Rainy, Soggy, & Wet - the Oregon Coast

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Day 6

Rainy, Soggy, & Wet



Disappointed! Disappointed with a capital D! Mother Nature has again put a wrench in our planned activities. She really needs to get with the program and follow the itinerary as outlined – I do not have room for deviations or major changes. I am beyond disappointed – I am mad. It has rained ALL night and ALL day. A thick cloud of rain and fog has been with us the entire day – all 325+ miles. This was the one day that we really needed sunshine – or at least not steady cloud cover – this was our day – the only day - to see the coast line and all it’s wondrous sights. Most of the sights remained unseen.



So, with that said, there is not too much to report. We packed up again, and began driving knowing we would have some rain, but the weather reports stated it would be dry along the middle and southern coasts, but that was not the case. We stopped at most every possible pull out with a view, followed suggested itineraries for seeing the most spectacular sights and ‘can’t miss this’ places, but we could see very little. I know what is suppose to be there, but unable to see it myself. *****Sigh*****



But what do you do when you have a tight schedule to keep and no time to wait on the weather – you move on. So that is what we did. We drove in and out of every cove, through several coastal towns, and over many bridges (one was 4 miles long over the bay/ocean – could not really see where it was going – we were driving into the unknown and unseen). We stopped in a town outside of Tillamook and grabbed a burger and stopped inside a wood outlet. It was a store of all sorts of wood projects and turnings made out of Myrtle wood – Donald’s kinds of store. I bought a souvenir and Donald purchased a slab (yes a slab) of wood to make something out of. Now we have to figure out a way to get it home on the airplane. Donald said he was just going to carry it under his arm. We will see how the airline and security like that.



We continued on and eventually got a 5-minute break from the rain and walked down to one of the beaches with some rocks and stones scattered about. Well, Stephen and I walked down. He had wanted to look at more tide pools all day and was unable to because either the beach was unreachable or it was pouring rain. We did find more starfish and sea anemones along with a sea urchin. He was happy. We continued on to another pullout in which we could sea lions resting on the beach/rocks. We had seen a few of these spots, but not at areas we could stop. It was very interesting to see them – for we have never seen them in their natural habitat before. We are hoping to see more when we get into California.



We have heard that whales have been spotted this week off the Oregon coast as well as the Redwoods area – we keep looking, but have yet to see them. Of course if they were out there today, we would not have been able to see them for all was a white out with the constant clouds and fog. Donald has also been looking at all the logging trucks this week wandering if they belong to the Rygaard logging crew or any of the others from the show Ax Men (he really enjoys that show). But could not tell who the trucks belong to.



Tomorrow we are suppose to be heading to Crater Lake (more hours in the car), but will check several weather forecast first to be sure we can actually see the lake before driving that far. I am hoping this weather moves out tonight. Stephen really wants to drive a dune buggy on the sands dunes before leaving out – we will see what the weather decides for us. If anyone happens to have connections with Mother Nature, please put in a good word for us. We could use it.

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Comments

[Jean fortune]

Have enjoyed reading your blog. Sorry you are having such a problem w/the weather. Every time we have been out that way it has been raining. Hope the weather gets better for you.

[swilk72]

Me too. I expected the weather to be wet in Washington - it is a rain forest after all. Ironically enough, the only sun we saw was while in the depth of the rain forest. I did not expect to have rain while on the coast/beach. But for 3 days, every time we go that way, it rains and probably will again tomorrow. But we keep moving on.

[Mary Jean Wilkins]

Rainy, Soggy and Wet might be the reason Carol makes it back to Al. every year!! We sure haven't had rain! Maybe today will be a better day. Even foggy pictures show you all were there. Have a fun time and keep safe. I love you all!