After Seaside…the coast of Oregon.

I stuck around Seaside enjoying the area until Oct. 6th. Watching the weather predictions showed that a big storm was coming this direction and Seaside was going to get the brunt of it. I’ve got a couple minor leaks on the roof of the RV and wanted to avoid having to deal with that again. So I did some investigating and found that down near Brookings, Oregon looked like a fairly dry area for a couple more weeks. That trip south would give me a chance to visit other small towns on the way down. Not in any hurry so I could maybe visit the air museum again. I like it there and haven’t been for 10 years. I was thinking it had the Spruce Goose, but we’ll see when we get there. And the morning I left, you could see that a storm front was moving in. No rain at this stage though.

Around noon, stopped for the view and a walkabout. Interesting bay. Also shows I need to wash those front windows soon. That reminds me, I need to get my window washer working. There’s something wrong with the wiring that goes to the new tank and pump I bought and installed a year ago. It’s just that it’s a bitch trying to work on it alone. Can’t push the washer button, then run out and make a measurement. Need two people. Anyway, this bay and the view were interesting. Here we are in Garibaldi. Always thought that was a neat name for a town. Don’t know what this chimney was about but it’s certainly a landmark around here. Just on the outskirts of Garibaldi. And shortly after we’re in Tillamook. I would have visited the Tillamook Cheese factory but the last time I was there, the 2 pound medium cheddar I usually buy was 35% higher than any store in Oregon. No reason to stop with those prices. And then around 2pm I see this off in the distance. Yea! The air museum. First I wandered around the little store. There’s also a cafe’ but they were closed for a few minutes. These are models of what the blimps stored here during WWII looked like. Bought my ticket and walked into the giant, coolish, hangar. Hmm, a bit cold. So I walked out the side door of the hangar thinking that maybe that gate I saw when I parked out here might be open. There’s this big ass cargo plane on the tarmac just outside.  And here’s the hangar doors. Massive. There’s a staircase so you can walk up inside the cargo plane. Looking forward to the cabin. The pilots cabin. Enough room for 6 guys in here. Even had a couple cots for napping. Looking aft, towards the tail. See that cargo platform? There’s an electric winch that moves it forward and aft. Looks kinda comfy. Lots of switches for the navigator to keep track of right there in the overhead. And then the nose section. Looks like a giant guppy. Can’t see them in this shot, but there are 4 giant prop engines. Way over there you can see the stairs I took to get out here. And there’s my RV. It would easily fit inside the guppy. Unfortunately, the side gate was chained and locked so I couldn’t go get a jacket. Back inside, ready to do some touring.  No Spruce Goose though. That’s somewhere else in Oregon. I forget where. And this is where we are. Hangar B. Hangar A burned down back in the ’60’s. The ‘ol scoop nose jet. These old fire station rolling stock were in pretty good condition. Ain’t that purdy? What a stiff. During WWII, there were like 9 blimps here in this hangar. And another group in hangar A. They could spend days in the air, patrolling the coast. Pretty neat idea. Would have been fun for kids living around here back then what with all the airplanes taking off and landing, and then the blimps! Wow, who wouldn’t like to watch them? Ahh, a sailplane. The tail tells the tale. Always wanted to have a reason to say that. O_o, the engine section… This little mini copter was pretty cute. This is the tail section looking forward to the cockpit. Huh. Not all that historical. Oh, well, someday it will be I suppose. This one would be pretty scary to ride thousands of feet above ground wouldn’t it? You’d get a good view below your feet for sure. Looks a little like a gyrocopter. This one is pretty neat. Old fashioned too. This is a home made blimp. Build by a guy in the south somewhere. After a few years of flying it, he donated it to the museum. Pretty cool, huh? Homemade jet. ‘Ol timey spy plane.
And that is the end of the pictures from the museum. What I did next was go back into the cafe’ and order a cup of chowder and a hot coco. The waitguy got it all fucked up. After ordering, I sat at a table and a bit later the cook came out with a cup of chili and asked me if I’d not wanted anything to drink? Well, I said, I ordered chowder not chili, and a hot cocoa…and I’d already paid for both. So soon I had both chowder and chili, and a nice hot cocoa too. Yumm.

A few miles down the 101 highway. Little tiny town with some very old buildings I never got a picture of. I keep meaning to stop at that ol’ building down there where the road bends away. It’s an art gallery. I keep missing it. Today, I didn’t spot anywhere passed the building to park the RV. I’d missed the spot before the building. Nowhere to turn around either. And a few miles later, I’m in Lincoln City.

And here was near where I stopped for the night. Outside of town, south. It was around 5 pm when I got to Lincoln City. And a mile beyond, I saw a sign on the side of the road for a RV park so pull off onto the road and 3 miles later I found (it was confusing there for a bit because the road got to a ‘T’ without a sign for the RV park) the Wapiti RV Park. It’s an older park once owned by the Elks club, so there are several buildings around the property, including a former bar. Everything is older, but well maintained. Big area for RVs. Older RV power towers and the like but everything worked.

The Elks club in general has declining membership, and this is one of the RV parks they felt they needed to sell. The new owners had only been there a few months when I stopped by. There were no discounts so I paid a full bore $25 for the night. And guess what, they had the fastest WiFi I’ve ever run into at a RV park. Place had 16Mbps download and 4Mbps upload speeds. I could watch all the streaming video I had a mind to, in HD. Which was good, because they had neither OTA tv or cable. The owner told me the local cable company is being pissy and asking for monthly amounts as though the park was filled all the time. So, with no tv or cable tv, I streamed a movie and part of a NFL game that evening. Nice.

Next day was the same weather. Cloudy with a chance of showers. When I did run into a shower, it was light and short lived. Headed south at a leisurely pace.

Lots of these little towns all along the coast. To be fair, Oregon’s coast is a spectacular place to live though. But, isn’t any coast?

In Lakeside, around 2 PM, I see the Seadrift RV Park alongside the 101. It looked modern enough, but the office tells me they have no WiFi. Then she points to the equipment and tells me they’re still waiting for it to be installed. Well, whatever, I pay, park, and soon discover an open AP giving me 5 bars. So, I have WiFi the rest of my stay there. Nice. Next day, the weather was overcast still, but it’s a little warmer, and the air doesn’t smell like rain.

Ahh, made Coos Bay by 11:20 PM, here’s a pic of their cool bridge. Again, the heavy rain was holding off.Stopped at the Blue Heron in Coos Bay at around 11:30 AM for a bowl of their incredible Golden Chanterelle mushroom soup. Sadly, they no longer have the chef that is a mushroom connoisseur. Years ago, I would stop here for their mushroom soup every time I was on the way to Brookings. I’d buy a bowl, then I’d get a quart to take with me. Yumm. Can’t do that anymore, but they do have good food. I just had a salad today. And there’s a place on the street for me to park my rig…if I get there at an uncrowded time.

Around 5 PM, I get to the Turtle Rock RV Park in Gold Beach. I had really high hopes for this RV park because it’s right across the street from a brewery, and that’s next door to what the reviewers called a Sports bar. And, we’re in Oregon so I thought that meant I’d be able to watch the Oregon Ducks the following Saturday. So, I pull in and pay for 5 nights to cover my stay and game watching plans. This after asking if the WiFi was good and receiving the thumbs up from the staff. Go park in spot 71, hook up, and I’m on the web shortly after. And then discover that though the WiFi is high speed, it drops out for 2-15 minutes every half hour. And I checked it often. I take a look at the nearby rooftop equipment and it looks like it’s been in place here on the coast for 10-15 years, judging by the rust and corrosion. Dropouts happen to my neighbors all the time too. Damn. So I go to the office to talk to staff about the issue and she gives me all the typical bullshit excuses. What burns me about people like that is I would have stayed there anyway if she’d told the truth. Probably not as long, maybe 2 nights. But she’d rather lie?

Anyway, their office WiFi is stable and I get permission to use my tablet on their WiFi, connect to streaming video, then connect to their 75″ giant TV in the rec room using HDMI. My neighbors in the park had a big Oregon “O” on their RV so I invited them to the game. Soon there were 5 of us to watch the game. Next day, I go over to the ‘sports’ bar expecting to be able to see the Seattle Seahawks at 10 AM. Closed until noon on Sundays. WTF!!?? Ride back to the RV and find the game is on a local cable channel so no harm done. Disappointing, but no harm. Could have watched it on the park’s giant TV too I suppose, if I’d wanted.

Later in the late afternoon, I go back to the bar and have a nice dinner. Passed the brew pub but it’s closed. The bar had all three of their brews on tap, and one of them was very good.

Asked the bartender about all the sports paraphernalia around the bar and not even being open Sunday’s until noon? She just shrugged. Food was very good. BTW, later one of the locals came in and sat down beside me was talking…and mentioned this was a nice ‘sports’ bar. Had to correct the poor guy. He’d not noticed they were closed Sunday morns.

Couple days later, the sun decided to shine so I got some pics of the park.

The park’s WiFi antenna is the square device towering over the R on the RV PARK sign on top of the restroom and laundry building there in the distance.  Not very crowded this time of year. Looks remote, but it’s the trees causing that appearance. The main road with the brew pub and bar is over that way. This next shot looks back up north towards the town (pop. 3600) Gold Beach. We’re around 1.5 miles from downtown. And that’s where I head as soon as my 5 nights are up here at this WiFi hell of a park. It had such potential. I would have stayed a month if the WiFi wasn’t so screwed up. I lost several FB and email compositions when it would just suddenly go weird and somehow reset the connection. I don’t recall being anywhere that the WiFi resetting itself could erase a message I was composing before I’d posted it.

Come back again, thanks for visiting!