Okay so Jeff found a toy hauler trailer in Oregon, and it was about $6,000 cheaper there that it was here. So Jeff and I loaded the kids and dropped them off at Joan's, hopped; into the trusty ole 95 Ford and headed for the open road. The trailer was located in Salem, Oregon, a 12 hour drive from home. We made good time getting there, but let me tell you, that drive from Boise to about Portland is crap. It was the most boring ride I have ever been on. Although I must say the Columbia River is an awesome sight, it makes the provo river look like a trickle. We arrived in Salem and went to pick up our trailer. It was everything we had hoped for. Well Jeff and I decided we weren't going to drive all this way just to turn around and drive home, so we headed to the coast. Let me tell you, that is a sight. Everything is so green and lush. It was beautiful. I found it cool that there was so much moss growing on tree trunks. We arrived in Lincoln City and the weather was sucky. It was blowing and "misting". It doesn't rain there, it mists, and we were soaked. Anyway after setting up our "camp", it was a parking lot with hookups, we decided to see if the Indian Casino's took our money as fast as the mob casino's. They don't, they take it faster. I think I played with $20 for hmmmmm about 10 minutes, I mean come on I was on the stinking penny machines. When we go to Vegas I can play at least an hour. Oh well I guess that is what we get for stealing there land. Anyway that night we went to bed, but we did not sleep. There were wind gusts up to 60 miles and hour, I have been in wind gusts before but there were things to help break up the wind, you know like mountains, trees, building. But we were on a hill and the wind was coming off the ocean and we thought for sure our trailer was going to blow over. Anyway about 2:00 we dozed off for a bit. Friday came about the same, but we decided alot of mist was not going to stop us so we headed down to Newport Beach. What a cool place. It would take pages to talk about. But here are a few fun things: we went to a lighthouse. It think it was were Pete's Dragon was filmed. It looked like it anyway. This lighthouse was cool (pictured above) it was 93 feet high. I did not realize I was scared of heights until I started climbing the stairs. Holy Crap I was not going to go back down those stairs. I told Jeff I was not going to come all this way and not play in the ocean. So we did and I think my toes froze the minute I stepped into the water. It was so cold. But hey, I went in the Ocean. It is a beautiful place and i kept telling Jeff "I could live here". That is until everytime I wanted a Diet Coke I heard "We have Diet Pepsi". Every stinking place until we hit Idaho had no Diet Coke. What is with that, do they have a law. They had Diet Rite and RC Cola( Hello 80's time warp), but they didn't have Diet Coke. On the day we were set to leave, we ate at about 9:00 in the morning, we did not stop to eat until 4:00. I was hungry, and I was tired, so we pulled into a KFC. This is how the conversation with the lady at KFC went - Me: "I want a chicken bowl" Lady: Im sorry we don't have chicken bowls. Me: okay I want a 3 piece strip and biscuit and a Diet Coke. okay here it comes.......Lady: We have Diet Pepsi. I lost it...completely, I looked at Jeff and I started to bawl...like a baby. Me: I hate this !@#$!@# state, I want to go home. Thank goodness once we hit Idaho (it took us 20 hours to get home by the way) I was finally able to have my Diet Coke, who cared that it was 11:30 at night I was getting my fix. Needless to say we did have an enjoyable time, and I will go back. It was very beautiful. Niki
