Friday - Not an early start again this morning. It was 55 degrees
when I got up, a good morning to stay under the blankets. By the time we got moving, it was 10:30, and
about 11:00 when we crossed the bridge, which took about 10 minutes because we
got stopped for bridgework. But that was
ok, it gave us a last chance to get good views of the mighty Columbia, and we watched two barges coming at us. We also saw that big blue ship again, the one that went past us when we were parked right on the river in Cathlamet.
We drove 130 "Oregon miles" today – "Oregon miles" can be
defined as very slow, hard miles that seem twice the distance as the mileage signs say. The
101, the “Pacific Coast Scenic Byway,” although very scenic from time to time, is
hilly, curvy, lots of small towns with slow speed limits and/or stop
lights. And we made a few stops. The first one was in Warrenton, at Costco to
fuel. When Joe opened the RV door, the
step broke as it came out. So he got our
little step out to use until he can get that fixed, but we have to take the little one in
and out every time we stop, and try to carefully drop it on the ground before we take a step.
.Joy texted that we might hit traffic in Seaside because the
Hood to Coast race is underway, and it ends in Seaside, so they would be setting up for the party on the beach. Traffic was a little heavier through there,
but then Joe decided we needed to drive down to the beach here, right down
Broadway, with lots of cars parked along both sides, pedestrians on the
sidewalks. We couldn’t make it all the
way to the water, so we finally turned onto a side street and headed back to
the main road. But that was probably a
30-minute detour. One shop was ready for
the race crowd with bike trolleys ready to haul you to the beach.
Then we went past a fruit market in Garibaldi selling
cherries, so of course, he had to stop there.
Our next stop was at a viewpoint, with Tillamook Rock in the
distance. There is a lighthouse on it,
but it is no longer in use. It was a little far, so I didn't take a picture of it, but there were two more rocks right in front of the viewpoint.
Then as we came through Tillamook, we passed an RV parts
store, so we turned around and went back to it in case they had the piece for
the step. Well, the counterman was just
leaving to go to Les Schwab and he didn’t have time for Joe, so that was a
wasted stop. There was a thrift store
right beside the parts store, so I did walk through it but didn’t buy anything. And just out of town we saw the Tilllamook
Air Museum that Collins had told us about, but it didn’t look like anything was
going on there, so it might not have been open today. This museum is “housed in an old U.S. Navy
blimp hangar called Hangar B and is the largest clear-span structure in the
world,” constructed during WWII and the building itself covers over 7 acres.
We finally reached Lincoln City, a very slow town to drive
through. It was just before 4:00 and
traffic was pretty heavy, and the stop lights are certainly not in sync. Our campground is actually a little bit out
of town, right on the Siletz River, and we arrived about 4:15, but it seemed
like we had put in a long day. Joe
rigged up the step to work while we are here by putting a block of wood between
the bottom step and our little step to stabilize it.
The good news, though, is that our site is right on the
river. We may even have to go fishing
here, it’s pretty inviting, although it’s a little chilly.
After we got all situated and I fixed dinner, Joe took me to
the Chinook Winds casino in Lincoln City, and I actually won a little tonight. I won about $180 and Joe lost about $40, so
we finally had a net gain, and I was the winner. We found our way back to the campground in
the dark, and finally called it a day.
I'm having trouble with the internet signal here, even though I am using the hot spot on my phone. I finally got this blog to load, but I may have to wait until our next stop to get the next ones posted.
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