Mike Ball » Travel

Up the Umpqua

Mike — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:55:22 +0000

The day after our trip up Table Rock was also clear and sunny, so we looked for another place to explore. My left ankle was very stiff, so it would have to be mostly driving, but we really wanted to get out somewhere. The Umpqua is the next major river north of the Rogue, and [...]

Table Rock

Mike — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:22:45 +0000

Last Friday we had the first nice weather in several weeks, so we decided to go take a look at one of the local landmarks, Table Rock. It’s one of a pair of mesas just North of Medford. We decided to tackle upper table rock. The trail was steep in places, and filled with rocks [...]

Yreka (The Great White Mountain)

Mike — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:16:37 +0000

Yreka (Why-ree-ka) is a small town about 25 miles South of the Oregon border. The name is said to come from the local native language and means “great white mountain”. The picture shows why.

We really don’t know much about the town, though we expect to learn more, but just driving by makes it look interesting. [...]

Our New House in Southern Oregon

Mike — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:26:44 +0000

As I said in the last post, we’ve just acquired a house in Southern Oregon. At the moment we have a contractor doing some repairs before we move in. We’re planning on moving sometime during the first couple of weeks in June.

We set out to buy a house in Ashland, which is a small university [...]

Checking out Ashland

Mike — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:05:21 +0000

Who would have thought that retirement would be so busy? I somehow thought that I’d have lots of time and would be looking for new projects. The trouble is; I’ve been saving up things to do and things to read, and there just always seems to be more to do. Reading in particular is taking [...]

Away From My Desk

Mike — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:57:49 +0000

Just a quick note.

We are in Ashland this week, checking out the weather and looking at real estate. The internet connection I have is painfully slow, so I’ll write about it when I get back.

An Ashland Fourth

Mike — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:13:19 +0000

The Fourth turns out to be a big deal in Ashland. If we had known just how big a deal, we’d have skipped the play for that day and just enjoyed the Fourth.

It started with a parade that lasted for about an hour and a half, then everyone moved to the park for booths and [...]

Ashland and Drama

Mike — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:55:43 +0000

I haven’t put together the picture show yet, but I thought I’d talk a bit more about Ashland and the Shakespeare Festival.

Ashland is a relatively small town, in a lovely setting, with a drama festival that runs most of the year. It also has a college and is sort of an art center. In fact, [...]

A Trip to Florida

Mike — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 05:01:17 +0000

The Supercomputing convention was in Tampa this year, so Flo and I took the opportunity to visit Family and the Roseate. The convention was huge, but exceedingly unexciting, while downtown Tampa was as unappealing as ever. I knocked off a bit early one afternoon to drive out to the Gulf.Unfortunately, the coast has been covered [...]

The Pacific Coast

Mike — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:51:05 +0000

Today we took a drive over to the Pacific Coast side of the Peninsula. The trip over went through the hills and redwood forests, but that’s not what I’m writing about. It is a lovely trip, and we enjoyed it, but we wanted to get to the ocean before the winter weather hits. We hadn’t [...]