The Oregon coast is beautiful with the craggy hills and the many rocks jutting out of the Pacific breaking the surf into many patterns. There are lots of pullouts and places to stop for the many photo ops.
The one miscalculation we made was our wardrobe. We packed for summer along the coast, shorts, short sleeved shirts, open toed shoes, we were ready to touristize Oregon. Wrong. We have yet to wear a pair of shorts, short sleeved shirt or open toed shoes. And certainly no tan on this trip. Its cold.
Temperatures have ranged from the high 50s to the mid 60s most of the time with maybe two days reaching 70. And the wind coming off the Pacific must come directly from the Arctic. Cold, cold, cold. You say 60 is not cold? Come to Oregon when the wind is blowing 40 mph & put your tootsie in the water and see how long you leave it there. Reminded me of the North Sea water in Aberdeen.
Tried to get Priss to do a nudie photo while skinny dipping in the surf but she wouldn’t take off her jacket and windbreaker, kept the windbreaker tied so tight I was sure I could see her eyes bulge. She bundled up like one of those weather girls you see on TV where they stick them out in the middle of a hurricane just so you get the idea the wind and rain are blowing are really blowing 75 mph.
We picked three locations along the Oregon Coast as our base station then would drive south and north to the see the sights in between. Working well so far.
We picked up a mile marker (of sorts) at the Oregon Travel Center outside Brookings where the lady from Oregon didn’t like the lady from California telling us anythng we should do. She said she had been born and raised in Oregon, after all, and knew everything there was to do, after all. Anyway, the mile marker listed things to do and sights to see and gave the mile marker where they were located, going from north to south. Couple of issues with this, however. Oregon doesn’t have a mile marker at every mile point. When they do, they can be on the right or on the left. And the mile markers listed on the sheet can be just a guess. The mile marker may list a popular site at mile marker 78.5. But when you get to 78.5 there is no turn off, no interesting site. But you have to keep your eyes open because the site may be at mile marker, 77, 79, 81 or even nonexistent in a couple of cases. But it is a great guide, you just have to be flexible.
We booked our stays at Oregon State Parks. They are clean, well kept and have friendly, helpful staff. The problem is the parks are older and someone had the idea of planting hedges as privacy fences between the RV sites. Hedges grow, both up and out and need regular trimming. And being older RV sites they are pretty short. With the hedges not recently trimmed an almost 90 degree perfectly timed turn, backwards was necessary. Anyone ever see Ginger Rogers dance with Fred Astaire and do every step he did only backwards and in high heels? We aint’ no Ginger Rogers for sure. But we got the job done.
On one stop at Cape Foulweather someone had strung a high line across one of the coves. Cape Foulweather finally had fair weather and there were peope walking across the cove on the tight rope. One guy fell but only dropped five or six feet before his safety harness caught him. The tight rope was probably a hundred feet above the cove which had lots or rocks showing at low tide and the cove was probably two hundred yards wide. The second guy made it and he did so surprisingly fast. And there several girls waiting to show the boys how it should be done. Didn’t wait but am sure they made it. But they are going for it.
We tried whale watching at several locations famous for having whales around but these whales were lazy. Not one did a sky rocket breach to show off. We did, however, see several “blows” where the whale surfaces and blows out the air from holding their breath and even saw a couple of flukes when they would make a dive. (Flukes are ocean folk talk for a whale’s tail for all you Saguaro huggers). They were very hard to see because the sky and the ocean were the same color and they were not very close to shore. I’m sure the whale watching companies kept they far away so you would have to buy a whale watching trip to get close. Not many were hanging around anyway because it was past the migration season for their trip north and too early for their return. They were Gray Whales and for whatever reason, just like that, they decided to stop migrating and stay on the Oregon coast. Rangers said some stop every year but not always the same ones.
We were in Newport OR on July 4th holiday and they have a huge fireworks display over the bay. Thousands of people attend. Play that again, thousands of people attend. That means crowds and no parking. So we opted to drive about 20 miles south to Waldport, a small town and watch a small fireworks show. That’s what old people do. We drove to the beach where the fireworks show was going to happen, found a good place to park then we got a little greedy, tried to edge up closer and came very close to getting stuck in the beach sand. We won’t be so greedy next time, that stuff is not easy to get out of. The fireworks were good and we were glad we didn’t choose to fight the crowds and traffic in Newport. Hip Hip Houray.
We drove to a blow hole one afternoon. A blow hole is when water, wind and sand undercut a shallow underwater bluff then erode a hole through the rock so it open at the top. When the waves surge in they hit the underwater bluff then spew through the hole in the top making it look like a huge whale just surfaced and blew out his air. Or her air.
This morning when we were getting ready to depart our RV site a young couple were camping in a tent across the street. They had gotten up early, put all their food and stored goods on the picnic table and left for wherever they were going. Shortly after they left a Cow Elk walked through the campground, smelled something that might be food and decided to have a look. She sniffed around their site for a few minutes then picked up a large plastic bag of something. She put it on the ground, put her hoof on it then tore it open with her teeth. Think this gal has been here before. She took her time, opened every bag of food and ate everything. There was an Igloo cooler, about 3 gallon size, with the screw on and off top.
Somehow she got the top off and drank whatever was inside. Then she checked out everything again to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, was satisfied and strolled off to find the next fool. Before she left another camper decided he would be macho man and scare her off. He walked up close and threw his hands in the air several times and yelled “Go”. She didn’t flinch. So he got a broom and shoved it toward her like he was gong to hit her. She didn’t like this but still didn’t flinch. She put her ears back and started walking around the picnic table to challenge him. He quickly (and correctly) decided he wasn’t macho man after all and left her alone. Several people walked pretty close to her to take photos and videos and she paid no attention to them. I guess it was, don’t mess with me and I won’t mess with you. And she was a lot bigger and faster and can kick a whole lot harder.
Later.
-Tom