Pre-Rally Rallying

These pictures were taking on our little excursion to Cannon Beach the other day. It's a fun little town with a beautiful beach. The big rock, called a sea stack, in the center photo, is called Haystack Rock. It's 235 feet tall, and is the third largest ocean monolith in the world. Steve didn't know they kept track of such things, and neither did I, but there you go. At low tide there are wonderful tide pools at the rock, and there are even ranger-led tide pools walks there. We hope to do that next week. Puffins and other birds nest on the rock itself. We ate at Mo's, which is right on the breach and is justifiably famous for its clam chowder. The third picture is a view of where we're caming. The state park is located on that sandy spit. Just the other side of the spit, which you can't see very well in the picture is Nehalem Bay , the town of Nehalem, and the Nehalem River. We took our kayaks and paddled in the river yesterday. Very nice! Lots of little vacation rental homes on the lower part, even some permanently-moored houseboats, and then civilization disappears the farther upriver you get.

When we got back to camp after our paddle, the View/Navion population had swelled from about 10 rigs to about 25, with people continuing to arrive every few minutes. We rarely see another RV like ours on the road or in campgrounds, so to have so many in one place is really fun. They've come from as far away as New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, and Texas. Lots from California and Washington, and a very nice couple, Ken and Mary, from Green River, Wyoming. Most are retired folks, of course, but a few are still working and/or quite young. Andy and Jodie from New Y0rk, who look to be in their 40's, sold their house and business 7 months ago and are full-timing it their Navion. Kate, who apears to be late 60's, travels alone with her dog, Goggles. So does Sue, who travels with her whippet and Rhodesian Ridgeback. She is into coursing, and travels all over the country with them to attend coursing events. Gordon and Sandy are bikers--motorcycle and bicycles--who keep a Gold Wing in Europe to travel on. They have followed the Tour d'France and the Giro d'Italia, and ridden up Alp Duez (not sure of the spelling), which is one of the famous peaks in the Tour. John Ruch has hiked the intire 2000 miles of the Appalachian trail; it took him ten years. Everyone is so nice and fun to talk to. It can take 20 minutes to take your trash to the dump area because you keep geting waylaid by someone and stop to visit.

Official registration starts this morning, but the first official event is the potluck cocktail and hors d'oevures at 5 p.m. But I've already been on a beach walk with Claudia, have a trip into town planned with Sue later this morning, and a bike ride with Gordon and Sandy this afternoon. Whew!