13th Stop - Elma, WA

Today we broke camp (in the rain and 'sleet') and left our CG near Pacific City.  We drove north again on Hiway 101 thru Tillamook where Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese is produced:

And we continued to follow the shoreline.  It rained most of the trip which meant that the seas were rough:

We drove thru many small towns and had coastal views most of the way.  We got to Astoria, which is the northern-most town in Oregon.  Astoria is home to the first permanent US settlement west of the Rockies (1805).  We crossed this bridge over the Columbia River into Washington:

All along the coastline, from Brookings to Astoria, we met or followed these guys:

I think Weyerhauser is the major logger here.

Once into Washington we left the coast and traveled on an easterly route to our present CG here in Elma, which is about 25 miles west of Olympia.  We got setup here in sunny skies, only to have a short rain shower about an hour after we arrived.  And then the sun came back.

We plan to stay here until Monday when we travel up to norhern WA.  In the meantime, we will be stocking up on supplies for our trip thru Canada and into Alaska.  We are also planning to meet Steve's brother, Jim, and his wife, Meg, who live here in Olympia on Sunday.  We saw them in Phoenix when they were visiting another brother, Bob, and his wife, Maureen.



To sum up our trip thru Oregon, we would have to say that it was awesome!!
Here is a map of the coastline from Brookings to Astoria.   Hiway 101 is called the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway.

Here is another map showing you our progress since March 21st:

I think that brings you up-to-date at this time.  Will write more in a few days...

12th Stop - Pacific City, OR

We left Lakeview, OR on Monday morning and continued our way north on Hiway 101 along the coast.  It’s beginning to sound like an old record, BUT, the scenery continues to be incredible.  Here are some more pictures along the way:

(Again, click on the pictures to get a better look)

We stopped when we saw this sign and took a tour. 

We walked down this walkway to the elevator:

and then went down about 300 ft to a huge cave where you could watch the seals in this cavern.  It was quite impressive how they are able to get up on the rocks with the waves crashing all around.  Unfortunately,  it was too dark to take any pictures.  But I did find this picture in a magazine;  the second picture is actually a postcard:

In the lower picture, these seals are gathered to attack their only known predator, the orca whale as it passes the Oregon Coast.

We continued on up the highway, drove thru Pacific City, and then west to our Thousand Trails CG.  Several sites had views of the ocean, but ours didn’t.  But we liked it anyway. 

The day we picked this site, the sun was shining and it looked great for grilling and eating outside.  However, it has been cold and rainy since with very little sun!

Again, NO phone service or internet at our site.  We did go to the Family Center and had internet service.

On Tuesday we took the trail down to the beach and walked around.  It was low tide so you can see how much beach we had.  We found a few shells, but, for the most part, the beach was pretty clean.

On Wednesday we drove into Pacific City to make some calls and then had lunch at the Sportmen’s Bar & Grill.  They had great fish and chips.  The fish was Dory (?) and was caught on Sunday.  Later we came back to the beach and actually drove on it.  The wind was so strong that the sand was blowing, leaving sand drifts!

Tomorrow we leave for Elma, WA which is about 30 miles west of Olympia.

11th Stop - Lakeside, OR

                   Happy Easter!!

We left Brookings yesterday morning and drove north to Lakeside, where we are now.

We drove thru Coos Bay and over a large bridge:

A side view:

Just north of town are about 12 miles of sand dunes which are very popular for ATV's:

We also saw these along the way:

We found our CG - our site backed up to a lake.  A couple of geese and several ducks were in the lake:

 For supper we went to the local pizza joint and had some excellent pizza!

Today we drove back to Coos Bay to the nearest Lutheran Church for Easter Services.

The service and litergy was alot like ours so it felt somewhat like home.

Judy prepared an excellent Easter dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, and applesauce.  It has been raining on and off most of the day so we stayed inside.

Tomorrow we take off again up Hiway 101 about 150 miles to Pacific City for a few days.   Will update you later...

10th Stop - Brookings, OR

Well, this is the first time ever for both of us to travel in Oregon!!

We left Ft. Bragg, CA on Thursday morning and drove back to Willits via Hiway 20, the curvy road.  Alot more traffic this time so we were forced to use the turnouts alot to let others by.  Many honked in appreciation.

The scenery was again beautiful along Hiway 101. 

Check out that tree coming up on the right:

We saw signs like this whenever we came down from the mountains and drove along the beach areas - this one was in CA:

 We saw this one in OR:

We were viewing the coastline much of the way. 

We arrived at our CG which was appropriately named:  AtRiversEdge RV Park. 

This was the view before we drove down this steep hill to get to the CG:

Very nice setup as you can see.

Got setup and tried to contact my high school buddy, Pat Foley, but, again, the phones would barely work.  Turns out I only had his work number, and, of course, it is 5:30, so he is no longer there.  I got on the internet to find his last email (for phone numbers) and found that he had already emailed us and wanted us to meet him at this cafe for their Easter dinner.  So we got cleaned up and drove to the restaurant.  Met Pat and his daughter, Kate.  His younger son, Brian, came a little later.  We had a great time, reliving good times (but not too many with his kids present!!) and great food.

Friday we again met Pat and Kate for lunch at a little seafood restaurant on the river.  I believe that I had the best fish and chips ever!  We said our goodbyes and then went back to the CG and washed clothes!!

Later we drove north of Brookings to a park and got some more pictures:

On Saturday we left and drove up the coast again to our next destination...Lakeside, OR.