Today we said goodbye to the Quinault River Casino in Ocean Shores, WA and drove south towards Oregon.  We took on some gas in Cosmopolis, then crossed into Oregon over the Columbia River in treacherous crosswinds on the Astoria–Megler Bridge.

“But isn’t that the the longest continuous truss bridge in North America?” you may ask.  Why yes, yes it is.

At the Astoria public dump station, I asked where the Oregonians in front of us were from.  They mentioned they were from a small town near Jewell that I had never heard of, and asked me where in South Dakota we were from (since we have SD plates).  I told them we were fulltime RVers, but before I got much farther, they asked if we knew Jason and Carrie.  Turns out that they were friends, and Jason and Carrie had told them about our trip a few weeks prior.  Small world!

After stopping in Warrenton for groceries, gas, DEF, and a battery for one of the RV TPMS sensors, we continued south to Tillamook, where we stopped in at the cheese factory to buy ten blocks of kosher cheddar.

Continuing south, we arrived at our overnight destination, the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City, OR:

It’s still barely breaking 50 degrees during the day, and it’s supposed to be in the mid-30s tonight.  We will continue south tomorrow.

Like the time we accidentally embedded in a motorcycle hillclimbing competition, or a Brittany field trial competition, this Shabbos we accidentally found ourselves in the narrow band of Washington’s coast that allows non-natives to dig clams for an eight-day period centered on this weekend.  The Quinault Casino RV lot, in which we were the only tenant since we arrived on Wednesday night, was completely full by Saturday afternoon.  All the RVs were local, and come 8pm, when the allowed dig time began, the lot was eerily quiet, until about midnight when everyone came back from the beach.

Here’s the view this morning, after some of the RVs had already left:

After homeschool, we drove into town to do a bit of shopping.  I drove down to the airport, as unfortunately my dream of PPGing from Copalis airstrip was denied by high winds today.  Tomorrow has calmish winds from the East, so that rules out Copalis, as the bluffs above the beach would cause rotor on the beach, but the airport will have easterly winds coming in over the bay, so it should be calm.

We stopped in at a great kite shop and browsed for a bit:

Tonight Trish worked on some rock art:

After homeschool on our second day at the Quinault Casino we drove South to the nearest vehicular beach access.  Cars can be driven on this length of Washington’s shoreline, so we drove North for a bit on the beach and then got out to walk.

We soon came upon a flock of Sanderlings:

The kids took it upon themselves to make sure that the birds got in their flight time for the day:

The ocean carves out interesting patterns around driftwood:

The kids found a long strand of kelp:

B stood at the rear bumper of the truck to compare the kelp’s length with that of the truck:

In the afternoon, I rode north to check out how to access Copalis airstrip, the only public airstrip in the US which is in fact on the beach.  Turns out access is three miles north at Rosevelt Beach, followed by a three mile drive south on the beach to get to the airstrip.  Here’s the view from Roosevelt Beach looking south:

I won’t have time to fly my PPG from Copalis today, but hopefully on Sunday.

By late afternoon, most of the spots here at the Casino were full of RVs.  We will have to find out what’s going on.

Good Shabbos from the Quinault Casino in Ocean Shores, Washington!