Tag Archives: Elks Lodge

YPG (Yuma Proving Grounds, AZ)

2015/02/12 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

Almost caught back up now with the journal entries… I’m only a couple days behind now 🙂

On Tuesday morning, we left the Coach parked at the noisy campsite behind the VFW post and drove the Silverado to the Yuma Proving Ground Museum.

Fair Warning – This post is picture heavy! As a veteran of 26+ years, I enjoy military history and equipment, therefore, I took lots of pictures.

These are the signs you see at the turn-off from US 95 to the Proving Grounds and Imperial Dam.

YPG sign on US 95 (taken later when we drove by in the Coach)

These giant cannons are on the west side of US 95 opposite the signs above… you can’t miss the turn to Yuma Proving Grounds with these landmarks! The “Atomic Cannon” was designed to fire a nuclear shell per this link @ RoadsideAmerica.com

Here’s another couple vehicle displays outside the main gate at one of the two base entrances.

The following tanks, vehicles, and other military equipment are located on the side of the road just a short way down from the US 95 turn. We parked and checked them out. No ID card or anything is needed to view these, they are open to the public… they are just off the side of the road and there is ample parking.

This is the museum entrance on the base located just across from the Fam Camp. It used to be the installation’s headquarters and is now called the Heritage Center Museum. (Click on the link)

We were going to stay at this Fam Camp but changed our minds when we were having too much fun down by Los Algodones. Besides – it would have cost us $130 for the week or $40 for one night.

You do need an ID card to gain access to the base which is the administrative side of this massive post. However, I assume they allow visitors with proper identification to get a visitors pass. Here’s another good link for more information.

It took us a couple hours to tour through the museum. You could easily spend more time here if you stopped to read all the literature or sit through the several recorded presentations.

Did you know that General Patton trained his tank corps here to prepare them for battle with Rommel during WWII?

And who doesn’t like Jeeps?

A couple cool pictures of vehicles being tested back in the day.

There were quite a few cool dioramas, I like dioramas… maybe it’s a not quite grown-up “guy thing”.

The original Installation Commander’s office has been recreated here with all the furnishings.

A couple more cool dioramas:

There was even an entire room dedicated to the cowardly terrorist attacks of 9/11. The video presentation was riveting.

Great museum – highly recommend it!

After our tour of the museum, we stopped at the mini PX and gas station to save a few bucks on fuel for the Silverado. Then we exited the base and headed farther down the road to check out the BLM sites in and around the Imperial Dam (Click link for more images) for possible future camping locations. Wikipedia has more interesting facts about the dam here if you’re interested.

The following pictures are of the Imperial Dam area. We saw many different long term visitor areas (LTVAs) and other nice camping spots. We might have to come back here some time in the future.

This guy was para-sailing… or is it para-surfing?

Typical signage seen throughout the area.

When we got back to the Coach parked behind the VFW post, we immediately got ready to roll on up the road. We weren’t going to spend another night here with the planes and trains.

We pulled into Parker, AZ (about 40-50 miles up US 95) and found the local Elks Lodge. They had 12 spots with 30amp and water for a suggested donation of $15 per night. We were packed in pretty tight – we couldn’t even put out the awning more than a couple feet or it would hit the RV next to us. Oh well, it was nice to have electric again. It’s been a while. Stilla loaded up the washer/dryer combo to get caught up on some laundry since we had hookups.

The Elks were having a lodge meeting and didn’t have anything to offer for dinner, so even though it was short-notice, we called some friends from Colorado Springs that we knew were staying at the Pirates Den Resort just up the road. They hadn’t eaten yet so we made plans to meet at the Black Pearl Restaurant located inside their resort.

“Greeter” inside the doors at the Black Pearl Restaurant located in the Pirates Den RV Resort, Parker, AZ.

We met Bob and Mary McCord and had an awesome BBQ rib dinner while we caught up on things. It was sure nice to see them again, it’s been several months since we saw them last in COS. They belong to the Family Campers & RVers (FCRV), Rolling Springs Chapter that we also belong to along with my Dad and Stepmom. We only get to see them during campouts or meetings.

After dinner we went over to their site and relaxed in their nice Coach. They recently got “upgraded” to a spot overlooking the Colorado River instead of being a couple rows back. Nice Coach, Nice spot! We called it a night, said our farewells, and headed back to the Elks lodge in downtown Parker. We’ll see you down the road Bob & Mary!

Stay tuned…

Colorado

We Can See the End (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/12/16 davidhobden@mac.com

We are finally getting close to being able to put the house on the market. The carpet is finally done, I guess the adage; “3rd time is a charm”, is true. The original carpet guy finally just paid a competitor to order and install the carpet at his expense since we had already paid. Here’s a view of the stairs in progress.

And, here’s a picture of the finished stairs for your viewing pleasure.

The downstairs “family room/game room” looks a little weird with the light brown color carpet (called Honeycomb 201). It used to have a light blue/gray carpet that complemented the wall colors. I hope a potential buyer doesn’t “dislike” it.

This is the bar that we’re including with the house. I just wasn’t going to remove that back piece off the wall because I anchored it with lag bolts to the studs and ran electrical outlets to it when I originally finished this room. Removing it would just create too much additional work with drywall, paint and texture issues.

We had new carpet put in the Master Bedroom and walk-in closet along with the stairs and everywhere downstairs except for one of the bedrooms where we decided to leave our King Size Bedroom set. We just didn’t want to move it again and figured it might add value and an additional incentive to buy the house for the new-owner(s).

This is the chandelier we put in the dining room. The old one was just fine, but it was brass. This was no easy chore due to the extremely high vaulted ceilings. I even had to make another trip to Home Depot to get more black chain so it wasn’t hanging too high. It doesn’t look too bad I guess.

The driveway concrete repair has been the most expensive task so far. This is where I used to park the Urban Escape Vehicle and the concrete just wasn’t thick enough to handle the weight. It had some pretty major cracks and had settled in places. The concrete guys did all the tear out and re-pour in one day.

We were finally able to paint the Den after I got the tenant’s stuff out.

Here’s a view out the front Den window looking up the street. We haven’t been able to easily look out this window for a while due to the “stuff” I had to move out from the former tenant’s.

We still have to clear the previous tenant’s stuff out of the Master Bath so we can give it a good cleaning and re-caulk where needed.

And there’s some wood-laminate flooring repairs I still need to make in the Great Room… sure glad I kept a couple boxes of the original floorboard.

We still need to finish re-staining the deck also, but that’s contingent on good weather, hopefully it warms up soon.

With any luck, we’ll finally have the house on the market at the beginning of the New Year.

I’ll try to keep you updated. Stay tuned…

Colorado

Taking a Day Off (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/12/08 davidhobden@mac.com

We finally took a day off (Sunday) from working around the house to help our friends Daniel and Monika move their daughter’s belongings back to their house. Dan keeps up with the blog and knew about the new trailer purchase. We were happy to be able to help, because as you know – what goes around comes around.

We were able to make quick work out of all the stuff that needed to be moved, the trailer ramp made loading easy.

While we were on the way back to Dan and Monika’s house with the trailer loaded, we stopped by the house of our mutual friend’s – John and Angelika. The Christmas lights and decorations are looking good Angelika 🙂

We wanted to drop off a Coca-Cola Cooler that we gave them. It’s much more satisfying to give some of our things to friends or family as opposed to selling them at greatly reduced prices or even taking things to Goodwill or ARC Thrift Stores. We already gave John and Angelika our “retro” Jukebox that Stilla got for her birthday several years ago. At least it’s in good hands and getting some use instead of being put in storage.

NSM Jukebox “Digital Thunder” on the wall at our house (pic is a few years old)

While stopped at John and Angelika’s house – I used the opportunity to install the load-leveling hitch that I just got in from Amazon.com. Their little cul-de-sac is much more level than the one at our house, and it’s important to do the installation on level ground. With John and Dan’s help, we did some measuring and got the hitch installed at the correct height. The load-leveling bars take a lot of weight off the hitch ball and distributes it more evenly, I’ve heard it described as functioning in a manner similar to a wheelbarrow.

After we unloaded the trailer, Dan and Monika treated us to lunch at Applebee’s. Thanks again Dan and Monika!

We visited for a while back at Dan and Monika’s beautiful home and admired their awesome deck while our little dog “Coach” checked out the back yard and probably left his “calling card” somewhere… sorry about that Dan 🙂

Dan and I also made tentative plans. If the timing is right, Dan offered to help me drive our stuff down to storage in Casa Grande. With his help, we could drive straight there, drop off a load, maybe spend the night and then get right back in record time. Dan is a professional truck driver by profession, (after his illustrious Army Career), so he’s no stranger to driving long distances. We’ll have to see if the timing works out…

After chatting for a while and saying our goodbye’s, we drove straight back to the Urban Escape Vehicle which is safely parked at the Elks Lodge overlooking the pool that is (sadly) closed for the season. This is the first day in – what seems like ages – that we didn’t spend the day at the house cleaning or painting something.

It was a good day off 🙂

Urban Escape Vehicle at the COS Elks Lodge RV Park

Colorado

6000 miles later – Back at the House (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/10/01 davidhobden@mac.com

On Monday we left the Elks Lodge in Saint George, UT early in the morning. I really would have liked to stay here, what a nice lodge and RV park area! The lodge had brats and nachos for donations in the bar area, so that was our dinner.

We needed to get back home to prepare for our son William’s visit from Germany. He’ll be here the 5th of October and he’s bringing his girlfriend that we haven’t met yet. So we made a bee line straight for our house in Colorado Springs. Sorry, no pictures today… I know you’re disappointed, but with the fast pace and often rainy windshield, the pics wouldn’t have turned out very good anyway.

We continued North on 1-15 until we hit I-70. We made it all the way to Grand Junction, CO by Monday evening. A grand total of 392 miles! If you’ve never seen the San Rafael Swell along I-70, it’s definitely worth stopping at the rest areas to view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Rafael_Swell

We researched the Elks.org website and found a lodge in downtown Grand Junction that claimed to have 4 electrical hook-up sites. I didn’t call ahead figuring that since it was Monday, they were sure to have a spot. Sure enough, they had 4 electrical hook-ups all on the same pole in the middle of their empty parking lot. The lodge was closed so I called the number listed on the website, which was the same as the number posted on the door, and got no answer. There was a box on the pole with empty envelopes in it, so I put $10 along with our business card in it and slipped it under the lodge door. We hooked up to the 30 amp, watched a little TV and went to bed so we could get another early start in the morning.

On Tuesday, we continued on I-70 and drove through the rain at times. It sure was beautiful near Vail with all the aspen leaves changing colors and snow on the mountains around us. I was a little worried about the rain turning into snow on the Eisenhower Tunnel Pass so I researched a “short-cut” over Hoosier Pass and the weather outlook said it was dry. So, we turned South at Dillon Reservoir and took 9 through Breckenridge and then over Hoosier Pass. Sure enough, it was dry and easy going. The weather even cleared up nicely the closer we got to I-24 and then home.

So, after another 290 miles for the day, here we are in Colorado Springs again. We’ve put a grand total of 6,100 miles on the Urban Escape Vehicle since we started full-timing in May. It’s good to be back for a short time and see daughter’s Jennifer and Joleen again.

I’ll post again soon to keep you apprised of our status… hopefully we can get back on the road again soon. Maybe, I can use this “downtime” while son William is visiting, to update the blog with the places we visited before I started the blog… I’ve got some great pics of our time at such places as: Lake Tahoe, Crater Lake, the RV Rallies in Portland and Redmond OR, Mt Rainier, and Mt Saint Helens, etc.,

So stay tuned…

Nevada, Utah

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

2014/09/29 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been a busy few days since my last post. I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post. Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS. Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity. It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street. That’s on the North side of Las Vegas. I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach! With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence. Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there. They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade. They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying. The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

The food was excellent albeit rather expensive. All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s. Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

And then we supported the local economy by playing the slots.

Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad! Love ya mom & Jimmy.

Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience. For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

This is the zip-line that runs above the street. You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

We ended up at the Heart Attack Grill, http://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op. Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars. I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited. Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there. I bought the T-Shirt.

Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473. Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date. Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves. Only two or three other rigs there. We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

The view from their deck.

And this was our spot below the cliffs. It’s only $15. Electric hook-up only. Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs. Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

Til next time… stay tuned.

California

Bro Time (Westley, CA)

2014/09/25 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

It’s been a couple days since my last post. We’ve been busy hanging out at my brother Ron’s house in Westley, CA. Let me bring you up to date:

We arrived early Tuesday evening after our long day’s drive down I-5 and through Sacramento. After hugs and a tour of the house and adjoining machine shop, we made a trip to the local WalMart to replenish the fridge and more importantly – get some steaks for the BBQ grill. We spent time grilling and catching up. It was great seeing them again, it’s been a long time… years in fact.

We parked on the street beside their house during our stay. Ron graciously provided a power outlet so we could run one of the air conditioners or the microwave without having to start our generator.

Wednesday ended up being a full work day in the fully-appointed machine shop next to the house. I conned (I mean, talked) Ron into doing some modifications to the Silverado’s bed-rails and motorcycle ramp. Nephew James stayed home from work and helped out as well. Ron figured out how to slice a long piece of aluminum off the bed rails so I can better secure my tonneau cover when I’m not carrying the Harley. He also invented a quick-release mount for the motorcycle ramp to secure it on top of the rack. Now I don’t have to struggle with a bunch of bungee-cords every time I transport the ramp.

Here we put everything back on the Silverado after having to disassemble the truck rack to make the modifications.

The tonneau cover now rolls shut and and fits tightly between the bed rails. Thanks Bro!

Ron even took the time to modify the pivot bar that holds the three-piece motorcycle ramp together… the bar was too long and the hole for the pin allowed for too much movement between the individual pieces, so he cut it shorter and re-drilled a new hole for the pin. Now it’s much safer to use, and there’s no chance for a foot or even worse – a motorcycle tire to accidentally slip between the pieces.

I forgot to take a picture of the quick-release mount that Ron invented to secure the ramp on top of the rack during transport. But here’s some pics of Ron in action:

We closed out the evening with another great BBQ meal in the back yard.

It rained Thursday morning… just enough to make us not want to get packed up and move. But, we need to move on down the road and get back to Colorado Springs before our son William comes to visit us in October. So we slowly got packed up by noon, said our goodbyes’s and thanked Ron & Terry for everything. It was about 1 PM by the time we hit I-5 headed South.

Hopefully, I get to see my brother again on Thanksgiving… he’s planning on being in Arizona, as do we.

The roads between the many orchards in the area were muddy from the rain. Lots of vehicles coming onto the roadway from the orchards had made a mess of the pavement. Looks like I get to give the Urban Escape Vehicle and pickup a serious washing now.

The sun came out and it dried up quickly. It wasn’t long before we had to turn on the dash AC again.

We started going through our routine of finding a campground or RV park while traveling down the road since we had good cell signal on I-5. It looked like the Elks Lodge in Barstow would be a good destination for the day. The website said it had 77 RV spots in the Lodge parking lot. So I plugged it into the GPS and we decided to make it a long travel day. Also, we still needed to decide what route to take back to Colorado, and Barstow happens to be located at the point where we can either choose to go North on I-15 through Las Vegas and then on to I-70, then I-25 at Denver to get to COS; or – we can catch I-40 East at Barstow which will take us through Flagstaff and Albuquerque to get on I-25 to COS.

It so happens that my Mom, Stepdad, and other brother Steven along with his better-half Cheryl, are currently in Las Vegas on vacation. So I contacted them to be sure they are still there (they will be until Saturday) so that cinches it – we now have our next destination… Las Vegas, here we come!

Typical highway scenery after we got close to Bakersfield.

It was 7 PM when we finally rolled into Barstow looking for the Elks Lodge. We found it, but it was closed! We wondered why the Elks.org website didn’t show info on the Lodge but we did find all kinds of info and reviews on google. The place looked like it was being sold. Anyway, we chalked that up to another lesson learned… don’t trust google without verifying!

So we did a quick search for other overnight options and found a Flying J truck stop 4 miles further down on I-15. Good enough for the night since it’s late anyway. And besides, we now want to hurry up and get to Las Vegas tomorrow so we can get as much time as possible in with my Mom/Stepdad & other brother Steven and his better-half Cheryl before they go back to Phoenix and/or Las Cruces on Saturday!

We did 335 miles today… whew! I don’t want to do that too often.

Signing out from the truck stop… C U tomorrow!

California, Oregon

Lighthouse Celebrities & Sunsets (Brookings, OR)

2014/09/21 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

We started our Friday beach tour before 10 AM. We weren’t sure where we would end up at the end of the day, but we had another Elks Lodge in mind. We continued our route down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) through the picturesque town of Bandon.

We of course stopped at most of the pull-offs to enjoy the views. The weather was nice again, but a little windy.

We wanted to stop at Oregon’s westernmost lighthouse, so just South of the small town of Sixes, we turned West.

This is the road to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a 5 mile side trip off the PCH.

Notice below how I utilized my keen photographic skills and managed to capture the lighthouse inside the hole at the top of this sign 🙂

We were able to park the Urban Escape Vehicle in the large turn-around parking area located a little ways from the lighthouse.

It was a decent hike from the parking area to the lighthouse as you can see from this photo with Stilla in the foreground.

When we arrived at the gift shop/greeting area that is separate from the lighthouse, I immediately recognized Chris & Cherie from their full-timing RV blog, “Technomadia”. I have followed their blog for quite a while and especially enjoy their tips for staying connected on the road. They are volunteer hosts here at the lighthouse. And guess what – I found out that another couple is also volunteer hosting here at the same time – Paul & Nina from “Wheelingit”. I also follow their blog, they were up at the lighthouse whereas Chris & Cherie were down at the gift shop doing the meeting & greeting. Here I posed with Chris & Cherie in front of the lighthouse. It was neat to finally meet them in person after reading their blog all this time.. it’s like meeting celebrities!

Here is Chris & Cherie (above). Their website is: http://www.technomadia.com/2014/09/new-views-on-cape-blanco/Windy…. Check it out!

Dogs aren’t allowed in the lighthouse, so Stilla walked Coach around the grounds while I went up for the lighthouse tour.

This is the light at the top of the lighthouse. Cool pic eh?

I zoomed in on the Urban Escape Vehicle back at the parking area. Good to see it was still there.

Here’s Paul from “Wheelingit” explaining the inner workings of the lighthouse at the top.

And this is Nina from “Wheelingit” giving the tour in the downstairs area of the lighthouse.

Nina graciously posed with me for a pic. Must be nice to be a celebrity 🙂

Paul & Nina’s website is: http://www.wheelingit.us

Another view of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse which was built in 1870.

Here’s a view of where we are on the Rand-McNally.

We snacked in the Coach before we continued on down Hwy 101. It was nice to get out of the wind here. Then we motored on.

Here are some views down around the town of Port Orford.

Sometimes little Coach doesn’t want to get out of the Coach, he’d rather just watch us silly humans take pictures.

Sometimes there weren’t any pull-offs for pictures, so I just took pics from the cockpit.

Near the town of Gold Beach we pulled into the parking area for the Prehistoric Gardens.

Have you ever had this view outside your window?

They wanted too much for admission. $12 per person just didn’t register on my value-meter, so we passed. Coach was more interested in the chipmunks and bluejays anyway..

I took advantage of a photo-op along a wide pull-off just North of Gold Beach to get a possible new Cover Photo for the blog or maybe Facebook.

Another historical bridge leading into Gold Beach.

More over-the-road pics:

This was a nice rest area with a hiking trail – Arch Rock.

Located here:

A couple artists were using watercolors to capture the view.

Then, we drove over the highest bridge in Oregon – at least, that’s what the sign says.

We ended up at the Elks Lodge in Brookings, OR. Total distance traveled for the day was a little less that 90 miles. The Lodge RV Park, located in their parking lot, had full hook-ups with the exception of sewer. A dump station is on site. They had a suggested donation of $18 per night, and it was Friday which at most Lodges we’ve visited, means they serve dinner. Tonights menu included Fish & Chips or Hamburgers. Stilla had the fish and I had a cheeseburger that was undercooked. It must have been a bad day for the waitress, I think she quit while we were there. (Hopefully not because of my undercooked burger). Stilla played a little on the slots. I forgot to take pictures of our RV site and the lodge.

After our dinner, we drove around town and checked out the harbor and then decided to drive a couple miles South of town to a nice beach where we could enjoy the sunset. The beach happened to be just across the California border. So here’s the sunset from sunny California… it looked the same to me as the one in Oregon. What do you think?

Tune in tomorrow to see where we are…

Oregon

Sea Lions & Lighthouses (Florence, OR)

2014/09/17 davidhobden@mac.com

Tuesday was very nice weather-wise. We left the AC(s) on in the Coach for the dog and headed back North on 101 a few miles to the Sea Lion Cave.

Here’s a picture of the building which doubles as the entrance point and gift shop. We took this pic yesterday at a pull-off on the way down to the RV Park.

This is as close as we got to Sea Lions for the day (pic below). We were told that at this time of year, they are all out in the ocean “fattening” themselves up for winter. They offered a discounted price and a “rain-check” if you come back within a year. And oh yeah, they gave me a free popcorn for being a veteran. Their discounted price was still rather high at $24 for the two of us. Since we’re only here once, and here now… we paid and walked down to the pathways behind the building. One of the two paths goes North down to a viewpoint and the other goes South to the elevator that takes you to the cave.

Lookout point along the pathway to the Sea Lion Cave elevator. No whales here today 🙁

One of the pathways and a lookout point behind the entrance of the Sea Lion Cave.

Looking back up at the Sea Lion Cave entrance building and gift shop from the North pathway.

Pathway to the Sea Lion Cave elevator with Lighthouse in the background.

Looking back up at the Sea Lion Cave entrance building and gift shop from the South pathway.

Here’s the elevator that takes you down to the cave.

Here’s the empty cave. Still impressive even without sea lions.

This answers one of the questions you always wondered about but were afraid to ask:

The Sea Lion Cave has a secondary lookout point with a view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

These next three pictures were taken with my camera instead of the iPhone. I was able to zoom in on the only “real” sea lions that we would see today.

Nice view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse as seen from the Sea Lion Cave that would be our next destination.

We toured through the gift shop at the entrance after going back up the elevator and long pathway.

I spotted these Cool refrigerator magnets in the gift shop that I probably would have purchased before we went full-timing in the RV. RV style refrigerators are generally not conducive to magnets. Although our refrigerator is a residential style Amana stainless model it still won’t hold magnets – besides, who would want to keep picking magnets up off the floor all the time after a road trip?

We were a little disappointed with not seeing sea lions, except for the couple we were able to see from a distance out at sea. But, the cave was definitely worth seeing.

We left the Sea Lion Cave and went up the road to the Heceta Head Lighthouse which was our next intended destination for the day. We drove through a tunnel and across a bridge and then looped back under the bridge to the parking lot.

And of course, we get to pay for this pleasure.

Here’s the tunnel and bridge we went through and crossed over then under to get to the parking lot.

A little interesting trivia on the bridge.

We pulled the folding chairs out of the back of the Silverado and sat on the beach awhile. We enjoyed the sandwiches we had made to take along with us today. Mine was peanut butter and jelly, made with the cranberry jam we bought while on Long Beach.

When we returned to our chairs after walking around on the beach, we found that this bird had pecked away at our plastic trash bag we left hanging on one of the chairs. He must like cranberry jam.

How about some more pics on the beach:

After our lunch on the beach, we hiked up the pathway to tour the lighthouse.

Informational placard on the pathway to the lighthouse.

And here it is! Another lighthouse… you haven’t seen enough of these in this blog yet, right?

The tour was free. They only take groups of 4-5 people at a time to limit the weight and vibration on the spiral staircase.

Picture of a picture – Lighthouse keepers and their families taken in 1904.

Out volunteer tour guide leading us up the spiral staircase.

Glass inserts in the floor, as seen from underneath, around the rotating light.

And of course, we had to do the selfie while we were at the lighthouse.

After our two tours for the day, we headed back to the Coach to get little Coach (our dog). Once again, he was just just fine.

We did some exploratory driving around the town of Florence. It turns out that it is only 1 about 1.5 miles South of the Elks RV Park where we are at.

There seem to be a lot of sand dunes around this area. Here’s a view across the channel below.

We walked around the “Old Town Florence” and stopped here for some calamari and liquid refreshments.

We toured through the little shops in the area and found a doggie carry bag. It’s like a backpack but for front use. I guess you could call it a frontpack, right? It should come in handy on the rare times we are allowed to take dogs on hikes in the future. So we bought it and put it to use right away.

We then drove over to the Elks Lodge in town to check it out. As I mentioned in a previous post, they also have RV parking with hook-ups – cost is $15. Here’s a pic.

View of the Lodge parking lot.

We went inside and ended up staying for Bingo. Yes, I said Bingo. It’s was kind of fun, although we didn’t win anything. We stayed until 9 PM. We were able to bring little Coach inside with us. He stayed in his new frontpack on my lap while we marked bingo cards.

The lodge also had burgers, dogs, and fries to order courtesy of the vets group. We shared some fries and Stilla had a kosher dog. After bingo, we left about $10 in the slots and then headed home.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we plan on packing up and driving over to a local casino parking lot that we scoped out while driving around town earlier. There were lots of motorhomes and RVs in the free parking area. Free sounds good for a day… so I’ll post from there tomorrow.

Oregon

Moving Day (Florence, OR)

2014/09/16 davidhobden@mac.com

We said goodbye to our neighbors, Orman & Susie Claxton on Monday morning and were on the road by noon. Our destination for the day was the Elks RV Park near Florence, Oregon. We got the tip for this park from Orman & Susie and it was also mentioned by Mary Langord (Alpine Coach Association) on Facebook. Thanks guys… and it was great seeing you again O&S!

The sky was overcast when we left Tillamook and after a few miles it got worse. It seemed like we drove straight into a fog bank that stayed with us for most of the drive.

We pulled into a rest area with a view of the ocean (picture above) but it was too foggy to see very much. I noticed a couple that had stopped in the rest area in their car and they were taking pictures of our rig. The guy walked over to ask about how we towed the truck. It turns out the couple was from Switzerland and the guy was fascinated by the set up. I answered his questions, he spoke pretty good English. Then Stilla jumped in and we were all talking German. The Swiss couple was doing a 3 week whirlwind tour, trying to see as much as possible of the West coast in the short time they had. We parted ways after exchanging pleasantries.

Here are some pictures we snapped while heading down the Pacific Coast Byway:

I caught a picture of the billboard for the Sea Lion Caves that we heard about. We intend to visit there on Tuesday.

The sun actually peeked out once or twice during the trip. I couldn’t help but notice that lots of the trees on the beach-side of the road were all permanently deformed from the constant wind from the ocean.

The shocks on the Coach sure got a good workout today! Many stretches of Hwy 101 were full of bumps and dips.

At one point – after missing a nice looking pull-off with a view because we were traveling too fast to get slowed down – a second pull-off came into view around a corner… I made a split-second decision to turn in. After I was already committed to the entrance, I saw the sign “Not Recommended for RVs or Trailers”. Now, I ask you, Why can’t they put those signs before the entrance? Anyway, we had to disconnect and jockey around to get back out of there, and darn it – the view wasn’t even worth it. This makes the second time in our travels over the last 4 months that we had to unhook the truck to get turned around somewhere. Oh well, Life is still Good 🙂

We did another stop later at this pull-off where we could look down the cliffs at the ocean. It remained foggy, cold, and sometimes drizzly all day.

We got to the park shortly before 4 PM. Travel distance for the day was about 110 miles.

It’s $20 per night for full hook-ups but no sewer. We can dump on the way out. We paid for two nights and made sure we had the option to extend if we wanted without having to move sites.

Our site at the Elks Lodge RV Park near Florence, OR

I’m starting to see a theme here on the West coast with these Elks Lodges and their RV Parks… this will be the second RV Park we’ve visited that is not physically located at the Elks Lodge itself. However, I understand that the Florence Elks Lodge that owns this park does in fact have more RV parking at their lodge in town. This park is really nice! Maybe even nicer than the one we just left in Tillamook.

For the rest of the day, we just chilled out and mostly stayed inside. I heated up some of those pre-cooked pork ribs for dinner by putting them in a pan on the stove… it worked out pretty well. It was just too chilly outside to break out the grill. Plus, who really likes to clean the grill up after all that BBQ sauce gets everywhere?

Well, that’s all for now folks… check back in to hear how our Tuesday sight-seeing goes… Stilla is still on the look out for whales, and we hope to check sea lions off our list if we visit the caves as planned.

Oregon

Day 2, Tillamook, OR

2014/09/14 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

Welcome to another hot and sunny day (Sunday, 14 Sept) in Tillamook, Oregon. Today we wanted to get out and see the Air Museum and the local cheese factory… and we did! Follow along on our fun-filled day with lots of pictures 🙂

Stilla did the Skype thing to Germany with her brother and sister-in-law, Stefan & Annerose while I finished up the previous days blog post and had breakfast. We got a late start, but finally got on the road around 11 AM. We set the thermostat for 72 degrees and left the air conditioners on for little Coach since we knew he wouldn’t be allowed into any of our proposed destinations for the day.

Our site on Sunday morning at the Tillamook RV Park

Our first stop was the Tillamook Air Museum. We had stopped by there yesterday to check on rates, hours, and dog-friendliness so you may remember these next two pictures I posted already.

Signage for the Air Museum at the corner of Hwy 101 and Long Prairie Rd.

Here’s the giant hangar as viewed from Hwy 101 aka The Pacific Coast Highway.

My friend Wikipedia provides more information on the museum. If you are as interested as I am about this stuff, go to this Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillamook_Air_Museum

The Air Museum also has it’s own website which is a great source for specific aircraft information: http://www.tillamookair.com/aircraft/ Go ahead, click on the link… don’t be afraid.

Here is the hangar door as viewed from the inside.

I noticed this basketball hoop mounted above the hangar door. Someone had a good sense of humor, it’s probably 200 feet from the ground. I’d like to see the person that could make that jump shot.

Interior view of the massive hangar.

The museum offered a discount for military and veterans, so we got in for $7 each. We went into their theater and viewed the 16 minute video on the history of this unique structure. After watching the film, we spent a long time in the adjoining room that was loaded with dioramas, models, picture boards, and display cases of historical stuff that was related to the hangar and/or WWII. Sorry, no pictures here… I had to limit the size of today’s post somehow, right?

Here is a picture of a picture depicting what it looked like back in the day when the blimps were inside.

Although you can’t tell from this picture… This was a HUGE billboard mounted on an inside wall of the hangar depicting the varied sizes of blimps. This hangar was originally built for the K-Class.

There were originally two of these hangars here. We learned that the other hangar was destroyed in a spectacular fire. It was being used to store hay from the adjacent farms at the time.

The following pictures are of some of the aircraft we viewed:

We met up again with our neighbor’s from the RV Park… Orman and Susie Claxton! I mentioned in an earlier post, that we know them from the Alpine Coach Association Group and recent Redmond FMCA Rally that we attended together. We noticed their coach, a Beaver, when we first pulled into the park so we made sure to park next to them. We kept bumping into them throughout the day… not a bad thing.

One interesting tidbit we discovered while walking through the museum hangar, is that they have RV’s stored here in the back half. I figured it must be a way to increase their income. Wouldn’t it be cool if they let you camp there with hook-ups?

We then walked outside to view the funny looking plane… it was like the proverbial elephant in the room. Behold a Mini-Guppy.

For you mechanical techno-geeks out there, they had some cool engine displays… some of them cut-outs. These were really cool.

How about an old V8? Neat, huh?

Here’s proof that you can put anything on a trailer these days.

We visited the snack bar for an espresso.

And then wandered through the gift shop. Didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without.

Neat picture of a picture again… this guy flew through the hangar back in 1950 as part of an air show stunt.

After we got our fill of all things aviation related – we headed over to the Tillamook Cheese Factory on the other side of town. It was certainly a popular place as evidenced by the overflowing parking lot. There were even a few rows of Motorhomes parked on the outside edges.

I just had to join others in getting my picture taken in the VW bus that was part of the lobby display.

View of the inner workings at the cheese factory… pics didn’t take so well through the glass panes. I remember thinking it’s a good thing we weren’t looking at a sausage factory 🙂

The upstairs hallway with the factory viewing windows on both sides.

There was a long line at the cheese sampling stations.

As a matter of fact, there were long lines everywhere here, in the lobby store, the cafe, the snack bar, the ice cream counter, etc., What a popular tourist trap, er, I mean, attraction.

I bought one of these Oregon Coast 101 stickers to add to my collection on the inside of the basement doors of the Urban Escape Vehicle.

We saw Orman & Susie Claxton again with ice-cream in hand while we were here, but no picture this time.

And I almost bought this T-shirt, but decided it wasn’t in the budget.

Next, we drove back into town to check out the Blue Heron Cheese Company. We had seen an advertisement for free wine and cheese tasting.

There were a couple of cool vehicles on display outside the building.

We met up with Orman & Susie again! We sampled some wines together and ended up buying a bottle called “Blue Heron Riesling”.

We got back to the RV Park with plenty of time left to enjoy the sunshine and walk Coach through the campground. He was VERY happy to see us again after being cooped up all alone for the day 🙁 Everything was fine with him and there were no “surprises” in the Motorhome. Good dog.

View of the lower picnic grounds area at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

View of the BBQ grill shelter in the lower picnic area at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

View of the lower picnic grounds at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

This park has the biggest set of horseshoe pits I’ve ever seen. Or are these possibly grave sites? HMMM.

View of the horseshoe pits on the lower picnic grounds at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

View between the two rows of RVs at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

View of the community multi-use house at the Tillamook Elks RV Park.

We spent a little time talking to Orman & Susie as the sun went down. We got a few tips from them on future places to visit and recommendations on RV Parks. Thanks Orman & Susie! Hope to see you down the road again soon. It got cold pretty quick after the sun went down, so we retired to our respective Coaches to call it a night.

I did some research, and called ahead to the Elks Lodge in Florence, OR to reserve a spot for tomorrow. So another moving day is on tap for Monday. See you tomorrow.

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Elks Lodge

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Day 2, Tillamook, OR

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