Snowy beach

In the morning Lloyd took me into town to show me around Westport.  He has big plans for the place.  I love his house, it’s right on the beach and the view from his living room windows is awesome.  We had a nice lunch together and then I was on my way heading south.  I turned right on a road south of Westport that led to the beach, right onto the beach.  So, I drove around on the beach for a little while and admired the view.  It was sunny and it had warmed up a bit, but I had to get back on the road, I had a long way to go.

This part of the drive on 101 south goes inland a bit and was kind of boring.  I’ve been listening to some NPR shows like News from Lake Wobegon, Wait Wait, Don’t tell me, and others.  Just a couple of days before I left on this trip, I discovered downloadable, free podcasts.  So, I looked up NPR and there’s all my shows so I downloaded the last several weeks of those shows onto my iPhone to play in the car.  I have it rigged up to play through my car stereo.  So, I’ve been enjoying those while on the road as well as the 123 albums that all fit on my iPhone as well.  Technology, gotta love it.

I got to the bottom of Washington and drove into and out of a couple of state parks such as Fort Columbia, that I used to frequent many years ago when I lived in Oregon.  Just for the nostalgia.  I drove across the Astoria-Megler bridge that spans the mouth of the Columbia River and into Astoria, Oregon.  Astoria is a neat town that I’ve always wanted to explore but it seems whenever I’m near, I’m in a hurry.  I drove a little further south and into Seaside, which I also used to frequent many years ago.  Boy, it sure has grown up since then.  It’s a nice little tourist town now, I think they did nice job.

There was plenty of snow on the ground as I found and checked into the Seaside International Hostel.  Interesting little place, just four blocks from the beach.  I dumped my stuff at my bunk and hiked to the beach.  It was covered with snow and the surf was high.  Snowy beach; crazy.

Out at sea were some very dark ominous clouds.  I could tell the the sun was almost ready to set as just a hint of orange was showing through  the black curtain of clouds.  Just as I started back, the snow started coming down again.  I was well covered with snow when I arrived at the hostel.

I drove to a Thai place for take out and returned to the hostel and watched the finally of Survivor Gabon, which I had downloaded while I was at Lloyd’s.  Nice evening.  I turned in and then a room mate arrived; Viola.  Odd duck.  She seemed pretty out of it, not sure what her story was.  She kept getting phone calls and she couldn’t or wouldn’t take her phone off speaker which was very loud.  The manager asked her, I asked her and she just didn’t.  I got the impression she couldn’t figure out how.  It was very annoying.

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