Nomad Life - Day 107

As expected, my alarm woke much too early (0430) for the amount of time I'd actually been asleep.  Despite feeling exhausted, I started teleworking.  During one break (0700), I got breakfast in the lobby of the Quality Inn at Coos Bay.  There were almost no people there at all.  After that, it was meetings from 0800 to 1100.  Outside, it was misty and drizzling.  Aside: I've noticed that the Apple Weather App has not been very helpful in Oregon because it doesn't seem to account for the mist, fog, etc. I guess the people behind the results think they are correct because there isn't any official "rain"...  Trying to ignore the frustrating weather, I continued teleworking until the late check out time I'd been granted (1230).  After returning my key to the Front Desk, I ate "lunch" (snacks) and worked on my computer inside my car (in the motel parking lot) until 1300.  By then, the rain had stopped and I was able to open a window - there were LOTS of loud seabirds in the area!  The skies continued clearing and I was soon ready to go looking for an outdoor adventure.  I departed North Bend via Virginia Avenue (and other city streets) and got on US-101.  Next, I drove across Coos Bay until I could turn west on to the Trans-Pacific Parkway.  On a sandy peninsula called the "North Spit", I found an extensive area of park land (mostly part of the Oregon Dunes NRA), complete with dune buggy trails, beaches, campgrounds and other recreational sites.  There was also a huge papermill (with tons of logs coming in and pretty boards going out).  I did some birding at a BLM boat launch and then drove to the end of the road.  At that point, the sandy track was the "kingdom of the dune buggies."  Not wanting to damage Nessie's undercarriage, I turned around (1330) and drove north again.  I'd seen a turn off for another park area called Horsfall.  The roads here were in much worse condition and, in almost every parking lot where I stopped, I found evidence of OHRV staging.  Meanwhile, I ate snacks in the car ("lunch").  I'd believed that I had no cell signal for most of this drive but, suddenly, I started getting calls from "Time Share" people  who represented themselves as being associated with the Holiday Inn Club Vacations group.  After dealing with the callers briefly, it became clear that they were not who they pretended to be (scam calls).  This unsettling situation, which happens to me very rarely, required some additional effort to close the loop - in the end, I verified that my account was secure and that I'd correctly identified the scammers.  Whew!  With that issue resolved, I spent some time birding near the ocean (walking among the dunes).  By 1415, I was headed back towards US-101.  Sadly, the rain started again.  Oh well - there wasn't anything to be done but to drive north.  I did make some stops occasionally, to look at interesting "views" (not much to see with mist and fog).  For some reason, I was suddenly dealing with lots of traffic.  This motivated me to get off US-101 at 1500 - it seemed like a good time to check out the Umpqua Lighthouse (a place I visited with Mollie in 2018).  This time, I found that they had a little Lifesaving Museum and a tour of the light house tower!  The lady working at the gift shop was a Coast Guard dependent and she told me harrowing stories about the job her husband had to do when local fishermen ignored the marine warnings.  Her stories didn't need a lot of extra embellishment because the surf off the nearby shore looked nasty.  I had to wait about 20 minutes for my tour so explored nearby, where I found a whale watching platform, some Coast Guard base housing and lots of RVs parked (it is where the docents live).  There was even time to explore inside the museum.  The entire place was covered in Christmas decorations but that seemed strange with temps in the 50s... At 1530, I took a tour of Umpqua Light and got lots of good info about boating (jetties, "Triangle", "Bar", oysters, Coos Bay Fishing) from the docent.  Bonus: I got to climb most of the way into the light tower.  It had a unique red and white Fresnel pattern so sailors would know where they were on the Oregon Coast.  The lives of the lighthouse keepers sounded very demanding but now almost everything and Umpqua Light is 24/7/365 now.  Afterwards (1615), I (re)visited the museum and then tried to access Salmon Harbor by driving north.  Unfortunately, there was some road construction so I had to backtrack through Umpqua Lighthouse State Park to reach US-101.  Before long, I exited the highway again at Winchester Bay - the rain had stopped and I was able to drive around with my windows open.  I spent time exploring around the marina and boat docks and saw lots of interesting signs about seafood processing and salmon fishing restrictions (I guess they actually catch them in the area).  Following directions I'd received from the lady in the gift shop, I found the Coast Guard launches - they, apparently, are almost impossible to sink and can right themselves easily if swamped!  Overall, walked about 1.5 miles during the day time hours I'd had after knocking off work.  At 1645, I departed Salmon Harbor and drove north (back on US-101) to Florence, where I'd made a reservation for two nights at the Quality Inn.  The weather had gotten very nasty again and Google Maps didn't help by giving me crappy directions.  Eventually (1520), though, I was able to check into my room (and got a late checkout for Friday approved).  While unloading my car, I encountered lots of construction workers - their trucks filled the parking lot.  Once settled in my room, I finished the last bit of teleworking (completing my full work day), caught up on eBird entries and did some blogging.  Hoping to get the rest of my 10K steps, I departed the hotel (1805) and drove a short distance to Fred Meyer.  This business, which was recommended by the Front Desk clerk at my hotel, is apparently used by the locals as a place to walk during Oregon's "Rainy Season".  For my part, I managed to walk almost 2.5 miles (out of the rain).  Along the way, I learned that the store was Kroger affiliated (I can use my points), has a gas station and carries almost everything you could want!  It seemed nicer than any Walmart I've visited and still had the feel for a local grocery store.  Comparing prices on many items I usually buy, I (re)confirmed what I'd already seen at other stores in Oregon: prices are generally lower in Oregon than most places I've visited.  Even better, there is no sales tax.  The nice lady at the checkout counter was very helpful and informative and I bought dinner (a sandwich) and some local beer (Bad Santa Cascadian Dark Ale from Pelican Brewing, an establishment I'd noticed just north of Cape Arago the day before) at 1930.  After arriving back in my room (1945), I ate dinner, drank some of the beer and watched movies.  There was even time for more reading and Duolingo exercises.  I took a look at the weather forecast and it seemed like things were going to improve the following day.  Unfortunately, there were also several news reports of continuous Atmospheric Rivers across the Pacific Northwest during the rest of the month of December.  Also, Washington (just east of Whidbey Island) was getting hammered with big-time flooding - yikes!  Armed with this knowledge, I went to bed (2220) and tried to sleep.  Hopefully, those pesky weather guessers will be wrong again and I'll get an awesome day of weather tomorrow!