Wally Byam

2021-08-20– The Oregon Trail caravan … Day 23 – Baker City, OR

We spent the day enjoying Baker City and all that it has to offer… And while it is a lovely town, there is not really much to do here… And we know this because we have been here before, in 2011…

But we drove into town to the Baker City Heritage Museum, dedicated to all things Baker City.

“The mission of the Baker Heritage Museums is to conserve artifacts of historical Baker County, to educate the public about the development of the area, to preserve local archives and to make them available for research”

The museum is located in the 100-year old Baker Municipal Natatorium, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Presently, the museum is a two-story interpretive collection of Baker County’s history, specifically from the 1860s through 1960s. Core exhibits in the museum include Baker County industries (logging, ranching, and mining), historical Baker City, Wally Byam’s Airstream experience, Chinese heritage, native and non-native wildlife, and a collection of regional Native American artifacts, including stone tools. The special exhibit right now is “The Women of Baker City”…

The museum is located in the center of Baker City, across the street from the large city park. When we were in 2011 the park had about 25 Airstreams parked amid the trees… Not so today – We are camping about three miles out of town.

Inside the Museum, of course, is a room full of artifacts related to Wally Byam, the inventor and manufacturer of the Airstream trailer. Wally Byam was born here in Baker City,,,

We enjoyed the museum in its many parts… There was a video of the life of Leo Adler, born here in 1895. He lived his entire life in the family home. He was an innovative magazine retailer, and a bit of an eccentric… When his parents died, he moved into four rooms at the back of the house, and never returned to the rooms in the rest of the house. When he died in 1993 at age 98, he left a $20 million estate to a trust to provide college scholarships to local students.

After enjoying the museum we walked about the downtown main street. There are many interesting buildings…

There is a brewery, a distillery, and a wine tasting room… We stopped at Barley Brown’s, not for the beer, but for lunch.

It was a lovely time, sitting at a table on the sidewalk. Food was simple, but good, and, plentiful…

After lunch we drove out to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. We had been here before, again in 2011. It is a great place, and I was looking forward to seeing updated and enlarged exhibits. Unfortunately, the museum was closed due to Covid…

We returned to the Villa, and enjoyed a nap… Happy hours ensued.

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 26, 2021 0

2018-06-15 – Mini Wine tasting Trip to Sonoma County

After cancelling a 2 month Airstream trip (Springtime in the Rockies Caravan plus travel to the Airstream International Rally (or convention) in Salem, Oregon), we were looking for an excuse to do other shorter excursions. We had been toying with extending the return trip from Salem into another Wine Tasting Caravan along the California Coast. This all came to fruition when another opportunity arose: One of our favorite wineries, J. Rochioli Vineyard & Winery, invited us to their “Single Vineyard Celebration”. This is an annual event wherein they offer wine tasting of their best wines along with fabulous food by the famous chef, Charlie Palmer. Since we were able to take the time, we jumped at the opportunity!

The winery is located in the Russian River Valley of western Sonoma County, California, about 70 miles north of San Francisco. We planned a quick trip north, two days of wine tasting, and a quick trip back home.

This being the first time we were leaving from our new home in Redlands, we relished the thought of being able to travel north without having to drive through the heart of Los Angeles. I’m very comfortable driving in LA, but we have done it so often that we were happy to be able to drive where we have never, or rarely, driven before.

We left bright and early on Friday, June 15; we drove up and over Cajon Pass; at an elevation of 3,776′, it was the last obstacle of the 19 century pioneers and dust bowl refugees before they left the desert behind and descended into the beauty of Southern California. Today it is all modern freeway, and most autos handle it without a thought…

Out destination today was Lodi, made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival:

Just about a year ago
I set out on the road
Seekin’ my fame and fortune
Lookin’ for a pot of gold
Thing got bad things got worse
I guess you will know the tune
Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again

Apparently the author had never been to Lodi, but the town name fit the music, much like Williams, Arizona in another famous song ( and blog post) …

As I said, we drove over the Cajon Pass, then we headed west towards Palmdale and Lancaster, eventually reaching Bakersfield and continuing north along old Hwy 99, though the Central Valley, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. More than 230 crops are grown here. On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation’s agricultural output. Our stops were brief, mostly for fuel:

We arrived at our “camping spot” at just about 4:30. This is later than normal for us, but, like I said, we were trying to make time. We took advantage of our Harvest Host membership and parked in the vineyards of Van Ruiten Family Winery. We did a little wine tasting, bought a little wine, checked Yelp for nearby restaurants, and hailed Uber for a short ride to dinner.

After dinner we walked the 2.7 miles back to the Airstream and turned in for the night…

Saturday morning we were up, out, and about quite early. After stopping at Starbucks for a quick fix we headed west on Hwy 12, through Rio Vista, Fairfield, Napa, and on into Sonoma County. Once we were in the Russian River Valley we easily found River Bend RV Resort:

Luckily our site was vacant, and they let us check in early. We quickly set up and checked out the park. The RV sites and the Tenting sites leave something to be desired, but the river was beautiful!

Today our big event is the Rochioli Single Vineyard Celebration! We drove through the forest until the vineyards appeared.

We were welcomed to the party with Rochioli Sparking Rose’, and then we heard chef Charlie Palmer explain some of the food offerings. We made our way through the tasting room and into a large courtyard adjacent to the winery, where we found a table in the shade.

We spent the entire afternoon there, listening to the live band, meeting other Rochioli folks, and, of course, tasting many great wines and having some wonderful food! Of course, the surroundings were great!

On Sunday we set out to research tasting opportunities to share with others on the 2018 WBCCI Wine Tasting Caravan. We visited Woodenhead – very rustic,, quiet, and simple.

Then on to Williams Selyem… Not just a tasting room, or even a tasting salon, but a genuine tasting palace! Very relaxed, personal, and spectacular wines…

Next was MacRosties. Very formal (they asked if we had reservations), with individual tables, servers, menus… all in a very nice room:

Three very different experiences, all fun!

Monday was our return trip – reversing course through Sonoma, across the 12 to the 99, then down to Bakersfield for the night; Tuesday we were home.

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

June 30, 2018 1

2017-08-17 Westbound; Quebec Old City

The KOA outside Quebec offers a shuttle service to take us into Quebec; as we waited, I noticed this truck parked across the street:

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They grow them big here in Canada…

The bus arrived promptly on time, and by 9:00 am we were in vieux cite Quebec. First, of course, is the fortress!

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The walls around the fortress provide wonderful views of the old city (vieux cite)…

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The city plaza is dominated by a huge, old, hotel: The Frontenac. (It is now a Fairmont…)

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As we love to do in cities we walked the streets. We love finding the quaint, beautiful, historic, and charming sites…

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We even found the American Consulate, in case we got into trouble…

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We also found that Quebecois like to have fun in the winter: on the town square is a sledding slide:

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And, of course, what we also like to do is find a charming sidewalk cafe to enjoy lunch:

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We ordered a bottle of wine…

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Finally the duck confit arrived

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After lunch we walked some more, but then we needed to stop for some espresso while we waited for the shuttle to take us back to the Villa.

Back in the RV park, we met two other Airstreamers: one was from Connecticut; they were enjoying their 3rd new Airstream in the past year (16′, 22′ and now 25′). I’m sure their Airstream dealer is driving a new car, too… The other Airstream was being pulled by a nice Mercedes GL350, that looked vaguely familiar. Once we got to talking, we realized that we had seen them in Lunenburg, NS, and they had met some of our fellow caravanners whilst they were there…!

So Happy Hours ensued; an enjoyable time was had by all…

September 4, 2017 0

2017-08-15 Nor by Nor’east Caravan is Over! Back on our own…

The caravan is over – we packed up this morning, said our last good-byes, and headed out of the RV park.

We leave PEI via the Confederation Bridge, locally named Span of Green Cables… Then our plans are to travel west, through New Brunswick, then north to Quebec; once in Quebec, we head southwest to Quebec City, Montreal, the 1000 Islands, and towards London, Ontario. There we visit CanAm RV to have new rock guards installed, and to check out our non-functioning refrigerator. From there we go to Boblo Island, on the far western edge of Ontario – there we will reunite with our grandchildren:

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PEI is beautiful – not much wilderness, but lots of farmland…

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The trip over the bridge (the longest bridge in the world going over waters that freeze…), across the Northumberland Strait, was uneventful; even paying the toll was easy. Then we were on to New Brunswick. Just over the bridge we were joined in our travels with two other Airstreams – that of Tom Jones and Ed Krisman. They had left the RV park ahead of us, but apparently they had stopped for something or other. We convoyed along for awhile, then parted ways as we stopped for fuel.

We reached our destination – Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park – in Woodstock, NB.

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Obviously, this is a kid and family oriented park, with miniature golf, playgrounds, pools, jumping things, a small water slide area, and all sorts of planned activities put on by the park. They put us into a site at the rear, away from most of the activities. We settled into the Villa, and enjoyed a peaceful evening alone.

About 9:00 pm, long after we were in bed, (it was almost dark!) we heard the camp PA system announce that it was time for the “Bedtime Story with Benny the Beaver”, obviously a popular activity. But then they added that there was a thunder storm warning being issued. So I got up and disconnected our electrical power just to be safe. It was just as well – we plan to leave before first light in the morning…

September 3, 2017 0

2017-08-14 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – Final Day on PEI; Farewell Banquet

We took this day to ready the Villa for travel on our own. Today is the last day of the caravan!

We began with a quick trip to the local Chevy dealer in Charlottetown; the “Check Engine” (emissions) light had come on the dash. After a quick check through their computers they determined that it was the result of a loose gas tank cap – operator error… We were in and out in 15 minutes… Airstream dealers could learn something about how Chevy service centers operate…

We cleaned the Villa and reorganized the back of the truck. Busy day all around. In mid-afternoon we took a break and went for ice cream at Cows, a PEI favorite:

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This evening is our “Farewell Banquet”. It was at the Delta Hotel in downtown Charlottetown – it is a Marriott… We arrived early (duh!) and enjoyed some informal socializing as things got set up. The food was spectacular! Hats off to the Marriott for the spread they put out!

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I have no idea what flamingos have to do with Airstreams, but many people think they are firmly linked…

We snapped a few pix of our group…

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Our MC for the evening was Linda Belcher. She is a real live wire and very funny person. She goes all out to make sure she, and everyone else, is having a good time…

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After the dinner we gave out some door prizes, but mostly we took part in our own home-grown “entertainment”.

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Most of the “entertainment” was silly and hokey – we just enjoyed hanging out and showing off our talents, whether musical, dramatic, poetic, or silly. (My contribution was a recitation of the age-old mairy fail of Rindercella…)

Of course, we had to make fun our Trevor and Gale Lake, our caravan leaders:

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And pay they tribute, as well…

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So, again, we all had a good time. Many good-byes were said. We headed back to the Villa and reflected on the end of the caravan and the beginning of our new adventure, heading west towards home…

September 2, 2017 0

2017-08-13 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – Quiet Day on PEI

We had a quiet Day on PEI today. We prepared our vehicles for the return trip home, and we visited the town of Victoria.

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Victoria is a charming town on the water, just north west of Summerside. We strolled the waterfront, and selected the Landmark Cafe for lunch.

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We sat on the porch overlooking the town…

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Lynda had a tuna steak sandwich; I had PEI mussels. We shared a bottle of wine from a local winery named Matos. We were so impressed with this wine that we set out after lunch to visit the winery.

Matos Winery & Vineyards is a family-owned and family-run business. In 2007, after spending much time researching the growing conditions and suitability of establishing a vineyard in PEI, Jim Matos and his family purchased a 50 acre parcel of land in St. Catherines. They applied the French concept of terroir – finding a place where the combination of soil, slope, sun exposure and the peculiar weather vagaries allow certain grape varieties to unfold their unique characteristics. To this end, they consulted with the finest European vintners who visited PEI to provide their expertise. We approve of their results!

We tasted and bought wine. We also bought a bottle of anisette – a licorice flavored liqueur. We love anise, pastis, absinthe, and the like, so we thought this would be a great bottle to have.

We returned to the Villa and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon – we walked down to the water, then jumped into Happy Hours. I pulled out my little bottle of absinthe and we taste-tasted it against the new anisette. They are nothing alike! Our opinions varied as to which one we liked better… And an enjoyable time was had by all…

September 1, 2017 0

2017-08-12 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – Visiting Friends on PEI and Span of Green Cables

Today we visit friends who have a summer home here on PEI…

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But first, we join other caravanners in visiting a Windchime maker:

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For the last 20 years, Peter Baker has been making wind chimes at his studio situated atop the hills of South Granville – one of the windiest locations on Prince Edward Island.

Peter developed a taste for rural life while working in Vermont. A holiday visit to PEI with his family, in 1971, convinced him to live the rural life Island-style. In the early 1980s he began producing wind chimes with his brother. At the time, people were not familiar with them, but they soon became very popular.

Today, Baker operates his business from a converted barn not far from the old farmhouse he bought when he came to the Island, and where he still lives. In the first year of production, Baker turned out 1,000 wind chimes.

What is unique about these chimes is that they are musically tuned, in several different keys, in major and minor tones, plus the pentatonic scale. Each chime is hand built using quality components to ensure consistency in excellence of sound, durability, and appearance. They use a galvanized stainless steel alloy, resistant to rust, with high tonal quality. The length and diameter of each tube determines the pitch and timbre of each note; the longer and wider the bell is, the lower the note. Each bell was tuned using a silver flute to find the perfect pitch.

My favorite was the chimes with the pentatonic scale. There are, of course, 5 notes – what equates to the black notes on the piano. These five notes are familiar to most of us in one of two ways: It is the scale used in most Negro Spirituals – think “Amazing Grace”… These five notes are also the only notes used in the tunes produced by slot machines in casinos – this is done so that, while the tune of each machine is different, when played together they don’t clash, but make a semi-musical cacophony…

Anyhow, the last thing we need is more stuff, so we passed on buying any chimes, although many of the caravanners did. It was quite a profitable day for the wind chime store.

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We left Island Winds as it began to rain. We arrived at Bob and Cathy Adams’ cottage about noon:

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Bob and Cathy are Airstream friends from San Clemente, CA. Cathy was born here on PEI, and she and Bob own this cottage, on the shores of the Northumberland Strait. New Brunswick is across the water…

Bob and Cathy travel from San Clemente to PEI every year to visit their cottage and to repair damages that have been done over the past winter…

It is a lovely cottage; Bob and Cathy had the fireplace roaring, and it was cozy, or “forty”, inside as we caught up on news from our mutual friends.

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After a lovely lunch of lobster rolls and PEI potato salad, we relaxed, drank some wine, and relaxed some more. About 4:00 we headed out, bound for Charlottetown.

Charlottetown is a great little city – very walk-able streets and diagonal parking on most blocks. We parked and found a little Italian bistro for dinner, then we joined the rest of the caravanners, along with about 2,000 other folks, to see, “Anne of Green Gables – The Musical”.

Anne of Green Gables is an entirely fictional creation, but her legend has been milked as assiduously as the plump cows that decorate the island’s fields. Lucy Maud Montgomery’s semi-autobiographical novel fuels an entire industry, and Anne’s curly-ginger-haired visage is adored by thousands of young women.

This is a live show; it has been running for 53 years in Charlottetown. Just about all the creators of the show, and everyone connected with the inception of the show, are dead, but the show goes on. Not being a fan of annoying, self-absorbed girls, Anne of Green Gables was never a big favorite of mine. But the show was well done, the singing was good, the sets were creative and interesting, and an enjoyable time was had by all.

PS: When the Confederation Bridge from PEI to New Brunswick was built (1996 – 1997) it was yet un-named. After seeing that the steel reinforcing bars being used in the construction were encased in a green-coloured coating, locals dubbed the bridge, the “Span of Green Cables”…

September 1, 2017 0

2017-08-11 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – Airstreams on the Ferry!

Yes! You can take Airstreams onto a ferry:

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Our tin cans are packed into a bigger tin can like sardines!

We are traveling from Caribou, NS, to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island. This will be the final campground location on the caravan…

We left the campground in Baddeck, along the shores of Bras d’ Or Lake, at about 6:00 am, to catch the 8:30 am ferry. We found a few other folks who had the same idea:

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Soon the ferry arrived:

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When the ferry arrived, and had discharged its load of cars and trucks, it started loading for the trip back to PEI. Cars first. Cars, cars, and more cars went into the ferry. When all the cars were on board, they started loading trucks, and more trucks. Then trailers, including about 10 Airstreams. The ferry seemed “bottomless” – it just kept loading in more vehicles. Once on board, it looked like this:

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Once on board we found that there is a lower deck where all the cars were parked; trailers and trucks filled the main level. Upstairs were lounges, a cafeteria, and outdoor areas to experience the fresh air.

It was a fun ferry ride. We had breakfast in the cafeteria, watched the opposite ferry pass by, and enjoyed time with friends.

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When the ferry landed at Wood Islands, PEI, we were one of the first off. We had researched the area before hand, and we knew there was a Visitors Center where we could gather information on the island. Others had the same idea… (Maybe because there is a Provincial liquor store there as well…):

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Our campground is on the northern end of PEI, just north of Charlottetown; Wood Islands in on the south end. However, we were too early to arrive at the campground, lest we annoy the parking crew. So we just headed south, not knowing (and not caring) where we were going; it was beautiful!

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And when you wander around an unknown area, pulling your Airstream trailer, this is what you find:

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We found a winery! Rossignol Winery… Of course, it was a beautiful place, right on the ocean:

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We parked the rig and went inside to taste what we could taste:

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We only tasted the wines made from grapes; it wasn’t bad. We also tasted their Creme d’ Cassis, a black current wine (or liqueur) ; it was great! We bought a few bottles to supplement our “cellar”. We also admired the various sand sculptures on the property:

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Moving on, we continued around the southern end of the island. We finally stopped for lunch in the town of Montague; Windows on the Water was a delightful spot to enjoy the early afternoon.

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The town of Montague is located on the water, and once was a lively port city…

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After killing enough time, we headed north towards Charlottetown, and to our campground a few miles north of there. We settled in and readied ourselves for happy hours…

That evening, we joined two other California caravanners – Larry and Kathy plus Phil and Donna – in a bizarre game called Joker. It is an Airstream tradition. It is basically Parcheesi, but playing cards are used in lieu of a spinner or dice, making it even quirkier. Since I despise games of chance, I try to avoid Joker at all costs, but Larry and Kathy had done us many favors, so Lynda volunteered us to play with them…

Boys won. I pulled the winning card. An enjoyable time was had by all.

August 31, 2017 0

2017-08-10 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – More Lobster!

Today we had another day on our own; we spent the day planning the remainder of the trip and enjoyed some quiet time. We need to rest up, because tonight is: More Lobster!

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Once the caravan ends (in five days) we have about 2 months to get home; we will travel back through Canada, through New Brunswick and Ontario, stopping off to see the 1000 Islands; we will stop at CanAm RV in London, ON, then meet up with the McAnoys and see our Grandchildren on Boblo Island, located between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. After that interlude, we head north, over the top of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, through Thunder Bay, and back into the USA in Minnesota, all by September 1… After that, we’ll go through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota, checking out all the Frank Lloyd Wright and Laura Ingalls Wilder sites we can manage.

But tonight we have a dinner at St. Ann’s Lobster Galley. This is a very nice restaurant set on a lovely lake. Once again we enjoyed time eating together; meals like this create opportunities to get to know the other caravanners and enjoy a stress-free time together.

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We had a Drivers Meeting to discuss our last travel day within the caravan; tomorrow we take a ferry from Caribou, NS to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island…

August 31, 2017 1

Adventures in the Villa

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