Eureka! We Have Made It This Far

We rolled into Eureka around 1400 on Wednesday to the Shoreline RV Park.  It is fairly new and has level, pull through spaces.  Great for parking the Fiver, but nothing like a USFS campground with trees and more space.  Then again, those don't have full hookups plus cable, either.  We are spending three nights here as well take short day trips to see things nearby.

We had a nice visit to historic downtown Eureka yesterday, including lunch at Gallagher's Irish Pub a stop at as used bookstore, and even coffee and ice cream afterwards.  We were shocked at the high price of gas here in Eureka and were told that the cheapest gas was at Costco.  So we took a trip to Eureka Costco and filled up with fuel and picked up some dinner.  That pretty much took care of Wednesday.

Ferndale, California Victorian

Today was pretty grey and rainy, so we decided to travel down to historic Ferndale a few miles south of Eureka.  It has a large number of restored Victorian homes that were built by Danish dairy farmers who settled there.  They are called "Butterfat Mansions" because of the Danish dairies that the town was built on.

Another Striking "Butter Fat Mansion" in Ferndale

Another thing we did today was to get our Annual Pass for Federal Lands.  Neil was very involved with the implementation of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act while in Alaska, but this is the first time that we have purchased a pass because we did not very much camping and and visiting to the national forests and parks while in Alaska, so it was time to break down and purchase one.  We must say that $80 seems a bit steep, but we hope to get a lot of use from it over the next year, so it will probably be a good investment.  It was a little easier for Neil to spend the money at the Six Rivers National Forest office than at a National Park site.

We Finally Bought an Annual Federal Lands Pass - for $80!

We certainly know that the federal agencies are not making a lot of money on the sale and use of these things.  We are looking forward to getting the cheaper senior pass in a couple of years when we are old enough.

The Pass to Get - Only $10 Lifetime Pass

Tomorrow, we will drive down to the Avenue of the Giants in Redwood Park, and get another fix of big trees.  Our friend Sam says he doesn't have a chainsaw big enough to cut one down, but that he knows where he could get one.  We once heard someone say that a redwood tree has not achieved its full potential until it becomes a hot tub, but we are not subscribing to that theory.

Our Destination on Friday

Pamela and I have been to the Avenue of the Giants in the past, but it has been many years ago, and pretty short visits.  We will take our time looking at the sights, because when we leave on Saturday morning, we will have to stay on US 101 and not be able to get off on the scenic highway because of the size and length of the Fiver.  We measured the total length of the trailer and truck hooked together and it is a whopping fifty-five feet!

The next leg of the Great Adventure takes us to Willits, California where we will spend several days as we take day trips out to the Mendocino Coast.

In spite of the fact that we have had some rain, the weather has been better because "It is a warmer rain" as Neil puts it.  We have had temperatures in the high fifties, which is a lot better than the twenties back home in Alaska.  We are looking forward to temperatures in the 70's when we get further south, and some sunshine would be nice, too.

Best wishes,

Neil and Pamela

Chilling in Crescent City

Happy Pearl Harbor Day!  And thanks to all those WWII Veterans like Neil's father who fought that war so we could have the freedoms we enjoy and speak English.


We had a very scenic drive down from Coos Bay along the Oregon Coast.  We finally saw the "banana belt" of Oregon - the extreme southern coast of Bandon and Brookings.  It was a spectacular drive, though sure glad we didn't do it with the 45 mph wind gusts of yesterday!

 

Here are some more Lessons Learned:

1. Arrive at a new campground with plenty of daylight left for set up, fixing things in the dark with sideways rain is tough.
   
2. Check weather before camping in open parks next to ocean -- wind gusts create rock-n-roll nights.

We had a very windy night at Shoreline RV Park campground right on Crescent City Harbor.  We can see the Battery Island Lighthouse from the trailer, and hear the fog horn and sea lions as well.  There were both wind surfers and kite boarders in the bay this morning.

After a stop at the California State and National Parks information center close to us, we decided to drive south to the Trees of Mystery that Pamela visited with her family as a girl.  It was a steep, winding, and scenic drive that will be a work-out for the truck tomorrow when we pull the Fiver up over the headland and south towards Eureka.

Pamela with a Coast Redwood

We hiked the trails and saw the new and old wood sculptures.  There were very few people on the trails, so we took our time and it was a nice walk in the woods and we saw some very large redwood trees on our way up to the Sky Trail tram.

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox:  Icons of the Trees of Mystery

The Sky Trail tramway at Trees of Mystery was established in 2001, and we were one of very few visitors today and we had a leisurely trip through the trees and a nice trip up to the top of the tram where we had good views of the hillsides and ocean from the top.

Sky Trail Tram at Trees of  Mystery

Returning to Crescent City, we had lunch and picked up some groceries for the next few days and returned to our snug little Fiver and made some plans for getting under weigh (a term Neil learned from his Dad) on south to Eureka, California.    All is going well and the Verizon MiFi wireless card is working very well to give us internet access everywhere we have been so far.

This is One Big Bear!

Here is hoping that you are having a good week, and we thank you for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

An Oregon State Park Day

After a great breakfast out this morning in Coos Bay, we took a scenic drive down to several Oregon State Parks where we did some sea lion and seal watching and hiked a few short trails while we looked for elephant seals and grey whales (no luck there).  The sun was out and it was in the upper 50's, so it was one of the better weather days we have had so far.

Pamela Looking for Marine Mammals

We also got a glimpse of the Cape Arago Lighthouse in the distance before we arrived at Shore Acres State Park.  This was the location of the "country home" (read Mansion) of Louis Simpson, the son of the lumber magnate.  It was the location of a three story house with indoor swimming pool, ballrooms, and other amenities not seen in Oregon in the 1900's.  It burned in the 1920's, but the formal gardens remain and are worth visiting, but this time of the year, they really do it up for Christmas.


We stayed long enough for the Christmas light show and really enjoyed the 300,000 lights and the light sculptures that they have set up.  Here are some iPhone photos.

Grey Whale Sculpture 

Sailing towards Christmas

We leave Coos Bay tomorrow on our way into California and Crescent City.  But who knows, maybe we will decide to stop somewhere else along the way.

Best wishes,

Neil and Pamela

Cool in Coos Bay

We had a nice drive down from Florence on US 101 to the North Bend/Coos Bay area on Friday.  We are staying at the Midway RV Park and plan to stay about three days.  We have a nice pull-through spot that was a lot easier to set up than our first park, so set up went a lot faster.

Midway RV Park is Right on Coos Bay

We stopped at the chamber of commerce and got some good recommendations of what to do, including the holiday lights over at Shore Acres. We also got a recommendation for lunch, and ate at a German restaurant called the Blue Heron.  They had an excellent apple cider and sandwiches.  The decor was mostly historic posters of the Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell and others from World War II era.  We then walked around Coos Bay a bit to a bookstore and coffee shop where we warmed up.

We stayed close to the RV today, watching the Oregon State versus University of Oregon game.  Pamela and I as Oregon State graduates had hoped for a different outcome to the game, but you could see why Oregon is rated so highly.  Since I could not find any roast duck at the local Safeway store, I had to settle for turkey and a hard cider to drown my sorrows!

Our Alma Mater Did Not Do Well Against Oregon

We will spend tomorrow down at Sunset Bay, Shore Acres and Cape Arago State Parks and do some planning for the next leg of our trip down to Cresent City, California.  Let us know if there are things that we need to do or places we need to visit via the blog or email.  All is going very well, and as we check the weather back home in Juneau, we are more convinced that we are heading in the right direction.

Fair Winds and Flat Roads,

Neil and Pamela

Doing Fabulous in Florence

Today felt like the first day of vacation for us.  We have been retired for a while, but the last couple of months have been very busy with getting the truck ready to travel and sorting through what "stuff" we wanted/needed (not the same thing, after all) in the fifth wheel trailer.  Then when we got to Oregon it was tires, hitches, packing and sorting, and all that stuff.  Today we woke up to less rain and in a nice location here on the Oregon Coast.

Heceta Head Lighthouse North of Florence

We went out to breakfast and then drove up to Heceta Head Lighthouse where we had a nice hike up to the lighthouse and a wonderful personal tour of the light and lantern room.  It was a wonderful afternoon and we even had the sunshine come out for a while.  We also enjoyed the historic bridges and a drive out on the Oregon Dunes.  

Historic Cape Creek Bridge and Heceta Head Parking Area

We considered various criteria for rating how we enjoyed a campground.  A system simple, yet understandable, catchy enough to remember and familar.  So, based on our favorite ice cream store this is our rating system:

1. We liked it
2. We loved it
3. We gotta have it-so stayed longer
4. Skip It

Lessons Learned:

1. Not only measure how far out your slides go before backing into a camping space, but look up and make sure they will clear the tree branches above you. We have less than 12 inches of clearance on our living room slide here in Florence.
   
2. Tunnels - always read the signs as you approach a tunnel for height restrictions. We enjoyed a trip north of Florence to Hecata Head Lighthouse, without the 5th wheel and noticed the low side of the tunnel meant we would have to go down the middle for height clearance.

A Wonderful Day Near Florence

We have had a great time here in Florence and are looking forward to the short drive down to Coos Bay on the next leg of our adventure.  We hope that you are doing well,

Neil and Pamela

Safe on the Oregon Coast - California or Bust!

We got up this morning to a very soggy day in Molalla and was on the road around 1000.  After all, we are retired and we HAD TO wait for any morning traffic to die down.  We drove to Woodburn, Oregon and on to Interstate 5 SOUTH.  We stopped at a rest area and for fuel and took highway 126 across to Florence, Oregon.

We are at the Port of Siuslaw campground on the Siuslaw River and plan to stay here for two nights.  As luck would have it, we had to back in to the camping spot between several trees.  Thanks to a set of walkie talkies, and an empty campground, we got it in and leveled and set up in about an hour.  We did provide a little bit of entertainment to one other camper, but we try to spread a little bit of joy where ever we go and expect that our times will improve with practice, but the entertainment value will go down.

Soggy I-5 Rest Stop on the Way to the Oregon Coast

We will take a short drive up the coast to the Heceta Head lighthouse and check out the local museum here tomorrow and will probably be on the road to Coos Bay, Oregon on Friday.  We plan to stay there a day or two and then drive down to Crescent City, California.

Oregon Coast Near Florence

All is going well, and we appreciate all the kind thoughts and words.  Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela