We stopped along the Wilson River and there was this new(ish) building called the Tillamook Forest Center.
I don't know how far along Hwy. 6 this is because I was trying to nap during the drive to Rockaway Beach.
However, the driver had other plans, such as checking the levels along the Wilson River and looking for that possibly fantastic fishing spot. In reality, it felt like hurtling off the road to a sudden stop on the gravel verge. After about the third hurtling effect, I kinda knew there would be no nap for me.
After about four hurtling moments, we came upon this wayside with a lookout tower and a suspension bridge.
Of course, the lookout tower is not located anywhere near a hilltop and the most you can see is the nearby highway and the museum. But it was interesting with photos and diaries of lookout veterans. The fire locator was very cool. You look through the wire viewfinder to see where the smoke is going up and line up the second viewfinder at the base of the fire to accurately pinpoint how many miles away and at what longitude and latitude. This was relayed via shortwave radio. My mom went to college with a gal who used to be a lookout. Women during WWII took over lookout duties as the men went off to war. Women were steadier, more accurate pinpointing fire locations and did not fall down drunk as often.
My mom also reminisced about the Tillamook Burn. As a young girl, she remembers the plumes of smoke, visible in downtown Portland.
The suspension bridge was okay. Way too sturdy for me. There was a very cool designed gate to lock it up at night.
Great pit stop.
However, the stop looks like that Giant Sitka Spruce along Hwy. 26 which I saw for the very first time about two years before it blew down. It was the largest Sitka Spruce remaining after the great logging blitz of the last century. I have lived in Oregon all my life and stopped just once at the Sitka Spruce.
Since the lookout is not located on a hill, I'm thinking another stop won't happen anytime soon.
These aren't totally random parade watchers. They own the house next to my brother's and were having a four generational reunion at the beach.
The Rockaway beach parade was exactly how the Canbyland parade used to be a few years back. In Canby, you can walk beside your 'float' and place a candy in a kid's hand. No throwing of the candy anymore. Friends who were in this year's Canby parade said there is about four pages of "No Throwing Candy from Your Floats!!!" now.
Here in Rockaway - they close Highway 101 for an hour while the parade goes through. People were setting up their chairs at 6am when my Mom & I went for a walk to get the Sunday paper at the market.
My sister-in-law says that most of the people in the parade aren't from Rockaway Beach.
So - you get the tractors, the really snazzy convertibles, the car with the rumble seat, the bikes with training wheels, drill teams, Tillamook Cheese Princesses, & etc. Floats on the beach tend to start with towing the boat and filling it with kids.
Now - in Canbyland, the parade has gotten pretty litigated with no throwing of candy, no running of kids. Although the horses have been allowed back since the incident in 1994, what has taken the place of small town fun is all the political peoples handing out political flyers.
Not so in Rockaway Beach. Evidently, the political peoples haven't found Rockaway Beach yet.
Flamingo Jim's in the background. The totally ideal, satisfying, beach store of everything you really want to haul home.
But wait - it's not over yet.
At 1pm, we have the Weiner Dog Races in the city park.
Watch a video of Rosemary getting SECOND PLACE! Yeah Livy.
Getting Lexi ready. Requires a Starter and a Catcher.
Lexi placed second last year but had a wild hair this year and ran off course to create her own course. Her grandmother, Pug (Spottia) won a race this year but at the semi-final decided to run a more psychological race keeping the other dogs running in circles and going back the way they came.
Spottia did win the dress-up challenge. As a sweet old grandmotherly type with her spectacles and cape.
I wish I had more space on my camera card for the final part of the dog races: Cool tricks.
This was open to any dog.
The best was an old brown lab who slowly lumbered himself out to center field with his partner.
The handler put her hands together like holding a gun, pointed it at the dog and said, "Bang, Bang". The brown lab slowly laid down, rolled over to his side, then onto his back with his feet up in the air, and ever so much slower, over to his other side and got up. He must be about Rocket's age - around 10. The whole playing dead deal.
This was a show stopper. NO other dog out there could come close in a cooler trick.