In the Winds

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Awakening in our beautiful home-for-the-night in the towering redwoods of northern CA, we did our usual morning routine, this time including showers, and were ready to get on the road about 10:30 our time, so 9:30 local.

The showers at Jedediah Smith Park were wonderful--- hot water and 5 minutes for 2 quarters with plenty of room to put your stuff. We all showered before breakfast of French toast, sausage and scrambled eggs.

We first stopped at the VC in the park and got their state stamp for the redwoods. If it was a little later in the season we could have gone across the river on a little foot bridge, but the water is still too high for it to be put in place. So as we exited the park we went across the street to the larger VC for both the national and state park, and there got the last of the stamps for the Redwood National Park. With the bookwork complete we headed north on route 101 again.

Deciding to forego the Oregon Caves stamp at this time, we just want to wander up the coast and enjoy the good weather along the way as long as possible, although it is very windy! Wind is always expected along the this time of year, but this seems especially strong.  The weather guy said 25 mph winds with gusts to 33. Needless to say we didn’t spend a great deal of time outside. It was pretty chilly.

We crossed into Oregon about 10 miles north of where we got back on route 101. The first town we came to was Brookings, OR.

There was a good deal of construction on 101 throughout the day. There were several small rock/mud slides that had been cleared from the road and several areas where crews were working to stabilize the roadbed which had sunk because of heavy rains. We decided that 101 must be a terribly expensive road to maintain. We stopped at several view areas and pull outs to ooh and aah and take photos. The Oregon Coast is really beautiful. High cliffs, sea stacks and beautiful beaches just take your breath away.  Of course going north means all the pull offs are on the other side of the road, and some seem unsafe to turn into, on tight curves, . Also, some of the “view points” don’t have any view! They could use a little tree thinning. But we were enjoying the views we had. It is just beautiful.

In Gold Beach we stopped for diesel and propane. The attendant thanked us for bringing the sun with us, so maybe the fog we had yesterday has been prevalent. It was a small town station, and with the diesel pump located a short distance from the main building, the attendant told us to just tell them inside how much we got. Seems like they could easily get some drive aways.

Continuing on up the coast, as we entered Port Orford we were looking for a place to stop and have some lunch. There was a viewpoint along the waterfront that looked inviting. We found a couple of parking spots, but were asked not to park there because they were doing some television filming there. Okay, we went on through Port Orford, OR and out to the Cape Blanco State Park Campground where we found adjacent sites for the night. We still needed lunch/dinner, so we all jumped in the Rubble-mobile and went back to Port Orford for fish and chips at the Crazy Norwegian. The fish and chips were delicious as was the pie we had for dessert. We stopped for a few minutes at the port of Port Orford and looked around before heading back to the campground. There is not a dock, as such at the port. There are 2 large cranes at the edge of a huge, elevated concrete platform. Boats are hoisted up and placed on dollies on the platform and do not remain in the water.

Then back to the campground where we are settled in for the night, with power and water hooked up.  There is a trail down to the beach, but we are located on a fairly high cliff and don’t want to have to climb back up. Betty did find a picnic table just down the trail that was in a protected spot. You can see the lighthouse through the trees, with a nice view of the ocean, and can stay out of the wind. We enjoyed that for a while, and thought possibly we would head back down later to see the glorious sunset, but it seemed like it would be colorless, so turned in instead.

We’ll pound out some more tomorrow.

How do you say goodnight in Norwegian?