Here we go!

Sunday, September 20th

It is now almost 10:00 pm and I am between trying to finish paperwork and exhaustion. The days are running from 6:00 to 7:00 am to at least 11:00 pm, sometimes midnight. We have 15 rigs in the park as of tonight with three more coming in tomorrow for sure. The last will be in tomorrow or Tuesday morning. That’s pushing it close.

We spent the first two days running around Tillamook, pre-running tours, checking out prospective spots for future caravans and tours, and hitting the various stores to buy for the caravan lunch and parties. We hit the Tillamook Cheese Factory to get “Squeeky Cheese” and a bowl of ice cream. Their new flavor, “Sticky Bun” is to die for! I would show you a picture of the bowl but it didn’t last long enough for a picture. We then went to the Blue Heron for brie. I’m not a brie fan but this was GOOD, especially the smoked brie. We then went to Debbie D’s Sausage Factory and got four or five different sausages. After that, it was Fred Myers for two shopping carts and $190 worth of “stuff”. Get the picture?

After collecting most of the stuff we need to get started, we started greeting the guests that were here, inspecting their rigs and getting their paperwork started and in order. The trip is coming together but there are still a lot of “holes” that need to be plugged. Right now, I’m waiting on a phone call from a restaurant to confirm a reservation. I hope they call soon. I want to go to bed. Tick, tock…tick, tock…(time is passing). They didn’t call back. I went to bed!

Monday, Monday! It’s coming together! We booked the boat in Newport for the crabbing trip on Friday and got the reservations at the Waterfront Depot for the LEO (Let’s Eat Out!) on Sunday. The crab encrusted halibut was just outstanding when we ate there on the way up. I’m debating whether to stay with it or get something else. It will probably be a last-second decision.

Tomorrow is “Start Day” and we are doing a continental breakfast for the group. Claudia has been baking lots of mini-muffins this morning. Unfortunately, there were almost no ugly muffins for me to eat. She is also defrosting several large bags of ham and turkey we cooked and de-boned back at home. This will be for the sandwiches we are serving for the orientation meeting at noon. All rigs are scheduled to be in today. Things are lookin’ good!

Tuesday, September 22nd – The day went great…coffee in the morning, orientation and welcome around noon. They all ate so much in the morning that we postponed lunch until dinner. Everyone was waddling when they left!

Wednesday we went to the Air Museum, the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we did a self-guided tour followed by a double ice cream…Sticky Bun and Tillamook Mudslide. Sticky Bun won again! We then went north to Bay City to the Pacific Oyster Company to watch the oyster shuckers in action. They get paid by the bucket so they really move. However, for unknown reasons, they were given the day off today and weren’t working. Shucks! We had lunch…grilled oysters and a cup of clam chowder. Delicious! We then returned for a travel briefing and to get the rig ready to roll in the morning.

We rolled at 8:30 in the morning and headed for McMinnville, the home of Evergreen Aviation and the “Spruce Goose”.



Amazingly, the Spruce Goose is neither a goose nor is it made of spruce. It is about 90% yellow birch. We had a tour of the museum where there were bunches of other planes, actually several bunches, about half of which were warbirds, my favorite type of plane. One of the docents was a World War II vet who actually flew P-38’s in combat.



When he returned from the war, he had flown six different types of combat aircraft but couldn’t drive a car. He didn’t have a driver’s license because he left for the war before he was old enough to drive. Interesting guy!

After the Evergreen Museum, we headed back to the coast and down to Newport. The weather was pretty blowy and the ocean was really kicking up, as in huge waves and lots of wind-driven spray. After getting everyone settled into their assigned spaces, Claudia and the Camp Host led an area briefing about Newport. We then adjourned to “Fishtails”, a highly recommended restaurant around the corner from the park. I had Slumgullion, a bowl of clam chowder baked with shrimp and white cheeses and served with garlic bread. I was hungry and had a second piece of bread and a salad. Claudia had fish and chips which she split with Linda, who had the shrimp basket. Larry made a comment that this trip should be called “Eating Your Way Down the West Coast”. Claudia and I have physicals lined up as soon as we return. We may want to re-think that. Tomorrow is a tour of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and Visitor Center followed by a three-hour crabbing trip and a dinner at the Rogue Brewery.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is a really beautiful light.



It is sort of unusual in that the light doesn’t turn. It’s a static flashing light with a “signature” of 2 seconds on, two off, two on and fourteen off. Every lighthouse has a different signature so, if mariners were lost and saw a light, they would know where they are by the signature of the light. The only thing “bad” about the light is the flies. This time of the year must be the breeding season for the kelp flies. They are everywhere! Some of them won’t be breeding anymore. I removed several from the gene pool. After the tour, we returned to the park to get ready for the crabbing trip.

Eleven of us headed to the boat



and went out into the main channel of Yaquina Harbor on the crab trip. We started the trip by getting our hands dirty by baiting all the traps.



When we got to the harbor entrance, we started dropping the pots. After waiting about 30 minutes, we started picking up the traps. The boat moved slowly toward a buoy and the “hooker” grabbed the buoy floats with a long hook.



The floats were then brought on board and the line was fed through a pulley on a short boom.



The “puller” then hauled on the line and brought the trap to the surface and up to the pulley.



The trap was then grabbed by the “grabber” (me)



who swung the trap, loaded with crabs, to a large tub on the boat.



The grabber lowered the sides of the trap and shook the crabs into the tub. The trap was then passed to the stern of the boat where the buoys were then thrown overboard and, when the buoy line was all the way out, the now-empty trap was returned to the water.



It was a really quick and efficient system. The crabs in the tub were then

checked for size and sex. The legal crabs were put in a fish box and the undersized and female crabs were put in another bin to be returned to the bay later on. It was constant work, but fun. We ended the day with 71 crabs to be split between 11 crabbers. Not a bad day! When we got to the dock, we turned the crabs over to the cookers where they were cooked and cleaned for a buck apiece. I will pick them up in the morning and distribute them to the crabbers.

After the crab trip and a quick shower, we went to the Rogue Brewery for a wonderful tour and dinner. I settled on the Dead Guy Ale as a liquid refreshment. They first served an absolutely delicious garlic-cheesy bread. The entrees were your choice of rockfish (delicious) or a chicken with a delicious whiskey barbecue sauce. The chicken was good but slightly overcooked. The experience overall was very good and everyone seemed to enjoy it royally. On the way back to the rig, I took a slight side trip and did a little geocaching, finding two caches. This makes a total of three for the trip. Tomorrow, the aquarium.

The first thing we did was to watch the otters being fed.

After that it was the Passages of the Deep,

a tank with me inside it,

seahorses,

sea nettles,

Japanese Spider Crabs

and Lionfish.

Beautiful aquarium!

I snuck in an hour or so to find three more geocaches and then slimed back to help Claudia. The rest of the day was spent on paperwork, a travel briefing, doing laundry and getting ready to head for Florence. There are many great things about this trip, but the best is that we are heading south…toward home.

Lincoln City and Tillamook

Today is a travel day to the Lincoln City Elks RV Park. It’s going to take us about a whole 45 minutes, and that’s if we dawdle around a bit. We decided not to dawdle and went straight to the park, opting to dawdle in our car later today or tomorrow. After getting the jacks lowered, slides out, and the water and power hooked up, I turned on the satellite antenna and found out I had “bullseyed” the very end of a very leafy tree limb. Rats…no TV signal. All I could do was to unhook the water and power, start the engine, retract the jacks and move the rig back about four feet. I then lowered the jacks, re-leveled the rig and hooked up the water and power cord again. Perfect! The cell phone rang. It turned out that all dawdling will be done tomorrow, as the phone call was from Tina (our boss) and it changed a bunch of our tentative, possible, thought-we-had-it-nailed-down and optional plans. We are now going into the starting park in Tillamook on the 18th instead of the 20th because there’s just too much last-minute stuff to do. Even with us being in the park for four days prior to the actual start of the trip, we will have our roller skates on. There is still so much stuff that hasn’t been nailed down that needs to be…and soon!

Between rain showers, I went back and forth to and from the office and we finally settled on a four-day stay until Friday when we’ll head to Tillamook. When I got our housing for the week all settled, it was time to take Gizmo for a romp and for us to eat lunch. Almost all of the park is mowed grass




so Giz took off with ears flying. All of a sudden, he stopped and buried his head in the grass. This usually means he found a bug to eat, but in this case, as I soon found out, it was a pile of elk poop.

I was too late in jerking on the leash. He was already eating something, and I never did find out if it was a bug or a piece of poop. I really don’t think I want to know anyway! He was on a very short leash for the remainder of his romp.

We returned to the rig and I popped the cap on the second test beer, “Brutal Bitter”. It also was very good but had a little too much bitterness for my palate. The rest of the day was spent kickin’ it until the Monday Night Football games. The first game had an unbelievable comeback with about four minutes left in the game. The second game was the Raiders and the Chargers at Oakland. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with my allegiances, I hold Card #1 of the Raider-Hater Club. I am a charter member. The game was not pretty. The Raiders played better, but the Chargers won the game at the last minute. I am still too uptight to go to bed. I have to get to sleep though. I don’t want to sleep through “Predator Quest” tomorrow morning. I’m sure Gizmo will get me up in time. It’s his favorite show.

We got up early, full of anticipation. Gizmo got a romp and I got a shower. We both felt better! After the show, Claudia and I left to see Lincoln City, wash the car and do laundry. We then turned around and headed south to the “World’s Smallest Harbor”, Depoe Bay.

Boats going in and out of the harbor do so one at a time, in a narrow, twisting channel that is probably about 25’ wide.

Outer entrance

Just inside the outer entrance

Going under the bridge

After going under the bridge, the channel opens to the harbor.

The inner harbor

I don’t know how many boats the harbor holds, but it’s not very many. We then had lunch and returned to the park to sit in the shade and relax. After relaxing, we went inside and watched a movie about the Crusades. Good flick, very bloody, but good!

The next morning was another lazy morning. Claudia got up, got the mutt out of his cage and brought him to bed to keep me company. He slowly crawled under the covers, curled up next to my leg and promptly went back to sleep. After a while, I got up, making sure I didn’t disturb the still-sleeping furball. As I poured my first cup of coffee, the pitter-patter of light rain started. Great...right after washing the car! The pitter-patter increased to a small crescendo and we now had a moderate to heavy rain going. (I used San Diego area rain standards to describe “moderate to heavy”. Up here, they would probably classify this as a “drizzle”. The “normal” rainfall here is 40 to 60 inches a year!) Gizmo’s morning romp is going to have to wait. After a while, the rain slacked off a bit and I donned my official Alaska rain parka and put on a Stetson with its own rain cover and prepared Gizmo for an abbreviated romp. I first tried the protected grass area under the awning. Nope! The smells weren’t right. OK dog, we are going to get wet. We walked out to another grass area under a nice full tree. He liked that spot and soon finished his potty duties. We returned to the safety of the rig, dried off and had breakfast.

After breakfast, we got ready to drive about ten miles to a Starbuck’s to get our email. Gizmo whined and sniveled and pouted until we agreed to take him along. When we got there, I went inside, ordered my usual “Penguin Mocha”, a half dark chocolate, half white chocolate, extra-hot , and sat down to log into the Internet. I checked the status of the boxes being shipped to our starting park in Tillamook, retrieved several company emails and budgets and a couple of correspondence letters and then shut down. Since the boxes wouldn’t be delivered until much later today, we decided to return to the park in Lincoln City and kick it for the day. Now, “kicking it” included revisions, re-revisions and a couple of re-re-revisions as dictated by the letters, budgets and emails I received today. I can’t wait until the schedule is done, set in stone and finished so we can finish our calendar. Every time we have to go back to change things, there are chances for errors…and errors we don’t need!

Thursday is our last full day here in Lincoln City and we are scheduled for visitors…Larry & Linda and Jim & Marty. The sun is out but it’s still cool. The official Adventure Caravans weather gauge reads 66.7 degrees. I just switched from shorts to levis. About noonish, they both showed up and we had a great reunion. Jim made some of his famous salsa and Claudia did the margaritas. We all toasted the return of “Los Flojos”, the name of our small group.

Los Flojos (minus Claudia who took the picture)

It means “The Lazy Ones” or “The one who kick back”. We each had a couple of margaritas and then Cladia brot out another picture of drinks. We had a cuple mor and were starting too have fun. After abowt fore of her mergeritas, I started two cuk tha carney asaada.

It was gud! We had lots of fun and slep purty gud!

Friday morning! Today we move to Pleasant Valley RV Park in Tillamook and officially start the caravan. We have four “pre-days” before the caravan actually starts on the 22nd to get everything prepared, confirmed and set up. Needless to say, we will be busy. Before we took off from the Elks RV Park, we headed into town for breakfast with Jim and Marty before they headed home. The drive to Tillamook was a short hour at an average speed of about 40 mph along a winding, scenic Highway 101.

The Pleasant Valley park is about seven miles south of Tillamook itself and is a beautiful grass, gravel and dirt park set in among many beautiful trees.

We got our rigs all set up and met one of the two guests that are already here. We then picked up mail and Claudia, Linda and Larry headed into Tillamook to cash checks, visit stores and do “stuff” while Gizmo and I stayed behind to finish setting up the rig, set up the computers and check the email. We didn’t have email in Lincoln City so there was a bunch of essential and non-essential stuff waiting for me. Due to a slow connection, the essential stuff with downloads and attachments took almost an hour to go through, absorb, forward to Claudia’s computer and print. The non-essential stuff took an additional 15 seconds to go through.

The motorhome has taken on a new look. There are boxes everywhere. There is paperwork everywhere. Now the real work begins. There is no more play time. I need to go. There is work to be done. Bye!

Newport, OR

Today is Thursday, September 10th, our 27th wedding anniversary! We were headed for Newport and, since there were only eight RV spaces at the lodge, we got moving early. We left Florence about 9:15 and got to Newport about an hour later. We grabbed a spot, got ourselves all set up and headed for the caravan RV park, a distillery and a beer brewery where we have a tour and a dinner. We then headed for Nye Beach



to sample some clam chowder at the Chowder Bowl. It was excellent! Now I have to have some at the Whale’s Tale to see which is better. We putzed and puttered the rest of the day away and then came home for a steak, chicken and salad dinner.

Friday was a crabbing day. Let me re-phrase that. Friday was a crab net throwing day. I got lots of exercise at two different locations in Yaquina Bay

but still got zilched! I did, however, get some great info for crabbing when the caravan gets here in two weeks. There is a boat that will take 12 people out in the ocean at the head of the bay for three to three and one-half hours for crab. They provide all the traps and bait. We provide a license and the muscle to pull the traps. The norm has been that everyone comes back with limits (12) or near-limits(10+). The cost is $42. Sounds good to me!

After our non-catching attempt, we came home, got cleaned up and went to lunch at another highly recommended restaurant, the “Local Ocean”. It also was excellent. I had a bowl of clam, mussel and chorizo soup and Claudia had a bacon-wrapped albacore fillet on a bed of stir-fried vegetables and crispy onions. For those of you who might want to imbibe in the soup, fashion a large napkin to cover the front of your shirt. I tell you this from first-hand experience. My brand new, never worn before, Carhartt shirt is now emblazoned with two circular spots of chorizo soup that will, hopefully, come out after being soaked with a pre-wash spot remover before the next wash. Notwithstanding the aforementioned “whoops”, this was another 5-star dining experience. The bathroom scales have been banished to one of the cargo bays for the remainder of the trip. We then headed north to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse

to pre-run it for the caravan and then returned home for paperwork…LOTS of paperwork.

Today, Saturday, is a dribbly day! It is clousy and overcast and everything is wet and dribbling. I had a lot of stuff to do on the Internet and the Elks Lodge is closed. RATS! The wi-fi here is marginal, at best. I had to stand outside the office and one-hand the computer while trying to get through all the garbage mail to the important stuff so I could get some work done. It was NOT fun! Anyway, by typing letters and messages off-line in Word (in the motorhome) and then doing a one-handed cut & paste (at the lodge front door, holding the laptop in one hand and typing with the other), I got them off. This was the epitome of multi-tasking!

Since the day was poopy, Claudia and I stayed inside and worked on the calendar and the schedule to get the events on the calendar, on the proper day and at the proper time, as best we can. I think we have it about 90% done at this point. When Ron and Juanita finish running the trip in a few days, we’ll be able to do all the finalizing and correcting. We are now on our second pot of coffee! Even Gizmo went back and licked his bowl clean for the second time. Tonight is Octoberfest at the lodge so we ate a very light lunch in preparation for tonight’s belt stretching event. The menu was Pork Wiener Schnitzel, Bratwurst, German Potato Salad, Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage with streusel for dessert. Yum!

We even had a German band.

Well, since the day began poopy, it might as well end poopy. It is now raining!

I just made reservations for us to go to the Lincoln City Elks RV Park on Monday. The park is just under 40 miles south of Tillamook so we will drive up to pick up our caravan supplies when they arrive from Texas, supposedly on Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever. From what the lady at the park told me, we will not have Internet at the park, which will be a big PITA! According to our highly flexible tentative schedule, my next good Internet access should be Friday, possibly Saturday, but for sure on Sunday…maybe!

Sunday the 13th, our last day full in Newport. The first stop of the day was the Undersea Gardens, which looks like a large modern barge floating on the water.

There are lots of ports to look out, in, and down into the water. The underwater ports show critters that are normally found within Yaquina Bay. Across from the gardens is a long rock sea wall that is totally covered with the nastiest and most obnoxious varmints known to seafarers…California sea lions , aka shark food…Orca bait…fish thieves…etc.! We can hear them from the Elks Lodge several blocks away. They even scared Gizmo last night when he was out for a walk. Why they are protected is beyond me. They eat a BUNCH of salmon and they eat 24/7, 365 days a year. I think we need more sharks up here!

After our quick tour of the Undersea Gardens, we headed for the Oregon State University aquarium, which is a modern, beautiful facility and a great stop. We then went almost next door to the Hatfield Marine Center, more of a scientific marine facility with a lot of hands-on exhibits. Next on the work schedule was a stop at the brewery to talk with the manager and set up the menu for our dinner. I also borrowed on his expertise as to which was their best beer. He recommended two; ”Brutal Bitter” and “Dead Guy”.

For the purpose of a semi-scientific study, I bought a bottle of each to be consumed prior to our dinner so I can give a first-hand opinion as to the worth of the brewery. It’s the least I can do for our guests!

After finishing up with our work, we headed for the Whale’s Tale to do a comparison test of chowder. The only way to give a legitimate comparison is to sample both within a short period of time. So, I will again sacrifice my waistline for the good of the caravan and consume another bowl of chowder in the interest of fair and balanced reporting. After consuming chowders at both the Chowder Bowl and the Whale’s Tale, and after much thought, pondering, calculating and deliberation, I have determined the best chowder is found at the Chowder Bowl. It was double-superb!

We are winding down here in Newport and will head for Lincoln City tomorrow. Again, our Internet is supposed to be non-existent, as in “none”, so be aware and have patience. I am sure y’all can hardly wait for the next installment of the Stardate blog, but let not your hearts be troubled, one will be forthcoming as soon as I have reconnected with the electronic world. Stay safe! Stay warm! Stay dry!

Florence, OR

We got up leisurely as promised. Packing up and rearranging things took until almost 11:00 am. I was all done with the Engineering Dept. and Claudia was almost done with the Domestic Dept. She was sitting on the floor and stuffing the last of the local brochures in the goodie bags for the guests. When she finished, I pulled in the slides and retracted the jacks. The rig lurched slightly as the pressure released from the jacks. “Where the (fill in the blank) do you think you are going?” she asked. “I’ve been waiting for three days to go back to the casino”. There was no getting out of it. We locked up and walked (she walked, I trudged) to the casino. She hit the penny machines and was about staying even and maybe even a little ahead. She changed machines and when I walked around the corner to find her, her machine was chirping like crazy. She had hit a $20 jackpot. Amazingly, she then called it quits and we left the casino about $22 ahead, not including her original $5 buy-in. I think that put us (her) at about a positive Alexander Hamilton (that’s ten bucks to save you looking it up or pulling out your wallets) for the stay. We returned to the rig, fired it up, pulled out and headed north for Florence.

We travelled mostly through the sand dunes area of Oregon but there were many beautiful lakes and trees as well. There are sixty miles of dunes in this area of Oregon. It was a knockout of a drive. Fifty some-odd miles later, we entered Florence. Florence seemed to be about two miles in length along Highway 101. It’s a cool little town. We passed the Elks Lodge and headed out the north end of the town to Mercer Lake Rd. and turned right. We shortly turned left into the Elks RV Park. This was NOT what we were expecting folks! This place is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! It is set in amongst lots of trees and has beautiful gravel roads, immaculate landscaping, large grassy areas and wide, secluded RV spaces…all for $18 a night.

Amenities include 50 amp power, water, two dump stations and free wi-fi throughout the park. The park is about a quarter-mile off Highway 101 so it is very quiet and secluded. There is even a bear warning sign among the postings on the park’s information board. Is this heaven or is this heaven? Now…how close is it to good crabbing? We are about to find out.

The answer is about five miles! We headed down to the Pacific Pines RV Park, introduced ourselves and got all of the necessary information for the trip. We then headed down to Old Town for a look-see. It hadn’t changed much in four years. We went into Mo’s for a quick dinner and then returned home via the local Indian casino. No, we didn’t go in but Claudia has it logged into her “Things to do later” data bank.

When we got home, the motorhome looked like a big weed in a rose garden. It was filthy. All the other motorhomes were spotless and spiffy. Claudia decided that we should wash the coach. Now, how do you wash the coach when the rules say you can’t wash the coach? Well, you get my crab bucket out of the car, fill it half-way with hot water, add a good cup of vinegar and scrub it with towels attached to a scrub brush. After it’s “washed”, you dry it with a clean dry towel. It looks fabulous! Well, it looks a lot better than it did. I’ll wait until tomorrow when the sun is really out and take a look at it then before I make a final determination of how it looks. We then took Gizmo for a romp around the park, made a pot of coffee, turned on the “telly” and kicked back. When I’m thoroughly kicked, I’ll take a shower. That may even be tomorrow morning.

Speaking of tomorrow, we shall arise at a reasonable hour, say around 9:00 or 10:00, shower if we didn’t shower tonight, and then take off to the north to see the Sea Lion Caves and the Heceta Head Lighthouse. After that, we’ll head south of town to check out the sand dune tour. Coincidentally, the town has erected a fishing and crabbing pier off South Jetty Road in the area of the sand dunes. Since we will be through with business at that time, we just might take an hour or two to see if we can capture some denizens of the shallows.

It was a little cool last night so Claudia got up about 4:00 to turn on the furnace and bring Gizmo into bed with us. After a short session of happiness licks, we all returned to sleep mode. Around 8:45 or so, we all started stirring and got up to face the day. Claudia was first and I followed shortly thereafter. Gizmo lagged! After a great breakfast of sausage and eggs on mini-English muffins, orange juice and coffee, we took off on our appointed rounds. The weather cooperated fully with totally blue skies and beautiful bright sunshine. Oh yeah, the rig looks beautiful in the sunlight…a 1,000% improvement!

We hit the Sea Lion Caves first.

According to people coming out of the gift shop, there were no sea lions in the caves. We went inside and introduced ourselves to “Boomer”, a retired teacher and the PR guy at the caves. We had some pre-conceived notions about the place that frankly weren’t good. We had heard that it was smelly, dark and not worth the entrance fee. Boomer generously gave us passes so we could go down to the cave and see it. We went outside, down the trail to the elevator and then down 120’ to the cave itself. It WAS dark, but subtle indirect lighting was all around the cave and you soon became acclimated to the darkness. First of all, it was NOT smelly. The recent storm may have cleaned it out a bit but there was no disagreeable odor at all. Second of all, it was huge, much larger that we had expected…and it was beautiful!

There was only one sea lion in the cave, but that didn’t diminish the beauty of it. There were several exhibits, a TV documentary and a view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse. It was well worth the time and the entrance fee.

After the Sea Lion Cave, we headed to the Heceta Head Lighthouse to check out the parking lot and the facilities.

After doing so, we returned to the RV park to romp Giz and pick up a turkey neck for crab bait. We then headed to the sand dunes to check out the tour.

We are all set for the sand buggy tour. We are going on the big sand buggies,

not the rails.

For us old farts, this is more the Chevy station wagon tour, not the Ferrari ride! Some of the dunes are hundreds of feet high. I think this is going to be fun.

After checking out the sand machines, we headed for the South Jetty fishing and crabbing pier. When we got there, the tide was still ripping and the wind was blowing hard and cold, but we had high hopes. We walked out to the far corner of the pier, baited the trap, tied off the pull rope to the rail (VERY important), and I heaved it into the water. Fifteen minutes later, I pulled the trap. It was loaded with over a dozen Dungeness crabs, all shorts or female…no keepers. We kept pulling and throwing every 10 minutes for the next two hours but no keepers emerged. I only saw four keepers landed during the time we were there. One old-timer told us it was a little early yet and to give it a few more weeks. Maybe on the trip down.

We left the pier earlier than we planned , mostly due to the cold wind, and headed off to mail some letters. We had been eyeballing a good-looking Chinese restaurant and decided to give it a try. We ordered a couple of specials at $9 each. I had Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet & Sour Pork with pork fried rice. Claudia had Almond Chicken, Fried Shrimp, Sweet & Sour Pork and pork fried rice. The plates were HUGE! I got three-quarters through my plate before switching to the “power-eating” mode. Claudia kept her senses and asked for a “to go” box. It was delicious!
We returned to the rig, romped Giz, brewed a pot of coffee and kicked back for the evening. Great day!

Wednesday, our last day here in Florence, was not spent they way we had planned. Our plans were to get up somewhat early to get to the crabbing pier by 9:00 am. The first low tide is set for just past 10:00. You want to fish the hour before and after the low or high tide. Otherwise, the current in the rivers is so fast the traps won’t stay on the bottom. Well…after a fitful night of semi-bad dreams, we woke up at 8:45. Scratch crabbing! I got up and let Giz out. After two stretches and a quick foot lick, he made a beeline for the bed. Then, one jump up and three hops later, he landed right on Claudia’s face. She woke up! We then finished getting up. I threw on some sweats, romped Gizmo and returned for a shower and a blueberry pancake breakfast, complete with bacon and sausage. Yum!

Our new and revised plan for the day now includes walking Old Town and ????? That’s as “planned” as the plan for the day was planned. OK, OK, maybe a trip to DQ later on. Before we started out, Claudia got me all fired up and I wrote one of my famous “nastygrams” to Freightliner about the work they did and asked to be reimbursed for my out-of-pocket expenses. We then took off on our new and re-revised plan of the day about 2:00 pm, drove straight to Old Town, parked, and started walking.

The first store we walked into was a leather store. Claudia walked out with a beautiful brown leather backpack purse. This was a bad start! Actually, to be truthful, I bought it for her for our anniversary, which is tomorrow. We went to several other shops and dropped some more money in them. Finally, we walked by the Waterfront Depot, a small but highly recommended restaurant right on the river.

Waterfront Depot menu

We each had the crab encrusted halibut, served with a Caesar salad, the dish that the manager of the Pines RV Park raved about. She was right! It was fabulous! Even though I was glared at, I had two glasses of Clos du Bois Chardonnay, which also was excellent. We topped off the dinner with a stop at the local Dairy Queen. Claudia had a hot fudge sundae and I had a plain cone. Another great day! Tomorrow, we head for Newport.

North Bend and Coos Bay

We got to the Casino in short order and got all set up in the dry camping (free) area. We have been depleting our funds by staying in RV parks, fixing broken engines and buying new garage door openers at home. After getting organized, we headed to the Casino hotel to visit Maggie, the Group Sales Manager. She got us all set up for our impending visit at the end of the month and showed us around the casino and hotel. We then went in for lunch. Claudia had a delicious country fried steak with garlic mashed potatoes, all covered in brown gravy. Mmmm, good! I had a “Casino Special” bacon cheeseburger with ½ lb. of Angus beef, grilled onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce and thick smoked bacon. It was one of those burgers that, once you started eating, you couldn’t put it down. It was so thick, it would have fallen apart if I did…so I didn’t!

After lunch, Claudia said (VERY sweetly), “Can you give me 15 minutes and $5?” I (VERY sweetly) replied, “I’ll meet you half-way. I’ll give you 15 minutes!” She (VERY sweetly) smiled and replied, “Cute!”. She got both!

We went to the no-smoking slots and she plugged in a $5 bill. Ten minutes later, she was out of credits and plugged in a second $5 bill. When I protested, she just TOLD me that it was “either-or” and her 15 minutes wasn’t up yet. I didn’t remember it that way and protested. I lost! She did too! We then walked back to the rig where Gizmo greeted up with his customary lavish licking. Every time we leave, he acts like he hasn’t seen us in a week. Good dog!

Friday was a drive-around and look day. We headed downtown to visit the Visitor’s Center and then took off on a scenic drive. We headed west to Coos Bay and then turned south. As we were headed to Charleston, I passed a flea market and saw some crab rings out front. LOOK OUT…FULL BRAKES…LEFT TURN and stop. The rings were $20, the cheapest we have found. I bought one and continued south. We checked out a few things in Charleston and then continued south to the Cape Arago Lighthouse viewpoint. After shooting the required photo



we passed the Botanical Gardens and stopped at the marine mammal viewpoint to gaze at approximately 1,800 pieces of what should be shark food, commonly known as Stellar Sea Lions, Elephant Seals, cute little harbor seals and the worst-of-the-worst, the California Sea Lion.


Varmints!

More varmints!

and still more varmints!

After enduring all I could take of these varmints, we headed for the Cape Arago overlook. After a few minutes…”Thar she blows!” We sighted three California Gray whales blowing and cavorting just south of the Cape. Claudia was in heaven. She has had a mega-serious case of withdrawals due to not seeing any whales. Her whale clock has now been re-set. Several people began asking questions about the whales so I reached into my vast knowledge of cetaceans (Claudia swears my knowledge is half-vast) and gave a short primer on the California Grey whale. We then returned to Bend.

I have been hearing a “funny sound” from the car lately. Now, Claudia says that’s impossible because I never hear anything she says. Whatever! Anyway, I spotted an RV and auto repair facility and pulled in. They put the car up on a rack and pulled the rear differential drain plug. The mechanic soon returned and asked if I had been hearing any strange sounds from the car. I ‘fessed up and said I had. He showed me the drain plug. It was covered with metal shavings. Rats! Now we have to get the rear end rebuilt when we get home. We’ll just add that to the motorhome engine and the garage door opener at home. What next? This trip is getting expensive!

Returning home, we started on the paperwork for the area and got quite a bit done. Now…check the weather. We are supposed to be getting some rain Saturday and Sunday. Hmmm…if the rain gets here late, I may be able to sneak off and test out my new crab ring. According to the Weather Underground, the rain should start about 11:00 pm…TONIGHT! Rats! Plan “B”. What’s Plan “B”? I haven’t a clue! More work on the trip plans? Perhaps. More gambling? I sure hope not! We shall see. Stay tuned. News at 11:00…or whenever!

Hey, the weather guessers are better here than at home. The rain started around midnight and really hit at 4:00 am. It’s now off and on light rain and sprinkles. Gizmo and I got in our morning romp between sprinkles (mostly) but he still needed a toweling down after “playing” on the local lawn. Claudia and I got cleaned up and then started working on Plan “B”. Plan “B” started with Valentino getting a bath. Well, actually, you can’t give a fish a bath, but he got his water changed. He can now look out and watch the goings-on clearly. He is much happier!

Plan “B” continued with filling in the calendar with events.

Click on the photo and check out Gizmo!

We just got a call from Ron and Juanita giving us the revised schedule for the San Francisco area (which was no small feat!), so that got installed on the calendar. We are constantly revising the calendar and getting the events in their correct time slots. The trip is coming together!

After a short planning session, we have decided that we will head for Florence on Monday, stay for three days and then move on to Newport. I can’t wait until we get to Newport as that was where I found the best clam chowder on the west coast in 2005. After Newport, we’ll head for Lincoln City which is just south of Tillamook, our final destination. Now you are all caught up.

The weather cleared somewhat in the afternoon so I took the mutt for a L-O-N-G romp while Claudia made 48 mini Almond-Poppyseed muffins. About ¼ of them didn’t make it to the storage container. I follow the “cookie rule” when she bakes. The “cookie rule” clearly states that only the ugly cookies may be consumed before the un-ugly ones are put away for safekeeping. There were quite a few ugly muffins!

We are going for a drive tomorrow and will stop at the store on the way home. Gizmo needs a new rope toy to play with and I need some turkey legs for my crab net. There is a long pier right next to the park here in Bend and I want to give it a shot before we leave. On the even more positive side, there is great crabbing up in Florence, Newport and Tillamook.

It rained again last night and it’s definitely more blowy and stormy this morning. You KNOW a front is making its way through the area. Today is a day to stay inside, in front of a fire and bare on a skin rug. Unfortunately, we don’t have a fireplace or a bearskin rug. I will have to improvise!

After romping Gizmo, Claudia and I took off the see the South Slough National Estuarine Interpretive Center. It looks like it had a lot of good information inside the center but it was closed today. We looked around and then left for the varmint lookout to watch the storm waves. There weren’t as many varmints there today as there were on Friday. The waves were hitting the rocks pretty good. I’d guess the splash (not the spray…the heavy splash water) was probably 25’ high. It was rockin’ and rollin’ out there. We then turned around and headed for WalMart for supplies. Included in the supplies was a package of turkey necks.

We got home, packed up the laundry, the crab ring and supplies and headed for the laundry. I dropped Claudia off and went over to the casino dock. I baited the ring, tied off the retrieving line and heaved it into the water. It started to rain so I waited in the car until it was time to pull. After 15 minutes, I pulled the trap. There was one small male in the ring. Oh well, at least they’re here. I threw it out again and went into the casino for an extra-large, double-huge white chocolate mocha…with whipped cream! As I started back, the sky cut loose big time. I ran for the car and jumped in, totally soaked. The rain drops are much bigger here than at home! After a while, the rain subsided to a manageable level and I made a run for the trap. I pulled it, stuffed the line in a wad, grabbed the bucket and ran for the car. I quit because Claudia was still in the laundry room and I didn’t want her to have to haul the laundry all the way back to the motorhome by herself. I needed to help her! Having the car there also would keep her from getting wet. I thought she would appreciate staying dry so I voluntarily cut my crabbing short to help her.

The clothes weren’t dry so I went home (after sharing a few slurps of my mocha with her) to take a shower and wait for her phone call. When the phone rang, I went back to the laundry room and we brought the laundry home. We put the laundry away, fed the animals and kicked back. The trip tomorrow is only 47 miles so we have a leisurely morning in store for us. The Elks have RV parking at the lodge and at an RV park a little ways away. We opted for the park and made a reservation for three days. Florence, here we come!