World Beat Festival 2011, Salem, Oregon

Down in Salem for the upcoming 4th of July with family, was invited by our friends, Robert, his wife Emiko, and Jeremy to visit them during the 2011 World Beat Festival where Robert’s wife, Emiko, was working at the Japanese Culture Booth.

Dawn of course was there, dressed up with in the spirit of the culture festival as your standard issue cat girl .

The original plan had been to get a number of us who are Cosplayers, to attend in full costume to help support the Japanese Culture Society booth, but the person heading up this mission fell through on getting enough folks, so that plan was scraped.

We hung around the JCS booth for a while, watching folks buy various Japanese Festival items, get their faces painted, etc… before finally wandering off into the festival to check out the other ethnic “Villages”. 

 

Looking through the villages….

Eventually, we made our way over to the far end of the festival villages and found ourselves at the open air amphitheater here live music was playing.

Dawn decided to join in .

 

After a good session of dancing, we meandered off to the food booths and got our various lunches.  I migrated my way back to the America’s side and hit up the booth serving Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches .

 

We checked back with Robert and Emiko one more time before we bid them goodbye and went off to fetch the car and make our way to Thompson’s Brewery for the annual "Barley Cup” beer fest.

But, not before Dawn got to pet the angora rabbit .

My “New” Vintage 1969 KIT Kamper Brochure

Howdy folks, by now, I’d wager most of you regular readers are familiar with the fact that I have a very old truck camper.

Most of you likely also appreciate the fact that finding brochures or any documentation of any kind of these things is nigh-impossible most of the time.

Well, luck shined on me as I managed to lay my hands on a mint 1969 Model Line brochure for KIT Kampers.

Sadly, I haven’t found one for 1974, yet, but I will keep looking. If you find one on an auction or craigslist or something, somewhere, don’t hesitate to let me know. I really really badly want a brochure that my floor plan was included in, so at last I’ll be able to know for certain what its called and what all of the original tank capacities were.

Of all the models above, I would have actually loved to have found a KIT Kamper with the floor plan of that 11’er, the side entry would have been a treat and judging by the layout, the bathroom would have been bigger than the one I have now in my KIT.

Believe it or not, the old KIT plant in Caldwell, Idaho was still pumping out RVs (though no truck campers, sadly) up until 2008, when the company (then known as Extreme RVs) went belly up.

Sadly, they went out of business before I could visit there in October 2008, when I was in Fruitland, Idaho visiting my brother. I would have loved to have been able to drive my KIT up in front of her birth place for a reunion.

Sauvie Island Flooding—2011

Well, the weather this year has been exceedingly cold and wet, and just downright screwy, a lot like the rest of the US. Fortunately for us, the weather hasn’t been bouncing from one extreme to another unlike a lot of the mid-west.

But, we’ve had our own dilemmas, namely in the form of heavy rain and heavy snow. Throw the two together and you get river flooding.

Now, this years flooding is a drop in the bucket at ~18 feet compared to what happened back in 1996 when the river crested at 27.7’ and a 6” tall wave of water was pouring over the levy next to Island Cove Park, inundating the campground.

But, outside of the protected areas, a lot of my regular fishing haunts have been closed, as the roads leading to them are currently underwater.

Road to Gilbert Boat Launch is closed due to high water.

That lake is actually a field, one that normally would be used for grazing, but is currently under a couple feet of water. The road leading out to this area is actually more like a peninsula with the overflowing McNary and Sturgeon lakes on one side and the flood stage Columbia River on the other.

View Larger Map

Now, I don’t really visit this beach much, usually during the winter months when its cold and the nudists are gone to photograph the big container ships and barges as they come down the river, but it is an ideal demonstrator of how high the Columbia River is.

The local wildlife, at least the flying variety, are not bothered by the extra water on the island.

To my surprise, the next beach closest to me, (Walton Beach?), was not as flooded as I expected it would be.

Mind you, that’s not much beach, compared to regular water levels, but that’s still greater than zero.

Well, that’s all for now, I leave you with this sunset on the “lake” view till next time .