Tripometer – 7830
Gas Gauge – 590.306 gal
Location – Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR
Lodging – $32
Cans of OFF – 4
Stratis & Regina left early this morning to go visit their daughter in Portland for the weekend. Kelly needed internet for work so we drove out to the tip of our peninsula and both of us enjoyed a few hours of solid internet time coming from cell tower somewhere down river. We have only camped in sites without cell signal (and consequently internet) a few times during this trip. It’s tremendously frustrating. So much of our trip related activities are internet based. Everywhere we go we are new to town and have no idea where basic services are. The internet is our only easy solution to finding those services. For Paul, planning where we’re headed next, where we’re going to park the trailer, and what we want to see are all questions best answered on the internet. For Kelly the need is obvious, she needs to work. Having to do your work from the hood of a car 30 feet from the beach may sound like a dream to some, but gets old after a few days. Not having a cell signal in our campsite is always a struggle. (We HATE having to say that out loud.)
We managed to catch someone cancelling their campsite reservations for this weekend at Fort Stevens and snatched them up quickly. We still had to move the trailer though – 3 spaces down the loop! That was the easiest move day of the trip!
We spent the late afternoon in town doing a few errands followed by Ranger’s introduction to the ocean. As near as we can tell, Ranger didn’t even notice the waves or salt. He has been attacking the waves with his chest in a rather pro manner. The waves here are small though due to the gentle sloping ocean floor. We’ll see how he handles truly big waves another day. What he truly enjoys is the wide open beach. We can let him off of his leash to run to his heart’s content with this wide open space. He ran himself ragged. The parasailer in the picture was hovering just above the dunes for over an hour, slowly drifting up and down the beach. The steady 25-30 mph wind was just enough to cradle his seat in the wind. This was driving Paul nuts as he’s not had a chance to try out his new parafoil that he purchased in Michigan.
And then the rain began… Again… For realz!
Special Note: It bears remarking on the strange feeling of waking up every morning and having to remember where you are. When the eyes first open in the morning it’s easy to recognize the trailer but question number two every morning is “But WHERE the hell am I?”.