Getting There

Saturday
Tom and Nora had gone to Oregon a week before our scheduled departure. They were going to meet up with some of our group ahead of our planned date of entry into the fish camp where we have stayed during four previous trips. With Tom and Nora already in Oregon, Kay and I would form a small caravan with Nilo as we did last year. Tom had already taken his boat with him, so I didn't need to take the boat on this trip.

We started late, leaving home about one hour late. Once we were on the road, Kay called Nilo to let him know we would be late. Kay called about 30 minutes before Nilo would need to leave home to meet us on the original schedule. The plan was to notify him soon enough that he wouldn't have to wait for us in his motorhome, he would be able to remain at home where he would be more comfortable. Unfortunately there was no answer at his home phone.

When Kay called Nilo's cell phone number, we found that Nilo was already at Cordelia. We arrived at our rendezvous point one hour late to find that Nilo had arrived an hour earlier than planned. As a result he had spent two hours in his motorhome waiting for us. We never saw him as we made contact on our CB radio. After filling up with fuel, I pulled our motorhome out on I-80 with Nilo a couple of miles ahead of us. It didn't take long to catch up with Nilo's RV just before we took the off-ramp to I-505.

The drive north on I-5 was uneventful for the most part. We've traveled on this road so many times, in the last year, that it was a very familiar drive. There are only two things that stand out along the way. On the approach to the south bridge across Shasta Lake, I saw something laying on the shoulder of the road. At first I thought it might be a truck tire tread. As we got closer, I thought it might be the body of a big, black dog. It turned out to be a small dead, black bear. It looked as if it was older than a cub but not full-adult size. I've seen the carcasses of all kinds of animals along the road, but that was the first time I've seen a dead bear on the shoulder of the road. The second thing that stood out was that Mt. Shasta had no snow on it. It seemed unusual for the peak of the mountain to be essentially free of snow this time of year.

As we did last year, Nilo and I decided to continue on to Florence for our stop for the night. We made our usual fuel stops one of which was at Canyonville, Oregon. We were still running about an hour behind our schedule from the previous year. To use our time better we decided to eat our evening meal at the same time we stopped at Canyonville for fuel. We went to the restaurant at the truck stop. It took so long to get our meals that we used up any time advantage we might have made by combining a fuel and food stop. We arrived while it was still light and left after dark.

Our motorhomes hung out with big rigs while we had dinner

As we drove off into the night we found our way to the turn-off for highway 138 in Sutherlin. This was my first time making this trip driving our new Monaco Knight motorhome and the back country road seemed a bit narrow at first. It didn't take very long to get used to the tighter driving conditions. It seemed like a short time until we saw a familiar glow ahead of us in the darkness. It was the street lights of Reedsport, Oregon. From here, we made our way to Florence and the Fred Meyer parking lot. We arrived at about 10:30. It was a good time to stop for the night as it had been a long day for us.

Sunday
A familiar scene waited for me as I stepped out into our impromptu camping area. Behind the parking lot were sand dunes. One of the reasons I like to stop at the Fred Meyer store parking lot, for the night, is that we have a place to shop for anything we might have forgotten. This was the case on this trip, we left some of our supplies at home. I found everything I needed during my early morning shopping excursion.

Impromptu campsites with sand dunes in background

When I returned to the motorhome with my purchases, I saw that a familiar motorhome had parked near where Nilo and I parked for the night. It was the RV that belonged to Barbara and Dave. I first saw Dave talking to Nilo and with Dave was his dog Buster. As I walked toward them, I was pleased to see that Buster remembered me. He appeared to be excited to see me as I approached Dave and his buddy.

After greeting Dave and Buster, I went to our motorhome where Barbara was getting a tour of our new rig. When I entered our motorhome, Barbara and I exchanged big "Hello hugs." It seemed as if it had been a long time since we had seen Dave and Barb. After visiting for a short time, it was decided that we would all head north toward Waldport. We pulled out of the Fred Meyer parking lot at approximately 9:30.

Necessary tasks are performed before entering camp

Nilo and I needed to dump motorhome holding tanks before entering the campground at Waldport. So the two us stopped at Washburn State Park to take care of business while Dave and Barb continued to Waldport. While in the parking lot at Washburn, I noticed a small patch of grass that appeared to be living on the asphalt. I thought that the grass must really be struggling to make a living.

A small patch of grass with no place to grow

Nilo and I arrived at McKinley's Marina and RV Campground at about 10:30 and drove back to the overflow area. There we found Dave and Barbara already parked next to the bay. I took a walk up to the campground office where I found Charlene in the crab cooking area. She stopped working long enough for us to give each other a big "Hello hug." It is always nice to see Charlene. I returned to the camping area to wait for the arrival of the rest of our group.

A sign that has become a very familiar and welcome sight

At about 11:30, I discovered that other rigs in our group had arrived and were not going to enter the overflow area. With the others getting into position, our three rigs headed toward our assigned camping area. We were told we had to maintain a distance of 10 feet between our motorhomes. That requirement meant that I would not be able to pull into my traditional camping place behind Tom and Nora’s RV.

After getting our motorhome positions sorted out it was time to say "Hi" to everybody we hadn't seen for awhile. Tom and Nora had been touring the Oregon coast earlier in the week. Harry and Shirley with Wally and Cathie were also traveling up the Oregon coast during the previous week. Cathie introduced us to her parents, Ray and Marian, who were traveling with her and Wally.

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