Thoughts on Oregon...

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

When you travel, do you look at the places you visit and think about what it would be like to live there?  Having lots of time this summer to move around the coastal area of Oregon, I think about the places I visit and say to myself, this place is great…I wonder what the prices of homes are, the cost of living or what the people are like that live around here?  So, I took advantage of an opportunity so close to where I am staying.  Directly across the highway (79810 U.S. Hwy 101, Gardiner, OR 97441), there is a home for sale. 

It is a beautiful house, on almost ¾ of an acre, three bedrooms, three full baths, finished basement, never ending water from the well, surrounded on three sides by U.S. Forest Service land, across from Tahkenitch Lake with easy access to the Tahkenitch Landing boat ramp, a two car garage with a studio apartment above the garage and a path which can access the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area behind the house.  There are two bedrooms/two full baths upstairs with a deck overlooking the lake.  The main level has one bedroom/one full bath, a large kitchen, a living/dining room area, a fireplace and patio doors to the main level porch, which is large enough to allow about a half dozen chairs or rocking chairs for watching the world go by.  There are two thousand plus square feet livable between the upstairs and main level and another thousand square feet in the finished basement.  Looking at the house and property, I can almost see the possibilities of a bed and breakfast.  The garage is even wired so that you could park a motor home next to the garage and plug the RV into the electrical system of the house (50 amp service).  All these wonderful features in this home and the asking price is only $339K.  Go take a look.  http://www.cvoogd.pru-nw.com/RTR13644025

Each morning, after I have performed my early morning Camp Host task of walking around the campground to determine if any campers had arrived after my last evening walkabout, I walk two miles.  The campground driveway sits about halfway between mileposts 203 and 204 on U.S. Hwy 101.  I walk, always facing traffic, from the campground driveway, south to milepost 204, cross the road and walk north to milepost 203, cross the road and walk south to the starting point.  Allowing for the road crossings, the distance is just a touch over two miles.  At 7:00 – 7:15 in the morning, traffic is not bumper to bumper, but there are usually a total of 50 to 100 vehicles traveling north or south.  I began these walks about three weeks ago, and have walked every morning, even the morning that it was raining.  I don’t wear a portable music device (IPod, smartphone, etc) because I want to be able to hear the traffic coming.  This offers me lots of time to think about things.  On Father’s Day, I began counting the north and south bound traffic passing me.  Each morning since the 16^th, I have counted the north and south bound traffic.  Do you ever wonder where all these people are going?  I have begun to notice familiar vehicles each morning.  As I am walking each day, at about the same time each day, I recognize that each morning, a blue Saturn passes me heading south.  It has gotten to the point that a couple of the logging trucks, carrying their large loads of logs, are waving to me before I can lift my arm to wave at them.  So l would guess that some of the traffic is commuter traffic, folks heading into work or heading home from whatever night shift they have completed.  As a sidebar, in all the mornings I have walked, I have only seen one police car on the highway.  But the whole point of this discussion is: Who are all these people driving their vehicles north or south?  Where are they going?  They all seem to be in a hurry.  And the tally for north and south bound traffic after eight days of counts: 

Northbound – 337     Southbound – 373

I just knew you were hanging on every word just to learn the statistics of north and south bound traffic.

This last weekend was a banner weekend at the Tahkenitch Landing Campground.  There are 25 campsites available for use in the campground.  On the weekend there were 16 sites in use.  It was a banner weekend and the sun and warm (68 – 70 degrees) temperatures were fabulous.  There was  lots of boating, fishing, swimming, playing and evening bonfires.  And a grand time was had by all.  As of 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 23, 2013, there was now only one campsite in use.  Alas, almost alone again.

Until next time…

An Old Friend...

 June 18, 2013

Gardiner, OR

For many years, I used to camp with some friends and we referred to each other by a camp names.  My camp name was Bert.  We were known as Jock, Dot and Bert.  Time passed, folks changed and moved on but Jock and I stayed in touch.  When I told Jock that I was taking off for the summer to spend my time in Oregon, he gave me a traveling buddy.

So Bert travels with me everywhere I go this summer.  And knowing that Oregon requires use of a seat belt, I keep Bert belted in the front seat, unless, of course, someone else calls “Shotgun” first.  He’s good company, doesn’t talk back and is not a back seat driver.  The best part is that he doesn’t eat much and has no laundry expenses.  The biggest drawback is that he doesn’t have his driver’s license and, consequently, I have no designated driver, should I need one.  Mostly, it’s a fair tradeoff, company on my travels but no problem with incessant chatter.  Jock is supposed to be coming by sometime this summer, so we can have an old friends’ reunion.

There is big news from Reedsport this weekend.  The Oregon Chainsaw Carving Divisional Championships are being held during Father’s Day Weekend. 

Already there are booths being set up, products for chainsaw carving being sold, and concession stands being built.  

The portions of the trees which will be carved have been set up and marked for the contestants.  The contest runs from Thursday, June 13, 2013 through Father’s Day on Sunday, June 16^th.  In addition to the Chainsaw Carving contest, there are sculptures auctioned off to the public each evening.  The noise is incredible.  Imagine 20 to 30 chainsaws running at the same time, in an area the size of a 100’ by 100’ square.  It is so loud that the venue offers free ear plugs to avoid injury.  And my $3.00 entry admission gives me one free entry into the raffle (need not be present to win) which is giving away two sculptures carved with a chainsaw.  That means I have two chances to win!  The competition carving/sculpting is over about 11:00 a.m. on Father’s Day.  The winner will be announced and the final sculpture auction will be held at noon on Sunday.

The next set of pictures is of a specific sculptor.  From his bio, below, he must get practice with Ice Sculptures...

Mr. Poynter is working on the completed sculpture in the picture below.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get the name of the winner, but I was able to get some pictures of the finished sculptures that had not yet been claimed by the new owners.

These completed sculptures were not even in the final three or four.  I sure would have liked to see what the top three sculptures looked like.  Some of the staff from the Championship were in the yard when I took these final pictures and, apparently, the winner sculpted a pair of wolves on rocks that were very lifelike.

As with any outdoor environment, there is wildlife in abundance.  There fish, beaver, otters and geese/ducks in the water.  There are deer, raccoons, and bears (haven’t seen any bears myself, but have been told that there are bears in the woods around the lake).  And we have the small stuff, chipmunks, squirrels, and other rodents.  

Well, I was sitting in the motor home, reading, when I heard this noise.  I could not figure out what it was.  I had seen a small chipmunk in the area behind my pickup truck, right outside Irv’s picture window.  I turned around in my seat and 

Of course this was a bit of a surprise…!  I chased him off the screen door, but he kept coming back.  He even was investigating the door slide, which gives me access to the handle to open the screen door.  I couldn’t have the chipmunk open the door so I banged my gloves on the plastic slide and he shot off the door like a bullet.  He hasn’t come back to investigate.

Early morning fog on the lake...

Check back again soon....

Another beautiful day in Oregon…

June 10, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

It is Monday morning in beautiful, sunny, cool, gorgeous Oregon.  The lake is rippling with the breeze, soon to be wind, which is normal, I am told, for the coast of Oregon.  In the early morning, there is almost no air movement at all.  The temperature is in the mid 50’s or so.  And as the day progresses, the temperature difference between the coastal region and the central valley of Oregon begins to widen, the wind picks up, sometimes substantially.  I ran an errand last week, on Wednesday (6/5), to Roseburg, OR.  Roseburg is about 70 miles southeast of the campground.  When I passed through Reedsport on my way to Roseburg, it was 59 degrees on the bank sign.  When I drove through Elkton (35 miles from Reedsport), the bank sign in Elkton was showing 93 degrees.   When I arrived in Roseburg, the temperature was showing 95 degrees.  With this large temperature difference, the cool moist air along the coast begins moving toward the east as the warm air inland begins to rise.  Happens every day, except those days when there is a cloud cover (generally).  The wind is always blowing, Northwest to Southeast, heading inland.  I would think this place would be great for sailing, but no one seems to be bringing sailboats to the lake.

On my drive to Roseburg, my route takes me east on Oregon Hwy 38 to Elkton, then southeast on Oregon Hwy 138 to Sutherlin.  From Sutherlin, it was is 7 mile drive down I-5 to my destination.  Along this route, for the first 17 miles or so, I drive along the south bank of the Umpqua River.  I cross the river to the north bank at Scottsburg and continue to Elkton, another 17 - 18 miles away.  It is a beautiful drive, most of it next to the Umpqua River.  And the discussion of the drive along the river, I will save for another day, so that I can include pictures of the drive.  Well worth waiting for.  However, on the day of my drive to Roseburg, I encountered some road construction on Hwy 38, about 3 miles east of Scottsburg.  Apparently, there had been a landslide and the road had been severely damaged recently.  There was only one lane of traffic available.  When it was our turn to use the one lane, the drive was only about two miles of one lane, the evidence of the damage was quite obvious.  The hillside to the north was mostly gone.  There was plenty of hillside left, but the portion close to the road was now on the south side of the road, along with many trees and bushes.  The road itself, had been torn up and was being resurfaced.  The damage to hillside and road was about a mile long.  The estimate for the completion of the repairs is Fall/2013.  And, the construction zone is being manned 24/7.  Those rains that I spoke of in the earlier episodes of the blog inflicted some nasty damage. 

It seems that I am going to be having some visitors in the next week or two.  Some friends from Phoenix are traveling the Oregon coast and will be in Coos Bay (about 35 miles south) during the week of June 24^th.  After their stay in Coos Bay, they had planned to drive north on U.S. Hwy 101 to Florence (about 13 miles north) for a stay.  They are traveling in their motor home and I am looking forward to a chance to see them. 

Mt. Shasta, from the Weed, CA, rest area.  Looking SE at the mountain.

June 11, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

Today is Saturday, at least for me, and it is a day of errands.  Drive to Reedsport to talk to my boss, go to the P.O. to check for Snail Mail, stop by the Sugar Shack for a couple of doughnuts and a maple bar, and then hit the road for Eugene.  The drive from Reedsport to Eugene takes you along the Umpqua River to Elkton and then to Drain, OR (passing through the community of Hardscrabble, OR, on the drive).  From Drain, OR, the road turns northward and in about five or six miles, you merge onto the I-5 northbound for the 30 miles or so to Eugene where I made a stop at Costco for some supplies and then a visit to the Eugene Public Library (100 W. 10^th Avenue) to finish this episode of the blog.  The rest of the day will be driving back to Florence for doing laundry, making a stop at the RV shop to see if the part I need has been ordered, and the rest of my grocery shopping at the Safeway.  Round trip will be about 150 miles and use up most of the day.  But, I managed to pick up three bottles of wine, some batteries for my headlamp (not truck or RV headlamp, but my personal, wear it on your head, headlamp), and some food for my tummy. 

This library is very, very nice.  Lots of room to sit at table with lights and power if I need it for the laptop, quiet as a library should be, stained glass windows  for effect and very nice folk for help if needed.  The one drawback to using the library wifi (almost any library wifi) is that the wifi systems are always unsecured.  They don’t use any passwords, so anyone could be around.  I don’t like using any of my secured websites on an unsecured wifi system.  So I use my Verizon tablet as a hot spot and use my laptop connection through the hotspot for my internet connections.

My conversation in the writings from June 10th (above), discussed the wind blowing around the lake.  Well today, the skies are cloudy and guess what?  No wind.  The lake when I left on my errands this morning, the water was dead flat, barely a riffle...and there is no wind blowing any where else with this cloud cover.  Kind of interesting isn't it?

Tell me what you think about anything you read on the blog.  You folks watching and reading the blog surely have some questions, ask them.  If you have been here before, to the Oregon Coast and have some suggestions for places to visit and people to see, let me know. 

More to come…