Florence, Gold Beach and "The Storm"

The Dunes of Florence 

After we said our good byes to Brent and Kathy, we decided that if we were going to be spending a 2nd night in the vineyard, then we would need to head off and do something.  It was a very grey day. Rain here and there.  Our host, Steve, told us that we should head over the Florence and see the Dunes.  Florence is about an hour west of Crow and as we had had enough of the rain, off we went.  The drive over to Florence was beautiful with the yellow and orange leaves floating off the trees and onto the roadway.  Fall is truly my favourite season, it is however not the best season for my lungs.  But as long as I am not out walking amongst the wet leaves, then I am fine.  As we neared the coast the clouds were diminishing and you could see a blue sky trying to peek through.  On the coast the weather was great.  A bit windy but nice and warm.  Florence is a small coastal town and sits at the mouth of the Siuslaw River as it meets the Pacific Ocean.  It is also home of the Oregon Dunes National Park.

After we fuelled up (yes Ray has been particularly good on this trip as far as fueling up goes……..mind you,,,,it has only been a few days), we went to find the dunes.  You don’t have to look far as they can been seen peeking through the trees.  According to Wikipedia, these dunes are the largest expanse of coast sand dunes in North America.  The dunes are the result of millions of years of erosion caused by wind and rain.  It takes your breath away when you see them as some of the dunes are 500 feet above the sea.  You can even rent dune buggy’s and ATV’s.  We didn’t do that, but did drive down into the park as far as we were able to drive and then walked up to the top of one of the lower dunes to look out at the ocean.  On the way up, we saw a snake.  It was “just” a gardner snake,,,,,,but still it was a snake!!!  I was exhausted by the time we got to the top overlooking the ocean, so Ray and I stayed there while Vonnie and Russ walked down to the beach.  I love watching the waves crashing down onto the sand and rocks.  I am mesmerized by the ocean.  I think maype it reminds me of ours few summers as kids that we spent at the “Singing Sands” Resort on Long Beach back in the 70’s.  It was so nice and warm that Vonnie took her shoes off to walk in the sand.  She even kept them off until we got back to the truck.  All I could think about was that slithery snake hiding in the sand and sea grass!!!

We climbed up over at least four of these pathways to get to the ocean

Vonnie and Russ in the sand

Russ and the Von

Not sure who these two are

After we left the park, we stopped at an RV store we had passed. Russ needed to pick up something for their trailer.  We then wandered though the historic part of town.  The usual tourist shops were there, but also some local art shops.  I always hear people say “if you are on the Oregon coast, you must try fish and chips as they are so fresh”.  There are so restaurants to choose from, and they all of course have “the best” fish and chips.  We went to a restaurant at the end of a wharf where the special of the day was halibut and chips.  The guys both had a clam chowder and we shared the fish and chips.  The batter was excellent,,very light and not greasy.  The halibut however, was very tough!!!  Actually so were the fries, now that I think of it.  I was not the only one disappointed in the meal.   We spent a few hours down in Florence before heading back to the vineyard in Crow.  Of course as we went inland the sky got darker and darker.  It didn’t rain until we were back in our trailers.  We had decided to continue on our way in the morning so we got things packed up and ready for travelling.  In the morning we had breakfast and Steve came to say his good-byes (bringing,,,,,more wine!!!).  He told us that it was good we were heading south as there was a big storm heading through.  We really had no idea what kind of a storm we were in for!!

Gold Beach

I really wanted to stop in Coos Bay.  I am not sure why, but I though it would be a nice quaint little town.  Coos Bay is huge and the traffic is like being in Bellingham.  We didn’t stop but I did recall a group of people that we had met in 2004 on another trip.  These people were travelling in a 5th wheel that was about 40 feet long.  It was a very old unit and was being pulled by an equally old pickup truck.  The old guy driving had missing teeth and was had about 5 people staying with him. They were on a road trip to Lake Havasu.  We were with the Grieve’s on that trip, and we nicknamed this odd group of people the “Coos Bay Hillbillies”.  Maybe that is why I thought it was a small town.  They do have a large casino there,,,,,but to Vonnie’s dismay we kept on driving!

We continued through the traffic and right on outta that town.  We meandered down the 101, along the coast.  The coastal drive is amazing, especially if the sun is shinning. The weather was raining with no sign of the sun.  I guess Steve was right when he said that we were going to have a storm.  Being on the coast and so close to the ocean, when they say a storm is coming, they really do mean it!  We got down as far as Gold Beach where we had decided to spend the night.  We found a campground that we figured would provide us with some shelter from the “storm”.  The campground was called Turtle Rock RV Park.  It was a nice, somewhat sheltered spot.  When we checked in, we paid just for one night as our intention was to continue the next morning down into California, which was about 30 minutes south.  The very friendly two gals running the office told us that there was a big storm coming in tonight.  Supposed to be the tail end of a typhoon.  We said that we would decide in the morning about a 2nd night, as we all thought the storm was quite a bit north of us.  We set up camp and then took a walk down to the beach to check out the big rock this campground was named for.  On certain angles you can see that the rock formation definitely appears to be a giant turtle lounging on the sandy beach with the ocean crashing down behind him.  

Sitting on the turtle's "paw"??

Ray and Russ holding the rock

The turtle!

It rained quite heavily through the night and into the next day.  The winds were picking up so we decided we had better hunker down and stay.  In the afternoon Ray and Russ wandered over to a pub down the street to test their craft beers.  The winds progressed throughout the day until it was a full on storm.  Our trailers were rocking back and forth so hard there were times Vonnie and I wondered if they were going to blow over.  I have never experienced winds like that and the next day we were told they winds had reached up to 65 mph.  We lucked out and had no wind damage whatsoever. Other then tree debris, there was nothing the next morning to indicate that we had been in a storm.  As we left to head into California, the waves in the ocean were big and angry looking.  The photos we took do not do it justice!  

We had decided that we needed to get off the coast as the storm was to become worse, so we crossed into California.  We drove through the Redwood forest where we stopped to see Paul Bunyan and his ox, Babe.

Redwood Forest

 Continuing south we had looked for a campground that would possibly be sheltered from the winds and had decided to go to the Ridgewood Ranch Golden RV park in Willits.  We rely on the GPS to lead us to these spots.  Just south of Willits, our GPS told us that we had reached our destination.  Right in the middle of nowhere, really.  We didn't see any campground, nor roads leading off the highway.  About 1/4 of a mile farther down the road, there was a side road that lead us down into a beautiful ranch.  We had found our spot for the night.  Ridgewood Ranch is the final resting place for the famous  thoroughbred horse of the Great Depression, Seabiscuit.  We asked the elderly lady in the office where he was buried, but she couldn't tell us where, she just said "somehwere on the property".  It was miserable out anyway and we weren't about to go wandering around this 5000 acre ranch to find him. To get to the RV park you had to drive through a "mobile" home park.  It was pin neat as well as the RV park.

 We spent a quiet night in this beautiful spot before heading off to Napa Valley the next morning.

Crow Valley Vineyard

The drive to Russ's friend (Steve) in Crow Valley was, let me say,,,,,,,,,interesting.  He had emailed Russ with written instructions, which Russ emailed to me as we were leading.  I punched in the address Russ gave me as the email never came in.  We left McMinnville thinking it would be a two hour drive to Crow Valley.  Crow is south west of Eugene.  Everything was fine, the GPS led us down  Highway 99 through some more beautiful vineyards.  There was one I would have loved to have stopped at, but we wanted to get to Crow before dark.  The name of the vineyard was called "Namaste".  Namaste is an ancient sanskrit greeting used not only in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, but is also used by anyone who  does yoga and/or meditation.  Namaste is recognized as one of peace, honour and respect.

Anyway to move on to our "interesting" drive to Crow.  When I put the address into the GPS, Crow did not come up as a choice.  Russ said to put in Veneta as the town. It was accepted and off we went.  We travelled down narrow twisting roads, with very little shoulders.  Hoping we would not come across any semi's on this route.  Once thing about not being on the I-5, there are very little large semi trucks, the speeds are no more then 55 MPH and it is a much more beautiful route.  After driving for a couple of hours,  the GPS indicated we were about 4 minutes from our destination.  All of a sudden, Vonnie comes over the walkie talkie (we had two sets between the six of us, so that we could talk freely without using the phones,,,,,which was a good thing).  Vonnie said that we had to stop and turn around as we had missed the road.  We were on a very curvy narrow road, but Ray did manage to pull over in a spot that he would be able to navigate a safe turn.  Kathy and Brent drove past us looking for a spot as did Vonnie and Russ.  Ray can turn that 5th wheel around on a dime.  Well okay maybe on a silver dollar.  But he had pick a spot right at a long angled driveway, so his turn was even easier than it would have been.  It was about this time that I noticed that we had no cell service.  And I had also still not received the email with Russ's detailed instructions from Steve.  We waited on the side of the road in a small straight stretch for the others to catch up.  This time Russ took the lead.  I also turned off the GPS as I figured that Russ had the email and his navigator (Vonnie) would be able to guide us back to where the GPS didn't tell us to turn (GPS, are not always 100% correct).  We go back into the town of Veneta, and turn off the main road.  We follow Russ for about 15 minutes and it appeared that we were in the middle of nowhere.  Russ finally pulled over, got out and came and asked if our cell phone was working.  We still have no service.  None of us did.  So we continue following Russ and finally came to an intersection.  A few miles down the road, we see a vineyard up on the hill.  Ray and I are back in the lead when Vonnie radios us and says there is a "sign" on the road for the vineyard we were going to.  After driving past where the address should be twice, and having to turn in the middle of the narrow road again, Ray and Kathy notice there is a very long driveway that appears to have more then one address to it.  It was not clear at all.  Kathy and Brent start up this driveway and come to a gate with a very big dog. So they back down.  All of a sudden we see a fellow driving down in a blue car, waving at us.  Long story short, we follow him up the driveway that is a pan handle lot within a pan handle...... . The driveway is heavilied  treed and very dark. The guy keeps waving out his window to follow.  Branches were hitting the roof of both our 5th wheel and Russ's trailer.   All we were thinking was, where the heck is this guy taking us!!  We finally see the sign for the vineyard and turn into the yard.

We were so relieved to have arrived, but were all so tired.  I think Russ was the most tired of us all.  The stress from trying to get somewhere he had never been.  Originally we had planned on doing our Thanksgiving dinner, but had changed our minds earlier in the day as we had thought that we would not want to cook after a long day.  So the plan when we arrived was to go back into town with Steve and his lovely wife Kathy, to a restaurant.  But the last thing any of us wanted to do was get back into a vehicle.  So after we set up camp, we did cook the turkey we had brought, and invited Steve and Kathy to eat our mixed up Thanksgiving dinner.  Our camp spot was in the filed beside the vineyard and next to an outbuilding with electrical hook ups.  It was almost like being at the Merritt Mountain music fest, without the music!!

We had a great evening being entertained by Steve.  He is a very intelligent man with lots of stories!  We drank a few bottles of wine and as you can see by Vonnie,,,,,we had a great evening and our stressful journey here was forgotten.

Crow Valley vineyard grows organic grass for some local wineries.  Their signature winery is Teutonic Winery.  Teutonic is famed for producing some of the world's finest Reisling.  Some, or perhaps all, of the resiling grapes come from Crow Valley vineyard.


We lucked out arriving when we did, as it was harvesting day the next morning.  It had rained over night and the fields were full of muck, so just the guys went into the vineyard to watch the grapes being hand picked.

Fall colours in the vineyard

The pickers,,,,,handpicking

Look at those grapes!!

Steve loading the grapes onto the truck

Along the way, before we left Washington, Kathy bought Ray, who loves Crows, a beautiful crow we all named "Goober" (don't ask).  Goober will appear here and there in our photos along the way.  So watch for him.

Kathy and Brent left us on Tuesday morning.  They were headed back to Seaside where they wanted to fly their kites and spend a quiet night before heading home.  It was fun being with them and we will all miss them.  Drive safe you two!

The Wonderful Spruce Goose

Monday morning we left Seaside with the sun shinning.  It was to be a beautiful day for sure.  We were heading to Crow Oregon, where a friend of Russ's owns a vineyard.  But on the way we wanted to detour into McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose, which is in the Evergreen Museum.

We had an excellent and scenic drive from Seaside to McMinnville, passing many vineyards and wineries.  I had no idea there were so many in Oregon.  If we had stopped at them all, it would have taken a week to drive the six hours we were going to drive.  And that may have been due to all the tasting,,,,no drinking and driving!  We took Highway 26 from the 101 and then south on Highway 240 coming into McMinnville from the north.  In the past Ray and I have come from Tigard.

Arriving at the Evergreen Museum, you see three giant glass and steel buildings.  In the middle building you can see the nose of the Spruce Goose staring out at us as we drove into the parking lot.  We parked and walked into the  main building. The minute I walked in, I realized that I would not be able to be in the building for anymore then a few minutes.  It smelled musty, likely due to the old leather etc in the old aircrafts.  I knew Vonnie and Kathy could care less if they saw the Spruce Goose, so we decided we would drive down into Historic McMinnville.  So leaving the guys to their fun, we planned to return in a couple of hours.

The guys outside the Museum.

The Evergreen is for aviation enthusiasts.  The displays range from designs from Orville and Wilbur Wright’s plane designed from two bikes, to a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  But the heart of this museum is the Spruce Goose which sits in the center of the museum.  The Spruce Goose is built entirely of wood and is actually called the Hughes H-4 Hercules.   The plane was designed by Howard Hughes and was built by ship builder Henry J. Kaiser, and was the largest aircraft of its time, with a wing span of 320 feet.  It was built for the US War Department to transport war materials and personnel over to Britain in 1942.  It was built mostly of wood except the elevators and rudder, which were covered in fabric.  It was nicknamed the “Spruce Goose”, or the Flying Lumberyard. Due to many delays, the "flying boat" was not completed until after the war.  The Spruce Goose only flew once and that was for a test flight.  It flew a distance of 1.6 kms at a speed of 135 miles per hour.  Howard Hughes stored the Goose in a special hanger and never flew it again.  In 1980 it was put on display adjacent to the Queen Mary exhibit.  In 1993 the Spruce Goose arrived in McMinnville Oregon, where it proudly sits today in the Evergreen Museum.

The price to get into the museum was $27 per person.  And if you wanted to actually go inside the Spruce Goose, you had to pay another $25.  But you didn't realize that until you came out, and that was where they would hit you!! LOL

There were many old aircrafts to take photos of, but the one of interest was of course the Spruce Goose.

While the guys were having their fill of old planes.  Us three ladies jumped into Kathy's Honda and went into the Historic downtown area.  It is a beautiful downtown with trees lining the streets.  The Fall colours were amazing!  On the street corners sat the coolest scarecrows.  We believe the scarecrows were put together by different service clubs and businesses.

Love this classic scarecrow

Kathy and I sitting with old Thomas Jefferson

Kathy and the voluptuous Vonnie with Mr J.

Lots of great shops to browse through.  Vonnie supported the community by shopping in one of the shops. There were a number of tasting rooms downtown as well.  These tasting rooms are different then the ones on the actual vineyards.  We stopped in at the Willamette Valley tasting room.  There was the usual tasting bar and also a number of overstuffed couches to sit at.  Also high tables and stools.  Apparently in the evenings they also have live music.  That would have been so fun to see.  But we did have to get back to the boys as our time was running out.  So we decided just to do the wine tasting.  Kathy opted out as she was the DD.  Vonnie and I tasted only a couple and then purchased one bottle each.

Then it was off to meet up with the guys and get back on the road.

And we are of!!!

On Sunday morning we met the Bradley’s and Parrish’s at the Junction shopping mall where we took a couple of photos and bought a Tim Horton’s coffee for the road.  

Our 5th wheel

Vonnie & Russ's trailer

That would be Kathy & Brent's car in the middle

The group!!

We left the parking lot at 8.00 and were through the Sumas border crossing by 9;00.  As we had packed our trailers appropriately (no fruit, vegetables, dairy or meats), the crossing was smooth with no issues.  Rather then drive through downtown Seattle, we chose to take the 405 which skirts the downtown traffic.  Even though it was Sunday, you never know what might cause a back up in the traffic.  Ray and I had never been on the 405, so it was a slightly different drive through Seattle.  We hooked up on the I-5 again just north of Tacoma.  We stopped in Centralia for fuel and to have a bite to eat.  The clerk in the Chevron recommended the Country Cousin for a home cooked meal.  It was a very interesting restaurant.  They had a gift shop and also a very old looking one armed bandit.  Vonnie was looking for some change to drop into it, when we were called to our table.  Food was very good, with the exception of some turkey salad that was in Kathy’s salad.  She ordered a turkey and cranberry salad and thought there was going to be slices of turkey, but instead of slices, there was two big scoops of finely minced turkey salad.  It had no turkey flavour that I could taste.  Other then that the meals were very good.

We continued down the I-5 until we got to Keslo, where we turned onto highway 30 which was going to take us over to the coast.  We had opted for the less scenic route to Seaside as we just wanted to arrive at our campsite and get things set up.  As we crossed the Lewis bridge which crosses the Columbia River and also connects Washington to Oregon, it started to rain.  The Columbia River is 2000 kms long and starts in the Rocky Mountains of BC. Port Longview reminded me of crossing from Saulte Ste Marie in Michigan to Saulte Ste Marie in Ontario.  All you can see is the pulp mills.  There was a pulp mill on one side of the road and another mill of some sort on the other side.  I would have to say the two mills are most likely the main employer of Longview.  The drive on the south side of the Columbia River was very pretty with the Fall colours.  The biggest issue was the rain.  By the time we got to Astoria it was coming down in buckets.  Arriving in Astoria, Russ was looking for a fish shop that sells smoked sturgeon.  He wanted some to take to his buddy whose place we would be camping at for a couple of nights.  We found the fish shop and were lucky enough to find an empty parking lot to pull into and not obstruct anyone.  We continued driving through the town heading towards Seaside.  One thing of note as you come into Astoria from Highway 30, you get a perfect view of the Astoria-Megler bridge.  This bridge, which connects Point Ellice Washington to Astoria Oregon is about 4 miles long.  It kind of reminded me a bit of the Confederation bridge in PEI.  The Astoria-Megler bridge took four years to build and was open in 1966, replacing the ferry service that had been the only way to connect Astoria to Washington without having to take the highway to Longview. 

Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, and is named after German/American, John Jacob Astor.  Astor was a businessman who made the majority of his fortune in the fur trade.  His business empire extended to the great lakes into Canada and eventually to the Pacific coast, where in 1811, he set up a fur trading post.  Prior to this, the Clatsop Indians lived here for thousands of years.  A hundred years ago, Astoria was the 2nd largest city in Oregon. Salem is now the official 2nd largest city. And now with a population of just under 10,000, Astoria now stands at 52nd largest city.  There have been a number of movies filmed in Astoria, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, The Goonies, Ninja Turtles and Into the Wild just to name a few.

As it was Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it would be nice to get a small turkey or ham to cook for dinner on Monday.  So we stopped at the Fred Meyers in Astoria to pick up what we would need for our Thanksgiving dinner and to also buy the things we were not able to bring from Canada.  I love the Fred Meyers stores,,,,they as so big and have everything from food to small furniture.  Us girls could spend hours browsing in there, but it was not to be!  We wanted to be in Seaside before dark so that we could set up our campsites.  And we were hoping that it would quit raining.  No, that was not about to happen!!  Other then the stop at the fish shop and a trip into Fred Meyers, we continued south to Seaside.  

Seaside is one of Oregon’s most visited ocean front towns with its 250 foot wide beach.  It is 80 miles from Portland and boasts a population of approximately 6500 year round residents.  The historic Promenade runs a & 1/2 miles and is used by joggers, cyclists and walkers.  There is much to do in Seaside for locals and tourists.  Bird watching, surfing, kayaking, fishing, digging for clams and watching for the grey whales when they migrate along the coast.  There are art galleries, restaurants and shops.  Something for everyone!  We did not however get to tour the town itself as we by the time we arrived at Circle Creek RV park the rains were unbelievable!  Our first night found us hunkered down in Vonnie and Russ’s trailer sharing apples and a few drinks.  Around 10:00, Kathy and I left Brent and Ray in the capable hands of Russ and Vonz, and off we went to prepare for bed.  So Brent and Ray walk in about 30 minutes after us and promptly sat down and had a glass of wine.......not that they needed it and it didn't seem to bother them that they were disturbing poor Kathy who was trying to sleep on the hide-a-bed!!!

This photo is our campsite the next morning.  The sites were very large with lots of grass.

Getting ready to go

A few months ago and after much talk about going on another road trip with newly retired, Vonnie and Russ Bradley, we finally decided we would pack up our trailers and head down to wine country in California.  Our friends Kathy and Brent Parrish asked if they could join us for the first couple of days, as they have some time off of their jobs.  Yes some of us have not hit retirement age.  Wonder what those two youngsters see in us "old" guys and gals?  It is because we have so much fun when we are together.   In preparation of our departure date we needed to get together and plan our route for the first few days.  More importantly for me, was getting together to decide what to call this blog.  It had to be something catchy and also had to have some meaning to all of us.  Saturday evening we got together for some drinks and appies.  And of course we had to have this little gathering of the minds in our 5th wheel to, you know,  get into the camping mood.  

Have you even noticed the funny names of some of the wines we have in our liquor stores?  Big Ass Red wine.  Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush. Blasted Church. And of course Fat Bastard.  Beers too have quirky names.  Flat Tire Ale.  Fat Woody Scotch Ale. Buttface Amber ale. Panty Peeler?? Speckled Hen Ale.   So giving a thought to where we are going (wine country) we thought we should come up with a name associated to wines and beers.  What we came up with was, Travels of ye olde Speckled Hens (ahem,,,,us girls) and the Fat Bastards (do I have to point out who they might be??).  You must realize that we had a few appies and beverages by the time we came up with this title.  Much laughter could probably be heard all the way up to the Dorlings house!!

I will be posting on the blog every few days or so as long as I am able to connect to wifi.  So if you dare to join us on yet another one of our oddball adventures,,,the link to the log will be hensandbastards.blogspot.com