Day 6 - Drive to Newport

Sleeping was wonderful - toasty warm and dry in the tent. Our goal for the day was to drive about 4 hours south and arrive by 2PM at Newport, Oregon. We packed as much as we could the night before, and kept to a simple coffee with cereal for breakfast. Again there was a very heavy morning mist soaking everything we had left outside. We had to pack the tent fly (rain protection) still wet. We broke camp and hit the road by 9:30AM. Not bad for a couple of old folks.


The road heads inland and through real backcountry farming as the round wound round over small hills, through wooded parts and green valleys.








We stopped at a world famous cheese factory - Tillamook - took a tour, bought some cheese and stopped for coffee break.
I took a few movies and just missed a real "I Love Lucy" moment on the assembly line. A young father next to me pointed out that a woman on the assembly line was talking intensely to her colleague and was not watching her part of the line. Just as he said that, about 3 feet behind her, two packages of cheese got jammed in the equipment and she didn't notice. Within seconds cheese packages were piling up like a log jam, blocking the line, bunching up in the equipment, and falling onto the floor. The line worker frantically attempted to catch them all and put them into bins while the line continued on relentlessly piling up more and more packages. It was hilarious and very entertaining to everyone upstairs watching. Finally, a colleague shut the line down. Check it out on You Tube

After a delicious ice cream we hit the road again.


We eventually came back to the coast and arrived early at South Beach campground just outside Newport, Oregon.




The sun came out and as we set up our tent we dried out our towels, tent and a few clothes. We are getting much better at finding and stowing things by now, and we were setup in no time.

We went for a bike ride and walk along the beach and then we drove across the bridge over Yaquina Bay or the mouth of the Yaquina River for dinner. We were following directions for a restaurant we had found on our GPS and found ourselves driving down into old Newport - the fishing port on SE Bay Rd. It was a place of great former glory with store fronts all converted from fishing supply stores and portside hotels into restaurants and boutiques. A small seafood spot called Local Ocean Seafoods that had a long line up caught our attention. We decided to try it and WOW what a meal!
We shared a crab cocktail that had a very spicy hot sauce, delicate yet crisp fried oysters, and a creamy clam chowder with a hint of baked garlic. The meal was absolutely delectable.

We saw the sun set in the harbour to the sounds of gulls squawking at the fishermen, seals barking and a gentle warm sea breeze rich with the heady scent of the ocean.

Camping was never better.