The Oregon Coast and Ashland Shakespearean Festival

I'll start a little rundown on our trip down the Oregon Coast to the Ashland Shakespearean Festival where we had reservations to take in two plays and a Cabaret preformance. In Ashland we would meet Helen's sister, Anne, and my nephew Bob and his wife Adriana, and we had 4 1/2 days to get there. Anne would stay with us in the motor home and Bob and Adriana would stay in the Best Western in Ashland.

We took the digital camera and the video camera with us and decided to take our time and enjoy the trip. We had been that way several times but never really took time to "smell the roses". We took 80 pictures with the digital camera and NO, I won't bore you with them all.

Even though the trip was a lot of fun it didn't start out too well. Helen got home at 5:15 Friday and Helen, our little weenie dog, Duke and I left home shortly after with the intentions of driving toward Aberdeen in order to get a jump on the next day. We had a nice pleasant drive south to a camping area called the Promised Land Campground. It is a small one so by the time we got there it was full so I continued on with the idea of staying in a large DOT parking area by the Humptulips River where fishermen park their cars and trailers while they fish the river. There wasn't anyone there but a few of the local teens going back and forth to the river.

Helen and I went to bed and were both sleeping soundly when at 11:30 someone pounded hard on the side of the motor home right next to my head. I bolted out of my sound sleep and yelled at whoever it was to get the hell out of there and leave us alone.

We tried to go back to sleep but could only toss and turn and about 12:30 a.m we heard footsteps just out side the motor home and it sounded like they were walking around it. After a few minutes I got dressed and went to the driver seat and got behind the wheel and turned on the headlights. In front of the motor home, about 30 feet away was two people, one on top of the other making out. They slowly got up and just stood there looking at the lights. I then rolled down the window and told them to get the hell out of there and threatened them because I didn't like being messed with. I then started up the motor home and circled the parking area but they had run into the woods. I then parked where I had been before.

As soon as I stopped the motor home someone started banging on the entrance door so I started the engine again and backed up to see who it was and there was a fellow about 20 years old standing there. I stopped and he came to the window to talk to me. He wanted to know if I had a gun and why I was bothering these kids. I told him I didn't have a gun but had told them that in order to scare them. I then told him the story that I have just related to you and he said and he said he didn't think they had done anything. I assured him that they had been bothering us and that I didn't appreciate it and if it kept up I would call the cops on the cell phone. By this time about six kids, both boys and girls came out of the darkness. He turned to them and asked them if they had been bothering us and they denied it. Then he told them that someone must have done something because I had no reason to wake up in the middle of the night and give them crap. Finally one kid came up to him and said he was the one who beat on the motor home. He apologized to me and the older kid assured me there would be no more trouble.

Helen wanted to leave then but I thought that probably was the end of it and I went back to bed. But at 1:30 we heard footsteps again and then the sound of a vehicle stopping nearby. I got dressed again and went up forward again and I saw the older kid in the lights of the vehicle and he was talking to a car load of people. The vehicle then turned into the parking area and shot past us. This immediately looked bad so I started up the motor home and got out of there. We drove down the road about 20 miles and I pulled into a weigh station that was well lighted and finished out the night with a minimal amount of sleep.

You may think I reacted foolishly and that I should have left after the first encounter. My answer is I was awakened from a sound sleep and didn't have a lot of time to think, let alone think clearly. The reason I didn't leave right away is I thought it was a one time thing, and that whoever it was would leave. But when a rig showed up with other people in it I didn't know what would happen and I wasn't going to stay around and find out.

One last thing! The next morning Helen said I should have the cell phone in a more handy place because I told her it was packed with the stuff in front. Well, when I tried to find it I couldn't, I had left it in the boat because I had been fishing the previous day and had forgot to take it out!

Things got better, I guess they would almost have to, wouldn't they? We got up about 7:00 and made coffee and started toward Astoria. Before we crossed the bridge between Washington and Astoria, Ore. we stopped at a nice rest area and Helen fixed breakfast while I watered the dog and took some video.

After crossing the bridge we took more pictures and video in Astoria and we began our drive down the Oregon Coast. One of the questions of this vacation is, will we be able to travel in a slow leisurely manner like vacations are meant to be, or would I have the tendency to move on and miss most everything as we drive by. You see, Helen retires next year and there will no longer be a need to rush, rush, rush!

After putting the previous evening experience behind us we continued south from Astoria. One of the first things you notice is there are a lot of people trying to get around on this two lane highway. Not only that, it was the weekend in the middle of summer.

Oh well, we are on vacation and we have four days to get to Ashland and it is only about 500 miles give or take a few. So we slowly plugged away and stopped many time viewing the scenery at the turnouts and walked on the beach when we wanted to.

By noon we had already made pretty good headway so we decided to start looking for a place to stay for the night. We quickly learned that the Oregon State campgrounds fill up very early in the day. After checking out a few of them we gave up and started looking for private RV parks. We found one just south of Lincoln City about 2 in the afternoon. A place called Devil's Lake. We just relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the day. This was Saturday!

So this is how it went for the entire drive down the coast and we discovered real quick that we were going to adapt to the casual travel schedule of old retired folks. Even when it was foggy, it was quite a sight. We had decided to stop and see some of the Lighthouses and take some pictures.

One thing that I might tell you is the sand on the beaches in the central part of the state is a light tan color. The northern and the southern beaches have the gray sand like we have in the Washington coastal beaches. Another thing is it seemed the heaviest pressure at the beaches is the upper two thirds of the state. We did consider that we were up there on the week end so that may account for so many more people.

Sunday, our next night was spent at another private campground just south of Florence. It was called Lakeshore RV Park. Duke and Helen took a walk down to the Lake.

Monday night we stayed at the Madronna RV Park in Port Orford. It was a shaded spot with a few trees. Both of the previous nights had been spent in the open, with no shade.

By Tuesday morning we were at Gold Beach where the highway takes off from Highway 101 that I wanted to try that went to Grants Pass. This follows the Rogue River and probably would be quite scenic but I had been told three times by different people that it wasn't a good road. Much of it was gravel, bad curves and a real steep grade going down the way I wanted to go. This told me that we wouldn't take the road clear through but because we had time to spare we decided to drive part of it to check out the scenery. We could have driven about 30 miles on this road but we only went 8 miles before we turned back. The river wasn't visible from the road and most of the time and it didn't have too much to see, just houses and then brushy timber. So we stopped at a campground where we drove onto the river bank and had breakfast, then went back to Gold Beach and Drove down to Crescent City

After crossing into Califorina we came to an Indian casino so we stopped for a short while to donate to their causes. What tight machines! A short time later we were in Crescent City where we went to the aquarium with the intentions of going in. However, it was quite crowded and there were dozens of kids waiting for the next tour so we took a few pictures and left. On the way out of town I paid the most money for regular gas that I had ever paid, $1.899! I was glad to be heading back north! (I should add here that up until now the most we had paid for gas was $1.749 and that was in southern Oregon!)

On Tuesday, about noon, we started toward Ashland on Highway 199. This is a scenic highway going through the northern groves of redwoods. We started getting into redwoods soon after leaving Crescent City but there was a lot of traffic so I decide to wait awhile to get a few pictures. Well, we got out of them a lot sooner than I thought we would and just like that we ran out of them. I wanted to get at least one picture of a big tree so when we saw this sign directing us to this grove of trees I took it. After the first mile the paved road narrowed and turned into a dirt road. Fortunately, I was able to turn the motorhome around and I took a single picture of a redwood. The covered bridge was on the first part of that road. We passed many big trees earlier but I was glad I got at least one picture of a medium sized tree even though it was covered in dust.

Because we were only a little over 100 miles from Ashland we decided to find a place to stay the night. Even though it was still early we could have made Ashland but we couldn't check in until noon the next day so it made sense to find a place early. There weren't many RV parks on this road so when we started going by forest service campgrounds we decided to stay in one. Most Forest service campgrounds are primitive so we had to rough it because there are no hookups. (Roughing it really isn't bad, what that meant was there was no cable TV!) It was quiet though and there were no bugs. It was nice and cool so we got a good nights sleep. The campground had a lot of Madronna trees in it so I got a shot of a few of them. They are a unique tree because they have a very paper thin bark that has a reddish tinge to it. We have them in parts of the Olympic Peninsula but there are none in the Forks area that I have ever seen. They seem to start at Lake Crescent and go east on the Olympic Peninsula.

The next morning we got under way about 9:30 and started for Ashland. We stopped at an information place where Helen went in and got information on the Oregon Caves. We were about 20 miles from the caves (it was a side trip of 20 some miles.) We thought we may go to them on one of our days in Ashland. However the info wasn't good. There are over 550 vertical steps going into the caves. It is listed as strenuous and Helen can't do steps well because of her asthma breathing problem on inclines. We wouldn't have been able to go all the way in the motorhome on this day because the road is narrow, at least that is what the information she got said! (Bob and Adriana went to the caves on their way home, we are anxious to hear how they liked them!)

After fixing breakfast in the parking lot of the info place we headed for Ashland getting there just a few minutes after noon. I no more than got the motorhome hooked up and Anne drove in. What timing! Her drive from Sacramento is about 325 miles, I think, so it didn't take her more than 4 1/2 hours to drive.

We stayed close to the motorhome the rest of the afternoon because we didn't know when Bob and Adriana would show up so we got a chance to get caught up on the visiting. It was hot there, quite a change from the coastal weather. It was in the low 90's and was in the high 60's on the coast. We were glad the a/c worked because we used it most of the time we were there. Not at night though because it cooled off by then.

When Bob and Adriana hadn't come over by 5:30 we decided we would go out and have dinner. We decided on a Mexican restaurant about a mile from the RV park. Just before we decided to leave Bob and Adriana showed up so after the hellos were over with we all got into Bob's rig and we all went to dinner. It was a fun evening and we had a good meal at the Mexican restaurant(complete with live Mexican music).

After we had dinner on Wednesday we agreed to touring the area a little the next day so we decided on going to the Oregon Vortex and an old grist mill (flour). Both are located north of Ashland about 25 miles or so.

At 10:30 Helen, Anne and I went downtown looking around and went to a vineyard where we did a little wine tasting and bought a couple of bottles of wine. We got back just before noon, the time that Bob was going to pick us up. They got there at 12:30 and told us that they had been there earlier and we were gone so they were in no hurry to get back.

The Oregon vortex is a spherical field of force, half above ground and half below. The area affected is a circle. It is a tourist attraction, of course, that appears to have a problem with its gravity and how things and people react to it. Originally it was a gold mining site. I don't recall the history but it left a building that still stands and was severely distorted by a slide or something. Well, it was discovered that the gravitational pull was weird and things seemed different than they really are. I still believe the distorted building has a lot to do with the illusion. Regardless, it seemed like things could roll up hill and certain things seemed way off level even though a carpenters level proved otherwise. We had someone take two pictures of the 5 of us standing on a level plank. It appears o.k. but when positions were reversed, our size seemed to change. Short was not so short and tall was not so tall.

After leaving the Vortex we went back to Gold Hill and drove east to a small town that has a grist mill that is over a hundred years old (128 I believe they said)and is still in operation. The general store inside is still open and sells products made in the mill as well as other things in the old fashion glass bulk containers. We also went into a museum. The covered bridge was located about 1/4 mile from the grist mill and was the second covered bridge we had seen on this trip.

We then went back to Ashland where we got ready to go down town and have dinner and to see our first play. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant and then at 8:30 we went to the Angus Bowmer Theatre and seen the play "Force of Nature". It was an excellent play about feelings and how we react to our feelings. Sometimes a moral dilemma to be sure. Anne got us great seats as we could nearly reach out and touch the actors. We were very close to the stage. We all enjoyed the show very much! We then went back home to get some sleep to see what tomorrow had in store for us.

On Friday morning after we had breakfast, Bob and Adriana picked us up for another day of being tourists. Today the plan was to check out some more of the vineyards and try out a few of their wines. There are only two wineries real close to Ashland and Helen, Anne and I had been to one of them the day before so we decided to try the other one and then head out of town and check out a couple more.

The second winery was about 25 miles away and it was located a few miles south of Jacksonville, an old historical town. It is a neat little town and merits a stop, but we didn't stop there this time because everyone had been there at least once. At the winery we discussed having lunch and decided on buying some wine and then go back to a small town we had just gone through and buy some cheese, bread and whatever else would go good on a picnic.

The lady who worked at the wine tasting shop was quite helpful, she told us about a nice park that was only a few miles away and she even opened our bottle of wine because we didn't have a corkscrew. She even provided us with some plastic cups for our wine. We found the park and enjoyed a real nice hour or so having our picnic.

After the picnic was over it was 3:30 and we decided it was too late to go to another winery so we went back to Ashland to rest a while before going to the Cabaret that evening. At 7:00 p.m. we met Bob and Adriana at the entrance of the Cabaret where we began a real pleasant and fun evening having dinner and watching the show. The show was a comical music production called "Suds" about a young girl who was having a tough time with her love life. When her guardian angels came down to help her sort out her problems the fun began. The setting was in a 1960's Laundromat and the three girls and one man preformed about 30-40 songs from the 60's. Once again our seating was great, just a few feet from the performers.

It was after eleven when the show was through and after we got out on the street we talked over the next days plans. We decided to go to the place that stores the costumes from the previous years productions and then play it by ear the rest of the afternoon. The neat thing about the costume place is you can try out the costumes and take pictures of each other dressed up in them. Before we parted that evening I asked Bob and Adriana if they would join us for a salmon dinner at the motor home, they accepted. The salmon was brought with us as we had been salmon fishing the weeks before we left on this trip. Our plan of attack for the next day was complete so we adjourned about 11.15 p.m. and headed for home.

On Saturday morning after having breakfast Helen, Anne and I armed with cameras went to meet Bob and Adriana for our last day in Ashland. Everyone was on time but we were all early to get in the costume place so we had to wait for them to open. We were lucky all the way around because we had the place to ourselves and the fellow at the door let us all in free because Anne is member of the Shakespearean group in Ashland. We tried on all sort of costumes and I got pictures of everyone in costume and a lot of video. My only regret was I wish I would have used a flash when I took my pictures in the costume place. They would have been a lot more crisp and clear. Still I got decent shots!

We then went into a wine and cheese tasting store on main street and I asked the guy working there if I could take video inside. He hesitated for a bit but then said it would be okay. But, he warned me, "if you use this for anything commercial I want a royalty!" Hell, I didn't know if he was serious or not but I said "no problem!" It was fun taking video in there, and I got some good footage. Bob bought the wine for the salmon dinner here and they took it to their motel until we went back to the motor home. Then we went to a nice place on one of the side streets for a light lunch.

We still had a couple of hours to kill so we decided to shop a bit and then go through the park. Anne bought a hat from a vendor outside and Bob bought a hat in another store. I took video in there as well but didn't ask anyone this time. After getting the shoppers moving again we started to the park. The first stop was a pond full of ducks and a couple of swans. It is located just below the Elizabethan Theatre that we would be going to later that evening. It was there when Anne suggest that because it was so near that maybe everyone might like to go into the outdoor theatre and look it over while it was empty. Everyone thought that was a good idea so we went.

The doors are open during the day so the public can check it out and take pictures. You can't take pictures in any of he venues while a show or play is being preformed.You couldn't go on the stage or in the balcony but you could walk all around everywhere else. Unfortunately, I had taken all of the 80 pictures with the digital camera and had edited it so many times that I didn't dare delete anymore so I didn't get to take any still pictures in there. However, I took quite a bit of video and will make a copy of our whole trip and send it to Lowell and he can see to it that anyone else who wants to see it, can. There is actually quite a bit of good video.

After the tour of the theatre we headed for the motor home and Bob and Adriana went their own way until dinner. They came over at 5:00 and we had a bottle of wine and some bread and cheese before dinner. Bob had brought some fresh vegetables from his garden so to go with the poached salmon we had fresh tomatoes, green beans (which I have to admit, cooked dry and kind of gotten scorched, but we ate them anyway) and baked potatoes. Strawberry short cake for dessert.

After dinner Bob and Adriana went back to their motel and then we all met in front of the outdoor theatre where there was an outdoor song and dance performance going on. When the doors opened for the show we were going to we found our seats that were in the 3rd row of the balcony on the left side. They were also good seats but they wasn't nearly as close to the stage as the other two shows were. I doubt there is a bad seat in the whole theatre. The play we saw this night was called "The Taming of the Shrew!" This is a Shakespearian play and we all enjoyed it even though Shakespeare is hard to follow, at least for me.

The play was over about 11:15 and afterwards we stood outside on the sidewalk and talked like we had done the previous evenings. This night was different though because it was our last night. We all hated for it to end but we said our good byes and went back to our beds.

On Sunday morning Anne took Helen and I out to breakfast and then at 10:15 we started for home. Our plan was to probably stay somewhere that night but that didn't happen. I'm kind of like a homing pigeon, when my nose is pointed toward home I become antsy and my focus is getting home. Because of several accidents that we came upon and heavy traffic we lost about 1 1/2 hours and didn't get home until 9:15 p.m.

I'm writing this on Friday, five days after leaving Ashland and the memories of being with family and haveing a great time is still in my thoughts. But now that I have heard from Bob and know they finished their trip with no problems I can say that the whole trip was a success and I, for one, am looking forward to doing this again!

I hope I haven't been too boring and that you have enjoyed parts or all of our report on our trip down the Oregon Coast to the Shakespearean Festival in Ashland, Oregon!

Written by William Wandke the week of Aug. 13, 2000

Pictures of our trip