August 21, 2016 - Tillamook, OR to Portland, OR

This morning the fog was as thick as it was yesterday afternoon. So, no trip to Cape Meares Lighthouse for photoshooting. Another time...

We left Tillamook RV Park at 10:15 am.  We turned right to get on 131 East to Tillamook town. Route 131 ends at Main Ave and then becomes 6 East (Truck Route).

There were not many slow vehicle turnouts on Route 6. We held up a long line of vehicles behind us, finally found one and pulled over to let them pass through. Erwin mentioned that it was hard for him to look around the scenery while driving because of twisty turns and narrow roads.  

Now entering Tillamook State Forest for 10 miles. There were lots of road patches, meaning some were washed out or sunk so bad they needed to be repaired. Roads were twisty/curvy, but not as harrowing as portions of Highway 101.  The forest is very thick and lined up close along the route most of the way.

The leaves are starting to turn colors. The northerner we go the more we see, so we are anxious to see the foliage in Washington and Canada.

Oh, it was good to see the blue sky again.  The clouds were all gone!  Wished it was like that when we were still in Tillamook early this morning. Oh well!

Although the speed limit, most of the way, is 55 mph, but we cannot go more than 50 mph because of twisty turns.

34 more miles to Portland the road is not as twisty and hilly. Erwin said he could smell the smoke (from the wildfire?).  Then 27 more miles to Portland we started to see farmlands.

When we got to Banks, OR there are two lanes now and Erwin mentioned that he is not too stressful now.  The palms of his hands were sweaty when driving on narrow roads through the forest.

We took Exit #62 from Route 6, then made a left turn to get on Cornelius Pass Road. Pretty farmlands along the hilly road.  We continued on this route until Germantown Road, then made a right turn (A BIG mistake - GPS's fault).  The lane was too narrow and twisty and was not designed for big rigs or semi trucks!  GPS should have picked a better route.  Sometimes we cannot trust GPS’ directions. However, we made it out of it alive and the LH was still in one piece!

We finally got on Route 30 , then bypass 30 to get on the St. Johns Bridge that spans over the Willamette River, then through the town of St. Johns to get Marine Drive East before we got to I-5 N.  The I-5 bridge is a drawbridge and we got off at Exit #308 to Jantzen Beach. While on the exit we were excited to see Mt. Hood

St. Johns Bridge has two Gothic towers and is the tallest
bridge in the city of Portland

Crossing Williamette River

Mt Hood

We finally made it to Jantzen Beach RV Park at 12:15 pm. There were 2 RVs in front of us waiting to register. Edith got out of the Lil' Home (LH) and walked up to the office. Before she entered the office she noticed a “No Vacancy” sign posted outside, was worried that there may not be any site available.  Edith wrote a note asking about available sites, and the lady replied that there is one right across the road from the office. We can have it for 3 nights and we booked it right away.  Only 3 sites were available today. Whew!

We unhooked the Jeep before Erwin pulled our LH into the site.  After Erwin connected electricity and water to the LH we prepared late lunch.  While eating lunch we contacted Erwin’s sister, Peggy, who lives in Portland, to let her know that we were coming over to her house for a visit this afternoon.

It was only 5 miles from RV Park to Peggy’s house, so it was not hard to navigate through the area.  It was good to see Peggy and her husband, Paul again.  Been 3 years since we last saw Peggy.

After our visit with Peggy and Paul we shopped at Fred Meyer grocery store to get something to go with pulled pork sandwich for tonight's upper.  It is a nice/big store. 

Erwin went out for a walk to the Home Depot that is across the street from the RV Park and bought a stubby screwdriver that he needed to fix loose screw in one of the kitchen drawers.  Edith stayed behind to work on the blog and to edit pictures.

We rested for the rest of the night, made arrangements with Peggy for tomorrow’s outing.  Edith also contacted our friends, Querida and Eric about getting together while we are in town.

Edith is excited about visiting waterfalls tomorrow.  We hope to visit at least two of them.