Rain!
Rain has
followed us all year starting in Branson, moving into Oklahoma and Texas and
following us throughout the south (Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota).
So we figured, if it’s going to rain on
us anyway … let’s go enjoy the ocean on the Oregon coast.
We left South Dakota and headed out. Our first night’s stop was at the Deer
Park RV Park in Buffalo, Wyoming.
This is an easy to get to park about a mile off of Interstate 80 and
situated between I-25 and I-80.
The people running the park were very friendly and suggested a few
places to eat. Since we are back
on an Atkins diet we settled for eating hot links at home. As I write this in October, I can tell
you that I am tired of meat and particularly tired of hot links. They seem to grow in the freezer. Just when we think we are done with
them a few more packages appear and must be eaten. I like them in August, however and our stop over in Wyoming
was pleasant enough.
Our next stop was at Old West RV in Reed Point, MT. Not much to say about this park. The site was gravel, pull through, and
50 amp. The park was a bit run
down and there was both freeway and train noise. We left the around 9:30 a.m. (early for us) and headed out.
The next day we drove, and drove … it seemed like Montana
would go on forever. The sky is
big … as advertized, but we were worn out by the time we reached Missoula. We had made reservations at Jim and
Mary’s RV Park north of town and were looking forward to stopping. When we arrived we were told we didn’t
have reservations, but were a no-show for reservations a few weeks prior. We were comfortably ensconced in South
Dakota at the time they had us down for … so there was obviously a
mistake. We think it was the
park’s mistake … they claimed it was our error. I will say in their defense that it looked like a nice and well-run park and you shouldn’t hold our experience against them. Nevertheless, there was no room in the inn and they didn’t have a manger.
They did offer to set us up across the street, but that seemed a bit
high so we made our own reservations a bit further down the road in St. Regis.
The Campground at St. Regis was a lifesaver. We were able to get this reservation
with less than an hour’s notice.
It is located on a beautiful river and is, apparently known for its
fishing. The park was friendly,
beautiful, and pleasant. The park has nice trees, so there is no Direct TV reception, however there is free WiFi and 50 amp. As it turns out we
didn’t miss TV at all as there were a few deer wandering through the site at
dusk and we watched them for about an hour before the sun finally set.
The following day we arrived in Washington and decided to
stay a few days in the Spokane area.
We landed at the Ponderosa Falls RV Park associated with ROD. We were assigned to a place by
the back fence lined with trees.
At one time this park was located in a rural spot, but today it is
surrounded by the suburban homes.
Our spot turned out to be a challenge to get into, but once in we were
very happy with the location and woods smelled fresh. We would stay here again.
Spokane is a nice city although we were there during
construction season (apparently another state with two seasons … winter and
construction). It is also plagued
with a plethora of one-way streets … apparently some ambitious city planner
decided that every street possible should be one way! The city has all of the amenities one could want including a
nice Costco (which we can’t manage to enter without spending at least $200),
restaurants, and beautiful parks.
We spent some time at the park in the city center by the river and had a
nice time. Here are a few pictures.
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| Tower in Park |
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| Beautiful flowers line the river |
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| A really nice carousel |
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| The fountain sculpture |
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| Lynda at Boo Radley's |
Leaving Spokane we stopped at O’Sullivan’s RV Resort. The address is Othello, WA but the park
is located across from Potholes State Park. This is a nice location for boating and water sports
although we do neither. The park
has 50 amp. and we had a pull-through in the middle section. We followed our 2/2/2 rule (Don’t drive
over 200 miles, stop by 2:00 p.m., and stay at least 2 days) for this one and
then we were off again.
We drove approximately halfway to the coast stopping in Randle,
WA at the Maple Grove RV Park.
This is a Coast-to-Coast Park.
We arrived at 4:30 p.m. but the office closed at 4:00 p.m. We found our reservation and a map to
our site. C2C is restricted to an
area backing the road. We had a
gravel pad surrounded by dead grass, 50 amp. satellite access, and good water
pressure. Once more followed our
2/2/2 rule. If you haven’t tried
this rule, it is particularly helpful when deadheading from one favored
location to another as it saves both your body and your sanity.
Leaving Randle, it wasn’t long before we had spectacular
views of Mt. Rainier. It is well
worth a stop at the spacious view area to take in the sight and snap a few pictures.
Finally, we arrived at our destination: Thousand Trails RV Park in Seaside, Oregon. This is
one of our favorite parks in the TT system. We always stay on the north side of the park in the first
row across from the pool, when possible.
When we arrived it was completely full with the exception of a site
across from the cabins in the back, but the following day we were able to pull
into the front row! Our site had 50 amp. service, great Direct TV reception, and a Verizon WiFi and phone signal … all is well with the world.
We stayed here for two weeks and enjoyed the beach and the weather (not as much rain as
expected). We visited Cannon Beach
and found a wonderful place called the Chocolate Café. Here we sampled the Mayan Milkshake made with rich dark chocolate, cinnamon, and chipotle, and chilies. Wow! This is the best milk shake ever … a definite must have! Our last Saturday in the
park we were entertained by “Stormin Normin” who played guitar and sang all of
the oldies … great fun.
We moved down the coast to Newport, OR and stayed at
Whalers’ Rest RV (Thousand Trails).
This is a lovely park, just five minutes outside of Newport with its own
easy beach access. Unfortunately, where we stayed we sere without a phone signal, very weak WiFi, and no Direct TV (we bought cable for $25 for two weeks).
Again we hung out at the beach, taking long walks. Our favorite place to just sit and
chill is Nana’s Irish Pub in the Nye Beach area. They serve a nice Guinness (most places don’t know how to pour a Guinness) and have a delicious steak and Guinness pie. Of course the “Chowder Bowl” is a
favorite for chowder, the “Crab Shack” just out of town has the best prices on
fish and chips, and for a nice fish dinner try “Charlies” which also has great
views of the ocean and a decent wine list. One final place not to miss is “La Maison.” It is a little hard to locate, but
worth the hunt. I had a wonderful Eggs Benedict made with smoked salmon and Lynda had a fresh banana eclair that was huge and tasted like banana cream pie.
While in Newport we took in the two area lighthouses: Yaquina Bay and Yaquina Head. Both are really interesting to
visit. Yaquina Bay is run by the
state of Oregon and Yaquina Head is run by the Feds. Here are some pics of
our Newport stay.
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| Our faithful companion, Cody |
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| Yaquina Bay Lighthouse |
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| Bridge at Newport |
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| Fishing Fleet at Newport |
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| Yaquina Head Lighthouse |
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| View from Yaquina Head |
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| View from Yaquina Head |
Enjoying the coast we headed back up to Seaside, but stopped
outside of Lincoln City at Neskowin Creek RV Park. We aren’t normally casino or buffet folk, but went twice to
the buffet at the Chinook Winds casino.
It was a bit pricy ($18.95 each), but they had it all … crab, prime rib, salads, desserts, etc. etc.
Back in Seaside, we met new friends: Nick and Terry, Rod & Susan. We
enjoyed our time with them thoroughly.
We ate Chinese at the “Great Wall Chinese Restaurant” with the group and
enjoyed it. One of our friends
Issy, from England recommended that we meet Larry and Carolyn, but we kept
missing each other. Finally, on
our last day or two we hooked up with them. Wonderful folk!
Thanks, Issy!
Our daughter, Charity (who looks 12 but is 38), joined us for a
week or so and we took in some sights we had seen a couple of years ago and
enjoyed her company. Went to Camp 18 restaurant, the Tillamook Cheese factory, and to the Astoria Column.
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| Daughter Charity at Camp 18 |
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| Lynda at Camp 18 |
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| Kim at Camp 18 |
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| Charity and Dad |
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| Odd Rooster on streets of Newport |
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| View from Astoria Column |
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| Astoria Bridge to Washington |
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| View from Column |
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| Kim & Lynda at Astoria Column |
The last ten days at Seaside, the weather turned nasty. It rained sideways and was obvious that
the summer season was over.
Charity’s boyfriend, John joined her and they chose to camp out in a
tent … considering the rain, they proved themselves very hearty, but claimed
they enjoyed it. The day before we
left Seaside we took them to the train station in Portland where they caught
the train for Virginia … the trees should be beautiful on their way.
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| Seaside RV flooded section |
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| Seaside RV flooded section |
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| Charity and John at Train Station in Portland |
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| Portland Train Station |
Thankfully we are now out of the rain and headed south
toward California for a couple of months.
Until next time … keep doing what you love.
