So Tired of the Rain

Our plan was to stay at the South Jetty Thousand Trails for several days. But, by morning, the downpour started again and when the trees above us let go of their share of the rain, we thought we had become a submarine. Enough already! So, we again packed up and headed south. There must be some sunshine somewhere.


After a couple of stops to walk poor, sick Buddy, we finally made it to California. We were stopped at the agricultural station and the ranger came into the coach to check our refrigerator. I've never had that happen before. All we had were a couple of bananas and a squash. So we were on our way in no time. We did ask the ranger how far it was to the sunshine. He laughed and said it was raining all the way to San Francisco. Thanks, just what we wanted to hear.


In Crescent City, we stopped at the Visitor Information building but it was closed on weekends. We continued south on 101 through the Trees of Mystery and Redwood Forest. Breathtaking scenery and we even saw another Alpine Coach in the parking lot of the Trees of Mystery.

A little before 5pm, we stopped at the California Visitor Center in Arcata. The nice young man was just getting ready to close so we grabbed a couple of maps and told him we would be back in the morning. There is a RV park next door and we were tired. So, we checked in to the Mad River Rapids RV Park and pulled into a 60' long pull through site. We didn't even unhook the car. Just plugged into power and got out of the rain. Did I mention it was still raining???? We plan on spending just the one night and continuing south.

I Missed You!

Sorry that we have been without internet access. We arrived at Whalers Rest Thousand Trails in South Beach, Oregon on Wednesday. It's a nice looking park and very friendly people. BUT!!!!! There is no cell phone signal there. AND...there is no internet signal. AND... no tv signal. OK, we can live without tv. And, a day or two without the phones is alright too. But, no internet!!!!! Arrrgh.

We arrived in the rain, set up in the rain, and sat staring at each other in the rain. We discovered a leak from one of the slides and on Thursday we moved to a different, move level site. Still no signals of any kind and still lots of rain. I did use the wifi in the clubhouse to let you know that there might not be a posting for a few days. But by evening, we had had enough. We informed the office of our early departure and left the next day.


Friday morning, the rain had finally stopped and we hooked up the jeep and left. We had a pretty day for meandering down the coast. First, we stopped at a viewpoint to see the spouting rock. That was fascinating watching the waves come in under the huge rock and then, seconds later, the water spouting 8 to 10 feet in the air from a hole in the top of the rock.


We managed a few more miles to the next viewpoint to see the Heceta Head Lighthouse. Someday we will take a tour of the lighthouse, but the road down to it is a bit much for the coach and jeep. But, when we stepped out of the coach at the viewpoint we were assaulted by a horrible noise. Looking down at the beach below us, we discovered hundreds and hundreds of sea lions sunbathing on the beach and playing in the waves. What a treat!


We continued a few miles more and found the Sea Lion Caves. I have never been to them and Doug was a child the last time he had seen them. So, we did the tourist thing and took the tour.


First, we took an elevator down through the mountainside about 220 feet to sea level. The sign warning us to take it at our own risk was a little unnerving. But well worth it when we got to the bottom. There was a lot of information and a fantastic view of the caves where the sea lions seek protection in the winter and bad weather. I would imagine that the noise level when the caves were full of sea lions would be almost unbearable.

From the other side of the caves, we looked out at the lighthouse again. After the ride back up, we stopped in the gift shop for postcards for Jacob & Emma and a pin for ourselves.

We continued on south on highway 101 to Florence. There, we found diesel for $3.12. I know that doesn't sound too great to a lot of you. But along the coast, diesel and gas are very expensive. This was the cheapest we have found since we left Washington.

We arrived at South Jetty Thousand Trails park in the early afternoon and found a nice quiet site. We have cell phone signals and internet. Yaaaaay! But, the clouds moved in and it started to rain before Doug got the tv satellite set up. So.....maybe tomorrow.

Thanks to all who have checked out the ads on the blog. The little bit of revenue helps move us a little farther down the road.

Moved and No Internet

Hi all!!! We picked up and moved down the coast about 50 miles to Whalers Rest Thousand Trails just south of Newport, OR. It was a wet, nasty drive and even wetter while we were trying to set up. Why, you ask, are we staying in the rain? There are a couple of things that we want to see in this area. I would like to visit the Sea Lion Caves and Doug wants to search for agates at Agate Beach. But, here at the park, we have no cell signal or internet signal. We have to sit in the clubhouse and use their wifi to send unsecured messages to the blog. So, for a couple more days, I probably won't be posting to the blog. But, I will check the emails each day. So if you need us, send an email.

A Drive on the Beach

Another rainy day kept us inside all morning, but we got out for a drive along the beach in the early afternoon. We waited until low tide so we wouldn't have any problems. But even at low tide, this beach didn't have much room for driving. As you can see in the above picture, a rain storm was coming at us shortly after we arrived.


We took a few pictures of the birds, looked for shells and then hightailed it out of there.

We spent the evening just like most of you. Glued to the tv set and computers. The election results were mesmerizing. I hope everyone voted their heart and conscience and I hope the country can move in a better direction. We will wait and see, but it's still politics.

Cape Lookout & Whiskey Creek

After a slow morning, we took a trip to the Pacific City Post Office to get the clips for our Roadmaster Tow Defender equipment. Glenn's Welding kindly mailed them after forgetting to give them to us at the time of purchase. This will give our car a little more protection from rocks and road debris.



We were feeling a little bit better and decided to take a ride up the coast to Cape Lookout State Park. This is a beautiful park right on the dunes next to the ocean. Another section of the park is for the off road vehicles that love to play in the acres and acres of sand dunes. We watched a couple of them roar up and down the dunes, spinning circles and having a ball.


The road through the Oregon State Park winds up hill and then back down to the camping area. The views are fantastic even when the weather doesn't cooperate.


On the way home, we drove past the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery Volunteer Project. It was drizzly and cold but we stopped to check it out. A lovely, gentle lady greeted us and said that the hatchery wasn't really open but that we were welcome to look around and take some time to feed the fish in the Lake Loren pond. We didn't have any quarters for the fish food so she filled a couple of containers for us for free and encouraged us to take our time and enjoy the hatchery.


It's difficult to take pictures of fish in a pond on a grey day. But they were phenomenal. The rainbow trout were easily between 15 and 20 pounds. And they loved to be fed. Thank you Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery!

Do Nothing Day!

One of my favorite days of the week! Seriously, we decided to just stay home, keep warm and dry and fight these colds. It poured down rain all day long which convinced us that it was a great idea.
We played on the computers, payed some bills, watched the Da Vinci Code on tv and ate. All in all, a very boring day for posting on a blog but a necessary respite.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Movin' Down the Coast

We left Seaside Thousand Trails around 11 am after a quick visit with Mike & Charlotte. They gave us some good advice about the park we were heading for and we hope to see them in Quartzsite this winter.


The weather was gray and drizzly but Highway 101 was entertaining. There were frequent viewpoints and we stopped at every one of them. It took us over three hours to travel about 75 miles with all of the stops and photos.

Here we are parked at one of the many view points. Hopefully, Doug will figure a way to make some money with his hobby of photography.


We arrived at the Pacific City Thousand Trails mid afternoon. It is quite an interesting park in it's layout. The roads to the many sites wind sharply up hill and make finding the perfect spot challenging. We unhitched the car and left the coach in a safe spot. Then following the park map, we drove the jeep and checked out the sites that were available. Most of the sites are totally private and a few have a small view of the ocean.


We can't see the ocean from the coach, but when we stand on a high spot of our site, the view is very nice. This could easily become one of our favorite parks.

Our evening was quiet. Doug set up the Directv dish and we settled in to try and shake these colds. Even the dog is extremely lethargic and has stopped eating. We are concerned but will give it a day or two before we find a vet.

More Exploring

Our first stop this morning was the post office to pick up our mail. We use a mail forwarding service in South Dakota called Americas Mailbox. Whenever we are going to be in an area for a few days, I email them and they package whatever mail they have for us and ship it General Delivery. Today, we got the registration for the Jeep and immediately put our South Dakota plates on the car. Now we are all legal!

Again, the day was cool and drizzly but we decided to drive south to Cannon Beach. Our first stop was at a historical marker along the road. We love to stop at these. It gives us a break from driving and what a fun way to learn history. This sign told us about the Cannon Beach history.

And this is a replica of a cannon that washed ashore from a ship that had crashed on the rocks. That's how Cannon Beach got it's name.

Before we got to Cannon Beach, we turned off to check out Ecola State Park. It's pretty much just a day use park but wow oh wow. We drove for miles up a windy (barely two lane) road that was lined with huge Sitka spruce. We thought we were into the Redwoods at first. When we reached the top, we found a lovely park overlooking the ocean.


We followed the paths to the overlooks just as patches of sun broke through. But as you can see from Doug's jacket, the wind never stopped. Thank heavens for digital cameras. Doug took over a hundred photos of the spectacular scenery.


The rocks below the cliff are where sea lions and birds find sanctuary. We didn't see any sea lions, but the pelicans were plentiful.


It's hard to describe such views.


When the wind became too much, we drove down to Indian Beach. And to my surprise found a lone surfer. We watched him for a while but the wind and tide was so strong that he couldn't get out far enough to catch a good wave.


Finally, we drove into Cannon Beach. It's a major tourist trap. But, we saw lots of nice restaurants and shops, though we didn't do any shopping. We found an access to the beach at the end of a road where we were staggered at the sight of thousands of birds. This picture shows only about one fifth of the birds. And when they took off it was amazing.

It was a nice day, but by now, Doug has my cold too. We felt crummy and decided to go home. A quick stop at the store for milk and soup and back to our humble abode.

Fort Stevens - Oregon State Parks

Lots of pictures today! First I wanted to show you another shot of our coach in the park.

Around noon, we drove back to Fort Stevens. We were so fascinated yesterday with the little bit that we saw, we had to return. First, let me tell you, we are so impressed with the Oregon State Park system. They are well maintained, very beautiful and reasonable (dollar-wise). When we arrived at Fort Stevens, we were going to purchase a $3 day use pass. But after visiting with the volunteers inside the museum, we purchased an annual pass for every Oregon State Park for only $25. What a bargain!

We spent an hour in the museum and learned a ton about how the west coast was shelled by the Japanese in 1942. The museum had displays of uniforms and weapons, information and brochures and even a video about the attack. Doug took about 100 photos but I just couldn't post them all.

In spite of the cold, windy day, we toured as much of the fort as we could. The batteries are built into the side of the hill and were virtually invisible to the submarines. Visitors are allowed to enter most rooms, climb ladders and steps and photograph anything.

This was the command post. It sat at the top of the tallest hill and has a view of the mouth of the Columbia that is breathtaking.

Looking out from the command station. It's hard to see the water in this picture, but it's spectacular.


The fort depends on donations to repair and restore the facilities. Unfortunately, in many places, the buildings are crumbling and dangerous. I discovered an interesting difference between Doug's idea of exploring and mine. He prefers to go as deep and far as he can inside the buildings.


And, I prefer to climb to the highest points I can find.


After the fort, we took Buddy to the beach for a run. Doug caught this gorgeous picture down the beach with the clouds and mist and grey, grey, grey.


While he was busy taking pictures of me.......

I took pictures of him and Buddy!

When we arrived back at the park, we saw a coach that looked just like ours. As we got closer, someone waved and we discovered our good friends Mike and Charlotte Gamble were here. They have an Alpine Coach that looks almost identical to ours outside. It is a little newer and I'm sure a lot tidier.

We visited for a few minutes, but by then the cold that I have been fighting started to win. I have almost lost my voice (but I can still type) and am coughing like crazy. The only upside to it is Doug gets to take care of me. He fixed a weird combination dinner for me (that I requested) and kept me warm and comfortable all evening. What a guy!

Exploring the Coast

Here is our site at the Seaside Thousand Trails park in Oregon. It's a large park with beautiful facilities. There is a swimming pool, spa and sauna. A nice cafe, store and clubhouse with internet access are available too.

In the morning, we set out to find a Les Schwab to get new tires for the Jeep. They were pretty well worn and we were having to constantly put air in them. We sure didn't want to take a chance of a flat while towing.

After the tires, we drove through Seaside exploring. We found the aquarium and couldn't resist. It's a small aquarium, but had a nice variety of displays. We saw an octopus, crabs, anemones, sea bass, sea lions, lots more and my favorite below.

This is the wolf eel. I put his picture in the blog because I was sure that Jacob would think he is pretty cool.


Here's a close up of his head. Not too pretty, but very cool!

After the aquarium, we took a drive on the beach. The weather was cool and breezy so I didn't spend much time outside. I am fighting a cold and was content to just ride in the car.

After our drive on the beach, we went north on Hwy 101 to Fort Stevens State Park. This is a huge park. First we drove through the camping area (very nice), then followed the signs to the beach at the mouth of the Columbia River, then found the Fort Stevens historic military bunker. We will be going back tomorrow because we ran out of time and camera memory. It is well worth our time.

The beach was loaded with jelly fish! That's Doug's foot next to one so you can see how big they are. We saw about ten of them in one small area.

We also ran across this driftwood shanty. It was drafty, but large enough to provide shelter in a storm. I prefer our coach.

We had a great day and can hardly wait for more!