05/11/2026
Where’s Freddy…? Sometimes in the morning when I wake in my rig, I forget myself. I saw a bit of S. Washington and spent 4 great days with my friends, Joe Roberts and Tiina Jaatinen, owners of The Royal Block Hotel in Waitsburg, WA - a small and very charming farm town adjacent to Walla Walla. Many great w**es were drunk, I assure you. Spent a few nights at Maryhill State Park - too close to the highway and kinda small but it’s right on the mighty Columbia River. All the RVs felt like I was parked at the county fairgrounds. Made my way south to Corvallis, OR and boondocked at a place owned by “Kent” aka Kenbo, who describes himself as a blacksmith but don’t be fooled. He’s a mechanical genius in overalls, Vietnam vet, retired and now playing with everything imaginable…like a big, gray bearded kid. Drove to La Pine, OR way up in high desert, where I stayed for 4 nights among scrub pines and enough sun to work on my tan and finally be able to play with my new solar system - got to nearly 400 amps in just a few hours! Not that I know what an amp is but it seemed cool. 😆 Today thru Friday, I’m on a 50 acre spread overlooking Goose Lake in SE Oregon. Honestly, for a guy snobby about my native California, Oregon’s got some incredible landscape. It’s so quiet here the only sounds are the wind, quails, mourning doves, and the distant mooing of cows somewhere far away. This is so remote a place that the evening sky is absolutely awash in stars! On Friday, I leave for Ashland to see a couple of plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. If you’ve never been - GO! My travel budget has been seriously diminished by the current price of gas (Thank You, My Lord & Savior Trump!) so I’m visiting fewer places but staying longer to enjoy what each locale offers. Cuz my time is free but gas…Thank the stars for Costco where gas is consistently less and a hot dog is still only $1.50.