#40 – Coveys Great Adventure – Dec. 2017 to early Jan. 2018 – Jojoba Hills CA, Yuma, Organ Pipe and Benson AZ

Jojoba Hills CA, Yuma, Organ Pipe and Benson AZ

Dec. 2017 to early Jan. 2018 

We got lucky: Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort near Temecula CA had a site opening up a few days after we arrived that we could stay in through Christmas. Like all of the sites at Jojoba, #317 was spacious, close to the shop and the laundry, with easy access to lots of places to walk the dogs. Lucy and Schroeder recognized the park as soon as we pulled in and seemed excited to be back. Unfortunately I got distracted while pulling into the site and cut a corner too close to a large bush. We now have 20 feet of scratches on the side of the coach that I need to try to buff out. If there is nothing to work on I’ll invent something. Damn it.

As much as we love staying at Jojoba the 50 mile round trips to Hemet to visit with the family and take part in all the Christmas events wore us out. Next year I think we’ll swallow hard and stay at a large commercial RV park in Hemet. It costs roughly twice as much as Jojoba but the reduced wear-and-tear will be worth it.

Liesa was able to get time off from work and flew into San Diego on the 23^rd.  Traffic was almost eerily light and her flight was actually on time, so we arrived in Hemet hours before we were expected. Christmas at Paul and Brenda’s was very nice, capped off by a terrific dinner. Liesa’s cousin, Ed Wiklund has recently returned to the LA area and we were all pleased to see him, again.

Anxious to get moving again, we packed up and pulled out of Jojoba on the 27^th to visit the dentist in Los Algodones, Mexico, just over the border from Yuma. 

Sunset at Organ Pipe

Organ Pipe Cacti

We originally intended to go directly from Yuma to the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson AZ, our winter home for the past three years. On the spur of the moment we decided to spend a few days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Why AZ, right on the Mexican border. We’ve wanted to see Organ Pipe since we met the head ranger at the Quartzsite RV show in 2014. He was recruiting camp hosts and spreading the word that the campground had reopened after a long closure.

Camping at Organ Pipe requires a little forethought. It is about 25 miles from anything resembling a town, so checking provisions and doing a little meal planning is a must. The campground

has no power, water or sewer hookups at the sites, but water is available and there is a dump station to empty tanks. Ordinarily we don’t think about power because we can run the generator to recharge the batteries, but OP restricts generator usage to two hours, twice a day. I didn’t realize that was a problem until the batteries were not fully charged when it was time to turn off the generator. We discovered that we use roughly 160 amps of battery power during the evening “quiet hours” from 6 PM to 8 AM. The problem is that we can only replenish 120 amps during the two hour generator period.

There is no way to recover this deficit, so it compounds. The math is irrefutable: we will kill the batteries in four days unless we significantly cut consumption. Luckily we planned to stay only three days, but I want to figure out the best way to eliminate that limitation on our independence.

The power issue aside, Organ Pipe was well worth the effort. The setting is one of the most unique desert landscapes in the world. The eponymous cacti are, to me anyway, pretty fascinating. We have been all over the deserts of the southwest and haven’t seen anything like it. The night sky is truly spectacular, maybe the best I’ve seen since our visit to Kodachrome State Park. There is no light pollution at all and the stars are impressive. The best time to visit the monument is supposed to be late February through mid-April when the wildflowers and cacti of all kinds bloom. The pictures at the visitor center are beautiful, so we want  to return one day.

No lots were available when we arrived at the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson, but the staff assured us that one would open up soon. We pulled into the dry camping area and prepared to wait it out. The next morning just after breakfast we were pleasantly surprised to be told that a lot had opened up and we could move in as soon as we were ready. An hour later we were right at home on #298 where we plan to stay until early March. While Lucy and Schroeder seemed happy to return to Jojoba; they were clearly excited to be back at Saguaro.  And so are we.

I’ll update our plans in the February edition. By the time that comes out we should be crossing Texas, headed to Florida.

More soon.

#39 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov. and early Dec. 2017 – Deer Creek, Moab, Thanksgiving, Simi, Anaheim and Jojoba Hills

#39 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov. and early Dec. 2017 – Deer Creek, Moab, Thanksgiving, Simi, Anaheim and Jojoba Hills

Deer Creek campground

Near Sundance.
Look closely: gate says "Go Away"

After the pummeling that we took in Eugene, we were ready to reconnect with why we are living this life. Liesa seemed to be getting along fine without us so we decided to take a little “back to nature” time. The weather in Salt Lake was expected to be much colder than usual, into the low twenties and teens at night, so we looked around for somewhere a little warmer. We looked hard at eastern California south of Reno but that forecast included snow, something we are just not interested in. Looking to the south we discovered that Deer Creek State Park near Heber City and Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab were supposed to be considerably warmer than Salt Lake. Plan!

Although Heber City is a nice town that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, it’s main attraction is that it is located about midway between two more famous places: Park City and Sundance. We do like Park City and would happily visit again, but had just been there a few weeks ago. We both wanted to see Sundance, home of Robert Redford’s world renown film festival, so that was high on our to-do list.

Sundance turned out to be much smaller and more rustic than we expected. The lodge isn’t huge and, at least in the off season, very approachable: just park and walk around. There are several modest studios, performance venues and cottages scattered in the trees around a picturesque pond, and a row of artisan workshops behind the lodge. We watched several guys blow glass cups, bowls, vases and knickknacks to be sold at the gift shop. As you would expect, the prices in the restaurants and shops were sobering, so we had some great soup at the snack bar and moved on to the murals that describe the history of the property going back to the early 1800’s. A very interesting place, and surprisingly not too tacky.

Old farts do trains

Our original plan was to spend three days at Deer Creek and then head down to Moab. Even in November Moab is very popular and we could only get a reservation for two nights at Dead Horse Point. We planned to fill in the time dry camping at one of the BLM campgrounds along the Colorado River north of Moab. But, then we decided to stay an extra day at Deer Creek to visit Provo, and then we added another day to explore Heber City. We discovered that the Heber Valley Railroad was still operating on Fridays, so we dropped another check in the park lockbox for yet another another night and took a train ride.

It was so beautiful and peaceful at Deer Creek that if we hadn’t had the reservation at Dead Horse we might have stayed even longer. We had the whole park almost to ourselves; I think one night there might have been just two other campers. Three nights turned into seven before we finally packed up and headed to Moab. 

Dead Horse Point

If you haven’t been to southern Utah, especially to Moab, you really do need to update your travel plans. Our camera and phones can’t do justice to the incredible sights in this area. Dead Horse Point State Park is about as spectacular as scenery gets, and it is surrounded by Canyonlands National Park, arguably one of the gems of the national park system. Note that we could only get a camping reservation for two days, in November! The campground is usually sold out six months in advance. They are tripling the size of the campground and I’ll bet it sells out, too.

We all loved Dead Horse Point campground

Talking to the rangers, we
discovered that they hold four campsites off of the reservation system for walk-in campers. One of those sites was big enough for Ripley and might become available the day we had to leave. I made sure I was first in line to move to that site when the current tenant pulled out, so we were able to stay all week.

View from the windshield at Dead Horse Point

Filling time in Moab is not a problem, finding time is. We spent a day each at Canyonlands NP, Arches NP and Dead Horse Point, and two days in Moab. We wanted to explore the areas along the Colorado and south of town, but just never managed to get to it. Distances out there are deceiving: it’s 45 minutes each way to Moab from Dead Horse for example, which really eats up the time that we are willing to leave the dogs in the coach. We spent hours in the car but it certainly was worth it.

Ranger in charge

And I missed the peak of it

Arches NP

Our original plan was to be away from Salt Lake for a week. We stretched into two, but it really was time we headed back to get ready for Thanksgiving. It’s an easy 250 mile drive back to Salt Lake. Returning to Pony Express RV Park is now like coming home. I had the usual number of coach repairs to attend to, but nothing noteworthy or too expensive.

Liesa is enjoying her new job and they seem to be happy with her, too. She is working full time which certainly helps her finances, but her dog is clearly unhappy about it. She was able to get time off at Xmas, and will be flying to San Diego to join us and most of the family (we’ll miss you, Linda and Grant) in Hemet.

Arches, too

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. I think this is the first time in over 50 years (good grief!) that I haven’t cooked something for dinner. We decided that it didn’t make sense to cook for just the three of us and going out to dinner was much too expensive. Lee’s Market offered a complete, ready-to-eat turkey dinner with all the fixings for $89. It wasn’t my turkey, stuffing and gravy (ahem), but it wasn’t bad at all. We had the all-important leftovers for several days, too. Might do it again next year.

Canyonland NP

Colorado River through Canyonlands NP

It was getting colder in Salt Lake, and only a matter of luck that it hadn’t snowed yet. We wanted no part of snow, so we packed up on the 26th and headed for southern California. After our marathon trip across the country in 2016, I decided to limit driving to roughly 300 miles a day. We spent the first night in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Cedar City, Utah, and the second night at the Gold Strike Casino lot in Jean, Nevada. We stopped at Speedco (Jiffylube for trucks) in Las Vegas on the way to Jean to get the annual service done on the coach and generator. There were a few other RVs at Home Depot keeping us company, but I counted over 40 trucks and a dozen RVs at Jean.

Home for the night

We pulled into Tapo Canyon County Park campground in SimiValley, California, on November 28^th. It was 75° and it felt great. The week we spend in Simi is the busiest time of our whole year. We were out visiting almost every day, catching up with close friends we only get to see once a year. It is pretty tiring, but we are already looking forward to seeing everyone next year.

It turned out that the service folks in Las Vegas screwed up the generator fuel filter. It took me a while to figure out exactly what they had done and what to do about it because the access is so poor. They managed to damage the flare fitting that seals one of the fuel lines to the filter body, causing a small but steady leak. Taking it to the pros would be very expensive and we haven’t had the best of luck with them, anyway. I finally figured that I had nothing to lose by trying to fix it myself. So far the solution I came up with seems to be working.

We had planned to leave Simi on December 6, but then the smoke from the Rye fire started to pour over the hills the morning of the 5th. We knew the fire was miles away, but it was straight upwind from us and the only way out of the campground was a narrow road running through Tapo Canyon, not a route with any options. We really didn't want to spend the night worrying about it, so we called our next stop, Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California. The site we had reserved for the 6^th was open and we immediately packed up and headed south. That turned out to be a good decision. Although the fire didn’t reach Simi (yet), the freeways we used to get to Orange were closed the next day due to fire and smoke.

We stayed in Orange for three nights visiting and catching up with Ted and Judy Anderson, our friends of over 35 years, Liesa’s godparents and brand new grandparents. Phones are great and email is useful, but nothing is as good as getting together with friends over wine and dinner.

Schroeder really likes Jojoba, too

On the 8^th we arrived at Jojoba Hills Escapee Park in Aguanga, California, hoping to be able to stay through Xmas. Jojoba is one of our favorite places to visit and we were very happy to be able to get a site. Liesa arrives on the 23^rd and we’ll join the rest of the Wiklund clan in Hemet for Xmas.

Folks have asked me to add a section about our plans, so here you go:

From Jojoba we will return to Saguaro Escapees Park in Benson, Arizona. We'll stay there through the end of February or early March, depending on the weather outlook to the east. From Benson we will travel to Florida following a southerly route to stay warm. We hope to arrive on the Gulf Coast by early April.

More soon.

#38 - Coveys Great Adventure - October 2017 - On the Road Again: Oregon, Idaho

October, 2017 - Oregon and Idaho

As Willie said, we’re “on the road again.” Gingerly. When we saw Liesa in the hospital the evening of her accident,  we were convinced that it would be several months before she could even think about resuming her life. We expected to be in Salt Lake City taking care of her through the end of the year. Eight weeks after the accident she moved back to her apartment, and on October 9th, she started a new job. Months of therapy still lie ahead, but she has recovered about 90% of her strength and function. Amazing.

We can’t say enough about the people we met in Salt Lake City. Without exception, everyone did whatever they could to help Liesa and us through this period. The University of Utah Hospital system always delivered everything she needed, and so much more. The staff at all levels really understand what patients and their families need to work through what has occurred to reach the best outcome possible. U of U has got to be a model for how healthcare should be delivered. 

As many of you know, Kayeanne has shared a beach house on Rockaway Beach, Oregon, with three very close friends from San Juan Island every year for the past twelve years. We were determined that she wouldn’t miss this year if there was any way to make it happen. Liesa moved back to her apartment on September 15. Two weeks later we took a collective deep breath and headed for the Oregon coast, 82 days after we got the call about the accident. We still jump a little when our phones ring, but we are slowly getting over that, too.

The US highways usually go through the places we want to see, rather than around them as the interstate highways often do. This time, though, we were on a schedule and I84 is clearly the fastest route. Surprisingly, we had never traveled more than a few miles on that highway on any of our trips between Utah and the Oregon coast. US 20 and US 26 had been our chosen routes up to now.

I84 was a pleasant surprise. The scenery was very interesting as we moved northwest from the arid plains of western Utah. Our first overnight stop was the Walmart parking lot in Caldwell, ID, just west of Boise. Walmart stores fall into three categories for RV’ers: no overnight camping, tolerated camping and really welcoming camping. Caldwell clearly fell into the latter group, and we all enjoyed our brief stay.

The next day we moved west through the plains of eastern Oregon and into the green canyon of the Columbia River. As the canyon narrows the highway and the railroad converge. That afternoon we pulled into Celilo Park, a Corp of Engineers campground just west of the John Day Dam. The view of the river and the surrounding gorge was terrific, just what we were looking for. Then the first freight train went by about 30 feet away and started blowing its horn for the road crossing into the park. We pulled out so fast that we had to wait for the end of the train to clear the park road.

Several miles later we tried again. Memaloose State Park turned out to be a winner. Also right on the river with great views from many sites, it is located above the railroad tracks and not near any crossings, so all you hear is a subdued rumble as the many trains pass by. The ranger assigned us the biggest space they had, unfortunately not on the river, but it was easy to get into. There was plenty of space and grass along the river, which the dogs really enjoyed after riding all day.

Sundown on Rockaway Beach OR

Kayeanne had a great time with the “island ladies,” and the dogs and I hung out in Tillamook working on the coach, doing a little cooking and revisiting one of their favorite places, Kilchis Point Reserve. We’ve stayed at Tillamook Bay City RV Park three times. The RV park leaves something to be desired, but we never get tired of Kilchis Point, which is just across the road. Well-behaved dogs are allowed off leash, an enlightened and welcome change from virtually every other place we’ve been. A couple of miles of trails carved through dense forest lead to the broad expanse of Tillamook Bay, a real treat especially at sunset.

Low tide at Kilchis Point on Tillamook Bay OR

Besides working on the coach (the !@%#&$ Aqua Hot died, again), we needed new tires for  the van and a visit to our favorite vet in Nehalem. We try to time purchases like tires to our visits in Oregon because no sales tax really saves money. Tillamook Tire is an anachronism in these days of name brands and franchises. Family owned for decades, it is dirty, friendly, fast and inexpensive. The tires were mounted, balanced and I was out the door in 20 minutes for $100 less than the name brand store down the street. I love it.

Traveling as we do exposes Lucy and Schroeder to all kinds of physical mayhem. From sprains and strains, to allergies and canine dysentery, we have visited vets from California to Maine and several points in between. We discovered Nehalem Animal Healing three years ago when one of the dogs got injured when we were camp hosting at Nehalem Bay State Park. The vet wore sandals, burned incense and had the best rapport with dogs we’ve ever seen. He also was spot-on with his diagnosis and treatment, and the cost was surprisingly reasonable, too. We were running out of the drugs we depend on and both of them were overdue for routine checkups, so we went to see Dr. Matt. Everyone got what they needed (a shot for Schroeder and antibiotics for Lucy), and prescriptions to restock our medicine cabinet. I think they actually like going to see him, too.

Our view waiting for parts in Kaiser's
parking lot for several days

While we were in western Oregon we planned to bring the coach to Paul and Carey at Kaiser Brake & Alignment in Eugene. Kaiser is our preferred shop for any chassis related issues. We had been hearing “a noise” in the drive line that we wanted checked out. Five minutes into the test drive, Paul turned Ripley around and headed back to the shop. Not a good sign: it turned out that the differential and the driveshaft were both shot, and we needed a lot of rear suspension work, too. We were lucky that we hadn’t had a catastrophic breakdown on the road. Yikes! $,$$$!

Kaiser is a busy place and they couldn’t get us into their schedule for a week, so we slowly headed back to Armitage County Park in Coburg to wait it out. We didn’t realize that Oregon Ducks football fans fill the campground during the season, especially on weekends, so we had to move sites a couple of times to piece out five days. There is no other campground within a distance that I was comfortable driving to given the drive line issues, so we headed into downtown Eugene to dry camp in the Valley River Center parking lot for one night.

In the foreground is "Earth"
'way off in the distance is
the Sun, to scale!

The city allows self-contained camping units to spend up to two nights in a row and up to four nights in a six month period in a distant corner of the lot that borders the Willamette River, for free. They even provide a security patrol that checks people in and comes by periodically throughout the night. It’s a great location for us, and for the dogs. 

Eugene has an extensive network of paved pathways throughout the city that run along both sides of the river and connect the parks and civic buildings. One of the paths passed right by our front door and we took full advantage of it.

To make a long story a little shorter, we spent two days in the shop. Wednesday morning with everything fixed but considerably poorer we set out for a meandering trip back to Salt Lake City. Nine miles down the road warning lights lit up the dashboard: the alternator had failed. We turned around and went back to Kaiser. Two hours later a new part was installed….but it didn’t fix the problem. Much head scratching ensued. 

The brighter side of being stuck in Eugene

After a few hours it was apparent that they were stumped, so I did what I usually do when a big problem comes up: I called Ed Woznicki. It didn’t take Ed long to pinpoint the problem: the alternator failure had also blown the battery isolator. Several calls later, it was clear that no one in Eugene had the part, so I ordered it from Amazon and we hooked up to the power connection in Kaiser’s parking lot to wait for it. Friday afternoon we paid another big bill and finally hit the road, about 10 days after we planned to. One thing this life teaches you is that you have to be flexible.

Despite Liesa’s constant reassurances that she was feeling fine, we were anxious to get back to see her. We had originally planned a leisurely return through Medford, Klamath Falls and other places we hadn’t yet visited, but since we were running almost two weeks behind schedule we decided to head directly for Salt Lake City. US 26 is one of our favorite ways to cross Oregon and it passes right by the Clyde Holliday State Park in John Day. Clyde Holliday is pretty close to the top of our list of great places we’ve stayed, lacking only an OTA TV signal to be perfect.

Three Island Crossing State Park is roughly 60 miles east of Boise, a mile or so off of I84 and about half way between John Day and Salt Lake City. We arrived without a reservation and lucked into a huge pull-through site that allowed us to leave the car hooked up, always a plus when we are just staying the night. This park is on the banks of the Snake River, making it a very popular destination for people living in Boise. The park covers several hundred acres, has two campgrounds and several picnic and day use areas. It is just gorgeous. I can see why reservations are needed every weekend, even in the winter, and are hard to get months out for the summer.

We finally arrived back in Salt Lake on October 23. We will stay a week, travel somewhere for a couple of weeks and return for Thanksgiving with Liesa. Then it’s on to SoCal for the holidays and then back to Benson, Arizona for the winter.

More soon.

Bob

#37 - Coveys Great Adventure - July 2017 - Oregon, Washington, Idaho

July 2017 - Oregon, Washington, Idaho

We wrapped up three months as camp hosts at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park and hit the road for 30 days much anticipated R&R before our next host gig in August. If you want a reservation in an Oregon state park over July 4th, you had better make it in February.

Boiler Point near Lincoln City

We needed someplace to stay to avoid the hordes that descend on the coast starting in July, but reservations were hard to find, especially because we procrastinated for months about making plans. Whapiti RV Park in nearby Lincoln City had one space left and we grabbed it. The park had everything we needed but nothing more, so we spent time in Florence and Lincoln City, mostly just driving around taking in the sites and avoiding the bumper-to-bumper traffic on US 101 as much as we could. The coach got cleaned and the car and the dogs got washed, and we enjoyed the first consecutive warm, sunny days that we had seen in quite a while.

One day we needed a Mexican food fix. Traffic through Lincoln City was awful,so we headed south to the Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant on the waterfront in Depoe Bay. Having picked it for its convenience we didn't expect much, but to our surprise we had the best Mexican seafood either of us could remember. We will definitely return. On another outing we took the dogs to Drift Creek Park and hiked in to see the popular waterfall.

With a month to travel until we were due to report to Collier State Park, we intended to see parts of the Northwest that we hadn't seen before. We planned a big loop through central Oregon, on to northeast Washington, then to northern Idaho and back to the Klammath Falls area. The next stop was Umatilla Marina RV Park on the shores of the Columbia River. The park is owned by the not-so-thriving town of Umatilla. We got a site with a great river view and set out to explore what the area had to offer.



The Umatilla Dam turned out to be much more interesting than we expected. The Corp of Engineers has incorporated a small museum devoted to the salmon runs that pass through the Columbia River dams every year, and the steps that the COE has taken to assist these migrations.

Yikes! Yes, that is a Suzuki powerplant

That afternoon we stumbled onto a  street fair just up the road in Hermiston. The big event was lawnmower drag racing. Before you yawn, think riding lawnmowers powered by 1,000 cc, 200 HP motorcycle engines. We didn't stay for the races, it was just too hot to hang around for a few hours. Check it out on YouTube.


We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Columbia Crest Winery was just across the river in Washington. We really like their wines and got to taste several that don't make it to the places we usually shop. That proved to be a little expensive, because we couldn't leave without a few bottles that we have stashed away for special occasions.

Curlew River

We were both looking forward to our first visit to eastern Washington. As often as we have been to the coastal areas, we have never explored 90% of the state. Curlew Lake State Park in Republic, WA is about 50 miles northwest of Spokane and roughly 20 miles south of the Canadian border. It's a fairly small, lovely park right on the lake shore. The whole area is very scenic, and we spent a couple of days just following local roads to see where they led.


Republic is an old mining town that is worth exploring. It is also the main shopping area for miles around. One day we dug out our passports and headed up to Grand Forks, Canada for lunch and a look around. We enjoyed both, especially lunch at the Wooden Spoon Bistro a local institution. We were both struck by how clean the town was. We didn't see a spec of litter anywhere. I couldn't get a smile from either the US or Canadian border guards, though. I need to work on my delivery, I guess.

We have been looking forward to visiting Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for some time. Affordable camp sites were not available near the city, so we found one about 40 miles east at Bumblebee Campground in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. We really like National Forest Service campgrounds, despite the problems we have getting a rig our size into most of them. Bumblebee was no exception. These campgrounds were built long before 43' motorhomes were invented. We had to trim our way in and out of the campsite and we picked up a few more scratches from branches we didn't notice, but it was worth it.

Downtown Coeur d'Alene waterfront park

Coeur d'Alene is an small, attractive city on the shore of a beautiful lake. The lake would make a dump look scenic. The city has a great vibe to it. Northern Idaho College is located right downtown along the lake and clearly gives the city a vibrancy and upbeat tone that I didn't expect. We both wanted to stay longer but needed to keep moving to make our schedule work.

I've been through Salmon, Idaho a couple of times on motorcycle trips and had good memories of it, so we decided to spend a few nights at the Century 2 RV Park and explore the area. A little rustic, the park had all the services and was right on the banks of the Salmon River. After settling in we headed into town to get our bearings and to walk the dogs in the town dog park.

Salmon has changed little in the ten years since I was last through it. It's primarily a tourist town focused on fishing and river sports. I was disappointed to discover that the small family-run Chinese restaurant that I enjoyed on my last visit had closed recently. After looking around a little more, we went back to the coach and settled in for the night.

About 3:30 the next morning the phone rang. It was the hospital in Salt Lake notifying us of Liesa's accident. By 7:30 we were packed up and on the road. We spent the next two-and-a-half months in Salt Lake helping her recover.

#36 – Coveys Great Adventure – June 2017 – Heceta Lighthouse, Sea Lion Caves and Winchester Bay, OR

June 2017 – Heceta Lighthouse, Sea Lion Caves and Winchester Bay, OR

Heceta Head Light from the south

Last month we focused on Coos Bay, North Bend and the area south of Winchester Bay. This month we decide to explore to the north and west. A couple of the rangers claimed that Heceta Lighthouse was the most scenic on the coast. That’s despite working less than a mile from Umpqua Lighthouse which we thought was pretty special. Clearly, we had to go see for ourselves.

The coast from Coos Bay to Florence is pretty flat. That whole stretch of coast encompasses the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. North of Florence the topography changes. The dunes give way to steep hillsides that plunge directly into the sea. The coastline becomes jagged, mostly rock with small coves filled with sand where streams large and small empty into the ocean.

Umpqua Light is located at the mouth of the Umpqua River and is a guide to sanctuary as much as a warning beacon. The river meant shelter from the harsh weather that is more the rule than the exception on this coast. Heceta Head Lighthouse provides no such promise of succor. Perched high on a rocky promontory, its sole mission is to warn that no safety can be found within its sight.

Built in the 1890’s, Heceta Head is the most powerful light on

the Oregon coast. It stands over 200’ above sea level and its light can be seen for over 20 miles. It still operates as a navigation beacon, but the structure and the site are now managed as an Oregon State Park. The tower is in the final stages of a complete restoration largely done by volunteers and funded with donations. It looks great. The original head light keeper’s house burned down, but the assistant keepers’ house now operates as a highly regarded B&B. Lighthouses need to be seen, so the sights they are on generally give fabulous ocean and coastal views. Living here must have been really special.

Just south of Heceta Head is one of the oldest  privately owned tourist attractions on the coast if not in the country. Sea Lion Caves has been owned by the same four families since it opened in 1932 as a wildlife and bird sanctuary. Expecting a cheesy roadside tourist trap, we were pleasantly surprised: it’s a pretty classy operation that we enjoyed visiting.

The site itself is pretty remarkable. The facility is perched about 200’ above a series of huge sea caves, claimed to be the largest in the US. We were very appreciative of the elevator that takes visitors directly down into the caves. Because it is a wildlife sanctuary, people are not allowed too close to the sea lions but we were close enough to easily watch them in their natural setting. What a contrast to seeing them in a zoo, or even in a harbor. Kinda of a "National Geographic moment".

We always look forward to friends visiting us, and it was a pleasure to have Janie and Ric Fellows stop for the night on their trip to visit family. Florence has a small “old town” area along the river where we met for a nice dinner at the Bridgewater Fish House. In the morning they stopped by the coach for bagels with the locally made smoked salmon spread on their way south.  

Boy, are we ready to move: We haven’t been in one place for three months since we hit the road in 2014. Umqua Lighthouse State Park is a lovely place and the staff couldn’t be nicer, but we counted the days until July 1. Besides, I have eaten enough fish ‘n chips and oysters to last me until we get to Nehalem Bay in October. As I write this we are on the road headed for northeastern Washington, northern Idaho and we might get to Jackson Hole, Wyoming before returning to southern Oregon for a couple of months.

More soon,

Bob

#36 – Coveys Great Adventure – May 2017 – Winchester Bay, OR

Umpqua River jetty. Sunshine at last!

May 2017 – Winchester Bay, OR

Lake Mary within Umpqua
Lighthouse State Park

The Oregon coast is wet. Everyone knows that, of course, otherwise half of California would move here. But until you actually live on the coast for awhile

you don’t really understand just how wet it is. I think we had four dry days in April. May started out the same way, but then it finally started to dry out.

As I said last month, the host site near the workshop where we moved at the end of April is open, with a lawn and flowers. It was a welcome change from the dense tree cover at site 40. It was especially nice once the weather cleared and the sun came out for several days in a row. Near the end of the month we actually washed the coach and it looked great for several days.

We hadn’t seen a city since passing through Boise in mid-March. We also hadn’t been to a Trader Joe’s since Tucson and badly needed to restock. Clearly, it was time to head to Eugene. We decided to leave the coach in Winchester Bay and spend the night at a motel. Kayeanne hadn’t seen a bathtub in awhile and I wanted some Asian food. A few days before we left, Liesa called. She and a friend were visiting folks in Portland and we quickly figured out that they could meet us in Eugene, too. And that’s what we did. The dogs don’t like motels very much but they are happy to get to sniff so many new places and explore new parks.

Route 38 follows the Umpqua River and connects Reedsport with Eugene. Like many of the roads that join the coast to the interior it is very scenic. A few miles east of Reedsport it passes through the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area. Most of the time when we see “wildlife viewing area” signs, all we see are the signs: the wildlife are invariably absent. Well, not this time! Several groups of elk were grazing in the extensive marshland that stretches along the highway. Our new camera has a long zoom lens that we put to good use. It was a real treat to actually see these majestic animals in a setting where they were obviously comfortable.

Now that the weather is more pleasant we are spreading out a little to explore the surrounding areas.  Coos Bay is about 20 miles or so south of Winchester Bay. The commercial waterfront is slowly changing to more visitor-oriented activities. Local museums like the one in Coos Bay are something we always look forward to visiting. The exhibits really capture the stories of the people that first settled this area and the lives that they made for themselves and their families. Logging, fishing and farming were the main industries along the central coast for over 100 years. 

Large tug being scrapped

Logging and

commercial fishing have been in decline for 40 years as the resources have been depleted. Some still survive, but everywhere you can see the abandoned piers and shuttered mills that mark the decline. Tourism has certainly helped fill the gap but it doesn’t provide the jobs and the incomes that built the towns along this coast.

At the end of May we packed up and moved back down the hill to site 40. It was an easy move and we quickly set up in familiar surroundings. We miss the sunshine, but are glad to be back in the campground with people coming and going all the time. The workshop site was great but it did get pretty quiet up there at night.

More soon,

Bob

#35 – Coveys Great Adventure – April 2017 – Winchester Bay, OR

April 2017 – Winchester Bay, OR

When our volunteer commitment at Honeyman State Park fell apart we headed south on US 101 looking for a cell signal. We needed to find a place to stay that night, and then to figure out what to do next.

View through the windshield at WBRVR

Winchester Bay is a very small town on the coast just south of the slightly larger community of Reedsport, the first place we found a usable cell signal. A quick web search for RV parks popped up Winchester Bay RV Resort, which had stellar reviews on Google and on a couple of sites that we use to check out parks. I also remembered that Ed Woznicki had given it his approval on one of his trips. WBRVR turned out to be a great park in a lovely setting. Not only was it affordable, it also had cable TV and possibly the best WIFI we have seen in years. We decided to stay a week while we sorted out our plans.

Best chowda since Maine

Our site at WBRVR was right on the harbor edge, giving us a
panoramic view across the channel to the marina and the town. The park is actually a county facility, part of the overall harbor development that includes commercial fishing piers, pleasure boat docks, restaurants, shops and marine-oriented businesses. We discovered good food and great chowder at Double D’s, outstanding pies at Kittie’s Kitchen, and quite decent sourdough bagels at the Sourdough Bakery. Fresh oysters, crab, fish and clams are
readily available at several places. The ice cream shop isn’t open for the season yet, and we are looking forward to it, too.

Over 100 years old, Umpqua Lighthouse is still an operating navigation beacon marking the treacherous bar at the mouth of the Umpqua River. It was automated years ago and the former tender’s quarters and the original Coast Guard lifesaving station have been converted into a small museum operated by Douglas County. A few times a day museum docents give tours of the lighthouse, which we both really enjoyed; so much so that we sent in an application to be docents. They have no openings this year, but we’ll see what comes up in the future. The camp sites for the docents are on the grounds of the museum and have world-class ocean views.

Looking up through the lighthouse lense

After settling into the park, our next priority was to repair our schedule. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has a great webpage where the state parks post their volunteer openings. We were surprised to find that Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, a couple of miles away, still had host openings. To make a long story short, we signed up to camp host there through June.

Site 40 is a little tight but quiet and very pretty

ULSP is a little-known gem in the OPRD system. It is a small park with just 50 tent and RV spaces and an active day-use area on the shore of Lake Mary. It also has a couple of small yurts and cabins, and six “super yurts” that contain kitchens and bathrooms. These large yurts are very popular with families and are usually booked well in advance, even during the winter and early spring.

We moved into site 40 at ULSP on April 8 and quickly settled into the camp host routine: clean the yurts and cabins, and the camp sites and fire pits between guests.  There are five camp host couples sharing the duties so it rarely takes more than a couple of hours a day. The rest of the time is usually spent on grounds keeping jobs. On April 29 we moved across the street to a site next to the park headquarters and

The neighbors come calling

workshop for May. Site 40 was ok, but a little tight for us and very shaded. This space is quite sunny and has a lawn and flowers. We all love it, especially the dogs, now that the rains have tapered off. We’ll be back in 40 for June, since this site was promised to others for the summer.

When we searched the OPRD volunteers page we noticed that Collier State Park near Klamath Falls was looking for people to staff the store and visitor center. That caught our attention for a couple of reasons: First, we want to try something other than camp hosting, and second, Collier is the home of the state logging museum. We contacted the ranger and hit it off with her. The upshot of it is that we are going to spend August and September tending the store and helping out in the museum, including giving tours. We are really looking forward to this new experience.

Home for May: we get PBS!

We also appear to have made substantial progress on the two major problems that we had with Ripley. As you know, the leak in the rear slide was driving us nuts. We spent a lot of money at Monaco in March and left with it better but not completely fixed. I have been going a little batty trying to figure out how the water was getting in and got really frustrated with it. Kayeanne decided to take a look and, as she has done in the past, asked the right questions to put us onto the real problem and what turned out to be an easy solution.

When Monaco built these coaches, almost the first thing they did was lay the
carpet. Unlike houses where the carpet goes in after the cabinets, in this coach the cabinets were placed on the carpet. The builders did not trim the carpet correctly in one small, unseen area where the slide gaskets channel water away. You literally have to lie down, wedged between the bed and the back wall and look up under the lip of the slide to see it. In effect the carpet became a wick that brought water past the sealing gaskets and into the interior. All it took was to cut away a small section of the carpet to break the wick and the leak stopped. We couldn't belive it was so simple! We watched it like hawks for weeks, but it appears to have stopped for good. We have had lots and lots of rain and not a drop has come in for a month. I can’t tell you what a relief it has been to stop worrying about that.

The other issue has been with the Aquahot system that supplies our heat and hot water. We've had problems with it since we bought the coach. We have spent over two thousand dollars replacing components and countless hours in one of the bays under the coach trying to fix a long series of intermittent problems. If stuff just breaks it is pretty easy to fix, but intermittent problems just drive me nuts.

I have thought for some time that there was a subtle electrical issue somewhere that was the culprit. I recently replaced half of the wiring harness in the hope that it would cure it. Nope. The Monaco folks found and fixed a connector buried under the front slide that carried the Aquahot switch wires that wasn’t properly seated. For a few days it looked like that was the fix, but when we got to River Bend it wouldn’t fire up at all.

It's not all hard work

I crawled into the bay and removed the access panels to begin testing components to see if I could find the problem. The first thing I noticed was the fuse for the furnace motor wasn’t seated completely in the socket. When I barely touched it the motor came on and the burner fired up just like it was supposed to. The fuse wasn’t actually disconnected, it tested fine with a meter and the socket tested good, too. I am not convinced that it was the problem, but the Aquahot has worked properly about 95% of the time ever since. It still occasionally turns itself off at the end of a cycle rather than going into standby mode. That means it won’t restart automatically the next time it is needed. So far, it has always fired up when we manually switch it back on. As long as it only happens every few days and fires up when asked to we can live with it.

So, the unpleasantness at Honeyman has more than turned around. The coach is working fine at the moment. Winchester Bay is a great place to be and the park folks here are a pleasure to work with. Life is good.

More soon,

Bob