July in the PNW

So I already wrote this out and I am not sure what happened to my draft. So here we are rewriting it a month later.

July was a fun month to be honest. (Well, away from work anyway) The weather started to clear out and July 4th was probably the first big holiday where the weather was decent. The day we went crabbing was HOT, and we had to make a mad dash to the car, because the dry sand was so hot, Odie was in a lot of discomfort. We ended up running through the marsh grasses just so it wasn't so hot on his feet. I wasn't prepared for that, and will get him some boots from now on if we are out in the heat like that. We finally started getting more Sun than rain in July, even though the mornings are generally still always cloudy.

I think we've been here what three months now, and we have woken up to a Sunny morning maybe three or four times. July 4th weekend we opted to just stay in. Because of Odie's inability to handle loud noises very well we wanted to make sure we were with him the entire time in case there were random fireworks that we're going off in the park or on the beach or whatever the case may be. We headed to the beach a couple of days before the actual 4th and there were a lot of people that were setting off fireworks and upsetting him so we decided to just keep from going anywhere that is touristy or crowded for the weekend.

There are plenty of stores nearby to get all of our dailys done, and one of the days that we had gone to the grocery store I saw a little stand on the side of the road that said strawberries and cherries. I told Scott "stop!" So he pulled over and stopped at the stand. It was a little bit expensive but I tell you what those are the best strawberries I've ever had in my life.

They were tiny, But combine those with the yummy Tillamook ice cream cookies and cream ice cream, with my favorite cookies? It was absolutely Heaven. In fact, s

everal times had that for dinner instead of an actual meal. We had our main meal some days at noon or just a little bit after. We have decided to start doing that more often if possible, instead of eating a big meal at the end of the day. I think it's better for loosing weight, too. We work evenings, so it's just too hard to eat a decent dinner in 20 minutes. (Because it's 5 minutes each way to our trailer)

We've stayed busy sightseeing and going to the beach. Clamming is over, and because there really isn't a great place to crab anyplace REAL close, and we don't have a boat... we haven't gone much.

Scott worked best he could finding a place for us that pays enough, or that we could just stay for the winter, and find a job near our kid. We found one but it wasn't until next summer, and we REALLY don't want to be in the south during summertime.

I'm REALLY irritated with companies or places you contact, then never hear back from. It takes less than 1 minute to answer an email, "No thanks we're full"

He said, "Well, we could try Florida......" I said no....with gas prices and the terrible inflation....if I have to be 8 hour

s from T, we might as well just stay on this 1/2 of the country and save our $$. We'd have to fly to get to him any way we slice it, so, there is no point this time around.

We did swap tickets for the botched trip here, and rebooked for him to have a trip home in November. That way we can all have Thanksgiving together again. We will be leaving here in early September.

Scott and I took a trip to a REALLY cool antique store to start looking for some camping stuff for our next adventure. I had seen in a previous trip to it some stuff we could use for a backpacking trip, but wanted to check another one before going back.

What a GREAT store THAT was! I found awesome items to pair with a new project I'm creating. I have ordered a new sewing machine, (lighter and compact) a new TV (ours is starting to go out - and the extended warranty will pay for that) and I am giving up soaping for now.

I love it. I absolutely love it. But I don't have time to market, design, store the curing soaps and all the damned equipment you need to SUCCESSFULLY make money at it.

Sure I could keep it as a hobby - but I already have 10. One less won't be a big deal. So once I get home, I'll remove all of the supplies and the vendor tent equipment and be done until further notice. Not to mention supplies and shipping are just so high. I'm not closing shop, I'm just scaling down so I can just be a quirky artist - without so much cleanup and dishes.

The new project requires sewing however, and I have needed a sewing machine about 10 times since we left home. I left my huge heavy 1960's Climax Sewing machine I learned on when I was 10 years old at home, and bought a cheaper brother sewer so I can do repairs and make fun things.

Anyway, I was in the cool store. And Scott was outside. I was in there for a while. Like.....almost an hour, (oops lol) He didn't want Oide to be in the car alone without A/C so....he stayed.

He said when I came out:

..."Were going back to Mesa this winter".

.......

Well, and that's that. We'd heard from our next door neighbors here they were headed back too, to the same place, when a spot here didn't pan out. Plus, that they had upped the $$ for certain positions, so Scott called the park Management, to see if we could come back. He said yes absolutely! We won't be in Activities, as it's already full.....but....we will be back at the same resort, making more, working in Food service.

Well.....

I did say it was his choice for this winter! I didn't put up a fight. I loved seeing friends and family, so I am ok with it. We just don't want to spend the 4 to 5k it'll take to make it back across the country again. Us screwing off in California cost WAY too much for the experiences we had. Things are so much different than 2 years ago.

At least we know the weather, have family in the area and can make plans with them again. It'll be awesome to do that. My aunt already said "I can't wait!". That made me feel pretty great. Not many people in my family have ever said " I can't wait to see You".

We found an old aluminum framed backpack at the 2nd thrift store we looked at. The 1st place was a little too pricey for 2nd hand. A lot of army surplus stuff that would have been good but, nothing worth the cost. I was happy with the other fun items we'd found though, and I can't wait to put them to use in my art projects.

The next day off we had was absolutely epic. I am good at finding hidden gems and I tell you this was on the top.

We parked in a neighborhood of sorts, and found a secluded beach. It wasn't private, just not really touristy. We came down the hill and was greeted with a mostly deserted beach, and low tide. We walked along the beach, and came to a huge pile of rocks next to a tall cliff. The rocks were covered with mussels (?) And other little barnacles of sorts that to me looked like little rhinoceros toes....seriously they were weird - and THOUSANDS of the biggest starfish I'd ever seen. They were "hunting" the mussels, and were coiled around them. We could hear the popping and cracking of them crushing the shellfish in slow motion. We walked around them for an hour just amazed at what we were seeing. Better than any aquarium I've ever been to. I had NO idea starfish gathered in such huge number. And they were so beautiful!

We walked the beach leisurely. It was a beautiful, perfect day. Then we saw it.....a lump in the distance. We'd been walking for about an hour or so, and the beach had signs warning of sea lions. Was that....a sea lion? Odie growled. What the fuck. What IS that? It didn't move. Odie strained at his leash, hackles raised.

We approached slowly.....

As we got closer it was more elephant seal big.....closer....no it's BIGGER than that.

"Is that....a WHALE?" Scott said. "OMG it IS a whale!". Wow. A dead grey whale. How sad. But....how amazing. It was rotting. And it's skin was already pale from the sun. It's jaw was broken and the <teeth> were strewn around the beach. It's a protected area, so I wasn't sure if I could take a small piece. I opted not to, just in case. I didn't know the rules around here. Sure would be cool to have it's skull though......(yeah yeah I know,)

We then checked out some cool tide pools and anemones, birds and cliffs. Still looking for fossils and agates, but finding nothing.

On the way back we had to walk trough a fairly deep tidal.....low spot? It was a sandbar, separated from the ocean, and another backwater that went behind it. It was easier walking, than the deep sand, but we had to cross it to get back to the truck. When we crossed it the first time I noticed Odie hadn't been able to touch the bottom, and SWAM! He's NEVER gone into the water where he couldn't touch, but it was only about 20 feet across and we were headed away from the ocean so I think he knew he was headed toward land....So I wanted to see if he'd do it again.

Difference was it was generally away from shore and not towards it. The ocean is scary. I admit it!

Nope. Hell no. He went until he couldn't touch and immediately turned back toward shore. I grabbed the handle of his vest and pulled him back and told him "mommy is right here baby, it's ok" he started kicking, but with absolute terror. Poor guy, haha. I praised him and when he touched bottom, shook, looked back, then at me like "phew!" He looked proud of himself, though!

We got back to the truck and we're amazed it was almost 6pm. We had been beach combing all day! Wow!

I had a soap order, so the following week I made soap and had to drive into town twice to try to find the ingredients I needed. Found some epic places to window shop and enjoyed some time to myself, just browsing.

I just love the Downtown area here, and all the kooky little shops there. Just my style and Vibe.

Next up - our big backpacking trip. We spent the rather dull workweek as normal, anticipating the trip and planning what we needed. It's been a minute since we'd been backpacking anywhere - let alone overnight.

We borrowed a yoga mat, and 2 small folding stools from the storage at the park, and got to figuring out how and what we were going to pack. Scott had to take the tent and my larger personal yoga mat for him since he's heavier and longer, and his stool. I took our smaller pack, my mat, stool, and snacks.

We both packed our own clothing and toiletries, plus several liters of water each.

Scott insisted on making steaks and potatoes with asparagus for dinner, while our friends would be in charge of breakfast. J said " wow. We never eat like that hiking. We were just happy with some Ramen!?

We all piled in our truck, and headed south at about 10am.

We parked, grabbed our packs and off we went on a crazy trip.

Crazy why?

Because we are 51 and 54 years old and had 50 and 60 pound packs going up a technically hard trail with 2 people 1/2 our age.

Hahahaha. Omg. I was SO excited!

We started out and I realized the trail was going to be very difficult. Rocks, limbs, tree roots, and mud. There was never a spot in 4 miles with 1200' elevation gain the first 2, that I wasn't tripping or stepping up over something. Sometimes so far I had to crawl up it, or grab Scott's arm to lift me instead of step. Odie even needed help a few times.

He was also carrying his own food, water and bowls.

We trudged and trudged. Stopping for snacks and water multiple times. The kids didn't - we did.

I have a hiking and tracking app on my phone, but my phone battery wasn't lasting a whole 24 hours anymore, so I had to make sure I shut down to basic power use until I needed to check where we were. It was painfully slow going, especially how muddy it was still, and how terrible the trail was. Fallen trees - taller than me on their side lay across the trail. Mud, sometime shin- deep we had to navigate around, and a pee break here and there.

I looked at my map and said ya know, at this rate we won't make it to camp until 6pm.

Luckily it wasn't hot. It was mostly cloudy, so at least we weren't overheating. The wind was calm, and there wasn't any rain forecast thankfully.

We walked past huge fallen trees, their huge root systems towering 20 feet above us, and so old there were new trees that were 100 feet tall growing out of them.

You could see the graveyard of old growth stumps, cut 100s of years ago to build the surrounding communities.

As we walked, I recalled the history of the area, and that we were now traversing the Oregon Coast Trail, and our feet were falling in the same spots that many Native Americans took to walk the coast for thousands of years, (Captain William Clark, Sacagawea, and a few other members of the expedition made this traverse in January 1806, no doubt using a long-established but brushy native trail, in order to purchase blubber (whale oil) from the locals at Cannon Beach, who were rendering a beached whale. The group also passed burial canoes of the Kilamox (Tillamook) along the route.).

It gave me chills. It oozed history and it oozed mystery.

I just wished it had been better maintained. The signs, if there weren't completely missing, were empty or hard to read. The planks that were supposed to lift you over swampy areas, with deep mud and huge skunk cabbage were missing or rotted through.

People had tried throwing branches and sticks down to step on, but like us - this is a backpacking trail and most people probably didn't have anything larger than a small ax to chop kindling.

The views from up top were amazing, and worth the ass kicking climb. We had to pack pass over several large stumps, and if we sat too long, the mosquitoes smelled us and came hunting.

We finally made it to our camp at about 6pm. Scott said 10 more minutes and his legs would have flat given out. I concurred. We were exhausted. This kind of thing may seem simple too many people out there but for us we don't get out and Hike Trails like that but maybe once a year, and this was Scott's very first backpacking overnight ever. So it was a lot to do in one day.

It was not sunny and everything was damp. One of the four log cabin structures were taken, and the rest smelled moldy. They had roll down doors and would be a nice place to stay if it wasn't so wet and stinky. We opted to set up tents in a grassy area between them and the picnic structure.

There was a pit toilet nearby, but further inspection showed it hadn't been cleaned in some time, and the sewage was to the top of the stool.

I think I'll pee in the woods, thanks.

I had the boys get started making the fire, because it was late, I was hungry and potatoes take a while. I wanted FOOD! haha.

I went over to the firewood shelter to see if there was something dry, but it was empty, and the pay by honor system slot was broken and full of sand. The bulletin board that would have information said firewood was $5 a bundle, and nothing else on it. All the literature was rotted away. How sad.

They got the fire started with some tinder they brought with, and Odie and I went for a walk to find some wood. Much of it was soggy, pithy and rotted if it was on the ground, huge and out of reach if it wasn't.

Odie found a good one - about 7 feet long, and drug it all the way back to camp for me. He's such a great companion. Sheesh.

I found a little more, then got to work setting up camp, getting the steaks ready, letting loved ones know we made it to our destination, and getting Odie his dinner.

Dinner took a while and we ate nearly at dark. The man that was in one of the little cabins took off to see the sunset, and when he got back I gave him a steak and asparagus. We had too much, and he exclaimed he felt like he was in a fancy restaurant! He was a little older than us, and in obviously good shape, but to me didn't seem like the type to be on a remote hiking trail.

We enjoyed the fire for a little longer after dinner, but we're dead tired and turned in as soon as it got too dark to see.

Our yoga mats were NOT thick enough to tent camp. Like at all. The ground was hard, and I don't remember the last time I slept on the hard ground. It did nothing but insulate us slightly from the cold under us.

Scott snored, and I tossed and turned. I had zero sleep I think. I had to get up and pee, so I got my flashlight and just ran out behind a nearby bush, and back in real quick. MAN is it DARK out there! Haha.

When the dog started shivering it woke me up again. I didn't realize how cold it was going to get up there in the middle of July, but I should have I guess.

I only brought one extra blanket that wasn't very heavy obviously, because I wasn't able to carry that much. I wasn't going to go out and buy a bunch of unnecessary crap because this is something that we may never do again so I kept it cheap, and we only splurged on some backpacking sleeping bags, that we're good down to 50°. But I think it was probably more like 42 degrees out there. If the dog was shivering it was definitely cold. He tends to run pretty hot. I took the covers off of myself and wrap them around him and he instantly stopped. I felt better about that but then I started to get cold and had to try to sleep despite that.

Scott said that he didn't sleep all night but I don't know that he if he knows what that actually means. Because 90% of the time I was up and awake and elbowing him in the side to stop snoring. When I finally got to where I was in a deep sleep, there was a loud screaming out in the Woods. It was Bell - like and extraordinary loud. Definitely some sort of bird but goddamn I have never heard anything like that and it was still dark too.

Great.

Then we started rolling around and Scott got up to have to go pee and then he came back in to lay down again but it was so uncomfortable he didn't stay long. We got up made some coffee and made some oatmeal and packed up our camp.

I heated up some water in my camp coffee percolator that I've had so long I don't even remember where I got it. I have literally been camping with that pot since I was married before Scott.

It makes really good cowboy coffee with some granny's things always in the bottom, but the kids had a coffee press and so I opted to allow them to use that and I just heated the water up. I'm going to have to get me one of those, that was the best coffee I've had in awhile!

We took a walk to the cliff side and stood out by the Sea and the checked out the lighthouse out on a single Island away from Shore. We were at least 1,000 feet if not more up from the ocean floor and it was very cool to be up there. I bet the sunset was really amazing, and I was now regretting that I just didn't take that short walk, last night. We also saw some old ww2 military battery equipment or something. It looked like there were guns maybe mounted to the top at one time, and some bomb shelters supply caves underneath.

Looking it up, I found out it was an old Navy Radar station from WW2.

The concrete bunkers were covered in Moss and mold and other types of vegetation crawling all over them. Mother nature was taking it back. It was really cool.

Instead of continuing on the 6 more miles down to Cannon Beach, we decided to get out at Indian Beach and call a taxi service. I had read that Seaside had a taxi service and that it was extremely local shuttling people around. We just didn't have it in us to be able to continue down 5 more miles there was no way after a night of zero sleep.

The walk down was much easier than the walk up because we decided to get out of the Oregon Coast Trail and follow the service road that you would drive up to service the toilet if that was something that you would actually do. It also followed a stream all the way down and it was an easy going hike with a packed gravel surface. It would have been soooo much easier hike from Indian Beach up that path and to the hikers camp the way that we were going now....

But it was all about the adventure and I was happy to be going an easier way on day two.

We left the nice man that was hiking the remainder of our water and some of our toilet paper so we could lighten our load. He had already had to go back down to the stream to get water the night before so we were hoping that our gift would keep him from having to walk all the way down to it again.

I showed my female counterpart how to identify some of the plants and things that I knew on the way down and was surprised to see a s*** ton of poison hemlock along the trail. You just don't see that stuff in Colorado because of the dry climate. It's so prolific here.

When we got down to Indian Beach I called the taxi and he said that it would be about 20 minutes to a half an hour wait before he could get there. Which was fine. We all sat down and enjoyed some snacks and then I went down to the beach to look at rocks and see what sort of beach it was. I wasn't sure what type of rocks they would have but I didn't have a whole lot of time to look.

I did learn that there was several movies that were filmed on the beach including one of the scenes from Twilight, and the ending scene of Point Break.

We all piled into the minivan that came and picked us up and to take us back to our truck. As we were driving down the highway we heard something and then felt a splattering of rocks and debris hit the top of the taxi cab. The guy said "Whoa! Landslide!" As we saw a rocks bouncing on the highway behind us. That was just a little bit freaky. First time that's ever happened to me in my life!

None of us had much to say on the way back. We Were all very tired but, I had a great sense of accomplishment. I love backpacking and camping and it had been a long long time since I've done so. It was such a great feeling to have accomplished something as difficult as that was for us. Total distance wasn't much but it was a lot for us especially in our current state of health. Scott's knee is really starting to bother him so I think we're going to have to make some appointments when we get back home.

We got home and we tossed out all of our belongings we needed and went inside and lay down and didn't pretty much didn't move the rest of the day. I slept like a freaking rock that night and my terrible lumpy RV mattress didn't feel so bad!

I asked the kids if they wanted to go to Mount Saint Helens on another trip later in August. They didn't seem real keen on the idea so I didn't press the issue anymore with them, but I did tell Scott that it was something that I really wanted to do before we leave.

This time we would bring the truck and we wouldn't have to backpack in and hopefully be a little bit more comfortable next time around.

That next week at work I started looking into trying to improve more things over by the area where most of the action happens. The golf course and the bouncy pillow and some of the other things that are going on are in terrible shape and it's driving me insane not to be able to fix any of it.

Didn't take money to upgrade these. I found some black paint (which was actually black concrete stain - oops) some paint markers and some poly in a storage area.

Two of the holes in the golf course are broken and then a third broke too. There is a lot of sand in that area and I figured out that a lot of it gets down in the hole and then prevents the bottle ball from getting any further down in the hole so a quick flush with some water and the ball started going down the hole again. But the problem is is the whole is broken out in two of them at the back and it had to be fixed. I asked maintenance if they could get me a can of great stuff so that I could kind of fill the holes with rocks and then the great stuff and then kind of sculpt the back of the hole and then put some Gorilla tape on the backs of them for a temporary fix until they were able to fix them permanently. I have no clue if they will actually fix them because these holes have been broken for up to three years, but I can at least make them playable. The pond needs cleaned, there are broken posts, posts that are cut off too short or too long, no flags on the flagpoles, the grass is dying from the lack of water....it's in shambles and it's hard to work here.

I have to do my due diligence though because I feel like I am not doing my job if I don't try to fix or improve something while I'm at a place. I figured the denial of most of the supplies that we had asked for to try to fix up the place that a can of great stuff would be the least amount that I could ask for, but there is some aire of a power struggle or something weird going on here. Neither of us can put our finger on it.

Again we feel like we're on an island when it comes to our job and the department that were in. It's very frustrating feeling to not be able to do your job correctly because you do not get the support from management that you are deserved. I've heard this from MANY MANY corporate owned parks. It's all about profit. The amount of positive experiences that have been taken away from this park and ones like it is phenomenal. No one complains, they still come and spend money here - so WHY put in money and effort if no one cares, right?

I'm telling you right now if you are a manager and you are reading this the quickest way to loose GOOD employees, is to not give them the tools they need to be able to do their job properly. I was all gung ho when we got here but every time we asked for a can of paint or a box of screws to try to fix something and was denied, we finally checked out.

I get the sinking feeling Camp workers are just warm bodies and they don't have a whole lot of respect from the people that run many of the places anyway - but we could have remodeled the whole golf course for less than $500. We sold that much in bike rentals last week.

When we were down in Arizona I was very upset and very hurt about some of the things that we're going on, but In the end, we felt appreciated and valued.

Our boss apologized, made things right, checked up on me (us) multiple times, and he made us feel welcome and wanted and invited us back at any time. That made us feel valued, seen and grateful for the nod.

They also gave us the money needed to DO our job properly.

We DID enjoy our time there, so we're ok with going back.

There aren't a whole lot of options south in the winter. We could have picked another spot, but again, I said he could make the choice, and I was not to be involved in it!

We sure are sad our work camping experience in Colorado was so good, and then it all ended. I'm so disappointed that we weren't able to continue our relationship with all of the people that worked there and the owners because they knew how to do it right.

We have been invited to go to another Park in Missouri by the same managers and many of the same workers followed them there next year. But we are not sure that we want to spend summer in a hot and muggy place like Missouri. The jury is still out on it and we are still thinking about it. We are continuing to put in our applications in other places, and have been contacted by a park and a private company to help them on their land back in Oregon. That sounds amazing, but....we're still looking for adventure. If we go back to hot and muggy in the summer time I would rather go hot and muggy and then go to some place back East so we could be with our son. We do have a job on the east coast to coast by him but it is only for the summer. I just don't know if I want to be in Georgia in summer.

The week after our little backpacking trip our young friends came to us and said that they were getting pretty tired of the issues that they were having around here as all of us seem to be having, and were ready to pack up and leave, even though they wanted to stay at least until the end of September or October.

Then one day, out of the blue, they texted us and said "We are sorry, we did not say goodbye, safe travels and maybe we'll see you again someday."

Scott and I were super sad that we would not see them again because we've truly did have a good time when we went out with them but apparently the BS and politics here was too much for them, and I believe all they needed was one more excuse to leave and they were going to be gone.

The last few weeks of July at work we spent doing kind of the same old same old. The director here likes to keep things simple because I think it's easier for him to keep track of if there aren't ever-changing activities and other things that he has to try to navigate. He has no experience outside this park doing things like this, is single and has no kids.

But for a creative, innovative, experienced person like myself, and somebody who likes to fix things like Scott, is very hard for us to deal with. Neither one of us are good with monotony or the same schedule day after day after day. He did allow me a craft time on Thursdays from 3 to 5 to do whatever I want.

BUT it is nice to not have to plan and carry out every detail.

Our last excursion for July took us up the river and to a beautiful waterfall that was surrounded by Basalt columns in perfect geometrical shapes coming up out of the ground and out from underneath a overhang where the waterfall spilled over. It was short hike from the road and the road was not too far from the main Highway. It was about a 2 hour drive total, and it was completely worth it. I wish we would have brought our bathing suits though because the water was beckoning it was hot out and it was very clear perfect little swimming hole to enjoy in the middle of summer.

It was a nice break from the madness of the park.

I do like the fact we are all grouped together in basically a separate area of the park away from the in and out of campers, and crazy kids and drunk parents.

We can sit outside and enjoy the sun and trees without dealing with the noise and (as much) dust.

My little garden is completely failing because I don't know how to garden in the PNW, plus, I didn't do soil improvements, and I just kind of stuck the plants in the ground to see what would happen. I don't believe I'm going to get much of anything out of this but that's okay.

Well, that's it for July It's now the end of August, so I need to do August's blog! Haha!