The Dog Days 333 (Part 2)

Continuing the story of the 333-mile loop we did in mid-August. In part 1, I explained the plan, and the longest leg of the trip, from home to just south of Florence. Today, I'll cover the journey from Florence to Newport, happenings at Newport and then the journey through Lincoln City and home again.

Florence

googleImage

I left off the last post with our departure from Honeyman State Park. We had a great time there, but it was approaching lunch time for most, and we had one rider who had skipped breakfast, so food was at the front of our minds. When we entered Florence on our way in a few nights earlier, we spotted a Dairy Queen, so we had a fail-safe. I wanted to see if there were better offerings before suffering the Brazier. Our patience was rewarded with an A and W car hop on the north end of Florence. We were fortunate to arrive just after someone else had left, so we could pull into a car-hop spot. I didn't think these things were still around, but not only is the place still standing, they still bring food out to you at your car on big platters that you can hang on your window. I wasn't sure that was a good idea with a nearly 50 year old bus, so we used the tray as a table inside it instead. They served the classic A/W root beer in heavy freezer-cold glass mugs, and the food arrived slightly wrapped in paper. Maybe it was because we hadn't eaten planned food in a week (no grocery store stops means you make up meals based on what you have, not from a plan) or maybe it was because we had worked a bit to get there, but those burgers and fries tasted fantastic. As we sat, we could better see just how busy they were. Inside the restaurant, there were no open tables and the line ran back to the door. Around the parking lot, there were no open spots, and there were motorists queued for the next open car-hop spot.

From Florence to Newport

looking South
Northward is just as amazing

Now fed, we could embark on the US-101 north to Newport. I hadn't driven this stretch of the US-101 in many years, but as much as other areas of Oregon have radically changed, this area is relatively static. The coastline is peppered with public beaches, but for the most part, the waterline is unreachable. The cliffs are too steep, or the terrain too rough for a road. Or, a path could be put in, but there's no place on the 101 to put a parking lot. As a result, there are long stretches of untouched coastline to enjoy out the window.

With all of the recreational vehicles on the road with us, there was little pressure to drive too terribly fast, making the drive all the more pleasant. The road is curvy, so even if the road had been empty, Hapy tips a little bit on corners anyway, so I wouldn't have been driving much faster than the current speed of traffic allowed. Hapy was running great. His temperatures would pop above 185*F for a quick second and then drop back down to 185*F as we climbed inclines or had to slow way down. Overall, though, his temperature issues of the past were quickly moving further into the back of my mind, as the scenery increasingly took over the front.

park, as it appears in googleImages

As I mentioned in the last post, we rented a house in Newport. Well, my sister Em did. We had her text the address to C, my navigator, so he could get us there. He had us take a left off of US-101 after we crossed the bay bridge into Newport and then he became confused. He asked me to pull over real quick and he asked a pedestrian "is there a skate park around here?". Hilarious. But, there was, and he had almost gotten us there. We were a block and a half away from it. We parked in front, nose pointing at the concrete bowls, and C jumped out, board in hand. K2 opened the slider, but remained on the lot couch while I wandered over to check it out.

Newport

725 NW High Street, Newport

This skate park looked like a combination of planned park and random construction. A few words from the older cat hanging out brought clarity: the city built it, and then the skaters added to it. For materials, they used whatever they could find plus concrete. Patio blocks? Check. Concrete slabs? Check. So.. that begs the followup question: how were the transitions? Well... you needed to plan for them. C worked the park, and while he did a car-load of locals arrived. Apparently, this was a super-hot day for Newport, so the locals would do a run and then pant in the limited shade. They all had an interesting style where they would look uncomfortable on their board, but then pop an amazing trick or fly out of the bowl and land it.. just to look unstable again after they had landed the trick and rolled a few feet. Maybe it was all of the home-made transitions. Regardless, I pulled up the address for the house, and it was about a half-mile away. We were early anyway, so C got his skate on. Once he was pouring sweat and ready to roll, we pointed south and within 10 minutes we were sitting across the street from the rental.

The rental was an odd, albeit large, 4 story house. The first floor was a separate apartment, but it was part of our rental. The upper 3 floors were, in order from bottom-to-top: more bedrooms with a bathroom, the main living space and a full-floor master bedroom. There was no yard, but there was a grassy park across the street with a big playground in it. It was perfect for the cousins, but no yard meant no tent for C and K2. Arrangements were resolved, and shifted each night as who was able to stay the night changed each day. Boo and I got a bed for one night, but honestly, we prefer Hapy so we stayed in the bus the other nights, and were grateful for it.

The family reunion was great. Boo and I had seen everyone within the last few years, but many family members hadn't seen each other in a very long time. For example, K2 had never met Chris, Rebecca's husband, and C hadn't seen him for close to 10 years. Lives get busy, and travel isn't the highest priority when there are colleges to pay for. Regardless, it was great to have that time, all in one place, for a few days so we could really re-connect.

Newport to Lincoln City

near Yachats

When it came time to leave, the plan was for the smaller, or more distant traveling families to pack and split, leaving the final walk-through for those who simply couldn't move fast. Boo and I were that last group, transporting the grandparents and teens. The plan didn't really work out that way, though, and we had all of the families all packing and leaving at about the same time. This made for a little extra chaos, but it also provided a little extra time to see each other. Ultimately, we were out by the appointed time, and the families went their separate ways... with Boo, K2 and the grandparents in K'Lack and me in Hapy with C, we headed north towards Lincoln City with hopes that this time Moe's wouldn't have a long line.

The drive to Lincoln City was as eventful as the drive from Florence to Newport. Hapy's temperatures stayed very level, he had plenty of power and the traffic didn't push faster than around 55mph anyway. We took the left to get to Moe's and could tell from the parking lot that things weren't looking very good. It was past noon, but still close enough to lunch time, even on a Wednesday, to create a crowd at Moe's. I found a spot near the door and C jumped out to find out how long the wait was... 40 minutes for a seating. Boo quick-conferred with the grandparents and we all decided to go to the McMenamin's Lighthouse Pub instead. Of course, McMenamin's isn't exactly known for fast service, but I figured that with the time to seat and then get food, we were still ahead versus Moe's.

Lincoln City no-start
After lunch, Hapy's now-typical 'starts the first time' didn't happen. I turned the key and nothing. I wiggled some wires behind the ignition switch and I could get the system to flip to "run", but "start" was still a no-go. Neat. With Boo, the grandparents, C and K2 watching, I simply pushed in the clutch, let off the brake, and roll-started by popping into reverse. Within a few seconds, I dropped into that 1200 rpm limp mode. Fun. I just puttered to an incline and roll-started him again. With concern about Hapy's limp mode issues and inability to start, we headed back to the US-101. He didn't drop into limp mode again, nor did we stop the engine again until we got home.

Homing

4!

We made one stop after Lincoln City. There was a pressing need for road-bev's and a restroom so at the north end of Dundee, we stopped at the Chevron. I stayed with Hapy as he idled and C dashed into the store for a couple drinks for us. Other than the no-start in Lincoln City, Hapy continued to run like a champ. It was a hot day, and he was staying nice and cool. He continued to have plenty of power as well, and he demonstrated both on the long uphill between Newburg and Sherwood. I described this climb, and it's significance in my recent post (See Now Water COOLed), but I'll stress it again. This is the ultimate test ground for the success of the cooling system. Hapy has struggled up this hill on the way home every time we've driven it. Part of that is because of the length and height of the incline, but part too is because by this point, he has run for multiple hours and is already plenty hot before we start. This time, though, his temperature peaked at 194*F as we took the hill in 4th gear. Boo and I parted ways in Sherwood. I took Roy Rogers into Beaverton and she continued on 99W into Portland to drop off the folks. Roy Rogers has gotten very built up now, making this less and less of a quality cut-through. I may need to work the maps for something more interesting for next festival season.

Anyway.... 4 successful round trips, To celebrate, here's a clip from Sesame Street back when the painter was still part of the show. Yeah, showing my age here a little bit, but I liked this guy, back when the Count was spooky, the parents didn't know about Mr. Snuffalupagus, etc. Once they started PC-ifying all that stuff, they took some of the special with it. Anyway, 4 successful 300+ mile trips, totaling over 1200 miles without the support of a towing company nor AAA. Hazah!

By the way, the starter no-op was solved once I emptied the back of the bus and disconnected / reconnected the wires going into the TDI ignition switch. Something shook loose on the drive. Another argument to spend time this winter getting after the electrical: solving the 1200rpm issue with the accelerator pedal, the occasional issues with the engine not starting and maybe even organizing some of that wiring in the tire well. Nah... that's crazy talk :)

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

The Dog Days 333 (Part 1)

2 weeks after the Newberry Event, we had a family trip planned. With the fuel and cooling issues presumably solved, we embarked on a 333? mile loop through Eugene, Florence, Newport and Lincoln City. Gmaps thinks it was 333 miles; so, we'll assume that's correct and that should explain the title. Anyway, today's post covers that late summer run, or should I say, the first half of it. As usual, I'll mask the names of minors with a single letter and the * when I mention speed or distance refers to my inaccurate speedometer (See the "Clock Turns" section within the 4Peaks 2019 - Road Report).

The Plan
Maybe I should start with some context. I have 2 sisters; neither live in Oregon. Both were coming to visit, though, so the greater family saw opportunity for something big. My brother Rob and his wife started the fun with a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun) camping reservation at Honeyman State Park. Rob's wife Kirst camped there many times as a kid, so this was a throw-back for her. They reserved a bunch of sites all backed up on one another for whichever family units among family and friends wanted to join. My younger sister Em, her husband Sun and her two kids (I and K3) were in, as were we. The rest of the spots filled with Rob and Kirst's kids' (A and N) friends' families. Once we had our spot assigned, I reserved the night before so we could arrive whenever we wanted to after 4PM on Thursday.

Following 3 (or 4) days of coastal camping, the families moseyed up the coast to a rented house in Newport. We would be joined by T, my parents, my brother Eric with his 2 daughters (K4 and K5 - yes we have that many kids whose name starts with K) and my sister Rebecca with her husband Chris. All in, we would peak at around 17 people for one night to celebrate Dad's birthday, but I'll get to the Newport stuff in another post.

Drive at Night

This trip starts like so many: at night. Boo and I worked our regular jobs on departure day, so we weren't really getting things going until Hapy Hour, 530PM local time. We had loosely packed Hapy the days and nights before, and most of the regular gear had been left in there from the Newberry run. We added the washtubs forgotten on that trip, as well as clothing bags, sleeping bags, an extra tent for the boys (K2 and C were joining us) and a pair of large foam mats for the boys to use to cushion their sleep. We had been delaying a grocery store trip, and still hadn't gotten around to it, so we just went through the cupboards and fridge, grabbing anything and everything that looked edible, tossing it into one of the three coolers (one cold, one not-so-cold and one for beverages). I had hoped to leave by 10:PM, and we were pulling out of the driveway, caravan-style (Boo driving the JettaWagon named K'Lack with K2, and me driving Hapy w/C) around 9.

Privacy Screen for Honeyman

By 9:PM on a Thursday, the streets and highways in suburban Portland are fairly empty. We filled fuel tanks and got ice at the corner store before heading to the highway. The evening air was cool, and Hapy hummed along, seeming to enjoy the deserted highway. Unlike our last trip down OR217 / I-5 for Newberry (See Newberry 2019 - Getting There), there were no crowds, no crawling traffic through Wilsonville. Quite the contrary, we were able to run at over 60mph* and cleared the greater Portland area easily. As we passed the Wilsonville exit, Boo called from the lead car, recommending road-snax. We pulled off at the Aurora truck stop, Hapy's temperature rarely getting above 185*F (peaked at 188*F for a moment as we pulled off the Interstate). We split Popeye's Chicken and a plastic-sealed chef's salad. With some form of energy drink in everyone's hand, we set back out to the freeway, this time with Hapy leading.

It is interesting how 15 years of driving the bus without music tends to continue even after a nice stereo is installed. Almost the entire drive to and from Newberry was without music, choosing to listen to Hapy's engine and just think. Now, on this trip, C and I talked without the radio on. C and I haven't really seen each other much over the last few years, so having him on this trip, sitting beside me for all of the driving meant a lot to me. Based on the fact that he didn't have ear buds in, I think the same could be said for him. To be fair, C started living with us nearly full time shortly after school let out in June, so, while we hadn't seen him much before that, we have been treated (and I mean that genuinely) to sharing a home with him for a few months now.

Honeyman SP map

We passed through some clouds at road-level south of Albany and through the interchange in Eugene from I-5 thru OR-569 to OR-126, adding damp to the windscreen. I call it "clouds at road-level" because it wasn't actually raining, and it wasn't fog. I believe it was actually clouds down to the earth. It was quite surreal, especially alone on the freeway passing through nowhere land mid-Willamette valley farm country. OR-126 had a short delay due to some flagger-protected construction, but even the ensuing drive through the coast range was an easy run for Hapy. The route only had a handful of short inclines, with most of the driving being downhill. Still, Hapy's temperature didn't get above 190*F as we cleared the range and hit the coastline in Florence. We turned south on US-101 and within minutes, we were pulling into Honeyman State Park and backing into our (reserved) campsite. It was now 2:AM.

Honeyman State Park

above us, only sky

That first night was actually one of the most efficient load-in efforts I can remember with 2 kids. We started with setting up the the 10x10 EZ-up canopy over the large thick-topped picnic table. Then, Boo and K2 set up the massive tent for the boys while C and I unloaded the bus onto the picnic table, under the canopy. We unloaded just enough for Boo and I to get into the rock-n-roll bed (so we could sleep), making sure everything was under cover in case of rain or heavy dew.

I was the first one up a few hours later that morning, so I cleared out some space on the table, set up the stove and made french-press coffee. I puttered around, coffee in one hand, some piece of gear in the other, slowly making our space work until Boo awoke. Between us, we set up the rest of the space: bus canopy, new area rug, the kitchen, even a drying line and hammock between a pair of nearby trees.

Hammock'd Boo

I had visited Honeyman State Park many years earlier with Hapy and the boys, but they were much younger then. I rooted around the blog for a post about that trip, but didn't find one. Odd, I know some of the first pictures I took while driving Hapy were on that trip. Perhaps that trip pre-dated the blog and it's in my old paper log. Anyway, Honeyman is on the northern-most edge of a, maybe, 50 mile long section of the Oregon Coast that is covered in massive sand dunes. By massive, I mean like upwards of 100 feet high and they run from the water's edge at least a mile or more inland. This is an ATV'ers paradise, and on my last visit to Honeyman, that was very clear. The sound of ATV's being cleaned, tuned, ridden and repaired echoed through the campground then. Not this time, though. New rules prohibit all ATV activity inside the campground. One unique upside to Honeyman I had completely forgotten about was the complete lack of wind. Yes, there's a spot on the Oregon Coast where there isn't wind; it is blocked by those massive sand dunes. You would think that no wind means lots of insects (like the Carolina outer banks), but that's not the case. Still, virtually no biting bugs. Love Oregon.

There were other upgrades. For example, the park rents out sandboards for sliding on the dunes. Boo and K2 tried it, and had a fun time of it. Unlike snowboarding, though, there were no lifts so the better the run, the longer the subsequent climb back up. When we visited before, the park rented paddleboats for use on the freshwater lake. Those were still available, but now there were 1 and 2-person kayaks available as well. Boo and I tried a 2-person while K2 took another.

C, N and K3 playing

C has been spending most of his free time working on skate-boarding. So, while he didn't try the sandboards or kayaks, he did find the tarmac'd roads in the park suitable for skating. He even found a small spot where the pavement was pushed up by a tree-trunk, forming a small ramp so he could bang some aerial trick-work. In each of the 3 days he would put in at least five 20-minute sweat-producing sessions working his board. When he wasn't doing that, he was playing with the camp kid cousins who have evolved from make-believe to throwing a football. Everyone grows up, I guess. K3 and N would come over as soon as they saw C arise from his tent asking him to play football. C never said "no", but at least once gave them a "gimme a few minutes". Seeing that he was barely vertical, and only awake for a couple of minutes, that was quite a civil response. Even then, he would be playing with them within 10 minutes. He just needed his morning Yerba Mate.

Two weeks earlier it was the new moon, so this weekend was the full moon. Boo and I took full advantage and took a moonlit walk on the dunes. The white sand glowed, illuminating everything into a semi-daylight. If you looked away from the moon and the sand long enough, you could see thousands of stars as well.

Pack Out
Our visit ended too soon, though. Just as we were getting comfortable with the camp set up, the location of the flush-bathrooms and showers and the beautiful surroundings, it was Sunday, and our reservations concluded. Boo got up extra early, and grabbed a few things that we wouldn't need in Newport, but were not actively in use... like the hibachi and the empty cooler, and took off for Portland to pick up "the folks" to take them to Newport. I watched her go, and then started slowly breaking camp.

By the time C and K2 awoke, everything was taken down and stowed except their tent, their things inside it, the coolers of food and a few odds and ends. I encouraged them to grab something to eat and then pack up, and that was met with varied enthusiasm. Their things found their way into the bus, and the tent was packed away, but K2 had decided not to eat, and after some activity, he was unable to participate any longer because of that choice. We parked him in the bus next to the coolers and packed around him until it was time for our farewells.

I'll cut the story here and pick up next week with the trip to Newport, happenings there, and the drive back home. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Fun Family Functions

We all have family functions.  For lots of families, these are not exactly fun.  There are expectations and history that create stress.  We're pretty lucky.  My brothers, sisters, in-laws and parents all get along, for the most part.  In my last post, I mentioned the road trip to Nye Beach, but failed to mention that my younger brother and sister (as well as their families) and my parents were meeting us there.  I'll touch on some of the family fun today and wrap it up with home-garage stuff.

Who's Who
My sister, M, moved to Austin a few years back.  She and her husband, S, have since bought and sold a house, bought and performed construction on a second, had a couple of kids, etc.  They are very much Texans.  I hadn't seen their daughter (I) for a couple of years and had never met their 2-year-old (K3).  K3 is a pistol.  OMG, he is such a joy.  We played soccer, and laughed.  What a sweetie.

My brother, R, has been living in the greater Portland area since the late 90's, met and married a local (KG) and has a girl (A) and boy (N) of his own.  They are both very articulate for their ages, and can engage conversationally with adults with little difficulty.  A and I are great friends who Skype when they're apart.  Unfortunately, we're apart more than we'd all care for.  N and K3 became buddies too, though, playing toys together.  So, with that backdrop, we add 3 beach-side condo's and Newport's offerings.

Watching Whales, not the Temperature

low tide

Unlike the Oregon inland, once you cross the Coast Range, the temperature remains much closer to the 40*F-60*F range.  In Winter, while we're looking at snow temperatures, the coast rarely gets that cold (though the wind is brutal).  In Summer, we may be sweating 80*+ days while the coast is a mild 65*.  The 5 days we were in Newport were incredible weather-wise.  High's in the mid 70's and overnight lows in the 50's.

As the title suggests, we saw whales.  There's a pod of about 40 grey whales who live year round in the waters just off the coast between Newport and Lincoln City.  On 3 successive nights (July 2nd, 3rd and 4th) from the condo balcony we saw whales spouting at high tide.  The first night was particularly spectacular with multiple spouts blowing simultaneously and at least 5 different whale-back sightings over the course of about 30 minutes.  KG had been coming to this spot for over 30 years and had never seen whales.  Upon hearing this, we were all the more appreciative of the sight we'd witnessed.  Of course, we were so awe-struck, none of us thought to take a picture.  Drat!

Sand Castles and Sand Sliding
Below the balconies, was a beach of duned sand.  Apparently this was somewhat rare too, for the beach was usually flat.  Back from the highest tide's edge, the sand had been shifted by wind into what looked like a series of trenches with steep sides, but only a couple of feet tall.  These created effective, but sandy, wind blocks that we and others used for building beach fires.  With all of the boy energy being fed into air-soft guns, Boo and I expected them to use the trenches and play guns.  Surprisingly, they didn't.  They used the trenches as starting points for elaborate sand castles.  So, with garden shovels instead of toy guns in hand, all of the boys (K, K2, K3, T, C, and N) set to building things.  The bigger boys also discovered a steep bank of sand that stood over 30 feet high a little further north.  They would one by one jump from the top and do their best ski/board imitation down the bank.  Apparently, K2 was hitting 360's by the time they stopped for good.

Hatfield Marine Science Center

HMSC

We spent a day at the Hatfield Marine Science Center too.  We all highly recommend it.  It is officially free (though donations strongly encouraged), and about 1/3 of the space is dedicated to interactive exhibits.  The remaining contains tanks of sea-life and presentations on waves, oceanography, climate change impacts, etc.  I hadn't been to the science center since NOAA moved in next door.  NOAA's influence can definitely be felt now, and its a good thing.  All of that research now has a available-to-the-public outlet at the Science Center.

Devil's Lake
In my last post, I mentioned the Devil's Lake day-trip.  Devil's Lake is a small lake (3 square miles) and seemed to be for boating than beach/swim access.  R & KG found a city park that had a boat launch, but more importantly a lake-beach and a huge playground to play in/on.  The younger kids had a blast.  It was fun, but it was after K and K2 had left.  This made T and C sad, and less active.  We truly have become a completely blended family when we don't feel complete because some of the boys aren't there.  I had heard that this was a family maturity state, but I hadn't seen it coming.  The boys are back together again after a week apart, and it really is a homecoming.


Home Garage

bulb on left has lost its dimple

After coffee Sunday morning, I wanted to find the oil leak and solve the persistent tail-light issue.  Starting with the tail light, I discovered that when I installed the battery I must have bumped the tail light assembly.  This bump flattened one of the dimples in the brake/running light dual-filament bulb.  So, the bulb wouldn't sit in the holder correctly, causing a short across the positive contacts of the bulb.  By swapping out the bulb, the problem went away.

The oil leak still escapes me.  I cleaned the underside of the bus engine with brake cleaner.  It seems like the oil is coming from the turbo-side of the engine, maybe from the low-pressure oil return?  Since the oil level isn't meaningfully dropping, I'm not convinced its the problem.  Next, I checked the oil level in the transaxle.  On the transaxle, "full" means the fluid level is just under the fill hole.  I opened the fill hole while the rear of bus was up on ramps and none dribbled out.  No bueno.  I shot in about 1/3 of a bottle before it started dribbling.  I think we have our oil source.  The trick is figuring out where it's coming out.  I don't see a source on the outside, and the clutch doesn't seem affected, so if it's coming out from the output shaft end, we haven't noticed it yet.  Curious.  I may need to drop the engine and separate the tranny and engine to be absolutely sure.  Since everything is running fine now, though, it will wait until camping season ends.  Of course, that's how adventures begin.

More next time...

Nye Beach Road Report

We took a road trip to the Nye Beach district in Newport Oregon over the July4 holiday.  This and the next post are dedicated to that trip. This one is just the travel report.

just North of Newport on US101

Getting Out of Dodge
Boo has a saying that goes something like "people will do what they want to do".  If you have a house of 6 people, all 6 need to want to get their collective stuff together and out of the house relatively early in order for you to get out early.  I had high hopes for being on the road by 11, but it was closer to 2 before we shoved off.  Ultimately, this worked out for the better, since that meant we could carabus with K driving his new-to-him Subaru named Kirby.  This split up the passengers and the payload too.  Still, Hapy was loaded down with 2 coolers full of food, all of the clothes, pillows, blankets, and most of the dry food... and 4 of the 6 travelers.

Wind-Blown Journey is the Destination
Since we were leaving town before rush hour, and it was mid-week (Wednesday), the traffic was trivial.  The drive out of town was trouble- and worry-free.  We followed the same route I took with T and C on our first camping trip with the new engine (see: One Small Step for Van...) down Roy Rogers and again as we entered the farmland of outer Beaverton, we expressed thanks to all of those who helped us along the way.  It's a tradition now.  We waved at the NAPA in Sherwood who helped us on that trip and again told the tale of how they helped us solve a hose-coupling design flaw.

Yamhill county grape region

Once we were outside of Sherwood, the towns are spread further apart.  First Newburg and Dundee, then Dayton, McMinnville.  By McMinnville, the increasing cross/headwind started to make steering an adventure.  If you haven't driven a bus or other tall flat-sided vehicle, you don't know the true terror of having the wind suddenly shift you 8 or 10 feet to the side.  It wasn't that bad, but with those kinds of memories in mind, I could feel the stress creeping in.  So, we stopped at the Dairy Queen near Sheridan for cheap eats and a couple Blizzards.  Shortly after leaving Sheridan, the flat farmlands give way to the Coast Range foothills, and corresponding forests.  The winds slowed as we passed the Spirit Mountain Casino and our adventure shifted from holding the wheel against the winds to climbing steep inclines.

For the most part, we were able to maintain the speed of traffic (55 MPH) through the foothills, the Coast Mountains and even along the 101 to Newport.  Of course, there are always those who want to go faster and will express themselves as they pass.  How sad for them that they are unable to enjoy the beauty around them and can only focus on the endpoint of their drive, spreading negative energy as they go.  There were a few longer inclines which were especially challenging.  There is one run south of Lincoln City that I had to run up at 35 MPH in third gear.  Even with the new engine, pushing over 4500 pounds is hard.  At no point along the entire run did Hapy's engine temperature go above 194*F, and every time it rose above 185*F it was during a long hill climb after which it immediately dropped back to 185*F again.  All told, he ran extremely well, pulling us into our destination around 6.

Devil's Lake

At Nye Beach
Hapy was warmly welcomed by the family when we arrived.  Little cousins who hadn't met him before climbed around inside, clearly amazed at seeing something so old.  We realized that Hapy is one month older than my younger brother and brother-in-law.  Funny stuff.  While at Nye Beach, we didn't drive almost at all.  We carabus'd with K, and sent him and brother T to the store for forgotten foodstuffs in Kirby.  We took one drive up to Lincoln City on Saturday to visit Devil's Lake.  The drive into Lincoln City from the south was a slow plod because of some road construction, but otherwise, it was just another mellow smiley drive in a 40+ year old microbus.  We put his pop-top up at the lake, creating a private changing area for us.  The nieces especially liked that.

I have discovered that Hapy is leaking some form of oil, but I can't determine the source.  When I check his engine oil level, it checks out virtually unchanged, but he continues to leave little puddles.  The drip also gets caught in the passing air and is creating a spotty film on the rear of the bus.  Me no likey.  I intend to dig deeper into this leak this weekend.  I think it's transaxle gear oil.  We'll see...

Home-bound

Happy in Hapy along hwy101

We had "check-out" at 11 on Sunday morning.  I quote check-out because there wasn't anyone to hand a key to, and no one was waiting for us to get out so they could get in.  Honor system, though, had us out of the condo by 11:30.  We didn't really have an agenda, so we pointed ourselves north on the 101 seeking coffee.  We couldn't find an easy-to-get-to coffee shop anywhere on the 101 through Newport, Depot Bay and most of Lincoln City until almost the end of town, there's a Starbux on the north-bound side.  To be fair, we could have tried to turn left across 2 lanes of southbound traffic and then try to turn left back afterwards, but this was end-of-holiday weekend traffic.  No chance.  With coffee's in-hand, we set off into the bumper-to-bumper traffic.  I could create an entire post about the ridiculous driver behavior we saw.  Maybe I will, so I'll leave it out of this report.  Needless to say, there were unexplainable traffic slowdowns and delays.  We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Sheridan again for a late lunch, and tried the trucker scales on OR18.  We scaled out at 4550 pounds.  While the outside temperature rose up into the mid 90's, inside the bus wasn't uncomfortable.  In fact, we didn't really notice the heat until it was time to unpack the bus.  After 2 prior attempts to have a coast trip without an issue, this, our 3rd try, was successful and issue-free.

Statistics
270 - total miles traveled
26.2 - miles per gallon

That's it for today.  More next time on Nye Beach, the family visit, the condo's, the Hatfield Marine Science Center, fireworks, Devil's Lake, etc.

Sunset at Nye Beach