090828 - The Oregon Coast Highway

Friday, August 28, 2009
THE OREGON COAST HIGHWAY

When traveling thru the northwest, one area we look forward to seeing is the Oregon Coast Highway.

My usual response to someone who tells me about a scenic roadway is “I’ll bet you weren’t driving.”

Most of the time, scenic roads are winding, narrow, strenuous and stressful to drive and the driver has all he can do to keep the vehicle on the road and his passengers safe. He rarely has the opportunity to turn his head to enjoy the view.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule and I can think of 2. One is the Cascade Highway across northern Washington and the Oregon Coast Highway.

On a clear, crisp summer day, you can see breathtaking views as you drive around turns in roads cut into the cliffs over looking the Pacific and look down miles of a beautiful beach lined coast.

Other times we are winding thru national park forests that spread to the ocean with lush foliage and century old trees.

Then there are the small towns and harbors that dot the coast with their unique curio shops, diners and restaurants that you want to stop at just to get the flavor and scent of the area. Places like Nehalem, Seaside, Rockaway Beach, Cannon Beach, Depoe Bay and Newport.

Unfortunately, today was an overcast and mostly rainy day and it sort of put a small damper on the ride down the coast. From Fort Stevens to our destination of Lakeside is a 220-mile trip, which I miscalculated because I forgot about all the twisted and winding roads thru the forests and small towns which posted speed limits as low as 25 miles in some parts and 35 MPH in many others. When you are driving thru small towns with a California license, it is prudent to match your speed to the posted limits to prevent delays and donations to the local police. Well, the 3-hour trip we calculated actually took almost 6 hours but despite the fog and rain, it still was worth the ride.

As unhappy as I was with the poor weather, I had to feel compassion for the many cyclists that we passed on the highway with their camping gear packs, windbreakers and weatherproof hoods as they peddled on thru the rain.

090826 - GIG HARBOR, WASHINGTON

Monday, August 21, 2009
Gig Harbor, Washington

Gig harbor is a beautiful and quaint suburb of Tacoma. The Gig Harbor RV Park is only about 2-1/2 miles from Mort and Nancy’s home, which was very convenient.

Now I’ve been greeted by lots of different kinds of people when arriving at a new park, but today was a first. As I was hooking up the Beast to it’s lifelines, a women with a briefcase (containing a laptop computer) approached me and announced that my site had been selected for a State Census interview. It would take about 30 minutes.
The fact that I had arrived only 20 minutes prior and was not a resident of the State of Washington made no difference. She was pleasant and admitted new to the job and since I had some free time, I consented to the drill. As it progressed, we both were amazed at the silliness of the survey, but we plodded on. Questions such as “how long have you lived here?”: “how many stories is your house?”, . “How large is your property?”; “ what is the annual tax on the property?”. Linda, the census taker, laughed out loud at some of the questions which she answered without telling me what they were and when we were finished I asked her if she was paid by the hour or piece work. Fortunately, it was by the hour. Another example of our hard earned tax dollars at work for a valuable service.I wonder what the results of this interview will have on the overall findings. One can only guess.

Before Linda moved on, my friend Mort drove up and when I told him what was going on, he insisted that a photograph should be taken to commemorate the event.

Just think, had I arrived one hour later I could have missed this opportunity to participate in this important government project.

Mort and I served our surgical residencies together in San Francisco in the late 60’s. It was a great time to be single, male and straight. I was, Mort was married. One of our duties was to take night call and sleep at the hospital (about once a week). Mort’s wife (at the time) frowned on this policy, so I often took his night call so he could sleep at home. Being single it was not much of a problem, unless some sleep robbing emergency occurred, but it did save me a drive into work in the morning

Mort gave us a little guided tour of the area as we drove to his house. It was situated high on the bank of the bay with a breathtaking view of Mount Rainer from his deck.
Danny was quickly introduced to Egan, their 5-year-old white lab, and the two of them ran and played like synchronized swimmers. Nancy exclaimed that Egan was acting like a young pup trying to keep up with Danny.
Mort barbequed some great steaks and we had a wonderful dinner on the deck and reminisced.

Tuesday
Struck up a conversation with our RV neighbors and low and behold Ed grew up in the same area of Los Angeles we are from. HE and his wife now live in Oregon but we had a fun time talking about travel and the things we had in common.

Mort took us and his friend Eric to lunch at Duke’s, a Dockside restaurant on the harbor with a reputation for good food and delicious chowder. I agreed on both counts.

Wednesday
We started out with breakfast at a classic 60’s diner and I had one of the best Spanish omelets I ever tasted. Danny enjoyed his bowl of water.
We spent the rest of the day at the Naval Undersea Museum. Lots of interesting exhibits and Danny and I got to drive a submarine and sink a few ships. I hope they weren’t ours.

Thursday
It wasn’t the Mariner’s but it was close. Mort scored some tickets to a triple A baseball game and the four of us had a good old boys night out (Eric and Jim completed the quartet). We were rooting for the Raineers (the home team) against the Omaha Royals but to no avail. There was no joy in Mudville tonight, but we had a great time nevertheless.

Friday
Mort and Nancy belong Temple Beth El of Tacoma and invited us to join them for Friday night services. Since I had not attended services since leaving Los Angeles I welcomed the opportunity.
This was to be Danny’s first religious experience. The building and synagogue appeared relatively new and modern. The services were reformed and enjoyable with a very talented female cantor. It was a great evening and Danny behaved well enough to be proud of him, he was very quiet and relaxed.

This was our last time together so we said our thank you's and goodbyes and will keep warm memories of this portion of our travels.

090815 - TWINS

August 15,2009 -Twins

At one rest area, when we opened the door after an afternoon nap, I thought I was looking into a mirror. 10 feet away from us was an almost twin of the Beast, down to the color and shape.
On closer inspection, there were small differences, but they were lost in the overall similarities.

Unfortunately, the occupants did not come out and I did not want to disturb them in case they had pulled in to rest or nap. By the morning they were gone.

090810 - Port Angeles, Washington

August 10, 2009 - Port Angeles

My old friend Bob had recently moved up here and although I gave him fair warning that we was coming, he stayed anyway. With a couple of RV parks to chose from we went with the more expensive KOA. This park has large and grassy pull-thru sites, which really appealed to Danny. The free cable TV hook-up and WIFI sealed the deal for me.

Our campsite neighbors (Ken and Sherry) have 2 dogs just like Danny – one a 2-year-old white Lab and the other a senior yellow lab.We let them off leash and Danny and Buster (the 2 year old) ran and played for about a half hour until they seemed to tire. The older dog, Cody, although slowed down with arthritis and age, tried to get in on the activities and wagged his tail with delight. Danny seemed to enjoy his newfound friends and playmates and I’m sure he will get to play with them again.

Bob and Robin moved up to this area a couple of years ago, fleeing the hustle and crush of Los Angeles.

We spent a day at their home, which is on a bluff overlooking the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Unfortunately, the weather was quite foggy and so the view was obliterated.

Robin took an instant liking to Danny but Bob, being a cat person and having a fear of dogs, especially big ones, would be a challenge. It only took 2 days to get Bob to actually let Danny nuzzle him and be petted. I was prepared to use hypnosis on him to help him over his fear of dogs but Danny did it without my assistance.

Getting to see old friends is one of the real perks of travel and this portion of our trip was certainly worth it. Unfortunately, Danny and I have lots of time but others usually have a life and work to occupy their time, so after a short visit we had to bid farewell.

Just before Peter had died, I had ordered a refill of his medication for his arthritis and joint pain, and it was delivered after his death. It was non-returnable so I just packed it away till I decided what to do with it. When I saw Cody limping and struggling to play with the younger dogs I dug out the medication and donated it to the 12 year old. I hope it makes his remaining time more comfortable.

090803-PORT TOWNSEND, Washington

MONDAY AUGUST 3, 2009
PORT TOWNSEND, Washington

Leaving our interstate rest area, we head south to our next destination.

There are 2 routes to choose from. One is by interstate, which is longer but faster, and the other is the scenic route. This time we could not resist the countryside.

In this case, that includes the picturesque islands and harbors of the Straits of Juan De Fuca and Puget Sound. Most roads are 2 lane (one each way) thru colorful and quaint areas like Oak Harbor, Deception Pass, Orcas Island, Friday Harbor, Anacortes, Fidalgo island and Keystone Spit, so the speed limits are low but it gives us time to enjoy the view.

There is a considerable amount of fog rolling in and especially over bridges. We have to be extra careful since many people walk and cycle along the roadside. In some cases the fog is so thick we have to slow to a crawl just to err on the side of caution.

When we are only a mile away from our destination, we reach the ferry site where we’ll have to wait about an hour for the next boat to take us the rest of the way.
Hearing the foghorn and watching the ferry emerge from the fog like a ghost ship is an breath-taking sight and all of the waiting cars, RVs, motorcycles and foot passengers cheer when it comes into view.

The ferry ride is smooth and pleasant and lasts about 30 minutes. We try to track our watery route with our GPS but either the fog or the lack of land seems to confuse it although it does tell us the boat’s speed is 17 MPH. Our destination RV park is close by at the harbor and our site has a nice view of the water.


The weather has certainly gone thru a change since last week when we were in a 95-degree heat wave. Here it’s in the high 60s with overcast skies. The weather is a good backdrop to the area which is a small harbor town hosting a marina filled with sailing ships, one of which is name BLACK BEARD and flies the black Jolly Roger flag depicting the classic skull and crossbones.

This is one of the few RV parks with gravel that I really love and would return to anytime.

090802 - The Washington Interstate

Washington Interstate 5 rest area
August 2nd, 2009

Just another example of good plans gone wrong.

After leaving the supreme hospitality of Joe and Penelope, our plan was to spend a week at a bayside member campground before heading south.
When making the reservations I was told that the campground wouldn’t be available right away so I made reservations at PLAN B for a couple of days. Then I find out my weeklong reservation will be further cut down because it is a major holiday weekend. Now I have to tell you, I check the calendar pretty carefully for holidays since I was almost stranded for lapse of awareness so I quickly responded with “what holiday?” and was told it was some Canadian celebration. I asked if the campground was really in the United States but my query seemed to fall on deaf ears. We accepted the short reservation but as it turned out, became a blessing in disguise.

When we got to the front gate I was told to find a campsite and then come back to tell them which I had selected. This was a new concept to us and not very comfortable. To start with, it was a large campground with a couple of hundred sites spread out over a large area, and a lot of gravel roadways. I told them I was handicapped and would not able to walk back to the main gate to report my selection but I was waved on so I decided to survey the area. The handicapped spaces were filled and I couldn’t find any sites that were convenient so I drove back to the front gate to ask for assistance.
They quickly dispelled the notion that the management and staff are happy and wiling to be of service in ay way we can.

I was given a few suggestions as to where to look and told that there was no one available to assist me in backing in or recording my site number and reporting it.

I finally found a spot that would allow Danny some roaming room (most sites were side-by-side) but gravel everywhere. We settled in, turned on the air conditioner (it was really getting hot – in the 90s) and took a nap. I never went back to report my selection. We spent 4 days there, struggling with the gravel (the natural enemy of the disabled) and when we left a feeling of relief and joy came over me.

We spent the next 4 days at an interstate rest area. It was much more comfortable than the last campground. Our stay there reminded me of the movie “TERMINAL” with Tom Hanks, where he is confined to an airport lobby.

Danny and I would sit out by the picnic tables and watch the trucks and RVs and buses and cars and their occupants come and go, as we remained the only constant residents. Many of the people would stop and talk to us, of course wanting to meet and pet Danny. Some would engage in interesting conversations. Many Rvers stopped for a break and one or two would spend the night. The truck drivers were friendly and offered greeting both verbally and with hand signals. Some tour buses would stop for bathroom breaks and the tourists would exit speedily and then shuffle back to the bus for reloading. One carload of people even got out, spread out their prayer rugs and prayed to Allah in the parking area.
Danny got to meet a few new doggie friends and I trusted him enough to let him go off leash when the area was pretty empty. He really is a very well behaved and mostly obedient dog.
With plenty of gas, propane, food and water, these “urban camping” days were a pleasant experience – and not a piece of gavel in sight.