Still in Oregon

Our entry into Newport was by a very impressive bridge, like a mini Sydney Harbour Bridge. Found our way to Wal-Mart for our overnight stay. Had a bad night as my cold was no better. Sightseeing today. Had a tour of the original lighthouse in the area, it only had a short life from 1871 to 1874, after which a new one was built in a new location a few kms along the coast. The lighthouse is now run by volunteers, who do a wonderful job of maintaining this piece of heritage. The old wharf area is just what it name implies, with lots of shops, restaurants and the pungent smell of fish from the fishing fleet area. Wandered around looking at some of the art, souvenirs, kitchen accessories, eating & ice-cream shops, had a coffee on the wharf, then found the library for wifi. Back to Wal-Mart for the night and hopefully an early start tomorrow.
Visited Aquila Head Lighthouse (the one that replaced the one we visited the previous day). There is a large interpretive centre to view here, and from here we walked to the lighthouse and back (you can drive if you so desire) Lots of fur seals, birds and wildflowers, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, beautiful day, first day of sunshine for a while. After leaving this area we continued to follow the spectacular coast line, with houses build right on the cliff face in some places. At Lincoln City we visited the outlet stores centre, was tempted to buy a new camera here, but remembered the trouble I had with my current one and needed to be repaired under warranty, much easier to do back home !!. The Casino at Lincoln City once again had an RV area, not as good as the Florence Casino, but the price was right, there were quite a number already here, so squeezed in between the larger ones, and had a better night’s sleep than we expected.
We left the101 Hwy at Pacific City to go to Sandlake and do the scenic drive around Three Capes. On the way around we stopped at Andersons view point and spoke to a young fellow who had just push biked up the huge hill and many more before. He had started in Astoria (NW tip of Oregon) and was cycling to his home in Kentucky, good luck to him!!!. We continued the drive to Tillamook along the ocean. Went looking for a night spot out along hwy 6, no luck so headed back into town and found a spot between an old abandoned service station and a lumber yard, even had internet. Started raining during the night, and it continued all the following day. We tried to do a tour of the Tillamook cheese factory, but the day was too miserable for this, so went to Fred Myers, then back to our o/n spot. Next day the weather had improved a little, so we did the Tillamook factory tour, it is very much automated and you do not see a great deal, however they have spent a huge amount of money on the establishment, it is now fully automated. We had morning tea at Garibaldi overlooking the estuary, yet another local weekend market happening here.Continuing along the coast we drove through Cannon Beach, which looked like a real yuppie type beach area, it was crowded, perhaps because it was also Father’s day. At Seaside there was an old car display, once again very busy. We made our way to Astoria, took a wrong turn and were at end of the town in a quiet part. Saw a potential overnight spot so went to the hardware shop which was the closest place open and asked the lady if she thought that it would be ok to park there overnight, she said that she could not give me permission, but offered to ring the owner and ask, no reply! Another chap in the shop said “you can stay behind my shop if you like” there is power and water and fairly quiet. We followed him, and he showed us where to set up. It turned out his shop was an auto repair shop, as it was Saturday night, we decided to stay until Monday and get him to look at our van, which had a small exhaust leak around the manifold, it was more annoying than a problem. We had four mechanics look at it and all said that they wouldn’t bother, plus it appeared to be a bigger job than they were prepared to tackle. It was a great week end, having power, TV, computer. On Monday he diagnosed the problem, but was unable to work on it for eight days, this would give us the opportunity to drive to the Columbia Gorge area and return for the work to be carried out.

Our adventure continues....

Up early and left the Safeway car park and drove back into the town, found a nice car park near the river to have breakfast, which we had to vacate before 11.00am as it was market day in the town and the car park was used for the market. Walked the town trying to find the post office, this wasn’t as easy as you may think, however it did give us a chance to look at the town perhaps more than we would have. We found it to be a very nice place with beautiful parklands. We then visited the old mill area, which in contrast to the older look of the town, is mainly new, full of trendy shops and eating areas built around a small section of the old mill. Driving to the mill area was a bit tricky, we stopped and asked a lady for directions, she said” if you keep turning left you will get there”, we followed her directions continuing to turn left, until the road seemed to be very narrow, this is when we discovered we were driving along a walkway, have you ever tried to turn around on a walkway ??? That was one turn left she forgot to mention that we should not have taken. After walking around for a while we left the Bend area and drove back into the forests, had lunch in a National Forest with Mt Bachelor as a back drop. Beautiful drive once again until we found a fishing campsite by a lake. Snow covered mountains pines etc etc….. the only downside was that it started raining, gave us the opportunity to watch a great movie “ Howards Way”. Up early, still raining occasionally but cleared long enough to see the snow, unfortunately I was beginning to catch a cold. Decided to stay and see what happened with the weather, experimenting with the iPod, until we ran out of power. Although the clouds were low we thought we would start the drive to the coast, it was just so cold here. Another superb drive, as we descended from the mountains through the Willamette Pass we drove past more large lakes and pines. It warmed up a little as we descended. Had a little trouble crossing Eugene to get to Wal-Mart for the night, missed a few turns on the freeway but eventually made it. In the morning we had to make our obligatory visit to Wal-Mart (can’t help ourselves). McDonalds didn’t have wifi, but found another site at a gym (guess it is so you can work out while on the Iphone) ,which gave us the chance do what we had to. It was now off to the coast and Florence, on the way there we came across another covered bridge, where we had afternoon tea, then went for a walk along the river and came across the perfect place to spend the night , Cold not improving, Michele cooked a hot dinner. Florence perhaps tomorrow. Slept in this morning, as cold is worse, leaving for Florence after morning tea which we had on the other side of the river, just so many great places to stop at. There is a casino just out of town that has a dedicated RV parking area, there would have been 20 to 30 RVs there, we went into town for a few items and wifi, then back to the casino for the night. Next day went back to town to do the laundry, discovered it was Flag Day in the US. Down in the old town there was a market with the usual things, plus live music, after wandering around old town we went back to the casino with the intensions of an early start the next morning. Left the casino at 9.50, cold no better however Michele is just about over hers. Drove along the coast and had breakfast at the Sea Lion centre. There were a lot of seals in the water and basking on the rocks, plus the awful odor that comes with them! Perused the gift shop, and then drove on to the historic Cape Creek Bridge, with a view of Heceta Head’s lighthouse from the beach, you can see many more sea lions from the view points to the north of the Sea lion centre. Next we visited Cape Perpetua National Forest and the information centre. Captain Cook was in this area must have been just prior to him dropping into Australia in 1776. We drove past many beautiful beaches, most with pines on the cliffs overlooking the ocean with large rocks in the water, beautiful scenery. The Oregon coast is promoted as a cycling area and you see many cyclists rising to the challenge The next edition we will continue our drive along the coast to Newport.