Dreams, Moments, Travels
Landed in Atlanta at 4:00 pm hungry and ready for our drive north to find somewhere to spend the night before heading further on to other places. Our first stop after leaving the airport was Dave Poe’s BBQ joint in Marietta and the claims of it being one of the best in the larger Atlanta area are not without good reason. We’d come back.
What did you do on Christmas Day? Probably not anything as declasse as we did; we are at the Wagon Yard Saloon at mid-day because why not? And to celebrate the day, Caroline is raising a toast with a glass of Bud Light as we know how to live it up. Viva les pagan holidays.
It’s now two and a half years since we made this trip along the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, and I wrote this in May 2018. I should have been blogging about the journey then, but I was carving time out of operating TimefireVR, and spending quality time with Caroline required serious efforts. I could have been writing during the evening or on stops at coffee shops, but it was a legitimate vacation for me, too, as my time in Phoenix was a rare commodity not often shared with writing my blog, let alone my wife. So when we returned to our routines, I continued to neglect my blog and now regret that as so many nuances are lost in time.
It’s not often that I get a solo photo of me taken by someone else (in this case, Caroline) that I really do like, but this is one of them. Caroline had been spinning, weaving, crocheting, I mean knitting this for me in the early fall just for a winter adventure and so here I am modeling it for the first time.
I know this spot; seen it a dozen or more times. From memory, I have no idea of the name or the exact place on the map. While Google Maps could help me find it, I guess I don’t really care, as the visual reminder is enough to make me enjoy another glance westward from the road as we travel north.
Gilligan never slept here.
So this is how I deduced that we were traveling north today; this is Caroline about to enjoy a Marionberry Pie ice cream cone at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Ice Cream Store in Tillamook, Oregon. From Lincoln City, it’s about an hour or three if you are us to drive the 44 miles between our yurt and this small town famous for its cheese.
It’s scenes such as this that are the cause of delays and making drives that could be made in an hour take multiple hours to finish. While it is true that much of my life revolves around food, it doesn’t dictate the timing of our day more often than not. We are not in a rush to get to a resort or a movie. We have no family to meet out this way. We are free to explore at our leisure and stop where we are inspired to do so.
I’m fairly certain these spectacular sunsets happen all the time; they must. It cannot just be our fortunate luck that we are looking in the right direction at the right time. Then I ask myself why don’t I see more of these kinds of Oregon coast photos? Why are people not clamoring to buy up every inch of this section of the Pacific coast? If I had to wager a serious guess, I’d suggest that people are too busy seeing their destination and the bumper in front of them to realize that just to their left or right are some amazing sights not often witnessed.
Damned cows pick up all the luxury real estate where they get to lounge around, graze all day, have their teats massaged, and take pride that the cheese and ice cream made from their milk is made all the yummier by the salt air and golden purple light of their environs. Wish I were a cow sometimes, maybe a Brahman, though the slaughter aspect would be a huge bummer. We stop from time to time so I can commune with them, which reminds me of the first time I pulled over and let off a loud MOO at a pasture of cows, more to Caroline’s surprise than to the large assembly of bovines’.
We are traveling south, and in other blog posts about the Oregon coast, I have written about this location with the tiny road that travels out to Whalen Island, but right now, it will have to suffice to say that this image, too, is from our road trip on this particular day and is in fact in the sequence of where we were at this time of the day. I don’t know about you, but the reflection and hints of gold and orange in the clouds help this photo stand out and force me to gasp at the profound beauty, or maybe it’s the triggering of the memory that makes it special to me.
Just another average Oregon coastal sunset at some other nondescript beach that obviously nobody else goes to because you don’t see any people, do you? Because I’ve seen so much better, and this one was missing the striking purple hues I’ve come to expect. I almost didn’t shoot this image, but hey, it’s better than a poke in the eye, so here’s yet another look at our boring trip to Oregon. Enough snark; this is from Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City, as is the photo below.
With the sun now below the horizon, we can safely go for dinner and head to our yurt back at Devils Lake State Park. Besides eating, listening to the ocean, and who knows, maybe we will take an evening walk along another deserted beach. I have no real idea how the rest of the afternoon into evening played out two-and-a-half years ago. One thing is certain: we were awash in things we found extraordinarily beautiful.
And then there was this Ultimate Monster 4-pound burger with eggs, ham, grilled onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and maybe something else, but it’s so big that it’s hard to know just what we ate. Next time, we’ll be sure to order the 8-pound Super Ultimate Monster, and I won’t let Caroline talk me out of it. You, too, can indulge in one of these at the Newport Cafe in Newport, Oregon – just down the road from Lincoln City if you believe 25 miles is ‘just down the road.’
Up before the sun shows its face, and it’s freezing cold out here. It’s so cold our car is covered with frost, but the water is hot, and the sky is on fire.
Trust me that it’s a lot comfier in the hot tub; photos, though, are equally important for helping us remember these incredible adventures, so I sacrifice myself by jumping out for an obligatory photo as the sun crests over the horizon.
Sure, it’s a little bit blurry, but it’s the idea that is important here. On a morning when the temperature is below 32 degrees (-0 Celsius), and we’re the only people up and stirring here at Crystal Crane Hot Springs in Burns, Oregon, we must commemorate our experience. What an amazing way to enter the Thanksgiving holiday.
These are the kind of views those who don’t need to sleep in are offered.
Out of the tub and into the small lake, or is it a large pond? We moved back and forth and only missed a return to the cedar-lined hot tubs in that shelter on the right. Last night we had reserved an hour in the “sauna” and wish that we’d booked another this morning. By the way, our cabin was $54 for the night, and the indoor tub was $30 for the two of us.
From the Burns area, we drove west, losing a couple of hours in Burns proper while we bought a new tire and had breakfast. Interesting discussion with the owner of the restaurant, who had just finished letting a couple of locals know that they were not going to get a new plate of food because the first one wasn’t perfect (not the first time they’d tried pulling this on the guy). He told us of the alcohol and meth problem the town was having and how many people were on welfare due to the lack of jobs and being off the beaten path for tourism. Back on the road, we headed from Bend towards Corvallis.
The road from Sisters is a majestic drive through the forest. This is not the first time we’ve traveled this path.
On the way to the coast, we drove through Cascadia and took a short detour to check out a covered bridge. This one, built in 1945, is called Short Bridge and crosses the South Fork of the Santiam River.
Moss on rocks because MOSS ON ROCKS ROCKS!
Needing the tire replaced earlier and dawdling along the way with stops at the covered bridge, time to gawk at Mt. Hood and inspect the various mosses and undergrowth meant that we were getting to the coast in the dark. Our destination for the day is Lincoln City and Devils Lake State Park, where we’ll be spending the next couple of nights in Yurt C18Y.
Per my wife Caroline Wise’s request, besides taking her on vacation, she has asked me to blog. So here I am, fulfilling that special wish of hers. During the previous 20 years, we often went on road trips between a minimum of 5 times up to 24 times a year (that was back in 2004 – our record year!). In the dark ages before that, we were novices and only took road trips between 1 and 5 times per year, though that included journeys around Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, and places like that; remember that we lived in Frankfurt.
This afternoon, we left Phoenix for Kanab, Utah, where we won’t be going to Moqui Cave; 1. it won’t be open when we get there or leave; 2. we’ve been there and highly recommend you go too.
Not much preparation was done for this excursion until the last minute as we weren’t certain I’d find the time, but obviously, I did make the time. Originally, we were going to head to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but the weather looked foreboding. Instead, we will turn left in Crane, Oregon, and head out to the coast. We tried to avoid the Oregon coast. Seriously, we did because we know we’ve been there way too many times, but we love it, and so that’s that.
