Letter 6 Oregon 1

Tuesday, May 15 Well, we aren’t out of California yet, but we wanted to post before we arrived in Oregon. As we were preparing to leave the fairgrounds three sisters arrived to

have their picture taken in front of the grandstands. It is an annual event for them to have their picture taken with a

local landmark. This picture is used for the cover story of the Ferndale Enterprise Souvenir Edition. Last year their photo was taken with the

historic 100 year old Fernbridge. We had seen the current edition and Fred posed with the bridge in our last blog. It was fun seeing the photo shoot in action. They promised to send us this years edition.

We drove north to Crescent City and found a Passport America campground. While doing our daily walk we struck up a conversation with a lady in the other end of the camp. Later we picked them up and took them to dinner at the Chart Room. This was the best fish and chips of the trip. These two ladies, Dayle and Dale are on the way to Alaska and we enjoyed telling them about our trip. They came to our trailer and we looked over maps. It will be fun to hear of their travels.

Wednesday May 16 we headed up the coast and stopped at the information center just north of Brookings and sure enough there were Dale and Dayle. Too bad the information center didn’t have maps or the coast book we were looking for. We stopped for the night at a nice Oregon state park called Humbug Mountain. Olivia had spotted it from the road last year so we checked it out and found it to our liking with a pull through spot with water and electricity.

We backtracked to see the Three Sisters rocks on the coast. What’s this about thee sisters? From Victorian to rocks??? Even more later! Then back past the park to the town of Port Orford. This is our third time to eat in this town. The first two years were at the Crazy Norwegian, but this time we tried

Griff’s on the dock. The fried shrimp was fantastic. Oh my, our diets are suffering on the coast, but such good seafood! This dock is unique as all launchings have to be by lift, therefore all the boats are dry docked as shown.

Back at the campground we walked under the bridge and out on the beach. Olivia enjoyed getting the

seagulls to fly off the beach.

Thursday, March 17 driving north, we past through Bandon and took the “short cut” to Charleston which took us longer than going by Hwy 101 we ended up at Sunset Bay State Park. Oregon State Parks are all beautiful and we can tell by the sites we are in one of their parks. Each site has shrubs around them for privacy from the next site. This is a park we plan to bring Alan and Teenya when they come to Oregon in June. After parking we explored two county parks nearby incase Sunset Bay is full. Both were nice also. We returned to see the sights on the coast that will bring us back again.

Shore Acres on

Cape Arago is breathtaking. Pictures just don’t do it justice. This area was previously an estate with a huge home and gardens. Hopefully it will be a clear day as this one for the Barnards.

Friday May 18 we moved north to the town of Florence and found our resting place at Sutton Forest Camp with over 100 camp sites, several spots with electricity. The one we chose was very wooded and almost dark in the trailer. We enjoyed our walking in the loops that were still closed for the season. After making contact with Dale & Dayle we met them for supper at

Mo’s in Old town Florence. We really enjoyed their company these two times we have seen them and wish them a wonderful trip to Alaska.

This weekend Florence celebrated Rhododendron festival and old town didn’t exactly look like old town with all the

bikes lining the streets. It was a little chilly so we guessed the locals put

crocheted sweaters on the trees. We caught a good view of the Florence bridge from the old town.

Saturday, May 19 We moved north to Tillicum Beach Forest Camp. We found this campground last year and it is one of few Forest Camps with electricity. Unfortunately by the time we arrived those spots were taken for the weekend. It was a beautiful sunshiny day and we enjoyed

walking on the beach at low tide. It was a long way out to the water. The white spots on the bluff are RV’s.

Sunday, May 20 the sunshine disappeared as we attended church at Trinity UMC in Toledo. This was a three-pete for us and is one Debbie Rayfield has fallen in love with as it has the individual cross’s for each member covering a wall. Olivia looked closer at them and most are not painted. There are photographs, stickers, and all sorts of unique items to represent that person or family. From the church window we could see a

tree full of yellow finches. After church we drove south to see Cape Perpetua where

Jonathan Seagull awaited us at the pull-out. We’re sure he would have eaten from our hand. Looking down we could see

Cook’s Chasm where waves have undercut the rock to form caves and blowholes.

Monday, May 21 was a second day of cold, blowing wind, and rain. We had planned to move on north but it was a really yucky morning. We waited until 11 am before deciding we didn’t want to drive in this weather since we didn’t have to. After checking with the host to see if the two emptied spots with electricity across the road were available, we moved over to a better spot. From the kitchen we could actually see the waves. Olivia put on a pot of soup then we set out to see the high tide with the extra winds. The

waves over the rocks were really putting on a good show near the town of Yachats.

Tuesday, May 22, We continued to hibernate. During the high winds our front awning (visor?) blew apart. We recued the pieces and saved them until we had dry land. We moved into Newport. At lunch we went to Georgie’s for chowder.

Wednesday, May 23 The state parks are filled through the weekend so we found an RV park. The repair shop next to the park recommended ways for

Fred to fix the awning.

Thursday, May 24 another day in Newport and Fred repaired the awning. We ate fried Halibut at Georgie’s.

Friday, May 25 we found agates on

Fogerty Beach just south of Lincoln City then followed the old road south. We watched the waves at

Boiler Bay,
the Devil’s Punch Bowl,and off

Cape Foulweather.

At the Flying Dutchman Winery we enjoyed a few tastes and thought of the Fenton’s when we saw this

throw rug. Fred enjoyed being a

Vintage Person, “Perfectly aged. Reserved but not subdued.”

Saturday, May 26 we visited the tide pools at Yahina point before “garaging” in a senior subdivision where Fred found a sack full of books. Olivia treated herself to a pedicure, then we went back to Georgie’s. Fred ordered blackberry barbeque salmon salad, served on a bed of fresh romaine lettuce and seasonal fresh fruit tossed with honey mustard dressing and Olivia opted for crab cakes with pineapple salsa and sweet-spicy coconut red curry cream sauce. WOW! Can you tell we like Georgie’s? Not only is the food delishous, but the view of the waves is also fantastic.

This is Memorial Day weekend and we are glad to have a place to call home. It isn’t glamorous but has full hookups at a decent price. Sunday,

May 27, we opted to do cleaning and laundry before treating ourselves to a trip to the old harbor area and visiting the

Original Mo’s. As we walked from the parking lot we saw the

Pacific Shrimp truck loading shrimp peels to haul off somewhere. We arrived at 4 pm and there was already a line to get into Mo's. After dinner of chowder, shrimp skewers and fried shrimp we walked across the street to see a

charter completing their trip and the crew cleaning the catch of sea bass.

Monday May 28 we had thought to depart today for inland Oregon, but decided to let the natives enjoy the highways today before we headed out. We worked on a few minor repairs then took another coast drive. The sun was out, the wind was down, the water was blue, and the waves were white. In other words, “gorgeous!” And yes, we did eat more seafood. Get us away from the coast, PLEASE!

This completes this visit to the Oregon Coast as we head inland to see some of the rest of Oregon. We have heard a lot about Sisters and Bend so we will go and see for ourselves. Also, it will be good to get away from the delicious seafood for a while. We expect Teenya and Alan on the 8th to repeat the coast so we know we will get to have some more then.

Tuesday, May 29 we woke up COLD. It was 52 degrees inside the trailer. No electricity. We turned on the big heat and Olivia went to the office to see if their breaker had gone off for our spot. No it wasn’t them, our plug had gone out. Fred worked until noon replacing the plug. It seems we have been overloading our thirty amp service and fried our plug. We had been running our space heater, frig, water heater and multiple other smaller item on electricity. Now we use more propane!

Then we headed east. Highway 20 was another narrow, twisting, beautiful road following the Yahina River. After crossing I-5 we passed many fields of crops including a white field of

???. It was tiny white flowers covering all the greenery. We wondered what it was. Anyone know?

We found a new home at River Bend County Park. It was a fairly new park with 70’ long, fifteen feet wide, level pads at all spots. Each one was angled so it was easy to back into. Smart engineer. Of course the land was relatively level in the whole park and new growth trees of 20-30’ covered the whole park except for the pads and park roads. Olivia’s only suggestion was to make the river more accessible. Only by taking a trail around the park could we see the river. As we walked this trail we saw many

wild iris blooming in the forest.

Last blog we complained about the rough roads. Well, we do that a lot. It's not all the fault of the roads. We air all our tires to near maximum for towing a heavy load. When we unhook from the trailer, it is not convenient to change the pressure, so we drive the Suburban on sight-seeing trips with high air pressure and “hard” tires.

On the coast of Oregon we have experienced overnight lows of near 45 degrees and highs of near 55 degrees. We could get hooked on these temperatures!

Wednesday, May 30 we continued following US 20 east to the town of Sisters which is named after the

Three Sisters mountains nearby. After setting up camp at their city park campground we backtracked to the headwaters of the

Metolius River. A full size river flows ice cold from huge springs. The springs appear to originate from beneath

Black Butte, however, their origin is in the Cascade Mountains to the west. It springs forth after being underground for many miles and flows 28 miles to the Deschutes River, then north to the Columbia.

Thursday, May 31 we took a short drive to hopefully see the McKenzie Pass and the Dee Wright Observatory, but the road was still closed for the winter. Guess all the

snow we see is across the roads. So back to the campground and a move to Tumalo State Park near Bend. We had hoped to spend four nights, but could only obtain two nights as the weekend was full. Dad gum reservations system. It seems the general public has caught on to the reservations and more people are camping so we will either have to make reservations, find more first come parks, or stay home. Don’t think the third choice is good. After a short rest we headed in to Bend to find the Tumalo

Falls. We thought they would be close to the campground but the only way to get there was a ninety degree angle to the southwest. Back in the town we followed a circular road to the top of Pilot Butte where we could see

all the way around the town and the row of mountains forming the Cascades. It appears this butte is in the center of town. At least the town has grown up all around it.

Remember we love hearing your remarks, stories, and what’s up with you so email us at Olivia@bobheck.com or Fredharrington@yahoo.com