Oregon coast... FINALLY!

If you recall, last post was about our horrible experience at a Motel 6. We left early, had a good drive, but not long, to coast. Finally we'll reach our destination.

It's 8:30 and we've reached Reedsport. Fog had been with us a distance. Above is picture of the beautiful forest we traveled through. I've never seen a forest quite like it--very mixed woods. Must be awesome in the fall. And as we got closer, I noticed that moss grew on the tree limbs, which makes sense as the air is dense with moisture. And yet it's cool, and refreshing.

As we get even closer I'm seeing these Tsunami signs posted. It's a real deal here, folks. Wish I'd taken a picture of one

My husband informs me we've driven 2,199 miles to get to highway 101, which goes up and down the coast from California all the way up through Washington.

10:30: We've yet to see water, but I begin to see sand on the hillsides, and then... water. The ocean. My eyes tear up, and we slap a hi-5er. 

We find a drive down to a sandy beach, parking. Signs point to a drive up to the lighthouse. But we're too excited! Dennis gets on his sandals, and walks out to get his feet wet. He turned 60 this summer and had this one thing on his bucket list--to see the ocean. And there he is in the water.

We spend a lengthy time here. I pick up wonderfully rounded, black rocks for my collection. I also find the very brittle shells of small crabs. Might be the dungenous ones, and blue muscle shells. I pick these up as well. I take a video on my camera, as Dennis takes one too, for memory-sake.

The iconic rocks in ocean along the shore which I've seen picture of and wanted to see so badly in person.

Learned later this was Hecta Head. Below is a picture of it I found on Internet. We were in the portion of shore which you can't see from this picture.

We could have explored more, but we had to move on, we had to find some place to stay. Our lucky break it was Thursday.

We drove on, excited about being here, but searching for a place to stay. We see a sign that says Yachats Inn, named after the town. It was pretty much on the end of town, and we swung in. 

Gray buildings some two-story others ground floor, situated on either side of the black-top drive.

It was still early, even though we stopped along the way to see the sea lion caves, to eat up some time. But we went into the office and a woman greeted us. Asked if there was a room available. Yes, there was... "The best view of all the rooms," she said.

"We'll take it."

"I can only give it to you if you take it for two nights."

"We'll take it.

Our room wasn't ready, but we were able to see its twin on the other side. Upper floor in one of the two-story buildings. We walked in, not sure what to expect--well, it was a condo! kitchen off the living room, separate bed room and bath.

We needed to buy groceries, seeing that we would be staying here for two days. But we were also hungry, and went to a local restaurant and had halibut and salad--opting out of "fish & chips" for the healthier choice. The halibut was battered in gluten-free batter.

This is an areal view of Yachats. Very quaint, and when we were told that every establishment closed at 9 PM, we said we liked that. It's wonderful to find such a gem!

And this is view off our deck. We could hear the ocean from here. Dennis didn't understand why we had a fireplace (below).

Well, we found out that it got down into 40's at night. During the day, it didn't get out of the 60's. It was chilly enough for jeans--which we brought--and sweats at night--which I didn't bring, and had to use the extra blankets to sit outside in afternoon, drinking my wine and staring at the ocean. We were able to spot whales spouting in the distance during dinner, and after, just before dark.

More to come.

I'll end this section with these thoughts as I sit home, missing the ocean:

Dennis and I were on the same wavelength--as we usually are, it attests to our togetherness after 30 years--and we both felt a pang in our hearts when we came home. I found myself tearing up a lot feeling as though someone I loved went away. I can't explain it any better than that.

The sound of it, the sight, and the pure air. Both of us felt very good, physically, during our stay here. I didn't cough, or sneeze and my knees were feeling fine as we clamored about on the rocks to get down to the shore the two days we were there. Coming home it was horrible humidity. I began to cough more and more. Felt sluggish and had to push myself to do things around the house.

We'd love to become beach bums, someday, and live on the "Good Coast". I don't know if that can happen. But... we do want to go back, soon.

The ocean seems to have stolen our hearts, calling to us to come back.

I think we'll find a way to make that happen.

Oregon Bound...Part One

We don't fly anywhere, but do road trips to wherever we want to wind up. You see the country that way. And, we're just not wired for being in a cramped quarters with a bunch of strangers, or waiting for hours to take off.

We had things planned out, but unfortunately, we hadn't checked about one thing until last minute. Cheyenne has a huge rodeo, and we're going into the hub of it. We thought we would be able to get a room somewhere in Sidney or such places. Our first night we stayed in Walnut Iowa, trying not to do too many miles in one day. We did 380 miles that first day. Stayed in a Super 8. One word of warning, Super 8's are not what they used to be/ up to par. And we know this, but once in a while we take a chance that they are kept up, or haven't had the opportunity to become run-down by the people who now own them. But this one was fine, still good, although ran by someone different, now than last we were here.

This was a good stopping point, but we didn't go to the diner that night. You really don't know what sort of food you might get. But, earlier, we did stop at a Denny's and ate a huge meal, so we chose to eat "light" for dinner with cheese (wine) and snacks (beer and more wine), and watch "Friends". The meal part of our trip would become our problem. Stopping in large towns where it's hectic, after you've already driven four hours, you aren't in the mood for idiots, and lots of unfamiliar traffic. There would be times we didn't get a lunch. The second day was one of those days.

Already not prepared to see so much traffic all the way into Nebraska, after Omaha, or even North Platte--which would, by then, be very few people on road, including semi's--we were worried this was traffic going to Cheyenne Days. Let me just say that this is like the super bowl for rodeos. People out west really get into them and we learned that motels were booked solid even as far as 200-250 miles away. I can't imagine anyone wanted to drive 4 hours each way to go to a damned rodeo, but that's just me.

One thing about traveling west, you go through time zones, and going west, you gain an hour. When our clocks showed 1:26, it was really 12:26. How cool is that? This gives us a little cushion of time to get to a motel and check in.
Our hopes to eat a good lunch was dashed when we didn't get off at Lexington, like we'd planned. Somehow we didn't realize our exit was coming up. You get zoned out, sometimes and just don't read signs. So we spent the next two hours pulling off 3 times in all, trying to find a Subway. Let me tell you, if you can't get to any other place (and we shun burger joints, especially McGarbage), a Subway is usually clean and good. But the place we did pull off to, Dennis and I went into the rest rooms and they were really filthy. We left. The best way to judge a restaurant is by the bathrooms. Remember, those people who serve you have to use it too.

Anyway, it completely turned Dennis off on this one and we left.

Down the road we head. We kept finding parking lots in North Platte were totally full. We usually go to Whiskey Creek, but we walked in--this is at 12:45--and there were people waiting to be seated. Well shit!

All the other restaurants in the area were the same. This was not normal. We took out whatever food we had and ate it in the truck, then drove on, worried about finding any motel room later on. Believe me, this was looking really bad.

We reached Ogalala, thinking we might be able to find something. There were at least 3 hotels, some with three stories. We decided to try a Travel Lodge, that had outside doors to your room. Love those because you can unload and load quickly when traveling. This is how the old motels used to be, back in the 60's, and it seems that some are going back to that. Then there are your "mom & pop" ones that are this way. They don't offer any "free breakfast" (it's not free, it's included in your bill, duh!), and you get them about $20 cheaper than those fancier ones.

Dennis went inside, I stayed in the truck, just in case we wouldn't get a room. I waited, watching people roaming around, noticing that there was a restaurant next door and a truck plaza as well, for anything we might need.

Moments passed, and I was pretty sure his being inside so long meant there was a chance we had a room. Dennis came out with a sheet of paper in his hand (the bill), a smile on his face and threw his hands up (relief). He said we were very lucky. They'd had a cancellation, and we got a room there. According to the people inside we wouldn't have gotten a room anywhere around here, not as far back as in middle of Nebraska.

We were double lucky and had a room downstairs. This had 2 queen beds, and there was barely room to move around. I don't know who designs motel rooms, but they should be shot. Especially the moron who places the toilet paper holders where you have to be a contortionist in order to get hold of it!

We went to the restaurant and had two excellent steak dinners for $6 @. We then chilled in the room and watched TV until we went to bed.

Well, I'll stop here. Our first few days usually are not so hard. We seemed to be screwed from the beginning. But being lucky enough to get a room here was purely luck.

Next two days we head to the coast, and into Oregon where we've never been before. Thanks for stopping by and hope you will join me in my travel journal. Until next time.