November 14th -18th
We were a little antsy to get back into the rig before winter set in and we jumped on a family reunion invite instigated by Christine and hosted by Harris’s brother Rick who was primed to show off his and Teresa’s hard work bringing their bonus room to near completion. We headed off at our usual early start time of 10 AM. Our first stop was a quilt show in Puyallup where Judy rushed through in 1 hour and Harris did a couple of geocaches (1of 2). For some weird reason the van refused to start after it had been turned off for a few minutes. No click, no cough, no engine churning, nothing. It would finally start after repeated tries of turning the key, taking out the key, reinserting the key. We were a little unsure and anxious of being stuck in the middle of nowhere so we looked for a Dodge Sprinter dealer to ask for some advice. The advice was “You need to pay a $100 diagnostic fee for us to tell you what we think. We can maybe get to it before we close but maybe not.” Since there were no engine codes and we would have to wait several hours without a guarantee that it would even be looked at, we decided to push our luck.
Next stop was Judy’s college friend Jean Gregory. She showed us their gorgeous newly remodeled kitchen while catching up on kids. Meanwhile Rick called to tell us that the Thomas female siblings were backing out of the family reunion and that Al would not make it until the following day. The anticipated family reunion was now down to 2 siblings from the original 5. The silver lining was that the weather broke; it was warm and sunny where the past many days and nights were downpours interspersed with gray cloudy drizzles. Dinner was at a nearby Mexican restaurant with more catch up talk which continued through apple pie back at Jean’s house. We rolled up to Rick’s house around 10 PM (only a few hours late but early by traditional Thomas time).
We stayed up late talking to Rick and Teresa, then went to bed in our little home away from home parked in the driveway. Even though the weather was gorgeous, the night was cold! Harris had bought a small electric heater, and it was put to good use. It warmed our “bedroom” quite nicely. The next day, Saturday, we took a short walk to a waterfall, and introduced nephews Michael and Adam to geocaching. It was fun to see them race, not walk, through the trees, barely looking at the gps…just race to get there first! Al arrived Saturday night, and we played hearts with a double deck because there were so many players. Judy was the high scorer! Which in this case meant, she lost.
We got a slow start on Sunday, due to an excellent breakfast, and good company, but we were anxious to get going to the Oregon coast. It was beautiful weather all around Portland, but got very foggy and gray around Salem. We cut over at Newport, then headed north for just a few miles to Beverly Beach. Helen and Joe Donahue had just arrived and luckily found two spots next to each other near the beach.
Beverly Beach is on the coast, of course, but Highway 101 is in between the campground and the beach. A bridge was being repaired right at the entrance to the campground, so we only had access to half the beach.
We’ve been blessed with many friends, and camping with them brings out the best. Helen and Joe brought more than enough food and snacks, and desserts, and coffee, and …well, you get the idea. Harris and Joe cooked steaks over the fire Sunday night. We played Boggle and Yahtze….Judy won!
Monday the weather was just…incredible. It was incredible for any time at the beach. But for the middle of November, it was a minor miracle...warm, clear, blue, sunny…wow! We geocached most of the day, from muddy trails to city sidewalks. The most interesting find was outside a little shop. The clue said something about an old horror movie that had been remade. Joe spotted a rock in the garden that looked a bit odd. Judy told him to pick it up and see if it was hollow..nope…but it did have a large plastic fly sitting on it. Aha! He picked up the fly, and sure enough, there was a little geocache tube attached to it. We ate a picnic lunch by Yaquina lighthouse. There was a lo-o-o-ng ramp (handicap accessible) down to the beach and some tide pools. We weren’t interested in walking down there (or more to the point, back up), but then we spotted something in the water. So we had to go look! Seals! Lots of seals, swimming in the tidepool bay, sunning themselves on the rocks, completely ignoring us. It was worth the steep walk back up to the car.
Harris and Joe cooked chicken over the fire that night. A little bit too well…done…but still tasty. We taught them the card game “quarters” that Candy and Rick taught us. Guess what! Judy won again! (If only the highest score was the winner…sigh. Who ever heard of a score of 315?????) Seriously, Helen won, and thought the game was marvelous. We enjoyed seeing our good friends, visiting with them, and playing games in their 24 (?) foot trailer with a slide out. Lots of room!
Helen and Joe had to leave Tuesday, but we thought if the weather held we’d stay another night somewhere on the coast. Alas, when we awoke on Tuesday morning, it was raining. We ventured up the coast anyway, and checked out a park at Pacific City the Donahues had told us about. As we drove through the deserted county park, Harris said, “Oh look! See the bunny?” cute little black and white guy, didn’t even twitch as we drove by him. Then we looked again, and there were seriously, bunnies all over the park. There must have been at least 50 or more. And bunny droppings all over the park. We decided that even if we were to stay another night, it wouldn’t be there! There was an interesting and huge rock in the water that we took a picture of.
One goal on all our trips is to take side roads instead of just the interstate. So, we took the scenic route along the coast, and stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory. It was a fun and interesting stop, with a good view of the factory, and tasty samples. We continued up Highway 6, then 47, then another highway to Apiary and Rainier, then crossed the Columbia at 432 at Longview. Whew. Would have been a lot shorter just to get to I-5 and shoot straight up that corridor, but we’ve done that a lot. Somewhere along highway 6, Harris remarked, “hey, at least there’s no traffic”…Just then, we rounded a corner and joined a huge line of backed up vehicles. We waited about 30 minutes before moving, then saw there had been a very bad accident, and cars were being routed around it one lane at a time. We were sobered by the scene.
We stopped in Seattle to say a quick hi to Tasha, and check that she was all right. She had called us when we were outside of Olympia to say she had been rear-ended getting off the freeway at 45th. She was ok, and the car had a dented back fender. But we were glad to see for ourselves that she was in one piece. We stayed for a short time, then headed home and arrived about 11.
Lessons learned: The heater was wonderful! We need to pack for any and all weathers. We could have used shorts at the beach, even if it was November! So, next time, shorts and coats! Harris had been busy before the trip installing a new HD radio and a CB radio. The radio was nice, but for some reason didn’t work on AM. Something to fix. The CB came in handy because it picks up a weather channel.
Don’t know when the next trip will be, so we might have to winterize the little house. We do have a big trip planned in the spring. (more later)
