Our adult kids know that I enjoy taking modern technology back to the late 1950’s/early 60’s to impress my younger self and friends. I usually play a guessing game: What is this? A radio? a calculator? a flashlight? an encyclopedia? an atlas? a clock? a camera? a phone? etc., etc., etc., with the answer being all of the above and much more! Mind-blowing for that bygone era!
Well this week Betty & I went back in time – but just not that far back… In 2010 we dropped our youngest daughter, Lisa, at the University of Victoria, and headed down the U.S. coast in our CruiseMaster. The picture on the first page of our blog was taken just south of Cannon Beach, Oregon, on spectacularly scenic coastal highway #101.
One of our first posts (Dec.3, 2017) listed favourite places we hoped to revisit.
We are currently staying at Nehalem Bay State Park (site C30), just south of Cannon Beach, and have enjoyed both touring Cannon Beach again, and also just sitting on the wide sandy beach in the park, watching families flying their kites.
Tomorrow we drive just a little further south to Tillamook, for a tour of their famous cheese factory, and are spending the night at another cheese factory – the Blue Heron – a Harvest Host member.
We will be leaving the Pacific Ocean behind, and starting our travels inland toward Manitoba – hoping to return once the seasonal flooding is over. (Otherwise we might have a water-front campsite at Town & Country. lol)
Our next stop this weekend is Portland, Oregon, with upcoming visits to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South and North Dakota along the way. The Portland visit may include a trip to the Apple store, to see what new technology might replace my aging iPhone 6, which has been acting up lately. Besides, think of the impression I would make if I took the latest iPhone back to the ’60s! Just imagine the past and future colliding!
In the meantime, we have enjoyed our journey back to the future, and hope you also have opportunity to both reminisce and look forward to new adventures ahead!
There are times in life when you see and experience things that are difficult to wrap your head around. How do you interpret what is in front of you? This week Betty & I had one of those experiences. But before I elaborate, here are a couple more pictures from our current campsite at Pacific Beach State Park in Washington State.
Ok, on to the main story. Betty & I will often go for a drive around the area where we are camped, just to get the lay of the land and see local attractions. One of the features we like about our current spot is the proximity of the local town, Pacific Beach. It is immediately adjacent to our campground and an easy walk for basic needs.
The town appears a little run-down just now, with many shops and residences closed and seemingly abandoned. But I think it is more a seasonal issue, and we are here in the off-season. There is still a hotel and restaurant, gas station, post office, elementary school, church, and most other facilities one would find in a small community.
But just about a kilometer south, we found something unexpected. Not listed on any of our hardcopy maps, but showing up on “Google maps” is a brand-new community. Called “Seabrook”, the town is at least as large as any I lived in growing up – if not larger. While I have a fairly innate sense of direction, there were times without our gps that I wasn’t sure where we were and where we were going! Had we entered The Twilight Zone?
We found Seabrook to be both attractive and disconcerting. The shops, homes, streets and parks were all pristine – no garbage anywhere and not a blade of grass out of place. Yes, it was totally attractive, but spookily surreal at the same time. It could all have been part of a “Truman Show” set (with Jim Carrey) or “Pleasantville” (with Reese Witherspoon & Jeff Daniels). Let me explain more through the captions on the following pictures.
Were we witnessing a staged movie set, or an actual community? It was one of those experiences that’s difficult to get one’s head around. Maybe only time will tell how Seabrook evolves, but in the meantime, Betty & I were left with a real head-scratcher. Was it real, or was it fake? Hope you can better interpret life as you see it on your travels!
Previous posts have highlighted favourite campsites where Betty & I have stayed on our overlandish odyssey, or on earlier travels. The sites have exhibited special qualities that made them memorable and desirable. While we value spontaneity, we will also go out of our way to return to a great campground that provided a lasting favourable experience. This week we returned to one of those spots that we had looked forward to for quite some time.
Having booked a seasonal site at Living Forest Oceanside Campground in Nanaimo, British Columbia until April 15/22, we anticipated heading down the U.S. west coast after that for a while.
About a decade ago, Betty and I lucked out with an oceanside campsite (#5) at Pacific Beach State Park at the base of the Olympic Peninsula. Since there are only a handful of oceanside sites in this small state park, I went on-line to the Washington State Park website last July and booked site #7 for this week. Here are some pictures from the first few days of our visit:
Betty & I have a lot more to look forward to, but visiting Pacific Beach State Park again is one more item off our bucket list. Hoping you can also find much in life for which to look forward!
Like many others, Betty & my travels have been limited by the pandemic coronavirus, and all its varients. Other than flights back to Winnipeg for Christmas, we have been staying put in our ocean-view campsite at Nanaimo, British Columbia for the past six months. The site is nice, but we’ve had far too much rain, and we’re told it’s been colder than usual – although there’s no comparison with the snowy winter and spring our family has been experiencing in Manitoba!
For quite some time now, we have been itching to get back on the road. With the exception of a couple of day trips south to Duncan and Victoria, there hasn’t been much to post on a travel blog.
On our way across the Rocky Mountains last October, our motorhome struggled on a couple of occasions, and we wanted to ensure it was performing at its best as we headed out for the next leg of our overlandish odyssey. So we took the Boy into Nanaimo’s Cullen Diesel and they changed out the transmission fluid which, according to my records, hadn’t been changed in a dozen years. They also changed the spark plugs and wires, and we seem to be cruising up and down the mountains more easily now. Yeah!
The sun was shining as we began our trip down Vancouver Island, but we experienced a little of everything weather-wise on our first couple of days.
Arriving in Victoria with plenty of time before boarding the ferry to Port Angeles, Washington, we drove past the B.C. legislature and other famous landmarks.
After clearing customs in Port Angeles – late on Good Friday evening – we received notice from Telus, our phone service provider, that I was incurring some serious roaming charges. This was notwithstanding Betty & I have active Canada-U.S. data plans. There is obviously a mix-up somewhere, but we may not be able to reach anyone at Telus until Monday or Tuesday – a real hassle when we have come to rely on electronic communications these days. Fortunately the Port Angeles Verizon store was open Saturday morning, and we were able to activate our wifi jetpack at a very reasonable pay-as-you-go rate. Yeah again!
Knowing that citrus fruit and other food items can be an issue at the U.S. border crossing, we made the Port Angeles Walmart our first stop – stocking up the fridge and pantry, and obtaining permission for an overnight stay in their parking lot.
Yesterday we headed west and south down Washington State Hwy. 101, again experiencing the full range of spring weather – from sunshine to rain and wet snow at higher elevations, and back to sun as we reached the Pacific coast.
I had researched possible overnight campsites on the Olympic Peninsula, but many were listed as closed until mid-May, and others were first come, first served, with no guarantee we would find a spot suitable for our motorhome and car. Fortunately, when we looped through Kalaloch Beach campground yesterday afternoon, we came across a nice spot, close to a sandy beach, and are looking forward to Easter dinner here later today.
Oh, btw, yes Washington is state #40 on our overlandish odyssey – over two years since we registered state #39 – Colorado. The coronavirus has slowed us all down, but Betty & I are hoping that we can enjoy our time on the road a little longer, and that you also can experience happiness, wherever life finds you. As Willie Nelson sings, yes, it’s great to be FINALLY on the roadagain!