Thursday, June 20 With a quick start at 7:00 a.m. we dropped by the Crater Lake Campground café for two coffees to go. We only had 200 miles to travel today, West on Oregon State Roads, but we were anxious to arrive at the Oregon Coast and the Pacific Ocean, We stopped at Coos Bay, where the ocean flows in and out of the tidal basin. We stopped at a grocery store and saw our first hint of Pacific Coast seafood prices; we picked up two lobster tails ($7.00/each) and planned a little celebration supper for reaching the Ocean. Later we learned that Lobster were not a produce of the Oregon Coast! From Coos Bay we had 25 miles to drive north on US Route 101 – following the coastline. Our target was William Tugman State Park, and we reached it by 1:00. Having hook-ups after 3 nights of boon-docking was nice, and my wifi hotspot worked right from the campsite allowing me to get caught up on 3 days of blogging. Nice shaded spots where the sun dapples through the trees allowed me to find a good comfort zone of partial sun in the 65 degree temperature. We went for an exploratory drive, following US Route 101, hoping for some good ocean-side vistas. There were glimpses of lighthouses, sand dunes, and flat sandy ocean beaches, but nothing dramatic like what we are anticipating in the next few days. We did pass at least 6 State Parks, and numerous bare-bones RV parks with trailers lined up close to each other, on gravel/sandy lots, with no shade. It made us very grateful for our beautiful Tugman State Park – even if it was just for one night. Lobster is not harvested on the Oregon Coast, until winter; ours was so good I figured it had to be good old Main Lobster from clear across the continent! As good as they were, from now on our seafood shopping will be from seafood markets that can give us the lowdown on its origin. Friday, June 21, 19 Armed with a pamphlet/map of the Oregon East Coast detailing Lighthouses (Oregon’s Sentinels), we were off by 10:00 – heading up US Route 101. There are nine surviving lighthouses today, and seven are open for public viewing. We only had 100 miles to drive today, and all of it was going to be along the famous Oregon coast highway. When the “oil change” light came on in the truck we had plenty of time to drive to a quick change operation and get it taken care of, and then back to the drive along the coast. At the end of the drive, we had only logged 119 miles . . . but it took us 5 hours to do it! Along the way we stopped at several overlooks, hiked a few trails,, viewed wildflowers in full bloom, visited a lighthouse, walked along the beach, and otherwise experienced the Oregon coastal experience. We arrived at our final destination of the little town of Otis at 4:00. The KOA that Tom had booked 6 months in advance assigned us to the worst possible site where we were unable to level front to back. We refused the site, drove down the road 3 miles to another campground, and obtained the last open site! We were set up by 4:30, processed 3 loads of laundry by 6:30, ate dinner, and settled down for the evening.
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October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |