Arrived! Back at Cape Blanco!!

We’ve been in motion since last March when we left Florida with this one single destination on our itinerary – Cape Blanco Lighthouse in Oregon.

We didn’t take the most direct route at all, instead of 3200 miles – we went the long way covering 4400 miles.

It’s been an incredible journey getting here, full of wonderful memories, lots of friends and great places explored. We successfully avoided ‘summer’ and only ran the air conditioner a handful of times. And we’ve written & launched a new mobile app and written & launched a new book along the way.

And we’re here. We’re really here!  We keep pinching ourselves each time we gaze at the beauty of this magical place that has beckoned us all year long since we left last October.

We of course remember it being enchanting, but it’s even more beautiful in person than our memories and pictures held.

For the months of September and October, we will once again be volunteer lighthouse tour guides. Volunteering about 17 hours a week each, and getting a fabulous full hook-up spot within Cape Blacno State Park in return.

Here’s some posts from last year that will re-cap what we’ll be up to:

• Volunteer Lighthouse Hosting at Cape Blanco for RVers – An overview of the volunteer gig, how to get it, the duties and the perks – including a video tour of the lighthouse we did with Nina & Paul last fall.
• The Many Prisms of Cape Blanco – Pictures and Reflections.
• Sunset Magic – More enchanting pictures.
• Lighthouses Guide More Than Ships – My personal journey here last year after an emotionally full year before hand.

When we arrived to this spot last year – we had just come off dealing with my father’s passing, closing down the business we ran together and handling an unexpected complete engine rebuild. We were exhausted and had intended to go on a bit of a career sabbatical (hah!).

However, while parked here we got a call from a dude named Curtis introducing us to his idea for a social network for RVers, and we got involved with RVillage. It was so thrilling to pull into Cape Blanco on Thursday to find a new-to-us RVillager already checked in, and the site gaining its 10,000th member. What was just an idea a year ago, is now proving its potential!

This year, we come to Cape Blanco in a completely different frame of mind. We’ve healed, we’ve grown and we’ve accomplished a lot. And we’re ready to be still for a bit, to catch our breath, work a few less hours and fully launch The Mobile Internet Handbook.

There are so many things I look forward to in the next two months:

• 

  Sharing this magical place with others, and being a storyteller who conveys the history.

• Being neighbors with awesome friends and co-hosts. Joining us here for the next two months are Nina & Paul of WheelingIt.US and Clarke & Elaine of WhatsNewell.blogspot.com.  We look forward to meeting our other co-hosts too!
• Being able to really ‘nest’ and get things setup. Deploy the outdoor furniture, lights and decorate a bit.
• Having full hook-ups for two months – meaning longer hot showers, and not having to balance energy conservation!
• A break from paying for fuel and camp sites.
• Easy access to recycling.
• Catching up on overdue little projects around the house.
• Having a stable mailing address to receive packages at (and boy do we have a lot of stuff inbound) and re-activating our Netflix disc delivery.
• Having time to catch up on some blogging and video production that we’ve lacked energy for.
• Getting to know the local businesses and becoming a regular for a short bit.

• 

  Getting into a bit of a routine with regular activity – the hiking here is amazing and abundant, and there’s a yoga studio not too far away.

• Getting out to explore the local area more this year, we barely touched it last year because we were so drained.
• Keeping our MINI Cooper clean.
• Spending more energy on other stuff than making miles, researching campgrounds & routes and deciding where to go next – it allows our creative energy to flow and be productive (ya know, because we’ve been such slackers this year.)
• A place where people can come visit us. My mother is traveling out from Florida later this month, and we’ve already been contacted by many friends and readers who are heading out this way for a visit.

I know darn well that sometime in mid to late October, we’ll start to get the itch to move on.. but for now, we relish in this awesome feeling of nesting in one of our favorite places ever!

We’re so excited.. I could do cartwheels!! That’s our backyard after all!!

Coming out for a visit?

We do welcome visitors while we’re out here and we’d love to meet you and hang out.  We do ask that if you’d like more than a quick hello with us, that you give us a bit of advanced notice so we can put aside time for you. But if you stop by on a whim and see us out and about, do say hi.. and who knows what serendipity will provide!

But please please please don’t just show up at our spot and knock on the door. We sleep night-owl hours, we like to hang out in our pajamas at home (or nekkid if it’s warm enough) and we have work projects. And of course, we’ll have volunteer shifts, other visitors and our own explorations of the area going on.

We’re social people who love making new friends, but we also value our introverted at-home time. You can always check in on RVillage and drop us a note.

Somethings to know about Cape Blanco State Park…

• The campsites are all first come first serve, and in our experience last year they were mostly full for much of September by about 3 or 4 pm, even on weekdays.
• The cost is $22/night in September, dropping to $18 in October for a water & electric site.
• There’s NO dump station out here, so come prepared.
• The sites are gorgeous & huge, the area breathtaking and overall we find this park to be one of the best in the entire country – it’s worth a stop.
• There are 4 basic cabins at the park that you can reserve in advance.

If camping at a state park isn’t your thing, there are some commercial RV Parks in the area and some free camping opportunities you can research, and a few motels in Bandon and Port Orford (the two closest towns.)

If you’re just stopping by, the park has no entrance fee and tours of the lighthouse are only $2 (or free if you have a national park pass). The lighthouse is closed on Tuesdays, and open for tours from 10a – 3:15pm all other days. Our own volunteer schedule will rotate each week, so if you’re wanting a tour by us – ping us in advance for our schedule.