It’s hard to believe that the month of September flew by so quickly, and our second volunteer season as lighthouse tour guides at Cape Blanco Lighthouse has come to an end.
We knew pretty early on upon arriving that a month was going to be enough for us, and that our original intention of staying on for October would be tough. We’ve just had so many projects this year, that we need some down time. But reaching the end of the month, packing up and saying our ‘until next time’ to dear friends is a bit bittersweet nonetheless.
On Sunday, we served our last shift at the lighthouse. It was a slow day visitor wise, which left plenty of time to reflect on our month out here.
It’s been tremendous. We needed the stillness for a bit to finish up the book, have a place to get things shipped to so that we could ship out the pre-orders.
And it has been oh-so-marvelous to have such fabulous neighbors.
We’ve known Clarke & Elaine for years now, and always enjoy connecting up with them across the country. When they put in their application to host at the lighthouse, we knew they’d be a great fit here.
And last year we finally got to meet Nina & Paul after years of mutual blog admiration when we co-hosted at Cape Blanco. We clicked in person pretty quickly, and parting ways at the end of our shifts last year was a bit tough. Our connection has stayed strong as we had our individual adventures over the past year – which is an amazing nomadic friendship trait. Being neighbors again this year, just fabulous and connective.
We have plans to meet back up down the road in short time, and suspect there will be many adventures ahead for us!
Overall, our time at Cape Blanco has been jam packed… but again a stupendous experience.
The weather has been even better than we remembered it last year – the sunny days have outnumbered the windy and foggy days.
We’ve hiked many miles and worn tracks in the trails around here, but don’t really get tired of them.
We’ve had a constant stream of visitors stop by – from blog readers, friends and family. We literally lost count and won’t even try to remember the names of everyone who made an effort to stop by. But know we are incredibly touched!
The volunteer position here is just wonderful, even if telling the same story over and over again did get a tad repetitive.
We again do leave feeling accomplished and refreshed. The weight of the book being done is huge. The friendships deepened will last a lifestyle. And so will the memories.
We leave you with some final photos from our time along this amazing southern Oregon coastline:
What up Next?
For the first time in a long long time – we have no plans. There’s no where we have to be. There’s no big impending projects due. There’s no one awaiting our arrival. There’s no schedule to keep.
We’re completely routing by serendipity for the next few months. And it feels GREAT!
We have a general intention to head north and explore more of the Oregon coastline, perhaps visit some of the other lighthouses we keep hearing so much about. Take in some new views, explore more trails and take photos of new subjects. We look forward to new towns with different amenities.. maybe someplace we can go out to eat again? This cooking at home all the time thing has gotten a bit old.
When the time feels right – we’ll take a turn and start heading south, with a general intention of wintering in the southwest. Trying out some desert boondocking, hopefully living off our yet-to-be-decided solar setup.
So.. cheers to serendipity, and the adventures ahead!
thank you
With all your years on the road, is it hard to get a camping spot for a 40 ft fifth wheel. thanks.
As we’ve never owned such a setup, it’s hard for us to say. With each foot of length you add, you do reduce your options by a bit.. but not totally eliminating them of course.
Thank you.
How can my wife and I become host at camp blanco light house, and is it free camping while working?.
Use the ‘search’ feature above for ‘Cape Blanco’ and you’ll find our guide to volunteering there.
Since we left Cape Blanco and worked our way up the coast the weather has been FABULOUS! Only rained a couple of days. We went all the way up to Astoria. If you can do without electric try the Tillicum Beach National Forest campground between Yachats and Waldsport. It is the only national forest campground on the beach. We were in site 48. It was private and had a short path to our own private “terrace” overlooking the beach and ocean. I sure hated to leave that place. We are 33 feet and 35 feet would fit fine. It’s first come, first served right now so you shouldn’t have trouble getting in during the week. Enjoy the coast…it is truly spectacular. The other camping site we were telling you about is in Pilar, NM just a little south of Taos. It’s a national forest also, but this one has electric hookups. We are in Portland now doing our first driveway camping visiting friends. Sailing on the Columbia tomorrow. Life is good! Enjoy the coast…we sure did!
Thanks for the tip on Tillicum… believe we had that recommend by someone else too, so it’s now on the list! Glad you guys had a great trip up the coast, and this weather continues to be amazing. Enjoy the Columbia River Gorge, love it there!
Your photos of the coast are gorgeous! I especially love the sunset one with the grasses in the foreground (just below Chris’s office view photo). When we lived closer to the coast (in the Bay Area) it was an easy 30 minute drive and we would go there often. Now that we’re more inland (Sacramento area) it’s more of an all day trip. If I had my way, we’d be living on the coast somewhere. Once we start our FT journey I’m sure we’ll be staying in many coastal areas.
Enjoy your rest-you’ve certainly deserved it!
I love the whole volunteer thing you two are doing. Volunteering is such an important thing to keep special places and activities alive. Too often there just isn’t enough money to pay people to do some types of work, it is the volunteers who help keep these places running. Thank you for your hard, but enjoyable work.
Ren
Thank you… we do love integrating in volunteer work as we go. Programs like this one are great for RVers, and hardly feel like ‘work’.
The husband and I are looking forward to jumping into the lifestyle and start finding ways we can help. Alas, it is about a year away.
the Eastern side of Oregon is wonderful…very different from where you have been….we really loved Steens Mountain and the area around it…we also love the Palouse section of Washington and Idaho (for the fall) if you are not familiar with it you can google it and get great images….it takes our breath away….enjoy your travels….
Awesome.. who know where our travels will have us ending up this year!
Looks like you’ll have an interesting and gorgeous route to the SW! I’m headed there myself this winter after I do up Utah for a bit. Hope to cross paths and compare flex solar setups! My skinnie panels just survived their first travel day without peeling off the rig, so I’m considering my install an initial success!
It would be wonderful to finally meet up with you.. let’s make it happen!
That picture of the coastline is fabulous, looks like a watercolor. Nicely done! Enjoy your R&R, you know it won’t last long, your reputation precedes you and I’m sure there will be many clamoring for your services. ;o)
Oh.. blush.. thanks Sonja 🙂
Let us know if you end up near Seattle-ish. Our T@B, Sunny, has been put to bed for the season, but we’d love to meet up (and maybe we could convince her to head out).
While anything is possible… Seattle is likely more north than we’ll find ourselves wandering this time around.
safe travels! Enoy!
Thank you:)
Thank you for continually sharing your view of this beautiful country with all of us! Who knows, it might even inspire some to hit the road and check these gorgeous places out for themselves, and find the most beautiful people (and fur-kids) there, too. ;).
Love seeing the relaxed relief in your faces as you prepare for another adventure. Can’t wait to hear about what’s next! See you around that next serendipitous bend. 🙂
Love you guys!
K, K, & P
It would be crazy for someone to hit the road and check out these gorgeous places themselves. Thankfully, we have some crazy friends We like crazy. 😉
So glad you had a fun-filled and productive month. After it being your destination from the other side of the country, it’s hard to believe it is now behind you 🙂 Love that you’re going north instead of south – such rebels! The pic of the coastal hike is amazing – I forget that Autumn is that spectacular on the coast. Safe and magical travels.
We figure… if everyone is heading south, there’s gotta be some mighty fine camping locations to be had up there 🙂
Such lovely views and your post just says “ahhhhhh”. You can tell how much more relaxed you are and I think you are going to so enjoy your winter travels wherever they might lead you. Can’t wait to read about them as you go!
There definitely is a sense of ahhhhhh going on. It really has been a very long time that we’ve had this sort of freedom from projects and destinations to make. It feels good.. thanks for joining along!