Garibaldi is a sport fishing town on the north end of Tillamook Bay, a very different place than the tourist spot of Seaside. I'll spend the weekend here then head to Newport. I've been watching far too closely the fires in Northern California. It was looking pretty good this afternoon, but the forecasts called for increased winds. There've been some great rain showers around here lately, I wish they would move south...

The more I look at the situation in Sonoma, the worse it gets. While I am still several days away, maybe even weeks, there is plenty of fire danger in Northern California to make me hesitant. It would be easy to be on 101 with fire to the front, fire to the rear, mountains on the left, the sea to the right. Even if they get rain and the winds stop, they won't be able to absorb tourists for a while. I'll continue watching, but now my plan is to...

It rained a bit last night, and there are plenty of light showers around here, but further south it's still dry. I'm watching the fire situation in Sonoma and Napa, as well as other Northern CA counties because that's my planned route. I won't go into an area under direct threat, nor show up when folk are recovering. Assuming the fires don't happen in Oregon, I'll go east from Coos Bay and pick up I-5 at Roseburg if there are still fires ahead...

It was a very quick drive to get here, adjacent to Seaside. Very pretty beaches here, and quite an over-the-top tourist shopping district. I'll be here a few days to see downtown Seaside, but also waiting out some rain showers. My goal for this leg of my trip is Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, which looks like it could be problematic. The last thing I expected was a fire hassle in Napa and Sonoma counties. Note that it's both grape and cannabis...

There is an rv shop in Seaview, and I wanted to stay at Andersen's in Long Beach. Unfortunately the entire shop's staff was out of town, so now I'm staying here until a rain event passes through. Long Beach is a tourist trap that looks like all the others along the coast. The actual beach is quite long and very driveable, a good alternative if you want to drive around the downtown area. Tonight is a negative tide, so folk are here to go clamming...

I dropped into an RV shop to finagle some advice about my slide. I was hoping that an experienced eye could pick out something simple and obvious that I missed. "It's probably the gear box" was the guess without tearing everything apart, the same thought I had yesterday. The slide goes about a foot and stops with a loud rattling noise. Then, it does not come in all the way at the bottom, same noise. So going down the road the bottom is out a few...

I'm at the Quinalt Casino in their duneside RV parking overlooking the ocean. All dry camp, but free. Only about one of five spaces is occupied. It is as a warm a day as you could want in August, the skies are clear, and the sea is flat. For sure I'll go beach driving tomorrow. There aren't a lot of people of here, but most everything appears to be open for now. This is very reminiscent of the Gulf Coast, except the houses along the beach are...

I noticed while looking around on Passport America that the casino near Shelton has an RV park, available at 50% discount, so I'm trying it out tonight. Nice park in a handy location. But my slide didn't go out. I've battled my slide for years, but this time I can't figure out what is wrong. I'm suspecting the motor gearbox. I'll head to Ocean Shores tomorrow and pull into a repair shop, then wing it. Good weather ahead, though.

The doctor was cool with my taking off for the winter as everything checks out. But he wants to go back to work in the spring when I return. I'm feeling great, but with some tiny aches and pains related to the surgery. And it will take a while to get the strength back in my legs I've lost over the summer. Next week I'll pack up and head south, along the coastline. Highway 101 is my most favorite route anywhere, and I've yet to fully explore it....

The surgeon asked if I wanted a small procedure or to go for it, giving him leeway to improvise along the way. I wanted him to do as much as he could in one go. He started out fixing the rather urgent problem in the right leg, then took some more time to go look at the left leg. I could tell it worked right away, but from the looks of the incision I knew I'd have a long recovery. Everyone that looked at me was happy with things, and it was an...

Today I went to meet a new doctor to discuss a surgical approach to opening up my arteries in my right leg. The stents and stuff I've done thus far were prep work for this maneuver, but I didn't know when it would be needed. An ultrasound (aka doppler) done last week showed some serious trouble, and my right foot is a real pain because it isn't getting enough oxygen. I want to get this done so I can make a decision about traveling this year. All...

All summer it's been the occasional smoke in the sky, though that's not a typical thing at all around here. At first it was because of fires in BC, now it's Montana and Oregon. When I went out this morning the truck was covered with ash, and ash was flying around the air. I hadn't seen that since Mt St Helens erupted. Meanwhile the temperatures are in the 80 and 90's. Very unusual.