Oregon summer trip (Day 15) - Florence to Eugene

7/31/11 (Sunday)

I woke up and went got our free coffee. I took a quick shower in the morning, while Tom took a bike ride to town to look for dump and water. Tom found a good place in the Port of Siuslaw just outside the RV park. It requested for $3 honor pay. We packed and hooked up the trailer, and drove to the parking lot next to the dock. Since a RV was dumping there when we arrived. Lawrence took shower first and then the cats. Tom set the craps trap in the river while we were having showers in the trailer on the parking lot. After the showers, we drove next to the dump station, dumped and filled up with water for Mel shower. Tom founded that there are free shower in the half public and half RV park rest room just a way outside the RV park. Mel started cooking lunch while Tom went to shower. I washed my dishes in the fish cleaning station. Tom did not catch any crabs since he was using the left over chicken already cooked. A family with 3 crab rings there caught about 3 keepers.

After dumped and refilled with water, we went to the library (open Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.). We parked on the street across the library. Next time we would park inside the library parking as they have a lot of empty spot and quite easy to get in and out. They didn't have a lot of DVD movies, but you could watch it since it was already in the box.

Tom drove to Eugene using 126 and arrived after 5 p.m. Only one tunnel and not as curvy as the Reedsport-Sutherland route. We parked and shopped at super Wally at the edge of the city. We also ran across the road to Target to check see they have and computer but they had none. We wanted to return the new Toshiba and buy the Acer. We end up buying a $398 Acer which was $50 more. We drove to the North parking area of the Valley River Mall . Registered with the security as he drove by. There is one other Class C near the corner of the lot.

Oregon summer trip (Day 14) - Florence

7/30/11 (Saturday) - 2nd day at Florence

I woke up at 9:00 a.m. this morning. Walked to the Three River Casino for two cups of free coffee. Tom and I both had coffee and french rolls for breakfast. Tom told Lawrence we were going to stay another night here, because the Eugene weather was hot (about 89 degree). Lawrence didn’t want to stay here, he wanted to go to Eugene today. So I told Tom why we didn’t we look for a library here. The library might had internet access. So we went out and looked for one. We found one just 1.5 miles from the casino.

I went in and ask the librarian about the internet. She told me “Yes”. I went back out and told Tom to call Lawrence to dress up and we all went back to the library. Lawrence brought both his and the new computer to the library. Tom tried to set up internet access with the new computer. But he could not get the new computer work.

Around 11:40 a.m. Tom decides to let Lawrence try and we went to Fred Mayer to return the hand blender, Starting Kit Zipper Lock Freeze bag and 8 gallon Freeze bags for totals credit of $30.13. I bought two Throw; one twin size ($9.99 for 50% off), one queen/king size ($11.99 for 20% off) at a very good prices. We went to Dollar Tree to buy cooking rack, cookie pan and Nacho cheese Dip. Then we went to Bi-Mart, I found out you needed to be a member in order to go inside the store. The lady told me I could come in as a guest to shop, we only needed to write down my name and the city I lived. Tom found and bought crab trap that was made in U.S.A. for $16.99. Also got Pro Clearz Fungal Shield for $7.29. Then Tom went to Port of Siuslaw to see if this was a good place to catch crab. Near the dock parking lot we saw a RV park, so Tom dropped me off and I went in to the office to ask for rate. The man in the office gives me a list of price, electricity and water for $25 and full hook up for $28. Tom parked his truck next to the dock and walked to the crab dock to see if the people had any luck catching the crab. During Tom talking to the people, I saw three coast guards walked to the dock and question one of the boat just got putted on water. Tom came back to tell me it took these people half the day to catch three crabs.

Tom found a short cut to go back to Three River Casino. We walked to the casino for a short gambling. Then we went back to the library around 4:00 p.m. and we all stayed until the library closed at 6 pm. Tom drove us back to the trailer and I started making a small lunch with soup and salad. I heated up the left over steak from yesterday.

Tom decided to go catching crab at the Port of Siuslaw while I was watching TV and writing this journal in the trailer. Around 8:30 Tom came back with only one crab with a little of the body eaten by the seagull when he left it unattended when he went to his truck for the bucket. After dinner I continued writing this journal until midnight.

Oregon summer trip (Day 13) - Coos Bay to Florence

7/29/11 (Friday)

Went to the Mill Casino, both lost 2 dollars. Mel could have won 33 cents if she stopped in time. Lawrence and I both took a quick shower, I went to the rest room next to the registration office to blow dry my hair. After we hooked up our trailer, Tom drove next to the full hook up site to fill up the water and dumped the 2 tanks. Next Tom drove to the 76 gas station a little back across the road to fill up the gas at $3.67/gallon. Then we went to Salmon Bay to walk around the camping pier we used to camp. The price was the same $11 next to the bathroom. But higher at the end of the wing ($18) with double wide parking, $14 on the two side. We parked at the end of the pier and cooked pork chop and corn. Then we dumped the tanks again. I cleaned up my dishes on the back side of the bathroom since they had hot and cold water. Coos Bay was very windy just like last time we were here.

On the way to Florence we stopped by Cash King and Safeway in Reedsport. Then we drove 20 miles to Florence to spend a few nights at the Three River Casino.

We parked at a corner spot and I saw a faucet on that corner of the RV parking which could be used to fill the trailer. We went in and registered for two nights (you can stay for 7 days). Also we got player club card with $10 free play each (still wondered how it work). We had to put $1 dollar to start the card. We both lost a dollar each. Tom and I went back to our truck and drove to Fred Meyer. We noticed that this Friday & Saturday they had Doorbuster Deals (a lot of items was 20% - 50% off). Then we went to Safeway and found the smaller round French roll which was crusty enough for $2.99 (Sandwich Roll $3.49 which sold out). We bought one bag of French Roll and Mustard Potato Salad (3 lbs for $2.99). By the time we drove back to our trailer it was past 9:00 p.m. I started making dinner, but I forgot to pull out the N.Y. steak from the fridge earlier. So we started eating the potato salad first and then French roll. I got water from the outside faucet to cook our corn.

Oregon summer trip (Day 12) - Mill Casino, Coos Bay

7/28/11 (Thursday) - Coos bay

It was a very windy day when the dawn came, there was an old Prowler trailer next to us woke us up with their cheap noisy generator.

It started from around 7:40 till 8:25. I could not go back to sleep, so I started writing my journal early. We took Law to North Bend Library which opened 11 to 8 on Mon to Wed, 11-6 Thru-Fri. We drove along Virginia Ave. to stop at another Safeway to look for our favorite bread. We found it and labeled as sandwich rolls. We talked to the baker named Frank Whitlae . He told us to spray the dough wet(similar to their steam process for 45 sec. in the oven- this process make the hard shell of the bread) before putting them in the oven at 400F and cook about 15 minutes or when the internal temp of the bread reached 200F. He also said the nice bread smell could be from the flour make by General Mill (Harvest King name of the flour)_____ (Cash & Carry also sell that). We gone on to K-Mart, Groceries Outlet and Wal-Mart before we went back to pick Law up. After dinner and watch some TV, we went to Wal-Mart again to pickup more white corns for .20 ea. and instance coffee.

Oregon summer trip (Day 11) - Leaving Brookings

7/27/11 (Wednesday) Last day at Brookings Harbour

I got up around 8 a.m. and started cleaning the trailer. At 9:20 a.m. I boiled the water up and made some instance coffee for both of us and that was our last coffee bag. We all ate the remaining doughnut for breakfast. Around noon, Tom asked me to deep fry some crab for lunch, so I continued the deep fry with the same oil last night. By the time we finished packing the trailer, it was 2:40 p.m. We drove around to dump our tanks inside the main camp ground. After, we drove a little way to the commercial dock area to take shower with city water connection. Tom took a shower and also showers both our cats too, and I took a quick shower also. A boat resident drove by to tell Tom the ground drain hole we used was piped to the shore, but Tom thought it looks like the pipe is drained to the sewer plant with a pipe set higher to drain to the shore as a backup. Tom went on to Fred Meyer to get some gas. They only took off 3 cents not the 10 cents per gallon we anticipated. We asked the gas attendant about it, he said what we got over 100 points was reward point and not the fuel point. He also said it was complicated to calculate the fuel point and we did not reach the 100 fuel points yet.

On the way to next stop, we stopped by the Bandon’s Ray market to buy some snack for the road. We reached the Coos Bay around 7 p.m. I saw a Safeway store next to Fred Meyer so I stopped and see if it has the bread we wanted, but they are all too soft. Then we walked to Meyer across the road. I found a nice Microplush Blanket on sale for $11.99 plus 20 % off, my finial price was only $9.45. Tom drove the trailer to Mills Casino parking lot and registered for 2 nights. Then we went to Super Wally to shop. We went back to our trailer around 11:00 pm and started cooking dinner. We had the generator on all thru the dinner. It was not noisy. Our closest neighbor was 2-3 car lengths away. I didn’t think it bothered them.

Oregon summer trip (Day 10)

7/26/11 (Tuesday) - 6th day at Brookings

Lawrence and I both took a quick shower before Tom and I went to Grocery Outlet to buy a small pot for water. Because I forgot to bring the water pot back to trailer after I took it home during winter time. After that we went to Fred Meyer to buy the cooking oil for $2.76 and 2 pcs of green onion for $1.00 to cook the crab. I bought the hand blender for $24.99 plus 10% off store coupon. We also take a look at the camera, the Nikon and Samsung both cost $99 and Canon model No..ELPH for $169, but we did not buy it. On the way to check out, I saw the Strawberry Pound Cake half for $2.49; I bought it for next day breakfast. Before I left the store, I remembered I needed to check with the customer service to try to add back the fuel points, for every 100 points I could receive a 10 cents per gallon discount at Fred Mayer or participating Shell stations. I got it without problem. Outside the store I got drinking water for .35 cents per gallon. On the way back to our RV Park, we got gas for our portable tank at $3.69 at a Conoco station near the library. When we went back to our trailer, I start using the cooking oil to deep fry the crabs. I deep fry them 3 times. While Tom catching more crabs, he came back and forth to eat the crabs that had just cooked. He told me he saw a lady lost her crab net because she tripped and threw it too closed to the pier and it got stuck in rocks when she retrieved. The husband came and surprised she lost the trap in the first 30 minutes. It was too late in the evening to get another trap. So Tom offered them three crabs for dinner. They offered him some money, but Tom did not take it. They were from Red Bluff. Tom caught 10 crabs that night. Two of them are really big. One of them measured 7 ¼ in.

Oregon summer trip (Day 9)

7/25/11 (Monday)

I started very late after 7 pm. In about 2 hours, I caught 12 crabs.

Here were some pictures for our cats.

 

Also had a stroll along the beach in the evening.

Oregon summer trip (Day 8)

7/24/11 (Sunday)

I caught more than 20 crabs. I saw a couples from Roseburg using crab ring with a short rope. They did not get any crab of any size at all because the ring was just too close to the pier. I told them to get their rope longer and threw it further. He was strong and start getting a lot of crabs. His wife even went to Fred Meyer to get more rope because they had 4 rings. Some were even stuck in rock before they got more rope. He gave me a few more crabs.

Oregon summer trip (Day 7)

7/23/11 (Saturday)

I caught 12 crabs and gave one to a group of Korean.

Oregon summer trip (Day 6)

7/22/11 (Friday)

Today I caught 7 crabs and stop, since we had some left from yesterday.

Don our neighbor caught a lot of big one included some 8 inch one.

Oregon summer trip (Day 5)

7/21/11 (Thursday) Brookings Harbor day 1 next morning

We drove around a few time and ask the gas station, and finally found and dropped Mel off at the hair cut place. I went to get the crabbing license, but failed to find the store Don said. The nearby bait store told us where it is and said only stores have computer linked to the state could sell an annual out of state license for $20.

I started crabbing in the afternoon using our crabbing ring. But I could not catch any crabs at all. A man whose Don knew selling the crab trap told us that we had to throw at least 30 feet away from the pier. But my strength was not strong enough to do that. Don asked him to sell me a bigger trap for $25 which would cost $35 normally. The 1st throw yield 4 keepers. I quickly hit the max of 12 crabs that evening. We baked 5 crabs that evening.

These were the views in our back yard. This is Chetco River.

Oregon summer trip (Day 4) - Harris State Park, near Brookings

7/20/11 (Wed) Harris State Park

We tried to extend our stay in Harris one more day.

But the registration lady told us our space was already reserved. So Tom just moved us down to the port of Brookings next to Don Williams. We set up the trailer and talked to Don a bit. We went to town to fill our big 30 lb propane tank for $2.50 a gallon. We could not find the hair cut place the campground manager recommended.

Oregon summer trip (Day 3) - Crescent city to Brookings

7/19/11 (Tuesday)


We woke up at the Elk Valley Casino and packed up the trailer to leave. Tom wanted to use the $5 with the player club card. We went in and Mel won about 4 dollars. Then we were back on the road again to Oregon, leaving Crescent City.

Continuing up Highway 101, we got into Oregon. The first town we came across was Brookings, which are a few miles from the border. We filled our truck in the 1^st gas station which is a Shell for $3.81.  We drove thru town and arrived at Harris Beach State Park. They have 2 openings. One has sewage. We went there and took the space for $26 a day. We set up the trailer and drove to town to eat at Kentucky/Taco Bell. Then we drove across the big parking lot to Fred Mayer to look around. We bought some household stuff and some food. We drove back to camp ground to put away groceries and left Law there.

This a some daytime photos of the park.

We went back to town and found the docks in Port of Brookings.

A man named Don Williams sat outside his Class A told us that his dry camping RV spaces next to the Chetco River is $15 a night ($20 actual). And he really loves to talk to people. We told them we would move here tomorrow. We drove back to the camp ground and took a lot of sunset picture at the beach.