July 7, 2007

OPENING DAY

June 30 was the first day of boat tours, and Tom led two successful tours (no runnings aground, no crashes into the dock). At about 1 ½ hours each, that’s 3 hours. Add to that the hike down and then up the mountain – that’s another1 hour. Then there’s the time between tours, “dock time”, when a captain is on call for emergencies. That’s another 3-4 hours. Added to that is travel time to and from the boat trail (about 20 miles), and wait time for the employee shuttle, then walking-time from the shuttle to home; it is a 10-12 hour day. Some days, the captains have three tours, so that is a really long day.

Good friends Hatcher and Pat from Corpus Christi came by on their way to Portland, and took a tour on Tom’s boat. It's great to see familiar faces!

So far everything has gone smoothly on Tom’s tours, except for one mishap. A passenger’s hat blew into the water, in a shallow area. Tom had to explain that the wind and the shallow water prevented them from retrieving it.

July 4, 2007

INDEPENDENCE Day! And a day-off for both of us. Being a beautiful day, (clear, moderate temperatures, slight breeze), we drove into Fort Klamath to the cutting horse competition being held there this week. This is a huge event. There were people from Texas, Colorado, California and elsewhere. They came in horse trailers, campers, motor homes, and fancy rigs that housed horses, owners, and all their gear. We were among the few non-participants there, and among the very few who were not on a horse! From the arenas to the camp-pasture, guys, gals, and kids rode to and fro; we saw a boy, about 8 or 9, ride up to the concession stand and get a bottle of water – never got off his horse. “Cutting”, in which a horse and his rider are judged on separating a calf from a herd and keeping it from bolting back, is the only event in this several-day competition. The families and their horses live all piled in a pasture for several days, amid the dust, and sun, and the smells. We saw kids and babies playing under motor home awnings and screened tents, sleeping in strollers, and cooling off in a small creek flowing through it all. Horses that weren’t competing, or carrying their owners to the concessions, were being groomed or watered, or munching hay, tied to trailer bumpers.

A lot of effort goes into participation in this event, and top winnings are only about $800. So you know these folks have to really love this sport.

On the way home we stopped at Chiloquin, Oregon, a tiny little town with a lot of boarded-up buildings, and houses that look abandoned, but they’re not. Oddly, there was a nice hardware store, and there were people inside (we had not seen any other people around town), so we went in to buy some more mousetraps.

(I forgot to mention that Tom caught 2 mice in one of the motor home bays the first day after he set traps out. Ah, wilderness!)

Outside the store, a family was selling baked goods to help pay their daughter’s expenses to participate in a basketball tournement in New Mexico. Tom bought a banana cake. “There’s no one else here to buy their stuff!” he explained.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Tonight we hiked over to the campground amphitheater to hear Ranger Karen talk about Crater Lake wildlife. She is one of the “interpreters” on the boat tours, describing historical and geological information. Her talk tonight was on “predators” in the park. We knew about the bears and the owls here, but were surprised to learn there are also cougars prowling around. She said they could leap 45 feet horizontally from their crouched “stalking” position. Ranger Karen did not include information about the predator mosquitoes that are presently multiplying in the snow-melt. I wonder if Deep Woods Off works on cougars?

Friday, July 6, 2007

Enough is enough, so on Friday Lynn went to see a chiropractor in Klamath Falls. The office was in a 1930s building on Main Street, that appears to be completely original. The elevator had an operator, a real live person (“What floor, please?”). And above the elevator was a semi-circular dial that moved from 1 to 6. All the offices had glass doors, the old translucent kind, with black lettering on the glass.

←This businessman advertised the nature of his business and a few personal facts to boot.

The doctor’s office was like stepping into a time warp. The windows were tall, narrow, and open (no air conditioning in the building) with white curtains gently blowing in the afternoon breeze. High ceilings, wainscoting, tile floors; all the fine architecture of that era had been preserved.

The doctor’s computer and the new age music were definitely anachronistic, but she was helpful, and provided me with exercise advice, and some homeopathic medicines.

Right: A typical view on the rim. The blip on the water is a tour boat.