Oregon Adventures Continue

Hi there, good to see you. Sort of. Our last episode concluded on Friday, July 31^st, when we arrived in Coberg, Oregon, a suburb of Eugene, Oregon, Home of the Ducks! Saturday, the first day of August, we left the RV park about 10:30 and drove into Springfield, another suburb of Eugene, to do some shopping and caching. We were able to get two geocaches, as well as two DNFs, before lunch. We stopped at a place called the Pump Cafe, which was a kitschy little place in the old downtown area of Springfield that used to be a gas station and garage. The food was good, as was the service, although it was also a little pricey. Peggy and Jackie both had chicken fried steak and said it was good. I had a Philly sandwich that was very good. After lunch we went to the local Fred Meyer store and got some gas for the car, then went inside to do some shopping. We stopped at the post office after shopping, then headed back to the RV park. We stayed in for the rest of the day. We had cocktails outside in the shade at 5:00, but didn't have any dinner because we were all full from lunch. We watched some TV and then went to bed.

Sunday, August 2^nd, I went out and got a local paper so we could do our paper and coffee Sunday. We

left the coach after lunch and went out to do some errands. I dropped Jackie and Peggy off at a nail salon so they could get pedi's. Jackie said the last time she had her nails done professionally was in February, unheard of for her. At least here in Oregon almost everything is at least partially open. While they were getting their toes done I did another quick run to Camping World to pick up a part for our toilet. The spring broke this morning and I had to get a new spring cartridge for the foot pedal. This is not an uncommon thing, this one being the third one I have put in in 15 years. When you are full timers the toilet gets a lot of use. I picked up the girls with their now pretty toes and we did a run to Big Lots for a couple of things. We then headed home. After I got home I fixed the toilet, a 20 minute job, then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We had our 5:00 cocktails with Peggy and Belle and Jackie made a chili relleno casserole for dinner. After dinner Peggy went back to her coach and we watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, August 3^rd, another travel day. We were packed up and on the road around 9:00, heading northwest to the little coastal town of Neskowin. The trip was about 120 miles, the first half on Interstate 5, then making a right turn at Salem and heading west. The second half of the trip is on typical, two lane Oregon coastal access routes. Traffic was not too bad and we arrived at the Neskowin Creek RV Resort about 11:30. This is the same park we were in about this same time last year where they have all the feral domestic rabbits running around. We are here for two weeks, and Peggy, who is still traveling with us, for one week. We got parked and set up and then just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Today was overcast and cool, so there were no bunnies out for cocktail hour, which was a bit of a disappointment. After cocktails we did some fish on the BBQ for dinner. After Peggy went back to her coach we watched TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, August 4^th, we left the coach about 10:30 with Peggy and drove into Lincoln City to do some caching, sightseeing, and to have lunch. We started out with a couple of caches, then went to the Pub

Fish and Chips for lunch. The fish and chips that Jackie and I had was good, but a bit pricey. We also had some calamari as an appetizer. Peggy had the clam chowder, which said was OK, and then some steamed clams that she had to sent back because they were too salty to eat. They got some fish tacos instead, which she also said were OK. The original server we had was not at all interested in Peggy's not being happy with the clams, but she left for the day and the server that took over made the substitution and apologized. After lunch we went out and continued caching, ending up with six new finds and one DNF. We are now only ten finds away from getting to 10,000 finds! After we finished caching and touring the town we stopped at Safeway for a few things, then went back to the coach. We relaxed for a while, then had cocktails outside at 5:00. It was cool enough that I got out the new propane fire pit that we got from Suzie Babcock when she cleaned out her RV before she sold it. It worked great and made the cocktail circle nice and toasty. We didn't have any dinner, just some of the leftovers from lunch. We watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, August 5^th, we again left the coach with Peggy aboard at 10:30 for another day of exploring, shopping and caching. Today we drove north along US 101 heading to Tillamook, Oregon, the cheese capital of Oregon. It was about 45 minutes or to get to town and our first stop was the Blue Heron French Cheese store. They are pricey, but have a lot of very nice, gourmet stuff, including really good brie cheese. We picked up a variety of cheeses and a few other items, then drove to Bay City, a smaller town just north of Tillamook, for lunch. We went to a small, local cafe which was off the main highway so probably mostly used by locals. They had excellent reviews on Yelp. It was very small and plain, but the food was really good. Both Jackie and Peggy had the shrimp omelet and Jackie loved hers, Peggy thought it was OK, but didn't like their choice of cheddar cheese for topping. I had a bowl of chili and a grilled cheese and mine was also excellent. After lunch we stopped at the smoked meat store to pick up some meat sticks that I really like as snacks. Once that was done we were free to cache, so we did some local caching, getting six new finds in about 90 minutes. We had to quit because we needed to start back towards home so Peggy could get Belle out to pee before it got too late. We are now within four of hitting our 10,000 finds milestone and we expect to get it on Friday while Peggy is still here. We went back to the RV park and relaxed for a while before having cocktails outside at 5:00. The sun was out today so we didn't need the fire pit. We went in around 7:00 and again didn't have dinner because of the big lunch. We watched some TV and went to bed.

Thursday, August 6^th, was a stay at home day. We woke up to a light drizzle which had been going on since the early morning hours. It wasn't heavy, but it went long enough that there were a few puddles around. The rain quit by late morning and I spent the day doing chores. I did some maintenance tasks on both our coach and with Peggy on hers. Checked the batteries, oil, other fluids, and lubed the slides and steps. We also changed out our water filters and I cleaned out a couple of storage bays. All and all, a pretty productive day. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did BBQ for dinner. I had a nice T-bone and Jackie and Peggy both had rack of lamb. We had a really nice dinner and after dinner the girls played some cards. When Peggy went home we watched TV and went to bed.

Friday, August 7^th, we were on the road again at 10:30 with Peggy, headed south to Newport, a coastal town about 40 miles south of Neskowin. We got into town around 11:30, drove around and explored a

bit, then went to lunch. We went to Georgie's Beach Cafe, which is right on the coast, overlooking the beach and Pacific Ocean. Jackie and I were here in 2016 and gave it good ratings, and Peggy said she and Vernon had eaten here at some time in the past. We all had clam chowder to start and it was excellent. Jackie had a seafood Cobb salad that was full of shrimp, fish and chicken, I had a fish sandwich that was probably the best ever. Peggy ordered fish tacos, but sent them back when she learned that the salsa might have avocado in it. She is VERY allergic to avocado. After lunch I walked down the boardwalk stairs to the beach and got a geocache. That was the only cache we got, but put us now to within three of the 10K finds milestone. We explored town a little, then went to Walmart, the only one on the coast as far as I know. We got our supplies and headed back north towards home, getting back a little before three. We relaxed for a bit, then had our cocktails outside at 5:00. We just had snacks for dinner, some of the brie we bought the other day in Tillamook, and some deviled eggs Peggy made. The girls played cards and about 8:00 Peggy went home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, August 8^th, my late mother's birthday. We were up early, on the road with Peggy around 9:30 heading to the Neskowin Farmer's Market, which is every Saturday and is still going on, with lots of

masks, signs and distancing. It was not real big, only about six or seven booths and they were all food as they were not allowing non-food vendors, like arts and crafts, to come. They said the reason is that food is an essential business, arts and crafts isn't. We bought a couple things, some cherries, cabbage and broccoli. After the farmer's market we went to get some geocaches nearby. We only got three finds, but the last one was number 10,000! We hit the milestone. We had Peggy take a picture with the sign I made just for the event. We then went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the day. I got some chores done. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did some meat on the BBQ for dinner. Peggy had a small steak and Jackie and I had pork chops. After dinner Peggy went home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, August 9^th, was Peggy's last full day here with us. She was able to only book one week here at the RV park while we had two. We went out after lunch with Peggy to do a little geocaching and do a Safeway run for some things Peggy needed. We got three new finds and then went to Safeway. After shopping we went back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did some hamburgers on the BBQ for dinner. After dinner Peggy went home and we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night. Peggy was packed up and on the road around 9:30, headed for Coberg and the REV service center to get some work done on her coach. She has an electrical problem that I have diagnosed as her Energy Management System. We had a stay at home day, did some chores and mostly relaxed. We had cocktails with just the two of us, then dinner and TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, August 11^th, we left the park a little after noon and went to lunch. We went to the Wildflower Grill in Lincoln City, a restaurant that we had gone to last year when we were here. Our reviews indicated that we really liked the food, so we thought we would go back. I think they must have changed cooks or something because today the food was OK at best. We both had the Philly steak sandwich, which was I had last year and said in the review was “one of the best I have had.” Today it wasn't even close. The meat was dry, there wasn't enough cheese, too many onions, and plated in such a way as to make it impossible to eat as a sandwich, which is what a Philly steak is supposed to be. The clam chowder was creamy tasting, but thin and served in a tall, coffee mug which made it difficult to get the crackers in and mixed and also put all the clams and potatoes at the bottom of the cup, also difficult to get up. There were lots of clams, but you only got them towards the end of the cup rather than throughout the process. I suspect we will not go back to this place in the future. After lunch we did a few geocaches in the south part of town, getting two new finds. We then stopped at the outlet mall because we both needed to get some new underwear and we like the outlet stores like Jockey and Hanes. You could tell that the pandemic is having an impact because a number of stores are closed down and those that are open are having some really great sales. I picked up a couple new shirts at bargain prices and we both got a couple packages of new undies. After shopping we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails at 5:00, but only snacks for dinner because we were still full from lunch. We watched some TV and went to bed.

Wednesday, August 12^th, we went out after lunch and did our laundry. We were finished about 3:00 and went back to the coach and put everything away. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon. After cocktails Jackie made a nice meatloaf for dinner. After dinner we watched some TV and went to bed. Thursday we left after lunch, around 12:30, and headed out to do some exploring and caching. We drove north on Hwy 101 about 12 miles or so, then took some of the smaller, back roads back south. We were able to get three new finds along the way. After our touring we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We had cocktails and leftover meatloaf for dinner. After dinner we relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 14^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove into Lincoln City for lunch, some geocaching and a quick grocery run. We had lunch at a Mexican place called Puerto Vallarta, which had

excellent Yelp ratings. We have been coming to Oregon for summer travels off and on for 15 years and have never found a good Mexican restaurant. Being South-westerners we know Sonoran Mexican food and it seems that Oregonians don't. This place however, gave us hope. The food was outstanding, as good as anything we get in Arizona or California. Nothing special mind you, just good tasting with authentic flavors. The service was pretty good too. We were happy to finally find a decent Mexican place in Oregon. After lunch we did some caching, getting three new finds and one DNF in about 90 minutes or so. After caching we stopped at Safeway for a couple things, then went back to the coach for the rest of the day. We didn't have any dinner because of the big lunch.

Saturday, August 15^th, we left the coach about 1:00 for an afternoon of exploring and caching. We

drove north and turned off of Hwy 101 for Pacific City about five miles north of the park. Pacific City is a small unincorporated town of about 1,000 population which is located on the coast at the mouth of the Nestucca River. Part of the town fronts on Nestucca Bay and the north part of town fronts on the Pacific. Being the weekend the town was extremely busy and it took us 20 minutes to go a couple of miles through town. We continued north on the coastal road out of town, just exploring. We were able to get four geocaches that we came across on our route. We also found several areas with large blackberry bushes and were able to get three baggies of fresh blackberries. Yum! Ice cream and blackberries for the rest of the year. After our exploring we went back to the park and relaxed for rest of the afternoon and evening.

Sunday, August 16^th, our last full day here in Neskowin was a chores and relaxation day. I packed up

the outside stuff so we could leave in the morning and got a couple other little chores taken care of. Monday was a travel day. We were packed up and on the road by about 9:30, heading southeast back to Coberg, Oregon. It was a fairly uneventful trip except that I missed a turn, which took us a little bit out of our way, but on a very nice, scenic road, so it was no big deal. We arrived in Coberg at the Eugene Kamping World RV park about 2:00, got settled in and hooked up. We did minimal set up because hopefully tomorrow we will be moving a few blocks down the road into the RV park at the REV Service Center so we will be there for our appointment early Wednesday. We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Tuesday, August 18^th, I went over to the REV service center in the car about 10:00, checked in for tomorrow and found out that they had a spot in the RV park for us. I went back to the coach and we packed it up and drove the half mile, reparked in the REV lot. We again did minimal set up because we have to have the coach all buttoned up and ready for them to take it into the garage by 7:30 a.m. After we got parked and set up we headed out in the car to run some errands. We first drove down to Eugene, about six miles south, then stopped at a Chinese restaurant called Legend of Szechuan, which had really good Yelp ratings. It was a very big, nicely decorated place in a trendy area not too far from the campus of the University of Oregon. It was a lot of bars and restaurants called Market Square. The restaurant did not have a normal Chinese menu, but did have a lot of interesting sounding dishes. I had sesame beef and Jackie had kung pao beef. The portions were large and it tasted OK, but not spectacular. Not a lot of flavors and mine was nothing but beef, no veggies, just the rice on the side. We did end up taking leftovers out. After lunch we did a Walmart run, then we went back to the REV center and spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Wednesday, August 19^th, we were up at 6:00 and had the coach ready to go at 7:30. After they took the coach in we got in the car and left for a day of driving around, sightseeing and caching. We cached on and off all morning and most of the afternoon, getting nine new finds and no DNFs. In between we stopped at a store called Bi Mart, which is a membership store we joined a couple years ago. They are only in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. They seem to be a liquidator type of store, buying overstocks and the like, but they do have good savings. We later stopped for lunch, again in Eugene, at a brew pub called North Fork. We were able to eat outside in the shade and it was very nice. The food was excellent. I had a steak sandwich and Jackie had a big burger. We both were really full, but satisfied with the food and service. We stopped at Costco, but just to get some gas in the car, then headed back to the REV center. They had told us they closed at 3:30, so we needed to be back before 3:00. We got back a little early and the coach was still in the garage, so we relaxed in the waiting room. About 3:00 the service guy came out and surprised us by telling us that they were not going to be able to get the coach out of the shop tonight, so we would have to go to a hotel. Yikes, surprise. The work we were having done was replacement of all the radiator and cooling hoses as well as the fan belts. He said the company that provides the parts was late getting them to the shop and the coach was not movable because it still didn't have all the cooling system put back together. He did say he was hopeful that it would only take a few hours in the morning to finish, so we might be able to travel south to Medford tomorrow as planned. Fingers crossed. They let us into the coach to gather a few things for the night and we set off to a Comfort Inn Suites in Springfield, about four miles south of Coberg. REV had a corporate account with them, so we got a discount rate and ended up paying $115 for the night. I will say it was a nice room, much bigger and nicer than the one we had in Flagstaff a couple months ago. We spent the evening in the room, watching TV and relaxing.

Thursday, August 20^th, We got up around 7:30, had coffee and watched the news on TV. About 9:00 the service guy called and said the work we had asked for was finished, but told us that the radiator coolant tank had a crack and was leaking. He had one in stock and said they could have it in by the time we got checked out and back to the service center. We got there about 10:00 and by a little after 11:00 we had paid the bill ($2,400) and were hooking up the car for travel. We stopped for fuel at the truck stop across the street, and were on the road before noon. We were really only about 2 hours late and it is only a three hour drive south 167 miles to Medford. We arrived at the Southern Oregon RV Park, which is run by the Jackson County Parks and Rec Department, just before 3:00. We got parked, hooked up and set up before cocktail hour. We are going to be here for three nights. While we were setting up we got a call from some friends of ours, Geoff and Johanna Matthews, who had noticed on Facebook that we were headed for Medford. When Jackie told them where we were it turns out they are in the same park, just a couple rows over. Small world. We had an early dinner because we hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday, then about 6:00 we walked over and spent about 90 minutes visiting with Geoff and Johanna, as well as some friends of theirs that I know from the Military Veteran's Chapter of FMCA, Jim Fitzpatrick and his partner Kara. I am the vice president of the chapter and Fitz, as he goes by, is the National Director. We had a nice visit, then went back to our coach and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Friday, August 21^st, we had a free day. We left the coach about 1:00 and drove 23 miles back to Grants Pass so Jackie could get a haircut. She got her hair cut here a month ago and liked the way the girl did it and wanted to have her do it again before we left Oregon. The girl didn't start work until 2:00 so we stopped at Fred Meyers just to window shop for a while. We ended up buying some steaks they had on sale. We got to the Great Clips about 2:30 and Jackie got her haircut. After the haircut we went to an Abbey's Pizza shop to pick up a pizza. We have had Abbey's pizzas before during trips to Oregon and they are really good. They are no inexpensive, but neither is our biggest favorite, Round Table, which is a California pizza chain. Once we had the pizza in hand we headed back to Medford. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the coach doing little chores. We were going to have cocktails with the Matthews' but they were going out to dinner, so we had happy hour on our own, ate our pizza for dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, August 22^nd, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We didn't stay out too long as it

was hot and very smokey from all the wildfires in Northern California and Southern Oregon. We did stop at a Hobby Lobby just to do some shopping. After we got home we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Sunday was another travel day. We were packed up and on the road a little after 9:30, headed south back into California to Redding, about 150 miles. The smoke was worse today and only got heavier the further into California we went. At least traffic was pretty light today. We arrived at the Redding Elks Lodge about 1:00, got into a space and set up for our three night stay here. We hope to see Peggy, who lives in nearby Mineral, while we are here. Since the smoke was so thick you could taste it, we didn't go anywhere after we got set up.

This brings us to a little over three weeks since we published. Our arrival back in California, on our way back home to Pahrump, marks a good place to close out this chapter. Until next time, remember that we can kill time, we can save time, we can rob and get robbed of time. We can lose time, and we can have all the time in the world. But no one of us is powerful enough to stop the march of time or slow it down. Enjoy your time. See ya soon.