A Couple of New Items

We donated one of our barrel chairs to Good Will. We replaced the chair with a 54 inch tall cat scratch post with two curved shelves. (clickable pics)  The shelves are perfect for one cat to lay or roll around in. Although, Hitch found out he could not get too rambunctious because he suddenly found himself hanging from the top shelf with Squirrel hissing and batting at his hind feet. It has been interesting to watch which one becomes King-of-the-Post. Our cats now have the choice of carpet, wood, or sisal for sharpening their claws. All three have been tested and met with approval. We hope this will replace all desire to scratch up the furniture. Riiiight. Dan secured the post to the floor so it will not tip over while we are on rough roads. Hitch actually laid in it during our last drive. He was lying in the lower shelf so he had a perfect view of the world going by the window. Yep, they’re not spoiled.

Before we left Florence, we took a scenic dune buggy ride. The dune area is about 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. Despite the cold weather, the wind, and the threat of rain, there were many off-road-vehicles (ORVs) enjoying the dunes. It is truly amazing to sit at the top of a dune and look out over all this sand. The dunes are very beautiful even on a bad day. We drove through creeks, along the beach, and through the woods.

The ride became a little more exciting when our driver took us down several steep dunes that felt like we were going straight down. At one point, the same company’s smaller/faster dune rider came zipping down a dune straight at us, cut to the right, and covered us in sand! Thanks, we needed that! He proceeded to go sideways along the same steep dune we had just come down. Those guys were having a blast!

We also thought we were both deaf in one ear afterwards. The young lady sitting directly behind us has a very good set of lungs and every animal within a 1-mile radius heard her screams. Wow! She was laughing too, so at least she was having fun. It was a lot of fun and we would suggest it to anyone visiting Florence to go for a ride. Next time, Dan wants to ride the faster dune buggy.

We stayed in Eugene at a very nice county park for a week.  Armitage Park is a nice change from being in heavily wooded campgrounds. It has wide open grassy lawns with tall trees. The lots are so large that you barely notice a neighbor moving in next door. The best part is the asphalt spaces. It is so nice to walk outside and not have to worry about getting mud all over our shoes. There are paved pathways everywhere. One goes down to the river and under a few bridges. The weather has been great with a lot more sunshine with a little bit of rain.

While in Eugene we had LineX sprayed on the lower front portion of our Bluebird, and color matched.  This freshens up the look of the front end greatly, and should resist sand and gravel better as we travel.  LineX is a very tough coating used on pickup truck beds, and high impact areas of other vehicles.  http://www.linex.com/  .  In the picture, it is raining a little and we have not put our license plate nor Bluebird BMC emblem back on yet.   

Subject to change, we think we will head south on I-5 a bit to the Sutherlin Oregon Escapees park, then head back over to the Oregon coast at Bandon.  From there we will likely head south into Northern CA to check out the Redwood forests.

Central Oregon Coast

We are in Florence Oregon for about 10 days at the South Jetty Thousand Trails park. It feels like we are camping in a rain forest. The campground is thickly wooded and covered in moss giving us the feeling of being secluded. A very nice place to go for walks. We saw a lot more rain this week. This has been the wettest and coldest June for Oregon in a long time. It is supposed to start warming up soon. We can only keep our fingers crossed. Well, not while we are typing.

Hitch and Dusty have been begging to go out for a walk since we got here. Dusty is our quiet one, but when he makes up his mind that he wants to go out, he can be very insistent and loud. He gets on the table and in YOUR face attitude! “I want out, NOW Mister!” The weather cleared for a while and we took both cats outside. Dusty immediately started tugging on the leash while making mewing sounds. He was searching for grass which is hard to find in a moss covered forest. Dan finally took Dusty to a vacant space with more sun exposure and plenty of grass to graze. Dusty is a happy cat once again. In the meantime, Hitch explored every nook and cranny he could find. He climbed trees, went over huge fallen trees, and through bushes. Sandy had fun trying to keep up with Hitch’s challenge course through the woods.

We are two miles away from the beach, but we haven’t spent much time there. The beaches are covered in sand dunes. Many of the vacationers bring their dune buggies and ATVs to ride across the dunes. So far, we have only seen the sun a couple of times. On the days we did have sunshine or partly cloudy, we traveled north and south along the coast.

We stopped by the Darlingtonia State Park just outside of Florence. We wanted to see the carnivorous Cobra Lily and they were blooming so we got some pictures. The plants are bigger than we thought they would be.

Our favorite drive was going north and turning around at Cape Perpetua. The drive up was very scenic with lots of views of cliffs and ocean. Unfortunately, the lifeforms in the tide pools in that area are mostly gone. No starfish. No sea urchins. We visited quite a few lighthouses along the way. We did not go inside most of them. We did a little hiking here and there. We drove to the Outlook at Cape Perpetua and walked along one of the trails. Beautiful views if you don’t mind heights.

Our trip south was pretty uneventful. We stopped to see the Umpqua Lighthouse located right on the Coast Guard base. Civilians are still allowed to visit the lighthouse. We had lunch on Bandon’s harbor and drove through Ballard State Park before returning home.

Next stop: Eugene Oregon for some work on the lower front cap of the motor home.  We will be putting a color matching high end tough pickup truck bed coating on the lower front to deflect road debris  http://www.linex.com/  .