9/28/08 Still on the Oregon Coast

Lorraine's post
September 27, 2008

Well, here we are in Florence, Oregon. We started out Thursday, just after a stormy night. The ocean waves were spectacular, and the wind was so fresh. But boy was the bus and car ever dirty. The rain, not enough to clean the dust off, then the salt spray and sand, Chuck had to wash both after we got in on Thursday. He did the outside while I did the inside. It’s been sunny and warm in the daytime, but did it ever cool off here at night. This morning the TV wouldn’t come in from all the dew on the Kingdome dome.

We’re at South Jetty RV Park, a Naco West/Thousand Trails Park. The spots were easier to get into. Here we have 30 amp and water-no sewer hook ups, seems like all these old parks are lacking something and you can’t have it all.

Our last campground before here (Monday to Thursday), we were at Whaler’s Rest in Newport, Oregon. Their roads were so narrow and close, you had to be really careful not to hit anything coming or going.

What a beautiful area it was, though, the beaches are made up of firmer sand, which makes it easier to walk. The town is smallish, but there is a Wal-Mart, a Fred Meyer, and even a Safeway plus a Thriftway. The shops were touristy and fun. We ate at a really nice restaurant in Newport for our anniversary. It’s called Georgies and was the food good. Fresh halibut, great clam chowder, (best I’ve had here on the coast) and Chuck’s steak was good, too. I liked Newport a lot.

I’ve been dreading having to get my hair colored. I use a gal in Ferndale, WA and she makes it turn out exactly right every time I go. I last went to her four days before we left Bellingham. She wrote down the formula she uses, how much product she uses and even the brand she uses. But during our time out here on the road, my hair turned out right only one time, and the gal charged me more than I’m used to paying. I have ended up with really red hair, really blonde hair, dark roots and combinations of all. Its really hard to trust your hair to someone who appears to be listening to you so you think they know what you want. Once they get started, they do it the way they want, not listening to what you were saying, while they’re doing it all wrong. Such are the challenges of full timing it on the road. Hopefully, my hair will quit growing so fast, now that the weather is getting cooler.

We’re here until Monday, then we’ll head on south to Coos Bay, Oregon. So until next time, bye for now.


Chuck's report
September 28, 2008

Monday was moving day for us, we left Chinook Bend and headed South. We don't keep a hard, set in stone schedule, just don't like to travel on the weekend. There are lots of campgrounds on the Oregon coast. We made it all of about 50 miles before we wanted to stop again. We stopped and checked in at Whaler's Rest, just South of Newport.

Once again, this area has some of the best beaches along the coast, in our opinion. We we able to spend a couple days going to the different beaches and enjoy the good weather. It was foggy in the mornings but warmed up nicely by early afternoon. There are some really spectacular spots to see, especially during high tide.

Whaler's Rest is one of the older style campgrounds previously mentioned. The roads are narrow, the turns are real tight and the spots are hard to get into. We only had 30 Amp available at our site although some of the other sites had 50 Amp, all sites had water and sewer however.

The first night, about 9:30, the electrical power in the coach went off. I stepped outside to reset the breaker and it wasn't tripped, just didn't have any power. I was unable to troubleshoot the system, it being too late and dark. I spent a mostly sleepless night worrying about what the problem could be. Of course, the first thought was our transfer switch was bad again and we would have to wait for parts. Early the next morning, I was walking Misty and one of the employees from the campground was riding on his golf cart, just getting ready to go to work. I stopped him, told him of our problem and asked who I could contact to check out their shore power. Can you believe he was the park's electrician and was willing to check it out right then. He said they had recently installed new power supply to that section of the campground so he knew it well. It turned out a breaker had tripped at a panel box upstream of our post. So luckily, we reset the breaker and everything was fine again, no problems with the coach.

The rest of our time at Whaler's Rest was pretty uneventful. We could hear the ocean roaring from our site but didn't have a good view through the trees. There was a couple of nice grassy areas with rabbits and squirrels, Misty had a good time chasing them. We enjoyed our time there, was able to rest up without having much to do. There is a Wal Mart here, haven't been to one of them in awhile so we were able to restock as needed. We had to get grocerys from a Fred Meyer's as it wasn't a Super Wal Mart.

On Thursday, we hit the road again, heading further South. We had made reservations at South Jetty in Florence, once again about a 50 mile drive. We are a bit further from the coast here, probably a mile or so. This is another older campground with 30 Amp power at each site, very few having sewer. We asked for a site with Southern exposure for the satellite but that meant no sewer. As were aren't too far from the clubhouse, I can take showers there and let Lorraine shower in the coach and we will not fill the holding tanks before we leave. We can have the “Honey Wagon” come by and empty the tanks for a fee if needed but only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

This is one of the few campgrounds we have been to that allow us to wash our coach at our site. I took advantage of this on Thursday afternoon and planned to wash to roof and finish the rest the next day. Once I got started, I sort of just continued and ended up washing the whole coach and the car. Boy am I sore, I'm too old and out of shape for that much work in one day!

We don't enjoy this section the coast as well, high sand dunes to cross before you get to the ocean. It is a pretty area of the coast, just not our favorite. We did our usual travel to check out the beaches but didn't find any that really thrilled us. This is the area of the coast where lots of people ride their ATVs and four wheelers on the dunes. Looks like fun but not for us, even though you can rent them from any number of places. There is, unfortunately, a casino nearby that we have visited twice already, so far I'm paying for our entertainment there.

There is an old section of town that we drove through on Friday. Lorraine wanted to stop and check out the shops but we didn't stop then. She went to town by herself on Saturday to check them out, I got to stay home and watch football, a good day for both of us.