Going coastal

After leaving friends and family in NorCal we pushed on to the southern Oregon coast town of Brookings where we parked the RV at Harris Beach State Park.  Brookings is the southern most town on the Oregon coast and a place we have visited many times before.  While here, we were able to meet up with  our good friends, Lorin and Carol Lee, who are moving to Brookings from Pagosa Spg's.  While looking for a permanent home in town they are staying in a truly spectacular rental home on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean.  They had another home under contract along the banks of the Chetco River but several days before closing the back yard slid into the river which soured the deal a bit...Dodged a major bullet there I'd say.

Brad, Carol and Lorin

View from the deck

More adventures in RV ing

Kasha enjoying view from Cape Arago

On our last night at Harris Beach we were rudely awakened in the wee hours by a loud crash.  Getting up, we saw nothing amiss and figured it was something outside.  Kasha was a bit worked up over the ordeal and, as Kelly tried to get her back in her bunk, Kasha head-butted Kelly in the eye, giving her a nice shiner.  The next morning we tried to go outside to find the awning had collapsed in the rain [it's not supposed to do that] and was blocking the door.  The awning was FUBAR so I removed it and hauled it off the county landfill which was, luckily, only a short drive away.  Didn't need that POS anyway!

On finally leaving Brookings we journeyed northward to the town of Bandon and another very nice state campground called Bullards Beach. This campground [like all the Oregon State Parks] is well maintained, quiet and very inexpensive.  With my Golden Age Passport discount [God! did I really say that?] the cost is usually around $25/nt.  There's gotta be something good about getting older, right?

While here, Kelly and I got to paddle our kayaks around in Bandon Marsh State Wildlife Area [don't quote me on the real name of that] where we saw many species of birds and a couple sea lions. The weather here has been a bit 'coastal' and we had a mixed bag of typical Oregon Coast weather. Luckily, the winds have been pretty light [they have a tendency to blow pretty hard around here] and I was able to get a couple nice road bike rides in.  I'm pretty sure someone came in and made the hills here steeper than when I last rode the coast 20-some years ago.  One of our favorite rides is the quiet roads through the campground to the Coquille Lighthouse, a short but beautiful 6-mile roundtrip from our camp.  This lighthouse is the last one constructed on the Oregon Coast and is open, now, as an informational center.

Coquille Lighthouse

NorCal

 The next stop on our trip was a stay in Etna, Ca in the beautiful Scott Valley area [not to be confused with Scott's Valley further south].  We were able to get a break from RV life as we accepted the generous offer to stay in the Etna home of our friends Peter and Christi Sturges who own the spectacular Otter Bar Lodge in Forks of Salmon, CA.  They were busy with the lodge so the house was empty and we were able to move right in for our time here.  Many thanks for that.

Etna is a small, peaceful town of about 700 located in the Scott River valley, an agricultural area surrounded by the Marble Mountains, part of the Coast Range.  I lived there for about 10 years in the 90's before life moved me to other locations, but I always loved this area as it offers great outdoor activities [cycling, skiing, fishing etc.] without having to share with tourists and crowds.  The town has upgraded over the years, mostly thanks to a few former locals [I used to watch them play football when I lived here] who left to 'make good' and have returned to invest in their hometown.  They took the old drugstore, a beautiful brick building, and created the Denny Bar Restaurant and Distillery, an upper-scale eatery which draws patrons from the entire area.  Town also enjoys a new french bakery and butcher shop which serve up some great food.

While in town we got to visit with quite a few old friends although time did not allow for us to visit all.  Kelly was able to get away to the coast with her sister, Amy, for a few days and I'm sure they got pretty wild and had a great time.  Before she left, she and I were able to get a really nice bike ride in through the valley.  This area has some wonderful road riding with nicely paved roads, low traffic and great scenery.

We also got to visit with our son, Cody, and his two charming boys Adam and Jacob. It's a shame everyone is so spread out across the country and we only get to see them occasionally.

To the Coast

 Well, we survived the rest of the trip across Nevada with no more mishaps or problems and made it to Ukiah, CA where we got to have a nice long visit with daughter Rachel and her two wonderful girls, Danaya and Raegan.  It was Danaya's birthday week and we got to spend the day with her on a mini shopping spree down in Santa Rosa.  We also got to be real grandparents and attended 'Grandparents Day' at Raegans school.  Very fun.  A day trip to Ft Bragg gave us our first beach day of the trip.  The weather was lovely and Kasha enjoyed the heck out of the beach and ocean entertaining the other beachgoers with her frisbee catching skills.  Our weather timing was perfect too as we were lucky enough to hit the Ukiah area right as the trees were all fully leafing out and everything was spectacularly green.  

After taking off from Ukiah we headed a couple hours north to visit with our friends, Ed and Linda, in Redding, CA.  It was great to visit with them and we got to spend some time in the great home they fairly recently completed in Redding.  While here, we had our first experience with camping at a HipCamp site.  These are camping sites that are on people's property and this one was very nice and private in a beautiful meadow on about 5-acres.  We will be using HipCamp again.

Happy Birthday Danaya

[Rachel, Raegan, Danaya]

Raegan helping with dinner

Fort Bragg beach day