Off again in the Merry Musemobile

We are off again on a longish road trip taking us as far as Texas and leaving one son home while we visit the other three.

Fearing the mountain passes we opted to take the coast road (Highway 101) and the first stop was Bandon, Oregon and getting a nice but overcast view of the Coquille River Lighthouse.

The 1896 lighthouse, also known as the Bandon Light, was the last one built along the Oregon Coast. It guided ships until 1939, when the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated beacon on the south jetty to take over that responsibility. The lens and the fog siren were eventually removed leaving the lighthouse without a means to communicate.

One of the state’s smaller lighthouses, Coquille River Lighthouse’s active life from the first keeper, James Baker, until the last, Oscar Langlois, has as much of a personality and history as the others.

There was the time when the lighthouse was nearly rammed by a vessel. It was in 1904, when the schooner C.A. Klose was attempting to enter the harbor. The conditions were favorable for disaster, with light winds and a very rough bar. The vessel ended up on the rocks in front of the lighthouse. The Tug Triumph eventually pulled it off the rocks. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

We parked at Weber's Pier and while Sharyn fixed sandwiches I hopped out for a few snaps.


There was the boat launch ramp ...


... but what caught my eye was this seagull and an object he kept walking over to.


It was a picked over fish yuck!


There was a totem pole in the parking lot of the traditional sort and ...


... a contemporary totem made of pipe.


And here they are the Mini-musemobile along with the Musemobile itself.


There was this really cool looking chair on the dock and I'm sure on a nicer day would have been a great spot to sit out in the sun - but not today.


There was a bunch of ducks (one flock or two) beautifully colored in grey scale.


I look up just in time to get this landing gull and ...

... his last flap to get his balance.


We only stopped once more just south of Port Orford where I took this shot of the town across the bay. I didn't get to see the port itself but looked it up online and found this:

"Captain William Tichenor explored the harbor area the dock sits on as early as 1850. A wooden dock was built prior to 1900 and the Port was formally incorporated in 1919. Ship captains liked the location because there was no bar to cross and they could pull 400-foot vessels right up to the modest wood slabs that were the original dock.



In 1935, the practice of putting small fishing boats into the water and then lifting them out again with a hoist was initiated. Instead of parking the vessels in the water, something the rough seas won't permit, they are hoisted up and set gently down on a trailer and parked on the surface of the dock. There are less than a half-dozen of these type of docks left in the world. The only other 'dolly' dock' in the USA is in southern California."

I guess it must be sea gull day but I really like this picture looking out at the

No Scrabble Today too darned tired.

Quote of the Day

"What can we do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbor on it? What use have we for such a country? I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Ocean one inch neare" ~ Daniel Webster (American Statesman, Senator and Orator, 1782-1852)