The Inside Scoop

We've shown you the outside of our 32' home on wheels, but we've never let you peek inside.  So this here story is all about showing you our living quarters so you can get a feel for the space we are enjoying on our journey.

We'll start off with the living room (below) that consists of a couch (actually, Sadie's couch--on the left--where she can usually be found), a recliner (on the right between the kitchen sink and the passenger's chair--you can barely see it), Sherwood's bed (right behind Sherwood who happens to be laying right, smack, dab in the middle of the living room floor), and the passenger's chair (to the right of the driver's chair) which turns around to provide additional seating while we are stationary.  The TV is mounted right between the driver's and passenger's seats.  We also have Dish Network so that whenever there's a signal we'll have some sort of TV as well as cable in most RV parks.  And, we brought along a few DVDs to watch too.

Below is the dinette (on the right) that also functions as my computer area. The dinette seats four, and right in front of it is the couch.  The kitchen area (on the left) features a sink, counter space, 3-burner stove, microwave above the stove, and then refrigerator/freezer combo.  Dead ahead under the mirror are the dogs' water and food bowls.

Below is a closer view of the kitchen area.  We use an old-fashioned coffee pot on the stove to make our coffee.  I think I've owned that pot over 40 years and have been using it camping all that time.  It's hard to part with something that has so many precious memories attached to it.  So, we forego an electronic appliance for coffee and make it in the percolator every morning!  Actually, Gary makes it because he is ALWAYS up before me!

Now, on to the next room, the bathroom (below).  I've included two photos one looking right (toward the shower) and the other looking left (toward the cabinets).  Don't know what I can say about them except they are very functional :)  The hallway that leads from the kitchen past the bathroom to the bedroom has closet space for additional storage.

Finally, the last room, the bedroom (queen-sized bed) and Gary's office area (to the right of the closet).  Basically, the bed is on one side (it slides out) and the closet and computer alcove are on the opposite side.  The TV in the bedroom is located right above the Gary's Alcove.  He loves this little cubby hole for working on his computer.  We also bought a wireless printer so we can print anything we might need, like RV park reservations, things to do in a city, and recipes (of course!).  I have over 20 cookbooks, all of which are in storage. So, I just bought a cookbook at a local Goodwill store to have something besides Internet recipes ... which I love, by the way. 

Well, that's all there is to see in our traveling home.  It's got everything you need to live life in "comfort".  We always put our two camping chairs and folding table outside under the awning which gives us a nice outside area.  Generally, we don't eat outside because Gary HATES (and no the word is not too strong for use here) eating in the wind. 

 

We're in Portland now, and the weather is warmer than the coast so once again, we are thankful for air conditioning!  Can't live without it in an RV, that's for sure.  Same goes for that lovely little heater when it gets cold.

 

Hope you enjoyed the inside scoop into our lives.  Until next time ... keep the faith!

 

Humor? Me?

Okay, here are a couple of funny ha!ha! moments.  Hope you get a laugh ... even a chuckle out of them.

First Funny
We are driving down Main Street (or the 101) in Tillamook for our first time.  Gary's behind the wheel and I'm the "navigator"/passenger.  So I look up and I say, "Oh, wait, there's a visitor's center!"  Well, I said that just as we were driving right on by so Gary takes a left, left, and left to get back to the visitor's center.  Well, the sign actually read, "Tillamook Vision Center", not "visitor's" center.  Boy, did we have a laugh over that one.  You'd think I might need new glasses ... BUT WAIT ... I just got new glasses :(

Second Side-splitter
Most of the time, I am the "navigator", working on my skill training to earn my merit badge.  It's not going too well.  I used my computer to locate a nearby pet store.  The dogs need new "lost pet" tags because their old ones have a phone number no longer in service and an address that doesn't belong to us anymore.  So, I locate a pet store using my computer and put the address in my whiz-bang phone's navi and off we go.  Well, what should have been six minutes away is now 20 minutes away (it's readjusted itself to our actual location) and we are in the middle of this intense traffic jam (that was on par to any traffic jam in LA) of people trying to get on the local freeway.  So I start trying to find pet stores that are closer and kind of keep rerouting us with not much success.  So, I say to Gary, "It doesn't look like I'm going to get my navigation merit badge anytime soon, does it?"  And he says to me, "You're merit badge was hanging from a string, and I think you just cut it!"   I think it's going to take awhile before I can get that merit badge back on my shirt.  

Is it mearly a figment of our imagination?

Very soon you’re going to see my play on words in the title … right now you’re probably thinking I’m a horrible speller … I think not!

Last Friday while still on the Oregon coast, we decided to venture once again to Cape Meares to see if we could see the lighthouse.  We tried two days before and it was so foggy and drizzly (because of the thick fog) that we drove up and then drove away.  What’s the point of walking .2 of a mile and then not see anything?  Yeah, yeah, I know it was only .2 of a mile, but the weather was really, really, crappy.

This time, however, it was spectacular.  It was a beautiful, clear day without a hint of fog, although it did have the obligatory Oregon coast wind.  Here’s a picture of Gary and me at the lighthouse followed by a picture of just the lighthouse.

If Cape Meares had been socked in again today, we would have mearly called it quits and given up.  It really wasn’t that far from the RV park, but let’s face it, you can trust the weather on the Oregon coast to not always cooperate.

 

On the walk back (which is now uphill, I might add), we took some photos of the spectacular coastal views afforded by the cape.

Then we walked across the parking lot to take a peek at the famous (I’m using the word lightly here) Octopus tree.  Who would want to miss out on that?

I took a picture of these trees (below) because I love the way the ivy wraps itself around the tree trunks swirling all the way up.  It just looks cool.

 

Train Whistle Blues

"When a woman gets the blues she hangs her little head and cries

But when a man gets the blues he grabs a train and rides

Every time I see that lonesome railroad train

It makes me wish I was going home again…"

(By Jimmie Rodgers)

Today we drove back to the town of Garibaldi to take the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway train ride up to Rockaway and then back again.  This is a stock photo of the train on the route that I lifted from their website.

We departed the “depot” in Garibaldi at noon, arrived in Rockaway at 12:30 and then departed back to Garibaldi at 1:00 p.m. It’s a short train ride, but it does run along the Tillamook Bay.  We took the dogs with us as dogs are allowed in the open/outdoor cars.  The dogs were doing just fine until the train started moving and blowing its whistle … numerous times!  Sherwood became a quivering mass and Sadie could not leave Gary’s side the whole ride up there.  Gary was starting to question our sanity.  Here’s Sadie sitting happily (well, not so happily really) right next to her daddy.  We called it a father/daughter moment!

These two photos are of the Tillamook Bay and I took them on the return trip from Rockaway to Garibaldi.  The dogs had finally somewhat settled down which meant I was able to use the camera!

 

One good turn deserves another!  Whenever I see families with their camera, I always ask them if they’d like me to take a picture of all of them together.  Since someone has to take the photo, family vacation photos are often missing one person – the one behind the camera!  Knowing that, I always want to give a family the opportunity to be all together in a picture perfect moment.  So at the train station, once I took a family’s photo, I asked if they would take ours … “But, of course,” they said!  Here we are at the Garibaldi “depot” in front of one of their “museum” trains.  The perfect ending to a "Train Whistle Blues" day!

 

 

 

Is the RV Life the Life for Me?

That is an interesting, thought-provoking question and the answer may vary from month-to-month, or maybe week-to-week! 

It’s been about six weeks that we have been on the road living in our RV, taking showers in an RV shower (and yes, they are confining and the water pressure ain’t what you’re used to!), moving between basically two small, confined rooms (living and sleeping), dodging dogs who often want to sprawl all over the floor (mind you, in a pretty small area), buying smaller sizes of everything (not much Costco shopping going on anymore), and doing laundry at a Laundromat (gasp!!!).  Let me tell you it has been a very long time since I’ve gone to a Laundromat, and I had no idea how expensive they are and how long (and how many quarters) it takes to dry your clothes!

Having said all that, I would say that so far, I am really enjoying the RV life.  Actually, when I think about living in our house I almost break out in hives.  All the repairs and upkeep that were getting the better of us now seem overwhelming.  I love the freedom we have from all those worries.  I never have to think about plumbing, electrical, roofing, flooring, and yard work again!  It will always be someone else’s headache. 

A number of times I’ve said to Gary, “I don’t care if we ever take our “stuff” out of inventory again!”  I really don’t miss anything … well, that’s not the whole truth!  I do miss my card making stuff (I had a whole room dedicated to providing me a way to satisfy my creative streak with card making). 

I can’t say how long I’ll feel this way and how long I want to be on the road.  I just don’t know.  At some point we will stay at RV parks for longer than a week – maybe a month or so and we can put down some roots.

One thing that is something I have to be concerned about (because I’m working remotely for my sister, Jeanne, who’s a real estate agent in Nevada) is the cellphone and Internet connectability.  And, we had that recently at the Bandon/Port Orford KOA RV Park.  I had only one bar on my cell phone and if I wanted to download or upload photos on my laptop … well, it would take me a very looooooong time to get even one and if (God forbid) I tried to upload more than one at a time, tick-tock, the computer is locked!  So, we need to be more discriminating about our RV park selection process and possibly call and question the locations about their telephone and Internet reception.

Gary did get this excellent book which we both read, “Living Aboard Your RV” by Gordon and Janet Groene.  If you are thinking about full-time RVing, get ahold of this book.  It is a wealth of information.  There’s a whole chapter called “Portable Professions” that covers something I had never heard of before—Workamping.  The average workamper job lasts three to four months and your RV is your home while you work at a location. Some jobs even pay for all your “living” expenses such as site space, water, electricity and propane.  You do pay for a subscription, but you have the opportunity to work and make some money while you’re on the road!  Being retired and living on a fixed income means any additional money you can bring in (or save) is of great financial benefit and may even allow you to have some extra fun times … something I’m always thinking about!  The website for workamping is workamper.com in case this is of interest to you.

Tillamook … what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Did you say “cheese”?  If not, why not?  Because it is probably what Tillamook is most famous for.  However, Tillamook Cheese Company ain’t the only cheese game in town!  Tuesday we stopped by The Blue Heron French Cheese Company which is really known for their brie.

Well, lo-and-behold they had wine tasting as well as cheeses.  A tasting flight was $5.00 for five tastings … that’s right folks, ONLY $5.00 (sure is priced differently from Napa!).  We shared a flight and tasted two whites and three reds.  We ended up buying three bottles:  a Vitis Ridge Pinot Gris (with a wonderful, crisp apple finish), a 2010 Seven Falls Cabernet Sauvignon (with a nice finish of butterscotch), and a 2009 Mount Baker Merlot (wonderfully smooth).  Oh yeah, we bought a loaf of Tillamook cheese too!

Wednesday we got up late since we didn’t get to bed/sleep until 2:00 a.m.  We (actually I meant to say “I”!) made the ill-fated mistake of letting the dogs “sleep” in the bedroom.  That’s because Sherwood decided he couldn’t be separated from us and snuck into the bedroom and lodged himself on the other side of the bed which was really way too confining for his size.  He kept scratching the wall with his nails while he was constantly squirming around.  Finally, I had as much as I could handle and we made the dogs get out of dodge so we could get some sleep.  In addition to the dog disaster, Gary and I were both cold and couldn’t get warm.  I finally took a hot shower and then it was lights out for me. 

Once we got up and moving, we headed back to the town of Tillamook to visit the “real” cheese factory, Tillamook.  They had a self-guided tour with observation areas.  Mostly only the packaging process was what you could observe.  I find factories so fascinating because of all the different types of machines that are invented to automate the various stages of the manufacturing cycle. Tillamook processes/packages an enormous amount of cheese every day.  It is really mind-boggling.

While Tillamook is mostly well-known for their cheese, they also make ice cream (you can find Tillamook ice cream in just about every market around Oregon), butter, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, and yogurt.  We bought two cheeses and a nice cheese slicer since we put both our good cheese slicers in storage.  The Tillamook “store” (even on a week day) was a maelstrom of people and just about everyone exiting the store had an ice cream cone in hand.  We opted not to get an ice cream which was an excellent idea because when we exited the store we saw that they were offering ice cream samples to everyone.  They had the cutest little cones with just the right size of miniature scoop of ice cream.  Here I am sitting in one of their photo props so you know that we really were at Tillamook! 

 

We left Tillamook and headed north to the town of Garibaldi at the far end of Tillamook Bay (the next bay--and much larger bay--north of Netarts).  This is a photo of the Tillamook harbor from which all the fishing boats and charter boats depart.

 

Here’s a short video of part of Tillamook Bay.

 

We had a late lunch at a pub called Ghosthole.  Yes, it was a place that could have been featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”  We split a fish-and-chips and a patty melt.  Both were absolutely delicious, but the fish-and-chips didn’t hold a candle to the one I ordered at the Barnacle Bistro, and that’s a fact!

We met some very nice people who live right across the street from the RV park—Al and Carol.  They were full-time RVers for 7-8 years.  They sold the house they’re living in now and when they came back from full-timing they rebought their same house!  All the houses on this street (across from the RV park) are “permanent” prefab homes, basically a double-wide trailer with add-ons.  Al and Carol also have a Brittany Spaniel (like Sherwood) and then a beautiful French Brittany (a breed we had never seen before).  This is the second couple we’ve met on our journey that have a Brittany, which is very unusual. 

Al used to be a fishing guide for this area and gave us many stories about the salmon and all their habits. There are five rivers that feed the Tillamook Bay and salmon are smelling for “their” river.  When it rains and the rivers flow strongly into the bay, the Chinook salmon(which is the “big” one here with three seasons—the best one being in the spring) smell their river and start the upriver trek to spawn.  Unfortunately, we are in the wrong season for Chinook.

Back home, we took the dogs for a walk and then joined Al and Carol on their patio to watch the sun go down and hear some good fish stories!  It was a great day and the weather was absolutely beautiful!

Psalms 8:3-9 /  When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?  Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

 

Ahoy There Matey!

Our last day at the Bandon/Port Orford KOA, we went to church at the Port Orford Community Church (It was an AG church).  Okay, everyone, I don’t think I was prepared for small-town-America church.  There were about 30 people total and 75% of them were over 65.  The musicians consisted of a pianist (pastor’s wife) and a drummer.  The pastor was the worship leader (lead voice).  They sang a hymn first (and I do love the old hymns) and then maybe 4-5 worship songs … not one of which was written within the last 25 years!  It was like a blast to the Maranatha past.

They started off the service with the pastor praying for a few of the congregants, then one lady (it was her last time attending as she was moving out of the area) asked if they could sing Amazing Grace, which we did.  Then another woman stood up and asked if everyone could pray for her niece.  And then another woman loudly reminded the pastor that they had another prayer need and she said what it was.  It was just so different.

The pastor, however, made some great illustrative points during his sermon from the episode of Paul getting bit by the viper on the island.  Just as Paul shook off the viper, we need to shake off the enemy who is trying to kill and destroy us.  That was only one of many really good points he made.  Unfortunately he made so many only one or two stuck.

So, enough of small-town-Americana!  After church we went to the actual port in Port Orford.  Gary had scoped this out the day before when I was working.  He wanted us to go back to have lunch at this restaurant on the pier called Griff’s, so we did.  We were both going to order the fish and chips, but the waiter talked me into ordering the salmon and chips.  The salmon had just been caught that morning and he said it was non-fishy and excellent.  Can you imagine … me … I ordered it … and it was FANTASTIC!!!  Much better than Gary’s fish and chips, I might add.  It was steelhead salmon and it was so excellent I bought a nice sized fillet for our dinner that night (which, by the way, was also amazingly delicious and very non-fishy … here when they say “fresh”, they mean “fresh!”).  Here’s a picture of us standing in front of Griff’s.

The cool thing about Port Orford is that it is one of only six ports that actually bring their boats in every night because the tide swing is about 11-12 feet.  In the first photo below you can see the boats on the dock on wheeled dollies.  The second photo gives you a good overall shot along with the lifts to pull the boats out of the water. All the boats were on the dock today because it was too windy to go out fishing.

 

Here’s the bay at Port Orford.  What I really love about this picture is the evergreen trees almost coming all the way down to the water.  That along with the rocks and sandy, mostly uninhabited beach … well, it’s just beautiful.

The next day we took off thinking we had a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us.  As usual, things just didn’t work out that way.  It ended up to be more like an 8 hour drive and parts of it were quite harrowing not only for Gary, but also for me.  We were on some fairly narrow, bumpy, curvy roads the last 15-20 miles.  Our very special, very cool Magellan for RVs advised us against going the coastal route, so we headed east toward Eugene then up and around over to the coast on a small back-town highway.  We’re still not sure if we should have followed its advice, but hindsight is always better than foresight.  Gary was exhausted when we finally arrived.  But, thank you Lord, we made it just fine and are hoping we don’t duplicate that type of journey anytime in the near future.

We really like the RV park sign.  Don’t you?

How about this nice view from our dinette window?  You can see Netarts Bay from there.

Finally, here are two photos I took of the bay our second night at the park.  You can see the thick fog bank rolling in preparing to blanket the entire coastline.  The second photo I took was looking directly into the sun, but I think it still came out okay (but not too great either—maybe I could use a filter or two for the camera?).

Pasta Pomodoro

Ingredients:
1 (16-oz.) pkg. angel hair pasta
1/4 c. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
3 c. Roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 (10.75 oz.) can low-sodium chicken broth
Crushed red pepper to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
 

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Pour olive oil in a large deep skillet over high heat. Saute onions and garlic until lightly browned.
3. Stir in red pepper, black pepper, basil and cooked pasta, tossing thoroughly with sauce. Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve topped with grated cheese.

Boy, did we get blessed!

Well, we’ve been at the Oregon coast five days now and have explored both north and south of our current location (the KOA in the city of Langlois).  The town south of us is Port Orford and the furthest town north we explored is Coos Bay/Charleston.  Here’s our RV in this sumptuous site surrounded by a thick forest of evergreens, ferns, and an assortment of wildflowers and shrubbery.

I won’t bore you with thousands (not really) pictures of the coastline.  Don’t tell any Oregonian I said this, but after a while, it truly does have a tendency to all look the same.  (Gasp, such heresy spoken here!!!)  I’ll just give you the highlights so far which will be easy to do because my sister, Mary, gave me a journal for our trip and I pen our exploits at the end of every day.

Let me start with an amazing little restaurant we stopped at for lunch on our way up the coast.  It was in Gold Beach and it is called “Barnacle Bistro”.  I had their fish and chips made from very fresh cod.  It was the ABSOLUTE BEST fish and chips I ever eaten, bar none!  Gary had a mushroom burger with grilled mushrooms and onions sprinkled with blue cheese.  If you ever find yourself in this part of Oregon, you simply MUST stop by this restaurant … amazing food!  Okay, now that the foodie in me is out of the way, onto the sightseeing!

Our first full day we drove north to New River and then the town of Bandon. We did a short hike to the river, but couldn’t access the beach as the river was between us and the beach.  That is one of the very different things about the coast in Oregon compared to So. Cal.  There are so many (and I mean many) creeks and rivers that flow to the ocean.  You can hardly travel a mile without crossing over a creek or river.  On the hike, we passed through this prehistoric looking forest with moss covered trees.  Here’s a picture of one of them.  It was almost like a Stephen King movie/book, it looked so eerie. 

On our way back out, I had Gary pull over so I could take a picture of these pine trees.  They reminded me of a troop of soldiers—so tall and erect and in perfect formation.  They just caught my eye and I had to have a photo!

This is a picture of Sadie and Sherwood exploring the river bank.  Those are two happy hounds.

Finally, here’s a picture of me at New River.  Behind me, across the river, you can see a dune area.  Right on the other side of that is the ocean.

To get to Bandon, we took Beach Loop Drive that went along the coast which meant we got to “lookie-lou” at all the cool houses overlooking the ocean.  The drive took us straight into Old Bandon, which is a quaint fishing village.  We also stopped at the Face Rock Creamery.  They make their own fresh cheese and you can watch the whole process. Unfortunately, there was no cheesemaking going on the day that we visited.  However, we did taste a number of cheeses and Gary bought himself a chunk of cheddar and then we each had a scoop of their yummy ice cream.

The next day we were going to just “hang out” and have a day off, but the weather turned out so gorgeous we decided to make the trek to Cape Blanco to see their “famous” lighthouse … famous because it is supposed to be the most westerly lighthouse on the west coast.  On the way to the lighthouse we stopped at historic Hughes House and did a quick walking tour.  It is an amazing, beautiful home that was built in 1898.  Here’s Gary hanging around out front so I could take a picture.

The Cape Blanco lighthouse is still an active lighthouse today, but is totally run on electricity and is “unmanned.”  We bought tickets to go up to the top, but after the first flight of spiral stairs, my acrophobia (fear of heights) kicked into high gear and I was barely able to turn around, grab the banister, and get myself back downstairs!  Sheesh!  What a waste of $2.00 (LOL!).  Gary continued on up but the top was still occupied by another party that refused to move out, so he came back down without any pictures from up top.  Here we are before the paralyzing fear assailed me. 

On our way home, we turned off on Paradise Road to access the beach to let the dogs have a good run.  The beach was totally deserted—we had it all to ourselves.  So, of course, the dogs were off-leash.  Poor Sherwood (who already has no stability because of his bad joints) got whacked by a wave that hit him from behind and he went crashing down along with the wave.  Poor baby had a really hard time getting back up and was a bit traumatized.  I made a delicious Pasta Pomodoro dish for dinner.  It was excellent and I’ll post the recipe separately.

The next day we packed a picnic lunch and headed for Coos Bay – up the coast.  We headed west to the small town of Charleston and went to Sunset Bay State Park, which happens to be the most photographed cove on the Oregon coast!  It was another PICTURE PERFECT day with clear skies and no wind.  This is a cool little cove and we had a great day sitting on our beach chairs, eating lunch, and just enjoying the gorgeous scenery.  Below is a video I took of the cove.  Hope you enjoy the beauty as much as we did.

After those two beautiful, amazing, clear, no wind days we woke up to fog and wind again.  I basically hung around and did some work for my sister and took it easy.  We also did laundry and grocery shopping.  Hoping tomorrow will be less windy.  Although I’m sorely tempted to just video-tape the trees as the wind whirls through their leaves and creates this melodious symphony of leaves upon leaves.

River Rattin’ It

Let me start with a little history about the Smith River State Recreation Area.  The Smith River is considered one of the best fishing regions in the U.S., with trophy sized steelhead trout, Chinook salmon and other game fish species. It is also the longest National Wild and Scenic River in the U.S.  Rafting is popular in the summer months and most hiking trails are accessible year-round. The region receives over 90 inches of rainfall annually, with the greatest amounts in the winter.

On Friday, we took a late afternoon drive to one of the roadside river access areas and spent a couple of hours just enjoying the amazing beauty and serenity the river had to offer.  No one was near us and the two dogs had a great time exploring although Sherwood had a difficult time with the rocks.  You may or may not know that our Brittany, Sherwood, has a birth defect and his hip socket is square instead of round.  The older he gets, the gimpier he gets.  He falls a lot, especially on uneven or slick surfaces, and the rocks at Smith River presented both of those hazards.

Here are some photos of the Smith River from our limited viewpoint.  We had river bends at both ends so our river view was cut short.

This next picture gives you a look at how clear and clean the water in the river looks.  You can see all the way to the bottom of the river, all the way to the other side.

This is Gary and me sitting on the river’s edge, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the luxury of just doing nothing!  And I pondered that today.  THIS is my life!  Not that I always want to do nothing.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  But for now, we are simply enjoying the gift we have been given to travel and enjoy God’s beautiful creation.

Finally, below is a video of the Smith River.  One of my most favorite sounds ever is the sound of a river, or creek, as it splashes over the rocks.  Truly, from my perspective, it is one of the most peaceful and tranquil sounds.  This Scripture verse that comes to mind is:   The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD is over many waters (Psalms 29:3).

One last photo of our river adventure.  Here I am trying to get my legs to not look like Caspar the friendly ghost!  That’s my hat covering my face in case you were wondering where my head is!

The next day in the early afternoon, we drove back to Crescent City to explore the coast a little more.  Our first stop was Pebble Beach … not THE Pebble Beach, but a beach in Crescent City!  Here is a short video I took as I spanned the beach.  It was rather windy which accounts for all the noise and you can barely hear me talking in the background!

Here's some trivia for you, and I bet you don't know this!  The California coast boasts 34 lighthouses from Point Loma in San Diego to St. George Reef, just past Battery Point.  I had no idea that California had so many lighthouses.    Check out the lighthouse locations at the following link:  http://www.lighthousefriends.com/ca.html.  The Oregon coast, on the other hand, has a total of 11 lighthouses.  The picture below is of Battery Point Lighthouse the second to the last one before heading into Oregon.

The park we stayed at, Hiouchi RV Park, had a church (Hiouchi Community Fellowship) that held their services in the park on a grassy area near the offices.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere … bring  your own lawn chair and feel free to pick it up whenever you feel like moving it into the shade if you’re too hot or into the sun if you’re too cold!  The land the RV park is on is owned by the Yurok Indian Tribe who is very happy to have the church on their premises.  So happy in fact that they said they could build a church building on some of the extra land in the RV park! This small, but mighty fellowship has a desire to "plant seeds of financial and spiritual restitution for the sovereign nation of the Elk Valley Rancheria".  It is the fourth point in their five points of ministry. 

The first service we attended, Gary spent time beforehand talking to Pastor Steve and after the service he had everyone pray for us to launch us on our journey.  That was very awesome and very special.  It is a small, but mighty fellowship and the people are very nice.  A number of Christians in the RV Park also attended the services making the congregation a mixture of both their local members and transient RVers (like us).  We also attended their Thursday night fellowship at a member’s home in the town of Gasquet and were just as blessed.

Monday we pack up and head into Oregon to travel up the coast and then to Portland.  We’ve been here nine days and I feel like I’m growing roots!  We really enjoyed the cooler weather and we met some wonderful people.  One couple, Ann & Marvin, who live in Durango, gave us their number so we can call them when we get there.  We hope to meet people from all over and create a network of new friends throughout the country.  How amazing is that?

The Beautiful Oregon Coast

On Wednesday this week, we did a little exploring of the southern Oregon coast.  Not too far, but far enough to experience the fog in Brookings Harbor and then see a beautiful day emerge from the mist in Gold Beach.

They say experience is the best teacher.  Maybe I need a new teacher!  Early on in our outing, the camera battery died… so sad!   Thankfully, I randomly decided I should bring my tablet in case I wanted to access the Internet, so the table became our back-up camera.

Also, fairly early on in our roaming, my foot found probably the only hole in an asphalt trail to the beach at Chetco Point.  I went crashing to my knees and the camera also went flying.  Ouchie, ouchie, ouchie!  I was so, so happy my jeans didn’t get ruined and that the camera still worked … yeah God!  Here’s a picture of my banged up knees.  Anyone want to play a violin for me?

The Oregon Coast is so amazing and beautiful.  We won’t bore you with too many photos (because in the end they all start to look the same!), but here are a few that we selected for your viewing enjoyment. 

Photo #1 - This is in Brookings Harbor, and that is NOT a rock the seagulls are sitting on.  It is the carcass of a very dead whale.  It stunk!  In addition to the carcass, there were large bleached whale bones scattered close by.  That poor whale must have gotten stuck in this small harbor area and had no way to get itself out.  Notice the fogginess of the day?  Come on, how could you not?

Photo #2 - Our next stop was at Harris Beach, one of the many very well-signed turn-outs that allow you to take beautiful photos and often walk to the beach.  Oregon is very good about providing beach access.  Also, dogs are normally allowed on the beaches as long as they are on a leash (which we didn't always do... horrors!).

Photo #3 - The picture below was taken in the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor area.  Along the corridor in this stretch of coast are a number of great places designated for photo-taking and beach access.  In this photo is Arch Rock.  It was still a little foggy here, but starting to clear up nicely.

Photo #4 - Here we pulled over on the north bank of the Rogue River in Gold Beach.  It's a bit distant in this photo, but there is a historic bridge on the 101 crossing the Rogue River.  The picture was taken from the roadside close to the rivermouth, near where it meets the ocean.

Photo #5 - This photo was taken in the Cape Sebastian Scenic Corridor.  This is VERY TYPICAL of the scenery on the Oregon Coast.  Lots of rocks in the water.  Lots of driftwood on the shore.  Beautiful sandy beaches that stretch for miles.  And, best of all, it is generally very uncrowded.

Photo #6 - Judy took this picture while climbing up the sand dunes at the Pistol River outlook.  The sand was so "soft?" that her feet literally disappeared!  When we were walking up the dunes, Gary actually fell forward because his feet sunk so deep!  P.S.  Those are the jeans that sustained the earlier trip and fall at Chetco Point.

Photo #7 - Here are Gary and the dogs at the Pistol River beach area.  We never made it close to the ocean, which was quite a long, arduous trek.  The wind was howling and the sand was blowing.  You had to keep your mouth closed or the next thing you knew, you were crunching sand in your teeth.  We were all ready to get back in the Jeep, including the dogs.

 All in all, even with the difficulties and mishaps, it was a great day.  That night, back at Hiouchi RV Resort in our home-on-wheels, we both slept very well.

 





Necessity is …

 ... the mother of invention (quote often attributed to Plato).

“So what!”  you say.  Well, I have come into my own creative, inventive mode here in RV living.  That’s right, me!  Here are a few things I “invented” out of necessity to help us overcome some annoyances:

Annoyance #1 – While traveling in the RV, one of the sliding shower doors would often slide open especially around sharp curves.  This would cause it to knock around, back-and-forth on curvy roads.  Not a major trauma, but it was bugging me.  Solution:  I bought a large plastic c-clamp (you can't imagine how happy I was when I discovered they had PLASTIC c-clamps) and now we clamp the roving shower door to the one that is fastened down and stationary.  Now, when we're on the road,  the moving door is fastened to the stationary door and the door no longer has the freedom to travel back-and-forth.  Annoying banging solved!

Annoyance #2 – While traveling in the RV, sometimes one of the closet doors in the bedroom would swing open (maybe because we have it packed with too many clothes?  I don’t know).  Anyway, when we went around sharp curves (sharp curves help you discover what isn’t really locked down!) they would sometimes swing open and bang around.  Not a big deal, but, again, annoying.  Solution:  I bought a child-proof door lock that holds both doors together when we are traveling so even if they “crack” open, at least they don’t swing wide and our shoes don’t come flying out.  Annoying swinging door solved!

Annoyance #3 – RV shelving is … well … undesirable to say the least (in our rig anyway, which is 10 years old).  We have white wire shelves in a number of the cabinets to give us more storage space.  There was, however, this one kitchen cabinet that had no shelves at all (yikes!!!) and the white wire shelf was too low to provide additional space.  Solution:  So, I had this idea that we could make our own shelf (that was not good news to Gary!).  We went to Home Depot and bought a small piece of ¼” plywood and some 12” high square dowels.  We had them cut the plywood to size and then we nailed the dowels into each corner of the plywood.  We then covered the plywood with a non-slip mat and … VOILA!  A perfect additional shelf in this one kitchen cabinet where storage space was REALLY needed!

So, you see, necessity REALLY is the mother of invention!  I have proven that as so many others have and will continue to do so.