We enjoyed a month’s stay in Charleston, Oregon (near Coos Bay) beginning on July 5th.
We’ve stayed at this resort (Sun Outdoor Coos Bay, previously Oceanside RV Resort) many times in the past. It is virtually right on the beach (behind a sand dune), with miles of shoreline, craggy rocks to explore, lots of pine trees on the cliffs, and cool temperatures.
The RV park is situated just south of the Charleston Boat Basin, which is a commercial fishing port. Coos Bay itself is adjacent and north of Charleston, while North Bend is another community between Coos Bay and the huge Highway 101 bridge that spans the Bay heading north.
The Oregon coast in this region is renowned for the enormous coastal sand dunes north of Coos Bay (a mecca for ORV enthusiasts) and the Cape Arago coast, just south of Charleston, with spectacular views of craggy cliffs, offshore rocks, and crashing surf.
The Coos Bay metropolitan area, the largest urban area on the Oregon coast, has all of the things that RVers need, like WalMart, Fred Meyer, car dealerships, shops, restaurants, street fairs, cannabis shops, and such. It’s a blue collar area, with lots of loggers, fishermen, and rednecks.
I used the stop in Coos Bay to address a couple of items on my to-do list. I got the Jeep serviced, had the guys at Gibs RV fix my washer-dryer (which had been jostled out of position), and took the rig to Gold Coast Trucking to investigate a high pitched squeal that is emanating from under the dash. They had the vehicle for four hours but could not solve the problem, other than to determine that it wasn’t a mechanical issue (like wheel bearings, transmission, etc.) and was probably “harmonic” in nature (i.e. wind blowing against the windshield, wipers, the grille, etc.). I will have to address that one on my own by trial and error.
The good thing is that the latter problem is not a safety issue, which would be concerning as we are 1,000 miles from home. When I get home, I am hopeful that my friend Ken Tiede can help me discover where the hidden harmonica is located.
During the GCT job, Charlie, the dogs, and I spent a few hours at the OHV Horsefall sand dune campground near North Bend.
On another day, when the rig was in the Gibs’ RV facility for the washer-dryer repair, our little group spent the morning at Sunset Bay enjoying a beach picnic and exploring the low tide pools.
The weather here in the Coos Bay area has been nice. .Typically, the high temps are in the mid-60’s, with the sun emerging from the morning fog in the late morning. Low temps overnight might reach the low-50’s. There was no rain this year, which was nice. By contrast, it has been hellishly hot in our hometown of Mesquite, Nevada while we’ve been gone: highs up to 119 degrees, with lows in the 80’s. “Not fit for man nor beast.” I feel sorry for those schmucks that have to live like that.
There are some restaurants in the area that we really like: Miller’s By The Cove (fish and chips), Lucky Star (great Chinese food), Fisherman’s Grotto (seafood), and a Mexican joint called “Margaritas”. There are probably a lot more, but we only do a “date night” once a week.
We got a replacement Dish receiver and installed it so our television addiction can be satisfied by home improvement shows, murder docu-dramas, and movies). We also enjoyed great reception from our Skylink satellite data/WiFi portal, allowing me to keep up on news and enabling Charlie to do business with her clients through her “helpers” (i.e. son Jonathan and daughter-in-law Shanon).
All five of us are quite comfortable living in our 40’x10’ residence, which probably totals around 450 square feet of living space (with all four slides deployed). The dogs really like it because we are with them so much, so they get a lot of individual attention.
The reason that we come to this RV park each year in the miles-long, leash-free beach where the doggies can explore, run about like fools, and splash in the shallow surf. The seabed is quite shallow here, which creates a tremendous variation in high and low tides. I try to take the dogs out to the beach at least once per day (when the sun shines) to let them get some exercise and fresh air.
There are also cliff-side trails that wind through the forest: a much different look than I am used to in the Mohave Desert.
Speaking of the dogs, Vinnie is different from the other two. Of course, he’s a male, and they’re females, but he also looks different (much stockier, has a small tail, coarser hair, and a more “bull doggy” face) and runs like a rabbit (bunny hopping), while Baby and BonBon run like gazelles. We’ve often wondered about Vinnie’s breeding. Then, here at Coos Bay, I ran into a guy who was walking a dog that looked VERY similar to Vinnie; in fact, he would have been a doppelganger except that he had black on his muzzle where Vinnie has white. Anyway, the guy told me that his dog “Groot” is a Frenchton, a designer mixed breed of French Bulldog and Boston Terrier.
Here’s a Frenchton:
Mystery solved, I think.
Charlie and I have a routine that involves chillin’ out beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon. We make adult drinks and sit down at the dining table for an afternoon of table games. Our current favorites are the “Farkle” dice game and the “Spite and Malice” and “Continental Rum” card games. While we play, the dogs argue over toys, wrestle, chew bones, and take naps.
On the 19th, I happened to talk with a young lady who was camping next to us at Sun Resorts Coos Bay. Her name is “Aura” and had quite a story to tell: She was involved in a car accident somewhile back (not her fault) which left her disabled with back problems. There was an insurance settlement, from which someone (her boyfriend, I think) talked her into buying an ancient “Cheech and Chong” style schoolbus/hippiewagon conversion (i.e. tiny house) that was partially done. She and her boyfriend drove it up to Washington where he (a) wrecked the tow bar for her RAV 4 and then (b) broke up with her.
Poor Aura was left with the crappy puddle jumper that she’d never driven, a very marginal living situation within the bus, and her three dogs. She said that she “has no family” and doesn’t know what she will do next. Charlie and I were instantly charmed by the young lady (probably 25 years old) and gave her some advice about Florence (as a next, affordable stop) and she left to give it a shot. We are both worried about her because she has no RV experience, no mechanical skills, no “man” to help her with the heavy chores, and a bad back. When she was ready to leave the RV park, she found out that her batteries were dead and had to get a “jump” from someone.
Our hearts go out to Aura; what a lovely little lady.
Our Mesquite neighbors, the Kasbergs, dropped in toward the end of our stay. They have a 5th Wheel trailer and have spent the Summer traveling all around the western U.S. and even into Canada. We had some good meals with them and I took them out on the rocky spit that juts out into the ocean near our RV park.
We are going to reserve a spot here for next year.
