Again, walked the dunes this morning. Just a short walk,
mainly to P&P the dog. Ran into another couple formerly from the UK with
their dog who were doing the coast from south to north. Lovely Ridgeback,
about 6 years old who just wanted to sit in the sun. Again, initially cold,
but with spectacular blue skies. Mikey once again loved the run. After
packing up the RV, M&D went into town to check out some real estate.
I instead went out to the South Jetty, to check out the scenery. There's
about a 2-3 mile of 2 lane road that parallels the ocean just this side of
the biggest dunes. A few people having success fishing off of the jetty.
Learned 2 things: 1) the European dune/grass that exists everywhere in
the sand was originally planted around the mouths of rivers to stabilize the
banks. Now it has taken over the dunes and prevents the wind from blowing
new sand inland, preventing further growth of the dunes. Apparently in the
not so distant past, the dunes were just sand, without vegetation, excepting
in the forest islands that the sand had swept around and isolated. The inshore
wind at the top of the dunes closest to the beach was really hard. Apparently
the highest average velocity winds each summer on the Pacific coast are recorded
at this site.
2) In the 70's, something like 41 sperm whales beached themselves at that
site. There is a Greenpeace memorial plaque with info.
Mom and Dad had made arrangements with the owner of a small shop for sale
in old town Florence to tour the place. Apparently he wants $160k or $1100
per month lease with 8 month option to buy. The total yearly taxes were around
$1k, while the monthly utilities were about $40. Small town living. Essentially
a one bedroom with a full kitchen, dining/living room, half bath on first
floor, in addition to front 1/3 of first floor converted to "sales" space.
There's also a medium sized utility room between the 1/2 bathroom and the
kitchen and a complete attached workroom in back. There is a large bedroom
with complete BR on second floor. The second floor space immediately above
the "sales" space has been converted into storage space that because of the
roofline, you'd have to be a gnome to crawl through to use. No garage, with
concrete slab in back long enough for an RV and a short car. There is actually
water, electric and a dump drain next to the house for a complete RV setup.
Per the owner, a new owner would have a difficult time converting the store
to serve food, due to lack of parking, specifically a handicapped spot.
Even though it is directly across from the biggest public lot in the area.
Oh, well.
Drove further down the coast, through Reedsport, across the Umpqua River,
then through North Bend, Coos Bay, Bandon, Port Oroford (see photo), then
stopped to spend the night at the Arizona Beach RV/camping and fishing site.
Most of the spots are on the beach, with a few in a former meadow. Dad
fished in a pond, supposedly stocked with trout and crappie, only to find
it completely fishless. As were the creeks, which were nearly dry. A big
hatch was ongoing, but nothing. The beach is spectacular. More tomorrow,
which will be a laundry day.
