, shared alot of interesting things with us. Glenn was intrigued by the bees who flew in and out of this case using the tube at the bottom left of the picture. Like a doggie door for bees. Pretty cool! Jill told us about alot of interesting things to see in this area while we are here. She pulled out maps and was a wealth of knowledge. She also googled the other wineries in the area to see which would offer sweeter wines. Only 2 of the 4 we planned to drop by today offer any sweet or dessert wines. So, using Tweeter (the name the ladies at CFCC and I came up with for our GPS system), we set out for one of those.

EdenVale Wines ~ gorgeous mansion (of course we failed to get pics outside because it started to rain.) They only had a couple of sweet wines for us to try. Glenn found one he liked and we purchased called Late Harvest Viognier.

We read in a Medford Visitor's Guide that you can tour the Harry & David plant. But we only saw this store when we drove up, so didn't go in. It is on the list to go back and visit though. They had all kinds of flowers & plants on both sides and the front of the building for sale. We went on down the street to the Roxy Ann Winery. This place was great. It is a farm. They have a fruit and veggie stand which will open after Memorial Day weekend. So we will definitely visit them again. I loved their Pear Wine! It was more along the line of our NC muscadine grape wines (especially my favorite the Duplin Wines). We did not get pics here either, but will next visit.
Our last stop was the Rogue Creamery. I almost forgot to get pics at the creamery too. They actually make the cheese here on site using local milk. They are especially known for their blue cheese but offer a large variety of curds, cheeses, crackers and breads as well as sell some local wines and spreads. We bought some smoked goat cheese, blue cheese and crackers.

The goat cheese is the ball to the left in this pic. It is wrapped and smoked in leaves, pretty interesting.

Then we came back home to the KOA.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Day 10 Again??

Oh, no, here we go again...
This one is only 7%, but still...

...here we go again...

...down and around...
...that wasn't so bad. (Jake brake works wonders) Once we got to the bottom, and started back up again, we followed this little creek/river for a few miles. This state really is beautiful. We traveled through the farmland and forests for most of the afternoon.
Cows, goats, llamas, horses and ostriches.

And the redwoods...OMG I had no idea how gorgeous these things were! Almost make me want to be an Oregonian! I said almost!
And the fields of little yellow flowers...

This is Klamath Lake.We're here! 3,137.9 miles later. Oh, and to put an end to this day, the trees on the lot we chose so we could be in the shade banged the top of the RV, so we had to go into a lot in the other section out in the open...and hot sun! And the battery was dead in the car we towed. Good way to meet our new co-workers. A fellow Kamp Worker, Joe, gave us a jump.
We had mail when we arrived. Most of it good stuff, letters and even a check! So after we got set up, we got a map of Medford, ran to the bank and post office, grabbed KFC and came home to relax.

Day 10 Are We There Yet???

Welcome to day 10 of our adventure.


On the road again, through Nevada into Oregon.

It was a long, long, long journey until we saw that Oregon sign.

Welcome to Oregon. Okay, we are thinking the ground has finally leveled out. The last half of Utah was nice and flat and Nevada was relatively flat, just a few little hills. But we get into Oregon and it looks okay for about the first half hour or so, then we see this...

...8% downgrade!!! That is steeper than any we went over in Colorado or in NC. Yikes. I was white knuckling it all the way down...

...and down...and around...and down some more......and down...when will it end?


Thank God we were hugging the mountain because there wasn't even a guardrail on the cliff side! And it was a HUGE drop.

Once we reached the bottom, we smelled the brakes. Shew. Stinky. Glenn was concerned he'd locked the breaks up on the car we were pulling or something, but then he remembered he hadn't he the jake brake. We were both getting road weary. Are we there yet?