THE WORLD JUST GOT SMALLER... Whazammo Ashore - WEEK SIX 28 OCTOBER, 2024

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We reached out to Bandon this past week, and Brookings last week, it was an all too familiar experience to our 8 years in Florence and reaching out to Eugene, Newport, and Coos Bay...  it was a failure, a repulsive, disgusting failure.      

We left Florence 5 times in 8 years, and now doubt we will ever leave Port Orford/Gold Beach, ever ! 

After years spent with a pre-drivers license age yearning to wander, leave, escape, investigate, and explore ended at 16, never to be put back into the garage, or run out of highway ever again... now, I have installed spike strips around Curry County for keeping us local,  the yin - yang of it all, there is simply nothing more to see out there, no worth in the experience, we are saturated with averse, we are staying home.

We pioneered this obsession long before Covid, long before the wall was completed, we left town for-the-sea for a reason, remoteness, obscurity and privacy has eluded our attempts for years, the ability to self-induce privacy on a busy NY subway wanes, then becomes immune, a bigger "fix" is constantly needed... eventually you become a privacy addict, requiring open air outdoor spaces. unobstructed views, and fire tower like isolation.

Its a dichotomy, needing openess, view, contact, vs. having privacy, obscurity, and separation... but, after our trips to Brookings and Bandon,  this we "do" know,  stay home.

Thursday October the 24th... the trees finally have released their leaves to the wind today, so, it is officially the beginning of winter which usually pivots around Halloween, followed by the great faucet in the sky of November.  We have yet to find an accurate online weather url, Florence was the same (so we built our own weather station), you cannot sit in Portland, or over the Coast Range and "guess" at weather, even the Coast Guard messes this up badly (we have stories). 

We moved here for "long term", and hope it has longevity, some recent happenings may alter that, but, we are hooked on Curry county, yay for us !  A side note... so bad (totally inaccurate) are the weather channels describing Port Orford weather, I went back to the boat sites, if you have a more accurate reporting station than this, let me know.  <https://www.windfinder.com/report/port_orford>

The bear is real! third night in a row...  night one ... a bump,  night 2   an attempt at removing a storage container from under the coach, night 3, a broken storage container out in the yard,  no food involved, just hoses, water/sewer stuff.  valves and filters. so, no more sleeping outside in the hammock!!

Speaking of bears, we normally hibernate ourselves... taking winter-time as online time, and staying away from people, so, if we seem aloof, its simply winter-time.

Back around Y2K we had a bald 4300 foot mountain-in top home, golden and American eagles abounded,

one dawn morning I saw what appeared to be a 5 year-old kid in pajamas wobble-walking up the hill,

alarmed, I ran out and encountered an Eagle, (wings folded) walking on the ground… face to face 30 feet

away we both froze and stared, the interface went on 3-4 minutes before “I” backed off.  When I wrote in

detail about the experience, a four foot tall, 18 foot wingspan bird was not accepted well, I was attacked

unmercilessly as a liar, stretcher-of-the-truth, on and on…. Without photos to verify, I took down the post.

Yesterday I received a 25 year belated apology from one of the neersayers… and this facebook video link,

thought you might enjoy it.

...  karma is a bitch, and this is a young immature bird.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=905138938250074&ref=sharing

Who knew it rained in Oregon ? - Whazammo Ashore Week 5:

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On the 14th at 1500, a "V" of well organized geese flew over , headed South... 135 of them ! (I counted). 

                                                                    

And a gazillion things your Mother never told you about, all arrange to haunt you (just before Halloween), snails, hermit crabs, turtles, gypsy's, boat people, yurt dwellers, RV livers, and tenters all carry their homes around with them, they are liquid, untied from the dock, "loose", resilient...whatever/however you wish to describe their state of freedom.

When you live in a Tardis you become very private, firstly... because there is not much room for entertaining guests, or visitors, secondly there is the issue of you must either become a minimalist, or a "lets put every square inch of available surface to use" person, your choice, there is no in between.

The small colonies this type of dweller assembles in easily tells you who-is-who, there is the constant "borrower" (minimalist)... do you have a screw driver ?, a nail clipper ?, a measuring cup ? type, and the if God made it, "I" have it opposite type  (the collector).  

It was a full moon weekend, an'ya and I "gifted" back an entry porch to the person who "gifted" us our car, and we have planned out our first Bandon shopping trip for Tuesday of next week, and, "think" the move might actually be over...

We got our Port Orford indoctrination moved further towards nativeism by a visit to Mr. Ed's Espresso, Juice, and Underground Pub at the behest of our welcoming committee herein the RV park... like your first visit to  Chucky Cheese', dinner in the Goodyear blimp, or that Dixieland/Barbershop Pizza parlor in Redwood City where they unexpectedly crash a 6-piece Alpine band (sousaphone included) through a plaster wall to wish you happy birthday, these places unleash unique experiences.  

The mystique of being in Port Orford is wearing off, the familiarity and recognition by the locals has moved from staring to how are ya', and the weather is holding its usual "October is the best month of the year" (our in house opinion)... for all that has been experienced here, the biggest "Wow" is the quiet, the lack of  ambient noise, people second, this is like an alternative world !

So far, we have had only a few 45 minute overnight showers, and sunny days, last night was our "better get ready" 6 hour warning rain-night, but being used to the open faucet squalls and pounding winds of November first, we have the caulk gun, and tie downs ready for week six in Port Orford, (our new home), this year however, no harbor booms, or double storm ties, no removing of deck gear, and dock equipment, and no take-down of canvas and tarps for a bare pole gale-squall 6 month pounding... this...  promises to be "NICE".

The nitpicky details inside are coming to a November 30th end, and all of the businesses are shut down, except for the UHTS ,which incidentally has another contest opening for submission on November 1st.... 

https://www.theunitedhaikuandtankasociety.com/2022/11/songbirds-online_35.html

https://www.wakasocietyofamerica.com

Week four... here is a list of complaints: Whazammo Ashore 15 October, 2024

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We are working on a complaint list, here is what we have amassed so far, after four weeks... 

no sea gulls

no garage sales

no fresh seafood

no homeless masses sleeping, camping, begging.   

Oh wait. !  ... that last one is not complaint, but a commendation.

Made the Brookings run, found the picnic ground and lakeside fire ring, got the van back to status, got medical and pharmacy on board, all of the addresses changed, and the online accounts readressed, got started on the winter prep (readying for the November rains), locals here think they get more rain than Florence, and more wind too... so far, no contest whatsoever...  but, we will see.

Three weeks until the election drama, we burned out many "hours" of telephone time doing what could not be done online or by snail mail to transfer, update everything/everyone over to the new location... really enjoying the small town friendly and efficient variety of foods here, from banking to shopping this is refreshing.

The "gifted" car prep, unpacking, and getting set up here has taken us three full weeks, we still have one more week of winter prep to do, and hopefully then it will then be down to just the inside detail-work finishing the conversion for the rest of 2024... and an "all-done" for beginning 2025 as a new life-mode, new home base, and some new ideas for the webpages !!

In the synchronicity of this all, the Ducks defeated Ohio State yesterday, and we got our rebate moorage check back from the harbor... both events ending a lot of ties.    All in all, I keep saying that we are back in the "Old Oregon" that I first knew in the 1960's (before the Orks started invading from California), this place and its people will restore you, not disgust you.

Sadly, the town presents to your senses as an inland town, not a nautical place, there is no "Gold Beach", "Winchester Bay", or "Coos" feeling of being "on" the coast of an ocean, or estuary harbor town, The people also are not maritime tilted, and more of a "logger" type, strange, but very obvious, the area has far more of a Oregon logger-mountain town country persona.  

Our trip south to Brookings in the fog was reminiscent of LA/Orange County white-outs, Brookings had a definite Arcata/Redding/Mendocino "attitude" in the town, far more California-ish than here or Gold Beach, as the population evolves here in Oregon, part of the turmoil, and idealism split is from "newbies" arriving (which now have more than tripled the states population with outsiders over the past 50 years since we arrived at less than 2 million).  The politics and culture, morality and ethics of "Old" Oregon are in deep flux.

Albeit, we have now fully aligned ourselves to Curry county in toto,..not wishing to leave, even for a Bandon trip, in 2025 Amazon, the Internet, and Air Life have made the most reclusive of us "in touch" with all that the big city dweller has, even working/earning from home !

Port Orford is isolated enough from populated expanse and independent enough to make for a great, quiet existence.  we love it here , and see no imminent problems arising (other than our huge complaint list).

Sorry, "not" Port Orford... this is actually Cornwall, England

THREE WEEKS... 21 days in Paradise. Whazammo Ashore 6 OCTOBER, 2024

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THREE WEEKS... 21 days in Paradise. 6 OCTOBER, 2024

No, not in St. Barts or Grand Cayman… right here in Oregon’s old State of Jefferson founding place, Port Orford… we have possibly one more week of acclimatization, reorganizing, and familiarizing to do, but this place is amazing !

It is not yet winter, but so far there has been far less wind than in Florence, and there are stars !!! The silence (after the harbor) is unbelievable, we are really missing the wildlife... as are the cats, but the rhythm and atmosphere here is like something from 1960 Oregon, only with Amazon, wifi, and electric added in.   The slower pace and lack of wealth on display seems to have lowered the competition bar, it is a truly “casual” tempo, without being “pioneer” or Oregon trail level sittin’ on a sack of seeds, laid back.

After the shiny wears off, we doubt we will ever miss the Florence/Bandon “little California” scene we left behind <intentionally>, we appear to be able to simply lock ourselves into Curry County and avoid Coos/Lane counties ever again.   Our Brookings trip is planned for Wednesday, the 9th, so our one-month blog report should fill in some blanks.

Our “Gifted” Infinity car cleaned up beautifully, and has passed all of my inspections, testing, and trials… a simply amazing welcome to Paradise offering by one of the neighbors here, we are humbled, shocked, and happy with our new ride.  The white van, white Infinity, and white coach are blinding in the sun!

The van is almost back to empty and shop status, the “honey do” and final interior stowage and adapting is just about complete, by the Election, we should be moved in… to Paradise.   We love it here (so does Popeye !)