Into Oregon

Last Thursday was a day filled with starts and stops; many attempted travel plans along with as many revisions.  The first big “plan changer” was the lack of hot water this morning.  We had plenty of hot water last night, but none this morning.  Our water heater can be run on either electricity or propane, but neither would heat our water today.  We left a voice-mail for a local RV service agency and waited.  After an hour or two without a response, we found an alternate service group that might be able to inspect our system within 2 days and plan a repair later.  While setting an appointment for this second choice, the first one called back.  He was a mobile service and came right to our door.  His diagnosis was spot-on, and he had the repair part we needed on board his truck.  We were fixed by 1:00 PM but had lost a good part of the day. 

We chose to use the rest of the day to pick up our mail which was being held for us at a post office alongside Interstate 5, near Mt St Helens.  Both Microsoft and Garmin suggested we cross the Columbia River into Oregon and take US30 to the Interstate, then cross the river again, back into Washington.  Crossing the Columbia near its mouth means using the Astoria Bridge.  Here is the lower, northern, end:

 

The southern end rises high enough to allow ocean-going ships to pass underneath.  Just our luck, it was down to a single lane for repairs so we had the chance to park near the highest part and wait our turn to use it.  For Bob’s traveling, Oregon is the 49^th state he has been in.  Only Hawaii remains, and the bridge there hasn’t been scheduled for construction yet. 

We again crossed the river at Longview Washington and joined Interstate 5 for about 10 miles.  This was the first official Interstate travel since we left Minnesota over 2,000 miles ago.  After picking up our mail, we went to the Mt St Helens Visitors Center which is run by the state of Washington.  We got there 30 minutes before it closed, and the national Seniors Pass isn’t accepted here.  The National Park visitors center was another 45 miles away.  This view is as close as we got:

We returned to the motorhome, back on the coast, by using Washington highway #4 which was a very pleasant alternative to US30.

Before leaving the Long Beach peninsula yesterday, we explored the north end and found the Ocean Park Retreat Center.  This church camp has often hosted Nomads groups but their scheduled project for 2013 didn’t happen due to lack of volunteers.  It sure looked like a nice place to work in the future. 

On Friday we both received our formal confirmations from Amazon that we have been scheduled for the same day shifts starting November 12 so we are now committed to manual labor: four 10-hour days per week for 6 weeks.  This should help pay for the water heater service and the new satellite TV system.  We can play tourist for another 3 weeks, then report for duty.

Once again we crossed the Columbia River into Astoria, then continued south on US101.  Here is a view of the shoreline we had during a lunch stop.

 

We stopped for the night between Bay City and Tillamook. We found a seafood-fix for dinner at the Fish Peddler which is part of Pacific Oyster Co.   It’s right on the ocean and you can watch them clean oysters and clams while you eat.

Plans for today include sampling cheese and ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Company plant nearby.