See-Food

One thing we had not done yet was to visit one of my favorite towns in all of the US: Newport! It being the Thursday before Memorial Day I wanted to do it when it wasn’t raining and before the holiday weekend, so Thursday became Road Trip to Newport Day!

Near Blackly OR

Rather than take the more travelled Rt 126 route into Florence we opted, instead, for Rt 34 through Low Pass and around Triangle Lake.  I haven’t taken this in an RV — and it’s a lot twister and somewhat narrower but it’s a gorgeous trip through farmland, and mountain valleys and along mountain streams.  We were the opposite of in-a-hurry!  Loving every moment of the luscious green!

US-101 along the coast from Florence to Newport is a road we’ve driven many times and it’s both awesome and pokey.  This time of year there are plenty of large RV’s poking along so it’s good to make the trip when you aren’t in a hurry and to ignore those who are.  You’ll find plenty of people who just HAVE to pass you and 5 other cars all at the same time — risking their limb and your life while they are at it.  But — the scenery is unrivaled and worth the slow pace.  Besides — if one rude driver gets the best of you there are plenty of places to pull over, let them pass, and risk someon else’s life!

For reasons I’ll never understand, Newport always seems like home, no matter how long it’s been since I’ve visited.  I just like it — no apologies needed.

There is the obligatory stop at the sea-lion dock without which it wouldn ‘t be a visit to Newport.

I surely wish I knew what all their honking and noises were about because they don’t seem to matter to any of their mates on the rafts.  And they are loud.  We spent quite a bit of time just standing there watching them vie for position,  moaning and complaining when they got pushed off the raft, or when another lion rolled on top of them.  I can’t help look at them and think about what it must be like to be such a social animal.  

Ocean Bleu @ Gino’s

We wanted to try a different place to eat.  We’ve tried many of the nicer than average places in Newport — avoiding some that seemed to be more heat than light and favoring seafood (after all we are midwesterners who have never gotten our fill of seafood.)  This time we decided to try
Ocean Bleu at Gino’s Fish Market and Cafe.  What a wonderful meal that was:  Smoked local seafood with fruit, toast points, and a light herbed cream cheese spread.  Yummy!

Do you see the crew members up in the rigging on the port side (left) front mast?

After lunch we walked for a while.  The skies were overcast and there was fog — as if often the case — but the town and harbor were just as pleasant and filled with wonderful things to look at as always. It seemed that quite a few of the fishing fleet were out — at work — so the docks were a little emptier than usual. Then again, there were a couple sailing ships in the harbor — giving tours — and while we were walking by a couple hands were up in the rigging — where I would not want to be.

Newport is home for the West Coast NOAA fleet and their ships are often moored in the harbor.  Sometimes you’ll see one, we’ve seen as many as three, but they are always interesting.

I did get a kick out of the Shave the Whales t-shirt.  Should have bought one!

It was late by the time we returned home Thursday.  Friday — after being in place for 2 weeks  — we did decide to retract our slides, raise our jacks and pull over to the dump station so that we’d be able to make it the remaining two weeks till our appointment.

While we were mobile I drove across Route 99 to the Les Schwab tire store. These people are good about checking and airing your RV tires for you and it was good to see that since my last airing there was virtually no change in air pressure.  It’s still important to check regularly — but always good to see that things are as they should be.

And of course one of the things to be done was to put in some fuel.  It was 400+ miles since I fueled but I’ve been collecting fuel credits to use towards a fill.  I had $0.30 per gallon in credits from our purchases at Safeway — they are only good for the first 25 gallons, but buying Oregon fuel for $2.51 instead of $2.81 is always sweet.  We won’t accumulate another thirty sense in credits before leaving in June — but I’ll use what credits we accumulate between June 1 and our departure to fill at a discount and then top off the tank.  Every little bit helps.

And there you have it.  Two more days in the lovely state of OR.  It seems that everyone here is eager to talk, to be friendly, to greet you.  I got hung up at the tire store, the gas station, and the dump station with people who just wanted to talk to a friendly face.  I love this place!

 

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.