Big News!

We left Corvallis and headed towards our destination for the day; Sweet Home, Oregon. Another "I could live here" place. A small town, but big enough to have a McDonald's, Dairy Queen and other fine amenities. It looks like a great town to raise a family. We were there to see Eric and Amy from Foster Lake Frenchie's. This is the breeder that we got our precious Zoey from almost 6 years ago and have stopped to see them several times since then. 

This year was a little more special than the previous times however as they just had a litter of puppies! Born on the 24th of May, they had been posting pictures of this litter online since their birth. As a matter of fact, we have been following this litter since momma (Ivory) was bred to a stud in New Hampshire several months ago.

As many of you know, Frenchie's are a somewhat high maintenance breed often requiring c-sections for births. This was the case this time as well. Ivory gave birth to 4 adorable pups; 1 girl and 3 boys. Eric and Amy are super cautious when it comes to their pups. We had to remove our shoes and wash up before we even got into the house. Even then we were not allowed to touch them, they are only a week old, eyes not open yet and weigh just over 1 pound.

Barb was able to hold the girl for a few minutes; it was wrapped in a towel, enough to see how adorable she is.

We visited with Eric and Amy for about an hour before saying our goodbyes and telling them we would be back in 8 weeks to pick up our new puppy! Meet Maisie, the newest addition to our family! 

We have actually been talking about a new pup for over a year, talking about what breed and when was the right time. We will probably always have dogs, they bring so much joy to our lives, but when is the right time to get a new dog? With Daisy, we waited until she passed before thinking about another pup. For us, this was very, very difficult. Even though you know the day is coming, the depression and sadness is real. The other consideration is our age. It seems so weird to say that in our heads we are still in our 40's, but the reality is that if Maisie lives 10 years, we will be well into our 70's when she passes and the older we get, the harder it is to deal with that. There is also the best time to get one based on our lives; based on what we have going on the rest of the year, the timing was right. So, for these reasons and several others, the timing was right. We are so excited!

Once we decided the timing, we started talking to Eric and Amy in early April, it just so happened that they were planning a litter for this summer and were going to take a break for a year. We asked them to put us on their list, and it just so happened, we were the first to ask and were at the top of the list! 

We only wanted a female, so we had to wait and wait, and wait. Finally on May 24th the day arrived.

They named the girl Dolly, she is blue and tan and was the largest in the litter. She would be the bigger one in the pictures above. We took a few days to talk it over to make sure that this is what we wanted to do. But once Barb saw her and held her in her hands, the decision was made.

They continue to send us pictures and updates. She opened her eyes yesterday! Even though she is only a few ounces more than the others, based on the picture below, we should have named her Shamu rather than Maisie!

We can pick her up the end of July, it is going to be a long 8 weeks! After leaving Sweet Home we headed back to the coast where we spent the night at Lagoon Lake National Forest Campground outside of Florence.

Lunch was clam chowder from the Krab Kettle. I thought it was as good or maybe better than Norma's, but Barb thinks Norma's was a little better. We always struggle to get pictures of the 4 of us, but Dakota finally cooperated and we were able to get this one. I think she was maybe just pooped and needed a rest. 

Continuing down the coast we made our way to our favorite campground along the coast. Bastendorf Beach County Park in Coos Bay. This is where Barb spent most of her childhood vacations. She has such fond memories of this area, and it warms my heart seeing the joy in her eyes as she describes her memories to me. She told me stories of playing hide and seek with her brother and all the other kids in the campground, crabbing, clamming and just being a kid. 

Barb and Zoey went for several walks while I hung out with Dakota at the campsite. I think Dakota is looking forward to getting home where there are no stairs and she can just lay on her bed. Zoey, on the other hand, loves her walks and even met a friend!

We recreated a couple of those memories by playing hide and seek ourselves! Not really, but we did go clamming! Twice actually. You have to time low tide and arrive at the clamming area an hour before low tide. 

Once you get to the clamming area, you start looking for clam holes where they extend their necks to the surface. Once you find one, you put your finger in the hole and should feel the neck retract when you touch it. Then you start digging!

Over the next hour or so we poked and dug over two dozen clams, mostly gapers. 

You have a pretty short window before the tide starts coming in again, making it impossible to dig. We then took them back to the campground where we cleaned them. Quite the process. From there, Barb made both clam strips and chowder. The strips were so, so. The chowder was delicious!

After three days, it was time to move on. Three hours later found us in Grants Pass where her dad's brother, Ron and his wife Diana live. We have not seen them since June of 2020, way too long. Both in their 80's, a lot has changed in the past 6 years. No pictures, and it was a short visit, only about an hour but it was great to see them. 

Two hours later we were in Klamath Fall to see what exactly what we had gotten ourselves into volunteering to empty Forrest and Somer's storage unit. 

It looks like we have our hands full and tomorrow is going to be a full day! I wish we had a timelapse recording of us moving everything from the unit into the trailer. While it was a tight fit, it did not take us nearly as long as I thought it would. We were in and out in 3 hours. 

Now we are off for home. No adventures, just drive, eat and sleep for 3 days. Wish us luck!

I wrote the above sentence two days and over 1,200 miles ago. As I said, no adventures, just driving. 496 miles the first day and 786 yesterday. We pulled in our driveway just after 8pm. We are so happy to be home and so thankful to not have had any issues with the trailer the entire trip. 

So Crabby

 If you have been married as long as we have there are bound to be time when one of the two of you become crabby. Such was the case this week when Barb got crabby. Very, very crabby. 

But let me start from the beginning. After leaving Fort Steven's we headed south a few miles to the town of Seaside. A quiet little town with narrow roads. Roads that make it very difficult for a dually truck with a camper to find a parking place. Add a trailer to the back of it and it is nearly impossible.

It reminded us of the time in 2018 when we were in Rehoboth Beach Delaware in our 42' 5th wheel, and we turned down a road we had no business going down. But once committed, down the road we went. It was mid-December and the trees along Main Street were all decorated with Christmas lights. It was beautiful. 

Once we got to the end of Main, if I remember correctly, there was a turn around and we had to come up the other side of Main to get out of there. We were looking for a place to eat, but it was so narrow there was no place for us to park so we just carried on and went to a campground. 

We pulled into the campground and were just getting ready to set up when what do we see? Christmas lights! Christmas lights hanging from the side of our camper. Well, we had picked up some Christmas lights somewhere along the way! No doubt while cruising down Main. I can just picture the local town folks chasing us down the street as the Griswold's tear every Christmas light from the trees going down Main! Oops!

But, it is not anywhere near Christmas now and we did manage to find a parking spot in Seaside, so we walked the streets and eventually found a place call Norma's where we went to have some clam chowder and clam strips! Norma's serves some of the best we have ever had. Thick, lots of clams and not overly potatoey. 

After lunch we carried on to Kelly's Brighton Marina in Rockaway Beach. What a gem of a campground tucked away along the coast. The vibe of this place is right up our alley. Laid back and relaxing. If you are looking for all the amenities of a high-end park, this is not the place for you. If you are looking for some place to kick back for a few days and catch a few crabs, make your reservations now!

One of the "must do" activities for us when we come to the coast is to go crabbing. Barb grew up just south of here and she and her family spent many a day on the coast crabbing, so no trip to the coast is complete without doing it at least once. Traditionally, we have crabbed on the marina piers, but this time we rented a boat and went out into the water. The rental was $130 for the first two hours and $25 for every hour after that and it included 3 baited crab rings. 

It felt so good to be out on the water! Crabbing from a boat was a first for us, what a blast! We dropped our pots about 100 yards from each other and waited 15 minutes or so to see what we got. 

Over the next two hours we caught over 100 crabs, 8 of which were keepers. Keepers in Oregon have to be 5 1/2" across the back and have to be male. 

How does one tell the difference between a male crab and a female crab? It is actually quite easy, you just look at their belly. The male crab (left) has a narrow apron on its belly, and the female has a wider, rounded apron. 

Kelly's not only will rent you everything you need to go crabbing they will also cook them for you! This is a bonus as cooking crab in a small pot in a camper is a pain in the butt. Once cooked, you have to clean them by splitting off their backs and cleaning out the insides. Once this is done you can begin the process of removing the meat. For 8 crabs, it took us about an hour to clean all the meat out. 

Our 8 crabs weighed about 11 pounds whole and netted about 4 pounds of meat. So delicious! 

The next day we opted to crab from the dock rather than the boats. We rented two pots and 3 hours later we had 9 more to add to our bounty! 

You have to watch your fingers while checking the crabs, one wrong move and they will latch onto you! Barb knows exactly how to hold them as she flips them over and checks their sex. 

Of course, there are the ever-present seagulls and pelicans on the dock hoping you will share your catch. Or they will just steal it if you are not paying attention. 

If crabbing is not your thing, you can also buy whole crab and have them cooked up for about $18/lb, but you still have to clean them. Some places will sell you straight crab meat, but that will be anywhere from $40-$50/lb. 

Over the next few days, we gorged ourselves on crab. Crab and butter, crab cakes, crab linguini... We did not want to freeze any of it, it just is not the same once thawed. I think we are officially crabbed out for a while!

Any guesses where Barb is sitting?

After leaving Kelly's we headed south about 30 minutes to the town of Tillamook. Now, any of you that have been in this area before knows what that means, ice cream and cheese!

I swear we are putting on a couple of pounds in this area! We toured the facility seeing how the cheese making process is done. So interesting. We bought several varieties of cheese and then got in line for ice cream. While it is not even close to peak tourist season, this place was packed! We waited over 30 minutes to order our ice cream.

Then it was off to The Blue Heron Cheese Factory, our Harvest Host host for the night. We went in, did a wine tasting and bought some chowder for supper. Good, but not as good as Norma's. 

From there it was down to Newport where we had hoped to go clamming, another activity we try to do whenever in the area. That was a bust. It is at low tide and the clams were just not there. Bad timing. Oh well, we hope to try again as we work our way further down the coast. 

It was wet and rainy anyways so we just walked along the beach and read in the camper. This short video shows a glimpse of our walk. Dakota was not paying attention and got a little wet. You can see how fast she moves when she realizes it. 

We also managed to get some laundry done before we headed away from the coast for our next great adventure. One that was kind of unplanned when we originally planned this trip, but we are excited for nonetheless! 

As we headed east Barb was on iOverlander, a website dedicated to finding free remote camping locations along your route. This may include the obvious ones like Walmart and Cracker Barrel, but also less obvious ones like pullouts alongside the road of even people who will let you park on their property. Barb had chosen two likey spots for us to check out along our route. The first one was a gravel area next to a covered bridge near the town of Eddyville. It was a bust. Although there was room for us, it was right next to a house and just not our vibe. The next one was a large open gravel area out in the middle of nowhere. Also a bust, unless you considered camping next to a crack trailer a good time. 

The last place on our list was just south of Corvallis; 4 Spirits Distillery. They would let you park out front of their place overnight. Perfect! 

The distillery was named after 4 soldiers; Lt. Erik McCrae, Sgt. Justin Linden, Sgt. Justin Eyerly and Sgt. David Roustum. These four men lost their lives in 2004/2005 serving in Baghdad, Iraq. We went inside, ordered a couple of drinks some wings and tots. It was a very nice distillery and a great place to spend the night. 

Tomorrow is a big day. A day that we (especially Barb) has been excited for for several weeks now. But that will have to wait until next week's post!

As a side note, I received an email from a blog to book company called Into Real Pages. They are offering a 35% discount right now, has anyone used them?