Day 5-7: Hello, Pacific!

Wildlife

• several Bald Eagles

• Crowned Sparrow

• American Crow

• Brown Pelicans

• Great Blue Heron

• gulls

• seals and sea lions

• my app identified many more birds by sound, but I could not get a visual of them

Highlights

• 3-foot snow banks at Land of the Woods resort

• beautiful mountain drives

• beautiful seashore drives

• black sand and rock beaches (unexpected!)

• seals and sea lions barking and basking

• azaleas and rhododendrons blooming

• huge hillsides covered in yellow blooms

• cool art deco bridges

  
  

We made it to the Oregon Coast on Day 5 -- a day which threw us some punches, but we problem-solved and lucked our way through it!

Since Day 2 of our trip, the "slide" of our camper has been acting up -- intermittently, stopping while retracting. We called our mechanic in Denver and he wasn't sure what it could be. So, we just decided to wait and see if it got worse. On Day 5, it go worse -- much worse. It almost didn't fully retract as we were packing up at Lake of the Woods -- high in the Oregon Cascades and far away from any town.

The slide is the part extended out on the side of the trailer. It retracts for traveling. It adds tons of living space while parked. Here we are at Lake of the Woods, where we barely got the slide to retract fully.

We got on the road and stuck to our planned route toward Medford, OR. A Saturday is a bad time to look for an RV mechanic, and the Saturday of Easter weekend is even worse! I called several, with no luck. Then, one guy, a mobile mechanic said it sounded like the motor needed replacing and he could not get one until Monday. What to do...

We decided we would have him take a look at it and at least diagnose the problem in person -- then we would decide next steps. We arranged to meet in a couple hours in the parking lot of a grocery store. While waiting, we shopped for groceries and refilled our propane tank. Then, 45 minutes early, James of Rogue RV Mobile Repair showed up and got to work.

James determined it was not the motor, but an electrical issue. After 30 minutes of sleuthing, he found the problem...a wire was getting pinched and shorting out each time the slide was fully open. The wire covering was split and the exposed wire was touching some metal and at risk of severing altogether. Luckily it was still intact and James just wrapped it with electrical tape and rerouted it to keep it clear of the closing mechanism.

We were back on the road by 2:15 pm. Miraculous! Thank you, James!!!

The drive was spectacular. The hillsides were beautifully blooming with yellow Montpellier Bloom (according to the Plantnet app). The azaleas and rhododendrons are also in full bloom, just breathtaking.

Montpellier Bloom

By 5:00 pm, we arrived in the small town of Brookings. The state park where we had hoped to camp was full, so we found a private seaside campground at the dock. It was great camping within 20 yards of the ocean. The beach was covered with huge driftwood, some had been propped up into teepees.

Best dog vacation ever!

A long line of geese flying at sunset.

After the hair-raising day of RV repairs, we fell soundly asleep to the sound of waves.

Day 6: Brookings to Sunset Bay State Park (Coos Bay)

The southern Oregon coast is just stunning. It is mostly public land with lots of opportunities to stop and gawk at the beauty from a highway pullout or a walk down to the beach.

Rock and driftwood collection.

Day 7: Sunset Bay State Park to South Beach State Park (Newport)

Oregon has great state parks! This drive was full of public parks and camping areas. A highlight was a stop at Simpson Reef to see basking seals and sea lions. Sadly, they were too far away for a good photo. We could only see them well with binoculars, but we could easily hear them!

Yes, there are a lot of seals and sea lions in this photo! Dozens are in front of the large pile of rocks in the middle of the photos. They were also swimming and bobbing in the water.

We end this first week of our trip full of gratitude, despite the turmoil in the world. The next 10 days of our trip will include visits with dear friends -- lucky us!

First campfire!