Thursday, July 18, 2024 - Today we met with Chris and Mitzi for conversation before leaving Valley of the Rogue State Park for the Three Rivers Casino RV Park in Florence, Oregon (on the coast). The drive took about three hours and some of the roads were a little "twisty," but we made it without any trouble or damage to the rig. The weather was great; cool and clear.

Once we arrived at the casino, we went to the small RV Registration Kiosk to learn the procedures. There are some camping spots that have electricity, but there are far more rigs her then there are power stations, so we decided to just boondock. We had filled our water tank to about two-thirds capacity (65 gallons) before we left, so we easily had enough water to last us for four days. At this park, you have to go to the casino and get a "player's card" so that you can gamble at the casino. You can then register to stay. If you gamble you accumulate points in some manner and they will give you up to three free days at the site. We just paid the $30 daily fee since we do not gamble. We found a nearly perfectly flat spot and set up the RV without issue.

Dry camping; we are lucky in that the temperatures here on the coast are ranging between 53 degrees overnight to about 65 degrees in the day. We, therefore, do not need to use our air conditioning units, so we can run everything else on the batteries. I ran the microwave on the batteries and we ran the toaster on the batteries, but the toaster made the 3000 watt inverter hum quite a bit. We can run the generator here, so we just turn it on once a day to charge the batteries. The lithium batteries work very well since we do not have to run and AC unit. If it were hot, we would have to run the generator to run the AC units. So, we have plenty of water and power to run as normal without the generator.

After setup, we decided to drive up the coast for about 15 miles to the Seal Cave commercial area. Since it was late in the day, we decided to return tomorrow to check out the cave a local tourist attraction. While in that area, we took a hike to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located above a little inlet with a nice beach. We hiked up to the lighthouse and checked out many pretty flowers and the views were spectacular. It was a clear day. The temps were in the 65-70 degree range and very nice. We met a very nice family there with five children. We had a great conversation with them and gave them a card for our blog.

We then drove back to the RV to plan tomorrow's activities and to relax. Lots of very nice people at the RV park. Good conversations with them.

Friday, July 19, 2024 - Today, we arose early and had breakfast before heading up the road to the Sea Lion Caves venue. This is a large lava tube/tunnel that has been reformed by the ocean waves making it a perfect place for sea lions to go to rest and mate. Male sea lions can get up to 2000 pounds in weight while the females are much smaller at around 800 pounds. The males fight for their "harems" and can have as many as 20 females to defend. They make very deep and loud roaring noises, hence the name Sea Lions." We started out by walking to the two viewing points on the upper level of the cliff. You can see many sea lions basking in the Sun on the rocks below. The walk back up to the start point is on a walkway with a 12% grade; makes walking back up a little bit of a chore. We then walked down to the elevator that will take us down just over 200 feet to the water level and the cave. The elevator was finished in 1962. Once in the cave, we walked on pathways past exhibits of the sea lions and on to viewing points We ended up at a perch just above the cave. The noise made by the sea lions was loud and there were many there. Be sure to check out the photo gallery. There is a system of vertical wires that keep the people from going any closer to the cave (dangerous to do so), but you can put your cell phone through the wires to take photos and videos. It was fun watching the sea lions sparing with each other, jockeying for better positions on the rocks, and just sleeping. The males are huge. After filming and looking at the sea lions in the cave, we waked in the opposite direction up a series of stairs to the viewing point to the north. We had a great view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse and the caretakers home. We could also watch the waves breaking against the shore in a pretty strong manner. I cant imagine what it would like if there were a huge storm in the area. After, exploring the view area, we went back to the elevator and rode to the upper level again. The have a very nice gift shop (with good popcorn for sale) where we looked around. We then left and headed back to town.

We wanted to ride our bikes on Rhododendron Drive, but the road was closed to non-residents due to fire damage. We then drove to the south of town to the south jetty road. We had biked this road before and thought that we might give it another try. We then explored a couple lakes for potential kayaking. We decided on Siltcoos Lake since it is quite large and accommodates our tendency to cover a lot of ground on the kayaks. We plan to load the kayaks on the truck when we get back to the RV and then to kayak Siltcoos Lake tomorrow.

We then drove to the old Florence Historic City Center. We parked and walked up and down the streets. It is a quaint historic district with small shops and several places to eat. We have a ton of food in our refrigerator, so we decided to head back for lunch. We did have some very good vantage points to take photos of the historic bridge in Florence and to see some of the local charm of the city center. We then drove back to the RV to load the kayaks on the truck and to "let our meatloaf" (eat lunch and take a break).

Saturday, July 20, 2024 - We awoke to a layer of fog in the area. This is common and the fog generally burns of around 10:00 am when the temps rise to a point above the dewpoint. We have decided to wait until the fog clears before heading to Siltcoos Lake to kayak. So, for now, breakfast and working on the blog.