Florence, OR

As we approached Florence, we saw an endless stream of RVs travelling in the opposite direction – we guess that these people must be wrapping up their long weekend and heading back home to the city. Seeing all those RVs gave us comfort – that we’ll be able to find a spot at a campground.

After spending so much time in the smoke and heat, we thought that the coast would provide us with relieve from the smoke. Well, we still see the smoke, although not as bad as what we’ve seen on this trip thus far.

We spent 2 days at the Carl G Washburn State Memorial campground.

It’s a smaller sized campground with full hookups at $31 a night and it has a 1/2 mile trail to the beach. The free showers were a bonus as we were in a situation that left us without running water for a couple of days – made worse with the water restriction at Crater Lake. The valve to the hot water tank cracked on Sunday – so, “Macgyver” tried fixing it with goop that has long past its best before date. That fixed the original leak but the valve sprung a new leak… Fortunately it was an easy job and we found an RV repair shop in Florence that replaced it for $75.

Two main attractions in Florence are the sand dunes and the Sea Lions Cave. We headed to the sand dunes and rented 4 ATVs. There is a lot of paperwork for the rental and I got quite nervous signing all the waivers. There is a section that states that if a child is hurt, the parents could be jailed for child endangerment… Fortunately all went well despite a few exhaust burns on the legs. Everyone had fun, and Jeff had a really good workout moving/dragging/pulling/lifting the kids’ ATV whenever it got stuck in the sand and the kids seem to get stuck every few minutes! Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of this activity.

The visit to the Sea Lions Cave met with some resistance as someone had visited it previously and only remembers the noise and stink. Since the kids and I really wanted to see it, he had to come along. Although I did give him the option of waiting for us in the truck, which he declined.

There were no sea lions in the cave – it’s the wrong time of the year. The sea lions were out laying on the rocks. We could see them from high above from the viewing platform. It’s nice seeing the sea lions, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be a repeat visit unlike someone…

Next stop, Cannon Beach. We are going to try and find a nice RV place on the beach…