Wow, thanks so much everyone! We will take up the suggestion to stay on 101 to Florence and then go to Eugene. Deanna I will call you for sure, I'd love to meet up, and a salad from your garden would be a delicious honor if it's not too much trouble. We're in San Francisco right now, and I think it will be 3 or 4 days till we get to Eugene. From there we'll probably go to Corvallis just to spend some more time in the lush part since we've seen plenty of desert on our trip. Then across to Sisters, maybe Redmond, then Bend. Sounds like we'll be missing the fruit season, but we've also been keeping a list of all the food we've seen along the way: garlic and onions in trucks on the highway, artichokes growing along the road, lettuce, cauliflower, lots of strawberries, and more. So it will be cool to see the fields and orchards along the way even if the stands aren't open. And of course we love bottled grapes...by raw I just meant that we don't have a stove to cook onions or asparagus! Jeff loves pinot noir so maybe we'll tour a winery. The lava caves sound cool, and we're hoping to go to hot springs in Oregon too, since we haven't stopped in any along the way. I think lava flows, wineries, and hot springs are a good substitute for raspberries. We'll be getting back to Virginia just in time for berry season anyway. Thanks for all the tips! Any suggestions for hot springs would be great. Looks like we'll be spending 4 or 5 nights in Oregon! That will be great. I wish we could make the Hood River fruit loop, but I think that's too far out of the way...if we had another week we would have gone all the way to visit friends in Seattle, but I have to start work June 18 and we want to stop off at Mount Rushmore and in Chicago. Bejay, for some reason I thought you were in Texas! Too bad, we could have met up. We've really enjoyed highway 1. Thanks again for all the help and I will report back as our trip progresses! Melissa

Beer-vana, yes. I had some fine porters and IPAs when we were checking the place out last month. 300 days of sunshine? That appears to be a chamber of commerce/realtor's association myth, unless one counts 15 minutes of sun as a "day." This from The Source Weekly, a publication in Bend. See http://www.tsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2779&Itemid=153 That notwithstanding, we're-a gonna be loading up the wagons and settlin' there in August. I'll miss this growing season, so next spring is my next available chance to grow tomatoes. In the meantime, I'm going to look into what my small greenhouse options are. All I want to grow are four bushes in containers, so I don't need anything large. Someone's got to make some inexpensive kits.

DH and I just got back from that area. We took MacKenzie Pass and were soon surrounded by lava hundreds of thousands of years old. The Three Sisters were breathtaking from the peak. Town of Sisters was very touristy. We just missed their quilt convention; would have liked to see that. chery-va

Do you seal your pruning cuts. If not look for a round hole any where the rose was pruned. If you find a hole, something put there larvae in there. Even leaf cutter bees will lay larvae in cut stems.They eat their way down where they over winter. When you see a hole in spring before you prune for the season. Cut till you see no hole. Then cut the cane in half just above that and you can see the tiny black developing bee larvae. Of course there are many types of bore insects that can affect roses. Should that cane start to wilt the sooner you cut the better as if something is in their it will continue to munch it's way down. If only the flower or bud is wilting than something laid eggs in it. Take them off and discard in garbage. You would not want the eggs to develop.