Day One of Trip South

Well it is Monday morning. We put a call into the front desk to have the room cleaned while we were gone. Usually if you are only in a place for a week, you do your own house cleaning but if you are at Seaside for two weeks or more they give you a free house cleaning half way through your stay, they just ask that you have it mid week instead of on the weekend, so we decided to have them come in while we were done. It will be nice to come back to a clean house. It was not the nicest weather as we headed out of Seaside that morning, but we were determined to make the best of it. We made chicken salad out of the leftovers from the night before and packed cheese and jerky for a picnic lunch later in the day. So with coffee and my coke zero we headed off on our Southern adventure. The plan was to drive as far as far South as we could and then slowly head our way back.

So we stopped in Newport to pick up some bread to put our chicken salad in, we couldn’t find a bakery so we bought a small loaf of sourdough at a local supermarket. We ended up just stopping just a few miles up the road at Lost Creek State Park, right before Seal Rock. It was a nice little view point with an awesome view of the ocean. Too bad it was not the best weather. We had a little difficulty with our chicken salad, the sourdough bread was a little too chewy for the filling, half of it ended falling out onto the pavement. The crows were really happy, so chicken salad was enjoyed by all.

Well after we ate we packed back up and were on the road again. The weather had improved as far as there was no rain and the sun was starting to come through by the time we hit the South Coast, better known as the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  Everywhere you look here there seems to be sand, it comes right out to the highway. There are numerous ATV, dune buggy and horse rental areas to go and explore the area.

 

We finally hit sunshine when we got to the Coos Bay area. There are three cities here that all blend together, North Bend, Charleston and Coos Bay. Driving into North Bend you cross the Conde McCullogh Memorial Bridge, this bride is named after its designer, this was the longest bridge along the coast when it was built in 1936. McCollogh was known for building most of the bridges on Highway 101, his designs are well known for their architectural beauty. McCullough advocated that bridges be built economically, efficiently, and with beauty He helped design over 600 bridges, many with architectural details such as Gothic spires, art deco obelisks, and Romanesque arches incorporated into the bridges.

When we were in Coos Bay before we decided to go out to Sunset Bay State park and look around. We stopped at the view point and as we were sitting there we heard all these dogs barking, when we got out of the car to take a look we discovered that it was actually sea lions not dogs. It was getting dark so we weren’t able to get any pictures that time so because it was sunny we thought we would try again. We found the view point and it was sunny this time but unfortunately the fog was coming in off the ocean and we could hear the barking again but we couldn’t see anything.

 

This is literally the same picture a minute later. The fog was like smoke floating through the air.

 

We had never experienced fog like this before. We have been in fog before but we have never seen it come in like this.

 

So back into the truck and on the road again, we headed overland on the old 101 highway over Seven Devil’s road and towards Bandon. We decided that going to Crescent Beach, CA was too far to go, so we decided that Brookings was as far South as we would go. Brookings is the last town before you hit the California border. We did get sunshine finally as we were heading into Gold Beach. Every view point that we came across we stopped so we could get some pictures. Not sure what the name of each viewpoint was I just know it was between Bandon and Brookings.

 

We found an older Motel to stay at in Brookings. It was called Spindrift, the manager was very nice, an ex-marine who was very concerned that the room was clean enough to meet my standards. The room was basic but was very clean, it did smell a little musty, because I don’t think they get many guests. We had supper at a small pub across the street, which was very good. I had some deep fried artichokes that were very light, almost a tempura batter. We finished dinner and then went to be by 9 pm. We were pretty bagged from a long day of driving.