Category: Pacific Coast

Day 5 Pacific Coast

 

We entered California first thing this morning.  This time the Agricultural Inspector announced she needed to come on board.  We had no problem with that.  She checked our frig for contraband fruits and vegetables then sent us on our way.

We were barely into California when I noticed the air was already thicker.  Dave laughed at me but he couldn’t explain it away.

Dave’s sister is currently visiting friends in California and it would be great to see her while she is here but she is flying back out of San Francisco this afternoon and we can’t get there by then.  She’s a fun person to know so I am sorry to have missed her here.

The funky thing I am seeing today is ships on shore that have been turned into gift shops.  I wonder if several people had this idea about the same time?  If not, which one copied the other?

I saw an ad for a “shark petting tank.”  It also said, “Just for the thrill of it.”  I can see it now.  “Look, Mom, the shark ate my hand.  Isn’t that thrilling?!”  I also wonder how thrilled the shark is.  More thrilled if he gets a hand than if he doesn’t, I guess.

As we entered the redwood forest the sign said to turn our lights on for the next eight miles.  So much for our solar panels recharging during the day today.

There are lots of warning signs around here.  The next ones warned of a 7% downgrade the next 2 miles with a 30 m.p.h. truck speed limit.  There are lots of places for trucks to pull off and let other traffic pass.  For this application, we act like a truck.  We don’t like leading parades.

Another sign said “Beach Hours: Sunrise to Sunset”.  What happens to the beach at night?  Does someone turn it off?

It didn’t look like we were going to find any restaurants any time soon so we stopped at a pullout for lunch.  We pulled some South Beach Wrap kits from the frig but I still have lefse on my mind so I took the filling from mine and mixed it with the pasta salad from yesterday’s stop at The Crazy Norwegian then spread butter and sprinkled Splenda and cinnamon on my tortillas to make faux lefse.  Being a wheat tortilla made it a little weird but it was better than nothing.

We stopped for the night at Clam Beach County Park at exit 723 from Highway 101 just south of Trinidad, California.  We paid $10 for basic parking lot camping except it’s on the beach.  Here’s the view from our RV.

Tonight we get to figure out how to use our new batteries to power all our electrical needs.  Wish us luck.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 4 Pacific Coast

We were headed back to Highway 101 this morning with me using the GPS part of Dave’s iPhone to help us make the right turns when the phone rang. So I answered his phone. It was for me  Very weird. It turns out that Dave applying for Social Security triggered a mandate for them to call me to tell me I could apply under his and mine when my time comes. I thanked them and assured them I certainly plan to apply under his since I’m pretty sure half of his will be more than all of mine.

Back at Am Solar Deb had said she didn’t think Seven Devils Road was paved but a customer in the shop at the time said it was. Deb admitted it had been a few years since she’d been on it. So we decided to risk it rather than go north to go south. It turns out they were both right. It is paved as far south as the junction with Beaver Hill Road where we turned towards Highway 101. South of there it is not paved and there is a warning sign recommending motorhomes not go that way.

Once we got back on Highway 101 my phone rang. I tried answering Dave’s phone again before realizing it was mine this time. Our daughter and I were chatting away when we drove out of my coverage area. I’m having trouble getting used to that.

While I was still talking to her, Dave signaled to get my attention. Another Winnebago View was about to pass us. The copilot of that one and I waved to each other. It’s amazing to me how many Views we have being seeing along the west coast.  I think lots of people have decided smaller is better given the current fuel situation.

Another thing I am enjoying in these tourist towns is the names on some of the businesses. Today we saw “Jailhouse Rocks,” a jewelry shop, and a restaurant actually named “The Greasy Spoon.”

At Cape Blanco State Park, we stopped for an ocean view fix.  Here’s the lighthouse there.

The park has camping with water and electrical hookups for just $12 but the dump is closed due to failure of the drainage field and the only campsites with a view of the ocean have cabins on them. Oh, well. There are other places on the ocean to camp.

In Port Orford we stopped at The Crazy Norwegian for lunch. It felt like we were Up North in Minnesota. There were lots of signs about lutefisk and Uff Da and a sandwich named The Scandihovian. Small place but good food. No lefse, though.

The we stopped at Battle Rock City Park for another ocean view fix and to read the sign telling more of our nation’s embarrassing history.

  

We stopped at Humbug Mountain State Park to check out their campground. It’s in a shady valley with a trail at the end of C loop leading under the highway to the beach. Dave estimates it’s about 1,000 feet to the beach. Their dump was also closed also but I don’t know if it’s permanently so here.

We stopped at lots of scenic overlooks where Dave took lots of pictures of the ocean. He now has several of them cycling on his desktop since he couldn’t decide which to use.

We didn’t stop at Ophir State Beach. We could see it is a paved wayside with restrooms, overlooking the ocean, and somewhat sheltered from the highway but we don’t know if camping is allowed there.

We had intended to buy diesel in Port Orford but didn’t do so. We were glad when we got to Gold Beach to discover it was 10 cents a gallon cheaper than it had been in Port Orford.

In Gold Beach there are RV parks on the ocean. We may stop at one of them someday but not today.

One of the interesting things I learned with all these ocean view stops is that I need to be able to see the beach not just the water. Without the waves lapping the shore the ocean just looks like a big lake to me.

We crossed Bruce’s Bone Creek. I decided not to speculate about that name.

We camped at Harris Beach State Recreation Area. We paid an extra $1 for a site with cable TV even though we don’t watch TV because the only sites with a view of the ocean had cable connections and you pay for what the site offers, not what you plan to use. Much of life is like that.

TTYL,

Linda

Back to the Coast

We made it out of camp this morning with about 10 minutes to spare before the 11 a.m. checkout time. The weather is heavily overcast but there’s promise of sunshine ahead.

Wow! The sun is now reflecting off the clouds as brightly as it does off snow in Minnesota at this time of year.  We miss our friends and family back there but I sure don’t miss snow!

We just passed a sign warning us it is illegal for vehicles like ours to drive in the left lane when we we saw another sign warning, “Right Lane Closed.” I bet you didn’t know we are driving a hovercraft. Neither did we. Let’s see, which law shall we break?

Today we got caught in a new definition of stop and go travel. Those who get queasy easily should probably stop reading now and skip ahead to the next paragraph. Not long after we left camp, my system got upset and I developed diarrhea. Every time I needed to go, Dave tried to find a place to stop. None of the places he found could be long term places. I found myself wishing our toilet had a seat belt so I could just stay there awhile. We made at least three of those emergency stops before the medicine I take when this happens kicked in. I hate have such a vulnerable digestive system. It has been giving me trouble all my life so I’m sure it will continue to do so but I sure wish it would only act up when we are parked for the night rather than when we are out on the road or in some other public place. If I’m ever with you and suddenly ask directions to a restroom, please answer quickly. Thanks.

Dave and our daughter have a different problem. I call it the head banging, feet hanging syndrome. They are both so tall they have trouble fitting into a lot of the small RVs we prefer to drive or the beds those RVs contain. Dave is pleased to have found the Winnebago View since he now has no side effects of this syndrome.

We passed a sheep farm with a llama standing guard. Our daughter’s former in-laws tried that once. Supposedly, llamas will protect sheep from predators. The llamas they got, though, were afraid of the sheep! It was interesting to me to see this llama looking like he was doing his job.

Oregon Highway 38 rocks! The sign said so: “Rocks”

Today’s interesting street name was Lutsinger Creek Road. I had images in my head of being at the Renaissance Fair and listening to a performer play the lute while singing. Do you suppose this street was named after someone whose ancestor did just that?

We stopped at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area. Guess what we saw there? You got it in one!

By the way, that picture was taken with Dave’s new camera. It was a lot better than the ones from my camera.

We stopped at the DQ in Reedsport for lunch. Dave bought the food and brought it back to the RV to eat since I was still not sure I felt like going far from home. I like their chicken strips basket because they offer gravy as one of their dip options. Dave eats his chicken strips plain so I get lots of gravy. I also get his toast. He gets my French fries although he seldom eats them.  

I could live on bread and meat. Fruits and vegetables are optional as long as I have bread and meat. Which is part of why I’m fat. Salty, crunchy snacks and lack of exercise are the rest of the reasons. I tried to blame it on heredity too since my grandparents and their siblings were not skinny people. But when you look at my parents that theory gets blown out of the water.

The Safeway here has a sign saying “Serving Reedsport since 1935.” I hadn’t realized that grocery chain had been around that long. I guess I really wouldn’t know that since *I* haven’t been around that long!

Now we are camped for the night at Bastendorff Beach County Park near Charleston, Oregon. This place was recommended to us by Deb at AM Solar. I’m glad she told us about it. Here’s the view from our campsite.

Not bad, huh?

TTYL,

Linda

Day 3 Pacific Coast

We left camp about 10:45 a.m. The sun was out but so was the fog. Weird weather for this Midwesterner.

We didn’t have far to travel today so we didn’t need to take lots of breaks but I thought you might like to see this one. This is called the Devil’s Churn. The waves come into this cut and turn every which way in their attempt to get back out again. If the water is flowing just right, it shoots way high up into the air. Trying to catch one of those big ones on film gave me a better appreciation for surfers trying to catch their big one.

  

I didn’t take a lot of written notes today because I was thinking about what it would be like to have a recorder with voice recognition software that could turn dictation into a computer document. It would be quite a challenge to do but it might be fun to make a record of everything along the coast relating to travel: all the parks, gas stations, restaurants, motels, etc. with the mile markers interspersed to help you find things. If I published that I think I would call it “Oregon Coast: Inch by Inch”. I’m not sure I could talk fast enough to get it all, though. There’s a lot out here.

We stopped for the night at the B & E Wayside RV Park in Florence, Oregon. That name didn’t make me happy since I read enough detective novels to associate the letters B & E with breaking and entering. It was an interesting park but I don’t think B & E is going to be a problem here.

The park is 95% asphalt. The RV spots are two wide so you can park your car/truck next to your RV. Every spot has a small storage shed in case you need to unload your car/truck before you can use it. Every spot has full hookups. There’s a large recreation building with lots of rooms for things like playing pool or working puzzles or watching TV or reading or having a party. I think the building must have been a house they added on to because the party room has a full kitchen and the bath back there has a tub. There are also restrooms in the front of the building and throughout the park.  In the one by us there’s a washer and dryer–one each in the men’s side and one each in the women’s side. We intended to do laundry here but we’ve gotten spoiled; doing it one load at a time no longer appeals to us. So I think we’ll wait another day.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 2 Pacific Coast

Sunsets over the ocean can be lovely. Here’s one at Nehalem Bay State Park on Oregon’s Pacific Coast.

  

This park has more people camping in it than I expected at this time of year so we dumped and filled before we left just in case we can’t get hookups further south on the coast.

We planned to stop early at Cape Lookout but there’s no ocean view there and it’s getting ready to rain again so we decided to go on to Beachside State Park where we should have a good view of the ocean.

Part of the road was away from the beach but we drove between a couple of sand dunes anyway. Dave commented on it being “beach away from the shore.”

We saw what looked like giant marshmallows. I’m sure they are some type of grain that was wrapped when it was harvested but the marshmallow look reminded me of the year my Christmas package from Mom included a little bag of marshmallows with a note that said, “You’ve been bad so here’s the scoop. All you’re getting is snowman poop.” She worried I would take it wrong but I thought it was hilarious.

Apparently fishing is a big day after Thanksgiving Day activity here. There are lots of boats out on every type of water. Most of them seem to have 3-5 people in them. Many have whole families.  

We stopped at a view area for a rest stop and photo op. See the house way down there? I wonder how often they get flooded? I wonder if they think it’s worth that to have that view?

A pickup passed us carrying more fishing poles than it had people. If you fish with more than one pole, what do you do if both get strikes at the same time?

The sun finally broke through! Happy, happy, happy.

Then we came to Cape Foulweather which lived up to its name.

In Newport we stopped at WalMart to pick up Dave’s prescription and a few supplies. This one didn’t have a grocery store so we didn’t get everything on our list.

We finally reached Beachside State Park only to see a sign saying they are closed for the winter! Man! We drove all this way to park on the beach! What to do; what to do?

Fortunately, Tillium Beach Campground in the Suislaw National Forest was not too much further down the road and we managed to find a campsite where we could see the beach from our driver/passenger seats. I stayed in my seat until it got dark enough I could no longer see the ocean.

We have no hookups here (they were all taken by people who got here earlier than we did) so we need to conserve power but I’m frustrated with Dave’s responses to that need. I asked him to play cards but he said no. So, I asked him to plug in my computer to the 12 volt system but he told me to run off the computer’s battery. I couldn’t get a decent wifi signal so I asked him to plug in the booster but, again, he said no. So I played a computer game until my battery got down to 3% where it threatened to loose its memory if I didn’t plug it in NOW.

In the meantime, Dave powered up his computer (using his battery, I admit) but he plugged in the booster so he could get a better signal. So I made him plug in my computer until the battery got up to 11% then he complained I had used up half the night’s electricity. So I gave up and went to bed at 9 p.m.

The next morning I checked the battery and the gauge says it’s full and the meter says 12.4 volts. Dave says we shouldn’t let it go below 12.2 volts or we risk damaging the batteries so we used about 2/3 of what we could have. It turns out his concern was that we would run out of power during the night so the furnace fan wouldn’t work and it would get VERY cold in here. I finally understood his worry. Then he spoiled it by saying we plan to replace these batteries in a couple of days anyway, so maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if they dropped below 12.2. Men!

TTYL,

Linda