Visit our Popular Forums

Gene · 07-17-2021, 02:59 PM

I get those problems with broken thin skin too, or hematomas (blood bruises) on the back of my hands and arms. Fortunately they stop bleeding pretty fast, but they sure look bad.

I keep thinking of a trip up the coast from northern Cal. to BC, but many things get in the way including old age, too many things to do and having to be ready to go to Pueblo at any time because Barb's mother is quite old. Hearing about your trips helps me remember our trips up and down the coast with fondness and also makes me jealous.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-09-2021, 11:42 PM

Hi, we have been quite busy so this report is about a week after our trip. Looking on line we both found the same campgrounds (2) that we thought would work for us. Lee's first choice was my second choice. So we went with Lee's choice, which was Mercer Lake campground. We pulled into the entrance of a somewhat confusing situation as to where to park before going to the office. In the office, when it was my turn, I asked if there was a place that we could stay for three nights. The girl at first said no, but then noticed my trailer. Then she checked and said that someone must have cancelled. We were given space number three. She thought that I was looking for a cabin. I said I would take it without knowing that this space did not have a sewer connection. We should be able to last three nights without having to drain our tanks. This was the only space left waiting for us people without reservations. Space number two was empty, but looked like it might have problems, so it wasn't rented.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 12:03 AM

Hi, we left the camp ground and hit the road in our normal fashion. Have been up and down the Oregon Coast many times, but we have never stopped at the Sea Lion Caves. One more item to check off of our non-existant Bucket List. Well let's just say we did it. The parking lot is on the opposite side of the street, on a curve, with no cross walk; So look both ways and run for your life. They actually have four parking lots. The smallest one is right in front, good luck parking there. A second parking lot is up the street and a short walk to get there, it was on the wrong side for our driving direction. A third parking lot is where we found the last space available. And finally the fourth parking lot for over flow and RV's is up a hill, just above the run for your life curve in the road. The speed limit is 55 MPH, [Highway 101] but with a warning sign recommending that you slow down to 30 MPH due to pedestrians.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 12:16 AM

Hi, there are so many light houses along the Oregon coast, but Newport seemed to be the only one that we could find and drive to. Now we are on the lookout for more Light houses to see. Heceta Head was one of them. We parked in a parking lot under the bridge and I believe this one was a one mile hike to get to the Light House. The beautiful house was where the light keeper lives. Must be nice. I want that house.

Posts number 1722, 1723, and 1724 were done on our first day there 8-2-2021.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 12:28 AM

Hi, we are in the Florence area and and most of the beaches are sand dunes. Very hard to walk on the very soft sand especially up hill and all of them had a hill to climb to get to the beach. Lee wanted to see the beaches so we did. It was hard for both of us, but we do what we can while we can. This beach had millions of broken shells or would you call them shell fragments? Very sparkly looking.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 12:38 AM

Hi, we found another light house to visit. They have a tour of the light house, but because they usually have a steel spiral stair case, I didn't think it would be good idea for Lee, or me, to take the tour. We don't need to get hurt. The state park, like most of them here in Oregon have camp grounds and the sign [below] was a common sight. The old boat was interesting. The large building was an art crafts shop and and art store. The store had some very interesting items and some wood carvings going for close to $4,000.00 that are great to look at, but not for our house. The five door garage was a gift shop; It also had some interesting things too. We bought two large cookies, ate them in the truck, and hit the road. Within a mile or so there are several campgrounds, most of which are just parking lots. One was a nice camp ground, one was more for dune buggies, and one was for boaters. We might try to stay at the nice camp ground in the future.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 12:56 AM

Hi, this is a very nice looking bridge and it's quite long too. We pulled off to a side road to get a better view of the bridge and some pictures. We were passed by several emergency vehicles headed towards the dunes. We can only imagine what might have happened knowing what goes on with dune buggies.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 01:10 AM

Hi, Going into Coo's Bay to see the gardens. Lee heard about this place, but we never quite made it there. So today we are going to see it. Lee wants to go back in December when they have the whole place lit up for Christmas. Of course Lee saw something in the gardens that I might have to build for her. I was instructed to take pictures so I could figure out how to duplicate them. In the Rose garden, I saw onw plant with a dangerous amount of thorns on it, like never seen before. Also a strange looking tree with a bird's nest in the knot hole.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 01:24 AM

Hi, so many different flowers so I took several pictures for you. Some nicely dressed pretty girls were there too; I asked them if there was a wedding or something here today. They said their Mom got married here in the garden.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 01:29 AM

Hi, we spotted another light house and a place to view it. No name that we could find and no way to get there. Besides the fog was rolling in again so maybe we better get back to the camp ground.

Post numbers 1725, 1726, 1727, 1728, 1729, and 1730 were all done on 8-3-2021.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 01:40 AM

Hi, this was at a Day Use area near our camp ground. Too much for me to explain so please read the board about the Darlingtonia plant. I found it quite interesting. The plant in the very last picture was in this garden area too. Lee told me to take a picture of it so we can go to the local Nursery and buy one. And we did.

This post was taken on 8-4-2021.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-10-2021, 02:00 AM

Hi Thursday 8-5-2021 was our time to depart this camp ground and end this adventure. Lee wasn't feeling good and wanted to get home reasonably soon. I decided to pass on the dump site and take care of that at home. Lee has had a bad feeling in her chest and stomach areas. We, previously, went to Urgent care and there's not a whole lot they can do for you. See your Doctor; Well that could take a month. So I took her to Salem Hospital E.R. where they will at least run some tests and give us a better idea of what to do and expect. Because of that Lee has had to make some diet changes and was able to get a doctor's appointment right away. Later this morning we will be going to Kaiser for Lee and see about getting a few more tests recommended by the hospital doctor. While there I will get a blood test for my up coming C.T. scan.

On the bright side everything with my truck and trailer worked great. Lee still wants to take more short trips like these, at least one a month. I think we can do it.

Thank you for traveling with us on our famous Random Trips.

ROBERT CROSS · 08-10-2021, 08:30 AM

Thoughts & prayer'z back at you Bob. Hope all turns out well for you.

Bflo Bob
🇺🇸

“I’m thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, and dreams that turned into reality.”

jhenry · 08-10-2021, 09:19 AM

Thanks for the pictures and narrative brings back great memories of trips down the Oregon coast. The pictures of the sea lions made me think of the smell! the Umpqua area and Newport where we stayed at a campground over looking the ocean.Great memories.Thank you! Hope all is well health wise. Jonathan

Gene · 08-10-2021, 10:47 AM

Bob, I hope Lee feels better and it turns out to be nothing serious. I had an abdominal issue in March and changed my diet for several weeks and everything is pretty much ok now, but I still wonder what really happened. The docs don't really know either. Peculiar things happen as we age. Glad to hear the trip otherwise went well.

Good luck with the large pergola—lots of joinery challenges. Because Asian woodworkers did not have decent glues, centuries ago they invented ways of securely joining wood without glue. Those pergolas may have been constructed that way. That doesn't mean you can't use glue, screws and pegs. It will look nice outside your lighthouse home.

HiHoAgRV · 08-11-2021, 07:57 PM

Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 10-03-2021, 10:28 PM

Hi, after our last trip and a good Oregon rain, my tongue jack decided to start going up by-it's-self. When Husky gets them in stock, they will send to me a new tongue jack. I tried several things to find out why this is happening, but never figured it out. I finally disconnected my tongue jack from my batteries. Lee said that it would be bad if we were driving and the tongue jack started to go up by-its'-self. We can't have that happen.

This is one of the reasons that we have not been able to take our trailer out. So while I'm waiting for a new tongue jack to arrive, I placed a few orders from E-bay. I ordered a tongue jack cover [not here yet] even though I don't think one should be necessary. And I ordered a small battery disconnect switch so I can shut off the power to the tongue jack when not in use. I installed the switch today.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 12-26-2021, 10:08 AM

Hi, well I guess we are done for this year. Too many Doctor's appointments and still more to come. I winterized my trailer because of weather reports that it is going to start getting cold. Very late last night [Christmas day] we got a tiny bit od snow. Right after midnight my Christmas snow came down. The Sun tried to come out, but right now the snow is pretty heavy.

Gene · 12-26-2021, 01:20 PM

I hope you solved the jack issue. We had 6 1/4" of snow greet us when we returned home after visiting Barb's mother. Fortunately the trailer stayed home this trip because travel over Monarch Pass would have been very difficult with a trailer—snow, ice, high winds, and white outs. Snowing again off and on and we welcome the atmospheric river. As of Friday, we actually have a normal precipitation year.

I'm glad Lee has healed enough to travel. As a fellow back injury sufferer, I appreciate the struggle with back problems.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 06-28-2022, 12:55 AM

Hi, we have been slowly working on the trailer so we can use it again. Finally the weather has cleared up so we can use our trailer again. But our weather went straight from cold and rainy to clear and too hot.

A little stick in the spokes; Our washing machine decided to stop with only 26 minutes left on the timer. I have for decades, fixed my own machines, and still do. But this machine is more electronic and if it needs a circuit board, it would cost about $350.00 and that is too much to gamble on. I took this machine into my garage and took some of it apart. I couldn't find anything mechanical wrong. I have no other way to find the problem by myself and I'm not paying ssomeone $100.00 to just tell me that it is not worth fixing. These machines are about nine years old, so we just bought new ones.

Now with that out of the way, we can focus on maybe taking a trip. we think this trip could be longer than the short trips that we took last year. Maybe 7 to 10 days??????? We don't know. We do think that this first trip will all be in Oregon. Some along the coast and some more inland.

Our F-150 has been in hibernation all winter to prevent the Oregon green slime from forming on it. I only had to air up the tires to my towing spec. I also aired up the trailer tires and they were quite low. They are supposed to be set at 65 lbs. Some were as low as 45 lbs. The trailer was dirty and just too hot to wash. Lee wasn't happy with a dirty trailer, so this afternoon when it started to cool down, and wasn't too dark, I washed it..

We are leaving tomorrow morning. We have no idea what-so-ever where we will stay, because as you know, we don't make reservations. We also don't know how much this will cost. Wish us luck; We might need it this time.