In which Sid and Doris see two people fall out of a Stearman biplane, and then drive Highway 101.
This morning Sid awoke to his iPad offering a memory from 2011. Cycling in Tibet to Chinese side Everest base camp and then down to Kathmandhu. Better memories than experiences.
Back to 2021 with “S” on mascot duty in the middle of the bench seat for three.
Sid and Doris are in Oregon on their way to Aceta Point light house to see Matt tip the ashes of his parents into the Pacific from a friend’s Boeing/Stearman biplane. The rendezvous is for 11.00 and what with the hotel not taking our cards and us needing to stop for fuel we are on our minute. There on the beach is a Peckham crowd looking expectantly out to sea so we have not missed the show. Matt does not walk the wing, which is probably best for all concerned.
Nothing will do but we must all walk up to the light house. And it is National Lighthouse day with Rangers and volunteers there to tell us the history of the light and about the local black bears, bobcats and seals (all of which have gone somewhere else). Nor do we see moose by the side of the road.
The speed limits are such that we are not really holding up the traffic, much of which is as unwieldy as we are: giant RVs, raised suspension trucks, trucks pulling caravans. We had a wieldiness test as we saw the turn off for Aceta Point a bit late. Brake hard, in a straight line, turn in. Mmm, we’re not sure.
There may be many photos of bridges on this trip. An information board tells us that The Spans of North America by David Plowden is a very informative book on the subject.
The Pacific coast is not very built up so we need to choose a town to stop. Coos Bay (Pop about 16,000, largest town on the Oregon Coast) has hotels, and besides the next town with a choice of hotels is four hours away. More by Country Squire.
At first sight Coos Bay is struggling with the lumber port closed down, but they are making the best of what they have with plans to orient the town towards the waterfront that had been all industrial. There are fish restaurants, information boards, tugboats up on shore for children to roam over, a boardwalk and a very specialist museum of railways for logging. S and D are in like Flynn.
On the log pusher boat is a sign that says you may climb aboard if you do so cautiously. Sid is cautious and clambers inelegantly up over the transom.
You may enjoy the very charming Log Drivers Waltz which celebrates the art of bringing the logs down on the rivers.
We roam through the cabooses and get talking to one of the volunteers. The chances of getting their 1922 2-8-2 Baldwin steaming again are very slight. But they do host a rally of rail inspection cars, or “speeders” on local tracks. This makes doing up old boats look quite rational. In fact, just to delay you for another few minutes, here is a video of the speeders, because it is strangely fascinating and therefore truly Bonkers.
Doris has to be prised away from the old railroad maps, possibly she is hoping they will help plan the easiest possible cross-Rockies route.
On practical matters we need a data contract and SIM card. We stand in the Verizon shop for a long time. Then we go away. In another phone shop we are guided to the new AT&T office in a new development on the edge of town. They are a lively lot and explain the options. Doris starts to calculate the value of each tariff in detail. Take the big one says Sid, and now we can stream music into the car. Do try music from the band ‘Asleep at the Wheel’, though Sid’s been awake so far though already we have intimations of the Dead Wives Transport Society.
Walking back from AT&T to our motel we find more logging exhibits, this time a steam powered winch on a log sled.
We find a micro brewery bar and diner with views over the water, herons flying by. So Coos Bay has done us OK. Although we do find when we get back to the hotel that once again the Ford Country Squire is dwarfed by his parking companions. A post on the subject of pickup/trailer back-to-nature camping may follow later.
“Better memories than experiences.” It is a good thing we misremember and abridge our memories. It is necessary for us to start subsequent Epic Journeys!