#64 Coveys Great Adventure – Jan 2020 – Rocky Point MX, Benson AZ

January 2020 – Rocky Point Mexico, Benson AZ

View through the windshield looking south at RP, aka doggie heaven

Yes, life is hard in RP

We looked forward to visiting Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco, aka RP) for two reasons. We wanted a change from our usual pattern of Hemet-Yuma-Benson that we have done for five years. We also wanted to check out getting the coach painted. Ripley is showing his age in many ways, but especially his appearance. The exterior clear coat finish is peeling off in large sections and will only get worse the longer we wait to get it fixed. Painting a 43’ coach in the US costs $25-35,000. The cost to paint it in Mexico ranges from $8-13,000. One of the painters that has built a reputation for decent work is in RP.  We wanted to meet him and see what was involved.

The short answer is that we rented a house in RP for the month of March while Ripley gets a complete makeover. Having to be out of the coach for a month was hard to get my head around, but we have decided to make it an adventure. Staying in RP rather than Tucson or Yuma is going to be “interesting”.

Decisions, decisions...

Given the drug related crime and violence that has plagued Mexico for several years, we were a little apprehensive, but everyone in the RV community that we talked to with recent experience encouraged us to go. We are glad we did. We thoroughly enjoyed RP. Yes, the town is a tourist trap. Yes, much of it looks a little scary, Yes, most of the population speaks limited, if any, English. Despite, or may because of those factors, we had a good time.

Playa Bonita RV Resort turned out to be an interesting mix of funky and functional. Vendors will bring excellent fresh seafood right to your door every morning. The whole park is unobtrusively patrolled around the clock. We didn’t hear any stories about petty crime, much less anything worse from the long term residents. You can get anything done to your rig from a wash and wax to full paint right at your site overlooking the Sea of Cortez at a fraction of US prices. All for about $35 a day!

Some tourist traps are ok

Everyone, staff and guests were friendly, laid back and ready to answer any questions. The food we ate was great, easy to find and reasonably priced. The people work very hard, often for little apparent return, but were always pleasant and cheerful. We are looking forward to going again next year. Anyone interested in joining us, drop me a note.

One word of advice: drive carefully. Many roads are in poor shape or not paved at all, street lighting is almost non-existent and speed bumps are poorly marked, at best. You DO NOT want to hit one of those at 30 mph! Remember that the residents know local rules, like that taxis always have the right of way at intersections and several other unwritten, but widely known customs. We don’t know that stuff, so be cautious at all times, especially at night.

Through the windshield looking north

Two weeks at Rocky Point passed very quickly. The weather was clear and not too warm. Morning walks on the beach required heavy jackets and warm hats, but it usually climbed into the low-70’s by late afternoon. Needless to say, the dogs loved the beach. Most of the time they were able to run around off leash. The beach patrol busted us a few times, but just yelled at us instead of writing a ticket.

The Mexican police have a well-earned reputation for soliciting bribes, and they got me for $40 on our return trip through Sonoyta.  Be sure that you actually stop at every stop sign, even bogus ones just welded to an old wheel so it can be rolled into the middle of the road where an unfortunate looking individual tries to shove a collection box through your window while looking as piteous as possible. Oh yes, and the speed limits are in kilometers per hour, a lot slower than miles per hour. It could have been worse, they wanted 2,000 pesos, roughly $120. Kayeanne saved the day by playing on their sympathies for the old folks who spent all their money in RP and were just trying to get home alive. “Fines” are paid to the cop, on the spot, in cash. Keep a small roll available to show them how broke you are. Call it a visitor’s tax, I guess.

Tucson HS steel drum band playing to a packed house:
outstanding kids, music and show

We backtracked to Yuma for a few days to visit our dentists in Los Algodones, and then headed to our lot at the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson. The Co-op is about as close to a home base as we have, and we always look forward to renewing the friendships that we have developed over the years. It is also the most hectic time of the season, with something, often more than one,  going on every day. Kayeanne signed on to the Clubhouse and Bingo committees, and the bead and polymer clay groups. I pulled a muscle in my arm in Mexico that has limited what I can do, so I am not actively volunteering this month, hopefully I’ll be back up to speed soon.

Just after we arrived, friends we made hosting at Cape Blanco Lighthouse last year pulled in. Ray and Leslie are going to stay at the Co-op for two or three months, and we are looking forward to spending lots of time together while showing them around and exploring new places, too.

Notable wines this month include Trader Joe’s Petite Syrah - Russian River Valley Reserve 2018 (!), Penamonte Toro - 5 Meses en Barrica 2016, and Deville Cellars Chaleur Blanc 2015.

Books I enjoyed included John Sanford's latest Lucas Davenport novel, Neon Prey.

As we go to press, last Thursday our plan was to go to RP next week to get the coach painted. I discovered that my "pulled muscle" is actually a torn tendon that needs to be re-attached next week. We now plan to stay here until early April. New paint has been postponed until next year, because we have plans for people to see and places to go for the rest of this year. Plans are certainly fungible.

More soon,

Bob

PS: From Liesa: "The only thing Flat-Earthers fear is sphere itself"

#63 – Coveys Great Adventure – Dec 2019 – Simi, Perris and Hemet CA; AZ and Mexico

December 2019 – Simi, Perris and Hemet CA; AZ and Mexico

Visiting California is such a mixed experience for us. For months we look forward to seeing the people that we miss all year, but, oh ….dear, it’s Southern California! The route down the I15 / I215 from Vegas to Aguanga in November wasn’t a lot of fun but it skirts the real cauldron of the SoCal freeway system. What I used to relish as a challenge is now just a royal PITA.

Balloons at dawn over Meadowbrook

It’s worth it, though to see everyone. Pulling into Tapo Canyon Park in Simi for the seventh time is now like pulling into our driveway. We’ve reserve the same space for the fifth time, so I swear I can see our old tire tracks. We even had to trim the same tree limbs. New camp hosts are a decided improvement over last year’s somewhat over-bearing couple, but aside from that everything was unchanged. I think we put over 1,000 miles on the car in a week visiting everyone. It seemed like we were out every day and every night. It was great to see everyone.

From Simi’s whirlwind we headed back south to Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris for our annual holiday visit with Christine and Ed Woznicki. Meadowbrook also looked very familiar on our fourth visit. It’s really a 55+ retirement community that has a few transient spaces to help balance the budget. Dogs are welcome, and there are a couple of areas where they can be off-leash, too.

Ripley's Christmas finery

Last year we caught a really good deal for Xmas week at Golden Village RV Resort in Hemet, where we spend the holiday with the west coast branch of the Wiklund clan, Kayeanne's family. When we checked out we were offered the same deal for this year if we made the reservation that day, which we did. Golden Village is the fanciest place we stay each year, sporting three pools, a dozen pickleball courts and over 1,000 RV sites right in downtown Hemet. Our good luck may have run out; they wouldn’t make the same deal for next year, so we have to watch for their special offers.

Paul, Katie and Brenda Wiklund

Christmas in Hemet is a dining extravaganza. Paul and Brenda outdid themselves as usual, and dinner at Chris’s is always over-the-top. Katy has certainly grown up since last year, and Ed finally found a job he likes and that pays well. Liesa decided that she would spend the holiday with Cory’s family near Salt Lake. We support her decision, but still missed her, lots. She must be grown up now, that’s her first Xmas away from “home”.

On the 27^th we pulled up the anchor and got underway to Puerto Peñasco, aka Rocky Point (RP), Mexico, on the shores of the Sea of Cortez. We stopped for a night in Yuma and again at Organ Pipe National Monument before crossing into Mexico at Lukeville, Arizona on the 29^th.

Lukeville border point

Despite reassurances from everyone we talked to and most websites we researched, we were still apprehensive because of recent violence in other regions of the country. The actual crossing was a nonevent. A Mexican border patrol agent came into the coach, opened a couple of drawers and generally looked around before waving us through.

Miles of beach

Frankly, the first few miles through downtown Sonoyta were the most stressful part of the trip. At every stop light or stop sign several “entrepreneurs” swarmed the coach pushing unwanted services or tourist junk. Some even erected their own stop signs. I was glad to get the windshield washed, once, but the repeated washing attempts became irritating. The remaining 60 miles down Highway 8 into Rocky Point were uneventful, even boring.

Luckily our cell plan includes coverage in Mexico and Canada, so Google Maps brought us right to Playa Bonita RV Resort. A few minutes later we pulled into space 51 with a panoramic view of the beach and the  Sea of Cortez through the windshield. As you would expect, the dogs knew there was a beach before we parked and could hardly wait for us to get set up.

Seats out to be reupholstered
makes living room seem huge

Aside from the exotic locale, we are here to get some work done on the coach and the car, and to check out a coach painting company to give Ripley a complete makeover. More on all of that and on RP next time.

We’ll be here for two weeks, then on to Benson after a short detour back to Yuma to complete some dental work that I started last year.

Books I enjoyed this month include: Braided Creek, A Conversation in Poetry, by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser, and The Fourth Morningside Papers by Peter Gzowski

Wines that stood out included: El Castillo Syrah (Spain) 2017, and Adixion Petite Syrah Paso Robles 2017

More soon,

Bob

#62 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov 2019 – Salt Lake City, Aguanga CA

Nov 2019 – Salt Lake City and Aguanga CA              

Last month ended in Bend, Oregon, where we had the main engine starter replaced. From Bend we made our way across Oregon to Salt Lake City to spend a week with Liesa. There are two routes across the state that don’t involve interstate highways. We picked US 20 and stopped for the first night in Burns at the Burns RV Park, a place we have stayed before and like. We just made it, though. We arrived Friday afternoon and they were closing for the season on Sunday. The friendly, hands-on owners said that they have been sold out since they opened in April.

The next morning we began to smell a strong ammonia-like odor when we hit the road,. Strangely, when underway we could only smell it up front, and when not moving we couldn’t smell it at all. That was a real puzzle and led me to think that mice had built a nest in the dash air box during one of our long stationary periods. We stopped for the second night at Walmart in Mountain Home, Idaho. As soon as we parked the smell stopped, reinforcing my mouse-nest-in-air-box theory. The next day the smell returned and lasted all the way to Salt Lake City.

We set up camp and opened the fridge to discover that it wasn’t working. A quick check of the possible systems issues didn’t help, it was dead. The smell was the refrigerant slowly leaking away through a corroded cooling tube. I still can’t explain why we could smell it so strongly in the front of the coach while underway but not next to the refrigerator when we were parked.

Most RV’s use absorption-based refrigerators that use either AC power or propane to generate the heat that turns the refrigerant from liquid to gas. These fridges do not use compressors like residential units because of the power drain. When working properly, ours switches automatically from electricity to propane as needed. Until it died it worked great.

Not a DIY project!

Many people don’t replace failed absorption units because they have a nasty habit of burning up the coach and killing the occupants. Instead, they get scrapped and replaced with residential fridges. That is a popular “repair” when folks don’t do much dry camping and are hooked up to power every night.

There was a mandatory federal recall to install over-temp safety shutoff devices on these fridges about the time our coach was built. I made sure that ours did have the factory safety device before we bought the coach, and I had an additional one installed four years ago. Both of them worked.

We like dry camping and didn’t want to replace the current fridge with a residential model. Doing so requires bigger batteries ($$!) and changing the interior woodwork ($$$!).

This fridge was clearly installed before the roof was put on, because it won’t fit through the door. Many coaches (ours included) have to hire a fork lift and remove a window or the windshield to get the current one out, or to install a new one. You can see where this is going: $,$$$. A replacement fridge like ours costs over $3,500, plus freight from Texas.

About 6 inches of clearance!

Cooling unit failures are common enough that a couple of suppliers offer replacements. These arrive fully charged and ready to install onto the current fridge box. For $1500. Via truck freight. Plus installation. Careful measuring showed that it could be done (just barely) on the living room floor without having to remove the whole unit from the coach.

So that’s what we did. Given our schedule we couldn’t get the new cooling unit shipped to Salt Lake City before we had to leave, so we arranged to get it done when we arrived at Jojoba Hills SKP Park in Aguanga, California. That meant a couple of weeks without refrigeration, but we bought a few coolers, lots of ice and dry ice and managed to get by. Despite the breezy YouTube videos showing "easy user installation" I was smart enough to hire the pros this time. 

Sand Hollow State Park

We pulled out of Salt Lake on November 13^th bound for Aguanga, about 750 miles away. A few years ago I might have driven that in two days, but not now. We made it to Sand Hollow State Park the first day, a place we have always said we wanted to try as we drove by on our way to Willow Wind RV Park, also in Hurricane, Utah. I wouldn’t want to stay at Sand Hollow in warmer weather because there is no shade whatsoever, but in November it was terrific. The site was huge, the roads were easy to navigate and the facilities were very clean. It’s a little pricey for an overnight stop, but we’ll certainly return.

Our second stop at Desert Springs RV “Resort” in Daggett California had nothing to recommend it except electricity and water hookups. Next time we need a place to stay near Barstow we’ll dry camp in the parking lot at Peggy Sue’s Diner, an institution on I15 just a few miles away.

We were on a fairly tight schedule to get to Aguanga because Ted and Judy Anderson’s daughter, Amanda, was getting married and we really wanted to be there. We’ve known Amanda since she was born, so we made sure that our plans and reservations were in place months ago. A small problem like a broken fridge wasn’t going to delay us. It was a beautiful wedding, Amanda truly was the belle of the ball, and Ted gave a terrific speech. We even liked the groom, too.

Attending the wedding meant we couldn’t be with Liesa on Thanksgiving. That’s the first big holiday that we haven’t been together, ever. I think it was difficult for all of us, but Liesa and Cory had dinner with his mother and we spent the day with Paul, Brenda, Katie and Chris in Hemet. As usual, Paul and Brenda outdid themselves and dinner was delicious. While we certainly missed Liesa, it all seemed to work out.

We really like Jojoba Hills

Jojoba Hills is one of our all-time favorite places to stay, and we had been looking forward all year to our third visit. The park has about 300 sites that sprawl across several hundred acres of semi-desert terrain. Individual sites are quite spacious and there is lots of open space to walk the dogs. No weekly or monthly discounts, though, so it isn’t cheap, but it is good value for money, especially if you use the pool, spas, library, pickle ball courts, etc. Like our SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson, Arizona, the members here are exuberantly friendly. On December 3 we headed north to Simi Valley to catch up with friends in Thousand Oaks and Pasadena.

The dogs love Jojoba!

We’ll be splitting our time in December between Simi Valley, Perris and Hemet, 
California. Right after Xmas we head east to spend a couple of weeks in Puerto Peñasco,
Mexico, then on to our lot at the SKP Saguaro Co-op for several weeks.  

Books I enjoyed this month featured The Whole Town’s Talking by Fanny Flagg, and Dog Songs by Mary Oliver

Noteworthy wines included: Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon 2016, and J. Lohr Paso Robles Syrah 2017

More soon,

Bob

#61 - Coveys Great Adventure - Oct 2019 - Nehalem OR

October 2019 – Nehalem OR

I don’t think we had finished setting up camp after moving from site D17 to site A2 on September 30 before the first camper showed up looking for help with something. The 30 ^th is the last work day for most of the seasonal Rangers, so the “professional” staff was reduced by over 75% that day. The ranger station closed until May, and several large signs went up directing campers to site A2 for questions and assistance with reservations, yurts, checking in, etc. At the same time, the firewood cart stopped operating on weekdays, making our site the main source of firewood for the campground. Luckily, one of the other hosts kept running the wood cart whenever demand was high, which took some of the pressure off of us.

Another squirrel!

Despite the 10-hour days, we really enjoy being in site A2 once the campground is essentially turned over to the hosts. We are the first thing that folks see when they turn into the campground, so most of them, especially first-time campers usually stop to ask a question or to register. The few remaining rangers have their hands full with maintenance projects, training sessions and paperwork. The host crew in the Fall and Winter tend to be experienced and pretty self-reliant; none of our co-hosts were rookies and everyone got along well.

The Queen of Millennium Park 

We haven’t spent a night out of the coach in a long time and were looking for any excuse to take off for a night or two. Kayeanne discovered that Bob’s Red Mill company headquarters was near Portland, and they gave tours! A plan was soon hatched: we found a hotel in Lake Oswego that liked dogs and that was all we needed. I don’t think Lucy and Schroeder were too thrilled about this venture, but we had a great time. The hotel was close to a section of town called Millennium Park that combined apartments, shops, restaurants and green spaces right along the lake shore. Lunch at the St. Honorè Bakery and dinner at Bamboo Sushi were both memorable.

Bob's first millstones

Unfortunately, the Red Mill tour wasn’t. Keeping in mind that we had just spent two months giving tours of an historic flour mill, we were probably a tough audience. The tour basically consisted of looking through windows at folks doing stuff while the guide tried to explain what was or was not happening. The narration didn’t match what we were seeing because the group was so large that everyone was looking into different windows. More than 40 people were on our tour, including a local school group, several young housewives pushing kids in strollers, a small clutch of foreign tourists and a few old fogies like us. The guide tried, but the situation was just not going to work. Luckily it didn’t last too long and we were able to head down the road a mile or so to the company store, which was actually much more interesting!

Despite the years we have been visiting Nehalem, we realized that we hadn’t really explored Cannon Beach, an upscale seasonal community on the coast just north of Manzanita. Named for a cannon that washed ashore from the wreck of the USN schooner Shark, it’s is a very popular seaside destination. While it certainly is a tourist area, it has avoided becoming tacky. We had a fine lunch at Ecola Seafood and then spent a few hours wandering through several nice arts and crafts galleries. A number of places were

closed during the week, probably recovering from the Summer season frenzy. We enjoyed the day and will certainly return next year.

Until six years ago, Nehalem Bay State Park attendance really dropped off after Labor Day. It dropped so much that they closed half the campground for the “winter” season. If the weather was good, the weekends were busier, but midweek was very quiet. Last year the park was sold out through September and busy throughout most of October, often selling out on weekends. This year surprised everyone, more resembling 2015: very quiet during the week and busy when the weather cooperated on the weekends. By the end of the month even the weekends weren’t too busy. We didn’t complain, because after six months of camp hosting we were ready to start to wind down a little.

Endless driftwood piles in Nehalem Bay

As usual, we planned our annual pilgrimage to Eugene to get Riley looked over at Kaiser Brake.  We pulled out of Nehalem on October 30^th and headed south. We hope that they don’t find anything serious, but it always turns out to be more expensive than not. Riley seems to be aging more quickly than expected. Kaiser discovered that the drag link was shot, a critical component of the steering system. There are no spare parts available for this chassis, so they had to make one. <sigh>

From Eugene we went to Bend OR to have a new starter installed on the engine. Truck repair shops are much cheaper than RV service locales, but finding one that will work on RVs can be a challenge. We hope that’s the solution to no-start problems we had in August on the way to Washington. For a change, that went according to plan and by late morning we were on the road to Salt Lake City to see Liesa.

A couple of books that I really enjoyed recently are Why We Live with Animals by Alvin Greenberg, and Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser. I seem to be on a poetry kick lately.

Wines we liked this month include Maryhill Winemakers Red, Columbia Winery Cabernet 2016 and Willamette Valley Vineyard Founders Reserve Pinot Noir 2017.

More soon,

Bob

#60 - Coveys Great Adventure – Sep 2019 – Nehalem OR

September 2019 – Nehalem Oregon

Dogs joy!

I know I’ve said it before, but returning to Nehalem Bay State Park is sort of like coming home. This is our fifth stint in six years, so the places and the people are pretty familiar.

This is the first time that we have hosted in September. In years past we just worked in October. It turned out to be both pretty familiar and quite different at the same time.

The main difference is that the park operates with the full ranger staff in September, so the park office is open until 9 PM every night. That means that the rangers meet and process all of the incoming campers, eliminating most of the camper contact that we like so much. We were also assigned to a different section of the park, site D17, which is far removed from the action at the A2 site.

D17 is a tight fit for Ripley

Another significant difference was the work assignment. Since the host roles vary by the site they are given, our September duties were much different than we had in past years. The D17 hosts clean yurts and sections of the campground, period. Once that was done, the rest of the day was wide open. This is a much more traditional host assignment than we had been used to. It took us awhile to realize that campers wouldn’t be coming to our door all day, and that we weren’t expected to hang around after we finished the daily work assignment. That gave us lots of free time, something we aren’t used to.

We don’t host just to clean yurts and camp sites in exchange for a free site. 

The neighbors are still around

Free camping is nice, but we do this for the contact with people and the energy of running the campground. On a busy day it’s a little like working a trade show. Despite the shorter hours in D17, we are looking forward to moving to A2 at the end of the month and resuming our “usual” duties.

One nice surprise was that we got to see Milton and Lynnette Hansen before they pulled out at the end of the month. We missed them last year; we arrived the day they left. They were hosting at one of the day-use parks in Manhattan Beach, not in the campground itself, so we got together for dinner in Garibaldi one evening to catch up before they headed home. Unfortunately, Milton didn’t get to do much fishing this year, so we’ll have to make do with store-bought salmon this Fall.

Squirrel!

I swear the dogs can tell where we are going while we are still several miles from the park. Maybe they can smell the beach or recognize a few curves, but whatever it is by the time we actually pull into the park they are at full attention. Nehalem means two things to them: the beach and the wildlife. Off-leash on the beach must be a transcendental experience for them. Coming over the top of the dunes they plunge down the far side as fast as they can run and they don’t stop for several minutes. Their sheer joy in the release from control is a real treat for us, too.   

On the 30th we moved from D17 to our "regular" site in A2, stocked the fire wood shed and hung out our "host on duty" sign. Let the fun begin!
 

Books I enjoyed recently include Kindest Regards by Ted Kooser, and Canadian Living by Peter Gzowski.

Wines that we discovered this month include Eliseo Silva NV Syrah and Ryan Patrick Redhead Red, both from Washington.

More soon,

Bob

#59 – Coveys Great Adventure – August 2019 – Oregon and Washington

#59 – August 2019 – Oregon and Washington

As much as we liked hosting at Thompson’s Mills, we needed a break before our next assignment. Working four months in a row is….work. We made plans awhile ago to spend three weeks at the Evergreen Coho SKP Park in Chimacum, Washington, but we had get the air system worked on, again. Three companies had tried to fix the damage that the antelope caused in September, but none of them had succeeded. If anything, two of them made it worse. They were well intended, they just didn’t understand the complexity of the system and tried to treat it like a truck installation. The system’s manufacturer suggested we take it to Oregon Motor Coach Center in Coburg, a place we tried when we were chasing the slide leak a few years ago that Kayeanne ultimately fixed. $1,500 and five days later (waiting for parts over a weekend) that problem may finally be fixed.

Spending the weekend in Oregon Motor Coach Center’s parking lot didn’t have any appeal, but finding a camp site on short notice anywhere in Oregon during the summer is tough. All of the parks that take reservations are booked months in advance, and first-come-first-served sites are all taken by Thursday afternoon. I finally found a site at Archie Knowles Lane County Campground, about half way between Eugene and Florence. I figured there had to be a reason a site was available, but beggars, etc. The site was fine, the park was ok, but it is right next to a busy road, so traffic noise was a constant problem. I think we were the biggest coach they had ever seen there, but we made it in and out without incident after I trimmed some overhanging branches.

Chimacum, Washington is a pretty good haul from Coburg, so we decided to break it into two easy days. Woodland WA on the Columbia River was our destination the first night. Ripley desperately needed a bath, so we pulled into a truck wash just south of Portland and took our place in a long line of trucks and RVs waiting our turn. But, when I tried to start the engine to pull ahead nothing happened, it was completely dead. We’ve had no-start problems in the past. I tried all the usual remedies, checked all the likely components, but nothing seemed broken. Luckily we were in a big lot with plenty of room for others to get around us while we tried to figure it out. An hour or two later, one of the passing drivers suggested tapping on the starter with a hammer on the chance that the solenoid was stuck. WTH, I tried it and the engine started right up! Needless to say, we didn’t shut it off until we got into our campsite.

Barge traffic on the Columbia

We got the last river front site at Columbia Riverfront RV Park in Woodland. A little pricey, but the view of the river through the windshield was worth it. It reminded us of Intracoastal Park near Lake Charles, Louisiana where we watched the tugs and barges day and night right on our doorstep (see blog post #43). Our site was a long pull-through, so we didn’t even have to unhook the car! Happy hour came early that day.

Chimacum is a small town a few miles south of Port Townsend, which is one of our favorite places in the country. Evergreen Coho SKP Park is an Escapees 

co-op organized like our park in Benson. We have stayed there a couple of times and have been looking forward to returning. We were fortunate to get one of the few full hookup sites for three weeks.

Port Townsend is not only a great place to visit, it is also a ferry terminus to Whidbey Island. Anacortes on the north end of Whidbey Island is the main ferry terminal for the San Juan Islands, so it is fairly easy to take a ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, drive to Anacortes and get the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

Yikes! She's 29!

Unfortunately, the car spaces to Friday Harbor are booked months in advance, making it impossible for both of us to visit our friends Roger and Michelle Shober. There are no reservations required for walk-on passengers, so the dogs and I dropped Kayeanne off at the ferry in Anacortes and were on our own for three days. The following week she spent three nights in Port Townsend visiting with her friends Katy and Midge from the beach house days. Then, we drove her to the airport in Seattle so she could go to Salt Lake City to visit with Liesa. The dogs and I were all glad when she finally came home for good. We were getting tired of our own company.

Great BBQ pork and beef tacos

PT is a good place to eat. We found good sushi, a very good Mexican food truck on Discovery Road near the junction of Sheridan Street that served outstanding pork adobada tacos, and a pub called Sirens on the waterfront that served outstanding food overlooking the harbor.

Three weeks passed quickly and it was time to head south. We wanted to see the west side of the Olympic Peninsula and we lucked into an opening for Labor Day weekend at American Sunset RV Park is Westport, WA. Our plan was to follow Rt 101 along the coast, expecting spectacular views. I should have zoomed in a little more, because 101 just parallels the coast, it never touches it. Instead of sweeping ocean vistas and windswept headlands we got a long green corridor through endless pine forests, sharing the road with dozens of logging trucks. Needless to say, we arrived at Westport a couple of hours earlier than we planned.

Looking down main street in Westport

Westport is an interesting combination of commercial fishing harbor, party fishing boat center and tourist destination. Mix in a few condos and the one main street filled with shops full of “stuff” and you get the idea. We are rarely disappointed with local museums, but this one was quite forgettable. We liked Westport for three nights, but aren't planning to return anytime soon.

Decent chowder and good fish 'n chips

Salmon fishing is a near-religious experience on the North Wet Coast. I forgot that the season kicked off on Labor Day this year, so the park was jammed with fisher folks and their boats in addition to their RVs, tents and families. Once again we were the biggest rig in the park. I am glad we arrived before the evening rush because as the park filled up, getting into most sites became a real test of pilotage and swing room. I’ll bet it took some folks 30 minutes of backing and filling to finally get settled in.

We pulled out of Westport on September first and headed south to Nehalem Bay State Park for our last camp hosting assignment of the season.

Books I enjoyed this month include John Sanford's Holy Ghost, and an old Tony Hillerman novel that I missed years ago, The First Eagle.

More soon,

Bob

#58 – Coveys Great Adventure - July, 2019 – Shedd, OR

We experimented with lighting

July, 2019 – Shedd, OR

Running the mill without Don and Penny turned out to be as much work as we feared. Bill, the other, single host worked hard to hold up his end and Tom put in extra hours, but we sure did miss the extra, experienced hands. Luckily the school group tours ended in June, and a new seasonal ranger was hired in mid-month, so the real strain only lasted a couple of weeks.

Yes, it really did rain hay

One breezy day I looked outside and it was raining hay. Literally, hay was falling everywhere. As far as you could see in any direction, including up, the sky was full of hay. It was a bit of a “Wizard-of-Oz” moment. It turns out that after the grass seed is harvested, the straw is left in the fields to dry before it is baled. In the right weather, dust devils will suck the straw thousands of feet up where it is dispersed over wide areas. It’s really weird to see.

Despite the increased workload, we found time to do more exploring. Kayeanne’s birthday warranted a fine dinner and Castor in Corvallis looked good on the web. We weren’t disappointed, especially with the farro succotash. I’m not usually a fan of exotic vegetarian dishes, but it was outstanding. The owner suggested a local Pinot Noir from Lumous and she wasn’t mistaken, it was delicious.

You can’t visit this area without going to some of the hundreds of vineyards that have helped establish the Northwest as one of the leading wine producing areas of the country, especially of Pinot Noir, and lately Pinot Gris, too. Channel surfing on PBS one night, we ran across a documentary about the history of wine making in Oregon, with the focus on Pinot and the almost fanatical drive for quality shared by the vineyards growing it. Interesting factoid: Oregon has the most stringent labeling standard in the country, maybe the world.

We don’t have the endurance for wine tasting we once had, but we found two local wineries that sounded worth visiting. Emerson Vineyards in Monmouth OR is small and gaining recognition. We both liked their Pinot Noir. The setting is also worth a visit. They offer a full calendar of events throughout the summer featuring local musicians that sounded like a great way to spend an evening.

Bluebird Hill 

We picked Bluebird Hill Cellars because we liked the area around Monroe and the pictures on their website looked lovely. We weren’t disappointed with the wine or the setting. Located on (ahem) Bluebird Hill, the very comfortable patio has expansive views down the valley that compliment the wines and the local cheese. We managed to drag out a tasting, a little cheese and a bottle of Pinot Gris for the better part of an afternoon. Founded in 2014, they are just beginning to compete and have already had some success. The 2016 Shiraz is pretty tasty, too.

NOT a pulp wood mill!

Monroe is also home to one of the most interesting places we have visited in quite awhile, the Hull-Oakes Lumber Company. For 4 months we’ve been demonstrating the technology and telling the story of commerce in Oregon during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, but Hull-Oakes is actually still doing it. The mill converted from steam to electric power in 2008, and they only did that because they couldn’t get parts for the steam engine! The steam plant is still there, ready to go if the electric grid dies.

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As the guide emphasized at least three times, Hull-Oakes is not a museum, it’s a family business in it’s fourth generation of management. It employs about 50 people and operates much like it did when it was founded in the 1930’s.

It is also Disneyland for machinery junkies like moi. These guys cut BIG trees into serious lumber. They can make beams up to 85’ long, and 3’ square, the longest and largest in Oregon. They were milling 24’ long

This is the sharpening shop. The saw blades are
30' long and changed every two hours. 

2’x2’ beams when we toured and that was impressive. 3’x3’ is almost incomprehensible; remember they start with a tree and cut away what isn’t a beam! Tours require reservations so call ahead if you’d like to visit.

Dinner time

Tending the ducks and chickens does have a downside; you bond with them. We had two flocks of ducks, four older ones that were raised in 2018, and another flock born this spring. The older ducks refused to spend the night in the pen with the youngsters because last winter a skunk managed to reach under the pen wall and take an egg. The ducks refused to stay in the pen from that point on. One morning only three of them came for breakfast, a few days later just one showed up. We found one of the carcasses on the shore of the millrace, but only found feathers of one of the others. The sole survivor finally joined the young ducks in the pen at night. I reinforced the pen and the chicken coop to eliminate any chance that varmints can get even a paw in.

One morning Schroeder hopped up to his usual perch on the dashboard and went nuts. The river was apparently no longer a barrier to the neighbor’s livestock. Two sheep took up residence at the mill and on the day we left, they were still mowing the grass. Since they also graze cattle, I’m sure it won’t be long before the cows come to visit, too.

We were sorry to leave the mill. We really enjoyed working here, and at Cape Blanco. Camp hosting is fun, too, but learning about new places and old times, and talking to people all day is much more interesting than cleaning yurts and fire pits. We will still camp host, in fact we are looking forward to doing just that during September and October back at Nehalem Bay State Park for the sixth time. Next year, though, we’ll focus on finding more docent work.

We are taking August off and visiting northwest Washington. More on that next time.

Bob

PS: A few more pictures of the mill:

The mill race gates control the water level

The last water powered machine.
The hand-wheel controls the water
feed into the turbine

Why visitors don't tour the 3rd floor.
Those holes are access hatches to
two-story bins

Turn head on the 4th floor can
send grain down chutes
to 7 locations