- Night 4 – Whittaker CG BLM – A shabby campground in a shabby forest along a shabby creek, but I lucked into a really spacious campsite and a good time. It is after all Saturday night! There was a chubby little girl on her chubby little bike, riding around and around and around the loop road at the camp, and her and I would give each other the deadpan eyeball each time. … woo hoo, havin’ fun on Saturday night!
- Day 5 – Florence OR – I leave this damp, slightly depressing place, and at the intersection with the main road I get a little more depressed because there is the aftermath of a pretty serious-looking traffic accident. That was a bummer. Thereafter was a very pretty drive along the estuary to the ocean and Florence, where by luck (or design?) I find a really excellent Sunday brunch and where I take a ton of pictures of the beautiful old bridge.
- Afternoon 5 – Cape Perpetua – Again, I had to overcome my visceral frugality to fork over $20 for a really awesome campsite, and again, after I just do it I have to wonder why I even wasted energy sweating about it. It was only 3-ish when I got there, which – duh – gave me the whole rest of the day to maximize my value – i.e. to enjoy the f—ing place! It is a really lovely little valley creek right off the coast. I got a super-nice campsite because I was so early. Check out the pics, don’t it look nice!
- Evening 5 – I took a real nice long hike up the hill to the old-growth forest, checked out the Visitors Center, down to the surf, I did it all!
- Morning 6 – breakfast in Yachats at a tired coastside restaurant place with a crabby waitress. However, it does have a great whitewater view.
- Day 6 — I drive through Depoe Bay, remembering it as one of my favorite stopovers on that trip. Then Lincoln City which I don’t much dare for, either then or now. Then time to say byebye to the Pacific and head inland to McMinnville, immortalized as the town where Ashley went to high school.
- lunch 6 – The stress is starting to build… I stop at a roadside park to each some lunch and alluva sudden I have a little extra unwanted drama by “losing” my #1 set of car keys for the next three days. I searched and searched and searched because I did not want to drive away and leave them there, but no luck, so I busted out the spare set (I always carry at least one extra key because I am prone to this kind of stupid thing). Sure enough, three days later I find that the #1 keys have been in the little change trough in the ashtray all this time. For some reason, on that day, different from every other day in my life, I thought is was a great idea to put the keys in that place when I turned off the engine. I really exasperate myself sometimes.
- evening 6 – McMinnville – nice little town, on Erik’s recommendation I stay at the Grand Hotel – right downtown, as a grand hotel should be. Parking sadly, is two blocks away at the parking garage across from the police station. This is my first experience with the world of McMenamin’s (got enough M’s and Mc’s in this story??).
I felt really crummy after I checked in, which kinda scared me, I do not want to get sick right now! Happily, I rested for a coupla hours (missing happy hour, sigh) and was my happy self again. Could it be that missing happy hour makes mehappier? That stress thing, methinks. I took a downtown stroll, checked out the coffee houses and ate a satisfactory meal at the mexican restaurant, and topped it off with the lovely McMenamin’s late-night happy hour.
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