RV Fun Trips --- Our Crab Fishing Adventure -- 1998 ---

Our Crab Fishing Adventure
September 1998
Page 7

Friday 9-18

We had a really nice storm last night. The wind blew hard enough to make our motorhome rock. Several times we were hit by downpours of short duration. So when we got up this morning, the air smelled fresh as it only does after the cleansing effect of a rainstorm. I was out of the motorhome by 7:30, but that was not early enough to beat Tom and Wally. I went over to the campground office to see what was happening and there were Wally and Tom. We made arrangements to get our crabs cooked. Our crabs would be the first to be cooked on this day. The cooking pot was fired up and would take a while for the water to boil.

So Tom, Wally, Harry, and I went down to unload the live crab pot where we had stored our crabs. We pulled the pot out of the water and began transferring the live crabs to buckets. Some of the crabs were very crabby (Pun intended) about being moved. Some put up a good fight and made it difficult to pick them up to put them in a bucket.

This crab untied Tom’s shoe

One crab fought so much that Tom dropped it on the dock. The crab reached out with its claw and grabbed Tom’s shoe, so Tom jerked his foot away from the grip of the angry creature. When Tom stepped up to pick up the crab again, it grabbed his shoelace. Tom pulled his shoe away again, which resulted in the crab untying his shoe. We were treated to a funny dance as Tom tried to get that fighting crab in to the bucket.

Crab puts up a good fight

Tom was finally successful, but he spent more time on that one crab than ten others. We carried the buckets full of crabs up to the big cooking pot behind the campground office.

A really big crab cook pot

Kay, Nora, Cathie, and Shirley all came in to watch the cooking of the crab. It was a sight to see. Nearly eighty crabs in boiling water that had turned them a bright red. There were a lot of pictures taken of the operation from the cooking, to the cooling, to the cleaning.

Our crabs are ready for cleaning

Before cleaning the crabs, we laid them all out on the picnic tables in our campsite. It took 1 1/2 tables to hold all of the crabs.

Our audience while cleaning crabs

Again many photographs were taken of our combined haul. We now had to take the crabs down to the cleaning station to prepare them to take home with us. The men took turns working on the cleaning while the women looked on and took pictures of the process. The cleaning process made for sore fingers from breaking off bony structures of the cab shell.

Our last time at the cleaning station — Photo by Cathie

I'm glad we didn't have to clean any more than we did. The familiar feeding frenzy of the small salmon also took place.

Dividing up the haul

Then it was time to divide the crabs between the four motorhomes. We put our share of the red crustaceans in an ice chest and laid two bags of ice on top of the critters. No sooner than that was done, it began to rain.

We were left to break camp in a fairly heavy shower. It would have been nice if the rain could have held off a few minutes, but I am just glad the heavy rain didn't start any sooner. I thought it would quite in a short time, but it continued until after we were on the road. So I ended up getting wet as I put away the leveling blocks, power cord, doormat and any other thing that happened to be outside. I drove our motorhome around to the boat trailer. Tom and I connected the boat trailer to my motorhome, and then I was finally able to get in out of the rain. I had to change into a dry shirt before we left.

Kay and I took off ahead of the rest of our caravan so we could take on a load of fuel. While we were in the service station, our traveling companions went by heading for Washburn State Park to dump holding tanks. Notice I said "Service station" in the previous sentence. It is as if I am transported back in time when I drive into a station in Oregon to buy gasoline. An attendant comes out to put gas in my vehicle and asks me if I would like the oil checked. Then the windshield is washed without me having to ask the attendant to do so. This is a spin off of an Oregon law that makes it illegal for customers to pump their own gasoline. Since an attendant must dispense gasoline, they might as well provide the rest of the service normally done at a fuel stop from another time.

After filling the fuel tank of the motorhome, we were on our way to find the rest of our group. We caught up with our crew at the dump station of the State Park. Tom had dumped first, so he left his sewer hose connected to the drain. Then each of our motorhomes were driven into place and connected to the hose. It made a quick way to get several motorhomes dumped in a short time.

Typical green scenery along the highway

We drove down the Oregon coast highway in the wind and rain. Again, there are places along Highway 101 in Oregon where I am reminded of places along State Highway 1 in northern California. Our route home retraced the way we came here a few days ago. We turned inland on highway 126 at Florence. We were again driving next to the Siuslaw River with many boats of people fishing for salmon. It is a beautiful path through the mountains covered with conifer type trees with a few deciduous trees beginning to show autumn colors. We were treated to short bursts of rain along the way.

When we reached Eugene, we followed the signs directing us to southbound I-5. After driving for about 14 miles on the interstate, we pulled into a Rest Area to have lunch.

Time for a lunch break

While Kay made sandwiches for us, I sent an e-mail message out via cellular telephone. The weather was still a little unpredictable, so we had lunch in our respective motorhomes. It wasn’t very long until we were out on I-5 again.

Along the way, Wally needed to refuel his motorhome. I took advantage of the stop to top off the gas tank in our motorhome. After getting back on the road, Wally told us about a place in Canyonville, Oregon where we could get some really good beef jerky. So we all drove down the main street of Canyonville looking for a place to park four motorhomes. Wally and Harry found a place to park about two blocks from the store of interest. By the time we pulled up behind Harry's motorhome, he, Wally, and Cathie were well on their way to buy beef jerky. Tom decided to top off the fuel tank of his motorhome while the rest of us were at the beef jerky store.

Tom called me on the CB radio to tell me he was going to the highway to get fuel. We saw Tom and Nora drive by heading south on Main Street. Then Kay and I took off to catch up with the others. I had not planned to buy any beef jerky when we entered the store. But after trying a couple of samples, I bought four packages of really great tasting beef jerky.

As everybody got back to their respective motorhomes, we were ready to continue our trip. Harry and Wally asked where Tom was and I told them he went to the highway to refuel his motorhome. So we drove south on to the end of town, where we looked for Tom in the service station. When we didn't see him, we all called him on the CB radio, but there was no reply. Wally and Harry said Tom had talked about getting fuel at a truck stop at Exit 24, so they figured that was where he was headed. So as we turned on to I-5 heading south, I was unable to convince anybody in our caravan that Tom was getting fuel somewhere in the neighborhood.

Part of the problem was the fact that the last time I saw Tom, he was driving south, so I thought he would be at the south end of town. I didn't find out until later that Tom had turned around and drove back the way we came into town. I didn't see him drive north because Harry’s motorhome blocked my view of the street when Tom and Nora drove by heading north. So we ended up leaving Tom behind with the others in our party thinking they were following Tom. Occasionally along the way, a call on the CB radio was made to Tom with no answer from him.

An Oregon butte along I-5

The drive to Exit 24 was 75 miles south of Canyonville. It was an uneventful leg of our trip, except for the fact we had taken off without Tom and Nora. As we approached Exit 24, Harry and Wally called Tom on the CB radio, thinking he would already be there. Of course there was no response from Tom. So now the rest of our crew came to the conclusion that we had in fact left Tom and Nora behind.

Harry filled the fuel tank on his motorhome at a Truckstop. I didn't need gas yet, but I figured I would go ahead and top off the tank while we waited for Tom and Nora to catch up with us. While we waited, we took turns giving Tom a call on the CB radio. He finally responded and when we determined where he was on the Interstate, we were able to get on the I-5 just ahead of him. Now we were finally all back together again with Kay and I in the front of the caravan.

As we drove south we discussed the place to stop for the night. As we were driving through Ashland, Oregon, Tom asked me to read off the next campground sign I saw along the road. The sign I saw was for the Glenyan Campground about three miles east of Ashland. So I turned our motorhome toward the campground. When I arrived, our group was still a short distance behind us. Because it was a Friday evening, we were lucky to find four campsites not too far apart form each other. Our campsite was next to Harry and Shirley’s motorhome, while Tom and Nora ended up across from Wally and Cathie’s campsite.

The campground was next to a small creek and we were surrounded by blackberry bushes. So once again we were eating freshly picked blackberries. Nora and I moved a picnic table to their campsite so we would have a place to dine together. Before dinner we had an opportunity to visit for awhile. During our conversation, I noticed the clouds seemed to have an iridescent glow as the sun was setting. I had to go get my camera so I could try to get a picture of the clouds.

Our view from the campground

Then it was a short time until we were to sit down to our evening meal. We all ate together in Tom and Nora’s campsite. The sun had gone down while we were eating so it was dark by the time we finished our meal. I turned in early to write notes and watch TV.