Day 63 – May 12 – Moving back to the Coast

Left Joseph Stewart State Park a little before 9 and headed back towards the coast.  There is no direct route from Crater Lake to the southern coast so we took mountain roads that wound up and down the mountains, often following a stream or river.  We finally made it to Coquille, Oregon about noon and stopped at a US Bank.  Parking a motorhome in a small town can be a trick – Rick has the car behind his, so he can’t back up and has to find a place where he can pull into and pull out of for his rig.  We both had business at the bank, so we managed to find parking places and went into the bank.

We talked about getting gas and finding a place to eat while we were stopped and decided to go on to Bandon.   It was a good thing we had not eaten before driving the road from Coquille to Bandon.  It was one of the curviest roads we have encountered so far – and that included the PCH near Big Sur.  At Bandon we got gas for less than four dollars a gallon for the first time in a long time.  There is no self-service gas stations in Oregon, which was different for us.

To eat we went back to a restaurant – it was named The Station Restaurant.  The food was good.  We decided to see the lighthouse in Bandon since we were already in the area.  We drove to Coquille River Lighthouse, located in Bullard State Park.  After pictures we turned south on 101 and the town of Port Orford.

 

The beach at Bullard State Park

We pulled into one of the prettiest RV parks we have stayed at in Port Orford RV Village.  It is a small park, only 20 sites, but the owners have it decorated so nice and the people are so friendly – both the owners and the people in the park.  It is another Passport America park so the price made it even better at $17 per night.

 

While I was setting up the camper, Cindy (she and her husband Tim are the owners) stopped by to say the happy hour would begin in a few minutes and to come on over.  Dorrie was over at Rick and Mary’s talking to a guy walking his dogs.  I went over and asked if they were going to happy hour.  The guy told his dogs they had to go home so he could get an adult beverage, so he headed out.  We grabbed a couple of beers and headed over to the group.  There were 10 or 12 people sitting around talking when we walked up and introduced ourselves.  The men gathered in one area and the woman in another.  We stayed about 90 minutes and headed back to finish up the camper.

Later we drove down to the pier and watched as they removed a boat from the water.  It really isn’t a pier, more like a dock but they don’t tie up their boats, they are removed each time and placed on dollies so they can be moved around.  There is a lot of commercial fishing done in this area.

 

We were trying to wait for the sunset on the ocean, but it was still a couple of hours away.  We stopped at a local café for some pie and coffee, but they were out of pie.  So we had carrot cake and coffee – Mary had potato soup.  The food was good, but the place was almost empty.

We were killing time for the sunset, finally we decided to get it the next day.