Still in Seaside

 

Sunday, October 11, 2009                                                                                                  Lorraine’s report

Another week has quickly passed and we are still here at Leisure Time/Thousand Trails in Seaside, OR. It has been a fun week and this weekend we attended our first Thousand Trails sponsored Rally put on by the Lewis & Clark TT RV Club.

Last Sunday, I was really under the weather, just didn’t feel well all day, so we stayed home and watched the Seattle Seahawks loose.

Monday, I felt better and Chuck & I took off to go up to the Maritime Museum in Astoria. What a great museum, with some great pictures and history of this area. Then we went over to Ft. Clatsop to Lewis & Clark’s winter camp where they spent their last winter on the road before they headed back east. That was another great presentation with pictures and history of their expedition.

Tuesday, we visited with Ron & Janel and Laurie and Scott. These are the folks who asked us to join their group, the Thousand Trails Lewis and Clark Chapter of FMCA. We found out we could stay another week and attend their rally here at Seaside starting Friday and ending Sunday morning. We decided to stay and attend; a good move.

We then decided to go downtown and sit on the boardwalk overlooking the beach. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day with lots of people doing the same thing.

Wednesday, we went over to some friends we had met at Morgan Hill, CA, Bill & Barbara. They were in the coach next to us there, but they said we were very involved with watching Kaitlyn, our granddaughter, so we didn’t really visit much. We visited them for a little while until their other friends came to get them to go to the beach.

Thursday was another day spent visiting more of the fine folks coming into the park for the rally. They had card games going on in the afternoon and golf for those folks who played. I also ran to Safeway just down the way for food I needed to make up to bring for the rally.

Friday the rally started with lunch at a Chinese restaurant here in Seaside; around 50 people attended, followed by more visiting back at the coaches. We went to the antique mall with our next door neighbors, Bob and Lynn.

That afternoon from 2-4 was bring your computers to the clubhouse for help with whatever questions you had. We were there until 4:15 getting help, as were a bunch of others.

Dinner was Oktoberfest with brats and with dessert provided by the hosts, Ron/Janel and Laurie/Andy; everyone else brought salads. I think they expected 28 coaches with 54 or so people. After dinner it was card bingo, where you brought 3 nickels, 3 dimes, 3 quarters and a dollar bill; a fun time for all involved.

Saturday, was a breakfast at 8 am followed by their business meeting. We opted to go to breakfast with Bill and Barbara, who took us to Camp 18 out on highway 26. We had a really big breakfast which Chuck and I split and still couldn’t finish.

Then Bill took us for a drive in his new Jeep on the beach up to Ft Stevens. This was our first time to drive on a beach. It was another great day and we really enjoyed the drive, the beach and the company. We saw two water spouts of passing whales and tons of different birds and lots of people. Thanks, Bill and Barbara for taking us.

We got home and rested, then went over to the clubhouse for the 5 o’clock nachos, with everyone else bringing snacks. Again, a ton of food was there for everyone to enjoy. Following that was the White Elephant bingo, another great evening with wonderful fellowship for all.

Sunday was a potluck breakfast for all. Then it was time for goodbyes as several people had to leave and head out.

That was our week, so until next time……Lorraine

10/11/09                                                                                                                            Chuck’s report

Once again we changed out plans, we decided to stay here for awhile longer.  We originally wanted to stay here for a week, then extended for another week and now extended for the third time.  This time we learned we had some friends here in the park.  We had gotten an email from Bill and Barb, we met them in Morgan Hill two years ago.  They recognized our rig and car and sent an email telling us they were here in the park too.  We also met some nice folks parked right across from us. 

Monday we headed out to Astoria where we toured the Maritime Museum.  This was pretty nice, showed lots of history about the Columbia River, especially the river bar where it meets the ocean.  There has been hundreds of boats and ships wrecked or washed ashore in this area due to the rough waters.  They say this is the roughest bar crossing in the US due to the amount of water in the river meeting the ocean. 

We got an email from an ex-coworker, Jim Brown, who told us about Fort Clapsop along the Columbia River and that they had enjoyed visiting it, thought we would enjoy it also.  This is where Lewis and Clark spent their winter before returning back to civilization back in 1805 - ‘06.  So after spending a couple of hours at the Maritime Museum,, we went to Fort Clapsop, a few miles away.  This was very interesting park, they have a replica of the fort that Lewis and Clark built plus lots of information about their time here.  They talked about the food they gathered/hunted, the Indians they traded with, the salt they made from sea water and their life while here.  They were at their fort for 120 days and recorded rain everyday except for 12 days, sound like a typical winter in the Great Northwest.  Thanks Jim for a good heads up on a place to visit, we did enjoy ourselves and learned a lot. 

Tuesday we spent some time with the folks across the way from us, Ron and Janel.  They belong to Lewis and Clark Thousand Trials chapter and they are the hosts for a chapter rally here this week.  They asked if we would be interested in joining their chapter but we were planning on leaving here before their rally started on Friday.  I told them we would try to extend and if we were able, we would join them but we had already spent our two weeks here.  I thought our contract only allowed us to stay in one park for two weeks but this is a Leisure Time park and seems we are allowed to stay in them for three weeks.   We also met some others in the chapter, Laurie (who’s husband Andy was at work and couldn’t show up until after work on Friday), Bob and Lynn and Scott.   They all made us feel welcome so we decided to join their chapter and join in on the planned activities and dinners planned for the rally. 

On Wednesday we were finally able to meet up with Bill and Barb, we had a nice time visiting with them and catching up their lives since we met two years ago.  We made plans to get together later in the week and spend more time with these fine folks.

Thursday we spent some time at the beach and visited with our new friends back at the park.  We set around in our chairs outside Ron’s coach and met others from the chapter.  I can’t remember all the members, if I tried to list their names I know I'd miss some of them.  Suffice it to say, we met about 30 members and all of them were very nice to us, a good chapter with good members!

Friday the chapter had plans to have lunch at a Chinese buffet in town, afterwards we went shopping at the antique mall with some of them.  We also went to the dinner here at the clubhouse.  After dinner, we played card bingo.  The first three games cost everyone $0.05 each per game, next three were for $0.10, next three for $0.25 and last game cost each player $1.00.  I had two bingos, one for the nickel pot, the second one was one of the dime pots but was split three ways.  So I won twice and still spent more than I made, ha.  Still, we had fun and got to meet more of the members. 

Saturday the chapter had a breakfast but we already had made plans to go to breakfast with Bill/Barb.  They drove and we went to Camp 18, located at an old logging camp at mile 18 on highway 26.  Boy, if you ever eat there and leave hungry, it would be because you didn’t clean your plate.  They believe in big servings!  After breakfast, we walked around their place where they have lots of old logging equipment.  After that, Bill headed for the beach and he drove up the beach about 14 miles to an ship wreck.  Depending on the area and time of the year, it is legal to drive on the beaches in Oregon.  We have never driven on the beach because we don’t have a four wheel drive, Bill/Barb have a jeep.  However, after being on the beach with them, I can see where it would be safe to drive a regular two wheel drive, at least in this area.  We had a good time with them and really liked the drive on the beach.   Thanks  Bill and Barb for a good day. 

After we got back, we had another get together with the chapter for snacks and another go of bingo.  This time it was a “White Elephant” bingo, everyone brought something from their rig for a bingo prize.  Once again, I had a bingo and won a Red/White/Blue hat and a bottle of wine. 

Today, Sunday, we had another breakfast with the chapter at the clubhouse.  This was the last planned activity for the rally and some of the member left.  Others who were staying made plans to go to dinner later today in Cannon Beach and we are looking forward to that. 

So now our plans for next week are to head for the Salem area for a couple of days.  Later in the week we also want to go to Eugene to get some stuff for the coach.  The remainder of the month depends on the weather more than anything.  We have gotten used to the weather here, very nice and warm during the days, cooling off enough to need the heater at night.  But the forecast is for the winter rains to start on Tuesday, and they say, for the next 10 days.  If that is the case, we will probably head South and inland, not return to the ocean.  But if the weather clears up, we would like to come back and continue our trip South following the ocean. 

So another week on the road.  We’ve had a very good time here in Seaside but are getting hitch-itch and ready to move on down the road. 

Thanks   Chuck