Gone West 6

Gone West 6

Astoria and crossing the Colombia River (with a little difficulty).

We travelled the short distance (relatively) to Astoria from Cannon Beach passing a seaside town called Seaside, with just a little stop at Clatsop a national memorial, this is a relic of the second world war, it had been built to defend a possible attack from the Pacific by Japan, it was full of the normal military hardware that had not originally been there but was on display to show what the Americans had at their disposal.

Near by is Fort Stevens State Park as good a place as any to stop off for a break we did and much to my delight I watched an angler catch a 4lb steelhead trout. The Steelhead is a Rainbow, but is anadromous (it lives in the sea but comes into lakes and rivers to spawn). Fine fighters and even better eaters.

One the beach you can see the remains of the Peter Iredale a four masted barque that ran aground here while trying to make entry into the Columbia river,

We had seen that we got 10% reduction for staying  at KAO camping resorts, there was a one a one in Astoria and even though the name didn’t sound too inviting we decided to stay for the night.

During the trip so far we had paid between $25 and $40 a night at campsites, this depended on the hook up and other facilities, some you have even television connections, this one, at Astoria was $73, we gulped but as it was getting late we bit the bullet as they say in these here parts, registered, got the info blurb and got the pitch.  The KAO site’s are Roll’s Royse’s of camp parks and have all facilities, so off went Linda to Check out the Laundry facilities while I got the waggon train camp set up for the night. Wrong, wrong, wrong, here I don’t quite know if I inadvertently hit the lock button while getting out or Jucy had decided to take it on her own and lock the whole shooting match down. Problem was I had taken the keys out of the ignition and put them in the middle console for safe keeping (a lesson learnt, always put them in your pocket). Resulting in us being totally locked out, Linda was not amused, we went to the reception to explain our predicament, the young receptionist immediately got onto the radio to camp maintenance and told us to go back to the pitch and he would come, in a few minutes (it seemed like hours), the man in the yellow electric van appeared and informed us that unfortunately he was not into the ways of breaking and entering and his colleague who normally does this type of operation was not on duty and though living on site was off with his wife on a night out, he had phoned him, but we may have to wait a while. It was getting rather cool and we were lightly clad ( I had only had shirts and T-shirt on since leaving SF) but we could go and wait in the games room were there was a TV and videos, this we did it was warm and cosy, we sat in the large “Chesterfield” and surmised what we would do if unable to get Lucy open. Options were:

1)      Inform the car rental

2)      Get out the AAA

3)      Book in to one of the cabins for the night

4)      Break down and cry

But luckily the cavalry arrived in the form of Brian, he is the professional getter in of locked cars, he gave us the keys last seen on the centre console and said as the automatic locking was not working, he had left his wife to guard the car. We hot footed back and thanked them both dearly; Brian the getter in refused any payment and wished us a nice stay. It was getting quite late and I thought I would use up the shucked oysters that I had bought at Coos Bay and even though in the fridge would need using up. With that in mind, I made oyster chowder, Linda said that she was still feeling a little winded from the fright and had nothing.  We connected everything up and settled down for the night.

At the reception, during the introduction blurb, our little nice young lady had informed us about the facilities on site, inclusive in the $73, (this did now seem not so exorbitant) was laundry facilities, inside and outdoor swimming pools, spa and free pancakes for breakfast. As we were unable to /could not make use of the rest, we decided to make use of the breakfast facilities. I did make a tour of the park to show how other campers line (it isn't real camping so we are unlikely to be spending another $73.

The BBQ and Fire Pit area

Linda testing the SWL of the swings

The toilet and shower facilities

Jucy in shut down mode

The reception, shop and spa

We hot footed (we actually drove) passing the monstrous chuck waggon into the site restaurant, it was pretty empty with only a mother with her kids all getting stick in to pancakes galore. We went to the counter to be greeted with how many sir, Linda she  ”just the one”, I wanted two and noticed that there were two sorts on the menu, normal and mickey mouse, while Linda got the coffee and went to get seated at the windows overlooking the swimming pool (kids already swimming and playing in it).

I asked the cook what the difference was, he replied, the pancake mix is the same but the other he makes for the kids and is shaped like a mickey mouse head, I said slap a one on to a plate for Linda. I had also ordered a portion of hash browns to accompany mine.  We sat and enjoyed the breakfast, Linda making use of the jug of maple syrup, I passed.

Breakfast finished we headed out of Mosquito Crossing to have a look and get the “bleeding” ignition key sorted out.

Astoria is a pleasant little Western town, situated on the south bank of the mighty Columbia River. It had quite a bit of Art Nuevo architecture and actually holds a Shakespeare Festival every year. But though I love architecture and adore Shakespeare, these was not the reasons for the drive through town, that was to find a Dodge dealer, we travelled along Main street, found everything but, but did find a “do it all” car company, I went inside explained our predicament, he said it sounded like the battery in the fob, opened it up and took the battery out, unfortunately he didn’t have that one, but if I could hang on a couple of minutes, he would have a  one sent around, I replied in the affirmative and he was on the phone and it was literally only a couple of minutes and a chap appeared , the battery was inserted, the fob put back together  and tested. I had left Linda in the car studying maps for the next part of our journey, I do believe she needed to change her knickers when the Lucy locked, unlocked herself and the horn sounded. But everything was once again in full working order or so we thought.  But that is another story for another part of the journey. I took a photo of a coastguard cutter moored near by (it was actually part of the adjacent Maritime Museum).

We turned Lucy’s head up North crossed the massive bridge that spans the mouth of the mighty Columbia River and into Washington State.