Time To Go South

We are packed and ready to head south for the winter. Problem is the weather.  Because of snow in the mountains, we still aren’t sure which route we will be traveling. I plan on watching the road cams as we head on down the road and decide at the last minute whether we will go across the pass on hwy 58 or go all the way south through the Siskiyous.

Sorry again about not posting more often, but we have been very busy. Even though most of what we have been up to wasn’t very interesting, I will try and recap most of what happened this last month.

On September 28, we took our coach to Cummins Coach Care in Coburg for its annual service work and engine/generator checkup. While they were working on coach, we drove into Eugene for some needed shopping and even managed to find a few caches. We really haven’t had time to geocache lately, so it was fun to take a couple hours and find some. When the coach was finished at 4:30, we decided to spend the night in one of Cummins sites because we had another appointment scheduled for the coach in Eugene the next morning. It really didn’t make sense to drive all the way back home, then have to be back in Eugene the next morning.

Since Ken had new tires put on the coach last year, he thought it a good idea to have the front end realigned. Our appointment was with Keizer Wheel Alignment downtown Eugene which is about 10 miles from Coburg where we spent the night. We were up early the next morning, and instead of hooking the Jeep up to be towed, I drove the Jeep and Ken drove the coach to the alignment shop. Good thing because it was pouring down rain and it would have been miserable trying to get the Jeep hooked up. Since it was so miserable out, we just went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the time at the shop waiting for coach to be done. The work was finished at 10:30 am and happily the rain had quit. We hooked the Jeep up and made our way out of Eugene and headed for Newport, Oregon where we had reservations at South Beach State Park for a week of camping with friends.

Our week at South Beach was supposed to be rainy and windy, but we really lucked out and ended up with great weather. Out of the whole week, we only had one morning of rain. The rest of the time it was somewhat overcast with lots of sun breaks.  This is a shot at Boiler Bay.

This shot is of the bay at Florence.

Besides us there was, Rod & Lynda and Darryl & Kathy camping at South Beach. On Friday afternoon, we were joined by Gary & Shannon (Rod's daughter and son-in-law) and their adorable 5 month old Madi.  Isn't she a cutie??

Sadly, they could only spend the one night, but they had a nice time visiting and hiking on the beach. We all managed to take several walks along the beach collecting agates and some shells. Ken and I also took a whole day and went geocaching up and down the coast line. We found a lot of caches and had a great time enjoying the scenery. The evening meals were the highlight of our time camping. One evening we had fresh BBQed Oysters and Shrimp plus Ribs for some who didn’t like seafood (you know who you are… grin). All in all, we had a marvelous time enjoying each other’s company and spending lots of time just sitting around the campfire, which was going day and night.

This is Rod finishing off a succulant Oyster!

Here is Ken enjoying a nice fire!

It’s hard to believe how fast a week can pass, but it did, and on Oct 6 we all packed up, emptied our tanks, and headed back to our respective homes. Ken & I got home early afternoon and quickly prepared for a trip to Salt Lake City. We were scheduled to be in SLC on Friday the 9th to attend several geocoin events that were taking place that whole weekend. Since it was a short stay and all the events were taking place at the Marriott City Center, we decided to drive our Jeep there and take advantage of the event’s special hotel rate. We left the morning of Oct 8 and drove to Twin Falls where we met up with our son Bill and his family. We visited for just a short while before heading on to Burley, Idaho where we stopped and spent the night.

The morning of Oct, 9, we were up early and headed for Salt Lake City. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to waste, we only stopped to find 5 geocaches. All were side of the road pull offs, and didn’t take much time at all. We arrived in SLC and had trouble locating the entrance to the hotel parking. The Marriott City Center is a part of The Gallivan Convention Center, so we weren’t sure where we were supposed to park, but finally spotted the sign for the underground hotel parking entrance. Well, once in the underground garage, we got lost (sigh). Yes, there were signs all over for hotel guests and arrows showing where to go, but we circled several parking levels before actually finding the very small area assigned for guests. Happily, we found a spot very near the hotel elevators and made our way up to the lobby. We were a bit early, but our room was ready and we were able to get checked in and settled into a gorgeous room on 5th floor with a very nice view.

This last shot is a gorgeous view from the 10th floor at night.           

We have never stayed in a Marriott before because of the outlandish nightly cost, but this room was really steps above all that we have ever stayed at. The mattress was wonderful and I slept fantastically!!! Thankfully, we got a huge break on the cost of the room, but even at full cost, the place would have been worth it.

After we settled in, Ken got his coins (several hundred) together and we went downstairs to the first of three events. There were so many geocoin collectors there looking at and enjoying all of Ken’s coins. He was delighted that he sold a bunch of coins that evening!!
This was just a preview of coins to come.

The next day, Saturday, was the main event where all the geocoin vendors were showing off their latest and newest coins and gadgets. We got there early and were among first people to enter the hall. There was one vendor in particular that Ken really wanted to see. Her coins are hotly sought after and we were lucky enough to be about the third or fourth in her line. Yes, Ken bought “many” of her coins.

After buying the coins he wanted, we set his coins up at a table and proceeded to sell more coins.  Here is Ken showing off some neat coins.

We didn’t sell our own personal coin, but did trade it for many other cacher’s personal coins. We saw several geocachers from Arizona and Oregon that we know and had a great time meeting many more that we had heard of but never met. The event went on till early evening when we all packed up and called it a day.

The next morning was Sunday and there was a group of cachers scheduled to go out on a geocaching adventure on a bus. We didn’t want to go on the bus, but did attend an early morning gathering for breakfast and coffee. Later, Ken and I got in our jeep and drove out to "The Great Salt Lake" and did our own geocaching. We found a lot of caches and had a fun time viewing the lake. We didn’t get very close to the lake because most of the beaches required some long walks and we didn't want to take that much time.  We did stop at one of the original tourist buildings, but that was all locked up and fenced off, so we got to view it from a distance. We did stop at the lake’s marina and saw several sail boats on the lake, but again we couldn’t get too close because there was a fee to get in the main area.  Alas, we saw what we could and did a lot of geocaching.  Fun day!!!

We left Salt Lake City at 7 am on Monday, Oct 12 and drove all the way home to Salem. It was an extremely long drive, 13 1/2 hours to be exact, but we did gain an hour when we crossed the Oregon/Idaho border. We did stop two times to find a geocache and another time in Hood River to drop off a special travel bug that wanted to be left there. Of course, we had to stop a few times for fuel, food, and potty breaks. For safety sake, we did switch drivers a couple times, and got home at 7:30 that night.

The rest of this month has been spent working on an old house that needed to be cleaned out. The place has been empty for quite a while and we needed to get it kinda liveable because our grand-daughter is thinking of moving in there later. There is still lots of work to be done inside and out, but our son-in-law will take care of what is needed while we are gone.

Arizona here we come!!!