"Covid 19" Summer 2020 Trip to Oregon

Time to head north for some Oregon weather (hopefully warm) and a nice change of scenery.

Walt and I need to see something besides our home in San Rafael.  No real long trips planned for this summer and fall trip to Oktoberfest and a cruise in the Mediterranean CANCELLED!

Our plan was to travel to Salem to see my sister Joanne and then head to the coast for another 3 weeks.  We did a similar trip last year.  This year we will stay at different coastal towns to see what they have to offer.

We always enjoy seeing the beautiful Mt. Shasta and  look to see how full Shasta Lake is.  The lake looked pretty full and had lots of boats on it .

We celebrated my 70th birthday in Salem at my sister's place.  Decadent chocolate cake and back yard fireworks.  Yahoo.  Had a great time enjoying sister time.  We enjoy cooking together.  We canned some blueberry and strawberry jam, tried several new recipes and then moved on to craft projects.  Good time!  Didn't get around to making bread in the Instant Pot though!  Bummer.

We then headed to the coast.  First stop, Lincoln City.  We stayed at Logan RV Campground.  It is affiliated with the local Indian casino.  Sites are tight for us larger rigs,  but we could walk to the beach and some local shops from there.

While there, we drove north to Tillamook for a day trip.  Found a local seafood shop and enjoyed fish and chips at outside tables.  We spent a fair amount of time in Tillamook a few years ago.  They are well known for their Tillamook cheese and the area is predominately dairy farming.  Many of their large barns and buildings are adorned with Quilt patterns.  They have a Quilt Trail that you can drive to in order to see them all.  The practice of showing quilt patterns on barns dates back to the 1800's when immigrants  arrived via the Oregon Trail long ago.

Moo

Along Highway 101 we noticed quite a few large open range chicken farms.  Google told us that Oregon will require open ranges for any chicken farms with 3000 or more chickens by the year 2023.  Good for the chickens! Happy chickens make happy eggs!

Got this picture from Google; note snow.  Couldn't snap a good picture driving by

Next stop, Florence. We stayed at the Elks campground.  They have 2 campgrounds, one in town and one north of town.  We stayed at the north one.  It has 40 sites with full hookups and is in a quiet forest setting. Highly recommend that one.

Right on Highway 101 north of Florence there is a small nature preserve called Darlingtona Californica.  It's claim to fame is that it has a very unusual plant there.  It is called the Cobra Orchid, Cobra Lilly or Pitcher Plant.  It is a giant Venus Fly Trap type of plant.  It attracts insects with a nectar and then they fall to the bottom and are digested by the plant.  That feeds the plant. They are only located in parts of N. California and S. Oregon, are visible only in the summer months and must have a boggy soil to survive.

One of our campsite neighbors recommended we go to a restaurant in Florence's Old Town.  It is called 1285 Retrobar.  We had lunch there at an outside table.  Weather fantastic and food was great.  The Old Town section was really cute.  It is right on the Siuslaw River and lots of pretty sites to see.

Every little coastal harbor town has an old style bridge.  This in one crossing the Siuslaw River.


Florence decorates their town with colorful seals.  All with a different paint job.

 This was an interesting bumper sticker on an RV in town.

We found a beautifully restored Airstream at the campground there.  It was being pulled by an equally beautiful restored old classic car.

We took a day trip to Newport and enjoyed eating at a restaurant that we like, Ocean Bleu. They have several tables outdoors and were spaced far apart.  We really liked a wheat beer we drank there.  We will need to try to find it at BevMo.  It is from Seattle.

 We found a boat in the harbor that was selling live crabs and bought 3.  Can't go to the Oregon coast and not have Crab!

We have a lobster pot in our RV so Crab Salad for dinner tonight!!

The drive down the coast was spectacular.  No fog, beautiful long beaches and lots of greenery along the roadside.  Oregon has lots of very large pullouts with fantastic ocean views.  Good place to pull over and have lunch. Wild Foxglove is common here. AKA Digitalis.

The Florence beaches and nearby Heceta Lighthouse are beautiful.

Traveling south on the coast Highway 101 we passed thru Gold Beach and across the Rogue River.  The fishermen were fishing for salmon at the entrance to the Rogue River.  Lots and lots of fishermen.  The King Salmon run in August.

Next stop was Bandon.  It is a small coastal town with an Old Town as well.  Unfortunately, we arrived on the weekend and it was way too crowded to chance a walk or lunch out.  The wind has been up and the waves are large. 6-9 foot swells that are wonderful to watch.

Another lighthouse as well!  Coquille Lighthouse.  The wind was up but the sky was blue and the ocean was beautiful. 

We drove up to Charleston for some oysters for the barbecue!! They grow them really big up here, so we try to buy small  or extra small ones only.   Prices are fantastic compared to our Marin County prices.  $11 a dozen.

Off to Brookings.  This town is a bit bigger.  Has a very large and active fishing port but it doesn't have the volume of fish processing plants that Newport has.

We stayed at the Beachfront RV Campground run by the Port of Brookings.  We got a great ocean view site.  Beach right there and we could watch the boats head out in the morning and return later that day.  The Coast Guard boats were busy one day boarding boats and checking for safety issues.  They just hopped from one boat to the next.

Site 78 right on the ocean

Well then headed to Eureka and our last stop before heading home.  A month has gone by fast.  Took a day drive to visit the little Victorian town of Ferndale.  It has been on our "bucket list" and is now checked off.  Beautiful homes.  The town sits on a little peninsula on the other side of the Eel river.  Mostly dairy farming.

We stopped to talk with a couple who just finished remodeling their little home.  They were very proud of their home.  They winter in Chandler AZ.

We had lunch on Woodley Island at the Marina in Eureka.  Outdoor dining overlooking the fishing fleet.  We talked with some fishermen and watched them bait hooks for tonight's fishing trip. They go out 15 miles and fish deep (700 ft) for bottom fish!  They were baiting LOTS of hooks.  Like more than 100!

Not a pretty site

End of the trip. Until next time, bye bye.

Winter 2020 in the Desert

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We drove straight down to Quartzsite first.  We needed to get another solar panel installed and solar installations are a specialty in Quartzsite.  We had unexpected news, our batteries were dying.  Oh well, it's only money.  Now we have a new solar and all new batteries. 

Now on to Yuma for a week.  We haven't been down here since buying our place in Havasu.  We needed to go into Algodonas Mexico for some prescription medicines for friends and family.  Great savings on select medicines.   It is also fun to do a little sight seeing too.

We went back up to Quartzsite on our way up to Havasu.  Going to meet the Kirby's there and the Big White Tent Event is happening now.  There are also lots of Gems and Fossils to look over.  

Great to get down again to Havasu.  This year, we arrived in early January.  Hurray!   We love to see all our winter neighbors again.  We have two neighbors that live here all year!!  They practically have the resort to themselves in the summer heat! .

January was very cool/cold.  Not boat weather for sure.  Judy and her sister braved the February cool for a boat ride.  Judy's spicy Bloody Mary's may have helped.

Our cactus blossoms are always wonderful to see.

 

Thankfully, it warmed up after that.  We did the usual stuff like Razor rides, bonfires and boating before the Covid curse began.

 

We had a crazy party in the park.  Called the Trailer Trash Party.  People dressed up in their finest trash clothing and enjoyed a great band too.

We took a drive to Wickenburg to attend a great outdoor art festival.  We finally found just the right wall hanging for our casita.  It is a native depiction of Sun, Rain and Wind.

Sun, Rain and Wind

Arizona didn't lock down as tightly as California and the bay area counties.  It was only late in April that restaurants closed and other restrictions started to occur.

Before the restrictions began, we all went for a bowling experience.  I remember it used to seem effortless.  Now,  to step up and dip down to throw that ball ....hurts!!!!    We all were in the same league.....a low one.   My first game was the lowest score of all....a 38!

  I was able to save face on the next round "when I found my grove". 

Once the Covid restrictions started to be enforced, we only stayed with our small group of friends and were able to socially distance on our boats and when we beached on a nearby beach.  Lots of other boaters had 10+ people on their boats and we counted over 75 boats grouped together on the beach.  Not good.


Hey, Keep Your Distance!!

Even the Boats Were 6 foot Apart!!!

We even had an airplane fly in and land near our beach.

When we needed to start to wear masks we needed to be creative.  We learned on google how to make a great mask and head wrap using men's Fruit of the Loom underwear!!

Judy had the girls over for a craft day.  We made wall hangings, coasters and ROCKS!  I am not artistic at all but was happy with the little cactus garden I was able to paint.

Due to the virus, our friends from North Carolina cancelled their trip to Havasu and my nephew and his family had to cancel as well.  Sure hope next year is better for all of us and this dreaded virus is gone. 

Kirby's stopped by on their way home.  We golfed together and had a treat.  We were ready to tee off and looked behind our tee box and there was a large bob cat!! Beautiful and not intimidated by us at all. Picture is a bit blurry.

Its May, time to go home.