Saturday 9-23-23 Rainy Day & New State

 Rainy Nasty Day

We were without internet for a couple of days so you may have missed a couple of my posts. You can go back and read them now.

We had two great days at Hoh Rainforest Campground. It was time to move on because it was suppose to rain for a week or more.  

We had thought we would be in Washington for another week or two but a rain system moved in that is suppose to hang around for at least a week so we are moving on to Oregon.

I woke up when Larry did 5:50 am. We wanted to get an early start before the rain came in. We got the Minnie ready to leave. We put things away and made sure everything was secure. We had a quick breakfast. We were ready to go by 6:15. It was still dark and the rain started.

Larry drove 245 miles to Anderson County Park in Oregon. The first 12 miles or so was down a curvy road through Olympic National Park, then another 8 miles of the curvy road to the highway. The rain wasn't hard but it was very steady. Larry drove slower than the speed limit because the roads were wet and it was still dark. He kept an eye out for deer and elk. The construction workers were showing up to go to work and some of them were already working. We had stop at a couple of construction areas that were controlled by unmanned lights. There was another section where they had flag people. I felt sorry for the workers because it was cold and rainy. Once off the curvy forest road we drove on a two lane highway through small towns. We drove by the coast but you couldn't see much. We stopped a couple of times to use the restroom. We were about 30 miles away from the county park where we were planning to stay when we stopped to fill the Minnie with gas at a Safeway. After getting gas we had lunch in the parking lot.

After lunch we continued on. The last 30 miles were down a curvy two lane road. Before getting the the curvy road we crossed the Columbia River via a huge bridge. We entered Oregon right before we exited the bridge. I was surprised with all the industrial factories on the river. I know people have to make a living and we need the products such as logs for lumber and paper. Seeing all factories wasn't too pretty. We stopped at Big Eddy county park. It had a lot of sites available but very little internet/cell signal. It was also noisy from traffic going by. Larry was able to get enough service to make a reservation for another county park in town 8 miles away. The park was Anderson Park.

Bridge across the Columbia River

 

Welcome to Oregon

We arrived at the park at 2:30. The sites are very close to each other and they are full-hookups. Due to the closeness of sites on normal weekends it is probably a bit noisy and busy but with the rain it was very quiet. It is also away from any major road so there was no road noise. Larry plugged us in and filled the water tank. The internet and cell service is fast. We setup the Minnie for the night. We went over to the restrooms and took showers. The showers were $1.00 for 6 minutes, $1.25 for 7 minutes and $1.50 for 8 minutes. The shower was very hot. After our showers we relaxed with a book. 

Nehalem River

 

Anderson Park pay station

They had a nice trail for you to walk or ride your bike. Part of it was paved and the other part was dirt. People were using it, even when it was raining. After dinner we walked it to the river, which wasn't too far past the restrooms. It was raining so that's as far was we went. We walked on the bridge to check the river out. The park was very nice.