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!

Double the Travel, Double the Fun

Well, we left Yakima about noon and stopped for diesel. It is now down to $3.19 a gallon and 10 miles further down the road, we found it for $3.09. Our plan was to follow Hwy 97 south to the Columbia River, then head west toward the coast. We found a couple of Oregon State Parks online that sit right on the river and would be perfect. (Oregon State Parks are half the price of Washington State Parks.)

The first hitch in our gitalong was the bridge where we planned to cross into Oregon is closed for construction. So, we followed the river on the Washington side and finally crossed at The Dalles. The first park we were interested in was Memaloose State Park. When we arrived, there was a big sign saying "closed". So, we continued to the second park, Viento State Park. This time, the closed sign was so small that we missed it until we were in the park. And, guess what! There was no way to turn around. Doug had to unhitch the car, turn the coach around, and hitch the car back up. What a pain in the neck.

At this point, we spoke with a maintenance person at the park and discovered that most of the parks along the Columbia are closed for the winter. Sure wish they had said that on their website.

So, our next plan of attack was to continue on to the coast. This doubled our expected travel time and we ended up going through Portland during rush hour. That was exciting. Doug did a great job driving and we finally arrived at Seaside Thousand Trails just as it got dark. By the time we found a site and set up, it was too dark for pictures. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

We have had our little mishaps but that won't slow us down. We still have 45 state to add to our map!

Yakima Part II

We finally got a hold of our friend Dave who has a ladder for us and two cabinet doors that we wanted replaced. But, he couldn't meet us until 4pm after work. So, we took a ride to the local RV parts store and browsed a while. The only thing we needed were some vacuum cleaner bags. Then we drove to the other side of the freeway and checked out the Yakima Sportsman
State Park. Wow! We should have stayed there. Above is a picture from inside the park. It is beautiful. There are not a lot of sites, but what a setting.

Later in the day, we drove to Dave's house to pick up our items. There was a small problem with the doors, so Dave and his wife followed us back to the park to take the old doors home with them so they could get the hinge cutouts just right. We also picked up our ladder and when Doug set it on the back of the coach, it is too long. (Sorry the picture is so blurry. I was in a hurry.) So, the ladder was returned and we will have to find one somewhere else. Western RV raised the height of their coaches by 5 inches in the last few years and we are one of the shorter coaches. Oh, well.

We will get our new cabinet doors in the morning and then we will head south.

Yakima

We left Wenatchee in the morning and the hook up for the Jeep went just fine. However, our first stop was at a gas station in Cashmere to put air in an extremely low tire on the Jeep. We will have to watch that one carefully.

It was a beautiful day for a drive over Blewett Pass. Blue sky, changing leaves.....and a sense of freedom. Our next stop was Yakima. It's not the prettiest place on the face of the earth, but we are hoping to pick up our ladder for the back of the coach. We haven't been able to contact the guy that has it but we will give it a day or two here.



We checked into the Circle H RV Ranch based on what I found on the internet. The website is misleading. It is small, old, and full of permanent residents. The spaces are very tight and it sits right next to the freeway. We probably won't put it on our list of places to stay. However, for two nights, we will survive.

Doug got us hooked up and set up the Directv dish, then we made a quick trip to the store. It was a quiet evening (discounting the freeway noise) of watching tv and relaxing.