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.