31 May Yachats to Bandon

Leaving Yachats, we travelled South to Heceta Head to visit the lighthouse station there. We left the 101 and drove down and under an interesting art deco bridge to the beachside car park. Lots of art deco bridges in this part of the world.

We walked up the heads from the car park, through the forest and past the old lighthouse keepers house (now a luxury B&B) and on to the lighthouse. 

Magic views! We could see sea lions across the bay, and the wildlife volunteers had set up scopes so we could watch the birds nesting on the sea stack nearby. We had a fascinating chat with the volunteers, they travel around by RV, spending 2 months at a time as guides or camp hosts. The lighthouse is seen 21 miles out to sea.

We had a tip from the volunteers that the next lighthouse down the coast was open for tours, so we stopped in at Umpqua River to see the lighthouse there. It was so interesting. We had a look around the Coast Guard museum first. They had a boat on display that was used until the end of the 60s. It is 36 foot, with a 2000 pound brass keel so it is self-righting. If it gets turned over it only takes 40 seconds to come back upright. The tour guide told us that they used to go up to 200miles off shore in this boat at approx. 9 miles an hour…. 

We climbed to the top of the lighthouse and had a look inside the lens. It is like lots of stained glass (red and clear glass) and revolves. The spiral staircase was interesting, it is bolted at the top and bottom only – the rest is not attached to the walls because the metal and brickwork expand at different rates and it would damage the lighthouse. The lens is a class 1 Fresnel lens and 6 foot high and weighs 2 tons. That is the second lighthouse at the site, the first one was built on sand down by the river and fell over. They rescued the lens before the collapse and were able to reuse it.

We drove on to Bandon beach and found an RV park with a laundry – time to do the washing and a bit of housework.   

30 May – South Beach to Yachats

Up in the morning for a trip to the Oregon State Aquarium. It was really interesting. We saw the sea lions being fed and doing tricks for fish, like waving, standing on their front flippers and doing somersaults. 

The otters were fun to watch too, very inquisitive and quite show off-ey. One kept bringing shells to the window and banging them on the glass for us. 

One of the otters was being a bit…well…rude… and it was amusing listening to people who hadn’t worked out what he was up to commenting on how cute he was. We walked through the glass tunnel with sharks and rays going overhead, and saw the resident octopus. She was very cool –she kept changing colour from almost white to deep red. 

We went from the aquarium to Newport harbour and wandered up and down the street looking at shops and watching the fishing boats. Under the pier there were sea lions basking. The males were quite controlling of the females – one was using his wife as a pillow and yelled at her every time she moved. We saw the shrimp factory churning out millions of little cocktail shrimp.

Leaving Newport we drove south to Yachats. We stopped for a look at the Devils Punchbowl – a deep crack in the cliff that the waves rush into and smash up into the air. 

We walked down the cliff to have a look and followed the trail around the headland for a bit, then back up. It was a lovely walk. Then on to the Carl G Washburne State Park for the night – again a gorgeous state park. We parked up and went for a walk down the beach and back. At Newport it was almost like a line was drawn across the coast. North is wet and forested with cliffs and south is drier, more open and more sand dunes. We could actually see looking North, about two headlands up, the line – grey sky suddenly giving way to sunshine and clear skies. Really strange! 

We enjoyed the sunshine and the beach, then back to the RV for freshly shucked oysters and sparkling Muscat.  

29th May – Cape Lookout to South Beach

We left Cape Lookout and continued south on the 101. Every couple of miles there was a turnout with amazing views. We saw cliffs, harbours and miles of beaches. 

 

We stopped at an amazing lookout with a gift shop that sat right out on the point of Cape Foulweather. It was built in the 30’s so you would want to check the foundations before moving in… Apparently the whale watching is awesome from the point.

We drove through a town called Lincoln City and over the world’s shortest river. It’s called D River and flows from Devils Lake to the sea, probably only 100 meters.

We saw the Devils Punchbowl and tasted some excellent reds from the Flying Dutchman Winery. They ferment the wines in open containers – the salt air adds a very different flavour and helps preserve the wines so they don’t add as much sulphite as normal. 

We stopped at Yaquima Heads to see the old lighthouse – it is still functional although went automatic in 1966. There was an extract from the keeper’s log that said something like “weather fine until the fog descended in the afternoon. Seas calm. Keeper died at 2pm”. The death of the keeper was a bit of an afterthought in the log. 

There were seals in the water, bobbing around obviously waiting for everyone to leave so they could get out on the beach. 

Drove on through Newport to South Beach State Park, went for a walk out to the jetty before dinner.

28 May – Ocean Park – Cape Lookout

We left Ocean Park and continued up the peninsular to a place called Oysterville, very small but full of historic houses and a cute little church. 

There were piles of oyster shells everywhere, dump truck size piles, not just small heaps. They like oysters around here! Turning back along the peninsular, we headed South to the bridge over the mouth of the Columbia River. Heading over the bridge was interesting, it has two big spans to let shipping through and the rest is quite low down, so you drive up quite steep inclines.

Over the bridge and into Oregon and the seaside town of Astoria. We continued down the coast to Cannon Beach – one of our favourite spots from last years trip (and coincidentally on this day exactly 12 months ago was the last time we were here). We stopped at the PigN Pancake for lunch before continuing South (blueberry pancakes..mmm). 

The highway winds along the beach and goes around headlands on big stone “bridges” built into the cliff edges in the 1940’s. Prior to the construction of highway 101, the beach was actually the state highway and people travelled along the sand at low tide, then went over the headlands on old Indian trails. The coastline here is just stunning! The forests and mountains come down to meet the sea, and the surf is wild. The old lighthouses often had the lights smashed by boulders thrown up 130 feet by the waves. . There are rock outcrops in the sea, with birds circling over them. The towns are pretty and the streets have lovely names like “Wild Daffodil Lane” and “Picture Window Lane”.

Continuing south we stopped in at Tillamook, to the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we watched the cheese making process, sampled cheeses and bought the local Tillamook Ice-cream. Seriously delicious! Then to the Blue Heron French Cheese Factory for more cheese tasting and some wine tasting also.

It was getting late in the day so we drove on to the Cape Lookout State Park for the night. We walked along the beach in the rain, before BBQing some Sockeye Salmon and oysters. Another beach walk after dinner, along to where 2 waterfalls were cascading into the sea. Very pretty.

27 May – Seattle – Ocean Park

We headed out of Seattle after breakfast heading for the coast. As it was Memorial Day here, the road out was fairly quiet, but there was a steady stream of cars and RVs coming back to town. We stopped in at Cabela’s (a giant huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ store) in a town called Lacey to buy a jacket for Steve to wear on the bike and a new polar fleece for Ros. After leaving Cabela’s we drove the wonderful scenic 101 to the coast. We drove through a town called Raymond that had loads of life sized rusted iron sculptures on the sides of the roads – deer, wolves, people, birds on posts, horse and carts etc. The weather was fairly well set in, rain and low clouds, which meant we didn’t get many photos. We stopped for lunch in South Bend and bought seafood from a wonderful little harbourside shack, with oyster shells piled around it.

After lunch the scenery changed to the typical Washington Olympic Peninsular forest. The trees are very variable, conifers and deciduous mixed together randomly in all the shades of green you can imagine – from iridescent new conifer tips, through mid greens of the deciduous trees and on to the dark, almost blacks, of the old conifers. The dead trees are shrouded in trails of hanging moss, like wool. We passed new growth forests, with signage telling us that hundreds of acres of forest was flattened by hurricane force winds in 2009.

After winding our way through the forest, the trees gave way suddenly to sand dunes as we arrived at Long Beach Peninsular. We stopped at Long Beach (allegedly the longest beach in the world) and walked along a boardwalk with interpretation plaques. It was really interesting. The area is treacherous to shipping with more than 2000 known shipwrecks due to the combination of the Columbia River joining the sea, rip tides and ever moving sand bars. 

The mouth of the Columbia River was blocked completely by the outflow from Mount St Helens in the 80s (obviously dredged now). 

The wind was whipping in from the sea, and the rain was getting heavier, so we jogged back to the RV and drove on. We parked up at a “quaint” little place called Ocean Park Resort, with only one other van in sight and settled in to cook some wonderful wild Chinook salmon – yum!

26 May – Seattle

We had set the alarm set to wake us at 9am so we were shocked to find that we’d woken at 10:30am.  The alarm was set but not turned on.

 We decided to go to the Museum of Flight, just 15 minutes away.  So glad we did.  It was very interesting.  They had everything relating to flight including a lot on space.  There were heaps of planes etc hanging from the roof and even more on the floor.  We saw the Lockheed M-21 spy plane with top speed notes as still classified, but a cruising speed of an amazing 2000km/hr. 

There was also a flying car that nearly made production.  Like the James Bond version, the wings folded up.

There was a display on space history, showing the events & craft leading up to the present.  They had the space shuttle training module that was used by the astronauts, including the shuttle space toilet.  The video about the toilet was most amusing as they talked about using it in space lingo ie they discussed how the men would have to use different apparatus to “dock” (yes they used the word” dock”) with the waste hose.  It was all Steve could do to stop from sniggering.  You could just imagine the conversation on board.  “Houston, I’m going to ‘dock’ with the toilet”  Oh dear, must be tired.  

The space "port"

Space shuttle payload bay with a booster rocket that lifts the payload higher into space.

We got to walk through one of the earlier Air Force One jets and also a Concord.  Both were quite fascinating.  The Presidential jet still had the holders for President Johnson’s Stetson hat & President Kennedy’s pipe.  

Air Force 1

The Concorde

The presidents conference room on Air Force 1

Interior of the Concorde

Being Memorial weekend, they also had a fully restored and flying B17 that was doing 30 minute flights.  So nearly went, but it was $475 each.  

We went through the WWI & WWII galleries.  Again, this was fascinating, showing the different fighters used & the people who flew them.  Including a section on the female pilots.  All in all, a great day and a nice way to just amble around getting over long flight.

25 May – Hobart - Melbourne - LA - Seattle

A very early start this time as we started this year’s epic adventure from home.  Taking the 6:30 “red-eye” from Hobart, we were up at 4am (yay!).  Some early trouble.  We (actually Steve) forgot to pack the Bank of America card.  BIG OOPS.  We arranged with Alysha to have it sent over to an address once we figured out where we’d get to.  A fairly quick change over at Melbourne and then we shoehorned ourselves into our tight-little-ole economy seats, you may have noticed we’re still not quite over missing Business class……oh well.  Ros ended up with a lady beside her who should have booked herself TWO seats. After twisting, turning, fidgeting & fussing, she talked to a stewardess & had herself relocated to another seat (just in front of us) much to Ros’s relief, as it gave her a bit more room.  An otherwise uneventful trip.  Not a great selection of movies and we both found it harder to sleep this time, so quite tired at the end of it.  Landed in LA around 6:30am of the day we left (love the time zone change thing). There must have been about 3 other planes land about the same time, as the line through Customs was lloooooonnng.  Luckily though we had enough time to get our bags & get to our next flight. We got to Seattle by 11:30am & out to the van by around 12:30pm.  All looked as we had left it. The cover was still in place, albeit a few mice holes in the top.  We packed in our gear & headed off.

Now the fun starts!  We only got about 300m or so when the RV’s motor just died. A quick restart & we found that it would idle ok & that was it.  We pulled into a side street & contemplated our options.  We called around a few places, visited an auto parts store (just across the road) and found an auto mechanic just a block down the road who was able to have a look at the dear ole girl. After some testing & pulling some bits off, we found that mice/rats had made a home in the air filter & on starting the motor, the shredded bits had jammed up the throttle assembly.  The mechanic pulled this all to bits, cleaned it out, installed a new air filter & put it all back together.  We started her up & she ran like a dream again.  Thanking the mechanic (Victor) for his efforts & going a bit past his Saturday knock off time (he finished with us around 4:20pm) we went off to do our shopping & get set up at a nearby RV park.  We finally sat down to have dinner by around 6:30pm.  Having been awake for so long, we crashed fairly soon after that.

2013 - USA Here We Go Again!

We are gearing up for Ros & Steve's Awesome American Adventure 2013! To make it easy, we are keeping the same blog site (so ignore that it says 2012 at the top)
We are leaving Australia on 25 May and returning on 30 June - hope you read along with us on the trip!
We will fly to Seattle to pick up the RV, then travel down the west coast, across to Vegas, then to LA.

Ros & Steve