TRAINING ..........STARTING WORK

Training started Monday May 14.  We met the Gate Attendants from Pine Meadows and the Rovers.  The meeting was held at the Forest Service building,  just a few miles down the road. We met more Rangers and met Cody, who will take over for Mark when he retires in July.  We met at 9:00 and finished at 2:00.  We will have one-on-one training with Mark, Tuesday through Thursday and  our first day will be Friday, May 18. Mark is an awesome trainer and although there is a lot to remember and learn, we are feeling confident. The software is very user friendly.
In visiting with my neighbor, Donna, I found out we can get Century Link for our Internet here. I called and got it set up. We put our Dish account on vacation.
On Friday, our first day, Mark came over and we opened the Vault, there were 32 envelopes in it, the most Mark has seen in the ten years he's been doing this. He and I processed them on the computer. At the end of the day we balanced.......only 71 more days!!

We must have done OK that first weekend, Donna, the Ranger wrote this in the Log on Sunday.

I planted a few pots full of annuals. 

I wasn't sure how the plants would do, we don't get alot of sun in this tall forest.

The Rhododendrons are blooming!

I forgot how beautiful they are!!

It took us about a week to realize we are in a  sap dripping forest! Our truck was covered in sap, you could hardly see out the windshield. Our neighbors told us this is a Douglas Fir Forest and it leaks sap all summer. We washed the truck and was surprised the sap washed off fairly easily. The RV was the same, so guess we will spend part of our summer washing the truck and RV.

We met June and David along with Randolph and Diesel, their two Great Danes, they sold their house quicker than they thought, so were looking to buy another,  they stayed with us intermittently 

throughout the summer.

Beautiful dogs!

We work Thursday through Sunday with a two hour lunch....we like that!!

The job is somewhat stressful, we have a lot of homeless folks living in the park, some are very nice and want to follow the rules, others are  a little "OFF"  and do not think the rules apply to them. We were always glad to be able to turn the sign back to "OFF DUTY".

Eugene, a larger city is only a 20 minute drive.....on the way over we noticed this sign.....

We found this seafood restaurant in Eugene, this little restautant was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

I tasted clam chowder for the first time.....it was delicious!

COTTAGE GROVE.......SCHWARZ CAMPGROUND

We would be meeting Mark, the  Head Ranger, who had been our Contact Person for this job. at Walmart, it took about 3 hours to get to Cottage Grove.

Mark  was very nice, but nothing like I expected!  We have had many conversations over the last two years, and I felt like I sorta knew him.  He led us out to what would be our new home for the summer. He also told us he will be retiring in July.

This is the Gate Attendants Booth, where we will be working.

Our Large Site.......

As large as this site is, it took Darrell  quite a while to get the RV into it's space.

We met a few of the Volunteers, they seemed friendly and nice.

The next day Mark came out  showed us around the Booth, gave us our Training Manual  and we get our two sets of keys.  We are on the Row River, the Dam is above us. Mark drove us around  Dorena Lake. We also met three more Rangers. As  hard as Darrell tried we could not get a Dish signal and only one bar on my phone, we had Internet, but it was soooo slow. We had a few days off before starting training on Monday.

BANDON BY THE SEA

Another day we saw that Bandon has a Farmer's Market and decided to go check it out. Bandon is another little town on the Oregon Coast.

Lots of crafty stuff and plants, nothing we needed or couldn't live without, but it was fun to walk through. We walked  through some of the shops downtown.

Then, we drove to the Ocean.

We went to the hot tub when we got home and then over to the Casino for Prime Rib, sooooo good!
The next day we drove out to Sunset Beach,  it was a  nice, sunny day.

Marlee couldn't wait to explore.

Maggie..........not so much!

We sat in the sun with the dogs, just enjoying the day.

I was surprised by the beauty of the Oregon Coast.

The next day we had breakfast out,  washed clothes and bought groceries,   We  were leaving for Cottage Grove in the morning. As Darrell was hooking up the trailer and I took  Maggie and Marlee for a short walk, I met  a nice couple from Roseburg, Oregon and their dachshund, Lexy.  In our conversation, they told me they make their own dog food. I asked for the recipe, they offered to bring it to me in Cottage Grove. I gave them my email address, just in case they didn't make it over. They had an extra one in their freezer and gave it to me for Maggie to try.  She loved it! 

FLORENCE.........BIRTHDAY DINNER

I found a restaurant that I wanted to have my B'day dinner in Florence, just a short drive from Coos Bay.

I had a shrimp dinner......delicious!!

Florence is a quaint little town....not too many tourists this time of year. We walked through some of the shops.

We decided to drive more of the Coast  and enjoyed the stunning views.

We stopped at this park and I walked down to the Ocean.

We headed back to North Bend......nice day!

COOS BAY BOARDWALK

The next day we decided to check out downtown Coos Bay.

The Boardwalk looked interesting!

It was!

Coos Bay is where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean.

Coos Bay has been the commercial center of Oregon's southern coast since it's earliest days. 

Coos Bay is called Oregon's Seaport and one and a half million tons of cargo move through the Coos Bay Harbor. We saw logs being loaded onto ships and this massive pile of sawdust will be loaded onto ships.

We could see this pile of sawdust grow while we were in the hot tub.....we couldn't  believe how tall it got!