Day 37 - 9 Hours Later

It turned out to be a very long travel day. We left Mt. Olympic National Park around 8:00 am and headed to our next stop which was the Blue Heron French Cheese Company located in Tallimook, Oregon. It took us about 9 hours to get there which was the longest we have traveled in the Airstream. The ride was also up and down and very winding. There were some neat places that we stopped to view though. One was called Dismal Nitch. Here the explorers of the Lewis & Clark Expedition were trapped for six days due to the torrential downpour and high waves. Clark wrote: “It would be distressing to a feeling person to See our Situation at this time all wet and cold with our bedding, etc. also wet, in a Cove Scerely large enough to Contain us.” They said that this was the most disagreeable weather that they had ever experienced.

Lewis & Clark left St. Louis Missouri on May 21, 1804 and arrived downstream from Dismal Nitch at the Pacific Ocean in November 18, 1805 at the mouth of the Columbia River. There are a ton of Lewis & Clark memorials, etc. in this area.

After seeing all the violent protests in Portland this year, we noticed a sign that was corrected to reflect PC language that we’re sure is prevalent here. The word “explorers” was scratched out to read “colonizers.”

As we traveled upward we pulled over thinking that it would be a decent view. When we stopped, we were blown away by the view. We were on the west shoulder of the Neahkahnie Mountain, which at 1,661 ft. is one of the highest points on the Oregon’s coast. This Native American name translates, “Home of the supreme being.”

The Blue Heron French Cheese Company was another Harvest Home site. It was a very quirky looking place on the outside. The actual field that we parked on was level so we didn’t have to do much of anything since we were dry camping. There were at least 8 other RV’s and trailers parked here. In the parking lot and field were variety of animals on display along with old vehicles like a double-decker bus. The building itself was attractive and inside it was very nice gift shop that also had a wine tasting bar along with a deli, coffee bar and ice cream. They had dozens of sample dips that you could taste using a pretzel stick. We ordered a Reuben from the deli along with purchasing some smoked Tallimook sharp cheddar cheese. We took the sandwich back to the trailer to eat…it was awful! We’re not sure if we just made a bad choice or the quality of the food was poor.