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

Day 1 Pacific Coast

So now we are wandering south along the Pacific Coast. We started this morning at Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria, Oregon, by heading up on the dunes so Dave could get this trip’s pictures of the Peter Iredale, his favorite shipwreck. We park in an area that lets me watch the waves without having to negotiate the sand dunes while Dave wanders around to his heart’s content. That content came a little earlier than usual today since it’s November and the wind is blowing down from the mountains. Still we both got an ocean fix which was nice.

  

Fort Stevens campground has two major recycling areas.  That makes me happy.

We drove south along the coast to Seaside, Oregon, for lunch. This is my favorite coastal town. We’ve been here for several vacations when we stayed in an ocean side studio apartment right on the Prom. We walk more when we are in Seaside than we do anywhere else. Today we walked about a block from where we parked to the Pig N Pancake for lunch. This is one of our “regular” restaurants in Seaside. It’s not fancy and the service is slow but the food is good and the people watching is great. Seaside appears to have been doing some economic recovery since we were last here several years ago. There are some new businesses and things have been tidied up as well. I think I could live here year around but we’ve not spent much winter time here so maybe I couldn’t.

While we were in Seaside, Dave did our grocery shopping at Safeway. Doing grocery shopping the afternoon before Thanksgiving is not high on his list of enjoyable things but he’s out of milk so…

Today’s interesting street name was “Picture Window Lane”. I guess it makes sense that all the houses along the ocean would have picture windows but I wonder what marketing person decided to name the street that?

We also saw “Hug Point”. Do you suppose it’s related to Lovers’ Lane?

We stopped at several overlooks along the highways to take pictures of the ocean. Here’s some for you to enjoy.

  

Now we are in Nehalem Bay State Park. We will be here two nights. I’m hoping the weather will be nice enough tomorrow for us to play with the Segway seats to decide which to keep and which to send back. 

TTYL,

Linda

Shopping & Stuff

As soon as we got back into our RV after the anti-sway stuff was installed we could feel a difference. Hopefully, it will be enough of a difference to justify the time and money we spent getting it done. We think we will still have some sway when walking around but not any more wind rocking us to sleep and far less sway in the wind on the highway.

Dave has decided to buy a digital SLR camera. Apparently, he’s been researching this for awhile because he knows exactly what he wants and that Best Buy sells them. So, I sat in the RV researching state parks along the Oregon coast while he went into Best Buy. The camera he came back with is much bigger and heavier than I anticipated. So, we talked once again about how much weight we’ve been adding to the RV and that getting our solar system and water tank upgrade may put us over maximum weight.  

Dave’s decided he’d rather have the camera than the piano since he’s finding setting up and taking down the piano to be more of a nuisance than he thought it would be. So, we will be selling the piano. There’s a huge RV gathering in Arizona in January; maybe he’ll be able to find a buyer there. If any of you happen to be along the Oregon/California coast and would like to buy it before then, let us know, please.

In the meantime, we headed west along the Columbia River to the Oregon Coast where we’ll turn south until we need to turn inland again at Florence, Oregon, to get our solar system. That brought us back into the snow zone. It better not!

Then we traveled a stretch of road that felt like the Red Wing, Minnesota area: bluff, road, train, river. When we got up on the bluff looking down at the train it looked like it was Z scale.

We passed a street labeled “Scandinavian Cannery Row.”  Do you suppose that’s lutefisk, herring, and sardines?

Then we pulled into Fort Stevens State Park. Our favorite Oregon park. We spent two nights there so I got to have a day hanging out in my pjs while it rained. I like those days. Especially when we have Ritz crackers to munch on.  Mmmm.

TTYL,

Linda

Running North

I have no idea what possessed Dave when he scheduled four days for a four day trip. Doesn’t he know how slow we travel? For the last four days we got up early, hit the road quickly, drove until sunset, and finally reached Tualatin, Oregon, yesterday for our service appointment this morning.  

Interstate freeway riding is boring so I napped a lot. In between here’s some of what I saw and thought.

On day one we left before breakfast then stopped along the way and watched some guys trying to learn to surf while we ate.

 

At Thornhill-Broom Beach there were lots of RVs and tents right on the beach. I must remember this for future use. Once we get our solar panels, we’ll be able to park places like that without giving up any of our comforts.

I saw a tanker truck of fruit juice. We are not in Minnesota anymore. Back there this would have been a tanker truck of milk. I wonder if Californians would find that idea odd?

That switchback on our right up the hill from us turned out to be southbound traffic instead. I’m not used to having facing traffic be on the wrong side of us but road engineers build whatever makes sense in the mountains.

At Vista del Lago there is a Water Education Center. I’d like to stop there sometime but we can’t spare the time to do so today.

Near Gorman there is a rest area with fresh water and a dump. We need to start noticing those if we are going to do much boondocking.

We stopped at a Subway inside a TA truck stop but they had no tables. It’s a good thing we bring our own.

The highway signs say Sacramento and San Franciso are a mile apart. Sometimes one is listed first then the other one is. It feels to me like kids arguing. “I’m bigger.” But, I’m more important.” “I get more visitors.” “But, yours are just tourists, mine are politicians.” “You think that’s better?!”

The tour bus that just went by said USASIA on it. Guess we know who their market is.

We just passed a feedlot. Big feedlot. Huge feedlot. Upwind of us. Dad would take a big whiff and say, “Ah, fresh country air.” He thinks that’s funny.

I just saw a bunch of power poles take off cross country. Gone are the days when you could predict what the road ahead would do by checking out the power poles.

When driving the freeway, it becomes more important to get out and walk at rest areas. No museums to do that in on this trip.

We drove behind a hill about 4:30 p.m. and instantly went from needing a visor plus sunglasses to needing to remove both. I wear my tennis type visor inside when the sun gets too low for the vehicle visor to do the job. I’m sure I look funny wearing it sideways but that’s better than sunburning my ear.

We stopped for the night at San Luis RV Resort in Santa Nella, California.

Our attempt to get away early on day two was foiled by a broken shelf support. Dave emptied the big cupboard over the sink, fixed the shelf, and put everything back differently so I can’t find anything anymore. Keeps life interesting.

Alongside the road are aqueducts–really just big canals. Nothing like the Roman aqueducts.

The farm beside the highway is advertising mandarins and lemons. More evidence we are a long way from Minnesota.

California and Oregon both require you have tire chains available when traveling through the mountains at this time of year. So we stopped at Les Schwab Tire in Sacramento and bought some. More weight to carry.

We had lunch at Nick’s Diner on Historic Route 40. Dave says that’s the same road known as the Lincoln Highway back in Illinois. I wonder how much interesting stuff it has along it?

You don’t necessarily need a CB to figure out what the truckers are up to. When all the semis are two lanes left you can bet the two right lanes are going to exit somewhere soon. Or be under construction. Whatever reason they are over there is likely to be a good one so now we move over when they do.

I saw a sign saying, “Sheriff Detention Center”. I guess that’s in case they need to detain the sheriff. I wonder what he did?

We passed a bunch of rice paddies. Are we still in California? I wonder if Viet Nam vets passing here have flashbacks? I don’t think I want to be here when they start seeing everyone as enemy.

There’s a field of fences. Do the grow them here? Maybe they are going to plant grapes on them. Or…?

This night was at Corning RV Park. Good Sam rate of $22 for full hookups.

Today we drove by Richfield, California–shades of the past! Richfield, Minnesota, is where Dave spent his early childhood years along with many other boomers whose parents took advantage of the post war housing boom there. Some of those boomers are moving back now having figured out these small houses are cheaper to heat than McMansions and, with the kids gone, they are plenty big enough. They were big enough before but we were told growing kids need lots of space.

Next to some lush landscaping was a sign saying, “Using reclaimed water.” That says several things about conditions around here.

In Anderson, California, we stopped at the welcome center to get a highway map. Yes, we are just about to leave California but we’ll be coming back in a couple of weeks. This map lists all the parks along the coast highway which should come in handy for our southbound trip next month.

We are now passing through the Shasta Mountains. The leaves on the trees here now look like early October in Minnesota.

We stopped at Vista Point to take pictures of Mount Shasta. I’m glad we don’t have to cross it. Dave says it’s 14,000 feet and we only have to go to 4,000.

We stopped in Yreka at KFC for lunch. Yes, that’s the way they spell Eureka here.

We got up high enough to be driving through the clouds. In spite of the way that sounds, it is NOT fun. Visibility is low enough to be scary.

We finally drove across the border into Oregon on a–surprise–cloudy day.

We spent the night at Joe Creek Waterfalls RV Resort in Grant’s Pass. If you ever stop here, be sure to read the funny story on the back of their brochure.

We woke up this morning to discover we had slept in the clouds last night. Whoever decided to advertise mattresses as like sleeping on a cloud had never done it. They are cold and wet.

I took another one of those water saving early morning showers today. Is it OK that I am getting used to cold showers?

My Coffee Rich was not completely thawed this morning. Crunchy milk on my cereal is not my favorite.

About 9:15 this morning the sun finally came over the mountain and it was like someone turned on the overhead light. From dark to bright instantly.

A place selling ranch fencing had a sign saying, “vinyl is final.” I guess if you are trying to keep stock corralled biodegradable fencing is not so good.

Coyote Jack’s Rawhide Dancehall make me wonder what type of dancing they do that makes their hides raw?

The next sign said:

State Police

DMV – Camping

I guess that would be a really safe place to camp as long as you and your vehicle are in compliance with all current laws.

A billboard asked, “Would your house survive a wildfire?” To which I confidently replied. “Yes, because we would drive ours out of there.”

Last night we stayed at the RV Park of Portland, in Tualatin, Oregon. For a good giggle, check out Freddy Flintlock on their website at http://www.rvparkofportland.com/.

So now we are at Upscale Auto, aka the Sprinter Store, in Tualatin getting an anti-sway bar and adjustable shocks installed. We got up at 6:20 a.m. since the shop opens at 7:00 a.m. It’s now not quite 10:30 and they say we’ll be done in about a half hour. So maybe all that food I loaded into my bag before we came in won’t be necessary.

TTYL,

Linda