July 17 2024: First 10 days in Oregon

 

The first night in Oregon was at Harris Beach State Park.  Managed to get to the Sunday market in Brookings, the nearby town.  Learned a bit about the effect of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011 (which took out the nuclear power plant) on this town.  Fascinating stuff.

In Oregon at last

Steelhead country

The Japan tsunami hit Brookings due to some weird underwater geology and caused a lot of damage

The Steelheads doing their thing

The start of the amazing Oregon coastline

Then on to Coos Bay for a night.  Stayed at an RV park next to the local casino.  Once again a town established on the delta/estuary of the Coos river.  Huge lumber and wood chip industry, and the best Indian/Himalayan restaurant I have eaten on the trip - was really awesome. Also, after traveling for more than 2 years through a large part of the US of A and staying in countless RV parks, on one day I see 2 of Barbie's cousins in the park - avid Suzuki enthusiast and it was great to compare notes on the good/bad of towing a Suzuki.  Was really fun meeting up.

Coos Bay RV park next to the lagoon

What to do with trash - really great town

Sign of things to come...

Read the handwritten part...

Some beautiful old bridges that span the rivers

The further north we go the more noticeable the poverty becomes

The coastline is all picturesque bays and headlands

Coos Bay lighthouse

Way to spend a Sunday afternoon

Weird rock formations - read the next pic

Explanation of the rock formations - zoom in

You can actually see how pieces of the coastline fell into the water

Very loud sea lions (or seals)

Then it was off to 4 4 day stays at Thousand Trails RV parks.  The first one was at South Jetty / Florence at the mouth of the Suislaw river. Close to the beach and a huge dune-scape? nearby where I did a 30 minute ride in a dune bug.  In general I am dead against people tearing up the dunes in their cars, but...it was fun.  Also started a conversation with a guy in the local bar who was wearing a trump hat.  He was there for an antique car rally and had a 1932 Model A ford. Was complaining how difficult life was being retired from a school job.  After 2 beers I realized once again that it is of no use... anything outside their echo chamber is not believable and it all just depressed me.

Flim and Flam looking out through a very dirty window at the campsite

Miles of sand beach

Florence, OR and the Suislaw river

An 'English' pub in Oregon ???

The bridges are awesome and the wind never let up

Bad sign (but good) in the RV park - hopefully they were not all heroin

The dune buggy.  Note the front wheels have these ridges to the outside

The crew with a tree 'island' in the background.  There were these weird patches of large trees (tree islands) scattered throughout the dunes

The tree islands in the distance.  We hit 60mph on the sand at times

Standard Oregon beach weather

The 1932 Model A Ford of the trump supporter I chatted to in the local bar. For a retired teacher he must definitely be struggling under the current economy.

Crabin' on the river.  Note all the notches in the railing made by the ropes used for the crab traps.

Cape Malay curry

Then it was on to Whalers Rest, Newport on the Yaquina river/bay.  Newport has one of the best aquariums in Oregon apparently and I went to visit.  It was amazing.  Had the walk-through tunnel, some amazing sea life that I would not be able to see from the rocks, and I wanted to see puffins.

Live SandDollars

Now that is cammo

Giant pacific octopus - sad to see this amazing creature in here, but it was apparently a rescue

Unfortunately did not see too many of them in the wild - but that is probably due to me forgetting my binocs every @-)$(-(_()$) time

Puffins!!!

So fun fact about these 2 - one is a tufted puffin and the other a  horned puffin.  They are both males and did not get mates for the season, so moved in together.  In general horned and tufted puffins never socialize.

Penguins vs Puffins

A wolf eel - ugly as they come, but I always wanted to see one

Cannot see the scale, but there were some huge halibut.  These fish who swim 'normal' when they are born and then migrate to swimming on their sides fascinate me

My first time in an aquarium tunnel - it was amazing

Fish tacos for lunch at the aquarium...

Ney beach

It was always cool (60s) and damp, so a fire was essential

Whalers Rest, South Beach

Last one of the dune ride.  In between the dunes are these pools of fresh water that stay there most of the season and then also these islands of trees.