This was a day of challenges and disappointments. For quite some time I have expounded upon the great chicken fried steak breakfast that can be found at Dean’s, a greasy spoon in Clackamas, OR. I eagerly awaited our return to Troutdale so we could make the half hour drive to Dean’s where I could feast on their formerly stellar recipe.
Something has changed. When my chicken fried steak was plopped down in front of me today, I could see something was amiss. The coating texture was changed. The consistency of the crunchy coating had changed. Something was fishy. The sausage gravy was still the same but the whole product was fundamentally different. When I queried the staff about the new recipe, they all gave me the fish eye and vowed that nothing had changed.
I can still recommend Dean’s as a great place to eat a hearty breakfast but their chicken fried steak, which until recently was my #1 pick for this pedestrian fare in the whole U.S.A., or at least that part I have visited, has been removed from the lofty spot and been replaced with the dish of the same name at Jake’s, in Bend. I am crestfallen.
After our adequate but hardly superior breakfast, we embarked on what turned out to be an odyssey through metropolitan Portland to a shoe store called Oddballs. They specialize in footwear for those cursed with feet larger than size 13, filling a niche that is poorly supplied by ordinary retailers. We were making good headway on our crosstown route until we left the east bank of the Willamette River and crossed the bridge into deepest, darkest downtown Portland. There we encountered not just one but two parades and the cops had all the roads blocked from downtown to NW. We wandered crazily through streets near the river but were foiled in every attempt to cross the the amazingly serpentine parade route. We tried flanking the parade route by driving immediately adjacent to the Willamette on the west bank but we were stymied by traffic enforcement Nazis. We attempted a long west end sweep but ran out of roads going where we wanted to go. Eventually, through bitter frustration, we drove south, directly away from the parades for several miles and then tried to get on I-5 north to bypass the parades. I-5 was stopped, mostly by an abundance of vehicles that had been caught in the downtown parade nightmare and were attempting to escape it crossing the Willamette back to the side where there were fewer parades and blocked thoroughfares guarded by armed Gestapo.
After a few very slow miles, we were able to access NW Portland, again crossing the Willamette but in a different spot. After some disgusted exclamations and more U-turns, we made it to Oddballs. Management’s policy must have changed somewhat there because where lots of big, ugly Frankenstein boots were prominently displayed on previous visits there are now many forms of burglary shoes and shoes for the dead. There were four boot possibilities. I selected one of the limited options and the shoe nerd went in the back only to return to tell me they did not have my size although he had some that were easily identified as way too big. We left with some socks.
Peggy then suggested a Dick’s store and found one quite nearby that we could access without crossing any parade routes. Amazingly, we found a couple of types of clodhoppers that I will wear and feel good. I left with a pair of Danner’s.
Disgusted with taking most of a day to buy a pair of shoes and eat breakfast, we agreed to return to the Barbarian Invader, naps and ample liquor supplies. Peggy already enjoyed a short power nap and I’m thinking about maybe dozing off myself.
We will be out of here tomorrow. I like the location of Sandy River RV but it has a few drawbacks that count against it. There is a skinny, 20 mph road in through Historic Troutdale coming into the park and a bridge too narrow for two cars to pass going out the other way. There are multiple adjacent train tracks and, based on the number of horn blasts I heard during our stay, Burlington Northern Santa Fe is doing a big business. Their engineers are quite dutiful when required to sound the regulation 2 longs, a short and a long blast at each of the myriad nearby grade crossings. The Sandy River RV wifi sometimes works but not if some Republican pulls his enormous rolling estate up alongside your trailer, blocking the antenna. Another weird item – the park management has admonitions and threats printed in their literature forbidding the use or possession of marijuana within their facility despite pot being perfectly legal in the remainder of the state. Just old jerks, I guess.

Today was a travel day so we disconnected from the utilities at the Blue Ox in Albany and struck out northbound on I-5. The weather was not looking very friendly when we left and, other than one blinding downpour, we traveled in periodic drizzle to our destination.
Near the place where the Portland traffic turns extremely hellish, we bailed off of I-5 and took the sneaky loop up I-205 which turned out to be not as sneaky as we anticipated. Traffic near Clackamas slowed down to a crawl for a while before it stopped. Many drivers on this stretch of road seemed dazed; their last-minute double lane changes, exiting right from the left lane and randomly stopping in high speed traffic seemed to be perfectly normal to their alabaster-white heads.
We crept along for a few miles and soon came to I-84 eastbound which, fortunately for us, was the road we needed to complete our journey into Troutdale, a suburb community maybe 10 or 15 miles from downtown Portland. We pulled into thrice previously visited Sandy River RV Park. They offer full hookups, cable TV (we just use the satellite dish instead of hooking to cable), good wifi, very tight RV spacing throughout, a barely audible proximity to the freeway, two nearby airports, adjacent BNSF rail tracks and they are located about 500 yards from Historic Downtown Troutdale which is two blocks long. We ate in Troutdale during a previous visit at an alleged Chinese restaurant called Taste of Village. It should have been called Taste of Converse Basketball Shoe or Taste of Pond Scum because the food was downright shitty and we also received service with a grimace. Go elsewhere.

We were slugs today. We ate too much (although it was very tasty) mostly loafed around the Blue Ox. Our only excursion out into the world was to sneak over to a local Dari Mart for a pint of ice cream followed by a quick stop for diesel on the way home. It was nice taking a day off from doing nothing.

Today we faced a mixed bag of stuff to do. I spent a couple hours straightening out my backlog of blog uploading caused by our lack of internet communications in the last few campgrounds. The last place we had wifi was in Yreka back on May 19. Peggy went to the big laundry facility here at Blue Ox RV and graciously washed all our clothes.
However, we eventually emerged from under the miserable cloud of toil and returned to unfettered fooling around. Late in the day we hopped into Charlotte and drove over to the Willamette River for a cruise upriver (south) to Eugene. Recent rains and expensive irrigation have created an emerald wonderland along the river. Handsome farm houses and tidy pastures are sprinkled between sections of both conifer and hardwood tree patches along the route. It is very bucolic.
Once close to Eugene, we took a short drive up the lower section of the McKenzie River that empties into the Willamette in Eugene. Again, we passed through some more very scenic territory. Those old enough to remember the movie “Sometimes A Great Notion” will probably recollect the house the Stamper family inhabited in the movie and it can be found here.
As dinner time approached, we drove back into the Springfield/Eugene area to dine at a Chinese food buffet with Peggy’s sister and her now full grown kids. Sean, Peg’s nephew, and his mate, Veronica, brought along their newborn, Orion. He is a very healthy-looking, absolutely delightful little guy that smiles a lot. He was unafraid of me and my massive bulk, instead choosing to offer an evening of entertainment to the crowd. He is not a whiner. He is also a handsome little fart. I like him. Peggy’s other nieces joined us with their mates and all seemed to have a pretty good time. We certainly had pretty good food.

The various Santiam Rivers were our exploration target for today. We left Blue Ox RV in Albany, turned left and headed east on OR-20 toward Lebanon. We passed through Sweet Home and towns with other pithy names as we continued into the South Santiam River watershed. Above Sweet Home, OR-20 get skinnier and more serpentine. There are very few trucks using this route over the Cascade Mountains, probably because the road would be terrifying in anything larger than our pickup truck due to numerous hairpin and 20 mph curves. To compensate for the squirrely road, the scenery as the road goes toward the pass is beautiful. The maple trees, providing shady canopies covering the highway, are clothed in thick layers of moss. Roadside waterfalls decorate the bluffs along the route. The River cascades west through rocky gorges. There are stands of old-growth timber. It is gorgeous.
Our Garmin became quite confused as we went further east up the Santiam Highway. Either the tall roadside trees and serpentine road blocked the device from communicating with satellites or our old GPS system is failing. Once we made it to the top of Tombstone Pass at 4236′, our normally-accurate Garmin indicated we were at an elevation of 3526′, a substantial difference. Either the Garmin or the guys who made the sign at the summit are assuredly gunnybag.
Once we started down the descent on the other side of the pass, we drove through big expanses of crumbled lava with a great view of Three-Fingered Jack, a strangely-named mountain east of us. We passed over the ridge between the two Santiam Rivers and followed OR-22 down into the watershed of the North Santiam River. This branch of the river has been dammed in a couple spots, forming gorgeous blue reservoirs. We passed through towns with strange names like Idanha and Minto before emerging back into the gently rolling hills and flat pasture lands of the Willamette Valley. Near the town of Sublimity, we turned north toward Silverton.
Silverton is a very attractive little burg with handsome older wood-framed residences. A lot of Craftsman style architecture here. Also here is one of Peggy’s nieces, Michelle, and we stopped by her place for a short visit. She has a nice place on the edge of town and was nice enough to take us on a driving tour of her pretty town after dinner. The number of truly gorgeous houses here is amazing. There must have been some affluent folks here back in the day because they sure built nice houses. The downtown is quaint, a river flows right behind the businesses on the main drag and the food we bought here was tasty. I would like to return to this part of the world again sometime.
Check out the scenery along the way. Click here

Today was a travel day. We hooked up the trailer, stopped by the waste dump for a visit and headed north on US-101. A mile past the Siuslaw River in Florence, we turned east along the north bank on OR-126 toward Mapleton. At Mapleton we took the turn to stay on 126 for another 35 miles or so before we took a risk and turned north on what is shown in our atlas as “not RV-friendly” Poodle Creek Road. The atlas is wrong. It’s a good road.
Eventually we turned east again on OR-36 to Junction City where we turned north on US-99. After about 15 miles we jogged east a bit and got onto I-5 northbound to Albany. We have pulled into a big private RV park called Blue OX which has great full hookups, paved spaces, cable TV and terrible wifi. Peggy has some relatives around here and I’ve got a couple, too, so we will spend the next few days seeing if we can’t make them suffer through a visit.
We also popped into an oil change place late this afternoon to change Charlotte’s blood. It would be terrific if someone else did all our vehicle and trailer maintenance but I have been unable to find any suckers willing to do my work.

We were lucky and had no pressing tasks to complete today so we went exploring. We left South Jetty TT and jumped onto northbound US-101 for a bit. In the town of Florence, Peggy got a sudden inkling to go to the north spit of the Siuslaw River. Without hardly any getting lost at all, we soon found ourselves parked at the end of the north breakwater where we got out to check out the river. There was a stiff breeze today so there were whitecaps out in the ocean and in the river/estuary. It is beautiful out there.
After the north spit, we headed east into the coast range. Our eastbound route took us up the north fork of the Siuslaw River. Close to town, there are some homes and ranches built in the flat parts of the gorge but as we continued northeast, the buildings sort of crapped out and the valley got skinnier. The road has ample curves; 10 miles up the road only means about 4 miles as the crow flies. About an hour into our route we ran out of pavement so we turned south on Mapleton Hill Road which also soon ran out of paving. We wound our way up the ridge on switchbacks that made Peggy nervous. Eventually we came out on top and started the descent down into the valley of the main fork of the Siuslaw River. We emerged at OR-36 where we turned east again toward the dinky town of Swiss Home where I did some logging back in the old days. The return road back to Mapleton and Florence passes through what must be some of the most naturally beautiful territory in Oregon. It is spectacular.
Once back in Florence we went to Bi-Mart for supplies and filled up with diesel because we are headed into the Willamette Valley tomorrow.
Check out some Oregon views by clicking here

Today we headed north on US-101 from South Jetty RV, over the bridge at the Siuslaw River, through Florence and then settled in for a leisurely cruise up a particularly stunning portion of Oregon’s Pacific coast. The sections of this serpentine byway between Florence and Newport offer shattering coastal views, tortured and twisted trees and shrubs trained by relentless winds, moss and fern-filled grottoes with small waterfalls and dripping edges, Small residences that look like hobbit houses and a few scarce stores are spread out along the roadside. The bluffs overlooking the ocean are impressive. There are many turnouts along the highway so gawkers like us can let working folks pass us before their next birthday.
Based on map observations I would say the Oregon coastline is anything but straight, instead being a serpentine series of lumpy projections into the Pacific. However, folks that name stuff and call out strange landmarks have given some of the really big rock projections into the ocean a designation of “Cape.” The Oregon coast is lousy with capes, with names like Ferrelo, Sabastian, Blanco, Arago, Foulweather and a passel of others. Today we stopped in at Cape Perpetua which is an especially impressive and massive rock formation jutting into the ocean about 10 miles south of the coastal city of Waldport. The highway winds through spruce forests sprinkled with wind-twisted alders, ample flowers in bloom and jaw-dropping views of the coastline. We pulled out almost everywhere. There were fat sea lions far below the road barking out their come-hither pleas to possibly interested females. Bright white lighthouses and associated wood houses contrast vividly with the emerald green vegetation and black, bare rock. The offshore surf looks violent. The rivers entering the ocean are crystal clear.
At Waldport we ran out of time and turned around for our return back down 101 to Florence. The scenery on both sides of US-101 looks just as amazing going south as it did going north. We pulled out at almost all turnouts on the ocean side on our way south. A stop at a local Fred Meyer store for supply re-stocking completed our trip for today. It was a gorgeous drive.
Check out some of the views by clicking here

We are settled into our RV spot at South Jetty TT south of Florence, OR, so we had time today for a little spin down the Oregon coast to Coos Bay. Some of Peggy’s acquisitive family lives there so we kinda had to sneak in, hoping to remain invisible to her myriad relatives and/or their minions.
We instead stopped at my sister-in-law’s (Katie’s) place where her house is perched on a ridge with an exquisite view of Coos Bay. Today in the Bay there was some kind of local event (actually, the event was centered behind the Indian waterfront casino where Weyerhauser’s sawmill used to be) and old-fashioned sailing ships were luffing around the bay below us although I spotted some suspicious-looking prop wash emanating from the sterns of a few tall ships.
After a great afternoon hobnobbing and playing with Robin, Katie’s snuggly retriever, we were able to get Katie to join us at the Captain’s Choice, a seafood restaurant in nearby North Bend. We had some nifty seafood. Their chowder is deadly to willpower and restraint. Everybody should try some. We got away for around $35.00 for three people.
After dinner we hopped back on US-101 for the 50 mile run back up to Florence. When I was younger I lived in this part of Oregon and drove up and down this road maybe 100 times but did not fully appreciate how spectacular the Oregon coast was. It is still a stunning drive between Coos Bay and Florence but we happily have the time now for slow-motion exploration. There was nothing ugly to see today except maybe us.
There’s a picture of Robin. Click here

Today was a travel day. We will regret leaving the Remote Outpost RV Park. They are located in a gorgeous place along the Coquille River. The campground is maintained by Edie and Rob, the owners, and they do a terrific job. There is a pavilion campers can use with full cooking facilities (stoves and barbecues – all stainless and shiny) in addition to cushioned seating, a massive fireplace and all of it under a heavy timber framed roof. The grass is mowed everywhere. RV sites have full hookups. The price is very reasonable. There are cute cabins for non-RV types. The roads are terrific. The wifi is a bit touchy but the camping spots near the pavilion have good internet access. About the only drawback is the nearby OR-42 but it seems deserted at night so sleeping was easy. This is probably the best maintained and visually attractive park we have ever stopped in during our journeys, to date.
We pulled the Barbarian Invader on OR-42 northbound through Remote, Bridge, Myrtle Point and Coquille before joining up with US-101 a few miles south of Coos Bay where my spouse was born and where I worked for 10 years logging for Weyerhaeuser back when saber-toothed tigers roamed around. We continued through town and passed through North Bend and Reedsport before pulling off at South Jetty Thousand Trails across the Siuslaw River from Florence, OR.