Florence, OR

  Sunday, September 4, 2011

Yesterday we took a ride north roughly 20 miles to meet up with our new friends, Rick, JR, Cody, Melissa and Mark. They were out riding in the morning and said the winds were low. Down by us, they were still pretty high. It is not enjoyable on the beach when you get exfoliated from head to toe.

JR

We hung around their camp site for a while before heading out. They are really truly nice people. We feel as if we have known them for a very long period of time. The effortlessness between all of is wonderful. We all seem to just click.

random campers

Mark and Melissa's campsite in Florence

Once out on the dunes we had a blast! We frequently followed Rick. He has the most supped up Polaris amongst us. Although Mark and Melissa comes in a close second.  JR and Cody have 4 wheelers - all jacked up. They all are dare devils and we loved it. Without being with them, Tommy would not run at 40 mph up and over 50 foot dunes where you cannot see the other side until you are airborne at the apex.

Rick, Tommy, JR and Cody

The races

Mark and Melissa

 We stopped for a long interval at a certain point where everyone races up and down this one dune. It was entertaining to say the least. It was close to 90 feet in height. It has a grade of at least 40 %. Of course Tommy just HAD to try it himself. I wanted out, but before I could say anything he had the accelerator nailed to the floor. It WAS fun, but then we had to come back down. Freaky, freaky, freaky! It was like experiencing a Disney ride only in the back of your mind you do not have the assurance that nothing bad will happen. 
We did this several times before going on in another direction. Tommy chuckled out loud the entire time.

Cody...AH to be 20 again!!

We ended up on the beach. The ocean was a lot calmer than the day before and shimmering like diamonds. Just beautiful. We came upon a Sea Lion sunning himself. He was big. He was cute. Im not really sure if it was a he or a she, but I took some video and lots of pictures. The wildlife association came out and posted signs all around him to protect him from people and dogs. Apparently this happens often on this beach.

It was a treat for us to see up close and personal, without it being in some sort of performance show. It was in its own element and doing what it wanted to do. We just loved it.

 
After 3 ½ hours of riding, which BTW, goes incredibly fast, we headed back to their camp. It was now around 7pm and we needed to go home and feed our animals. We said our goodbyes, again, and left off with - we’ll see you at the end of next week when we come by your house. (We are passing by their town on the way down to San Francisco).

Tommy and I had a quiet evening at home eating incredibly good poppy seed chicken I prepared earlier.
Today we will ride again, on our own, in Spin Reel Dunes down by our campsite. If nothing outstanding happens today I will not bore you with more of the same pictures…..

JR and Tommy

At the summit. You cant see the down side.

When you see this place in actuality, it’s so spectacular that you cannot stop taking pictures. You want to capture it all in your mind. But it is so vast and extraordinary - pictures are my only hope. Oh, and on a side note; we might have to buy yet another camera - yup, #3 this trip, sand is stopping the shutter from opening and closing properly. We’ll see after today!

Thanks for reading and enjoy your day off work tomorrow! If you are not aware, you can click on each picture and they will enlarge for you to see better. This blog, more so than other blogs gave me fits about placing the pictures so they are completely out of order, sorry!

Coos Bay, OR

Thursday, September 1, 2011

We landed in Coos Bay, OR Tuesday around 6pm. We had reservations for 2 nights. We were frantically searching all week for reservations through Labor Day. Everything was booked. Especially being on the coast.  This happened to us last year, you think we would have learned.

When we arrived at the  Horsfall Beach National Forest Campground and pulled into the parking lot where we were to check in. we were shocked to learn that the parking lot was the campground. Everyone gets a parking space! A huge parking space, but still it’s a parking space. Very, very strange.  We didn’t like it at all. There were no hookups which we knew going in and didn’t have much of a choice because we waited too long to reserve anywhere else.
\Just after we found out the parking spot number we were assigned to Tommy, as usual, made friends. We met JR, Mark, Melissa, Cody, and Rick. They are professional campers. They were loaded with toys. Unbelievable toys. Lots and lots of toys. After talking and laughing a lot with them we had dinner together. Mark cooked spaghetti with this really tasty homemade sauce from tomatoes he grew in his garden at home.

Rick

JR

Cody

We sat up until after midnight talking and drinking by the fire. The next day Tommy and I drove into town to purchase a flag for the Polaris. It is mandatory. When we got back to camp we all took a ride out into the dunes. They were a blast!         

Don't make me do it again...please!!!

                                                             I have a lot of pictures and 2 videos. I screamed a lot! We got stuck once. The guys we were with really know what they are doing. They had to pull us out and guide us up some of the hills. The pictures do not show the depth correctly. You cannot see the other side while coming to the summit and all of a sudden you are airborne and descending rapidly. What an adrenaline rush! We loved it!!!
 

I cooked dinner for all of us that night. Italian sausages with 3 different colored bell peppers and onions and petite cut tomatoes. We served it over white rice and it filled all our bellies. After dinner we took a night ride.

straight down

at the crest, can you see the TINY Polaris at the bottom?

Stuck again!

CRAZZYYY!!!!

Talk about scary! We have always been proud of our little Polaris but compared to the ‘boys’, we were wimpy. We got stuck again! They have what you call paddle wheel tires. We do not. They have a major lighting system. We do not. They have 84 horsepower. We have 58 horsepower. They have a wench. We do not.  They saved our butts. We did not, lol.

The night ride was the best. Rick guided us in and out of the forest. Up and down curves of the sand.  We drove all over the steep dunes….in the dark. Fording some streams. Stopping short at the shore line of the lake because it was so dark you cannot detect water until upon it.

Today we discovered that last night on our wild ride we broke an axle along with  bearings and the grease seal. We were very lucky though, the sand did not get into all the other components. We also found out that because of the axle being broken we only drove with one wheel pushing us. That is why we got stuck. Hmmm.

We moved camps today because I could not take the parking lot any more. We had to pay for two different camps at the same time but to me it is so worth it. We are now in Eel Lake State Park. We are residing on  a great big site with lots of trees. We dropped the Polaris off this morning on our way here, and picked it up around 5pm. All fixed. Well, $461.00 later, but tomorrow we can ride again. Wahoo!

LOL> Cody showing off!

the forest at night

JR

stuck AGAIN!!!

sand all over the lens

This morning when we left  the parking lot we exchanged names and numbers with our new friends. It turns out we will be passing their town of Redding in CA on our way down to San Francisco and plan on stopping in for a visit.

Enjoy the pictures, we have had so much fun taking and experiencing them. I hope the video comes through.. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the long weekend and stay safe!