May 9th to 12th - Oregon

May 9^th – Fri

Rain & wind – last night and today.  I am glad that we are not living in our rig with the motorcycle inside.  We finally got bored and ran all the electronic toys out of juice so we headed to Three Rivers casino just west of downtown Florence.  After a lot of slot play we had “lunch” at the buffet at 3:00.

Back at the rig it was more of the same as in the morning – games, TV, reading, a drink and no dinner needed.  I actually worked a bit on pictures so stay tuned for pics being posted to the blog!

May 10^th – Sat

The yukky weather went out with a huge downpour just before we felt it necessary to get out of bed.  I even sat down right away with a cup of coffee and put captions on pictures.

We decided to stay here another day and to do laundry so we got everything in the truck, stopped to pay more money and headed to the casino!  We had points on our cards that we didn’t think to use at the buffet yesterday so we figured we could have a breakfast buffet.  The guy working here at the park gave Terry a coupon for $10 free play so we played that first.  We took turns playing and it was amazing how long it lasted.  There was no breakfast buffet so we finally had breakfast at a café about 11.

We stopped at a new Laundromat but all the machines were huge – up to 40 lbs. for $4.50 – so we went to one closer to the RV park.  It even had a thrift store across the parking lot so we had something to do while the clothes were in the washers.  We stopped at Fred Meyers for groceries, came back and put everything away.

It was so nice that we went for a ride on the motorcycle.  We went to an area where there was a trail to a viewpoint but you couldn’t even see the ocean, just some dunes.  We stopped at the Darlingtonia Wayside where a plant called – of course – the Darlingtonia Californica grows. It has an odd bulbous part that traps insects and digests them.  We went to Weaver Lake which is down the road from the RV park.  We drove around a lot of the lake and finally turned around at a public boat launch when the road got ugly.  It was a pretty lake with a very irregular shoreline so we couldn’t see if the road went all the way around.

We bought some steaks today so Terry could cook them on the BBQ.  I cooked up a double batch of stew meat and put one portion in the fridge for tomorrow and one in the freezer for whenever.

May 11^th – Sun – to Newport

We took the time to change the tie-down system for the motorcycle when we loaded up this morning.  The new method should be easier especially when Terry has to maneuver in some pretty tight spaces.

We had beautiful sunny weather for our short drive to Beverly Beach State park which is just north of Newport.  We were given a choice of several spots that were empty or had people leaving today.  It was about noon and check-out time is 1:00.  Of course the site we wanted was still occupied but they were obviously getting ready to leave.  They finally pulled out and we parked immediately.  We could put the ramp down and take the bike out after we parked which is nice.

I made lunch and Terry did the chore important to him – tuned in the many stations on cable TV.  We took a bike ride to Newport and stopped at WalMart for groceries and a couple of other items.

A couple stopped by to look at the bike and we ended up chatting with them for quite a while.  They are from the Tri Cities in WA.  We went for a walk on the beach but the wind was pretty cold so it was time for cocktails beside a real campfire.  We don’t have very good wifi reception and the phone is iffy.

We had a note on our step when we got back from the beach saying we had to park all vehicles on the paved area so we had to move the trailer back, unhook the truck and move it right to the edge of the paved area and tuck the bike in close to the truck.  Terry LOVES this kind of thing!!

May 12^th – Mon

After coffee & cinnamon rolls, we rode the bike north to Depot Bay.  We browsed ALL the touristy shops along the main shopping area.  The couple we spoke with yesterday told us about a restaurant with good clam chowder so that is what we had for lunch.  It was good chowder.  On the way back we stopped at some pullouts & viewpoints and drove to the Devil’s Punchbowl.  Back at the park we toured it on the bike as there are several camping loops.

I put a pork roast in the crockpot so dinner wasn’t too tough except I tried to make carrot & apple salad without a grater – not too successful but edible.  I finally got to watch DWTS but only the second hour.