On our last full day here in Coos\nCounty, we took a drive up the south fork of the Coquille River to\nthe town of Powers. Back in the foggy and distant past, Peggy and I\nthought about possibly living in Powers when we got real old. We\nbought four residential lots with a former house that bordered the\nriver. We gave the funky house to the local fire department for a\npractice burn and, at that time, the parcel had three water and sewer\nhookups, all allegedly properly capped by the fire department when\ncleaning up the ashy remains of our former house. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSkip ahead about 20 years and we\ndecided to get sewer and water service going on the parcel again so\nwe could park our RV on our property for a few weeks a year. When we\ncontacted the the local authorities about the sewer, they said we had\nno sewer connections. The same story was given to us for the water. A\nprotracted feud\/negotiation\/coddling series of sometimes heated\ndiscussions ensued. When we finally got the city to respond to our\ninquiries about the sewer, they ran a camera up the sewer line and\nfound that, indeed, we did have sewer connections. In order to find\nthe exact location of the sewer stub, an employee took a city mower\nto a part of our parcel and, hidden in the dense undergrowth, found\nnot only the water but a water system leak they had been hunting for\ntwo years. At this time, the city’s arguments and positions about our\nutility hookups became untenable. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIn the last two years, we have been\nhaving lengthy and often fruitless phone conversations with the\nPowers municipal entities in attempts to get sewer and water\ninstalled but a few months ago we received a call from the new city\nutility kingpin that both sewer and water stubs have been installed.\nWe went to Powers today to see if they were lying. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tTo get to Powers, we drove north on\nOR-42 for about 15 miles until we got to Myrtle Penis where we turned\nback south along the east bank of the south fork of the Coquille for\n18 miles on a road called 542. It is a twisty route since it follows\na river through a steep mountain range. We ambled along at about 30\nmiles an hour because the road is not the best quality but it\ncertainly keeps the tourists at bay. It is fortunate we were moseying\nalong at 30 because the scenery is fantastic. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe finally made it to Powers and it\nturns out that the utilities have indeed been installed.\nUnfortunately, we heard not long ago that at least one city pundit\nbelieved that temporarily setting up and inhabiting our own fifth\nwheel trailer on our own property might be in violation of a city\nordinance but, if we move in, we intend to defy that particular bit\nof the law. Not far away, many trailers and mobile homes (or wobble\nboxes) are distributed liberally across the landscape beyond the\nviews from the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See photos. Click away, https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/6XD1T1i6PzWRn82x9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading