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The phone call arrived but it was not the news we had hoped for, the shipment had arrived and was stored in San Francisco, but when transport to Eugene would be available they could not say at this point.
Our next site which we found in a small site book was scruffy and small - not to our liking so we made a quick exit, consulted our usual site books and found a KOA site north of Waldport - booked in for a week to wait arrival of our shipment. This site also had great Internet access which proved to be very useful over the next week.
With mobile phone in easy reach throughout the next few days, and when the weather would permit, we toured the rugged coast north and south, visiting:
The phone call came - our luggage would arrive in Eugene Monday 7th June - one month later than quoted. We were given the transport handlers name, phoned them to see how soon it could be delivered to us here. Our agreement signed before we left home stated that the Handler would deliver within a forty mile radius of Eugene free of charge - they wanted an extra $450 to deliver the further forty miles we were at the moment. As we are pensioners and Scottish, we decided to take our rig back to Eugene for a couple of nights so they could make the delivery there.
The intended two day stay lasted a week and we had to collect the shipment as they couldn't deliver for days! It was made very enjoyable by our nice neighbors - Sue taught me a lot about grocery shopping on our jaunts to the shops, while David advised Wullie about all those beautiful gadgets to buy for our RV. Good Internet access allowed us to download Outlook Express which took well over two hours, but finally got us completely hooked up with a system to suit our requirements.
Home now complete with all items (including far too many clothes), in their rightful place, we continued our northward journey to Netarts Bay - our last stop on the Oregon coast. We managed the tricky one way system through the centre of Tillamook and onto the Three Capes Loop for seven miles before missing the turn for our site, which is what all RVers dread doing. With petrol on low we continued up the picturesque road for a further five miles, but not able to enjoy the scenery this time round, we found the last turning point before the road became unsuitable to long vehicles. Shaken by this experience we made it back to Bay View RV Park which is very aptly named, where we spent the next week touring and relaxing when the weather kept us in.
Three Cape Loop is often missed by people traveling highway 101, it is well worth a visit as it is one of the most picturesque drives on the Oregon Coast. The road goes through part of 2,000 acre sand dunes where fir & pine trees grow in the dunes. It is very popular with the sand buggie set. The road gets rather narrow and very rough in places along the forty miles but is well worth the detour.
Below are just a few of the places we visited on this forty mile loop:
Cannon Beach - north of Netarts is a really delightful spot which had we known about earlier we would have spent more time at and not just browsed through some of the shops on our way home. Art galleries, restaurants and many small shops line both sides of the street. Ideal place to browse, eat and partake of microbrew to end the perfect day.
Astoria - the last coastal town in Oregon is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies. Founded in 1812 as a fur trading post it has more historical points of interest than any other on the Oregon coast. With a lot of museums to choose from we decided to visit the Maritime Museum which was very interesting. At Astoria we crossed the very impressive bridge that spans 4.1 miles across the Columbia River into Washington State.
Bay Center KOA - Willapa Bay is America's capital for oysters. All along the coast their are mountains of empty oyster shells proving just how popular they are. Our stay here was marred by the wet weather which impeded our walking so we were pleased we had only booked four days. Our first real spell of heavy rain since the start of travels bought our first leak by way of the water heater vent. Luckily we noticed it before damage was done and my ingenious husband made a temporary repair while waiting for Sunnybrook to respond to our letter.
Not letting the weather get the better of us we went touring most days, visiting:
The whole coastline in this area has beautiful wide long and flat beaches where you can walk and sometimes drive on them for miles, they are also used for surfing and of course - kite flying. What a pity we couldn't make the most of them.
End of Month Conclusion
Miles travelled this month: 1,990
Hyper Links that may be of interest:
Netarts