Rain delay
I guess the title says it all. We spent the day listening to the pitter patter of rain on the roof of the fiver for the better part of the day. Watched a couple of good movies on HBO and we had our fireplace running all day. It’s amazing how they can make an electronic device look so real now days. Not much more to say.
Tillamook, Cape Meares Lighthouse & Latimer Quilt & Textile Center
Had a yen for good ice cream so we decided to run 40 miles north of Lincoln City to Tillamook Cheese Factory. Go figure … it’s not everyone that goes to a cheese factory for some ice cream but then we were there about 6 years ago and we still remember that ice cream. Had to make the trip worth while so I had me one of those triple scoops. Hardest part was choosing the flavors. Course, I for one just adore Tillamook cheddar – especially their extra sharp. To die for.
On the way out of town we stopped off at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center. As an avid quilter, Karen really enjoyed some of the antique quilts and weaving machines. While there, we struck up a conversation with some of the volunteers and it turns out that one of them is an author named Arlene Sachitano. She writes mystery novels with a quilting theme. Karen bought one of her books on display, ‘Quilt As Desired’, and had it personally autographed. Nothing like stitching with a thread of murder.
view photos of Tillamook Cheese Center & Latimer Quilt and Textile Center
We visited Cape Meares Lighthouse 10 miles west of Tillamook. It stands 217 feet above the ocean and the 38 foot tower is the shortest on Oregon coast. Cape Meares was illuminated in 1890.
view photos of Cape Meares Lighthouse and area
Newport, Oregon – Travel day
This is the longest leg of this trip at 366 miles. Google maps estimated 7 hours but when all was said and done, it took us over 8 hours to get to our final destination. The issue was not the drive cause it was straight up highway 101. By the time we got to Newport I was looking forward to getting the fiver unhooked and relaxing with a cold one or two. Alas, it was not to be. We had reservations at Harbor Village RV Park for 5 nights. I found this park on the internet and it was advertised to be across the Embarcadero Resort, Restaurants, and Marina. Lets just say that they chose to embellish the truth a bit. It’s kind of what they said except it’s located in an industrial park area and not the tourist locations.
view transit photos to Newport
So we get to the RV Park and the first thing I don’t see is the 104 wooded spaces but I do see sites nestled in hillsides. They had us scheduled for a site that was not much bigger than my GMC Sierra crew cab with the hookups on the wrong side of the fiver. So, I go to the office and inform them that this won’t work. She offers me their biggest site near the entrance but that would mean that I would be stepping out of the fiver and be on the driveway. I also quickly learned that about 2/3 of the park is occupied by full time residents. I’m glad we decided that this will not work and even though we didn’t know what we would be doing or where we would be going I decided to get a refund. To their credit I will say that they gladly refunded my fees.
So it’s now after 5 PM and we just decided to head north of Newport on Highway 101 to see what we could find. The chances of finding a Walmart to park for the night was not going to happen. To make a long story short, we were stuck in a traffic jam due to road work and we started calling anyone and everyone but no one was open cause their office hours are 8 to 5. Karen then found an Indian casino in Lincoln City and I called the Chinook Winds Casino Resort to see if they had an RV Park. Turns out they did but it was full. They referred us to the Devils Lake RV Park. We called them at 5:55 PM and it turned out to be open till 6 PM. The lady was really nice and said she would stay open until we arrived. It really was nice of her to do that for us. The park has 80 paved, 80 feet in length, RV sites. We were assigned one of the 47 pull throughs with free Wi-Fi, great cable TV, and the restrooms/showers are right across the street. I setup my Winegard Carryout and it found all 3 DishNetwork satellites in no time. I’m really liking this little guy and we’re trying to come up with a name for him/her. The pull throughs are kind of narrow and they could have made each space just a bit wider. Beggars can’t be choosy and all’s well that ends well.
view photos of Devils Lake RV Park site
Avenue of the Giants & Ferndale
We took a nice leisurely drive on the world-famous 31 mile scenic drive on a portion of the old Highway 101 called the Avenue of the Giants. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the 500 mile redwood belt.
view photos of Avenue of the Giants
We then proceeded about 30 miles north of Myers Flat to visit the Victorian Village known as Ferndale, CA. The town was originally made up of nothing but Victorian homes and Karen has always loved Victorian homes. Ferndale was small but it was all it was advertised to be. At this point, we learned that during April there is not much more to do around here and besides, the weather was rather cool. There’s a reason why they call it the off season. We decided to move on and only spend 2 nights here at Myers Flat California. Called our next destination, Harbor Village RV Park in Newport Oregon and made sure we could arrive a day early. Tomorrow, we head out to Newport for a 5 night stay.
view photos of Ferndale, CA
Myers Flat, California – Travel day
We left home about 9 AM for a trip to the giant redwoods, the beaches of Oregon, and a visit to Port Orchard Washington to visit with Eric, Jeanne and our twin 4 year old grandsons. I found traffic on I-205 and I-580 to be bearable through the Bay area until we got on Hwy 101 and cleared some of the suburbs. I believe this was the first time we ever crossed the San Rafael Bridge. It was also our first trip on this part of Hwy 101 and for the most part, the road was easy to negotiate. Our first destination on this trip was scheduled to be a 3 night stay at Giant Redwoods RV & Camp in Myers Flat California. This leg was 296 miles. The new 45 gallon diesel tank we installed before the trip sure made a big difference cause it easily allowed us to go the distance without refueling on route. For the purposes of this blog, I will be referring to the 5th wheel as my “fiver”.
Myers Flat is one of those small villages where you need to make sure you don’t blink or you’ll miss it. We found the RV park to be “rustic”. On the plus side it’s located right on the Eel River and our site was about 50 yards from the water nestled among lots of trees. During the right times of the year, it would be a great site for a fishing expedition for salmon and/or steelhead. On the minus side, the site was gravel and could use some work on leveling. Due to all the trees I could not get a satellite signal with our Winegard Carryout. The RV park cable only had about 8 stations and none were local stations. Myers Flat does not have a gas station. We had to backtrack 16 miles to Garberville before we found diesel. Diesel was $2.56 a gallon.
view photos of Giant Redwoods RV & Camp