We said goodbye to our neighbors, Orman & Susie Claxton on Monday morning and were on the road by noon.  Our destination for the day was the Elks RV Park near Florence, Oregon.  We got the tip for this park from Orman & Susie and it was also mentioned by Mary Langord (Alpine Coach Association) on Facebook.  Thanks guys… and it was great seeing you again O&S!

The sky was overcast when we left Tillamook and after a few miles it got worse.  It seemed like we drove straight into a fog bank that stayed with us for most of the drive.

We pulled into a rest area with a view of the ocean (picture above) but it was too foggy to see very much.  I noticed a couple that had stopped in the rest area in their car and they were taking pictures of our rig.  The guy walked over to ask about how we towed the truck.  It turns out the couple was from Switzerland and the guy was fascinated by the set up.  I answered his questions, he spoke pretty good English.  Then Stilla jumped in and we were all talking German.  The Swiss couple was doing a 3 week whirlwind tour, trying to see as much as possible of the West coast in the short time they had.  We parted ways after exchanging pleasantries.

Here are some pictures we snapped while heading down the Pacific Coast Byway:

I caught a picture of the billboard for the Sea Lion Caves that we heard about.  We intend to visit there on Tuesday.

The sun actually peeked out once or twice during the trip.  I couldn’t help but notice that lots of the trees on the beach-side of the road were all permanently deformed from the constant wind from the ocean.

The shocks on the Coach sure got a good workout today!  Many stretches of Hwy 101 were full of bumps and dips.

At one point – after missing a nice looking pull-off with a view because we were traveling too fast to get slowed down – a second pull-off came into view around a corner… I made a split-second decision to turn in.  After I was already committed to the entrance, I saw the sign “Not Recommended for RVs or Trailers”.  Now, I ask you, Why can’t they put those signs before the entrance?  Anyway, we had to disconnect and jockey around to get back out of there, and darn it – the view wasn’t even worth it.  This makes the second time in our travels over the last 4 months that we had to unhook the truck to get turned around somewhere.  Oh well, Life is still Good 🙂

We did  another stop later at this pull-off where we could look down the cliffs at the ocean.  It remained foggy, cold, and sometimes drizzly all day.

We got to the park shortly before 4 PM.  Travel distance for the day was about 110 miles.

It’s $20 per night for full hook-ups but no sewer.  We can dump on the way out.  We paid for two nights and made sure we had the option to extend if we wanted without having to move sites.

I’m starting to see a theme here on the West coast with these Elks Lodges and their RV Parks… this will be the second RV Park we’ve visited that is not physically located at the Elks Lodge itself. However, I understand that the Florence Elks Lodge that owns this park does in fact have more RV parking at their lodge in town.  This park is really nice!  Maybe even nicer than the one we just left in Tillamook.

For the rest of the day, we just chilled out and mostly stayed inside.  I heated up some of those pre-cooked pork ribs for dinner by putting them in a pan on the stove… it worked out pretty well.  It was just too chilly outside to break out the grill.  Plus, who really likes to clean the grill up after all that BBQ sauce gets everywhere?

Well, that’s all for now folks… check back in to hear how our Tuesday sight-seeing goes…  Stilla is still on the look out for whales, and we hope to check sea lions off our list if we visit the caves as planned.