8/29/2017 - Scenic Drive along Umpqua River

Tuesday - They had a little rain overnight here, I wasn't sure if it was just sea mist or rain, but I heard later that they did have a little rain on the coast.  Our plan for today was to take the scenic drive along the Umpqua River, leaving through Coos Bay along 42/I-5/138/38, then 101 home.  As we drove out of Coos Bay, we saw a pond full of logs, next to a lumber yard.  We see lumber yards all the time, and today was no exception.

As we continued along, we came upon a covered bridge, so we checked that out.  Joe also discovered more blackberries.

Then we came upon a fire staging area.  It was smoky here, and we later learned that this area, Camas Valley, also has a fire now, which just started a few days ago.  Oregon is literally burning up!  And its fire resources are stretched to the max.

Along this road, I saw two different groups of wild turkeys.  Joe didn't see either one, so after the second group we turned around and drove back so he could see them.  We also saw a deer here along the edge of the trees.  It was very smoky here so my pictures are not very clear.

Along here was a weigh station, and Joe has been wanting to weigh our Buick, so we drove across that.  With us in it, we weighed in at 5,600 lbs; 3,100 front axle, 2,500 back axle.  So now we know.

Our next stop was in Winston for drinks.  There was a cheetah statue at the intersection so I asked the significance of it.  It turns out there is a Wildlife Safari just out of town, and they are number 1 in the nation in successfully breeding cheetahs.  So, guess what our next stop was!

I had trouble with my camera here, and I forgot my backup battery, so I didn't get my usual number of pictures.  I also took pictures on my phone, including a video of Joe chatting with an emu.  But I have to post my animal pictures for Andrew.  For the emu conversation, you can check Facebook, because I did post it there.

We got behind the feeding truck, so we saw a little action here.

Then we drove on to the next section.

This was a really nice animal park, very clean, lots of open range for the animals, and a wide variety of animals from Asian,Africa, as well as the U.S.  Joe spotted some blackberries here too, but we were under orders to keep our doors closed and stay in the car.

When we finished here, we came out in Winston again, so we stopped for lunch at an A and W Root beer Stand, and it was coney dog Tuesday, so we enjoyed coneys and root beers for lunch.  We had to take I-5 for a few miles to connect with the rest of our scenic drive.  Here is where we picked up the pretty Umpqua River.

Also along this drive is a 100-foot tall walnut tree, estimated to be more than 250 years old.  It is a mystery how this non-native tree sprouted here, but it's obviously been here a long, long time.

Next on our drive was Fort Umpqua, a reproduction of the Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post.  But it was locked up when we walked down to it, apparently they do tours here, and have a big celebration over Labor Day.  But it is housed right behind the library, so I watched some spinning while I waited for Joe.  I think they were spinning cotton and alpaca.  One lady talked about making some slippers out of angora from her rabbits.  They also had some beautiful, small quilts hanging on the walls.

Just before we reached Reedsport, which is back on Hwy 101, we stopped at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area.  It was about 4:30 by now, a little early for evening feeding, but we were lucky enough to spot about 15-20 elk in the distance.  Good thing we had our binoculars with us.

Our final stop was Myrtle Wood company, which at one time was a papermill/sawmill, but now it is really just a gift shop with beautiful wood carvings.  Way above my budget.

We got back to the campground, extended our stay for 2 more days here,  then went out for Mexican food for dinner.  We stopped off at the casino for an hour, then called it a day.  Another good day for the traveling Froeschkes.