Fort Stevens and Camping in the Rain

Our friends, the Bundys, showed up on Saturday. And amazingly, the rain stopped and the sun made an appearance for several hours. Long enough for us to head out to the beach and catch a few windy moments gazing at the high surf and the Peter Iredale wreck,


and meander in and out of the spooky ruins of Battery Russell.



There is a much more to see in the park like a large military museum and interpretive center and self guided tours located at Fort Stevens State Historical Site just north of Battery Russell.

As quickly as the nicer weather headed in, it left and again we were huddled in the RV with not much to do.

Except eat. And eat we did. And watch DVDs. Oh, and take fun pictures of the Bundys, like this one where they appear to be very excited about reading a manual on native plants of the Northwest. (actually, they probably were quite excited, at least Boy Bundy was).



After one last night of heavy raindrops on our roof, we took our time breaking down camp, waiting until there were breaks in the rain and eventually drove out of our site and headed for the RV dump station at 1 p.m. (loop E has only water and electric sites.)

As we drove back towards Portland, we discussed the issue of rain and RVing. Even though we both agreed that camping in the rain isn’t a huge issue, it does put a damper on a few things. We drag more dirt and debris in and out of the rig that sticks to our shoes. Set up and breakdown of camp can be annoying. And since we drove all those miles to be in the great outdoors for a few days, we wished we could have been outside more. No campfires, no long hikes, just lots of indoors.

All I can say is THANK GOODNESS we had friends visit and the Freaks and Geeks DVD collection with us. It's only one of the best TV shows ever and watching an episode of it always helps lighten the mood.

For more detailed information on the history of Fort Stevens, visit the Friends of Old Fort Stevens website.

** Our Sprint cell phones and Aircard did work at the park. Although we had sketchy reception, especially when it was raining. Overall, the Aircard actually worked better than the phones!

Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon

Situated on the northern tip of the Oregon Coast lies Fort Stevens State Park. Once the site of a military installation used to guard the mouth of the Columbia River, it is now one of the coolest parks in the Oregon State Park system. It has a large, year-round campground consisting of 12 campground loops with 174 full hookups and 302 partial hookups. Not too shabby. And because of it’s proximity to the beach and neighboring towns of Warrenton and Astoria, this campground is in an idea location. Whether exploring the park on a hiking or biking trail, taking scenic photos of the wreck of the Peter Iredale…



Identifying the flora and fauna, or visiting the historic military site…



There’s plenty of activity to keep visitors busy.

Fort Stevens was chosen as our first October getaway for the above reasons and then some. Our first choice, Silver Falls State Park, was booked for the weekend. Also, we knew our cell phone and Aircard should work at this campground. For more information visit Oregon State Parks.

We left Portland on an overcast afternoon and headed to the coast, only encountering a few light showers along the way. We were early checking in, but that wasn’t an issue since the campground was almost deserted. In fact, we were the only campers in Loop E.



After setting up camp, we explored the surrounding area. We checked out the nearest comfort station…



Discovered some wild mushrooms…



And walked to the trash bins near the front entrance. We figured we ought to be outside as much as we could before the rain came. And it did arrive.

On day two, it began pouring. And pouring. It’s day three now, and it’s still raining.

Our site is underneath a beautiful Sitka Spruce tree which has been dumping extra rain on us ever since the rain started. All day and night long, we hear the pitter patter of heavy raindrops beating in a random symphony on the roof. Amazingly, it is easy to sleep through the sound. However, the rain has gotten in the way of a few things. Like going outside. Also, we can barely hear the DVDs we have been watching on one of the laptops. And our cell phones aren’t keeping their connections.

Another issue we discovered yesterday was that our house battery isn’t getting charged when we are connected to shore power. And since there is no sun, the solar panels on our roof aren’t recharging it either. All of our houselights are dim and the battery is almost drained. We can plug things into our electric outlets though, and everything runs. We have a floodlight that I brought “just in case” that is now our main light source. And we brought a space heater, which is great because our furnace runs on propane and is powered by the house battery. We already tried unsuccessfully to warm up the rig this morning that way.

The weather forecast calls for rain and wind today, high of 59. Looks like another day spent indoors. We’re expecting our friends to arrive in about two hours though, so we’ll all find ways to entertain each other.

**note- any photos depicting sun in them were taken on our last trip here. :)

A Mini-Escape

Recently we toyed with several ideas on our winter escape from the Pacific NW. Our whole goal is to live in Oregon when the weather is nice, and roll down south when it starts to get too cold. Our first idea was to head to Florida and stay a month or two flitting between several nice snowbird resorts down there. However, we spent several weeks in Florida this past June on a non-RV trip, so we were open to a change of scenery. Plus the price of gas scared us from crossing the country. (Although, we filled up our motorhome gas tank on July 3rd and the price of fuel was $4.29 per gallon. This week, we filled up for $3.33 per gallon. Almost a whole dollar cheaper!)

We honed in on Southern California instead. After searching online, we found several nice-looking RV parks near the coast in San Diego. We figured we could play it by ear and stay in San Diego as long as we felt like it and then head back to Oregon when the timing felt right.

Just like the old days when we were full-timing! One of our favorite parts about being full-timers was coming and going as we pleased.

But those tentative winter plans to head south have come to a screeching halt. We’re going to have an addition to our little family! We’ve got a baby on the way so by the time winter rolls around, I’ll be visiting the doctor on a regular basis, which leaves little time for long RV jaunts.

So now what do we do?

Well, we started making more autumn travel plans for one. Just to places within a few hours drive from Portland. Our first trip is scheduled for this upcoming weekend at Fort Stevens State Park on the Oregon Coast. The weather forecast is not looking good. It’s rain, rain, rain. But, what can you do, it is Oregon.

We’re also going to do more “stay-cations” in Portland. For instance, we could visit museums and try out some new restaurants. We actually have this long “to do” list of things to do and see in and around Portland. However, it seems that whenever we get the chance, we usually skip town instead of exploring the things closest to us. So, we’ll do some local sightseeing, and more research and planning for 2009/10 trips.

We’re also going to research satellite internet options for the rig. Although our Aircard has treated us relatively well, it doesn’t work everywhere. Which means, we are limited in where we can travel. It’s never a nice surprise to get to our destination and find out we have no internet. I’ll be sure to share our findings.