Monday, June 11, 2012

CAMPGROUND WITH A SQUAWKER

Saturday, June 9 – We drove through rain this morning.

This is what the sky looked like the entire drive.drive to Nehalem Bay

We are sure glad we bought new wiper blades. Paul tried the new type that are made by Bosch – The Evolution. They don't really have the metal part that holds in the blade. They are just a ridged arched rubber. They work VERY nice. Really quiet too!

wiper blades

A much improved wiper system. Tiffin is putting these on the new model motor homes. We did not buy the 34” blades that are sold for RV's but instead purchased the cheaper 28” more common size for about a third of the price.  There is no reason to sweep rain off the entire windshield! The shorter ones worked great.

We are at Nehalem Bay State Park in Nehalem Bay. We had a little trouble upon arriving. Our original reserved site was F-01. It was impossible for Paul to get into site F-01, or for that matter get down the road to the site. He scraped the roof on almost every tree in that part of the park.

Very narrow roads.
narrow road

Look how low the trees are over the road. This is where we scrapped the top.
low trees

Many of the sites are totally surrounded by low trees.
lots of trees

Once we got safely around the very large loop, we returned to the front entrance. We told the Ranger our problem with the trees and the motor home. He was very sympathetic, and said that they were aware of the issue and needed to get those trees trimmed. He listed all the sites available for our four day stay that he felt we could get into without tree problems. We were successful in finding a pretty good site – B03. We even get satellite service on our automatic Direct TV dish. All the sites are paved, with paved streets, 30 amp electric service and water. There is a dump station near the front gate. We have a picnic table and fire ring.

Site B3
Site 3

DSC05765

Big backyard.
big back yard

Looking left.
left of site

Looking right.
looking right

Once we got settled, Paul had to take a look at the roof. Thank goodness, no damage.
Paul looking at roof.

There are tons of KIDS here with their families. Gotta love it!!! Quite a difference compared to yesterday. Last night, we were the ONLY RV in the Elks Campground....ha ha!!

Besides the paved sites, the Park has Yurts for rent. They are really nice with a porch, picnic table, and fire ring. When we arrived, most of them were occupied.

Yurts

There is a beautiful beach here at the park. A nice path leads right to the long sandy beach.

trail to beach

beach area

Looking left down the beach.left

Looking right down the beach.right

There is lots of wildlife here in the park. Almost immediately after Marsha took Bella out, one of the camp hosts ran over and said, "Be very careful. Don't leave your cat out alone. We have coyotes in the park. Very aggressive coyotes."  We haven't seen any coyotes yet, but we did have a visitor walk right through our site.

deer

We also have a crow that just hates Bella. The minute we pulled in that crow has done nothing but squawk! We take Bella out, guess who is watching and squawking.

crow

We took her for a walk down one of the many paths here in the park.

walking Bella

Guess who found us and followed us…squawking all the way.

crow following us

This is a very nice, clean Park. Everyone is very friendly. And even with all the kids, it is extremely quiet.

Our sign pick for the day was found on a t-shirt.

sign

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

SMALL BUT FULL OF HIDDEN TREASURES!

Friday, June 8 –  We drove over to see Drift Creek Covered Bridge this morning.

Drift Creek Covered Bridge

The bridge was dedicated to the pioneer of Lincoln County. The span once served traffic on a main north-south route along the Oregon coast. The bridge was considered the oldest remaining covered bridge in Oregon.

This is a duplicate of the original bridge that was demolished in 1977.

Bridge inside

The original bridge had become unsafe and was condemned by county engineers. The new bridge was built by private funds and the work of Laura & Kerry Sweitz and completed on July 14, 2001.

We then drove up Oregon Costal Highway 101 to Neskowin. We were actually looking for Cascade Head National Seashore (which we were unable to locate) and found this quaint little town totally by accident. What a nice find!

Very interesting downspouts on some of the homes.
downspout

fish downspout

Many of the houses have a damper on the chimney to lessen the effects of high winds in this area.

chimney

We drove slowly through the neighborhood enjoying the lovely homes. SLOWLY, because there must have been 50 homemade signs asking drivers to move at a snail's pace. Cute!

Neskowin signs

This is a unique outdoor decoration.
outdoor furniture

Our next find was the Abe Lincoln memorial in Lincoln City. This is one of those finds that Paul would fly right by, but Marsha insists on stopping. Pau jokes that he wouldn't see a thing if it wasn't for Marsha! Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1965 created "On the Circuit" but is locally known as "Abraham Lincoln on Horseback". The statue depicts a younger Lincoln in about 1850 studying from his "saddlebag college".

Abe Lincoln on horseback

Why would there be a statue dedicated to Abe Lincoln in this area. Read below. (Remember, you can click on any photo and bring up a larger version.)

Abe Lincoln sign

Our last find, on this RAINY Oregon day, was the Glass Art Studio.

Glass Art Studio

This place was really jumping! You can blow your own glass float here. The place was packed with people doing just that! Prices start at $65 and quickly climb well over a hundred dollars for the session.

glass prices

Somebody came up with a good idea here. It was one customer after another.

The gentleman was the professional. He was very patient with the customer. glass blowing teacher

While we were watching, the gal in yellow was doing a great job.glass furnace

This is her finished project.finished product

Many more were lining up to blow a float. Marsha would have loved doing this, but it will have to wait until another time.

NOTE: So sorry to our friends, Sheryl and Jeff. In yesterday's blog we neglected to put a link to their blog, but here it is now…Bright's Wheel Life. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!