July 30, 2010, Friday TILLAMOOK, OR

Well today we pulled up stakes in Newport and headed for Tillamook. It’s funny, it’s really foggy here (as you can see) but it’s actually quite a bit warmer. Yeah, back into short pants and flip flops! (That won’t last.) Highway 101 goes a little inland during the trip from Newport to Tillamook and the country side is so beautiful. Tons of livestock grazing in knee high grass and green everywhere. We’re staying at an RV campsite about 4 miles north of the city. After setting up and cleaning, etc, we headed for the Mears Lighthouse and the octopus tree. We think there were good views from the lighthouse, but it was too foggy to tell! The forest you walk through to and from the lighthouse is so pretty and so quiet! Then we went to this town that reminded us so much of Maine, it is called Oceanside. Foggy beach, quaint town it was like we were on the east coast. So pretty. Would like to stay here some summer for a month or so.

July 29, 2010, Thursday NEWPORT CITY, OR

Just to get this out of the way, Mike played golf this a.m. Yeah! He’s been wanting to for so long, but it hasn’t worked out, but it did today and he really enjoyed it! OK now this is funny. We had an appointment for the dog to be groomed today. We’ve been trying to get it done for weeks now and we actually found a groomer that had an opening. The appointment was for 1 p.m. So we figure we can make it up to Lincoln City about 25 miles up the coast. We thought we would look around and then head back down and that’s one less town to stop in on our way up the coast. That way when we move tomorrow, we can drive an exhausting 60 miles instead of 25. So we drive up the coast, we’re all talking and so forth, not paying much attention, and we come to the town (we have no map with us) and we pull over. Lots of beautiful views, cute shops, art, etc. We take pics and browse in some of the stores and have a great time. The picture here is across the street from the shops looking at the cliffs to the north. I look up at this one store front and notice that it says Depot Bay. It suddenly hits me that we are not in Lincoln City, but in some small town before you get to Lincoln City. Oh brother! We were cracking up, because we never even paid attention to where we were, we just assumed it was Lincoln City. We're such digbats! Actually, we’re really glad we weren’t paying attention ‘cause we loved this little town! Tomorrow when we pass by this way there will be no place big enough to pull over with the trailer and we would have missed this cute town.

July 28, 2010, Wednesday NEWPORT, OR

Don't know what happened there, be we are still on July 28. Anyway, we saw some plein air painters, so we stopped to see the art work. Plein air means that they were painting from a live view outside. It was a beautiful area, no wonder they picked it.

July 28, 2010, Wednesday NEWPORT CITY, OR

Today we backtracked south a little to see a few things we missed because we were pulling the trailer. We stopped at a Wood Carving place, Antique store and a bakery that sold Gluten Free Lemon Bars. Yeah and delicious! Betty would have loved the Wood Carving ‘cause there were lots and lots of Bears. There were also these really cute life sized old cowboys carved out of wood. So cute. We went to a coastal site called Devil's Punch Bowl. That's the pic you see here.

July 27, 2010, Tuesday NEWPORT CITY, OR

Today we went shopping along the bay. It’s a cute area right along the docks. There were several Sea Lions barking and resting below the docks. We visited the Yaquina Lighthouse. It’s a beautiful setting. We got there too late to go inside, so we will probably go back tomorrow. There’s this beach here called Nye Beach. It also has a cute little shopping area as well as the port, but what is so neat are the odd looking dunes on the beach. Hopefully you can see it in the pictures.

July 26, 2010, Monday NEWPORT CITY, OR

Today we packed up and drove an exhausting 50 miles! Ended up in Newport. This is the biggest city we have stayed in yet. It’s got the only Wal-Mart on the Oregon Coast and it’s not even a Super Wal-Mart! My favorite thing in this town is that there’s this artist named Rick Chambers who has painted murals on the walls of a lot of the buildings in town. He is so good and the paintings are so beautiful.

July 25, 2010, Sunday FLORENCE, OR

Spent this a.m. with the Mormon’s in Florence. It was a really great meeting. After church we took a little drive to the beach by us and took some pics. Then we went to the Dunes south of town. We hiked up and down dunes and you can’t believe how steep they are (hope you can tell by the pics). Finally I started crawling up the dunes on hands and knees and found it much easier than trying to walk upright. Maybe it was a mistake to start walking upright, I don’t know. Finally we got to the beach we were heading for, and watched the surfers and parasurfers. Of course they are wearing wet suits because the water here is freezing. All kinds of crazy people in this world! We headed back towards Hwy 101 and stopped to watch the Dune Buggies. It looked fun. Maybe when we come back down this way we’ll rent one and try it out, not on the big hill though. Also posting a pic from today that shows ocean waves coming up the river. You don't see that every day!

July 24, 2010, Saturday FLORENCE, OR

Enjoying a day of relaxation!

July 23, 2010, Friday FLORENCE, OR

Today was a down time day for me and Mike puttered around cleaning the truck and trailer. It was relaxing!

July 22, 2010, Thursday FLORENCE, OR

Today we went to the “Largest Sea Cave in all of the U.S.!” It is also a Sea Lion breeding, birthing and all around hang out. We went out on this walk way and you could look down and see all the Sea Lions on the rocks below. It was really interesting seeing them try to get out of the water and onto the rocks. After this viewing area, we got on an elevator and headed down to the actual cave. It was actually about 21 stories! It smelled like fish (what a surprise). You were only allowed to take pics with no flash so as not to disturb the Sea Lions.

After coming home and having some lunch, we went to the “Old Town” in Florence. Not as cute as the one in Bandon, but bigger. Mike found a nice baseball cap and I bought a cute little tin Mermaid which has a quote on it and it says “Home is Where the Waves Are.” How true! After that we had new brakes put on the truck. That was a lot of fun…! At least I had my computer so I could catch up on the blogging.

July 21, 2010, Wednesday FLORENCE, OR

We got to Florence pretty early in the afternoon and after setting up we wanted to see the beach. I change out of my Levis into my shorts and flip flops and we take off on our bikes with Daisy on her leash. OK Daisy on her leash usually walks really well between the bikes as we ride along. However, the streets here are very narrow, and we had to keep stopping and moving over for cars, so taking Daisy was a mistake. We wanted to take her because she really likes the beach. When we were in Texas she ran on the beach every day and loved it. Anyway, you can’t imagine how cold the beach is here. Mike was smart enough to wear a hoodie and long pants and good shoes. It is a beautiful beach, but the wind was so cold and blowing so hard we didn’t last long there.

July 20, 2010, Tuesday BANDON, OR

OK, we went to Coos Bay to get a part put on the truck and we’re using the Garmin to find the dealer and she says, “Turn left on Hemlock.” Mike goes, “Turn left on Headlock?” Now only a man would mistake the street name Hemlock for Headlock. Put him in a headlock! I start laughing so hard I can’t speak very well and I say, “No Hemlock.” But he can’t understand me ‘cause I’m laughing, and he says, “Yeah Headlock, where is it?” OK now I can no longer speak and he’s starting to laugh, but he doesn’t know why yet. One of those moments that you probably had to be there, but it really was funny to us since we were there.

July 19, 2010 Monday BANDON, OR
Today we pulled up roots in Brookings and drove up the coast to Bandon. We'll be here a couple of days. They have such beautiful Hydrangas here on the Oregon Coast. All kinds of colors from white to blue to purple. Really pretty. Here in Bandon they have a place on the water, boardwalk style area with wood sidewalks, etc. They call it “Old Town.” There are lots of shops with tons of cute stuff and crab shacks everywhere. We enjoyed walking from one end to the other and in and out of all the shops. They have a fudge shop with the best fudge you’ve ever tasted! They even have sugar free. Mike got a real nice lookin’ zip up sweatshirt in black with a gold “Port of Bandon” seal on it. There was this one shop that had those wooden wind chimes all along their awning out front. There were so many and it was so loud, but really neat sounding. It was an interesting shop. It was so full of stuff that you could only walk sideways through the aisles. They had signs that book bags were not allowed. The owner lady was a real trip. She had long wavy dyed red hair parted in the middle. She had a tie dye tank top on and a hangy wool sweater over it. She had a tattoo on her left boob, right arm, left leg and probably a lot of other places that I couldn’t see. She had a ring through her nose and her eye make-up was bazaar to say the least! She had an actual stripe of bright blue under her lower eye lashes and a bright green stripe somewhere below her eyebrow. It was scary. I’m not sure Mike even made it all the way in this store! So I went up to pay for a greeting card I wanted to buy and she started complaining to me that there was a young girl in the store that kept staring at her. Right at that time the girl stepped into the aisle and we both saw her take a peek at the woman. She says, “See, she did it again.” I don’t know why I can’t just say “Oh really?” and let it go at that. Sometimes I have no control. I start speaking (and then it’s too late) and I said “Maybe she‘s never seen a woman quite so…and then I’m committed to this sentence and I can’t find the word. Finally I come up with, “exotic as you are!” She laughingly says, “You mean messed up?” (Except she didn’t say messed up.) I said, “No, exotic!” She chuckled and gave me my change. When we are out on the street again in front of the store I notice a car parked there. The dashboard is covered with tons of odd stuff, statues and stuffed animals. The car had all kinds of stuff crammed in it. Had to be her car. We got a laugh out of that, too.

July 18, 2010 Sunday BROOKINGS, OR

After a lovely meeting with the very friendly "Mormons" in Brooking this a.m. we took a drive up the coast. We went as far as Gold Beach. It's a rugged coast line and some beautiful, but very windy, beaches. We talked to a guy there who says that as soon as they start having a heat wave over the mountain to the East, the winds start blowing in Gold Beach. The wind was blowing so hard you could hardly walk upright! We had a lady in Brookiings tell us a similar story. She said when it heats up to the East it pulls the fog from the ocean into Brookings. Of course we love the coolness and the fog. We've seen a lot of it here in the mornings and it's just beautiful and so cool. It's been 60's and 70's at the highest. The evenings are cool and we leave all the windows open and it feels wonderful under the down blanket in the a.m.! Tomorrow we head North.

July 17, 2010 Saturday BROOKINGS, OR

This a.m. we went to the Kite Festival. It’s amazing how they can fly these kites! They flew sequenced to music and it was so pretty. They had one group that had 6 people flying 6 kites and it sync’d to really fast music and they wowed the crowd with all types of formations. These guys can even land the kite on one of the pointed sticks and then take off immediately so high into the sky. One guy even walked his kite across the ground in part of his performance. It was fun to watch! My personal favorite was the guy who flew two kites, each having four lines each, at one time and he did it to the music Bolero. You'll see the kites in the picture, the black and yellow ones. After we cooled off and had some lunch, we went into town and looked through a couple of stores and a couple of art galleries. Saw some beautiful artwork and even met one of the artists. She was an older lady named Sandy Bonner and her pastels were beautiful. We were going to go to see Eclipse, the movie, but we’re old and we were a little too tired.

July 16, 2010 Friday BROOKINGS, OR

We’re going to stay here a few days because this weekend in Brookings is the annual Kite Flying Competition. Sounds fun. Today we did stuff that had to be done, but at least the weather is wonderful!

July 15, 2010 Thursday BROOKINGS, OR

Yes, we are finally in Oregon. Yeah! Staying at an RV Park called Driftwood. It’s about 2 blocks from the beach. It’s really pretty here. They have a Marina also. Brookings is the first town across the border into Oregon and the weather is so gorgeous. It’s foggy in the a.m. and then it burns off and it’s sunny but still cool, constant little ocean breeze. Fabulous!

July 14, 2010 KALMATH, CA

We went sight-seeing today in the California Redwood Nation Parks. Man are those redwoods big! As you can see. We went to the “Trees of Mystery.” You’ve probably see pictures of the big carving of Paul Bunyon with his Blue Ox. We saw it up close and personal! They had a Bigfoot in the gift store, so I took a picture. Then we drove up to a large redwood that you can drive through, but we didn’t try with our big truck. Lots of beautiful beaches to the West and beautiful forest to the East. Best of both worlds. Mike’s so cute he climbed up on top of a fallen Redwood so I could take a pic and you can get an idea of how big they are.

July 13, 2010 KLAMATH, CA

Now we are at a park called Camping Corral. It’s a pretty park with lots of grass and huge pine trees. Here in Klamath there have been two sightings of Bigfoot over the years and we tried our best to see one, but no luck. Earlier today on a walk with Daisy down to the Klamath River, in a particularly dense area, we thought we heard something. They have a lot of bear here (the state animal for California is the brown bear) and seeing a bear would really scare me. Seeing a Bigfoot? Now that would be way fun!

July 12, 2010 WILLITS, CA

Man, this California is one long state! Seems like we’ve been driving forever and we’re still not in Oregon! Daddy Mike wins a special California super driver award today. He had a little bit of everything. Let’s see, on our way to San Francisco, we had a lot of freeway driving (five very busy lanes). He drove down 19^th Street (San Francisco downtown residential) all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge and over the bridge. Oh, maybe I should have said across the bridge. Then we had a real live California traffic jam, all 5 lanes stop and go because of an accident. He went through all of this like a champ, but he did seem to go to bed a little earlier than usual. What a guy! We stopped in a small town called Willits and we’re camping at a little (I mean really little) campground. It has about 7 pull-thrus. That’s it! It’s really pretty, up in the mountains, trees all around and a little duck pond with six ducks. Daisy was quite in love with this feature of the park. She wanted to sniff the ducks nose to nose, but didn’t want to swim to do it, so she was out of luck. The place is called “Sleepy Hollow” so we spent quite a bit of time watching for the headless horseman, but he was a no show.

July 11, 2010 Sunday MORGAN HILL, CA

We don’t really like to travel on Sunday, but today we did. Lots of reasons I won’t go into at this time. Drove to Morgan Hill, stayed at the Maple Leaf RV. We set up camp and called Diana, but alas she must be out of town. We needed a few items from the store, so we headed off towards some housing developments on the foothills 'cause we figured that's where you would find a grocery store. We drove and drove and couldn't find anything. Finally we stopped and asked some guy walking down the street and he said turn left at the next stop sign and drive until you find the Safeway. We found it and realized it was on the same street as the RV Park, but we had driven in the opposite direction and the store was actualy just down the street from us. It probably would be smarter to check out the phone booknext time! Ya think? We’ll continue our travels tomorrow.

July 10, 2010 Saturday AVILA BEACH, CA

Today we went down to the pier and walked around. Saw seals in the water, but no otters at this time. We had tacos from a stand on the pier that Marilyn said was really good. It was really good! We went into town where I proceeded to parallel park our massive truck, which was no easy feat. I have to say I was proud of myself. Squeezed in right in front of a Beemer! We walked around the beach front (this is the big beach in town not the one where we are camped). We looked in the little shops and Mike bought a cool Old Men Rule T-shirt. I bought a toe ring since I lost mine on the 4^th of July at Mike and Linda’s. We went to get some gas in the truck when we noticed parachutes. We turned toward the coast, went down a street, parked and got out at a little park where these guys were running off a cliff with their parachutes on their backs and flying around the cliff side. It was so fun to watch. One of the guys was a real show off and went running down the hill towards the cliff and still was off the ground so he ran right over a picnic table, bounced off the top of a trash can and jumped off the cliff. It was quite a show.

July 9, 2010 Friday AVILA BEACH, CA

Funny, Doug and Marilyn both told us we needed to go to Avila Beach, so we did. We’re dry camping today on a bluff that overlooks the bay. It’s really pretty here. What a view we have from our windows! We walked on the beach and just took it easy.

July 8, 2010 Thursday VALENCIA, CA

Picked up the truck. Wow, that hurt! Went over to pick up some stuff at Marilyn’s and then went to visit Doug and Liz. We went out for Mexican and it was really good, even without cheese. We had a good visit. Doug gave us lots of Avocadoes and apricots off his trees. He’s such a sweetie. It’s always fun to see Doug and Liz. It’s funny but Doug reminds me of me and of Dale. He likes all the same foods and other things I like. He’s way conservative like me and he’s really smart like Dale. Must be genetic.

July 2, 2010 Friday SALINA, UT
OK, we're "ON THE ROAD AGAIN." The plan is to trailer down to just north of LA and visit friends and family. Then we will head up the Pacific Coast on Highway 101. Today we packed everything and drove down to Centerfield where Ralph and Betty live. Tomorrow is Ralph's Birthday party. Ralph is turning 70 and since it's the big 70...they're throwing him a party tomorrow. Should be fun. Mike made a potato salad (he makes the best) so we droped it off to put it in Betty's fridge. Then on we drove to Salina, Utah, about 15 minutes past Ralph's where we are staying in the Butch Casidy RV Park. They have wild bunnies all over the place. So cute. They come in all colors!

July 3, 2010 Saturday SALINA, UT
Slept in...yeah! Went to Ralph's B-Day Party. Lots of people love Ralph. His kids, grandkids, siblings and Betty's siblings were there. It was a big gang. Mike cooked hambergers and there were lots of yummy salads. The really best thing was that Ralph's daughter Annette surprised him and flew in from Wisconsin and just showed up at the party. It was so fun to watch. Betty cried and cried. Made me remember the Christmas I did that to my Mom when I lived in Utah and she lived in California. It was really fun.

July 4, 2010 Sunday FAIRVIEW, UT
Went to Mike and Linda's house for BBQ. Melissa came down and ended up taking a kitten home! Wendy, John and Taylor came down yesterday with their trailer and stayed over. Candace, Mike, Rachael, Emily and Brady came over from Koosherim where they were visiting for Mike Hatch's family reunion. Brady is going to stay in Utah and try it again. We ate and enjoyed Mike and Linda's hospitality and had a long visit. Forgot to take the camera, so Wendy said she would email some pics. I hope so 'cause I want to put them in here!

July 5, 2010 Monday LAS VEGAS, NV
We are on our way to California. Today we made it to Las Vegas and spent the night. It's so hot here, about 105. You literally can fry an egg on the sidewalk. We pulled into our campsite at the Hitching Post RV Park, pulled out the slides, turned on the air conditioning and ran for the swimming pool. When you walked out of the shadded patio area to cross the cement to reach the pool, it burned your feet like crazy. It was such a relief to hit that nice cool water. Glad we don't have to live here or stay here any longer than one night!

July 6, 2010 Tuesday VALENCIA, CA
We drove from Las Vegas to Valencia, California and had truck problems on the Baker Grade. The Baker Grade is this well known piece of highway that causes a lot of car problems because it rises about 2000 feet on a very long uphill grade. It seems to go on forever. We finally made it over the top, but the truck was hot and going very slowly. We came down into Valencia and found our RV park. (Love that GPS!). We got all settled in and I called Marilyn. I'm going to see her tomorrow, should be fun, she's always fun! I called my cousin Doug and we'll see him on Thursday.

July 7, 2010 Wednesday VALENCIA, CA
Today Mike took me over to Marilyn's house and dropped me off to visit while he took the truck in to be diagnosed. I gave Marilyn the painting I did for her and she was thrilled, hung it up right then and even cried. Wow, I wasn't expecting that! She is a good friend and I love her. She dropped me back at the RV Park and Mike says the truck won't be fixed until tomorrow. Bummer. OK but here's the funny thing. Mike took the truck in to be fixed and naturally left the keys with them, and they drove him back to the trailer and dropped him off. He starts to go into the trailer and realizes it's locked and he left the keys with the dealer! Now picture this, he had to climb in through the compartment under the trailer and up through the laundry drop! I asked him if anyone saw him?? He says the dog certainly gave him an odd look when he came up through the floor! Then, he was doing laundry and when he came back to the trailer the door was locked again and he had to go through the same rigamorole. Wish I could have been there!