After enjoying the Blues Festival, and Ilwaco for a few days, I headed back down the coast road to Seaside. I was enjoying the weather here on the coast so much that I paid for a months stay in SS. They were still having a heat wave in Portland so it was better to just stay on the coast and avoid that.
This was the scene as I headed to the bridge crossing from Washington into Astoria, Oregon. This is pretty much what Lewis and Clark would have seen, except there wouldn’t have been a bridge. They did boat over to this side to explore a little.
The area where Lewis and Clark landed when they explored this side of the Columbia.
The weather looks a little dicey but it wasn’t all that bad. Sun would peek out from behind the clouds often enough that the drive was pleasant. It only takes an hour to get from Ilwaco to Seaside so I left the RV park early afternoon, and stopped to shop a couple places along the way.
On the way back to Seaside.
Once back in Seaside, I stopped at my favorite RV park, and since I was staying for a month, I got a permanent spot near the back of the park. Had a nice view of the estuary.
My spot.
I took off the damaged plastic fender surround off so the handyman could take it in to have it painted, but he never got around to it. He had four weeks to get round to it, but seemed to enjoy just sitting around doing nothing better.
Crab bridge.
A few steps from my door and you can see the estuary. That’s the bridge I cross to get to BJ’s Sports Bar. You can just see a couple people standing there and what’s going on is that they have crab traps in the water below the bridge. I saw many small crabs pulled out of the water but never any bigger then maybe 3″ or 4″.
BJ’s Sports Bar.
BJ’s was closed for quite a while, then the new owners remodeled it and reopened in Nov. 2011. It’s pretty nice. The bar section is very comfortable. Several large screen TVs, good food, nice bartenders. Best thing about it though is that it’s within walking distance of my RV. Usually I’d ride my bike but sometimes I’d walk over there.
My plan when I arrived in SS had been to wander over there and watch the Oregon Ducks game the following Saturday. That’s not what happened. I went into BJ’s Wednesday night and made sure they planned on showing the Ducks game, but Saturday, when I got to the bar an hour before the game, and asked the owner to turn on the pre-game, he apologizes and says that he doesn’t have the game. He tells me he thought it was going to be on their cable, but it wasn’t. He’d been searching for the game when I came in. Here I am in Oregon, with a big Oregon Ducks game coming on and the sports bar doesn’t have it. Crap. So I head back home, get on line, find phone numbers for area sports bars, and call several. None of them can find the game. They all seem to have the cable provider that isn’t carrying the game, or they have the cheap satellite package so again, no Ducks game. Pissed!
After checking my own cable and finding that I can’t get the game either via cable or OTA, I jump on my bike and furiously pump on down to town, checking each and every bar I can find on the way and in town. Nothing. Some of them I’d already called, but I checked them in person just in case. There are several bars I can get to easily and check with them all. None of them have the game. All of them have the same cable provider. One has satellite too but they can’t find any mention of the Ducks game, and don’t seem all that interested in finding it. Crap.
So, the game’s been on for an hour by now, and I go back home and try to find something on line. No luck. The Ducks wrap up the rights so tightly or make it so expensive that there is no way to listen to or watch the game like you’d expect for a favored team. In Oregon! A couple hundred miles from the stadium too so it’s not like they’d have to black it out. Plus they always sell out at the stadium. Damn the Duck’s marketing team. They suck.
Without a game to watch, I turn to chores and pull off the damaged wheel surround so the handyman can have it repainted.
Removed the plastic surround.
Next day, Sunday, I head over to the ‘sports’ bar early to see if they’re going to have the Seahawks game on. There’s a couple of cable guys in there, installing 6 new receivers for the bar. They’re from the other cable company. I get to talking to the owner and he’s arranged for that new cable company and dumped the old one as it wasn’t carrying the Ducks games. Seemed as though he’d gotten calls all Saturday from people trying to find someplace to go for the Ducks game. Got the cable guys out there on a Sunday to install the equipment. Cool. Too late for yesterdays game, but in place for next Saturday. I wasn’t really that pissed at the bar or even the cable company. I’ve known for years how intensely greedy the UofO is. They simply charge more then the games are worth and have such a tight grip on the rights that sometimes the cable companies will tell the Ducks, screw you, we just won’t carry the games.
Ah, well, now the bar has the games so I’m happy again. But…I’m so pissed at the Ducks for their anti-consumer practices I don’t bother to watch a Ducks game for a couple months. Screw them.
This visit to Seaside was great. Love this town and really enjoy riding my bike all over. There’s no hills to speak of and there are lots of things to see and do. Weather was excellent nearly every day, then we had a couple of short term storms roll through to keep things interesting. Very nice month.
My parking spot.
Had the luxury of there being no one parked next to me for the entire month. Gave me some extra space to work on projects.
Like I said, I stayed for a month here in SS but was ready to head up to Portland when the weather cooled off up there so I could help Jackie and Jeff remodel their kitchen. I parked across the street from their house and ran an electrical cord over so’s I’d have some heat at night. By now it was October so there was a bunch of rain up in PDX to enjoy.
Jeff and Bob analyzing.
The kitchen cabinets were all prefab so we had fun putting them all together in the living room and then trying to find a place to store them. It was raining pretty regularly so outside wasn’t an option.
Jackie inspects our work.
It was kind of fun having a remodeling project to work on. The boys had most everything in hand so my job was to put things together. Told them when I got there that they shouldn’t mess with the floor but they’d decided they needed to smooth it out the hard way, with cement, so I let them go at it themselves while I did other stuff. What a mess. Added several days to the project. Jackie and Jeff had taken a week off work for the remodel but with the messed up floor job, it took a couple weeks.
New window and sink.
They’d already done most of the electrical by the time I got there but putting the cabinets together was fun anyway.
Stoves in it’s place.
There was another weeks worth of work after this picture but Jackie and Jeff had to go back to work and Bob and I did allot of the grunt stuff after this. It came out looking pretty nice. Much more convenient compared to the old kitchen, fer sure. Nice thing about it was that they bought our lunches and dinners. Anyway, after a couple weeks, we finished up the kitchen (I have a picture of the finished kitchen somewhere, just can’t find it right now…) and I headed back down to the RV park behind the Stagecoach. A few days later I headed downtown to the Portland Museum of Art to see some ancient Greek statuary. I’ll post that story next time.
I think I’ve been in BJ’s – at least the building and location over the Necanicum looks familiar. Don’t remember the RV park though, so will have to check it out; we’ve stayed just down the road apiece at a large RV park south of town. Bet everyone on the coast uses Charter cable – seems to be rampant anywhere outside of Portland area.
Glad to hear your disgust with the Ducks; they are overinflated with Nike money and resulting sports success, and too big for their britches. My Beavers at least whomped on them last week, taking some of the wind out of their baseball sails. Now Nike cash is infecting OSU too, so I hope that doesn’t get out of hand and swell Beaver heads as well.
Joel
The remodel of BJ’s was very well done…it’s a very comfortable bar with large TVs and a great kitchen. And yes, it’s right there next to the river. You can even eat outside next to it on their patio overhanging the river. If you have grandkids, there’s a large play area with blow up bouncy rooms there too.
The Ducks pissed me off so much that I didn’t watch a game for several weeks after that. I checked several zip codes in Oregon around that time and there were only a couple of their games televised! Couldn’t believe it. They were a nationally ranked team, but not much coverage of their games.
Bro – it is very confusing watching last years post. I get all invested in yer travels and then find out they have been over with for ages. LoL! [I was ready to invite ya to the house since you were so close.] I know you announced the time delay a few posts back but – remind me…. cause I’m really old.
I got real lazy about the blog early last year, I’ve been doing it for 8 years now. Last count there were ~400,000 words and ~8,000 pictures.
But, I’m hurrying to try and catch up. I’m up to the last quarter of 2012 now on the blog and expect to zip through the year to at least get to 2013 in a couple days. It’s now May 30th, 2013 so I’m a little behind. Just visited the coolest Ancient Indian Kiva I’ve ever trekked through today in Aztec, NM. Stay tuned for that…
What the heck are you doing in New Mexico this time of year?
Where I was, Flagstaff, Aztec, Silverton, & Mesa Verde, were all high. Like 5,000 to 9,970 feet, and with some creative timing, I was cool as can be everywhere I went. Might have had to run the A/C for 1-2 hours per day in some places but it was mighty comfortable…over all. I have since left NM and CO and am at my brothers place in Rosamond, California. It’s getting up to the 90’s everyday but it’s not to bad in the house with A/C.