Is that picture April or August?

Good evening, Campers! It’s a tired Silver Cliche’ with you again tonight and tonight we are in Coos Bay, Oregon. Specifically, we are at Sunset Bay State Park. Coos Bay is about 1/3 of the way up the coast of Oregon from the California state line to the Washington state line.

I’ll keep it brief because we had a long day. It’s about 4 1/2 hours of driving from Fort Klamath to here as the Corvette flies. 5 1/2 as the Airstream loafs. To break up the drive we made two planned stops. I’ll talk about those in a minute.

The view out the window today for the entire trip looked like the monthly pics from the wall calendar of a chainsaw company, sometimes the pine trees were in the distance with beautiful farms and snow capped peaks:

Thanks to Mrs. C’ for that pic! Other times they were in your face like this shot:

It was a day filled with natural beauty. The constant was the trees. The trees, trees, Trees TREES! Enough with the snow capped mountains, withe water rapids, scenic vistas, curving mountain roads and rocky outcroppings. We get it... Oregon is a state of endless rugged natural beauty. And the smell of pine? The last time I experienced that intensity was when I knocked over an uncapped bottle of Pine Sol in a small bathroom. Enough already. Don’t you have any ghetto neighborhoods, junk yards or half empty strip malls here?

We broke up the trip with two worthwhile stops. The first was to meet Richard and Renata at their farm Alpacas at Lone Ranch. We connected with them through Harvest Hosts. They graciously offered to have us visit even though we were not staying the night. What a lovely couple and what amazing animals they raise. They had probably 30 alpacas ranging in age from a few weeks to 20 years. The alpacas range from a light tan (almost white) to black. Several were a “sequoia bark” cinnamon color. We clearly had a lot in common with Richard and Renata and as a result we took up far too much of their time talking about similarities in our lives and viewpoints. If we every make it back to southern Oregon (how hard could that be... we are only 5,400 driving miles and 6 weeks from home!) we are sure to ask them if we can come back and maybe shovel alpaca poo to help repay them for the time they took to allow us a glimpse of their corner of America. Here are a couple of shots of the alpacas at Lone Ranch.

Thank you, thank you Renata and Richard! We were so impressed with the business and life you have created at the ranch and by the amazing animals you raise and care for there! If we make it back we’ll bring our own shovels.

Another 45 minutes ahead we stopped at a legendary I-5 institution, the modestly named bakery and restaurant “Heaven on Earth”. They are known for their cinnamon buns. They come in various sizes from extra large to the size of a garbage can lid. Clearly they know their customer. Between the front door and the hostess stand here’s what’s waiting for you.

We rolled into Sunset Bay at about 5:30. I did get a chance to walk with the dogs and snap some pics. Here are two that are badly copied from the larger versions which are available on Flickr at https://www.Flickr.com/photos/silvercliche.  Check out the real ones!

Ok, that’s it. I’m beat... need some shuteye. Tomorrow we’ll kick around Coos Bay. Come back to see what we learn, see and do!

Later...