Huckleberries and history

Click on photo for slide show.

Today we explored Florence a little. The Old Town area is charming, as you can see from some of the photos in the slide show.  The building above houses a couple of the local tourist-oriented businesses. It is one of many in the renovated harbor area..  You will also notice in the photos that there is a large river running alongside of Florence.  It is the Siuslaw.  It forms rather a large inlet  just on the western border of the city.  To the west of the river/inlet are some huge sand dunes.  

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While we were in Old Town, we bought another gift for yet another nameless individual.  Our breakfast began to wear off, so we stopped at the local coffee roasters for a small quiche, which we shared (Oh, wait! I'm a real man, so I didn't eat any.) and a couple of coffee drinks.  It was all quite delightful.

Having used up our tourist shopping energy, we headed back to Sadie.  Along the way, we stopped at the Krab Kettle, which is a small fish market right on Hwy 101.  We purchased some Ahi tuna for dinner and some teriyaki smoked tuna for a snack. Next we stopped at Grocery Outlet for a few veggies and fruits, and then we headed homeward.

Before we got home, however, I spied a sign for the Harbor Vista (Lane) County Park, which I had explored online some months ago.  I decided we needed to see what it looks like in person.  It is now on our list of must visit RV Parks.  Winding through the adjacent roads we came upon a State Park which fronts on the ocean...never did find out the name of it.

At last we were home. Pogo was glad to have a stretch of the legs and a drink of water.  We relaxed for a bit, and then Jill decided she needed some more huckleberries.  After she was done picking, we decided to visit a nursery we had seen that advertised native plants.  It had occurred to us that we could plant some huckleberries at home for future gleaning! We were in luck and found a couple of bushes for sale at a reasonable price.  We know just where we will plant them, when we get home.

Meanwhile, back at the RV park, we decided to take Pogo for a romp on the beach.  The weather had turned sunny, and we were anxious to see what Heceta Beach looks like, since it had been so foggy yesterday.  As you will remember from the slide show above, we were surprised to find the beach quite more densely fogged in than yesterday.  It was amazing.  When we returned to the road, the sunshine reappeared.  At any rate, Pogo got a good run, and we returned to the coach in time for Jill to pick a few more huckleberries.  Give her a berry bush with ripe fruit, and she is unstoppable.

This evening, we are planning to have grilled Ahi and grilled vegetables along with some brown rice for our evening repast. Of course, dessert will be left over huckleberry crisp...Oh how we do suffer. 

Fog and huckleberries

 

 A little fog never hurt anyone!  We had a lovely walk on the beach in the afternoon fog of Florence, OR.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have arrived at the Heceta Beach RV Park in Florence, OR.  It is a real delight.   I chose this park from the description on the park website and after consulting RV Park Reveiws dot com.  I chose it because it got acceptable reviews, and it is the closest to the beach of all the RV parks in Florence. 

To  my delight, it is a real treasure. The folks are friendly, the sites are reasonably level, even if they are gravel covered.  There is enough privacy provided by plant life, but not so much that we couldn't connect with the satellite dish. 

The bonus is that the plant life between the camp sites includes mountain huckleberry plants.  We were able to pick enough berries for a huckleberry crisp, which Jill made for our dessert.  With a little vanilla ice cream on top, obtained at the onsite mini-mart, it is to die for.  Of course, no dessert is complete without dinner.  Ours consisted of vegetables marinated in Italian dressing and cooked on the grill, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts grilled with a mesquite rub and Italian dressing marinade. I have never had a better meal in any restaurant.

Another bonus is that this park is only about three blocks from the beach.  We took Pogo for a romp on the beach and found that there was one other couple on the beach on Thursday afternoon.  In the semi foggy state of the afternoon, it appeared that the beach went on for miles in either direction.  What fun we had. Tomorrow, we will explore Florence. In the meantime, we are thoroughly enjoying our little piece of paradise on Heceta Beach Road.

At long last...wi-fi...

Click the photo for a slide show. 

I have missed a couple of days of blogging due to unacceptable wi-fi connections in the last couple of parks we visited.  Now we have a great connection, so I will attempt to catch up.  

We spent the last two days and nights in Bandon-by-the-Sea, OR, commonly known as Bandon.  Originally the town was named Averill, after one of its leading families, but later an Irishman, whose name I can't remember (after all it has been a couple of days!), renamed the town after his hometown in County Cork, Ireland. 

The history of Bandon is well documented in the local historical museum, which we visited. That was, perhaps, the best $2 we spent on the trip!  Bandon has been around since the 1880s.  It has been home to such diverse industries as fishing, dairy farming, cheese manufacturing, coal mining, logging, lumber milling and others that I am sure I missed.  

The town was wiped out by fire on two occasions; once in 1914 (a kitchen fire gone wild) and again in 1936 (forest fire that could not be contained). Logically, it now has one of the biggest fire stations I have ever seen.  The Old Town section of the city is lots of fun with many shops and eateries.  We shopped there, but were able to resist the temptation to come home with typical tourist stuff.  We did make one purchase of a gift for a person who shall remain nameless in this blog.  

We stayed at the Beach Loop Village, which is an RV park with several park model trailers that are rental cottages.  They are also for sale for around $110,000.  The park is not remarkable, except for its quiet nature, friendly staff and the sound of the ocean surf coming through the trees. 

The highlight of the stay in Bandon was, of course, the food.  We had clam chowder for dinner on our first night and then went back to the waterfront yesterday for what we agreed was the best fish and chips meal we've ever had.  

There are numerous parks to explore in and around Bandon.  The ones we visited were Face Rock State Wayside, which has beautiful 180 views of the rocky coast line; The Devil's Kitchen State Park, which has access to the beautiful rock-studded, sandy beach south of town; Bullard's Beach State Park, which has a large campground, boat launch in the Coquille River; and is home to the Coquille River Lighthouse, the newest of the remaining lighthouses on the Oregon coast, dating to 1896.  

We were  a little sad to leave Bandon this morning, but we had a lovely drive through Coos Bay, North Bend, Reedsport and ended up in Florence at the Heceta Beach RV Park.  The Park is lovely (pictures to come) with lots of native plants dividing the spaces.  Jill has been out picking huckleberries from the bushes between our site and the next one!  Mmmmm... huckleberry pie...mmmmm!

So, stay in touch, there will be more stuff to come.

They'd be wearin' their baggies; huarachi sandals, too...

This guy put on our afternoon floor show.

We have been having a great time today in Brookings.  This morning we exercised Pogo on the beach.  We walked as far south as we could, and Pogo did her usual running lickety split up and down the beach. She is a different dog on the beach.

We met two couples during our walk.  The first couple is visiting their daughter in Grants Pass.  They are from Illinois, and they told the daughter, "We are this close; we're going to the ocean.  Meet us there." She is expected to arrive later today.  The other couple is from Shady Cove, Oregon.  We stopped there yesterday for gas.  It is a beautiful area along the Rogue River.  We felt pretty proud that we could tell them we know where Shady Cove is.



We visited the harbor area, which has a lot of places to eat and gift shops.  We did buy one gift, but I'm not going to tell you for whom!  We didn't have anything to eat, because we were too full from the breakfast of cheesy mushroom eggs, cinnamon rolls and fruit that my lovely bride presented to me this morning.

After exploring the harbor area, we took a drive "uptown," which amounts to a few blocks on Hwy 101.  Then we decided to do one of our favorite things in a strange town: exploring the residential areas.  We discovered some really nice areas of beautiful homes.

When we came back from our drive, a surfer boy was busily trying to catch a wave and be sittin' on top of the world.  So, I made a bowl of popcorn and we sat down on our patio to watch. This guy put on a floor show for us for a couple of hours this afternoon.  I felt sorry for him because the beach is so steep here that as soon as the waves stand up enough for surfing to be possible, they break.  He did get a few rides that, perhaps, made all of his efforts worthwhile.

I could grow to like this life!

Over the river and through the woods...

Click photo for slide show. (I just love that '66 Chevy PU.)

Today was another travel day, and travel we did.  This was our longest trek of this trip, but it was a relatively easy day, and the outcome was pretty wonderful.  As you will see in the slide show, we traversed some amazing territory.  

Leaving Prospect, and the Cascade forest, we dropped down into the Rogue River valley at Gold Hill.  Jill got some great pictures along the way.  From Gold Hill, we made our way to Grants Pass on the only 15 miles of interstate highway we have traveled on this trip.  At Grants Pass (or as I like to call it, Grass Pants), we exited the freeway onto U.S. 199, also known as the Redwood Highway.  The scenery was breathtaking, and some of the driving left me a little breathless, too!  

The highway is mainly two-lane, and it winds through the coast range and eventually through the California redwoods.  I had driven this stretch before in a car, going in the opposite direction, and I remember thinking, "This would be pretty exciting in Sadie."  Well, I wasn't wrong.  

Jill got some photos of the redwoods from our moving platform.  Considering the circumstances, I would say they are quite remarkable. 

We arrived at the Beachfront RV park just after 2:00PM and checked into space #82.  The park itself is kind of like a parking lot, but the view makes up for the lack of ambiance in the RV spaces.  As we look out our front window (actually 180 degrees) we can see the ocean.  The beach access is just across a driveway from our space.  It is pretty wonderful to be here.  

So, those of you who have never explored this part of the world, we can heartily recommend to you not only Brookings, but the Redwood Highway and the Beachfront RV Park as well. 

Happy trails, and stay tuned to most of these same stations.

The Rogue, a river with a well-deserved reputation...

Click on photo for slide show.

Today is Saturday.  We had a pretty laid back day.  It was a bit colder last night, and we woke up early because of it.  I threw the electric blanket over the bed and started the furnace; Jill went back to sleep.  I was pretty awake, so I got up and switched on the coffee.  

After a bit more snoozing, Jill got up and made some outstanding bacon pancakes and fried eggs. We debated about what to do today and finally decided to do laundry.  There is a nice little laundromat in Prospect, which we had all to ourselves.  For $2.50 we have clean clothes!  

When we got back to Sadie, it was about lunch time, so we had some tacquitos for lunch, and then we decided to make a trek to visit Mill Creek falls and Barr Creek falls, which are just a couple of miles from our park.  This was, perhaps, the most exciting thing we have seen on this vacation.  The falls are both breathtaking, falling off the cliffs to the south into the Rogue River. I took a couple of movies with our new camera, but my internet connection is too slow to upload them.  There are a few shots of the river and Barr Creek falls in the slide show above.  I only got a movie of Mill Creek falls. Perhaps, I will upload it later, when our wi-fi connection is faster.

Hiking to the falls was fun, and Pogo got her exercise for the day.  It is comical to watch her, when we are hiking.  She tugs at the leash, until we release her from it.  Then she heels as if she had been seeing a dog trainer all her life.  She loves the security of the leash, and when she is off leash she wants to make sure WE  are not going to run away! 

After our hike, Pogo had a long drink of water.  Then we drove along the highway that is the main street of Prospect and then turns into a country road. The scenery was spectacular, as it has been on this whole trip. 

We returned to Sadie in time to see Nebraska polish off Washington (boo hoo...how my heart bleeds for Washington). So, try as I might, I cannot find anything to complain about today...except maybe that we have to move on tomorrow...to our reserved ocean front RV space in Brookings.  Life is hard sometimes.

Crater Lake and huckleberry pie

Click photo for slide show

As promised, we made a trek to Crater Lake today.  The entrance to the National Park is about 34 miles from our RV Park.  After a fuel stop in Prospect, we drove Daisy Mae to the lake.  Par for the course, I left my lifetime senior free pass to all national parks on my dresser in Dallas.  Oh, well! 

The lake roads are all open this time of year, but the area averages about 500 inches of snow every winter, and we did see patches of snow along the side of the road.  We had a wonderful time stopping at the viewpoints.  You will notice that there are not a lot of pictures of the lake itself.  It is tempting to take multiple pictures at every viewpoint, but once you realize that there is no way to actually capture the incredible, deep blue color of the water, it seems pointless to take more photos. Suffice to say, the lake is breathtaking.

What I did take pictures of were flora and fauna. Some examples are below:

Click photo for slide show

I am especially proud to have captured a photo of the rare and beautiful black-hooded chickadee, the last shot in the photo series. 

After we had circumnavigated the lake, we stopped at the inevitable gift shop.  The shop may have been inevitable, but the buying was not.  All of the merchandise looked like the same stuff we have seen in other national parks, only the names were changed to protect the innocent!

From the gift shop, we drove a short distance to Crater Lake Lodge.  The lodge is large and appears to have been updated recently. We were not able to see any of the rooms, but the slide show below will give you a feeling for the flavor of the lodge:

Click the photo for slide show.

On the drive back to the RV park, we stopped in Union Creek at Beckie's, famous for pies.  Jill has been having a hankering for huckleberry pie. (I, of course, was completely neutral on the subject!)  Again, we were not disappointed.  The pie was delicious, the crust was flaky and the ice cream was the perfect accompaniment.  A stop across the highway at the little resort store for salt, however, proved fruitless. 

As we continued on our way, we came across a sign to the Rogue River Natural Bridge.  This rock formation is the result of volcanic eruption creating lava tubes.  The river then routed itself through one of them. The river travels underground in a lava tube for about 200 feet.  Thus, the top of the lava tube became a natural bridge. Although it is difficult to do justice to flowing (nay, gushing) water in photos, I have included a few below.  The series is set up so that each picture is a little further downstream from the previous one. 

Click photo for slide show. 

In the series above you see the water gushing into the lava tube. Next is a shot of the top of the natural bridge, followed by the water gushing out of the tube at 335,000 gallons per minute.  The next photo shows a cave, which is apparently a lava tube with a blind end. And finally there is the tailrace of the whole lava tube/natural bridge/river phenomenon.  God sure must have had fun putting all of this stuff together. 

We returned to Sadie tired but delighted with all that we saw today.  Stay tuned for more.