Looking Out for Tsunamis and Enjoying Wine, While Rose acts as Camp Ambassador

During our camping trips this summer, I’ve been mentioning some of the weird advice and rules you see from the Park Service. The winner at Tillicum was a “Tsunami Warning” that said “You are in a Tsunami Hazard Zone. If you feel the ground shake, move quickly to higher ground. Do not wait for an official warning.” Sorry, but I think by the time I feel the ground shake from a tsunami wave roaring in, the game is just about over. I do like the part about not waiting around for the gova’mint to save us, though.

Keeping it classy…while in camp

In these campgrounds where the sites are in view of one another, your fellow campers can observe what you’re doing. It’s important to maintain a classy image, even in the woods or at the beach. We usually buy inexpensive wine, the kind that comes in a box. Each trip we also buy one expensive bottle of wine. We keep the box of wine in the tent. When the expensive bottle has been consumed, we go into the tent and re-fill it with the cheap wine. Then take it back outside to the picnic table. Any of your fellow campers watching will see you pouring your glass from the classy bottle.

And if it should happen that your neighbors come over to your camp to socialize, they probably can’t tell the difference between the cheap and the expensive wine, anyway.

An Oasis on the Road

Let’s face it, many of us are addicted to the Internet and other connected devices. On our journey, we did not have Internet access (and sometimes not cell phone service) at some of the campgrounds we stopped at. In fact, the first week of our trip, we were without Internet access. No way to check our business emails, which we knew were piling up by the hundreds each day. Another issue is laundry. We tried washing clothes primitive-style in a bucket at our camp, but that is very labor intensive and the clothes like the whites don’t really get that clean. So we were very pleased when we went into the town of Waldport, Oregon near our camp and found a nice big laundromat that offered free Wi-Fi. While we waited for the clothes to dry we could answer email and check out what was happening in the world. Two problems solved.

Truth be told, we were without TV for three weeks and didn’t miss it at all.

We found out on this trip that McDonald’s and Jack-in-the-Box restaurants also offer free Wi-Fi, which will come in handy on future trips.

“Sociable Rose” — the Campground Ambassador

Sociable Rose is what we started calling our Irish Setter Rose a long time ago because she loves to meet everyone, grownups and little kids alike. On our vacation at the beach in Oregon, we stayed at a campground for a week, right around the 4th of July. We went for long walks on the beach and through the campground. She met lots of people–and they would remember her when they saw her the next day or several days later.

With little folks, their eyes would light up and they’d says something like: “Hi, Rose, how ya doin’ Rose”.

She has a special quality. In a person we would call it charisma, the ability to draw other people to you. I’ve never had a dog who has this quality to the degree Rose does. We call her a dog ambassador, because she represents the canine world very well.

Even on days when she walks a little stiffly because of her arthritis, she is always glad to say hello and meet new people.

A Long Drive, But Worth It

We drove nearly 1,400 miles to find paradise on the beaches in Oregon. It was worth every mile and we can’t wait to go back again!

Strange But True…

In Oregon, you aren’t allowed to pump your own gas. That’s right. You have to wait for an attendant to come over to your car and pump it for you. You hand your credit card to the attendant and he swipes it for you in the card reader as well. We stopped at a station right across the border from California and I started to pump my gas as we normally do. The attendant rushed over and said we couldn’t do that. And we might get…yelled at by someone at a station.

I thought maybe he was just having fun at a tourist’s expense, but it turns out that is really the law.

—Posted By Brian