Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!!

Much love from Eileen and Lee

The Oregon Coast

I promised more on Coos Bay, so here we go. Remember the ship that was spun around by the tug boats? Well, we found it docked nearby, being loaded with timber, to be transported to Japan.

It was interesting to watch all the heavy equipment moving those big logs around:

I love watching the sky in Washington and Oregon - it is constantly changing, sometimes dark, sometimes brooding, and every now and then the sun peaks through:

We took an afternoon ride along the coast, and found a small bay and the scenery for which Oregon is famous:

The surf this day was 22 to 26 feet high, out beyond the entrance to the bay:

We stayed only two nights in Coos Bay, and drove down the coast towards Brookings, Oregon.  The interplay of rocks, light, sky and water are so interesting!

Can you imagine, we found snow along the route, we were so surprised!  It was along a stretch of about a mile:

The next day the sun came out so we explored the coastline north of Brookings.

We saw whales spouting just off shore!  You can't see them in the photo below, because of course they never spouted when the camera was aimed at them.  They must be camera-shy.  But they were there, just feet beyond the rocks on the left.  Honest.  One of the whales was actually inside those rocks, closer to shore.  They weren't moving, but reappeared in the same places time and again, so I believe they were resting.

Many of the rocks seen along the shore here are volcanic, dating from the Cretaceous period.  They are black "pillow" lava rocks, made from hot lava that cooled quickly when it hit the water.  More recently, tectonic uplift created the coastal range of mountains.

One big hunk of driftwood:

More black lava rocks:

I turned my attention to botany when I found wild amaryllis blooming on a hillside:

Berries:

More rocks, and western gulls:

Our destination today is Redcrest, California, on the Avenue of the Giants.  Giant redwood trees, that is.  An old growth forest with trees up to 2200 years old and 380 feet tall.   I have been here before, it is a place that I love.  It feels sacred, a holy place, with trees unimaginably old.  It is always quiet in these forests, as it should be, a place of reverence.  

 

Tomorrow we head for Petaluma, just north of San Francisco.  The drive is three hours.  Lee and I are more than half way through our odyssey,  so hard to believe!  I look forward to more adventures to come.

Munchkin's Favorite Foods

Hi.  This is Munchkin.

My favorite foods are tuna fish, salmon, chicken, eggs, broccoli, spinach, cereal, pasta, and rice, and sometimes Saltine crackers (the low sodium kind.)  Mom doesn't like it when dad feeds me Ritz crackers though.  She says they have too much sugar in them, even though I really like them. Today I had oatmeal for breakfast, which I love, but it sticks to my beak.  I had to wipe it off on Lee's shirt:

Tonight, as we watched the Eagles play, mom and I shared a bowl of popcorn:

While I was busy eating, those riDICulous parakeets sneaked into my cage.  Silly, silly birds.  

Back to my popcorn.

 

After eating all that popcorn, I was sleepy.  I found the perfect place to take a nap:

 

Today was a big day - oatmeal AND popcorn!!

Onward Ho!

Well, it took a week and a half, but we are finally ready to continue our journey.  First off, I have a few photos of the inside of the new coach.  Newmar is made in Indiana, in Mennonite and Amish country, and the woodwork is supposedly done by these people.  The woodwork is beautiful, and is cherry:

 

Munchkin and the parakeets got matching cage cabinets (made by a carpenter in Junction City who does custom work for the rv dealer).  Munchkin the cockatiel is the most expensive cockatiel in the history of the world:

i

We had originally planned to go to Coos Bay and then Ashland, but we have decided to skip Ashland for a couple of reasons.  1)  We are running out of time, and wish to be in the San Francisco Bay Area for Thanksgiving;  2)  It is supposed to snow in the Cascades down to the 1500 foot level, so it's easier to drive down Highway 101 along the coast, and avoid the snow altogether.  So that's the plan.

Today we arrived in Coos Bay.  We were greeted by a full  rainbow!

And then, a large cargo ship sailed by, pushed by two tug boats, right in front of the RV park.  The two tugs spun the ship around like a top, with amazing speed, with one tug pushing on the rear starboard and the other pushing on the front port side.  The two tugs communicated with toots, as to when to push and when to stop.  Fascinating!  I didn't know tug boats were so powerful and quick.

 

More on Coos Bay to come!

Are We CRAZY??

Lee has been asking to stop at RV dealerships since Montana, and in Oregon I finally relented. I couldn't come up with any more believable excuses. So what happened next?? We traded in the 2007 Winnebago for a 2011 Newmar!  I'm not kidding. Are we wild and crazy, or what??

I shall attempt to explain this. We have had the Winnebago for a year now, and we have discovered all the things we like and don't like about it. Our primary concern is the safety and comfort of the birds. The newer models are quieter, more energy-efficient, and have more effective temperature controls (air conditioning and heating). We also now have a residential refrigerator, the kind people have in their homes. The 2007 Winnebago has a Norcold fridge, made specifically for RVs. Unfortunately, the Norcold refrigerators have a tendency to catch on fire and are sometimes known to destroy motor homes.

We could have purchased a new refrigerator, which would have been cheaper.  But the improvements in the newer models seemed worthwhile. So, here we are.

I have a photo of the outside of the RV, but photos of the inside will come later.  It's too messy at the moment - we are still organizing and finding the right cubby holes for everything.

We have spent the last week in a small town called Junction City, which is located half way between Corvallis and Eugene.  Junction City is all about motor homes. Two RV manufacturers were located here - Monaco and Country Coaches. The RV dealer was the largest in the nation, with 7 locations.  Both Monaco and Country Coaches have gone out of business in the last few years due to the recession, and the town has visibly suffered because of it. The RV dealership seems to be the largest employer remaining. It seems to be doing a good business, but the sales rep we worked with indicated they sold many more coaches a few years ago, "in their heyday", as he said.  The dealer has gone from 7 locations to 2.  At its peak,  the RV industry employed 4500 people in this region, and now employs 800.  Times have changed.  It makes me realize how fortunate Lee and I are to be able to make this trip.

Lee and I discovered another industry here.  It took us awhile to figure it out.  The valley is full of fields of rich, green grass.  It turns out this part of Oregon provides 80% of the rye grass seed used in American lawns.  Who'd a thought?   It never occurred to me the grass seed had to come from somewhere!
 

 

This whole unanticipated episode has delayed our trip, and we are behind schedule once again.  I had hope to spend 5 days in Coos Bay and another 5 days in Ashland, but it's not going to happen.   We plan to be in Petaluma, where my sister lives, for Thanksgiving.

Portland, Oregon

You have not heard from me in awhile because Lee and I have been very busy this week, but more about that in the next post.  In the meantime, let me go back to Cape Disappointment, Washington, and the drive along the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon.  It was a beautiful drive with many vistas of the river.  The views reminded me of the paintings of Frederick Church and others of the Hudson River School of the 19th century, except for the giant tanker making its way to the ocean:

Doesn't this look like a painting? 

Once we arrived in the Portland area we spent some time with friends and a cousin and her family.  We also spent an afternoon in downtown Portland, mostly at the famous Powell's Books. Although I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything, I did buy one book and Lee purchased three. It is a huge bookstore, with new and used books on every subject imaginable.

I liked Portland. It is a city on a hill, which is always alluring, but its real charm, I think, is the trees that line both sides of every street. It is amazing what a difference a tree can make, how much life trees can bring to city streets.

Portland has several downtown parks as well:

 

 

Our Winnebago has had a few leaks at the top of the windshield for several months now.  When it rains, water runs down the inside of the windshield.  We found an ad for an RV technician who specialized in RV windshields, so we called him to find what what the problem was. 

It turns out the metal at the top of the windshield, upon which the windshield rests, had rusted.  It also turns out Winnebago windshields are made just minutes away from the RV park where we stayed.  The technicians sanded, primed, painted, and attached a new windshield.  Presto, no more leaks! 

I am learning, as we go, that RVs require constant maintenance.   Because it is a house on wheels, things are constantly jostled and juggled as it bounces down the road.  One has to learn to "go with the flow" to be successful at this lifestyle.