Follow Us In Our Travels

05/18/13, Saturday: Another cold, windy, rainy day in Oregon. It sounds like that’s what the costal weather is like until about June, then should start warming up and quit raining. I had to dig out the sweatshirts and put the tank tops and shorts away. We had a couple of warm days (in the 80’s) back at Sutherlin, but that’s out of the ordinary for them by the sound of it. We’re staying at the Chinook Winds Casino, free parking in their RV lot. We got here on Thursday and will leave tomorrow (Sunday). We were going to leave today but it’s suppose to rain all day; tomorrow is suppose to be better. There’s been a lot of RVs coming into the parking lot today, very few have left. There’s probably 40 or so now. I don’t know if it’s because it’s Saturday, or just wanting to get out of driving in the rain. Curt wants to fill gas in the Jeep, get a Powerball ticket today ($600 million) and I want to get an antihistamine of some sort. I’ve got hives, I think, but don’t know what from. It started looking like a mosquito bite when I scratched it. Yesterday my back was just full of mosquito bite-like marks and some on my arms, a few on my legs. I’ve been putting Caladryl on them, which helps, but had a hard time sleeping last night from the itching.

We spent Monday and part of Tuesday at Premiere RV in Junction City getting work done. They weren’t able to fix my chair, need a part for that. They weren’t able to fix the tank sensor issues, need new sensors. They did put insulation on the bottom that had come off (actually I believe it burned off). They fixed the dock lights and a few other issues that were coming up as he was working on it. We stayed in their lot overnight, with electricity, so that was nice. From there we went to a drapery/upholstery place to see if we could get a dash cover made. They usually use a small nap carpet, or suede. We looked at lots of samples and ended up liking a fabric piece instead. All of the other materials had a shine to them, which glared in the front window for pictures. The only thing with the fabric is that it is so thin, we didn’t know if it would stay on the dash like it is suppose to. We told them we had an appointment at AM Solar Wednesday morning and we’d let them know after that. Tuesday night we weren’t sure where to go for the night, decided to go back to the Valley River Center in Eugene since it’s close to Springfield where AM Solar is. It’s suppose to be a 2-day limit within 30 days (which we already did), but sometimes they’ll let you stay longer, so we thought we’d ask. The security person didn’t think there would be a problem since we were on our way for an appointment the next morning but she had to check with her supervisor. We were okayed for one more night. Wednesday morning we went to AM Solar for prices of solar panels and setup. They are booked out for months to do work. What a business. We called the drapery place back and told them we decided not to do the dash. It would have cost $250 for the carpet or suede and $225 for the material. Curt figured he could do it cheaper himself (of course). From there we went to the Monaco business site and got some tabs for the slides. There are areas there for RV to park with power and water while waiting for work to be done on their RV. A couple was waiting there for a week and hoping to be done by the weekend. We also went to an Alison dealer for a price quote on transmission work. All of these prices…

We decided to go along the coast and up on Hwy 101 instead of just going up on I-5 to Portland. We filled fuel at a TA, figuring it would be cheaper than along the coast. Lots of hills, twists and turns. We got to Florence on the coast and then took Hwy 101 north. One of my pet peeves on a scenic byway is that there are so may trees that you can’t see whatever is scenic! I convinced Curt to stop at Sea Lion Caves. I had a coupon for $2 off admission, so was $12 each. The sea lions are either in the cave (mostly in winter) or on the cliffs outside. At this time of year is the mating season, and they were outside. Some of the bulls are huge! We went down into the cave, 200 feet by elevator, and saw the cave area they go to and information boards, etc. I thought it was really interesting; something new for us. We made other stops along Hwy 101 to see the beach, tide pools, rocks, etc.

There is a Walmart in Newport that is on our list of Walmart parking lots allowing overnight parking, but I called ahead to make sure we could and where to park. She said it’s okay with them, but sometimes the police will make people move due to City ordinance. Okay, nice. We figured we’d give it a try, but had some campgrounds listed nearby that we could go to if need be. When we got there, there were 2 semis and a motorhome and trailer parked there already. There were signs on the light poles stating no overnight parking. The police did drive though the lot, but we were never approached by them. Interesting. Curt thought maybe in the summer time when there’s more people around, they may be pickier about it.

Instead of leaving the motorhome at Walmart and driving to the lighthouses, we decided to take the chance and see if there is a parking spot at one place and then unhook and drive to the other one. We went to Yaquina Bay Lighthouse first. The lighthouse is very small, and is only open in the afternoons, but there was a spot there we could park and unhook. From there we went to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. There is a $7 fee (per car) to get into the National Recreation Area but we have the National Parks Pass so didn’t have to pay anything. There is an interpretive center there with short movies and info regarding the lighthouse and the area. Yaquina Head Lighthouse isn’t open to tours any more but you can walk up to it. From there is a beach area you can go down stairs to and walk on the rocks and tide pool area. It was low tide when we were there, so we could see the “living things” on the rocks. Like anemones, starfish, mussels, barnacles, etc. It was cold and windy and rainy out; we put on jackets and hoods. I tried to take pictures when it wasn’t raining. We were able to get some virtual geocaches there and back at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. From there we worked our way up to Lincoln City, where we could stay at the Chinook Winds Casino & Resort free. There were maybe a dozen RVs there and still lots of room.

Left - historic bridge at Newport, Oregon

Right - Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Below are seals on rocks at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and common mure birds nesting.

A cold, windy, rainy day at the beach

Left - Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Right - school kids at the tide pools

Found at the tide pools by Yaquina Head Lighthouse area.

Friday we took the Jeep back on Hwy 101 and went to the beach areas that we couldn’t get to with the RV Wednesday. Newport has a lot of glass and galleries. There is one that I read about that you can watch people make blown glass art, like bulbs or paperweights, Jennifer L. Sears Glass Art Studio. It was a really busy place and interesting. We went to the Connie Hansen Garden which is a non-profit conservancy that took over a botanist’s garden after she died. They had plants for sale J which I have no room for L. We stopped at a beach where we thought people were picking up rocks or sea shells or mussels or clams (need a permit for the mussels and clams). I asked a lady as we passed her if she was collecting rocks. She said agates and showed us a bag she had. As we watched others, that’s what they were doing too. I don’t know if they make their own jewelry or what. Depoe Bay is a tiny town on the beach which reminded us of Kennebunkport, Maine – town separated by a bridge, on the water, and little tourist shops along the highway. Depoe Bay is smaller though. They have a whale watching center, which was closed for renovation. We did a lot of geocaching on the way back. Hwy 101 is a very busy highway. We had to wait quite a while to get back on the highway once we had gotten off of it.