April 7, 2005

April 7, 2005

Newport to Cape Lookout, Oregon

DAY 293

 

Today was cloudy and cool, with intermittent rain.

Once again, we're in a bit of a pickle, thanks to Dee-Dee. As we backed into our campsite tonight, the transmission failed in reverse. We're in the campsite okay, but there's no more reverse gear. Let's hope I can make it the eleven miles to the nearest town tomorrow morning without needing to back up anywhere. The eleven miles to the nearest town, Tillamook, is a winding, hilly, road from the Pacific coast over the mountains Wish me luck ! The campground host here says that Tillamook should be large enough to have a decent transmission shop or GM dealer. Pulling Harvey up and over and around all the mountains that we've travelled in the last few weeks has been pretty tough, so I guess the transmission has decided it's time for some repairs, or replacement ! < sigh > Why does the truck always decide to break down either just before, or on a weekend, when getting repairs always results in a delay over the weekend ?

We started out late this morning, partially because the weather was poor. When we finally left the South Beach State Park, we drove a couple of miles to the town of Newport. Joanne wanted to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium at Newport. We spent the rest of the morning, and part of the afternoon wandering around this fabulous aquarium. It has outdoor pools, with viewing glass below water level, with sea otters, seals, and sea lions. The sea otters have particularly cute mannerisms. They were Joanne's favourite exhibit. There is an aviary with sea birds. I liked watching the male puffin perform a mating ritual "dance" on the water. Indoors, there are three large ocean habitats behind glass, connected by a 200 foot underwater tunnel. As you walk through the tunnel from exhibit area to exhibit area, you can watch all manner of sea life swim around, above, and below you. It was quite fascinating. I tried taking some pictures, without using the flash. I hope I got something useable.

We had a late lunch in the aquarium parking lot, then headed north on Hwy. 101, as usual. We only drove for a couple of hours, since we got out on the road quite late. As we have done for the last few days, we followed the Pacific coastline along Hwy. 101. Just before Cloverdale, we turned off the highway onto a rather poor secondary road leading here to Cape Lookout, and a little further, to Three Arch Rocks. We are camped for the night at Cape Lookout State Park.

DSK