Awake: 5:45am Temp 42 sleep 6+16 some clouds overnight @ Bandon, Oregon.
We each have a hot Kathy muffin, detach the Suzuki & drive a few miles into Old Town Bandon. Actually this old town is not so old; in 1936 a slash fire from a logging crew ignited some gorse & evergreen trees that spread toward the commercial district & destroyed the entire town (500 homes) save for (16) buildings. Obviously they rebuilt since then & their downtown is beautiful now & quite modern. Interestingly enough, the local high school survived the 1936 fire only to burn down in 1974.
We drove along the coast to the Coquille River & the lighthouse, which was decommissioned in 1936 & watch the ocean waves crashing against the rocks + talked with a few of the locals. We took the long way back to our bus along the coast line, stopping to view their well known “face rock.”
This area of Bandon is a big supplier of cranberries for Oregon; (95%) which is (5 %) of all the states. There are cranberry bogs all over the outskirts of the town. After spending close to (1.5) hrs around town, we leave the Bandon by the Sea RV Park @ 10:15am & continue driving south on US-101 to Port Orford.
We find parking on a wide side street & talk with a local young couple who are riding their bikes around town; we ask them what there is to see & do in Port Orford, “not much” they tell us. They continue, “however, the dock is the only open-water port on the Oregon Coast & is (1) of (6) ‘dolly’ ports in the world, where recreational & commercial fishing boats are hoisted into & out of the water daily and it’s within walking distance, just up the road.”
We’ve never seen anything like it; these boats all have wheels….until they are lowered into the sea. We are curious about a small café on the dock called Griffs Restaurant, seafood, Gifts-tackle-Museum. Once inside, I realized that hot muffin I ate was long gone & hunger was eminent & Kathy showed no resistance. We share a large bowl of clam chowder with freshly breaded & fried snapper fish. Gosh, it was great!
By coincidence, the back side of the menu had an e-mail letter printed from Ken & Ellie of the campground book-“Big Rigs-Best Bets” which we refer to often. They have listed Griffs as “(1) of their (9) favorite restaurants throughout the United States.”
We spend a little over 1.5 hrs total in Port Orford; besides seeing the port, we stroll around town taking a few pictures of a very old jail & an old Victorian home in town.
Our next stop was the town of Brookings. Our Oregon Coast Guide tells us that the Brookings Harbor has optimum parking sites for big motor homes & they are right on. Passing up on another harbor tour, we opt to walk over the Big Bridge of the Chetco River & amble through the main part of town; very clean & modern.
The sunshine feels good on my slightly balding head & Kathy has now shed her jacket as we admire all the heavy traffic along the main drag. After buying some postage stamps @ the local Post Office, I suggest that we return to our bus by way of the back streets to see more of the neighborhood homes. Naturally we still had to cross over that river so our return trek was slightly longer than expected; so we added another (2) hrs to our vitamin “D” time today.
Heading south again on US-101, our Oregon guidebook shows the “Lucky (7) Casino” just a few miles into California where overnight parking is allowed; that deal is for us. Their parking lot offered plenty of space when we arrive around 4:35pm & the lot remained fairly empty all evening & into the night. Speaking of night, the late evening sky showed signs of “rain” moving in from the west. I suggest to Kathy that separate couches are in vogue for the occasion.
Today’s travel: 91 miles 2+30 hrs 17 gal used 5.4 mpg 36.2 avg speed.
Dinner: Leftover pizza from Futanos @ Seaside, Oregon.
Early evening DVR movie: “The Caine Mutiny” with Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Robert Francis, May Wynn, Fred MacMurray, Lee Marvin, etc. WWII Naval officers Johnson & Francis mutiny against paranoid, unpopular Capt. Queeg (Bogart) & are court-martialed in this exciting adventure. 1954. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing a great one.
High travel temp= 60 Lights out: 11:19pm
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