Vegas -- Winds and More Winds

The winds came in strong force through this area on Monday.  Actually, they started Sunday night.  They howled and howled some more all through the night.  I can sleep through most things but with these winds I finally gave up around 4:00am and got up.  The winds were expected.  We knew they were coming but it still didn’t make it any more pleasant.

 

We’ve been in winds in the desert before.  This time we were pretty protected.  We had a motorhome on each side of us so as long as they didn’t leave a lot of loose stuff out to blow into us, we had shields. 

The winds blew all day long and they blew hard.  The trusty weather forecast indicated straight winds would be pushing the high end of the 30’s most of the day.  Depending when and where you were in the Las Vegas Valley gusts would range from about 60 to 80 mph.  Now those are strong winds.  Thus, we decided not to go anyplace.  We just dug in and waited for them to die down.

However, not every RVer did the same thing.  During the strongest part of the storm we had two large motorhomes pull into the Elks  I could not believe that anyone would be driving in this stuff, let alone someone driving high profile rigs.  Other than perhaps having difficult controlling your vehicle on the road, there also is the chance that someone else might not be able.  Wind damage can be major just like some of the pictures on this blog show of past wind damage. 

One of the arriving motorhomes had traveled less than 20 miles from another park.  However, the other motorhome came in with damage.  Evidently the wind caught the top of his roof and ripped a seam open .  It was enough that at one point he even noticed the roof lifting.  Aargh!   Worker-bees were out trying to duct tape the approximate 18” (?) opening so he could get back on the road until he could get it permanently fixed.

Tuesday was peaceful. Monday plans with my cousin had been moved from Monday to Tuesday because of the winds.   I’m not sure where the blowing winds went but at least it’s not around this area. Even the blue skies have returned and in a couple days the cold spell the winds brought with it will be over and perfect weather will return again.

We’ve been here, done this before but it’s still fun to walk along the Las Vegas Strip.  My cousin, Shelley, and I did just that.  Matter of fact, we made it an all day event.  Lunch was spent at Serendipity’s but I’m sure we walked everything we ate off.

I did have one more thing that evening – another fruit smoothie.  It was a little bit of the Lite Cranberry-Raspberry juice, a banana and frozen strawberries … nummy!

‘Tis life on the road.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.

Lake Mead and Howling Winds

On Saturday we decided to take a ride to Lake Mead.  There were several campgrounds close we wanted to take a look at.  We’ve long been fooled by descriptions of campgrounds online.  I’m sure most have been too.   We also wanted to scope out the lake for our kayaks.  However, we did learn that we can’t just put our kayaks in the lake and take off.  It seems Nevada is now requiring registration and stickers for all watercraft including kayaks.  When we stopped at the Visitor’s Center red about these stickers, they just knew we had to have them but weren’t sure where to get them other than order  online. 

Lake Mead has several campgrounds.  Some are full hookups and others are just considered campgrounds without hookups.  There is definitely a difference in price.  We visited the two closest to Hoover Dam since they both were right next to each other.

The park at the RV Village with full hookups offered sites varying from $30 per night to $45 per night.  The more expensive sites had great lakefront views but no lake access from this location.  They were developed sites with concrete pads and tables. 

The campground right next door also offered lakefront sites but no hookups.  However, bathhouses with showers, water spigots and a dump were located in the campground making access to facilities easy. Other than the hookups and concrete pads, I thought this park was the nicest looking of the two.  It had more vegetation and really looked like someplace I’d like to stay. The price per night was $10 without a Federal Pass and $5 with one. 

This was our price comparison and to me it was a no brainer …. A lakefront site at the RV Village would run $1350 per month.  A lakefront site at the neighboring Boulder Beach Campground would run $150.  There’s enough savings in that to buy another Honda 2000i generator.

We would have considered moving except we have a few major events on our schedule that requires us to be close to an airport for the next few weeks and we're not fond of leaving the motorhome unattended.  It’s also one of the reasons we decided to head towards Las Vegas.

 

• One of these was the exciting news that granddaughter Sandi, has been accepted into National Honor Society. The official ceremony for this is November 7th.  Since this is one of the clubs I was in and encouraged her to apply for, I would love to attend this ceremony … if I can work out the flights from here I’m heading that way.  At least that’s the plan for now.
• The next thing we need to be close to an airport for is the long awaited Homecoming for Justin.  We have a date, we have a Duchess sitter and we have plans for that too. 
• We’d also like to spend Thanksgiving with family … another airport requirement.  If we both can’t make it, then one of us will.  It really makes a difference having a pet.  It takes a lot more planning and adjustments.

In the afternoon we met Shelley at Sam's Town.  One thing about Las Vegas for sure is that you aren’t going to starve around here.  After we got our Player s Cards we headed to their buffet.  Without the card it was $11.99 and with the card we paid $7.99.  That kind of makes it necessary to have a card from each and every casino you visit in this area.  The buffet was fantastic.  It had been a long time since we’d seen so much food.  In a few days we’ll hit the strip downtown and check out a few more buffets.

However, with the forecast of howling winds and rain, we put that off until Tuesday.  In the meantime we had a few little projects we wanted to finish here along with a major shopping trip to the local Winco.  One of our projects was replacing our flooring.  Remember the leaking water tank and disconnected plumbing pipe from a while back?  Well, now was the perfect time to do a few little repairs and that we did.

The winds did come in howling overnight.  Gusts are predicted to 50mph.  We’re thankful we’re not traveling today!

‘Tis life on the road.
 

When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

California Certainly Has Mountains

We have climbed more mountains this past couple of weeks in our travels south than we ever have before. At least that’s what it seems like.  We don’t go looking for mountains.  Matter of fact, we would like to avoid them if at all possible.  However, if we’ve been trying to avoid them, we’ve not been doing a very good job.

Remember our overnight stay at the Bakersfield Wal-Mart?  Even though it was noisy it was still a perfect place to stay.  For one thing it was free.  Free is almost always good … not always but almost always.  Even though we were kept awake for hours by our neighbor running his generator well past midnight and the local midnight motorcycle riding, we still had a great place to stay.

Photo at rest area showing what could happen with  flash floods.

Tehachapi was certainly ahead of us. When we think of heading south we usually figure we will be crossing two out of what we consider three major mountains.  The first one starts in southern Oregon as we climb the Siskiyous into California.  After that we either go over the Grapevine in Los Angeles or head a little east through Bakersfield  and take the mountain pass at Tehachapi. 

Well, we really had that figured wrong this time.  We certainly outdid ourselves with mountain climbs.  We didn’t do the Siskiyous.  Instead we climbed up and down and around and then up and down and around some more as we headed south on Hwy 101 along the Oregon Coast into the very dense foggy California area. 

Once we got through the fog and the mountains of the northern California area, we had smooth sailing for many wonderful miles on the I-5.

Our stop at the Bakersfield Walmart was the end to the fog and the flat gorgeous freeway system.  We had mountains ahead of us.  Boy … did we have mountains ahead of us and it wasn’t just Tehachapi.

Thursday was designated as the day of the climbs.  It started with Tehachapi and a 14 mile uphill climb.  Actually, that was the easy climb.  Once we got on Hiway 15 towards Las Vegas there were two more climbs.   One was a 16 mile climb that we could swear went straight uphill.  Well, I know it was 16 miles and it certainly seemed we were going straight up.  Tehachapi was definitely an easier climb than this one!

Once we reached the top, we got to go straight down for another ten miles … well kind of straight down.  Finally we were able to  exit into a rest stop.  Our stop was just a break.  We had another mountain to climb. Was it never going to end?  We were beginning to wonder for sure.Finally we crossed the border from California into Nevada and the road leveled out.  We were at Primm Valley with their casinos and outlet mall.  We had arrived.  Or, was it we had finally left California?

Well, all we cared about was pulling into a place to stay.  We were done for the day.  Buffalo Bill’s had such a place.  We moved in along with a few more trucks and five RVs.  We were here for the rest of the afternoon and even the night.  It seems we have been gone from our summer resting place for weeks but actually that’s not the case.  It just seems that way.

With new casinos to check out and an outlet mall to walk through, we had our afternoon planned.  Well, none of the casinos offered us free $$$ to play … so, we didn’t. 

The outlet mall didn’t tempt us with any sales either.  However, it was a great place to walk and the air conditioning was not pulling our batteries down.  I did say air conditioning because it was quite warm.  However, the heat isn’t supposed to last.  In a few days these temperatures will drop and once again Mr. Heater will be used to warm us up.

To begin with we weren’t quite sure where we were going to head from Primm Valley.  We discovered the Thousand Trails park in Las Vegas was undergoing a major renovation.  Half their sites were being upgraded.  Thus, there was no availability.  However, there are lots of places to stay including the Boulder City Elks and even Lake Mead had RV spaces..  It didn't take us long to get settled in.  We were in our new site well before noon.

   

Boulder City has a quaint historical downtown area with lots of antique stores, unique shops and cute diners.  For lunch we decided to try the Southwestern Diner which offered outdoor seating.


We’ve been here and done this before. The reason we decided to head this direction this time is because cousin Shelley is now living in Las Vegas.  It's always nice to have others to do things with. We also hope to spend a bit of time exploring Lake Mead.

Our southward journey is on hold for now.  Eventually we will continue our migration but not for a while.

‘Tis life on the road.

Some people come into your life as blessings. Others come as lessons.

Tehachapi Here We Come

Wednesday was departure day from Petaluma.    We had drug our feet .. or was it our wheels .. most of this trip south.  It wasn’t how we normally traveled and we were sure it would not be repeated.  However, we still weren’t far enough south to count on clear skies.  That was obvious when we woke up and noticed we were in another fog bank.  It was foggy, foggy, foggy.  However, we planned on getting out of there.  When we thought the morning rush hour was over those levels came up and we were on our way.

This is the I-580 route.  However, we figured staying on just one freeway system would have been too easy.  That's probably why Miss Garmin opted to give us a little sightseeing adventure around the area. 

We were north of San Francisco.  You never know about traffic or construction and with pretty dense fog, there was even a visibility issue.  However, we moved along from the I-80 to the I-780 to the I-680 to the I-580 freeways without any hiccups.  The I-580 was about the roughest road we had been on in a mighty long time.  We were so happy when we finally took that ramp and were on I-5 heading due south.

Even though we left that dense fog behind the skies still did not totally clear off.  We went from dense fog to light fog to dust in the air.  At least it wasn’t the notorious Tule Fog which we’ve been in before.  We were thankful for that.

Our destination for the night was the Wal-Mart in Bakersfield.  We joined several trucks and one motorhome in the lot.    We parked next to the motorhome, of course.  That was our first mistake.  He ran his noisy diesel generator until well after midnight.  We had no control over all the motorcycles that raced around the lot or up and down the street.  It was very noisy.  Oh well …. next stop will be better we’re sure.

Terry was up and ready to go early Thursday.  He hadn’t slept much with all the noise but we still knew we had to wait for the rush hour traffic to be behind us.  We figured this would be about a 250 mile day but that was less than the day before.  We also had Tehachapi ahead of us.  I always worry about Tehachapi.  It’s not necessarily the climb but the winds that torment this area.  Well, we checked with the trusty weatherman and he indicated it would be an easy time with just a slight breeze.  We will see.

'Tis life on the road.

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.

Finally … Warm Weather and Sunshine

The fog bank along the coast wasn’t just a little one.  It stretched along the coast from southern California as far north as British Columbia.  In some places it was so thick visibility was down to zero.  We've been this route several times.  Sometimes it was sunny.  This time it was a little foggy.  Another time it was quite smokey.

The mighty redwoods

Monday was our planned departure day out of the Elks in Eureka.  However,  when morning came the fog was very dense.  We felt like we were on the fence.  Should we go?  Should we stay one more day?  About noon we decided to get on the road.  The fog was still there but we also knew just south of Eureka the road started inland.  We were hoping that sunshine wasn’t far away.

Justin with our little hybrid trailer

We had a little glitch that delayed us a bit.  This glitch was with our fairly new sewer hose.  It wasn’t MY glitch … thank goodness!  It was Terry’s glitch.    Ever have a sewer hose split on you?  Well, he did.  So, a much needed shower and change of clothes took place before we could hit the road.  

We were finally on our way out of Eureka and within about 15 minutes on the road most of the fog had lifted. With the late start we decided not to make all the stops along this portion of the highway we had planned.  After all, we had traveled this route many times.  In 2007 we traveled through here when California was battling forest fires.  The fog reminded us of those forest fires because visibility was bad then too.  However, it was from smoke and not low clouds.

Once we got out of the heavy fog it was a great drive south.  The area was filled with gorgeous fall colors.  This route runs through part of the California Wine Country and fall colors were everywhere.even on the many rows of grape vines.  It was a magnificent display of fall.

Not fog but lots of smoke due to forest fires

For some reason our GPS seems to take us on sightseeing tours of town before it takes us to the address we plugged in.  The Elks in Eureka was a simple mile off of  HWY 101.  However, Miss Garmin took us miles through town first.  She also gave us a small sightseeing trip through Petaluma before we finally arrived.  I’m not sure why she likes to make something so easy so difficult.  Making u-turns in a motorhome isn’t an easy thing to do but something she keeps telling us to do.  

We finally made it, got into a nice spot and were greeted by several others.  Our timing was perfect.  They had just started their spaghetti and chicken dinner feed at the lodge.  That’s another great advantage of visiting their RV parks …. the meals, the price, the convenience and many times, the people.

We arrived late in Petaluma on Monday but planned on hanging around on Tuesday.  We had much needed laundry that needed to be done especially after Terry's sewer hose fiasco.  Mr. Heater was put away, capris were brought out and the evening drink changed from hot chocolate to a frozen strawberry and ginger-ale smoothie.  The sun was shining and even the air conditioner was turned on.  We like it like this.  Wednesday we lift the levels again.

‘Tis life on the road.

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”

Waking Up to Gunfire

Smile all the while for life is just a mile. Enjoy the journey before it is over.

I’m guessing it’s hunting season around places in Northern California.  The reason I’m guessing that is I heard guns going off early Saturday morning.  This isn’t the first time we found ourselves in an area with rifle packing hunters.  We had a similar situation in Florida a few years ago.  However, those hunters were much more determined than these.  Or, maybe they weren’t as good a shot and kept trying.

I waited until the fog started to lift before I dared ventured out.  I didn’t want either Duchess or I mistaken for anything they might be trying to shoot.   After all we were parked in a big field and there was no way this place didn’t have deer venturing around. I just didn’t want any hunter to get excited and have that trigger finger go into action before the eyes could clearly see we weren’t what should be the target.  I lost a cousin that way once.  There is absolutely no way I trust any hunter with a gun. 

Trees of Mystery – Paul Bunyan & Babe

Our plans are always subject to change.  All we need is some little incident to “trigger” that change.  Thus, we decided to let the hunters hunt and we moved on down the road about 85 miles. I checked the Eureka Elks out from the aerial view online and decided it would work just fine for a couple days.  It also meant we would have full hookups for a change.  Yippee!!  The last time we had full hookups … water, electric AND sewer … was when we were mooch-docking at our son’s place.  Even though our solar has been working great, we don’t use our microwave or anything else that heats without turning on the generator.  What a treat this is!

Belonging to the Elks has certainly opened up a lot more places to stay with our motorhome and at very reasonable prices.  We’re so glad we’re members and have so many options just about everywhere.  Some have hookups and others just offer a great place to overnight. 

 Eureka Elks RV Parking

The fog has plagued the Washington, Oregon and California coasts for the last few days.  The fog in some places has been very dense and in others not so bad.  Moving down the coast didn’t clear out the fog as we had hoped.

Remember these people at the Florence Elks?	Remember these people at the Mill Casino in Coos Bay

Guess who also showed up at the Eureka Elks?  Mary and Chet!

Later in the day the fog did lift but we know when we head out again Monday morning it’ll be back to make our drive a little more difficult.

We’ve been working on a plan for this journey south since our other plan didn’t work out very well.  I think we have one now and we know lots of sun will be in our future.  It also means we’re going to have to start making some reservations too.  I hate making reservations but at least the ones we make can also be cancelled.

‘Tis life on the road ….. (on the road south, that is).

Good-bye Oregon – Hello California

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."

The plan on Friday morning was to wait until the fog had lifted. Our trusty little weatherman had indicated from about 11:00 on all the fog would be cleared out and we’d see nothing but sunny skies after that.  Well, as you might have already figured, he’s not as trusty with his forecast as he thinks he is.

If you drove a Blue Rhino truck like this, you’d never have to worry about running out of propane for sure.

The coastal area between Port Orford and Brookings is supposed to be filled with Ohhhs and Ahhhs.  It’s supposed to be the highlight of the whole drive down the Oregon coast.  I can’t vouch for that because it was all fogged in.  I may have snapped a few pictures but it wasn’t for the beauty of the ocean. It was to demonstrate just how foggy it was and how much we really couldn’t see.  You remember Murphy’s Law, don’t you?  Well, I’m guessing Murphy was around someplace.  The drive was still gorgeous and we certainly enjoyed the leisurely pace.

We hoped by the time we cruised into Brookings that the fog would be gone.  The weatherman said it would be.  However, it was still hanging close to the coast. To top that off, traffic was horrendous.    It was obvious that the weekend was approaching and everyone inland was heading our way.  State Patrol cars were expecting a busy weekend too because they were everywhere.  

Thus ….. we changed our plans again.  We were only a few miles from the California border.  Surely we’d find a place after we crossed it in Smith River to stay.  So, we just kept on going.  Smith River came and went.  We found a couple places to stay but they weren’t places we wanted to stay.  Next stop, Crescent City and that’s where we ended the day.

Actually, it was another short day as we traveled a little under 140 miles.  We started late and ended early.  We could certainly get used to these short days. 

We pulled into another casino -- the Elk Valley Casino.  You can tell by the picture’ how many neighbors we have here on their designated RV lot.  Security comes by often to   check on us.  They’ll let RV’ers stay a couple days but we’re not sure what we’ll do.

We had an interesting glitch in our GPS when directing us to the casino.  We followed it’s instructions perfectly until it told us to take a left onto HWY 101.  Egads!  We were on an on-ramp and we could only go right!  Well, I suppose we could have crossed the divider because it was grassy.  However, the chance of getting stuck there was probably about 99%.

Next?  Well, a drive through the Redwoods is ahead of us even though we’ve been there, done that.  It’s been a while since we’ve taken the route down the Avenue of the Giants.  At least it’s different than the route we’ve normally taken south. That’s a good thing because it certainly won’t be boring.

We still don’t know where we’re heading.  When we first pulled out of Washington we were thinking we’d hang around northern California until after the holidays.  However, the temperatures aren’t necessarily where we want them to be.  We’ve been looking at several different areas including Las Vegas and even Disneyland.  Only time will tell for sure.

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My search for great clam chowder on the Oregon coast continued from the time I thought of it in Lincoln City and even after we crossed the border into California.  On the coast there’s a pretty good chance you can get chowder any day of the week and not just on Friday.

Not everyone has the same tastes buds I do. What I might like someone else might not.  Most of all, I like my chowder clammy and chunky. 

The worst chowder was at the Stockpot Restaurant in Coos Bay.   The top three favorites for chowder on this trip are:

1. Beach Town Deli – Lincoln City
2. FullHouse - Crescent City
3. Plank Restaurant -  North Bend

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‘Tis life on the road.

Rolling Down the Road

"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

I mentioned the other day we had a decision to make.  By Thursday we needed to decide what route to take south.  Temperatures during the day were pleasant but the overnight temperatures mixed with the humidity was quite a bit lower than we hoped for.  We knew the trusty weatherman could help us decide so we went to him for his advice. 

We were wondering if the crow perched on this sign to let us know the miles were really “as the crow flies” and not necessarily “as the vehicle drives”.

.

What we did discover is that no matter what direction we were heading, we would still have chilly nighttime temperatures until we got much farther south.  If we decided to take the inland route, the temperatures would be about 10 degrees cooler at night than the coastal route.  It was definitely a dilemma.  Thursday arrived on time.  We could put off that decision no longer. 

Leaving the Elks Thursday morning! (Take note of neighbor’s Lazy Daze rig)

So, where did we head?  Well, first stop was the RV dump at the Honeyman State Park.  The Elks in Florence had water and electricity but no dump.  This was just a few miles down the road and in a perfect, easy location to get the task taken care of.

We knew you’d want a picture of us dumping.

Reedsport was 22 miles down the road from The Elks in Florence.  This was the decision location.  We could have turned inland on Hwy 38.  This would have dropped us 65 miles later just south of Sutherlin on I-5.  When we reached that exit ….. we just kept going south on Hwy 101 for another 23 miles.  Next stop was the Mill Casino in Coos Bay.  The coast route won out. However, we still weren’t totally sure when we pulled out in the morning.  We could have turned.  We didn’t.  It was a short drive.  It was definitely a short drive day with a gain of only 46 miles behind us. 

We’re not in a hurry to get any place in particular.  Racing down the I-5 is when we want to get someplace fast.  By taking that route we would be missing a whole lot of scenery.  Besides we’ve done that many, many times.  This was our first plan and there was a reason we had originally decided to travel this way.  We’re really glad we didn’t give in to our other thoughts and head inland.

Honeyman Lake

We're not sure how far or how long we'll stay on this route.  Maybe just as far as Petaluma or maybe not.  The only thing we do know is that we will eventually end up in Parker and Quartzsite, Arizona.  We may also go on into Scottsdale to visit Terry's mom but that just might be the extent of our Arizona travels.  At that point we may turn north again and head up to Lake Meade  -- not been there, done that yet.

The morning drive from Florence to Coos Bay was very, very foggy.  We certainly don’t want to head any farther south without making sure we have the sunshine on our side. We know the drive heading out of Coos Bay towards the California coast has many breathtaking views of the Pacific and we want to be able to see those views.  The fog needs to burn off before we head out on the next leg of our journey.

For the next day or maybe two we figured the Mill Casino in Coos Bay would be our home.  This is our new site.  When we first arrived there were very few RVs around.  This evening it is packed here.  The southward movement is definitely on. 

Do you recognize our neighbor from the Elks picture above?  We brought our neighbor with us.  It’s amazing the people you meet on the road … we've met several today heading in the same direction we are.

It’s a Small World after all!

Remember a couple weeks ago when we struggled with replacing Terry’s laptop.  Well, it seems my laptop is also having issues as the screen continually flickers at times.  The last thing I want to do is replace my computer.  I have a 14” screen and that’s the size I like.  It’s a little more expensive to replace it than the more common 15.6” screen.  Well, it’s a little more expensive to get the features I want on it too.   I really hate the idea of getting a new laptop and all the problems that come with it.

California here we come and we’re hoping for lots of warm sunshine once we get there.

‘Tis life on the road.

When You Don’t Know Where to Head

 

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

Sometimes I sit and look at the map.  I really look at the map.  Where should we go?  What do we want to do?  Sometimes those are very difficult questions to answer … kind of like now.

We’ve had beautiful weather on the Oregon coast.  It may not be as warm as we’d like but the sun is shining and that’s a good thing.  What we don’t like is all of the moisture in the air. We see it over everything and we feel it in our bones.

We’re at a crossroad.  Do we go inland to warmer temperatures and less humidity or do we continue our trek south along the coast?  We don’t know but we do know that the decision will need to be made by Thursday.  That’s when we’re heading someplace.  We’re currently staying at the Elks in Florence.  It’s a great place to stay in the center of town with hookups and for only $15 a night.  We paid for three nights so our intent is to be back on the road again on Thursday.

Toni and Doug are staying a couple miles away at the casino. Since we’d already boondocked for five nights at the casino in Lincoln City, we were ready for some hookups.  There are many places to boondock on the Oregon Coast.  It’s one casino after another and so far it seems they all offer free parking to RVers.  The secret is discovering where the dump is when you get ready to leave.  I guess it’s really not a secret because RVdumps.com has all of them listed on their website.

With three nights in town we wanted to make the most of it.  We had the obligatory visits to the casino.  They were obligatory because if they were offering us money to gamble, we had no choice but to take their money and try our luck.  I can’t say we did well this time because we didn’t but win some, lose some.  We lost some but not much.

On Tuesday Terry and I thought about eating at Jerry’s Hot Rod Grill just because we wanted to take a peak inside.  It was opened when we arrived on Monday but when we were looking to eat on Tuesday, it was closed.  So, we went to  the Old Town district of Florence instead. 

The place was hopping with people but it seems many of the establishments close on Tuesday during their off-season.  The restaurants that were open were packed.

Historic bridge view from Old Town in Florence.  HWY 101 crosses the Siuslaw River.

The Old Town area is on the waterfront and resembles a fishing village.  Many quaint restaurants were there and we walked up and down trying to decide which one to try.  Finally we settled on Restobar.   We love discovering great places to eat and this was an absolutely great place to eat.  Neither the food nor the service could have been better. 

My dinner was parmesan encrusted halibut.  I savored every morsel.  However, by the time I finished there wasn’t any room for the pasta.

Wednesday the plan is to meet Toni and Doug at Mo’s in Old Town. We haven’t been fans of Mo’s but since it’s been a mighty long time since I’ve tasted their chowder, I thought I should give it another try.  I used to call it bacon chowder instead of clam chowder because it tasted more like bacon than clams but we’ll see.

We still have the dilemma ahead of us of where to go on Thursday?   We can only say that we’ll either head east to I-5 or continue our trek south on 101.  We have no idea yet other than we’re leaning towards heading inland towards I-5 and then south.  Or, wait were we leaning towards staying on the coast and heading south on 101?  I’m thinking we probably won’t make this decision until Thursday gets here.  We have no clue.  We just know we’re heading kind of south.

‘Tis life on the road.