See the USA in our RV

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Friday, July 29th along the Oregon coast began with a little morning fog but by mid morning the sun came out and the welcome warmth returned with the winds. The temps are still in the ideal range vs what we expect when we venture inland. We brunched at our newly favorite restaurant across the street and explored the local communities. In the evening with early bird and senior citizen discounts our seafood buffet was reasonable and the quality and quantity in the excellent range. They seem to have a unique flavor to their chowders here and this same type of flavoring is used to boil the shrimp and flavor other seafood. The Mill Casino is owned by the Coquille Native Americans, a name derived from the native word for a fish (lamprey) that was once very abundant. Interestingly our long time home in New Hampshire was on the Lamprey River, named for the same fish! On June 28,1989, Congress passed public Law 101-42 which reestablished the Coquilles as a federally recognized Indian Tribe, restoring its eligibility to receive government funding and affirmed the Tribe as a sovereign government. Thus, they began their sponsorship of a gaming casino in 1995! Today, 400 tribal families and members live within the Tribes five county service area. The site of the current Casino and RV Park were formerly a Weyerhauser industrial lumber mill and deep water commercial shipping pier. The view looks across Coos Bay and the South Slough toward the Pacific Ocean. Coos Bay (the city) has the distinction of an earlier name of Marshfield (from the founder's home town in Massachusetts) renamed in a city wide referendum in 1946. Friday we go to Myrtle Point for the annual Coos County Fair parade. There were no bands and the usual kids groups but also the largest variety of logging trucks we've ever seen. They truly proved that logging has made this area. That evening I attend a western “melodrama” produced by The Sawdust Theater. For over 40 years local volunteers have put on these comedies with full audience participation of hissing and booing expected. This year's production of “The Adventures of Polly True or How to Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear” was fun to see and truly showed the town of Coquille's entertainment spirit.
Sunday morning, the last day of July, we moved inland to Medford and Monday morning arrived at the Freightliner repair shop. A friendly service representative checked us in and then told us he'd have to order the parts. We rescheduled for next Monday and the next day enjoyed a visit to Crater Lake National Park, stopping along the way to a recommended breakfast at Becky's in Natural Bridge. The amount of snow last year was evident from the piles of snow still in evidence in the woods. They finished clearing the Rim Road in early July. An interesting fact came from the descriptive displays about the Lake. It is truly a large lake holding 4 ½ trillion gallons of water – just one trillion more that the amount of dollars in our National Debt!
The President of the SO SMART chapter was very hospitable and led our caravan of three rigs to the muster in the heart of Willamette National Forest at Westfir. The well maintained Casey's RV park is well decorated with flowers and very healthy plants as you park beside the swiftly flowing creek. In the next 4 days we meet up with ten other couples and enjoy happy hours and meals, and carpool to a fish hatchery, the gondola ride at the Willamette Pass Ski area, the Oakridge Museum and see the Longest Covered Bridge in Oregon. Our final dinner is at a local Chinese restaurant with family style dining. Our volunteer muster hosts have ensured we had fun with plenty of free time to enjoy the perfect weather. Tomorrow we return to Medford to allow Freightliner to fix the rig.

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