Ordinarily, you could not drag me anywhere near the Oregon Coast in the middle of summer. It tends to be a madhouse. But here it was August, and we were itching to take a trip, and I had heard that the casinos have free RV parking. I love free parking, and Dave loves Casinos – what could go wrong?! So with no reservations in hand, we decided to grab the trailer, and roll the dice that by the time we got there, we would find a place to park it for the night.

We headed down after work and got there after dark. We went straight to the Chinook Winds casino in Lincoln City, signed up for a membership card, and got directions to the RV parking. It was actually not bad at all. The parking lot was up above the regular parking lot, and it was quiet and secluded, but had lots of other campers there, and security patrols, so I felt relatively safe leaving the Airstream there. It wasn’t visible from the road, and there were several other Airstreams there already.

We headed off and had a nice dinner at McMennamins, just up the road from the casino. and came back to the trailer. Dave wanted to go play slots, and I think we played for a while, but I just wanted to relax and read a book I had brought. So I retired to the trailer, while he went back out to gamble some more. The following text convo ensued as the evening wore on (note the time stamps)

Dave: [Aug 7, 11:56PM] Test, you get this?
       
        Me: [Aug 7, 11:57PM] Yes

Dave: [Aug 7, 11:58PM] just wanted to make sure that worked. playing batman..kinda fun..kinda ha ha

        Me: [Aug 7, 11:58PM] Cool, let me know when you are heading back.

Dave: [Aug 7, 11:59PM] probably around 2

        Me: [Aug 7, 11:59PM] ok, if your money holds out 😉

Dave: [Aug 8, 12:03AM] Yeah

I read for a while and then go to sleep.

Dave: [Aug 8,  2:05AM] Still playing, doing ok

Back to sleep. Wake up and he’s still not home.

        Me: [Aug 8,  2:47AM] Checking in…

Dave: [Aug 8,  2:59AM] still having fnu. notbroke

        Me: [Aug 8,  2:59AM] Lol, ok, going back to sleep…

Dave: [Aug 8,  3:00AM] see u in the morning, ha ha. Feels like playing videogames all night

        Me: [Aug 8,  3:00AM] 🙂

Read for a bit, back to sleep…

Dave: [Aug 8,  4:20AM] still going

Dave: [Aug 8,  4:45AM] wearing down  can’t stop

        Me: [Aug 8,  4:46AM] Lol, yo need to come back and tell me all about it

Dave: [Aug 8,  5:15AM] Almost done

        Me: [Aug 8,  5:20AM] How have you not run out of money?

Dave: [Aug 8,  5:40AM] still have about what I started with 😉

        Me: [Aug 9,  5:40AM] Well, come on home and tell me about it

Dave: [Aug 8,  5:43AM] ok, gunna play flintstones and im out of here

        Me: [Aug 8,  5:45AM] Ive been half expecting some thugs to come knock on the door and say ‘Hey, we ownz dis trailer now, giddoutaherez!’

Dave: [Aug 8,  5:59AM] ha ha, cashing out and headed to u

So, I think I can safely say Dave enjoyed this new concept of living in the casino parking lot.

The next day after getting a little sleep, we headed off to explore our way down the beach and have lunch at The Chowder Bowl in Newport.

It was a gorgeous day!

Sea and Sky

The Devil’s Punchbowl was not being very ‘punchy’

We saw some surfers.

We saw a squirrel who was not afraid of people.

We saw these cool old floats hung on a tree.

We went down to the tidepools and saw this stuff, which feels exactly like you think it would feel.

I picked up this lovely little shell, photographed it, and put it back so the next person to come along could enjoy it.

Saw this fuzzy caterpillar.

We continued on to Yaquina Head.

And you know what, the crowds weren’t as bad as I had feared. Actually we had a pretty nice Saturday wandering around the beach.

THIS GUY was having a pretty spectacular Saturday too.

So, having spent the day in the sun, we headed home to the casino. Since Dave felt he was played out, we decided to get a head start on the trip home and drive to Grand Ronde, to the Spirit Mountain casino. Again, the casino had a nice FREE RV parking setup in a parking lot away from the general parking area, patrolled by security, and it seemed very safe.

We went and played slots a bit, and had a very unmemorable dinner at the casino restaurant. Unfortunately there aren’t many choices in Grand Ronde. But it did the trick. We gambled until he got tired, and headed back to the trailer.

In the morning we tailored our route home to take us to Roth’s!

No trip to the Willamette Valley is complete without swinging by Roth’s for their spectacular fresh donuts! They did not disappoint!

After that, it was an uneventful trip home. But it was one of the most relaxing, easygoing trips we had taken in a while. And it was FREE, so you can’t really beat that.

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