Oregon Coastal Trip

We are still busy settling into our home after our last RV trip. I've been refilling supplies that were used, stripping the beds and washing all of the linens and so forth. Not too much left to do but I like to get it done and out of the way. This morning we also got a delivery...a replacement for the rinky-dink, cheapo plastic toilet that came with the RV! The new one is ceramic and normally-sized instead of feeling like something you might find at kindergarten. Steve was so excited that he had the old one replaced within an hour! It's a really nice upgrade, especially for 6'2" Steve because the original was so short and small. It made us wonder—we are both slender and yet that toilet made us feel like elephants...what are these standard RV toilets like for people who are even the least bit heavy? We realized soon after we bought this trailer is that the original owners did almost nothing to upgrade the RV except to put in a new dinette table...we figure it probably broke so they had no choice but to replace it. Having spent about a month living in our trailer now, it's amazing that they put up with all of the annoying little problems we needed to fix right away. RVs are CHEAP. The workmanship is truly abysmal. Anything that isn't visible is shoddy...there are missing screws, nails, boards, you name it. Rough-cut wood, uneven, lopsided, poorly done everything. "Care" is not a word used in the behind-the-scenes building of an RV. At least, that's been our experience. It didn't take long to learn that unless you pay top dollar—and I mean a LOT of money—an RV is just barely held together and must be upgraded, altered, tuned up and fixed if you hope to use it for a lot of traveling. Basically, getting an RV means that one or both of you must be handy and clever about the myriad fixes that are required to turn an RV into a comfortable home away from home. You won't believe everything Steve's done to the trailer! He's changed out the light bulbs, added a dozen light fixtures, put up at least a dozen hooks all over the place, replaced both the kitchen and bathroom faucets and the shower head too. There's a paper towel holder now, and every cabinet is full of removable baskets to keep everything organized. He added proper towel racks and a toilet paper holder in the bathroom and put in a super fluffy bathroom rug! Both the smoke and CO alarms have been replaced. All four of the tires are brand new and he had the brakes professionally worked on so they are factory fresh. We now have a runner carpet that goes the length of the coach so our 3-legged dog is comfortable and has traction. He's added a bunch of space under the counters just by making the hoses and wiring neat and tidy. He'll be creating a cubby hole cabinet by the door because the space is available and we have to wonder, why didn't they do this to begin with? Space is such a premium in an RV! Likewise, he'll be building two large pull-out drawers under the dinette seats instead of the stupid situation it is now: pull off the cushions, lift up the cheapo piece of plywood and get into the huge space on either side. A sliding drawer will be perfect and should have been there to begin with! Because of Steve's skills, we've got an RV that's really becoming an awesome place. We'll probably need to upgrade our refrigerator/freezer to a larger one but for now it's fine. Oh, and my bed required another topper to make it useable...and now it's perfect! We also have other things to fix and change but the changes we've made have made such a big difference. How could the original owners have put up with it as it was?! Oh yes, my main image! Today is my day to put up my Happy Fence Friday picture and I'm choosing one that I took on our Coos Bay hike. While we were at our turn-around point and eating our late lunch snacks, we noticed a fellow photographer off in the distance at another point. He was there for some time, enjoying the view and we wanted to see too, so after our break we found the trail that took us out to that point and...WOW! WHAT A VIEW! While I was walking over to get a better look, I was surprised to see a chain-link fence that didn't seem to be doing anything but stick out like a sore thumb. But then I thought, "What a perfect picture for HFF!" So here you go! (very busy tonight so no insets!) Pam, we have thought so many times how nice it would be for you to live out here on this coast. We don't know where we'll end up settling down after we've finished having our adventures but Steve feels the same way you do. I don't want to be in cold, foggy, windy conditions that the coast is so known for, but inland a bit would be ok for me. Access to the beach would be lovely. We'll have to see how things shake out way down the road! Wish we could wave a magic wand for you though! *BIG HUGS MY DEAR* :) Explored on 5/31/19; highest placement, #6.

Oh my, it's so late!! Not my fault! The sun made me stay out until it set!! :D What a day, what an incredible, amazing day!! Steve and I woke to a SUNNY MORNING here in Coos Bay! HOORAY! Our plans for a hike was set, we just needed to decide which way to go...along the beach or up along the cliffs and into the forest? I thought the cliff-forest hike might give us prettier views and Steve agreed. We grabbed our stuff and headed out on a hike that turned out to be absolutely amazing! Views of boulder-strewn shorelines, verdant forest filled with glowing greenery and lots of flowers. It was exactly what we hoped for. We couldn't be happier, it was such a perfect day! At about 4pm we sat down at a gorgeous spot overlooking the ocean and enjoyed watching the waves crashing over the rocks. Mesmerizing. I knew we'd be hungry so I packed a late afternoon snacky-lunch of lots of yummy things like cheese and sausage, nuts and potato salad, carrots and chips! It was perfect! We got back at about 6:30pm with about 8 miles of hiking behind us for the day, totally satisfied and happy. After making early evening creamy espressos, we soon had ribs cooking on our barbecue for dinner along with veggies. YUM!! Steve and I talked about doing a sunset shoot but I figured we'd wait until tomorrow evening because we were BEAT from our day's adventures. However, Steve suggested we go out to the beach just to see where the sun had set. Before we left, he also found out that it was supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and into the evening. Noooo!!! We headed out to the beach and to our surprise, the sun hadn't set yet. Even better, we had at least 20 minutes before it went down--plenty of time to get back to the RV and return with our cameras! As you can see, we got our sunset pictures!! It was such fun. Steve had the 5D Mark III on a tripod and took lots of different types of pictures. As for me, I had my Sony and had a great time with silhouette images and pictures of Steve taking pictures too. :) Unfortunately I don't have time for extra pictures tonight, heh...it's 9:30, eek! :D Pam, Steve and I were sure thinking about you a lot on our hike today. The views were something out of this world. We wished you could have been here. We have a video of the waves crashing on the rocks that I hope to post when I can, I think you'll enjoy it! I sure do hope your day was an ok one, you are very much cared about by us and in our warmest thoughts! :) *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/19/19; highest placement #4.

(+2 insets!) (please view large!) :) I'd like to say THANK YOU to everyone of you who's visited, left comments and stars, even though you know that I am so short on time/or don't have a connection for commenting and yet, you still give me attention. It means more than I can say. You really are the best. *BIG HUGS* Ok, there is a point when the weather becomes a burden to our festive plans! And so I say with great gusto: RAIN, RAIN, PLEASE GO AWAY! Although the forecast called for mixed overcast and sunny conditions, today has turned out to be grey and cold with a constant wind and drizzle. This has translated to no fun outside. :( Can't take pictures and walking on the beach is out, it's really very miserable out there right now. MEH! It's a shame because our campground is awesome, as is the area where we're situated just north of Lincoln City, Oregon. We are staying at another state park and like Joseph Stewart State Park, Devil's Lake has lots of tent sites set far apart with plenty of trees and grass between each spot. The whole campground sits in a beautiful, lush forest setting. Cement trails weave in and out around the park. They lead out to the lake on one side and a boardwalk trail makes its way out very close to the ocean on the other side. That's right. We are within walking distance of both an enormous lake AND the ocean! Top that! :D Well…it WOULD be awesome but the weather is not cooperating with us unfortunately. I haven't seen much of our campground because of the weather. Boo. :P We've made the best of our situation though. Writing, working on photography, reading, cruising on the net (only on our phones though, there's no wi-fi here); Steve has actually been able to play his favorite game (World of Tanks) to pass the time, which has made him happy. And of course our meals are always a delicious highlight. I have to tell you about our lunch! We finally had pancakes in our RV! The quintessential camping breakfast, heh, we decided to have them for lunch just to be unpredictable! :D Now, you may think pancakes are no big deal, but Steve and I live a ketogenic lifestyle, which means we don't eat regular flour or sugar. However, it took the keto way of eating to find a pancake recipe that's better than any we've ever had in our lives! We use almond flour in our pancakes and the results we get are BETTER than a "normal" pancake…they are light, fluffy and incredibly tasty. The syrup that Steve came up with is absolutely to die for…the sugar version we use is 60% erythritol/40% monk fruit and it's the same sweetness and flavor as sugar, only it has zero carbohydrates! The flavoring can be one or a combination of the many extracts we have but our favorite lately is caramel…it's just so yummy! Oh, and the base is…BUTTER! Because our syrup uses non-standard sugar, when it cools, the butter separates from the sugar part and the syrup will harden into a more delicious version of the maple glaze on a donut! In other words, these pancakes are a slice of the most decadent heaven! The best pancakes either of us has ever had!And there are only a few carbs instead of literally DOZENS. (The average person should really only have 50 or less per day total) Anyway, we had a MOST DELICIOUS meal! :) After lunch we went on a walk down to the beach via a raised boardwalk trail that led over a wetlands area complete with marker signs. Really pretty. The trail was short but sweet and ended at a lovely little pond. I was excited to see some lily pads with pretty yellow flowers which I was able to photograph. These would be my only pictures of the day, captured with the help of Steve holding my umbrella. A short road took us up to the main highway that hugs the coast. On the other side was the ocean with its enormous beach, complete with angry, pounding surf and high waves. Not a day to be out there. We walked over to the barrier and looked out to the sea with its white caps and misty horizon, topped with storm clouds. Maybe tomorrow will be nicer. Instead we crossed back over the highway and tucked into a cute little kite shop nearby, enjoying the lovely designs and pretty colors of the countless kites on display. We wondered what else could we do on this rather yucky day. We could make more fauxtato salad, that's what! We drove to a grocery store, got supplies and returned to our RV. We had a really nice time working on the recipe together and it turned out perfectly. Can't run out of that staple, it's just too good! Today I'm posting the sunset from Devil's Lake when we walked out to look at the lovely view last night. I strolled out to the end of the little dock and turned around to show the dock and the trail leading from the campground to the lake. The insets are a pretty shot of little Maple leaves that I saw in Florence when we were driving here. The other picture shows Steve at our Devil's Camp site! :) Pam, I'm glad that your property escaped damage from the storms and tornadoes. That's so scary. You know, people who have never lived in "earthquake country" (I'm talking about San Francisco, specifically) are totally terrified and seem sure that earthquakes will hit at any moment and all of the buildings will immediately crumble. Since I've never lived in tornado country, the concept feels pretty frightening to me. However, I am going to guess it's a lot like earthquakes. Yes, they happen. No, they don't destroy everything in the entire state. You just don't want to live in a "tornado alley" if you can help it, and in any event, you'd likely be safe enough for the most part anyway. Am I close? Anyway, I hope all is well with you my dear! *BIG HUGS FROM DEVIL'S LAKE!* Explored on 5/23/19; highest placement #2.

(+2 insets!) Hooray for a day without rain!!! *dances around the RV* This morning Steve and I checked the forecast and the weather didn't include rain until tonight! We were so happy! No matter how positive we tried to be, it's a bummer to have bad weather ruining all of your plans for most of the trip. :P We were ready for action and after our brunch we packed up and headed out to a trailhead about 15 minutes away, just north of Lincoln City. Once a well-kept secret hike in the area, the God's Thumb hike was recommended to us by a camp host as something we must not miss. The only way to get to the trail is by following breadcrumb-like directions to traverse the steeply inclining but lovely streets and then finally to the trailhead which was at the end of a beautifully forested residential road. (One of my insets shows the gate and fence where the trail begins.) The trail was absolutely INCREDIBLE! Gorgeous ferns and glowing green plants everywhere, mottled birch and ash-like trees crowded close to the trail and flowers were everywhere! We walked silently on the pine-needle and moss-covered path that led up and up and up, eventually coming out onto a breathtaking knoll that showed Devil's Lake off in the distance and a view of the ocean and beach as well. What a lovely view! We continued on, descending down, down, down into a verdant valley that felt as if we must be in Jurassic Park! Horsetail ferns intermingled with many other types of unfurling ferns, lovely mosses climbed all the trees and were so soft to touch. Steve and I were in absolute awe of this place. Eventually the trail led down and out onto a bluff which overlooked the ocean and there it was! "God's Thumb" is a basalt rock formation at the edge of the sea and the sight of it and the rough and rocky coast included a gorgeous beach far below for those bold and adventurous enough to make the trek town and back up again. Far in the distance on one side was a lovely bay, and the other side showed the seemingly endless beach which began around a long stretch of impassable rocky coastline. Before we climbed up to the top of the "thumb", we found a spot out of the wind and ate our afternoon snacks, enjoying the lovely views and the splendor of the area. How lucky we were. I remarked, "This is why we have an RV!" Steve couldn't agree more…we were so happy. This hike was every bit as wondrous as our Coo's Bay hike. What fun. And so much more hiking like this will be in our future now, how awesome. :) Climbing up onto the knoll which made up the "God's Thumb" afforded amazing, breathtaking views in all directions…we were overjoyed that the weather allowed us to do this incredible hike. It was absolutely spectacular! As for heading back, we initially wondered if we could make our way down to the beach and walk back the several direct miles back to the truck. But that idea was out of the question. The impassible craggy, steep and greenery-covered coast would never allow a way to the beach which started probably a mile away. We'd be returning the way we came but we certainly didn't mind that we'd have to return the way we came. On the way back, Steve discovered that he could do "wide-angle macros" with our Mark III and 24-40 lens and he had a great time capturing some of the lovely subjects we found. I was delighted for him, and hope that his pictures turn out well! By the time we got back to the car we were both totally spent from the hours of hiking we'd done, but at the same time we felt fantastic. There's just nothing like the feeling of exercising yourself to the point of exhaustion. We returned to the RV and had our espresso and dinner, and I'm now finished up the evening with this post before we watch part of a show with Pumpkin and fall asleep, so happy with our day! OH YEAH, it's my day to post my Happy Fence Friday picture! I have THREE that I took today! On the way back to our car, we saw deer on a property behind a rustic fence! And at the truck I saw an opportunity for a fence and ocean panorama! And finally, there's a picture of the trail's beginning at the end of the residential road! I hope you like them all! :) Pam, I enjoyed your info about tornadoes and the like--oh boy…I know all about fracking and it's so incredibly bad, where do you even begin. Seriously people, if what you're doing is making EARTHQUAKES happen when they never had them before…maybe you ought not be doing that? *sigh* Big money doesn't care. It's horrible. Anyway, here's hoping you had an ok day my dear! You're in our thoughts!! :D *BIG HUGS* from Devil's Lake! :) Explored on 5/24/19; highest placement #4.

(+2 insets!) EEK EEK! It's another late post! :D Not my fault! STUFF HAPPENED! :D Can't type much tonight! Today was another driving day! We left our wonderful site at Devil's Lake and drove several hours back down the coast to the Bullard's Beach State Park Campground for one night's stay as we begin to make our way back towards home. We got into camp at about 4:30 and fast forward, we got our bikes out and took a ride around the campground and then out to the beach where we laughed our heads off trying to ride our bikes on the wet sand! FAIL! So funny! It Doesn't Work! You must have really fat tires, which we don't have, heh! Then we road over a short distance to the bay and oh my it was so beautiful! My main picture shows our bikes on the dock with a beautiful local bridge behind! Insets are a couple of views from another spot in two directions. SO LOVELY! Our bike ride was soooooo much fun! We will definitely be back to this pretty place! Pam, I can't write now but you are in my thoughts as well as in Steve's! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/25/19; highest placement, #11.

(+3 insets!) (oops...I accidentally wrote an entire book! Heh...sorry...I needed to tell you about yesterday too! Hmmm...might I suggest an entire pot of coffee?! :D) Here in the United States, the observance of Memorial Day happens on the last Monday of May. The weekend preceding Monday is also the official beginning of summer vacation season and in some places, the end of the school year. This translates to being one of the busiest travel periods of the year. When Steve and I organized this trip we're on, it didn't even occur to us that we'd be sharing some days with the crazy Memorial weekend throngs. We only realized when we couldn't find anywhere to stay on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It finally dawned on us that there had to be something going on and then it hit us. "OH NO!!! What are we going to do?" We spent hours looking for an affordable place to stay without any luck. Steve kept looking and then, to our total amazement, we found one night available at Bullard's Beach, which just happens to be one of the most popular campgrounds in the area. We were so happy. We were going to just drive home from there because we weren't finding anywhere to stay but with some more persistence, Steve found us two more nights on Saturday and Sunday night at a place that wasn't too expensive and was also just a short walk to the beach. SCORE! Even though it was too bad that we couldn't stay longer at Bullard's Beach, it turned out to be just fine because we got a fabulous adventure while we were there. What a great surprise that was! We are most definitely going to come back and spend at least four days there next time around, what a nice place it was. :) Another bonus to our Bullard's Beach site was that we were able to leave our truck hitched to the trailer and since there was no sewer hookup, we didn't have that time-sink either. That meant that leaving would be really fast the next morning, woot! :) To top things off, check-out time to leave our campsite today was 1pm which was great. Some places are 11am and it can be a bit stressful to get out the door and driving at that time unless we have done some of the work the night before. We loved being able to sleep in along with the luxury of a nice and relaxed morning. It also gave me the chance to fix a situation that happened yesterday. When we pulled into our campsite, I couldn't help seeing the beautiful yellow flowers all over the bushes everywhere. Naturally I wanted to take pictures and once we got set up, I popped out the door with my Canon and macro lens and spent about 15 minutes taking pictures of the flowers which were literally 10 feet from our rig! :) There was also rattlesnake grass which I adore. Last night when I went to copy my pictures over I was horrified to see that I managed to NOT have an SD card in the camera. Apparently we didn't change the settings to alert us when there's no card in the camera. ARGH!!! I was so annoyed. Steve quickly diffused the situation by saying that we'd have tons of time in the morning and I could spend all the time I wanted to retake my pictures. He also reminded me of how wonderful it was that my subjects were literally right outside the rig. I relaxed and looked forward to the morning with a happy smile on my face! So, this morning I popped outside as soon as I was able…mind you, it began pouring when we got up but then…it stopped! There was a constant drizzle when I went out but it was manageable, as were the breezy conditions. Sometimes I wonder if someone/something is making sure that all goes well for us because workable conditions keeps happening for us just when it's really important to us. I went out and there were droplets and dew all over everything…it was so much prettier than when I took pictures last night! :D I retook pictures of the pretty yellow flowers and the red-tinged ones I'd never seen before…and the pea pods…and the rattlesnake grass too. JOY!!! It only took about 15 minutes and while I was outside, Steve was making breakfast for us! I climbed back into the RV just as breakfast was ready, how's that for timing?! :D He was so happy I had a successful shoot and loved the few pictures I showed him on the camera. :) Yay for fabulous husbands! :) I haven't looked at my pictures on the computer yet but I saw a few on the camera and there are certainly some winners so I'm totally overjoyed!! (NOTE: I've peeked at a few...lots of keepers!!) Once breakfast was done, we merely did about 20 minutes of final prep and we left our site! What a wonderful experience. :) We had a very nice time heading back south as the rain came down periodically. I pointed out the Facerock Creamery in Bandon which we'd hoped to visit on the way back--Steve was delighted that I spotted it! This company makes fabulous cheese and curds which we adore and we hoped that we might find some specialty items only sold there. YES! They DID! Steve and I were the happiest of chubby-cheeked mouses (intentionally misspelled!) as we sampled all of their many offerings and left with way too much cheese and curds for the normal and sane person, but heh…we are all about keto and cheese is one of our yummiest staples! YAY CHEESE! How much cheese do we want? ALL OF IT! :D MORE CHEESE IS MORE! :D Along the two-hour drive we enjoyed the lovely views of the rugged coastline. There was a grocery store stop to get some more dog food for Molly and later we pulled off to take pictures at a place called Meyer's Beach because the views were just too lovely to resist! Stepping out of the truck was almost shocking--the raging wind and freezing temperatures were truly something else! I grabbed my Sony and got a bunch of pictures while the wind literally knocked me off-balance many times. I had to be careful, it was THAT windy! We were happy to get back into the truck, yikes! Worth it to stop though! :) Finally we pulled into our last two-nights stay of our trip, what they call an "RV Park" but what we call an "RV Parking Lot"…lol…we knew it would be like this and honestly it's better than most that we put in this classification but truly it's just a bunch of parking spots that you jam your rig into. Not special or pretty at all. In the case here, the property edges are nice with pretty flower-covered bushes but that's about it. Not what we'd accept normally but it's Memorial Day weekend so we were happy that these were available. :) Plus, the beach is very close! The weather is, let's just say, NOT macro weather. Heh. The wind is enough to rock the trailer and the rain is peppering the trailer sideways, lol. It's not raining constantly but enough. It's very cold out there too. However, Steve and I are very happy to be in our comfy little home and the internet connection here is super. Folks next to us are so nice and actually moved into their spot a month ago as a full-time living arrangement. We had a lovely dinner and I'm all snuggled into my nest, content as can be. :) How nice it's been to have some time to just write and work on my pictures! :) Today's pictures are all from Meyer's Beach, the incredible place we stopped at on the way down here. You just have to see this place, it's amazing! The main image is pointed south. The first inset is directly out to sea. The third is pointed north. And then a fun picture of our rig with the view south. Wow. The whole Oregon coastline is covered with views like this. How fortunate we are to be able to visit this place. And to think, it's actually just a three-hour drive from our house. We will be back and if we can, we'll be able to camp nearby so we can go on a long and wonderful day's walk and photo adventure here. For now, just to see it is a fabulous gift. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures! :D I braved ridiculous wind for all of you and I survived without turning into a Janet Kite! :D Thinking of you, PAM!!! *BIG HUGS*!!! :) Explored on 5/26/19; highest placement, #4.

(+4 insets!) We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day in Brookings, Oregon. Oh happy day! :D We read the forecast last night and it said "sunny" and we thought we must be on another planet! :D On top of that, there would be a classic car show to visit and a short but wonderful harbor walk to go on too. Then we found out there is a festival here just for this weekend! There is a garden show, an arts and crafts area with many vendors and artwork to see too. We discussed what we should do and decided to see the car show and go on the walk today and tomorrow we will go to the arts and crafts vendors. Instead of going to the garden show, we'll then go on a beautiful hike that we found just north of town. Wait a second…weren't we supposed to be going home tomorrow? Actually, yes! But we suddenly realized that if we drove home tomorrow, we'd be sharing the road with the countless vacationers all headed back to Medford and beyond…what a bad idea. We pictured traffic jams the whole way home…ugh. So instead we're staying another night! Hooray!! Once we had our late breakfast we headed out to the classic car show. It was a mere 10-minute's walk from our RV and we were actually alerted to the show because we saw it on the way to the RV park yesterday. The car show was really large with lots and lots of amazing oldies. We recognized a bunch of them which show at the Medford Cruise every June and never tire of drooling at these lovely autos, whether or not we've seen them before. They weren't all oldies either…Steve got to sit in a new Tesla, and holy cow is that a cool car! I only had time to process one picture of the cars for today so I chose a gorgeous old Rolls Royce. The details are incredible and I'll try to post some at a later date. After visiting the car show we tucked into a seafood restaurant on the way back to the RV. Steve has been pining for crab since before our trip so he finally got his wish! I chose cod fish tacos and they were amazing. We traded bites of our dishes and had a thoroughly wonderful meal. After stopping in at the RV, we went on the Harbor walk, which was a stroll around the harbor area and out to a jetty but it was lovely and we enjoyed seeing the boats as we walked along. Walking out onto the jetty was where the magic was. The view was super and I noticed some suspicious shapes in the water that I stared at as we got closer. Were they what I thought they were? YES!!! SEALS!!!! YAY!!!! My Sony was able to zoom in close enough so that I could actually get pictures to share!!! YES!!!! Looking at the images on my computer I could see that two of these Harbor Seals were a momma and her fast-growing pup. Can you say DARLING?! :D I was over the moon with joy that I got pictures! While we were there we met a couple of fellows who were out there fishing (without any luck unfortunately) and it turns out that Matthew and Larry were from MEDFORD! Such a small world, and even though it's just a couple of hours away, we were all amused by this fact! We enjoyed chatting with them for quite a while before we finally departed. As we were about to leave I noticed that the seals were gone…and then I laughed…the tide had come in and removed their sunning spot! And then I saw movement in the water and could see one of the seals swimming towards us! To my amazement I got pictures which turned out, what good luck!! So, this evening's main picture is my best seal picture, which shows mama and baby and a friend. I've also included a picture of sleepy mama and baby, and the two pictures of the swimming seal. Finally, one picture from the car show, huzzah!! Pam, I hope that you are doing well…yikes the weather sounds dreadful where you are! I do not want to call you Dorothy so please stay safe! :) *BIG HUGS*!!!! Explored on 5/27/19; highest placement, #1.