The Adventures of Totoro and Her Pilots

Busy.

2009-04-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, been a while since we last posted. Juniper is a wonderful little person. Three months old now and full of joy and joy-ness. :) She giggles and smiles all the time, STILL sleeps through the night, loves boobies and her brother and sisters. Blog updates, uploading pictures, generally time to do anything but love on kids has gone by the wayside.

Totoro's Subaru conversion is on hold, I got a free 1991 2.1 WBX with 30k on it that I'm retrofitting for use with the 1.9 cooling system. I will initially use the 1.9 FI (Digijet) but eventually convert that to the 2.1 FI (Digifant.)

I've been barista-ing at the downtown store lately before coming out to roast. I like it but I am getting busier at the roastery so my downtown days are comign to and end.

We really will get some new pictures on here soon, I promise!

Juniper is here!!!

2009-02-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we posted a blog, we've been a bit busy. Here's why:

Juniper Claire was born on January 20th at 4:05pm!!!

Sommer had been having contractions on and off for a week or so before but on Tuesday the 20th they got more intense and a lot closer together. We had a midwife appointment that morning and then I went to work. That, of course, is when it all started to happen. With me about 20 minutes away in Sunriver.

She started IM'ing me on Google talk at about 12:30, telling me about each contraction. I would type back the time of each and started noticing they were 6-7 minutes apart, with some about 5 minutes apart. She kept saying they were 10 minutes apart and fake, my first clue that I needed to shut down the roaster, start getting out of there and on my way home. By the time she said, "I called my mom to come vacuum," I knew it was time to go home. Sommer's mom arrived and IM'ed me about a couple contractions then relayed the message that Sommer wanted me to come home.

I had Totoro going just about as fast as it could go all the way from Sunriver to Bend, it must've been a sight to see an 84 Vanagon flying down HWY97 at 75mph.

When I neared the house I thought, "Well, if the contractions are fake, she'll be sitting on the couch Facebooking or something. If not, she'll be doubled over in the living room."

It was the latter.

I got the stuff in the car and convinced Sommer that we'd come home right away if they were fake, that I was only putting the carseat, exercise ball and jammies in the car for next week when we going to have a baby.

We got to the birth center, Motherwise, at 2:15pm and as I got the bags out of the car and started toward the door I realized Sommer was headed down the street toward an apartment building saying, "They're fake! Let's do this some other time." About that time Nicole, one of the midwives, was coming out to meet us and reassure Sommer that they just wanted to make sure everything was ok.

As we settled into the birth suite and made it through a couple intense, close contractions, Dana checked and found Sommer was already 8 or 9 centimeters dilated. Labor was progressing very quickly, Sommer wanted in the giant tub to try and be a bit more comfortable. At first I stayed out of the tub, instead helping rub her back and shoulders and keep a cool washcloth a the ready to hold at her neck and forehead. Sydney arrived with Sommer's mom and initially stayed out of the room but after some laboring, we decided that, if she wanted to, she could come in. Sydney ended up being a great help, the midwives commented that they were very happy she was there to help out and witness such an amazing event.

The labor was fast and hard and by the time I got in the tub with Sommer, Juniper was on her way. I was behind Sommer alternating between supporting her in the frog pose she was in and keeping her from levitating up and back out of the tub. About 15 more minutes, five more contractions, beyond painful pushing and she was out at 4:05pm. Juniper was placed on Sommer's belly all squishy and beautiful. The cord was a bit short so she couldn't get all the way up to nurse right away, but after the cord stopped pulsing it was clamped and cut. After snuggling and rubbing the vernix in, we let them take Juniper and get her wrapped up and I helped get Sommer dried off and out of the tub.

Back in bed, Juniper started nursing right away and Sydney got to get some snuggles in, too. Juniper weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 20.5" long. She came out with a thick head of black hair and is very cute.

20 Minutes Old

The Motherwise staff was great, thank you so much to them, and the facilities were excellent. But we wanted out of there so we could start bonding and enjoy our first hours of Juniper at home. I am convinced a home birth would've been just as incredible, as Dana, Nicole and crew would come to our house.

We got to go home around 9:30pm that night. I can't begin to explain how incredible it was not to be at the hospital. It was so much more relaxing and being home about 5 hours afterward was amazing. I was worried at first, but after realizing there were no nurses coming in and out, no beeps or buzzes, and with a comfortable bed, I knew this was perfect.

She is a perfect baby. She sleeps through the night and loves boobies and diaper changes.

Sommer was fantastic, once she admitted to herself that it was real labor. :) I have nothing but the deepest love, respect and admiration for her after seeing again one of the most beautiful, selfless acts.

Some more pictures:

Mama, Daddy(looking rough) and Juniper

A Foot

A Beautiful Juniper

The Conversion is Coming!

2009-01-12T18:50:00.001-08:00

Totoro's engine, the 1.9l WBX, has always been a bit underpowered. My solution to that and the cooling issues and oil consumption issues is to swap the 1.9 out for an EJ22, a 2.2l Subaru engine likely from 1991-1994 with a few less miles that Totoro. The EJ22 fits perfectly in the engine bay and bolts up to the transaxle by way of an adapter plate and new flywheel.

The most difficult part of the install by far is paring down the Subaru wiring harness to 40 or so essential wires. Kennedy Engineered Products, KEP, has a 6 foot schematic and instructions on how to do it, as well as most of the other conversion parts.

The other hard part is routing the cooling system hoses and fitting them to the new engine. The stock coolant manifold on the EJ22 needs a bit of reworking to work more efficiently in the Vanagon. SmallCar Performance has a reversed manifold that makes this quite easy.

So a rough draft of the first bits I'll do with the WBX in place and running/driving are:

-Acquire a lower mileage, good condition EJ22 with ECU, Harness and assorted other bits.
-Modify the harness with KEP instructions.
-Perform any maintenance/detailing needed on the EJ22.
-Install SCP reversed coolant manifold.
-Install KEP crossmember engine mount.
-Install KEP flywheel and adapter plate.
-Install KEP header.
-Work out hose routing/expansion tank/heater hoses on paper.
-Work out throttle linkage and fuel lines/filter.

Then with all that in place and ready I'll block out a couple weekends in a row and set to work removing the WBX, it comes out quite easily. Then after removing any components specific to the WBX that I don't need, I'll detail the engine bay. After deatiling I'll move the expansion tank, hoses, fuel lines, and throttle cable as needed before then mounting the EJ22. Then comes mounting and routing the ECU and harness, making connections to the Vanagon harness and mounting the engine. After that its a matter of finalizing the cooling system connections, electrical connections, hooking up the fuel lines, then adding oil and coolant. Bleeding the cooling system is never graet fun on the Vanagon, but I've done it a few times by myself and I've got it down.

Well, more to come on the conversion later with pictures ad links to parts and prices!

-bean

The Laws of Thermodynamics. . .

2008-12-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

Internal energy U\,
Helmholtz free energy A=U-TS\,
Enthalpy H=U+PV\,
Gibbs free energy G=U+PV-TS\,
Grand potential \Phi_{G}=U-TS-\mu N\,

Today, class, we'll be discussing the laws of thermodynamics. Not really. Taking a cue from Mr. Elliott, I'll be writing about how I keep our 1100 square foot cottage warm through and through when it's in the single digits outside.

Our house has a natural gas furnace with ceiling heating ducts in all the rooms, a ceiling fan in the living room, and a woodstove insert in the master bedroom which is at the opposite end of the house from the kids' bedrooms.

The furnace works great and is controlled by a programmable, digital thermostat; unfortunately, relying on it solely to heat the house gives us a nasty shock when the gas bill comes.

The woodstove insert is the answer to that. Sommer's dad, my son Boston, and I go wood cutting in the fall and usually stock up about 2 cords of dry lodgepole pine so our heat for the winter is almost completely prepaid. (On the occasion that I don't build a fire or let it go out in the middle of the night, the furnace kicks on around 62*. Brrr.)

It took a bit of figuring out (*see tips below) how to get the most heat for the longest time out of the woodstove. Now that I have it dialed and can get a beautiful, hot, lasting fire going in no time flat, the problem is how to get the heat out of our room so we don't roast. It'll be up to 85*+ in there fast if I don't get some circulation.

I first tried putting a large fan in the doorway to pull the air out of the room. It worked but only very marginally. I then put a smaller fan in the upper corner of the door way to pull the hot air off the ceiling of the bedroom and out into the rest of the house. This worked well but looked a bit tacky.

I then realized I was working backward and hard than I had to. Instead of trying to pull the hot air out of the room, I took my big fan and put it in the doorway again, only this time I turned it around and pushed the colder air from the house into the bedroom. This immediately resulted in hot air billowing (if you could see it) out of the top of the doorway and within 15 minutes I had the bedroom cooled to a much more reasonable 74* and the rest of the house up to 72*.

I've been perfecting this system by adding in the ceiling fan on low in the living room and occasionally running just the blower on the furnace to circulate the warm air through the house even further.

The other morning it was 1* when I went to start the van, but with my wonderful fire that I had religiously kept going through the night (more like there's been a fire going for a couple weeks now) it was a toasty 73* inside.

*My tips for a great fire.
The obvious: dry wood.

Keep some air flow under your kindling.

Arrange kindling in a lincoln-log pattern. Two parallel pieces straight in with space for paper in between, two more sideways with space and so on.

Dryer lint. A small wad of dryer lint will catch a spark from a flint so well, you'll realize matches are a waste. It'll then catch your paper, too.

I've noticed when my stove is perfectly clean inside, after I've removed all the ash and charcoal, it takes a few fires to get it back to prime condition. I suspect this has to to with the retention of heat by all that ash and stuff at the bottom of the stove and I think it contributes some woodgas, too. Now if I clean out the stove, I leave a smallish layer of ash and charcoal in the bottom. Running a hot fire for days and days usually burns almost everything anyway, so my cleanings a few and far between.

Clean your chimney!!! This is a must! Every year BEFORE it gets wintry.

Clean your spark arrestor if you have one. This should be done when you clean the chimney AND after long periods of extreme cold where you dampen the fire for an extended time. Ours gets build up that starts to choke the fire and I'll notice smoke that starts coming into the room when I'm loading more wood in the stove.

(These may be specific to my woodstove and might not work for you, your results may vary. I assume no liability for any harm or injury, explosions, burnt carpet, or singed arm hair.)

Anyway, I love our woodstove and I hope everyone can use theirs to its most efficient potential!

2008-12-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

So the Samsung digital camera is not working so well, I might need to take it in have it looked at. Meanwhile, I've brought my trusty old Minolta x-370 back into service.

I got this camera and a few lenses when my grandmother passed them down to my mother. She gave them to me when I was a senior at Bend Senior High School. I was taking a photography class at the time and this was perfect, a semi-auto SLR with full manual at the turn of a dial. I came with a 35-75mm lens on it, a telephoto lens and a wide angle lens.

I did exactly zero of the assignments in photography class. What I did do was burn through roll after roll of all kinds of film and at the end of the class I turned in hundreds of different pictures that coverd what we learned in class and beyond. My favorite were a couple time exposures I did. One was at the base of Pilot Butte here in Bend, Oregon in December. Highway 20 runs right past and the way the streaks of headlights and tailights bend around the butte is cool. The other was in Seattle in November I think. I was at the park near the entrance to Pike Place Market and I did a long exposure of I-90(?) and the old King Dome which was demolished in 2000.

Anyway, if I find those prints I'll put them up here. Pictures of recent travels, family, Sommer's belly with our soon to arrive baby girl, Juniper, are all coming soon.

Also, Totoro's engine conversion is getting closer and closer to fruition. It has been decided that an EJ22 Subaru engine will replace Totoro's sad, weaky-leaky, 1.9l VW waterboxer engine.

-Bren

Picture Post of Pumpkin Patch Play, Summer Lake Soaking and Crack in the Ground Crawling

2008-10-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

Another picture post here.

The pumpkin patch we go to every year is up near Terrebonne, Oregon, about half an hour from our house. The backdrop is the Smith Rocks State park, home to some world famous rock climbing. The farm is very well done with a farmer's market and pumpkin patch, corn maize, food stuffs and pumpkin cannons. The pumpkin cannons are basically huge versions of the potato gun Boston and I made a few years ago for St. Patrick's Day. We still haven't actually paid to shoot the pumpkin cannon.

Syd eating some delicious corn on the cob.

Look out goats!

Sommer smuggling a pumpkin. Oh wait. . .

A couple weeks ago we drove out about 2.5 hours southeast of Bend to the Cowboy Dinner Tree and Summer Lake Hot Springs.
The drive out was beautiful.

Kids ready for bed in the cabin after soaking in the hot springs.

We got to the cabin after dark so waking up in the middle of the "Oregon Outback" was amazing.
This is the old bathhouse. Inside is a big concrete pool and changing rooms, very very rustic. Kind of like soaking in a chicken house. Nice and relaxing though.

The next morning we soaked in the new outdoor pool. Still a work in progress, there will be a three or four outdoor pools all together.

After our morning soak and some breakfast we headed out to Crack in the Ground, near Christmas Valley, Oregon. It was so amazing! Way more fun than it sounds.

Picture Update!!!

2008-10-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

So, instead of fumbling for words to describe the wonderful times we've had these last couple months, here are the pictures to prove it.

Well, here's how that fourth baby bean is coming along. It's a girl, Juniper Clare (or Claire.)

On the way to Portland for Season and Lee's wedding we found Lost Lake. We stopped for coffee and a snack.

We bring our coffee kit everywhere we go. It lives in the van under the seat. It includes:

Stove/Propane
Saucepan
French Press
Mugs
Fresh Roasted Coffee
Fresh Bend, Oregon Water
Matches

Eliot was tired after her snack and playing with all the frogs.

We met my parents for lunch and the kids left with them, heading up to Astoria. Sommer and I went to the hotel and got all dolled up for the wedding that night.

After a day to ourselves in between involving a haircut for Sommer and delicious food with great music, we went to Astoria to meet the kids and hang out with my parents.

Boston entered himself into an oyster-eating contest.

He managed to get one down and that was that. The goal was 24 total. Oh well, he did a great job just swallowing one raw, slime-ball oyster.

Hanging with my Dad.

Wait, they might actually be friends!?

Here's a Westy Vanagon, Turbo Diesel named Mellow Yellow. I thought I took a picture of the name on the rear left of the Westy top, but I can't find it. Sweet trailer set-up. Oh yeah, they're from Nova Scotia. Note the Burning Man sticker on the side.

Eliot posing for the camera at Cape Disappointment.

The driftwood shelter my Dad and I made.

Pumpkin patch pictures possibly popping up posthaste. Stay tuned!

An Update. . .

2008-10-15T11:00:00.001-07:00

Well, here I am! It's been a while since the last post on here and I thought I'd give an update.

Portland was fun, the wedding was great. We headed up to Astoria to pick up the kids and visit with my parents for a couple days. Totoro ran great, though when we headed home we went through Seaside and over HWY 26. This way was much more mountainous than HWY 30 over to Longview. Totoro had a bit of a hard time on the long long up hill stretches. By the time we made it down I-5 to Salem and over Santiam into Sisters, the valves were noisy and the engine was hot and tired. Nothing terribly wrong, just ready for a rest. We got home and the next day Totoro was much happier hanging out in the driveway. I got the timing belt fixed on the Honda CRV. The B20Z engine in the CRV is and interference motor, meaning the valves and piston occupy the same space at different times and will smash into each other if the engine is out of time, say, when the timing belt breaks. Luckily, Sommer shut the engine off just as the belt sheared a bunch of teeth off the belt, saving the engine and us a bunch of money. Totoro is also very happy not to be the sole transportaion for our fmaily. It was seeing a lot of miles lately. I'll post pictures soon, soory for the boring post. :)

It's that time of year. . .

2008-09-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Back to school? Leaves changing? Labor day holiday? Nope.

It's Vanagon Cooling System Leak season!!! YAY!

Why?

During the warm summer months, Totoro's cooling system and all associated metal parts are nice and toasty. Either the ambient air temperature is really hot, or we just don't stop taking Totoro on adventures. Whichever it is, metal parts never cool down much. Now that we've had a couple nights down to freezing or near it, Totoro's little engine and cooling system gets a bit weepy as all that warm metal gets a chill and contracts.

The place I don't see a leak and don't want to see one is at the big (stupid) rubber gasket between the head and water jacket. What's that? A head gasket? No no no, my friend. Instead of a traditional head gasket design, VW took and air-cooled engine design and wrapped a water jacket around the cylinders where the air-cooling fins should be. Instead of a flat normal looking head gasket set-up, we have a large rubber band that fits over the edge of the water jacket and, with some goopy black sealant, gets sandwiched between the case and the head.

This morning and last, I've notice a small drip from the passenger's side of the radiator, where the lower hose connects. I'll tighten the clamp and it'll stop. The other place I see a seep is at the odd thermostat housing set-up on Totoro's engine. It has various places it's bolted together/various places for gaskets to leak. I'll tighten the bolts to the right torque, but they are small little bolts and don't get need much. If that doesn't stop it, I'll need to take it all apart, replacing the water pump and thermostat at the same time. Opening a Vanagon cooling system is not something one should do often, bleeding ALL the air out is a pain. Totoro is running very well, cooling system is doing it's job flawlessly, so I want to avoid draining/refilling/bleeding it.

Paulina Report and Prepped for Portland

2008-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well Paulina was fun but kind of unremarkable. It was fun meeting our friends at their cabin, Bos brought his friend Jack along, too. Nice getting out on the lake in a small, rented boat with a itty-bitty motor that only ran at idle or wide open, and great relaxing by the lake at the cabin.

Our campsite was a bit less than relaxing as we had a giant motorhome next to us that pushed the "Generators may be run for up to two hours, twice a day" rule to three hours three times a day. Also, a rowdy bunch of birthday party/home from Iraq party people were not too far, either. I'd much rather listen to them than the incessant hum of a generator, running some god-knows-what power hungry appliance while the inhabitants of said land yacht are at the next campsite over playing bridge.

Only you can prevent nebulae.

The rented boat was to save us the four mile hike around the lake to the hot springs (midwife's orders.) I am glad we didn't make the trek on foot because we didn't really soak very long. The pools were definitely nice and hot, but they required some digging with my handy army surplus folding shovel and were pretty silt-y for awhile after deepening them. The best pool was at the west end of the beach. Lined with logs, it was right on the edge of the lake so regulating the temperature was easy.

The problem with being right on the lake was the massive amount of nasty fish egg globules forming flotillas bigger than many southern pacific islands and intruding into the hot springs. Oh well. I am still trying to figure when a better time of year would be to get a nice soak. We searched for East Lake hot springs on Sunday morning before heading back home. We never did find them.

On our way home we took a turn on a fairly washboard-y forest road toward McKay falls. Once back there we found a nice little primitive campground along Paulina Creek with plenty of beautiful pools to splash/soak in and some nice hikes up and down stream to various waterfalls.

It is also rumored to be where you park to hike upstream 2 miles to some natural waterslides. The water here is nice and warm, the creek fed by the warm top waters of Paulina Lake.

Now I've got to get Totoro cleaned out and ready for a trip to Portland for a wedding.

Preparations for Paulina

2008-08-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should clean Totoro out.

I have a theory/lazy habit that if I don't unpack from camping, I'm always prepared to go camping.

A flaw in that theory is when you leave perishable supplies in the van for a week or two of the hottest weather seen in Central Oregon this summer. Or when you forget you exhausted your supply of necessities like toilet paper/matches/Red Vines/Mike&Ikes etc. and don't stock up before your next trip.

We are headed to Paulina Lake next weekend for two or three nights. There are hot springs on Paulina Lake as well as East Lake; Sommer and I have been dying for more soaking so this I a major draw to the area for us. The problem is that both springs are said to be about a 4 mile hike around to the north side of the lakes. Normally, four miles would not be an issue but, with Sommer being told by the midwife not to hike or bike the rest of the pregnancy, it looks like we'll be boating across. Oh well. I suppose paddling a canoe is less stress on your pelvis than Sommer's usual cliff drops and table tops on a Mt. Bike.

Overnight in the Ochocos and the Painted Hills: Part Two

2008-08-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we woke up to bright sunshine and made breakfast and coffee.

We decided to pack up and head to the Painted Hills about 40 miles east.

We could've headed back over the Ochoco Pass on NF-2630 and come out in the valley just before the turn to the Painted Hills but that will have to wait. We headed out to HWY 26 and east toward Mitchell and turned north toward the hills.

Arriving at the information center, we filled the canteen, had a bathroom break and read up on the geology of the area. As we were loading up to explore the area, I found a small plastic cow of E's had jumped ship and was making a run for it.

We drove up to a view point and Sommer snapped this picture:

Down the road there was a short hike around one of the smallish examples of the hills. They are very interesting up close. (The hills and the cows.)

Suddenly all the color drained out of the world. . .

We headed from the beautiful Painted Hills to tiny Mitchell and got ice cream sandwiches and checked out the local Black Bear, Henry. The small sign on Henry's not-apparently-reassuringly-secure habitat says that Henry was born on a bear farm and had his claws removed as a cub. It also says he enjoys wrestling with his keeper, playing with his ball and long walks on the beach. Henry is a Scorpio. I'm exaggerating a bit there. My pictures of Henry didn't turn out but I assure you he is indeed a large Black bear.

We made our way back through the Ochocos on HWY 26, stopped at Ochoco Reservoir for a splash and a snack and then headed home to Bend.

We had a wonderful time and I know we'll be back out that way again, maybe we'll scout some potential group sites for a VW get together. Maybe a pre or post Maupin camp.

Overnight in the Ochocos and to the Painted Hills: Part One

2008-08-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

We took a quick overnight trip to the Ochoco Mountains outside Prineville, Oregon. Here's a map of where we ended up traveling:

View Larger Map

We took off around 4:00pm after a friend's birthday party and headed through Prineville past Ochoco Reservoir into the hills. My google directions got us fairly close to our ultimate destination, Walton Lake. The roads along the way were twisty and the scenery was amazing.

There were Forest Service signs that took us away from our directions but in the end saved us some time/miles. At one fork in the road, a cow was munching grass in the "vee" of the road. Open Range for sure.

As we pulled up to the the tiny seven acre lake, a sign out front informed us the camp was full. We made a loop around the lake and headed back down the way we came in search of a nice, secluded, dispersed campsite. We saw a sign at the vee with NF-2630 (where Cow was now nuzzling on his friend, Other Cow) with two campgrounds listed as 1 mile and 3 miles up the road. We went for it. The view out Totoro's dirty windows was so incredible. Late evening light coating pastures, valleys and forests in dripping butterscotch. We climbed the smooth gravel road and went past one mile with no sign of any campground, past three miles, and over the top of Ochoco Pass at 5289' with no camps to be seen.

Turning around, we headed back to a sign we'd seen at a tee saying HWY 26 was 4 miles away and found a couple guys in a pickup at the intersection. They said down that road toward the highway there was a prairie with a spring and a few roads leading off into the surrounding forest. We headed down and found the turn into the fields, past a horse camp and up into a little spot with a long dead fire-ring. It was dinner time for sure so I got a fire going for some turkey dogs and heated up some chili. E crashed with Sommer pretty quick after dinner, while the Bos and Sis stayed up with me playing with the camera.

After they snuggled into there sleep ing bags in the tent I was left alone to watch the fire die down and the meteors fire up. I saw a few tiny flashes among the countless stars. I listened to Sis and Bos talk as FRIENDS for the first time in forever. Their subjects: Sharks, Mythbusters, etc. I listened quietly, I think they forgot I was there as they forgot about annoying each other. It was getting cold so I took a couple rocks form the fire ring, wrapped them in my flannel and put them a the end of the bed as I climbed into Totoro. It was my best idea yet! Sommer really appreciated it as the down comforter trapped the heat around our feet. As I was drifting off to sleep, a super bright meteor burned across the entire slice of sky i could see out the top of the back window.

Hambone Springs and Bagby Hot Springs, Part Three

2008-08-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

The drive down forest road 58 was pretty but as we got further and further down hill we started seeing more and more other cars and big RV's and such. Sommer, E, and Bos all slept in the back on the way to Austin Hot Springs; Sis was a great co-pilot riding shotgun. She fed me eyeballs (green grapes,) played dj and kept me company.

We took the turn for Detroit, south on 224, and headed down to Austin Hot Springs. None of us had been there before and it was a bit of a shock. I had no idea it was sort of a hillbilly campground/motorcross track/skeet shooting range/hot springs combo. Twas not our kind of scene at all. We turned tail and made a run back down the road to the turn off for Bagby Hot Springs.

Once there we loaded up a back pack with some PB&J supplies and some fruit and started the 1.5 mile walk back to the tubs.

It was incredibly beautiful and a nice stretch of the legs. Oddly enough there were trolls under each little foot bridge. Sommer and I couldn't see them, but the kids caught a glimpse of a couple beasties.

We passed some beautiful spots that looked like amazing swimming holes, though I'm sure the water was a bit chilly.

A troll shower.

The wait to soak in one of the private tubs was only about 10 minutes, just enough time to eat some PB&J. Soaking was so nice. Relaxing, cleansing, and fun.

The requisite GIANT LOG PHOTO.

We left Bagby and continued down the road through the middle of the Cascades, past Breitenbush into Detroit, over Santiam pass to home. We had a wonderful time!

Hambone Springs and Bagby Hot Springs, Part Two

2008-07-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Hambone Springs, a more or less abandoned campground at about 4600'. We pulled in and were the only Vanagon in sight, Gypsie hadn't shown up yet, and we were water-cooled. We had our picture taken as we drove in a were greeted warmly by everyone.

We stretched a bit and unloaded some of the firewood we brought. Then I moved the van down a tiny, rough, camp road to it's end--the last "campsite." We secluded ourselves a bit, being self-conscious of having SO many kids that could potentially irritate other campers. It was a wonderful site with a nice big fire ring. We set up camp and made some homemade quick chili and turkey dogs.

Eliot called it a night and Sommer helped her to bed while Bos, Sis and I wandered down to the big fire in the center of the campground for some socializin' and guitar pickin'. Bos and Syd only lasted a few minutes down there and then headed back to the tent to sleep. I stayed and picked along with Gypsie for a bit then called it a night as well.

The next morning we got up and made some bacon and eggs and headed down to the springs.

It was a very beautiful walk, not really a hike only being 1/8 mile. The water was clear and cold and delicious, though here in Bend we are spoiled with some of the best city water around.

We sat around lazily most of the day Saturday. There was a great jam session around dinner time, some wonderful food, a couple beers and more great stories.
We headed back to Totoro for some sleep and woke the next morning to a bit of fog and mist.

We made some pancakes and packed up camp. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and started back up the Abbot Road. Syd took some great black and white pictures on the way up the gnarly, rocky path.

In the left hand bottom corner of that last picture, you can just see the edge of the road. We headed back down Abbot Road and instead of going back the way we came to HWY 26, we turned southwest toward HWY 224 and Estacada.

Hambone Springs and Bagby Hot Springs Trip, Part One

2008-07-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

Last Father's Day we loaded up Totoro and headed to Maupin for the Deschutes River RendezVW, a Volkswagen meet. It was a blast! While there I learned of a forum on the interweb called Itinerant-Air-Cooled.com. Now, Totoro is water-cooled, not air-cooled, but I met some wonderful people in Maupin and wanted to keep in touch so I signed up for IAC. Through IAC I've met a bunch of new people, all VW crazed airheads. This last weekend, a trip was planned to Hambone Springs.

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We decided it was doable and I let the forum know that we were on our way.

We loaded Totoro with the camping gear and a bunch of really dry lodgepole pine and left Bend, heading north on HWY 97 through Redmond and Madras. We had the curtains up so the kids could watch their DVD. After topping of the tank (Totoro's gas gauge is a bit optimistic sometimes and the speedo/odo are inop at the moment) we continued on 26 out of Madras and went through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

After leaving the high desert, we made the familiar, twisty climb up toward Mt. Hood. Instead of traveling all the way to Gov't Camp and on to Portland like we normally do, we turned left onto Skyline Road.

And Climbed. . .

And Climbed. . .
This is where I took the shot of Mt. Hood

It was surprisingly smooth for about the first 16 or 17 miles, then after we turned onto Abbot Rd. things got a bit bumpier.

Abbot Road is an interesting drive. You head through the forest like the shot above and then you realize to the left of you the ground has dropped father and father away until you are looking at the tops of trees and then way over the tops of trees. I don't have many pictures of it because it was soooo narrow and rocky I was concentrating pretty hard. It's basically a controlled fall: first gear, clutch in, ride the brake, crawl over rocks and the occasional tree. Sommer at this time was having really sharp pains, the baby did not like all the jostling. We took a few breaks coming down the Abbot Road before it smoothed out a bit, just as we arrived at Hambone Springs.

Yay! Totoro has a blog!

2008-07-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is Totoro's first blog. This blog will serve to keep friends and family up to date with the adventures of Totoro, our beloved 1984 Volkwagen Vanagon GL.