Our Travel Blog

Woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine. The temperature here on the coast is definitely cooler than inland. Inland has been forecast to climb to the mid 80’s, but here the Ocean is keeping the temperature in the mid 50’s. Just after breakfast we lost all power, I thought at first maybe were having electric problems again after last weeks issues. This time it was due to a downed hydro pole. The estimated time to restore power was 2 hours, so with no power and no internet, we decided to head out earlier than planned.

About 5 miles south of the campground we ran into our old friends, mist fog and low cloud. We were heading about 50 miles south to see some of the coastline, however there wouldn’t be too much to see in these conditions.

We first stopped at Tillamook and went into the visitors centre to get some local maps. Much to my amazement they had State road maps for most of the States we would be driving through so I grabbed a bunch.

One of the big touristy things in the surrounding area is the “Quilting Trail”, which features Barn Quilts.

Over time more and more of these quilts have appeared, and there are now 101 of them along the Highway 101 corridor.

There are also a number of geocaches which use some of these quilts in their clues.

Where there are quilts, even painted ones, there is bound to be fabric. This time it wasn’t a fabric store as such, it was a textile centre. Somehow, Lyn managed to go in empty handed, and come out not empty handed!

The centre had a quilt themed mural painted on on of the buildings.

While driving around the quilt trail we found another cache that was located in a small gardens area maintained by the areas Master Gardeners. Again the quilt theme was present.

From here we headed out for coastal route called the three capes, unfortunately it was quite disappointing as the route itself was either quite a way inland, or the ocean views were hidden by trees. The hazy weather didn’t help either.

Heading back to the camp ground we passed Haystack Rock.

This is the 3rd highest inter tidal ( it can be reached by land at low tide, but only by sea at high tide) structure in the world at 235ft high.

Just up the road was the town of Cannon Beach, a very touristy area, even on Friday in early May!

Here we saw something we never expected to see here!

This is a British vehicle from the 1950’s, a Morris Minor van in pristine condition.

A little disappointing as yesterdays sunshine wasn’t with us when we woke up. After breakfast though the clouds began to clear, and the sun broke through. It was time to hit the food store to replenish the supplies so we headed into the local town, Seaside.

We stopped to fill up with diesel, almost forgot that the attendant has to do the pumping!

Next stop was the food store, followed by a drive through the town to see what it offered. Not too much unfortunately.

After lunch we headed back into town to take a stroll along the promenade, and find a couple of geocaches. The promenade is set back from the ocean by a few hundred feet and lined with holiday homes.

Although it doesn’t show too clearly, the “birds” above are actually carvings at the top of the picket fence. Seems to be some pride of ownership in the area.

Over some small dunes and onto the beach

We continued walking along the beach for a while (good exercise) then reached the far enf of the promenade, which we walked along back to the truck.

Lyn …… after the 3 mile walk!!!

The trailer was still there this morning!! After breakfast we headed out to continue our trip to Seaside Oregon. The scenery continued to be stunning, but the roads only allowed us to average 45 MPH, not the 55 I had planned on. Not only were there many tight turns and hills, there were many towns with 25 MPH speed limits.

I am glad that we finished up splitting the trip, as it would have been close to 10 hours in a single go.

We only got a couple of shots in for the blog.

We stopped for lunch in a rest area, and made up a snack in the trailer. When we went back to the truck, the engine started……. then stopped. It would not start again. Yesterday it wouldn’t stop, to day it wouldn’t start!!

Earlier in the day there was a message on the instruments that said to change the fuel filter. I didn’t think the beast would react that quickly, but it got me thinking. Obvious diagnosis was fuel starvation. We had plenty of fuel, but was it being totally blocked by the filter? Remembering back to when I last changed the filter, one of the steps was to fill the filter with diesel using a priming pump on the filter housing. I went out and primed, came back and the engine started …… then stopped. Re-primed the filter with the same result. One more time and bingo, we were up and running! All I can think of was that an air / vapour lock occurred in the fuel feed. The truck ran fine for the rest of the day. Just to be sure I went into town and got a new filter. Luckily changing a fuel filter on the truck requires no tools.

The previously clean trailer was now far from clean at the front, why do bugs have to make such a mess when they fly into the front of the trailer?

After the painfully slow set up of the satellite dish at the last site, this time was ridiculously easy, in fact I had it set up before Lyn could get in position to read off the strength from the TV screen!!

Woke up to another sunny morning, seemed strange not to have the truck in front of us!!

This morning was destined to pass very slowly… I decided I don’t do so well if I am not in control of events!

After breakfast we started some more cleaning and packing in the hope that the truck would be ready to move out in the afternoon.

Around noon I broke down and phoned the mechanic, he assured me all was going well and the truck should be fixed between 2 and 3 PM.

After lunch I was about to phone again as we had to make the decision whether to stay another night at the RV Park, or head north. Bang on 2 o’clock the phone rang, the truck was ready. The owner came and picked me up (he also dropped me back at the trailer yesterday), the garage was about 4 miles away with no public transport.

We were back at the trailer by 2:20, a few hundred bucks the poorer, but much better off than if anything had gone wrong while we were on the move!! We had decided we would complete half the journey to the next site to day and stay at a motel tonight. I had just received some hotel vouchers yesterday, so the cost was about the same as an RV site, but involved less effort.

After a thorough checking of the brakes we headed north. Part of the route we had covered a couple of days ago, but then we were in uncharted territory. When we crossed the Oregon border the road veered closer to the Ocean. The views were great, much as we had both expected. The pictures below don’t do it justice as I just stuck the camera out the window and clicked away. The windscreen was too bug splattered for Lyn to take any shots!

One thing we have already learnt about Oregon; you are not allowed to pump your own gas!!

We finished up at the motel around 7:20, wasn’t too pleased as they advertised truck and RV parking, but there was no suitable parking on site. We finished up leaving the rig on the street, but I think it will be OK.

Having got everything sorted we headed out to the restaurant next door, Lyn seems happy enough!!

Finally, on what was planned to be our last day the sun decided to grace us with its presence! After breakfast we headed out to Eureka to visit a heritage woodworking factory.

This place, Blue Ox, specialises in custom woodwork for heritage buildings, and does a lot of its work in redwood. The redwoods are slowly disappearing, and only about 4% of the remaining trees are “old growth” i.e. over one thousand years old. In the last 40 years or so strict rules have been put in place for the harvesting of redwoods. There is no more felling of old growth trees. If an old  growth redwood falls naturally, large companies (more than 30 employees) are not allowed to use that tree, they must offer it for sale to a smaller company. Evidently redwood is THE wood to use. It is water proof, bug proof, warp proof and just about anything else proof!

The other thing about Blue Ox is that they use older “man powered” machines for a lot of their work.

Hand Powered Table Saw

Treadle Powered Lathe

The blue machine in the front is for making the pointy end of picket fences, a couple of which can be seen on the table saw a couple of pictures up.

Long Hand Saw Hanging From Ceiling

1936 Powered Scroll Saw

Sit on Pedal Powered Scroll Saw

Treadle Powered Scroll Saw

A Very Large Lathe!

Blue Ox is the last place in the world to manufacture redwood eaves trough.

Blue Ox also has a print shop

And a Fabric Shop

Outside were a number of other areas, there is also an old trolley bus which is constructed mostly of wood, Blue Ox has been restoring it.

There was also a ceramics area, with its own earth kiln (slightly larger than yours Marie!)

The place was amazing, and they are continuing to expand into a heritage village which will also provide training for students in the various arts.

Next it was off to Eureka to walk around, Geo-cache and find some murals!

Above is the front of the building that hosts the mural in the picture before it.

The  building above, The Eagle Tavern, is  in Old Town Eureka and has recently had its exterior refurbished by Blue Ox.

We had a pleasant lunch at a local bagel restaurant, then headed back to the RV park to start packing up for tomorrows move.

As we would be leaving around 7 AM we decided to pack away as much stuff as possible, both to make a quick get away and to avoid disturbing the neighbours. After hitching up the trailer to the truck I saw an ominous puddle of fluid under the drivers side of the truck. It turned out to be brake fluid.

I managed to track down a mechanic a couple of miles away who would take a look at the problem so I drove SLOWLY to the repair shop.  The brakes were “different” but there was still plenty of stopping power in them. Initial diagnosis was that the Ottawa salt had done a number on the brake lines and caused one to rust through and leak!  It was decided that the four brake lines in the cluster should be replaced, as it is quite likely the others could go at any time. The mechanic is confident that he can have it fixed by tomorrow afternoon. If we didn’t spot this now, then we would have had a brake failure out on the windy, hilly freeway with the trailer behind us. not a pleasant thought.

Luckily we can remain here another night if we need to, but I am looking at leaving here tomorrow afternoon, and drive about half way to our next site and stop at a motel. This will have the added benefit of driving two 4 hours stints rather than one 8 hour one.

Surprise, another dull and foggy start to the day.

In celebration of Mothers day we had a relaxing morning (such a rarity), Lyn did some of her hobby stuff and I finally got around to tidying up all the electronics mess in “my corner” of the trailer.

After lunch we headed south, this time we took the seaward route that goes over a spit of land and a couple of bridges to get down to Eureaka. A little more scenic than using the freeway. Our first stop was a series of bluffs overlooking the Pacific. We were expecting something a little higher, but we got a view of the beach from above. The sand around here is quite fine, but it is grey rather than golden in colour.

Gets Blowy up Here!

Next we headed further south to the village of Ferndale which is known as a Victorian Village. Of course being a village it was full of antiques stores. Lyn managed to find something to buy!! The buildings were all in pretty good condition, and made for a scenic village.

Following on from there we headed inland to the village of Fortuna for a walk along the river. The walkway was along a disused rail bed which made for fairly easy walking.

All in we managed about 2.5 miles of walking. We didn’t find any geo-caches today; mainly because I forgot the GPS!!

Its hard to believe we picked up the trailer a week ago, we seem to have settled back into the routine quite easily. Sure beats working for a living!!

Another cloudy / foggy northern California day. Seems this is the norm for this area at this time of year. We decided given the weather it would be “an at home day”

After breakfast I went outside and finished off washing down the trailer and truck, both look a lot better now; if only I could get Lyn to volunteer to wax them (don’t tell her I said that!).

Once that was done I went back to work on an issue we are having with part of our internet equipment. We have a small out door unit that sits on a mast above the trailer that receives and transmits our WiFi signal. Because it is outside it receives a stronger signal, and also transmits a stronger one, it doesn’t necessarily speed up the internet per se, but it does mean we have a better chance of getting a signal, and therefore a better service. I had managed to get the software in the unit working over the last couple of days so I put it back outside. After I had finished washing the trailer, it no longer worked. All I can think of was that water somehow affected the waterproof unit. Back to the drawing board!

We also lost power this morning, which was fixed by resetting the breaker on the supply box, none of out trailer breakers blew. This happened twice more later in the day, but unfortunately the office is now closed so there isn’t too much I can do about it.

After lunch we headed out of the park for a walk around the local area, there were also a couple of caches close by. At the road leading to one of the caches was a large sign proclaiming that a special event was taking place.

The special event was a craft sale!! Made someone happy. It was being held at a local Indian (First Nations) health centre / meeting place.

Dugout Canoe on Display

We carried on with the walk and found the two caches we were looking for. There is also a lot of flowers and bushes in bloom down here, some we recognised, some we didn’t. For the following pictures with ??? under them please identify!!!

Fuchsia

Rhododendron Tree

Rhododendron Bush

Foxglove

????

???

We managed a 2 mile walk, which should help burn off some excess calories! When we got back to the park we found the internet had died!! It finally made a re-appearance a few hours later.

Hopefully tomorrow brings better weather and more well behave electrons.

No more rain overnight, but still a dull and foggy start to the day. After breakfast we (Lyn) packed up a lunch and off we went. There are two main areas of Redwoods left, one that we drove through on the way here, and one to the north of us, that’s where we are headed.

Before we got to the redwoods we stopped off at Fern Canyon. The road into the canyon was the worst road I think we have traveled on (including those in Scotland!). The potholes were enormous and very difficult to see due to the shadows on the road. At the end of a tortuous 6 mile drive we arrived at a little hut belonging to the local State Park authority, where they want to charge us for the privilege of nearly wrecking our suspension on their roads! Luck was on our side as this was one of the few State Parks that accepted a National Parks Pass. Thanks to our friends Alan and Marie, who we met in Alaska last year, we had the required pass; they bought one which was good for a year and donated it to us when they flew home. Thanks guys!

This area is famous for its herds of Roosevelt Elk, and almost immediately upon entering the area we saw two of them at the side of the road.Unfortunately these were the only ones we saw, we were hoping to see the males with the large antlers.

We drove another couple of miles to the parking lot for Fern Canyon, and started out on a walk where, surprisingly, there were ferns.

and even a few toadstools

The walk was invigorating, plenty of ups and downs some mud and towards the end plenty of water.

The wall looped around, and then descended onto the canyon floor.

The walk was interesting along the stream, in many places bridges were created using fallen trees. Along the canyon walls many areas were moss covered with water trickling down.

Plenty of clear cool water.

Remains of a landslide on the way out

Next item on the trip was the redwoods. These are the largest trees on earth, growing up to 300 ft tall and 20 ft across at the base; they can live for up to 2000 years.

Once we had driven for about 9 miles through the redwoods we headed off to the beach for some lunch and a little more exercise.

At the entrance to the beach was a large bench seat made from an old tree root.

A little further round the coast were some bluffs with a view along the rugged coastline

Our final stop was at Trinidad where there was a memorial lighthouse that had been restored by the local community.

The weather could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse.

We woke up to some heavy rain showers this morning, didn’t bode well for a day of sight-seeing. After breakfast I headed out to do some more trailer washing. Today was the turn of the front cap of the trailer, this part takes the brunt of the road kill… flys, bees and other airborne bugs. Unfortunately most of these were collected about 15 months ago and have stuck on pretty well. A mixture of bug remover and fibre-glass cleaner and a lot of elbow grease removed most of it. After cleaning up the front, one side almost got finished plus half the truck. By this time the damp and the wet were making life uncomfortable, so it was deemed the right time to get a nice HOT shower.

After lunch we headed into Arcata to look around the town. At this stage I would be putting in pictures of local buildings and wall murals plus a road mural. Unfortunately the camera was back at the trailer. We may make another trip later in the week when the weather forecast is much better. At least we managed a mile and a half walk and a geo-cache.

Tomorrow should be a little more interesting as we head north to see the giant redwood trees.

Woke up to a cloudy / misty day and 13°C. What happened to the California heat? In reality we are on about the same latitude as south-western Ontario.

We headed out into the next town to the south, Eureaka, to catch up with the shopping. Also managed to get in a trip to a non fabric store for a change. This time it was Harbor Freight, something like Princess Auto on steroids.

When we got back Lyn had some laundry to catch up on, so I thought it would be a good time to give the trailer some TLC. It has been well over a year since we have been able to wash it, the drought in southern California has put a ban on auto washing. I checked with the office here, and to my surprise there is no such ban this far north, there’s plenty of water. First job was to clean and condition the roof, it was amazing how much dirt and grime came off. By the time the roof was done some showers moved in, couldn’t possibly wash the rest of the trailer in the rain!

After the rains moved away we took a walk around the RV Park; unlike many places we have stayed at about 99% of the trailers here are from California. Maybe tourist season hasn’t started yet.