Newport Cafe. Need I say more? That’s where we ate lunch yesterday after an arduous couple hours of wandering around town looking at stuff. Actually, the stuff we were looking at was in the thrift stores we found. We also went to a Restore Store where I bought a portable air tank that still had air in it. I was so happy because last week I almost bought one half as big at O’Reilly’s for twice the price. And it didn’t come with air already in it. I just need to spruce up the old tank with a wire brush and some paint. I just hope that when it’s totally filled with air that I can still pick it up. It had 50 pounds of air in it when I got it which didn’t seem too bad, but the gauge indicates it will hold 160 pounds and I’m not sure my tiny little biceps are up to it.  We’ll see. 

That brings us back to the Newport Cafe. After all that shopping we were hungry so started looking for places to eat. As soon as we turned the corner back on to Highway 101 the Newport Cafe was just right there beside us so it was kind of like an omen the at we should eat there. It’s a small place and we weren’t sure if we would be able to find a place to sit. But, stepping out of our routine of opting for a booth in the back, we took two seats at the counter. We were lucky to get them because there are only five of them. I sat next to a lady, whose name I did not get, who is a deep sea fisherperson. She was ingesting eggs, hash browns, and a ribeye steak before heading out to sea to catch black fish. Don’t know what those are, and didn’t ask because it really didn’t matter. She told me lots of stuff about how she catches fish that I knew I’d forget, and I did except for the black fish info. That, and her boat is 36 feet long. Oh, and she strings out about 10 miles of line from fifty buckets of line that has segments with hooks about 3 feet apart. Those are dropped with an anchor and a buoy so she can find them later in the day. I agreed with her that it’s a lot of work to haul in 10 miles of line full of fish. Must be brutal, but lucrative.

The Cafe employees were all young men wearing baseball hats, with flat brims, that covered the top part of their ears. They all looked like they had either just finished a rap video or had just cruised in on the skate boards. They were all incredibly nice, very pleasant, and served us one of the best hamburgers (me) and  melts (Diane) we’ve ever had the pleasure of wrapping our lips around. It’s a place we highly recommend in case you ever find yourself in Newport and are in need of a terrific meal.  

When we were done eating we came back to the park and wandered around in the beach in a daze. We’ll, I wandered around while Diane sat on a log and watched me pick up all the brown rocks on the beach that no one else wanted. I found it interesting that I’m the only one on the beach that picks up brown rocks. They’re so pretty. Way prettier than the black ones. 

Another coup for the day was that the satellite antenna found some satellites. I put the antenna on top of the trailer theprevious  evening to try it out but couldn’t get it to work so just shoved it off to the side so I could get on the ladder. Yesterday, on a whim, I tried it again and discovered that I had apparently pushed it out of the way in just the right way so that all the HD channels showed up. Now we’re roughing it with HDTV. 

We also rode our bikes all over the park. I think that was this morning, but it could have easily been yesterday afternoon. I’m pretty sure it was this morning, though. It was a nice long ride during which I discovered a dire need for air to fill my back tire. I either gained a lot of weight recently, or the tire has lost some air, because it was embarrassingly low during our journey. Diane’s was fine, so I’m going with the weight gain.  Now I must go on a diet.

Today we went to Lincoln City just for fun, and to visit the Goodwill store, which gave us a perfect reason to have lunch at the buffet in the Chinook Winds Casino. It was great, and not a bank breaker like those in Las Vegas. It only cost $21.00 dollars for the both of us. Cheaper than the fast food places we’ve recently visited. 

After lunch, we stopped by Goodwill on the way home. As we left Diane said she had set a time limit of 4:30 pm and we left at exactly that time. 

Now we’re back in the trailer for our last night away from home for a while. It’s the place to be because it started raining cats and dogs on our way back. It’s good to be in a trailer when it’s raining.

Now I must go to bed. 

Today was a real lazy one. Although we got up at a reasonable time, we didn’t leave the trailer until afternoon when we decided to visit Depoe Bay. While pondering that short trip we just sat and read our books. We read a lot, just sitting here in the quiet. 
It must have rained last night because there were puddles on our picnic table.  By the time we got in the truck the sun was trying to shine, and by the time we got to Depoe Bay it was in full bloom. Sunshine everywhere. Our objective was lunch at Gracie’s Sea Hag restaurant.  We always eat there when in the vicinity because it’s good.  I have the Crab Louie, and Diane has fish and chips. It’s the best around. 

Before going in to eat, however, we sat on a bench overlooking the inlet to the bay from the ocean and we were treated to a terrific show by a pod of whales. They were spouting all over the place and some were rolling to show us their fins and others gave us good looks at their tales. It was pretty awesome.  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen whales off the Oregon coast. I forgot to mention that on the way through Depoe Bay on Monday we had to stop at the light and saw whales spouting so we knew they were in the area. What a treat. 

We returned to the park around 4:30 pm and sat on the beach for an hour, huddled in our winter coats watching the little children play in the freezing water unfazed. I actually remember those days when I thought the Pacific Ocean was warm. Brrrrrr. 

When the wind picked up, making the kiters happy, we returned to the trailer to warm up. Before going in I reconnected the satellite dish just for fun (it didn’t work yesterday) and it worked. Diane’s ecstatic!  It works. Our southern exposure is severely limited so I’m surprised it worked. Now we can watch HGTV all night. Great, right?

I’m quitting now, before I get into trouble. 

Don’t forget to revisit this weeks entry next week because I’ll be adding photos. In case you’re interested. 

So, here we are at Beverly Beach on the glorious Oregon Coast. We arrived yesterday afternoon when it was bright, sunny, and warm. The space (C7) had all the necessary features (water, sewer, electricity, cable TV) but it was only 32 feet long. The trailer and truck need more like 45 feet of space.  But, we parked, got the trailer stabilized and spent a pretty good night in the quiet. Right behind our spot is an ongoing bank stabilization project to keep the park from falling into the creek behind us. Big trees coming down and big rocks being added. Fun to watch but noisy when they got to work around 9 this morning. 

People gathered in the closed spot next to us to watch the chaos. So, I went to visit the Rangers to see if there was something a little further inland that was available. I though it was worth a shot because we watched a lot of big rigs filing out of the park.  Luck was with us and Taylor, my Ranger, closed us out if C7 and logged us into G36. Doing this meant we’d have to rough it without sewer and TV. There was an outside chance the satellite receiver might work but it didn’t. 

BUT, G36 is a 65 foot long pull through spot so it was OK. We just decided we’d skip showers and only go to the bathroom every second time we felt the need. Now, considering our advanced age, that last bit was a stretch so we decided instead that we’d only flush every second time. After careful consideration we decided the heck with it, we’re on vacation, so we’re just going to use the bathroom whenever we want to. As many times as we want to.  When the tank gets full we’ll deal with it.

Sadly, when removing stuff from the truck I discovered that my treasured iPad has a cracked screen. It still works good, but it’s very unsightly and I just know that it won’t be long before I suffer a sever, life altering injury while swiping through one of my books. So, I’ll be looking at new ones sometime soon. 

Speaking of books … I downloaded a new one from iBooks yesterday and it doesn’t work like all the others. I checked. Instead of advancing a page forward when tapping the ride side of the screen, it goes back one page. Just the opposite of all the other books I have. Also, when viewing it in two column mode, you must read the right column first, then the left one or it doesn’t make any sense. So, I put it in scroll mode, which I don’t like but will use because I like the book. Very odd behavior. 

This morning, before changing spots, we went to Wal*Mart in Newport to get Diane some socks because her feet were cold and she didn’t bring any and I wouldn’t let her use mine. I knew right where Wal*Mart was because I had to go there yesterday to get an RV water regulator to replace the one I left laying on the garage floor at home. After returning “home” we went to the beach and took a nice long walk.  According to Diane’s Fitbit we went 3.5 miles. Pretty good. I came back with a nice load of rocks to mess with. The first one I found was an agate. The rest weren’t. 

I have photos for all the things I mentioned, but can’t add them from my iPad. If I remember, I’ll add them when we get home next month. Until then. Stay safe and don’t believe everything you hear on the news. And, I lied about my socks. Diane can wear them any time she wants.