Gold Beach, OR - A new State!!!

We chalked up a new state today, a state we have never RV’ed in and, actually, never traveled in. A whole new state to add to our map. We do have a travel map but it is laying on the top shelf of one of our cupboards. We’re not sure where to place it in the RV such that it shows but will not be ruined by the elements nor by the slides of the RV. Thus, it lays on the top shelf. But we’ve faithfully filled it in when we’ve hit a new state. And, what constitutes being able to put a new state on your map? I’ve heard various rules: you have to drive through a state, you have to stay overnight, you not only have to stay overnight but also spend a day exploring the state. I also heard from Nick Russell in a seminar in Life on Wheels that there is something called a nookie rule but I’m not sure that’s official.

So everyone makes up their own rules: ours is that we must stay a few nights and explore a few days to be able to say that you’ve been in that state. And, using that rule, we’ve got Oregon now on our map. Soon we’ll have be able to put Washington, Idaho and Montana on our map as we make our way back to Iowa for our 50th HS reunion in Iowa in September. And, we’ll have every state west of Iowa along with some states on the east of the Mississippi. We lived in New England for 20 years and have never hit the south but we plan to explore the south and get back to New England next summer.

We drove up from Crescent City, CA to Gold Beach, OR today - an ‘exhausting’ drive of 42 miles. But, it’s new territory and gives us a chance to explore the southern shore of Oregon, which I’ve heard is absolutely spectacular. We took time over breakfast, I washed, dried and put away the dishes, we hitched up the Jeep and we were off by about 10:00. After a stop in the Oregon Visitor Center, which is very good and has helpful volunteers, we arrived here in Gold Beach - a bit earlier than we usually arrive in a new campsite and we had the whole afternoon on a beautiful sunny day.

Let’s go exploring. How about retracing our drive and checking out the southern Oregon coast which we breezed by several hours ago in the RV? We stopped at all the scenic stops, we hiked a good part of the Coast Trail to get to the scenic views, the beach, the rocks, and the bridge. And, they were right, it is a beautiful coastline.

The guide books state that there is a spot to get a good view of the Thompson Bridge, the tallest bridge in Oregon. Park in the pullout on the south-west side of the bridge, take the path down to the right and you can get a great view. Yeah, right. Maybe 25 years ago but the trees have all grown up, the path is over-grown and we hiked and hiked down (knowing that we’d eventually have to come up) but only a view of the bridge through the trees. Note the tall structure that is holding the bridge up. Engineering marvel but I’m glad I hadn’e seen this before we drove the 15 ton RV over. Finally we hiked back to the car and looked over to get the only view we could. Pretty lame and I’m only putting it in here because we worked so hard to get it.

We are right on the beach in Gold Beach and the sunsets are beautiful.