Driving on the Beach, Long Beach, Astoria and Fort Stevens State Park

It always feels good to pack up the van and pull out to the next destination.  Especially when I have no idea where that is.  There is something magical about just letting myself be guided; going where the wind blows me, so to speak.

I didn’t need to go far before I found myself at my next destination, Long Beach, Washington.  Long Beach boasts itself as being the Worlds Longest Beach, however it is really a 28 mile long Peninsula.  Yes, I drove the length of it.

What I really liked about Long Beach, was, like Westport, it just wasn’t that crowded.  Not like the Oregon Coastal towns.  Driving onto the beach was legal and so I took my Van right onto the beach with the back facing the ocean.  When the winds got heavy, it was cold or the sun intense, I could seek shelter in the van.  One couldn’t ask for a better view.

In Long Beach, I spent the majority of my time, not at the beach, but on the beach.  We couldn’t camp overnight there, so I found a vacant City Lot where Van Lifers were parked for the night.  Other than having a horrible nightmare that my Van was being broken into and I was being violently attacked, the night went well.

In telling a friend about the nightmare, she suggested it might be more symbolic about someone in my life who really wants to hurt me and cause me pain.  My friend felt my Van represented my home, or personal space and the attacker a significant person in my life who would probably love it if I was no longer on the planet.  Yes, this is a real person.

I’ve learned that although some people may not like me and want me to suffer, I would give no energy to the attacks.  I recognized that it is never about me, but rather about the person who is projecting their own inner demons upon me.  Not my demons!  You leave someone like this alone with their demons long enough, their own demons will turn against them in time.  Meanwhile I get on with my life and leave them in my rear view mirror.

After my night in Long Beach, I drove on down the road to find a place where I could make my tea, kick back and write in my journal.  I found a sweet little County Park on the Columbia River.  The Columbia River comes down from Canada, through Washington, the Washington Gorge, Portland, Oregon and joining the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon.  It is a very large river.

In past trips, I noticed I was often destination oriented and didn’t take the time to stop and smell the roses, or drink the coffee.  This time was different.  I really wanted to take my time and really explore what the places I visited had to offer.

On my way to Long Beach I found this really cool coffee house on the River in South Bend, Washington.  I hung out there, charged my electronics, and wrote a blog post.  I tried their curry lentil soup which was Vegan, and they had a vegan treat to go with my decaf Americano. It is not so often I find places where I can order something that fits my diet.  It is a rare find, and a great treat to find such a place.

Although I have crossed the long bridge to Astoria many times, I actually never turned left to go into the City of Astoria and check out it’s historic Downtown.  This time I made the left.  I’m glad I did.  I browsed through a couple shops, talked to  few people and enjoyed the quaint old town.

The bridge from Washington to Astoria, Oregon is 4.1 miles long.  It crosses the Columbia River and goes up very high so the ships going out to Sea can sail under the bridge.  The Columbia River separates Washington from Oregon in many places.

My next stop was across another big draw bridge from Astoria to Warrington.  Warrington had a Natural Grocers and a Starbucks in one parking lot….SCORE!

Warrington is also home to Fort Stevens State Park where I spent a part of my day. At the point, at Fort Stevens, the Columbia river is on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.  There is a jetty separating the two and you can walk out quite a ways on the jetty if you want to.