Hitched and Rolling

I’m sorry everyone. We have been having fun and moving a lot and I’ve been working and I’m full of excuses but I have been neglecting this blog a bit. Here goes nothing.

After Bend we headed back to the coast. We ended up in a town called Florence, OR and we stayed at a state park campsite that had close-by a seemingly endless field of huge sand dunes. In the morning we walked and fetched Duke on the dunes which was really cool. A totally novel biome, from my perspective.

In the winter months these specific dunes allow ATVs to prowl around, and judging by the tire marks on the steep, remote parts of the dunes, the riders take full advantage. 

After our morning walk we headed further down the coast, stopping in the afternoon at a crab house. The crabs here in Oregon are dungeonous crabs, which are not as tasty as blue crabs in my opinion, and the ceremony of eating them is clearly very different. Instead of cracking crabs around a table with friends for a long time, the menus seem to highlight various crab sandwiches (with cheese??) and soups. My experience here is based on one or two tourist trappy coastal roadside restaurants so I’m not sure how reliable my sample is.

As the sun set and we were driving down the coast I was working in the backseat desk area and Bre pulled over. She got out of the car without disturbing me (or perhaps in spite of me) and walked down to the beach. Though I was focused and in the middle of work, I looked at my computer screen, looked at the ocean, looked at my computer screen, shut the laptop, and slid the van door open and climbed out, throwing on my crocs. 

What a good decision that was. This beach, at this hour, was quite possibly the most beautiful place on planet earth. If not the most beautiful, then at a very minimum tied for 1st. 

We played fetch with the young beast in the reflecting sunset. Another woman and her dog joined us. It was fantastic in every direction. 

After the sunset we pulled into the town of Crescent City and went into a burger joint with 10,000 beers on tap. The bartender convinced us to head up to the Jedediah Smith wilderness to camp, claiming the river there to be not first or second, but the third cleanest river in the world, such that one could see down 30 feet. Who can pass up the third cleanest river in the world? Not us.

As a terrible angler, looking into water at fish (like an aquatic bird watcher) is a beloved hobby of mine. Bellies full of mediocre bar food and thoughtfully selected craft beer, into the wilderness we drove.