Ashland, Oregon: As I said yesterday, we are going to take a few days off from our northerly journey to explore an area we have not visited in years. Sixteen years to be exact. However our schedule is not on our usual lackadaisical theme. Every moment is planned around DT's conference call schedule.
We left Corning early, pointed the Magna Peregrinus north on I-5, and only stopped once to split a sandwich at noon.

After crossing the Oregon border, we continued to exit 24 and are camped in a RV park along pretty Bear Creek (north flowing!) in Phoenix, Oregon. Though not exactly the Motorcoach Country Club, we have a level paved site and all the life-support systems required of a massive motorhome.



While Dave was on his second phone call, I Facetimed (video chatted on my phone) with the kids in Los Angeles. I carried my phone over to the creek and showed Leo and Lucy the pretty vista and then Leo wanted to sing a song for me. He sang It's a Small World, which unfortunately, as we all know, just gets stuck in your little brain for weeks after a visit to Disneyland. Lisa is nearly beside herself.
Lucy, aged 20 months, counted to 7 today. Harvard!
Between conference calls, I made noise whirling veggies in my little KitchenAid Stick Blender/Chopper thing. All the tomatoes and basil from our garden, parsley from Gina's garden, onion, garlic, and pretty-much anything else wilting in my fridge was pureed, then sauteed, and turned into red sauce.


We had an early dinner reservation at Lark, in the historic Ashland Springs Hotel. The hotel lobby is just stunning - completely restored to the original glory and the adjoining Lark restaurant is also a gorgeous room.


farro and micro-arugula - with shaved goat cheese over.


So fancy! We had a local Italian-style red wine and it was very nice. Dave and I were so happy with our restaurant choice.
What to do in Ashland at 8p? Take in a play at the Shakespeare Festival, of course!

The trailer:
What a great night. More exploration tomorrow.
Until my next update, I remain, your artsy correspondent.
RV PARK: Holiday RV Park - A few sites for big-rigs, best sites are for smaller RVs and front-in to the pretty creek. Full hookups, free wifi and cable. We paid $40.25 with our Good Sam discount.