Random Road Observations

In no particular order, here are the realizations we have come to over the past few days and weeks.

1.  The leftover hippies who did not move on to adulthood now all live along Highway 101.  They operate glassblowing shops, pottery shops and fortune-telling shops.  Surprisingly, none of them seem to be doing macrame any longer.

2.  As lovely as it is, pretty much anywhere along the Oregon Coast looks the same as any other section of the Oregon Coast.  If you want to see it, pick a spot that has something else you want to do/see and visit it for a few days instead of driving the length of it.  Trust me on this.  No offense to Oregonians, or anyone with a special spot.  

3.  If you live with one weather anomaly (sunny days) for 300+ days a year, any other weather anomaly (fog) is interesting for the first five days.  Then it starts to wear on you and you realize that a) Seasonal Affective Disorder really does run in your family b) you have chosen to live in a sunny climate for a Medical Reason.

4.  Fresh blueberries and blackberries off the bushes in your campsite are one of the most decadent pleasures to be found anywhere. Especially when it happens for five days in a row.

5.  The leak is still there, we are just really good at keeping it contained and ignoring it at the same time.

6.  The folks who designed the Autopia at Disneyland are apparently the same folks who designed Highway 1.  Which I am pretty sure was also the prototype for Space Mountain.  

I know I had it here somewhere...

I wrote a lovely post about our two days at Patrick's Point in northern CA....and have no idea where it went.  We liked it a lot even though it was much different than my childhood memory.

Funny thing, the midday is bright and sunny, but the fog rolls in thick around five.  Thick enough to cause it to 'rain' from the leaves of the trees.  I might be having enough fog by now....

This morning we continued south to Ft. Bragg, CA.  Home of the Skunk Railroad and Glass Beach.  The last 40 miles were via CA Highway 1, average speed was 27 miles per hour in the Beach House.  

We both have seen enough of Highway 1, but there is more to come next week.

Cape Arago and the Oregon Coast

(Thursday 28th)

We left Tillamook mid-morning for our 180 mile drive down US 101.  It is an interesting drive full of amazing views around the bend interspersed with tunnels of green where even the satellite radio cannot penetrate.  

Speaking of which, we had great internet but no cell service last night.  Today we had a little cell service in towns, but none at camp tonight, so no internet either, and I am not sure when this will get posted as we are headed to Redwoods Nat'l Park tomorrow and then another state park near Trinidad, CA for two days. 

The vistas on the Oregon coast are one of two views; either a broad expanse of empty sand (shockingly empty to a native Southern Californian) or a rocky cliff side dropping down to the water just waiting to smash something to smithereens.  After a while they all started to look the same.  I know that sounds terrible, almost blasé about these gorgeous views, but I honestly have no clue which was taken where. But you will find all of these all along the coast everywhere.

Lighthouse in the trees

And yes, on the highway it becomes a 25 mph Main Street at each small town.

No doubt these little beach towns were a big part of why the drive took nearly five hours, and that is without counting the stop at the gas and grocery.

We are pooped after the long day, and the marine layer has moved inland making our blue sky and ocean turn gloomy. Time for some hot spaghetti for dinner!

Post Script:

The fog has thickened to where the nearby foghorn blasts every 90 seconds. It's not too bad with all windows closed and Schubert's violin concerto in D playing on the radio.  Tom is outside, having discovered some ripe blackberry bushes in our campsite.  Berries and ice cream for dessert tonight.

Olympic National Park

Greetings from the rain forest, where the fog moves in and out of the gnarled tree trunks in a ghostly creep.

This is the view literally out our door

And by literally, I mean this:

See the doorframe?

We are at Kalaloch (pronounced Clay-lock) on the Pacific Coast of Olympic National Park.  For us New Mexican desert rats, the foggy moist weather is a fun alternative.  The locals tell us the weather here is always either windy or foggy, and we know windy, so we'll take foggy.

The ocean is about 50 yards in front of us, but seeing it depends on how much fog is around.  We do hear the crashing waves, however.  In fact, the coastline is all glacial gravel and sand, which washes away on the waves, and is thus eroding at the rate of about a foot every couple of years.  The ocean front camp sites are getting smaller day by day.  

This erosion is also part of the reason huge trees and logs are all over the beach, along with dire warning signs not to walk on the beach when the tide is high.  The logs toss around and have crushed people.

Written on Tuesday Aug. 25

Hurricane Ridge

Off the ferry and up the mountain, from sea level to 5,000 feet in 30 minutes.  Where you are greeted by glaciers on the distance.  

It is called Hurricane Ridge because the wind in the winter storms reach hurricane force speeds.  All was calm and delightful on our visit, however.  

Hurry Up and Wait

The requirements for returning to the US on the ferry are that we must be in line and remain in the lot for 90 minutes prior to departure time.  The traffic around here is such a mess of tiny streets and hills and curves that it took 30 minutes to drive the five miles from the RV park to the dock.  We are here 50 minutes early, giving us over two hours to wait.  Tom, naturally took off for the fifty minute leeway to take some more pictures.  I, naturally, am sitting here waiting (almost patiently, in fact) for the customs inspection.   Just a few minutes ago a seaplane took off from the bay in front of us.  It will be a long day today, many slow miles to drive and we will spend the next two nights on the far west coast of Washington, just a few miles from the westernmost point of the continental US.  I somehow figure that it will be the complete opposite of the Eastermost point down in Key West.

 

Bits of Victoria

Edited to add more photos at the bottom, but that also moves this post up ahead of my last one....

While waiting for the ferry to disgorge the passengers from its prior trip we look over to the stream of cars going past to see a 'Placitas' plate on the front of a car on the other side.  What?  Another small town in NM represented in Port Angeles?  Yep, as the car went past we looked and sure enough, there was a turquoise blue plate on the back of the car.

Went into Victoria for dinner, and on the short walk back from the bus stop we notice the bramble hedge stretching all along the block.  Looking closer, Tom discovers them's blackberries in them there brambles!  Yes, we snacked on a handful and they were delicious. Warm and juicy and sweet.

This morning we slept in a little then headed over to the famous Butchart Gardens.  Oh, such lovely plants and shrubs and trees.  And so beautifully organized, planted and maintained.  I think my favorite section is one of the least known, the Bog Garden.  It is not the showiest, but I really loved the way it took so many different greens and put them together.  Also, despite the name, no smells, no boggy ground and no bugs.  After a leisurely stroll we stopped at the cafe for a nice cream, I chose Rose Gelato, and it was a lovely pink and tasted just like rose petals.  Yumm.

We are going to read or watch football this afternoon; big guess as to which one of us is doing what.  Tomorrow (Monday) we head back across on the ferryboat.  Then we head off to the west coast of Olympic National Park.  Don't have hookups there, not sure what the cell and internet service might be, so we'll see ya when we see ya.  But I will check in by Wednesday night.

Now, I do have pictures of all of this but I am having trouble getting them to upload...so here is just one

Edited to add: 

Here are some more pictures 

Berries

More Butchart:

Dahlias for Danny

The view from the ice cream parlor

Overhead

And Out

 

Seattle part two

Some additional pictures from our day.  We are now back at the Beach House, have taken a swim and showered and the laundry is in progress.  Our feet are tired, our bellies are full and we have salmon from the fish market for dinner. I would say it has been a very good day.

Seattle

Well here we are in Seattle enjoying the Chihuly museum, the sculpture garden and next we head to Pike Place Market.  Lots to see and do. There are lots of people here too. It's surprising to both of us how busy the roads and streets are at all hours of the day. Fortunately, we took an express bus for $2.25, and it got us here in 45 minutes. I think that's faster than if we drove it ourselves.

This first picture is for Betty. I took it at the Chihuly Gardens, and I thought it really showed an interesting juxtaposition of the swirling glass in purple with the curly Walking Stick shrub behind it.

More glass and garden photos:

We are now about five blocks away at the Olympic Sculpture Garde.  I'm sitting here enjoying the view (picture below) while Tom is checking out the sculptures up close and personal.

More photos of Pike Place to follow. I am sure those pictures will include a lot of food. 😁

Missoula Misadventures 😄

U

Well, what an interesting night that was.  Pulled into Missoula, MT with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds very much like what we have at home.  Took a little drive through town, and since the RV park is on block off the main drag, immediately behind a series of big box stores, Tom wandered over and got his hair cut at one of those chain haircut places.  Had a nice dinner of grilled salmon, caught up on emails and such, read the e-version of the ABQ Journal and went to bed.

I need to back up here and remind you that a little over a week ago, the day before we left, on Sunday 10th August there was a big thunderstorm in the evening.  We were busy trying to get packed up, and around 6 pm the power went out.  We have a big surge guard on our Beach House power line, so we were not much worried about damaging anything, but when the power came back on a couple hours later, our surge guard was no longer operating.  Did not know if it blew its brains in the lightning, or got soaked in the downpour or what, but it did not work.  Well, there goes another $250 we thought.  But Cheryl decided to see if we could dry the thing out.  It took about a week, including leaving it on the hot sun to bake a little in Yellowstone, but by the next Sunday it was working again and giving us all the correct line voltages and amperage.  OK, saved a chunk of change on that!

So back to last night in Missoula...the surge guard is working, Tom keeps checking it every thirty minutes to make sure, and finally falls asleep.  Until the thunderstorm rolls in about 2:30 am.  Rain, lightning, the works.  BTW, rain on a motorhome roof sounds a lot like rain on a metal shed roof in case you were wondering.  But the surge guard keeps working and all is well. 

We fall back asleep until one of our big rig neighbors departs at 6 a.m.  Tom checks the surge guard, all still working.  But at 6:30 when the alarm goes off, we had no power.  Immediately we assume it is us, check out all the switches and such, but nothing.  Figuring the surge guard somehow died a second death, we removed it and plugged directly into the power pole only to discover that it is NOT us, the park power is off. Yay!  Sort of.

We can't use the microwave unless we start the generator, but it is pretty early to do that as most of the park is still asleep and unawares.  But we could boil water for coffee.....until we discover the water pressure consists of what was in our lines.  Hmmmm.   Now we think something with the persistent leak must be involved and we spend 15 minutes switching back and forth between the onboard water pump system and the outside city system, which does seem to be running.  We finally discover via a neighbor that the park is on wells and without power there is no water pressure.  Feeling rather dull, as our own home works the same way, we figure that the 'running' water we got out of the park faucet was just the residual water in their lines, or at least until we and several other early risers ran it out.

At this point we are tickled that the problem is not us (and that leak #5/3 seems to be minimally evident, if at all) but we then learn from yet another camper that the city is without power in several areas.  Figuring we might as well just get out of town, we pack up and head to Coeur d'Alene, about 170 miles west.  After wriggling through an intersection where the stop lights were completely blank, no flashing anything, and many drivers just flew through without even slowing down, we hit the interstate and climbed up and down the mountains of western Montana.  And it rained nearly the entire way...no doubt a little taste of our coming week in Washington and Victoria.

Our Breakfast stop

CDA (how the locals spell it, sorta like the folks back in ABQ do) is a great little city, nice lakefront downtown with shops and restaurants.  We had a nice lunch in a Greek restaurant downtown, very authentic cooking and great flavors, as good as anything we had in Greece itself if not better.  So if you ever get to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho stop by the Olympia Restaurant on the corner of 3rd and Lakeside.

On the streets

Picture Gallery

Having had no really adequate cell or wifi for the last few days, I have a bunch of pictures to share w ith you all:

Yes, this is Old Faithful, from the backside in Geyser basin, doing its thing on the 90 minute cycle

And here, behind Old Faithful, is the little Anemone Geyser.  Spouts off ever 5-7 minutes; drains the pool, fills, spouts and so on

Something we both enjoyed on our drive around the park is that you can come around a corner and suddenly see fumaroles or geysers or mud pots off to the side, sometimes emptying into the river.

This would be one of the bubbling mud pots 

Nearby you will find the Dragon's Mouth...which sounds and smells a lot like I think a dragon would.  There is a hot spring down in the cave which fills the cave and then comes pouring out with a roar every minute or so.

This is Grand Prismatic Spring, it is 370 feet across the largest in the park.

One of the many colorful sections where the spring spills into the river

And this would be the whole shebang from the top ( yes that is with filters, but it is nearly that colorful in real life)

Oh yeah, sometimes you come round the corner and find a bison walking down the road, too.

This morning, on our way out of the park we stopped at the Lower Yellowstone Falls and were treated to this beautiful rainbow at the same time.