Neskowin, Oregon

We arrived here at the Neskowin Creek RV Resort on Monday and will be here for two weeks.  This another in the Resorts of Distinction parks.

This is the entrance to the park.  This bridge doesn't look strong enough to hold a 16 ton RV, but no problem making it across.

The RV park is located in sort of a basin.  We are surrounded by hills of trees, lots of greenery.

There is a large indoor swimming pool, an indoor jacuzzi, and a large recreation room.  This morning, we walked over to the pancake breakfast that they serve on Saturdays, but we were too late.  It ended at 9:30 and we got there at 10:30.  So, we went back and had our own waffles, fresh blueberries and whipped cream.

We are parked at the far end of the park.

The Neskowin Creek runs on one side of the park.

The first few days were sunny and about 71 degrees.  The last few days have been overcast, foggy and in the high 60s.  

Neskowin is a really small town about a mile from where we are staying.  It doesn't even have a gas station.  We took a day to walk around the town and to the nearby ocean.

Saw this sign made out of plastic cups lodged in a fence in Neskowin.

And saw this sign, too.  I don't think they need to worry about anyone parking between these two signs which were about three feet apart.

Lots and lots of flowers around many of the houses in Neskowin.

Not sure what this one is, but thought it was pretty.

On another day, we drove into Pacific City.  It has a large rock in the ocean like Morro Bay, CA.

Ocean and rock in Pacific City.

Love the scenery here in Oregon.

On Friday we drove 10 miles into Lincoln City.  We got out of the fog and into the sun. Lincoln City is a much larger place than Neskowin and Pacific City.  At one time in 1983, Jerry, Susan (who then was 14 years old and didn't want to accompany us -- but we made her do so) and I flew to Portland and drove to Lincoln City to check out a piece of property located right on the ocean.  The property needed so much work, it really should have been torn down.  We didn't purchase it back then, but tried to find it when we were in Lincoln City this week.  We think we located it.  There is now a large hotel complex adjacent to and on the property.  It's probably worth millions today.

Lots of kite flying on the beach in Lincoln City.

We liked this one.

Another picture of the beach in Lincoln City.  We decided that we love this place, but it is a bit too windy and more on the cool side.  We'll take Cambria any day.

One other thing -- there are LOTS of rabbits in this park.  Jerry said that they probably find it safer in the park than in those hills around us.

We will be here for another week.  Hope the fog lifts.  But, if it doesn't, we are still more comfortable than others in the USA.  

Portland, Oregon

Loved our week here in Portland, Oregon.  The scenery on Highway 26 to get here was almost like Alaska.

Snow on Mount Hood ahead

Sign on entrance to the RV park

Parked in RV Park of Portland

The temperature was in the 70s and low 80s all week.  We could bike and walk on the paths alongside this park.   Portland has bike trails all over this place.

This trail is right next to the RV park

Jerry and Chanti on a walk

Lady Bug

Then, on Thursday evening, we were able to catch up with long time former neighbors in Playa del Rey, California.  We've known Dave and Julie over 20 years.  Jerry treated them to a meal that he made at their place in Lake Oswego.  We had leg of lamb with his special buttermilk sauce, Minnesota wild rice with bacon and onion, caramelized baby carrots, and the best homemade fresh blueberry pie with cream cheese.  Fun evening with them and their daughter, Amy Beth.

Dave, Amy Beth and Julie

On Saturday, we found a park along the lake and spent some time taking pictures, and walking the area.

Canoes on the lake

We even came across a wedding in process

Close up of the wedding ceremony

Right next to the RV park is a marker for the Williamette Meridian Line (an imaginary line extending between the North and South poles)

As long as I'm back talking about this RV park, let me show you a picture of a 45 foot Prevo and the tow car, a Chevy Town and Country, with both vehicles painted in matching colors.  We talked to the owner briefly this week, just long enough to find out her name and the fact that she lives alone and drives this big rig and tow car by herself.  Amazing!

Turquoise Prevo and tow car

Then, today, we went into down town Portland to the largest book store we have ever been in.  It is called Powell's Books.  It is three levels and has over 1 million books.  There is a large coffee shop in it and more books than you will ever see at one time in your life.  I could have spent days in that place. 

Powell's Books in Portland

Portland has Verizon 4G, making life so much sweeter for us.  It took me probably 5-10 minutes to update this blog.

We leave tomorrow for Neskowin, Oregon.

Redmond, Oregon - The Rally

We spent the week at The Rally here in Redmond, Oregon.  The Rally is put on by Good Sam.  There were over 3,000 RVs here and over 7,000 people who attended the 4-day event.  Lots of seminars, vendors and entertainment.

The weather was great for the first few days.  Then, thunderstorms set in on Thursday and rain periodically the rest of the week.  Temperatures were in the 60s and 70s.  We can't complain as we watch on the TV what the heat wave most of the country is experiencing.

RVs parked at The Rally (taken with cell phone)

This is where we were directed to park.

Snow still on the mountains in the background.  Beautiful area.

This is just one of at least 18 sites where attendees parked.

Then, on Thursday night, Jerry prepared a meal for a fellow RVer that we first met in Bismarck, ND last year.  Larry and his wife are also retired and also enjoy the motorhome lifestyle.  Unfortunately, his wife was "nanny sitting" and so he was at The Rally by himself.  We had a very nice evening with him.  

Larry and Jerry

We made one important purchase - we bought the Magellan RoadMate Pro 91656T, a GPS system designed especially for Rvers.  After you input your requirements into the system, such as no toll roads, dimensions (40 foot motorhome with a tow car), no small tunnels, type of road you want to  travel etc., the system calculates your trip.  It also gives us up-to-date traffic notices, has blue tooth pairing with your cell phones, and point-of-interests programming.  This way, we can push one button to find our Subways, Starbucks, Staples and Verizon Wireless - the four places we look for most often as we travel.

From here, we move on to Portland, Oregon tomorrow where we will be for a week.

Eugene and La Pine, Oregon

The night before we left Osprey Point, there was a bit of wind.  So, while we were inside eating dinner with the windows open, Jerry (with his super sense of smell), smelled something burning.  He looked out of the window and saw that the wind blew our rocker chair about 10 feet into the fire pit.  It was on fire.  Had to discard the chair.

Chair on fire

Packed up and left Osprey on Wednesday (July 6) for Eugene, OR.  Found a beautiful RV park just outside Eugene where we spent just one night.

Parked at Deerwood RV Park outside of Eugene, Oregon for one night

We especially wanted to stop in Eugene to spend the evening and catch up with Jerry's niece, Shea.  Brandon, her boy friend, was unable to join us as he had another engagement.  

We love a good vegetarian pizza and, every once in a while, we come across a real gem.  Such was the case when we visited Shea.  She picked up a pizza from The Pizza Research Institute that was absolutely delicious.

Pizza from The Pizza Research Institute in Eugene, Oregon

Jerry with his niece, Shea

Then, on Thursday (July 7) we drove the rest of the way to the Cascade RV Park in La Pine, Oregon, our home park for Coast-to-Coast and Resorts of Distinction (ROD) purposes.  We experienced beautiful scenery along the way.

Taken along Hwy 58 

Also taken along Hwy. 58

Vacant buildings along the way.  Guess this little place was actually a jail at one time.

Came across a "controlled burn" whose smoke really messed up our views for a few miles.

Parked at the Cascade RV Park in La Pine

Then, today, we took a drive (in the Tahoe) to visit the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Stopped to take a picture of the view

There are two lakes on this Federal park land RV parking right up to the sides of the lakes.

The views are spectacular with snow still on the mountains here in July

We will be here until Tuesday when we move up the road a bit to attend The Rally (Good Sam) in Redmond, Oregon.

Osprey Point RV Resort in Lakeside, Oregon Week 2

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL!  Hope everyone is enjoying themselves and having a safe 4th.

Remember the blueberry pie I wrote about earlier?  Well, couldn't stop thinking how good it was.  So we drove back the 20 miles to Winchester Bay to get a whole blueberry pie from Kitty's Kitchen.  People, you have to stop in and get pie from them when you come through here.  I feel as if we are becoming like my sister, Lavern, and our friends, John and Marijean, who focus in on the good eating places as they travel.

Me with the blueberry pie.

As if that isn't bad enough, we drove back to Kitty's Kitchen two more times this week because we discovered their cherry rhubarb pie.  It has walnuts on top.  Each piece is 1/6 of a whole pie which is quite generous.

The cherry rhubarb pie from Kitty's Kitchen.

Then, last night the City of Lakeside, Oregon had their fireworks display right on the water by the RV park.  That canal behind us had a traffic line of boats coming past us so that the boaters could watch the show from the water.

Boats on the lake waiting for the air show to begin. (Taken with cell phone from the dock that we showed you in last week's posting.)

Jerry set both of our cameras up on tripods in front of our motorhome, and we had fun trying to capture the fireworks.  Below are some of the pictures we took.  

We really enjoyed our evening with the people in this park.  Lots of people brought their own fireworks (large and expensive ones, almost like the show we had just witnessed).  Some went off right over our RV and others went off all around us until 1 a.m.  I said to Jerry that I thought the economy must be improving for people to be able to spend their money on fireworks as they did.  Afterwards we sat out by the fire Jerry had made.  Saw millions of stars in the sky and three shooting stars!

We figured out that we hadn't seen a fireworks display for five years because of the places we were at during the last four years.  All in all, we had a great evening.  Well, not Chanti!  Had to give her homeopathic anti-anxiety drops three times during the evening, and she still had a problem with the noise.

We plan on leaving here on Wednesday, heading to La Pine, Oregon, and stopping along the way to visit with Jerry's niece, Shea (that's her first name), in Eugene, Oregon.