Stunning vistas.....

We camped for free overnight at the Indian Casino at Coos Bay Oregon. Coos Bay is the end of the true Pacific Northwest with fir trees, coastal mountains, heavy logging industry and so forth. It is probably the redneck capital of Oregon. I don't mean that in any pejorative sense, strictly as a descriptive shorthand you understand.

We really like dry camping at casinos, especially when it is free, as the area is always spacious, has lovely landscaping, is quiet, well lit and has fabulous security. And right next door are clean, warm washrooms and the casino with restaurants and all day breakfast. Can't get any better than that for a quick and efficient (and FREE, did I mention that?) overnight stop.

So off we rolled at 8AM in weak northern light, cool and damp. Before that, across the bay while walking the dog, I had heard what sounded like gun shots and I winced. Almost immediately a whole flock of Canada geese  squawked their way across the bay. Someone was discouraging them from some place. A few more minutes later I heard another round of noise making and more squawks. I was glad to load the dog and take our leave. Coos Bay is not our favourite place.

Soon, the whole atmosphere shifted as the land softened out and the southern Oregon landscape took over. No more coastal mountain ranges, but a gentler, rolling, greener, more domesticated look with acres of cranberry bogs, small farms and beautiful vistas. When we reached the coast itself, the views, although we have done this trip many many times in our prior life in Oregon, made us gasp. The sheer beauty and power is simply overwhelming. For those of you who have experienced uplifting spiritual moments, this would do you nicely. It always does for me.

The early morning skies were still somewhat hazy, and the sun in our eyes was making for tricky photography. Also, the huge RV mirror out my window was a very frustrating obstacle around which to shoot. Sometimes the view was so panoramic that I was literally doing yoga twists in my seat trying to capture all of it. I hope you all can get some sense of these moments in the photographs.

As we continued south, the geology and landscape continued to change, as the NWPacific coast climax forest shifted to open grasslands and wind swept Myrtles and other southern trees more connected to northern California than Oregon. But the coast itself regained the ruggedness of the northern Oregon coast, with beautifully posed rugged rocks flung carelessly across the ocean in these artful swaths, as if some giant hand had been trying to skip stones.

The sun continued to rise and suddenly it became spring. Songbirds, hardy palms, marguerites and banks of broom in full bloom. The grass was already lush and high in the fields and along the verges. By noon it was soft, windless and 60F. We were just gloating about our last minute decision to take the coastal route. Because folks, this is JANUARY, and the likelihood of finding a day like this with conditions as perfect as this on the Oregon coast are somewhat akin to winning the lottery.

Our big destination for the day was supposed to be lunch at the Samoa Cook House located around the bay in Samoa, California. It is a historic institution, founded as camp kitchen for the logging crews who were busy denuding the hillsides many many decades ago. The loggers were incredibly hard workers, and consumed gargantuan meals of 10,000 calories per day. And none of them had a square inch of fat. From this beginning, came our beloved Samoa Cookhouse. We heard about the place in a rather strange way. My Scottish cousins were driving up the coast from San Francisco to Portland to visit us and they had lunch there. It was the first time I had ever heard of the place. Now on every trip we arrange to be on the coastal highway through Samoa to partake of the meals there. Everything is served family style. The menu is set for each meal, and it is all you can eat. The tables are set for many hungry groups who all share the table together. But today, we dawdled, and we worried. Would they still be serving lunch when we got there? Neither of us had noticed what the hours were on their website. We got there and parked the RV, walked the dog, fed the dog and then went into the restaurant. The sign on the door said lunch until 3PM. Dinner didn't start until 5PM. We were aghast. A quick check of our watches and it was 2 minutes to 3. We burst through the door to an almost empty room. Only one other couple was sitting eating. We called out "Did we make it in time?" and the waitress glanced at the clock and said "Of course. Lunch until 3". So we ate. She said "take you time and enjoy, you have the whole place to yourself"...as the photos will show you, we got homemade bread, soup, green salad and three bean salad, chicken, green peas and roasted red potatoes, baked beans, and for desert strawberry cake and coffee. We were famished and scoffed down the whole lot in 20 minutes. We were offered refills on everything but we sadly refused. There is, afterall, an absolute saturation point beyond which no sane person should ever go....

So here we now are, just down the road from Samoa, California, parked (for free of course) at the Big Bear Casino and ready to tuck ourselves in for the night and watch some TV after a long day of total pleasure.

So please enjoy along with us...


Lots of gorgeous bays and rocks...

Port Orford Harbor

Port Orford

More Rocks

 Barbara and Molly.

Gold Beach

Palm Trees in Brookings

Northern California Green Hills

Market Gardening in Northern California

Driving through the Redwoods

California Beach

Coming in to Eureka California, and the turn off to Samoa.

Up the driveway to the Samoa Cookhouse.

Inside the Samoa Cookhouse.

Big Bear Casino in Fortuna California

Some of the bears.

Down the Coast

The day went extremely well and it turned out to be a very good shift in plans to take the coastal route. There was light haze but a lot of blue sky and sun. The temperatures were warm for January (60F) and there was no wind. We stopped in a few places, for our lunch and to check out the sea lions. Traffic was heavy through the central coast, but as we proceeded southwards it thinned out and we had the road to ourselves.

A frosty morning for the start.

Our lunch stop just south of Lincoln City on the Oregon coast.

The RV parked next to the bay.

The bridge over Newport Bay at Newport Oregon.

Sea Lions! We are at the Sea lion Caves.

Hecata Head light house. The sea lions are directly below us over the side.
 

A close up of the light house at Hecata Head.

Heading further south the sky hazed over with more cloud.

It was an early landing at the Casino in Coos Bay where we got a full hook-up RV site for their January special of $20.  We cooked our dinner, walked the dog and are now ready to start the next leg tomorrow of the trip down the California coastline.

We're off again!!

Hi everyone,  it's that time when we thought a break to the sunny south would be a good idea. So we have booked two weeks at our favourite campground in Palm Springs. Right now we are sitting at a campground just outside Portland Oregon where Rick had some routine medical appointments (all well there) and we took advantage of the stay here to have a lovely 2 hour breakfast visit with our two Portland sons...at Fleur de Lis Bakery near to my son Andrew's house...it used to be the library in Hollywood, NE Portland and Andrew actually remembers me taking him there when he was about 9 years old. There is now a glossy new library and the old one has been converted into this bakery/restaurant. I was very impressed, because as some of you know, Canadians and Brits of all stripes and colours really like their eggs gently coddled and that is a tough thing to find in the US (in more ways than one). But the eggs were tender and creamy and the toast lovely and crisp and the chat was indeed lively.

This morning we are heading south for Palm Springs. The original plan was to head straight down the Willamette Valley on Interstate 5 over the Siskiyou Mountain range into California. However, this morning the Valley is cold and damp and filled with fog, and since we are retirees and able to be changeable on a whim, we have whimmed ourselves into taking the coastal route down Oregon to California and beyond. Today is forecast there on the coast to be mostly sun and cloud mix with temperatures in the upper 50sF. Sounds much much better to us. And, the end reward will be another detour to our favourite restaurant on the coast which is the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, California. More about that place later. We still have not yet decided which route we are going to take down to the coast itself, so it shall be a surprise for you from us the next time you hear from us.

Bon Voyage!!
Barbara and Rick

Banff to Castlegar

As soon as we hit the Trans Canada Highway, everything changed: the traffic, the tourists, the weather (rain and lots of overcast) and the surroundings. I actually preferred the Cowboy Trail to Banff National Park. Banff area has become a major Canadian icon for its mountain majesty, and it is where the public flocks...probably the most overused national park in the country.

We spent only enough time in Banff to drive in and out again. Lake Louise was off limits to us with the fifth wheel. So we spent negligible time in either of these two places...however once we reached the BC border and Yoho National Park, everything shifted as the road switched to single lane and the mountains again were looming directly around us. Barreling down though Rogers Pass, the view was tremendous, and we did stop off and have breakfast at Revelstoke and cruise through the town. Then we turned off south onto another backroad which took us down the edge of Lake Revelstoke and across the little car ferry to the east side of Upper Arrow Lake. Here we enjoyed a lake with no sign of cabins or vacation homes, and some stunning scenery. We passed a forest fire high up on a cliff face and watched the helicopters dump their buckets and refill them in the lake. The smoke was noticeable. Eventually we reached Castlegar having completed a huge circle around BC, Alberta and the edge of Saskatchewan. We stayed here last night and enjoyed the view of the Kootenay River at its junction with the mighty Columbia as it swings southward towards Washington State, Oregon and the blue Pacific Ocean. Here, it is a great river for sport salmon fishing.

It is 9AM and the helicopters are at it again. It seems all of the province is in flames. The dead and dried up pine forests are going through their renewal and eventually
the forests will regenerate naturally. Hopefully by then the nasty pine beetle will have done their evolutionary duty and gone elsewhere (or perhaps become extinct?)...we try to remind ourselves that this is just part of the nature's cycle, but sometimes it is hard.

Here are the photos.

Banff

Wildlife corridor over the Trans Canada

 Avalanche cover over highway.

Roger's Pass

 Revelstoke

 Ferry at Upper Arrow Lake

 The Slocan

Upper Arrow Lake