Pre-penultimate Day

It's Saturday morning - our second last full day in Grants Pass. Last night we went to Scott and Lucy's friends Rich and Jen England's for a lovely BBQ. Don't think I've seen so much protein for a while - steaks, chicken and sausages - all cooked to perfection. Of course, we also had the benefit of a driver - Cade took us there and back and spent time at the Englands with his pals.

Earlier on we'd had lunch at the new Red Robin franchise in town. The food was good but they were somewhat short-staffed.

I'd been out on a short bike ride early on and had picked some blackberries for breakfast, so Jo and I went back to the Allen Creek Trail a bit later on - this time in the car - and picked some more, so now Lucy's fridge is full of cups of berries. She took some along to Jen's last night and the girls had them in their champagne.

It's hit 100 + F a few more times this week and it looks like it's not going to cool down until after we leave. We've been waiting for the pressure build-up to bring some storms - hopefully with rain - to help clear the air and reduce the heat a bit, but, despite a couple of brief threats, nothing has happened yet. There has been talk locally of the smoke from distant fires and sure, the hills aren't as clear as they were a couple of weeks ago, but I have neither smelled nor tasted anything in the air this time.

We did get some heavy peals of thunder and some sheet lightning through the night earlier this week - enough to waken us, but still no rain. Holly, however, is the really sensitive one and she trembles any time there's any kind of electrical activity in the area. You can usually find her hiding in the bath, cowering in terror. Lucy eventually had to sleep with her to try to calm her.

The other night, Scott and Lucy were at Cade's pre-season football family BBQ and Jo and I were (mostly) home alone. There were a few distant rumbles and Holly went in to fear mode again:

Nice reflection from the camera flash!

Meanwhile, Shelby and Buster are lying down, very relaxed:

So it looks like we're going to hit a couple of wineries this afternoon. We have to be back before 6 pm as it's Cade's Senior photo session for the yearbook.

Tomorrow we'll probably go out for breakfast and then it's early to bed in preparation for the absurdly early rise on Monday morning to start our nightmare convoluted journey home - Medford - Denver - Atlanta - Heathrow - Aberdeen - and no Business Class this time!

Midweek update

So what day is it now? So easy to lose track of time, especially when neither of us are on top of the world. It's over a month since we picked up this respiratory bug down south and it just refuses to go away. I thought I was finally on the mend a week ago, but it sneaks back and hits you again when you least expect it. Not that we're totally out of it or anything - we can still get about our daily rituals OK, but we - certainly me anyway - don't feel much like stretching ourselves at all. A couple of short cycles, 2 games of golf and a few very short trail walks is about all we've managed.

Days are largely spent eating, drinking - the bug hasn't stopped us doing that! - and shopping. It's been too hot these last 10 days or so - once it gets in to the 100's F, it's difficult to do anything in the middle of the day.

Scott joined me again on Monday on the one hour drive up to lovely Myrtle Creek for a round of golf at what was now been renamed Cougar Canyon golf course. We doubt if cougars actually roam the course - at least not during the day - as there were families of young deer who weren't scared off by any golfers.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, we arranged to go for a short hike on the Shan Creek Trail. Lovely spot, but after a mile or so, Jo - and Scott - had had enough and we headed back. It was too hot for Jo - and there was a bit of climbing involved - and the trails were fairly narrow with poison oak, something Scott's allergic to, overlapping. Lots of photos on FB already, but here's a few more that didn't make it:

Resting on the rocks on the creek

Just about as far as Jo could manage

The trail was a little hard to follow in places, but we knew there was a log crossing point, so I went over.

At the other side of the creek there's another log with notches in it, leading upwards. I decided to climb up to see if it took us to the trail again. It didn't.

There was a lovely spot where there was a swimming hole. Perhaps the boys will try out some rock jumping there some time.

We had lunch once more at White Horse RV park - and very nice it was too.

There's a new slushie/smoothie type outlet in GP. The base liquid is one of 5 exotic fruits whose names we'd never heard of before:

They add various fruits, granola etc. We've tried it a couple of times - very interesting.

So today (Wednesday), Lucy drove Scott over to the hospital in Medford for some neurology tests - something that Lucy wanted to get done as a reassurance that all's well. It'll be another 2 weeks before Scott hopefully gets the all-clear from the doctor and he can finally discard that annoying neck collar, which must be even worse in this heat.

Penultimate week

(Always best viewed on the blog itself, rather than e-mail).

Last weekend, on the Saturday, Jo and I took a drive downtown and walked round the Grants Pass shops, stopping occcasionally to admire the bears, which are a feature of the town every summer:

Last Sunday all four of us took a run down to lovely Ashland. We had lunch at the Caldera brewery and a short stroll around the town and through Lithia Park, finishing with ice creams.

Not having a proper camera nowadays, I notice I'm taking far fewer pictures and hence, half the time I can't remember what we've done! I do remember, however, that we had to hunker down for a week of triple digit temperatures, soaring as high as 115 F (46 C) midweek. We had chores to do on Wednesday, which kept us busy and mostly out of the worst of the heat. Braeden had two orthodontist and one dentist appointment, all within a few hours:

We managed to squeeze a nice lunch in at Matsukaze, a local Japanese restaurant, and it was another Japanese restaurant we ended up at for Cade's 17th birthday on Thursday. On this occasion, 7 of us, including girlfriend Avena, travelled to Medford, with the initial plan being Kaleidoscope, but it was way too busy, as was Plan B - MOD Pizza. Jo and I stuck to the tried and tested teriyaki meals at Bonsai, whilst the rest did all sorts of sushi and other exotics.

Lucy doesn't work Fridays so we were able to take Shelby for a bit of exercise on the Limpy Creek trails. A lovely spot and we had a fine hamburger lunch at a local RV park afterwards.

We enjoyed the walk, so decided to repeat it today (Saturday), this time with all 3 dogs on two separate trails at Cathedral Hills:

Note that Scott doesn't have his neck brace on here. He takes it off quite often now, but still has to sleep with it on. However, not long to go now until he will hopefully get the all-clear from the medics.

Cade went away to the coast with his football buddies overnight, and Braeden stayed with a pal too, so we don't see as much of the boys as we used to, but they are sure growing up.