2008 – Week 15

Tuesday, August 5, 2008:
Wind must have been from the west this morning as all the planes taking off from the airport flew just a bit north of the RV Park. The AAA tow truck came at 9:45am, looked at our RV and said he had hoped it was a small one. I pointed to the one next door and told him that was a big one, ours was small. Back to get another truck, and he hauled us to a Peterbuilt & GMC repair shop. This one is is open from 6:00am on Monday to 4:30pm on Saturday, nonstop. The problem turned out to be a bad starter was replaced. Back to the RV Park where we didn’t do much of anything. It was hot with the wind from the west. We had salmon, bought frozen in the San Juan Island Farmers Market, on the George Foreman grill. I decided to look at the weather forecast for the northwestern part of Oregon, and it indicates temperatures in the high 90’s for 4 days. We are changing our plans and heading to the coast again. It may be foggy at times, but at least it will be cool. NOAA has ‘red flag warnings’ from southwest OR down the center of CA for a good distance. No rest for the firefighters who have been doing a good job at containing the large CA fires. All their hard work may be for nothing over the next few days.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008:
We confirmed our decision to head west, but also to stop at the Apple store to get Susie a new battery for her laptop. The mall was one of the new designs where all the stores face on a public street, creating a ‘town’ atmosphere. The battery was covered by warranty so that was painless. Next it was time for a very late breakfast so we walked down the street to a bakery and filled ourselves with quiche and fruit. Next errand was to make copies of the documentation on the ferry incident to make our claim plus buy more dog food for Daisy. After all this work, we needed coffee and somehow 2 pecan rolls jumped into the bag. OK, enough boring errands and we headed west on US26 to the Pacific Coast. On the way there we passed through farmland and the very green forests on the Coastal Range Mountains. Timbering is taking place here, but the areas have been replanted and are growing. If done right, it is really just agriculture. Once we reached US101, the Pacific Coast Road, we turned south and through the town of Cannon Beach. The town was active, clean and well maintained. What was unusual, or so we thought, was that, unlike the Jersey Shore and the Delmarva ocean beaches, the houses were built right on the water in several areas. In other areas the houses are on the bluffs along the coast and are probably safe from the tsunamis, infdrequent as they may be. We continued south on US101 and spotted a 30ish couple trying to get a ride. There were in a car pull off area, and we thought they had car trouble, something we’re kind of sensitive about now. That wasn’t the case, they had hiked up a mountain and then came down on the other side and didn’t really want to hike back over. We drove them into town and then tried to get a spot in the Nehalem State Park. Unfortunately it was full, and we were turned away. As most of you know, we generally don’t secure reservations as our plans often change, but this is only the second time in 6 years that we have been turned away. The Park Rangers were most helpful, giving us a list of other places, and we landed in the Bayview Jetty County Park about 15 miles south. The drive along US101 is great. There were several seastacks and long stretches of beaches. There was much activity on the beaches, but not much swimming. There was a low cloud layer that obscured the tops of the Coastal Range. We walked the beach, picking up some trash. There is an actual jetty and it protects the single inlet to Tillamook Bay. At the end of the jetty is a light with a horn that will probably blow all night. We might be a bit cranky tomorrow morning. We spent a bit of time trying to figure out what to do for the next few days while we are waiting for the heat to subside. There are numerous state parks along the Oregon Coast, but not many with camping. We are thinking that we may need to change our plans again and stay in Oregon a bit after Labor Day when the children are back in school. We have two couples in the two adjacent spots. One couple lives in Spokane WA but have a spot in a Yuma AZ park for the winter where they take their RV and trailer. The other couple lives in Newport OR, a bit further south than where we are.

Thursday, August 7, 2008:
Daisy and I took a walk along the north jetty this morning. Susie and I spent time with the neighbors and received great information about Oregon and where we should head while here. They have save us from one unpleasant spot and confirmed that we are mostly on the correct path. I made some camp reservations to make sure we have spots for the next several days before we get into the mountains in northeast Oregon. We took Daisy for another walk, prepared to go to the Tillamook County Fair to watch the ‘Pig n’ Ford’ race. According to several people this is a ‘can’t miss’ event. These are Model T Fords, stripped down to the frame, and require both hands and both feet to operate. At the start of the race, the driver grabs a pig and puts it under his arm, runs back and crank starts the car (pig still under his arm), drives around the track, gets off the car, returns one pig and takes another, then around the track again to the finish line where the pig is placed back in its pen. There were 10 cars and thus 2 heats of 5 cars each. Today was the first of 2 days of eliminations with the final race on Saturday night. The winner is crowned World Champion. I was thinking that this would be a great event to bring to the Maryland State Fair. We watched the judging of heifers and sheep raised by 4-H Club members. The judge seemed good, but best of all he was kind and gentle with the kids, praising them for their efforts. We also saw a dog agility contest (Susie does this with Daisy) that was great fun. Agility is a program where dogs climb steep ramps, go over teeter-totters, jump through a tire, weave through a set of vertical poles, go over jumps and through tunnels (some open but others with a cloth chute that prevents the dog from seeing were he is going). Actually Daisy did one of the exercises when she walked up and down the top of a sloping concrete barrier wall to take a look over the Pacific Ocean. Some of the youngsters had done some training, but others were doing it for the first time. The judge here was great and helped the kids (and dogs) along. In the end she awarded everyone a blue ribbon to the cheers of the spectators. We looked at all the new tractors and saw the biggest manure spreader we have ever seen. They need them here because this area of Oregon is the largest dairy producer in the country. The county produces more than 25 million gallons of milk a year and most is made into natural cheddar cheese. If you have been in the supermarket and saw Tillamook cheese, it is made here in Tillamook OR. We went to get some fish and chips at a restaurant that uses local fresh fish. It was closed for service, but Susie asked if they could do takeout, which they did. We sat in the RV and had dinner before going back to the campground.

Friday, August 8, 2008:
We spent the morning talking with our neighbors, learning more about Oregon and where to camp. They had a nice fire and that cut the chill. Even Daisy came over to get warm. We said good-by to our neighbors, left the campground at 11:30am and went into the town of Garibaldi on Tillamook Bay where we bought fresh fish for dinner. We had the chance to buy a whole tuna (a small one about 10 lbs) but we didn’t have room in the refrigerator. We drove south into Tillamook and had lunch at The Blue Cheese Factory. It wasn’t really a factory, but served good food, with an outside petting zoo and a field full of old rusty tractors. From lunch we drove further south and toured the Tillamook Air Museum.
We had seen most of the planes before, but the building was a WWII hanger for lighter than air craft (blimps) used to patrol the Pacific Coast for protection against submarines. I don’t think the threat to shipping from submarines was as bad along the Pacific Coast as it was along the Atlantic Coast. The hanger is 1,072 feet long with a height of 192 feet and a clear span width of 296 feet. There was enough space in this wooden structure to house 8 K-ships (class of LTA craft) each with a length of 291 feet. We watched a movie from the History Channel that depicted the last 24 hours of the war with Japan. From the US side, there was a raid by 174 B-29 aircraft on the last remaining oil refinery in Japan. This was the last offensive operation against Japan. From the Japanese side, there was an attempted coup against Emperor Hirohito by a Japanese Army Major in an attempt to stop the announcement of an unconditional surrender at noon the next day. The coup failed partially because the city of Toyko was blacked out due to the B-29’s flying overhead to bomb the oil refinery. We had not seen the film before and were not aware of these events. From the Museum we went to the Tillamook Factory to watch the process of cheese making. Unfortunately all we could see was the packaging of large blocks. It was a bit like looking at the inside of one of the hydro-electric plants we visited, things are happening but you can’t tell what. However, this plant also makes Tillamook Ice Cream, and we had some. Probably we will go back tomorrow because it was really good. We checked into a campground where we’ll stay for 2 nights before heading east. We drove 25 miles today.

Saturday, August 9, 2008:
Contrary to what NOAA forecast, we awoke this morning to broken clouds and sun. We decided that we should drive the 32 mile long Three Capes Scenic Route that starts in Tillamook and ends in Pacific Harbor. Our first stop was at Cape Meares lighthouse, constructed in 1890 on the top of a 200 foot tall headland. The lens was a “First Order” Fresnel Lens (the largest one made) made in Paris and shipped around Cape Horn where it was hoisted up the cliff with a crane made from local timber. The light lens is octagonal and shows red for 5 seconds, white for 30 seconds, red for 5 seconds and so on. The light source was a five wick oil lamp and was visible for 21 miles on a clear night. This lighthouse was decommissioned in 1963 and replaced by a low maintenance automated system that produces 57,000 candlepower. The original lighthouse was heavily vandalized before “The Friends of Cape Meares Lighthouse” took it over and restored it as much as possible. Unfortunately the Fresnel lens was damaged and is missing some of the pieces of glass. This lighthouse is just one of several on the Oregon Coast that is open for viewing. Another attraction at the site is the Octopus Tree. This tree is a gigantic Sitka Spruce that the local First Americans believe was forced into the shape and performed service as a “burial tree”. I’m not sure of this as we have seen trees with a similar shape and no mention has ever been made of any connection with the First Americans. Anyway, the circumference of the main trunk at ground level is 50 feet. On the way back to the parking lot, we saw a young girl with her mother crouched down with her drawing pad. She was drawing a picture of a banana slug. She had previously drawn a picture of the Octopus Tree. She told us that if she wanted to draw a picture, and didn’t have her pad with her, she would blink her eyes and take a ‘memory picture’. We drove on south with Netarts Bay on our right. Noticing several cars off the road, we wondered what was going on and stopped. Susie spotted three different groups of sea lions resting on various sandbars. They must have been waiting for the tide to turn and bring the fish into the bay so they could eat. After watching them for about 15 minutes, we drove towards Cape Lookout.
We were looking for a scenic place to park to eat lunch and about half way to the top of the Cape, we found a wonderful spot with a great view to the north. We saw the same seastacks we had seen from Cape Meares, but from the south. The beach was long and wide with breaking waves. We had lunch and continued to the top of Cape Lookout. We suddenly found ourselves in the clouds until we started down again. Suddenly, we were in an area of sand dunes and then numerous OHV (off highway vehicles) appeared. It turns out that this area is the Sand Lake Recreation Area, a tract of 1,076 acres that is operated by the US Forest Service. While we are not necessarily in favor of these vehicles, they don’t seem to be doing any more damage than the strong winds in the area. We watched for about 15 minutes, then continued south where the next surprise was a beach that was available for cars, trucks and Waverider PWC’s (personal watercraft) to ride the ocean waves. It was quite a sight as they leaped over the waves, sometimes crashing and burning. Several of the riders wore crash helmets. We continued south to Pacific City, rejoined US101 and headed back north to Tillamook. We stopped to view the Munson Creek Waterfall in an Oregon SP. A bit further north we stopped in the Latimer Quilt Center to view some of the crafts then went to Tillamook Cheese Factory to get more ice cream. Darn, it is really good. All through the day, it rained off and on, but whenever we wanted to stop and walk around, it seemed to have cleared. It certainly was a much better day that NOAA forecast, and we were very happy about that.

Sunday, August 10, 2008:
Not quite as much sun this morning as yesterday, but still acceptable. This was a travel day where we positioned ourselves for a stay in the Wallowa Mountains and Hells Canyon NRA in the northeast section of Oregon. We left the RV Park at 9:30am and headed south on US101 to the town of Beaver WA, stopping on the way at the Fred Meyer store for food and coffee (which Susie got for free from Starbucks because they didn’t have the decafe we wanted). We passed a herd of elk grazing contently in the fields surrounding the Air Museum. We turned left (east) on a road that was marked as paved so we thought we were good. The road also showed up on Gabby Garmin. We went about 25 miles and came to a fork in the road (as Yogi Berra said ‘If you come to a fork in the road take it’) One of the forks was closed for an automobile hill climb event, so we took then other one, which Gabby confirmed we should. Another few miles, and the paving turned to gravel. We meandered through the Tillamook State Forest and privately owned land that was being timbered. The road we were on was a logging road and generally followed the Nestucca Scenic River for about 20 miles. We drove into the mountains to an elevation of about 2,550 feet before starting down. It was a beautiful drive, but I’m not sure what we would have done if a vehicle came from the other direction. We were in 1st and 2nd gear most of the time. Just as we were about to despair, we came to a real paved road and went through the town of Carlton to McMinnville, the location of the Evergreen Air Museum. When we had refilled the gas tank near McMinnville, we determined we had averaged about 6 mpg through the forests. That hurts, but other RV owners experience that every day. The Evergreen Museum was the brain-child of Captain Michael Green Smith, the son of Evergreen International Avaition founder Delford M. Smith. Unfortunately he died in an automobile accident before the Museum was opened to the public in 2000. The centerpiece of the museum is the ‘Spruce Goose’, the wood seaplane designed and built by Howard Hughes. The critical dimensions of the aircraft are: fuselage length 218’-8”, wingspan 319’-11”, maximum fuselage height 30’-5”, height of the tail 79’-4”. There are 8 Pratt & Whitney 28-cylinder engines producing 3,000 horsepower each. The four-blade propellers have a diameter of 17’-0”. For comparison purposes, this aircraft is larger than a 747. The federal government spent $18,000, 000 and Howard Hughes $7,000,000 to fund the design and construction of the aircraft. There were other planes in the Museum, but the main purpose of our visit was to see the ‘Spruce Goose’, and we were not disappointed. We left McMinnville and headed north on I-5 and then east on I-84 to the Maryville State Park WA where we have been before. We arrived here about 7:15PM after having driven 223 miles. Daisy was able to take a swim in the Columbia River, so she is a very happy puppy. The sun went down over the hills at 7:30pm and with the breeze, the evening was very pleasant. We had a good night sleep.



Monday, August 11, 2008:
I took Daisy swimming again this morning in preparation for a day in the RV. We filled the water tanks and emptied everything else. As we left the campground, we stopped in a fruit stand that sells fresh fruit from its own orchard. They have irrigation rights from the Columbia River, and the fruit showed it. Susie and I don’t think we have ever had as much fresh fruit as we have had on this trip. With the exception of the Tillamook ice cream, we have been eating pretty healthy. We filled the gas tank and once again headed east on I-84 about 40 miles to OR74, the start of Blue Mountain Oregon Scenic Byway. This road runs through State and National Forests to the town of Baker City OR. The northwest end of the route was through farming areas with an elevation increase from sea level to 1,965 feet in Heppner. In Heppner, Gabby failed us. The main street was closed so we tried to maneuver around the blockage, and Gabby tried to get us to drive through a very substantial concrete dam. There seems to be a problem with automobiles in town as we saw one that had rolled down a bank and crashed into a power pole, and another that was picked up by a logging rig with jaws used for gripping trees. It picked up a car off the street and dumped it in a dump truck. Susie and I looked at each other and said it was time to get out of town. The road into the Blue Mountains followed a small stream and a valley that became more narrow as we approached the high point of 5,500 feet at the west edge of the Umatilla NF. There was a road sign at the entrance to the forest stating the road was only open from June 15 through October 15. We drove through the Blue Mountains at an elevation of 5,000 feet. We saw a road sign that directed us to an aspen information center that turned out to be a 3’ by 5’ sign explaining whey there was a fence around the aspen trees. Bet you don’t really want to know, but the aspens were decimated by fire and animals so the fence was erected to keep the animals away. We descended into Ukiah OR and stopped in the USFS Station to check out camping sites and any other useful information. The lady who helped us was a resident of Ukiah, and told us about the bears and cougars in the area. According to her, cougars have been seen in town, not often, but they’ve been there. We thought that bears in town are dangerous enough, but cougars are at another level. She also told us of the large forest fire that pretty much surrounded the town in 1996. The trees have reseeded themselves and are now about 10 feet tall. It will be a long time before they can be harvested. We continued east into the Wallowa Whitman Forest looking for the campgrounds. We must have missed the closer ones and had to continue further east than planned. As we were driving along, enjoying the scenery, Susie said ‘Look a fox, no it’s a coyote, NO ITS A COUGAR!” This was one big handsome animal. It was crossing the road, saw and looked at us for a few seconds before returning to the trees bordering the road. We drove slowly by and were able to see it about 20 feet from the road as it moved off. We both agreed that now we have seen one in the wild, that enough. We continued along, made a wrong turn, backtracked and found the USFS North Fork John Jay Campground. It is on a small stream, and Daisy was able to swim. The sky is bright blue, the wind from the west and the temperature very comfortable 65. There are no railroads, interstates or streetlights, only the half full moon, so we should sleep well.