Sunrise over Crater LakeAs Herb’s interest in photography has become more focused, he has become more and more interested in visiting remote areas with natural beauty. Often these places are difficult to reach in a motorhome, or even a 2WD vehicle, so Herb has outfitted our Toyota 4Runner as a mini camper, which allows us to pretty much disperse camp anywhere.

His original design included a platform in the back for us to sleep on, with a cooler and storage boxes beneath us. The problem with this was that there was only about a 4-inch clearance between my slumbering nose and the roof of the 4Runner, often causing some minor fits of claustrophobia and crankiness.

As a result, Herb spent the weeks leading up to this trip, redesigning the back area to make it as comfortable as possible for me so that I would come along on these trips, complaint-free.

Rather than one platform for the both of us to sleep on, he lowered my half about 7 inches, giving me not quite enough clearance to allow me to sit up, but much more than I previously had. His half of the platform lay on top of a new, fancy refrigerator he bought, which would eliminate the need to constantly be trying to buy ice when there were often no stores within 50 miles. He also installed solar panels and a battery which would allow us to charge phones and the car battery when not driving. He did a great job and it really did make a difference.

Our targeted destination this trip was some of the more remote areas of Central and Southeastern Oregon, including John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the Alvord Desert, Steens Mountain, and the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.

We would, however, start and end the trip with more populated and civilized places (that had real restaurants and motels!!) - Bend in the beginning and Crater Lake and Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival at the end.