A Trip to the City

Odometer  36043
Trip miles  0

Monday July 15th

We got the call.
Curry County Title called to tell us the papers on the home sale were ready to sign could we cruise on down and sign today?  Uh-huh- you bet!
A trip 25 miles south to Gold Beach was just the ticket for this beautiful day.  Gold Beach is the county seat of Curry County, which stretches from Brookings in the south, to just north of  the town of Langlois which is a few miles up highway 101 from Port Orford.

Gold Beach was named for the gold found on the beaches by early explorers back in 1852.  I can't help it, I always look down when I walk the beaches- I so want to find a nugget among the rocks there!


Gold Beach is also where the Rogue River reaches the Pacific.  One of the best salmon fishing rivers in the west, this area is usually so crowded with small boats, that you could step from boat to boat and not need the bridge.

However- when the fishing boats aren't plentiful, there is a very serviceable bridge to get you from north to south.  The Issac Lee Patterson bridge was engineered by Conde B. McCullough and built in 1931.  Since Gold Beach has no natural harbor, the bridge was an important link to the shipping port of Coos Bay.

We enjoyed coffee at the Gold Beach Bookstore and a walk down main street, then after our closing at the tilte company (we own a house again!) we wandered through the marina and had a celebratory ice cream cone.

 Gold Beach is home to the Rogue jet boat excursions from the ocean to the wild and scenic sections of the Rogue River 35 miles up stream.  Two rival companies; Jerry's Jets and the Mail Boats both offer exciting cruises that last 4 hours or more.  The pilots don't just full throttle you to the destination and back, but spend time stopping and idling while they point out the flora and fauna of the region from endangered lilies to bald eagle and bears.  One special trip a day is to Paradise Bar, which has a backcountry resort that takes overnight guests and is reachable only by boat, airplane or on foot.

 Joan and I have taken this excursion a couple times in the past and Joan was reliving the ectasy here.

Sadly, eveyone who comes here can't help but wonder why there is a delelict boat being slowly savaged by the elements.  The Mary D. Hume sits on the bottom of the river bank, alternately flooded and dried out with each change of the tide

The Mary D. Hume was bult in Gold Beach in 1881 to haul cargo to and from San Francisco, later she was used as a whaler and towards the end of her life she was used as a tug.  Retired in 1977 she was refitted by Crowley Marine and sent to Gold Beach to be used as a museum ship.  Tied up in law suits and plagued by mishaps, the ship sunk at her moorings and began a long slow decay.  132 years old, and this is her fate.  The ship was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August of 1979 and although a review of her status in 1992 found her in this state- the registration was renewed.  The hulk was deemed historically significant.

On our way back up the coast to Port Orford, Joan and I stopped at a little place I've driven by so many times with the thought "someday I'll explore this area.."

Well someday is today.  We turned west off the highway at the crest of a small headland that looked like it had a road down to the beach.  A few hundred feet down the road, a gate halted all further access.

The road still goes down to the beach, but the only traffic is on foot.  Must have looked too treacherous to the engineers at ODOT.

From our vantage point, we could look north on this beautiful day and see the outline of Humbug mountain, and in the far distance you can just make out Coast Guard Hill, and the harbor at Port Orford.

Thursday July 18th

This trip was just for fun.  We took off for Coos Bay this morning, in no particular hurry, and with no definite goals.  When we reached Bandon, we just couldn't pass up the RayJen coffee house in old town where we grabbed a cup of coffee and a breakfast cookie which we ate in the sun at an outside table.

We couldn't help but notice some real interesting sculptures next door that had a decidedly maritime theme.

This white seal and the giant fish below turned out to have been made entirely from trash gleaned from beach clean-ups

The fact that the medium was washed up debris only increased our interest in these very well made sculptures.

Turns out there is a workshop next door that specializes in this type of art.  We were interested to see further exhibits, but the building was closed.  Maybe next time...

We continued up the coast to Coos Bay where I discovered my new favorite place- LNL Lumber Outlet!





This place has awesome deals on wood products, cabinets, doors and all things wood- I'm in heaven.  This will be the go-to place for any remodeling we have planned.

We tooled around Coos Bay and even drove out to Charleston where Jeff went to Englund Marine; browsed the boating supplies, checked out the price on a new set of oars, and talked to the knowledgeable folks there about paint for the row boat which will be a necessity this fall.

We have a favorite "fruit stand" that we've been going to for years and years.  It started out as just a small road side stand and has blossomed into quite the store.

Misty Meadows is first and foremost a place for blueberries.  Vanna Austin is showing the Sorry no U-Picks sign.She was thrilled about that after a youth of picking blueberries every summer!



They also have a honey bee problem-

Seems there is this little hole in the side of the front wall

That leads to a pretty good size hive on the other side.

The best part of the trip was getting home in time for a tour around the lake.

 The boat is swelling up nicely and took on very little water during the hour or so I was out on the lake.

It now rides quite a bit higher on the water .

Joan and I will be starting our "moving adventure" on Monday.  We will head for Medford where we will pick up a U-haul truck to bring our stored possessions to our "new" house here in Port Orford.

We hope to find a couple more opportunities to flame the PODS people who so kindly refused to deliver "our" POD to Port Orford- for no other reason than they didn't want to.  By the time we hire movers, a truck and pay for the fuel their decision will have cost us $470 bucks!

Your Traveling Friends

Joan and Jeff