June 19-23: FMCA Northwest Area Rally in Coos Bay

June 23, 2012

North Bend/Coos Bay, Oregon

On Tuesday, we headed for the Coos Bay area, out along the coast.  It was another easy driving day, taking OR-138 to Elkton, then following the Umpqua River on OR-38 west to Reedsport and eventually US-101 south to North Bend.  We were heading for the parking area at The Mill Casino - together with several hundred other RVs.  The place filled up quickly; the locals were wondering “who are all these people”...

Well, it was another RV Rally for us.  This one was medium-sized, and we weren’t particularly interested in “rallying”.  In fact, it was more of a “place to be on a specific date” when I was laying out our travel route in April.  I was hoping that there would be a vendor selling LED upgrades (there was and I finished off the halogen replacements I targeted for this year), and wanted to talk to some of the interior renovation specialists about my ideas for a desk (replacing one of the couches), plus get some ideas on a refrigerator upgrade.

While there were several vendors present, I found a team that had done work on our coach before.  I was pleased with their work and made arrangements to have them come out to the coach for analysis and an estimate.  All the pieces fell into place and we now have a target date of July 30 to be back in Junction City (just outside Eugene) to get the work done.  We’ll look to have a couple of windows tightened up and a slide adjusted while we’re in that area.  So, overall, it was a successful stop!

The Rally itself was OK, with a relatively small cadre of vendors and about 75 (mostly used) coaches for sale by dealers.  There were more than the usual number of meals included, but the “Dining Tent” was chilly and leaky as the weather was typical for the Oregon Coast in June: wet.  We did have a little sun on occasion, but the rain gear got a good workout.  It’s a good thing we don’t melt (we learned that when we lived in The City).

There’s something about a Rally that reduces the urge to cook, so we took advantage of local restaurants on Wednesday and Friday nights.  First we went to “Porta” which was great and came highly recommended on the Trip Advisor and Yelp websites.  On Friday, we took advantage of a special discount offered to Rally participants by several restaurants, and went to Ciccarelli’s, also pretty good.  As always, we eat well no matter who cooks...