Winchester Bay

Passing though Bandon, OR I saw a couple of interesting things.

A rather robust Tesla charging station. I wonder how a small costal town can support this installation?

Henry the Fish created from beach trash.

I have a nice view of Salmon Harbor here in Winchester Bay. Dry camping is $17 to $23 a day. There are weekly and monthly rates. The nice thing is they are not full right now. No looking into my neighbor's window.

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One of the things that makes this a favorite stop are the fresh Umpqua Oyster sold at the end of the harbor.  

One pint of deliciousness

And a tasty diner they are

7/30/15

A Disaster Averted

Coming up the coast I noticed a vibration when I applied power to Serenity's drive train. I was worried that I had a bad U joint. I planned to have it checked out when I reached Coos Bay, a city large enough to have a RV repair shop. This is peak season on the Oregon coast and shops often tell you that they can get to you in two or three weeks.
The first shop I checked with told me it would be 9 days till they could look at Serenity. At the second shop, LTM Truck and Rv Repair, Lonie told me someone would take a look in a bit. Herb confirmed that I had a bad U joint and proceeded to repair it. Hooray!

Herb pull out the drive shaft

The damaged U joint

Pressing out the damage bearing

Replacing the drive shaft

I shudder thinking about the catastrophic damage the drive shaft would have done if it had come lose.

7/30/16

Boondocking Bliss

With the West melting in a triple digit heat wave, I headed for the Oregon coast. The high today a brisk 68 degrees.

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Camping with a million dollar view

Beating the Heat

I am moseying north along the magnificent and cool Oregon Coast. The refreshing temperatures here sharply contrast with the triple digit heat just over the coastal range.

I spent two nights, one day enjoying the ocean views.

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RVing at its best 

The view, the view!

Point Arena

Hot Hot Hot, I am moving north along a much cooler coast. I am boondocking near the Point Arena Lighthouse. There is very little traffic after the lighthouse closes at 4:30. It was a very quiet spot with gorgeous views. And it was COOL.

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7/21/16

Making Queens

I am visiting my brother and his lovey wife Ann. I accompanied Don yesterday when he helped a fellow bee keeper, Mike, promote queen bee production.

Step one - Find the queen and remove her from the hive

Looking, Looking ........

There she is. The one with the short wings

Step two - add many many bees to the hive. Mike is over crowding the hive to create a situation where the bees may swarm. When this happens the bees first reaction is to create new queens by feeding the larvae royal jelly that they secrete from a gland.

They take bee covered frames out of other hives and knock them off into this hive.

Over crowding

Step three - find larvae that are less than 24 hours old and put one in each plastic cup shown below.

The larvae are white

Don and Mike setting up.

Mike uses a minuscule scoop to extract the larvae

Success. 

Larvae ready to be returned to the hive

In all, Mike returned 80 larvae to the over crowed hive. He figures  80% of the larvae will become queens.

Mike will create Nuc Hives with the new queens and sell them to people that want to start a new hive.

Jean Baptiste

Upon reaching the Lolo Pass and remembered  that I have traveled the Columbia River several times and visited Fort Clatsop a couple of times. I decided to turn south and visit with friends and family. Adelle told me that I should watch for Jean Baptiste's grave.
Sacajawea was crucial to the Corps of Discovery successful journey. She traveled from Fort Mandan to the Pacific, all the while carrying her infant son Jean Baptiste. He traveled the world and explored the west until is death in 1866 here on the Oregon Trail.  grave  42.951968, -117.339194

7/5/13

Travelers' Rest

The Corps of Discovery arrived at Travelers' Rest on September 9, 1805. journal "We camped on the bank of a creek which runs into the Small River about 2 miles below and bottoms of cotton timber. Smooth handsome plains on each Side of the this creek, and pleanty of choke cherries. Mountains of Snow back to our left."  John Ordway
Lewis and Clark camped here again upon their return journey, July 3, 1806.  journal

Of the hundreds of camps the Corps made on their journey, this is the only location we know for sure they camped at.

One of three fire hearths

Lead

The latrine provided the final piece of evidence that the Corps of Discovery camped here

Clark used two common treatments for the men's aliments. Bleeding and Dr. Benjamin Rush's Bilious Pills, commonly called "Rush's Thunderbolts."  They were a powerful laxative containing mercurous chloride. They caused severe diarrhea in a matter of minutes. 

Traces of mercury vapor were detected in the excavated latrine,  July 2002.

How Traveler's Rest may have appeared in 1805. Photo taken 1890

Lolo Creek today. 

7/3/17