Travel Log for September 1998, part 4

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Log Date: +178: 980928: 1600PDT: 43N57'16.81: 124W6'46.60: South Jetty TTN Resort

Monday morning we were up bright and early to pack for the drive to South Jetty TTN near Florence, OR. There were three possible routes: one back along US20 to I-5, one on US20 then cutoff on OR126, one south on US97 then west on OR58. Co-Pilot said the third was 20 miles shorter but 20 minutes longer than the first. In the end, we took the second.

We dumped on the way out of the park. I had forgotten to fuel up, so we had to stop for desiel in Bend. Then by 10:45 we were on our way. Deb was leading in her car, and we stayed in touch with the 2m Handitalky.

The climb to Santiam Pass presented little problem, nor the descent down to the OR126 intersection. Signs along the road reminded me that Tombstone pass did quite a bit of winding, so I took Deb's advice and we turned off on OR126. She had driven over part of it during her trip to the Metolius River.

I highly recommend this highway, especially going west. It was one of the most pleasant drives I have taken, up to about 15 miles east of Eugene. It winds some, but there are few sharp turns. It is pretty level or descending slowly, and the feel driving along the MacKensie River was very nice. We stopped at a turnout, and I made Reuben sandwiches for lunch.

Driving through Eugene was not so much fun. The city is crowded, especially for someone coming from two weeks outside Bend. OR125 on the west side follows city streets and makes several right angle turns. There are numerous stop-lights, none of them timed for an RV. But we made it, and finally were heading for the coast.

OR126 gets tedious as you move into the coastal range. It winds quite a bit and there are some short ups and downs. The road does not have a nice wide shoulder and is a bit narrow at times. There is also a lot of traffic. But it is the only way from Eugene to Florence, so we persisted.

In Florence we turned south on US101 and crossed the river. A half a mile further was the turnoff on South Jetty Road, and then we turned into the TTN resort. The park was fairly full, especially for spaces that would accomodate a 34 foot triple slideout. They finally picked out a site for me up the hill in D section. I drove up that way and found I had a right angle backin spot with a fairly narrow throat. I scuffed the grass/moss on the opposite side when I drove over part of it, but I made it in okay. We set up the trailer and relaxed.

The people next door said he had been trying to get his DSS set up all day and had no success. He said the trees opposite us were just too high. He had even tried using the back end of the space I was in. I decided to try anyway, and placed the antenna on the table I had moved to the back of the camping spot. I hooked up the cable and went inside to get the signal meter. Turning on the TV to fetch up the installation window, I found I had an excellent picture already coming in. I was too embarassed to tell my neighbor what I had until the next morning.

We went out for dinner the first night to Lovejoy's, a restaurant associated with the Best Western. They had a beautiful view across the river to the town of Florence. The food was quite good (I had cajun salmon, Alice had scallops, and Deb had halibut), and we had a passable Oregon Dry Reisling. Unfortunately, we cannot afford from either our pocketbooks or health to do that kind of meal very often.

Tuesday morning was spent doing the wash and working on the web pages. In the afternoon, the women went shopping while I continued to try to get the web pages ready for loading. Deb made the kind offer of a much larger space, so I started restructuring the pages to provide the original .jpg for the images that can be accessed by clicking on the thumbnails that are part of the text.

South Jetty TTN, and for that matter Pacific City TTN, was overrun with domestic rabbits. They were interesting for a while, but then they became a bit of a nuisance (at least to me). There were some people who were upset that everyone did not feed them. Misty thought they were quite interesting, so we had to keep her on leash even when she stood at the door.

Deb, Alice and I drove north to Newport to see the aquarium on Friday (actually into October). This is the same aquarium where Free Willy was filmed, and the Killer Whale had already been flown to Iceland for release. The life that was left was still worth the trip. They did a fantastic job with their exhibits, and the selection of exhibits was great. They had several tanks of jellyfish and Portuguese Man-of-War. You could walk all around and look through the glass to see them from different angles.

Among the exotic fish was one with brilliant yellow eyes. it was all ready for Halloween. There were many others, but I had to select just a portion of the pictures to show here.

They also had an excellent exhibit of frogs, including this poison frog from Central America. The blue color is a strong indication to other animals that they are to leave this frog alone.

We returned to South Jetty and started packing up. The next morning we planned to convoy to California with Deb. It was time to head south.