Farewell to our Home Away From Home

We knew this day would come, but it is still sad to watch our HitchHiker of 13 years pull away from our house. The new owner is going to live in it part of the time. I hope he loves it!

 

It's The Journey

 We won't be doing the same kind of travel that we have gotten so used to over the last 37 years, but we are determined to always find a journey.

Home Sweet Home

 I started the drive about 8, did three hours. Cary drove the remaining eight...breaks for gas and food, of course. We are pretty tired of motels so we made it all the way home. Lots to do, as usual. Hope for a good night's sleep!

Florence and Friends

 (this should be before the post about Tehachapi)

We ate breakfast in the room--I brought in the toaster. Watched most of the Sunday morning show (it started at 7 and we got up about 7:15)

Ginger and Mark were expected about 11, but she got confused about where we are, took a detour to Lincoln City! So we looked for a place for lunch, settled on the Dunes Cafe. It was packed, to be expected on a Sunday morning in the summer--only one cook! It took 40 minutes to get our food.

When Ginger and Mark did arrive they were hungry, so to make things easier we got stuff at Subway to take back to the motel and eat on the patio. Nice visit. The wind came up, chasing us back to our room. The time sped by, time to head back to Salem.

Parked near the Subway, very cute car!

Because we had time we browsed the Goodwill and St. Vincent thrift stores, got gas (3.53) and picked out supper at Safeway: fried chicken and potato salad for Cary; a turkey and cheese sandwich for me. We have enough food for another breakfast in the morning before heading for home.

Tehachapi

 Lunch at Andersen's Pea Soup again. I helped drive for a few hours. Because of the wildfires in the area, we discovered most of the motels in town are full of firefighters (thanks, guys and gals)! We found a room on the second floor of the Baymont, but the clerk failed to ask if we qualified for a discount...she rang us up and then we mentioned it. Too late. We are still arguing with the policy--you have to ask first! Every other motel has always asked us. Once they put it in the computer, it is carved in stone apparently. They have not heard the last of us. Note: we did get the discount! 

Supper at Denny's. We had the most pleasant, exuberant young man as our waiter. It was very busy in there, so he was doing lots of running. Elias

Picture from the motel room window. I wanted a train to go by--which they did with great regularity, but not while I was ready to take a picture.

Because I forgot to post the info about our Oregon adventures, this is out of order!

 

 

We made it to Willows

  Doing this on my phone. We left Florence at 7:15. I took over the driving 🚗 when we got to I 5, drove 2 hours. Lunch at a Black Bear Dinerin Yreka. By the time we gotta Willows we were ready to stop, found a nice Super 8--but I can't get online with my laptop! Nice room, breakfast in the 🌄.

It is now the next day and I am online in Tehachapi, will post a picture.

Can you see Mt. Shasta? It looked quite ghostly!

Bandon, North Bend and Florence

 

                                   

Hungry when we got to Bandon, ate at a cute place called The Loft. I used the extra zoom feature on my camera to make the lighthouse look very close.

In Wild River Books Cary found the new Doris Kerns Goodwin book he wanted.

After we found a motel in Coos Bay (had to pay $8+ for one with a refrigerator), we made arrangements to visit Susan. Oh, and two thrift store visits--two 50 cent books for me.

She sold her property and homes, moved into this great apartment, still out in the country. She served sandwiches and salads. We had a great visit and made arrangements to meet for breakfast.

Friends Cafe and Diner, still new enough to be a quiet place to eat. Susan and I had blueberry french toast. Cary had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns and some fruit.

We found two yard sales before leaving Coos Bay, then two more before arriving in Florence. Getting here on a Saturday meant we were taking a big chance on finding a room for the next two nights. But we lucked out and could even check in around 11 at the Travelodge. Very nice staff. Then we could go eat lunch!

                    
The view from our seats at Mo's--great clam chowder and more. Took a stroll down the main street, found goodies in the kitchen store, and Cary even found a shoe horn in a thrift shop--something he had wanted the whole trip-- then needed some ice cream to cool off.

Baby Birds in a nest in a corner of the porch outside the ice cream shop. We saw Mama bird come feed them.

Back to the motel for catching up on computer stuff and a nap. Ginger and Mark are meeting us here tomorrow.  Not sure if we have any room for supper!