August 17, Coos Bay

Sandi and I went over to Manny & Connie’s this morning to go out to the sand dunes to where George & Sharen and a group of their friends have been camping for several days. This is about the 15th year for their outing and they have a very nice campsite in the few trees that are out there. George picked us up in the parking lot, (he has a car that won’t get stuck in the sand) and took us to their campsite. Driving around in the dunes is great fun and would be a must if you lived here. The grandsons would have a fabulous time!!! There are lots of 4-wheelers but we also saw kids sliding down the dunes with snowboards, probably called sandboards here. Tomorrow we are heading east for Iowa but don’t know how long that will take us. We are still 2,000 miles from Panora but after we get over the Cascade’s there isn’t a whole lot to see except sagebrush. This may be the last post for awhile since we don’t know if we will find another WIFI hotspot.

August 16, Coos Bay

Today we canned 26 cases of Tuna. Actually WE didn’t do too much more than watch and learn. Manny & Connie, Louie & Deanna, (Manny’s cousin), Craig & Cindy (their son---in the picture) can Tuna every year and today was their day to get it done. Sandi and I got some jars at Wal-Mart and some Tuna and joined the party so now we have 24 jars of Tuna to take home with us. They had 3 pressure cookers of Tuna going almost all day. It was a lot of fun to learn how and we are anxious to have some for lunch. They all say we will never buy Chicken of the Sea again. Sorry Charlie!!!

August 15, Coos Bay

Sandi and I walked the beach this morning checking out some of the sea creatures left in the tide pools and another lighthouse just down the beach. After lunch Manny and Connie picked us up for a sightseeing trip to Bandon Dunes, one of the top rated golf courses in the country and to see more of the Oregon coast. The beaches are fabulous but the coastline very rugged. We had fresh tuna this evening that Manny cooked on the grill. Delicious.

P.S. Enlarge this picture of the sea creatures if you can.

August 14, Florence to Coos Bay

We spent the last couple of days looking around Florence, checking out their restaurants, going to the beach and even went to the Sunday matinee The Brourne Ultimatum. It was a short drive today down to Coos Bay. We have a nice RV park with lots of privacy and just a short walk to the beach. Haven’t checked it out yet but will tomorrow. Manny and Connie picked us up mid-afternoon and took us over to George and Sharen’s for dinner. We had a great time visiting and talking about next year’s trip to Mexico.

August 11, Tillamook

More putzing in the a.m. then took a drive in the afternoon and stopped by another lighthouse. The coastline is really pretty with the waves crashing into the big rocks. In the evening we went to the Tillamook County Fair. I know what you’re thinking but the fair was pretty good. It cost us $8.00 each to get in and the grandstand show is included in the price. Tonight the show was Sawyer Brown and last night it was Lorrie Morgan. We had good seats in the center of the grandstand and were pretty close to the band. I’m not a big county western fan but we enjoyed the show. I would have rather seen Lorrie Morgan but we didn’t hear about the fair until today. The fair had all the great stuff to eat; corn dogs, funnel cakes, ice cream, burgers, fries, all the healthy things. It’s no wonder the grandstand only seats half the number of people it did when it was built several years ago. We saw some nice exhibits of things that people had done (photographs, quilts, 4-H stuff, etc.) but didn’t look at the tractors or the cows.