Busy Work Days

It was just as we thought it would be yesterday. We had lots of people coming and going in the office all day since the park is filled for the holiday weekend. Plus, the folks from the rally are still here and they were using the meeting room next to the office most of the day. The problem it created for us that is one we haven't run until yesterday was that the large crowd made it difficult to get access to the restrooms for cleaning and the spa for testing. We managed to get it all done though.

I'm not looking forward to this morning. There are 52 people that will be eligible for newspapers this morning - those that are here on a short term basis. Since it is raining, each of the papers has to be bagged in a small plastic bag. I start at 7:30 this morning and have to have all the papers delivered in time to open the office by 8 AM. Josie doesn't start until 9:30, so it will be a challenge. There are some things that need to be done prior to opening the doors for business at 8 AM. The money needs to be counted, the computer needs to be fired up, the check-in and check-out reports need to be done, and the doors to the rest of the office complex need to be unlocked. It should be fun.

It was mentioned on the TV news last night that we have a chance to set the all time record for rain in Portland for the Month of May. The existing record is 5.50" and we sit at right around 5.00" before today. The rain gauge we have here at our rig shows that we have had 5.72" in May so far, but we would get more rain than Portland. That's a lot of rain for one month no matter how you cut it.

Today wraps up the holiday weekend, so enjoy the last day wherever you are...

End of Our Weekend

Here we are at the end of our weekend again. It just goes so fast on our days off. We are so looking forward to the day that we don't have to work at all and can just use every day to relax or go someplace fun. We had to do some chores yesterday like grocery shopping and I got a haircut so we didn't get to go anyplace. Josie also made cookies so that pretty much took care of the day. I also sent off some emails to a few locations for Workamping, so I hope to hear back from those sometime soon. We did receive an offer from a place that was in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota but decided that it was too remote for us. It would have been at least an hour away from any kind of shopping or real civilization. We aren't ready for another one of those - been there, done that remote location thing. We kinda like having cell phone service. There are some potential opportunities though near Rapid City and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. That would be OK and it gets us a lot closer to Illinois where we can go visit Patty and her family in Naperville which is high on our list.

The good news about today and tomorrow is that Josie and I get to work both days without the managers being around since these are their 2 days off. The park is full, so we expect today to be mostly people coming in and out for the showers and buying small items from the store. Some are scheduled to leave today, but the mass exodus will be tomorrow. Fortunately, so far at least, the weather hasn't been too bad - a few clouds yesterday and today but no rain yet. I have seen several awnings out, including ours, so that's also a good sign that the winds are cooperating. We are now waiting for the heat to get turned up outside. May has been an exceptionally wet and cool month from what we have heard, so let's get on with summer in June...

Relaxing Day

Even though the day started out a little cloudy and cool, we decided to have a nice breakfast and then go somewhere to soothe the tension we have felt during the week. Josie made a pancake breakfast with bacon and juice and it did the trick to start out. There is a campground down the road, just before Depoe Bay, called Sea and Sand, that is right on the ocean and we wanted to check it out to see how it compared to ours. The sites aren't as large or quite as nice as our park, but they have sites that are, literally, right on the beach. We have the following shots of the beach sites:

The sites weren't cheap - $52 per night - but the beach was nice and it would be a great place to spend a week if you had some money. Most of the sites (about 130) are for smaller RV's of maybe 22' to 30', and were in the trees behind the ocean sites, but there were a few along the ocean that would accommodate rigs larger than 30'. The ocean was probably 15' below the top of the wall at the end of the park.

We went on down a little further into Depoe Bay and stopped at the Whale Center, which is a viewing station that is staffed by volunteers and allows visitors to view the Gray Whales migration from Baja California to the Bering Sea of Alaska every year. The peak time for this migration north is March - April at this location, so we just missed the best viewing times, although they said in the Center that there are stragglers and mother whales with pups that are stragglers and still can be seen. We didn't see any while we were there but talked at length with one of the volunteers and learned a lot about the whole process. The reverse migration in the winter begins around October. Depoe Bay is one of the prime locations to view them along the entire migration route, and there is actually a small group of these whales that stays in this area during the whole summer. Below are shots of the Center and the view from the Center:

The migration route is mainly through the area above that is between the barely visible buoy to the left of the Coast Guard ship and the ship which is sitting at the second buoy location. The idea is to spot a fountain of water that the whales release from their blow-holes when they surface for air. There are excursions that you can take that will go to the area itself and people can get very close to the whales.

Since we were in Depoe Bay, we stopped and picked up some salt water taffy and caramel corn that we haven't had for awhile. Tasty snacks! All in all, it was an enjoyable day and we came home and watched a couple movies on TV and had a nice roast for dinner that Josie put in crock pot before we left.

There are no plans yet for today and we can see that the park is filled completely. Later...

Very Short Day

Our shortest work day of the week was yesterday and we were thankful for that. Because I worked the first 2 1/2 hour shift before Josie came in, I escaped the wrath of our manager Mary. I felt bad for Josie having to listen to her nitpick over some small transactions we had in the morning. We are looking in earnest for a new place. I really don't like talking about the people we work with in any negative way, but this situation is so bad that it is impossible not to. We are both stressed over the treatment they give us - and all the other employees. We'll keep you posted on any changes.

We had a rare occurrence yesterday. It rained like buckets in Portland and we never received a drop which broke our string of 9 consecutive "wet" days. There has been no rain yet today, so we hope it will be nice for the holiday weekend. There is a small rally coming in - 10 rigs - and the park will otherwise be filled to the brim with other campers. It will be the first time we've had a crowd this size since we arrived.

Our plans are not finalized yet as we have a few errands to run today and we will relax a bit from the stressful week. Our rig needs to be washed to get rid of the salt so that will probably be one of the chores in the next 2 days. Until tomorrow...

Walking on Egg Shells

After the bad experience on Tuesday with our managers, it seemed like we were walking on egg shells the whole afternoon yesterday. We are not happy with the "air" that is around our work environment now and we will do our best to stay out of Jim's way. At least in the foreseeable future. He was his gruff and grumpy self yesterday as he passed through the office a couple times and, again, never acknowledged us with a "hi", "how's it going" or even a "get out of my way". Josie and I have decided that the tension at work is over-riding our desire to remain here, so we have begun looking in earnest for other opportunities.

I plan to compose a long email to Terry, the VP of Operations - a very nice person and the one who hired us - about the situation here. We are convinced that he will not be surprised when we inform him of our plans and he probably will be thinking "here we go again" with good workers leaving as a result of the managers' attitude and personalities. We are certain that the only reason the managers are here is because of the indebtedness to them for their work in the start up phases of these beautiful Resorts. We will not send that email until our plans are definite. We are sending out emails to several different locations that have asked us recently if we might be available for the summer season but at the time, we were not. Our guess is that most, if not all, of those have already filled their positions. There are new opportunities advertised everyday, but not all of them are desirable to us. We really like this place and will be sorry to leave - especially before the real summer arrives. That's the beauty of this lifestyle - if you aren't happy somewhere, you just move on to another nice place. There is a quote from the full timers blog of one of the couples we follow that pretty well sums it up, and it is;

"With financial crisis throughout the world, and foreclosures, and unemployment, and natural disasters, and man-made disasters, and terrorism, and crime, and political sniping, and corruption, our biggest problem today was "Where are we going to park our home so that we get to experience something that makes us happy?"

Today is our short day - thank goodness - and we only work 2 1/2 hours each. I will start at 8 and work till 10:30 when Josie then comes in and works till 1 PM. The last day and a half has been sunny and it's warming up. We even had our awning out late yesterday afternoon and it remains out today - very little wind. It would be nice if this continues for our days off starting tomorrow. That's about it for now...

Lousy Meeting Yesterday

One of the major goals we have on this working adventure is to eliminate, as much as possible, the stress that our previous jobs had. We want to enjoy the areas we visit, and at the same time, enjoy the work and the people that we associate with. Every part of this stop in Lincoln City has been a good fit for us - in spite of the rain, wind and cool weather, which we know will improve - except our Managers. We had a very unpleasant meeting with them yesterday. We were warned about their personalities before they arrived by Terry, the VP of Operations for the company, who hired us and spent the first week with us in the office before the managers arrived. We also have been told by the people that work a few hours a week here that there have been many regular workers like us that have left as a result of their management style. In fact, we heard that they have gone through 5 couples in the last two years. The only reason they are managers here is because they were once part of the original ownership group that started these resorts.

The meeting actually took place shortly after we arrived at 1 PM for our scheduled shift. Mary went through some minor items, as always, that she feels must be done differently to satisfy her rigid procedures. We always brush these off as nitpicking. Shortly after the discussion with Mary and after she left for the day, Jim walked in and, without any warning or pleasantries, went into a tirade about the fire ring(s) that we have that are gas operated and he screamed that nobody, but nobody, was to start those rings except him and he was the "boss". See, we had a request from several of the guests the night before to start the ring but it never has been lit since we've been here and it only gets lit in nice weather, which it wasn't. Josie was on duty at the time and she called Jim to get a decision which was - don't lite it. It turned out that he went up and lit it himself anyway, in the bad weather, and had to go back up an hour later to turn it off as a result of the rain. This was such a minor detail in the total scheme of things and we were shocked that he was reacting this way. After all, he did lite it himself so what's the point in the argument? He went on to talk about several other "minor" events that made us feel like we were second grade kids that didn't raise our hands to leave the room. This isn't the first time that he has acted this way, but we always thought he would mellow out with time. He is the type of person that never says good morning, never says hello when you walk past him, and always walks around with a scowl on his face like he is "pissed off" at something. We have had returning guests even ask if "grumpy" still works here.

The result of these discussions for us was that we don't need this stress on our jobs. We are deciding how we should proceed. As mentioned before, we have been refusing offers from several nice places in order to stay here, but we are thinking that staying may not be the happiest solution. We'll see what happens...

More Rain and More Drop-Ins

Here we go again with the rain. It's now been 8 consecutive days of measurable rain with the last 2 days being pretty heavy. The forecast is for more rain right up to the weekend. So far though, the winds haven't been a factor but we know from our experience here that they will arrive before this storm ends. If we can just make it to late June and July when the summer arrives here and it becomes the best place to be in the entire country.

We were both very busy most of the day yesterday as a result of an increasing number of drop-in business. There are many more people arriving now without reservations than there are people with scheduled arrivals. It created a problem for me with the newspaper deliveries yesterday. We had 23 people eligible for newspapers - people staying less than a month - but I only was given 15 papers to deliver. There were, therefore, 8 people that did not get a promised paper. The management has a standing order for newspapers where we get 50 to deliver on Friday and Saturday, but only 15 during each of the weekdays. It's hard for me to understand why the weekday order hasn't been increased since we are getting much busier, and have been for the last 2 weeks. Especially since we get a credit for the return of unused papers every day. Oh, well.

The park will be jammed again this weekend with the holiday and another rally expected. All of us can see the increase in business and pretty soon we will need the 2nd terminal that has been promised us in the office. Right now, only 1 person can wait on 1 customer at a time, but that will not be enough when the heavy flow of customers begins. We hope that management has everything under control.

Our short, 5 hour shifts don't start until 1 PM this week so we have the mornings to relax. As mentioned before, we would prefer to work the early time slot so that we don't waste the whole day. We keep getting offers from campgrounds, some in nice places, that are looking for summer help but we are committed, as of now, to stay the course for the entire summer right here. Unless something happens here to change that, we will just continue to look for the warmth and sunshine that we know is on the way...

Busy Monday Coming Up

This is the day I don't look forward to. Monday is the longest day for me because, in addition to doing my regular duties of checking the spa 3 times during the day and adding chemicals if necessary, siting new guests, checking for open sites from check-outs, performing landscaping duties when the weather cooperates, checking everything at night and locking up the clubhouse - I have to serve the morning newspaper to all of the guests that are here on a short term basis. I used to have a paper route as a kid, so you would think that this is a no-brainer. The problem here is that I don't deliver to the same site all the time like I used to deliver to the same houses- only to short timers, and not to the monthlies - and if it is nasty weather outside, I have to "bag" the paper so it doesn't get wet. This extra duty means I have to start at 7:30 instead of 8. The good news is that I quit work at 4 PM on Mondays, while Josie works from 9:30 to 6 PM. Her duties stay basically the same except she adds cleaning the restrooms to her duties which is no fun for her. There are some other small, nuisance kind of duties such as turning on/off lights and checking the TV cable channels for problems that help to make this a long day. It is only one day a week so we grin and bear it.

After 6 consecutive days of rain, the day is dry so far. The forecast is again for possible showers late today, and it looks like wet weather every day until this coming weekend. We remember that when we lived in Washington, we were far behind the rest of the country in seeing the warm, summer weather arrive. It really never got clear and warm until late June or early July so we are guessing it is the same here. Plus, being on the coast will delay our summer even longer. It is still where we want to be - on the coast - where it is beautiful and very different. That's about it for now...

More Local Stuff

Once again the weather was unpredictable so we stayed close to home yesterday. We went into town to look for the local Curves center which is a physical fitness center for women. Josie saw some advertised specials for the center so we went to town to try to find it. We found it in a corner of a shopping strip that we hadn't been to before that is near the Safeway shopping center about 5 miles from our campground. The place had closed at 11 AM so we didn't get any information. It's hard to believe that a fitness center would be closed so early on a weekend day.

While we were out, we drove around some residential sections of Lincoln City that we hadn't seen and we were pleasantly surprised at some of the new and beautiful neighborhoods. These were areas that are around the huge lake that is in Lincoln City called Devils Lake. Some of these homes had great views of the lake and were homes in the 2300 - 2500 square foot range for around $350K. Not too bad except if you live in a coastal town you probably would want an ocean view instead of a lake view. Anyway, it is a fresh water option for local residents that is large enough where you could water ski if you wanted.

There were also some areas along the shore that we hadn't seen before and one of them had a beach access that was probably the highest we've seen yet. We took a couple pictures of this access which was a stairway that went to the beach that was probably 300 feet below:

You can barely make out the people in the lower right of the picture above. This was easily the highest and steepest stairway to the beach we have seen. For sure, if you come here to spend some time on the beach, you wouldn't run back to your parked vehicle at the top if you forgot something.

Today is the first of our 2 long days for the week. The campground was nearly full this weekend as a result of the first rally of the season, so most of today will be taken up with check-outs. We will have a full campground again this weekend with the Memorial Day weekend crowd. It's good to see a lot of activity for a change...

Miscellaneous Day

It was a chilly and nasty day most of yesterday and the weather made it difficult to think about doing anything outside. Every time we thought about going somewhere, another cloud would go by and dump torrents of rain on us. The last three days, including this morning so far, we have had .83, .78 and .67 inches of rain. The winds have slowed somewhat but the rain and cold weather just hangs on. There is snow again in the higher elevations of the Oregon Cascades and our low this morning was 42. The one trip we did make yesterday was to Safeway for our bi-weekly grocery run.

We got caught up on some movies that we had recorded over the last couple weeks and we also borrowed a couple from the office. There is a library of about 100 DVD's that we offer to guests in the park for overnight viewing. It's perfect movie watching weather - what else can you watch on TV these days besides all of the depressing news. We do a combination of "chick flicks" (for Josie) and "westerns" (for me) and in between we watch some drama/action movies. It's a nice change of pace.

We'll be ready to get out again when all this rain moves on. We follow the weather in the places where we have family and friends so we know that it is getting closer to the 100 degree weather in Arizona and the "sticky" 80's and 90's in the Midwest so maybe we should just enjoy this while we can. Once those places hit their typical summer weather, we will be thankful we are here, basking in the 60's and 70's everyday with a cool ocean breeze. That is the way it happens, right??

First Rally and Winter Hangs On

The big story yesterday was all the people coming in for our first rally of the season. There were 13 rigs expected with another 10 or so due in today. Good thing we aren't working today. There were some concerns over site suitability for some of the rigs coming in as the huge motor homes - those in the 42 -45 foot range - were really squeezed into some of the spots that were assigned to them. Jim and Mary, our Managers, have lots of experience with this kind of issue so we know everybody will be happy when they all get settled in.The wind and rain continued, off and on, all day long and into last evening. It also remained unusually cool for this time of year.

As mentioned yesterday, we went to dinner last night at a restaurant that is part of the casino complex here in Lincoln City with a couple that is staying here for the month of May. Their names are Bob & Helen, and this is the second year - same month, May - that they have stayed here. They are a very nice couple that have a home in Glendale, AZ. and travel to the northwest every year during the hot months in the Phoenix area. Bob was a helicopter pilot in the Army for 10 years - including 2 tours in Vietnam - and then flew helicopters commercially in Alaska and around the country during his working years. Helen was a school secretary and they both retired several years ago. They go from here to Gold Beach, OR, which is on the southern coast of Oregon, where they also have gone for several years. They were interested to hear about options from us of places we have been, since we started, so they can consider those as options for their trips next year. We gave them a couple of magazines - tourist type - from the Columbia, CA area that provided us with none stop adventure for the couple months we were there.

The dinner was excellent - I had the fish & chips, and Josie had the salmon dinner - and the bill was only $24 for our meals. We sat through dinner kicking ourselves for forgetting to bring the camera since our view of the ocean from our table was beautiful and we also wanted to get some pictures of Bob and Helen. We'll have to do that before they leave here.

After dinner, we wandered over to the casino and Bob and Helen went in with us to see what we do and they only hung around for a short while before they left. Our luck wasn't with us this time, even though we won enough to keep us playing for a couple hours. All in all, it was a fun time and we enjoyed being with them.

No plans yet for today - it is sunny and still cool, so far. Showers are forecast for later today but at least the wind is calm. Until tomorrow...

Seems Like Winter is Back

The forecast was for some rain with a high wind warning on the coast. Starting at about noon, the rains came and the wind steadily increased all afternoon. We reached sustained winds of 40-45 MPH, with gusts to 55. As it is almost the end of May, it is not a typical storm for this time of year - so they say on TV. The storm was fierce, but it also didn't go above 60 degrees all day and the low was in the high 40's. This is winter weather. One thing I will say though, we have not had to use any air conditioning for quite some time now. It doesn't appear that we will need to use it for the foreseeable future. Sleeping is also nice and we will probably keep the blankets on the bed until July (or longer) at the rate we're going. The storm is still hanging around this morning but the winds have died down some. Our short day is today so we're happy about that.

Our dinner date with Bob & Helen, the couple mentioned yesterday, was moved from Friday night to tonight, since they suggested we try the fish & chips at the other restaurant in the casino instead of the buffet. They've been to both and they say the menu at the second restaurant is excellent and reasonably priced, and they are the best fish & chips in the area, which is something we have been craving since we arrived here. Bob & Helen aren't gamblers at all so we will take separate vehicles and Josie and I will stay for awhile and try our luck at the slots after dinner. It should be a fun evening.

Nothing else is planned for our weekend yet as we need to get a feel for what the weather is going to be like. It may be a good weekend to do inside attractions, such as the Tillamook Cheese factory tour, but we'll see...

Split Day Today

Although the morning was wet and dreary yesterday, the rain stopped after only .08". The sun didn't come out very much but the day turned out to be dry and partly cloudy, so it wasn't bad. We have heard that strong winds are coming in today but so far, it is partly cloudy and calm. We'll let you know how it turns out.

It was mentioned yesterday that one of our Manager's, Mary, has to have oral surgery done today so Josie and I will cover the whole day with split shifts. I start at 8 and work until Josie comes in at 1 PM and she will finish the day and come home at 6 PM. Not the best way to spend our day, but it is only for one day - we hope.

One of the nice things we do in the office is to provide a benefit for the dogs that stay in the campground. Aside from having their own enclosed play areas (2), we offer a dog biscuit to any dog that stops at the front entry - with owner, of course - and we reach into a jar we keep behind the desk and grab a biscuit to give them. There is this one dog that is with some people staying here for a month that goes crazy when he reaches the front door. He already knows that he gets a biscuit every time he passes the door and he won't let his owners walk past without getting one. The owners are nice folks that have invited Josie and I to go to a seafood buffet with them this Friday night at the Casino. We will probably go and stay awhile after dinner to try our luck. More about them later this week.

It's time to get some breakfast and get ready for work, so we'll see 'ya tomorrow...

Dreary and Wet

The rain has returned after a record (so far) 7 consecutive days of no measurable precipitation. It must have started after midnight, since our weather station has the entire day yesterday as being dry. That means that almost all of the outside work is put on hold, and I will be spending most, if not all, of the day today inside helping out at the front desk. Josie has some extra duties today to cover for one of our workers who was hospitalized Monday and will not return to work until at least tomorrow. This worker is one that is scheduled to work about three hours each day cleaning the office building and the rest rooms. He only works for the exercise to keep his heart in shape, but I guess he has been trying to do too much. We hope he doesn't try to come back too soon.

One of our manager's, Mary, is going to have some dental work done on Wednesday, so instead of Josie and I both working from 8 to 1 on that day, we will split the schedule and one of us will work the 1 to 6 part of the day. That happens occasionally and is OK with us. They may have to cover for us sometime. Every day seems to be getting busier and busier as we approach the Memorial Day weekend and the busy season. We need to get a second terminal in our office soon or there is going to be a problem with handling all the business. There were a couple instances yesterday where we had to make individuals wait while the transactions were completed on our single terminal for someone else. Management has indicated that a second terminal is coming, so we hope it is soon. Other than that, it is business as usual...

Drop Ins Increase

There seems to be a trend developing here at the park. The last several days that we've worked, we have noticed that there are more people dropping in to get a space for a day or two than there are people coming in with reservations. Another trend is that almost everyday there are no-shows of people that have reservations but never show up. The closer we get to the busy summer season, the better the chance we will be forced to turn away some of these drop-ins. It must be a result of people deciding at the last minute to come to the coast, or that people just can't travel the distances they expect to travel on the busy coastal highway. The no-shows are likely a result of the fact that we don't collect a deposit from anybody to hold a reservation. These people probably figure it doesn't cost them anything to change their plans, so why notify the campground. This is a serious problem - in our mind. We are taking up a space that can't be rented to a drop-in or another person that really wants to come to the park. It would minimize the no-shows if we collected some kind of deposit from each reservation - such as the first night's rent. That would make people think twice before making other arrangements and not showing up. The tally yesterday was 2 reservations, one no-show, and 3 drop-ins. Sunday is typically a day filled with people leaving and not so many checking in.

Today will likely be similar to yesterday. I have to go in a half hour earlier to deliver the newspapers to our short term guests. Since there is no Sunday paper, I only have to do that for Monday. Our manager, Jim, takes care of the other days. Josie also has special duties on our long days. She is responsible for the restrooms in the club house which she cleans on Sunday and Monday. We cover for each other at the front desk while these other duties get completed. I also have to maintain the spa and do outside chores. Even though these 2 days are long, we have more to do that helps make the time go faster.

The forecast for the rest of the week has some rain for each day until Sunday. After the last 6 consecutive dry days, we were due for a change. We are definitely moving to a phase of better weather here. We are looking forward to continued improvement...

Do Nothing Day

The marine clouds were present in the morning when we got up so we took our time with breakfast and started watching some movies that we had recorded from our movie channels. By the time we finished watching a couple movies, it was time for the pre-race hype for the Preakness Stakes, the second race in the Triple Crown of racing. The Preakness is significant because when it is run, there is only one horse that has a chance to win the Triple Crown, and that is the winner of the Kentucky Derby. If that horse loses, of course, there will be no Triple Crown winner and the Belmont Stakes (in a couple more weeks), the last race in the series, becomes pretty much irrelevant. That is the case this year. The Derby winner, Super Saver, lost, so the interest fades.

It was nice to sit around, watch TV, and basically do nothing for a day. Once in a while we need those kind of days. The sun did come out later in the day to create the 5th consecutive day without measurable rain. This is the first stretch of 5 days since February - and before that, it was December - according to the weatherman. It really does get wet here. Rain is in the forecast for this evening, so there goes another good streak of nice weather.

Today begins our first of the 2 long days each week. I go in at 8 AM and work till 4:30, and Josie goes in at at 9:30 and works till 6 PM. With the activity beginning to pick up, the days will go a little faster. It's time to get ready...

New Territory

We got started a little late yesterday, but we ended up taking about 32 pictures of our first trip north of Lincoln City. Our plan was to take the Three Capes Loop, which is a shoreline route of about 25 miles that veers away from Highway 101 to stay on the coast. It is a winding, twisting road that goes through several small towns along another spectacular section of shoreline. Our first stop was Winema Wayfinding Point, which was located just before the turnoff to the loop road. The 2 shots below were taken at this location:

We then turned onto the Loop Road and the first town was Pacific City. The most famous sight and landmark in Pacific City is of Haystack Rock, which is just off the shore:

We also stopped at the Thousand Trails Campground that we stayed in for a week back in 1997 during the 4th of July week. It looked a lot different than when we were here last. We do recall taking the long walks from the campground to the beach area though and we also remember that it was pretty cool the entire week and couldn't spend much time on the beach.

Our next stop was Cape Lookout, which is a nice place to spend a day hiking several different trails that come out to different locations along the shore, all with great views. We were not prepared to hike, so we continued down the road and came upon a turnout that had a spectacular view of the shoreline:

That is Netarts Bay and the City of Oceanside in the distance. The day became very interesting at this point. We came upon a guy (and his wife) that were preparing a hangglider to sail off the cliff we were standing on:

If you read the link above about Cape Lookout, it mentioned that this area was good for gliders and hanggliders.

We spent about an hour talking to the wife while this guy prepared his hangglider for take-off. She said he was a retired fireman from Bellevue Washington (since February) and he has been doing this for 30 years. She told us about one flight he took in Washington, beginning at Lake Chelan, and he flew all the way to Idaho - 144 miles. He catches the wind thermals and can stay in the air for hours and hours before landing. His plan was to land somewhere near their campground, just off the beach in the picture above, about halfway to Oceanside. A crowd of curious onlookers was growing as he prepared to launch, and his friend - a local that also enjoys the sport - came to help him launch. Below are the pictures of his launch:

READY:

SET:

GO!:

His wife also told us that this was the latest in hanggliding technology and is made of a different material and shapped more like wings instead of a kite. This supposedly provided a more controlled flight and was safer than the old kite technology. The last shots are of part of his flight that we took just before leaving this area. It looks like a hawk that just caught a fish:

We drove the rest of the Loop and came out in Tillamook. It was a fascinating drive through some really neat towns and past some spectacular shoreline. We will return to Tillamook again and do the cheese factory tour that we also did when we were at Pacific City in '97. We're sure that has changed since then.

This morning is not very clear as we have marine layer clouds that haven't burned off yet. We're not sure what the plan will be, but I know that there are some things we need to get done around here. Until tomorrow...

Outdoor Resorts Visit

After finishing up our short work day at 1 PM, we had a bite to eat and decided to go to Newport to pick up a prescription at Walmart. It was such a nice day and we really enjoy the coastline between Lincoln City and Newport. One of the places we pass every time we go to Newport is the Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Resort at Pacific Shores. We were owners at one time of a lot in the Outdoor Resorts park in Palm Springs, so we had a curiosity about this particular park. First of all, it is a location for motor home owners only, which automatically removes any chance we would ever buy a space in there. The real interest for us was to see how close to the beach the Resort was and to see what owners had to pay to enjoy this spot on the coast. We were surprised that the prices for the remaining spaces in this park ranged from $34,900 to $54,900. Of course, none of those were Ocean Front lots, but every owner has access to the beach which is a long walk down a winding, paved trail. We took a picture of the view to the Yaquina Lighthouse in Newport:

It appears to be a good value for people owning a motor home and wanting a place to spend the summers on the coast. They (Outdoor Resorts) still have the rental program that they conduct for owners so that helps justify the purchase if you can't be there full time. Anyway, it brought back some memories for us and this is an excellent location.

NOTE: The entry for today had been delayed as a result of a computer problem. I switched to a new browser (Mozilla Firefox) a couple weeks ago because Microsoft's Internet Explorer was so slow. I gained lots of speed with the switch but discovered today that there were some software conflicts with Google Maps - to show our travels - and also with downloading images, so I switched back to Internet Explorer after trying for hours to fix the problem with Firefox.

Our plans for the day are still open, so I'm not sure how far we'll get with our original plan to go north. Josie has some "stay at home " projects, but we will probably still get out in the nice weather to do something, even if it's a short trip. We need to take advantage of all the nice days we get. Later...

Cell Phones and Internet Down

Just before we went into the office yesterday, we noticed that both our phones were stuck on "searching for signal". Not only that, it was not possible to log on to the Internet. Once we arrived at the office, Mary told us that somebody operating a backhoe in town cut a cable and knocked out the communications. It was only our cell phones and the Internet that were affected, but that meant we couldn't get reservations off the system that were made online. It was late afternoon by the time the problem was fixed. It's amazing how dependent we've become on our cell phones and the Internet.

We had another busy day during our 5 hours of work yesterday. Josie was kept busy in the office with check-ins and checkouts, and I worked outside doing more edging in the sites. The edger that we use is a Troy Built, and is not commercial grade, so the job was made a lot more difficult. In fact, just before quitting time the blade stopped engaging and the cable that performs that function needs to be fixed. That's a problem that needs to be fixed by somebody besides me as I'm not about to take apart the edger to fix it - fixing broken power tools is out of my comfort zone.

It's a short day today and it promises to be a perfect day weather wise. The sun is already shining in a clear blue sky and there is no wind. It is suppose to get into the mid 70's in Portland today, so that means we will be warm also. This is definitely more like it! We will have to go to Safeway today after we get off work to pick up some groceries, but we hope to take advantage of this nice weather in some way. Once again though, with our split schedule of 2 1/2 hours each on this day, we don't begin our free time until after 1 PM. If the forecast holds, it will be a great 2 days off for us beginning tomorrow. Until then...

Getting Busy

Even though we only worked 5 hours yesterday, we were busier than we have been so far in the office. There were several "drop-ins" as we call them, people that come in without reservations and want a space for a day or two. Coupled with the regular folks coming in that have reservations, and making new reservations on the phone, it made for a busier day. I was able to do some more outside landscaping work as the weather was nice once again. It appears that the weather man has it right for a change.

In addition to visiting some interesting places while we are here we discovered that there are some neat events that are held on an annual basis all up and down the coast. These are events like kite festivals, sandcastle contests and many other unique activities that we will attend, when possible, on our days off and our afternoons off. One of the several sandcastle events that is scheduled in June is a major event in Cannon Beach and another, later in the summer (August), right here in Lincoln City. There are also many festivals that are held on an annual basis that promise to keep us busy throughout the summer. It should be a very different and enjoyable experience on the coast for us this year.

Today is our second 5 hour day at work and again we work from 1 to 6. We hope it is as busy as yesterday, and with the continuing nice weather, should make the day go fast. We also did something this morning that we haven't done since we arrived here - we opened our awning. Our front awning is automatic, so even if the wind picks up during the day while we are working, it will close before any wind damage can occur. It really needs to dry out from all the rain we've had. I will have to open our second awning, which is not automatic, sometime when we are going to be at the rig for a length of time. Until tomorrow...

Back to Normal

It was back to having just some danish, juice, cut up orange and coffee for breakfast again. The only leftover from the big Mother's Day spread was some leftover strawberries. The crowd was also a lot smaller - there were 6 or 8 people the whole morning versus the 40 or so on Mother's Day. Our work day was also back to normal. It was a long, long day in the office for us but I was able to break up the boredom by doing some outside work and checking the spa for chemical balance several times during the day. Josie did some cleaning in the restrooms and on the office floor. Ho-hum.

The real news now is the weather forecast which is finally turning friendly. The rest of the week is suppose to be nice with warming temperatures - into the 70's - and no rain in sight until late this weekend. Our plan already for our days off is to venture north this time. There are some areas we would like to see up there, including a return to Tillamook, to revisit the cheese factory we went to many years ago. There are some other interesting attractions and, we're sure, some different shoreline views that are spectacular. As we read more and more about the area, there are some interesting places that we are going to visit that maybe aren't so well known to people but make the area special.

Another short day today - 5 hours - which begins at 1 PM for us. Just a couple more days and we can get out and about again. We sure look forward to those days...

Mother's Day Breakfast

There wasn't much that we could do that would be special for Mother's Day since we both had to work all day. Even though Josie didn't work in a flower shop, she got stuck once again working on "her day". The management staff here at the resort put on a special breakfast to honor all the mothers that were here. It was as good as any big breakfast buffet that you could find anywhere. There were the usual bacon and eggs with waffles, a special potato casserole, cut up melons and several choices of danish, muffins and bagels with cream cheese, and of course, juice and coffee. I would estimate that there were 40 people that came to breakfast. This was a huge departure from our usual muffins, danish and juice/coffee served on normal days. The staff came in on their day off to work the kitchen.

The day was otherwise uneventful. Josie did some cleaning in the bathrooms and I did some edging on sites outside between our office sessions. Because the hours have been extended at the resort now, our day is split. I started at 8 AM yesterday and worked until 4:30, and Josie 's hours were 9:30 to 6. This isn't the most desirable schedule, but we understand the reasons for it on our long days while the managers have the day off. It's the same today.

We had 3 consecutive days without rain - a new record for us here - and the rain returned during the night. The forecast is for off -and-on showers until Thursday, and then clearing for the weekend. Just in time for our days off. We've settled into the routine here and so far are enjoying our time and looking forward to the summer season. More later...

Farmers Market and Seal Rocks

It was late morning by the time we got started after breakfast yesterday. We had a flyer that we picked up at the Aquarium on Friday that advertised a Farmers Market in downtown Newport that was open every Saturday between May and October. It only had the start time of 9 AM and didn't have any ending time. These normally run all day until about 3 or 4 PM - usually. With our later than normal start, we arrived at the Farmers Market at 1 PM - just in time to see the beginning of the tear-down for the booths. Who would have thought that with only 1 day a week of marketing time they would only remain open for 4 hours? We rushed through the market, took the following picture and left at about 1:30 as the other booths were taking down their tents:

There was very little in the way of vegetables and goods from the farms and was mostly a crafts market. From the little bit we saw, it was a disappointing Farmers market. Maybe it gets better later in the season - we'll see.

Since our visit to the market ended early, we decided to drive down the coast a little bit to an area called Seal Rocks State Park, which was about 10 Miles south of Newport. It was another area of very unusual shoreline and although we didn't see any seals, we saw plenty of birds and beautiful shoreline. Following are some pictures of the area:



The area above shows a tide pool area that is also a major attraction for this area. We were here at low tide and didn't go down the long and steep path to the beach. There was an unbelievable beach just to the north of this Park, as you can see in the shot below:

Some of the beaches we've seen are the biggest we've ever seen anywhere. I'm sure that the beach shrinks tremendously during high tide, as they are very flat. The last shot is of trees that are along Highway 101 and Josie always remarks how they are all growing in the same direction as a result of the constant on-shore winds:

We really enjoyed our 2 days off this week, thanks to the nice weather. It's back to work today and there is a special breakfast this morning between 8 and 10 AM for Mothers Day. This is the first time in 24 years that Josie hasn't spent the Mothers Day weekend working awful hours in a flower shop. It's too bad she has to work at all, but it is very different.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Oregon Coast Aquarium - Plus

The weather was nearly perfect yesterday and was a good day to venture out to some places we have been looking at to visit. One of the attractions that was high on our list was the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It is located in Newport and is one of the most unique aquariums in the country because of it's outside features. It is very deceiving as you enter the building (below):

When you walk into the building you are at the cashier's desk where you pay your fee and instead of going directly into the aquarium, you are in the huge Gift Shop behind the welcome desk. I guess they want to make sure you don't miss it after you complete your visit. Anyway, after the discounts for seniors and AAA it cost each of us $12 to visit.

There are several buildings and displays within these buildings that contain large aquariums with all kinds of fish and ocean life. The picture below is of the largest crab species in the world - the spider crab - and this particular aquarium had about 6 or 7 of these:

After viewing different aquariums in these buildings, you go outside to covered areas (with nets) where there are several different bird species that are unique to the ocean. Below is one of the more popular ones, the Tufted Puffin:

While walking through one of these many buildings, there is an area (below) where you actually walk through the aquarium, with fish all around you, and it's like walking through a tube:

It was a very different sensation walking through these as the fish were also under your feet. We spent a couple hours at the Aquarium and left with a feeling that it was time and money well spent.

We wanted to stop at an area called "Cape Foulweather". We've driven past this turnoff every trip we have taken to Newport, and decided to visit it once and for all. It was a great decision, as this was a spectacular day to witness a spectacular view. We drove down a winding road off of Highway 101 and arrived at the parking lot at Cape Foulweather. Here is a shot of the lookout building and gift shop:

This location is 500 feet above the ocean and the lookout points are fantastic. This shot is looking south toward Newport:

You can barely make out the lighthouse in the top right of the picture that is on Yaquina Bay in Newport. This is the most spectacular view of the shoreline that we've seen since we arrived here. Below is another shot, taken from the rear of the lookout and Gift Shop and facing north:

The history of this Lookout is interesting in itself. It sits on the top of this cliff that is part of a 164 acre purchase by an individual and his wife back in 1934. He was a representative of Hershey Chocolate Co. and I have to wonder first of all, how much they paid for the property and, secondly, how a representative of a chocolate company could afford this beautiful chunk of land. They built this lookout and called it Cape Foulweather because it was named on a day of bad weather. Note: that could have been any day.

It was a fun day and we were grateful for the fantastic weather on our day off. Today is cloudy - at least this morning - but we hope to go to another interesting place. Stay tuned...

This is More Like It

It looks like we finally have some nice weather for our days off. Yesterday was dry, sunny, and the winds were relatively calm. Today appears to be starting out the same with clear skies and little wind. It was also our first dry day of May yesterday. Is it possible we will get 2 days in a row? We'll try to cram some activities into these 2 days, that's for sure.

It was so nice yesterday that we did our dinner last night on the grill for the first time since we arrived. I can see the effects of the salt air and all the rain on my propane tank that is used for the grill. It had a little bit of rust on the sides before, but it now looks a lot older than it did. This has happened even with storing the grill under the front overhang to help keep it out of the rain. I guess anybody that lives here, or spends a lot of time on the ocean, accepts the fact that they will have more maintenance to perform on everything that is kept outside.

There are several places we have identified to visit on our days off, so we just need to put them into some kind of order. With the nice weather we're having now, we may even visit more than one place. Sometime though, I will need to allow some time during one of these nice days to do some removal of the effects of the salt air. That's not nearly as much fun as going places and we certainly don't like wasting these nice days on that kind of stuff. We'll have to see how that works out. Until tomorrow...

A Little Casino and Pizza

Our day wrapped up at 1 PM yesterday so we could get in some fun time. With only a half day to do something, we decided to go to the Casino and then stop at our favorite pizza place, Gallucci's, in town. We only budgeted $40 each for this visit so we were hoping that it could be stretched into some long playing time. We both were jumping from slot machine to slot machine and we were getting some very small pots that would keep us going, but I eventually ran out of my stake and had to go watch Josie play her final $10 before we would leave and go to pizza. She was down to her last $3.50 in her penny machine when she decided to do one spin at maximum bet which was $2.00. Sure enough, and as her luck has been running in the casinos lately, she hit a major jackpot that provided us with $225. We usually take big jackpot winnings like that and leave the casinos while ahead, which we did on this occasion. This casino has been very friendly to Josie and the irony is that all the machines she has hit these jackpots on are in the same location on the casino floor. Go figure.

After stopping for our pizza we made it home in time to watch our usual TV shows. We are getting anxious now to see the winners in two of our favorites - American Idle and Dancing With the Stars - which will be ending in the next few weeks.

Today is our shortest day at work as we both work only 2 1/2 hours. As of now, we have nothing planned for our days off but you can be sure if the weather is nice we will go to some place that is interesting and different for us. The day is starting out sunny, with very few clouds, so maybe it will carry over into our free time. Until tomorrow...

More About the Office

It was mentioned yesterday that I would try to get some pictures of our nice office area that is here at the resort. The shots below give a good indication of the cleanliness and functionality of the office building. Starting with the front desk area and small store:


This next one is looking toward the foyer from the doorway that goes into the breakfast room:


Josie has been handling the breakfast crowd this week and this is a picture of the breakfast room and kitchen area:


Another shot of the breakfast room looking toward the Library and cozy fireplace that is on everyday during the breakfast hours:


On the other side of the building, across from the foyer area, is our meeting room and game room:


The last shot here is of the meeting room looking toward the media wall - this was just used this past weekend by a small group to show their own slides and movies of their travels:


The transformation that was made from the original owners of this resort - formerly named Ocean View - is nothing short of amazing. Two years ago when Premier RV Resorts purchased this property, this building was nothing more than a 1 bedroom apartment and very small space for a check in area. The new owners completely rebuilt this facility and turned the sites, that were previously weeds and unattended spaces, into a highly rated facility. We ask people that stay here to submit a survey to us as they leave with suggestions and/or recommendations for improvements. We have yet to get a survey with less than "Superb" ratings for the entire resort. It makes it a lot easier to work in an environment like this. If we could just get some good weather!

Today is our next to last day this week and the last day that Josie has to fill in for the person who normally runs the continental breakfast. The sun is out, but clouds are looming over the ocean, getting ready to drop the usual rain for the day. Life could be a lot worse...

Winter Returns

The news last night indicated that were would be a new record low "high" temperature today - 51 degrees. At 6:30 AM it is only 40 degrees outside (Brrr!). The wind finally stopped its hurricane force last night before we turned in so we were able to get a good night's sleep without rockin' and rollin'. By the way, we are 4 for 4 so far in May with days of measurable rain.

This kind of weather always prompts us to begin searching for our next destination. We are thinking that perhaps Yuma or someplace in Southern California where it is warm in the winter would be good options. Also, we would consider Florida again if we could find a good job in the winter which is a challenge in any warmer climate. The availability of jobs is like night and day when you compare the summer season to the winter season so you really can't start too early looking for your winter commitment. You may recall that we could have gone to Florida last year - but only between Thanksgiving and Christmas to sell Christmas Trees. That didn't work because we couldn't find something for the rest of the winter there. We'll try again.

Yesterday was also a long and boring day for both of us. We had only a couple of check-ins and the wind and rain prevented doing any outside work. Josie will do breakfast again this morning and I will hold down the office while she does that. With only 5 hours of work required today, we will be off at a decent time. I will try to get some pictures of the inside of our office building today so everybody can see how nice the building is. They did it "right" here and we get compliments every day on the facilities. Until tomorrow...

Longer Days, More Rain

The days are getting noticeably longer now, as it is daylight before 6 AM and doesn't get dark until after 8 PM. That is a real advantage to the Northwest. Pretty soon it will be daylight before 5 AM and not get dark until near 10 PM. Even with the longer days, it isn't getting drier. So far, we have started May the same way we started April - rain every day. Of course, the winds never stop either. The natives keep telling us this is an unusual season and it isn't normal to be like this. Maybe they are just used to it.

The campground hours are now 8 to 6 PM and the extra hour makes for a really long day when we have to work the whole day. We got home after 6 last night and by the time we had dinner and watched a little TV it was time for bed already. We do the same today. One advantage to the rain for me is that I can't wear myself out doing outside landscaping like I did yesterday. The rain didn't come yesterday until last night. This morning is nasty, so with the exception of delivering the newspapers to about 10 sites, I will be inside. Josie has to set up the breakfast again today, as she did yesterday, since the person that normally does it is off this week. That takes her away from the front desk from 7:30 to 10 AM, which breaks up her day a little. With just the two of us working these 2 days, we have to do a lot more than just our normal responsibilities. The whole operation is getting smoother for us though, as we have pretty much learned all the unique differences between this campground and the others we have worked.

These longer work days don't allow for much writing about anything but work, but we don't mind these days as long as there are only a couple each week. Like I said before, the day is coming when we won't have to work at all, except maybe for our site if we decide to stay someplace for an extended period of time. Looking forward to that...

Caught in a Parade

Even though it became cloudy and started to rain - surprise? - we went to Newport to go to Fred Meyer and maybe continue on to Florence down the coast. We ran into a detour just before town and at first, we thought maybe there was an accident that they were rerouting traffic around. It turned out to be the annual celebration in Newport called Loyalty Days. This is an annual 4 day event and we hit the day they had the parade. We are happy it turned out this way as we were able to drive on the Oceanside Drive that goes along the shoreline, through some beautiful neighborhoods, and past some really nice beach areas. One of the beach areas is called Agate Beach and we got a picture of this beach below that is the largest beach we've seen since we arrived:

Those little dots you see are people on the beach so you can see how huge it really is. We finally got to the end of the detour and came back out on the Highway 101. This is when we discovered the parade. We attempted to go back through town along the roads parallel to 101 to get back to Fred Meyer but had to stop a few blocks short. We parked and decided to watch the parade which was actually very exciting. There were nearly 100 floats in the parade and the street was lined with people through the entire town. Below are some shots of the parade:



There were high school bands and lots of classic cars among the parade entries and it was fun watching. We parked in a bank parking lot that was next to a McDonald's so we also got to try a couple Frappe's while we were there. All in all, it was a very pleasant surprise and a pleasant diversion.

We then went to Fred Meyer, picked up our goodies, and decided to head home. By then, it was getting late so we will save the trip to Florence for another day.

Back to work today - long day, with new hours. We will stay open to 6 PM now instead of 5 PM, and as a result, our hours are slightly staggered to compensate for the added time. Until tomorrow...

Hansen Garden

One of the local attractions in Lincoln City is the Connie Hansen Garden. This is a property that is only a block or two from the beach and only a block off the Highway 101. It is a garden that has been preserved since the death of the developer in the 1990's. The timing was a little off for us and many of the azaleas and rhodie's had already bloomed, even though the prime time for a visit is the April-May time frame. We thought that maybe there has been too much rain this month which caused the plants to bloom earlier (?). We did take some pictures of the garden as there were some beautiful plants still in bloom. The first picture is of the welcome sign, of course:

Following are some more shots we took while walking along the paths:


The following picture is of the tall rhododendron in the middle of the above picture. We've never seen a rhododendron this tall before. The trunk was as thick as a tree trunk and must be 40 -50 years old, at least:

The following shot is of a beautiful white rhododendron that was also a tall plant:

This was a very beautiful garden but it would never compete with Butchardt Gardens in Vancouver. Of course, it isn't meant to either. This was the result of a huge effort by a woman that loved rhododendrons and azaleas and wanted to create something for herself to enjoy. It is a wonderful legacy that she has left.

Of course, we had to take the road that the Garden was on to the end - where it came out to a beach. Below is the "Beach Shot" of the day:

While standing here and watching the water and the people walking up and down this section of the beach, an individual that has lived here for the last 15 years approached me and started a conversation about the area. He pulled out this annual planner from his pocket and showed me the total rainfall totals for the last 10 years. There hasn't been a year since 2000 that the annual rainfall here has been less than 82 inches, and the highest was around 122 inches. Wow! No wonder we are wet all the time. I told him it seemed like a rain forest and he indicated there was one - the Siletz Rain Forest - about 5 miles down the road. Sheesh! I tried to find it on the Internet and couldn't, so I wonder how much of what he told me was true.

Anyway, today is our second day off and it is partly cloudy again so we probably will try to go someplace that will be interesting. We'll have the results tomorrow...