Native Ideals, Arlee, MT

Native Ideals, Arlee, MT

Thursday, January 22, 2015

The Journey Down the 101

First things first. Oregon coast, absolute best coast along the states. The giant boulders standing tall in the waves, the cliffs to walk along out into the ocean, the redwoods along the coast, uh just great. I wanted pictures of it all, but some or most did the scenery little justice. Our first night we found a church parking lot to park in and sleep over night. The church had a large sign that instructed us not to do so, but the cop that pulled in to check on the lot did not  seem to mind, so we stayed. We could hear the waves crash and feel the coastal winds, but could see nothing. Dinner was made, Theodore probably was cleaned then to bed to wake up to the most amazing sight we had seen so far. Rockaway Beach. Oregon coast is not the sunniest coast, but rather foggy instead; which makes for a gothic but romantic scene. As the sun rose the fog cleared and the tripod had to stay and play here for a few hours. The cats really enjoyed the sand, but if you started walking them toward the water they were climbing up your head. We have plans to walk through the Tillamook Cheese Factory and to see the seal caves or something, so it was back on the road around noon.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory was a blast! MMMMM! They had 6 different samples set up buffet style cut into little cubes with a ton of toothpicks by each one. This said to us; put 3 cubes per toothpick and come back again, so we did - right after we attended our self-guided tour around the factory. The assembly line process was fun to watch we listened to the owner talk on the TVs above our heads about his aged cheese that he has stashed all around his house and the factory. This guy really loved cheese. After our second round with the sample line and being somewhat judged by the girl who kept it filled we moved on to icecream!!!! Jor and Bee were most excited about this. We had the pleasure of indulging in some Tillamook mudslide? icecream at a few farms we visited, so we knew what a treat it was. I (Logan) forgot how to make choices when picking my flavors and ended up with vanilla bean; this is still very funny to us.We sat out in the sun eating our icecream with all of the other tourists and then hit the road by 2.

The next coastal city we pulled in to visit was Lincoln City; they had a casino with RV parking, but it was just coming to dinner time and we wanted to barbecue. This took us on a search for parks with pits and maybe even a lake with a pretty veiw. The weather was cold and windy and due to our wonderful polluting species the lake was unfit to swim in; we still had a great time with the cats and dogs in the park.The casino was gigantic and had a ton of RV's in the lot; the most we had seen yet I believe.
                   Side Story: Living on the road comes with its challenges like, where do you get water if                     Wal-Mart fails to supply the convenient well spicket? Bee told me to get water and I kept                          saying "we will find water it's everywhere!". Indeed it is not, water can be pretty hard to find.                         Living in the Northwest you grow accustomed to a certain quality of water, which is possibly                          a little harder to find.
This night we were out of water, so I had to find it. I took this on as a personal mission due to my failing to get in when we could. Yes, we are at a casino; they do have 24 hour bathroom service we used immediately, but our jugs would not fit under the faucet, so it is to the outer perimeter to look for spickets. I am running along the walls, jug in hand; we only need enough for the night, feeling as though I am breaking the law with each step; I am finding spickets but, they have them on lock down as if people run around the place attempting to steal water all of the time. I give up on the building and look to the west and see the hotel laundromat.  "They have water!" I scream inside my head and break into a full sprint across the parking lot ducking and rolling behind cars, just for the fun of it, and make it to the laundromat unseen - or seen and now people are watching me out of suspicion. I locate a water spicket, now this is where it gets sketchy. This spicket comes out of a laundromat, could it possibly be an emergency drain for  a washer or something, filled with chemicals maybe. I perform a test by tasting some of the possibly polluted fluid it smelled a little funny and tasted different than other water, but seemed safe. We struck gold with this spicket,  it will fill all of our jugs in the morning.

I cannot remember when we found out about Lincoln City Coastal Pride, but it started on a Friday night. We pulled in on a Thursday evening to have the dinner in the park. Friday was a beautiful sunny day, we played on the Lincoln City 'strip' awaiting the evening, when the festivities of Coastal Pride would begin. This sunny weather was unusual for Lincoln City; we like to think we brought the sunshine. Saturday was drab, a very cloudy day, more usual for this coastal town. This pride sounded wild with constant drag shows, raffles, dance parties and FLAMINGO BINGOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bingo event was Sunday morning and there was a surprise, but that you get later. Coastal Pride was being held at the community center, it was a "T" shaped building with a long hallway and rooms branching off; at one end was an entrance the other the stage/auditorium. They filled the empty space in front of the stage with chairs leaving an isle down the middle and on each side for walking/strutting. Outside of the auditorium was a large fenced in yard. They had booths for marketing different local businesses and alcohol. The drag shows were performed by dancers from Portland, they were great! Certainly some of the best performances I have ever seen and would consider myself a "connoisseur" of drag. This show had quite the variety from biodrag (women dressed as women) to older very experienced and talented dancers. I wish I had written down a few names. Fabulanza became my new love she could really work the stage and the older performer whom blew my mind I gave her my compliments with a shake of her hand. The dance parties were fun; they were held on the stage. This made the dance party a little weird because the audience was watching you as they sat in chairs. Saturday night was an exquisite treat The Caravan of Glam; a Portland based traveling drag show that performs everywhere from Idaho to SoCal. Topaz and Johnny are the only names I remember, but the rest were just as great. Jor and I had "pink is my favorite color" stuck in our heads for weeks. this song was performed by one of the newer dancers she did a strip tease to it. We went back to the casino at night and luckily FLAMINGO BINGO was being held at the same casino. Sunday morning we just walked down to the casino we were so familiar with to play. This is when the people of Lincoln City learned just how wild we could be. Of course we donned our best coats and britches brushed our teeth and combed our hair to be the first players in the room. The organizers rented out a room in the up stairs of the casino opposite of the buffet. Speaking of buffet some of the prizes for bingo were free buffet tickets!!!!!! This is the prize we wanted. On this Sunday the casino was also prepared to host one or more GAY WEDDINGS!!!!! The casino through a reception the whole kit&cabootle. I made a strong attempt to get Jor and Bee to marry (they wanted to party just as much as I did), but it was a no go obvi because they are not married. Bee did win a round of bingo, but it was a tie, and if there was a tie - there was then a strut off!!! Bee totally won this just as I had won that pie eating contest back in Bellingham, Wa. She was wearing a goddamned (excuse my french) sequenced jacket and looked like a disco ball, but unfortunately they gave it to the flamboyant man (not that flamboyancy is a bad thing) but those were our buffet tickets!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a blast though spreading the traveling tripod name throughout town. The Caravan of Glam showed up at Flamingo Bingo Topaz and Johnny sat with us and we really connected - they wanted to know about our RV they were on the market for one also to assist with their production. I hope to see them again someday.

Sunday afternoon, once we made our own buffet in the RV, we hit the road again. moving on down the coast and still expecting those seal caves. Going down the 101 stopping at several pull offs to take in the scenery and we hit the jackpot. This pull off was special and most adventurous. It involved climbing down a great wall of sand like dirt (pretty sketchy) I had to stop half way and climb back  up (in my bathrobes) just to  make sure it was possible - and we left the lights on. pahaha. Once down the 50 yard wall  we were on the shore and off in the distance what do we see!? SEALS!!! on a rock in the ocean just chillin  together being  seals it was soooo coo! and we touched anemone! and starfish! and anything we could find really! We investigated just about every small pool left behind by the afternoon tide to find new exciting creatures we do not normally encounter. This was way better than any seal caves we could have paid for!!!! The seals were of in the distance, but they were free and not looked upon by tourist constantly it was such a natural experience and one more to add to our being in the right place at the right time list.

Later down the road we found a hitchhiker whom asked us for a ride in Lincoln City, but we were not planning on leaving when he was and offered our best. We picked him up this time and dropped him in Coos Bay  where we stayed the night. Coos Bay was a wild experience or the 12 hours we were there.  By the end we were ready to get out. The day we left Coos Bay we never would have guessed anything that was about to unfold. We had a farm lined up in California and time to get there.








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