Oregon Coast and Beyond

July 21, 2026: I left Washington early in the morning with a desperate desire to get out of the damp, wet air. It's supposed to start raining tomorrow, too, and continue for the next week. Of course. This is normal in western Washington. Get me outta here! I thought I'd drive east to Hood River where it is drier and warmer, and do a hike I've read about. 

Four hours later I'm forced to pay a bridge toll to get into Hood River, the temperature is 100 degrees, and access to the hike has been blocked. What??? This hike is well-advertised all over the internet! I searched online for a tourist center hoping they might have information, but there is nothing in Hood River. Great. The heat is humid and suffocating. I'd rather be damp. I started driving west again through the Mt. Hood area and the temperatures decreased slightly at higher elevations, but the air was thick with forest fire smoke since the whole area seems to be ablaze. I once again traversed the highway with the spectacular in-your-face views of Mt. Hood, but I could barely see the mountain through the haze of smoke. That's how thick it was.

Four hours later I was back in Tillamook (eight hour total driving time for the day!) and I crashed at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company overnight parking field. It's very busy here packed with RVs, but quiet.

July 22, 2026: I read about the Sitka Sledge hike just twelve miles outside Tillamook. It has two loops, one to the beach and another along side the estuary. The information said one would see more birds than anywhere...I saw one duck and that's it. It was a nice duck, but.... Beautiful hike. I kept thinking even when my ankle felt a little sore, Damn! I'm so thankful to be able to walk let alone hike! And with that thought, I just keep going longer than I should!

Of course, I went exploring which took me on another trail in the woods. I could hear the ocean waves rumbling to the west. Or is that thunder? It rained off and on with spurts of lightning in the far distance so it was hard to tell. I kept wondering where I would end up on this heavily wooded path and how this spur-of-the-moment adventuring was probably not a good idea. I'm always taking off and getting lost! I found a trail that spit me out at the beach and I walked a half a mile along the shore to another trail that led back into the woods. I laid around at the trailhead parking lot for a while recouperating, did some errands in Tillamook, and then drove out to the Cape Meares Lookout for an overnight. There the wind howled and the fog rolled in covering any views there once were. I expected rain for most of the night, but other than the heavy mist, no rain.

July 23, 2026: Cold and cloudy then the sun came out in the afternoon. I spent the morning at the library reading. I'm out of freebie books so I just grabbed interesting ones off the shelf since I can't check them out. I got hooked on one called Keeping Lucy. 

Tillamook Library Book Bench
Too bad they don't clean the cement around it! Eeewww!

I can't decide where to go so I won't go anywhere until I get tired of being here or get inspired to be somewhere else. The rain is supposed to return in a couple days.

I was planning to overnight at the Cape Meares Lookout again, but the guy in the camper with the dog that barked all night last night pulled in right next to me. Oh, no, I'm not doing that again! I moved just up the road to this little pullout - same view, different angle, but very small space so if I'm lucky no one will try to cuddle up close and share. I'm just not good at sharing! This is the ultimate advantage to living in a van - got horrible neighbors? It's really easy to move, get rid of them, and never have to see them again! Good-bye thoughtless, rude, dog-owning idiot!

Clear skies and I have it all to myself!!

I have to say, I think Oregon is the most unfriendly state I've been to so far. Until this summer, Maine was the worst. Now, I haven't been to Florida and I've heard it's hard there, too. Before arriving I asked Oregonians who visit the coast for their holidays if the coast is too crowded during the summer, and they all thought it wasn't. I'm scanning some of the locations I've overnighted already planning to return to the good ones and now some have big, red NO PARKING symbols over them. The cities have ordinances that don't even allow Walmart or Home Depot to let you park. It's very limited. In addition, if one parks on the side of the highway, often the locals will drive by early in the morning and blare their horns. I guess they resent having to get up early for work and want to make sure everyone else is miserable. They don't know I'm already awake. If the temperature wasn't so cool, I'd leave. I'm sure that is why everyone else is hanging out on the coast.

July 24, 2026: Lots of clouds today. Woke up to thick fog from the ocean. Very quiet night.

I went back to the library and finished Keeping Lucy. Libraries, as long as they don't stink of mold or perfume, are a great place to hang out on a cloudy day or just to kill time. I need to find another good book. 

I checked out some gluten-free bakeries or rather bakeries with gluten-free options. One bakery had tiny gluten-free donuts priced very high. There were only three left. I'm not a donut person. To be fair it was late in the afternoon and they were soon to close. The second bakery had gluten-free zucchini bread! I was so excited and bought a piece, but the texture indicated it wasn't completely baked. Eeeewww! It had a nice taste, just slimy. Eeeewww!

Late afternoon, I headed back to where I overnighted last night just east of the Cape Meares Lookout. Very quiet, especially for a Friday night. I'm always worried on the weekends the locals will take issue with us free-loaders. Honking is minor, but I've read plenty of stories of drunks harassing nomads in the middle of the night knocking on the van demanding they come out. I don't want to chance it. Thankfully, it was another quiet night.

July 25, 2026: Drove to Newport and headed to the Oceana Natural Food Co-op for groceries. Passed the Farmers' Market and stopped to look. There was a guy selling and sharpening knives! I replaced my once very sharp chef's knife with a new one about a month ago. The new one isn't very sharp!  So very disappointing! I thought I'd give this guy a try and took the old knife to him. For $7, it's just like new!!! And just as sharp as new! I made a salad for dinner, my thoughts drifted for a split second, and I chopped off the tip of my left index finger!! Here it is on the dash of my van for your macabre pleasure:

Yes, that is the actual tip of one of my fingers!!! This blog has gotten pretty boring with a minute by minute account of me doing very little so I thought I'd spice it up! No blood on this finger tip in the photo. It was a very clean sharp (!) cut, but seconds later it was gushing and continued gushing for too long!

Prior to chopping off body parts, I found a wonderful laundromat with about twenty top loaders. Very clean, too! Much better than the overcrowded Florence laundromat that had the slowest drying washers in the country. A woman doing her laundry said the owner comes in every night and cleans the detergent trays for the front loaders. I gave it a whiff and didn't smell anything, but I didn't trust it. If one washing stinks up the load, I'd have to wash it 3-5 times to get the stink out. It's too risky. I did four loads including sheets in the top loaders. Finally my new-used Goodwill purchases (happiness sweats and black pants) are stink free! I wish I could wash the Pendleton blanket in one of these washers, but I have no where to hang it in this damp air. I think it just needs one more washing to make it tolerable and to wash the extra soap out of it from the last handwashing. Hooray! Patience pays off!

Drove to the Newport Beach and parked on a side street. After putting clothes away and sheets back on the mattress, I went for a bare-foot beach walk. It was like a typhoon down there! Wind blowing, sand blowing, drizzly mist blowing! But it felt good and the air was so refreshing.

I finally found the only Walmart in the state of Oregon that let's nomads park overnight! I pulled in early this morning and there were at least ten RVs, campers and vans parked in the back. I guess the sign that says Newport is the friendliest is right!!! I asked the security woman and she said although there are parking ordinances restricting overnight camping in the city limits, the police said it's Walmart's private property and they can do what they want. She said as long as it's not more than one night, people are welcome to stay! Hooray! Because they are so generous, I splurged and bought a new storage tote! I try to save my Walmart purchases for a store that allows parking so hopefully it pays off for them to be generous. I stayed the night because I could and because it's a Saturday night. I feel safer surrounded by other nomads.

To be continued...