Today we moved to Florence, on the Oregon coast, to the Elks Mercer Lake Recreation Park. We're in a lovely spot with rhododendrons in bloom and surrounded by trees--very different from the usual Elks camping in the parking lot we've experienced before. Ken spotted an unusual bird outside near the rig that looked like a woodpecker--but it was pecking the ground. We checked it out in our bird guide, and it was probably a Northern Flicker, a woodpecker that often feeds on the ground, looking for ants.
 Out our front door is a border of azaleas and other plants, and then an expanse of lawn. Very attractive! |  Because of the way the sites are laid out, we have no other RVs right next to ours. |
On the way north we stopped at the Umpqua River Lighthouse near Reedsport. Its characteristic signal is a red flash followed by two white flashes. The highlight of the tour was a chance to climb up and look inside the first order Fresnel lens with its brilliant red bullseyes. The red glass was formed by adding gold to the glass and heating it.
 The lighthouse stands next to the homes of Coast Guard families. |  The Fresnel lens started beaming the red and white signals out to sea in 1894. |
The lighthouse is featured on its own stamp. We set up our HughesNet internet dish for the first time in almost a month. We've been in places that had good wi-fi, or only stayed a day or two (not worth setting the dish up for that short time), or not had a view of the southern sky. Bummer, since that means we've paid $69.99 for nothing! It took over an hour again. First the cables on the LNB had lost their color coding (Ken figured it out and marked them again). Then we had a cabling problem (the two sections of cable are joined by barrel connectors that regularly work loose). Then we apparently set it up pointing at a tree the first two locations. Finally on the third try we got a good signal.
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