June 19 – Mill Hotel & Casino, Coos Bay OR 97459

Yay, the sun is back this morning and it’s going to get to 19C.  It’s a travel day so we are enthused and on the road by 9.10am with a brief stop off at the park dump station first.  We need empty holding tanks and a full water tank for our stay at the Mill Hotel & Casino in Coos Bay for the FMCA Rally.

Lovely scenic drive

We drive through the little towns of Reedsport, Lakeside and then across the impressive Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge (one of the most recognisable icons) into North Bend.  This bridge was part of the federally funded Coast Bridges Project, a plan in 1934-1936 to build five bridges across coastal waterways in order to complete the Oregon Coast Highway.

Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge

We stop off at Walmart here before driving another 5 minutes to Coos Bay where we find the Mill Hotel & Casino easily due to all the FMCA road signs.  Slight site malfunction, our “Will Call” package is not updated to include the powered site we only recently arranged but it easily fixed by a ride in the golf cart back to the Hotel Registration where we swap our pink ‘General’ parking sign for a yellow ‘Electric ‘ parking sign.  The golf cart waits for me and takes me back to the coach and we drive back up the roadway to the powered sites.  We start the next line of coaches, so we are next to railway lines running adjacent to Hwy101 the main highway north and south.  Oh well, we probably won’t be in the coach much anyway.  (Haven't heard a train yet, just traffic noise).

We are at the very end on the right hand side, next to the main highway

We get our slides out straight away so the next coach can be positioned far enough away from us, get our the power cable as they haven’t run the temporary power here yet, then off to the yurt to pick up our Welcome Kit.  When we get back we have neighbours - Jon and Nancy. They are very friendly and we chat for a while and meet their German Shepherd.  They invite us to share their outdoor area which is smoother than ours and not facing onto the highway and offer to take us shopping if we wish.  Of course I wish!

We are booked on the 3pm Betty Kay Harbour Cruise so catch a trolley to the Casino and find out where it boards and if we need tickets etc.  We have an hour or so to fill so have a look around the ‘coach for sale’ lot.  It’s not busy so we get to have a good look in almost all the coaches and campers.  However the sales people are present and a bit hard to dodge.

The good ship Betty Kay

We get on the Betty Kay and start our tour.  First we head directly north alongside the wharves toward the long high bridge we crossed to get into North Bend.  The logs piled up on the wharves remind us of Wellington Port.  The wharves and piers seem to be in disrepair along this stretch.

Can smell the cut wood, reminds us of home

Under the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge, build in 1936

Of course Kim is up talking to the skipper and we learn a new rhyme to remind us what the rules are for entering harbours here in the US.  Red Right Return – keep red to your right coming back into harbour!  The boat has lots of trick electronics including radar overlay on the chart plotter, AIS etc.  Kim is in his element.  Unfortunately the cruise did not have any commentary but we learnt a lot by chatting to the skipper.

We pass by some ‘town wharves’, a bit like Picton and there are a couple of larger yachts moored.  Their coastguard boat is Kim’s envy, there is a machine gun on the bow!

The barrel of the gun is clearly visible!  How would that look on Shariba?

We get back 90 minutes later but we have been standing for all that time so ready for a sit down before the 5pm Hotdog Bash.  We rock over there about 5.45pm and the tables are full so no queues for the food and they haven't run out.  Our dinner is a fresh roll, quite a nice hotdog with condiments to suit (mustard, ketchup, sweet relish), baked beans, a small bag of chippies and a small bag of bite size cookies.  They had live music in the food tent but the ambient noise was too loud and it was hard to hear our new BFFs at the table.  Such a shame L&L can't be with us.

We have lots of reading material to get through to work out what seminars and events we want to attend while we are here and to get the lay of the land.  I think tomorrow I want to get the trolley into town and have a look around there.  The rally proper doesn’t really kick off until Thursday.

BTW - our new water pump is really quiet!!