Russ and Rob's Travels: Oregon Coast

After leaving Portland the scenery was mainly farmland, wineries and hazelnut trees. Arriving at McMinnville, a huge plane on the roof of a building caught our eye so we left the highway driving in to see what was all about. The entrance we drove up was like a runway. The plane was a feature to a large water slide and wave park. The plane door was the entry to the top of the waterslide. There were also 3 other buildings, the imax theatre, a space museum and the aviation museum. As it was late in the afternoon we went to check on closing times to find that they had a blues and swing band called Renegade Minstrels playing in an hours time.

The volunteers of the centre told us to go set up camp in their car park for the night and come and join in. So we did.... all for $3. The following day we went to see two movies at the imax and went through both of the museums. The museum houses the "Spruce Goose' which is the largest ever wooden plane. In the space museum they have an assimilation of a space shuttle take off.
Again it was late afternoon before we left town driving until we reached the beach at Lincoln city where we camped for the night. Along the road we had a few stops as the RV was losing power. The boys drained out some of the transmission fluid as the mechanic had put in to much. Things then started to improve.
The following morning we began our drive down highway 101 along the” Oregon Coast. Fog for a lot of the morning hindered our views but were able to get glimpses of the headlands and beaches. Certainly not the pristine blue we are use to. The roads were typical coastal roads, windy with areas of forest lining the roads but being America they were in reasonably good condition.

On route we stopped at Florence at the world largest Sea Caves. An elevator takes you 200ft down into the cave for viewing of sea lions. There is also a outdoor viewing platform where the sea lions can be seen sunbaking on the rocks below. We also saw the largest expanse of Coastal Dunes in North America ( Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area). Here motorbikes of all shapes and sizes were being ridden by people of all ages across the dunes. Depeo Bay has the smallest navigatable harbour in the world.

The southern part of the coast is the only place in the world where the Oregon Myrtlewood trees grows. Local artist have turned this tree into carved bowls, clocks and souvenirs of all kinds.
At Gold Beach Russ went to fill with fuel and as we have become accustomed to you put in your credit card for payment and lift the leaver. He was told to wait, that it is law in Oregon that fuel must be dispensed by an attendant. We figured that is a good way to get personal service... Make it a law.

Gold Beach is where we left Highway 101. We are doing a big loop and will return back to the coast further south .

We are on our way to Oregon Caves.....