South Jetty, Florence OR 9/23-9/30

Well, off to another park. It is fun seeing a lot of our Thousand Trails Parks, but sometimes it is a little crazy moving every week. We will continue only staying a week at the next five parks, and then we will start staying from 2-3 weeks at a time. Our week usually goes something like this: Sunday is Church day, Monday is laundry day (every other week) and cleaning day, Tuesday is moving day, Wednesday and Thursday is work day (for me), and then Friday and Saturday is play day! Not too much different from some of your weeks, only we lots of free hours mixed in between.

South Jetty was a really fun park. We were there on the very warmest day of the year in Florence, and it was only 85 degrees!! Some of the other days were almost as nice. Each time we go into a Thousand Trails Park, there is a Ranger there to greet you and check you in. They also act as the information/problem solver station. This lady was really fun. She walked us around a couple of spots before she put us in one because she wanted to get just the right one for us. This is one of the few Thousand Trail Parks that assign spots. That is because it is a pretty old park and has a lot of short sites. She tries to put the shorter RVs in them and keep the larger ones for longer RVs. She told us she is the "nice Ranger." She told us that several times. I took her picture and told her she would be on the BLOG.

The spot she put us in got sun the first thing in the morning and had it almost all day. There are not too many sites like that in the park because it is in the middle of the forest. We really enjoyed the site because of the sun! Terry wanted this picture on the BLOG to show off his new chrome tailgate he and Shay found when we and all of the kids were all in Emmett. He had to make several adjustments to get it to work, but he made it. What do you think, boys?
There was another really nice club house at this park. We hung out there some and ate one dinner there. There is a full-time/private business in the clubhouse. It is called South Jetty Betty's. She is the cook and serves breakfast for members and also for the public five days a week. She has had her business there for 17 years! She is also the cook for the other meals available to the members--a BBQ lunch several times a week and dinner on Friday and Saturdays. We go to dinner once in a while at the parks.

There is a really nice pool, two hot tubs, and a kids pool. But, the weather wasn't warm enough for a lot of water activities. We saw people in the pool a few times, but we never used it. This is the front of the activity center. Terry was sitting there talking on the phone to our son, Ryan. So, Ryan, when you look at this picture, you will know where Dad was sitting when he was talking to you!

The Florence OR area is really famous for its miles and miles of sand dunes. We decided to check them out by going on a dunebuggy bus ride.
We lucked out and got the very front seats next to the driver--a great spot for taking pictures and asking questions.
This is a hill we started out on. It was a "staging area" that you could drive to and unload your toys. We had walked down here from our camp one day. It was on a weekend and the hill was covered with ORVs (off-road vehicles). We went straight up that hill in our "bus." It is really steeper and higher than this picture shows.

At the top, there were miles and miles of dunes. On one side of us there was dense forest. The drive talked a lot and told us a lot of stories and history about the dunes.

And on the other side, there was the Pacific Ocean! Our driver told us that this stretch of beach from Florence to Coos Bay was called "Old Highway 101" and there are actually speed limits attatched to it and the police have been known to ticket people going too fast. Years ago, this was the main thoroughfare for getting goods from bay to bay--of course, only during low tide!
This is looking down to the staging area we started at. The driver said we would just kind of meander down it, but then said, "Oh, what the heck, let's just go straight down." And we did! There were a few screams from the back of the bus, but of course, none from the front seat!
This is the bay marina in Florence. We went crabbing out on the docks one day. We caught a lot of crab, but no keepers. We had to fight off the seagulls out on the docks. They were everywhere. There was a flea market in the middle of the grassy area one day and we bought some really good home-made salsa.
The weather was nice enough to have a campfire a couple of evenings. I am thinking that we could use a fire ring like this at our house. So, if any of you have an old tire hub, preferably a large-sized tire (like maybe school bus size) that is in your way and you are wanting to get rid of, just drop it off at our house in Emmett. I am sure you will get invited to a wiener roast when we get home next summer.

See you at the next campground!