South Jetty

The park here in Florence is called South Jetty. From what I have seen of it the park seems very pretty. Lots of trees and greenery, a beautiful Activity Center, pool, basketball, etc. They even have a diner with fairly inexpensive breakfast and dinners Thursday through Sunday.

The city of Florence looked very nice. A Safeway and Fred Meyer for general shopping and I read somewhere there is an “old town” area that is nice to explore. The big tourist thing here is the sand dunes. People bring, or rent, dune buggies and zoom up and down the dunes.

Our trip down was beautiful. Blue sky, sunshine along with the great vistas on Hwy. 101 was a great combination. As usual we got in about noon, set up and ate lunch. We took a short stroll through part of the park and then relaxed for the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow we will do a little more exploring. It’s fun to be somewhere new!


Photos:
Top: the Activity Center
Middle: the pool area
Bottom: sun rays through the trees as we left Pacific City
Video: clips from our trip down to Florence

Here Comes the Sun...

Finally about 1:00 pm we got blue skies and sunshine which is great! Yeah! It makes everything feel better, even if is it still kinda damp.

We were expecting mail today so we went into town about 10:00 this morning. We picked up our mail and when we got to the main intersection in town we decided to explore a bit…glad we did! We found an entirely different part of Pacific City. A new and very populated part of Pacific City. There is a public beach access at an area called Cape Kiwanda and it is a beautiful beach. Haystack Rock is directly in front of you, out in the ocean of course. There is a huge and very steep sand dune to the north that people were hiking up and sliding down. The three of us took a short walk but it started to rain so we took Cheye back to the pickup and we went to breakfast at the Pelican Pub and Brewery. The servings were huge so we got take out boxes and Cheye got to have some pancakes. Next time we come to Pacific City we will definitely go down to that beach access again.

After that it was a major cleaning day. Vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing the inside of the trailer from one end to the other. I even dusted off the vacuum cleaner. Dave did some packing up of the outside stuff, lawn chairs, little tables and one of the ground mats we bought. We had dinner - steak, onions and tomatoes fried and served in flour tortillas - and then Dave took Cheye for a walk. I stayed at the trailer, I’m still working on getting my pc all tweaked. When they replaced the CPU and updated the bios it seems to have affected a couple things so I am trying to straighten it all out. Tomorrow it’s off to Florence Oregon.

Photos:
Top: Cheye and Haystack Rock (not to be confused with Haystack Rock at Canon Beach!)
Middle: Pelican Pub and Brewery
Bottom: Sand dune
Video: beach at Cape Kiwanda

A Trip to Salem, Oregon

Well, I have my Sony Vaio back! Yeah! They had to replace the CPU so I still have all the stuff on my hard drive which is great. There was even a little letter from Sony apologizing that my Vaio had to go in to repair. I know, it was just a form letter, but still it was a nice touch. I’m also impressed that Best Buy not only sent my laptop to the Salem store for me but they actually called me when it got to Salem. If I had a nickel for every business that said they would call me and didn’t…. well… we’d be driving a big Class A :)

Salem is about an hour and a half from here, we got there about 11:30, picked up my Sony and wandered around the store. Saw the new Flip Video Mino and some lovely Macs, I think I may have drooled a bit. Dave bought a mapping program and I got a new little bag for my Flip Video (I lost the one it came with). After that we had lunch and drove back. It made the day go really fast. Once we got back I spent some time catching up Quicken stuff… a months worth. I also took Cheye out for a short walk. She came with us to Salem, she really is a great traveling dog.

It rained most of the day again today. It’s almost 8:00 p.m. and has finally quit raining for the day. Tomorrow I plan to clean and organize since we will be leaving Pacific City Friday morning. I’m hoping the rain doesn’t follow us!

Left: Best Buy in Salem
Right: A Christmas Tree Farm we passed on the way
Video: from a couple days ago, notice the sand blowing at the beginning

Still Raining

We went in to Pacific City this morning to get our mail and decided to have breakfast at the same restaurant we stopped at the other day. Shortly after we got back the phone rang and it was Best Buy telling me my computer has made it to the Salem store so we will go pick it up tomorrow. Yeah! I still don’t know what they fixed, if they replaced the hard drive I may have to pick up a program or two. (Note to self: computer programs should be stored in the trailer not storage unit)

We took a walk on the beach this morning and got caught in a rain squall. We got a little wet, Cheye got soaked. Dave was throwing a stick for her out into the surf and she loved it. After we got back I went over to do some laundry. I took my laptop along to pass the time and ran into Earl and Sheila up at the Lodge wifi area. We were parked across the street from them in Chehalis. We’ve seen them a few times since we got to Pacific City, but today we had some time to chat. It’s kind of fun, I’ve seen a few people and a few RV’s I recognized from the other Thousand Trails parks we have stayed at. I knew we would, I just didn’t expect to be so soon!

photos:
top: Dave & Cheye while we were on a walk in the park
middle: Haystack rock
bottom: Dave throwing the stick for Cheye

Foggy and Soggy

Another rainy day here at Pacific City, OR. I now understand why people buy that stuff that is supposed to control moisture in your RV. With all this rain everything just feels damp inside the trailer. Windows fog up, towels never get dry, if you don’t seal the chips or crackers tightly they get soggy. When we were in Long Beach we were chatting with our neighbors Ted & Diane about the weather on the coast. I said I wondered why more people don’t spend the winter on the Oregon coast with it’s mild temperatures. Ted said they tried it once and had a real battle with moisture to the point that clothing they had in garment bags got mildew and had to be thrown away! Hopefully things will dry up in a few days.

This morning, and into the afternoon I have been working on a project I planned to do before we hit the road, scanning recipes on to my hard drive. My plan is to get rid of all of my cookbooks and slips of paper I have recipes written on. Not the most exciting project but it will feel good to get it done, and as a bonus I found a couple new recipes!

top: another pic from our beach walk last night...it really shows the way the Flip Video turned the sun black!
bottom: a banner in front of a RV
video: a short clip of Chipmunks...Cheye was frozen staring out the window when we noticed these 2 on a stump beside the trailer

Ever Changing Weather

This morning we went down to the Lodge and had breakfast. I had french toast and scrambled eggs, Dave had biscuits and gravy with bacon. Not bad, and it was fun to do something different. Cheye and I went for a walk a little later and shortly after we returned the changing weather started. It started with fog which turned to rain, thunder and lightening and finally broken clouds with a little blue sky and sunshine! And that was all by 1:30. It continued in cycles all afternoon. Cheye and I did get out for another walk in the afternoon between rain showers. Besides that it was an inside day of internet, solitaire and the Olympics.

After dinner the three of us took a walk and seeing the sun peeking through the clouds we decided to go to the beach. Good decision! Amazingly dramatic clouds and beautiful surf. The wind was severe so we didn’t stay long, but Cheye got in a good run and we soaked in the beautiful scene.

I finally figured out how to add a google map of our travels thus far. I may try to add a picture to each “pin” . I’m not sure if I’ll try to add lines showing the route we drove. Since we have gone over the same roads a few times I’m not sure how that would look, or even how I’d differentiate them. We’ll see.


photos:
top left: the lodge at breakfast
middle: dramatic clouds at the beach
bottom: foggy morning
video:the beach this evening...when the sun hits the lens the little Flip Video couldn't quite handle it and turned the sun black, almost looks like there was an eclipse! :)

Cool Weather in Pacific City, OR

Today I talked to my sister-in-law (Zel) who lives in Yakima, WA and to my Mom (and nephew Michael) in Vancouver, WA, both places were up over 100 degrees today... not here, a very comfy high 60’s. Glad we are here, that over 100 temperatures is one of the reasons we wanted to get away from the Yakima Valley. The only down side is we still have fog here, but I’ll take the fog.

I started the day with laundry. I took my laptop with me to use the wireless connect in the Lodge. I forgot you can buy breakfast up at the Lodge on Saturday and Sunday,so I had a lot of company while I surfed. I had just gone back down to the laundry room when Dave &
Cheye came to visit. They headed back to the trailer, I followed once everything was dry.

We decided to go out to dinner in Lincoln City tonight. Lincoln City was really crowded, probably people trying to escape the heat inland over the weekend. We went to Captain Ron’s and had a yummy dinner, I had scallops and twice baked potato while Dave had halibut and chips. Now we are are back at the trailer watching the Olympics and with our tummies being extremely full I expect sleep will come soon!

photos:
left: foggy
right: Driving through Lincoln City, Oregon
video: I call this “It Came Out of the Ocean”

In a Fog

We were fogged in today. The picture to the left was taken at 10:30 this morning while we were out on a walk. It kind of cleared up about 2:30 only to roll in again about 4:00. We did go down to the beach during the least foggy time. Cheye had a great run and got dripping wet again. We did manage to keep her from rolling much in the sand which was nice.

Our RPI membership is all set up. When I called again today they started to tell me that I needed to go through Thousand Trails be we got that straightened out. Evidently the magic words are “we bought a transfer membership to 1000 Trails” that seems to make a difference.

Besides our couple of walks today we managed to fit in a nap, some computing and a little cleaning. Tomorrow I want to get up early and get down to the laundry room to do two loads of laundry. Not a lot of fun but I would really rather not run out of clean clothes!! :)

photos:
top left: fog at 10:30 this morning
middle: glowing clouds while we were at the beach
bottom left: foggy surf
video: Cheyenne and the bunnies. At the end I wish I could put a thought bubble over Cheye’s head saying “Please?”

A Phone Call Day

We went into Pacific City this morning to get our mail. On our way back we decided to stop for breakfast at a little restaurant. It was a good breakfast, crispy hash browns, eggs done as ordered, sour dough toast and crunchy bacon. We then went to Cloverdale, about 2 miles north on 101, to stop at the bank. After that it was back to the trailer.

We are trying to get signed up for 2 other campground memberships; RPI (Resort Parks International) and ROD (Resorts of Distinction). It got a bit crazy but after making phone calls and then waiting for call backs then making more calls I think we finally have everything figured out. Thousand Trails is sending us an application for ROD and we will call RPI back tomorrow (they closed before we could call them back today) and we’ll get signed up with them.

I also called Best Buy about my PC... it is supposedly repaired and on it’s way. :) We got our South Dakota license plates and vehicle registration in the mail so I called the insurance broker to get our policies changed over to a South Dakota broker. I’m so glad I kept our regular cell phone plan, I had thought of going to a per minute plan because I figured we wouldn’t be using the phone much... wrong!!!

Needless to say we didn’t get out much during the afternoon. I took Cheye for a walk and then Dave went for a walk a little later. He caught a few of the many bunnies here in the park on video. Hopefully tomorrow we will make it down to the beach although I have to say it’s been nice to have a dry dog for a day! :)

photos:
top and bottom left: the beach at Pacific City, OR
middle right: the view from my lawn chair
video: a few of the bunnies in the park

Lots of Walks

We had a great day back at Pacific City. This morning Dave & Cheye went for a walk early, Cheye and I went for a walk a little later in the morning. After lunch the three of us walked down to the beach and Cheye went straight for the water. Back to her usual chasing after birds in flight out into the ocean and she got soaked! It was kind of weird weather, warm but mist blowing by. We had a good walk and then headed back to the trailer for lunch.

This afternoon we got caught up on the Olympics and then headed over to the little store and got ice cream cones. We left Cheye back at the trailer so Dave felt she needed a little treat when we got back... see the video below.

I made corn chowder for dinner and after yet another walk we are all in for the evening. I think watching all those kids in the Olympics has subconsciously spurred us to walk more. After watching soccer, water polo, beach volleyball, swimming and gymnastics I can only wonder...where do they get all that energy?? I don’t recall ever having that much!

photos:
top left: trail to the beach
middle: Cheye at the beach
bottom left: foggy beach
video: extremely spoiled dog

A Trip to Town

We went into Seaview/Long Beach this morning. The two towns run together and other than the numbering of the streets It is pretty difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. It is a really nice downtown area, they have it fixed up with flowers and well kept store fronts. Lots of tourist type shops, t-shirts, knick knacks, goodies, etc. We found ourselves in a lovely bakery where we picked up some baked yummies.

After a little shopping around we had halibut & chips for lunch at one of the local restaurants and then back home. This afternoon was spent doing laundry and cleaning followed by a walk on the beach. Another beautiful day on the beach!

We met our neighbors, Ted and Diane, yesterday. They have been fulltiming for 13 years now. Really nice people. They were out getting things ready to leave tomorrow and we got into a conversation about 1000 Trails parks they have been to. Sounds like we will have a number of pretty parks to visit!
top left: the trail to the beach
bottom right: a beautiful day on the beach
below: a video of downtown Long Beach

Leaving Tomorrow

We have really enjoyed our first 1000 Trails Campground here in Pacific City, OR. We think it is beautiful, reminds me of a National Forest park. The amenities are great and the beach fabulous. Tomorrow we head out but we are scheduled to return here in mid-August.

I have been writing down all of our campground stops on a calendar since we began our travels in May. We had fun looking through it yesterday, I had already forgotten a few of the places we have stopped in the 2 1/2 months we’ve been on the road. I’m sure it will be even more interesting in a year!

Today was a very gray, drizzly day and we didn’t do much. I got an email last night from one of the couples we met while on the road, Ted & Laura we met in Silverton Oregon. So I replied today and then I found my friend Sandy online on Google Chat so we chatted for a while. Besides that I vacuumed, ate,watched some TV (Nascar was on and Dave is a fan) washed dishes and we walked Cheyenne a couple times. Just kind of a regular old day in a RV park!

I’ve put together a video with a few views of this campground. I also took some pics of a couple unique trailers here. Seems like we are seeing quite a few of the tear drop and smaller trailers lately. I’m sure fuel prices are making the smaller tows much more appealing but I don't think Dave, Cheye and I would ever fit in one!

Short Blog

Just not much to report today. The morning was gray and chilly here in Pacific City, OR. Dave made pancakes for our breakfast this morning. We took Cheye out for a couple walks around the park, watched Chipmunks, talked. Oh, we made a few changes to our reservations and started the process of getting our pickup and trailer licensed in South Dakota. We didn’t register the vehicles while we were back in SD because you have to go to the county your address is in, ours is on the east side of the state. One of the services the mail forwarding company we use is to assist with vehicle registration so we decided to take advantage of that rather than spending the $$$ on diesel and RV parks.

This morning I also did some work on compressing video. I discovered lots of different settings when I clicked the “advanced” button in iMovie so I played around with them a lot of the morning. I reworked the video I posted yesterday so it isn’t quite so pixely and I re-posted it on the blog...now if I could only remember what combination of settings I used.....

photo: cute little chipmunk neighbor

Dog In the Ocean...again

Went into town, Pacific City, ( <-- Jim that is for you) again this morning in search of mail and to make a couple calls. Once we got the mail I found I needed to make 2 more phone calls so we sat in the local grocer’s parking lot taking care of business. I haven’t had to take care of this much business since we sold the house! Business done, a few more groceries purchased and back to the campground. We decided to go down to the beach before lunch today, so we headed out taking my trusty Flip Video with us. I actually take that thing everywhere, I really love how handy it is. Anyway, the tide was way out and we decided to head north up the beach. Cheye was in a Seagull chasing mood and really went after one following it out quite a ways into the surf! The surf wasn’t deep, she was running not swimming, but on her way back in she managed to find a couple, well, holes. In she went, over her head! Well, watch the video below. She was a fair distance away and the Flip Video doesn’t have any zoom to speak of, but you can still see her.

After lunch I went up to the Lodge to see what kind of internet speed I could get. I am happy to say I can get faster speeds on my Verizon Aircard with 1-2 bars than I could at the Lodge. The Lodge connection is a good enough to email and do a little searching around but not any serious business. While there some people were talking about other 1000 Trails campgrounds so I joined in. Dave came in shortly after that and we quizzed the others about where they have stayed and which places they liked. It was interesting, they both had memberships totally different from ours. I didn’t know there were so many different ones!

Tonight we had dinner and watched a movie. After that it was off to the showers and then work on the blog. So now that you are caught up with my day as far as it has gone I guess I’ll sign off!
top right: Cheye shaking
bottom left: on the way back from town
video: Cheye chasing a Seagull

Quiet Day

Today was a quiet day, we went for a walk early in the morning looking at sites that we might want to use next time we are here. It was funny, we talked to some people along the way that told us they hadn’t made a single reservation and got in to the 1000 Trails campgrounds all summer. Hmmmmmm, well until I know the system a little better I think I’ll stick with reservations.

I got caught up on emails after our walk and did some internet surfing fitting lunch in there somewhere. Later I was feeling a bit restless so Cheye and I went on a walk around the park to areas we hadn’t been to yet. This is a big park! Later Dave, I and Cheye went down to the beach. Beautiful down there, sunny and no wind at all. After we got back it was time for dinner and we barbecued kabobs. That about sums up the entire day!

Dave is out building a fire now so I see a couple toasted marshmellows in my future...yum.

The video is just so you can enjoy the beach!

Top left: the beach
middle right: trail to beach
bottom right: Cheye watching Chimunks out the window

Our First 1000 Trails Campground

Actually, they call them 1000 Trails Preserves, but I like Campground better. I suppose it isn’t really a campground as they have cabins and trailers for rent, a small store, game room, laundry rooms, a “family lodge” room with a big screen TV and wireless hookup, miniature golf, basketball courts, indoor pool, hot tub and on Saturday & Sunday a little cafe! I am impressed, quite the place.

This morning we called 1000 Trails and got everything all set up so we are now able to book online. We actually have made reservations through September 2. We weren’t able to get some of our first choices, but we are happy with what we got. After we got everything booked we packed up and headed out about 10:30. It is only about 30 miles from Lincoln City so a short drive today. I somehow assumed you would have a space assigned to you at the 1000 Trails places, but not so. Basically you make a reservation and then drive through the park and pick from whatever is open. There were quite a few sites when we arrived and found one we liked and set up camp.

This afternoon we walked over to the store/pool/laundry area and bought ice cream cones (yum) and looked around a bit. A little later we walked down to the beach, great beach! Very long, great for walking. I was surprised to see cars parked on the beach. I thought that Oregon didn’t allow vehicles on the beach but evidently I was wrong.

Tonight we grilled burgers and are just relaxing a bit...after all it has been a tough day. ;)

Still having to compress the video...oh well!
photos taken at Pacific City