Wildlife Images

A few miles out of Grants Pass is Wildlife Images Rehabilitation and Education Center.

This world-famous non-profit facility helps sick, injured, or orphaned wild animals receive the care they need to hopefully rejoin their kind in the wilds. Those who are too disabled or too human-imprinted to survive in the wild join the other permanent residents, and may earn the title of "Educational Ambassador." This wolf is being walked as part of his socialization to become an "Ambassador." The facility has a few paid staff and many volunteers who work in all capacities, including working directly with the animals.

The guided tour includes only the permanent residents. The animals being prepared for re-entry into their natural habitat are sequestered from excess human contact, as human imprinting is a major reason for failure to readjust to wild habitat.

These signs told the stories of the residents, and also reminded visitors that caring for these animals does have a price.

Some of the animals, like Shoshone, above, were difficult to photograph either because they were hiding, they didn't stop moving, or their enclosure and position in the enclosure made photography difficult. But I did get some good shots.

The facility has a good population of bears, including 2 grizzlies from Alaska, who we didn't see as they weren't hungry and were on the far side of their enclosures. One of the bears, Susie, was rescued from mistreatment in Italy by an American couple who saw her plight. These black bears were busy eating when we reached their enclosure.

The staff tries to encourage animals who would normally hibernate to do so, but in this mild climate their hibernation is usually shallow and intermittent.

Before we left, we enjoyed our picnic lunch by the duck pond down hill from the visitor center.

It was a beautiful, peaceful day.

Historic Jacksonville, Oregon

As late as it was in the day when we left the Harry and David store in Medford, the best part of the day was yet to come. We  headed out of town toward historic Jacksonville, Oregon, which just a few miles out of Medford. Jacksonville is one of just a handful of towns designated as a National Historic Landmark. The entire town. Its roots lie in the gold rush days of the 1800s.

This is no ghost town. The beautifully maintained buildings are now host to shops, galleries, restaurants, inns, spas (including a holistic animal spa), and more. We parked on Main Street

which is lined with fine old buildings from the century before last.

As we turned the corner on our way to the Visitor's Center, we saw the trolley

which we understand gives tours. The brochures say "hop aboard," but they didn't say if or how much of a fee, and my pocket change was slim, so we decided to avoid embarrassment. Next time, and there will be a next time, I would like to ride the trolley. I understand it only operates through October, so I'd better hurry back.

On our way to the visitor center, we passed the telephone company, which had this window display.

We picked up a brochure for the walking tour and consulted the time. 30 minutes before we had to head back to Grants Pass. We will definitely have to come back.

Still, we managed to cram quite a bit of sightseeing into a half hour. Here's the old Catholic rectory

and the Anglican Church,

which had a huge stone in front, with this inscription.

Here's the statue

in front of the courthouse.

This is one of the inns, or bed-and-breakfasts, in Jacksonville.

Just look at that tree by the front porch. This is definitely a milder climate than Montana (where we're from).

Here's the Turner House,

and here's the B. F. Dowell house, ca. 1859.

We didn't have time to visit any of the art galleries, but I loved the name of this one, and the sign.

Time was up--for now. We returned to Grants Pass via the scenic Applegate byway, which is liberally sprinkled with wineries, but that will have to be another story. The afternoon sunlight and the scenery were glorious. I love October!

!

Harry and David

After sticking close to home for a few days, we were ready to venture out, so more or less on the spur of the moment we set out to nearby Medford, Oregon. Usually I like to get out my stash of travel literature, do a little Internet research, and, you know, make a plan.

And the difference showed. We bickered about what to do and wandered around trying to make a plan. Still, we had a wonderful time. We enjoyed a stop at Lowe's, going up and down most of the aisles, watching for ideas for the trailer. Home improvement is so fun when there are real boundaries to how much it will cost and how much work it will be. Our projects are mostly little, like our last one.

In the rear room of the trailer, where we play our instruments, watch tv (second tv), or just get away from each other for a bit, there is a large window where I would set my keyboard up on a little folding table. I wanted the table to be available for other uses and felt the the most efficient thing to do would be to put up a shelf that would fold down out of the way when not needed or when the slide needed to come in. As the studs were oddly placed, we hit upon the idea of mounting a prefinished shelf from Home Depot to the studs, and then using that to mount the fold down brackets.

Then, the fold-down brackets, which we found at Camping World.

Then, the larger shelf that would be so useful.

And here it is folded down,when not in use or when traveling..

Anyway, while Home Depot and Lowes carry many of the same things, there are some real differences in style, so we always enjoy visiting both.

I visited Michaels, where I got some paint. I've decided to act on a long buried desire to learn watercolor painting, and need a couple more colors for my beginner projects in my learn to paint book.

Then, lunch. If you know us, you know we are extremely frugal when it comes to eating out. Other than an very occasional dollar menu hamburger for purely utilitarian reasons, it's a rare occasion. Last time, in fact, we wrote about in this blog. It was still August, and our big splurge was a hamburger in Virginia City, Montana. From a real restaurant. Not from the value menu. Sublime!

This time, for lunch we decided to shun our franchise habit and stopped at this Medford eatery.

Fancy, huh? Actually, by the time we stopped here, we were crabby because of the aforesaid lack of a plan. But this place was frequented by locals, and my mushroom burger was so thick that all the mushrooms didn't fit in the burger, and they automatically served it with a fork. Our frayed tempers were much soothed by the time we had enjoyed our hometown hamburgers.

After a stop at Bear Creek Park, where the dogs enjoyed an off-leash romp in the dog park, we headed to Harry and David. This is what is known as a "destination store," listed in tourist literature as a sightseeing must.

Harry and David was a pioneer in the mail order gourmet food business. I remember seeing their catalogs as a youngster. They were especially well known for their "Fruit of the Month" club, whereby you could gift your loved one or business associate with a monthly basket of seasonal fresh fruit.

They have tours, but due to our lack of preparation, we had missed the last bus. Still, we had a wonderful time exploring the store, and we plan to go back another time for the tour.

They are especially famous for their pears, which they had many varieties of. In addition, they certainly had stunning displays of all kinds of beautiful produce.

Oregon is THE state for filberts, aka hazelnuts.

A few more Harry and David scenes.

Next time we go to Medford, we'll sign up for the tour and treat you to Chapter 2 of Harry and David.

Discovering Oregon's Pioneer Past

We set out on our first foray of sightseeing near Grants Pass. After setting out with an ambitious plan to drive a route from the "Scenic Byway" brochure, we soon amended the itinerary to explore landmarks closer to town.  We were traveling over the aforementioned hills of I-5 between Grants and Roseburg, headed for Canyonville. "I should take a picture of this terrain," I told Jan, pulling out my compact Nikon.

I got one shot through the windshield before the display read, "Battery exhausted." This otherwise wonderful little Coolpix doesn't make any fanfare about being tired; it just passes out from exhaustion. "No problem," I said blissfully, pulling out my digital SLR. And then, "Oh, no! The camera button was somehow left on! This camera is dead, too!" In between my expressions of chagrin at being so poorly prepared, we quickly discussed the situation and decided not to invest too many precious gallons of diesel in a scenic drive with no camera. Rather than entirely abort our outing, however, we took the next exit to the historic Wolf Creek Inn, an 1800s stagecoach stop that is now operated as an inn/restaurant/museum. As we drove down the exit ramp, I remembered that the Smartphone had a camera. A backup for my backup camera! Only 3.5 MP, but better than nothing, right?

In the parking lot behind the inn, we saw this electric car recharging station, the second one we had seen today. You can tell we're in Oregon!

Inside, we were warmly greeted and encouraged to go look about the fully functioning inn and restaurant, which we gladly did. Here is the former ladies' parlor, now open to both sexes.

There are 2 rooms for dining; here is the first one the visitor comes to. We glanced at the menu; it's expensive, but I'm sure it's wonderful.

The 9 guestrooms are located both downstairs and upstairs. Such notables as Jack London stayed here. Originally there were more rooms, but it was remodeled to modern standards, and bathrooms were added.

The former upstairs ballroom is available for weddings and other special occasions.

We stopped at the general store across the road, established 1888, and bought 2 cookies, then stopped at a gift and wine shop on the way back to the pickup truck.

A little over 3 miles away, on the other side of I-5, we visited Golden, a mining ghost town. There are a handful of buildings remaining from its original glory days,

and the historical society is earnestly working on improving its preservation and educational value. An informative sign says that, unlike other mining towns, this town had 2 churches and no saloons. Thirsty miners had to travel to a neighboring town for that recreation. One church is still standing.

Here is a photo of it in old times. There is no longer any sign of the house you see next to it.

Here are a couple more Golden scenes.

Heading back to Grants Pass, we stopped at Sunny Valley, where this covered bridge, at Grave Creek, is located.

There are many covered bridges in western Oregon, but this is the only one in Josephine County.

Next to the covered bridge is a museum, the Applegate Trail Interpretive Center. This museum tells the story of the Southern route of the Oregon Trail. There are very strict prohibitions about photography at the museum, so I'll have to paint a word picture. The costumed host, adopting a manner of speech reminiscent of the day, escorted us through the first portion of the wonderful displays, filling us in on the background of the Oregon Trail before leaving us in the theater to watch the movie. The movie was unusual in that it showed simultaneously on 3 screens, one ahead of the viewer, one to the right, and one to the left. Usually different scenes were shown on each screen, although occasionally the 3 screens merged to show a single panoramic scene. In the museum, as we entered the different displays, a sound track automatically came on, letting us hear what a cattle drive, the mines, the train that eventually came here, etc., would have sounded like. The aural experience greatly enhanced the visual experience. The displays tell the story of the Applegate Trail in chronological order, and we left with a real appreciation of the Oregon Trail story.

As we drove back to Grants Pass, I was glad our afternoon had turned out the way it had. I'm still embarrassed that I headed out sightseeing with 2 dead cameras, but the cell phone camera didn't do too badly, did it? One of these days I'll probably have to resort to sketching on a scrap of paper, if I don't tend those batteries more faithfully!