North to the coast

We took our time leaving Eugene on Thursday as we didn't have far to go. We spent the night at Spirit Mountain Casino, in Grand Ronde. We don't gamble but it was a chance for a nice dinner out and a free campsite - can't beat that combination!

Friday we traveled north, up 101, over the worst road we've seen in a long time. Don't know what they're doing with highway funds around the state but they aren't spending it here! We fully expected to be greeted by a jumbled mess in the back of the trailer when we finally stopped, but thanks to all our "systems" it wasn't a problem at all. The tension rods inside the refrigerator do a great job of keeping things on the shelves, and the various cabinet latches we added keep things from flying out of the cupboards. The edging on the book cabinet is very effective at keeping the magazines and other items in their place, so there wasn't much that suffered from the swerving, bouncing and vibration the road had caused.

It was raining when we got up and continued to rained off and on all day. We met friends at Nehalem Bay State Park where a stiff wind joined the rain - more like camping in the winter than the fall, but that's the way the Oregon summer has gone this year.
As I peered out the trailer window while setting up a young forked horn browsed in the shrubbery, completely at home in the campground. Our neighbors say he's been going into campsites begging for handouts - not a good thing as people usually feed them foods that aren't normal for a deer. The last person we saw hand feeding a deer was giving it pretzels!


We have more friends arriving today, in the sun is peeking through, so it should be a nice weekend. We just hope they can find a spot near us. This section of the park is first-come basis, not reservation, and it was pretty full yesterday. Surprising this time of year, and in this weather, but it does seem more people are out camping than ever.