Westport, WA

Pirates, pirates, pirates.  Well, that was fun.

I left the Kila Hana Camperland campground early this morning to get a good parking place for my rig near the pirate vendors in Westport. Nice campground and tents and RVs.  But it did cost me $22.50 for the night, so I made sure to get a shower this morning.  The whole pirate gang of Maggie’s (Tori Bailey) was camped there.  Beware of the elephant-sized mosquitoes.  And I bought one of those blue bug things, the Off clip-on Mosquito Repellent,  advertized on T.V. and it works.  I hung it by my van door and they stopped coming inside.

What a neat little town and what a neat little festival.  I wanted to check out the vendors and I must say, they had a lot of real quality stuff at exceptionally low prices. 

Old salties.

funny little pirate boats…

I got to spend a little more time with my granddaughter and even found a graduation gift for her among the vendors… a wolf pendant.  She loved it.

WAIT FOR IT…..

 

WAIT….

 

 

Charlene Swankie VanVagrant (aka Baldie) and Ms. Maggie (aka Tori Bailey)

Then I pushed off… as I had not been feeling well since I inhaled the pirate’s black powder smoke yesterday… and drove to the nearby Westhaven State Park… a local favorite for local surfers.  Nice facilities, with outside shower to wash down surfers and their gear.  Very nice.  Beach loaded with agates and sand dollars… thousands of sand dollars.  Shallow water.  So far, this has been my favorite place since Morro Bay, CA.  Unfortunately, I was fighting a migraine and returned to the van for a nap.

dozens of surfers 1,000s of sand dollars

wonderful little park

Wonder how great this would be if the sun was out???

What an interesting place… this Westport-Aberdeen, WA area.  Ocean Spray Cranberry is located here… and there are cranberry bogs!  Oyster shell piles, streets with pirate names, lots of homes and land for sale, Tsunami Warning signs everywhere.  And awhile ago a bunch of bicyclers/campers rode by me… or poor people… the skeeters here are the size of elephants.  BUT… everyone looks like they are having fun. Arrrrggghhhh.

Westport even has an Annual Fishing Derby…

I’m resting now in a 24-hr Safeway Store lot… and will go in to resupply in a little while.  Headache is subsiding.  Uggghhhhh!  Tomorrow to explore the west coast of Washington more as I make my way up to Port Angeles, WA to kayak with my dear friend, Gary, visit Ron, and then over to Bremerton, WA to visit Lauren and order a Paracord belt (in pink in honor of my sister who is doing chemo).  Now I have no hair but I have a pink hat and will have a pink belt.  What more can I do from 3,000 miles away?

Vandwellers, this is a van-friendly area, a dog-friendly beach… and just a great place to visit.  Get’s my stamp of approval.

Astoria, OR to Westport, WA

Not a lot happened today… just driving.  Headed toward the bridge over the Columbia River in Astoria, OR… that thing really is scary.  It looks so tall from below.

Crossed over into Washington State, now me and all my descendants (5) are all in the same state.  That might not happen again for a couple years, if ever.

Missed my turn and ended up out on a peninsula in Long Beach.  Neat little town and they had Doggie Olympics going on there.  I turned back and headed for the right road to Westport, WA.   Very interesting drive, by the way.

Now I’ll just post all the Pirate photos of my granddaughter’s group.  Will point out my granddaughter and daughter-in-law.  Not much else to comment on… just enjoy.  Tomorrow I’m going to walk around the rest of the festival and see the other vendors before heading toward Port Angeles, WA.

That be my granddaughter….

…hey, granddaughter…..

Finally, Tori turns around.

My daughter-in-law, Rhonda, came out for the day to video the performance.

The kids were loving all the noise.

Cracking whips.

Boy, I hope my vandweller necklace looks like that one day.

Firing the cannons.

Red skirted gal… my granddaughter Tori, waiting to deliver power to the cannoniers.

An interesting bus…. vendor selling cotton candy, boy did that smell good.

Back in Pirate Camp…

Cleaning of the guns.

Black shirt… that be my eldest granddaughter, Tori.  Fellas are busy cleaning their guns after a nice demonstration.

It’s been a long and fulfilling day.  I am HERE.

Chinook Winds Casino, Lincoln City, OR

Last night I parked at the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City, OR.  Free parking close to beach, fresh salt air, cool temperatures… really great sleeping.  This morning I went into the Casino with $1.00 and got a free breakfast, thanks to Robin, plus two bananas and an orange to go, and came out with $10.50.  Last of the big gamblers.

Then I went for a walk on beach and found some agates.  Finished up about 1:30 pm and got ready to hit the road.  The beach is down below those two buildings (hotel on left and casino on right).  Then checked email and learned that metal detecting is allowed on this beach… and good items have been found.  Also there is gold down there and I could have panned if I had known.  I feel my schedule is a little tight with having to meet up with Tori (granddaughter) this weekend at a pirate festival, so I decided to put the metal detecting and gold panning off to the next visit to OR.  Then I plan to spend about a week in the area.

So, just sat in the van for awhile wondering “Does it really get any better than this?”  I didn’t even care that my socks and tennies were all wet and sandy.

My sister left a phone message to say she was just thinking about my beautiful haircut and decided to call me up.  We will talk over the weekend.

Approaching Tillamook, OR, the smell of cow dung in the air was so thick, I could not breath, but soon thereafter the scenery improved greatly and I wished I was not driving so I could just take photos. 

No choice so I just held up the camera and clicked aimlessly away hoping to get a couple of good shots.

Got to Warrenton, OR and met a friend from last year (Dave Roche)… who did interviews of me he later posted to You-Tube.  I ran into him when I was first driving my van down onto the Oregon beach… I took a photo of it down there and that is what I used for my personal cards.  He was so interested in my plans for kayaking American he asked to interview me.  He is an amateur but has an amazing eye for beauty and is quite the philosopher.  I feel like he is my soul brother.

Here are  the  video links.

1.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgo9Gl-ZtQA

2.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujnCpIj34G4

He treated me to dinner at DQ and we philosophized about the NOW and living in the PRESENT and we agreed that is really isn’t something you can explain to someone else… they have to come to it on their own.  I was bad and the chili cheese dog was yummy. He said he thought he’d never see me again, but I can’t imagine passing the area without saying hello.  I can’t tell his story… but it is very inspiring.

It was a good day… and I am good-tired, and settled into the Costco parking lot for the night, and spend some time catching up on email.  Finally did catch up with mail from two of my groups.  It is nice and quiet here and I’m going to enjoy a good night’s sleep.

No, it doesn’t get any better than this… until tomorrow, when I hope to see my granddaughter at a pirate festival.  Yeap, Granny is going to a pirate festival.