BOAT FIRE IN CHARLESTON MARINA


Monday September 9 2009

We had a little bit of excitement today due to a 22 foot pleasure boat catching on fire in the marina. Thought I would let everyone know how it happened and to avoid a situation like this in the future if your a boater.

Evidently this pleasure boat had just filled up with gas at the fueling station, apparently knew he had a possible gas leak somewhere and the following events led up to the fire. The gas tank was below the deck and evidently between the possible leak in his fuel system and the exhaust gas fumes from filling his gas tank not being cleared yet caused a pending disaster. The captain started his electric bilge pump, or it may have came on automatically, which caused a spark to ignite the gas in the fuel compartment of the boat. The boat blew up and threw the captain into the bay and evidently at the same time his wife was down below the deck and she had run through the burning boat to jump off. Thanks to the Coast Guard, Fire Department and good Samaritans the couple were pulled from the water. Although they both sustained burns they were definitely lucky not too loose there lives.

To make things worse the boat was now stating to drift across a small channel from the fueling station into the dock where fishing & pleasure boats are docked to the south. Quick thinking by another boater that was real close to the burning boat managed to drag the boat away from the dock, which would probably have taken out other boats as well as the potential of more people getting hurt. However, as you will note in the pictures the boat was fully engulfed.

There was another problem since the tide was moving back in it was pushing the burning boat up further into South Slew. It was a pretty intense situation for a while and it took the Coast Guard almost an hour to extinguish the fire. Even though the boat was almost submerged it was burning quite intensely. The dense smoke in the early stages of the fire was pretty black in color with a strong order of burning fiber glass and rubber.

The Coast Guard finally got the boat to sink and they felt it was in deep enough water that it would not cause any problems for other boats that use this channel.

HEADING NORTH TO CHARLESTON

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

We finally got everything loaded and headed North around 8:30 a.m on Tuesday, September 1st. After taking care of last minute business and getting an oil change in the RV we got the Nissan hooked up and left Susanville around 10:00 a.m. The weather is pretty good, sunny, a little wind, but not too bad.

When we were heading home last Spring we spent one night at an RV park just North of Grants Pass called Jump Off Joe Waterfall RV Park. This is one of the nicest RV parks we have ever stayed in, so needless to say we made it a point to stay one night back there again on the way north this trip. This RV park is about 1/2 mile off of I-5, in the trees, has all utilities, but makes you feel as if you are in a camp ground rather than an RV park. Wild life is abundant here as you will see everything from cotton tails, deer, squirrels and wild turkeys walking right through the park. The distance from the freeway make this one of the quietest parks, so this is a good half way (kind of) places to stop and rest on the way to Coos Bay.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

We left late morning, not in any hurry and drove the rest of the way to Charleston Marina RV Park in Charleston, OR. We have had beautiful, sunny weather, and after getting everything set up just spent the rest of the day relaxing.

SHORE ACRES / PACIFC OCEAN MAJASTIC

SHORE ACRES

April 5, 2009

Another beautiful day warm and sunny. Our plan for today is to travel down to Shore Acres State Park, which is down the Arago highway just South of Charleston.

We had the opportunity last year to visit the gardens, but it was late in the year and there really was not as many flowers blooming as we hoped for. The main things that were blooming were the roses and they were outstanding.

The one though we had by visiting the gardens this spring was to see the Rhododendrons and camellias in full bloom. Well, we jumped the gun on this one as the flowers were not in full bloom like we hoped for. Mainly the Tulips and Daffodils were in bloom.
If you’re going to tour the gardens we would recommend checking them out in the latter part of April. I think we were about two weeks too early.

Also if you have a laptop or access to a pc I would recommend going to the site listed below: This will give you the full history of the gardens.

www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/shoreacres_full.pdf

There is an additional site you can go into to see what flowers are presently blooming. Just go into search and look for Shore Acres Gardens. Once you find the sites stating Shore acre, look for the heading listed below.
Shore Acres Parks-Friends of Shore Acres Inc., Coos Bay.

I was unable to make a shortcut to this site but if you search like I suggested you will be able to get too this sites.


We were able too take some pictures, but they’re not as colorful as we hoped for.


One thing I tried this time was to set up the video cam recorder on the cliff just North west of the Gardens to take pictures of the ocean since it was a real clear day and the surf was up. I think we may have got some fantastic videos of the ocean.

If I could figure out how to get the videos on this site I surely would have. Helen did get some pretty good still shots of the ocean, but not as spectacular as the video I hope we recorded it. In order to feel the full impact of the Pacific Ocean person must experience this in person no picture can describe the full impact the Pacific had unless your there your personally there .

OREGON COAST AQUARIUM/ NEWPORT OREGON

OREGON COAST AQUARIUM / NEWPORT OREGON:

http://www.aquarium.org/visitMap.asp?sid=1


We purchased a daily permit for seniors, which ran us $25.00 for both of us. Well worth the money trust me.

Since it was such a beautiful day and it was on a weekend the place was packed.
Not a good time for a visit, I would recommend if you go try to make it on a weekday in the spring or early fall when there are not so many people. The exhibits were well planned and organized. The Aquarium was larger than I thought it would be. Be sure to plan on taking at least a half day to see everything.

Along with a panel of experts, they narrowed it down to the top 10 favorite Aquariums in the United states. This Aquarium is listed as number 8 and well rated. Large portions of the 34-acre aquarium on Yaquina Bay are actually outdoors and surrounded by native woodland, including a quarter-mile nature trail for bird-watching,

We took many pictures while we there and here are a few. We also made a video that we plan on putting together when we get back home.

The passage to the deep tunnel was real neat. They had a large collection of fish ranging from all sorts of rock fish sharks of all types of eels and sturgeon as well as some salmon. There was so many different species of fish I was not able too identify many of them.
Taking pictures in the underground tunnel was not easy since your walking in a large Plexiglas tube and the reflections of the glass show up when you’re taking pictures. You need to be sure and have your flash attachment off when you take pictures. We were able to get some real neat pictures and I am in hopes the video we made while we were there turns out.






Some of the smaller exhibits had some different colored Jelly fish that I have never seen before as well a great aquarium with needle fish and sea horses.




















Aquarium Village

For a treat when you get done visiting the aquarium you can mosey on down too Aquarium Village. This place is only about 1 block from the aquarium so it’s an easy walk. They have many shops, restaurants and curio shops located in this unique mall.

We were told we should have made a trip down to the ANCHOR PIER in Newport, however it was getting late and we needed to get back to Coquille before dark.
One thing for sure if you are going to visit Newport I would highly recommend planning on staying in Newport for at least 3 days to see all the sites this town has to offer.

When we come back this summer will make another trip to Newport and stay for a longer period of time. We will either take our Motor home up too Newport or leave it at Charleston and rent a motel room while we’re there. A decision we’ll make later, and stay for at least 3 days. One place everyone mentions is a fish restaurant called Mo’s. This is supposed to be one of the best places to get a great clam chowder. There is one restaurant located in Florence and on our next trip up this way we will on stop to try it out for lunch.

http://www.moschowder.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=71897

FLORENCE/ HECETA LIGHTHOUSE & SEA LIONS CAVES

FLORENCE/ HECETA LIGHTHOUSE & SEA LIONS CAVES


At last a real sunny day so we decided to take a trip north to Newport and see the Aquarium, which is one of the only 10 in the United States.

We left Coquille around 9:30 with the expectation of being in Newport at 12:00 or so. Well we underestimated that one and arrived there around 1 pm. We probably would have made it by 12 pm if we had not stopped so many times to take pictures of the beautiful coast. Not only was it a beautiful, sunny day but the sky was clear and the temperature was in the upper 60s. I can’t help restating that the scenery was out of this world. I can see why people talk about the beautiful Oregon Coast along Highway 101.

We had made several stops to see as much as we could, but not enough to suit me. There is so much too see and take in an there is no way you can see all you would like to in one day. The Oregon coast line is a wonder all it own the scenery along Highway 101 is breath taking.

Just out of Florence heading north you start winding up a large hill about 1000 feet, which skirt the Ocean side where you can see for miles when you get near the top.

Also there is a Light house you can see from a distance called Heceta, which is about 12 miles from Florence.

This light house was built in 1874 and there is a tour if you wish to go see the Lighthouse up close.

HECETA LIGHTHOUSE

There is a fee for this, but it only cost $3.00. One thing I should mention is all the state parks and light house tours cost $3.00, which is well worth the price.

I would suggest however, that a person traveling in Oregon purchase a 1 year pass, which runs $25.00 for one vehicle and an additional permit for one other vehicle will run you $5.00 more. I know when we come back we will get the season permit. There are many State campgrounds as well as additional State beaches and other state run sites that are worth seeing.

Another place to visit on the way is the famous Sea Lion Caves. Here again we did not have time to visit the cave. The caves began over 25 million years ago. The interior soars to the height of a 12 story building. We have the site listed if you’re interested:

http://www.sealioncaves.com/

While you’re at the site you may want too check out there web cam.

PORT ORFORD

PORT ORFORD OREGON

Our original plans was to travel down to Gold Beach, but since we left late in the morning we felt it better too stop and visit Port Orford, which is a unique town.

Like every small town in the US it’s also facing economic problems. We only found a couple of restaurants in the town that had full menu items; the remaining restaurants in town were either closed or were out of business.

We did however find a small resturant on the dock called Griff’s. Not only is it a restaurant but a tackle and gift shop, and a Nautical Museum. Actually the food was pretty good even though we stuck with the old American hamburger they do have a great menu for seafood’s also.

When you set foot on the dock at the Port of Port Orford you'll actually be in two places at once. First, you'll be standing on a modern, upgraded dock facility, and secondly you'll be on a piece of real estate with an historic and exciting past. Truly, one of the most unique docks in the world.

The entrance way along the road has a neat view point including a bench with colorful ceramic tiles, which make up an array of different pictures.

As you can see we were fortunate to be there when they were bringing up a fishing boat with the hoist on the dock. Quite a thing to observe. I now wish I would have asked how much they charge to launch and retrieve their boats.

For moreinformation see link below:

http://www.discoverportorford.com/ppo.php

CAPE BLANCO LIGHT HOUSE AND CAMPGROUND

March 31 2009

Overcast day today with a light drizzle. Today we’re heading South to Gold Beach just to check out some of the areas along the southern Coast of Oregon. This time we’re taking the cam recorder as well as our digital camera. Seems like whenever we go for a trip we forget to take our cam recorder. There have been several times I wish we would have had it to take some action shots.


CAPE BLANCO OREGON

The cape, park, reef, lighthouse, airport, and road from US 101 all bear the name Blanco, first given to the dramatic ivory cliffs that rise 200 feet above a black sand beach. In 1603, a relatively unknown Spanish explorer named Martin d’Aguilar spotted the sheer white (“blanco,” to him) cliffs and aptly dubbed them for posterity. This state park covers 1,895 acres of forested headlands and wildflower fields.



CAPE BLANCO LIGHTHOUSE















Here is a link to the site that gives a little history of Cape Blanco Lighthouse. Quite interesting. It is Oregon's Most Westerly, Oldest and Highest above the Sea.

http://www.portorfordoregon.com/blanco.html

CAPE BLANCO STATE PARK

We had too check out the campground at Cape Blanco. which is run by the State. Real nice park with many amenities. Listed below are the prices for this facility:













October 1 to April 30
Electrical/Water hookup: $12
Hiker/Biker:
$4Horse camp:
$10Rustic cabin:
$35Extra vehicle:
$5Group (tent): $40,
$2.40 per person after 25


May 1 to September 30

Electrical/Water hookup: $16
Hiker/Biker:
$4Horse camp:
$14Rustic cabin:
$35Extra vehicle:
$5Group (tent):
$61, and $2.42 per person after the first 25.

Along the Beach at Cape Blanco State park.


Road leading too the beach. 4 wheel drive vehicle recommended on the Beach.

SILVER FALLS AND GOLDEN FALLS

SILVER FALLS AND GOLDEN FALLS.

March 22 2009

Great day and since the sun is shinning again we decided too take a trip up to a couple of well known water falls that are located about 45 miles Northwest of Coquille.

The route to the waterfalls alone was very scenic. The road heading to the falls travel up the main highway along the Millicoma River to a small community called Allegany.

We did not see many homes along the river for sale, but the ones we did see were quite nice and well maintained. These homes are fantastic for those that are young and really love their yard work. At one time this would have been our type of life.

The road to Silver & Golden Falls State Park is a small winding road that is partially paved almost to the State Park. It runs along the Millicoma River and through large groves of dark forested trees, which tells you this area has an abundant amount of rainfall. Moss covered trees and many ferns adorn the road edge. The water in the river itself was pretty clear even though it was raining just a few days earlier.

There is a section of the Millicoma River, West Fork in Coos County that is 6 miles long and has been determined by American Whitewater to be a class III-IV section.

Millicoma River


The falls are somewhat isolated, so I really don’t think they get the attention they deserve. When you reach the park to where the trails take off to the two different falls, you will find a real nice picnic area with restroom facilities as well as a few picnic tables located next to the creek.

There are two trails in different directions that lead to the bottom of the water falls. The one to the North takes you to Silver falls. The trail has a slight incline, but easy walking even for me carrying Oxygen. I did have to stop several times, but no biggie. Silver Falls is about a 1300 foot trail to the falls and if you’re a good walker can make it in about 5 minutes. Here again not a real steep climb.

Pretty much with all water falls the best time to see them is in early spring or late winter when you have all the runoff from the winter snows.

GOLDEN FALLS INFORMATION:

The trail to Golden Falls heads to the East and here again it’s a fairly flat walk in, about 1500 feet. There is another trail spur that cuts off on the trail to Golden falls for those that are hardy and want to walk to the top of Silver falls. To reach the top of the falls, take the left fork after crossing Silver Creek, which climbs to a wide, natural ledge along the cliffs at the top of the falls, in about 8/10 of a mile. There are no guardrails here, so the squeamish and uneasy should stay away from the edges. Of course this is about a 1 hour trip and truly it’s up hill all the way. Nice if you want pictures of the falls looking down. But it’s not the type of walk a person should make if they’re not healthy.

Height-200 feet
Tallest Drop- 200 feet
Num. Drops-1
AVG. Width-15 feet
Primary Form-Horsetail
Watershed-Coos Bay
Stream-Glenn Creek

SILVER FALLS INFORMATION:

Silver Falls is one of the best waterfalls and my favorite in terms of both aesthetics and splendor in Oregon's Coast Range. Small Silver Creek plunges over an odd-shaped domed protrusion of bedrock, framed by conical buttresses, into a large mass of boulders. The freefall totals about 150 feet, but there is another 25-30 feet of cascades among the large boulders below.

Height-130 feet
Tallest Drop-110 feet
Num. Drops-2
AVG. Width-25 feet
Primary Form-Plunge
Watershed-Coos Bay
Stream-Silver Creek

STALEMATED HOUSING MARKET

3/14/09

Overcast today there calling for rain today with up to ½ inch of rain today and 1 inch tomorrow. Looking at the long range forecast looks like it will be off and on with this type weather for at least the next 8 to 10 days.

We will be back to house hunting hopefully in the next two days. It makes it real hard to do any serious looking and considering buying when you have your home up for sale. You don’t want to fall into the trap of buying first then selling your home. This type of logic can get you into big problems fast. It dose not hurt to keep looking around though.

The houses up here are not really selling that great either and the ones that are for sale have been on the market for a long time. The housing market overall is not picking up. Prices are a little lower, but the seller is still having a hard time selling. I think everyone else is looking at it the same way we are with our current home. You don’t want to take that big of a hit when you’re selling and of course you want to get a great buy on another home when you’re buying..

We have expanded our search out from Coos Bay; Coquille and Myrtle point to Winston Oregon, which I think is about 50 miles further inland. Interesting enough, the tax rates for houses in Winston are much cheaper than the Coos county area.

GOOD BUYS (NO TAX)

3/13/09

Still under the weather, one more intravenous treatment for my Pneumonia, and they can pull out the needle. It sounds gory doesn’t it. Considering I may have had to stay in the hospital for a few days this was a better option.

We got a great deal on a winter jacket for Helen at K-mart. They reduced there winter coats down by 60% and this was on top of the previous sale price. I think the coat was originally $60.00; she got it for $13.00. I have to admit prices here are real cheap compared to California prices. Here again no sales tax.

IMPORTANT TO CHECK YOUR TIRES FOR MANUFACTURE DATE

3/12/09

The weather in Coquille was great today I think it got into the 60s, sunny and warm. If I would have been feeling better I would have been outside with Helen just taking in all this sunny warm weather.

After going to the pharmacy to get my Rx filled we went to Les Schwab to inform them since I was under the weather we could not be putting on the new tires until probably next Monday. I wanted do make sure the tires would still be on sale.

The sidewalls on the current tires are really cracked and we were skeptical of them making it up here without blowing out, which is too bad since they do have a lot of tread left on them. While we were at Les Schwab I had them check the tires we’re buying for the date they were manufactured to make sure I was not getting older tires that may have been setting in the warehouse for several years. This is a good practice to get into when you buying tires. Check for the manufacturing date always.

We had too go to Coos Bay to get my oxygen supplies from Linacre and naturally had to take Helen out to her favorite restaurant, McDonalds since they had two Big Macs for $4.00. And being a big spender I thought would be better then the $1.00 burger.

RV PLUMBING CAN BE A PROBLEM

3/11/09

For those who say using a laptop in an RV Park is dumb, I have to disagree. I went on line and would you believe, put in our current location and searched for an RV repair service in the area. My first search found one that was located only about ½ mile away from the RV Park called Jackson RV Repair and Parts store. We were lucky and had it in the shop by 8 am and it was repaired by 10 a.m. After spending $98.00 for the repair we were on our way once again.

A little advice for anyone buying an RV is to make sure you know where all the hidden valves are located. Even though this is a new coach there were no directions on where these important valves were located. When we purchased the home in 2006 the sales person should have showed us were this hidden valve was located. Hey, I guess that’s why it’s called hidden he probably did not know.

It’s a unique valve that is usually located near the shower. The bypass valve is need when you winterize your home by opening up this valve your able to flush you water line with special motor home antifreeze. The main reason you’re bypassing the hot water heater is to avoid getting any anti freeze in your hot water tank. I guess it corrodes the tank when you have antifreeze to protect you water lines in the winter you would shut this valve down so the antifreeze does not contaminate the hot water tank. Great idea as long as you know where the hidden valve is.

At the turn off onto Hwy 42, heading west toward Coquille we found gasoline at $1.99 per gallon at a Love’s station right off highway 5. It took almost 38 gallons of gasoline to drive 337 miles from home to Winston OR, which works out to 8.8 miles per gallon. Mileage still holding about the same, towing our Saturn as compared too towing our pickup with the boat last trip.

We got to Coquille around 3 pm or so. Helen drove the last 50 miles or so as I was feeling a little under the weather. I kind of knew I was not feeling that great when we left home, but thought that it was just the cold in our country. By the time we got to Coquille I knew it was something else. We unhooked the car from the motor home and Helen drove me too the Coquille hospital. What a way to start off a vacation!!

Their emergency service for such a small town as Coquille was quite well organized. I don’t think we had to wait more than 10 minute for the doctor to see me. After some testing they diagnosed me with Pneumonia. I knew ahead of time I probably had Pneumonia again and sure enough I did. The first thought I had was that I would be spending a week in a hospital, but they started me on intravenous injections of a strong Antibiotic, followed up with prescriptions of steroids and Leviquin.. They had worked it out so I didn’t have to stay in the hospital for a few days just come back for two more days of additional intravenous antibiotic treatments, which only takes about 1 ½ hours per treatment.

This is another problem caused from the bad habit of smoking. Even though I have not smoked for over 4 years the damage has been done. Once you have COPD it never goes away and you’re prone to Pneumonia the rest of your life.

FIRST DAY ON THE ROAD

3/10/092

Left home from Janesville around 10:15 a.m. The trip to Medford was uneventful. Since we had a snow storm just two days prior in Janesville I assumed traveling over Hwy 44 and Hwy 89 we would run into some ice, or at least wet pavement. All the highways over here were in great shape. We arrived in Medford Oregon around 3:30 in the afternoon deciding to stay at an RV Park called Pear Tree RV Park. Now for our rotten luck we hooked up the water to the motor home to find that one of the water connectors that go to the shower had broke. No water tonight, but we had a couple of water jugs we had filled at home that got us through.

COUNT DOWN BEGINS & DANGEROUS TIRES

Well it looks like we have the clearance to migrate North next week if the weather cooperates.

As you can see it too white for us in Janesville Ca

We got about 8 inches of snow the other day, which put a kabosh to any traveling with our motor home.












Our main plan at this time is to leave Tuesday, March 10. According to the weather reports it's supposed to be clear and dry. Ha! I have been told this before and know from experience, you can't always believe the weather man. They're only right with their forecast about 35 % when we're talking 5 days off.

We have reservations in Coquille again at the Rivers Edge RV Park. Last year we stayed there for one month and it was great. The name tells it all and I mean you're right on the rivers edge of the Coquille river.

Although I tried fishing last year on the river it was not productive, at least not for me. They were catching a lot of Steelhead before we arrived, but the water was still a little too high at the time. I don't think I will get a fishing license this time since I really did not catch much last year in March. I will however, get an ocean shell fish license and do some clamming. Crabbing is not good at this time either, so I will avoid crabbing unless I hear different. We get a Fish and Wild Life report for Oregon via computer once a week with up dates. Great service they provide for the fisherman and hunter. If you would like to receive a weekly report just click on the link below and sign up.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/RR/index.asp

One of our other plans is to get new tires put on our RV since the current tires we have are all cracking around the edges of the tire. Makes you mad when you only really have about 5000 miles on these tires. One of those things they talk about when you get tires specifically on a new Motor home, they're not real high quality. Although they were a Name brand, Michelin. Its one of those cases that the motor home is a 2006 model and the tires were a lot older than the motor home. I believe they put the cheapest tires on them and they're out dated to begin with. Example; they could be on a vehicle that is a 2006 model, but the tire may have been made in 2004 or earlier.

This problem does not specifically apply to motor home, but any new tire you may buy. Check the manufacturing date always

Buyer beware as they say, if you,re buying new tires make sure they,re indeed new. Just because they are sold as new they may be several years old. Check the date when they were manufactured. Usually the date can be found on the back side of the tire. Example :










I ordered 6 new tires for our motor home from Les Schwab in Coquille Oregon. I figured since we are going up to Oregon, why not get my tires up there. When I checked with Les Schwab in Susanville their cost was nearly $200 more than I can get them in Oregon.

Funny when I checked in Reno Nevada from the same company they were priced about $50.00 cheaper than Susanville.

Surely this must tell you something.

In this day and age always shop around first no matter what you are buying.