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After a couple of weeks on the coast, we are back in our own backyard in Kelso, Washington.  We enjoyed once again a trip along the Oregon coast via Hwy 101.  I believe the Oregon coast has to be one of the best, most accessible coastal highways in the world, with world class views.  We spent a week in Gold Beach and another week in Newport, taking a few walks on the beach, enjoying sunsets and unbelievable seafood.  We didn’t do much else, so we didn’t have much for daily journals, but relaxing on the coast has always been a favorite thing.  We stopped at new places like Gold Beach and Newport but had to explore our favorite spots too.  That includes Tillamook, Cannon Beach and Seaside.  I don’t think I’ll be driving Hwy 101 past age 65; I won’t have the energy to duel with the Oregon truckers as they try to pressure everyone off the highway who isn’t taking the bends on two wheels.  You have to drive that highway, that’s for sure, as opposed to letting it drive you.  So, now we are back in the great state of Washington, ready to see some of the buried treasure in our own back yard.  We have never taken the time to see Mt. St. Helens up close, it’s been a long time since we were at Mt. Rainier National Park, and we’ll take a close look at the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula, the Hood Canal.  On another entry we’ll have to describe the food we’ve had on this trip.  Loosen your belt with us on that one.

After a harrowing drive up 101 from Newport to Cannon Beach, complicated by treacherous log truck drivers who have a strong death wish for all RV’ers, we made it to our next stop along the coast.  The campground is marginal but the shops and sites of Cannon Beach are as good as they get.  We hauled our lawn chairs down to watch the sunset by Haystack Rock, thinking we’d died and gone to heaven, only to realize that we were really at the Oregon coast watching a brilliant sunset.

Earlier in the day, we treated ourselves to a loaf of Haystack bread, an Apple loaf, and the best Apple Fritter we’ve ever tasted.  Sitting along the sidewalk on decking by the latte shop gave us a perfect seat for people watching.

Check the Oregon 2007 album for sunset shots of Haystack Rock and the Pacific Ocean!

P.S.  Our friends, Jack & Judi Looney, welcomed their 7th grandchild (2nd granddaughter) into the world at 4:44 p.m. today.  Madilyn Ruth Patridge came via C-Section and Mom/Baby/Dad & grandparents are doing well!  Congratulations!

We have a CLEAR view of the Pacific Ocean from the front of our coach today.  The people on the lots in front of us have pulled out.  Hopefully, no one will take their place for 24 hours!  We leave tomorrow for the Cannon Beach area for a couple of nights, then up to Kelso, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier.  Nothing like pretending to be a tourist, camera and all!

Today we drove from Gold Beach to Newport, Oregon, up Highway 101.  The Oregon coast has to be the longest coastal drive with the most lookouts and the most accessible of any U.S. stretch of coast, it seems to me.  As coastal drives go, I would think it is one of the best in the world.  It’s a little tight in places for a motorhome, but easy does it gets one safely through.  We are camped in one of the most beautiful campgrounds, Outdoor Resorts, in Newport, right on the water.  We are looking out the front of the coach as the sun dips below the horizon, and the fog begins to gather.  We plan to stay a week before moving on up the coast.  Our stay in Gold Beach was a little disappointing because the wind and surf were very strong, preempting evenings sitting outside or long walks on the beach.  The drive up to Agness was also disappointing because there weren’t enough good views of the Rogue River down below, but the jet boat trip up the river was absolutely outstanding, as we have mentioned.  Pepper made friends with the neighbors’ dog, Tucker, as soon as we arrived, and we are settled in for a nice week’s stay in Newport. http://www.outdoor-resorts.com/ps/

Yesterday, we were mailed up the Rogue River in a U.S. Mail jet boat.  It is a round trip of 80 miles on the U.S. Express trip, leaving Gold Beach and going upstream past Agness, a small town of 75, into white water, and then the return trip.  The pilots delight in making 360 degree spins that bring lots of waves on board!  The Rogue River is one of 10 rivers in the U.S. designated “wild rivers” and it deserves this appellation.  It is a beautiful and swift moving river.  There are 100 year old Sturgeon that are six and seven feet long and King Salmon topping 65 pounds.  Bald Eagles and Osprey nests line the shores in trees with bald tops.  Bear, otter, deer, and elk may not be seen on any particular day, but they are there in abundance.  The boat trip goes further than the road does, and residents along the Rogue River (up 30 miles + from Gold Beach) get to their cabins by boat, rather than car.  Some do not have electricity or phone.  They have been doing this since 1895.

It is a delightful and exciting trip.  Jan was never sure it was “fun”.  She said, “I don’t even get this wet in the shower!”  but she was a trooper and saw it through its sketchy moments.  It’s a good thing we went on this boat trip after some of the others, or there wouldn’t have been the others!  It’s one of the few trips I can say was really worth the money.  I had been looking forward to this trip for 25+ years!  Every moment was a beautiful one.  The river with the sun reflecting off it was exquisite.  When we got wet, we dried off quickly and stayed refreshingly cool in mid-80 degree temps.  The pilot, Stan, had been driving the Rogue boats for 30 years and he was perfect!  ***** (5 stars) = you MUST take this jet boat trip in your lifetime!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ernandjan/OregonAug2007

Because we were in some campgrounds earlier in this trip that didn’t have strong WiFi signals, and we were unable to keep a daily journal, here is a recap of the trip so far.  Our first stop was in Eugene, and we spent the second day at ScandiaFest, Junction City’s annual Scandinavian festival.  It is small but authentic, with a number of Scandinavian crafts being demonstrated.  The best part seemed to be the food booths, with long lines for the Swedish Meat Pie, and everything was delicious.  We stopped on the way back through Eugene for Euphoria Truffles, which need to be refrigerated, and that’s why they aren’t available very far from the Eugene area.

From Eugene, we drove up the McKenzie highway and over the Santiam Pass to camp at the KOA in Sisters.  Sisters, our favorite little town in the “high desert” of central Oregon, has become quite the tourist stop, with many unique little shops.  We always spend money there, and sometimes a lot, because they always seem to have great products.  We have watched that town grow for twenty five years.  The next day we attended the biggest and most promoted RV event in 2007, the Family Motor Coach Association’s annual rally, this time at the fairgrounds in Redmond.  We go to see the latest technologies and gadgets for motor homes from the multiple vendors’ booths.  There are many workshops, entertainers, vendors, and food options for RV’ers, most of whom stay the week and dry camp on the fairgrounds.

Our next stop after Sisters was down Hwy 97 on the east side of the Cascades to Crater Lake, and that brings us up to date with the entries in the journal, which begin with the beautiful rim drive around the Lake.  We spent one day looking at the lake from about 30 stops around the rim.  We also seem to have picked up a pair of mice who made themselves at home in our bottom compartments, coming up at night into the areas below the cupboards, where we set traps for them.  One time when we needed a cat!  We caught one, and the other might then have left to find another partner.  We’re not sure, still trying to figure it out.

Then we moved on the next day to a campground in Phoenix, Oregon, just seven miles from Ashland and the Shakespearean Festival.  We stayed there five days, took in three plays, toured Harry and David’s, drove through the Applegate Valley and enjoyed the area.  It was interesting to find that many local retirees work seasonally at Harry and David’s.  Most of their employees during their busy periods are over the age of 60.  They keep coming back to work for several months, and they obviously supplement their social security in a way that is fun for them and benefits the company.  We were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the drama and huge crowds, many of whom repeat each year to see the eight main plays offered each year.  Many repeat attendees come for a week or two each year to soak in the Shakespeare and other plays.  The theatres are beautifully done, with spacious seating and perfect acoustics, and attending a play is a most enchanting experience.  The crowds are very responsive and right on the laugh lines, indicating to us that they are quite knowledgeable about the plays and actors.  From the Calgary Stampede to the Shakespearean Festival, the crowds are really into it! 

That pretty much brings us up to date, as our next move was here to Gold Beach on the Oregon coast.  Our first day here (yesterday) was to get caught up on maintenance.  Jan paid bills and did laundry, while I snapped on our coach shades and worked on some scratches we picked up from some trees in the Sisters campground.  There is always something to do, and we enjoy working on the coach and keeping it in always better shape, upgrading and changing and organizing.  We removed our rooftop DataStorm internet satellite, because WiFi is ubiquitous in the campgrounds now.  We removed our washer/dryer and put in a pantry, because we need shelf space worse than an European style washer/dryer unit that was too slow and inadequate.  It’s easier to do a weekly load with quarters in the campground machines.  We’ve been camping for three years now, and it’s amazing how much experience we have picked up.  From the first summer, when we didn’t even know how to turn on the heat and keep a charge in the batteries, we now have water filtered three times before it comes into the coach, the electricity is monitored and controlled with a surge suppressor, we have the black and gray water tanks in perfect shape, odor free and working perfectly, hot water on demand, but only when we need it, our Ipod is playing our favorite music through the Bose radio on the granite countertop, we’re on line for our journal and IM’ing with the kids, we have about 200 satellite TV channels and regularly watch the Mariners, we’re Tivo’ing our favorite weekly shows and movies, and we’re getting movies from NetFlix when we stay in one spot long enough, all of which is watched on three TV screens, including the 32″ big screen.  We’re thinking about adding satellite radio for our long trip coming up.  We have custom made shades that snap on the windows around the front of the coach that give us complete privacy and UV protection on hot days.  We read a lot.  We stockpile our favorite books to be read as we find time and move through them depending on whether we wish to tour or stay in and read.  So, we have clean and hot water on demand, controlled power, satellite TV, internet, temperature controlled climate, books, music, movies, our latte machine and strudel loving dog, Pepper, a different view most of the time, and fresh produce and fruit depending on the specialty of the area (this week it’s fresh peaches and pears from Harry and David’s).  The strudel is long gone.  We also try to find campgrounds with pools so we can get some water aerobic exercise in.  We need it!

 Today we are driving up the Rogue River to Agness, supposedly a very unique and beautiful drive.  We are taking the original mail jet boat trip the same direction up the river on Monday as well.  It’s a fun life style, and you can see why we are looking forward to our long trip around the country, which we hope to begin in September.  We hope to be traveling for at least a year and keeping a journal.  We wouldn’t be traveling like this if we had to sleep on the ground in a tent.  For us, it’s all about being able to travel and see this big, beautiful country plus stay connected to family and friends.  Some folks with Big Rigs like to park in one place for four months, then move back to another site for another four months, etc.  We prefer to keep moving, seeing North America in all its glory, including festivals, fairs, national parks, concert venues, family and friends, and entertainments of all types.  We already have a lot of interesting stops in mind, and we should have a very interesting journal available to you, so stay with us on a regular basis, and we’ll try to keep you entertained.   We really love your input, ideas, suggestions, reflections, comments, reactions, helpful suggestions, and, especially, any special sights and stops you want to recommend.  We might eventually factor in some longer planned stops, such as volunteering help in our national parks or helping to build houses and churches, but we have a lot to see and learn first. 

There were moments today when we wish Hwy 199 was the road not taken.  There aren’t any good choices for getting from Medford to the Oregon coast, so we took the shortest but hardest one:  Highway 199 to Crescent City.  It was one of the most challenging drives in the RV we have ever had.  We’ve gone down Rattlesnake Ridge to Joseph, Oregon, through the Great Smokies on a drive where we hit our power awning on a rock wall, down some state highways in Northern California with the jake breaks whining, and up and down the Salt River Canyon in Arizona, and this drive rated right up there (or right down there) with all of these.  We had to almost come to a complete stop on some turns against rock walls with opposing traffic(read: log trucks) squeezing us into the rocks.  All’s Well That Ends Well, though, and we are safely on the Oregon coast at Gold Beach, thirty five miles north of the California line.  We really enjoyed the stop in southern Oregon.  The combination of Crater Lake and the Shakespearean Festival makes this area as entertaining as any in the country.  World class views and plays, and then this Oregon coast, make southwestern Oregon one of the great areas in the country in our opinion. 

P.S.  Our good friend, Bob Gundlach, just emailed us that the best ride EVER was Highway 199 ON HIS HARLEY!

In all, we attended 3 plays in Ashland:  “On the Razzle” (a fun adventure set in Vienna, full of humor and hi-jinks), “As You Like It” (written by Shakespeare as a story of love and forgiveness with the playwritter using the Great Depression as a setting for this play written in about 1600), and “The Tempest” (Shakespeare’s last play).  The theaters are arranged so that the actors are not even miked!  You hear every word so clearly.  We will definitely come back another time for more stage productions!  What a magical place!

Today we had three things on the schedule: a morning tour of Harry and David, an afternoon movie, and an evening performance of “The Tempest”.  At the end of the wonderful tour of Harry and David, we bought some fruit and splurged on a ten dollar blackberry strudel.  We came back to the coach, had lunch, and took off to see “The Bourne Ultimatum”, leaving Pepper in the coach.  We returned in the afternoon to find that Pepper had had quite the feast, she had gotten to the strudel on the counter, eating the whole thing plus the sample chocolates and cookies from H&D, and leaving a nice purple mess on the carpet.  We expect her to be sick, but, so far, she is quite content and nonchalant, like “try leaving me in the coach anytime.”  Hey, doodle, doodle, the dog and the strudel! We are headed out shortly to see one of Shakespeare’s last plays, “The Tempest.”  We stayed two extra days here to take in more of the plays, which are stunning, world class.

Today we took a nice little loop through Oregon countryside, leaving Medford and stopping in Jacksonville.  This is a small town, one of the few towns to be designated a national historic site (the whole town).  Essentially the historic part is just a couple of blocks plus a 150 year old cemetery at the top of the hill, but the street certainly has a nineteenth century look along the streetfront, and a trolley takes tourists through town.  We drove through beautiful Applegate Valley on the way to visit the Burly Man, a craft shop where burl wood is made into very creative furniture and household items.