On our last full day here in Coos County, we took a drive up the south fork of the Coquille River to the town of Powers. Back in the foggy and distant past, Peggy and I thought about possibly living in Powers when we got real old. We bought four residential lots with a former house that bordered the river. We gave the funky house to the local fire department for a practice burn and, at that time, the parcel had three water and sewer hookups, all allegedly properly capped by the fire department when cleaning up the ashy remains of our former house.

Skip ahead about 20 years and we decided to get sewer and water service going on the parcel again so we could park our RV on our property for a few weeks a year. When we contacted the the local authorities about the sewer, they said we had no sewer connections. The same story was given to us for the water. A protracted feud/negotiation/coddling series of sometimes heated discussions ensued. When we finally got the city to respond to our inquiries about the sewer, they ran a camera up the sewer line and found that, indeed, we did have sewer connections. In order to find the exact location of the sewer stub, an employee took a city mower to a part of our parcel and, hidden in the dense undergrowth, found not only the water but a water system leak they had been hunting for two years. At this time, the city’s arguments and positions about our utility hookups became untenable.

In the last two years, we have been having lengthy and often fruitless phone conversations with the Powers municipal entities in attempts to get sewer and water installed but a few months ago we received a call from the new city utility kingpin that both sewer and water stubs have been installed. We went to Powers today to see if they were lying.

To get to Powers, we drove north on OR-42 for about 15 miles until we got to Myrtle Penis where we turned back south along the east bank of the south fork of the Coquille for 18 miles on a road called 542. It is a twisty route since it follows a river through a steep mountain range. We ambled along at about 30 miles an hour because the road is not the best quality but it certainly keeps the tourists at bay. It is fortunate we were moseying along at 30 because the scenery is fantastic.

We finally made it to Powers and it turns out that the utilities have indeed been installed. Unfortunately, we heard not long ago that at least one city pundit believed that temporarily setting up and inhabiting our own fifth wheel trailer on our own property might be in violation of a city ordinance but, if we move in, we intend to defy that particular bit of the law. Not far away, many trailers and mobile homes (or wobble boxes) are distributed liberally across the landscape beyond the views from the property.

After checking out our future former retirement residence, we continued up 542 for about another 20 miles of just stunning scenery to a U.S. Forest Service campground at a place called Daphne Grove where we stopped and settled in for a picnic lunch alongside the river. We returned home after lunch by the same route, admiring the abundant river views, waterfalls, steep mountains and lush forest of this gorgeous part of the world. It is a very nice drive but not for those in a hurry. We didn’t travel very far today but it took us about 6 hours to do it.

See photos. Click away, https://photos.app.goo.gl/6XD1T1i6PzWRn82x9

Peggy inherited some property in the city of Coquille a few years ago but we really had no idea of what it looked like and we were only vaguely aware of its location. Coquille is the county seat of Coos County and that is no idle descriptor. Today we went and found the acreage although it is hard to see due to the vigorous growth of vegetation which is amply provided with rainfall about 9 months out of 12 every year. Coos County gets around 40 inches of rain a year. After consulting some neighbors, we found the parcel and Peggy decided to wander onto the property to take a look around. That turned out to be an impossible task at her age because she is no longer young enough to wield chain saws or automatic machetes and the brush is impenetrable without them. We did scope out the boundaries of the property on two sides but were foiled on the other two.

After this partial success, we decided to take a spin along the Coquille River going downstream on the north bank. Once we made it to the ocean, we turned around and went upstream on the south bank. The roads are a bit funky but the scenery is magnificent. We spotted a raccoon, a skunk, some deer, a pair of turkeys, about 600 dairy cattle and lots of Stellar’s blue jays along the drive.

We intended to find a malt shop on our return trip but were unsuccessful. Undaunted, we stopped by a local supermarket in Myrtle Point (which, strangely, is called Myrtle Penis by non-Penisers) where we picked up some very tasty Umpqua brand ice cream and hauled it back to the trailer. This locally-produced substance took a heavy hit once we got it back home. I don’t know about Peggy but I had what my doctor might characterize as a fatal dose. It didn’t kill me, yet.

There’s a couple pix. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/b9BmE5PXDQf7Br619

Today we took a spin about 40 miles northwest to Coos Bay so we could visit my sister-in-law who lives in a nifty house that looks like a pretty little barn and has a fabulous view of the bay. I was delighted to not only see Katie but also to see her great animals, Robin the dog and Zeus the cat. The three of them are some of my favorite associates.

We hobnobbed for a couple hours with Katie, maintaining a keen eye on her pets who engage in delightful antics when we are not petting them. Robin is a Lab and Zeus is a Maine Coon who weighs only 18 pounds. They are both gorgeous and remarkably well-behaved although Robin, in a fit of fun, broke Katie’s leg a couple years ago and she still limps a bit.

We soon became ravenous so we all piled into the pickup and headed down to 7 Devils Brewery for lunch and some nice porter. They serve pretty good albacore and fries although it came with arugula salad which I think tastes like bitter paint. They also serve the Canadian heart-plug, poutine, which I ordered for the table. Poutine is French fries covered with garlic cheese curds and gravy. It may sound bad but tastes good and there wasn’t a speck left on the plate when we left.

After finishing our conversations and pet wrestling, Peggy and I departed but only traveled about 10 miles south before pulling off and parking outside the Coos Bay Speedway, a 3/8 mile dirt track. Tonight the events were stock car races with many classes being represented. There were tiny old Japanese and American coupes with four cylinder engines that sound like pissed off kazoos when running at full tilt. There were late model sportsmen and modified classes with large V-8 engines that make a terrific noise and crash regularly. One of them flipped over at least twice before coming to rest on its top. The driver came out with a big grin and no injuries. Track management was giving away bicycles to kids this evening so there were hundreds of munchkins seemingly going in all directions in the spectator areas. They had a jet dragster that blew a lot of smoke, deafened many with afterburner use and then screamed down the adjacent drag strip while all the spectators watched with their fingers in their ears.

At about 10:00 PM, they ran the last V-8 race before wheeling the dragster out to the center of the track where an old car was chained to the noisy, hot end of the dragster before being incinerated by the jet exhaust. A fine night. We headed back to the Remote Outpost after all this fun.

We hustled out of Ashland this morning, heading north again. It was only a short drive to northbound I-5 which we followed up through Grant’s Pass before starting a long, slow descent to a turnoff near Winston, Oregon. There, we fiddled around on some back roads before turning west on OR-42 for the run through the Coast Range. About 40 miles later, we turned into the Remote Outpost RV Park in Remote.

This is our third visit to Remote Outpost in the last three years. We keep coming back because this park is the most attractive facility we have visited in almost five years of continuous full-time RVing. The park only has about 25 spaces and a few cabins. However, the owners, Rob & Idi, have worked on the place such that it is like camping in somebody’s really spectacular back yard. All the spaces have full hookups with 50 amp electrical service. The roads are superb. We took advantage of their satellite TV hookup which gave us about 200 channels, including HBO. The grounds are meticulously landscaped with ample shade trees and large lawn areas. There is a lounge where one can play pool, read or watch the Big Game while cooking up a feast in the available kitchen. There is an attractive outdoor pavilion with full cooking capabilities for those nice days. There is an on-site laundry. The middle fork of the Coquille River runs along the edge of the campground. There is a nice stair from the camping area down to the private beach along the river’s edge. There is no place else that we have stayed that even comes close to the glorious surroundings here.

It took us three hours to get here from Ashland, about two-thirds on the interstate and the rest on serpentine OR-42. 42 used to be a terrifying road some 45 years ago when I drove it the first time but there have been many improvements since. It is now a bit wider and some of the really frightening corners have been eliminated but it is still a road to drive slowly. It isn’t just the beautiful scenery – minor lapses in vigilance can result in all of your assets being turned into junk parts in the river far below the road.