Fred stops in Florence, Oregon after a night at Eel Creek campground near the Oregon Dunes.
040814.0954 — Route 101 Restaurant, Florence, OR
Come for the wireless access point — stay for the breakfast! Or something to that effect.
Slept very well last night at the Eel Creek campground, just down the road from Spinreel.
Compare and contrast: state-park campsites and roadside rest stops.
- Campsite: $15. Rest stop: $0.
- Campsite: may be filled up. Rest stop: might be filled up, but probably isn’t.
- Campsite: plenty of open space, picnic table, fire ring, relatively clean pit toilets. Rest stop: people parked right next to you, relatively filthy flush toilets.
- Campsite: very quiet, can hardly even tell neighbors are there. You feel almost as if everyone is whispering. Rest stop: people up talking all night, loudly — drunken arguments, slamming doors.
- Campsite: No one close enough to complain about me snoring. Rest stop: too loud for people to care about me snoring.
Compare and contrast: bottom bunk vs top bunk (in the van):
- Bottom: about 5" thick cushion. Top: about 3" thin cushion.
- Bottom: enough cushion to sleep on my side. Top: not enough cushion to sleep on my side, quite.
- Bottom: have to move all my stuff. Top: just need to move blanket and sleeping bag.
- Bottom: have to close all the curtains. Top: only closed a curtain or two.
- Bottom: view of the inside of the curtains. Top: nice view outside, if it’s warm enough for the zippered windows to be open.
- Bottom: almost long enough to sleep straight. Top: not quite long enough to sleep straight.
Took a walk on Redwood Creek state beach this morning; meant to stop at Agate beach, but I wasn’t really awake enough to figure out where it was, and I’m not sure what agates look like or if you’re really supposed to be picking them up off the state beach.
The van for this trip: a Westfalia Vanagon, acquired for the run up the California and Oregon coast toward Burning Man — not the Pinzgauer. This one had curtains.