Day 1 : Call Coach-Net

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“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”

We had been busy saying our goodbyes over the last few days.  Tammi’s out of town but we visited with her last weekend.  Then, Wednesday we gave hugs and said our goodbyes to Sandi and Michael.  Thursday we gave the hugs and said our goodbyes to Lee, Sabrina and Jordie.  All we had left was to actually head south.  It’s always sad to leave.  I have so many mixed emotions.  I know they have their own lives.  That’s how we raised them but we really love being a part of it.  So, we’re just taking a vacation.

The day started off okay.  We had no intentions of getting on the road early.  We had the trailer to hook up and we just dawdled a bit.  We planned to wait until Portland’s morning work traffic was history.  Then I took a step on one of those plastic lids and slid across the floor in the motorhome.  Where did I land?  My ribs connected with the corner of a wall.  OUCH!  Black and blue doesn’t become me. 

Traffic was fine and before you know it we were parked at the outlet mall’s parking lot in Woodburn …. about 70 miles south.  I can probably honestly say it’s the only in my life when we actually parked at a huge outlet mall that I never even walked in one store …. honest, I didn’t.  HONEST!

Just in case you’re curious … no, gray hair doesn’t run in our family.  Bob got it all!

The idea of parking there was just to get a good spot for the motorhome and trailer while we went around the corner with my brother (Bob) and his wife (Ginny)  to Elmer’s for an early lunch.  By the time we left the restaurant we were thankful we didn’t have any particular place we planned on being that day since we chatted for a very long time.

 

As I said thank goodness we had no plans because the next thing I knew Terry was off to the side of the road. It wasn’t actually a  blow out he had.  Blow outs blow.  Right?  This was a disintegration.  An inside rear tire just came apart.  Coach-Net was needed.  Three hours later ….. we were on our way again.  Yep, that’s right three hours!!  It took the driver 2 hours to get from his place of business to our location ….. 11.2 miles away.  Then, it took another hour to fix us up.  Coach-Net does good service. The customer service agent called around to find a tire for a fair price. The problem wasn’t getting Coach-Net out. The problem was getting the tire company in Salem on the ball.

Do you know how tired you can get sitting on the side of the road like that?  It’s exhausting.  I felt like I was the one who changed that tire.  My brother, Bob, and SIL, Ginny, just happened to be passing by on the way to the Verizon store.  We had company for those three hours.  Out came the chairs.  Thank goodness it was a beautiful day with no rain, very little wind and a beautiful blue sky.  The only thing we didn’t care for was the noisy freeway.  Terry suggested we close our eyes and think of it as waves crashing on the beach.  We did.  It didn’t work.

 

We paid the fellow $$$$ in cash for the tire.  He took the cash but was a little bewildered when I asked for a receipt for the cash he was now holding in his hand.  He said if we needed a receipt we had to follow him to his place of business.    Of course, he already had cash in hand.   With an inverter it wasn’t difficult to grab his work order, scan it and print us a copy so that he could sign the receipt for the cash that was already in his pocket. 

Finally we were on the road again.  We didn’t get far.  Our daily total was under 150 miles.  It took us eight hours to go that far.  Traveling in the dark is not our cup of tea.  Thus, we needed a place to stop.  That we did.  It’s amazing how tired we were there.  I think sitting on the side of the road and stressing is far more exhausting than driving down the road.    No blog reading and very little computer for me.  It was almost straight to the sack.  We literally crashed at 7:30.

We have an appointment to check out a little toy.  We’re not so sure we’re going to make that as planned. It seems we rarely stick to plans. The adventure today caused a hiccup but we hoped the next day would be an uneventful day.  Well, it wasn’t so much.  It started off with a peek out the window and checking out the trailer.  It seems we had a visitor overnight that decided some of the things on our trailer would be better off in his possession than in ours.  After cutting our bungees ….. he borrowed a few items.  For some reason I doubt he will have the courtesy to return them.

That was Day 1 ….. more on our trip south in our next blog.

‘Tis life on the road.

Winchester Bay and the Dunes

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

Map of Dunes

After watching Hotel Impossible we had become a little leery of hotel rooms.  This show has unveiled as much wrong with hotels as Gordon Ramsey or Robert Irvine has with restaurants.  When you’re in small little beach towns your options are limited.  The first place we pulled into we noticed the drapes on the windows were really thin kitchen curtains.  We thought that was a bad sign so we moved on.

We saw these little maps at many of the stops.  It was interesting to see where we were and just how big the Dunes really are.

ATV speed limit on special ATV lane.

Lots of folks were fishing from the end of the dock.

The next hotel we pulled into was older but appeared clean. It needed a good paint job but other than that was fine.  The room was definitely inspected before the good old American Express card came out.  Once we checked out the room and paid for the night we pulled off the bedspread.    Anthony (of Hotel Impossible) thinks all of these extra little spreads and blankets should be eliminated.  We agree because they are rarely washed.  Aargh!  Off they came.  Are we paranoid?  Maybe a little.   Maybe a lot.  We only discovered the following day that we had missed a nice, new Best Western down the road.  Oh well … our little room worked for us that night.

Lots of ATVs at campground.	One trail to the dunes.
Another trail to the dunes.	And, another trail to the dunes.

After checking in we were ready for dinner.  There was a Main Street Diner just down the street with a very full parking lot.  We thought that might be a good sign.  What a great choice this place was!  The clam chowder was fantastic.  It was loaded with potatoes and clams. I also ordered chicken fried chicken. The menu indicated it had a very light batter.  It was one of the best I have ever had!  Fantastic!

Umpqua Lighthouse

Foggy view of dunes with ocean in the distant.

Winchester Bay was just down the road. The following morning this is where we were off to.  I know we had been through the area before but we had never checked out the Dunes and ATV riding.  This time we did just that.  The morning was very, very foggy but as the day moved on the fog moved on also.  Pictures speak best.

Winchester Bay RV Park -- Gorgeous

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After we checked out some of the dunes and some of the parks, we turned around and headed back towards Florence.  We stopped there at the Little Brown Hen Restaurant before heading inland. I ordered the melted crab sandwich ... delicious!!  However, the cup of clam chowder certainly wasn't the best as there were very few chunky potatoes and not much in the way of clams.  The sandwich and service would certainly make it worth going back to though.

Our route back to I-5 was via Hwy 126.  It was a good road but I still prefer Hwy 38 from Reedsport.  It was smooth sailing all the way back … well, almost.  

Big enough for a large group to view the dunes.

I want to ride a sandrail.  $28 for 30 minutes with a pro driver.

We did make one little stop at the Monaco factory north of Eugene at Coburg.  The factory is at exit 199 and just off the freeway.  We’ve spent a few nights in their RV area.  Our motorhome slide is a little crooked so we felt it might need to be checked and fixed.  An appointment was made to have that taken care of on our way out of the Northwest.

Historic bridge in Florence.  Sun was shining and the fog had disappeared.

I did say it was smooth sailing all the way once we hit I-5.  Actually, that was an exaggeration.  Once we hit Portland we again got stop and go traffic due to an accident.  It was miles and miles of traffic.  Once through it we were on our way to pick up Duchess.  She was sure a happy dog when we arrived.

Monaco has a great little RV park for customers.

We heard a forecast about fuel prices last night on TV.  The forecast is that fuel prices will break a record later in the year.  We're wondering what that's going to do to folks heading south for the winter.  At one time there were so many cancellations at snowbird RV parks that you could almost get in anyplace.  It'll be interesting to see what happens but not so interesting as to want to hand over more cash to fill up that fuel tank.  Only time will tell.
 

‘Tis life on the road.

Oregon Dunes

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Heading to the coast on Sunday sure felt good.  Even though we had some issues getting out of Portland with the bike marathon going on, it was great to be heading someplace … anyplace different.  We’ve been to the Oregon coast many times.  However, over the last couple years we’ve mainly stayed from Tillamook north.

Our trip this time was just an exploratory trip. It gave us something different to do, other places to check out and a little time to look at places we might like to go. Besides Lee was babysitting Duchess. It won’t be long and a babysitter won’t be available.

We had been wanting to visit the Oregon Dunes and that was the plan. However, we couldn’t go through Tillamook without stopping at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We have visited this place numerous times in the past and have never seen it this packed. After standing in line for one ice cream cone, we were out of there as fast as we could be.

Just south of Tillamook is the Air Museum. This is a great museum and if you haven’t made the stop to check it out, you’re really missing something. We did this last year with our friends, Jerry and Janice. 

Just a short hop farther down HWY 101 was our exit to Sand Lake. We had heard about this place and we wanted to go. It’s supposed to be one of many ATV hotspots on the Oregon Coast. Our mission was to check it out as well cell signal. Well, the cell signal flunked but everything else about it we really liked. Most importantly we liked the fact that the senior pass was good in the campground and you could ride straight from the park to the dunes.

  

The weather was gorgeous for the drive.  On the north end of our drive there were very few clouds.  The clouds and fog started rolling in the farther south we got.  However, it was spotty.  It was still a nice day regardless of the fog.

Leaving Sand Lake and heading south we followed the coastline for just a short distance until we came to Cape Kiwanda.  Cars could drive and park on the beach.  We loved it.  We couldn’t tell if the clouds were coming in or going out but there wasn’t much cover so we thought it was going.   This looked just about like the most perfect spot with great cell and even a full hookup RV park across from the beach.  The downside?  Price.   This marvelous little park is available at just about $1K a month during the summer.  Hmmmm.    Now if you could ride your ATVs from the RV park to the beach, that might even have been a bigger plus.

Off we went south …. through Lincoln City.  I like Lincoln City but I don’t like Lincoln City.  It’s a busy little beachie town with lots of traffic.  The town is also very long and seems to go on forever taking forever to get through it.  We were happy to finally get on the south side.of the city and to the little town of Depoe Bay.

Depoe Bay boasts as having the smallest Harbor in the world.  It probably does.  It’s a cute little town.  I’ve always liked it just as much as everyone else does.  The fog was sitting over the water, every parking spot was full and the sidewalks were crowded with vacationers.  It was down the road for us.

ATV trail to the beach and dunes.

Newport was the next good sized little coastal town we went through.  It’s big enough because it even has a Wal-mart.  It also has a huge RV park right next to the marina. 

We used to camp when our kids were younger at the Whaler’s Rest Thousand Trails park which is just South of Newport.  It was just an independent park and not part of any membership when we first started going. Then, Leisure Time bought it. Now it’s Thousand Trails. So, been there done that but we still wanted to drive through the park and see the changes.  It was packed with families and kids.  Family camping trips are just about the best thing parents can do with their kids.  We did it with ours ….. but that doesn’t mean I want to be in RV parks when other parents are doing it with theirs.

Florence is known as the northern gateway to the Oregon Dunes.     One place we stopped would teach you how to sandboard.  I had never heard of sandboard.  It’s the same thing as snowboard but on sand!!  It was interesting but we weren’t thinking it would be for us.

There were several campgrounds at the base of the dunes. It would be a fantastic place to spend a few nights.  ATV trails led from the campgrounds to dunes.  There were also several paths to the beach.  The path I chose looked like it was almost straight uphill.  Walking with  your shoes or sandals on up the path to the beach was next to impossible.  There was no choice.  You had to take off your shoes.  What a workout.  I tried to get some teenagers to pull me up.  They thought I was teasing.  We both know I wasn’t. 

The reward on the other side of that hill was the beach!

Next stop … Reedsport.  We were ready for a hotel and dinner but that's another story.  Tomorrow the biggie --- Winchester Bay. I'm already thinking this might have been the place for that home base!!

‘Tis life on the road.

Washington – Migration Finalized

Laugh at your problems, everybody else does.

After a good night’s rest and not being on the road, my plan is to bring this blog nearly current.  Looking back and checking the weather behind us it was a good thing we did leave.  Evidently there wasn’t much snow accumulation through the mountains but the snow and icy conditions lasted longer than predicted.  Also, snow blew into Salt Lake City even as unplanned.  It actually was a good trip.  It’s always a good trip when you make it to your destination without any issues.  I’m sure you know what issues are when you’re traveling on the highway with a motorhome or RV of any kind.  The time to move north was definitely the time others were doing the same.  The highways looked like a mass migration of RVs moving with us.

As mentioned in my previous blog, we woke Tuesday morning to a changed weather report.  The strong winds forecast for that afternoon had already arrived.  We knew the winds could get strong through the canyons and open spaces.  When the winds are strong the gusts can get pretty nasty.  The weather station had already clocked winds around 47 mph.  That’s way stronger than we like to be in but it looked like those winds just might be tailwinds --- we hoped.  However, it was either the winds or the expected snowstorm – meaning we would be grounded for a few days or move forward a little hoping the winds would abate.  We decided our best option was to start our journey into Oregon.

Other than more mountains and more mountains, the first 100 miles seemed to be peaceful.  We stopped at the rest area outside of La Grande.  This was supposed to be the location of the strong winds.  Remember I had said these were also supposed to be tailwinds.  When you get tailwinds you don’t notice them so much when you’re driving but you certainly do when you get out of your vehicle.  WOW!!  They were really strong.  

As the road continued to twist through the hills and mountains, the winds became much less. Just ahead of us was the big one and as much as I always dread this mountain, I was looking forward to getting it behind us and dropping down to the valley floor and the Columbia River.   The road wraps around the side of the mountain and then it descends for about six miles.  The view from the road is awesome.  You can see for miles.   Highway 84 is one of the most gorgeous drives ever.  It follows the Columbia River through the Gorge for miles.  During the summer months this is one of the prettiest drives but in the winter it is notorious for icy conditions as the winds bring the cold from the east and moisture come from the west.

Our planned overnight stay was just east of Rufus, Oregon.  It was a gem of a COE park nestled on the river.  At this point we were traveling due west  on I-84 and the winds we encountered through the Gorge were actually the strongest winds of all.  The mighty Columbia River was raging from the winds too as white caps and swells appeared to be between 4’ and 5’ high.  We were ready to pull off.  The park was Lepage Park at exit 114.  Cousin Wally agreed that these winds were the strongest of all and he was ready to pull off too.  You can only fight them for so long.  We spent the evening recapping the drive from Arizona through Nevada, Utah, Idaho and into Oregon.  We both agreed that even though the terrain was beautiful at times, neither of us would choose this route again over I-5 thru California or 95 thru Nevada unless we had a specific reason for doing so.

Being a COE park meant we could use our America the Beautiful card.  With the card our nightly rate was $11.  There aren’t many places you can stay right on the river with hookups for that price.  All we needed was a little sunshine, calm winds and a fishing pole to make it perfect.  ATT signal was stronger here than Verizon signal but with our antenna and amplifier we could get intermittent internet.  

As we traveled the next morning into Portland we still followed the mighty Columbia.  Again, it is a beautiful drive with several dams on the river and waterfalls cascading down from the cliffs.   Multnomah Falls is even visible with a pull-out along this route.  Multnomah Falls is the most visited attraction in Oregon.  It is well worth the stop at exit 131.  

Of course, since this is a very windy area windmills were noticeable on many of the cliffs. They weren’t there the last time we traveled through but that was a very long time ago. Hang gliding is popular so if you’re timing is right you might even catch of glimpse of that.

We crossed over into Washington on the I-205 bridge.  I-205 connects to I-5 north of Vancouver.  We headed straight to the rest area at exit 11.  We needed an RV dump before we moved and knew this was a perfect place to find one.

 

Check out the map of RV dumps at rest areas in Washington.

I was thankful to be able to put our trailer away for a while. Traveling with a trailer is quite different than traveling without it. Terry got it parked and we moved on to our next destination -- the Kelso Elks. However, with all the recent rain this is a very temporary stop as we’re in a pretty muddy location. We’re thinking about mooch-docking for a while (to copy a Dahl phrase). Now it’s time for catch up.

The plan is to take the ATVs off the trailer in the next day or two.  I wonder if that garage is big enough to hold Justin’s truck while he’s away in the Navy plus four ATVs.  I guess we’ll just have to find out won’t we?

‘Tis life on the road.