Adventures with Dave and Dimples - Glamping Airstream style: Fish House Inn and RV Park

Thursday, June 6, 2013

BACK TO THE FISH HOUSE AND BEYOND…

After Bend we continue north onto Dayville, OR. We stay in our favorite (so far) RV Park in America - The Fish House Inn & RV Park. We stayed here last summer when we were newbies and loved the place; but now after a year under our belt, we can really appreciate how really special this place is. There are only seven spots here in a park-like setting. Everything is low-key down to the hand made sign that states: “if no one’s around, pick a spot and we’ll find you.” (Which is exactly what we do.)

Dayville Cafe
Open for business!

After we get setup we walk over to the Dayville Café and grab some lunch. Last summer the place was closed and for sale. We are happy to report that the new owner is young, talented and committed to providing locals and visitors with local sourced, fresh, tasty, and affordable meals. This is a family affair, while he’s in back creating down home culinary delights; like hand cut fries and home made pies, his wife and his mother are out front taking orders, delivering food and filling water glasses. The food here is really good and they make a killer root beer float!

After lunch we head back “home” and are greeted with hugs by Mike Smith (the owner) and wags and licks from Zoe and Zander (his golden retrievers.)

We originally plan to stay only a few days, but it’s rainy and hailing and the Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and Mike has one opening over the weekend so we stay put for a week. Between thunderstorms, we get in a short hike and a visit to the Fossil beds visitor center. It’s a nice relaxing week. (As if there were any other kind for us LOL.)

Yakama Nation
RV Park, stay in your rig
or a teepee

Next we continue north up the back roads to Toppenish, WA just south of Yakima. We stay at the Yakama Nation RV Park. Although not the lush garden landscape of Fish House, it’s clean and comfortable with good Wi-Fi. Within walking distance is the Yakama Nations Cultural Center with an interesting Native American museum, gift shop, restaurant and theatre. Close by is the Legends Casino that gets a big thumbs up since we left with more green than when we arrived ;-) and we received half off coupons for their Thursday seafood buffet with lots-o-tasty Dungeness crab!

The city of Toppenish is famous for it’s murals. There are over seventy murals on buildings and walls throughout the two square mile city depicting the history of the area. Some of the murals were privately commissioned, but many were produced at the Toppenish Mural Society’s annual “Mural in a Day” that occurs on the first Saturday of June. It just so happens that we’re there for the event, so we head into town and watch paint dry… We also take in the Northern Pacific Railroad Museum and The American Hop Museum. Although we love beer we never really considered where the hops come from or how they are produced…well now we know and recommend a stop at this little interesting museum.

2013 Mural in a Day

Watching Paint Dry...

Toppenish Mural

even the police have one!

After learning about railroad history and hop production we stop at the Taqueria Mexicana and have a great meal and some cold beers. Their salsa (one spicy and one mild are really tasty. The side order of Guacamole is outstanding. It is so fresh that we suspect that it is made to order. The Chimichanga is delicious, the meat tender and tortilla crispy but not greasy. The Chile Verde: tasty, spicy and the portions generous. (Enough to take some home and create some breakfast burritos the next morning.)

Now, with one week until our ferry departs for Alaska we head for Bellingham…

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

ANCIENT ALIEN LANDSCAPES

We arrived at Airstream Adventures Northwest bright and early. The folks there have done a beautiful job and Dimples looks all smooth shiny and polished. After taking care of business (which was minimal due to the excellent service provided by Airstream Adventures and our Insurance peeps over at Progressive) we hooked up and headed off to Dayville, Oregon.

Sheep Rock Fossil

It is a fairly long drive over the Cascade Mountain passes, circling around Mount Hood and entering a land of harsh and exquisite beauty. You may have heard that Oregon contains the most diverse unique geologic environment in North America, but once you actually travel east of the Cascades, unique takes on a whole new dimension. We are awe struck around each turn and over each rise. This is geology on steroids, super ninja geology, f-ing awesome geology…

Fish House Inn

We stay at the Fish House Inn and RV Park. We chose this place because it is conveniently located eight miles east of the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Once we arrived we discovered what a true gem this place really is. Owner/operator Mike Smith offers the gamut of lodging: a private cottage, rooms in a great old craftsman bungalow, tent camping on manicured lawns and a six-space full service RV park. They provide super clean laundry, restrooms, showers and Wi-Fi. It is located right in the center of Dayville, a small-small town; there is nothing urban about this place. Within walking distance are a café, the town mercantile, the post office and the gas station with mini-mart. All of the folks are genuinely friendly; it feels like small town America at it’s best. We feel like we are staying in a rich uncle’s back yard kicking back a few beers and petting his Golden Retrievers Zoe and Zander.

Maybe it’s the limited number of spaces, but the guests here are friendlier than any place we’ve visited so far. Everyone has tips and suggestions of places to stay and sites to see, so we end up making changes to our next few weeks itinerary. We share meals and cocktail hours with Frank and Colleen from Kennewick, Washington who cook delicious Dutch Oven short ribs with roasted apples and potatoes and later in the week with Vic and Diane from up by Glacier Park in Montana who treat us to really tasty Buffalo burgers. We hope to visit both of these couples in the future when we travel through their neck of the woods.

Dayville Merc.

Foraging is pretty much limited to stocking up at Rays Market in Prineville, picking up items at the Dayville Mercantile, the Southport Mini-Mart and a trip to Thomas Orchards in Kimberly where we gathered some fresh picked peaches, cherries, Triple H Ranch artisan Cotswold cheese and Summer Sausage.

We spend the week exploring the area, especially the Sheep Rock and Painted Hills Units of the John Day Fossil Beds. At Sheep Rock we visit the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, in the shadow of Sheep Rock, where we see fossils from all three units of the monument. The fossils are from the age of mammals, after the demise of the dinosaurs. We hike the short trails around the center and up the road at the Cant Ranch. In the Blue Basin area we hike the easy Island in Time Trail and the not-so-easy Blue Basin Overlook Trail. We stop at Cathedral Rock and have to push our jaws up shut. The trails in the Painted Hills unit grant outstanding views. Everything here is otherworldly, it is unlike any landscape we have ever seen. In lieu of words: