June, 2021
I’ll be heading home this morning, but I’d like to share just a few more photos with you from this camping trip … just a few fun things that didn’t need a whole blog post all to themselves.
First up are just a couple of photos from other exhibits in that Maritime Museum. I won’t write a lot of text so read the signs. Click to enlarge photos.
There are lots of brand name food products that started right here, in or near Astoria, Oregon, many years ago.
The brand name Ocean Spray started in Massachusetts in 1930. But cranberry growers in Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin joined the company within a year. There are arguments still today about which growers in which state joined first.
The Bumble Bee name/company absolutely started in Astoria, Oregon, in 1899, although they called themselves the Columbia River Packers Association until 1910, when they then adopted the much more memorable name of Bumble Bee. Interestingly, the name Bumble Bee came from the name of one of the original fishing boats “Bumble Bee”. In 2009, the company was one of the founders of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation … and it has either helped establish or it has joined and supported numerous other world organizations that work for ocean seafood health and sustainability. Bumble Bee became the first major seafood company to market plant-based alternatives to seafood. And it has been eliminating plastic wrapping on its products such that today it boasts 95% recyclable packaging. That’s the buzz from Bumble Bee … ok, sorry. 🙂
Here’s a fun thing below, something I’d never heard of … frogging!
Driving around some of the back roads hereabouts, I saw the car on the very VERY left side of the photo below as I approached it from behind. It was stopped, on a narrow edge of the road. I thought it might be in trouble so I pulled over to sit a moment and see what they did. Ha! Then I saw the Elk over to the right. Had to be at least 50 Elk out there.
After taking the photo above, I realized that maybe the Elk were sending me a signal that they were done with me. So off I went. Oh, and that car parked by the road … they waved as I drove slowly past them. Nice folks.
Here are a just few more photos (below) from my week here … the Columbia River, the ships, the big bridge across the river, etc.
The photo above shows how dock line is wrapped on board this one particular ship … the line is secured to the boat first of course, then the line is run to the dock, around a cleat on the dock, then run back to the boat and very tidily tied and stowed as above.
The photo above is of the Megler side of the Astoria-Megler Bridge. It too is raised a bit, but not for big ocean ships, just for smaller local boats including sailboats. NOAA chart #18521 covers this area. It states that the vertical clearance under the Megler side of the bridge is 48 feet. That’s the distance from the top of the water to the bottom of the bridge at the bridge’s highest point. But I don’t know if that’s at low tide or high tide, with huge spring runoff coming down the Columbia River when the river is higher or in late, hot summer when the river height itself is lower, etc. If you own a sailboat and want to go under this bridge, you’d better find out if your mast will fit!
Fort Stevens State Park, one of the largest state parks in the USA … my home for this past week.
This state park has a bunch of really nice cabins. Each one can be rented by the day or the week. Each has a bathroom with a toilet/sink/shower, a small but nice-sized kitchen with frig/freezer and microwave and sink/water. Every cabin has heat, light, and electrical outlets. When you arrive you get a key to the door (the door on the front deck) … the locks are re-keyed regularly for security. And each has a BBQ if you wish to use that. Some cabins face the woods (luscious woods) and some face onto a small creek.
The tree below was the view out one of my trailer windows during my stay here. No one ever was in those two camping spots under that tree the whole time I was here.
And then this last morning it was time to hitch up … center the truck on the trailer tongue using the backup camera on the truck … hitch up … check the trailer lights, including the brake lights … stow everything for travel … turn off the propane … put Little Towhee up on the dash of the truck so she can help me navigate … say good-bye to the really nice neighbors in the campsite next to me.
Double-triple check everything … and finally I’ll take the chocks out from under the trailer tires, lock the trailer door, fold up the trailer step … and then head out on the road towards home.
Seems kind of funny some times to know that my home is right behind me, right behind me in the rear view mirror of my big white truck. And yet home is also the house I own and where I live most of the year. I’m so blessed.
Next I’ll share a couple of blog posts about home and/or other stuff in my life … and then I’ll get back on track and share my next camping adventure of 2021. Come on along!
You make everything (even bullfrogs) interesting. Thanks for taking us along on the road, when traveling “afield” has been challenging these past few summers. I really like the looks of that cabin…. I think I could almost move right in! Fort Stevens: here I come.
You are welcome! And you can bet, if you and Mark ever do (ever can!) get down to the USA from Canada, and you head towards one of those cabins at Fort Stevens State Park, I’ll meet you there! 🙂
I didn’t know that state parks had such nice cabins but looking online I see lots of them do. What a great idea to simply drive somewhere and have such a cozy cottage to stay in.
“Cozy cottage” … nice words. 🙂 The cottages at Fort Stevens are very nice with so many amenities. Other state parks in Washington have the same, but most have “cabins” or “huts” or “yurts” with fewer amenities, but they are all described on each webpage for each state park. But yes I have to admit that, even though I own a trailer, it occured to me that I could “simply drive somewhere and have such a cozy cottage to stay in”. Thanks Emily.
I do this too, sometimes…do a post with the random photos that didn’t fit in any other blog. I like this one. It seems this was a REALLY nice park, will you go back sometime? Do you ever feel sad whe you’re leaving after you’ve been in a spot for a few days, especially a nice spot? I almost always do. And I think I’ll be back, but there’s only a couple parks that I’ve camped at more than once. You have camped at some really interesting and beautiful places!
Dawn, I got this idea from you … just posting a few photos from the camping trip at the end of the blogging. So thank you. 🙂
And yes, this was a really nice park, exceptionally, and the neighbor campers were exceptionally nice (and quiet) too, very courteous. I’d love to go back to Fort Stevens. There was so much in the area that I didn’t get a chance to see.
And yes again, I pretty much always feel sad to leave a camping spot. I just about never want to go home. I want to stay and see more, or just stay. Many places I’ve stayed, it has felt that I could simply live there, in my little trailer, or maybe a cabin that’s just a little larger than my trailer. 🙂
And yes me too again! I just about always put my camping destinations on a list for a future visit, but I hardly ever get back. I’ve been back to two destinations only. There is so much more to see, so many more places to explore, so much to learn. A north american group of women RVers are doing a month-long “rolling rally” in Michigan in April this year. Sigh … I’m not ready to be gone that long, for that many miles. But I’ve written down the itinerary and I could just show up on my own in a future year. 🙂
“the buzz from Bumble Bee” LOL! I loved that. This was a great blog with the variety of stuff.
Ha! 🙂 Thanks Joe.
Love the history. “Frogging” is weird but my grandparents told us they used to eat frogs so maybe it’s really ok and maybe even good. Fun stuff!
People all over the world eat frogs, so I hear. Can you get a recipe that your grandparents used? Let us know. 🙂
Those elk are wonderful!
Aren’t they!? Really special.
That line wrapped around the bollards on that boat must be, what, an inch thick? Really cool photo.
Yep. That bollard wrapping thing is handy for stowing a long length of line, but it also produces a very interesting artful photo. Yes, the line was about an inch diameter, maybe more.
Interesting factoids (or not interesting?) – my sister worked in the fish cannery for many years. And we have stayed in one of the Fort Stevens cabins – basic, but one step up from tent camping. Best part? The private shower.
A private shower inside the cabin? That’s deluxe! 🙂
Yep, I have a friend who worked in fish canneries too, many years ago. Are there still such things today? Hmmm, if there are, that would be a good thing for me to go explore. ah, but of course there are, in Ilwaco for instance and many other locations in Washington and Oregon. Ok, it’s on my list to go sleuth one out. Thanks Arlene.