First Stops Up the Oregon Coast

After our lighthouse volunteer gig was up at the end of September, we set off to explore the Oregon coast. We set off with no specific plans, other than an intention to see as many lighthouses as possible and find some great camping spots.

First Stop: Cape Blanco

On Tuesday morning we got everything packed back up after a month still in our host spot at Cape Blanco, fired up the engine and made an incredibly long driving day of about 500 feet.

Our friends Karen & Krash – who we met in Cedar Key a couple years ago, but live in Michigan – decided on a whim to drive out to see us and Clarke & Elaine.

We just love that we have crazy friends who do stuff like this, and it would have been silly to leave just as soon as they arrived.

And since our mission is to stay in amazing places, we might as well stay in one of the most amazing campgrounds we’ve found in all our travels.

The very one we were already parked at.

So we moved over to the regular campground, scored one of the fabulous heavily wooded and secluded spots. It was so relaxing to be able to enjoy the park and our spot as regular ole campers, and not be officially representing the park as hosts or having obligations (as few as they are).

Come October 1, all of the Oregon state parks reduce their rates to winter rates – so we were able to stick around for just $18/night.

In addition to seeing Krash & Karen, we got to welcome Brian & Judy, the inbound hosts who we co-hosted with last October.

And we of course got more time with Nina & Paul, who spoiled us with homemade chicken enchiladas one evening.

The hardest part of leaving Cape Blanco is definitely the friendships.

As much as we could have convinced ourselves to keep lingering, it was time to move on and get to exploring new places.

Second Stop: Bullard’s Beach State Park

For our second stop, we just wanted to move up the coast a bit to Bandon – another long driving day of about 3o minutes. We didn’t even hitch up the Mini Cooper, I just motored on up ahead of Chris to scope out the camping options.

We needed to do some grocery shopping, and were craving eating out – and Bandon offers both.

It also had the perk of being close enough that our friends could still come see us – which made parting a little easier.

Clarke & Elaine and Karen & Krash (and puppy Pipa) came up for an afternoon for lunch at Tony’s Crabshack (incredible gluten free fish tacos) and exploring Coquille River Lighthouse. We had a wonderful day with them before saying our ‘until next times’. Oh, and there might have been copious amounts of amazing ice cream involved from Facerock Creamery in town.

While in Bandon, we stayed at Bullard’s Beach State Park (our review). We have to admit, we were completely spoiled by having just spent 5 weeks at Cape Blanco State Park – which is exactly our kind of park.

Bullard’s in comparison, just couldn’t hold a candle. We were at first assigned a site for a 36′ RV, that we just couldn’t fit our 35′ bus into, the turns were super tight.

They were then able to move us to a different spot on the C-loop – which is much more crowded and offers little to no privacy.

Bullard’s Beach State Park is just simply a bustling campground with over 180 sites. There are some sites with nice vegetation and seclusion, but many are small sites with barely enough room to fit a RV, never mind a tow or toad. It was hard for us to feel relaxed there, especially with a family reunion parked next to us who were busy with activity.

But, we made the best of it by getting out exploring, running errands and in the end – we only stayed 2-nights before seeking new adventures.

Which we’ll share in our next travelogue!

Join Us Tonight – Live Video Chat

Topic: Realities of Living in RV Parks and Campgrounds

When: Thursday, October 8 at 5:30pm PDT / 8:30pm EDT

Where:  http://www.technomadia.com/rvparkliving

 

Most RVers at some point will end up staying in RV Parks and Campgrounds. In this live video cast, we’ll talk about:

• The variety of RV parks and campgrounds out there in terms of amenities, prices, views and locations.
• Etiquette and annoyances (from flakey WiFi, quiet hours, noisy neighbors and living next to other’s vacations)
• Tips for making the best of a less than ideal experience
• Booking & planning thoughts (we won’t be replicating our ‘Routing & Selecting Campgrounds’ chat from last December however – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLV03Jp7uRw)

As always, we’ll follow up with an open Q&A session and will be happy to address your questions about this topic, and life on the road in general.

At the appointed time, please proceed to http://www.technomadia.com/rvparkliving or directly to our UStream channel at http://ustream.tv/channel/technomadia (hint: if you use their mobile app, you might be able to avoid their commercials too!). If you can’t make it, no worries – you can catch the archive later at https://www.technomadia.com/video.

Our video chats are provided as a gift to you – donations are always appreciated, but never expected.