Nomad Life - Day 113

For the first time in weeks, I was almost 100% certain that the weather conditions were not going to allow me to have an outdoor adventure.  Coupled with those thoughts, I still had to drive north from Astoria to my lodging for the evening (on the central Washington Coast).  Deciding to make the best of things, I got up for work at 0430 (alarm needed).  I then spent the early morning (except for a short break, at 0700, for breakfast) teleworking from my hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express (Astoria).  Outside, it was rainy and overcast but not too miserable. At 0900, I went to hotel gym to walk on the treadmill - I managed to get my entire four miles done before a single other person came into the room.  Back at my computer again (1020), I teleworked some more, watching the weather to see when a trip across the Astoria Megler Bridge might be possible.  At one point, the visibility allowed me to see the shoreline across the river (in Washington) but then this image started to disappear into clouds/mist.  Hoping to get started on my drive before a steady/nasty rain began, I checked out of my hotel (1050) and departed Astoria.  I used US-30 to get on US-101 and was soon crossing the Columbia River.  I'll admit that this was not an easy task...  On the Washington side, I took WA-401 (towards the east) to VA-4.  Along the way, I encountered more Lewis and Clark signs but the "angry" waves on the Columbia River, added to the wet road conditions, made me keep driving.  Before long, I merged with US-101 again.  The rain was steady but my defroster/wipers kept up with the conditions.  Outside, the temps were still in the 50s - surprising!  I passed through the town of South Bend at 1145 and arrived in Aberdeen by 1225.  In this latter town, I parked my car (in the lot of a building that seemed to have been demolished/removed) and conducted a work meeting for just over an hour.  Meanwhile, it continued raining intermittently.  Once finished with the meeting (1445), I resumed my drive to the north on US-101 again.  I stopped for lunch at McDonalds in Hoquiam (1355).  I was able to take my lunch in the car with me and, a few miles later, turned off of US-101 and followed Ocean Beach Road (through Tulips and Copalis Crossing) towards the town of Pacific Beach.  After switching to Copalis Beach Road and WA-109, I arrived at the Pacific Beach Resort & Conference Center (a Navy Getaway property) at 1435.  There was nasty weather when I checked into my room and my second floor room (the lack of an elevator) made me reluctant to unpack too much of my car.  Once dry and warm inside, though, I was able to do some more teleworking.  Since the weather never improved, I didn't leave the room again.  With work completed, I researched flights for my upcoming trip to Europe (also exchanged emails/WhatsAp with Angela and Inka) and made calls to the Bremerton Navy Inn (confirming tomorrow) and texted several friends and connections in the Seattle area (planning for the upcoming weekend).  The online news had all kinds of dire warnings (mostly for people east of Pacific Beach) about the Atmospheric River hammering the Pacific Northwest...  Still feeling secure in my own location, I cooked dinner in my room at the Resort and then spent the rest of the evening watching movies.  As I wrapped up my night with some reading and Duolingo exercises, it occurred to me that I'd not taken any pictures during the entire day - that's the first time that's happened in several months!  I drifted off to sleep at 2220 after a rather mundane day.  Hopefully, the weather will improve in the morning and I can resume my Nomad Life adventures in the great outdoors!