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