~ Ezra Moore ~

Oroville, CA to Oroville Lake State Park, CA

We woke up around 7:30 this morning to the sound of Harley-Davidsons starting up in the driveway. Both Amber’s parents are long-time riders. Rhonda was on her way to work, at the local hospital, and Mark was on his way to the gym. We ate some breakfast and watched a little T.V. before we got ourselves all packed up. We hadn’t brought much inside the house, so packing was finished quickly and all that remained was to lower Scrap from his blocks and take him for a test drive.

We all went outside and took Scrap off the blocks. He and I went for quick drive to bed the new brakes pads and rotors, and then we were off to town as well. We visited Amber’s sisters, got more gas, shopped for groceries, and then followed Amber’s sister Chelsea out to the lake. I tried to get the lady at the gatehouse to accept my National Parks annual pass, but she was too quick for my tricks. We drove down a long boat ramp to the water’s edge and unloaded everything we were planning to take out on the lake with us. We are staying on Amber’s aunt Christie’s houseboat so we took everything but the camping equipment.

Christie arrived shortly after I parked Scrap at the top of that long ramp, he wanted to go out on the lake too, until I reminded him that he doesn’t like getting in the water deeper than the bottom of his fog lights. We talked it over and he decided to stay, keeping an eye out for seagulls. The lake is a hydroelectric reservoir, and you could tell it was dammed at one end because the red earth that surrounds the lake was stepped. This is a result of the water level being lowered and then held as it runs through the dam. The water level was going down overall, as towards the end of the evening we had to slack the mooring lines (tied to stakes driven into the dirt on shore), and push the boat out a few feet.

As soon as we got on the houseboat we got in the water. It was the perfect temperature. Amber’s niece of two loves to jump off the back of the boat into her mother’s/Amber’s arms. We ate a delicious lunch of BBQed fresh jalapeños, pineapple sausages, salads, and a couple other delicious items. After lunch there was more swimming, and Amber’s dad, Marc, showed up with his boat which he moored along side Christie’s. We all spent a great day relaxing. I alternated between swimming, reading my new Nook, and eating. Perfect! I also spent a fair amount of time petting Phoebe, the boat-dog. As the sun started to get low in the sky, Amber’s brother Miles (and his friend, Danny) showed up with his new wakeboard.

Phoebe the Friendly Boat-Dog. Do you see that smile on her face? She is laughing at my sun-burn.

Eager to try it out we headed out onto the lake in Christie’s ski boat. Miles had a great first run, wakeboarding underneath a large suspension bridge. Amber took pictures of the wakeboarders while Ashley deliberated making her first foray into the sport. Eventually, Amber, Ashley and I all got a ride. Amber got up immediately, Ashley got up in her first few tries, and I got in one incredibly lucky ride. With the sun setting we headed back to the houseboat for dinner; tri-tip cooked for us by Mark and Rhonda.

After dinner we settled in on the very top deck of the houseboat in sleeping bags for some well deserved sleep.

See you tomorrow!

Today. Was. HOT! We had a lot of ground to cover, and instead of taking the slow and scenic routes, we took the most direct route possible. This was due to the failing front brake material on Scrap.

We started the day with a drive around the rim of Crater Lake. The lake is a beautiful blue color, and almost perfectly round. The drive around the top rim of the lake is 30 miles, and well worth it. We learned the Native American story of how the lake was formed by two warring spirits Llao and Skell and their destruction of Mount Mazama. After concluding our trip around the lake, and saying one last goodbye to our mosquito infested campsite we headed South.

The view from rim of Crater Lake

The three of us on the rim of Crater Lake, OR.

When we passed through Redding, CA the temperature read 109 degrees. We were traveling at 80 MPH with all four windows down sweating like crazy. Amber’s parents live in Oroville, CA and our goal was to make it to their house and change the brakes out. By the time we made it through Chico, it had started to cool down a little, but it was still over 100 degrees when we reached Oroville.

Ashley, still beautiful in the heat.

We sourced brake parts from the local Kragen, and after meeting Amber’s amazing family (and eating an equally amazing dinner) we got to work. After removing the front wheels and calipers it was evident that the only parts in bad shape were on the driver’s side front assembly. This is unusually as a brake system that is working correctly should wear the brake material evenly between sides. I will have to look into that when we get home. The caliper didn’t appear to stick at all, both last time and this time I remembered to re-grease all the pins/slides. My guess is that Scrap has some air in the line on that side.

It wouldn't be vacation without something to work on. Amber's dad and niece in the background.

Upon inspection of the troublesome side’s rotor, it became apparent that we would also be replacing that. I’ve never had any luck getting rotors turned. Mark gave me a ride into town to get new rotors. By the time we returned Ashley had passed out. She was exhausted. Amber, Mark, and I ventured back outside while Amber and I finished the brakes. It was getting dark, so we put the brakes back together, the wheels back on, and called it a night with the car still on blocks. Tomorrow is going to be a no-travel day. We are going to stay with Amber’s aunt Christie on her houseboat on Oroville Lake.
See you all tomorrow!

Wow. What a day! After yesterday and traveling over 500 miles, I am pleased to report that we traveled under 200 miles today, total. The day started early, as our camping neighbors in Ashland were far too loud for their own good. All three of us took turns being forcibly woken by their antics starting from about 10 PM on day one. Regardless of that, the day’s activities were enough to make me forget any unpleasantness in the morning. We headed out after packing up the campsite and made our way about half a mile down the road. The previous evening we had noticed a floating dock with a few people jumping from it, enjoying the last little bit of daylight. We almost made it to the dock that evening, but we decided it wasn’t prudent to go jumping into unfamiliar bodies of water after dark. I’m sure glad we stopped by this morning though. The water was a wonderful warm but still very refreshing temperature. The visibility wasn’t great, probably about eight feet, but it was clear enough that we could each confidently take a running leap off the end of the dock. The surrounding beach was red, rocky, and sandy, and some areas along the shoreline had some very sparse weeds growing on them. The terrain surrounding the lake was quite a treat: red rock with sparse shrubbery.

Emigrant Lake, our first swimming spot!

After our morning swim we made our way into the city of Ashland, about three miles from our campsite and the first swimming hole of the trip. Ashland is way more beautiful than I expected. The city planning is thoughtful with plenty of sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Everything is very well manicured and to top it off, by 11 AM it was 70+ degrees and sunny. We ate a delicious lunch outside at a bakery called Munchies. I had a Reuben sandwich, Ash had fettuccini Alfredo, and Amber had a huge hard taco shell full of veggies, beans, and salsa. From lunch we walked around Ashland for a while, visiting a couple of bookstores and a small boutique clothing store where Ashley got a new yellow dress.

Ashley and Amber along the edge of Annie Creek (canyon).

With our time running out on parking in downtown Ashland we returned to the car and I ordered new brake pads from an auto parts store at our next stop, in California, while Ash and Amber toured one last bookstore. On our way out of town, via ORE-66, we visited our spot on the lake one last time for a quick dip. I dunked Ashley and got myself into a world of trouble. I was forced to attempt distraction using my tour guide technique of pointing out very obvious features of the landscape.

Our next destination was Klamath Falls, OR. ORE-66 is a beautiful road. It is curvy and climbs significantly in elevation. It was a beautiful, fun, and challenging drive through mountainous terrain and what looked like Weyerhaeuser pine forests. The trip was only about 70 miles, but we ended up driving right past Klamath Falls and on to Crater Lake for the night. We tried to camp about 12 miles from the national park at a place called Kimball state park, but the mosquitoes were obviously prepared to wage a full-scale war on us, and we had forgotten to pack bug spray. Alls well that ends well however, as we ended up seeing some incredible things on the way up to Crate Lake National Park, including Annie Creek. Annie Creek is a small little creek that over many years has managed to cut a respectable canyon out of the Earth nearing Crater Lake. We had the exciting opportunity to purchase our Interagency National Parks pass. Sadly, it was for a whopping $80. Last time I checked they were $50. Oh well, no matter what the money goes to the National Park Service, which is a great thing.

Our campsite at Annie Creek, Crater Lake National Park

Our campsite at Annie Creek campground, in Mazama Village is nice, much flatter than last night’s campsite and more pleasantly wooded. On our way out of the water at Emigrant Lake I managed to kick a sharp (huge) submerged rock. I tore an impressive hole/blister in my foot which eventually left a nice flap of skin that required removal. Camp surgery, with nail clippers and a lantern is most effective, and I am good as new now. The people around us are nearly silent. Our dinner consisted of hot dogs and baked beans, tonight and after finishing my latest book, I am about to turn in.

Camp surgery. Rest assured, the nacho cheese sauce was not involved.

Good night!

Departure!

Well! After lazy departure from Port Townsend, around 11 AM we made pretty good time covering just under 500 miles. WA-101 was beautiful, as always and we took I-5 through the boring Northern parts of Oregon. We would have liked to take 101 most of the way through both states, but we were trying to make it to Ashland by around 8:30 in order to observe a production as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Oregon has the most unfortunate drivers I’ve witnessed in quite some time. Tailgaiting at highway speeds, failing to signal, ridiculous! We ate at Carl’s Jr. another first for me. It was delicious!

Carl's Jr., can you see how naughty Ashley is?

It was getting dark when we arrived in Ashland, so finding a camp-site and getting the tent up was our first priority. We stopped at a 7-11 and Amber found someone with some information on the local camping areas. We followed the gentleman she met, Larry, to Emigrant Lake Recreation Area and staked our claim on site number 16, right next to our new friend. Larry is from Klamath Falls and provided us with a lot of great local knowledge while we conversed around the campfire. We took a quick tour around the campgrounds, despite it being quite dark. The lake was quite warm, we dipped our toes in to test it before returning to the tent to turn in. Around 11:30, as we were getting into the tent, I realized that someone was still playing music (crappy music) loudly. In Washington state parks if you so much as make a peep once quite hours have begun, the camp-host/park rangers will attempt to implode your head with their superpowers of asshattery. These people shouted (literally) the most disgusting, lewd, demeaning, ignorant things at one and other all night long. At one point they started playing with a taser. One of them eventually tased himself, but that was hardly justice for a night spent mostly awake.

Today (day two), we will be traveling East to Klamath Falls, where we will meet up with Amber’s uncle (who owns a restaurant), and Crater Lake, where none of us has ever been (at least, as far as I know). Larry said that the Crater Lake area gets pretty cool, so the plan is to camp in Klamath after we visit the lake.

Car is clean and partially packed. We will finish loading it up followed by a quick oil change in the AM, then… We’re off!

Getting ready for some serious road tripping/camping/theatre-ing/running/hiking/swimming fun. Until then; chaos…

Composed upon waking up on Father’s Day:

Turkey Bacon,
Bird thinks its a pig,
YUM!

I like the new Safari (5.0). It seems like a sturdy update to the application, and while I prefer Google Chrome (because it syncs with everything else I use) I have discovered quite a unique use for the Reader function of Safari 5. If you print the ‘Reader-ed’ page as a PDF to Evernote you lose all the ads and line-break garbage and just get a clean, nicely formatted page to read whenever you have more time.

www.apple.com/safari

www.evernote.com

UPDATE:
When I wrote this the other morning I failed to identify the usefulness of the following procedure as it applies to the overall removal of the Antivirus XP, et al.

The instructions below deal specifically with the scenario in which the rogue software has disabled the launching of executable or .exe files. This is a common practice on the part of the rogue software developers, because it limits your ability as a user to initiate many countermeasures.

My preferred malware cleanup tool is MalwareBytes, though my complete procedure involves several applications, the exact combination of which varies from infection to infection.

For reference I prefer:

Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE – Paid General Antimalware
Grisoft’s AVG Free – Free General Antimalware

* I do believe there is a difference between paid and free antivirus protection. The main differences lie in the features of the application and the support available to a user if a problem arises. I feel there is no advantage to a paid solution from a definitions standpoint.

How to use the instructions below:
These instructions assume two things.
1. You have been infected with one of the Antivirus XP/Vista/7 variants.
2. You are unable to run executables as a result of the infection.

How to restore your ability to launch executables:
1. Start | Run| type ‘command.com’ to launch DOS command prompt.
N.B. This opens the old-fashioned command prompt, thus TAB does not auto-complete folder names, and the up arrow does not reenter the last command. Most importantly you must use eight character folder names. See step 2.
2. Run ‘dir /x’ to reveal 8 character folder names.
3. Open ‘notepad.exe’ from the command prompt.
4. Input:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.exe] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\secfile] [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\secfile] [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\shell\open\command] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command] @="\"%1\" %*" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe] @="exefile" "Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"

5. Save the file as ‘registryfix.reg’ to the desktop.
6. Open the ‘registryfix.reg’ file from the desktop to merge these changes into the registry.
7. Load MalwareBytes from local source (flash drive, CDROM, Ext. HDD, etc.)
8. Run MalwareBytes per normal procedure.

“Oxygen and Carbon show up, and they’re like ‘lets party,’ but we’ve got to get an octet going before we can make friends” – Chem. Prof.