Hello from Coos Bay, OR

Hello from Coos Bay, OR

Friday  morning ,  November 1, 2013   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

Another quick update.  We are staying at the Mill Casino Hotel (map).  Most casino/hotels room rates are about half of normal hotels – not this one.  However, there are not a lot of options here.  Either cheap or expensive.  The positive side is that Pat had a lot of fun with the slots.

Yesterday was a gorgeous drive.  Shortly after we started driving, US 101 became a “coastal highway”.  It was amazing to see huge redwoods one minute and beautiful ocean waves the next.  We stopped a couple of times to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  One stop has a trail that led to an overlook of Arch Rock (see photo). 

Yesterday I mentioned the “Avenue of the Giants”.  I found a wiki site that describes the route (link).  I sure wish I had read that before we drove the route.  For one thing, we detoured back onto 101 before the end of route.  It looks like we missed what is termed the “Immortal Tree” which is 950 years old and has withstood things that would kill a normal tree.

We were disappointed about the Redwood National Park.  It is not well marked.  US 101 drives through the park, but we only saw one small sign.  We had hoped to go the typical park visitor center, but there is not one in the park from what we can tell.  Most national park visitor centers have lots of information and great videos.  That said, the drive was still amazing.

We often comment that short mileage days turn out to be long days.  We only drove a bit over 200 miles yesterday, but it took most of the day.  When we set our minds for a long drive the day seems to be shorter.  Doesn't make much sense, but it seems to be hold true for us.

We also often comment how convenient it is to travel in the bus.  For this trip, it might not be all that bad that we are traveling in the rented truck.  Some of the roads we have been on could be negotiated by the bus, but it would have taken full concentration to drive the winding narrow roads.  It would also have been difficult to pull off in the scenic view areas.

That is all for now.