Days 19-22 - Waldport, OR

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From Astoria we kept driving down the Oregon coast to our most southern coastal destination of Waldport, OR. It was only about a 4 hour drive so we had a leisurely morning before meandering down the coast. We attempted to arrive at our tiny house village around 4pm only to find the road was blocked off and our little neighborhood was under evacuation orders due to a small brush fire. We didn't know what to do. The cell service wasn't great, so we headed to the nearby town of Yachats to get some food, internet, and figure out a plan. 

Adding to the chaos, just as fire trucks passed us on the road earlier, we received a text from our condo mates back in Somerville that the unit above ours had sprung a leak and water was pouring out of their ceiling. All while our tenant was just settling in. Yikes! 

Two hours later both potential catastrophes seemed to resolve themselves as quickly as they emerged. The brush fire had been put out, the evacuation orders lifted. And the leaky ceiling turned out to be a cracked AC drainage pipe. Welcome to the West Coast where you will be greeted by fire. Welcome to the East Coast where you will be greeted by water. The choice is yours.




Not only do dangers abound while exploring the beaches of the Pacific, they also don't let you have any fun. This was a very common sign.


But it's not just the beaches that are dangerous. As you drive along the coast, the road dips up and down which means you are continually leaving and entering tsunami zones.


Is it just us or did some highway official decide to go rogue with fonts?



The Pacific was no match for Tristan.




Wearing several layers underneath a heavy sweatshirt I was almost warm here.


Just across the street and about a mile hike up the hill lives this giant spruce.


Our tiny house.




Complete with climbing wall.


Tiny house village community gardens.


Getting on the end of route 20 heading to Portland, OR. Just 3,365 miles home.


And finally, here are a few videos of our time along the coast.

Thoughts about the North Pacific

I'm really not sure what all these people are doing here at the beach. Don't let those sun-drenched vibrant colors fool you. It's cold here. And windy. At the beaches it only gets to about 60 degrees during the day. The wind seems to start to pick up every morning around 11am and doesn't die down again until the evening. And the Pacific is an angry ocean. It doesn't want you in it and you don't want to be in it. 

But the tourists put on a good show. They bring all their beach accoutrements down to the shore. Their coolers, chairs, shovels, and towels. The ones in the most denial even don their favorite shorts and t-shirts. I can only assume this is all they know of the beach. Either they don't equate the beach with being warm or this is warm for them.

But cross the road and start to hike up the hills on the other side and things warm up fast. There there is no wind. There you can take off your layers because the temperature is a pleasant 75. There you can hear the birds again. There you can find the big trees if you are lucky. There is the best place to see the cold, beautiful, angry Pacific - at a distance.

Next we head to Portland, OR for a few days where our friend Marilyn will join us!

States traveled

  • Oregon

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Day 1 - Syracuse, NY

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  We left Somerville this morning and are ending our day today in Syracuse, NY. We were on the road for about 6 hours and made tacos for dinner - delicious, tacos never disappoint. The audio highlight of the day was listening to the latest This American Life episode, Must Be Rats on the Brain  - it's us against them. And the visual highlight of the day was crossing the Hudson River - an impressively big river. Our destination tomorrow is Cleveland, OH which will be a similar amount of time on the road, but we don't have to worry about cleaning and packing up so it will be a piece of cake. States traveled Massachusetts New York
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Halfway

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After leaving Olympic and heading south along the Oregon coast, it's really starting to feel like we've finished the trip to the Pacific. We've seen a lot of the coast the last couple days. It's rocky and beautiful and windy . But also we've been on the road for about 3 weeks, visited four of the six national parks we're going to see, and driven through 14 states. Soon we'll turn around, spending the next three weeks first up in Portland, then Seattle, then Glacier, and then driving east for a week. Route 20, which starts in Kenmore sq. Boston is the longest road in the US at 3,365 miles, and we've spent a lot of time driving parallel to it (on rt 90, the longest interstate highway in the US). In fact, our cabin by Yellowstone Lake was right off of 20, near where the road originally ended before they extended it all the way to the west coast. Yesterday was July 4th, which time-wise will be almost exactly the halfway point of our trip. Depending on when w...
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Day 2 - Cleveland, OH

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We started our day in Syracuse, NY and are ending it in Cleveland, OH. We ate our lunch on the shores of Lake Erie and enjoyed a walk around Evangola State Park. Some neat rocks by the shore. A close up of the rocks. I'll let the geologists following this blog comment on what we are seeing here. You know who you are. At our last charging stop we met Mary who was also driving a Tesla on a road trip and doing yoga while charging. She was headed in the opposite direction to teach a yoga workshop in upstate New York. We became fast friends.   We were on the road for about 6 hours again today. It was great driving weather with bright clouds, not too sunny, not too hot. We got to our place before the rain started where I got in a real yoga practice outside before dinner (with a mat and everything and not a single Tesla charger in sight!). What was dinner you ask? You guessed it. Tacos again! Still delicious. The visual highlight of the drive was all the vineyards in upstate New York. Who...
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