LEAVING THE DEEP WOODS

Moving south, Vancouver/Portland today. Leaving the parks, the deep woods, the beauty…the rain.  Well, it did rain most of yesterday and its been a cool (but enjoyable) summer. In fact, we walked for an hour and forty-five minutes on Saturday, taking pictures mostly. Practice with the new camera for me.  We used our  rainy day for doing the washing and house cleaning. Sample my pictures. I’m trying to improve my photography since we do so much of it.
I can’ seem to get enough of  moss coated trees.
A Fern beginning to turn yellow. At one time a major industry in Chehalis was shipping ferns to nurseries.
Amazing that only one leaf on this tree had turned color. Why this one?
Weeds with the delicacy of a Japanese painting.
I almost tossed this photo but Jim showed me how to crop it into something closer and more appealing.
Horsetail reminds me of bamboo.
A bright leaf attracts the eye.
   
 Peeking through the trees.

Thistle.

Fairy seeds blowing in the breeze.



Oregon Grape.

Peeling bark.

Chehalis has been one of the quietest places to stay. Of course, it’s off season by now. Lovely.

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING-

Its true, we're rolling, rolling, rolling. We left friendly Palm Springs, the dates, the palms, the citrus fruit growing everywhere, the morning power walks, the many fun activities,  and are headed for Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails.

We left elevation 18 and climbed up over the pass in the San Bernadino National Forest with our highest point at 4808 feet.  Its high desert and the temperature here is friendlier than the heat wave bouncing into Palm Springs. My weather wimp says, "We left just in time!"

Its pretty country, and as usual, I get to enjoy the view out the window while Jim drives.

The air got noticeably cleaner as we got above the city smog.

In fact, on the way out of town I finally got a good picture of this sign that I had seen several times. It bugged me because I could never read the bottom address to find out what on earth is going on. Enlarging the picture gave me the address. Its a good site for men's health issues. It explains what tests are necessary for men; what studies you can refer to and so on. It kind of annoys me though that the US government has paid for these huge, giant billboards with the address on the bottom so small its unreadable from the road.  So, if you are interested, now you have it.
http://www.ahrq.gov/

Anyone who has read my blog knows I'm a sign freak. When we turned onto Pearblossom Hwy I had to do it. I mean, isn't that a pretty sounding name?  Maybe there's  a female highway engineer lurking in the office who gets a chance to choose a name. Avenue T. Aargh, how unmemorable.

We kicked back, enjoyed the cool, quiet, had dinner,then "Roseanne's Husband" did the dishes and clean-up.