Camped at Diamond Lake

Diamond Lake, Oregon: Yesterday was a very lazy day. We washed all the soggy tablecloths, etc., from the late-night summer squall during our tailgate, loaded-up on groceries for our trip into the wilderness this week, watched Tiger win another golf tournament and watched the track meet from Greece. Productive use of time? No, but everyone needs a down-time day once in a while and you probably realize we rarely take a day off.

Before hitching-up this morning, we drove over to lovely Alton Baker Park and exercised on Pre's Trail. (However, today instead of the voice of Tiger Woods coming to me from my iPod nano/NIKE+ telling me "that was the fastest mile you have ever completed"... I heard Jonah Hill telling me "that was the slowest mile ever recorded on the planet". That's me - World Record Holder!)

Miles and miles of soft trails for running, walking, strolling and dog walking - plus a huge dog park


Alton Baker Park, with a view to the Ferry Street Bridge and pedestrian bridge

We headed out of Eugene, planning to spend the night somewhere along the route to Diamond Lake... but we never found a spot to camp, so just continued to our destination for the next few nights - Diamond Lake RV Park. My parents will arrive tomorrow and we will be able to spend a few quality days together in the beautiful mountains of Central Oregon. For the Oregon-geography-challenged, Diamond Lake is just north of Crater Lake National Park, and you can be sure we will take a drive up to our National Treasure this week.

We made lunch camp at a roadside turnout at Odell Lake on Oregon Highway 58


Diamond Peak from Odell Lake - we are camped on the other side of this mountain tonight.
The sky is a bit hazy, due to - what else? - a forest fire.

And so we arrived a day early for our reservations at Diamond Lake. They graciously found a spot for us and made it possible that we would not have to move tomorrow! Very nice and incredibly friendly staff at the Diamond Lake RV Park!

Our situation (Site A-1) in the Diamond Lake RV Park

Our campsite is wonderful - a full-service site with 50 amp electricity. No forest fire smoke here - just clear, crisp, clean mountain air and the air smells SO GOOD! I just love Oregon!

Tonight was the debut of our new grill. Do you remember this grill from last year:

This grill did not work out

I bought the above grill, the Holland Companion Grill for DT for his birthday a few years ago. It was supposed to be the hottest thing available. Unfortunately, as he was busy helping to organize the Olympic Trials, we rarely used our motorhome and we didn't even try the grill until it was way past the time we could return it to get our ($300) back! This grill sucked big time. I suppose if you are into ultra-slow-cooked meats, it would be perfect for you... but we like to cook our meat quickly over a higher heat. We cannot recommend the Holland Companion Grill.

However... we can recommend the O-Grill 3000 Portable Gas Barbecue Grill. I did a lot of research over the past few months and have decided this would be the perfect grill for us to drag around the country. We broke it in tonight and could not be happier with our choice.

The OGrill

The OGrill uses regular propane disposable propane canisters, or the longer, thinner propane tanks used by plumbers and you can also use an adapter to attach a 20# (or smaller) propane tank. The legs fold-up into the grill and it stands up on end for easy carrying or transport. Plus - it comes in many very cool colors! (I am very boring, so chose black.)

Tons of grill surface


The grill surface lifts off for easy cleaning


Compact grill with a large grill surface. Easy clean-up drip pan too.


Organic lamb chops with a mint pesto marinade


Camping food

We enjoyed such an incredible meal - better than any restaurant I can think of at this moment. Maybe it is the altitude (5300 feet), or maybe it is all this fresh air... but everything was simply delicious tonight.

Until my next update, I remain, your camping correspondent.

RV Park: Diamond Lake RV Park - full-service pull-through with 50 amp service.