Motor Home Upgrades and We head down the Coast back into California

Davis Cabinets did a great job on the work we had them do. We had all new wood valances put in, replacements for our existing ones and new ones that cover the rollers on our MCD shades in the front area. They also changed our sliding glass doors, which I hate trying to keep clean and finger print free, to beautiful wood ones.They also made a hew headboard in the bedroom. I plan to get a new bed cover as we now have more choices in colors we can use and aren't stuck matching the former valances and head board colors.. We also had a few other small things done and a few fixes and we are so pleased with their work.

We had pulled in to their place the day after Labor Day and left on Friday, back to the coast. We stopped again at Winchester Bay for the weekend. We went back over to a Seafood Market we went to on our previous time here/ We loved the smoked albacore which was marinated in pineapple juice. So good. Unfortunately they only had a small amount left. We bought up what they had and got some other smoked albacore that was also very good. On Saturday we drove over to some of the Oregon Dunes area which is just around the corner from the Harbor.

There were some ATVers there though I didn't get any pictures of them.
Our next stop was to Huntley Park, which is inland about 10 miles from the Coast at Gold Beach. We have stayed here in the past and really like this spot on the Rogue River.

Below are a few more pictures of the lovely Oregon Coast as we head into California on our way to the Jenner area.

Next blog will be our travels in northern and central Calif.

Relaxing on the Water in Oregon

We stayed a few days at Clackamette RV Park, a city park in Oregon City, near Portland. It is a small 35 site park right on the Willamette River, We got a spot right on the water. We have stayed here a few years ago. The RV Park is next to a good sized park and was a great place for us to walk with Savannah. There is a small parking area right on the bank of the river in front of the campsites and it seems to be a place for people to stop and look at the view or maybe take a break from work. Lots of coming and goings.

A rare Airstream Motorhome

Park next to the campground

We continued on to thugene area. We had plans to stop into AM Solar for a quote on some additional solar panels and other related things. While there we ran into Vicki, a woman we knew from Jojoba. It was fun to see her and talk about our adventures this summer. It turns out AM Solar is booked until December and so we are putting this project off for awhile. We also went to Davis Cabinets to talk to them about some work we want them to do. They are the ones who built our desk/table for us and do great work. We set up a time and will come back the day after Labor Day.  We then drove towards the coast on the road that ends in Florence. We spent one night at the 3 River Casino. Again no gambling but we did have dinner there. The next day we headed a few hours down the coast to a new spot for us. Boice-Cope, a nice county park on a bluff right above Floras Lake. It is in Langlois and is near Bandon. On the other side of the lake are sand dunes and there is a trail to the ocean. It gets quite windy and the day we got there, there were a number of wind surfers. It looks like a great place to learn and there looked to be a few on the water doing just that.

Savannah walking to the Lake

It was nice to just sit and watch the kite and wind surfers. Savannah had fun in the water and rolling around in the dirt.

Next we left our great new find where we hope to return to in the future. Our next stop is Winchester Bay which is just south of Reedsport. There is a lot of no hookup sites that are available on a first come first serve basis right in the Harbor. We have stayed here before. We were lucky to get the last of the slightly larger sites right on the water as someone had just left a few hours before.

Ship to the right of our site

Commercial Campground across the bay from our site

 We got some lovely sunsets which we haven't seen much of the last few months.

We continued to just take it easy and enjoy the views from our motorhome. The weather is still a little chilly. There are a number of lighthouses in the area but we had checked them out on past trips. We spent 8 days here including the Labor Day weekend  We met a nice couple who were next to us. They had a place in Ojai which they recently sold. They spent the summer here while he works on boats and will be heading towards San Diego for the winter. Fishing is big here including crabbing. We gets crabs all the time and gave us a couple. Joe got all the meat out of the legs and body and the next day I made some crab cakes with a tartar sauce and they were delish, After going crazy taking pictures in Alaska and Canada, I haven't taken very many in Oregon, especially as we have been here before and there are a lot in the blog from the summer of 2013. With good internet Joe has been catching up with work and we have been watching some  tv after no tv for most of the summer.
We left on Labor Day and made our way inland staying at the Valley River Mall. It is a great freebie site where you can camp upto two days. We got here late and are leaving early in the morning to get to Davis Cabinets first thing. However, we stayed here for a few days last time. The parking is in a large parking area in the back but right near the river and a bike path. There is a park right on the other side of the bridge and we biked through it last time. Pretty nice place for being in an urban setting and we even had a small view of the lake from the MH. We are now at Davis Cabinets and they are suppose to be done with the work we are having done tomorrow. I'll let you know what we had done and have some pictures of the work in the next post.

Lakes on the Cassiar Highway

We really liked staying on the Cassiar highway our last trip and so ended up staying at a few spots we stayed before. We had a long day driving and we were going to stop at Boya Lake, which is one of the first provincial parks on the Caassiar. However, there was a lot of construction there and it didn't look like we could even turn there so we continued on to Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park,

It is a very nice place but was pretty cold the two days we were there so didn't get out on the water. We continued on the scenic highway including another bear sighting. You want to make sure you gas up before going on this highway as there are almost no towns or gas stations. Just beautiful scenery.

Our next stop was another of our favorite spots to stay, Meziadin Lake. It is a very popular campground and all the sites on the water were taken. We pulled into a spot on an upper level with some nice views of the lake. Though we hoped for a water site after the weekend.

It was a nice day with weather on the warm side, at least for warm as far as Canada gets. So we decided to take advantage and get right out on the water. I didn't bring my camera and so Joe took some pictures on his go pro camera. What a beautiful day and we had such a nice paddle that we did it again the next day.

I mentioned there are not many stores on the Highway. In fact the closest store is in the Hyder/Stewart area. It is about an hours drive from Meziadin. We decided that instead of just driving there in the Jeep we would go ahead and stay overnight in Stewart. It is another beautiful drive with glaciers and waterfalls.

Bear Glacier

We stayed at one of the commercial parks in Stewart, BC which is a small town of around 700 people. What is interesting is right next to Stewart is Hyder, which is an even smaller town of around 70 people and is actually in Alaska. So while there we went into Hyder for some shopping. We also went to the Fish Creek Wildlife Conservation Site. This is a great place to watch the salmon run and if you are lucky see bears going after the fish. Last time we stayed in Stewart, we went here a few times and only saw one bear crossing the road but none at the csreek. Again luck was not with us but it is a lovely spot anyway. We ran across some people we met before in Seward or Homer I think. They didn't have any luck either. they had come one day around 6 in the morning and found out they just missed some bears.

????

Fish Creek

Well we didn't see bears there but we did see one on the way back to Meziadin Lake.

We got back to Meziadin and were lucky to get a front row site right on the water. YEAH!!

Road into the Park

 All the pictures below were taken right from our site. Pretty awesome spot, don't you think..  We didn't do anymore paddling but Joe added the sail to the kayak and took it out but the wind wasn't cooperating and so he wasn't out for long. We enjoyed sitting out and reading and just relaxing and even got some good weather.

We stayed 4 more days but still have a long way to go to get to the lower 48 and so we left our lovely site hoping to make a return visit sometime and stay for a few weeks. We did a number of one night stays, first stop at Treasure Casino, in Prince George. It was free camping. We did spend money there though by eating at the Pub, which is part of the Casino. We didn't do any gambling. We had another long day drive and stayed at a pretty campground, Willow Springs RV Park, in the South Caribou Region off of Hwy 97. We were going to stay a little farther north at a lake we read about but it was Saturday, the 22nd, and the campground we drove through was full and we figured the other two were as well. On Sunday, we continued on 97 to Cache Creek where we headed towards Vancouver on the 1. We drove through the Thompson and Fraser River area where we went through 7 tunnels.

There are teepees for rent in the trees

The closer we got to Washington State, the smokier it got due to the many fires in the Northwest. I read that Spokane has had their worst air quality since Mt Helen erupted in 1980. I also saw something about Calgary and their terrible air conditions due to the wildfires. Pretty sad. The droughts and climate change in the Northwest are really taking a toll.

We spent one night in Washington in Olympia and are now in Oregon. We really had a great time in Alaska and Canada. Almost as soon as we crossed the border(easy border crossing) we ran right into traffic jams. Welcome to the US and too many people. Well, we are back to having satellite tv, cell service and good internet. That is nice. We just need to get off the 5 and find some less crowded areas as we know there are beautiful spots in Washington, Oregon and California.