Friday, October 19, 2012

10/11–10/14/12–Eureka to Petaluma to Fresno, CA

We left Eureka on October 11th continuing south on Hwy 101 through the Redwoods and past the variety of tourists stores along the way.

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We found a pullout along the highway prior to the city of Willits and stopped for our lunch break and then continued on south.  It wasn’t long before all traffic was stopped and we had to take a detour to avoid a bad accident on the 101.  We later found out it was a one vehicle accident with a pole and power lines were across the road and that the road wasn’t opened again until after 9pm that evening.  It was a narrow country road that we took for the detour, but we were glad we didn’t need to sit there for hours.

The detour eventually took us into Willits which is the home of the The Skunk Train.  That’s something we may have to look into on another trip.

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Back in Willits, we once again were heading south on Hwy 101 and judging by the long lineup of traffic, we were glad not have already made it through the detour and not headed north.

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And here we’re getting closer to Petaluma where the Elks lodge was our destination for the night.

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We left Petaluma on 10/12/12 and drove west and then south to Fresno.

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A sign at a raceway that Ken wanted to get to in his younger years.

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Several of the roads we took were toll roads where there was no toll for our direction of travel.

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A mass transit train parked alongside the road.

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When we got to the Fresno Elks, we found out we should have been reservations as they were full.  Fortunately they had a place where we could boondock and that worked out very well for the three nights we were there.

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10/13/12:  We had a couple of visits to make while in Fresno.  Our hunting partners for several years, George (Doc) and Sharon live north of Fresno.  It’s probably been 5 years or more since we had seen them.  We’ve been through the area 3-4 times the last few years, but it always seemed to work out that they were traveling and unavailable.  This time it worked out well and we had a very enjoyable visit and meal with them.

Doc, Ken and Sharon.

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10/14/12: And the second reason for our visit was to see Jan’s brother Dean who lives here.  We visited with him the next day and we actually talked him into taking us out to dinner…usually, it’s the other way around.

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We returned to the RV to get ready for our travels the next day and to relax a bit.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

10/8–10/10/12–Eureka, CA

Before leaving Brookings, Oregon and crossing the border into California, we filled the fuel tank so that we wouldn’t have to have too many stops for their high prices.

We followed this logging truck with a full load of only 5 logs.

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We drove across the bay to the Samoa area.

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There are what remains of an old bunker site.

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Back in town, we drove by the Ingomar Club, a large private mansion.

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One of the streets in the older downtown area of Eureka.

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We were parked and watching this marina where there were hundreds of birds to our right.  Suddenly, they all headed out to our left, but returned after a short time.  We’re assuming that one of the fishing boats may have thrown something overboard that got them all excited over a free meal.

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Since the Eureka Elks has full hookups, we took advantage of that to get caught up on laundry and some other cleaning shores while there.  It also gave us a chance to have our mail catch up with us.

10/6 & 10/7/12–The Oregon Coast from Brookings to Gold Beach and Back

The afternoon on Saturday October 6th was sunny so we decided to take a drive north toward Gold Beach and stop at various ocean viewpoints.

Several other people had the same idea.

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The seagulls were enjoying someone’s picnic lunch (or what was left of it).

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Oregon has these stations set up at several sites along the coast.

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Arch Rock with blue water looks like it would be off the coast of Mexico or someplace warmer.

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We assumed that this was House Rock as it has the vague shape of a house at the top of the rock.

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On Sunday, we drove to Gold Beach to have a look around.  We were glad to have gone to see some of the ocean access points on Saturday since it was quite foggy.  We crossed this bridge several times in the last couple of days.

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Once we arrived at Gold Beach, we had plans to try the same restaurant that Bill and Diane had been to the other day.  Unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday.  So before finding another location for lunch, we took a loop drive up the Rogue River and back.  There were very few locations where we could actually see the river.  But at this point, there were people fishing out of a boat on one side.

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And another person was on shore cleaning his salmon.

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Driving down the river on the other side, we spotted this herd of elk.

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The waves must be really strong in this area judging by the large amounts of driftwood on the shoreline.

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The it was back to Brookings for our last evening there.

10/5/12–Winchester Bay to Brookings, OR

We left Winchester Bay on October 5th and headed to our next destination of the Brookings, Oregon Elks lodge.

It wasn’t a very good day for photos with all the bugs on the front window, but we passed by the sand dunes.

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We crossed a few bridges during the day.

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and saw a few dinosaurs.

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We saw lots of boats out fishing…the salmon must be running.

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We didn’t get a picture as we went through Gold Beach, but Ken saw our friends Bill and Diane at a local restaurant when Bill got out of his car and waved.  We honked and continued a short way to where we could get off the road in case they tried to follow us.  After waiting a few minutes, we continued on our way and we found out later Bill and Diane continued on their way back to their campground north of town.

We also saw the Pacific Ocean.  There are all sizes and shapes of rocks along the Oregon coast.

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And we finally arrived at the Brookings Elks lodge which was to be our home for the next three nights.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

10/3/12–Lincoln City to Winchester Bay

We left the Lincoln City Elks Wapiti campground late in the morning of 10/3/12 and continued our journey south along the Oregon coast.

Along the way there are several scenic turnouts, and this was one of our favorites.  The waves came crashing into the shoreline and there was a blow hole that would spout off if the waves were strong enough.  It was really interesting to watch.

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This bridge went across that same area to another viewpoint, but we weren’t able to look back and see the spout from there.

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The glare from the RV windows doesn’t add to this photo, but here we’re getting into the Oregon sand dunes area.  It’s a very popular area for ATV’s, dune buggies, and sand rails.

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We arrived at our campsite for the next two nights in Winchester Bay.  We had a couple of colder overnight temperatures while here, but the daytime was beautiful and we boondocked in the Salmon Harbor Marina.

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Later in the afternoon, we drove around the area to see the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

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And here’s a view of the jetty at the Pacific Ocean and Winchester Bay.

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It was another beautiful day in our travels!

10/2/12–A Day Trip to Depoe Bay, OR and Newport, OR

We took a day trip to Depoe Bay and Newport on Tuesday 10/2/12.

It was getting windy, and there was quite a bit of wave action on the ocean side.

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In contrast, the bay seems very peaceful.2

Back on the Pacific Ocean side the surf was looking rough.

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We had a very good lunch at the Sea Hag in Depoe Bay then drove around a bit.  This custom Volvo had a very unique trunk ornament.

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We continued to Newport as we wanted to find some dungeness crab for dinner.  We went to the seafood market/cafĂ© in port area of town.  When we first walked in this cashier had her mouth full of food and was telling us how good it was.  It was a taco filled with pico de gallo and fresh tuna.  We purchased a couple of dungeness crab and some of the fresh bay shrimp to take home for some fresh seafood meals at home.

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This is the cashier who cleaned our crab for us and put it on ice.  Before leaving with our purchase, we were given one of the tuna tacos to try for ourselves along with some guacamole to go with it.  Although it wasn’t that long since we had our lunch, we managed to share it and it was excellent!

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The harbor in Newport always seems to be a favorite hangout for the local sea lions.  Some were bathing on the rock jetty.

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Others seemed to prefer the dock.

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Before heading back to the RV in Lincoln City, we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things.