The Road Goes On…

Category: Oregon

  • Brookings, OR to Fort Bragg, CA

    We slept in this morning and left without breakfast, driving to the town of Arcata in California. Here we had a fabulous Italian lunch at Mazzotti’s on the Plaza which won the reader’s choice award in 2014 for best Italian restaurant on the north coast. We think that they deserved it. After lunch we did a bit of shopping at Caravan of Dreams and several other stores.

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    Next up was Redwood park and the Avenue of the Giants. Here the road is lined with century old redwood trees that tower above you in this old growth forest. We did a short hike through the forest and to a nearby river.

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    We’ve now left Hwy 101 for Hwy 1 which runs along the coast and we will be following this highway for the remainder of our trip to San Francisco.

    Tonight we are staying at a small campground behind a grocery store just across from the Ricochet Ranch where we hope to go for a ride with Shirley’s friend tomorrow.

  • Gold Beach, OR to Brookings, OR

    Today was an exciting day of getting wet with a 104 mile whitewater thrill on Jerry’s Rogue River Jetboat. These jet boats are powered by three 8 cylinder Chevy engines, have a flat bottom and virtually no draft. We roared up the wild and scenic Rogue river following the routes established by the mail boats in 1895.

    Besides crossing a number of rapids and doing spins in river basins we saw beautifully rugged canyons and quite a bit of wildlife including bald eagles, turkey vultures, black bears and deer, just to name a few.

    We did not take a camera because of the expected water spray.

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    On the way to our campground we stopped and photographed beautiful rock and dune formations from the side of the road.

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    Our campground was right by the ocean and we arrived just in time for sunset.

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  • Bay City, OR to Gold Beach, OR

    We started the morning with a delicious breakfast at the Creamery Cafe at the Tillamook Cheese factory. We then toured part of the factory and to see how the famous cheddar of Tillamook is made and packaged. All kinds of people visited the factory with us and then lined up for samples at the end of the tour just before the cheese and gift store exit.

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    Not far from the cheese factory was the Tillamook Air Museum, located in one of two huge hangars originally built in 1942-1943 to store blimps. The second hangar burned a few years ago. These hangars could each house nine blimps. Today the hangar is home to a number of different aircraft, some of which saw action in various conflicts such as the first Gulf war. Outside there is a mini-guppy transport plane which you can visit the inside of.

    Here is an image showing the size of our RV in comparison to the mini-guppy and hangar.

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    The airbase cafe at the museum reminded us of Route 66 with its black and white tiled floors and red stools and booths.

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    Enroute we had a quick lunch at Siletz Bay which is known for the great tsunami of 1700.

    Late in the afternoon we visited the lighthouse at Yaquina Head and its black beach.

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    Because of our late arrival, the recommended Honey Bear RV Park at Gold Beach couldn’t accommodate us anymore.  We ended up at the Nesika Beach RV Park instead.

    Note: Today’s map isn’t complete as some was lost because we didn’t download it before it was overwritten.

  • Hoquiam, WA to Bay City, OR

    First item on the agenda was to finish the RV cleaning and drying of the damp laundry after replenishing our collection of quarters. Next was a battle with a terribly annoying lady who was monopolizing ALL the dryers. After breakfast we set out on a day of driving down the beautiful Pacific coast towards Oregon.

    We stopped in Long Beach where we each had a rather large ice cream cone. Even Pepsi had to help with polishing off the cones. Guiltily, all three of us walked the calories off on the extensive boardwalk along the sandy beach.

    After leaving Long Beach we found ourselves in a traffic jam. Luckily for us, Jim’s Biplane Rides offered a distraction and we went for a scenic flight in his open cockpit 1929 Travelair. The two of us sat in the front seat with cap, goggles and ear plugs while Jim flew from the rear seat.

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    Once safely back in the RV we continued to Cannon Beach. The traffic had mostly dissipated by this point and we made it in good time. Cannon beach has interesting rocks and a beach with very fine white sand.

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    The final task was to make it to the Tillamook Bay City RV park which is near the cheese factory we hope to tour tomorrow.