Tuesday evening:
We stayed at the Honey Bear Campground near Gold Beach, owned and operated by a German couple who have developed a loyal clientele, mostly due to their evening Bavarian dinners and entertainment. Cabbage rolls, chicken, potato pancakes, etc. enjoyed over a class of wine, followed by the harmonica stylings of Mr. Honey Bear (don't know his name). He obviously enjoys entertaining, but could have tossed out a few of his ‘blue’ jokes. The food was good. We haven't eaten out all that often on this trip. The coach refrigerator is still loaded with frozen meat and other goodies. Just haven't eaten it all up. I can easily say I 'overplanned' the amount of food we would consume. Had to throw out some perishables because we never got around to eating them and they went bad.The refrigerator is not functioning all that well. We will be replacing the ice maker and checking into the internal fan - it doesn't seem to be working all that well. Otherwise, and except for the wacky satellite dish that only connects once in a while, everything else seems to be working fine.
Wednesday evening:
We're back in CA at a nice campground along the East Branch of the South Fork of the Eel River (which we have crossed NUMEROUS times in the past several days) and I'm missing the beauty and rusticity of the Oregon coast already. We crossed the border about noon today, bid adieu to our last Fred Meyer in Brookings, OR. Once in CA, driving through the magnificent redwood forests was an opportunity to experience the 'forest primeval'... tallest trees I have ever seen, their uppermost regions obscured by deep, swirling fog. Amazing! Beautiful! Stunning!
This has been quite an adventure, driving the 101 along the Oregon and upper CA coast. Narrow curvy roads with no shoulder, just feet away from road edge, cliffs plunging hundreds of yards straight down into the raging waters of the Pacific, so many rivers emptying their precious cargo into the ocean, low tides and high tides surrounding promontories reminiscent of Morro Rock,
trees like long sticks covered with boughs of green needles. Priceless. I am sad it is all behind us now, but I am looking forward to visiting Fort Bragg and Mendocino tomorroq. Probably our last experience with rugged coastlines.I loved all the towns along the Oregon coast, not a big box store in sight from Astoria except for the wonderful Fred Meyer; all small businesses, dependent on logging, fishing, farming, driftwood designs and tourism. We saw herds of grazing dairy cows here and there too, unusual for these eyes as we see mostly angus and hereford and brahma in our part of the country.
One interesting sight we came upon was cranberry fields! They were empty, the harvest gone by, but it was interesting to see the structure of the fields. We've all seen those commercials on TV about cranberries from New Hampshire or wherever; I had always wondered how they were grown.
We stopped at a Myrtlewood factory store in Port Orford Tuesday, where we learned more about this unique wood, found only on the Oregon and CA coast. They showed us how they make the wooden bowls and other artifacts. Interesting, and here I was looking for 'Made in China' to be imprinted in all the items sold in the store! Not so, they were made in the back room!
Once we leave Mendocino, we will be on the homestretch and the territory we cover will be familiar. We should be home in Santa Ynez by Friday, our wonderful trek concluded.
Happy trails to all,
Bonnie Jerry Leslie Lucy
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