24 States in 27 Days - Day 2:

Oct. 11th 2012 we awoke to sun streaming in our foggy canopy windows - we hadn’t left a window open, so condensation had collected inside, not unlike sleeping in a tent. Neither one of us wanted to get up, thinking it was pretty cold outside, but Brad finally got brave and opened our back tailgate window. The sunshine was warm, and though it was chilly it wasn’t nearly as cold as we’d imagined. 

In the background you can see the steam rising from the hot spring pond.

Here's the hot pond, showing the office across the way and the bath house behind the pond shed.  

We had breakfast in the small kitchen - I heated pizza and Brad had granola, while a friendly orange tabby cat hung out and visited with us. 

This photo shows the cabins available to rent at Crystal Crane Hot Springs, the bath house, and behind the cabins, the hot spring pond.

Back on the road, we soon discovered we were already off course, not on hwy. 20, but somehow the night before, while in Burns, we’d missed a turn and were on hwy. 78 instead! After laughing that we were already lost we headed north & were soon back on 20, eventually sliding into Vale Oregon. This place was “Mural Town”, so of course we had to stop and go for a photo walk. 

A drive-by photo of Snake River reflections in Idaho.

From there we buzzed through Idaho, taking I-84, I-86 & I-15, returning to backroads on hwy. 30 east. Looking at the map earlier, we’d seen Lava Hot Springs off hwy. 30 which intrigued us. Again it was dark when we drove into the town of Lava Hot Springs, completely unaware of what to expect. We had to stop and explore so we parked across from what looked like a bustling giant hot spring swimming pool. We walked down to take a look at the pool and the Portneuf river running through town, took a quick stroll around the small downtown area, then not seeing anywhere we wanted to stop we soon were back on the road, thinking the next town might be a bit less resort-like. Soda Springs Idaho was another small town to explore - in the dark. Finding a quiet, dark street near the pioneer museum across from a couple of churches we pulled in for our first night of “stealth” camping. Quietly slipping our 2 duffles and cooler into the cab of the truck, we quickly climbed into the back, put up our curtains, and soon were sleeping - as best as we could with trains and the occasional vehicle slipping past. 

24 States in 27 Days - Day 1:

On Oct. 10th 2012, after we were packed and ready to roll we drove down to American Dream Pizza in Corvallis where we ordered our favorite pizza to go, thinking it’d be an easy meal now and later as we traveled. Cold pizza is terrific on the road we discovered. It was just after 12:30pm when we were officially over the bridge & on our way! We drove east on hwy. 20, through Lebanon, Sweet Home, Sisters & Bend, with a short stop in Riley to wash windows. We’d taken turns driving, and both of us, when trying to get the cruise control to work, accidentally flipped on the wipers which smeared the bugs across the windshield… That cruise control was not my friend. It did work occasionally for Brad, but never, not once the whole road trip, did it work for me! 

In Burns after stopping for gas we continued east, Brad driving, and thinking he was up for putting a lot more miles on, even though it was getting dark. Not too far out of town we passed a sign, indicating a camping opportunity up ahead. As we drove by, we both read the sign “Crystal Crane Hot Springs”, then both exclaimed “Hot Spring?!” At my nudging we turned around & drove in to see what it was like. It was dark by then, but we could see an RV parking area, then a structure that looked like a bath house with an office across from it and a lake beyond. We parked & went inside the office where we discovered this wonderful affordable oasis in the desert! For just $15 we could dry camp just beyond the main lake which was actually a hot spring pond that was available for use at all hours of the day & night! We jumped at the opportunity to stay there and enjoy a soak in the warm pond. Connected to the office was a living room space we were allowed to use that had wifi and was open until 9:00 pm, and nearby was a small kitchen & dining room building, also open 24 hours. There were showers & bathroom facilities in the same building as the bath house & for an extra fee people could rent a private bath house room, each unique with deep hot spring fed tubs. This being such a beautiful evening, we were content to just use the open pond where we could float and gaze up at the multitude of stars overhead. We felt pretty lucky to have found such a wonderful spot our first night out! 

The living room space we enjoyed after taking a wonderful soak in the pond hot springs.  

A new painting

This pastel painting was painted as a donation to our local Arts Center fundraiser February 28th. This event is called the Chocolate Fantasy---a dreamy evening full of chocolates, art, and music. My only complaint?! I'm just not a chocolate fan!! I know, I must be some kind of weird feminine aberration... but I just don't really like chocolate much! If I have to have chocolate I want it in the form of brownies, chocolate milk, chocolate cream cheese cupcakes* (see below!) and the occasional mocha, but that's about it for the chocolate fantasies of mine. Ok, chocolate rum cake is pretty tasty too, but a chocolate kiss? hershey bar? chocolate covered almonds? Nah, no thanks... Now if it was a popcorn fantasy? Chips & dip? I'd be all over that!! Luckily for me, since I do get 2 tickets to the event for my contribution, there is at least one table that has non-sweet treats available... What I'm really looking forward to, is seeing all the other donated artwork!

This first photo shows my preliminary drawing with pastel pencil on the prepared canvas:
Not much to it, is there? That's the joy of pastels---you build as you go!

Next we have the first layer of soft pastel, pretty much covering the drawing and the whole surface of the canvas.


I've sprayed it thoroughly with diluted pva size, and continued on with another layer of pastel.


And, here is the painting, all finished!

I'm calling it "Showers Likely"
It's on 12x12" canvas with a finished gallery edge.
Coming up---my 2nd painting, finished this month! Stay Tuned for something completely * different!