We spent the rainy morning sitting in our truck in Yachats (ya-hots), Oregon trying to take advantage of some connectivity. There is none at our campsite, limited out on the beach but only during low tide and three bars in Yachats “Gem of the Oregon Coast.” We couldn’t enjoy the rest of our day until we got some administrative chores done first. So we conscientiously confirmed the mortgage was paid along with the utilities as well as the taxes on Prescott and checked for any urgent mail. Just as we finished completing all our immediate obligations (we are such rule followers), the sun magically appeared.
We decided a nice picnic at one of the plethora of seaside parks would be our reward.


Then we strolled along the walkway at Seal Rock State Park.



We were in great spirits and had no way of knowing at the time, that within an hour, we would knowingly, willfully and with malice break the law. Now it may not surprise you to know that Kim has some experience in this area but other than the occasional visit with a police person for driving well in excess of the speed limit, my familiarity with blatantly disregarding the rules of society is somewhat limited.
Our plan was to take advantage of our unexpected sunny day by going to visit the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area and Lighthouse.

I think it is very cool that they tell you right in the name of the place that it is “Outstanding”. The “Area” is out a mile long spit of land that juts into the ocean and features Oregon’s tallest lighthouse. (I do plan to continue to post lighthouse pictures primarily because I love them but also because my good buddy, Kellye (proprietor of Lighthouse Lutherie) loves them as well.
We drove to the parking area and were greeted with this signage:

Well, I am sure you can tell where this is going. We thought this was a State Park but apparently it too is federally funded. Let me just say, I think Kim and I have been pretty good sports about having our National Park adventure screwed with by the federal government. We have gone to Plans B, C and D and other than the occasional expletive deleted, we haven’t said much about it. But when we saw this sign, something just snapped and we knew immediately that we had every intention of grabbing our binoculars and cameras and waltzing right past the closed sign, climbing over the barricade with yet another “Do Not Enter” placard and going to see the Freakin Outstanding Area and Lighthouse.
I should mention that there were many other cars and people around who appear to have been breaking the law as well which did embolden us a bit. It is interesting to note that in an uncharacteristic act of defiance, I mocked the “Do Not Enter” sign and had Kim take a picture of me doing so. I am not posting the picture here to protect each and every one of you. That way, if you are asked in a court of law, if you have any knowledge of this incident, you can honestly say you never “saw” anything. Actually, that isn’t true. For some reason, that picture, for whatever reason magically disappeared when I downloaded my other photos. It is probably for the best.
We encountered three older women climbing over the barriers, leaving the park as we entered. They laughed and said “I guess we are all breaking the rules today.” One woman wanted to be sure we knew that the restrooms were locked up tight so we could plan accordingly. We walked past the Interpretive Center

where we noted cars in the lot. hat prompted us to wonder if parading down the street right in front of the building was our smartest move. But then I thought, if the folks in there are federal employees, they aren’t getting paid so most likely they aren’t overly insented to chastise or otherwise report us.
We finally caught sight of the lighthouse and I took a picture, not only of the cool structure, but one that included all the other people who decided to break the law as well.

Not that it will help should I have to explain myself to the authorities. As my dad used to say, “If 500 people jumped off the Empire State Building, would you do it?” Which by the way, really is kind of a ridiculous parental teaching tool if you think about it.
I got a few photos of the lighthouse:


Kim spotted some Harbor Seals down in the surf but I didn’t get a great picture of them. So please look very closely at the miniscule black dots in the surf and use your imagination.

As we walked back to the parking lot, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Even though “The Man” tried to keep us out, our bravery and courage were rewarded and we got to see the entire area. As I pondered again, the breaking of the rules, I suddenly realized that I might not be as smart as I thought I was. Throughout our unauthorized visit, I had reassured myself with the thought: “What is the worst that could happen?” The local sheriff from Newport would come and yell at us for trespassing. And if he was really a stickler for the rules, he might give us a ticket but it probably wouldn’t be for much money. Or if he is a real hard ass, he might actually put us in jail. I have never been to jail but a small town jail would be the way to go. Besides that, I already have a “prison name” thanks to some of my rather strange friends, so totally no problem for “Teeny.”
Finally, some additional and crucial information made its way into the forefront of my brain and thought process. This data really should have been fully considered when we began our little, bad-girl, rebel after 50, journey across the barrier. I am standing on FEDERAL land and therefore, I have to believe that TRESPASSING on Federal Land is probably and most assuredly a FELONY rather than a MISDEMEANOR. Can we all say “DUH” at the same time? Not quite so full of ourselves anymore, are we?
Kim did suggest we walk another 45 minutes or so down to the tide pool area before leaving but now I am a bit freaked out and so I recommend we not push our luck. So we hike another 15 minutes back up to the parking lot. On the way, I have decided that if they aren’t paying the Park Rangers to keep the parks open, they probably aren’t paying them or anyone else to patrol the area for trespassers, so we are probably safe. The sad flip side of this last revelation is that it just proves we are not nearly as “outlaw” as I wanted us to be on this particular adventure. Who knew this first foray into the outlaw life would be so damn difficult? But fear not, we might try again on the way home. I wonder if anyone is watching the gates at Yosemite?

As planned, we did end up going to Astoria on Friday and enjoyed a wonderful day of sunshine and exploration. We stopped in at Fort Stevens State Park and got to see the wreckage of the “Peter Iredale” which was driven aground during rough seas in 1906. It’s remains have been on the beach for over 100 years and during low tide, you can actually climb on what is left of the hull.


We had hoped to go to stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and see view where their exploration party finally reached the Pacific Ocean. Yes, your memory does serve you well if you recall that we went to a Lewis and Clark Museum earlier in our trip. What can we say, we just have a Jones for Lewis and Clark. Alas, the Interpretive Center here at Cape Disappointment is at least partially federally funded and therefore, NOT open at this time. Don’t even get me started about THAT.
We did drive through Seaside on the way to Astoria and thought of Bonnie and Jacki. They will have to tell you all their improbable story of their stay in Seaside sometime.
In Astoria, we had lunch at a quirky, little café and then poked into a few shops downtown. Since it was a clear day, we decided to head up to the Astoria Column.

rom the top, you can see the Columbia River, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainier and Canada.


It is 164 steps to the top on an enclosed spiral staircase. They sell those little balsam gliders in the gift shop for $1 and then you take them to the top and launch them. Mine was headed down to Kim before veering to the left and into the woods despite the fervent urging of all of us at the top.


We headed back into town and wanted to go the Maritime Museum. Sadly, we got there less than an hour before closing so we took a pass. The trolley was advertised as “must do” in our tour book so we asked and were told to head out to the River Walk. “Be sure to wave a dollar if you want them to stop and pick you up. If you just wave, they will smile, ring the trolley bell and wave back.” We enjoyed a fabulous ride with Bob and Lisa who were our trolley hosts. They are in their 70s and could not possibly be anymore sweet and charming. Bob drives one way while Lisa takes the money and shares town tidbits. When you reach the end of the tracks, they meet in the middle of the trolley. Bob hands Lisa the steering mechanism, she hands him the fanny pack with the money, we all get up and flip our wooden seats so they face the new direction and off we go. We learned; Goonies and Kindergarten Cop were filmed in Astoria, it is unlawful to remove old pylons from the water, a huge storm hit some four years ago, ripped the roof off of the old net factory that was being converted to a gallery and ruined a significant amount of art. I can’t begin to tell you all the interesting things they shared with us. Well, at least, I thought it was interesting. The thing I think we loved the most about our trolley trip was that Bob and Lisa thank absolutely EVERYONE for riding the trolley. I thought the trolley was something I really didn’t need to do but it was in fact, the highlight of our visit.

On the way home, I made Kim stop at Famous Footwear so I could buy some trailer slippers. My feet keep getting cold in Big Lil and then I can’t get them warm. So please welcome to the family, my new trailer slippers!!!

Saturday was our last day at Nehalem Bay State Park and we had absolutely no plan for the day. We began the day with pecan pancakes and looking forward to a long walk on the beach. Kim pointed out today that we seem to have decided that we no longer need to hike and would much rather just eat seafood and sip wine overlooking the beach. While I cannot dispute her observation, I would like to point out (in our defense) that it has been pouring down rain with high winds for the past week. We did decide that a long walk was a must for the day. We walked along the beach and since it was Saturday, there were people and dogs everywhere. We said hello to just about every person and dog we past. We came upon a beach flag football game which was fun to watch. High levels of testosterone and smack talk permeated the air. We walked into Manzanita and decided to get some groceries so Kim could cook us dinner. Then we hit the bakery across the street and purchased a baguette and chicken salad with the sincere intent of taking them home for lunch. Little did we know that the Surf Pub was right across the street. We decided to go in and see if the Georgia/Tennessee game was on TV. It was not but we sweet talked the owner into putting it on. Well, since one of us is a good southern girl, we decided it would be rude to just sit and watch the game without purchasing a beverage and lunch. I felt a bit guilty ordering a bottle of white wine at 1:30 in the afternoon but since a glass cost $8 and a bottle was $18, it was really the fiscally responsible thing to do. At one point, we did look at each other and say “maybe we should just head home.” But then Kim pointed out that if almost any of you were with us, you would do the same thing and so we stayed and hung out with the locals. We did manage to drag ourselves out of there around 2:30 or so and headed back down the beach.



We were both grinning like fools carrying our “lunch” back home. We got home and promptly took naps because really, wine in the middle of the day is fun but not without it’s consequences. Not to worry….after hot showers, “lunch” for dinner and a night of playing Mah Jong, we felt great. So here’s the thing. I think we are so excited to be out here and seeing all these amazing places that we often tend to “overbook” ourselves. We are so focused on what we are going to do today or next, that we forget to leave ourselves “unscheduled.” We had a great, wonderful, magical day of just being silly and doing whatever presented itself to us all because we didn’t have a plan or any expectations of the day or each other. We need to do more of that but since it is a bit counter-intuitive for us, we may need to practice a bit more. By the way, we realized later that night, when we were congratulating ourselves on a stupendous day, that it had been our anniversary. We had a fabulous anniversary celebration even if we didn’t remember it was our anniversary.
We are now down the coast at Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park with no connectivity. Once we get connected again, I will look up Carl G. Washburne and find out why his name is on an Oregon State Park.

More rain in the forecast but we are already plotting how to get some hiking into the schedule in and around the precipitation. We are planning to stay here 2-3 days and then most likely we will start to head on back to Boulder. We will check the news before we head home on the outside chance the National Parks will be re-opened but if not, we will take our time heading home and reschedule them for another time. We are past disappointed not to be able to visit Yosemite but hopefully we can try again sometime soon. We will check in with everyone once we get back into cell phone range. We did go for a walk on the beach when we arrived today.


We came across some tide pools.

Kim discovered that she could get cell phone service down on the beach.

She quickly checked for any emergency messages, confirmed the weather forecast and looked up the score of the Bronco’s game since they were losing when we lost service. We won so all is well and we are off to get clean. As I said, I will post this tomorrow someplace, somewhere I can get service.

Rain soaked adventurer’s log at 2:32pm on Wednesday this 3rd day of October in the year 2013. My current location:

My mission: to get our clothes clean and finally, thankfully, blissfully DRY at least for some amount of time. Although I don’t want to jinx it, today is shaping up to be our first full day without rain for at least the last 5-7 days. My brain is waterlogged so I can’t recall exactly.
Since it has been some time since my last blog, I will attempt to get us caught up. Some days ago we left Mt. Rainier after our day of partial sunshine and decided to head to Hood River, Washington which is in the lower part of Washington, near some wineries. Yes, Ye Ole Fermented Grape has been our salvation when plans have had to be altered. Found a decent campground across the river with only two sites left. Site 11 sounded good to me but I didn’t really take the time to look closely at the map before selecting our site. As you can see, our site isn’t wasn’t really that bad. There is some room between you and your neighbors and there is even a patch of grass that they monitor in a slightly obsessive-compulsive fashion.
As long as you stood on the correct side of the camper, all was right with the world. But if you ventured to the other side which also happened to be the door side, UGH

We were literally 4 feet from the restrooms and showers! I am certain all the campground residents were pleased to receive a smile and greeting each morning as they went to complete their morning toilet’. We only stayed a day and then finally headed into Oregon. Which was a good thing since Kim had been giving me the business because we were about ½ way through our trip and hadn’t managed to make it out of Washington.

After much discussion, we decided to head to the Oregon coast even if it was going to rain for days. About the time we passed Portland, the wind kicked up and started pushing Harriet and Big Lil all over the highway. Acu-weather Kim checked and they were forecasting 70 mph winds on the coast. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to find the closest Oregon State Park and hunker down for a bit. Kim found us this really nice park with water, electric and some really nice sites.

We found we had inadvertently but happily camped very near the Willamette Valley so we had plenty of things to do in the rain. Traveled into Newburg and Dundee and went to

where we met some nice folks and sampled some delicious wine.

The next day, there was a break in the rain so we went for a long, overdue walk around the park.

We saw a few birds we couldn’t identify, some deer and a black rabbit near one of the yurts.

We discovered a dock down along the Willamette River

along with the flood mark.

Guess almost no place is immune if it rains enough. We saw old street signs where there are no longer roads
along with some huge trees

There were all sorts of historical markers and a Pioneer Women’s Museum which sadly was closed for the season. It was great to get out and walk.
With the forecast brightening, we packed up again and headed for the coast. We are going to spend some time at the state parks up and down the coast until we hear if the National Parks we intended to visit will be open or not. We decided on Nehalem Bay State Park so we could take some day trips north and south. It is a huge park and we are a walk over the dunes from the ocean. Way cool! Drove through some nasty storms and on some crazy little roads to get here but the sun came out when we got here. So we headed to Manzanita to walk around a bit and see the ocean.


Yesterday, we awoke to more rain and felt so sorry for the folks who were tent camping. Our neighbors said they were here when the 70 mph winds hit and they thought their tent was going to collapse. They have dogs and had the two yellow lab puppies out running since they had been cooped up for days in the rain. We decided to head to Tillamook to take the cheese factory tour.

We actually had a really good time walking through the self-guided tour as well as strolling the second story observation floor where you can watch them make and package the cheese. It reminded me of veggie go’s as I watched the packaging machine go out of alignment. One guy fixed the machine while the other person hand loaded cheese to keep the line going. I saw another lady take scissors and open the mis-aligned packages so that cheese could be repackaged. Gotta repackage those uglies!!
Then we decided to drive to Cape Meares. Our guidebook said there were three capes out that way but that Meares was one of the nicest. We got to see the lighthouse which I have dubbed the “mini-light cottage”

There were some amazing views along the path

We also saw the Octopus Tree (apparently nobody knows why it grows the way it does)


We made our way to Oceanside and had a bite to eat.

The couple next to us asked if we had hiked through the hole in the cliff (I was thinking Utah and the Hole In The Wall) to Agate Beach. We said we had not and she told us it was just down the beach. So we walked right down to the beach and saw the opening


Even though Kim is a bit claustrophobic, she was up to go through the tunnel.

It was really kind of amazing. We had the beach to ourselves.



When a class of 5th graders poured out of the tunnel and transported us back to reality, we decided to head on back.


This morning, after some 7 days or so, we awoke to sunshine. We celebrated by going for a walk on the beach by the campgrounds.




Please note that Kim is wearing her Red Feather Lakes sweatshirt. Shout out to the Burris’. We have come to find out through Stacy and Craig that sweatshirts are known as the State of Washington winter coat.
After our walk, we decided it was too late in the day to drive up to Astoria (recommended by Jacki and Bonnie among many others) and hit some of the sights on the way back so we are going to save that for tomorrow. So Kim agreed to give Big Lil a good cleaning, lay out our shoes to dry and plan dinner while I hit the laundromat .
I believe that is all the news that’s fit to print at this point. We are thinking good thoughts for Jordan who is in the hospital in South Carolina. Happy Birthday Month to Sperry! Missing you all but having a wonderful time. Thanks to Michel Hendricks for blowing out the sprinklers before the snow and to Ken Hayes for tackling the wild grass in the backyard. Our IOUs are piling up and we are looking forward to repaying all the favors when we get back home. Hugs to all and to all a good day!

“Do I look like a drowned rat? Because I feel like one”
It is doing absolutely nothing but rain to varying degrees of intensity since we got back from Boulder. We have spent the last three nights at Champoeg State Park outside of Portland and near the Willamette Valley. We were headed to the Oregon coast when the rain and more concerning, the wind began blowing Harriet and Big Lil all over the highway. The weather report showed 70 mile an hour winds on the coast so we exited the freeway and found a wonderful little campground to use as our base for exploring in the rain. More to come about what we have been up to for the last few days but today the forecast on the coast still calls for rain but milder winds. We are going to pack up this am and drive to Newhalem State Park near Manzanita (a shout out to Pat who has been to Manzanita numerous times). We are expecting a break from the rain in the next few days and are going to use our campsite as base to explore Astoria, Tillamook, Seaside, Canon Beach along with many of the state parks up and down the coast. Please send “sunny” thoughts.
The inside of the camper is extremely moist from condensation and none of our clothes will dry. I wanted to put my socks in a zip lock yesterday so at least my feet would stay warm and toasty. We have no less than five different pairs of shoes piled in the entry for the various levels of rain outside. Jacki told us to check for mold between our toes and I don’t think she was kidding. I am not complaining, just explaining. We expected rain in Oregon, just not this much for this long.
We have heard that we might not get to see any National Parks due to the government shut down so we are busy contemplating another Plan B. (Richie, we are thinking good thoughts for you. Knowing you, you will definitely go play a bit til they call you back, unless Renee gets out the “honey-do” list.)
I was thinking last night that between the Boulder Flood, the Oregon Downpour and the U.S. Government shut down of the National Parks, which were the cornerstone of our Epic Adventure, we could begin to feel a bit paranoid and the victims of a gypsy curse. Hell to the no! We are STILL having a fabulous time and have adopted what I think is a healthy “what the hell, let’s go for it” attitude. In fact, at this very moment, Kim is waltzing around the camper signing “Que Sera Sera.” Scary!
Ta Ta for now and we will be back in touch soon. Waiting for the rain to let up and then we will be putting the water wings on Big Lil and Harriet and hitting the road again. Hugs to all.