Rainy Days

We’ve been on the road for a long time now. The weather, though cold at times, has been very cooperative. Way back in March we dealt with a couple of cold rainy days in Cloudland Canyon in Georgia, and since then we’ve had a little gentle rain in a couple of places. Now that we are heading up the Oregon coast in springtime, we are getting a taste of wet weather.

Our first morning at Humbug Mountain we woke to the sound of rain on the tent. The rain didn’t let up, and we stayed in the tent longer than usual before Rick got up to make us some coffee and hot chocolate. After we ate, we hid in the tent reading for hours as the rain continued. It let up briefly in the afternoon, and we spent a couple of hours at the beach looking for rocks and sea glass and checking out the crabs. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of crabs hiding in the crevices between rocks on the beach. The girls and I poked at them gently with sticks to see if they would run away or try to grab the stick, a little ‘fight or flight’ test. Most of them tried to grab the stick. We were glad we got out during the break in the weather, because the rain returned before dinner. We cooked chilli dogs under the car hatch and retreated into the tent. 

Fortunately, yesterday morning the sun was shining. We laid out our damp things on a tarp in the sunshine and were glad that we didn’t have to pack up a wet tent. As we were preparing to leave a thunderstorm was approaching, and we spent the next 3 hours driving north staying just ahead of the dark grey clouds. We stopped at ‘Face Rock’ viewpoint, one of the many viewpoints along the coast. The shoreline is rugged, green, and rocky. The treacherous-looking rocks sticking up out of the water make it look like a dangerous place for boats. 

We arrived at Jesse M Honeyman Memorial State Park with no rain in sight, and set up camp before heading to see the dunes beside one of the lakes. There are sand dunes up and down the coast for many miles here, and the dunes look strange with cedar and pine trees beside them. 

We woke to rain again this morning, but it came to a stop around 8 and our breakfast weather was pleasant. It is crazy how much rain changes things when you’re tenting. There aren’t many places to go - we have the car and the tent. We aren’t afraid of hiking in the rain, but with some rain in the forecast for the next few days it’s hard to think about letting our things get too wet. We went for a great hike today before lunch, and the rain returned a short while ago so we are currently in the lovely Welcome Centre that has tables set up for visitors. 

We are catching up on some email, the girls are doing a puzzle, and all of this is thanks to the fact that we finally have a working cellular data signal. Nevada and California have been terrible for cell service - for some reason the type of network there just doesn’t work with our phone and SIM card - but here we have a great signal for some reason. It is a relief to get some banking done, and nice to have the chance to share some pictures. 

We expect quite a bit more rain in the next few days, but we only have about 10 days left in the USA, so we plan to enjoy every minute. I know there has been lots of rain at home lately, so now our weather is finally starting to resemble weather at home. :)

Beach at Humbug Mountain

Beachcombing 

Rocks from the beach

Chili dogs!

Drying our damp things

Face rock

Staying ahead of the rain

Dunes at Honeyman State park

There are rhodadendrons blooming everywhere here

Swing at Treesort

Daddy too!

Girls at Treesort