A Full-time Life

  • DAY TRIP TO THE BEAUTIFUL OREGON COAST

    Or coast at cook's chasm35 We decided not to park the condo-on-wheels at the Oregon Coast this year, but we took a day-trip last week, just to make sure the ocean was still there.  To no surprise it was  — and it has been doing quite well without us!   

    The first year we moved to Springfield (in 1971), our family spent at least one weekend on the Coast every month of the year.  After that, we took frequent camping trips all up and down the Coast Highway.  Later, when the kids were grown, Bill and I would often go for a weekend and stay in rented cottages or in motels.     We stayed on the Central Coast most often, because it was closest to Springfield.  I think we've stayed in every campground and almost every motel between Waldport and Florence.

    After all those years and annual visits since we sold the house, the Oregon Coast is still a favorite destination.  I can't imagine ever getting tired of it.  

    Alsea falls11On the way to the ocean this time, we stopped at Alsea Falls near the headwaters of its river.  We kind of collect waterfalls (it's a hobby that works well for RVers).  Alsea is a particular favorite.  This time of the year, the water flow is at the lowest, but it was still beautiful.  I like the broad expanse of the cascading water and the flat rocks that are fun to clamber on right up to the bottom of the falls.  The surrounding woods are lovely too, with good walking trails.

    A last look at Alsea Falls, through the trees on the way up the trail:

    Alsea thr window23

    This trip is just one of many ways to get from the Eugene area to the Oregon Coast.  And the pictures below were taken from just one short roadside stop along Highway 101, the Coast Highway.  There are dozens of equally beautiful places to stop and hike. 

    Cooks chasm25 These pictures are near Cook's Chasm, just North of Yachats.  Ocean geyser44 

    This is a sea geyser.  Pounding waves widened a fracture in the rocks making a cave. A hole formed in the roof and formed the geyser, which is called the "Spouting Horn."

     

     

     

  • NO FLY ZONE – DARLINGTONIA WAYSIDE

    Darlingtonia 56This unusual plant eats meat!   It is the Darlingtonia, also known as Cobra Lily, and it traps and digests insects.

    So there are no flies at The Darlingtonia Wayside, a small area set aside as a botanial preserve for the plant.  It is near Florence, Oregon, just across the street (Highway 1) from the Ocean.   

    This wayside stop is just a few yards off the highway.  There's a short boardwalk that takes you past a couple of the swampy areas where they grow. 

    Way back when we lived in Springfield and our kids were young, the Wayside was a favorite quick stop on visits to the Central Oregon Coast.  We hadn't been there for years and years until we took a day-trip to the coast last week.  

    It is still fun to marvel at these weirdly beautiful carnivores.Darlingtonia 53

  • ON TO YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

    Yosemite 075 We left San Diego with some reluctance, because we had fallen in love with our spot there.  We have stayed in other places that feel like home, but at the others there are weather-related reasons that make it easier to move on.  (It is either going to get too hot or too cold — or too rainy — in a short while.)  San Diego doesn't have either of those disadvantages, and It was easy to imagine living there.  But we weren't really ready to give up our full-time roaming life, even for San Diego.   Our first planned stop when we left there was to visit Yosemite — a new National Park for us.  So that made it easier to get back on the road.   

    Yosemite U069 We had missed seeing Yosemite on all of our previous trips to California.  This was a great time of the year for our first visit.  It was still spring, the waterfalls were all active, crowds were minimal and the weather was great for exploring.  Unexpectedly, we found that this National Park has wonderful bike trails throughout and we took full advantage of them. 

     Cars weren't allowed in some parts of the park, which is a good thing because of the huge crowds this park attracts, especially in the summer.  (That's the reason we had never visited the park before.)  There are shuttle vans between scenic stops and we used those as well as our bikes. 

    Yosemite 066

    This Park was incredibly beautiful and even the visitor centers were well done.  Having a lot of visitors pays off.   Like everybody else, we'd seen the iconic scenery in movies and pictures but it was more stunning than we had expected.  We are so glad we got to spend some time there. 

    The downside, though, was that we had to stay about 50 miles away, so we spent a lot of time on the road that week. I don't think another trip to Yosemite is in the cards any time soon unless we find a way to stay closer.  The hundred-mile daily round trip would spoil it now.  (We were younger and diesel was cheaper back then.)

    Below are a couple more pictures of this beautiful park:

    Yosemite NP U067

      Yosemite NP U 063

  • SAN DIEGO

    San Diego from ferry 002 When we left Desert Hot Springs in 2004, we headed to San Diego, which is pretty much the closest place to Paradise climate-wise that we can get to with the RV.  Our park was actually in Imperial Beach, about 8 miles south of Coronado. 

    We stayed at Bernardo Shores, right on Mission Bay.  When we were there (April through mid-May) the Bay was partly drained, but the wetlands provided a great view from our living room window.  Bernardo Shores was an interesting contrast to Caliente back on the desert.  Not only because we had water nearby here, but also because Caliente was a resort with lots of organized activities and Bernardo was quiet (but friendly)with few in-resort activities.  Planned activities are really not needed in this city.  We thought it was fun to have a taste of both kinds of places in one season.

    Panda 057 Although we'd been to San Diego a few times with kids and grandkids when we lived in Oregon, we enjoyed going back to all of the usual tourist stops in this beautiful city.  Old Town, Mission Bay, Balboa Park (even the Zoo), although we did opt out of Sea World.  Some things you really need to have kids with you to enjoy. 

    We did a lot of walking and bike riding.  There was a bike/walking path around the bay and we could get on it from our spot.    It was easy to walk or ride our bikes into downtown Imperial Beach and to the beach itself.  A grocery store was a few blocks away and right across the street from us there was a small strip mall that had a terrific sushi bar and a small natural food store. 

    We caught the city bus right outside the RV Park and that is how we traveled when we wanted to go to San Diego or Coronado.  We also could take the bus across Imperial Beach to the train, and ride it into San Diego and beyond.

    One day we took the city bus to the Mission Bayfront and then walked on to the ferry back to Coronado for dinner, then the bus home.  (The picture at the top of this post was taken from the ferry.)  Tough life!  

    Hotel coronado One time, we threw our bikes on back of the truck and drove to Coronado, then spent the day riding around that very interesting little city.  But the truck didn't move too often from its parking spot at Bernardo Shores.  I think we also took it out a couple of times to stock up on groceries and that was about all. Good public transportation is one of the definite advantages of a big city. 

    The picture below is the Tijuana Estuary. We could walk there from Bernardo Shores.  It was a good place to walk and bird watch.  Of course, you can see right into Mexico here. 

    Mexico from san diego 034 

    We often meet RVers who will not go to California.  There is a rumor that you are required to have a CDL (professional trucker's license) to drive a big RV there.  Maybe you have to if you are licensed in California, but you do not if you are from another state.   Some people are afraid of the big cities as well.    We have never been hassled for driving our "big rig."  I think Bill would be capable of passing the CDL (if there's no age limit ;>) ) but he doesn't have to have one in South Dakota.  As far as San Diego, we loved the advantages of the city, were never afraid and never had any problems.  Of course you have to be alert and maintain your "street smarts" as we all should everywhere. 

    Bernardo Shores is high on our favorite list.  Really,the only reason not to go back is that we still do want to see as much of the country as we can.

     

  • DESERT HOT SPRINGS, 2004

    This is another of our blasts from the past (about places we've lived in our RV before we ever heard of such a thing as a blog).   We spent some time in Southern California in late winter/early spring 2004.  It was really a good place for us to be at that time.  

    Cal hot sp rv resort We stayed six weeks at Caliente Hot Springs RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs.   This was a beautiful resort.  I kind of hate to recommend places where we stayed so long ago, because you never know what could have happened.  But if it's anywhere near as nice as it was then, it's definitely worth looking at.   Caliente has beautiful swimming pools fed by natural springs, all kinds of classes and activities, and fairly good sized spaces. The resort really is an oasis in the desert.  

    Until it got too hot toward the end of our visit, we were able to walk on paths through the desert behind the resort.  We were there in late February through early April — the wildflowers were beautiful that year.

    Mt jacinto tram Outside of the resort, activities were plentiful as well.  We took the tramway to the top of Mt Jacinto.  Here you are in the snow on top of an evergreen-dotted mountain looking down on onto the floor of the desert.  It is a spectacular view.

    We went to the Palm Springs Follies.  It's an old fashioned musical and vaudeville extravaganza that is incredible entertainment.  (We went back to this theater last winter when we were staying at Fountain of Youth Resort — a much longer drive the second time, but very well worth it.)  The performers in the Follies are all older than 55 — several are older than 80.  All of them are professional dancers and singers — retired from their previous careers in show business and back to perform again.  They're an inspiration, the show is beautiful and the comedy will brighten your day.  Here is the website, which is a pretty good show itself!  Click here:  We love the Palm Springs  follies     

    One interesting thing about the Palm Springs area was that it was way easier to find a good restaurant than to find a good grocery store. There were tons of "senior" coupons for restaurants, so it wasn't even terribly expensive to eat out.  Still we get tired of restaurants after a while and it seemed as if we spent quite a bit of time hunting for a grocery store.  Apparently most people who vacation in Palm Springs don't cook. 

    Joshua trees89 One of the best things we did for ourselves while we stayed at Caliente was to drive to Joshua Tree National Park several times.  This park is one of our favorite places.  It is a quiet and peaceful place to walk and meditate and we really needed that atmosphere at that particular time.  We also found a place outside of Palm Springs called Coachella Nature Preserve that was a good place for nature walking.Keys ranch windmill _1187

    Desert Hot Springs was a good place for us, with just the right combination of social and quiet activities.  There are many other RV Parks in the area besides the one where we stayed and several that we visited looked equally as nice. 

    We would go back, except there are all those exciting new places out there to see.   

  • THE LITTLE BOAT

    "There is nothing- absolutely nothing-
    half so much worth doing
    as simply messing about in boats."
    (Rat:  The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame)
     
     
    Boat at fern ridge lake 024

    Here's Bill messing about with our little bay boat.  It's moored at Fern Ridge Shores RV Park, holding its own with the big boys that are docked here.  It's not really a lake boat, but we have had fun putt-putting about this summer.   If we're home in the afternoon and the weather is cooperating, we take it down the Coyote Creek Channel to watch birds, then tie up and enjoy cocktail hour "on board".  Frchannel58

    We've had this little boat since 2001, when we spent our first of two full summers at Winchester Bay, near Reedsport.  We still owned our house in Springfield back then and were trying to make up our minds to sell out.  

    So we put the Fifth-Wheeler over there at the beautiful Salmon Harbor Marina RV Park.  We were there for only about a week when we came down with a serious case of boat envy.  This boat was the result.  We have taken most of our kids, all of our grandkids, and a lot of their friends and ours out on the Bay to catch crabs.   So much fun.  This is one of our sons and a grandson and grand-daughter with Bill when we were on a visit back to Oregon and Winchester Bay a couple of years ago.  Cooking crabs 1131  

    Crab cooker 1136

    There's no crabbing on Fern Ridge Lake, of course, but we have fun with our little boat anyway.

     

     

     

     

    Below is a link to a blog that has some terrific pictures of Fern Ridge and the kind of boats that are really made for this Lake. They were taken by Anne, an RVing friend of ours.  They live on the Lake when they aren't RVing. 

     

    Anne Dryman pictures

    It's beautiful in Oregon in the summer.  If you don't live here already, you should  visit.

  • EGRETS, WE’VE HAD A FEW…. (updated OCTOBER 2011)

    FOR WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY, this repeat post.  A few weeks ago, ourwonderful  host Springman suggested that we consider re-posting bird pictures from before joining WBW.   This post was originally written the summer before we went to Florida for the first time …. and we see lots of egrets there too. 

     

    Egret reflections When there's a group of birders, the good spotters give directions by saying things like (for instance) "I have an orchard oriole in the tree at about 3 p.m…"  Or "Do you have the blue heron at the edge of the marsh?"   It really helps beginners like me to know where to focus the binoculars (and to learn what it is that we're seeing).  I  don't know why they always say "I have.." instead of "I see..".  I guess because when you spot the bird, you have added it to your list of birds.

    During a winter in Port Aransas Texas, one of the resident experts at Paradise Pond asked me if I had egrets.  I misunderstood her for a minute and ever since then, a certain Frank Sinatra song has run through my head every time I see one of these beautiful birds.  So I thought maybe I'd take the song out of my head and put it in yours.**  (See note below if you need any help.)  

    Cattle egret in tree 0933 We have actually had quite a few egrets. 

    There are cattle egrets in fields along the road in lots of states. (These are the smaller cousins of the family.) When we were in Louisiana, they were in their beautiful breeding plumage.  Louisiana is also where we saw the most Great Egrets that we've ever seen in one place.  This was at Bird Island where the McIlhanely Family pretty much saved the species from extinction. 

      F r egret 13 There are even a few of these beautiful birds here on Fern Ridge Lake.  Which is why my head is singing that song again.

       It's harder to get a good picture here, but this is an Oregon egret flying over the marsh at the edge of the Lake.

    The ones in Louisiana and Texas posed better for us:

    Bird Island 090Bird Island Bird Island Egrets 097

    Egret fulton 100_0066Our RV Park in Fulton TX

     

    ** "My Way" Lyrics by Paul Anka.

    "I've lived a life that's full
    I traveled each and every highway
    and more much more than this
    I did it my way.

    Regrets, I've had a few
    But then again too few to mention
    I did what I had to do
    And saw it through without exception
    I planned each chartered course
    Each careful step along the byway
    And more much more than this
    I did it my way."

      

     

  • THE STATES WHERE WE’VE STAYED

    In our  “Full Time Life” we’ve been lucky to have slept (for at least one night) in 48 of the 50 states.  And explored at least a little bit in each one of them.  There are still many places we’d like to go and many places we’d like to go back to again.  

    But we loved every bit of the time we did spend exploring on the road while living in an RV.

     

     

    MAP FOR PAGE


     

     

  • A CORNBREAD STORY

    Cornbread  Yesterday I baked a perfect pan of cornbread.  Now, normally this would certainly not be blog-worthy news.  But just this one time it really is.  Because earlier in the day, "we" installed our NEW CONVECTION OVEN!  (Click on the posts listed in Food and Drink category on the right to read the whole saga of our microwave troubles.)  This time we have changed brands completely and we have a Sharp.  It fits in the space where the old one was!  It works like it is supposed to!  Life is good!   

    We like cornbread and there is a kind of family history to it that we enjoy thinking about while we eat:

    Bill's dad was the oldest in a family of nine children, growing up during the Depression.  He told us that cornmeal was a family staple when money was scarce. He remembered that on several birthdays, the cake was a big pan of cornbread with a candle in the middle.  This actually might not be as sad as it sounds, because this grandmother, (who was still alive and healthy well after our children were born) was a wonderful cook — she worked some in restaurants and scout camps — probably not too different than cooking for her family had been.  So if anyone could make cornbread into a celebration, she was the one.    My father-in-law still liked to eat it all his life, so I guess it must have been good. 

    We like it too — but not for birthdays!

    There's no recipe to accompany this Food post, because I just use the one that's always on the box of cornmeal.  I wish I had Bill's Grandmother's though; I'm sure it was better.

  • FEATURED WEBLOG

    Badge-tp-featured-weblog-v4 

    Early in July, I had an e-mail message from a very nice guy at TypePad named Jonathon Swain.  He said that our blog had been selected to be featured on TypePad's home page, if we gave permission.  We were tickled to do so.  Today, our blog was listed as a Featured Weblog. 

    Thank you TypePad for featuring us.  We plan to keep on traveling and blogging and hope our posts live up to this honor. 

    We'd love to have suggestions for places readers think we shouldn't miss in our travels.  Let us know in the comment section or by e-mail (listed at our website:  FullTime-Life.com)

    For new readers:  We usually only post once a week.  The rest of the time, we're out doing the things we blog about.