Arrival

Sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away...

Mr. Redding must have been a full timer. We had a week of downtime in Newport and found ourselves doing just about the same thing – only indoors. Temperatures have been in the mid to upper 50's and with the damp sea breeze it puts a bit of chill in the air.

Of course the chill has not slowed the bombing runs made by squadrons of seagulls nor has it prevented the local seals from their non stop barking. And having mentioned seals, there are two other aspects of seals I had thought I had left behind after serving on a buoy tender; fishy burps and seal poop. No words can adequately describe these odors so thick you can cut with a knife or so strong it peels paint. I'm pretty sure if you could actually find a container strong enough to hold the odor you would be required to have some sort of special hazardous material license - or become a global super power.

Okay, enough with the poop humor. (Unless it involves a black tank – that humor goes on FOREVER)

After spending the week in Newport we headed southbound on the 101 bucking a nasty headwind to arrive in Coos Bay the afternoon of the 31^st. Yep, we are trick-or-treating whether they like it or not.

All treats, no getting around it. We've got an asphalt pad with full hookups and a large yard with a very nice fire ring. Tall hedges around the perimeter of the site give us a bit of privacy – something I understand hosts prefer. I'll have to give it more time to see if its true.

Once we got set up we got to meet our coordinator and park ranger, Stephanie who gave us a brief but thorough orientation. Not sure how it happened but like our previous gig at Flaming Gorge we have timed it where Stephanie is off the first two days we work and we are working solo as the couple we are replacing headed out on our first day. No worries, we've now completed two days as Park Hosts and the roughest part was not being familiar enough with the area to assist our guests. While this is our first foray into camp hosting, Chris and I have already agreed this is something we can get used to real quick.

The Oregon coast in the fall and winter mean rain. It usually means wind as well but so far we've not had enough to even get a kite off the ground (knock on soggy wood). This are indisputable facts but what isn't mentioned is between storms when the sun does break through, you have some of the clearest air, bluest skies and beautiful scenery.

I don't have many photos of the area yet but over the next month I hope to show you more of this wonderful area.

What we have so far is the campground doe who hangs out at the interpretive center. She is pretty skittish when it comes to a camera pointed her direction. I manged this shot after sneaking around a tree with my phone held low. Quite funny as she will allow you to approach fairly close, talk to her, point at her with a finger and make a good amount of noise without any bother but as soon as you raise something that looks like a camera, she takes off.

We are off today so we'll head in to the towns of Charleston, Coos Bay and North Bend for shopping and to see just how much has changed since I was stationed here back in the late 70's. Funny though, everyone still dresses the same – rain slickers and flanel.