RV Adventure – The Oregon Coast – NNs On the Wind

May 15, 2019May 23, 2019 Kathleen Ennen

MAY 12-13, 2019

On May 12 we drove another 3-4 hours to Florence OR. Along the way, we took a side trip to Charleston where we found a pretty spot for lunch overlooking the mud flats with clam diggers, saw a nice collection of fishing boats, and bought some beautiful, large oysters. We stayed 2 nights at the Port Siuslaw Marina and RV Park. Very nice!!! We were on the river and a short walk from the old town. On our second night we had a terrific dinner of fresh seafood things at the Waterfront Depot. Also we saw a carnival come in and start to set up; won’t be here but it was fun to see all the RVs show up! It’s always nice to spend 2 nights in one spot.

Mooring and unmooring the rig is pretty much routine now but it still is about 20 minutes of tasks – get the dishes put away from breakfast (unless we just do coffee and get breakfast on the road), fold back the bed covers so the bed can fold up for the slide to come in. This also entails moving several boxes of things in order to get the printer from its resting place to its driving place under the dinette, putting the boxes back, and folding up the various small rugs so the slide comes in without getting caught on anything. The slide comes in about 4’. Meanwhile Thom is unhooking the utilities that include the sewer, water, electric and sometimes cable, and coiling them for storage on board. It’s nice when we stay somewhere for a few days that we don’t have to do that every day!

MAY 14, 2019

We unmoored and drove to Cape Lookout State Park. The Oregon State Parks are terrific! Large sites, decent restrooms and showers, and we can get full hookups (water, electric, sewer) for about $40. National and many public parks don’t offer hookups.

We started trying to locate the Lighthouses along the coast. We missed a couple along the way but today we found Haceta Head and Yachina Head. We also found the Devils Punch bowl near Otter Rock. Very odd looking formation that supposedly is the result of caves collapsing into a big hole with some waves rolling in.

We’re beginning to experience the grey and damp of the Oregon coast. There’s rarely any sun or blue sky.

MAY 15, 2019

Today starts as another day driving north along the Oregon Coast. Stunning views but also vast expanses of forest. We stopped at the Cape Meares Lighthouse which is a nice resting spot. There are exceptional views both north and south to the near and far capes. There is also an odd tree called the Octopus Tree. The photo will explain!!! It’s a Sitka Spruce that is very old and grew in an odd way.

We drove through Tillamook and given the early hour did not stop at the very large Tillamook Creamery in spite of being told it was a must. It’s a very large operation with parking for lots of cars, buses, and RVs. We did stop down the road when we spotted a small shop with the sign PIES. Large cookies are $1 and a small pie is $6 (about 6in diameter). Regular sized pies are $19. We opted for several small pies and some cookies.

We decided to get fuel in Astoria as the Fred Meyer store has great diesel prices. We wandered into Astoria to see the waterfront, a Coast Guard Cutter, ships in the great Columbia River and stopped at another shop, this time, for smoked salmon. What a collection!!!

In spite of the steady rain, that I guess is normal for OR, we decided to visit the Fort part of the Fort Stevens State Park. There is an old portion, left from the Civil War and a more recent portion operational during WWII. The fort is placed to monitor/protect the mouth of the river. Did you know that Fort Stevens was “attacked” by shells from a Japanese submarine in December 1941? The limited shelling had no impact on the fort and no one was injured. Evidently the news “censors” requested that the action not be published to avoid fear in the area. I think, though, however, that there was a great deal of worry and fear in the early days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

It was good to walk around and see the vastness of the Columbia River where it comes to the Pacific. It was damp though and time to get settled for the night.

May 15 is our last night in the rig for a few weeks. On Friday we take the RV in for some repairs and fixes. We’ve also ordered a leveling system that should make “docking” and getting level for extending the slide much easier with a lot less guess work. The one drawback I’ve found is that the slide causes the left side to sink down and if it’s not level I find sleeping difficult. Head down is the worst; front to back unevenness makes it hard to roll over.

We will stay in Portland for a week and then head to Bellingham to take the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to Juneau on May 24. We may stop in Vancouver BC on the way back from Alaska. Not yet planned it all, but will soon.

We have traveled over the years and retired in 2017, when we started on a nine month long adventure departing in December 2017. In the past we’ve traveled to Sri Lanka, Africa (several times), Turkey, and made a number of trips to Europe, and St Lucia. Our 2015 trip to Turkey, took nearly 3 weeks to explore Istanbul, Cappadocia and the areas in proximity to Izmir.

This is a chronicle of our travels, past and present. We love to travel by trains, planes, ships, and cars – and love sailing whenever and wherever we can.

We retired from the US General Services Administration, the Federal Government’s landlord! Thom worked at planning and large scale program management of numerous projects and Kathleen, a registered professional civil engineer, was a project manager for many infrastructure and building renovation projects, including both design and construction aspects, in New England, Florida and the metro DC area. We lived in Washington DC for 12 years and upon retirement sold the house, putting a few things in a 5’x5’ storage unit and started traveling.

On return to the US in September 2018, after traveling to 21 countries, we bought a Class C RV – 2019 Thor Freedom Elite 24FE. We enjoyed our week long camping trip in New Zealand in a small converted van with few amenities, so this seemed liked a good way to tour the US. We hope to visit family along the way and as many US National Parks as possible.

UPDATE – the Covid pandemic made travel more difficult for us. We were abroad for several months when the pandemic started and returned to the US in July 2020. After several months in the RV to visit Utah and Albuquerque NM, we moved east, bought a house on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and sold the RV. For 2021 and 2022 we tended to our new house and cottage, gardens and various boats including a 18’ 1977 Marshall Sanderling catboat and a 25’ Steiger Craft Chesapeake fishing boat, and kayaks and a canoe. Hopefully travel will start again one day!!

May 2022