#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