RED MINK ALONG THE COQULLE RIVER

February 27, 2008

Since we went crabbing yesterday and did not have any luck we figure on staying around the park and just relaxing a little. I did have the opportunity to do a little fishing off the dock at the RV Park in the afternoon but did lousy. No-hit no strikes no errors. Boy I am batting O for O now. I think it has something to do with the high water in the river and it’s still pretty muddy. Did see one fish jump but naturlly not where I was.

Tried Sand Shrimp, Salmon eggs and then went to cast master lure. Tried the lure out for about two hours no hits. I was impressed on the performance of the new reel was able to cast allmost across the river with no effort.
One thing that made my day was to see a reddish brown mink come swimming up the river and the dummy did not even pay any attention that I was on the dock. He got about 6 feet from me before he realized I was a human. Even then he did not go too far. He still stayed on the dock but kept his distance about 25 feet or so. I wish I would have had my camera would have been a great picture. But you know how that goes if you have the camera with you nothing like this happens. Quit fishing and went up to the motor home too to start cooking and told Helen about the Mink. I told her if she went down to the dock she would probably see him, she did and low and behold she even got a couple of pictures of the little rascal. Not as close as we would like to have but it does show the mink along the bank. Real red in color like I said was real friendly, of course I would never want to try to catch one of them they say the can takeoff a finger real quick if you get them mad.

We went over to Fat Tuesdays, Weird name for a coffee restaurant; we ordered some Barbeque ribs for super tomorrow. Pretty pricy I would say ran us $5.50 per lb. Better be good that’s all I have to say.

Had a great super fried chicken, spinach, and gravy? I know where is the potato. No we did not put the gravy on the spinch we put it on sliced bread.

TESTING OUR CRAB TRAPS

February 26, 2008


Good day to try out our new Crab traps in Charleston, pretty nice some thin clouds but fairly warm. Still jacket weather for this old coot It got down to 40s last night.
We took the short cut that Ed told us about, Shingle house road. It appears to save a of mileage and some time, only 8 miles to Charleston from Hwy 1. We arrived at the Marina a little latter then I wanted but this is just a test run anyway to see how our rigging works with our new traps.

We purchased some bait fish which was the carcasses of some type of Black cod. It was frozen and they cost 50 each. Generally I use to the chicken to help discourage the seals from trying to steal you bait bit I figure I would try the fish this time. Each fish I used was enough to fill the bait holder up in the traps so it worked out pretty good.

I was surprised to find out with the cart I have I could haul all of my traps, bait bucket, buoys, rope and of course a chair to sit on. Due to my COPD I have to take it slow but I can do it. Going down the dock ramp to the floating dock was the hardest. I need to get another cart with some bigger wheels which would make it easier.



















SHOPPING CART I USE & THE UTILITY CART

I noticed a lot of people use the Utility cart which work pretty good but I think it would be a little cumbersome hauling all your gear outside they don’t really have a basket to carry your small stuff, and by using the Grocery carts you able to fold up the cart which makes it nice for hauling in your vehicle.
There was nobody else on the dock which should have told me there not getting many crabs at this time.
We did catch a few crabs but most of them were Rock crabs. The few Dungeness crabs we caught were either two small or they were females.

Now this is the time I thought too myself why didn't we go clamming? You know how that goes if you don’t do too good you wished that you should have done something else. Oh well there is more fishing days to come.

A couple of things we found out about the Danielson crab traps, there not the best to use on a dock, it works but a little harder to throw out and retrieve being square tap it seem to hank up on the dock when your pulling it out of the water. The other thing I found is the square traps has a four strand rope hook up which is a pain since it wants to drag the traps up in the square position. Not good for pier crabbing.

The other trap I hooked up with a two rope hookup. I got this off the Internet and I think it works better.
















FOUR ROPE METHOD & TWO ROPE METHOD

So for fishing with square traps I mainly on the docks I would highly recommend using the two rope method. The other thing a person should remember is to make sure your pull rope has a big enough loop in it so you can add more line if need be. (This would generally apply if you out in the bay in deeper water) Here is a link to the site which has some real good information. The only thing about it he relates to fishing for crabs in 200 feet water or more but the general principal is the same for docks. Don’t use the weight suggestions for your traps again this is for deep water and strong tides
Check out this site for the information on crab traps.

http://www.coastsidefishingclub.com/?q=node/48

I think a person should have a couple of the collapsible round crab traps with the Danielson just for fishing the docks and when you fish out of a boat it would help pass the time away while you waiting hopefully to fill your square traps that are enclosed . If you leave the collapsible Round traps in the water too long without checking them the crabs will eat all your bait and than leave the traps.

Talking to a local yesterday about fishing and he was telling me of a couple of good spots I should try for Ocean fish. They catch quit a few Ocean Perch if your in the right area. One other thing he told me is to fish for some Stripers off of Bastendorf Beach. They have caught quite a few of them when there running using sand shrimp.















BASTENDORF BEACH

TRIP TO CHARLESTON MARINA AND COOS BAY

February 25, 2008

Ah it appears it is going to be a nice day today. Where going into Coos Bay this morning to get another larger propane tank. There on sale at Bi-Mart for $39.90. I priced them in other places and they were selling for way over $60.00 for the same size tank.

The trouble with an RV park that you stay in for long periods of time you will eventually use up all your propane in your main RV Than come the chore of to repacking everything up and move the RV to a place fill up the propane. The way we have it set up is you have your main tank on the RV and we have a small 5 gallon tank we use for our Barbecue which in turn if your running short of propane on the RV you can hook up the 5 gallon tank up to the system and get you by until you can get into a station to fill up your main RV tank.
With the additional 7 gallon tank I purchased it gives me more time between fill ups. This way you can leave your RV parked for the duration and just use the spare tanks. I originally thought since I was going to stay up her for two months was to get a propane outfit to install a small say 50 gallon tank for the period of time we are going to be here but they wanted $200.00 not including the propane which is way too much money. If I was staying for a long period of time I might consider it but since were talking only two months this would be a waist of money.

This picture of how we have the smaller tanks hooked to our main tank just in case there is some one out there that wants to do this he or she can.

We also wanted to get another cell phone which we found through Edge Wireless. Pretty reasonable you get over 600 minutes per month and carry over on the remaining minutes. Great calling in from here to Susanville it’s considered a local call. Our other cell phone cost us double the minutes ever time we called out of the area which was the Susanville area... The other thing that is nice about it, is free calling time in the evenings after 7 pm and free minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. It runs us $44.95 per month which is not bad. Right now I am trying to get rid on my local wired phone and just keep the DSL service. If I can do that it would be cheaper in the long run. However knowing the way our local phone company does things (Frontier) the will not let me have the DSL alone.

We went out for a little lunch at the Fisherman’s Grotto in Charleston which was a great meal. I had the Skipper dinner which is 3 pieces of cod and Helen Had the Mate dinner which was 2 pieces of cod. The whole dinner or lunch however you want to figure it cost us $20.00 which include two bottles of ice cold beer. Both lunches came with French Fries and a small dish of Cole slaw. Loved there French fries there really somewhat like McDonald's only with the peeling left on.

I decided since we were in Charleston Marina area that we should check out the crabbing on the dock. There is a real nice bait shop on the marina which is pretty expensive but what bait store is ever cheap. It is just across the bay from the restaurant. The lady at the tackle & bait shop said she is getting some good reports on the catching some pretty good size crabs off of the docks. I also check on a 1 gallon bucket that you need to carry your crabs in if and when you catch them. Well check this out I was assuming the 5 gallon plastic pail at the bait store was gong to run us more then the price figure I got from Bi-Mart not so. The one at the bait store cost me a whopping $2.00 and the one there selling which is almost the same thing is selling for $5.95 each.
Here again it pays sometime to shop around.

Oh for those who want to know the going price for regular gas now on in Coos bay it’s $3.25 per gallon and with my Safeway card it cost us $3.22 per gallon. God at these rates I may never be able to drive my motor home back to California.

We also traveled out on Arago to see if we could find the area that the guy that fixed our furnace told us about where we could get some nice Ocean Perch and it was a short easy walk into. We never did find the area he was talking about I do know it around Sunset Bay. Will try to talk to him again and get better directions to the area.

Got home around 3 or so just in time to put everything away and get down to the river to try out some of the Lunker lotion and fish for some Salon. Fished or about an hour no luck not even a bite Well going to call it off for tonight getting late for me around 10:30. Outside temperatures a cool 37 °

Weather permitting tomorrow where going back to Charleston to do some crabbing. Will let everyone know how we did.

UNEVENTFULL DAY

February 24, 2008

Not much Happened today again. It really rained most of the day, and finally let up around 4 pm or so. It did give me a chance to go out and fish the Coquille River with the Lunker lotion and yarn, well it did not work. I think it would if the Salmon or Steelhead were running hot and heavy in the river. The problem I see with the river at this time is its running pretty high and some what muddy with a lot of wood and debris coming down the river. I did see one fish jump on the west side of the river which I think may have been salmon it was real dark in color. It looked like it may have been in the 5 to 8 lb range. Not a bad looking fish but naturally I was on the other side of the river from where the fish jumped.

The Mikes Lunker lotion that the gentleman if Bi-Mart recommended I tried was real strong with the smell of anise and real bright fluorescent orange. It has liked a sticky like liquid that really hangs on to the bait. It probably would work if the fish were there. I think I may even try the lotion out in the ocean when I get the chance on some sand shrimps that I use for bait.

Only fished for about 40 minutes before the sun was setting and the weather was getting cooler. Will try some other day maybe a little tomorrow. I think I should head over to the public boat ramp on the river and check with some of the people I see fishing there. They cast the lines in around the boat ramp and fish off the bank. Kind of like you would fish on a cold day on Eagle Lake cast out and go back and sit in your car and stay warm. I really don’t even know what there fishing for.

NOW THATS ITALIAN

February 23, 2008

Not to eventful day. We did go up to Helen's cousin house for a pizza dinner which Alma made from scratch really good. Not much for Pizza fan but this was exceptionally good. Ed showed me some other roads that we could take to check out the country to see if there are any homes in the area we would like. He gave us a short cut road we could take from here when we go to Charleston to do some clamming and crabbing. Cuts off about 3 miles or so and avoids all eh stop lights in town... Pretty much sat around the house and shot the breeze about a lot of interesting things like property taxes you know the same ole thing we all talk about However we did stay away from Politics. That is a real can of worms now with the candidates running in different ways. I would express my views on this however I am sue I would make a lot of people mad over my views on some of he candidate's.
This is going to be an interesting election I can see that. It rained a little bit before we left other wise it was cloudy and cool.
Got a phone call from my daughter Cheryl who lives in Sumter South Carolina to see how doing were. She is always calling as well as my other daughter Sabrina on how were doing. I have 7 children of which two are girls. I really think the girls are far more loving then the boys and are more dedicated too the fathers. Now this is my opinion.

TIPS ON SALMON & STEELHEAD FISHING.

February 22, 2008
(Cheryle alas Sherry)

Rained pretty much most of last night, as of 11:30 this am there appeared to be a brake in the weather as I could see some blue sky. The temperature around noon was a mild 50°. Not real hot but it’s bearable with a light weight coat. We headed to Coos Bay again to get some much needed supplies like a new fishing pole and reel. Well I guess it’s not that much to mention needed but it would boring if I said we needed to get more food. We will be looking for a printer scanner if we can find one cheap enough for the motor home. Sure miss printing things.

Getting a doctor in this area is real a pain. I tried to get a doctor for my cancer check ups and where talking about 3 months out.

If the we get home and we get home early enough I think I will try some more fishing from the dock next too our camp. Surely would love to hook up to one of those Sturgeons. Found out another thing about the river here and it has Stripped bass also. Not sure how big they are but would be happy with one of them also. If the weather holds I think we will plan on going down to Point Argo and do some surf fishing where there picking up some Ocean perch. I think I will wait on the crabbing for a little while longer since most of the commercial fishing fleets are still docked in the bay.

Made our trip to Coos Bay for my goodies such as additional fishing gear, was fortunate to run into another fisherman that worked at Bi-Mart. Was real helpful on fishing the area for Salmon and Steelhead.
One of the things he and his son uses is a bright fluorescent yarn that is cut into about a 9 inches length and folded over and cut to create for pieces of yarn on the hook. They use a scent called Mikes lunker lotion the particular one they use is the Steelhead trout scent. You just squirt the scent on the yarn and cast in the river. You want the bait to bounce on the bottom not stay in one place.
Will let everyone k now how it works. Of course I was looking for another fishing reel. After looking at all of them I decided on the Gunnison 40 spinning reel made by Eagle Claw. Nice looking reel. Only has 8 bearings but really smooth action, will use it primarily on the salmon and Steelhead. This is a new reel that Eagle just came out with this year and looking at it I think it will be a good seller.

We did find a pretty nice printer scanner copier for $95.00 it’s a HP 4280 All in one. We got it at Bi-Mart. Needless to say if I would have waited until we went to Super Wal-Mart I could have got the same printer for $10.00 cheaper. Of course that’s my life story you know the old saying buy low sell high. Fore some reason I have it all backwards. The printer is a little bigger then we wanted for the motor home but it will work, since we don’t print a lot anyway just nice to have it when needed.

Was planning on trying out the fishing using the tips the gentleman gave us for fishing for Salmon & Steelhead out tomorrow but were going to Ed & Alma's for Pizza dinner. Always enjoy there company like I have mentioned in the past Ed is really a knowledgeable Peron and interesting to talk to.

BACKGROUND OF MYRTLE POINT & COQUILLE Oregon

February 21 2008

I hope they don’t think because were from California they have to raise gas prices.
Got some salsa at the vegetable stand and had to go back and buy another one since the one I brought was too hot.
On our way to Myrtly Point we stopped by the Art building to check out what price they charge for art lessons. They seem to be real reasonable at $6.00 per day. Helen would only be going there once or twice a week to improve her skills. Great idea will keep her busy and she can learn something in the process.
We went to Myrtle Point again this time too look for any potential homes in the town did not see too much most of the homes in that area look pretty old. There is some pretty nice property west of town but looking at it real close I think its in a flood plain. The population of Myrtle Point is only there is around 2,490 which is pretty small in size. They do however have two grocery stores MacKay’s & a small Safeway. It’s really an old town which is pretty much a ghost town now. Looking at it in its hay days it was pretty much a logging town and when that went somewhat belly up. Diary cattle seem to be one of the main resources in that community in fact I think the whole Coquille valley is pretty much live stock and lumber. It was probably great when they had the Cheese Factory in Bandon but since Tillamook Cheese brought them out and closed the factory I am sure that hurt the local community, The Main Street appears to roll up the sidewalks at 8 in the evenings.
Myrtle Point was incorporated in Coos County in 1893. Primarily a farming community, it was named for the abundant groves of Oregon myrtlewood trees and its prominent geographical location above the Coquille River.

MYRTLE WOOD TREES

Distance to:

Coquille is 9 miles
Bandon is 21 miles
Coos Bay is 26 miles
Roseburg is 57 miles
Eugene is 128 miles
California Border is 168 miles
Portland is 234 miles
Susanville Ca. is 362 miles, 6 hours & 56 Minutes

We also checked on some areas just North of Coquille. Did not cover much area but got somewhat an idea what there is in the area.
Listed below are some static’s about this town.
Coquille is an incorporated place) located in Coos County . The elevation is 52 feet.and is also located above the Coquille River
Coquille has a population of 4,184 with 1,850 housing units; a land area land area of 2.72 sq. miles.
Distance to:
Myrtle Point 9 miles
Bandon is 16 miles
Coos Bay is 16 miles
Roseburg is 67 miles
Eugene is 134 miles
California Border is 172 miles
Portland is 245 miles
Susanville Ca is 371 miles, 7 Hours & 3 Minutes

ANOTHER RELAXING DAY IN OREGON

February 17, 2008

Another beautiful day. Pretty cold last night I think it may have gotten down to the low 30° mark. It was a little foggy this morning, but the fog burned off around 10:00 or so. Ended up a short sleeve shirt day. Well not quite that warm, but comfortable. I think it got around 68°. We really did not have too much planned today, but just sit around and relax. I did get up on the roof of the motor home to see if I could find out where the water got in to the compartment this winter. No luck looks good to me. Probably going to have to wait until it rains again to see if I can figure out where it came in from. I have a sneaky hunch it came in from the slide out rubber gaskets. Looking at Eds 5th wheel on his slide out there is a metal flange that goes around the rubber gaskets along the top and sides. Really think I will have to fabricate something like this for our motor home. We will still need to contact our insurance company to see if they will cover any of the damage that the water did to the coach. The trouble with it I think there may be some damage to the inside walls that you can’t see.

One of Alma's Pets Outside Back Door


We had a fantastic dinner with Alma and Ed at there home. We really enjoy their company. Ed is retired from a large company back east called Norton’s. They made all sorts of specialized equipment for factory’s as well as many other types of materials such as specialized sand paper. Ed is real knowledgeable and has traveled all over the United States. Really love there home, which it located on 10 acres of land up on a hill above Coquille. Really have a nice view of the valley and the far western mountain range to the south.


Last year they had several large Myrtle trees on there property fall during a wind storm. Ed had the trees milled and had an outfit in Coquille make some of the prettiest wood flooring I have ever seen. Later on I will take some pictures of the flooring in their new addition and post them on our blog.

Did not go fishing and started working on getting our crab traps ready. I need to buy some rebar to add some weight to the crab traps to help keep them from drifting in the current. Since Coquille is a small town with a population of around 4185, there is not many stores open on a Sunday, so will have to wait until tomorrow and possibly go into Coos Bay.

Oregon, February 2008, Day Seven

February 16, 2008

Foggy and damp this morning, but fog lifted about 10:00am and we had nice sunshine the rest of the day. There was still a little breeze from the North, but still warmer than it is at home in February.

This morning we took a walk around the Rivers Edge RV Park. In front of the park there is a little expresso, sandwich cafe called Fat Tuesday's. I guess on Tuesday they barbaque ribs. Seems that they get a lot of business. The dinning portion of the cafe is located in a real caboose. The barbaque pit located under the red tin roof on the left of the picture even looks like an old train engine. I think we will probably go over in the morning as we got a "receive a free beverage of you choice" ticket when we rented the space here at the RV park.




This picture was taken down at the boat dock located right behind our motor home on the Coquille River. Notice the nice looking golden retriever in the center, and oh yeah, a pretty good looking man also made it down here with me.

Lacy has been having a pretty tough time getting in and out of the motorhome and the car, so we are making a drug addict out of her and have been giving her a third of a Darvocet twice dailey for a couple of days. Seems to be helping her get around a little better. She is now 12 going on 13 and actually doing pretty good for her age.

In the afternoon we drove over to Bandon via Highway 42S just to look over some new areas. Found a feed store in Bandon that carries the dog food we have been giving Lacy, so now she's all set with food for awhile. We found during the drive over there that the road follows the Coquille River, for the most part and you travel through lots of little valleys. It's only about 16 miles from here to Bandon. We met a nice young girl, who worked at the feed store. She informed us that if we were planning on moving here she highly recommended Coquille or Myrtle Point, as Bandon is much colder and has a lot more wind. We hadn't even mentioned thinking of moving here, or the fact that we were staying in Coquille. She also stated that the people working in resturants etc in Coquille seem to be much friendlier. She herself moved from Bandon to Coquille to live and works in Bandon.

February 15, 2008

Nice day once again, no fog, but pretty chilly this morning. I think it got down to 32°.
Not much planned for today except go up to Eds & Alma’s home to get some more of the stuff we left there on our last trip. I need the large deep fryer pot from the expected crabs I was going to catch and all the other stuff I left up there. Well low and behold I left more up there than I thought last fall. I’ll have to go back tomorrow and pick up the rest.

Real nice RV Park here. The Coquille River is only about 80 feet away from our site. There is a real nice dock here for the cliental and I think I will try my luck at fishing from it.

They have been catching Steelheads and Sturgeons. I really would like to try to catch a large Sturgeon, they are great eating. Don’t really care about the steelhead, but will surely be able to give it away if I do catch any.

The temperature got up to 58° pretty nice except for the slight breeze.

Got back to our site about 4:30: this afternoon and found a business card from another real estate person in Coquille. Not sure how they found out I was looking for a place in this area. Somebody had to tell them. Anyway will check them out also next week.

Helen and I are looking forward to doing some sight seeing in the area as well as look over some of the homes up here.

Not much excitement happening today kind of quite, but restful

February 14, 2008

Pretty cool last night I think it got down to the low 30°s. A little overcast, but not that bad. I finally got in touch with a repair man in Coquille after trying for two days with no success. His Name is John Craggs. He is a retired gentleman that repairs motor homes. Nice thing about it he came to the RV Park and worked on our home. Pretty costly though, it ended up costing us $150.00 to get the furnace up and running again. Come to find out the factory that put it in did not do it in a clean environment, causing dirt and dust to plug up the orifices. He had to pull the whole unit to get the thing cleaned. Works great now, although for the money it better be. I did get some valuable information out of him since he is an avid fisherman like me. He told me where I should be crabbing when I am in Charleston. I am sure the reason I lost my traps last year was I put them in and area that had a real strong current and the tide was going out. If I would have returned the next morning to the spot I dropped the traps off I would have probably been able to recover them during low tide. Another lesson learned as they say. A costly one, but well learned. Other worthy information John showed me on a map where to go to catch yellow tail and ocean perch. When I was here the last time I spent a lot of time fishing the Jetty by Charleston with not much luck. Another thing he told me was to fish with was a bobber with a 6 foot leader using shrimp.

John even offered to take me out crabbing this Saturday if the tides are right and the fresh water from the rivers are not running to high into the bay. Crabbing is not that good when you have a lot of fresh water flowing into the bay. The larger crabs don’t like the less saline water.

His son goes out with him all the time and crabs over near the upper buoy on the north side of the bay. His best luck is in around 25 to 30 feet of water. Pretty much limits out all the time. I would want to go just to see how it’s done. There is something else he brought out to me, which I have heard of, but not seen too many people do it. Ground your traps with stainless steel wire to stop the electrolyzes from occurring. According to him and an article I read last year, it actually decreases your chance of catching a lot of crabs. Something to do with the crabs can sense it. Not sure, but will check it out and report on what I find later.

He also gave me information that I think all people who have a motor home or trailer and are camping along the coast should know about is excess moisture; it is important to buy some de-humidifier like DRI Z AIR. This comes in crystal form and takes out the excess moisture that develops in a wet climate from your coach. Not to expensive either. I think around $2.00 a package and is a good investment.

Another thing he told me about. which I really never gave thought too is placing a small piece of flea collar you use for your dogs or cats in the furnace, refrigerator and hot water tank compartments. This will help keep spiders and other insects away from your appliance burners. I have not tried it, but makes sense to me. He says it does not have to be new collar just one that you replaced for a new one.

Went back to Coos Bay today to buy a small heater for the motor home as well as the DRI Z AIR pellets. While we were in Bi-Mart I took Helen over to the sporting goods department to show her the crab traps I wanted to buy and what a deal! They were on sale again for $14.97 each compared to just three days ago when they were $19.95 each. You guessed it, I bought two of them. They were cheap considering I had to pay over $18.00 for the buoys and rope for the traps. Got you coming and going I guess. If you’re not familiar with crab traps I looked them up on the internet. They are the Danielson folding crab traps.
They sell for over $29.00 each on the internet. Add the shipping and in some cases the taxes if they apply and you’re talking way over $35.00 per trap.

Here again, like they say “shop around”.

Since it was Valentines day I had to take my sweetheart out for dinner and being the big time spender I am, I gave her two choices, either Mexican food at a restaurant in Myrtle Point or a double cheese burger $1.00 meal at Mc Donald’s.

Oregon, February, 2008

February 13, 2008

Rained this morning, but by mid morning the clouds broke and we received some nice welcome sun. The temperature was 54 °, not to shabby for February. We moved our RV to another site this afternoon since the WI FI in the space we were parked in was not that good only had a low signal.

One recommendation I would make if you’re looking for an RV site that has WI-FI, would be to check out your laptop in different spaces before settling for one space. The original space we were in was getting a real low signal, which was 1 bar. By moving our motor home up to another site, which is only about 60 feet or so from our original site made a big difference and went from low to the top of the high scale. Since Helen and I are fanatics with computers it’s important to us.

Really becomes a great resource when you’re in a town or traveling and looking for restaurants, Gas Stations, local stores, post office, etc. The information is really pretty accurate. As well as some of the reviews of the local resturants are real helpfull great resources recommended using when you have the need.

Oregon, February, 2008

February 12, 2008

Went to Coos Bay and North Bay in the morning. Weather was nice little overcast, but warm. Not sure but I would say in the early 50° or so. By the time we got done shopping the weather had changed to a slight drizzle
.
Main thing we went to town for was to check the prices at some of the grocery stores as well as pick up some needed groceries. We checked Fred Meyers in Coos Bay and their prices were not all that great for food, but cheaper than your local stores in Coquille. Went to Super Wal-Mart in Coos Bay where we purchased most of our food. Prices in Oregon for food is a little higher than in California. We also went to BI-Mart to check their prices for crab traps. They were real reasonable at $19.95 each, so that’s where we're going to buy them. I would have purchased them at the time, but since we had all the groceries in the Saturn there was not much room left. We got gas at Safeway in Coos Bay. It was the most reasonable and got it for $3.03 per gallon and with your Safeway Card we recived another .3 off for a total of $3.00 per gallon. The prices for gasoline in Coquille is not really that bad either. One station was advertising gas for $3.04 per gallon.

These prices are far cheaper than Susanville California gasoline prices. I think it was $3.32 per gallon when we left. Of course if you want to pay the higher prices for gasoline anywhere in California, I highly recommend Susanville California. One of the biggest rip off towns I believe in California.


If you can make it another 80 miles I would suggest getting your gas in Reno Nevada. The prices there are almost .30 cents less per gallon.

First Full Day in Oregon, 2008

February 11, 2007

Arrived at the Rivers edge RV Park. Got set up and that’s when we really noticed the problem with moisture in the motor home. One of the compartments underneath the coach near the front of the cab was soaking wet there was about ⅓ inch of water in the bottom of the compartment. Not sure where it all came from but it had to be from all the rain they got up here earlier this winter. I think the problems it may have been caused when we had Dan Gammel repaint the top of the coach since the old paint was peeling pretty badly. Will need to contact Dan Gamel again and try to have them fix it. Pretty disappointed on the service I have received from them in the past as well as not sure for the priced we paid for the Gulf Stream motor home was it worth it. Will need to find out what is causing the main leak. Nice looking coach but I have had quite a few problems. To top it off the gas furnace was not working. Had to try and find a propane heater repair person. Talking about a pain looking for one that would come over and fix one in a motor home.

Finally Left for Oregon, February, 2008

February 10, 2008

Well, what do you know! We finally got everything packed up and made it away from home headed for Oregon. We planned to leave around 9:00 am, but didn’t get away from the house till almost 11:00 am. This was all due from my big idea to take our laptop PC with our new Microsoft streets with the GPS unit. The dumb thing would not let me put in the travel route I made out previously on my desktop. Had to use the thumb drive. Finally got it working and the well sought after message form the PC said on route.

We got some good pictures traveling up here. Our travel route took us up hwy 44 to 89 to I-5. Lots of snow along the route from home to almost Yreka. One of the passes had snow that was over 6 feet deep. Glad to get out of this area. Pretty to look at, but would not want to live in it. Our area gets more snow than I like, so I don’t think we could handle 6 feet of snow. We took some great pictures of Mt. Shasta, but for some reason when ever you take pictures, the picture really doesn’t do much justice for what the actual view looks like.

We stopped in Grant pass and got gas there. It was $2.95 per gallon and took only 6 gallons. The Saturn is great on mileage I figure at least 30 miles per gallon and that was fully loaded. We arrived in Coquille around 6:00 pm. Made good time. Since it was so late we decedid to stay at Alma’s & Ed’s property and head for the RV park the next day.

The Microsoft Streets with GPS worked flawless was impressed, would recomend it any day. However, there is one draw back that I did not like and that is if Helen is watching the map working on the Laptop it tells you how fast you traveling like I need another back seat driver if you know what I mean!!

Sure was great getting up here and we did indeed make good time.