PDX and beyond!

Arriving in Portland, OR, I headed straight to Rolling Hills RV Park on Sandy Blvd. Right next door to the Stagecoach Tavern and very close to TJ’s house. Spent a week there visiting with friends and having a good time generally, except for the god-awful WiFi at the park. It’s sucked for the 6 years I’ve been coming here and they seem to be unwilling to modernize it. It’s an old 11MBPS system! And there is only ONE directly connected antenna. On the offices roof, and that’s 50 yards from the first RV spot, through lots of trees. All the other antennas are ‘repeaters’, the old style so they only have half the bandwidth (so, no more then 5.5MBPS). Sometimes, late at night or early in the morning, the signal is good enough but nearly all the time, it’s barely adequate. Then, one of the nice RV spots I found open is way far away from the single BR available for RV’ers. Annoying.

But, with all it’s faults, it’s certainly convenient. Close to my friends, close to shopping, close to a nice bar, nice flat cement pads, good water, cable, lawn & a picnic table at your site, stocked loaner library, etc., etc.. So, despite the faults, I stay there often.

All parked and snuggled in.

After a couple weeks, I wanted to head to the coast and enjoy some cooler weather. It was getting up to 80°F every day in Portland and Seaside (SS) was only running at 65°F so off I went. It’s only a two hour trip to SS so I left late and arrived early. Here’s where I usually stay when in SS:

Here’s their sign.

After visiting the office and paying for a week, the gal that works in the office came out to guide me into a space…the space she chose for me. I’ve been coming here for years and figured that she must know by now, after working as the campground manager for 15 years, how to guide in a large RV. So, I’m trying to back into the space and notice out of my passengers side window that I was uncomfortably close to something over there, so I asked her to walk to the other side of the back of the RV and check it out…she comes back to the drivers side and tells me it looks great. Well, OK, didn’t want to have her think I didn’t trust her and all so I slooooowly back up and soon hear a loud SNAP, CRUNCH. Jump out to find she’d guided me right into this, and as you can see, it’s too low for me to see from inside the RV:

There’s the beast that scraped my RV.

Damnit! She apologizes and all and tries to continue guiding me in. I say no, I want that handyman I know works there to help. So she wanders off to find him. Here’s the damage:

Ouch!

What you can’t see is that the screws were almost all ripped out of the frame, that side panel was hanging loose. And my kind of new paint job was scraped off. Then the edging for my propane cabinet was scraped badly as well.

Darnit.

After Tom came out, he guided me in like a pro. That’s what I’m talking about.

Finally safely parked.

And here’s how close it all is:

Pretty tight.

Oh well. So, Tom promises to take care of the paint, the gal gave me a discount on the weekly rate, and I settled in.

Seaside is fun. It’s a tourist town mostly in the summer so when it’s not to crowded, like on holiday weeks, it’s pretty quiet, lots of places to hang out, great restaurants, and shops. There’s even a game center with a great pizza joint (with beer!), and a electric bumper car center. Fun! And the next day, I headed on down town to enjoy some of SS.

Oooo, the ocean.

I always pass this estuary on the way into town and usually stop for a few minutes to enjoy the serenity.

At the turn around…

Arriving downtown, there’s this turnaround, that statue is of Lewis and Clark who visited here in 1806? They stayed here for a few weeks hunting, fishing, digging clams, and making salt from sea water. They had a fort up north at Young’s Bay in Astoria so they just visited this area…like tourists. Except they needed the salt. Guess it was easier to produce here then in Astoria.

One of my favorite hotels.

That’s the Shilo Inn in downtown. Stayed on the top floor years ago with a great view of the ocean. And the bar downstairs right there on the corner is great too. Oh, and they have a killer breakfast buffet and great food all day. It’s showing it’s age, but I still like the place a lot.

Turned around on the TurnAround.

And right behind you is the ocean and a great beach. Since it was kind of cool this entire week, and beyond, not to many bathers. I’ve been here when there were so many people you couldn’t hardly see the sand. Not to bad today.

Off in the distance is that hill, it sorta reminds me of Diamond Head, in Hawaii.

On the ride home, you cross what looks like either a river or an estuary. I had to ask around and it turns out that it is an ancient river. The land through town is flat though so it’s kind of slack, until the tide comes in then it’s pretty lively. And when the tide goes out. It’s been contained over the years of course, as the pioneers and later contained it with their walls. Here’s what it looks like:

Paddle boats.

I came to SS for both the relaxation in the cool weather and to be closer to Ilwaco, Washington. They have a Blues Festival every year and this year, again, my daughter and her band have been invited to play. More on that next time.

Meanwhile, about a block from my RV spot is a really nice sports bar and I was there to watch games often enough that I came to really enjoy the bar tenders. Especially one of them. What a babe. Gorgeous, interesting, well read (well, she’s a high school libraian so you’d expect that), great person to hang out with. Even though it’s her job, she always made me feel welcome.

See ya all!