OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER TRAVELS in OREGON and CALIFORNIA

While Audrey is in Fl. with her brother (who is in the hospital), I have decided to attempt to do a BLOG. I hope this will be as good as she does. Well here we go from Ohio and really it is COLD here! The BLOG covers some of October and November. The Crazy Norwegians is a sea food restaurant in Port Orford, OR. Reasonable and Good. We only ate there one time but highly recommended. This is a foggy day when we were on duty at Cape Blanco Lighthouse, and look at the deer that are around the lighthouse. We were on the visitor center that morning and saw them feeding around the grounds. These deer are small. We also had a chance to catch a shot during a clear day.

We went up around 8:00 P.M. one evening and viewed the light from just under the lighthouse

and it looks just like a Christmas Ornament, pictures don't do it justice.

I took a close up of the light that is in the lighthouse, a 1000 watt halogen bulb with as you can see a backup bulb in the event that the one goes out.

Even at the lighthouse duties there is still work to be done and here I am cleaning windows and the outside of the motorhome.

This is our Monday morning breakfast at the Paradise in Port Orford, OR. Good food and a great place to meet with the other volunteer workers in the park and lighthouse. We usually had five or six couples on Monday.

This is a typical look at the lighthouse from the beach at the base of the campground.

There is usually 4 wheel drive vehicles down on the sand, but none today.

A look at the Hues House that was settled at the end of the 1800's on a 2000 acre ranch, and was turned over to the Oregon Parks System to form the Cape Blanco Park.

Audrey and her Uncle in CA., he is 88 years young and lives with a very nice family there.

We parked in the Elk's lodge in San Bernardino, Ca. while visiting Audrey's Uncle.

From that lot this it the view over the valley both North and South from the lot.

If I didn't do a good as Audrey, well she does a better job at BLOGing.

God Bless and join us in our travels in the next year, we should head for AZ. shortly.

HELLO from Ohio and Pensacola Florida

No, we've not dropped off the face of the earth!! We have been visiting family and friends in Ohio. So no sightseeing on the horizon. In the mean time Audrey has flown to Pensacola to spend some time near her brothers. Our plan is to be back on the road the day after Christmas, God willing. Our motor home is in Mesa Arizona near friends of ours, so the plan is to winter there January through March. Check back with us after the holidays!! Have a wonderful Christmas and many blessings for the New Year!! God be with you all.

BANDON OREGON AND HIGHWAY 101

Bandon, Oregon is a quaint little oceanside town. It has a very nice beach along the southwest side of it, with a marina. We got there about lunch time so asked at the library for a recommended place to eat. At their suggestion we stopped at Bennett's Lounge at a motel along the ocean. It was a nice enjoyable location and with a good window seat, we ate lunch, took pictures of the view and made some phone calls. Cell reception has been so sporadic for us that we have to take advantage of it when we can. These were pictures taken through the window at our table. Upon finishing our lunch and phone calls, we began walking along the ridge above the beach. It was quite windy, but we enjoyed it anyway.

Leavimg the beach area, we promised ourselves to return on a sunny day to actually walk on the beach. It would be interesting to take pictures from the beach, looking inland.

We went on to drive about town and along the marina on the Coquille River. We will show you some of our sights there.

An Austrailian camper, but we did not see the owners.

Coquille River Lighthouse on the jetty.

Time to leave Bandon and journey back down Highway 101 toward home and our lighthouse. On the way we stopped in at Art 101 and visited with the artist who started this business of turning the refuse from the ocean, as found on the beach, into sculptures. She has a real passion for the sea animals who suffer from human ignorance when discarding trash into the water. We really got an education, but failed to take her picture along with her displays. How stupid of us, as we were the only visitors in her store at the time. She has only been in business for a year and already has requests to ship her sculptures around the world for display. She is in awe as to how this has taken off, beyond her wildest dreams!!

What caught our eye when first driving past in the motorhome,even more than the sign, was the jellyfish in the yard. It is made of hundreds of plastic bottles recovered from the sea.

The bird on display is made of many, many different items. It is hard to believe that these end up in the ocean. Take a close look!!

The bird's beak is made up from shoe soles!!

I haven't decided what this is supposed to be. I will let you make your own guess.

And then inside there is a small consignment shop in half of the building and then more displays of art of hers as well as other artists. There is a fish tank as well as a table of sand with items partially eaten by sea creatures that she uses to educate people as they come through.

What started out to be a little outing turned out to be quite interesting!!

Check back with us to see what else we find.

JEDEDIAH SMITH REDWOOD STATE PARK IN CALIFOFORNIA

HELLO AGAIN !! With a day off, it is time to do some sight seeing again. We decided to drive south on Highway 101 from Cape Blanco, Oregon. The highway runs along the coast line, quite close at times. So we had to stop and take pictures of the waves. The ocean is so magnificent!! We could watch it days at a time!! Notice how much difference in the color from one camera to another. We are thinking that we need to get a new one, but we are not running to the store yet. When we drove into Gold Beach we saw this ship wreck near a restaurant parking lot. Gary had to stop to take pictures, hoping that it would make good drawing material. We'll see if he does something with it!! Then after crossing the state line into California, we stopped at a visitor's center to get information on the redwood forests in the area. The guide there steered us to the Jedediah Smith State Park. He said that the blacktop road would turn into gravel and was hilly and curvy, but that it was still an awesome park. So we took his word for it and were not disappointed!! There were times that we wondered if the road was really wide enough for traffic. But looks are deceiving!! There were even pull off spaces to pass oncoming traffic. So we pulled off and started out on foot to take some pictures and enjoy!! Enjoy the pictures!!

Gary even moved the car on down the road so that we would keep on walking. We began to see more daylight. I think that it was as we were nearing another highway on the backside of the park. We were beginning to see more traffic and the way that they were driving, we decided that they were local and using the road through the park as a shortcut to Hwy 101??? But it did not disturb our drive,

Nor our stops!!

The road crossed over Pistol River before we left the park and we wondered about the narrowing of the bridge as we entered it. We wondered if there is a weakness in a pylon under it. Since it was not closed, we braved it!!

This is a view of Pistol River after leaving the park, from Hwy 199 going back to Crescent City,CA

We had a very pleasant day and were blessed with sunshine and no rain!! Check in again soon. Take care.