Thursday, September 8, 2016

Joani and Katie really want Sam and Gray Man to be besties.  The only problem is Sam has always thought cats deserve his best growling and barking.  I'm afraid, with his attitude, if he ever got close enough to a cat he would probably get his nose sliced to ribbons.  Can you see what he's thinking?  "Why can't I go get me some of the cat?"

Gray Man, on the other hand, is pretty indifferent, but still seems to wonder "why is this thing in my house?"

Some dogs and cats get along pretty well, but I don't know if Sam will ever come around.  We separated them into their respective motorhomes and headed to the North Lincoln County Historical Museum.  Joani liked the personal stories told throughout the museum.

The museum was filled with personal accounts of what it was like for early settlers.

They had quite a collection of glass floats.  These were made to support fishing nets and many have drifted across the entire Pacific from Japan.  Sometimes the fisherman has his name on the float.

I was quite amazed to learn the average Albatross will fly 15 million miles in its lifetime.  There was no explanation as to how this number was determined, but even if they were off by a factor of ten it would still be an impressive distance.

It stings a little bit when museums start to have things you used when you were young.  The garage I worked in as a teenager had a diagnostic machine that looked almost like this one.

I also had a collection of 8 track tapes - I did not know they were museum-worthy already!

A lot of the early development along the coast was about tourism and, of course, camping.  The museum had a few exhibits to give the feel of camping 80 years ago.  I sure am happy today's camping bears so little resemblance to those days. 

I would be happy to find a Japanese glass float on the beach, but one of these old mines, not so much!

During one week in 1947, six Japanese mines drifted onto Oregon's coast.

Just for the record, there was a step stool next to the saddle and we were encouraged to interact with the displays in the room below.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016, Taft, OR

Wapiti RV Park is located 2 miles off of highway 101 and just at the southern edge of Lincoln City.  It was a very short drive to visit one of the original areas of town named Taft.  Being a small town there was free parking just steps away from the beach.

In 1968, the towns of Cutler City, Delake, Nelscott, Oceanlake, Taft, and Wecoma Beach were all combined and renamed Lincoln City.

I was looking up at the vacation houses on the bluff overlooking the waves and thought how nice it might be to own one of those. Strangely, I struck up a conversation with a guy walking his dogs who owned the very house I had been eyeing.  He enjoyed his time at the beach but lamented that he only got to spend a few months a year here while he had to pay for it year 'round.  That quickly reminded me why we travel in our vacation home.

This was the beach at the "Taft Historic District."

This was the most sedate group of Harbor seals.  I don't think I heard a single "honk" from any of them.

Yes, the water is that cold!

We were combing the beach for interesting rocks.  I don't know why this one caught my attention other than I thought it looked so much like a potato.  I named it "sea spud" and dropped it back into the sand.

I estimated we walked a total of two miles barefoot in the sand.  What I was surprised to see was a fresh sunburn on the previously white stripes on my feet usually covered by my flip flop straps.  

Tuesday, September 6, 2016, Salem, OR

The Polk County Fairgrounds had a pretty late check out time and we did not have a long drive to our next site.  Salem was only 10 miles away, so even though it was overcast and spitting a little rain we decided to visit the Oregon Capitol Building in Salem.  I really appreciate state capitols located in small towns.  They are so much more accessible making the visit so much more pleasant.  I didn't even mind paying for parking on the nearly empty street just a stone's throw from the front door.  Oregon's Capitol looked very different.  It didn't have the usual dome, but I think it worked pretty well.  

There were two women sitting just outside the governor's office who said I could sit in his chair, so I didn't even have to be sneaky about the picture below.

Tom McCall 1913-1983, Governor 1967-1975

Artist:  Henk Pander, 1982

(I found this portrait intriguing.)

 "A Parade of Animals"

by Peter Helzet, 1991

 Capitol Beaver Family Sculptor, Kenneth M. Scott - June, 1985

One of the most fascinating trees I have seen in a while - the Cherry Birch - had some impressive reds in its bark.

The capitol building below, built for just $500,000, was started in 1873 and completed in 1892.  It replaced the original capitol building in Oregon City (now a suburb of Portland) which burned in 1855 (before Oregon was a state).  The second capitol building burned down in 1935.  The only parts of the structure remaining were the column segments displayed on the grounds.

Who knew the columns were just limestone veneer over a solid brick center?  I guess you learn something new every day.

We were meeting up with Katie and Mike to caravan to our next campground, Wapiti RV Park in Lincoln City, OR, just a short 55.1 miles (79,731.9 total) away.  Our route was all secondary roads and had quite a bit of traffic, but everything went smoothly and the park was very nice.

Wapiti was the Indian word for Elk and there was a huge grassy pasture next to our sites which seemed promising.  Joani immediately noticed a familiar coach in the park.  Juliet, who we met in Dayville several stops ago, was here with her two canine traveling companions, Romeo and Mick Waggers.

Being one of the more busy days we have had in a while, it was good to settle in with a glass of wine and relax for the evening - may be one of the best parts of living on the road!

Saturday, September 3, 2016, New Tires for the Dream

Today, along with moving to a new park, we also made a stop to get new tires on the coach.  Our tires were manufactured in February of 2007, so they were closing in on 10 years old!  I had noticed the start of some cracking around the lettering on the sidewalls.  The tread still looked like new since they had less than 30,000 miles on them, but I had pushed my luck far enough.  I had arranged with Superior Tire Service in Eugene to have a set ready for us.  We arrived early in the morning, so they went to work immediately.  We headed out for breakfast to pass the time.

Ninety minutes later the coach was ready to go.  I purchased the tires through the FMCA program so it would be a few days before we would find out how much they cost.  (When we received our receipt from Michelin, we found the program saved us a total of $116 over the already low price that Superior would have charged - not as much as I had hoped but still well worth the effort!)

We continued north to the small town of Rickreall, just west of Salem. There was not a lot there other than the Polk County Fairgrounds where we stayed.  With the stop for tires to break up the trip, it seemed like the 130.1 miles (79,676.8 total) went by quickly.  I don't think we have ever stayed in any place with so much open space between campers.

When I opened the door, I was looking directly at what I thought was a large shark on a trailer.  That seemed pretty odd and the park manager just scoffed when I asked him about it.

Later, when Sam and I took our first walk, my perspective changed and the shark became a huge Salmon named Claudia Chinook.

Adjacent to the fairgrounds was Nesmith County Park.  It was very nice with large trees shading several walking trails along a small stream. The park land was donated by the Nesmith family who helped settle the area in the mid-1800's.

Thursday, September 1, 2016, Toketee Falls

We found out there were a lot of interesting hikes along highway 138 east of Roseburg along the North Umpqua River.  This was the same road we traveled a few years ago to reach Crater Lake National Park. The road was a very nice wide 4 lane for the first 20 miles or so.  It then narrowed and became anything but straight as it began an uphill climb.

  

Highway 138 becomes very scenic after you pass the town of Glide.  The road follows the river and the views do not disappoint.

On that earlier trip, we were too focused on our destination to be bothered with any little side trips.  We were very happy we made the effort on this trip.  We started a little late in the day, so we opted for just one hike today - Toketee Falls.  Part of the river was diverted through huge redwood pipes to a hydroelectric generating plant, but there was plenty of water to make the falls a sight to behold.

The trail winds through old-growth forests of Douglas fir, western red cedar, big leaf maple and Pacific yew with several overlooks where we could see the raging water drilling holes in the rock.

The hike was only about a half mile, but we were warned about the steps that made it a little more of a challenge.  There were 97 steps up and 125 steps down on the way to the falls (of course, there are 125 steps up and 97 steps down on the way back).

Toketee was actually a triple falls.  The smaller upper two falls are almost hidden in the picture below.  

Unfortunately, there was no other vantage point for pictures unless you wanted to use some ropes to climb down the very steep (it appeared to be nearly vertical) slope next to the viewing platform. 

I think just about everyone was hiking with their dog.  These four got along well at the falls overlook.  Every dog we passed, large and small, was well behaved.  Sam really enjoyed the hike, but he had to stop and sniff things a little too often - at least I got plenty of breaks.