Day 5: Mischief Managed - Nehalem Bay State Park, OR

Mischief Managed - Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon. 

Cascade Locks to Nehalem Bay 131 miles, 2 hours 40 minutes. 

The Royal Dinette is not so bad :). 

This park is lovely for train lovers as it is situated immediately beside a set of railway tracks. The blackberry hedge provides a false sense of security. This morning when we heard the familiar rumble I hopped up on the roof to get a picture of just how close the trains are. Meanwhile, our Airstream neighbours hopped out of their trailer, too. To a take a picture of me. Ha, Ha. This is their picture. My picture is below. 

There is no way to sugar coat it. The trains are close and honk right as they pass the camp due to a level crossing 100 m down the line from our location. They are very good about letting you know this if you contact the park. I had been here previously. I think I vaguely mentioned something about it being near the tracks to Marianne. . . .maybe. 

Isn't this the cutest Airstream ever!?  This couple has been slithering around the States now for a few months. Home is in Virginia. 

Time for coffee before cranking up the corner jacks, pulling the power plug and heading west. No need to unhitch last night - yippee!

A few slow downs crawling through Portland but nothing too terrible. 

Soon we are heading west again. Ocean dunes - here we come!

Heading west of Portland on Highway 26. What started as a three lane divided highway trickles down to a single lane each way and we are surrounded by farms. 

Alrightie, Google Maps. . .We have a bone to pick with you. What is called Highway 53 or the Necanicum Highway should really be called 'curviest road, with no shoulder, goal trail''.  If you are not zoomed in this road looks GREAT! 

After the fact, google zooming. . . . . 

So lovely, so picturesque. Insert sarcasm. 

Note to Mom - skip the next picture :). 

Highway 53 is a newly paved and freshly painted goat trail. You cannot really see it here but the paint goes over the crumbles on the right-side of the road where the pavement did not have enough purchase to lay flat. We feel the descriptor 'highway' was misleading. Did we mention there are logging trucks on this road!? We kept Mr. Thirsty and the Gypsy Wagon on our side of the yellow lines and the logging truck (with his wheels up all bunchy in the back) that came at us around a blind corner also stayed on his side of the line so it all ended well - insert bulging eyeballs. Marianne confirms that the aforementioned description is accurate and it is OK because her hair is already gray. This route saves - TWO MINUTES. 

Mom - you may start reading again. 

At 2:30 pm we confidently walk up to the Nehalem Bay State Park ranger booth and do not make eye contact with the large PARK FULL sign.  Any chance that you have a spot for 1 night?!  Well, you are lucky because. . . .  .we stopped listening at that point and shared high fives while just about throwing cash through the window and grabbing the parking permit. No, we were polite and calm on the outside while thinking, "Start the car!!!" on the inside. 

The walk over the dune. Oh, ocean rollers here we come. 

Helpful signs to remind you which dune access will lead you home again. 

The south end of the spit is a protected area of dunes. 

Interesting!

We did it!!

Phew, what a day. Tomorrow we move into another spot for our 2-night reservation. Plus, I secured one final night in another spot. We have some short 'relocation cruises' in our future. That's OK - we are IN!