Day One: The Adventure Begins

Introduction:  I recently passed a milestone birthday, one of those numbers that as a child seems so impossibly large that you never expect to get there.  It came at the end of two years of personal disaster (see this post for an explanation, if you haven't already read it), and at a time when I desperately needed something good in my life.  I tossed around a lot of ideas of how to celebrate surviving the last year (lots of hospital time was involved) and making it to my birthday.  Finally, my husband and I decided to go see the Redwoods.  We had driven through several times, but always on the way to somewhere else.  This time, we would just head south and see what we could see.  We did some searching, settled on a few (very few!) priorities, and started making plans.  Somewhere along the way, we discovered a cool resort south and east of the big trees, where every "room" was a converted caboose, and decided that would be fun and unusual, exactly what we were looking for.  

These posts are my daily reports of our trip: the things we saw, the places we went, and the people we met as we drove approximately 1,500 miles in the course of six days, and had an adventure.  I tried to write down my impressions each night before bed, or over my first cup of coffee in the morning.  I wanted the memories to be fresh, undiluted by another day or days of travel and experiences.  I can only hope you enjoy reading them a fraction as much as I enjoyed living them.

Day One:  The Adventure Begins

The day got off to a good start.  We left home more or less on time, and had beautiful weather for the drive down the Oregon Coast on 101.  We knew today was going to be a slow day mostly spent driving in preparation for the major sight-seeing to come.

Yes, it really was this beautiful!

 We stopped in Florence, Oregon, for gas, but mostly we moseyed along with traffic and enjoyed the views.  Stopped several times for photo ops --

My favorite cameraman J. Steven York, taking in the view

Yours truly, just enjoyin' the sunshine

including my first post-birthday shot, at a sunny spot along the highway.  The beautiful weather and reasonably light traffic put us in good spirits for the first day's drive.  Switched drivers in Coos Bay, after a late lunch at Taco Bell.

After we left Coos Bay, we made a stop at Misty Meadows in Bandon to pick up some jam for a friend  (hi, Colleen) and some for us.  I got peach, and Steve got apple jelly, which he says he hasn't had since he was a kid.

Made the hotel (Best Western Beachfront, Brookings) about 5:30 and check-in was quick and easy.  Settled in and listened to waves for a little while, then finally pried ourselves up and out for dinner.  There is a restaurant next door that is supposed to be good, but we will never know.

We tried, really we did.  When we arrived there were people in the dining room, but no hostess, just one guy sitting  and waiting in the lobby.  We waited, too.

Waiters came by at least three times and promised that "She'll be right with you."  Two different customers brought their tickets to the counter.  One spotted their server and handed him the check.  The other customer joined the wait.

Eventually the hostess showed up carrying three bags of to-go food.  She stopped and ran the waiting woman's check, then tried to ring up the to-go, but there was some serious confusion about the order - it was for the guy who'd been waiting when we got there, I think.  But she was so mixed-up, it was hard to tell if she was giving him the right food.   He seemed to think she wasn't

We weren't particularly upset, the day had been far too good to let this spoil the day, but by this time we'd been there for 10 minutes or more, no one had even talked to us, several more people were waiting behind us, and it was clear the hostess was in way over her head somehow.   According to the specials board, dinner prices were in the $30+ range, which would mean $70-80 before tip.

We decided to cut our loses.  After all, if the front of house was that big a mess, could we REALLY trust the kitchen?  And we didn't want to start our trip with an expensive (by our lights) meal that was a disappointment.

Those are Steve's feet, pointed toward the windows of our room

We walked back across to the hotel and got our car.  We drove around for a little bit, but didn't see many open restaurants.

Determined not to let the silly restaurant put a damper on an otherwise-marvelous day, we picked up chicken at KFC, ate in the hotel room, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  It was good company, cheap food, and a table by the window with  a view of the beach.  Not bad!

It is nearly midnight, and I think we're about to call it a night.  Haven't turned on the TV, or opened up the computer.  I'm actually typing this (very badly) on a rubber-key rollup Bluetooth keyboard, into the blog via a wireless connection on Steve's Google pad.  It isn't perfect, but it's sure easy to carry around!


Tomorrow, Trees of Mystery and a cool place to stay for the next three nights.  More to come!!