Moving on from Waldport, Oregon, we continued along the Northern Oregon coast and into Washington, taking our time with week-long stays at each stop. Before we knew it, most of July had flown by. We really enjoyed the lovely coastal vistas and cool weather, especially after seeing the sweltering weather forecasts for other areas of the country.

Coastal Ramblings III – Route

Neskowin, Oregon

Our first stop along the way was at the Neskowin Creek RV Resort in Neskowin, Oregon. This resort, like the rest of the parks featured in this blog post, is in the Resorts of Distinction (ROD) network, in which we have membership. We liked having so many of the ROD parks conveniently along our route, as our low membership fee includes a free 7-night stay at any of the parks in the ROD network – a great money-saver which we used heavily this travel season.

The RV resort was tidy, well maintained and busy. The park is set in a large meadow nestled in lovely forested hills, just off the US-101 highway and not far from the coast. We enjoyed our stay here. I’ll post full reviews of this and the other campgrounds, soon.

Refrigerator Woes, Resolved

As mentioned in our last blog post, we were experiencing problems with our refrigerator – the unit had effectively died on us and we worried that we would need to rebuild or replace the entire unit. Our top priority upon arriving in Neskowin was to get our refrigerator diagnosed and repaired, if possible, or at least start the process of filing an extended warranty claim and scheduling repairs.

While in Waldport, we had searched for Norcold-certified service centers near our route, but had found few and those we did find had long wait times for service. Discouraged, we also looked for other RV service centers or mobile RV technicians who could take a look at our refrigerator and diagnose the problem. Not expecting much, we thought we could at least start an extended warranty claim if we had a technician look over the unit. Pleased to find a mobile RV technician who serviced the area around Neskowin, we scheduled an appointment for a few days after our arrival in Neskowin.

The technician arrived promptly on the appointed day and went right to work checking over the refrigerator. The tech quickly determined that the problem was, most likely, a failure of a small and inexpensive part, the Thermistor. The Thermistor is a small sensor which clips on the cooling fins in the main compartment of the refrigerator and plugs into a receptacle below the refrigerator light bulb. The role of this sensor is to monitor and control the temperature of the refrigerator.

This was very welcome news for us; even better, a replacement Thermistor could be ordered and ready to install within just a few days. With a great sense of relief at the prospect of resolving our refrigerator woes, we were able to relax and enjoy exploring the area around Neskowin.

(Followup – there was a slight delay in receiving the part, but it did arrive in time for the tech to install it before we departed Neskowin. The refrigerator has worked well since then. Whew! Here’s a quick shout-out to Mike’s Mobile RV Repair in Lincoln City – You did a great job fixing our unit and we can highly recommend your service. Thanks, Mike!)

Around Neskowin

Highlights of our stay in Neskowin included long scenic drives along the coast, cheese tasting (and ice cream!) at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and a visit to the Tillamook Air Museum. The Tillamook Air Museum was especially interesting due to its giant hanger and historic role as base for airships (dirigibles) used for coastal submarine patrols and convoy escort during Word War II.

We also enjoyed several dinners at the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City, one of our favorite micro-breweries along the coast – we really enjoy their Kiwanda Cream Ale and Scottish Ale, as well as some of the seasonal brews.

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

From Neskowin we moved on up the coast to Rockaway Beach for a stay at the Paradise Cove Resort & Marina, another of the ROD resorts. Paradise Cove was an older park set on the scenic shores of the Nehalem River. The park was fairly basic, but clean, quiet, and well maintained. The oldest section of the park was along the river shore and had small sites set very close together. We stayed in the new section of the park uphill and across the US-101 highway. This section is forested and has larger sites, better suited to today’s large RVs. We enjoyed our stay here.

Highlights of our stay at Rockaway Beach include taking the Three Capes Scenic Drive and visits to the historic Cape Meares lighthouse, working port and marina at Garibaldi, and Ecola State Park at Cannon Beach. We took Jasmine and Pepper several times to play in the surf at Neahkahnie Beach, near Manzanita. We also enjoyed a lunch and micro-brew at the Pelican Brewery Tap Room in Tillamook.

Chinook, Washington

From Rockaway Beach, we continued up the US-101 and crossed the soaring Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River into Washington state, stopping for a week-long stay at the Columbia Shores K/M Resort in Chinook, Washington. The Columbia Shores is another park in the ROD network. This is another older park with only basic amenities, but clean, well maintained and with large RV sites. The park was a nice location to explore the area from.

Our timing was good in that we visited the park in July during their slow season and had no problem booking a space. We were told that the park gets extremely busy and would be booked solid starting in August at the beginning of the Salmon fishing season.

Highlights of our stay in Chinook included sightseeing trips along the shores of the Columbia River and into Astoria, a visit to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, and a visit to the historic North Head Lighthouse. We also enjoyed stopping by a farmers market in Ilwaco and having street tacos and micro-brew at North Jetty Brewing in Long Beach.

That’s all for now – July has been a great time for rambling up the coast. Take care and enjoy the journey!