This is our last night for this trip.  We are still in Lincoln City.  Gary played golf today at Salishan and enjoyed it but said that the course seems to have gone downhill since last time.  He says there are weeds around the markers, no towels in the golf carts and other things neglected which is not what you expect at a course which charges $100 per round.  Also, a crow stole his protein bar from a cup holder in the cart when Gary turned his back.  Well, at least he played.

I went to the Outlet Mall and had a great time.  I bought myself a couple of tops at Jones NY and Chico's, some kids clothes for Macy and Evan and some unusual toys at the toy store.  Evan's sixth birthday is soon, so I will mail his things to Bangkok.  Macy is going on an RV trip to Seattle with us soon, so I got a few things to amuse her on the trip.

Tomorrow we will find out if Gary has to serve jury duty, catch up on some paperwork and mail, do some laundry and take our nephew, Andrew out for dinner.  We will also need to get the Cmax into the dealer to get new brakes, or at least that is what we think is making all that noise.  Isn't it always something?

Tonight we are in Lincoln City, Oregon at the Premier RV Park, a beautiful park with nice, wide spaces and a view of the ocean, even though on the east side of Hwy 101.  A few motor homes down from us they are playing guitars and having a sing-along.  We drove from Ophir to Lincoln City today and it was a surprisingly curvy, winding road.  Going 45 mph felt like a very fast ride.  We stopped briefly in Florence to make sandwiches and walk the dogs.  The trip took over 4 hours.

We had dinner at Macadangdang's Grill which is new since our last visit to Lincoln City.  Tomorrow Gary will play golf and I will hit the outlet mall.

Yesterday we moved from Florence to Ophir, Oregon which is about 8 miles north of Gold Beach, where the fire hydrants are painted gold.  We are staying at Honeybear RV Park which boasts its own German restaurant where the owners of both make their own sausages and serve a meal each night at 6.  We chose the pork loin dinner which was very nice, with sides of sausage, sauerkraut and potato pancakes.  We decided to leave before the owner broke out his accordion and harmonica but did hear the strains of "How Much is That Doggy in the Window" from our campsite.  It was a good call.

We sat around a campfire with our friends Bob and Sue and met a young family from Montana who were on their way home and left lots of firewood with us they didn't need any longer.  We gave them our marshmallows after deciding that the idea of S'mores was more appealing than the actual treat.

Today we ate lunch in Port Orford to the north at The Crazy Norwegian's Restaurant.  Bob and Sue's dog acts up if they leave her alone, so we dined al fresco with her.  They had good fish and chips, etc.  Then we came back to the RV Park and I had a little rest while Gary played nine holes of golf and when he returned we went to Gold Beach to a bookstore we found yesterday which included a coffee shop.  Tonight we will eat outside with the Cowans.  Bob made the Italian sausage and will saute onions while we contribute fruit salad and beans.  We will probably last outside until the sun sets.  It gets pretty chilly then.

Another beautiful day in Florence, OR.  Gary played a round of golf at Sand Pines and was happy with his performance in spite of some windy spells.  He has been taking some lessons and feels they are making a difference.

We have noticed that the middle Oregon coast doesn't seem entirely recovered from the recession.  There are still empty commercial buildings, closed restaurants, etc.  This should be the beginning of the busy season but there aren't that many people here and restaurants and stores are all closing earlier than you would expect for the summertime.

We took a ride through the Oregon Dunes National Park today.  I will post photos when I get to a place with better connectivity.  The dunes are spectacular, so amazingly big with some just bare sand and some planted all over with beach grasses.  I really don't understand why dune buggies are allowed to buzz all over them.  They have to be destroying the habitats of beach creatures.  Where is the protection?

Dudley and Baby got several long walks today. This RV park has an enclosed dog park where Dudley can run.  He loves it.  Baby sits on my lap and watches him.

BBQ dinner at Craig's was good.  We have plenty left for another meal.  Leaving for Ophir, OR in the morning, a little north of Gold Beach to meet Bob and Sue C.

Oregon Coast Trip 6-16-15

We left Lake Oswego today headed for Florence, OR, our first stop on this 8 day trip.  As we left L.O., a smiling teenage boy at a bus stop gave us a big grin and pumped his fist in the air hoping we would blow our air horn.  We certainly would have if we HAD an air horn.  He was adorable.

We crossed the Cascade Range going west out of Eugene on a sparkling, sunny but windy day.  The trip took about 3 and a half hours and we ended up at Encore Thousand Trails RV Park.  It is a beautiful park, thickly wooded and green, with every example of flora you would expect in the Pacific NW coastal area.  There are lots of warnings about how to deal with bears, which we will take to heart.  That is where the good part ends.

There are a few things one should be able to expect as basics in an RV park; electricity hookup, water and sewer.  In this park you could choose any 2 of those in each parking spot but not all three. We decided on electricity and water but were not happy about it.  In addition, the office staff told us to unhook our car from the motorhome and drive around until we found a spot we liked.  The only other RV park that ever expected that was another Thousand Trails park which I complained about in my blog about the Florida trip.  Every other park has assigned us to a particular spot which fit the size of our rig and had room to park the car.  So we drove around and Gary had to pace off each likely spot to see if it would fit the Bays Bus. No, no, no Thousand Trails.  This was your last chance.

We parked and walked the pups.  Then we drove into Florence to explore a bit.  We had a coffee, got Gary a tee time for tomorrow, chose a seafood restaurant to try later, then back to the bus to finish settling in.  Now we are back from dinner and will retire early.

Nice to be traveling, again.