The Lights of Yaquina

As if Newport’s variety of excellent fresh seafood and craft beers, along with a picturesque harbor and marina was not enough to make it a great place to spend the week, it has not one, but TWO lighthouses!   I would typically appreciate any one of those things as an ideal stopover spot, but to have them all in one place?  Continue reading

Enough About Lighthouses for Now, Let’s EAT!

After my weekend lighthouse crawl, it is now late Sunday evening, and I need to find a place to settle in for the work week.  Newport looks like a good option as it is a big enough town to guarantee a decent signal, as well as lots of access to conveniences.   I decide on the Newport Marina and RV Park under the famous Yaquina Bridge, another designed by bridge engineer Conde McCullough.   I like the idea of parking at a marina near the water alongside the boats. Continue reading

Weekend Coastal Crawl, Part 1

It’s Friday afternoon on the last weekday of the month, and I am looking forward to a weekend “coastal crawl” of more gorgeous beaches and more lighthouses to explore!   I can’t leave until I finish my end of month reporting.  I am burning up the keyboard, feeling like a drooling puppy who has been caged all week, and is about to be let off leash to run for 48 hours!  Insert the word “LIGHTHOUSE!”  for “SQUIRRELL!!” Continue reading

Cape Arago, I Feel You!

Moving from south to north along the Oregon coast, the next historic lighthouse in my sights is Cape Arago.   I check to see if it is close enough from Bandon to make a run after work one day, particularly since I work Central Time hours, and can start out as early as 3:00pm.   I consult my “Oregon Coast Lighthouses” State Parks brochure to find that it is only about 25 miles north of Bandon, up a smaller two lane road, so I wouldn’t even be backtracking all that much when I continued on up Highway 101 come the weekend. Continue reading

Beachcombing in Bandon

The holiday weekend is now over, and I feel remorseful over having to leave the cozy Cape Blanco State Park. Although the Verizon signal is good, it is not strong enough to support my VOIP phone for what will be surely be a day filled with conference calls on my first day back to work after six days of vacation. But I just can’t make the emotional shift from such a serene, idyllic place to a commercial RV Park in town. Continue reading

Escape to the Cape

With the rally now behind me, I found myself facing a three day holiday weekend with no plans.  I had originally thought I might hang around Seven Feathers for the holiday, but it just wasn’t for me.  A gorgeous, immaculately manicured place, but it was too “homogenized” for an extended stay beyond the rally.  Not being a casino person, there didn’t seem to be much to do there, amidst a state with an abundance of hiking, biking, and beaches. Continue reading

I Finally Rallied!

Since I left Texas back on the first of March, I have been in what feels like an episode of “The Amazing Race,” trying to gallivant across six states to reach Oregon in time for the National “Skinnie Winnie” rally in Canyonville. There were times when I didn’t think I would make it. There were times when I no longer wanted to try. Continue reading