Quileute Needles with stratified clouds.
And closer up.
On Friday, we departed La Push and made our way south on US 101 to Pacific Beach, a small community on the mid-Washington coast. The weather was awful on the drive with lots of rain. We decided we must have chosen the correct travel day! Once we arrived at Pacific Beach state park, we forgot all about the bad weather during the drive. As the afternoon wore on, the clouds began to scatter. By morning the skies were dotted with clouds, but the blue of a summer sky began to break through and we had a gorgeous day.
Now, Pacific Beach state park is a lovely place, but the campsites are not provided with water. There is potable water available to fill the water tank in the coach, so I filled up. I had no idea how much water we typically consume in a day, but I found out that 72 gallons was enough to last us about a week at our usual rate of consumption. We had a little over half a tank left after three days. But I digress.
We discovered that Pogo had hurt her leg at La Push, probably from too much running on the beach. She was carrying her left hind leg and not putting pressure on it. This is an old football injury...er, that is to say.... Pogo, like many small dogs, has a tendency to dislocate her kneecaps. In the past it has healed without any more treatment than some pain medication. Of course, that was the one thing for the dogs I neglected to pack. So, Pogo is on the DL, but we had a great deal of fun watching Lulu run free on the incredible, big, flat beach and along the river's edge. Of course, we forgot the camera every time.
Jill did get a shot of the old blogger grillin' up some vittles.
And Lulu was relaxing in the sunshine after gnawing a beef rib bone.
Notice the eyes? I call this bone drunk.
When I made reservations for this trip, I reserved two nights at Pacific Beach and then went on to make the next reservation, in Long Beach. The top-rated park in Long Beach, according to RVParkReviews.com, was all booked up for Saturday night, but they could take us Sunday night. So, I made the reservation and then went back to the reservation page for Washington State Parks. The space I had reserved was not available for Saturday night! Arrgghh.
Well, I just reserved another space for that night. It took us about 10 minutes to move, since the only "hook-up" involved was unplugging the electric cord and plugging it in again. We met some lovely people in the next space. The owner (and driver) of the beautiful 33 foot 2003 Winnebago Adventurer was Oscar. Oscar is 93! I'd have guessed his age about a decade younger. He wanted to tour Sadie and offered a tour of his coach in return. His son and daughter-in-law were also there in their 2012 Airstream Serenity trailer. I got to see the inside of an Airstream in person for the first time. Beautiful!
Sunday dawned with wind and rain. Hmmm... must be travel day. We left Pacific Beach on schedule at 10:00 AM, bound for Long Beach. It rained and stopped; sprinkled and stopped; poured and stopped. Now, Sadie, as much as I love her, has some weaknesses. One is her windshield wipers. They work, but they are out of adjustment, so the passenger wiper goes too far to the right and jumps over the windshield molding with a clunk. Shhhh, CLUNK, Shhhh, CLUNK, Shhhh, CLUNK. Driving with that racket going on is less than pleasant. So, I became a human wiper delay mechanism. The left and right wipers are completely independent, so periodically, I would switch on first the left and then the right; let them wipe a time or two. Then switch them off. Next project? Wiper delay relay!!
At long last we arrived at Long Beach. Along the way, Jill got some nice photos.
Willapa River near Raymond
Willapa Bay from east shore.
Downtown Long Beach, with attendant traffic.
The park we stayed in at Long Beach was Andersen's RV Park. There is a sign out front that says the park was established in 1949. It has been updated, of course, but it still amounted to a gravel parking lot with a path about a quarter mile long to the beach. The proprietors and the help were all lovely people and helpful as can be. Remember the group I said had filled up the park on Saturday? Well, that group was a bunch of lady RVers with small vintage trailers. They call themselves "Sisters on the Fly." They had come for a weekend away from husbands, kids, dogs and the workaday world. We saw a couple dozen of them going north as we were coming south to Andersen's. There were a half dozen of them who stayed until this morning, so we got to see some of their rigs. Very cute. Below, I have posted a couple of pictures of coaches similar to theirs. These are internet photos, but they will give you an idea.
What fun these ladies apparently had. We were told they even went skinny dipping in the ocean! Andersen's park holds close to a hundred RVs, and Jill learned from one of the gals who stayed behind that they had to turn people away. The ladies had an auction while they were at the park to raise money for charity. Apparently this is an annual event. The cause this year had something to do with caring for sexually abused children. See! RVing isn't all just self-indulgent play.
The rain let up a little this morning. It was replaced by wind! By the time noon (check-out time) rolled around, the rain was back. Yep! You guessed it...travel day. That brings us up to the present. We departed Long Beach and drove a grueling (not really) 72 miles to Garibaldi, OR. This route involves crossing the Columbia River at Astoria. I was a little leery about crossing the Astoria Bridge with gusty winds, but my worries were unfounded. Sadie did just fine. Once again, Jill manned the camera.
Superstructure of Astoria Bridge, north end.
Ahead is the main span over the shipping channel.
Your highway dollars at work. They are painting the bridge, so they gave
us a nice tent to protect us from falling debris and paint overspray.
Astoria's west boat basin from the bridge.
Some Astoria homes
Love to meet up with these folks when I'm driving Sadie on a narrow two lane road.
A peak at the Pacific Ocean, Oregon style.
The tunnel at Arch Cape
Manzanita Beach from Neahkahnee mountain
US 101 at the summit of Neahkahnee mountain.
So now we are parked at the Harborview Inn and RV Park in Garibaldi, OR. The view from Sadie's windshield is below.
That is Tillamook Bay. We intend to investigate this area tomorrow and the next day. There is a steam locomotive that pulls a vintage train in and out of the town. I'd love to have a ride. Stay tuned for more Travels with Sadie.
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