September 7-10: Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

A State Park? Isn’t your RV too large to fit in a State Park? Well, generally, the answer is “yes”, but if you do some research it’s sometimes possible.

For a change of pace and scenery, I decided to book us into a couple of the Oregon State Parks along the coast this year. We’ve passed Bullards Beach State Park before and I always though it might be an interesting place to stop. We weren’t disappointed, even though we were so deep in the woods that we couldn’t get a satellite signal for TV. It being summer rerun season, there wasn’t much to be missed.

It was an easy drive, since Bandon is only a short distance from Florence. Pull out onto US-101, drive south 66 miles, and pull in to Bullards Beach. Pretty simple...

In spite of our short, 4-night stay, we did a “full deployment” of our outdoor gear: grill, oven, EZ-Up, dog pens, lights, etc. We didn’t have very many bugs, and were able to enjoy the “great outdoors” most days into the evening. Of course, as we’re getting into fall, the days are getting shorter and the evenings cooler! A campfire helped, but we also found ourselves retiring early.

I-10 in Phoenix during Monsoon

All things are relative, of course, and we used our Internet access to monitor the effects of this year’s Monsoon Season back in the Phoenix area. Another round of “Glad we’re not there” comments were exchanged!

We did get out some, exploring the little town of Bandon and doing a little bit of hiking along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific on the south end of town. We made a note to return for sunset pictures, but that will have to wait for our next visit.

We made the obligatory stop at the Cranberry Sweets shop in the “touristy” section of town, picking up several items to stash away for future enjoyment (we like sweets but in small doses). It happened to be late afternoon, so I suggested that we grab an early dinner at the Italian place next door, but they were informing people that their credit card machine was out of order. “It should be fixed next week some time” didn’t seem to bode well for their approach to their business, so we decided to pass.

We were glad we did, because right around the corner was Alloro Wine Bar & Restaurant, which our friends Wayne and Eva had recommended. Since they are experts in all things on the Oregon Coast, we decided to give it a try. We ended up having a great dinner of Deep-Fried Zucchini Blossoms, Orecchiette with Sausage, Pistachio-Crusted Halibut, and Braised Rabbit. I don’t know when we’ll be back, but we’ll definitely be trying to recreate some of these dishes at home!

We’ll likely stop here again if we are in the area, as long as I remember to plan more in advance and select a site with fewer trees!

September 3-6: Back on the Coast in Florence, Oregon

Ah, the Oregon Coast. It’s a wonderful place to be during the late summer. We had an easy and familiar drive, leaving Keizer after fueling up, heading south on I-5 to Eugene. No need to stop for repairs in Coburg/Harrisburg this time! Looping west around Eugene on the “Beltway”, we picked up OR-126 out to the coast in Florence.

Within minutes, we were parked at the local Elks Lodge. The antler-topped totem in their parking area always intrigues me.

Breaking from our travel plan for this summer, this was the first of several 3-4 day stops as we begin our trek south into autumn. We didn’t have a lot planned and we met our own expectations. A little Fred Meyer shopping, some nice walks around the block with the pups, and maybe a nap or two were the highlights. All in all, this was another nice, familiar, and relaxing stop.

August 20-September 2: Salem-Keizer, Oregon

We had a nice extended stay at the Elks Lodge in Keizer, Oregon. Initially, we’d planned for five nights but ended up staying two weeks!

The drive over (as in “over the mountains”) from Redmond to the Salem area was one that we have done before. Local roads got us back to OR-126 heading west over the Cascades, and then we picked up OR-22 down into Salem. After a quick few exits north on I-5, we exited at Salem Parkway and backtracked southwest a bit before making the turn toward the Keizer Elks Lodge.

Keizer is a suburb of Salem to the north, although everything tends to run together and you wouldn’t really know if you missed the “Welcome to” signs. During a previous trip, we stayed at the Salem Elks Lodge, which is on the south side near the airport. Several people had suggested this Lodge as an alternative, since it has more spaces and full hook-ups. We were pleased to see that they have recently upgraded their electrical system so that all 47 sites (which is fairly large for a Lodge park) now have 50 Amp service. Our “big rig” is much happier with 50 Amps.

We didn’t have much of a plan for our initial stay, so we were happily surprised when Geri’s great-nephew, Michael, suggested that they make a day trip down from Washington. He packed his boys, Brenden and Cameron, and his friend Erynn with her three girls in a minivan and hit the road. We popped a Tri-Tip on the grill and had a spread of beef and sides before heading to the local stadium for a minor league baseball game. The weather was perfect and it’s always fun to see family while we’re on the road.

The reason we had originally planned for a five-night stay was that I’d made an appointment in Harrisburg, about 55 miles south, to have a slide out adjustment done. This area was the west coast center of RV manufacturing before the Great Recession nearly wiped the industry out. A lot of the people who used to build motorhomes, ours included, have opened up small shops doing repairs and upgrades, making this a good place to have things fixed. We have one slide that was slightly off, just rubbing on the seal when retracting and extending. Messing up the seals is, as you can imagine, a bad thing if you like to keep the weather outside. Eric at Elite RV Repair and Renovation knew exactly what to do and we were in and out of his shop in a little over an hour.

Before we made the short trip down to Harrisburg, we talked things over and decided to extend our stay. I paid for the extra days and we left the Rover and “stuff” behind while we were away for the short time.

I had a couple of things in mind for “day trips” while we were in the Salem area. First, we’ve never stopped in Tillamook along the coast for cheese and ice cream and, second, The Willamette Valley is home to most of Oregon’s wineries. Cheese and wine means this place has our name written all over it! So, in between bouts of extreme relaxation, we made two day trips.

The drive out to Tillamook took quite a bit longer than I had intended but we took the “scenic route”. We had lunch at one cheese company (Blue Heron) and dessert – ice cream – at the other (Tillamook). Blue Heron specializes in Brie and has a small sandwich operation inside their gift shop. Tillamook is big in Cheddar and ice creams, and is much larger in scale. Put a check mark on the to-do list.

We didn’t get to as many wineries as I would have liked, but our budget thanked me for that (I’m a sucker for buying wine after tasting). We did two wineries one afternoon, Eola Hills and Chateau Bianca. We made a few purchases, so the “wine drawer” isn’t as empty. We’ll just have to come back on our next trip through the Northwest!

We kept ourselves busy for the rest of our stay with some shopping and grooming. This is our last “metropolis” with a Costco and all the retail brands for a while and Oregon has no sales tax (!), so we did some stocking up on things we’d buy anyway like paper goods and pet food/treats. It’s nice to save almost 10% simply by avoiding the sales taxes we pay back in Arizona. We took the pups to Petsmart for grooming and Geri found a decent place to get her hair done (it’s actually easier now that she doesn’t color it).

We also took advantage of the extra time to get out the atlas and start planning our return trip to Arizona. When we left in June, we had a broad plan and a couple of set dates to work with. I intentionally left the return open so we could decide later on a route and stops. Well, “later” kind of snuck up on us!

So, we now have a basic plan in place. We’ll head back to the coast and work our way south to Petaluma, just north of San Francisco, along US-101. We hope to catch up with our friends Wayne & Eva a couple of times along the way as they are following a similar route with different stops. We’re planning to try to get into Flour + Water, one of our favorite restaurants, but that’s up in the air since reservations are impossible and we’ll have to do the “get you name on the list” thing.

From there, we’ll continue south to San Luis Obispo (Thursday Night Market) and Santa Maria (steak at Jocko’s in Nipomo) before turning east toward Las Vegas (dinner at Mario Batali’s CarneVino). From there, week-long visits at the Grand Canyon and Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ, (side trips to more AZ wineries near Jerome) will fill out our travel itinerary. Is anyone surprised that our route is defined by food and wine? I hope not…

August 11-19: FMCA Convention, Redmond, Oregon

We got an early start and had a nice drive over two “mountain” ranges (nice, but they are no Rockies), heading inland to Redmond, just north of Bend (which is a neat trick, since we started the day in North Bend). We started out going north on US-101 then east on OR-38 across the Coast Range.

We soon made the junction with I-5. Heading north, we traveled familiar roadways to Eugene, then east again on OR-126 to Redmond, this time over the Cascade Range. After a couple of turns on local roads, we were soon at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds and Expo. This is a huge facility, one of the few around the country that can hold these FMCA Conventions. This one attracted 1,876 motorhomes of all shapes and sizes.

We were relaxing on the first evening when word of close thunderstorms with hail came through. We pulled in awnings and slides just in case, but the worst of the weather passed us by. Maya Lynn got to wear her ThunderShirt again, though. After it was all over, we were treated to a nice sunset.

There was no food supplied at this rally (other than coffee and donuts too early in the morning), so we managed to do some cooking. One of the highlights was Geri’s “Famous” Veal-Ricotta Meatballs, which make awesome grinders.

We enjoyed the rally, making a few purchases at the vendor booths and attending several seminars. We also took a side trip back up into the Cascades, along a “scenic route” just east of the little town of Sisters, which was named for a minor feature in the Cascades, the “Three Sisters”. Some kind of legend, yada, yada, yada. But, there’s a huge lava flow from these extinct volcanoes and we did get to see some snow in the distance. The pups enjoyed the ride, too!

There is a viewpoint in the middle of the lava flow, so I tried out a new photo app, “Photo Sphere” from Google. Interesting 360° picture generator.

One thing I’ll say for us, we are quick learners. Staying an extra day after a rally is an excellent idea. So good, in fact, that we did it again. The Expo Center has a nice 100+ site RV Park on site. It was full before and during the Rally, of course, with “VIPs” from FMCA. But, like the casino in North Bend, it cleared out pretty quickly and we were able to stay for three extra nights, one in-place in our rally space (free!) and two more nights in the RV Park. This extra time allowed us to catch up on laundry and hit the local Costco, Walmart, and Fred Meyer. All set for travel!